Morning Lesson August 21, 2021 Transcription
Baal HaSulam, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah
1. R. I have consulted with many friends and wasn't certain what to start with but because time is of the essence we should first go through the Preface of the wisdom of Kabbalah and then try to approach TES, let's just try to go through this very intensively, not at the account of the depth but to make the questions to the point.
Item 1 (00:45) “Rabbi Hanania Ben Akashia says, “The Creator….”
2. R. (01:44) So what is written, we have Aviut, coarseness and one who deserves it according to his state in the general vessel of Adam HaRishon, one who deserves to advance towards connection with the Creator, the discovery of the Creator, he receives an awakening from above. This is called that the Creator wanted to raise them and to make them Israel, straight to the Creator, to be aimed at Him. So how does He bring them closer? By Torah and commandments, we need to clarify what does it mean Torah and commandant, it's not like some religious people how they refer to it, but what is related to the correction of the soul.
Reader continues: (02:46) “Since we have already discussed it in my book….”
3. R. (05:52) Rabbi Hanania ben Hakashia says Creator wanted to cleanse Israel so He gave them plenty of Torah and Mitzvot as the Lord desires for his righteousness to extol and glorify God. It is known that cleansing is derived from the word for cleansing, Zakut, in Hebrew is derived from the word for purification Hizdakhut. He created the will to receive and he also needs to correct it, to cleanse it. It is as our sages said the commandments were given only to purify Israel with them, meaning what we cleanse, our desires from in order to receive. This is called making the commandments of the Creator, so the Creator created us to begin with, filthy, in order to receive and He wants us to invite this cleansing, that we will want to clean ourselves from the intention to receive. We must understand this Zakut, purification that we achieved through Torah and commandments and what is this coarseness, the thickness within which we must cleanse using Torah and commandments so what is coarseness, the egoistic desire to receive or just the intentions to receive, how do I clarify how do we discover this matter or intention that we need to cleanse? That is a problem, to bring ourselves to a state where we understand what the filth is about and how we can cleanse ourselves from this filth and in what form should we appear without the filth and why we should go through this whole action of being filthy, to being pure, all the way.
Why do we need to go to that with our labor, with our own work. It says that we already discussed it and I will briefly reiterate that the thought of creation was to delight the creatures with His abundance of generosity, if He wants to give us pleasure and everything is for us why did He put us in such a work of cleansing and correcting? For this reason the great desire to receive His abundance, was imprinted in the soul, because the desire to receive is the vessel for the measure of pleasure in abundance since the measure and strength of the desire to receive the abundance is precisely corresponding to the measure of pleasure and delight in the abundance. Meaning we need to exist in great desires to receive because the greater a person's desire is the more he can receive great spiritual pleasures and so one who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater than himself. Because when we grow in spiritual quality as well there we discover how the desire to receive becomes more and more great. We need to recognize this and to agree with that, the only correction is what we need, that the greater the will to receive and the more that it grows the better it is for us that we can receive more recognition and pleasure.
R. How did these two necessarily extend from the Creator, however they should be divided in the above-mentioned manner, the abundance comes from self, meaning it comes from the Creator extending existence from existence and the desire to receive that put it there is the root of the creature. So it is not the creatures yet but it is the root of the creatures, the desire to receive. This means that it is the root of initiation that is the emergence of existence from absence as there is no form of desire to receive in his Atzmut. It extends as if from the Creator but developed outside of the Creator to the point that we feel detached from the Creator and completely can't recognize him. This is considered the above mentioned desire to receive is the whole substance of creation from beginning to end. Meaning in all of reality there is nothing besides the Creator and the desire to receive that he created which exists outside the Creator. All the creatures, all of their innumerable instances and conducts, all sorts of forms that have appeared and will appear in all of those created beings are measures and various values of the desire to receive.
All that exists in those creatures, that is all that is received in the desire to receive imprinted in them, all of that extends from his self, what is received in the desire to receive comes from the Creator himself, existence from existence, it is not a new creation. Rather, it extends it is unrelated to the desire it is unrelated to the fulfillment, or rather since it is not new at all, it extends from his endless existence from existence. There are two things here, there is the Creator who created the desire to receive outside of himself and then we exist in the desire to receive and our whole work is to fulfill ourselves with the fulfillment that comes from the Creator. So the closer we get to him on one hand in terms of equivalence of form, meaning we want to be so like him so we get closer to him and to that extent we can measure and fulfill ourselves. Then it turns out that there are two opposite things in us, on the one hand we have to be more and more in the desire to receive, on the other hand we have to fulfill ourselves more and more with the desire to bestow. Two opposite things. That is what we need to be comprised of, to include in our work. We will clarify how it happens in us and we will develop in that.
4. S. (14:16) Why is he only speaking about Israel and not the whole world?
R. Israel means straight to the Creator and one who desires this correction of the Creator and the revelation of the correction of Creator, he is called Israel and this is the definition, the term that comes from Kabbalists who themselves weren't Jews. To the point that how they connected between themselves and the Creator they called themselves Jewish and according to their direction, that they called themselves Israel. Before that it did not exist, do you understand? Let's say twenty-five hundred years ago, no sorry, well before we came together around Abraham in ancient Babylon there was no concept of Israel or Jews because there were no people yet who wanted to achieve connection with the Creator through the connection between them. So it is not nationality and it is not a nation it is rather a group of people who direct themselves to the Creator and this is where it began, in ancient Babylon. A lot is written about it, there's a whole story that comes from the Bible and other sources, so why is that relevant to the whole world? Because that group ultimately according to the plan of creation has to expand and the whole world will want to yearn for that. So that everyone will accept this connection on them as the Torah writes and that everyone will be as one man and one heart.
5. S. (17:09) What is that coarseness we have to refine?
R. It is not for now, you are asking about what you are interested in and I am answering what everyone needs, this is not the topic, how to do it is later.
6. S. (17:46) What is greater than his friend?
R. Greater than his friend means he attains more than his friend, he is closer to the Creator than his friend. Why is he greater, closer to the Creator because he has a greater will to receive but he has corrected it to a desire to bestow and became closer to the Creator.
7. S. (18:57) What does it mean to extol the Torah?
R. It is a means that we have to use and by it how to rise to the Creator.
8. S. (19:25) I was a little surprised by what you said before that our desire grows and it's for our sake, how is it for our sake?
R. It's for our sake because through that we can attain great degrees and through that we can reach the Creator.
9. S. (19:51) Do I feel the Creator in the ten by restricting the will to receive?
R. We feel the Creator after restriction and acquisition of the intention to bestow and on top of the world to receive we bring the will to bestow and in that we feel the Creator.
10. S. (20:30) In the text he says that the purpose of creation is that the light is creation. In the beginning the light and the vessels were in complete unity, so why do you need this separation?
R. Separation is needed in order to give man the ability to bring them together again to regroup them. It's like you buy your kids some toys that he needs to put together, why? In the factory they made them whole and cut them to pieces and now they need to put it together. Same with us, by this we learn about the wholeness of creation and the essence of the Creator.
11. S. (21:31) I see the friend as someone with an opposite desire. How do I acquire the importance of friends?
R. That's later we're not reading about this here. That's called the one who disqualifies himself. The more broken you are, the more broken you see the friends. Let's focus on what we're reading now.
12. S. (22:36) Why is it necessary to be cleansed?
R. According to the cleansing it means we're getting closer to the purpose of creation, a person is cleansing from the will to receive to the intention to bestow.
Item 2 (23:07) “As we have said the will to receive is innately included…” Twice
13. S. (27:45) What is that state that is so special about this world that it's called materialized in the fullest form?
R. Fullest form means that you can get out of it, that you can discern anything in it, that you can control the will to receive at the lowest, smallest level of the will to receive, it is complete control where besides the will to receive there is no other discernment. This is why those who are in this degree of the will to receive they cannot distinguish themselves as being in the lowest state, in a certain state were the will to receive governs them, they can't detect it because they have nothing opposite to it, opposite to that state. This is why it is considered fully materialized.
S. How is it possible that there's something without an opposite to it?
R. Of course there is an upper force, but not from the perspective of those on this level in this world. Rather a person receives the awakening from above, a point in the heart, then he begins to perform operations that lift him from the level of this world to a higher-level.
S. But even before the awakening of the point of the heart there is a state that exists, that there's no opposite to one thing, how is it possible?
R. It has not, it has nothing to do whether a person detects it or not, to the extent that a person exists. By a person who exists on the level of this world, he has no other intention or distinction that another intention exists.
14. S. (30:39) What does it mean that the will to receive, attains its maximum size, in its lower level? What does it mean?
R. The will to receive develops and it develops both in a direction of revealing itself more and more, it's not like something new that's happening. It's from the perspective of the attaining individual that's how we perceive it but it's opening itself up more and more according to the person's degree and this is how it grows; we will talk about it.
15. S. (31:20) What is this part that says that it's not 100% appearing in the created being?
R. I don't understand this question the will to receive is revealed from zero to 100%, to the extent that the created being can position it so it will work in order to bestow, like the Creator from the degree 0 to 100%. This is our work, the Creator increases our will to receive every time in this will to receive we feel bad if we realize it came from above because there is none else besides him and we have to add the desire to bestow, called the sweetening of the will to receive and then we are growing correctly and this is what we are trying to do from our learning. If not, then the will to receive will grow and we will fall into all kinds of problems and troubles of still vegetative and animate or even on the speaking level through a third and fourth world wars which are on the horizon, let's hope we don’t come to it.
16. S. (33:03) How is it possible to diagnose between these two states when I'm completely blind I can't tell between left and right or force concealment or second concealment, how can I identify these states?
R. We will learn this together, but for now let's go to the third part.