Morning Lesson August 30, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Baal HaSulam. Time to Act.
1 R. (00:07) This is a short article of Baal HaSulam but nevertheless a very important one.
Reading (00:18) “Time to Act ….. in their true meaning.”
2. R. (01:00) Meaning he wants to compose something fundamental, serious that will be like a foundation for the whole wisdom of Kabbalah.
Reading (01:15) “Previously in Israel….. which relates to the above matter, and spread it in the nation.”
3. R. (09:09) Yes, this all together is his short article from Baal HaSulam, that he proceeds to the series of articles. like what we see that he wrote the Matan Torah, The Arvut and such articles. What he wanted through these articles to explain in a simple, true way which is not simple to any person that would want what really this true approach, the correct approach, of Judaism to Nature to the world, to man, to be upon us. So all those articles that he wanted to write just like he writes in another place up to 50 articles that he wanted to write, so he wrote this introduction Time to Act. Questions?
4. S. (10:44) In the true books we have slight clues, so how can you even determine the clue here is pointing to this?
R. We cannot both read and be in criticism, whether we understand or don't understand correctly, but as much as we are in the right environment that can establish us correctly each time more and more then from that degree of stability of ours in that new state we understand what we are reading. It all depends only on the environment because the person does not stabilize himself in anything, imagine to yourself that a person is born in some field, I don't know where, in the desert let's say. So according to how he was born, that's how he understands, his world relates to what he hears, so here we are in the certain environment, not completely natural. Therefore, to the extent that we depend on this environment, we receive discernment from its values, accordingly we look at the world and this way we look at every person in the world. No matter where a person, he is nourished from the environment and according to the stability he established in the environment he understands his life. His life, nature, the purpose of life, that's how it happens.
5. S. (12:50) Here he says until today only one out of ten leaders of the generation and everyone was doing whatever was good in their eyes?
R. The greatest of the nation that understood nature and in the upper force and talked about these things and feel the way we were from many generations and for the time of the development of the print, let's say five six hundred years ago, then everything began cheaper. You can print books. Accordingly there is a certain disregard of books and writings of different kinds and who writes them, then until then you could walk into the store, there's a thousand miles of books whatever you can take and from the most serious things to the simplest things. Ones that are wrong, those that are right and how do you know what and what not and it's all before you. No one can decide whether you should read it or not, whereas here he says the greatest of generations decide, this is yes, we read and this we do not read.
All together they wouldn't even buy a book, you know what it was until let’s say 300 years ago, then for Kabbalists, a Kabbalist had a shelf with books and on the shelf he had two or three books, that's it. Today you walk into any person that studies Torah, he has a wall of books. Yes. Then it was so expensive that altogether there were a few books 2, 3 books but it was enough for him in order to connect through this to spirituality. He didn't even need all those books he didn't have it before but from giving himself to these books through them he would discover spirituality, the relationship of the Creator towards people, not in quantity but in quality. That is what the matter is here and today it is completely different.
6. S. (16:23) There are two points here, the first one about what you said here, also for us it turns out that we have plenty of books in the Zohar and TES and all kinds of sources that are in our generation. Still we need a lot of books in order to have connection with the Creator?
R. I don't think we need a lot of books because all those things that are written in most of the books you need to attain in your entering spirituality, so all that you need you don't need a lot of knowledge, a lot of corporeal knowledge to fill your head with all that's written in the books, like you learn let’s say in the University and you have to fill your book with all kinds of bits of knowledge. Rather you need to open your heart and then what enters the heart, as it's written, the heart understands then from that you begin to understand the upper system, how it is operating on you and how you need to connect to it. That is the whole thing.
S. One more point, Baal HaSulam says that he wants to save the foundations, true foundations of Judaism and Baal HaSulam and Rabash were both intellectuals very scholarly and respected within their environments. Did they have such a period where their friends, books were also valued or was it only these?
R. Only a few people will come to what Baal HaSulam writes about it and Rabash, altogether wouldn't publish anything. It was after he passed, I published and printed his works no one was even interested in it.
S. There was like a great judge there?
R. Even though they were known, they were not respected, they were not respected in the eyes of a religious Jewish society because they engaged in the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of Kabbalah it is forbidden, it is forbidden for religious Jews.
7. S. (19:23) There is a common feeling within my friends, in my ten that to the extent in which they connected in the convention and tried to experiment until later they understood better the writings of Kabbalah. The question, is it correct to go from the feeling to understanding?
R. Yes, if a person is impressed it also helps him to greater understand to a deeper degree.
8. S. (20:22) I never understood why did Rabash keep all the religious customs when he himself understood that it was not necessary and he also had his students and you do keep all these customs?
R. Yes. Because until a person enters spirituality, he doesn't know exactly how to behave correctly externally, therefore it was worthwhile for him to continue in those same customs that he grew up with. They were not against that, they were not against it. Besides these customs there is like a little slight clue about spirituality not the way you dress whatever you're doing and then you obtain spirituality but there was root and branch.
S. Then why today when we are seemingly against it, that it doesn't help with anything?
R. We're not against, we're not obligating anyone to do anything.
S. I mean if there is something that helped him but now there is nothing in that that helps us, yes?
R. I answered you. Each can dress how he wants. Each person is free to act however he wants like people from the outside. The main thing is where the heart and mind of a person, write it down in front of you so you don't ask again. The main thing is where is the mind and heart of a person.
9. S. (22:49) He writes here in the article about the writers that are irresponsible with their words. My question is what is responsibility and dissemination to Israel and humanity?
R. There's the thing we don't write the books of Kabbalah, we just translate them we translate these books of Kabbalah to all kinds of different languages of Baal HaSulam and Rabash and what we write for ourselves, we write about the wisdom of Kabbalah and not even about Kabbalah, around it, where is clear it is from us, it's for the wide audience we want to bring us closer.
S. What is our responsibility at this point?
R. As much as we understand it can bring a person to Kabbalah we do it.
S. He writes aata the end of the article there is a time for the Lord to do, what is our time to do right now?
R. In everything that we write and everything that we do and all of our actions, we want to explain to people what the purpose of life is and what is the purpose and what we need to engage in.
10. S. (24:25) Baal HaSulam writes because the books were so expensive it was a certain protection for all kinds of false things to be spread in them. Today we don't have it, you see today it's not even it is all on the internet. What protects today the world so that people won't follow all kinds of nonsense?
R. People will understand more and more what is true and what is not, it's from above, not by some external definition, how much a book cost or whatever.
Reading “Time to act” (25:15)
11. S. (28:00) Where does this disregard come from, this disregard to all these writings and books, on one hand we say we want to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah, on the other hand we see people can buy a hundred books for ten shekel each and the value goes down, so where is all this disregard come from?
R. Are you talking about Kabbalistic books or in general?
S. In Kabbalah books and mostly Kabbalah books. You see so many books on the shelves just copy and paste, where does it come from?
R. In the end of the day, this needs to be revealed in the whole generation. Until then we need to pray as much as we can to disseminate. We too, whenever we have these special deals, we basically give away these books almost for free.
12. S. (29:15) When you wrote your first book with Rabash what drove you and how did Rabash understand you correctly, you said he understood you correctly?
R. Yes, first of all when I wrote one of my three books I wrote them while Rabash was still alive and I'll print them out as much as possible. I will also give them away for free to stores, to individual people as much as I could, that is it. Afterwards, after he died, I wrote my fourth book, something in Russian maybe “Attaining the Worlds Beyond” and this was already a while, a long after a while after he died. From all the books that I wrote, even today, as much as we are writing and disseminating and printing, there is no profit rather a loss, everything, I don't think that we are breaking even.
S. You wanted to bring the true wisdom of Kabbalah when you started to write you found your teacher and you wanted to share?
R. Well for sure, I wanted those three books I wrote according to what I understood from the Pticha, the main thing was Pticha and another few articles next to that, from Time to Act and the Giving of the Torah, The Arvut. That is what I have in those books and from that a lot of people came and then I went to the radio, I spoke there at the radio station and that is how people came.
13. S. (31:59) Can you talk about permission for the wisdom of Kabbalah to get involved in the flow of life of people?
R. Today everything is open, no restrictions about the writings of Kabbalah, no one can say this is forbidden. This is allowed, no one can say this is true or this is a lie, there are no kinds of people who can determine these things and so we are like this open market. You see that Berg can enter in with all of his red strings and all kinds of things, whatever, unless the Zohar and interpretation, that is how it is.
S. When we look at the general state of the world and it's clear there's a necessity in everything we learn to advertise, when you look individually with people, you converse with them, it is kind of like what we're learning is big, has involvement.
R. Yes, it's clear it's difficult for us to determine how to approach the modern person and talk to them about Arvut, the purpose of creation, it is not for him. Of course it has a thousand different things before it wasn't like that, a person would wake up next to his cows in his field, he has a little business. That is what he had in life and he had plenty of time to think about, today you can't. They are confusing your brain with all kinds of this knowledge or this wisdom, the world around you blocks everything, yes, correct.
S. How to relate to a simple person, a simple person in disseminating to, I'm talking to how to disseminate through him in a gentle way. What does it mean to be cautious with him, more responsible?
R. You need to enter into his mind and his heart understand him and according to that height to that degree speak to him, you can do it any other way and you can't approach any other way. You have got to try to do good to a person, don't kill him with all of your knowledge, gradually like a baby, we lower them onto his education, that is how we should relate to the regular person with love.
Reading (35:16) “But ever since the printing of books…”
14. R. (37:05) No one here is responsible for taking this book and say, hey go take this book and spread it to a thousand people. No, today no one even talks about he was there in the time where it was just newspapers and books but these are the things a person was able to take and today we have internet, radio or television, the air is filled around the person with all kinds of ideas, knowledge, opinions, it is a completely different time.
Reading (37:43) “Recently, their stench has soared…”
15. R. (41:11) This is actually such a heartfelt plea to everybody, that he sees how much the wisdom of Kabbalah is buried under millions and millions of books and who knows. Who knows what are the kinds of other media, that it will never reach humanity and then humanity won't be able to reveal it and the Creator will have to do it through wars and problems, great troubles, the natural disasters. Baal HaSulam really cared, he really cared that the wisdom of Kabbalah would reach people in a beautiful, nice and easy way, as much as he tried to hold himself he understood that he has to write and what did he write here 3 of these articles and that was it. Then they said no you can't, they forbade him to do it, he wanted to write about 50 articles, like the Giving of Torah and Arvut and others, he wasn't able to. They closed the print shop and nothing else left it.
So we will end here for the day. I hope we understood the message here of The Time to Act and we will continue and other things good luck to you all, all the best.