Morning Lesson September 08, 2021, Transcription
Part 1:
Faith Above Reason - Selected Excerpts from the Sources, #8
1.Rav’s Introduction: There are two levels in nature in the nature of this world and the upper nature, because we exist in the will to receive in the nature of this world, we feel it and we somehow explore it, understand it, feel it, we exist in it. Kabbalists say that it is an egoistic world that is governed by the force of the ego and there is yet another level, which we do not feel that level because we lack the senses for it. Our senses are reception. The sense of the higher world that other level is a sense of bestowal. The sense of bestowal is called the quality of the Creator. To begin with Kabbalists, say, who discovered it, that only the governance of the Creator existed and later on because He wanted to create the created beings, so that they would start to attain Him That attainment can only be from something and its opposite.
Therefore, He artificially created the quality of reception of the ego, as it says, created the evil inclination and by the created beings beginning their development from the ego then gradually they can attain the Creator as well from the opposite thing. Therefore, they existed on their own in their ego and that will receive does not disappear, it does not become refined but rather, gradually they will adopt a usage of their ego of their will to receive which is like the Creator and therefore they will become Adam, human similar to the Creator. Not exactly the Creator but rather the quality of bestowal will clothe over the quality of reception. Then man will consist of two qualities, the quality of reception will remain in him, it is called Malchut and upon it will come the quality of bestowal, which is called the quality of Bina. In this way these two qualities will be together. The quality of Bina will clothe over the quality of reception, Malchut and in this way man will seem like the Creator. This is why he will be called Adam, Dome similar to the Creator and by that man can advance and become more and more similar to the Creator. This is considered that he is rising in the degrees of equivalence with the Creator. How does that happen? By him wanting to resemble the Creator that is, in other words he wants to prefer the Creator's control to the created being’s control, the will to bestow over the will to receive. Then it is considered that he is rising from this world, where here the quality of Malchut governs, to the upper world, where the quality of Bina governs. We do not quite understand and we do not feel and until now even, we are still confused. What does it really mean faith above reason, what does it mean that Bina governs Malchut because until we have it, it is not clear, it seems as just empty words.
How do we make that transition from Malchut to Bina? So that Malchut remains in a way that she’s concealed and that Bina seemingly wraps Malchut, giving Malchut a form, that is Bina determines from Malchut how to behave. She truly determines, she manages Malchut and Malchut then supports Bina. To the extent that Malchut is greater while she is supporting Bina, Bina rises through Malchut and this is called that the Creator says to the created beings, "you have made me" because the Creator actually exists on the lowest possible level that can be and that's why He is hidden from us and as much as we elevate Him over the degree of the will to receive over the degree of Malchut, by that we can discover Him. That is, we raise Him to rule over Malchut, Bina over Malchut. By that we defeat our ego and elevate the Creator as the king of the world, yes. From the moment that we begin to determine inside of the person inside of us, that Bina starts to rule over Malchut, that faith can rule over reason, from that moment on the degree of Adam begins to develop in us. This is our point of development which is called Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the new year or the head of the year. We determined that this is the day on which Adam Ha Rishon was born, Adam was born within us. Who resembles the Creator to some extent.
We will rise in it and actually in order to elevate the quality of bestow upon the quality of reception, this is what a person should do in this world and for that this world was created. Therefore, we are not studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. We don't study it to understand how many angels there are in the heavens and their names, etc. but rather only in order to reach the degree of faith, the degree of bestowal, and giving.
In short, in order to reach the essence of the Creator the quality of the Creator, to revoke the control of our ego, not to erase that will to receive. We just want to raise the will to bestow and it's important so it's greater than the will to receive. This is called to 'elevate the Creator' to 'Crown the Creator' upon all of the other qualities. To revoke our ego and replace it with the governance of bestowal. To the extent that the quality of bestowal, all the quality of Bina, will fill our will to receive so the will to receive rises until we raise the entire Malchut to Bina and then also to Keter and by that we complete the entire correction of creation, which the Creator had prepared for us. This is actually what we do. This is our path. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is telling us.
Our intention, all in all, is to acquire the quality of faith, the quality of Bina, the quality of bestowal so that we will be able to work with it upon our will to receive. These things are not so clear. To people on the street, they are not clear at all. Their essence, their true meaning and also for us as we begin to study it takes a lot of time until a person doesn't just learn that I need to bestow, I need to give, I need to connect but rather that through these actions, which he necessarily performs, because Kabbalist tell us to do it, just like with little children, do it. As it says, through your actions we will know you, You will start to be wiser, understanding what this is about, but first you have to do because this is how it is built in nature, that the degrees of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking we had to do, to perform, to actualize all kinds of forms of bestowal and we will start to discover them in their inner essence.
This is why I recommend and I remember myself how much I used to disregard this matter of faith above reason, how much I didn't want to hear about it, how much I didn't understand it and how much I, all together didn't even think that this is somehow related to anything. One time a person wants to study about the Sefirot, the Olamot, another time he wants to know the interpretations of what is written in the Torah or something in psychology something from Kabbalah, but about faith that is not related to it that he doesn't feel he can have any grasp or any feel for it, so he can't really talk about it and it can't understand why to hear about it, the quality of Bina, bestowal. Bestowal, so okay I'm giving, but that is incorrect. There's something else there beyond that. Have patience, by all of us engaging in it and continuing to engage in it, we will nevertheless, establish such a state, such an atmosphere so that the reforming light, and not us, but through our efforts we will draw the Creator to come closer to us.
The force of Bina, which we actually call the Creator, Bore, because Bina is what creates the will to receive from it emerges the will to receive, first in ZA and later on in Malchut. We will reach that, we will discover it. We will discover it in force, in actuality, according to our efforts and the rule of 'my sons have defeated me.' We will reach us, discovering inside of us the quality of the Creator. We will feel ourselves as existing in the world of bestowal. In this way we will understand that the whole of reality includes two levels. Our will to receive builds this world and above the will to receive, we build the upper world. The world of bestowal.
2.S. (15:40) How can we be certain that we're under the influence of Bina and not under Malchut? How can we know that we can direct ourselves to the Creator's desires and not go according to our wishes?
R. If I want all of my actions during the study and during the connection with the friends, in everything that I do to be in the framework of the organization of Bnei Baruch. I want to be connected with others and help others and they to me and together we want to be connected, so that our mutual force of bestowal, the disposition towards the mutual support that it will rule by that we begin to discover that it exists and this is called you have made me. We build this quality of bestowal upon the quality of reception. We build the Creator and only in such a way do we reach the upper reality.
S. I also mean in all of our lives in corporeality to always be connected to the Creator?
R. This depends only on your thoughts. Only on your thoughts. What do you intend for and which goal do you see before you in everything that you do? To the Creator it's not important what you do. What is important for him is the intention. You can be doing all kinds of things so long as it is not harming others but rather it is for the benefit or others or mutual things where you take care of yourself but if you intend by this to come closer to the Creator, then what you do is called a Mitzvah a Commandment, that you are carrying about his commandment. What he wants from you.
3. S. (18:30) You just said that we don't erase the will to receive. Meaning, practically we are in two states simultaneously, in the will to receive and in the will to bestow. How is that possible? We learned in the past that a person can only be in one state. So how can you practically be in two states together?
R. Yes, it takes a long time before we understand how it works. We remain in the will to receive and it does not go away. This is called in the wisdom of Kabbalah that the coarseness does not become refined. The will to receive remains and even rises from degree to degree, more and more. It grows from degree to degree the more we rise higher and higher up to the end of correction. We constantly add and add to ourselves more and more desires to receive. All of the changes are in the will to receive, as it becomes coarser, greater, more cruel, more brutal, and along with that we add to it the intention to bestow. So that with our desires, we want to use them in bestowal. that is if I discover how much, according to my will to receive, I am rejected, repelled from the friends, I should use it. In that I invert that same force to be in order to bestow to the Friends. This is considered that I have to make a restriction screen and reflected light and inverted to the opposite, to in order to bestow. This is considered that we are raising ourselves from reason from Malchut to Bina, to faith above reason. In such a way we correct it and therefore one who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater. He has a greater will to receive but he is already working with it in order to bestow. This is why it turns out, seemingly, that we have an upside-down pyramid. Rav is drawing. On the one hand from above downwards like this. and opposite that from below upwards. This is the intention, Kavanah, intention (drawing From Below upwards pyramid). and this is the Ratzon, desire (see drawing from Above downwards pyramid). This is how it works. and the more we rise higher from this world all the way up, Asiya, Yetzira, Briaa, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon and all the way to Ein Sof (Infinity). This Is how we rise in our desire that constantly grows. accordingly, our intention also grows upon the desire. But as we corrected there is an inverse relation.
4. S. (23:40) This pyramid that you just drew brings up the question during the process, is there a way to accelerate it because otherwise it's in it's time we have no control over it so how can you accelerate the process by increasing the importance?
R. We have no problem to take the pace of our development into our own hands. everything depends on us. if we try together the first condition is together, to connect into a single force, to connect our intentions, and aim them all of them to the Creator, to restrict our desires so that we will all be aim towards him our intentions will all be aim towards him, if we will do that together even in each and every small group, we will feel how much we are beginning to advance and how much there is some like a hot air balloon that is raising us up into the air more and more truly there are no disturbances and all of the forces that seem to us to be the opposite of our advancement they only seem to us in this way in order to Amos more correctly. That's it. It all depends on us. The creator doesn't give us any disturbances but only those that famous more precisely towards the goal. and we threw our ego always want to leave the path in different directions and so he has to bring us back to that line that leads towards the purpose of creation and this is where we have seemingly a struggle with him but if we decide and we hold one another each one holds the others, so as to support ourselves on the way to the goal we begin to feel that we don't have any courses that are hindering us but only forces that are helping us.
5. S. (27:10) What does it mean to not harm others in spirituality?
R. I cannot harm others if I constantly think about how to advance in my correction. I don't need to stop anything, I only think about the correction. So let us understand that we do not need to think about not doing this or that, not this way or that way. No. Focus on performing actions of connection, of bestowal, connection in the group, repeating the versus we learned in the morning, and so on. Don’t feel stressed about what is forbidden, what you shouldn’t do. Don’t be immersed at all in such things. Don’t pay attention to what is forbidden; pay attention to what is worthwhile for the sake of correction.
6.S. (28:45) Does the will to receive diminish the more the intention increases?
R. This is how I drew it. Of course, for the time being the intention grows along with the desire. I just wanted to say that seemingly there is one aimed from above down words and one from below up words.
S. What does it mean that Bina governs Malchut? How is that felt?
R. Malchut manages the operation of Malchut. First of all, it appears that we establish ourselves towards the group and through the group. The Creator is behind the friends so we aim towards Him. We aim ourselves towards Him beyond the force of connection of the group. We want to reach connection and through the connection we want to reach the only force of connection that is uniting us, that exists in us, and this is the Creator. We should constantly be in that direction. We will see how much we help and support each other and how successful we are by doing this in the ten. You will see it.
7. S. (30:39) Can one harm with a good intention?
R. No. How can the nature of the action be determined by the intention? What am I intending? It is not the action itself that determines my intention, but rather it is the intention of the action. For example, we have a doctor, a surgeon, who has a knife and opens up a patient. What is the difference between that and a criminal who sticks a knife in a person? The difference is in the intention. Who benefits from performing this action? It is all determined by the intention.
8. S. (32:27) It seems as though the changes are very small as time passes. Will we reach “My sons defeated me” at this rate or should the pace be faster?
R. Everything depends on our efforts. I'm saying it again that if we wish to succeed, we have to be more connected between us, together and not each one with all of his force and all of his time.
Rather to have little with an intention.
9. S. (33:11) Is the governance of Bina over Malchut the same as the governance of the ten on the desire of each of us?
R. The sum total of our mutual bestowal when we connect is aimed towards the Creator when we want to bestow to one another. It's not that I as an individual aim towards the Creator but rather only my connection with someone else that can be aimed towards the Creator.
S. Are we building Bina’s governance through mutual annulment?
R. Yes, that is correct. Why was that so difficult to understand?
S. It often sounds personal.
R. How can it be personal or individual? It can never be personal. Why did the Creator have to break the vessel? He had to break it into pieces only in order to give these pieces the possibility to connect through their effort. In truth, they don't really connect. It should be clear that the ego that exists in each one of them grows, and becomes different from the other more and more, and this gives the created beings the ability to obtain the Creator. The gap between the egos of each one becomes greater. They build Bina by connecting above these gaps. That area of connection they build is called Bina and is entirely above Malchut.
We have the most extreme excessive will to receive at the end of correction. This is desirable in the eyes of the Creator. The greatest possible will to bestow, in resembling the Creator, is built upon it. The created being is different from the Creator in that he discovers the Creator by covering his will to receive with the intention to bestow.
S. Is it a preparation for the governance of Bina when we reveal a bit of the gaps between us?
R. Yes, when we crown it, when we want it to rule over Malchut, over the will to receive
10. S. (36:39) How can we renew our intention every moment to stay under the control of Bina?
R. By helping one another. When it says that we are in a boat this is what it is about. We want to achieve correction. Our correction is all in the power of the intention. We have to constantly help each other not to fall from the intention to bestow and support each other and by this resemble the Creator. This is how we need to advance.
11. S. (37:50) Why do we not feel an answer when my ten prays to the Creator every day?
R. Kabbalists give the example of the Creator being like a girl standing in front of a guy and seemingly doesn't want to get to know him, so the guy walks around her. It's called the ‘dance’, dancing before the bride. More and more we have to seduce the Creator to help us connect. We can ask and even demand it. We begin to detect Him to the extent that we connect among us. We begin to detect His form, His nature, His character. “By your actions we know You”. That's how we get there. This is how to dance before the bride, how to seduce her, how to entice her, what gifts you need to bring her so she will want you. The Creator is very jealous. He can't stand you looking elsewhere and not at Him. He wants you to constantly look only at Him. Just like a girl with a guy. There are such examples written in the books of Kabbalah. This is how we need to connect among us and to Him and to advance that way. We acquire the importance of the degree of bestowal over the degree of reception by this.
12. S. (40:35) Do we need to know the differences between us if we want to build above them?
R. We don’t need to know anything except one thing, that we want to be connected more and more. That's it. We have no understanding, no attainment, nothing, before this. Be drawn only towards connection. Don't set conditions that you feel like setting. Only connection is required. As much as you can.
Excerpt 8 (41:31) Twice
13. R. (45:04) In other words, the Creator deliberately increases our mind and our reason. It will be more difficult for us to go above them so we will establish the degree of faith, the degree of Bina, the degree of bestowal, higher up and that's how we advance.
reader continues
14. S. (46:16) As you explained in the beginning of the lesson, that there are many people who want to study and attain the wisdom with the angels and everything. However, I don't feel that I have that, that I am acquiring this wisdom so that I can say that I have reason and intellect and I want to rise above them?
R. So there are all kinds, some yearn for knowledge, some yearn too for all kinds of miracles and all kinds of strange and special things, someone to know the upper force in order to manipulate him for the wrong benefit, there are all kinds. There are even those who learn the wisdom of Kabbalah for medicine. They want to get something through it. You know I had a big library in the past, the Wisdom of Kabbalah and Medicine, there was so much there. Why is it called Kabbalah though? I'll tell you. Kabbalists wrote about spiritual degrees in the language of branches so just as they speak about bread and wine, where bread being the degree of Bina and wine being the degree of Malchut that's corrected, etc. So, they wrote in that style when they wrote books and people thought that they were talking about reality that if we take this thing and that thing, you do that on them, by this you awaken some higher force or you can even reveal it. The problem is, it's not so. We can’t do anything by that other than to confuse ourselves
S. The mind and the reason is not specific about wanting to know with anything that I yearn for myself really?
R. We cannot know, we can attain. Because our intellect in every place, in every person, at every moment that we reveal, still grows out of the will to receive and through it, we can't attain more than the will to receive. You can take Einstein, all the smart people you want from this world, they will not be able to touch the spiritual world. Unless one of them rises above his intellect to the degree of bestowal, that’s it. This is why it is written ‘’it's not the smart one who learns’’. The approach should be only towards the path of bestowal, path of faith, this is the quality of the Creator and we need to find ourselves in this quality.
S. So what is the mind, the intellect and reason that he refers to here.
R. The mind and intellect which are already directed towards revealing the Creator. When we reach the degree of faith then you also raise Malchut to Bina.
15. S. (50:19) We reach the end of correction inside our intention or inside our desire? And also, above reason is inside the desire or inside the intention?
R. Everything is in the intention, the desire joins the intention. The will to receive remains will receive, only the intention above it changes more and more, and more, towards the intention to bestow. But the desire does not become refined, does not change, it remains the will to receive. What you can do is only cut off pieces of it, certain pieces, with which you work until you come to a state where you work with all the desires that the Creator created.
16. S. (51:20) I heard you say earlier that a person cannot be aimed towards the Creator by himself but only that the direction to the Creator is through the ten, through the connections. So, faith above reason also comes through the connection or is that a personal discernment of the person?
R. Only out of the connection that a person does between himself and the friends, only in that connection does he reveal spirituality, the Creator. Because his connection with others is exactly where there is the degree of bestowal, the form of bestowal, that exists from him into the friends to the Creator.
S. But where does above reason come in the connections? How out of the connection do you reach faith above reason?
R. Because I want to have bestowal on the friends that is clean. And the form of cleanliness of my bestowal, above my will to receive that is egoistic, is called the form of Bina or shape of Bina.
S. OK. Is that in the excerpt that we read? It sounds very much like states that a person goes through with the thoughts and desires that he has in him, and he rises above them to faith above reason. So, I can't grasp how out of the connection. I mean it seems like it's the person's work and it’s not work on connections.
R. Yes, I understand. Because when we read these excerpts, it seems to us like our whole work is within us and not between us and the friends, true. But in the essays, there they add. Here, they're writing with respect to the person and in the articles, they express how it is implemented, carried out.
S. So man's work is also a result of his work on the connections?
R. Of course, of course, only in this way. How else is it possible? if we don't connect among us, we don't correct the sin of the tree of knowledge, the breaking of the vessel.
S. So why is the emphasis here constantly on the person, on man's work?
R. Because it's the person who has to create in himself connections to the society, and in the society reveal the Creator. Who is the Creator? Such a strong and tight connection between us, a good connection between us above our egos, that we find there the hidden force of connection between us.
17.S. (54:53) So can we say, in continuation to his question, that actually above reason is a result of the exertion of the entire ten, of everyone together, to overcome?
R. Yes, but not the whole ten. It could also be one towards the other. But still, it is work to be in connection with the friend above one's own ego.
S. If you should want it together, right, it has to be a common exertion?
R. Two is the least plural. We still need to know the rules. Of course, ‘’the king is glorified in the multitude of the people”, the more friends engage in it and are in such a way that each one is with everyone else, it is easier but the law already exists even between two.
18. S. (55:57) How to raise the importance of the path above reason because according to the text it seems that choosing the path depends on the importance?
R. Well of course, everything depends on the importance. And the importance depends, as he writes in his articles, Rabash, Baal HaSulam, writes in the article the Arvut (mutual guarantee) especially that the importance of the goal, the attainment of the goal, depends on the society. And if the person is in the right society, he receives from them the impetus, the drive, towards the goal and that's how he can achieve it easily and quickly.
19. S. (57:01) In the drawing you made with the triangles, you said there's an inverse relationship between the Kavana (intention) and the Ratzon (desire). As they move there, the squares, the desire and the intention, is there a horizontal middle line where they meet? If there is, can you describe that state, what that would be like? Would it be a place where they stay for a while or does the Kavana (intention) continuously move up as the Ratzon (desire) was less and less important?
R. You're not listening to what I am saying. What did I say about this diagram? That it’s only a disposition, that from above downward, above downward, like that, develops. And the desire develops and becomes revealed, and at the same time, it advances from the infinite desire in Ein Sof (infinity) down to this world, the lowest. We study, it happens through the refinement of the screen. The desire grows smaller and smaller until it comes to the smallest desire which we reveal, in which we call this world. And from the other side, the intention grows. It grows, it’s not like here's the biggest and here's the smallest. What I wanted to do here is bring the disposition, the direction, the tendency, and not how much the intention lies over the desire. That’s how I drew it. You know what, erase it all and draw it for yourself. As long as you understand what we’re talking about.
Excerpt 9 (59:11) Twice “There is emptiness only in a place…’’
20. R. (01:01:34) And we of course, many hours a day, each day, feel that we are empty. So, this whole feeling comes in order for us to wake up and fill it with the greatness of the Creator, with the importance of the Creator, the importance of the goal. It is a calling from above, a revelation from above, and we are empty.
21. S. (01:02:13) Yesterday before sleep, we read this excerpt in the ten and we have a question. Can we feel emptiness before we have a vessel in the work?
R. In what do you expect to feel emptiness?
S. This is what we said, it's impossible because we don't have a vessel.
R. No, but at least emptiness from being empty. There's one over the other because you can check yourself and see where you are. Start from this.
22. S. (01:13:03) Is there a difference between emptiness and exaltedness in the ten and in the group?
R. Yes. Start working with it and you will see.
23. S. (01:03:22) Could you explain, how can we associate the title of the text which is the pomegranate with the content of the text?
R. I don't quite understand what you want. We have to try to elevate the quality of bestowal, the quality of the Creator, to try to see that specifically this quality works behind the scenes in everything that we discover here in this world and not the other way around. Before us, at every moment and in every way, we are discovering that the ego governs, right, without any compromises. The Creator doesn't exist, everything is hidden, it's not even hidden, it does not exist. We must try to position ourselves, each one himself, in such a way, of course it's with the help of the friends, to position ourselves in such a way that we want to see everything through the quality of bestowal. Then I will discover that indeed I was in concealment and the whole world is actually the opposite, it is the quality of bestowal that is present and controls everything. And the quality of reception is revealed only so that on top of it I will scrutinize the quality of bestowal.
S. What exactly is the concept of pomegranate? The title of the text?
R. He still, he wants the literal, the interpretation, interesting. OK. What is he writing, number nine, I am reading. ‘’There is emptiness only in a place where there is no existence’’ It turns out, what is the measure of the feeling of the empty place? The answer is, according to one's elevation to the extent that a person raises himself above reason. Meaning the place, before there was an empty place, on which there is no governance, no control, no ruling, the Creator is hidden so he can reveal Him. This means that the emptiness should be filled with exaltedness, meaning with the discernment of above reason. The minute you begin to relate to reality that all of this is the hidden Creator, then you can begin to discover that this is really so, that He feels everything and turns everything, and to ask the Creator to give him that strength to elevate the quality of the Creator, the quality of bestowal because we don't see it, it’s hidden. Because this is the quality of bestowal, it’s not pride or the ego, it’s the opposite, it's as it is written about the stones, meaning it's on the ground, he doesn't rise the quality of bestowal, doesn't stand up. This will mean that all the emptiness was created, meaning it doesn't come to a person to feel this way that he is empty, but only in order to fill it with the Romemut (exaltedness) of the Creator. If you respect bestowal, a person lowering himself, if you respect these things then through it you begin to see a different world. This is called taking everything above reason.
24. S. (01:08:07) As we begin to make corrections on each corrupted desire, does this lead us to feeling more and more of a general deficiency felt as more emptiness?
R. Yes. But try, try anything. You're asking questions that only point to you not exerting, not trying to do, to act. Faith above reason is revealed through our actions, through having to do it and discover, just like I started the lesson, that there are two levels. The level of the upper world and the level of this world, we have to discover these two worlds. This world is clear, we feel it, it's in front of us, meaning it's within us, it's in our will to receive, this is how we feel it. The upper world we can't feel, it is on the level of Bina, we need to discover it. This is called reaching faith above reason by appreciating, by raising the level of Bina above the level of Malchut.
25. S. (01:10:00) Why is there a difference, such a great difference, between relating to the Creator as a bride? On the other hand, we say we need to respect Him, to treat Him with honor like a king.
R. There are many ways to connect to the Creator. But when it’s a bride you don't treat her with respect?
S. I relate to her as receiving. She is expecting to receive for me, not like the Creator.
R. No. That's incorrect. Not that she is receiving. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we actually relate to the bride as one you need to circle, you need to give her gifts, you need to do all kinds of good and correct things, you have to give her a ring, you have to seem important to her so that she will agree to marry you. The story is not like in this world that you know today, with contemporary girls that you probably know, it's a little different, it’s through honor, respect.
26. S. (01:11:28) Is this empty space, is that the Ubar (embryo) for the spiritual vessel?
R. What’s the inner space?
S. When a vessel is created, that empty place, that’s what he says here. He is asking, is the emptiness does this become.
R. Repeat, please.
S. Is the earlier emptiness that we talked about, is that the Ibur (impregnation) that leads to the birth? Or is this the embryo for a new spiritual vessel?
R. I don’t understand the question.
S. Is the emptiness the place for the birth of a new vessel?
R. No. We don't want to connect things in this way. I have to fill the emptiness with the greatness of the upper one and by this I begin to connect to Him.
Excerpt 10 (01:16:26) “It's written, God has made it…’’
27. R. (01:16:51) Meaning in each state of emptiness, a person should feel it’s an invitation to reach faith above reason, the force of bestowal. Fill the emptiness with the force of Bina, the force of giving.
Reader continues: no translation
28. R. (01:17:13) And for this, we need the help of the Creator. Let him ask, the Creator will give.
Reader continues: “meaning that a person then must ask…’’
29. R. (01:17:31) Meaning to see, to feel, what the world of bestowal means.
Reader continues: “it turns out that it is precisely then….”
Excerpt 10 again (01:18:24)
30. S. (01:19:50) Why are we born with an egoistic desire instead of this program of revelation above reason?
R. Because we, as the created beings, cannot feel one phenomenon. We can feel anything only in the difference between one thing and it's opposite. Our vessels of perception are the vessels of perception of the created being, meaning, on the one hand, it has to be in the quality of the Creator; on the other hand, it has to be in the opposite quality of the Creator. One feels his reality in the difference between the two otherwise he doesn't feel reality and is completely unaware. This is a law and it is clear to anyone who deals with mechanics, with nature, that we only measure things one compared to the other: hatred, love; wisdom, foolishness; light, darkness. It doesn't matter what discernment you take from our entire reality; you can see how much we are always in this connection between one thing and its opposite. Only in such a place do we feel ourselves existing and it is clear to us where we are.
S. Do we feel the emptiness in that difference?
R. Yes, of course. When do you feel empty and with respect to what do you feel empty? When you compare your empty state to your full state, then you see you are empty. How can you say it is empty otherwise? This is how we are all connected between ourselves. You can go to a musician and you won't understand anything he is saying because his discernments are completely different; if you go to a painter, his discernments are completely different from yours. Each one measures himself between empty and full, and this is where he is. That is how each and every one of us is born. Nature intended and destined us to have these discernments in colors, sounds, relations, science, and everything. It doesn’t matter, even a mathematician has the sum total of emotions inside. A person shifts these things to emotion because our vessel is desire.
31. S. (01:23:22) I don't understand what emptiness Baal HaSulam is talking about.
R. I will repeat excerpt ten again. “God has made it that He will be feared.” What does that mean? “This means that these thoughts of emptiness come to a person.” Why do they come? We feel them many times every day. “In order for one to have a need to take on himself faith above reason.” He won't be able to feel the emptiness with what this place requires, never, because the empty place that is revealed is a place that the Creator has to fill. Why was it revealed this way in you? We are escaping the path if we do something else just to not feel this emptiness and move from the state that the Creator sent. If I really want to use the feeling of emptiness correctly, I have to think about what faith above reason means, about what the degree of bestowal is.
Whatever appears to me now in this state when I feel empty is a place of a higher degree from above our world, from the degree of Bina, that has been revealed to me. I should try to feel this emptiness with the quality of bestowal and then elevate myself to that place. For this we need the help of the Creator. It follows that we need faith above reason and for this we need help from the Creator not to run away from the empty state and try to fill it with the force of Bina, faith above reason. It follows that we must ask the Creator to give us the power to believe in faith above reason. We need to have the importance of the quality of bestowal above reason. You must ask the Creator to give you the power to believe above reason and that you need the force of bestowal. This emptiness was created inside a person in order to fill himself with the greatness of the Creator above reason. That is the place I have to reveal and I pray to the Creator to give me the possibility to live in this place and find spiritual life there. It seems empty to me now because I am used to this corporeal life. Spiritual life seemed to be an empty place for me.
32. S. (01:27:37) Are the feelings of emptiness and helplessness the same thing?
R. No. Helplessness is what a person feels as a response to when he feels he has no strength, no future, and he doesn't know what to do. That is helplessness. The feeling of emptiness is when he doesn’t see the future or the present in his state without feeling or responding to it. It just seems to him this way. Then there is a choice before him. You can say that what is now revealed to him is a higher degree but is still empty and he wants to fill it with the greatness, the loftiness, of the degree of the Creator, of the degree of Bina. He doesn't feel this degree or its importance when coming from Malchut. He doesn't feel many discernments in it, he feels it as empty.
33. S. (01:29:13) What comes first, the greatness of the Creator or the intention?
R. This is with respect to a person the way a person chooses.
34. S. (01:29:35) Who does the emptiness belong to that is written in the verse, “there is no Creator without the creature”?
R. Emptiness is certainly revealed by the actions of the Creator, as there is none else besides Him. He does everything but He does it with respect that a person will choose what he does with this emptiness. Emptiness means that we need and we want. I am being elevated from the degree of Malchut as if to the degree of Bina. Rav drawing. This is Malchut and this is Bina. However, I am not yet in the quality of Bina, I am only being elevated here. I feel empty.
What should I do? I can reach a state that I come back to Malchut again and this is truly a descent. The Creator shows emptiness to me, which is part of the degree of Bina revealed to me. I don't want to sit there, to accept these things, to be there, or remain there. I disregard what the Creator gives me to rise higher in the future. I say I don't want this; I am going to run away from the emptiness, or that I settle in this place of emptiness. What does this mean? I want to compare this empty place in my vessels of reception with respect to my vessels of bestowal. If I start clearing the screen, the Masach, it is like I get a new screen, like windows.
I start seeing the next world by the force of bestowal. All of these states of emptiness come to us in order for us to start using them correctly. This is considered faith above reason, by the force of Bina above Malchut. I want to remain there and be in it. This is the entrance to spirituality. We are getting such invitations from the Creator many times every day and we don't like them because for us it is empty. We used to have a feeling of life even though it wasn't so pleasant for us, but here it is empty and we don't understand that through this empty place the Creator wishes to bring us to the next world, to a higher degree. In states when we feel empty, we need to turn to the Creator to ask that this emptiness be filled by Him with His greatness, and that we will have this happiness because we are close to Him, because we are with him.
Excerpt 10 again (01:34:17)
35. R. (01:35:11) Believing above reason means to feel the qualities and the actions of bestowal instead of actions of Malchut. I want to discover and create qualities in me and identify the actions of bestowal, or in other words, by me identifying the Creator in them.
Reader continues: “in this sense the exterior mind lets him understand….”
36. R. (01:36:23) Meaning that when we feel the emptiness, we have to ask the Creator to be revealed within this emptiness. We will surely make it if we ask together. This is the closest and most direct way for us to reveal the Creator.
37. S. (01:3645) When we overcome and feel joy in our connection, we feel it is reduced and then there's no joy and the cycle repeat itself?
R. Of course we do, we can both be in deficiency and happiness because this deficiency leads me to the purpose of creation. This is how it is called being happy also when we are in torment.
S. First there is deficiency and then there can be joy but when the joy comes how does it not replace the deficiency?
R. That is a whole different problem when the fulfillment I feel in the happiness I feel should have been happiness of coming closer to bestowing to the Creator so I need now with my happiness I have attained, bestowing, confidence, security all of these things to aim them at the Creator and then I turn this state into a vessel. Previously this was the fulfillment for me and now the fulfillment I have received I turned to a deficiency for the vessel, how can I be so to the Creator by that and always when we rise in the degrees this way whatever was a fulfillment becomes a deficiency. It is in each and every ascent, I am very happy today that we have scrutiny that are essential, new discernment.
S. According to the diagram can we say that this point Malchut rises to Bina in order not to run away, we have all of the anchors that we need to have in our study framework, but 10 it's just that so in that point that we won't run away and ask to rise up?
R. This degree of Bina reveals to us, I don't want to confuse you but basically what it shows and reveals to us later, is Malchut in a deeper manner that we rise to a higher Bina and this is how it flip-flops.
S. You spoke about the point of choice exactly there that we can either run away.
R. Yes here, from this point we can either go back or ask that I don't want anything that I am going back to my ordinary life or actually at this point I am going to ask for an ascent.
S. What determines the right choice?
R. Environment, eventually it is the help of the Creator through the environment and in the environment, there is always a potential, a greater potential of the Creator, greater than me so if I am turning to the environment even though it's not to the Creator, it is the environment I connect to myself and I connect myself to the Creator and a higher degree and this helps. This is the place of choice. Here.
38. S. (01:41:28) What is the connection between fear and emptiness?
R. Fear and emptiness when we reach emptiness, we don't have the spiritual fear, we are just empty and this is the feeling in the desire to receive and the spiritual fear when we feel it to the Creator it is somehow in the desire to bestow in the connection with the Creator. You don't feel emptiness in the connection with the Creator and this is seemingly the feeling in the desire to receive itself.
39. S. (01:42:26) I understood the text telling me that I have to have a place of emptiness and the way that I do that is with faith above reason so that place will be filled later with the light but I need to make that place empty with faith above reason is that correct?
R. I am not making the empty place it is being revealed to me, I can't according to my nature in my desire to receive I can't desire for an empty place always instinctively I will always desire a full place.
40. S. (01:43:29) What senses in the desire do we need to develop in order to incorporate the various desires?
R. What senses do we need to develop in our desire to receive, only the sense of the feeling of others because the desire to receive begins with only feeling itself and others it only feels in the direction of how much it can be enjoyed from others. Ultimately it also feels itself whereas what we need to try to develop in us, of course this is by the upper light, but we want to develop a feeling of others enough as if I restrict myself and I feel others and I take into account only the feeling of others and then out of that I ask. This is called making your desires like his.
41. S. (01:44:50) Concerning the drawing you just made to ask a question about it there is a point of choice where you don't want to run back to Malchut and you also said what is this flip flop so you go back to Malchut and up again, so what is the difference between those two?
R. If I am in the degree of emptiness and I don't discover that this is actually the degree of Bina and this is the way the Creator wants to bring me into the upper world and for me it is more important to feel that I am filled in some comfortable way in the corporeal world. Then I do these actions in order to take as many options as are required or as fast as possible to come back to the degree Malchut as everything is in the will to receive, do it like that however if I am in a social connection and a society here is the most important thing, the environment to help me, then I will choose that this empty state that I am in is determined as a full one, not by Malchut but by my connection with my friends. Even if I feel myself wanting to dig a hole under me in the boat I will sit on this hole and I won't let the water reach the boat and I will hope that my friends will aim us correctly and I am with them as well everything depends on whether I am alone or I am in a society and this is how these society can decide. In this place in the illustration this is the place of choice as the choice is given to the environment, if I am in it, I can choose the spiritual advancement, if I'm not in it, I will always choose going back to corporeality where it is safe. What is the environment fighting with here is myself. I am certain that it is in the corporeal degree, the animal degree and the environment can also give the feeling of security and advancement on the degree of this speaking level.
42. S. (01:48:19) The best form to fill the emptiness is with prayer to the Creator that we all realize it comes from him?
R. If you already feel here these discernment from above but usually what we're talking about here is according to what is the direction that a person is determined, is he drawn to spiritual advancement or will he go back to corporeality because he cannot stay in this empty place as for him it is intolerable. By being connected to the environment it helps him, forces and obligates him to fill this place with the greatness of the Creator because when friends are connected together it brings this feeling of bestowing. There is a lot into it and there are many other discernments here.
43. S. (01:49:48) Is it enough to reach a thought about the emptiness that we have to feel it?
R. The empty place, the feeling of an empty place is essential, it is a must in every transition from one degree to another and it's not only an empty place it is a place of choice that is given to a person. Where else can you make a choice if the Creator is in control, you have nothing to do if the evil inclination is in control for a person, he has nothing to do but this is the place where the fight between holiness and the desire to receive there are also articles about this in Shamati.
44. S. (01:51:00) In a state of emptiness to ask the Creator case above reason or the power to exercise faith above reason?
R. I wouldn't say that you can ask, if you're still asking for something from the empty place it's not empty something still illuminates, empty is when you simply discovered that except for society, except for the group no one can help you but if you yourself can discover the deficiency and a prayer then that is good but it is not empty yet.
45. S. (01:51:55) If I feel the friend as physical emptiness, I don't feel this space around me to turn to the friend so how do I fill the space of the Creator?
R. You don't need to do anything according to what you are saying, all you have to do is incorporate as much as you can both internally and physically in the society, this is all and then you will reach higher and higher discernments.
46. S. (01:52:46) If the space between Malchut and Bina is the place to work, where do we position the 10?
R. You are picturing things I didn't draw, what we need to simply do when we are in this empty place is to try as much as possible to run away to the 10, to the group and how do we do this? Out of us making the calculation previously when we are not yet in the empty state that I have to make type connections as tight as possible between me and the friends so whenever I need them it will help me, that is all.
47. S. (01:54:10) Why do we forget to ask?
R. We forget to ask because we don't feel the Creator who is there and controlling our situations.
48. S. (01:54:35) Basically in receiving the emptiness and connecting to the friends and asking for a common request for the next degrees that the calling of the Creator to the next degree to have the common prayer with a friends?
R. Try it and you'll discover and then you will see it, if it is so or not.
49. S. (01:55:11) There is a feeling that the greatness of the Creator depends on the feeling of the Creator?
R. Keep on going and you will find, this is correct and, on the path, yes. He is truly going and advancing with all of his strength.
50. S. (01:55:53) How is it possible to build something in the air?
R. This is called a building that is in midair, it is in the air but it is a to building, it is at our it is a degree of Bina and it is for you whatever is Malchut is in the air, it doesn't exist but you should try to acquire the senses that help you feel the air this is called empty air and air and this air will be filled with light this is how it will happen. You are on the way, keep on going.
S. I don't have these qualities, how do I identify them?
R. The light will come and build and establish these qualities for you, there is nothing to talk about when the person is ready the light will immediately do this as you open the place for the light to correct you.
51. S. (01:57:12) From everything we learned today in the scrutiny in the 10 and now the matter of patience that we've touched on or impatience, where do you need to be patient and where do you need to be impatient?
R. If it is in the direction of bestowing connecting with the group then you must have patience and besides that no.
52. S. (01:57:53) This new point that we touched on today, that the fulfillment of the emptiness in the next level becomes new emptiness and bestowing to the Creator, can you expand?
R. Of course this is how we learn from the ladder of the degrees that whatever we have acquired in the previous degree is purified, emptied and we feel it is not fulfilling us anymore, even the opposite as if it is a negative one, this is what we don't want and it helps us to rise to a higher degree.
S. If out of the emptiness we come to the greatness of the Creator it's as if we follow our advance from that state somehow?
R. By the recognition of the greatness of the Creator in this all depends upon the environment to what extent you are impressed by the friends, how they are connecting between themselves and that they try to connect to the Creator and then from envy, lust and honor all of these means that you require from looking at them you can rise to an even higher degree this is how you advance as Israel the Creator and the lights are one, you the 10 and to the Creator.
53. S. (01:59:49) The point of choice that we spoke about today, this is where we need to activate the restriction?
R. Yes, these points are discovering the point of restriction.
S. Sometimes we don't know what to restrict as there is like a feeling of pain as if it forces me to run back below and restriction feels like restricting pleasures.
R. That's not good to restrict the pleasure because someone who breaks his pleasure instead of one, he will get to, all you need to do is aim yourself in the connection and the Creator in the connection and whatever opposes that restrict.
54. S. (02:00:57) When we ask for fulfillment in this empty space for the Creator is this an entrance to spirituality or a new degree from which we need to start seeing things?
R. It is entering spirituality but it is not necessarily there that you start seeing things they are looking for something to see and that is no longer spiritual.
55. S. (02:01:47) We need to organize our emptiness in each and every state to fill it with the greatness of the Creator and every moment?
R. We cannot organize emptiness as it comes to us as a replacement of the vessel, when I rise to the degree Bina from Malchut and I feel emptiness in Malchut when there is nothing there for me in Bina or nothing for me as well, then it is as if I lose from both ends and what should I do? This is what should have awakened me to take the leave upwards.