Morning Lesson November 19, 2020 Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves possibility for errors.
Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol1. Part 2. Ari #3 ("Each of the Eser Sefirot of Igulim has all the above features, namely Orot and Kelim")
Reader Item 5”Arich Anpin of the Igulim....”
Item 60, “After the four Olamot ABYA were formed....”(01:13 - 05:05)
41. S. (05:07) How can there be left and right in a circle?
R. We are not talking about the circle itself, the way the circle is activated by the line, in that there is left and right, above, below, all of the discernments that we have in circles, that in the circle itself they don't exist but they come out of their activation, by the line. This is the right question.
42. S. (05:41) The Partzuf called Abba and Bina is called Ima, and HGT, is ZA. What is the difference between these Parzufim?
R. AVI and ZA, the difference is as between Hochma, Bina, and ZA.
S. What is the process when he says the Partzuf was called Hochma, what does it mean he came out of Hochma, what is a Partzuf?
R. The light goes through Keter, Hochma, BIna, ZA, Malchut. Because in them there are changes in the will to receive, the light bestows to each and every desire according to the relation between the light and the desire and then you have the Sephira of Keter, Hochma, Bina, ZA, Malchut, it doesn't matter whether it's circles or straight lines. Matter is matter, the will to receive and the light is the light, the will to bestow, and when the light enters the desire then the will to receive changes accordingly and we call this ZAT, Sefira, so the light that goes through these circles He turns them into AVI ZA Malchut.
S Is there a process here connected to the ten?
R. No, it's far from us we're talking about circles and straight lines, before the created beings, before the shattering of the vessels, before the emergence of the worlds of ABYA. Even in BYA, it’s still before Adam HaRishon. As much as we learn and we want, the things we learn to affect us, how it will give us a bit more feeling and understanding of what is going on.
S. Can this work without the souls be a part of it, meaning did this process work before?
R. When we bear children, is there work before the child grows up and starts understanding what's going on in life? His parents that give birth to him and take care of him until he grows only after 20 years does, he somehow become a grown-up, it's the same here. You have to with all kinds of systems have to establish themselves correctly, that will to receive that later will be born in the state that the AVI, father and mother established, it has to have the right place in order to grow, to be independent, to determine what he wants from life, how much he wants to resemble his mother and father and even the upper this is how it is even in our world.
S. So this is a system prepared for us?
R. Yes, always for us everything is always for the lower man.
43. S. (09:45) What are Igulim without Aviut?
R. Circles without Aviut, coarseness, is when there is no coarseness being revealed in them. That is in the upper light that is in the desire and it establishes a desire, when the light precedes the desire. This is why you don't feel the coarseness, but when the desire comes before the light, the light creates the desire, but the desire makes the restriction, saying to stop. Here I want to work and with that desire starts feeling, starts working on its own accord, it is like the guest and the host and that means that he is determining the Yosher, the straight line. Before that if the light comes from above it circles, if the light spreads from below that is Yosher, straightness.
44. S. (11:06) The part of the Yosher, straight line is to aim the lights according to the line?
R. Yes from above there is bestowal of the three lines, we will learn this.
Reader. Item 70 “You already know that because of the light....” (11:33 - 13:48 )
45. R. This is basically the source of the light for the spiritual object when it comes to it. All of these things will be clarified later and the truth is we don't really work along with them in our work as well, also in the rest of the parts of the study of TES, we work in general. You know like in the university when you come to learn a certain profession you have a year or two first sometimes three years where you just learn general stuff, it's not really about the occupation. So he's explaining to us about the upper system, how it works on us. Later on, when we start working from below upwards more and more between ourselves we will start to discover where the circles are, where the straight lines are, where we have to connect to them and use them.
46. S. (14:52) What's the passage between a circle to a circle?
R. Straightness, straight lines. No circle touches a different circle.
S. And between one Sefira to another?
R. There you have both the circles and the line, usually you learn by the screens, by the straight lines.
S. It's written that the circle of Arich Anpin is called Keter, so it seems that Keter it isn't the external circle anymore but that it is more internal?
R. No, it is a Keter. It is the external circle, the biggest circle of the upper one, the biggest circle in the world of Atzilut.
Reader Item 80 “This means that it was imprinted in the right....” (16:01 - 16:19)
47. R. That is how the circle is impressed by the straight line, through the Yosher you activate the circles. Circles are like the surrounding light as an external, whole illumination that comes from the side of the Creator, but the Yosher is already taking part with the created being.
Reader 90 “The above-mentioned window created a discrimination...”(16:41 - 17:49)
48. S. The lights in the Igulim are Rosh, from the Rosh of the Kav. So how can we speak about Masach, because the Masach works from the Rosh and below it. So how do we say that we speak about circles and Masach at the same time?
R. Here we are talking about the combination between the vessels of the circles and the vessels of the straightness, the Yosher. Here we are talking about how circles influence the lines and vice versa. Basically the vessels are vessels of circles, the straight lines depend upon the work of the Creator with the created beings through the screens from below they are also the screens arranged but they are arranged in order to create Adam. Then, to the extent that this Adam wants to come closer to the work in the circles, but it comes through Yosher. We are always yearning to reach absolute bestowal. Meaning, whole bestowal. This is called the work and the circles, but how much are we capable of doing that? Only in the lines, to a very small extent. It is the connection between us and the circles, and then we fill the circles everywhere, in a very cautious way.
49. S. (19:42) Why does it mean that Hochma was lowered a degree?
R. Where is that written?
S. Ohr Pnimi 90, that Abba of Igulim descended, in other words, Hochma was lowered.
R. Yes, because it is the descent of the degrees. Meaning the descent that is lowered in the degrees now being equal to Keter of the circles. This is the descent of the degrees.
50. S. (20:32) What does it mean right and left?
R. Right is bestowal, in Hesed and mercy and left is also bestowal but it is Gevurah with the participation of the lower ones. What you're asking we haven't learned yet, we will learn them in other parts of the study, which is why it's hard to explain here.
S. He aims us here, so I am trying to set my picture correctly.
R. I understand that you have a difficulty in seeing this, but you see that how he explains to us, he takes the second part of TES and he's pouring on us all of these things we haven't learned about. This is how this book is written, so we learn this, we go over it and through the other parts we are going to touch on the subject again.
51. S. (21:41) Item 90 speaks about the Halon that created a discrimination of the Hamshacha and the descent of the light there. How important is it for the quality of the yearning to connect and to hold the importance of the friends, by this can we see this whole scenario, the windows and the disparity?
R. No, I don't want to talk about this at all. When you start connecting what we are learning to your relations in the group, that is completely wrong in my eyes. That is one thing here and that is another thing, you're not in spirituality yet so this will only confuse you. Rabash doesn't write about this and you can't read about it anywhere and I'm against that philosophy. If this is the way you want to depict these things then I think in my eyes, it's better for you to set the study of TES and go away from Kabbalah and go have a good life as it will only cause a disaster to your souls, only idol worship out of that. So, don't connect these things to the work in the group. Neither circles nor the straight line, these are not things that we can feel, you can only understand this so if you start understanding, start with your intellect it will be philosophy or a new religion.
52. S. (23:31) He writes that the lower degree has a greater Aviut than the previous one, but we learn that GE has a greater Aviut and AVI less...
R. There is the coarseness that is related to the screen and the one that is not related to the screen according to the Sefirot from above downwards. You cannot say that there is coarseness in them because the Aviut, the coarseness is revealed by the work of man from below upwards and the more that he rises, the more coarseness he has. But it is a coarseness, under the restriction of the screen and the reflected light. This is why anyone who rises his inclination is bigger, this is why he rises, overcoming his desire.
53. S. (24:35) I don't understand the term Sefirot?
R. A Sephira is Illuminating, from the word Sapir, Sapphire. illuminating, it is a will to receive that was taken care had something done on it and it can illuminate, give light like the host, this is called shining.
54. S. (25:15) I'm a bit despaired from TES, the more I yearn to feel what we're studying, I can't, will I ever be able to understand or feel this?
R. No, you won't be able to understand and feel before you attain. If you will be able to connect to others and draw the light that reforms then it will make a vessel out of you, your will to receive so that it can become to be in order to bestow, when? In order to bestow you will be able to understand and feel that the study of TES is about and only this way.
Reader Item 100 “This Halon was made in the Sefirot together...” (26:03 - 26:39)
55. S. (26:42) What is the correct relation between a line and a circle?
R. A line is the work with the desire, with the directed desire through the restriction, the screen and the reflected light in a way that there is a connection with the desire. According to the desire there is bestowal. Whereas a circle is without any limitation yet, the way it was created by the light that's how it exists. We have been talking about this for 2 weeks now.
Reader. Item 300 “The light descends from Igul to Igul...” (27:31 - 28:44)
56. R. That is a matter of the window, meaning it is the only way he knows in a seemingly neutral way how to bestow how to open the light but it's not like it bestows in a concentrated and aimed purposeful way. That’s why we don't expect anything out of these windows that we can receive and say about it in the right way. In them there are no screens that work on us and teach us how to work on ourselves, in return. This is what he says that this is not considered the true correction of the lines that come down from the Masach that there is a male light in them they can bestow to others.
Reader. Item 6 “This Adam Kadmon attaches one end with the other...” (29:35 - 31:13) reads twice
Reader. Item 1 “It means that is connects everything.....”(31:13 - 31:56)
57. S. (32:06) How should I correct TES with our work correctly?
R. You are diverting everyone with your question. What we're learning right now is what you should ask about.
Reader. Item 2 “Ohr Pnimi, meaning the Ohr Ein Sof ......”(32:51 - 33:34)
58. R. In the Sefirot Keter, Hochma, Bina, we can't talk about it because these attributes come from above, above the will to receive, as we have learned from the four phases of direct light. The will to receive starts from the middle of Bina, the ZAT de Bina this is where the letters, Otiot begin as well. This is why all we can engage in is ZAT de Bina, ZA and Malchut but GAR de Bina and Hochma and Keter, we can't deal with them because there's no vessels yet. Letters are vessels which is why we are also seeing this is what he says.
59. S. (34:24) Question about item six where it says that AK extends on the Halal of Atzilut. What does he mean?
R. AK is all the line that comes to us from the world of Ein Sof down to our world. As we learn this later, that the world of Atzilut and the worlds of BYA clothe on this line of Ein Sof, the world of AK below the Tabur. They are below the Tabur, from the Tabur on to the Sium Raglaim of AK, this is where you have the world of Nekudim and the worlds of Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya.
60. S. (35:23) Baal HaSulam and the ARI write about Adam Kadmon and Ein Sof, what does it mean that we have no permission to engage in this? They are writing about it?
R. Yes, what you're trying to say is that if they write and they dealt with this, why can't we and who do they write, are they allowed? No, to engage in it means that we received this knowledge by our exertion from below upward but it is not that in our work that we can go into it and work with them and these vessels that belong to the world of Adam Kadmon. No we can't. Kadmon is ancient, it is before us, preceding the system of Adam. This is why we can't engage in this, we are incapable of reaching that place, we can't bestow upon this place as we get the knowledge about it but we can't act in it practically, in a mutual way, in this mutual communication, we can't. That is why this knowledge that we get about it, we receive it but you can say the same about the Igulim, circles. How can they write about the circles? It's not yet Yosher, we are Yosher, we only attain things by the restriction, the screen, and the reflected light. It is by the line so how can he write about this one circle rolling and becoming another circle, where does he perceive this and by what vessels? We get this knowledge, we get these things even though we cannot attain the internality of them. This, I also don't really understand what I'm talking about now, but it is how all of the Kabbalists pass on these things that they got from above, that there are such things that we do not attain them, but this is how it works and happens. When we are in our world, we have many phenomena in our world, do we understand these phenomena in the world, all of them? Can we say, this happens because of that, and this is related to that, we think that we can, usually, we later see that we were wrong. Meaning, there is a matter of knowing things and we get that seemingly from above when it appears before us and there is attainment when we, ourselves, establish these states. That is why we understand, out of our will to receive and the force of bestowal, restriction, the screen, reflected light, we understand it when we build it. That's why the final correction is when everything that the Creator created from above downwards, we establish in our work from below upwards. Then, it is considered that we attain Ein Sof, we attain. In the meantime, even the greatest Kabbalists, the way I understand it they also are incapable of reaching, of attaining the world of Adam Kadmon, even GAR of Atzilut. GAR of Atzilut is the final correction, attaining Arich Anpin is the final correction. You understand these attainments are arranged for the created beings already by the way we understand by the way they write it. The created beings are not yet there. So, we will reach it.
61. S. (39:45) Can we say that the line is the Creator's relation towards us and the Yosher is us towards Him?
R. Yes, nice I like these kinds of questions.
62. S. (40:17) About the number of discernments in the will to receive: so a lower circle has more or less discernments and how does it work with the line?
R. Each and every circle includes inside of itself the same number of discernments like every other circle, even the biggest one. Because all of the discernments are only about what we talk about. Also, in each and every detail, both in the circle and in the line. We only talk about the number of discernments that we can attain. But in every smallest crumb of creation, even the smallest will to receive has all of the discernments of all of the desires together. It all depends on the number of, the extent of our attainment. But basically, there is no difference between the bigger or the smaller one. It is only about the discernments, we always have 248 organs, 365 tendons, circles and lines. Every smallest particle of creation is like the entire creation.
63. S. (41:46) The topic of attainment is in our feelings?
R. Yes.
S. What do you mean by intensity in a feeling?
R. According to the screen, according to the will to receive, having a screen upon it and the reflected light, accordingly you start to discover your ability to diagnose things, more or less. Let's say you're looking at a painting and there's a small child looking at the same painting. Is there a difference in what he perceives and what you perceive? It all depends on the number of discernments, the number of pixels. Is there a difference between the way you understand it and the way he understands? And the connection between is called the restriction, the screen, and the reflected light.
S. The feeling is not connected to a body, the natural feelings or something above it?
R. That's a subject we're not learning right now.
Reader. Item 7 “The Igulim came out first, then the Yosher....” (43:03 - 43:46)
64. R. With this, he concludes that the second part of the study TES in order to say this to us now, we're not dealing with the Igulim, we're only dealing with the Yosher. Because we have no grip in the circles, they are discovered, but it is through our work in the Yosher.
Reader. Item 3 “It has already been explained that the Igulim...” and Item 4 “Meaning, from the top end to the bottom......” (44:13 - 48:06)
65. S. (48:12) About those two ends, the upper and the lower, what is the difference?
R. Their coarseness is something that you have to receive and the restriction upon it, the screen and the reflected light and to what place it reaches and until the place that it reaches is where he determines, this is my Creator. That is the source from which there was bestowal upon me. Only according to the way the lower one is organized does it come to resemble the upper one, to the extent that it resembles the upper one it can say this is my Creator. In one place in one state it reached more reflected light or different then a different Creator is revealed this is how Rabbi Zusha said, everyday I have a different Creator. If you say something like that to a person on the street, he'll say you’re nuts, what do you mean every day you have a different Creator? But for Kabbalists, everyday if you discover a different Creator, if you make a different Creator everyday, you have made Me, then it means you're advancing. That is how it is.
S. The fact that Rabbi Zusha could say that every day, on what does it depend that he could determine what the lower part is?
R. Today, he discovers more and more upper force. More and more.
66. S. (50:08) How is the distance, meaning disparity of form, between the lowest Aviut gives us the recognition of the Creator, the root?
R. The lowest coarseness is the biggest coarseness. That is why after the restriction, the screen, the reflected light, he reaches the highest degree. If he corrects this coarseness, turning it into purity, then for him the revelation of the Creator is higher.
S. That is the question so what is about the disparity of form that lets you know your root?
R. To the extent that he feels himself, how many discernments he is far from the root then he can skip over them, meaning rise above them and to reach the recognition of the root. The coarseness becomes purity. But it is the number of discernments stays the same, the more he discovers in the will to receive these discernments, in the will to receive, to that extent if he makes a screen and reflected light, then he discovers the same discernments, only in order to bestow. That is the meaning of within reason or above reason.
67. S. (51:55) When Baal HaSulam came to Israel he was mad at the group in Jerusalem that knew TES by heart and he let them go..... same thing with Rabash where someone knew all of TES and how everything works and you got all excited and you sat with him, what was lacking in the work?
R. God forbid that you will know. When a person knows the text, it doesn't mean that he attained it. He knows what the book says. You can find people in this world who can read all of this and they put it all into their head already, mixing it up a bit more that they will know all of the questions and answers. And you look at these people you say how much knowledge, but you shouldn't say what attainment these people have. Knowledge, yes, it is mechanical, but it is not attainment.
S. I'm envious of people who understand how it works?
R. No, don't envy that. It is not the wise who learns. Agree to the fact that there is nothing you can do for the rest of your life to change the level of intelligence the Creator granted you. Believe me I'm not one of these wise people.
S. Why was Baal HaSulam mad at them, what should they have done?
R. Because they are learning the words and they don't want to attain these words. They learn them but they are not working on themselves in order to attain this. These things have to be alive inside of a person. He has to try to build them in the ten, and in the ten to draw the Creator in, to attain in his connection in the ten and in his connection with the Creator to attain these things so that the ten becomes 10 Sefirot and the Creator becomes the inner light of these ten Sefirot. And then you will see in the connection with these ten Sefirot to the Creator in the group you will discover that this is Yosher, these are circles and this is the way this is and that is. This is what we need where the entire humanity will reach this place.
S. So what do we do during the studies if it's not reading or understanding?
R. Hear this and yearn to attain it.
68. S. (55:05) The Yosher that is attained by revealing the Creator, the intensity of the Creator, so actually the upper Behina is attained through the Halon, the light that comes in from the Halon?
R. I don't know.
69. S. (55:46) How do you scrutinize the lower end which is the Sof, how do you know it is the Sof?
R. When we yearn to cling to the Creator, through the group and He is like the Keter of the ten Sefirot, then we discover the upper end from the lower end, the highest Behina of bestowal. We can call it that way, the highest quality of bestowal that I can realize is called my Keter.
70. S. (56:41) Why is it that the Aviut of Gimel in Dalet comes to Keter of Hochma?
R. Because that is Gimel.
S. Why not Hochma de Keter?
R. Each and every Behina in Behina Dalet, root Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, if it realizes itself, it reaches the Behina of Keter of itself: Keter of Zeir Anpin, Keter of Malchut, Keter of Hochma, and so on....
S. This is always the implementation?
R. Once I make myself resemble all of the Sefirot from Malchut, when I am Malchut, I, myself am Malchut, until Hochma, I discover Keter, which is above them. And I build them in this direct light and it gives me some aid to help myself and build myself in the Ohr Hozer, the reflected light. Ultimately, you reach the Keter of each and every Sefira. Keter is the source.
Reader. Item 5 “This is because the Igulim surround...” (58:04 - 58:33)
71. R. This means that the circles we're not talking about Keter, Hochma, Bina, we are not engaging in them, the first three Behinot of Yosher, only in ZAT de Bina and below. But the circles are even higher, as he says, because their Kelim, their vessels are far better than the GAR de Yosher, the vessels of the circles.
Reader. However you have already known...” (58:57 - 59:09)
72. R. We actually learn a part that we are forbidden to engage in, that was in vain. So he's trying to explain to us that there are circles that we usually accept them as higher providence. Meaning, let’s say, a certain person in America or in one in Russia that they won't press the right button that would drop an atom bomb in the world. Who is in charge of these circles? These circles are in the general providence and that is how we should understand this and if it is the general providence, we don't engage in it because it doesn't depend upon us. What depends upon us is our participation in the Yosher and through the straightness we can activate all of the circles, this straight line goes through all of the circles and to Ein Sof and this way we can mitigate the Upper Providence which comes down through the circles acting upon all of us. This is why if we do this work in the line, even out of one ten, we already work in this line until Ein Sof and in the circles we will change all of reality. This is why I don't underestimate the work in our ten, in our group. On the contrary let's take part in it in a way that it is all before us, everything is in our hands.
73. S. (01:01:08) We just learned a part that we can't and are not permitted to engage in so not to skip over it. Is it good to study it again?
R. Usually we don't learn part two, we do sometimes, and part five, second and fifth parts of TES we don't typically learn it all because they are very difficult to study and they are not practical to execute. Once we attain these things in some way then we will be able to talk more about the 2nd & 5th parts then we will have more of a feeling, not an attainment, but a feeling in them. That’s it.
74. S. (01:02:26) What is written in item 155 in the introduction to TES that a person has to aspire to understand?
R. Item 155 is an introduction to TES. There he writes that we should try to attain these things by our internal work. Meaning, in principle, all questions that come from knowledge why is this related to that, this way or that way... it's not a question in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Meaning you may sit and listen and all you can think about is how am I correcting myself, how can I make it affect me, so that I may reach resemblance, attainment, to become like the vessels that we are learning about right now. All I am asking for is to have the desire to resemble. I don't care about understanding in my intellect, what is going on, what I care about is how to change, so that I can do the actions that I learned about.
S. Kabbalists are very precise in their words; it doesn't say to attain, it says to understand?
R. Understanding is the highest degree of attainment. It's not understanding in our intellect, God forbid, for no one intends that, on the contrary, they used to pray that if you are reminded of this that you will forget it. Only to have the strength to perform spiritual actions and out of this execution of spiritual actions that they can understand in their divine intellect already how it works.
S. Can we say understanding is some kind of building of a structure that everything that exists between the feelings there?
R. Our understanding has nothing to do with that, for the spiritual world your intellect has nothing to do with that. I understand you are a scientist and the way you are used to learning things is very practical through your brains and scrutinizing things, synthesizing things, but that is at the level you are in. We're talking about a different level, from a spiritual level, your brain doesn't reach that level, when you hear the words and you are connecting according to your intellect all kinds of things you are doing something that doesn't resemble spirituality at all. Because the essence of a spiritual action is not the way you imagine it to be in your corporeality. This is the meaning of the verse, “I have seen the opposite world”. This is why it is a problem until we detach ourselves from this world. This is why a thousand go into a room and only one comes out to teach. Look at the number of people that we have, a few thousand compared to the billions of people in the world, and the problem is to go with the spirituality then we won't have all of these questions and everything will be much more practical.
S. Spiritual attainment is a feeling and some sort of spiritual understanding?
R. Yes, out of the feeling you will have the understanding. But without tasting, this is why it is called the flavor, to taste and see that the Lord is good. First you have to taste, you have the flavors and out of that you can attain, without it you can't.
75. S. (01:07:26) The Upper guidance, does it relate to ten number 18 or to all of Bnei Baruch?
R. Both.
S. Can you explain?
R. There's nothing to explain you have a ten, I see your ten is fine, there are people who are purposeful and serious and I have nothing to add. Everything depends upon how we advance: both each and every ten apart, and all of the tens together because they depend on each other. I'm pretty content with our general advancement in the tens. Of course, there is no limit to that but for the time being we are advancing towards the goal.
76. S. (01:08:37) We learn in the ten Sefirot, we know that we need to study in a ten. What is the connection between ten bodies, ten friends, and ten Sefirot, why do we connect these things?
R. This has to be in accordance, somehow it has to be adapted or copied. It's difficult when we are more than ten because we're not created to perceive more than ten all at once, it's like your fingers, but less than that is possible, you can. If it is less than 5 it's not a real group. It has to be some meat in it that we can see how we're behaving between ourselves and how we should change ourselves, organize ourselves.
77. S. (01:09:56) In what vessels do we connect to the circles?
R. We have no connection to the circles, period. I guess you weren't in the lesson.
78. S. (01:10:11) What is the sensation of indifference when we listen to the text, explanations, questions and answers, if we know that we don't understand?
R. I would take a pencil, I would go over each and every word, I would put the commas and the periods and connect the words, this is about this and that is connected to that, to work with the text as much as I can. It's not that I'm waiting to see when this will be over, this is the worst thing, disrespect for Baal HaSulam and what he did for us.
79. S. (01:11:25) Today's study has been absolutely incredible. We have been through many states, thanks to the reforming light. How do we correctly bring these states into the ten during the day in order to reach the right prayer?
R. If you want to advance specifically through TES then you should start talking about the circles and the straightness and the connection between you. You can talk about it even though it has nothing to do with what the book says, of course but what are the circles in relation to us. What are the straight lines in the connection between us, how can we affect these circles or this straightness. This is psychology, not Kabbalah, it is psychology if we relate to things in their round way, if we are directed it is straightness, you can talk about it this way as well. Because later you will forget about it, we don't really use that.
https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/AoNFwZ7u?language=en&mediaType=video