Morning Lesson December 3, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 23, 1985. On My Bed at Night
Reading Article. (00:20) “Rabash. Article No. 23, 1985. On My Bed at Night.”
1. S. (33:33) Why the light of Katnut [smallness] is considered a female? If it’s a deficiency, how come there is a filling of Katnut? We say that a female is a deficiency, a lack. On the other hand they say it’s smallness the light of smallness, it’s a filling in order to bestow?
R. It depends on who, towards what do we measure.
S. So is it a deficiency or a filling?
R. We’re talking about vessels. That is a vessel of male and there is a vessel of female. If they demand or don't demand fulfilment it also depends what kind of fulfilment and accordingly we discern, it depends on what a person raises in his prayer.
2. S. (35:11) What kind of barriers stand before us preventing us from reaching the goal?
R. Only our ego, only our ego doesn't allow us to advance.
3. S. (35:43) On what condition the Creator reveals to us His greatness and the greatness of the upper Malchut? Under what conditions the Creator reveals to us the importance of the upper Malchut?
R. That we surrender, that we want its control.
4. S. (36:28) [No translation]
R. The Creator awakens that in man, yes, correct.
5. S. (37:07) What is a drop?
R. A drop is the minimal space within the person that can be in order to bestow.
S. Can this drop be either in bestowal or in reception, either male or female?
R. Yes.
S. And that's a choice of the drop, is there any connection to the Creator?
R. The Creator to begin with exists in everything.
S. Because he sees that if the drop shows bestowal, male or reception, female then he gives the appropriate soul but it sounds like it exists in the choice from the get-go, so what does he add to it, what is the male there or the female there and what does the Creator add?
R. They thought, it's important what a person chooses, what a person is choosing.
S. Then the Creator completes His choice from above?
R. Yes.
6. S. (38:30) There are two forces in a person: the force of reception and the force of bestowal. These two forces have to be corrected. The question is why do we need to correct the force of bestowal if it’s a force that is already bestowing?
R. We are not yet using it. To use the force of bestowal correctly is a correction as well.
7. S. (39:15) Can we think that our intention defines our work if it will be reception or bestowal?
R. Of course.
8. S. (39:28) What deeds are considered insemination or seeding in the work?
R. That we want to use a desire that was first broken and we want to transition it to Kedusha [holiness].
S. How can I tell if the desire was corrupt, how can I tell?
R. Based on your preparation. According to your preparation.
9. S. (40:14) Who are those who build?
R. The builders are those who want to see a complete Kli.
S. It is not entirely clear, in the inner work who are those builders? What actions are they doing?
R. Connection.
10. S. (41:08) He writes that a person chooses either the discernment of female or male. Isn't the order such that the female is first and then from her the second discernment develops?
R. We’re talking about what a person chooses.
S. Can a person choose the discernment of male before choosing female first?
R. Man chooses what he thinks he should choose and accordingly he advances either on the left or on the right.
11. S. (42:04) Can wholeness and deficiency exist at the same time?
R. No, because we’re talking about man's feeling and according to man's feeling that can't be, it can't be both this and that.
12. S. (42:45) How can a person balance the quality of Israel and the quality of the nations of the world inside of him?
R. When he comes to wholeness with his Kli he then feels that the whole world is included in him and then he can understand what is the state the world is in.
13. S. (43:23) It is said in the last few paragraphs that man is the thought and the woman is the desire. What does it mean in practice in our work? Can we somehow test it, first the thought and the desire, how to come to a woman inseminates first?
R. The gender differences are irrelevant here.
S. I understand I'm speaking about it from an internality perspective. It says that the man is the thought and the female, the woman comes from within the desire, when a woman inseminates first. I understand this is the quality?
R. Yes.
S. We can somehow come to this to give birth from within the desire. How to do it?
R. If you continue to work seriously then gradually you turn from a woman to a man, not physically of course but in terms of your longing, your desires.
14. S. (45:07) Here it speaks of wholeness, it speaks of the correction we should do. Everything depicted here in the article is about this world in Katnut, in smallness, not about the universe?
R. What is the universe?
S. We learned yesterday or the day before on the topic of the whole, the space which relates to the universe as well, everything that revolves around the planet that we’re in. The question is: is the end of correction again on the Earth, on the smallness or it speaks about the entire universe?
R. The entire universe.
15. S. (46:13) Why is the soul of holiness in the posterior and does not shine?
R. Because it is still a very small Kli that doesn't have sufficient strength to receive some illumination from the Creator in order to bestow and shine and therefore it is considered being in darkness, in posterior and that's how it begins.
16. S. (47:00) When the male inseminates first is that a state of delighted in mercy and that's when the soul of holiness comes out of exile and then we begin the correction of the Klipat Noga and then we say that a woman inseminates?
R. Let’s say so.
17. S. (47:31) It says that we have to believe that there are people in whom there's no thought to keep the Torah and commandments even in the smallest way and the Creator gave us this desire, this yearning to keep the commandments and when we pay attention to it we receive nourishment and the force of livelihood. The question is: When we decide that we did merit it and we were rewarded of course we experience joy but why did he give this advice here that we need to rejoice from the fact that others did not merit and we did?
R. No, there is no such thing.
S. So how to understand what he's writing?
R. Read it again.
S. He writes that we need to believe that there are people who have no desire, no thought to keep the Torah and Mitzvot even to the smallest possible way in Katnut and the Creator gave us a desire and a thought to keep it even a little.
R. This is the most important part of what you read. That the Creator did give us that and we’re happy about that. You can say it’s egoistic because He awakened us and not someone else. I can't explain it differently here. In any case it turns out that there are people who got it and people who didn't and it depends on the Creator. Therefore, we should be happy in receiving a push towards spiritual development.
18. S. (49:52) It says here that the father gives the whiteness, the wholeness and a person feels the confidence that he can work and everything and then comes the side of the mother who gives the redness, the deficiency. How these two things beget a prayer so the Creator will give him a soul?
R. That they connect correctly to in order to support each other and be man, woman and Shechina among them. By that we are in a single Kli and then the Creator, too, rejoices and gives us a blessing for our development.
S. What does it mean in the work, wholeness? Let's say I don't understand what wholeness is, he also describes it. A deficiency, it says a person sees his own deficiencies, his own female, he's not in wholeness so there are two sides, the wholeness of the Creator and the deficiency of a man. What do I give birth to, how from here we get a request, from here the result of it is a soul?
R. A soul meaning a will to receive that at first is awakened by the Creator and then it takes on qualities in order to bestow and begins to develop and it has that tendency.
S. Meaning the wholeness that the father gives and the deficiency that the mother gives is not in order to bestow yet?
R. They have to work together, so as they connect and begin to work together towards a state where they are both in order to bestow this gives birth to the embryo.
S. The embryo is already the quality of bestowal?
R. Yes, their shared quality.
S. What is the Creator who gives it?
R. That’s the spirit that if they connect correctly, through their connection the Creator brings the spirit and the soul.
S. Why is when the father gives wholeness it’s called father. Let's say I’ve received wholeness, I feel wholeness, there is wholeness?
R. He feels that he received it from the right side.
S. Which is the father?
R. Yes.
S. When he feels his deficiency he feels that this is from the mother? When he receives the quality of bestowal then he says he receives it from the Creator?
R. Yes. We can read again, this is very important: “On My Bed at Night,” meaning that we go through a period called night before birth and it all depends on our connection which we choose and make the effort to advance.
Reading Article Again. (54:38) “Rabash. Article No. 23, 1985. On My Bed at Night.”
19. R. (56:02) Meaning the state itself is clear, a person feels that he is in order to receive he cannot come out of it with his own strength and only the Creator can correct that state.
Reader Continues. (56:17) “It is known that the assembly of Israel..”
20. S. (57:10) Meaning seventy nations of the world, seventy discernments of holiness, seventy discernments of impurity and a person is in between them.
Reader Continues. (57:20) “This means that each nation has a special..”
21. S. (01:23:56) There’s advice he gives in this article and many other articles to compare when he's in a descent to remember the ascent and from that gap to create a deficiency or a demand, so that tip isn’t clear, how do you perform that?
R. Try to do it and see, did you have a new deficiency born out of this or not?
S. Why is it irrational because when you’re in a descent the vessels of reception grow so a person is inspired by pleasures in order to receive. How can I then remember that I enjoyed bestowal in my ascent because now I'm entirely in pleasures to receive so how in the time of a descent I can pray for a time of bestowal, in what way do you get that inspiration?
R. As a filling because then you remember what filling you had in vessels of bestowal.
22. S. (01:25:06) Should I remember it when it..?
R. It will come.
23. S. (01:25:15) First of all the how does he know to begin with if he can aim to bestow in order to bestow or to receive in order to bestow?
R. According to his vessels, according to the situation, according to the opportunity.
S. He writes that his father brings the wholeness and according to the wholeness and importance he attains then he can awaken the deficiency of the vessels of reception and correct them.
R. Yes.
S. Before he attained those vessels of wholeness he can't know.
R. What does he pray for?
S. He prays for the vessel that he attained through the mother, through the deficiencies that he’s still not whole yet and he feels the gap between him and the Creator.
R. Is this enough for him?
S. It’s the greatest prayer he could give, what can he give beyond that? The question is how to begin with does he know whether to aim to bestow in order to bestow or to receive in order to bestow, to correct the vessels of reception?
R. According to the vessels he has, to receive in order to bestow is a very high degree.
S. Yes, it's the light of Gadlut may we get there, so maybe a different question. From a state of wholeness the father gives the white to the state of a deficiency, the mother gives the red. When does he know that he reached the maximum wholeness maximum importance that he could awaken in order to start awakening deficiencies?
R. When he comes to the middle line, when he can relate to the Abba ve Ima, father and mother to do their common work, their joint work.
24. S. (01:27:45) I always thought there's a slow development between Katnut and Gadlut but it seems in the article that we choose this or that according to our deficiencies, can you explain that?
R. We don't really choose the Creator chooses, we need to do our actions, actions.
25. S. (01:28:14) If you could explain what the three souls in a person means, soul of Kedusha, Klipat Noga, and the three shells of impurity?
R. Yes, this is what there is in a person, to explain? No I can't. When it opens to a person, he begins to discover it, to organize it, to understand, to feel.
26. S. (01:28:50) Any state that comes to a person he can actually relate to the type of correction he can do or something happens and a person can see it as if he's correcting the vessels of bestowal or to correct the vessels of reception in that opportunity?
R. I don’t really understand.
S. Let's say a pleasure comes to a person and he feels he's about to receive that pleasure so he already corrects the vessels of reception because he realizes that he’s drawing pleasure to himself but if he doesn't recognize pleasure, let's say something bad happens to a person, I'm just giving an example. If something bad happens to a person he can't correct the vessels of reception there, only to bestow upon that state, to bestow to the Creator, to be in connection with Him.
R. Yes.
S. What’s the actual difference between vessels of bestowal and vessels of reception, is it a person's attitude towards that state?
R. Yes, man in between, in the middle he seemingly determines.
S. From the state that he works on the vessels of bestowal, how can he go to work on vessels of reception or should it not be one after the other? When it’s a different state that isn’t connected, meaning if at a certain moment he corrects vessels of bestowal and he corrected them so now he can go and correct vessels of reception of that same state or is it disconnected?
R. This usually does not happen.
S. So, this or that, that's what I can take care of?
R. Yes.
27. S. (01:30:58) Where does the Creator get the contentment, in the three partners or only Malchut of heavens?
R. From any state there is contentment to the Creator because through each and every state a person advances to wholeness.
28. S. (01:31:28) The last six seven sentences are very twisted. If the women inseminates first meaning that he wants to correct vessels of reception so they will work in order to bestow then she delivers a son so if there's a desire to receive and, that whole part is kind of twisted and not clear.
R. Don't give us your impression but read what are you’re asking about.
S. I’ll keep reading: meaning a male light which is the light of Gadlut and the Creator gives the soul, the Creator distinguishes about the drop meaning about man's work, of which type he will sow, his sowing meaning preparation. That is as if he wants vessels of reception to work in order to bestow the Creator gives him a soul of the male called Neshama of Gadlut. If he is regarded as man meaning he wants only his vessels of bestowal to be in order to bestow he receives from the Creator light of Katnut called female. If you could explain that part it’ll be great.
R. When does the Creator give him a soul of a male and when does he give him a soul of a female, answer.
S. It seems exactly opposite?
R. Okay, does anyone understand what he's asking?
S. It’s the opposite value of lights and vessels. The moment there’s a light of Katnut he gets the vessel of bestowal, the female and if he gets a deficiency that has enough force to draw he gets a bigger vessel.
R. Of a male?
S. Yes.
29. S. (01:33:51) The seventy nations of the world is that the contradiction that we build a vessel from? First it's not revealed then we started bestowing with it?
R. I don't know, we don't give anything to anyone but that vessel appears through the contradictions.
S. How is that vessel built?
R. Afterwards we have work with one another, with connection with each other whether it's a personal individual depending on what kind of soul or a general soul.
S. We learned a little while ago that when we connect to the emptiness and darkness on that degree he's talking in order to bestow in the female part that hasn't revealed yet and the state that we build becomes a source for inner light, the darkness that hasn't been revealed where the five senses don't support it?
R. Yes, you could put it this way.
30. S. (01:35:44) What does it mean that the deficiency depends on the Creator, we feel the quality of bestowal upon a deficiency?
R. Exactly, the deficiency is revealed on the background of the Creator, of the revelation of the Creator.
31. S. (01:36:22) The question is about the Creator giving the drop when man wants to bestow and the woman wants to receive..?
R. We still haven't come closer to Him, this is why we need a little bit of patience and we'll begin to see how it operates on us, from this we’ll understand.
32. S. (01:37:08) He says that according to the importance he acquires in the working of the wholeness he will then have a place to feel a deficiency on behalf of his work that isn't in true purity. It's like a paradox because you said after the first time we read that “I see that you're not paying attention to what’s happening here, you don't really have it, let's read it again.” Supposedly we're lacking importance. How do we reach more importance, why aren't we all concentrated the first time we read, why did we need to read it again?
R. The Creator didn't want it.
S. What does it mean?
R. The Creator doesn't want us to have a real complete perception.
S. Why does that happen?
R. So we would ask of Him.
S. Look at the paradox, supposedly we're not working with the right intention, we don't have enough importance, that’s what he means?
R. Yes, yes, yes.
S. How do we get that extra importance?
R. Through connection between us and a prayer.
33. S. (01:38:35) In the last paragraph it says that the Creator distinguishes about the drop, meaning about man's work of which type his sowing, meaning preparation. What does that mean in the Ten, that he thinks about correcting vessels of bestowal?
R. Again the question?
S. What does it mean in the Ten in the work between us that the beginning of his thought is to correct the vessels of bestowal?
R. In the beginning we correct the vessels of bestowal and afterwards the vessels of reception, to receive in order to bestow.
S. Distinguishing between the two, is that correcting the vessels of reception in order to bestow, there's more work of annulment there?
R. Yes.
34. S. (01:39:58) It is a great article and there are questions about it so with your permission I'll read a paragraph and then ask. In “The Zohar” it says that Rabbi Aha said when we learn the Creator determines about the drop, whether it’s male or female you say that the woman inseminates first and gives birth to a male, that's why you don’t need the decree of the Creator. Rabbi Yosi said of course the Creator distinguishes between a drop of a male and female, since He distinguished it He decided if it's going to be male or female. My question is we’re actually getting into the level of intentions, that even before the embryo was created in the Ten, in the mutual work to reach bestowal, here the Creator already knows what that drop is about to be, whether male or female.
R. Yes.
S. How does that happen on the level of intentions, not in a forty days of conception?
R. I don't know where you're getting into the conception, impregnation, forty days. Of course the Creator knows in advance, for Him the beginning and end of creation are the same.
S. From here we can understand that the Ten can attain something even before they connect as one man with one heart?
R. The Ten? I don't know, in the Ten we don't know. Let's research and see where we can be ourselves.