Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. #53

1. R. I think that because we're coming closer to Shavuot it's worthwhile for us to answer more into the giving of the Torah, we won't have enough time and time is very appropriate and worthy of it, so I'm sorry that I confused you so we will move to Giving of the Torah.

M. So we're moving to the article of the giving of the Torah writings of Baal HaSulam.

Reading: Baal HaSulam. Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]

2. R. Try to hear it as if it's the first time you hear it and you will see the extent of what's in it.

Reading Item #1 twice (00:27) “Love your friend as yourself” 

3. S. (04:52) what comes to my mind is incorporation, that is all our work to reach Incorporation and also we are counting the Omer count until we receive the Torah, the count 49 which is the incorporation of seven Sefirot . The way he writes here is very difficult to understand, to see it, but also my question is not… I don't have a clarified question but I know we have to be incorporated in a mutual responsibility in order to receive the Torah? I'm not sure how to ask it?

R. Okay, we'll have to scrutinize also before we ask.

4. S. (05:38) He says that the great rule of the Torah is “love your friend as yourself” why is it not, to bring contentment to the Creator is not the Commandment. Because the purpose of creation is not “to love their friends as yourself”?

R. We don't ask questions about Baal HaSulam. If he writes it that way then he writes it that way, why? How can I tell you? Now 20 people will stand up and say their opinion and what will you gain from that?

Okay? Let’s go.

Item # 2 (06:22)

5. S. (08:38) What does that mean that you cannot complete the Mitzvah of, love others as yourself without them? You have to have 612 Mitzvot in order to observe that commandment?

R. Yes, because if it's a Klal, rule or a collective, of all the Mitzvot, then when you can’t do it without doing all the rest. Otherwise, you cannot observe it. You can't do it only.

S. And observing the 612 Commandments is the form of loving your friend as yourself? What's the connection between them?

R. The connection is internal; that if it's a rule, a collective, then it includes all of them.

S. Is this commandment above them, above all the 612?

R. It works out that it is a result; Klal, a collective.

6. S. (09:38) What does it mean that he says, what you hate do not do to your friend that is a translation of a love your friend as yourself? I thought it was two degrees, I didn't know it was a translation. What does he mean by that?

R. i didnt understand you?

S. In the text he says, anything that you hate do not do it to your friend, and in parentheses it says, the translation of Love your friend as yourself. What does it mean translation i thought they were two degrees?

R. No, no no, It's not that it's two degrees, it's almost the same thing; if you're Love thy friend as thyself then you're doing only good things towards the other.

S. I thought love was the highest degree and before you reach that you begin with not doing to your friend what you hate?

R. No, what is there to do? there's nothing to do if you're already in love?

S. Right so the degree before that is not to her not to do to others what you hate, this is one degree and then you can actually come to love?

R. Yes.

S. But here he calls it a translation so…?

R. That's how he writes. We'll see it onwards from there.

Item #3 (11:10)

7. S. (13:08) What does it mean that the whole Torah is given when you stand on one leg and what you hate don't do to your friend and the rest you need to go and study?

R. Because, don't do to your friend what is hated upon you, is not yet love, it's not “love by friend as thyself” yet it's just to rid yourself from the hatred, from not beating up the other. But to hug to love also in the way you are supposed to love and who knows what, you need to learn that. That's why it's written, if you already came to the state in which you don't hate him, but rather want to come now from this neutral state to what’s love then, come and study.

8. S. (14:07) I'm not a religious person. I don't know anything about the Commandments between man and man or between man and the Creator. I don't understand anything about that. How can I relate correctly to what's written here so it will also belong to me?

R. It relates to every person. It has nothing to do with religion as he says it. Rather each one must have a good relation towards others so the wisdom of Kabbalah explains what is the meaning of his good relation towards others.

9. S. (14:52) We know that there were a thousands of Kabbalists and many books that are in dispute with one another and here Baal HaSulam chooses two Kabbalists, Hillel and Rabbi Akiva and as far as he's concerned that is the proof from these two sentences from them, that's the proof that this is one Commandment that includes everything, why is that?

R. Why? Because these two great Kabbalists, these two great Sages, are at the base of Judaism and there is no doubt that what they said were holy words and come from a top spiritual level. This is number one. Number two, if Baal HaSulam takes them then he already understands that there is no need to check up on them. I understand you, that it seems to you that you know, how can that be? because there are many other sages in Israel and in the nations of the world, so why are they not mentioned here next to this proverb: love your friend as yourself, and others Etc. So, know, that it's agreed in the Torah that what Hillel says and what Rabbi Akiva says and others like them are beyond any doubts. That they are at the highest possible level.

Item #4 (16:49)

10. S. (20:22) It sounds very hypocritical in a way, meaning if you have a slave you have to give him the pillow or the chair before you sit on it, or before you sleep on it, but here it's talking about a slave, like how are you observing such a commandment and you're keeping a slave? It seems unrealistic.

R. Forget about the slave, you don't understand what it means to be a landlord, what it means to be a slave.

S. The rest of the things does it make sense?

R. Don't get into things you don't understand.

S. There's something that contradicts logic? You have slave and,,,,

R. We are done with slaves.

S. So how am I supposed to understand it?

R. Understand only one thing; what pertains to you, to your life, how you need to relate to people, that's it.

11. S. (21:30) This piece is always confusing. There's this commitment of mine to all of Israel let's say, just Israel as if that's not enough, and I have to care for each one of them so that everything they need they will have?

R. No, of course this is impossible, of course; the Torah does not exaggerate. So, if you have a person in front of you you have to care for him first and then about yourself.

S. under the condition that I have my necessities right? he doesn't mention that so that's already there naturally.

R. Yes, you should live in them and not die in them.

S. Okay, now we are in a ten, let's move to an even smaller thing. We have a friend who doesn't earn a living now he's looking for employment. Do we as a ten need to go and actually give him money to sustain himself or are we not even entering such things between us?

R. If you are already in a corrected ten then, you need to be as one man. In other words, you need to connect everything you have and divide it into ten, so one part will belong to him

S. That is very very very far from where we are right now.

R. But I'm telling you that in the future this is the approach that should be. And I have nothing to add beyond that.

12. S. (23:42) It sounds like he's explaining here that I am the servant of the friend, I need to supply my friend with all of his existence. Then at the end he says is it even possible, Is it even feasible to do such a thing and if so, go and learn. And if such a thing can be observed he doesn't give an explanation, he just asks?

R. Yes. Because it's obviously impossible. So what do we do? We try to get as close to it as possible in the current frame of our lives. That's it.

Item #5 (24:35)

13. S. (26:27) Does a person also need in his corporeal work fulfilling his own needs to be in the intention in order to be bestow and by that he keeps the Commandment of caring for everyone?

R. In his corporeal work where he works he still needs to be honest with his boss. with the country, with the government and depending on where he is, and that's the way he should properly position himself, conduct himself.

14. S. (27:07) We cannot come to the love of friends without the Creator, it comes out that  all the work we do is only to come to a prayer to the Creator?

R. Yes.

15. S. What are these 612 Mitzvot in our study? Looks like I don't know any one of them.

R. The main Mitzvah is, love your friend as yourself, and everything else is just components of that Mitzvah, commandment.

16. S. (27:40) In Baal HaSulam’s question, whether we can observe it, it's a very powerful sentence. Can we even keep this whole Torah as this precise thing and here he seemingly kind of doubts it, what is this approach of Baal HaSulam in this question that he's asking such a question?

R. He says it's the general and superior law of all of nature, of all of the degrees in the world. Of love of others and this is why we need to uphold it. If you obey this law, if you uphold it then you are seemingly upholding all of the reality correctly, but if not then you are not observing it and nothing will help you. Whatever you do for yourself, whatever you do there will be no justification to anything.

S. Meaning this is a condition for the entire Torah?

R. Yes, that's why it's called a rule, a collective, because it contains everything.

S. What can you learn from the approach of Baal HaSulam where he asks this question? He evokes a question that is also something special. How can you observe such a thing, this approach what can we learn from that? Where's kind of like putting it to doubt this whole approach to this, like how can you observe this?

R. You can't observe it, it's clear that it's impossible because we're completely opposite in every way. The fact that it stands before us as a condition, that if we want to observe the general law of nature we will have to come to an understanding and observing of this rule, love your friend as yourself. That's the only way that we will reveal nature as one collective superior mechanism.

S. There's actually a statement from Baal HaSulam that you cannot observe such a thing, you can't keep such a rule. It's a very powerful thing he's writing here in the article and he's talking to all the people that you cannot observe this rule.

R. Yes, it's obvious that it's impossible.

17. S. (30:21) Why is it love thy friend as thyself why not like myself?

R. Well he explains this later.

S. I remember but Rav said to read this article as if it's the first time we read it, so it looks like Baal HaSulam is preparing us for something. What is he preparing us for here?

R. To understand this rule and to try to come closer to keeping it, to carrying it out.

S. If I don't give it to my friend or to the servant it's the Sodomite rule. Why should I suffer?

R. I'm not going to be an advocate and a judge here, we will study together and you will understand.

S. I'm trying to understand how to come to this article.

R. Mr. we will study together and understand as much as we can. Do you understand the approach we need?

S. That's exactly what I'm asking.

R. Then I don't know as well.

S. Why did Rav say come to this article as if reading it for the first time, how to do that?

R. I understand that at least this you understand, how to read the article as if it's the first time you hear it.

18. S. (31:46) So we understand that this commandment as it was written and the way we understood it cannot be observed and on the other hand it's clear in the ten that we have to reach Arvut, mutual guarantee because every question we ask is actually repeated everyday come to Arvut between you, come to mutual guarantee between us. So here's the question: maybe you can help us nevertheless what's the next little step of coming closer, one bit of an inch towards this Arvut, mutual guarantee? I want today, at the end of the day, for us to be an inch closer to Arvut than we were yesterday?

R. You have a ten, try to come closer to them by 1 millimeter. I have nothing more to recommend.

19. S. (32:54) What is the attitude need to be towards the Creator for us to be able to observe this and all the conditions that we will be able to observe?

R. The relation to the Creator that it's the Upper Force that contains all the laws of nature and that's the rule, that’s the relation toward Him.

S. Do we need to be a servant towards the Creator, to agree with that?

R. Repeat.

S. Do we need to be a servant before the Creator so that he would control all our qualities in order to observe our Arvut between us and all the friends?

R. Yes, we need to turn to the Creator and demand of him an explanation as well as the strength to do what he demands of us.

20. S. (34:23) You answered to the friend if there's a state to correct the Ten. As much as I know during the time of Rabash there were people who wanted to recommend life. But sometimes Rabash was too angry about this option and people who offered this just left Rabash by time. I want to ask why he was angry, why it wasn't accepted even though I hate common lifestyle but this is what it seems?

R. It's because we cannot take upon ourselves rules that we cannot abide by, that we cannot keep. It's forbidden to take upon ourselves a rule that we cannot keep.

S. What do you mean?

R. That if people are unable to keep the rules of connection that mutual responsibility requires, then it mustn't even approach it. There are all kinds of things like that, we would collect all the money that we were making, and divide it into let's say ten. Afterwards we had, I don't even want to talk about it, many activities but they were all wrong. It was not according to our degree that we could keep. It was according in corporality of course you can do it but not in spirituality and this is why we failed in this.

S. My ten Turkey 4, for we are a little shaky and there's great heaviness and friends are not coming to the morning lessons and we are only five, and there is a pullback in the ten so we don't know how to awaken friends and they are all tired and they wanted me to ask you this what can we do for the ten?

R. You need to check if you are following the rules that the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us. Not that on the one hand we want to scrutinize according to the wisdom of Kabbalah and on the other hand we're not really following its rules and then of course, and in that case of course we have some sort of a this kind of a limping movement. So this is number one, number two you need to understand that everything that comes to you doesn't come because you are like that, but because the Creator sent this state from above and you need to connect, to unite, you need to speak with him in this way. He is telling you this state and you want to show him a state opposite from it.

S. Can I say that if I follow all the rules of the work, love your neighbor as yourself, so is it only dependent on me? So if I do my part then the Creator completes it, is it for sure, or can I say that it also depends on the ten, nothing will change only by me, so how should one perceive this?

R. A person needs to see that he is dependent on what he does as well as on what they do, and to try to connect these things together. We will talk about it.

21. S. (39:24) Why are they called the chosen people if after all none of them wanted the Torah no other Nation?

R. Yes, he's asking about that because in the end we need to continue and reveal our real choice in the Creator of the world.

22. S. (40:18) Eventually the other is the darkness that we turn into light?

R. The other is my friend.

S. What darkness are you talking about? we're talking about the connection that's physical?

R. Don't make up something you heard, no one whats these philosophies you have there.

23. S. (41:25) The friend from Turkey asked about the Commandments and you said that there aare Commandments that we are not allowed to do. In your blog I read you gave an example about Noah that did the ark and he took all the things that he couldn't use and he put them on the side. Is it the same thing?

R. I didn’t say that you couldn’t keep up with it. Not what I was talking about.

24. S. (42:40) If one reaches the point of complete despair when one realizes there's no way out and the only answer there is that you don't want to leave because you care about the friends you don't want to let them down. Is that love of friends?

R. Yes, yes.

25. S. (43:05)Although you have answered these questions, the first question a Hebrews slave needs to be loved as if he's the Creator and to thank him? For existing?

R. I don't know what to thank him for, but you have to relate to him basically as to any other person and share with him what you have. These are not laws we have to uphold today, so don't take these half sentences and start twisting them as if you are in some courtroom discussion. Just understand the principle, that according to the principal of the Torah everyone is equal and everyone is close.

S. About the commandment, how can I attain Lishma if I'm not yet in Lishma?

R. We yearn and then along the way we go through these two degrees, Lo Lishma to Lishma. The important thing is to yearn.

26. S. (45:40) How do you summarize this lesson?

R. There are excerpts that I am very happy with and excerpts that I am not happy with. I think that the problem is that before I came to the lesson I would read the material, those excerpts that we were going to study in the lesson, so it's not like I was first reading during the lesson from the study material. I had already scrutinized and delved and even with questions this is how it should be. Here I see that people all of a sudden attach themselves to this matter of the slave or other such matters that are unimportant, not for our time and not for what's pertinent for us. I think you need to understand that what he writes here he writes for us and we need to try to get into the text. That's it, this is my opinion about the lesson and besides I see that many people are sleeping. So what is the reason? I understand that there aren't enough hours in the day, but still. Be a little more concerned about rest time. What's the reason for the tiredness? Can someone tell me.?

S. We talked today about this matter of at the bottom of the mountain there's states that if we leave them as they are then we can very fast fall to fatigue and indifference and you said we have to learn more about these states and how we have to invert them it's a matter of inverting a state which seems lost to the state of upliftment and there's many such states in the lesson. But it seems that the state is a loss you move to indifference and you can fall asleep instead of together inverting that lesson maybe we have to learn how to.

R. I don't think that we're in a state that we are lost. I don't see a justification for such a feeling there are such states when a person needs to feel that way but not there is no general time like that right now.

S. yes so I'm just saying that it seems so and and there's these kind of forms of crises during the lesson maybe we the question is how do we invert it from that moment to something else?

R. Well okay, I have nothing to say. I went through all the states and still I cannot justify this general attitude that is so heavy and causes everyone to fall under their burden.

27. S. I want to testify the opposite I'm feeling like a new time and you stay in today I simply woke up a little earlier and it doesn't let me sleep because it was important for me to come here and to be together with the friends.

R. Excellent.