Morning Lesson December 31, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #10
Reading Item #10 (00:19 - 03:41) “Now we can begin to understand the fourth inquiry..”
1 S. (04:00) The state he is writing about, that “the wicked in their lives are called dead”, is that something we have to go through?
R. Who else?
S. Yes it's kind of a dumb question, but what does it give us that we go from a state that is complete disparity of form?
R. We attain that we are dead, spiritually speaking.
S. And after we obtain that?
R. To correct it.
S. We can't correct it without attaining that complete oppositeness from one end to the other?
R. What will you correct?
S. Let’s say I agree with it, but I need to actually reach the complete oppositeness?
R. How do you agree with it?
S. That I’m receiving and I only think of myself, I agree with it, I feel it.
R. You feel it? When you discover it then you can say if you feel it or not.
S. Until then I can't ask for corrections?
R. How can you ask for correction if you don't feel that it's opposite to holiness?
S. So what do we do, now, you ask to reach a state opposite to holiness?
R. No, we ask to reveal our true state, you don't know exactly but gradually it opens up
S. Sorry I will ask again, if I may, to ask, like you said now, to ask to reveal my true state and the true state is opposite of sanctity?
R. Because you don't know if it's opposite or not.
S. So I just ask to discover my true statement and whatever is revealed [..]?
R. Yes.
2 S. (06:00) What determines whether it goes to sanctity or impurity?
R. Man.
S. But man is the will to receive from everything we just read, he has nothing?
R. But together with that, he decides which direction he wishes to develop, through the environment that he has, in his connection with the environment, he determines the direction of his development.
S. The environment helps establishing this intention but like you answered the friend, you can't reach this request if I don't reveal this oppositeness?
R. Correct.
S. This disparity, I reveal it in working with the friends now because it's always a contradiction?
R. It's always contradictions, so what?
S. So how do you set it straight, to be purposeful towards the goal and work like you just said?
R. Constantly ask for the truth, and search for the maximum connection with the friends, and against that discover where, what is your true place with them and the Creator. Until you connect with the friends, before you do that you have no way to see your true state in spirituality; the connection with the friends is the line, is the way to measure your place with all of your other relationships with the Creator, with the created beings, in general with yourself. First of all, you need to have some form of connection with the friends.
S. Sorry for insisting, this is exactly the point: I am in connection with the friends, I have a ten, we work constantly but there is the point where I feel sometimes that we're missing out, and things fall into the Klipot instead of holiness, so how to determine that, that’s the question?
R. Prayer.
3. S. (08:36) If I discovered my true state, does that mean that I'm already in a spiritual state?
R. Perhaps, I don't know.
S. You said if I don’t reveal my true state, I’m can’t ask for correction and if I can’t ask for corrections?
R. So what are you asking me for, you discover the true state, so why are you asking me afterwards?
S. But I didn’t discover it that’s why I’m asking?
R. So keep going.
4. S. (09:16) In the world of Atzilut, is there impurity?
R. Yes.
S. So where is the Tuma’a in the Partzuf, is it the desire that is impure?
R. There's no impurity in the Partzufim, there isn’t.
5. S. (01:01) How do we cause the resurrection of the dead in the ten when we fall into the worlds of impurity?
R. We connect and we rise together from the state that we fell into to the highest state because according to the equivalence of form, the upper light is working on us and is raising us, is bringing us up.
6. S. (01:49) He says that “He created two systems one against the other, the Creator created them”, and then he says that “there's holiness and impurity”, so how do you work with that in the ten, what is that is impurity he’s speaking about?
R. Bestowal and reception, that’ s holiness and impurity.
S. In the ten what is holiness and impurity, how do you work with it?
R. Holiness in the ten is when we are all connected and each one wants to help the other.
S. Is there annulment in the ten to reach holiness?
R. Each one annuls his ego relative to the other.
S. And what’s the impurity, our tens, what state are they in?
R. I don't know I'm not getting into it, we are studying the text, all the other questions each one should scrutinize for himself.
S. To overcome impurity in the ten, what should I do?
R. You try to connect with the friends.
Reading (12:38 - 14:08) #11 “The worlds cascaded onto the reality of this corporeal…”
7. R. (14:09) From birth to thirteen years, we are under the system of the Klipa, shells, the husks, and we absorb from it, more and more, the will to receive in order to receive then afterwards we enter into the system of holiness. The question here is who is taking us from one system to the other, what is up to us, how do we feel that this is truly what happened to us?
Reading #11 continues (14:58 - 16:30) “So, he accumulates degrees of holiness from the thought of creation..”
8. S. (16:44) The impurity states prevents us from entering spirituality, other than praying to reveal the impurity states when we’re working in the ten and to raise them as prayers, is there anything else we should be doing?
R. No, there are many other possibilities but which period, which time period are you referring to?
S. I'm talking about the previous reading, the reading we had, we talked about impure states that prevent us from entering spirituality but in the ten when we’re trying to connect, sometimes we don't even know what are the things that block us from connecting and we don't necessarily pray for the revelation of these impure states, and that slows down our spirituality. The question is other than praying for the revelation of these impure states that are blocking us from entering spirituality, is there anything else that we should be doing?
R. Yes, there's a lot of all kinds of things that we have to discover and know and learn how to work with them. For example, why do we think that our life begins from our corporeal birth, the spiritual life, and until thirteen years we are developing under the system of impurity. That’s a question: when does a person start thinking or understanding that he's developing and growing? When he’s a month old, two months, a year, two, or when? Maybe when he only comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah and is incorporated in a ten? We will see.
9. S. (19:35) You answered almost everything I wanted to ask about birth but when you say that from birth to thirteen years of age we are in a state of impurity and after thirteen years we enter a state of sanctity, holiness. But here the conflict that I have or the lack of understanding is that beyond thirteen years, I don't know if it relates to the corporeal thirteen years or thirteen years of work in the ten, with us working together with the friends, you can relate to this as a degree of sanctity?
R. Here we have to put up a question mark, that it’s something we still have to scrutinize, that's it, so there is no problem, gradually it will be clarified. But for now, we shouldn't scrutinize it like in force, actually, to coerce it. That we are born in spirituality, when we are born in corporeally, or are we born after few months or years, but we will scrutinize it, what it means, what spiritual birth means and what will happen to us. Here he just said one new things that until thirteen years of age, we are developing under the system of impurity.
Reading (21:43) #12 “Thus we have clearly explained the correction of the…”
10. S. (24:30) What is the difference between the impurity that a person discovers when he's already walking on the spiritual path and the impurity he accumulated before arriving on the spiritual path?
R. That's not impurity what happened until he came to spirituality, that’s just the small, egoistic will to receive.
S. During extreme states of descent, the Creator brings me back to states of impurity that I experienced even before arriving in the group, why is that?
R. That you should ask the friends about, I’m going to let you discuss that for a few moments, tell them again and everybody participate in that.
S. During extreme states of descent, the Creator brings us back to states of impurity that we experienced before coming to the group, why is He doing that?
R. Question for an active workshop.
Workshop: In hard states of descent, the Creator brings us to states of impurity that we had before we came to the group. Why does He do that?
11. S. (33:37) what was your impulse to start this daily work because it’s thousands of pages that you had to go through and afterwards also check about it, you went through twice in morning lessons, we’ll talk about that soon, this whole work, ten years ago?
R. I felt a great deficiency to see the text of the Zohar in a form that is easier and closer to anyone who wishes to penetrate this book. I, myself, also don't have such a strong grasp of Hebrew perhaps, and I thought that through this work I will bring the text of the book to people who, like me, are a bit limping when it comes to reading and comprehension and orientation in the book. But either way, it was mostly for the students who would come, who never learned Aramaic and may not have such a good grasp of Hebrew, and we wanted to make it easier for everyone to come closer to this book. It was clear to me how great this book is, holy and special, so I started this way and then I wasn't able to stop myself. I kept going all the way to the end until it was done; some of my work was carried later by one of the students and his friends but in the end we finished it and the result of the effort is before everyone, what you have before you.
12. S. (36:01) About two or three years ago, we also had the opportunity to complete the last chapter of the corrections of The Zohar, Tikkuney Zohar so there was, like, another special period, it's also an important volume from the Book of Zohar, itself. So how do you see the realization of this book, specifically in our times, today, because you had a vision to take it ahead?
R. Look, I understand, it’s not so simple to open the book and start studying it, men, women, generally speaking, people who have no preparation for it, is a problem. Also the general public who is not studying it, may eye it a bit anxiously, but I guess time does its thing and we got into it, we study it, we publicize it and I don't see such resistance and cries of opposition, I guess the time is working in our favor, and maybe people, maybe there are those who disagree but they don't have the power to resist. We will continue, we’ll hope that all the great all these great things about the Book of Zohar: that it’s a remedy and everything we are going through with the people of Israel and the whole world, with the help of this book we will bring people closer to the end of correction, and I don't have much to add here, we simply must enter this book and from it, we will learn everything.
13. S. (38:32) The project itself is called Zohar Le’Am, Zohar for the People, so how do you see it reaching the people, spreading through all of humanity to enjoy this text?
R. I don't know, Zohar is the Upper Radiance, that comes from the head, the top of the world of Atzilut and reaches all the way down to the lower ones, and I hope through our study and dissemination, we will bring the upper source of the upper light to everyone in this world.
14. S. (39:19) I’m one of the student’s friends that worked on the project, I’ve had the privilege for almost a year to help edit the book, and through the work on the text you could see the greatness of Rav, as much as how persistent it was and in every little comma and words with tweezers we treated them, like this whole laboratory was made around this book. It wasn't just like translation and then here take it, it was the perfect work that you can't even explain how we did it. When we read it now it is like we're drinking it like a milkshake on a hot day enjoying this text, and there's no trouble with all the Aramaic that was in there. And the special thing is that the Zohar interprets The Torah and then Baal HaSulam took it and interpreted even more, and then Rav brought it to us even more and you feel how the whole chain of Kabbalists is in one book that we have, it’s very special, so that's the question for you, what is the special thing now?
R. We don't understand Kabbalistic texts, either it seems to us, it appears to us like The Study of the Ten Sefirot thatBaal HaSulam arranged according to the book Etz Chaim by the Ari, so over there it’s a matter of connection between lights and vessels, that's what he's talking about. And he's very difficult for us to find or to actually insert our own emotions into the system that we are studying; whereas the Zohar speaks more emotionally, in many instances it’s so moving, it doesn't let you hold onto things with your intellect but you must go to the feeling. I think that the combination of intellect and feeling in the Zohar is much more justified and if through these different books of Kabbalah, if we are not able to penetrate the feelings, to awaken them, for the revelation of the upper light and its actions, the Book of Zohar specifically is well qualified for it. That's why it is praised so much during the last two thousand years of its existence.
15. S. (42:47) How do you see the result of this work, do you feel the power in this Zohar, in this composition, do you feel the remedy, did it get stronger in this connection?
R. I think we just prepared this book and in all those volumes we were able to present it, to make it accessible to people, but it will take some time before people will pick it up, read it and derive pleasure from it. Even Baal HaSulam wrote the Sulam Commentary on the Book of Zohar and his students went far and wide to bring it to the people and no one showed any interest in it, and that's how it went. Let's hope that with us and our adaptation, the way we’ve eased access to the book, let's hope that by that we will bring the book even closer to the people and make it even more accessible and see how the general public opens it up and connects to the text, connect to Zohar for the People.
16. S. (44:45) So there’s no fear in disseminating it, that they won't tell us what did you do to it, you took this, you did that?
R. No, no, today, today there's nothing to be afraid of, we can do anything, everything in our power, everything we try to do to look after the text and that's it, that's how we should continue.
17. S. (45:21) There are people who say that there's a flaw that was done and why aren’t we reading the original Zohar?
R. They can according to the original book, why not? We made this for people who are not able to open up the original Zohar, not in Aramaic not even in Hebrew, not in the style that it was written. That's why we did our work to bring this book closer to the people, that's why it's called Zohar for the People.
18. S. (46:04) So why did you unite between the original Zohar and the interpretation to The Ladder, why did you make it one text?
R. I did it to the intention of presenting it to people who grow up today, who do not have such a preparation with the Talmud, the Mishna, but people who used to reading a page from top to bottom and it should be understood in a familiar language and not that every few words, they send them to some references at the end of the book or in other places, that's why it’s written this way. The main thing is to bring them, to become familiar even externally, even distant, but familiar with the truth that the book was written in and it will give them a feeling that they’re touching something, that they are able to open the Book of Zohar, they will know what it's talking about, what is the purpose of the book, what the book promises to anyone who is reading it, that's what I wanted to do.
19. S. (47:47) Today when a person reads from the Zohar, should he know whether he is reading what Rashbi and his students wrote or it he's reading the Commentary of the Ladder because it's so united that even, you didn't put it in bold, like this is the Zohar so let's put it in bold, it's all one. So, what I'm trying to ask is, today when a person reads does he get exactly that portion that's in the book?
R. It is a very difficult question, even cunning question, I would say. We cannot say exactly what is happening in the book, what the book includes, what a book is presenting to us, the regional book. What we tried to do is pass to the intellect of the average person what exists in the text, the revealed part of the text, not the internality of the text, which is the concealed light. I think we managed to create a combination between the internality of the Zohar and externally of the Zohar for a contemporary person alive today and let's hope that we have taken a step forward in that.
20. S. (49:44) I wanted to ask that you mentioned that when we were praising the Zohar, that if we look at the history of the Kabbalists, there could be endless contradiction between them or disputes, but they all have the greatness of the Book of Zohar, they are all calling it “the book”, they all talk about it as if it was a source of life so if you could explain, what is this book that, specifically, they all agreed about it?
R. The Book of Zohar, the Upper Radiance, the upper light comes to us through Kabbalists who attained the end of correction meaning, all of creation; and they were able to clothe it in a certain text. And the problem is that this text also went through different people until it was found in the marketplace, and after it was looked after it was kept secret again and again it continued to move until it was revealed to us. We need to understand that its under upper providence and we accept it as the original, and accordingly we try to somehow arrange our book, Zohar for the People in a way that is close to people who live in our time so, let's hope that we all come close to the end of correction through that.
21. S. (51:57) We also want to remind you that there are translations, there’s a Russian version that you all know about and in English, most of it is translated and we’re still translating. The Introduction to the Book of Zohar is on Kabbalah Media in about ten languages so we are happy that we were rewarded with this work and that we’re going to continue onward. And also to thank all the friends, the men, the women who worked on this, so many, everyone here has something to do with it, even participating in the lessons means that you participated in the dissemination of this book, maybe we will end with an excerpt on the praise of the Zohar.
Reading: “Happy and so blessed are we for having been rewarded with going by its light and contemplating the pleasant words from the upper brightness, the holy light. It is sweet to the palette and it is all the lights, endless, infinite water, to understand and to learn Maase Bereshit, the act of Genesis, and Maase Merkava, the Assembly, and how to become a Merkava for unifying and returning the soul to its origin and root. This has been resolved and rooted in my soul, one who has not seen the light of the Book of Zohar has never been seen light.”
R. Thank you all and also to all the friends, all our students that we are all participating in bringing the Book of Zohar back to life in our times, all the best to all!