Morning Lesson June 30, 2021, Transcription
TES:
Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 2. Inner Observation #19 (“A new light was born and emerged by the above.")
https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/sources/XlukqLH8?page=37&language=en
Letter 19 “Explaining the reflected light ….”
1. R. (02:22) This example also with the mirror is pretty understood.
2. S. (02:42) What is this example with the mirror that is painted in the inner parts?
R. He is telling you what reflected light is where if we have glass that transfers the direct light through it, emits through it but if we are talking about a mirror then we say the difference between a mirror and the glass is that there is a special layer on the other side of the glass which does not let it go through and this is the example of a spiritual vessel that does not receive the light in it. It wants to be in equivalence of form to receive the light and to the extent that they reach identification to be equal then the light can be used in such a way that they move together into the vessel after the screen.
S. What is this force and the example of the paint that holds the light and what is our example that can return the light?
R. I don't want to be the receiver, I want to bestow to the giver just like He bestows to me.
S. The reflected light is our attitude that we return to the Creator. Is this from the sensation that comes to us from thoughts?
R. We spoke about this in our first lesson today. I have a desire to bestow and give to the Creator what is happening to me and why is this all of a sudden coming? This is coming to me by the reforming light as a special force that bestows upon me and suddenly awakened within me an attitude towards the Creator to give and to bestow. Then I begin to think about why I do this so I have nothing. I can do but each thing that I received from him I can receive in order to bestow to him. That is, it, for him. That is how we build the force of bestowing.
S. To receive for him meaning to be in connection with him, how can we receive for him?
R. We can bestow to the Creator only by receiving. How can I through my reception from the Creator to bestow to him, only with the intention in which I received from him no matter how much I receive as long as all of my reception will be under the decision of bestowing. Just as we are with the host and we begin to receive from him all kinds of delights, only in order to bring him contentment. Meaning I must first want to put forth the restriction on myself so I don't receive for myself and then this screen and reflected light and only after that can we receive in order to bestow to our reception will be for him. You see that you want to receive what he is giving and your desire is big as much as you are capable of it being in order to bestow. Meaning there is an oppositeness here between the desire and the intention, is a bigger desire to receive and enjoy what he is giving. Otherwise, you won't bring him contentment and the intention in order to bestow to be in equivalents with him. He gives and you give also.
S. So do we use reception as a means?
R. Yes, of course.
S. How to correctly relate to this gradualness of where to receive for myself and where to receive for him?
R. We check to the degree of the importance of the Creator in my eyes who is more important than my desire to receive or the Creator and, in this way, I check and divide myself into two parts. We are in this part I can receive in order to bestow but if we use a little more than that it will be in order to receive. You need to think about this. All the time, turn it this way or that way and talk about it between you in the 10 and then you will see that these things begin to come closer to you.
S. If I think about it more over the course of the day can we relate such to everything and every pleasure of our lives.
R. Certainly yes. This is the matter of the spiritual commandments.
3. S. (09:53) How can it be that intention filled with the upper light and the matter of creation is desire?
R. The intention rides upon the desire just like it talks about the glass that has a certain covering behind it that it becomes although it receives it actually bestows. It is exactly that same example where the intention is not to receive actually becomes a condition for reception.
S. The created being enjoys his intention and is this a material matter of itself?
R. The intention has a desire to receive and this desire to receive participates in this action.
4. S. (11:08) With respect to the reflected light do we speak of coarseness?
R. Yes of course as the reflected light depends upon the coarseness of the screen.
S. And this turn into a vessel of reception?
R. Yes, we could say so.
5. S. (11:44) Baal HaSulam here is speaking of the returning of the light from phase 4 upwards is regarded as a new and a special light. What is this?
R. The reflected light is a new light that was not there before because it is created by the lower one it wasn't in the creation prior to the lower one revealing in it the disparity of form from the Creator, he is not agreeing with this form and then he comes to a state where he rejects the form of reception and makes of it an opposite form in order to bestow.
S. There are conditions for the reflected light to be generated?
R. Yes, there are conditions as you have to be in a certain appreciation of the Emanator to put a restriction upon your desire to receive and to demand and to have a desire to bestow to him. You need to come to such a preparation that you want to bestow to him.
S. This reflected light the coupling of the striking in the 10 can we do such a thing?
R. We will read the explanation of the coupling of striking and then we will understand more.
Letter 20 (13:33) “The reflected light becomes a vessel of reception….”
Letter 21 (14:38) “Now you can understand what we asked above….”
6. S. (16:39) S. It is not clear how the reflected light becomes a vessel. Can you explain today?
R. The reflected light is a condition that the desire to receive can extend the reflected light to bestow and the reflected light is the condition which becomes like a vessel because to the extent of the reflected light the desire to receive can receive.
7. S. (17:18) The vessel of reception he feels that he received this is why it is called reception? The first phase also receives but it's not a vessel of reception because it doesn't feel this.
R. It depends on which state you are talking about a vessel is capable of receiving under the conditions it is in. If there is a vessel of reception it is a sign that there is a desire to receive and it has conditions to receive an order to bestow. To start with from the beginning of creation there is a restriction already and the desire to receive stops being a vessel of reception and in its place comes the restriction screen and reflected light and then the desire to receive works in the form of bestowing.
S. He is talking here about the first phase where they weren't vessels of reception?
R. Because we see this from the expansion of the light in the desire to receive it changes just like the light that bestows and then begins to awaken in it the desire to receive in the order of phase 1, 2 3 and 4 these are the four phases of direct light to reach the fourth phase in which the desire to receive is already disclosed in its final form where it only wants to receive there for the fourth phase is the complete vessel.
8. S. (19:29) Can you say that receiving to bestow to melt in the desires of the friends and to draw the light into them?
R. You can't just say now I'm doing something with my friends and this is bestowing don't automatically move into connections with people that it will automatically be bestowing, it will be bestowing when the condition is it will be only to bestow, we are not taking into account your state, we are taking into account the state of the others that you bestow to them from all your abilities then it is considered bestowing.
9. S. (20:30) It turns out that everything we receive from the line, if the fourth phase passes an impression from the restriction to the previous phase, then it is like a state in which the light is in the line receiving the impression from the restriction?
R. I still don't understand exactly the question, the fourth phase receives because that is how she is built, in order to receive and she has no other possibility so after she receives, she starts to feel how opposite she is only after she receives from the 0 phase, the root phase, the Shoresh, which is the emanator and then because she feels this gap between her and the Emanator. She restricts herself and doesn't want to use her desire to receive because the sorrow of her being the receiver, opposite to the emanator, is much greater than what she can enjoy from receiving the light. That is why she has been disqualified from receiving the light at that point and from this point onwards He uses the coarseness in order to bestow at which point there is an installment of a screen working in the reflected light and in order to bestow.
10. S. (22:53) Is reflected light the same thing as the light of mercy Hassidim?
R. No, it is not the same thing but it is similar. Don't make it as equal as reflected light is the light of Hassidim, but it is a light of bestowing just like the light of Hassidim. In that you are right but there are many discernments between them.
11. S. (23:38) The fourth phase that receives in this work that it would be for the Creator all this work is in the reflected light doesn't matter what is received in the fourth phase if its pleasures or something that is felt his suffering is this the same work toward the Creator?
R. There's no work in spirituality toward suffering. This is considered that we are in contact with the Creator and there are only pleasures that come our way. Then our calculation is only how much we can receive in order to bestow and then the suffering that might be our only felt in the fourth phase itself and this is out of having a problem of working in order to bestow. It is not that we received from above the suffering.
S. In the beginning of the work the attempt to bestow, is this a justification of the Creator the good that does good in everything that comes?
R. This is called the screen that is before the desire to receive, yes.
12. S. (25:11) The last sentence in the last paragraph in Letter 21 seems to be lacking details, will this be further explained in part 3?
R. Of course we will learn much more right now he doesn't really explain it he's just mentioning a few words and moving onwards.
13. S. (26:01) Malchut does a restriction because it feels the Creator as the giver? How do we feel the Creator as the giver?
R. We don't feel the Creator at all, how do we feel that he is giving that I need to be an equivalence of form with him and then according to the equivalence of form I will feel him as the giver otherwise we can't feel the Creator but only as the giver as this is his role only to give, he doesn't have vessels of reception.
14. S. (27:05) Is the force of the reflected light always equal to the screen?
R. To the extent there is a screen, the screen can develop the reflected light and therefore they are connected together. Yes.
15. S. (27:40) To generate the reflected light do we need to already be in the quality of bestowing or this is on the way?
R. The reflected light itself is bestowing.
S. So we can't do this action to return the reflected light on our level?
R. How can you reflect reflected light, to somewhat relate to the Creator if you only have vessels that have reception?
S. What is the force of overcoming that I'm doing in the 10?
R. If you perform the forces of overcoming on your desire to receive, because this is all that you have in order to bestow then really buy that you will be able to turn to the Creator and to really bestow to him.
S. We need to be already in the quality of bestowing, all the work that we do I thought was in order to reach reflected light?
R. Yes, this is what we spoke about in the first lesson today. We need the reflected light; we need a way to relate to the Creator in order to bestow to go above reason.
S. So we can do this in the 10 today to generate reflected light?
R. It is possible for everyone but in the 10 not an individual.
S. In the work of the ten today?
R. Yes, this has always been possible.
Letter 22 (29:36) “The vessels of Ten Sefirot de Rosh…”
16. R. (32:10) We have it here like this that the upper light comes, (Rav drawing) to the screen in which it is rejected and in return does not want to receive it after the screen examines the extent to which it can receive in order to bestow, it receives a part of it. That is how the vessel is completed, this reception in order to bestow that we have here see, this here is actually what the vessel can resemble the Creator with, resemble the host with. Therefore, we have here parts that are called Rosh, Toch, Sof, of the Partzuf the place where the screen works is called Peh, the mouth of the Partzuf and this is how it works.
17. S. (33:42) This beginning of the reflected light is created from the discernment that Bina does inside the creature?
R. Reflected light comes from the sensation of the created being of how much it is opposite the Creator and how much it needs to be similar to the Creator and it performs a restriction and after the restriction it developed towards to give such an attitude called reflected light. I don't want to receive but I want to return everything to you and this is called reflected light. We will do this here as 2, one here is direct light, 2 is reflected light and 3 is Inner Light.
S. This means that we will be able here to perform this principle of the reflected light to give it according to the force of Bina that is in us?
R. Yes, first the bestowing of the Creator from above to below to the created being as this is the desire to bestow, the intention to the Creator and this is what we get as a result that the created being can receive but this reception is like he bestows.
18. S. (35:46) About Malchut of Ein Sof is this upon all of the parts Malchut of Ein Sof, the restriction?
R. Yes, restriction on all parts.
S. How come in the diagram there's a screen and a part above the screen that doesn't participate in the restriction?
R. The screen by us is in all of the desire to receive and it checks what is possible to receive and what is not and after it checks then it inserts inside the first action, the second action is that it inserts inside part of the light that it decides it can bestow.
S. The part that is called Rosh is there any part of restriction upon it?
R. Malchut of Ein Sof is the root for all development and it has already decided that it can only receive on the intention to bestow and Malchut of Ein Sof is that which comes to action here.
S. How is there light in the Rosh where there is no influence of the screen upon it?
R. The screen has an influence on the Rosh because it receives the upper light. Here it performs the restriction and after the restriction, the first restriction, after the action of the restriction it can perform other actions and this is what it does, it calculates how much it can receive with the intention to bestow. In the action of restriction, it only stops receiving in the intention to receive and it doesn't want and now it is going towards an action of bestowing. I decided that I don't want anything for myself, that is a restriction. Now I want to see how much I am capable of giving to bestow and this is already work in the Rosh of the Partzuf and I calculate here how much I can receive with the intent to bestow. I finish my action in the Peh, in the mouth, there is a decision on this action and then I receive in my desire to receive how much I decided to. This is called receiving. This is called in the Toch.
19. S. (39:41) Who makes the calculation in order to bestow?
R. The desire to receive that Peh of the Partzuf.
S. What does that mean?
R. Where the desire to receive it that it feels it's on the border of reception and the light and that its desire to receive is called the Peh of the Partzuf.
S. The light gives it the force of bestowing?
R. Yes.
20. S. (40:25) It is clear theoretically but I don't understand practically, how do I check?
R. You must reject all of the pleasure that is before you from your ego and begin to relate to this pleasure as much as you can use it in order to bestow the others, to bestow to the Creator otherwise you won't receive at all see, that is the work. How much now you check that you can receive with the intent to bestow then after the quantity you receive it is considered as bestowing because you are receiving it to begin with from the calculation to bestow to the giver and not to enjoy from him. All of your pleasure is that you give in returning to the giver, to the Host.
S. This rejection is the attitude, the relationship?
R. This that I reject. I am rejecting the reception of pleasure in me as pleasure, I want to use it in the opposite way in return, to give. These are simple things that we use on a daily basis, there remains an intention to receive in us but let's say how do you behave with someone, you also have such relations.
S. Am I capable of really on my own to reject?
R. Yes, of course it all comes from above, other than the desire to receive, the small egoistic earthly from this world, you have nothing as even the restrictions apply on the pleasures of this world you cannot do you can only do the calculation whether you received and enjoy what you will get out of it. Will I get beat from it or not, all of our calculations are below the will to receive.
S. All the force of reflection needs to be asked for?
R. We have no force to oppose pleasure.
21. S. (43:27) Why does a Kabbalist refine his vessel Peh to the roots of the vessels?
R. Because this is what he needs to do to build a new vessel.
22. S. (43:44) The purpose of creation is to receive in order to bestow?
R. Yes.
S. Everything below the screen?
R. In this the created being comes similar to the Creator to reach adhesion.
S. Everything below the screen is the fourth phase?
R. Yes.
S. Why is it divided into Toch and Sof?
R. All the 3 phases are in Rosh of the Partzuf, root 1, 2, 3 and 4 is already in the Peh of the Partzuf and below is already the will to receive that is divided into the parts we call Toch and Sof.
S. Above the screen is to bestow in order to bestow?
R. No, above this screen we have the three phases that we calculate how much we can receive from the fourth phase.
23. S. (45:15) Can you somewhat make it tangible what are the roots of the vessel to receive?
R. They are vessels that before the decision that's why they are in the Rosh of Partzuf only in thoughts and not in action.
24. S. (45:39) The third stage in the diagram is that the essence of the act of bestowing?
R. Yes.
25. S. (45:58) The whole mechanism that we are learning now we can understand but if we look at it through a person, the guest and the hosts it is clear, what you said it is possible to perform an act of reflected light through the whole 10 not through one person?
R. We can talk about this afterwards, not now as it would just confuse everyone. Now we just want to accept the mechanics and to receive it as principals.
Chapter 3 Letter 23 (46:50) Twice “Now there opens before us a way to describe ….”
26. S. (49:33) The question is whether annulment is before the friends in the 10 what defines the Arvut and does the mutual guarantee define the intensity of the screen?
R. The intensity of the Arvut defines the intensity of this screen, yes, correct.
Letter 24 (50:19) “Three discernments, the substance of the vessel….”
27. R. (51:26) He doesn't explain anything here just telling us about things that will come.
Letter 25 (51:36) “The 4 degrees of the desire to receive are the substance of the vessel.”
Letter 26 (52:45) “There are two discernments in each phase ….”
28. R. (53:27) The desire to receive and it is created and the upper light operates on it, by the upper light that is made greater, specific, unique in some manner that it changes so there is a matter of the matter itself of what it does with the matter.
Reader continues: (53:51) “It is known that the desire in the degree is called….”
29. S. (54:38) There are three discernments, the matter, the substance and the restriction of the screen. Is there a way that this takes place in a differentiated way from the screen or together?
R. Not together, the restriction precedes the screen as an expansion on the action of the restriction first to have the will to receive, it needs to reveal that it is the receiver, that it is opposite from the Creator that this oppositeness builds in it all kinds of new calculations. That it doesn't want to be opposite but it doesn't have a choice as this is its nature, so it decides that it's going to stop receiving to such an extent that he feels that after he performs the restriction, he is seemingly separated by the Creator from the restriction but on the other hand he now becomes seemingly independent. Now he thinks what I can do to remain under the restriction is not for me, not for the Creator and not for anyone, that I am in this not fulfilling the desires of the Creator as well so how can I on the Creator side, even that I receive on the intention in order to receive and enjoy, from the Creator’s side it is also good that he feels in this he is distant from the Creator. But that he will receive even with the intention to receive and enjoy it. By that he is fulfilling the desire of the upper one just in something, on the intention to receive that there is a pleasure here that is very small and ends ultimately in death because it is final and it doesn't develop. Receiving with the intent to bestow there it has infinite opportunity to develop so the will to receive does calculations and it goes on to develop itself from the fourth phase in infinity it performs a restriction upon itself and decide that I don't want to receive anything and then with the light before it, above it, it makes a calculation so what can I do. For myself I see already that this is the opposite, meaning that I am separate from the Emanator with the reception of the intention to receive. So, the reception of the intention to bestow, how do I reach this, that it makes calculations and it becomes in the order of the building of Partzufim.
S. The restriction is a decision he does not want to receive?
R. Yes, he does not want to receive for himself.
S. He also doesn't receive as a practicality?
R. No, the moment he decides, meaning that he doesn't need anything more once he makes the decisions that is the action itself.
S. The situation can't be that he exists without pleasure?
R. correctly, wait a minute, what do you want to say here that it needs to receive from the restriction a greater pleasure than before the restriction?
S. Yes to somewhat receive pleasure otherwise how does he exist as there's no deficiency in spirituality I either receive an order to receive or in order to bestow.
R. You're asking differently. You are asking, does he have pleasure from the restriction that is greater than from the light to receive beforehand directly. Beforehand, even received on the intent to receive and now he decided that's not good, he makes a restriction and from the restriction he has a greater pleasure, so you are saying the restriction is not that it comes from this to resemble the upper one, to bestow to the Creator like the Creator bestowed to him. But then he feels the shame and makes a restriction, you are saying no, that he feels shame, maybe unpleasantness but he is also making calculations that if he receives with the intent to bestow, he will have greater pleasure from this. So, his calculation is ultimately a greater calculation of reception you are saying that the calculation we have in bestowing is what obligates him to make a restriction.
S. Yes, can such a state be?
R. That is not possible, it is entirely Klipa.
S. Is the restriction itself made up the decision to receive or it's in the state where it doesn't actually receive in actuality?
R. In the meantime it decides that it departs from all reception because reception is felt in the fourth phase of direct light called Malchut of Ein Sof as this decision distances itself from the Creator, making it opposite of the Creator and the light that it received is actually the light that shows it just how much the Creator wants to give him and how much he thinks only of himself. Then the sensation of this gap between the state Malchut of Ein Sof that is entirely full but because the Creator wanted to give, but because they created being wanted to receive and they are both opposite of one another in this and this opposite in this is felt in Malchut as shame as the oppositeness of form the difference between the Creator and the created being. That the Creator is entirely bestowing and the created being is entirely a receiver, 100% bestow and 100% receive. The created being then feels the oppositeness formed that it can't stand in this it also feels how much the Creator doesn't enjoy from him enough because he suffers and is unhappy with his state having no choice but to make a restriction, that from this moment onwards already begins correction.
S. He tells us here that the restriction has its very own choice and not because of the control of the upper and when he moves to the third phase of the discernment the matter of the screen is the force of the control of the upper, the transition between his own choice and the control of the upper, what is this in the process?
R. We did not learn this yet. It's maybe another lesson or two ahead of us. We will get to that as the screen comes later on. Let's finish the matter here today about restrictions.
30. S. (01:03:14) The direct light and the reflected light and the third light is the light that we will receive during the work in the group?
R. That is Inner Light, 3 is called inner light because it enters within our desires that are connected together and supporting together in mutual bestowing to the Creator.
31. S. (01:03:56) Rabash in parts of his writing, he says in the materialistic world the pleasures we are about to receive are very small relative to the pleasures received in the spiritual world. If so, can we understand that we were already in the first restriction, meaning that this world is already under the restriction?
R. This world does not belong to restriction at all, restriction is already spirituality. We are in the imaginary world that seems to us that it exists and that we exist in it. Only as a preparation for real true states, the truth is that all of reality is in the spiritual world, we are in some state that is proceeding spirituality, in itself it does not exist but only to prepare us, the matter to raise us to spirituality, that only there do we exist. In such a form now, this is not called existence as it is called below the degree of existence. Simply this reality is imaginary, that it does not exist because it is entirely of the intent to receive and it can't exist because it is so small. Truly an intent to receive cannot exist so if we feel this reality as such that we can begin to rise above from it. I can't really explain it here because there's not enough words for it to be clear but soon, we will reach the sensation of the upper world and then we will understand all of the differences. We are getting closer also with the understanding from today's first part of the lesson we will advance.