Morning Lesson November 22, 2021, Transcription

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio

Baal HaSulam - Shamati 66. Concerning the Giving of the Torah – 1

1. Rav’s Introduction: The giving of the Torah with respect to the name Torah and the action of the giving of the Torah from whom to where, to whom does it take place, when does it take place? How can a person reach the reception of the Torah? There are many questions and all of that and this is what we will try to understand. In the meantime let’s read concerning the giving of the Torah. The matter of the giving of the Torah that occurred on Mount Sinai that's a question already, was there this occasion on Mount Sinai did they give the Torah there, what about those who were not there, does not mean that the Torah was given once and then the giving stopped, rather there is no absence and spirituality. Spirituality is an eternal matter unending meaning it always exists for each and every one when he is qualified suitable for the reception of the Torah. Since from the perspective of the giver we're unfit to receive the Torah. We say that the cessation is by the upper one. Meaning the upper light comes down to us, we exist in it, in truth there is no change in it. We speak in this way because it's easier for us to understand our connection, the matter of our connection with the Creator that he is taking care of us in order to promote us. In order to elevate us from degree to degree so we say that the upper light comes and it goes, and it's on different degrees however in truth it is not so. This is why he says there is no absence in spirituality. The upper light always shines, it's an eternal matter unending but from the perspective of the giver we are unfit to receive the Torah. There are conditions for us to be able to receive this upper light called Torah. We say that the cessation is by the upper one but in truth it is all from the side of the lower one. From the upper one it is impossible that there is anything which is less than 100% giving because that would be against his nature. However then at the foot of Mount Sinai, meaning there is a particular and a general issue. The whole of Israel was ready to receive the Torah, as it is written, and the people camped at the bottom of the mount as one man with one heart. At that time the public was prepared, they had but one intention which is a single thought about the reception of the Torah. However, there are no changes from the perspective of the giver the Creator He always gives as it is written, that each day one must hear the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Meaning there is a state, a special connection between the person and the Creator and that special connection is called the occasion of Mount Sinai. When a person rises above his hatred above his ego his will to receive, his hatred to others and then in that state when he has ascended above it, he is then called Moses, meaning that he has reached a light that pulls him, a state that pulls him from his ego above it. Then it is considered that he is in the state, the occasion of Mount Sinai and he is rewarded with the Ten Commandments. Meaning that he starts to understand, to feel to connect with the upper one the higher degree and he starts to receive from it forces and conditions for how to be connected to it and then he begins to understand and to feel and to acquire that higher degree which is called the reception of the Torah. He continues the Torah and is called the potion of life and the potion of death. We must understand how two opposites can be said about a single subject. That the light that is the same light that shines in such a high occasion even more than that, it has two qualities in it and when it comes to the person it can perform two opposite actions. To bring him to come to him as a portion of life or to come to him as a portion of death. How can it be that these two things which are opposite from end to end, remain and exist in a single place, they come from a single source from the Creator. He says the following, \

We must know that we cannot attain any reality as it is in itself. Rather we attain everything only according to our sensations because the upper light when it comes, well we have no choice, we speak in a way that we perceive things the way we can understand them. It comes through our senses and our qualities until we perceive it because it exists in certain vessels of perception that we have in our mind and in our emotions and therefore what he says is that the Torah is called the potion of life and the potion of death. We must understand how two opposites can be said about a single subject in such high matters. He continues and says, we must know that we cannot attain any reality as it is in itself, rather we attain everything only according to our sensations and reality as it is in itself, is of no interest to us at all. We don't even know what it is, we have no vessels for it, we have never tasted it, we have no records of it and without records we cannot say that this is interesting to us. That we belong to it that we are advancing towards something, it is just as we see it with the still vegetative and animate on the degrees that are below the degree of Adam, of the human. Each of them operates within its boundaries from here to there.

The person the human we see and we can see that a little bit in animal's as they develop, that they undergo changes in their vessels of perception, in their behavior and so on but also only in that range in which they grow, they develop and not above it. This is what he says we must know that we cannot attain any reality as it is in itself including the light, including the Creator, including the friend, including everything that we feel in our senses and the thing in itself we do not attain it. We have no sense for it, no ability because everything that we attain we attain it in our vessels of reception or perception. That a certain influence enters our senses and our senses according to the way that they are constructed at that moment, they give us a certain sensation and that sensation, then we can talk about it. However rather we attain everything only according to our sensations and reality as it is in itself is of no interest to us at all. Hence, we do not attain the Torah as it is in itself it is an abstract upper light, entirely abstract, we do not attain it at all we attain only our sensations, thus all of our impressions follow only our sensations. Therefore when a person learns Torah and the Torah removes him from the love of the Creator, let's say that it removes him, distances him, earlier, he thought of himself as closer and with a greater inclination towards the Creator, this Torah is certainly considered the potion of death if it distances him from the Creator and this is how we should accept it as a definition. Conversely if this Torah that he is learning brings him closer to the love of the Creator it is certainly considered the potion of life meaning everything is according to the feeling. The Torah itself, the existence of the Torah in and of itself, without consideration of the lower one who must attain it, is considered a light without a vessel where there is no attainment whatsoever. We cannot perceive it or grasp it as it is on its own if there's no impression of it because everything has to pass through our vessels and according to the discernments, coming closer moving away, good bad, it is all according to our will to receive. With respect to how I obtain it, how I feel it, according to that I actually measure that thing without the consideration of the lower one who must attain it, the Torah is considered a light without the vessel where there is no attainment whatsoever. Hence when we speak of the Torah it refers to the sensations that a person receives from the Torah and only the impression, the excitement. Only those sensations in a person determine the reality for the created beings. We don't know what exists outside of us ever but only whatever we feel, what is working on us we don't know. Who is operating, working we also don't know, we can know from what we feel according to our vessels. Who is operating, and how does he operate and it's all according to our vessels before the upper influence, passes through our senses and we perceive it and we understand it, we feel it, we can make some discernments in it, before that we know nothing about it. Does it even exist or no, and how? When one works for oneself, it is called low Lishma, not for her sake but from low Lishma we come to Lishma, for her sake. Hence if one has not yet been rewarded with the reception of the Torah he hopes to be rewarded with the reception of the Torah in the following year.

The following year could be in a minute or in a month or in 10 years. That is a year Shana is from Shinui change, so with the next new change he can be rewarded. But when one has been awarded the wholeness of Lishma, when he is in some mutual contact with the Creator, he has nothing more to do in this world, meaning in the present will to receive that he had. Since he has already corrected everything, he corrected his will to receive to be in the wholeness of Lishma for her sake. Then he starts to feel up to a certain measure the Creator's influence on him. For this reason each and every year there is the time of the reception of the Torah since that time is ready for an awakening from below, the awakening from below. We also need to understand that there is no good time or bad time, those times we can determine it. About this it says that Israel meaning those who yearn for the revelation of the Creator, they are above the stars and charms, that we can always determine in what states we want to be and from above there is no limitation. The Creator gave us a desire towards Him and all the rest my sons have defeated me. As much as we are able to defeat the egoistic desire that is separating us from the Creator. Therefore in each and every year there is the time of the reception of the Torah since that time is ready for an awakening from below. This is because it is the awakening of the time when the light of the giving of the Torah was revealed in the lower one. There was such a thing in general, in everything that we discover we discover it with things that should have occurred in our root. Later on in potential and later on they actually arrive in actuality. As we learn in the wisdom of Kabbalah itself that there are actions in the Rosh and there are actions in the Guf. The actions in the Rosh are called actions in the root in potential and the actions in the Guf are called actions that are in the branch or already in practice in actuality. This is because that the time awakens the giving of the Torah was revealed in the lower ones hence there is an awakening from above. Which gives strength to the lower ones to be able to perform the qualifying act to receive the Torah, for them to qualify themselves to elevate themselves with sensitivity that is suitable for the feeling of the upper light, as it was then when they were ready to receive the Torah.

Therefore if one marches on the path where the low Lishma brings him to Lishma, so that the transition from low Lishma to Lishma is called the reception of the Torah, then he is marching on the path of truth. One should hope that he will eventually be rewarded with a cheating Lishma, and the reception of the Torah. That his elements will change within him and that he will reach the intention, of in order to bestow, truly, at least to some extent. Then according to that he will start to get to know the upper world, the Creator. Yet caution is required to constantly keep the goal before his eyes or else he will march on an opposite line, since the root of the body is reception for itself thus it always draws to its root. The body the Guf of the person always pulls always draws to its roots which is the aim to receive, the opposite of the Torah that is called the Tree of Life. This is why the body considers the Torah as the potion of death. This actually is this small article concerning the giving of the Torah. Let's see the questions.

2. S. (21:09) You said before that we have to acquire a new sense of bestowing, otherwise the Torah becomes a portion of death, what does that mean?

R. It means that if a person is in the preparation, he hasn't yet reached Lishma. So that he will have at least the first degree of in order to bestow in his desire but rather all of his desires for the time being, all of them are in order to receive and it is considered that he is under the control of the angel of death because in order to receive is called the angel of death. Because everything that he receives enters the intention of in order to receive. In such a way it disappears, it is considered that it disappears in the ocean of Sitra Achra, the other side.

3. S. (22:25) In this article there is this sentence with the word records, as I understand it when there was an expansion from above downwards all this accumulation creates a foundation for the world to rise up. So it's not clear what is the connection between the records and what we have to do?

R. We get from above an illumination each and every one of us. The still, the vegetative, the animate and also people, everyone gets an illumination from above. Illumination after illumination, each and every moment, this is what is happening to us and then we develop by that. This is called the times, this is how the whole of humanity is developing and for that we don't need to be special. We simply exist and we see that even the still and even more so the vegetative and animate they also develop. Those created beings that were alive a few years ago, hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago, they are different from how we are today. So everything develops through the reforming light that develops each and every part, each and every quality in nature according to their qualities, according to its plan and we are all interconnected each kind and also in between the different kinds, between the different degrees. Everyone influences everyone as we say about man, he has a special influence about everyone. His hand reaches everyone and everyone's hand reaches him. So the question now is when the upper light works on us and it develops us, can we influence it for the better or for the worse?

So they say that the upper light, when it influences us, bestows to us you can influence it to the extent that you come closer to it. As much as you and it are in common actions, in actions where you understand each other, you're close to each other than according to how the light operates, you also want to operate. Then you certainly develop together much more than some part of creation that is not making such an effort. This is how it was for us in the past. Therefore Baal HaSulam writes about it that we have developed a lot more than other groups of people because we had the opportunity to connect with the upper light. According to our actions, that we were going towards it with equivalence of form with it. Meaning through connection between us and then it worked on us in a way that we advanced, we advanced well and we were highly developed until we ourselves corrupted it and spoiled it. That's it and it's the same here, the upper light influences us, it has a plan, the plan of creation itself and we can try to come closer to that plan and to execute it. This is what we try to do, this is what we learn in the wisdom of Kabbalah how to receive the influence of the upper light. Not instinctively that it simply works and we change without any coercively with no choice but rather how can we connect and come closer and identify with the upper light and even awaken it more than how it changes according to the plan of creation. So this is how we can do it.

In that the whole wisdom of Kabbalah is there, meaning it's the wisdom of how to receive the influence of the upper light. Either we receive it late, behind the time that we don't manage to complete ourselves or we try to be with it or we try to draw, to pull it's light from above. It is constantly changing and growing and this is how it brings us our old development. To each and every kind and at every time and so what are we learning the wisdom of Kabbalah? How to hasten our development by us drawing the upper light, by wanting it to influence us more. This is considered that it means that we have to raise such a deficiency to it such that there will be even more than how it needs to grow according to the plan of creation. It is called that Israel those that yearn for the Creator Yisra El, they hasten the times, they sanctified the times. Well in that there are many things but in general you know already what this is about

4. S. (30:21) What is the qualifying act to receive the Torah and how can we know that we are ready for the receiving the Torah?

R. The actions that qualify us for the reception of the Torah is mostly one, the primary one which is an inclination towards connection between us in the same style and the same form as we were before the shattering before the sin of the tree of knowledge. Because then we were as one desire and the upper light, the Creator, the presence of the Creator filled us, this is called Adam HaRishon in the Garden of Eden. Following the shattering, we need to collect those connections between us into the same form that was there before. But according to the desire that was revealed between us, as the shattering and of course we don't know not the form that existed before the shattering, and how to do it, however there are a few pieces of advice here. There's some advice from the Creator, from the Kabbalist those who did it, and altogether all of these advice about the correct connection it is called the wisdom of Kabbalah and we try to implement it and in that way advance to the point where the upper light will influence our connection in the right way. Later on it will fill us according to our connection.

5. S. (32:35) The quality of Lishma, is it above reason?

R. Lishma is in order to bestow above the will to receive, this is how we are in turn each one to the others in order to achieve connection between us, just like in the body of the Adam HaRishon and in order to bestow also it's that same action that we have to talk about, that we have to achieve. What else did you ask?

S. What should I do with my anger which stops me from going above?

R. I don't understand.

S. Right now if Lishma, for her sake is above the will to receive in my whole perception is within reason within the will to receive, it doesn't allow me to rise above reason?

R. No, one doesn't hinder the other, it doesn't hinder you, I can yearn to have knowledge and at the same time I'm yearning even more to be above reason. Which means to be above the will to receive and in order to be above the will to receive you need a will to receive and the greater it is you need to be above it. Then you will be a great person and therefore we don't need to get rid of knowledge, knowing or none of that, to the contrary. You need to pull all of these pieces of knowledge, you need to know everything and Kabbalist also write about it. It's unrelated to faith above reason, faith above reason is your attitude to your qualities relative to the qualities of the Creator which are the opposite. However it's unrelated to knowledge. You can be a carpenter, a shoemaker or you can be Einstein and it doesn't matter, as a shoemaker or as Einstein you have to be concerned about being in faith above reason. Faith above reason refers to the quality of bestowing that it is more important for you than the quality of reception. But it's not that you throw away the quality of reception, one who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater. You constantly if you go forward you will grow more and more in your qualities of reception and this is so that above it above the quality of reception, you will determine, establish the quality of bestowing. We'll talk more about it but this is how it is.

6. S. (36:23) It's not clear to receive the Torah and the upper light we have to be similar with our qualities to the giver, how does learning of Torah bring us into the potion of death, how can that be?

R. The Torah means the upper light which comes to us from the Creator. Actually it is the Creator himself. But with respect to us, the way we receive his influence over us, the way we accept it, what he does to us, so we are talking about a certain phenomenon that is divided into many phenomena. So there is the source, which is the upper force, and besides the fact that he created our feeling, I mean deliberately, I'm speaking like that he didn't create us, he created our sensation, our feeling, because who are we? We are a feeling, this is how I feel, that feeling can stop and then where am I, I disappear. So the Creator created a feeling, a sensation and that sensation is called a desire, a will to receive, a desire that feels that it exists, that it wants to feel itself existing even more. And this desire to feel itself as existing, we say that it rules reality and then we talk about both of them, about the Creator and about the created beings, about the source of bestowing and the receiver of bestowing and the entire wisdom of Kabbalah talks about these two, about the Creator and the created being.

The created being when he was created, he was born through the upper light, the created being undergoes all kinds of changes and in the process, it goes through, eventually we'll get to know him to get to know his Creator and that recognition can be only by attaining the qualities of the Creator. How else is it possible to know him, we have to make ourselves a collection of those qualities that exist in the Creator. The Creator is called come and see, Boreh, meaning as much as he wants us to attain him so we have to research it and take upon ourselves those same qualities. Arrange ourselves such that we will be similar to the Creator. That form that we, where we are coming closer and closer to the form of the Creator is called evolution. It exists in all of the degrees in all of our qualities. This is how we go through different discernments of the still, vegetative, animate and speaking from the beginning of creation. From the point where there was something besides the Creator. He created this small will to receive that was a little bit different than Him. This is actually the act of creation and all the rest that's already development. The Creator is from, the word Creator refers specifically to that action that operation where he created existence from absence.

S. So maybe it's actually good that we discover the Torah as the potion of death as we advance?

R. We reveal the Torah as the influence of the upper light on us, influence from the Creator. This light passes through all kinds of operations and goes through all kinds of changes filters, so that we will be as opposite as possible from the Creator. Meaning the created beings that are as developed as possible in and of ourselves but our development is opposite from the Creator, so the difference between the light in the darkness between his quality and our qualities by this we can reveal him more intensely, more powerfully in every manner, in every way. From the way that he initially decided that we have to know him in this way, we will talk about it. These are things we can talk about a lot.

7. S. (42:20) In the article it says that there is an illumination from above that enables the preparation for the Torah but will you say that from above comes the light and the Torah? How is that different from what we had from below?

R. There are many types of influence that come from the Creator through the created being. pleasant influence, pleasant bestowing or unpleasant, good, not good. These bestowals or influences are called time because they give us the feeling of time, the feeling of changes, the sequence of time or changes and we want to attain the source of these changes who is called the Creator Boreh, come and see. So with that source itself we have no connection but only by obtaining the changes in us. This is called by your actions we know you. In other words, by his actions, which he does, he performs on us and I am a result of his actions. According to these actions I have to research and come to a state where I know him 100%. What does it mean 100%? 100% of his influence on us, in it I discover these influences out of this I compile, I put together the image of the Creator, who he is. This research is called the wisdom of Kabbalah or the science of Kabbalah meaning we receive influences or bestowals from the upper one and we study them.

Through these influences we want to relate to these influences in a way that we interfere as little as possible with these influences, it's like a science. Say physicists, they want to be as objective as possible and not instill their interference in the research. Not instill any signs of their own interference, to observe the phenomenon as they themselves are clean the way they come and influence a person. In order to come to such research, and that's the main thing, because the Creator wants us to know him. Know him according to what we discover and come closer and to do like him so we can know him only by interfering as little as possible in what he does in us. So on the one hand I have to study all of his operations because that's the commandant, that's his will. On the other hand I have to study as deeply as possible but interfere as little as possible, meaning to influence it as little as possible. To interfere with, intervene with it, as little as possible, in any realm of science that we research when we study some natural phenomenon that's what we wanted to be like.

So when I go in there, I see everything and study everything but as if I don't exist. To be kind of clean, pure. To be in this pure manner in every operation of the Creator. So we want to do it this way, how can we? The Creator gave us ways and signs for it, we have to perform the restriction on the will to receive, we have to work above the will to receive, similar to in order to bestow. In this way with the reflected light, you will begin to know all my operations in a clean pure way as it is in itself without you intervening in it and he says even more. I have built for you a ladder of attainment. Where as much as you can gradually adapt yourself to being not interfering in your research of me. Accordingly you will discover me and do with me whatever you want, no problem. I'm ready and willing for all those things, I anticipate them and that study is called the wisdom of Kabbalah and this whole process we call it the process of the giving of the Torah.

8. S. (48:58) In the second paragraph Baal HaSulam writes, the degree of the preparation of the people for the reception of the Torah. He gives such conditions that people have to behold as one man with one heart with one intention for everyone and there has to be preparation from the side of the entire vessel, the entire people, so how can we protect those conditions on us?

R. In the development of this broken Adam from the system of Adam HaRishon, meaning to the extent that his vessels are through the influence of the upper light to the extent that they are drawn towards connection, towards unity, we study it as a process that happened in time and place and motion. We learned that there are times for corrections of the still level, the vegetative level, the animate level and the speaking level. We have come to a state called the last generation, it is the time when we correct the speaking level. On this level there are no limitations on the contrary. All the forms of creation should achieve complete correction each in its own way and each according to its own degree. There are no limitations on studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, the development of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the expansion of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the spreading of it. On the contrary we have to abide by the will of the Creator and in this way establish him. I may have misunderstood or I forgot the question can you repeat it

S. Baal HaSulam describes here the conditions for the reception of the Torah by the people and the people camped under the bottom of the mountain as one man with one heart?

R. Well that's clear, we have to establish ourselves as much as possible from physicality to spirituality, establish ourselves like a vessel that's going through correction from the shattering to correction. So we have to get closer to each other on the physical level and the spiritual level gradually.

S. He describes here the condition, that the preparation should be on the side of the entire vessel from the public from everyone meaning that if someone does not take part in the preparation this takes a part on the whole public everyone?

R. It depends on each one, you saw more than once what happens with people in this world each one has a role. Each one is born with different qualities, different conditions and each one functions, it's called go and live off each other. In other words either we are together instinctively, in one system, and in this way, I operate on each other, or we already understand that we have to be connected. Then we perform more to deliver, it acts towards connection.

S. Later on he writes that Israel were ready completely to receive the Torah?

R. That they wanted to unite the mutual help, mutual support, mutual connection with them together like cells in a single body. In other words, they make of themselves whatever possible. But at the same time it's what they can do and the rest is done by the upper light. That's the way it is, the corrections are certainly from above. Turn to me and I will redeem.

S. What does it mean that one must hear the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai each and every day?

R. That in each and every correction we have to come to a state where all the conditions we receive, we realize them by correcting the complete 10 Sefirot, the complete Partzuf, this is called hearing the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. We will talk about what are the 10 Sefirot what is Mount Sinai, all those things and of course there is nothing historic or geographical about them they are only conditions for the connection of the group within in order to receive the upper light so it will correct it this is called the reception of the Torah and being ready so that the upper light will correct it, will also fill us.

9. S. (55:51) Will the Creator give us obstacles, does it depend on us, how do we perceive them, how do we overcome them, our loving the friend is considered an awakening from below?

R. I didn't understand.

S. When the Creator gives us obstacles?

R. On purpose he broke the vessel of Adam HaRishon.

S. So he's asking, does it depend on us how we perceive these obstacles and also how we overcome them and he is asking if we do overcome them is it considered an awakening from below?

R. When is it considered an awakening from above and when is it considered an awakening from below? It's still difficult for us to understand, we really have to have the power to distinguish between the sources of awakening. I would put it this way for now, for our matter. I can't say what will happen for later, it depends a lot on a feeling and the preparation and on how much we build the common desire. You could say that if the vessel feels that it is creating a common force among the friends and that force is the operator and it begins to be an independent force that exists in and of itself, it is considered that they have seemingly and gendered from within them they are like a womb. They are engendering the Adam out of them, meaning some new quality that in them is similar to the Creator and then this already exists in and of itself.

S. So when we make this effort like you said to overcome resentment towards the friend and love the friends, is that considered we're drawing the reforming light?

R. What does it mean to overcome the friends? We have to overcome our will to receive.

S. When we put in the effort to overcome all the obstacles in some form, are we actually drawing the reforming light?

R. To the extent that we have this disposition to connect according to the vessels by this we influence the upper light so it will come closer to us, approach us and will influence our efforts to connect. This is called the light operating as a reforming light which returns us to the good state we were in before the shattering and to the extent that we complete our quota, for the time being. When we have completed our efforts to connect, accordingly we advance and likewise every time.

10. S. (01:00:34) If we don't interfere with the Creator’s influence on us through the restriction then this lack of intervention later accumulates or how does it work?

R. I don't know what you mean by not, the fact that we don't interfere or intervene with the Creator and creation this is called not existing, that we are less than the inanimate, the still. Afterwards we have the vegetative, animate, meaning we operate in some way more actively. What does it mean? The still is the still, nothing influences it, it has one quality to maintain itself. The way the Creator creates it, it doesn't resist it in any way. The vegetative already wants to absorb something on its own from the environment and accordingly to grow towards the Creator. This is why it's called vegetative. Animate receives even more powers to know reality, to be active in the perception of reality. The speaking level wants to obtain even the upper force, meaning his thought, his plan, his desire, his will, his goal and himself try to achieve that same goal. So the difference between the still, vegetative, animate and speaking in spirituality is huge.

11. S. (01:03:11) When we engage in the Torah meaning engage in bestowing, we can receive the light of correction, what does it mean to receive the Torah?

R. Receiving the Torah there are many things about it. It is called first and foremost understanding the plan of creation according to a person's degree. Advancing towards this state where you are involved in this program. you participate in it. This is called that you are changing yourself in order to receive the Torah, this is called learning the Torah, the learning cannot be passive when I know that something is written. Rather it is on our flesh as it is called meaning I perform all kinds of operations according to the light, the light influences me and I through my operations, influence the reception of the light. In this way we work together with it. This is called working the Torah practically just like working with a machine. When I work, I change something in it and I study what has changed and I change something else and I study what changed then and, in this way, we learn Torah. By this, when I influence the system as the created being and the system is what connects me to the Creator, out of this we study the Creator.

12. S. (01:05:30) What is the first degree that we have to acquire in order to bestow?

R. The first quality is that within the same will to receive that I have, I want only to bestow, to resemble the Creator as much as possible, to be like him as much as possible. So there are necessities that my body needs in order to exist, to be healthy. It is written about them neither praised nor condemned, you just have to do them. Just like if you want to drive a car you need to see that the car is working properly but not more than that. More than that means you want to receive pleasure already. So relate to the body so as to a machine you take care of it and nothing more.

S. You said that we also have to obtain the knowledge that it is important and above it to cover it with the desire to bestow, sometimes the friend asks the questions and you call him a smart-aleck, wise at night, so how does that work together?

R. If that student reveals desires only to know like scientists in this world, not in order to change, improve towards connection with the friends and by this cause the revelation of the Creator in order to bring him contentment. In other words he doesn't want to awaken the upper light so it shines on us. So he is called smart because he wants knowledge but at night because his intention is not to bring the light.

13. S. (01:07:59) How do we know in the 10 that we are walking on the path of the potion of life and not the potion of death?

R. He touches on it and several articles. If I am put going with the potion of life I feel elation, awakening, inspiration. I see before me what I have to do, I may not want it so much according to my nature but according to my connection to the Torah I understand that there has to be an ascension here on ascent above my nature which is called. This is called faith above reason.

S. What is felt in the ten at the time of the potion of death versus the potion of life?

R. When we feel the potion of life we connect. If we feel in it that the potion of life is the upper light which circulates. It's circulating among them connecting them. That’s the potion of life and the Creator awakens in them and in this way sustains them. To that extent they feel adhered among themselves and with the Creator, the potion of death is to the contrary.

S. Baal HaSulam uses the word potion, why?

R. Drug or a potion is a medicine that's why it's called a potion in medicine too, all the medicines are drugs. But the medicines that put to death it's hard to call them medicines. Medications are something that helps, it doesn't necessarily have to be a chemical pill that you take and you feel better, anything that helps you is called medicine. This is how lawyers use this word.

14. S. (01:10:58) What is making a good living, nourishment, in the spiritual work?

R. I would say recognition of the importance of connection because that's the instrument that is in our hands and that we can come to and change and live in it, this is important.

15. S. (01:11:43) With your permission we were discussing in the workshop before the lesson about how to define Torah correctly, the light that gives life, the light that reforms, how would you define it so we can agree on a well-defined goal?

R. I would say Torah is everything besides the Creator and the created being that the mutual connection is all called Torah.

16. S. (01:12:43) What does it mean that each and every day we have to hear the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai?

R. This is called that a person is under the influence, the upper influence and it is desirable that this will be a complete influence and this complete influence is called that he understands it in all of the width and depth, meaning in with it is how much it will be the upper light that passes through all of the 10 vessels and the depth that it ties them from here to Infinity. So it is desirable to make an effort to reach such a state.

17. S. (01:13:43) Do we only achieve the Creator and the light through our acting?

R. We have no problem in this, we never attain more than what the upper light can open up for us. We can ask only by what it opens up for us. We have desire, we have nearing, and interest only to the extent that it is revealed to us; a person cannot ask about things that have not been revealed before in some manner.

18. S. (01:14:30) It is written that we do not attain the Torah as it is in itself; we attain only our sensations. How do we appreciate our sensation or quality so we can march on the path of truth?

R. Yearn all the time to be connected with the ten because we can expand our vessels by envy, lust and honor.

19. S. (01:15:05) What does it mean to research the actions of the Creator and how do we do that?

R. This also belongs to the previous question. We can only investigate the actions of the Creator from within the connections between us and we learn the Creator from within the forms of connection between us. This is called ‘From Your actions we shall know You’. The actions of the Creator are actually His actions upon us.

20. S. (01:15:50) What does it mean that the Torah is the potion of death that distances us from the Creator and also that the Torah is considered the potion of death?

R. It is to the extent that we reveal the upper light. He is Good That Does Good broke the vessel and passes us through all sorts of systems. It turns out that we need to become familiar with the Torah as a Torah of life and as a Torah of death and the connection between these two states. What is revealed in the vessel by the light that reforms as the states that are corrected is called ‘Torah’; this is what teaches a person from the bad state to the good state.

21. S. (01:17:22) What does it mean that the Torah is the potion of death?

R. The Torah is the potion of death because we are in the world to receive which kills us, it brings us to death. It turns into a portion of life to the extent that we understand it.

22. S. (01:17:45) How do we see that the Torah brings you further away from the love of God?

R. We need to ascribe every change in us to the Creator and to the Torah. There is no problem. Don't think that the Torah is something entirely beautiful and pleasant. No, Torah is a system that comes to correct us and raise us to the degree of the Creator. The means to break man is by Torah, and to correct man is by the force of Torah. It is all Torah. This is the means that the Creator takes care of us in order to bring us through all of the events from the very worst gates of death to the very highest of states. It is all the force of Torah. I would say that it corrects and it teaches; Torah educates, it does everything. The breaking of the vessels was done by Torah, by the light. The correction above all the vessels is also done by the light and all this is Torah.

23. S. (01:19:55) It is written ‘it always draws to its root, which is the aim to receive’. Why does the body always pull to the will to receive, and how do we resist this pull?

R. Also by the upper light which creates the Guf, the body, meaning the desires which oppose resembling the Creator, to connect, that is all our actions.

24. S. (01:20:47) What does it mean that the light itself changes to the plan of creation?

R. There is a program to begin with and the upper light operates according to and within this program. Sometimes we can say that the program itself is in the upper light but then we are relating to the upper light as the light of infinity that includes everything, all of the states that the created beings need to go through.

25. S. (01:21:27) What does it mean that once a person receives the quality of Lishma he has nothing to do in this world?

R. It is called ‘this world’ when he is still in vessels of reception that control him; it is called that he exits this world only on the condition that he corrects them with the intention to bestow. He is not in need, he is called ‘dead’ compared to this world as it is written ‘the dead are free’. He truly becomes free from Torah and Mitzvot, meaning he doesn't need the upper light to correct him.

26. S. (01:22:30) Is the giving of the Torah one time or does it happen on every degree?

R. We learn about these things that seemingly occur each and every time. Each day there is the voice of Mount Sinai that gives the Torah. There is no more than what we learn. Don't exit the correct definitions of what is ‘Mount Sinai’, and what is called ‘day’, and so on.

https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/GwDFuR3M?mediaType=video