Morning Lesson July 23, 2023

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.

Part 1:

Excerpts from the Sources Memorial Day of the ARI

1. Rav’s Introduction: It is a special day, Kabbalists always relate to the ARI as to a special man, it is not a regular person, a regular Kabbalist, it's a very special soul through which the Creator chose to bring himself closer, to open himself up toward humanity; and therefore, this is how we should relate to this day, to this person, and to his anniversary, to his Memorial Day, the day of his departure. Let's see.

Reading Excerpt #1 (01:42) “Come and see how grateful we…” Twice.

2. R. (05:45) Almost as the day when the Torah was given to Israel, this is what Baal HaSulam says. In other words, the ARI did for the wisdom of Kabbalah, for the Kabbalists, for bringing humanity closer to the Creator, like the giving of the Torah from above, from the Creator to Israel. In other words, we should really understand that we don't understand the greatness of the ARI, the greatness of his soul, and not to mention why the Creator chose specifically him. But this is how we should relate to everything we have that came out from him, so at least we have a hold of it as much as we can, okay? The audience is stunned by what Baal HaSulam writes.

3. S. (07:32) Maybe you can explain this custom of Memorial Day? Why do we even mention the teachers, we of the past and look backwards? We usually prefer to look forward to what we need to do in the next step?

R. I didn't really learn all the laws of anniversary and the Memorial Day etc., but it's clear that we have to somehow mark the departure of a soul of a person who is a special soul. He was after all physically in our world and he collected for us, he made for us many possibilities to connect with the Creator. So this is something really special, which the Creator gives to several people each day, so they will be connected. They will be the connectors between the entire generation and him. So the ARI, it is clear he was one of those, and as we read everywhere, he was one of those who worked in connecting between humanity, all of humanity, and the Creator.

S. If I remember correctly the ARI taught to his students for eighteen months before he took off. But there are Kabbalists that we hear that taught for decades and worked for decades, and still all those eighteen months, pretty much, turn all of reality upside down we can say?

R. Because it's not a matter of the length of time of teaching, it depends on how much the Creator assists the process they are going through, so times are completely unimportant in the wisdom of Kabbalah, there is no such calculation of time.

4. S. (10:41) So what was it that made him so great, that Baal HaSulam said these words about him?

R. There were several reasons: the first reason, I'm not sure it's the first one, but one of the reasons, is that in his time there were other Kabbalists and especially in Tzfat, where he lived and taught, there were several Kabbalists there and they said about him that he was great, they said about him that he was great. Therefore, this is number one. Number two, it's from above, an illumination from above, desire from above, from the Creator but this is how one of the people should grow, so people will connect to him, listen to him, and receive from him his method. This is what happened with the ARI, such examples we don't have many of them, throughout history, through all the thousands of years, he's the only Kabbalist who was accepted as the Kabbalist.

5. S. (12:38) What's the main difference between how the wisdom of Kabbalah was taught before the ARI and from the moment the ARI taught?

R. Before the ARI, as much as I understand, they taught the wisdom of Kabbalah according to the Torah, the Prophets, the writings, all kinds of books that speak, but not about the wisdom of Kabbalah per se. Not about vessels and lights and forces, the work of man, and after the ARI, they started getting into studying Kabbalists qualities and connection between them, somehow like we do. We have to understand that there's an awakening from above and an awakening from below here. That on the one hand an awakening from above comes to us and then we awaken and look for how we can really discover the Creator, open Him up, rise to Him, connect to Him, what it depends on, so then Kabbalists explained that it belongs to the connection between us and other conditions. So we go for it and try as much as possible and this is what happens to us specifically from the time of the ARI onwards. Besides during that time, during that time, in Tzfat, which was a famous city where Kabbalists dwelled, many people with attainment assembled there and those who learned and wanted to learn the wisdom of Kabbalah. So it was a special time, a time of goodwill.

S. There's something in how he taught that was unique and wasn't, that wasn't there before in his method of teaching?

R. Not really, as much as is known, he studied many hours a day with his disciples. Some of whom I wrote down, took notes, some of them just listened and he himself, he didn't tell them in what way to study, through writing or through listening. But they were disciples who, they were also some elderly people among them as well as young people, they all wanted to to achieve Lishma, [for Her sake], they all heard that it was possible to achieve Lishma, to connect with the Creator, to reach Him, to achieve equivalence with Him and he pushed them toward it.

S. We know that from the time of the ARI and onwards there were changes in humanity, like he opened humanity to a great light and then there's also the Renaissance in the world and also in Judaism. What does it mean that a big light comes to the world? How does that work and why when a person just speaks for eighteen months, like he mentioned, something opens in the world? How does that work?

R. I don't know what to add to what you said, but this is what happens. That there are times in the world when some upper light opens up to the world in a special way and we see that this is what happens. We can add to this many explanations but who knows which of them is correct and which is not but in any case it is a miracle that a person came to the world who had such a tight connection to Godliness and he knew within him, in his soul, in his mind how to connect the spiritual world with our world here. And this is what happened to the ARI, although he himself didn't think about it, he didn't know and as we read from authentic sources, he was just a fella. No one really expected anything from him and also his life was such that he went through it in a very usual way for that time, he would travel, sell and buy, he had to do business and that was it.

6. S. (20:05) I heard you say that we need to really cherish what he left us and the way to do it is through the writings of Baal HaSulam, right?

R. And we have the writings of the ARI, the ARI himself, ‘The Tree of Life,’ and ‘Eight Gates.’

S. We usually, at least until now, we study this through the interpretations of Baal HaSulam?

R. Yes, that's correct, we cannot understand the words of the ARI, the way he wrote them because it is pretty abstruse, but with the commentaries, with the explanations, with the clothing of Baal HaSulam, and of course we can understand what it's about and how to bring ourselves closer to it. It's still a sacred writings, special ones, and in the wisdom of Kabbalah we don't have anything that is closer to the truth than these writings.

7. S. (21:31) Is it correct to say that the last generation began from the time of the ARI?

R. Yes, of course from the time of the ARI and onward, a generation started that came out with a will to receive, to absorb, to learn, to feel, to understand the wisdom of Kabbalah the operations of the Creator; of the Creator Himself. The relation to the Creator became different, they didn't just believe, I cannot say that there weren't before because there were the first, the last ones, people who wrote all the books of Torah.

They were all people with attainment but that was a period from say the sages of the Mishnah up to the sages of the Torah and the sages of Kabbalah were each time, a new type of souls would appear, a new type of souls, meaning they were already yearning, they were yearning differently from their predecessors, yearning to open the matter differently, to bring it closer, deeper, into feel it within us. We don't know exactly, but it's written about how time is broken down into several places, but that's how it works.

8. S. (22:38) Baal HaSulam says that the day of the wisdom of the ARI appeared is like the Torah was given to Israel. I assume there are many Kabbalists before him but there is no one ready to receive it and today we are a generation who are ready to receive this path. That's how it feels?

R. Yes, that is truly felt that way because the ARI, like Moses, gave us the Torah, the ARI gave us the wisdom of Kabbalah.

9. S. (24:17) You always paid attention to who paid an emphasis on who was the teacher of someone who claims to be a Kabbalist. So how can it be both Baal HaSulam and the ARI, two great Kabbalists, it was unclear who taught them the wisdom of Kabbalah?

R. No, Baal HaSulam we can say and he writes about it too, and with respect to the ARI, it was his uncle. He lived in Egypt where the borders were not the same as they are today and the ARI himself had to travel through there back and forth and he would learn from his uncle. That's what I can say, there's barely any documents on that.

10. S. (25:33) Chaim Vital wrote many years after the ARI passed away, what can it be said about Chaim Vital in relation to him being his student?

R. After the ARI passed away, Chaim Vital came even closer to Kabbalah and to the writings of the ARI, that he and his friends collected and he began to sort them out. There were writings hidden, they hid them in a few boxes and then when they were unboxed, some time passed and they already grew from beginning students to true students, and they began to process these writings, certainly without touching the original, the manuscripts, but they began to process them, to sort them out and he writes about it, they write about it, that they had a lot of work in organizing, compiling the writings but from that we got a lot of the writings of the ARI. That's the ‘Eight Gates,’ ‘The Tree of Life,’ ‘The Fruit of the Tree of Life' and so on. And all the wisdom of Kabbalah really comes to us from all these writings.

11. S. (27:46) Shouldn't we appreciate all the souls, every person in the same way as fulfilling their role in the purpose of creation?

R. Yes, undoubtedly because each soul has a part in all the souls and without it it's impossible to attain the complete form of the Creator but we are talking here about time when a small group of people, a handful of people, a handful of souls dedicated themselves, devoted themselves to save, to salvage the writings of the ARI, to rewrite them, to publish them and therefore this is how we speak about them.

12. S. (28:48) You say there is Torah from the Moshe and Kabbalah from the ARI. What do you mean there is Torah and there is Kabbalah?

R. These are two things, two sources, that talk about the revelation of the Creator to the created beings. During the time of Moses, the revelation was through the Torah that he wrote. During the time of the ARI, the revelation was through a different book called ‘The Tree of Life,’ and these two are very different things in how they reveal in the writing, in the style, and we need only to accept them and to try to bring ourselves closer to them and to understand that they knew better in what way to give us the sources.

13. S. (30:00) About the passing away of the ARI, why did the ARI pass away on the 5th of Av and not the 9th of Av which seems like a more important date for such a person?

R. I'm not getting into these things that are not important to me at all. I accept it as is and that's it.

14. S. (30:23) What's the uniqueness of the ARI and what special thing he wanted to convey to the next generations?

R. I think that what was done was done with the permission of the ARI and this is how it comes to this day.

15. S. (30:56) In the excerpt we read, there is a reference to ‘the netherworld’, what is that?

R. That there's no lesser degree than that.

16. S. (31:12) What's the connection between attaining adhesion with the Creator and the system that the Creator created?

R. There's still a difference, the attainment of the system is the attainment of the system, and the adhesion with the Creator is attaining of the inner, central force that activates the system.

S. It seems that there are Kabbalists who each excels in, say, when we read Psalms, we see King David has a certain unique adhesion, and the ARI feels different, what he attained?

R. Each Kabbalist has a different approach to gripping the Creator and the upper force, in general in the upper system.

17. S. (32:18) What connection is there between the departure of the ARI and between ‘the straits’, period?

R. I guess they influence one another because there is a state between ‘the straits’, it is a state that influences the departure of the ARI in this way.

S. And how to use this day of his departure so we can grow stronger in the ten?

R. That we want to connect to that soul which, at that time, at that day, it rises even more than before toward its root, towards the Creator.

S. How to connect to the ARI's soul?

R. By wanting to be like him, by wanting to walk in his footsteps, in his way.

S. What does it mean?

R. That we know what he wanted to do in his days and they wanted to continue in this way.

18. S. (33:56) When we hear that Kabbalists are working each and every generation, what do they do, what does it mean ‘they operate’?

R. Kabbalists operate in each and every generation meaning according to the sources that they feel while they are alive; they want to organize, arrange the connection between everyone so it becomes a connected circular system, this is the work of the Kabbalist.

S. I think you said that they also take into account the corporeal world?

R. Of course.

S. So what, do they influence the corporeal world?

R. By working to connect everyone among themselves, all the special souls, and then revealing from that something, a little something to this world, and they influence the corporeal world as well.

S. Can we already do some action that will influence the corporeal world?

R. If we want to.

S. How do you do it?

R. We'll talk about it.

19. S. (35:32) They asked about the Memorial Day but I'll ask again, we are students and we chose today to talk about the ARI, and what is the goal, is it kind of a condition where we know where we came from?

R. No, no, we have nothing to do with traditions and the commandments that the general public do according to the calendar. We try to be connected among us in order to come closer to that soul which is ready in this time, in this life of ours, to be closer and able to connect with us. And therefore, we connect and speak among ourselves about this, that soul, we have a Memorial Day meal which was customary since then until today and that's it.

S. So that it's a special soul and our job is to cling to it along the way?

R. Yes.

20. S. (37:03) We know that the original or most essential book of Kabbalah is The Book of Zohar and we can see that the ARI essentially interprets The Zohar, what's the difference between what's written in The Zohar and our direct access to the book and what the ARI did to the book or was concealed in it, what did he do there?

R. I think that like with how the Torah explains to us about the unfolding of all the parts of creation from the Creator from Genesis: First the Creator created heaven and earth and so forth all the way to us, all the way to the very last word in front of the eyes of all of Israel. Similarly, with the rest of the books, they wanted to add to that more explanations, greater introduction so that we can understand in what world we're living. What do we need this whole world for?

I think that what we need is to adhere to the writings of Baal HaSulam, even though Rabash studied the ARI’s Tree of Life, that sort of complete version. And in each and every book, of course, there are additions and all kinds of matters and style of its own; however, I don't think that we really need to delve into that system because it’s better if we align our hearts towards the Creator and He will then correct it and bring it closer to Him.

21. S. (41:01) Baal HaSulam says “That in every generation we have such people as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”, what is happening in our generation?

R. I don't know but certainly there are such people who can influence this generation and guide it a bit closer towards that goal. We have to try to be the connectors between the wisdom of Kabbalah, the Creator, and the purpose of creation. We have to try, each and every one of us is essentially capable and all of us together certainly are.

S. We see that this method comes down in portions, we always mention Abraham, Moses, Rashbi, the ARI, Baal HaSulam, and then there's a period of interpretation and understanding of each generation. Why is it like that, why isn't there someone like the ARI in every generation?

R. I don't know what to tell you, this seems to be a matter of the revelation of the souls, the appearance of the souls, that the souls become revealed and they have to be served, to help them open themselves even more towards humanity.

S. So how should we understand these words of Baal HaSulam, that we should be grateful to our teachers and the ARI is the greatest, how should we practically relate to this?

R. That besides the ARI, we have no foundation, then comes Baal HaSulam who essentially determined that the ARI is the foundation and that's how we continue, we don't have anyone else to rely on but the ARI.

S. So we are learning only from the writings of Baal HaSulam who interprets the words of the ARI, that's clear; beyond what we learn what does it mean to connect to the soul of the ARI?

R. That to those goals that he wrote about, that we have to reach them, we, too, want to arrive at that and be connected to that even now from afar before we have attained it in our heart and soul. This all depends on man's inclination, tendency, how much he aspires to it, how much he sticks to that for decades of his life and doesn't move from it, lives life in this world and yet longs to achieve the opening of the eyes in the next world.

22. S. (45:54) In excerpt number one, it says “come and see how grateful we should be to our teachers who impart on us their sacred lives and give their lives to benefit our souls, they stand in the middle between us and the path of our suffering”. So what suffering are we talking about here and what did the ARI do that connects us?

R. Well, suffering can happen throughout the entire height from Heaven to Earth and we have to understand that some suffering doesn't cancel the Torah and some does, we have to care especially about the kind of suffering that cancels the Torah, meaning that we can no longer advance if such torments happen to us, and we certainly just surrender to the judgments.

23. S. (47:25) We say that all the Kabbalists come in their own special time, when they prepare the generation where they live. When you read the ARI we understand what in a high degree he was and how disconnected he was from the time he lived in, so what is the special correction he did in his generation at the time when he lived?

R. The ARI was a very unique soul, a very unique Kabbalist who worked on a level that is above space, time, and motion and it's difficult for me to talk about him as he is so great. It is something that exists, there's what exists on the level of this world and he rose very high above it and speaks from his level, it's a very special phenomenon, a gift from God to human beings so they can benefit from the writings of the ARI.

S. The inner part of our method that people could reach what he wrote on an emotional level, how is it expressed in his method because they still didn't have the articles of Rabash, they didn't have everything we learn about the group, the love of others, how did they achieve the revelation of what the ARI wrote?

R. In those times before the revelation of the Torah, the appearance of the Torah, that's how they taught, meaning that the teacher speaks and all the rest listen. No books, no notebooks, no writing accessories, anything, that's it, you only listen to what you hear from the teacher and that's what you have. And therefore, each and every one was very concerned about opening the heart so the heart is not filled with all kinds of things on the side; and that only what he hears from the teacher enters his heart and clothes it and that's what the student gets and that's how it was for thousands of generations, thousands of generations. And where we see that sometimes they would write down the words of Torah, Mishna, these are very, very unique things. But the ordinary people, the students who sat around the teacher, they would simply absorb, drink what they heard from their teacher and afterwards there were cases were sometimes they would write but with respect to that writing, there were no longer the same laws that applied to how the students hear it, the hearing was the main thing, that's it.

24. S. (53:08) On what does our ability to bring in the teacher's words depend?

R. It all depends on man's heart, everything depends on man's heart, when man wants that what the teacher says will enter his heart and settle in it, that’s it; meaning according to what we understand, these things are hidden and abstruse and not so clear, that's true.

25. S. (54:06) When talking about the method of the ARI, in each method we're talking about principles, terminology, and means, I understand that there's a new terminology here, the terminology of Sefirot and Partzufim and we see that Baal HaSulam interpreted it, he wrote The Study of the Ten Sefirot as a textbook with questions and answers and everything. So what are the principles in the method of the ARI and what are the means because it's probably different from what there was before?

R. Before the ARI, there was no method, there was no system that had to be revealed, a system wasn't in place; and therefore, he's the first who put these things together and presented that to all of humanity, the ARI, that's it.

S. So what are the means that in this method that didn't exist before?

R. What do you mean by ‘means’?

S. Well, I don't know, you once explained about reforming light, in the past there was suffering, a person had to suffer, now he only needs to study and connect in the ten, that's the method, these are the means: Rav, the group, friends, the reforming light, so that’s something that didn't exist before?

R. The means to grasp the method of ARI was only connection in the ten as we're doing now as well, because the ARI set up these connections even though it was already in the time of Rabbi Akiva but not in a clear and defined sort of way as the ARI determined. That, therefore, from the time of the ARI onwards, he began to understand that teaching the wisdom of Kabbalah has to be in accordance with the spiritual system, that as there are Ten Sefirot above there are ten people below and so forth. That's how they started to institute the matter of connection and among those people who began to connect, there was already a matter of a unique connection between them Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet and so forth. And they had to try and perceive between them the laws of commutation, the laws of connection and that's what happened especially from the time of the ARI onwards.

26. S. (58:30) We read only one excerpt, if we can read excerpt number five because there he talks about it more.

R. Please we can travel through the whole document.

Reading Excerpt # 5 (58:55 - 59:54)

S. It sounds in the excerpt that from that point of time the Creator changes for conditions to entering spirituality?

R. That's right because the souls change, the conditions in the world change, and therefore the conditions of study, conditions of attainment, everything changes.

S. It's as if the writing says “until then it took many preparations and modifications to reach spirituality and now anyone can achieve it”, why does the Creator make the conditions suddenly easier?

R. It is not a sudden move of making it easier, it is that the amount of people that exists in humanity from day to day absorbs all kinds of troubles and problems and by that searches how to escape that. That afterwards in concealment, they discover that they have no taste in life and how can they find it; and then it turns out that ultimately they all run towards the same one goal: What is the point in life? And after they don't understand and are incapable of achieving that, they become more ready to receive the answer from above.

27. S. (01:01:50) And then what happens, because ARI is like a comet, you know, he was there for a year and a half and then he disappeared.

R. True?

S. And then what happened, what changed in the system?

R. What changed, he brought a method, he renewed it, the Eight Gates of his, The Tree of Life, that is unparalleled.

S. But it seems like he brought more of a system or a science than a method, he describes the spiritual system?

R. Yes.

S. He doesn't say how we can reach it?

R. ARI wrote quite openly and all the Kabbalists who came after him who wanted to search for the Creator, they already had a path for how to get there, maybe not the end of it but at least how to enter the wisdom of Kabbalah, and what it talks about. They started studying the ARI and connecting between them and they already had an infrastructure.

S. What does it mean infrastructure, if in the end attainment is only an effort in the heart, and how does the ARI coming in and describing the spiritual system like a science, how does that promote us?

R. If he provides them with the path and says that it's possible to succeed in it and all the rest depends on them, or on you.

S. It says here that the work of the Baal Shem Tov, that the Baal Shem Tov kind of took the science and turned it into the method, emotional method. Then why are we not learning about him, or let's say, we don't celebrate his Memorial Day, there's a lot more material there?

R. We learn about Baal Shem Tov, and Baal HaSulam, Rabash both wrote a lot from Baal Shem Tov but what can you write? Baal Shem Tov spoke about the worlds, the Partzufim, the Sefirot, there are books written from those who heard Baal Shem Tov, he himself didn't write anything. And ultimately what he did was a revolution and because he didn't publish anything, it’s as if he didn't do anything, but Kabbalists understand that only through him, the books that were written after him, they can reach the revelation of the Creator.

S. I meant to ask why don't we usually mention his name along with the list of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the ARI, etc., for some reason we Baal Shem Tov less?

R. Look, that's how it was accustomed and it's already difficult to change it, but we don't take into account what is accepted or unaccepted in the humanity. In the world of truth there is a different calculation that takes place.

28. S. (01:06:00) If I may, in excerpts six and seven by Rav Chaim Vital, it says exactly how we implement the method?

R. Wait he said something, why are you jumping in, “my teacher would say that the main purpose of the reading depends on aiming to connect one's heart to its root through the Torah in order to complete the upper tree and complete the upper Adam and correct him, this is the whole purpose of man's creation”, what do you want to say about that?

S. The previous student said that he did not give us a description of the method, but here Rav Chaim Vital says that when he spoke about him, excerpt seven is about love of friends, and six is about turning in the light, that's the method. He said next to him and that is what he absorbed from him?

R. Yes, fine.

29. S. (01:07:22) I'd like to add on this matter: Baal HaSulam wrote, “know for certain that since the time of the ARI until this day, there was no one who understood the method as the ARI to the fullest. I was rewarded with impregnation of the soul of the ARI not because of my good deeds but because of the higher will that was hidden from me as well”. And he writes here about this impregnation that he was rewarded with, that he was rewarded with a soul of the ARI so he could explain his words and Rabash continued this path and explained Baal HaSulam. And we see that the Preface of the Wisdom of Kabbalah and especially about the Ibur, [the impregnation], we start to talk about the three lines, that there’s matter prayer there, right, left and the middle line. So what can we learn from the process of impregnation in order to come closer to our teachers?

R. Basically doing the same thing as they do, that we can follow them and discover all the stages where we can get closer to our teachers. That is very important, to try as much as possible to gather, collect, all sorts of pieces of advice and bring them together to become incorporated in our teachers.

30. S. (01:09:58) In fact, when we talk about the writings of the ARI they were written by his disciple, by teacher Chaim Vital, and also we study as a special example in Shamati, when we call it the writings of Baal HaSulam but Rabash wrote all of it after hearing the words. What can we learn from the connection between the teacher and the disciple where the disciple writes everything and there's a connection between them, what can we learn from this?

R. I think we need to learn from the writings of Rabash, all that he wrote, and what we will learn from there will be a light to our feet, or ‘shining light’, that's it.

31. S. (01:11:05) What can we say about the date, what does the date mean?

R. What date?

S. The date of his passing, we don't talk about the date of his birth, we talk about the date of his passing, is there a meaning of the date?

R. We don't really attribute importance to the day of the departure of the Kabbalist, of course there is an indication and that there is no coincidence, but it's not that we can start playing with that.

32. S. (01:12:00) What does it mean that: a Kabbalist labors, troubles himself for our sake?

R. The Kabbalist who bothers for us, labors for us, he tries to bring us closer to the truth in all sorts of ways from the vessels in his soul.

S. And ARI did it by giving lessons during those months or is it other things we don't?

R. That, we don't know.

S. What do I mean, that to give, to convey the method, it's not about teaching but about making corrections for?

R. Makes corrections now and before and in all kinds of ways and in various worlds and systems, this is the matter of his soul.

S. And what does it mean that “he opened for us a path”?

R. He opens the path because if the Kabbalists wouldn't do their work, we would feel no way for anything, innovation to happen.

33. S. (01:13:42) We learn, and Baal HaSulam writes, that there is a reforming light in these writings, that there is something more than just a description we can understand intellectually, there’s some force there that a Kabbalist places in them and we can draw it, what is this reforming like that the Kabbalist places in his writings, how does it happen if you can explain that?

R. It's a force that lies in these writings that those who want to read and want to extract that force to use it correctly, then they can do it, that’s it, there is nothing unique about that.

34. S. (01:15:00) What do I need to do in order to be favored by the Creator and to be worthy of working on the translation of the studies of Ten Sefirot into Spanish and to do a good job?

R. You need to treat this translation work very seriously because by that you're opening up a gate for many people into the wisdom of Kabbalah, the Creator, spiritual ascent, so try, try, it's worthwhile.

S. For years I'm working on this and I still feel I'm lacking strength?

R. I don't think you lack strength, you just need to try and come to a state where you hear the translation exactly and not what seems to you as the translation, that is the problem.

35. S. (01:16:47) Why didn't all Kabbalists write books and must Kabbalists have permission from above in order to write a book?

R. No, it depends on the level, a person needs to write and tell about what he attained, and if he feels like writing above what he attained that already comes from his fantasies or he saw something written about it somewhere. In that case he's not allowed to write about it.

36. S. (01:17:52) You said that Chaim Vital lost the words of the ARI, the process of the words of ARI. Should we continue processing it, the words of ARI or we finish this process and just disseminate it?

R. No, we have many more things that we need to process and bring to our generation or to the next. It is certain that there is half an archive full of additional text that has not been disclosed to the world. I'm not sure who exactly can understand what's written there but there's a lot more material that we can process and present to the world.

S. Meaning in our generation a soul as the soul of ARI is supposed to be revealed in our generation?

R. I don't know, I do what I can do in my lifetime and that is it. I'm not jumping about that.

37. S. (01:19:50) In excerpt number five, in the end, Baal HaSulam writes that not everyone has been rewarded with Hesed, [mercy] but since the times of the ARI and Baal Shem Tov it is truly possible for anyone and no preparations are necessary. What I'm asking is: what's the difference between the study and the service, and how, one more question: how does the teaching of the ARI add, how does it add to the Baal Shem Tov?

R. This is not advertised much but anyone who isn't in contact with the Creator, cannot understand what is the meaning of the study of Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov prepared, organized, the divine wisdom in such a way that it will accompany a person into bestowal, bestowal, in order to bestow, into Lishma, in such a form that a person would know precisely if he is in contact with the Creator, if he’s in the same place as the Creator’s or not. And that is what would bring a person to the truth, that’s what needs to bring the person to the truth.

The method of the Baal Shem Tov is not quite revealed to humanity; it is extremely sharp, that is why he never wrote anything but only spoke about it. And what people were able to absorb at the time they did and they wrote about it but in truth, he was truly great in his attainment and I hope that the time will come and on the way to the Creator we will reveal his method and be able to open it up fully completely.

38. S. (01:23:30) Kabbalists did everything so that the lights of the Creator will reach the vessels and we are in a generation like never before in the world. What should we do so that these lights will pass and come to all the vessels, all of humanity? How do you see this?

R. Look, the Baal Shem Tov did what he could do. Those times we traveled from village to village, from town to town and would speak to everyone, with everyone. We need to advertise this method but beforehand we want to explain what is the world, where are we in it, how can we reach connection between us? Why is the connection between us what brings us to correction? All these things we need to explain.

39. S. (01:25:00) You said that we have to be the connectors between the Creator and the created beings. It seems that in the past few years we are actually further away from the public. We used to have circles outside and we disseminated the method of connection. Today we mainly disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah but for less people. How does this direction serve our goal of being the connectors between the Creator and the created beings?

R. I don't know. If you're asking me, I don't know how to do it correctly. I can't enter into this with all my, put my entire head into it, but those who work with the general public, maybe they need to think about it, how to do more, how to get into it more seriously.

40. S. (01:26:05) There is a strong light today in the lesson, how to work with this correctly, what should we demand?

R. Now in our lesson is a very strong light, we can ask it to give us more intellect, more feeling, more power, a greater sense of bestowal, a sense of connection. So that from all these things, all these inclinations, in total we can understand the direction in which we need to move. That is what I think. Other than that we need more and more to ask the Creator for an independent power for each and everyone.

41. S. (01:27:21) When you talk about ARI there is a feeling of an upper world which causes a great yearning to feel that. How to hold on to this yearning in our ordinary lessons in working with the ego, to go above the ego with love of friends?

R. We need to try and read Baal HaSulam, Rabash, and decide in the tens what they recommend for us to do. But either way, we are advancing, we are taking steps forward, so we shouldn't feel too sorry for the fact that we are so lowly and lost.

42. S. (01:28:48) You said that we should ask for an independent force, what force? What power should we ask for?

R. An independent power for each and everyone, the power that will point them in the right direction, an impulse that will push him toward the right goal each time. In this way to move forward thanks to this force, the Creator to manage us. After all, everything depends on the prayer. We are in a week, a very special week, the week of the departure of the ARI and the ARI’s the soul that is very close to us and always works to bring us closer to the work of the Creator. So let's try to turn to it even now. Let's try for the ARI, for the soul of the ARI, to put us in connection with the Creator and bring us closer to Him. Okay?

43. S. (01:30:51) If this soul, for instance, of the ARI was chosen by the system, what’s not clear to me is what we should value in the Kabbalist if he was chosen for a certain role?

R. I don't understand the question.

S. We learned that the Creator is the system that awakens all the souls and the whole process of correction. If a certain Kabbalist was chosen by the system in order to bestow upon us, what should we value and appreciate in this soul called ARI or Baal Shem Tov or any other Kabbalist?

R. Jumping from here to here, from one Kabbalist, from a regular Kabbalist that’s right next to us to the ARI or the Baal Shem Tov, who are you asking about more correctly?

S. Suppose about the ARI?

R. So what can you ask about the ARI?

S. I'm asking what we should value in the ARI, if we learn that the system activates everyone?

R. We need to understand about the ARI, how much the Creator chose him, how He arranged him. How much He gave him the strength and the power and for the ARI to arrange himself correctly, put himself together correctly, to be in this chain of Kabbalists.

S. So we should appreciate some independent force by the ARI that he gave from himself?

R. Of course, he also added from himself, yes.

44. S. (01:33:23) In the ten, meaning I want to ask if the ARI got this privilege, he was rewarded, he was chosen, it's the root of the soul. If I'm looking at my ten, what can we do in order to receive this power or maybe everything is from above, the root of the soul?

R. We need to try and develop for ourselves using the means at our disposal, which is connection, prayer, study, connection, among the friends and then whatever comes out of each and everyone of us should take a step forward and make actions toward connection. Accordingly, you will see what else is required of him to do.

S. So we should do everything but still we are a ten, each one has his own qualities. What should I look for or how should I work correctly with my ten in order to grow and where to put my effort in order to grow?

R. Pull them forward and push them from behind.

S. Are there examples that I should take specifically from people or?

R. As usual, as we have spoken about it many times during the articles.

Reading Excerpt #7 (01:35:05) Rav Chaim Vital, Shaar HaGilgulim, Introduction, 38

45. S. (01:36:06) I hope it's not audacity Rav but there is a question: if we should learn directly from the writings of the ARI. Excerpt number ten by Baal HaSulam really explains how much Baal HaSulam himself got his power from above, and we, and you answered also, if we learn the writings of Rabash, they incorporate all the Kabbalists together. I will be happy if we can read excerpt ten together.

R. Reading: Know for certain, that since the time of ARI to this day there has not been anyone who understood the method of the ARI to the fullest, as it was easier to attain a mind twice as great and twice as holy than the ARI’s than to understand his method in which… Please read it.

Reading Excerpt #10 twice (01:37:14) 10. Baal HaSulam. Letter 39, Twice

46. S. (01:40:32) Is there anything else we can open or expand about the independent force you were talking about, that we should ask for this request for an independent power?

R. It is not clear again?

S. Previously, you answered that the main thing we should ask of the Creator is an independent power.

R. Yes.

S. And if I heard you correctly, you said this is something that should aim us correctly, turn us around, to direct us? Can you say something more about this?

R. I am not clear what you're pulling me to.

S. I'm not trying to pull you anywhere but I heard you saying that we should ask for an independent power from the Creator. Then there was a question: what is this independent power? You said that it's a power that should turn us in the right direction and cause us to demand, to ask, there was some connection to the prayer if I heard you correctly? It sounds like something practical to do work with and I couldn't really understand, where do we hold on to this thing?

R. We need to try and receive from the Creator powers and intellect, the right mind in order to put together the system from both of these, from powers and from the intellect, so it would resemble what exists in the Creator. Maybe that is what I meant. But we are closer to that as well, we're getting close to all kinds of corners, all kinds of sides of the attainment and the adapting to Godliness.

47. S. (01:43:16) I'm here with my friend Seth, he came to visit us in Chile, in the desert. We should continue on and my question is: What is the prayer, what is the prayer and the intention we should have in order to feel all the strength the Kabbalists have left for us as we support each other to advance together?

R. Again?

S. What is the prayer and the intention that we should have in order to feel all the strength and the force that the Kabbalists have left for us?

R. Yes, we will reveal all the prayers, all the support that we received from the Kabbalist of all times, that this is what takes us up and places us together with the greatest of those who attained the Creator in our time, we will see it.

S. He's also asking how can we support each other exactly in this advancement, with the forces that the Kabbalists have left for us?

R. This is like how we support the ten, where I wish for each one in the ten to be like the greatest of the generation and in this way, all of us connect, become, become together like a lighthouse, which is all that we can do.

48. S. (01:46:06) When I read excerpt number seven by Chaim Vital, it gave me something in my heart about the meaning of love of friends. How can we learn from this? From what he wrote here? Maybe we can read this sentence?

R. My teacher cautioned me, the ARI and all the friends that are with him in the society, to take upon ourselves the commandment to do of, “love your neighbor as yourself,” and to aim to love each one from Israel as his own soul, for by this his prayer would rise comprising all of Israel and would be able to ascend and make a correction above. And especially our love of friends, each and every one of us should include himself as though he is an organ of those friends. And my teacher sternly cautioned me about this matter.

Meaning, we need to feel how each of us is but a small organ of the body and all of the other organs in this body are our friends and we depend on them and they depend on everyone else and also on me, and that is what we need to feel, always. Not only when there is an awakening but always. Each and everyone depends on everyone and everyone depends on everyone else; like organs in a body.

S. This is what I feel, he wrote it in a very strict way, especially what he wrote in the end, that the ARI said, I read it in English?

R. Read it in English, maybe it is more stern and sharp in English.

S. My teacher sternly cautioned me about this matter, we talk about love of friends a lot, that it is our whole basis, but I have a feeling that at that time it was much more black and white, if possible?

R. The more we speak about something, the less we feel the sharpness of the matter. I understand you.

49. S. (01:49:44) Can we come back to the basis, the way that they taught the wisdom of Kabbalah that the teacher speaks and the students are around him?

R. You find a tree, and under the tree, to have a rock. On this rock then this will be a teacher, Rabbi Akiva. All the children, meaning the students are sitting around him in the shade of that tree and they listen. They listen to what he is saying and there's nothing in the world but this, silence.

S. That sounds like magic, I wish we could go back to that.

R. No we're not the same souls.

S. What is this special force that comes out as the teacher speaks?

R. It's those waves, I can’t say it any other way, it’s those waves that influences to come out of his mouth and are accepted in his students.

S. Basically about this point, the spiritual level we call the speaking level?

R. That too, yes.

S. If for instance, we had recordings of the ARI, would it be more effective to hear them than to read his writings?

R. No.

S. How come?

R. Because you would see how much he is missing words, how he is, in speaking to you. His mouth is not arranged to speak so beautifully, to articulate, to enunciate every letter, every sound. You have to get accustomed to it. I remember that many people, students that would come to a lesson with Rabash. Then after fifteen minutes, half an hour, they sat next to me and asked, what language is he speaking? To that extent, they couldn't understand even the simple words. I don't think that’s what it's about. We need to find the inner pipelines, the conduits that travel to our hearts, from hearing, from seeing, from what we lose along the way when we read the letters. That's how it is.

S. This means it depends on the time and place and the connection of the students with the teacher, this matter of the teacher and the force in it?

R. Yes.

S. It's a matter of a point in time.

R. Inner connection.

50. S. (01:54:25) To continue this nice scrutiny of the friend you say it's like waves coming out of the mouth of a teacher to the students and it influences. From the perspective of the students how to perceive, how to absorb these waves as much as possible from the teacher?

R. What comes out of the student, our desires to grasp, to absorb, to draw in. That is the power that opens up the teacher.

S. The students help the teacher to open himself more, to give more?

R. Only, that is the only thing.

S. How, in what way?

R. With their deficiency.

S. How can they increase the deficiency in order to give the Kabbalist an ability to open himself to all of humanity?

R. To all of humanity I don't know, we shouldn't speak about it. But for themselves, when they yearn to feel his internality, meaning I wish to come to the teacher and feel the Creator that He is revealing inside of him.

51. S. (01:56:10) In excerpt eight, there is this well-known story about the opportunity of the ARI's group to go to Jerusalem and they missed it. When we read this I was impressed that they had maybe a few moments to make this decision of once in fifteen- hundred years, that's how he describes it. That since the times of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai there wasn’t this opportunity. I'd like to ask about ourselves. If we get this opportunity or a different one, how not to miss, how to identify this is the time to forget about all the calculations and to take the right important decision? Why is this story here? What does it come to teach us?

R. We need before that to be much more in a state of, “as one man and one heart.” Otherwise it’s not going to happen. Of course times were different but here when each one is thinking about himself, his house, all kinds of things, it’s difficult.

S. Maybe we should read excerpt number 8?

Reading Excerpt #8 (01:57:46) “One day, on the eve of Shabbat…”

52. R. (01:59:58) It happens. There were perhaps a few other times like that but maybe no one noticed it.

53. S. (02:00:39) What’s the difference between a lesson with the ARI where they couldn’t write or a lesson like we have where everything is recorded? What’s the difference between the attention of the students?

R. What is the difference between a lesson where people would maybe write down and our lessons that are recorded?

S. My question is about the time when you couldn't write. If our heart is not open, we can’t hear what Rav said then everything he taught was missed for the next generations as opposed to our lessons. If we know everything is recorded, maybe our responsibility is a bit less? Like the way I understand with you and Rabash you decided to record the lessons as opposed to all the lessons that were until then with Kabbalists.

R. What's such a big deal about it being recorded or written or illustrated or some other way, some other form? It doesn't matter. The important thing is that it exists for the use of humans. The question is, can they use it properly? That is where the crux of the matter is. We read about those past years when they read the writings of the ARI that they exhumed from his coffin and they didn't even know what to do with it.

And they left it for another generation and another. They were responsible at least when knowing that they should not touch this because they didn’t understand what they wrote about. And they left it untouched. That is why we need to understand how things unravel in different languages, in different writing styles, in different groups, from children, different people, until it’s revealed in such a way that it enters the depth of humanity and that it becomes their property.

54. S. (02:04:42) If I understood the friend, if we take us for instance, what is the difference between if we would hear lessons without any recordings? We would leave it for other generations but would we hear the lesson differently, would we absorb it differently?

R. Of course.

S. Is it better for us to have all these texts or maybe for us it's better not to count on that, for it to be concealed somewhere, kept in the archive?

R. We would remember and we would memorize better from hearing the way it used to be back in the days of the Mishnah.

S. What’s better for our advancement?

R. Each generation and the means at their disposal, I can’t say. But it’s certain that even today we understand that had we not had the opportunity to write down, to record, we would absorb much more from the lesson.

S. This leads me to a question, that on the one hand you say write it down it keeps you awake and you work with the matter but on the other hand, it diverts us from opening our heart and focusing only on the connection. What is more suitable for us?

R. I trust the fact that nevertheless tomorrow you can go back to what you wrote and awaken in you those Reshimot, those records that were left from the lesson; whereas if you didn't have those recordings and things that were written down you wouldn't be able to think about it. It's a problem, it’s a problem.

55. S. (02:07:01) To continue the excerpt we just read about going to Jerusalem, when we teach in college about the teachers and Kabbalists there is a question that repeats itself. What basically guarantees our success as students where we see that other groups failed?

R. I don't understand, when you teach a group of students..

S. Yes, there is a lesson about the history of Kabbalists. We talk about the ARI and even Rabash and we mention that there is a group that had a chance to go to Jerusalem and Rabash had a group that dispersed. So there is a natural question that pops. How can we guarantee that we’ll succeed when we see that other groups failed?

R. Look, each and every group has a role and you can’t say that someone who is connected with their teacher and through him a few other teachers that they didn't do anything. He is nevertheless part of a chain in what he does and what he causes. So I have nothing bad to say about them. I'm being very cautious about it, even in thought. I do what I used to do next to the Rabash, he said keep your distance from them and I kept my distance. What he meant by it, he didn't share with me. But that's what I did.

56. S. (02:09:40) In the excerpt we just read the ARI calls the student to go to Jerusalem to build the temple and they have all their excuses. There is a feeling that he suggests something spiritual and they answer in a corporeal way. What is going on here?

R. They give him excuses from their degree and he's pulling them up to his degree.

S. They first said no and only then he said that from the time of Rashbi there wasn't a better time.

R. It doesn't matter, they already gave an answer.

S. Meaning if he would say it to begin with they would probably agree?

R. No, no. There's no manipulation here like in the marketplace.

S. Maybe everyday you call us to go to Jerusalem and we can't hear you, we have all of our excuses.

R. We are not obligated to go up to Jerusalem.

57. S. (02:11:25) To continue our friend's question, in this excerpt, it seems that there was a demand from the students to take some decision to rise above themselves and they wanted to consult with their wives, their will to receive. Does it happen in every degree that the teacher calls you to advance and you have to rise above yourself and overcome to hear the teacher and to walk into the dark?

R. Yes, that is in each and every moment throughout your life.

S. How can we identify it every time, when you are really calling us to advance?

R. I'm not calling you forward. Am I calling you?

S. What I mean is about what we're learning together. There is always the spiritual and the corporeal parts and you have to rise above the corporal in order to hear the words of our teacher. To rise above the corporeal part and not hold on to something that's pulling you down.

R. During the lesson I try together with you to rise a little bit above and each day to take another step and another step. That's how we need to climb.

S. How to take the step, decisive step? Not to consult with all of my egoistic desires but along with Rav to rise every time?

R. Nevertheless we need to consult, and after you consult then rise. After the consultation, nevertheless try to rise.

58. S. (02:14:11) How do we achieve to the point that we feel the corporeal world like the ARI felt it?

R. Repeat please.

S. How do we achieve to the point where we feel the corporeal world like the ARI felt it?

R. How do we come to such a point where we can feel the corporeal world like the spiritual world?

S. Like the ARI felt?

R. I don't know, I'm not in it. I hope we're on the way to attaining it, we can attain it.

59. S. (02:15:47) It's written that from the days of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai until today there wasn’t a better time for redemption as this time and had you admitted this we would have had the temple and the outcasts of Israel would have gathered into Jerusalem. The question is, why did the ARI think that his students weren't ready and are we actually talking about our age?

R. Because it wasn't time yet. Suffering wasn't such that people were able to merit the complete redemption.

60. S. (02:17:03) What means helps us in the best way to connect to the souls that have departed from the world, articles or connection with the friends?

R. Both, you can't do it without both, both the friends and the articles. The friends are that substance in which we need to expand and connect with and the articles are the method that we need to connect us and sow a new form for humanity, a new form for humanity.

Active Workshop: Summarize the lesson in tens. (02:18:31)

Closing with a Question and Rav’s Response.

61. S. (02:23:48) Question: Rav you said that we should ask for an independent power, what power should we ask for?

R. An independent power so that each and everyone has the power to turn himself around in the right direction. An impulse that will push him to the right goal every time so that we will go forward by this force, that the Creator will govern us. All in all everything depends on the prayer. We are now in a very special week of the departure of the ARI and the ARI is actually the soul which is very close to us and it always brought us closer to the work of the Creator. So let's try to turn to it and this time, too, we’ll try for the ARI, the soul of the ARI, to organize a connection with the Creator and it will bring us closer to Him.

https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/4GgcKuee

Каббала Медиа

Каббала Медиа

Мой архивВойдите, чтобы ставить лайки, сохранять и подписываться на видео

Ежедневный урок14 de mar de 2022(Утро)Часть 1 Урок на тему "Побеждаем в войне"

Часть 1 Урок на тему "Побеждаем в войне"

Урок на тему "Побеждаем в войне"

Каббала МедиаCopyright © 2003-2026 Бней Барух – Ассоциация "Каббала Ла-Ам", Все права защищены

Мой архив
Войдите, чтобы ставить лайки, сохранять и подписываться на видео

Ежедневный урок14 de mar de 2022(Утро)
Часть 1 Урок на тему "Побеждаем в войне"

Каббала Медиа
Copyright © 2003-2026 Бней Барух – Ассоциация "Каббала Ла-Ам", Все права защищены