Morning Lesson February 13, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #33
1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we continue with this introduction just as we can see it is beautifully arranged very consistently. Baal HaSulam tries to explain very exalted things, fundamental things, these principles that are very easy and accessible as much as possible so that ultimately we will understand it fully and consistently. Let us continue. If there are questions, go ahead and ask. This introduction is the foundation to other introductions.
Reading Item 33 (01:15)
2. R. (02:12) Each and every day, we discover more details about our universe, how infinite it is, full of details, how each day new phenomena open up before us and all of this is connected to us. How come and what do we need it for? How can we influence it? How is it influencing us? All of this is very far from us. Consequently we need to receive an explanation, how we actually activate the entire universe down to its last detail and how we are all connected to it and this connects to all of us.
Reading Continues: (03:14) Item 33 “You should know that any…”
3. R. (05:10) Meaning that everything is created so that eventually we can reach emotional, spiritual connection with the upper force, the Creator and through all of those details even the ones that appear relative to our five senses and our five spiritual senses and that all those details are all for us, certainly that main thing is the revelation in the desire or more correctly in the intention to bestow, meaning and faith above reason. How much the created being can raise his desires from Malchut to Bina that is how much he begins to incorporate in those relationships that comes from the Keter. There we meet the creatures with the Creator and we begin to understand we are incapable of understanding using the qualities that we acquire, how it is all imbued with the right intention and the correct love towards us from the upper force.
3. S. (06:51) When we try to incorporate with a friend, the ten, in this quality of Bina, bestowal, what does it mean that we then incorporate with these relationships you talked about the quality of Keter?
R. We come to the connection between us, we annul the will to receive when we begin to approach mutual bestowal between us, we begin to understand and to acquire qualities of bestowal. Not merely annulment of the will to receive, meaning how we use it, when we can't actually cancel it but how we use it but is that actually annulling or canceling the act of reception. We begin to think, to understand, to feel, to search for and you ask for ways to acquire the qualities for bestowal. To the extent that you received the force of bestowal from above, meaning that we rise from our qualities of Malchut to Bina from repulsiveness and hatred, from the other including the Creator whom we cannot feel or understand. We begin to feel and understand our inclination when we feel that it awakens in us forward to the other and toward the Creator which is one and the same.
One clothes inside the other because the tendency towards the Creator is simply a bit more internal but all of it is born and develops out of our attitude towards the other. From that we understand how to relate to the Creator, how to begin to understand his attitude towards us, how we need to be attracted to him, drawn to him and where can we develop more more those feelings and impressions, each one from the friends, towards the friends in order to aim them at the Creator. To the extent that we are trying to do it, we are coming closer, we are discovering the true reality that is right in front of us. There are many stages to it, it takes time, many great confusions but it is all in order to not throw us off, but to actually take us out of the confusion that was created by the shattering. The shattering was created so that you will incorporate into one another.
Through this shattering and when we through many actions, over time through a great deal of confusion when we eventually want to somehow come out of this state, which in general is called the state of concealment and we prepare ourselves more and more for the revelation of the reforming light and it influences more and more each time. We open up another connection, another confusion, another conflict, another result of the shattering and that is how we come to Malchut and ascend to Bina. When the will to receive is incorporated in the will to bestow and support it and it wants it then the will to bestow is the one who dominates and the will to receive either annuls before it or even supports the will to bestow. This is our work.
The main thing is to hear what Kabbalists are saying about the path, more and more as it is written like a drop and a drop accumulates to a great sum and this will be a great success. We have to reinforce one another that only through these tiny actions that we do each and every moment and it can only be if we hold one another, give examples to one another only in this way we will succeed. Every time, each time when various desires, broken states between us, egoistic states between us, we have to rejoice that the revelation of evil is the necessary step before the correction. Hence a person needs to bless over the bad as over the good because it is the same action except we begin with the revelation of evil and we finish with its correction to the good.
4. S. (13:28) What is a child of joy, what does that mean?
R. Joy means that we give pleasure to the other, we and the Creator together. How can we do it and what can we do? We enjoy his treatment of us, for this we need to come closer to one another, connect and later from our connection we begin to awaken the Creator to bestow on us, to care for us even more and that is how we advance through the demand, gratitude and prayer.
5. S. (14:36) He talks about the whole ones, what does that mean?
R. The whole ones are ones that reached wholeness. The will to receive works entirely in order to bestow.
S. It sounds like the Creator needs the created being or created all of creation in order to enjoy, as if the Creator created it for himself to enjoy.
R. We could not really talk about the Creator in the intention of his creation, this is revealed later on and I'm also not sure just how much so I could not answer your question. If we follow what we see in this world then egotistically we give birth to children because it seems good that's how it should be, so we have babies. Why did the Creator create creatures? It is written to do good to his creatures since the nature of good is to do good. We do not understand yet that according to what we learn, the will to bestow is on its own and he seemingly needs the creatures in order to do good to them. Here we have a question in order to enjoy, is that what it is for?
So here is a question, if this is what it is about then it is not the desire to do good to someone but rather to himself. So these are things that we cannot quite understand, we could speak about it but without any understanding since our understanding stems from a feeling, we are feeling creatures first and then we have to understand the connections that exist between each and every feeling to such an extent that we begin to incorporate with the feeling, the understanding and begin to tie them connect them to one system and then we will talk about it.
6. S. (17:27) Who is Ephraim?
R. It is a song, Ephraim My Darling Son. We will talk about those sons another time. The sons who are born to the Patriarchs. Ephraim, My Darling Son, is the youngest boy and beloved son of Jacob. We will talk about this structure that is how those emanations are referred to. Those Sefirot are referred to, the forces are referred to as sons. We will learn about it.
7. S. (18:26) He writes here that you should know that any contentment he has in doing good to the creative beings, it is when they feel that he bestows to them and gives them pleasure so this means that under concealment we can never actually bestow contentment to the Creator?
R. Of course not, when you are in concealment it is a sign that you are not in contact with the Creator it is some connection from the Creator to you but not you to him. Meaning you lack forces of bestowal. The intentions to bestow you do not have them so what kind of connection can you have?
S. So this means that even when we make efforts to connect between us it still does not bring contentment to the Creator?
R. This surely does. It is like a baby who does all kinds of actions that he doesn't even know what, but his parents derive a great deal of pleasure from him. We want to reach a state where we will perform these actions consciously and with understanding, through the right process to truly bestow contentment to the Creator. We still do not have it because if we would have these qualities of faith above reason, qualities of absolute bestowal then to the extent of these qualities we would feel the Creator in a certain form of mutual bestowal with him. We still lack it for that way to connect between us and to connect with him.
8. S. (20:36) Why does the son have such difficulty appreciating the father, it is like in this world as well?
R. It is a result of the shattering where from the side of the parents there is natural love towards their children but there is no natural love from the children towards their parents. Only the egoistic desire to receive, to use the parents. The children depend on the parents and that's why we say they love them but it is not love, it is simply egoistic use of them and that is how it is according to Nature. Only through added education, explanation over the years over time we somehow begin to come to know and understand, feel an attitude of connection and love towards our parents.
S. Is there anything to learn from the corporeal connection of a father and son to the spiritual connection with the Creator?
R. They express it in this way but of course it is not the same way, a person needs to be dependent on the Creator, adhere to the Creator. We have to reach the same attitude the Creator has towards us. We should have that same attitude towards him meaning we cannot imagine how we need to change our attitude and we learn about this from the connection, from the attitude from the friends and each time we discover,, uncover a bit of friction, conflict between the friends in order to take care of it more and more and by that to acquire qualities, intentions, the correct tendencies towards the Creator. This is what we call from love of the created beings to love of the Creator.
9. S. (23:08) It is clear and we can also feel why we turn to the Creator with our request when we feel bad but when we feel good what is the reason to turn to him?
R. In truth there is no reason to turn to him. If a person would feel good in his will to receive and his vessels of reception he would never turn to the Creator and search for the Creator. Only to the extent that a person is incorporated during times of trouble he is looking for who can help him or he invents certain characters, certain systems and through religions, belief systems or he feels himself totally lost inside all of these systems that he reveals himself to be in.
10. S. (24:21) Is it possible to say that the shattering itself of the collective soul was made so that the created being will gather the experience that is similar to the Creator himself?
R. No, we cannot speak in such a way that the Creator is lacking experience or something but rather the Creator appears to us in the system. A system that is cascading from above down relative to us and becomes apparent relative to us so we come to know it, arising from our current state to the end of correction, all the way to the highest point. It's not like it belongs to the Creator itself, it belongs to come and see, in the sense of the Creator, come and see. Meaning come and discover, that is how we discover him to the extent that we climb the ladder of degrees from our lowest state up to His highest state.
11. S. (25:54) What is the benefit that the Creator created all the worlds for, what is that benefit?
R. It is a ladder of degrees we're in such a way we can change ourselves in each and every degree we have a greater will to receive and complement it with the will to bestow even greater so that to receive I compliment it with the will to bestow and in this way from this awakening the greater will to receive and me, more vicious, more wicked, I keep correcting it to a greater will to bestow until we reach the degree of the Creator. This is 125 degrees and total five worlds x five Partzufim in each world x five Sefirot in each Partzuf.
12. S. (27:11) Is it possible to say that we are as a collective in Adam HaRishon as an individual that the Creator was missing someone to bestow to?
R. Yes, we can say that we are parts of Adam HaRishon, when we correct the connections between us we correct this entire system of Adam.
13. S. (27:51) A few days ago I asked you if in different states you need different proportions between mind and heart, you said we do not have enough data for it, is there something we can do to have access to data?
R. We need to acquire all those bits of information through your work, you could not get anything unless you exert and build a correct infrastructure for feeling those bits of information, so do what the Kabbalists have told you and you will succeed.
Reading Item 34 (28:37) Twice [until the end of correction]
14. R. (30:16) Of course it has nothing to do with what we see in our world, the still, vegetative, animate and speaking this is simply how the degrees in spirituality are referred to. We have to go through them ourselves in our development, in our correction.
Reader continues 34 (30:32) “These are in fact the four…”
15. R. (31:09) Meaning that we need to go through various previous states towards the true correction and that is how we advance. That is why he says we are moving through the degrees of still, vegetative and animate until we reach the degree of speaking. In the speaking degree we will begin to understand, to attain the essence of our progress. Hence there are many things on our path we have to do but we cannot understand why or what for. Like a baby who does not understand why certain things are done to him and little kids who must perform various actions like grown-ups obligate them to do, to perform, but they themselves don't feel the need for them. But later on when we live in the world of grown-ups, we build families, have babies, we also do not know why we do it. It is simply an instinct and from learning the example from everyone around us, all that obligates us to do it. The same is in spiritual reality we advance through many places, many degrees until we finally acquire such intellect, feeling to understand the nature of the degrees and how to walk on them, how to climb them until we complete ourselves. Indeed everything is revealed only in the end through the degree of the fourth phrase when we begin to work with our will to receive to in order to bestow.
16. S. (33:20) Even though I have a ten and a world Kli, I am feeling a deep loneliness even though I have a ten and I have the whole world clear but somehow I feel alone and I feel insecurity that there is no one I can depend on there is no one who I can share my burden. What is the root of this feeling and how can I respond correctly to this state?
R. This is a very good feeling, a beautiful feeling that you are describing when a person feels that he has lost that he has no one to rely on he has no connection with the Creator and if that is the case what is it for what will be the end. All of this so reluctantly he will take what Kabbalists are telling us and he will begin to carry out their actions and their advice in practice in the correct manner. That is what we need. Try to do it. There is no choice, you won't be rewarded with anything serious unless you subjugate yourself relative to the advice of the Kabbalists. It is like a little child who goes to kindergarten or school. He is doing what he is told to do and doesn't know exactly why or what for. They tell him to do such and such actions with some little kids in a circle and that is what he does. He begins to work with similar kids, so that is what he does. We need to do the same thing within ourselves right now. Although we are all mature adults, we need to do such actions as Kabbalists recommend we do, like little kids because in spirituality it is even less than kids. We are not even born in spirituality. To be born in spirituality and inquire about the first sensation of it we have to start and perform such actions as they recommend.
S. I try to subjugate myself from you and learn from you. It is also true in person there's a place that no one can fill except for the Creator I understand that but we are making efforts to reach him, we are doing dissemination, we are doing actions in the ten and all kinds of little actions but in the end it is above me. I can not reach into my own powers and my heart is broken because I'm doing everything
R. Try. Listen to this advice and try to feel pleasure from the actions that you are doing right now based on what Kabbalists are telling you. You wish to reach a state where you feel, where you understand, where you open your eyes. Try now to agree with what the Kabbalists saying to you and do it not by coercion but because you want to by desire. Then you'll see just how much it opened up your eyes and you will see what is going on. Through such efforts you will hasten your development considerably. We are entering the state of practical Kabbalah. Not true, law is in the spiritual world but nevertheless such where we are preparing ourselves in practice for the opening of our vessels towards the upper light. Do what I am telling you and you will see how much it will advance you.
17. S. (38:39) When Baal HaSulam talks about the four levels of the world to receive, is he talking about proximity and equivalents of form from the still to the speaking degree?
R. Yes, of course in each degree you have additional degrees and more degrees all in all you have 125 degrees. When we go through the root 1, 2, 3, 4, degrees towards the 5th degree. The 5th we need to understand that as he is telling us here still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, 4 degrees. Where is the fifth degree? The fifth degree is one that includes all the degrees together. That is why it lacks a name. This is the degree of the Creator.
18. S. (39:50) Why is it impossible for the 4th phase to appear at once but only gradually. The Creator could have set it up differently and shorten the process know?
R. No, because we are building the infrastructure for the revelation of each and every spiritual phenomena. It is only the effort to combine and connect these broken vessels that do not reach equivalence with one another. They are not suitable, they are not broken. We look at all these parts and we don't know how to connect them. This one hates that one, this one is opposite and this one doesn't feel or understand. How to connect all of those? Only when they rise each one rises above his desire according to his understanding and habits according to each and everything that exists in each and everyone. If they rise above it they will be able to come closer and will be able to connect. They will understand what to connect and how to connect. What kind of extremes and what kind of things between them otherwise no.
Then they will understand that qualities connect they are influences not qualities they are influences from each and every quality there for each and every one can complete and complement the others to the extent that he wants to bestow to them and help them. It turns out those things that are opposite one another and are distant from one another during the shattering can actually be close, even tightly close to one another because they are in opposition, specifically reveals the extent to which they can support one another and help one another. That is what we have in all of nature. If there would be no connection between the opposite forces in nature, plus and minus, atoms, molecules everything from micro to macro, if it was not possible for them to connect. What else could it be? There would be no creation because this creation is to organize the goal, the process. To allow the creature to develop and manage creation and to become partners with a Creator. All these things, where do they come from? They come and we rise above our desires to be connected in our desires. Then the connection is not in the desires but in the intentions, when we wish to connect and help one another. Ask. There are many things here that we must scrutinize that will advance us.
Reading item 35 (43:54) “In Phase One of the will to receive….” Twice
19. R. (45:39) This is the will to receive in phase 1, that simply holds this entire creation together in some form and not in certain actions that appear there and demand certain changes and states. When they discover to what extent that they are in the incomplete states, that does not exist. It is only the general will to receive. That is why it is called the still. Indeed it does not have anything else to do except to maintain itself in the state of the still. This is the will to receive in the state of creation.
Reading Item 36 (46:33) "The vegetative is added to it, which is Phase Two...."
20. R. (47:22) This is the development of the will to receive from above the still. It is called the vegetative, because it is more sensitive to its deficiencies and demands. That it is lacking something more compared to its previous degree, the still and then it wants to discover it, that it wants to fill itself, it wants to have certain movement. Its own movement wants to absorb things from the outside and expel things it does not need the will to receive. It becomes more aware it feels more of its own needs. This is the development of the will to receive from the still to the vegetative degrees. Everything is happening within the will to receive but nevertheless in such a way where it requires an environment to some extent and wants to receive what he is lacking from the environment sun, water, minerals, vegetative, plants and also to expel any waste material that can harm him. Then the will to receive becomes needful of the environment connected to the environment, depending on the environment and this is the way of its development on the one hand. On the other hand, we can say but what kind of development is it? This Is a development that has two things. On the one-hand it becomes more developed. It grows up, he feels the environment, receives everything he needs from it, throws up everything he does not need but together with that he is dependent on his environment since if the environment is not good he feels himself dead. Each time the development, the gradual development on a higher degree each time brings the created being to that degree. A state where he needs the environment more and more. He is dependent on it and he nourishes on it more and more.
21. S. (49:55) The fact that the will to receive is discerned as greater that is again towards the still agree?
R. Again.
S. The will receive when it is discerned as amplified and increase does that mean it matches the still degree?
R. No, that has nothing to do with it. The greatest will receive, excessive will to receive is actually in the very last degree. On the degree of the still degree, let's say what is the still degree? What does it need? Nothing. It exists. That is how it was born, that is how it is made and that is it. It exists. It needs nothing on the still degree. You could say that from the other perspective you could say that this is the best degree because it doesn't need anything from others, is not dependent on them, does not require an environment, does not influence the environment and is not influenced by it. Let us try to imagine such a state. What can be better than that? You can say this is the best, universal, the most exalted and the more the will to receive grows and to the extent that it develops it will become more dependent on the environment become weaker. He will have to worry more about maintaining and sustaining himself, connecting to the environment in some way.
We can see it also in human society. People used to be dispersed all over the planet and they had no problem. Today because of their development each one depends on the others. Something takes place on one end of the planet and on the other end people already begin to worry and to suffer. Meaning that the development is seemingly in two opposite directions. If you develop you must bring yourself the correction. A complimentary act if you are developed than in the development you depend on you belong to thousands of details outside of you. You can connect to them. Such connections that will bring you to wholeness but you need to work on it very hard. That is what we have today for all of humanity and all of creation as well. Meaning the development is through the connection. If we do not connect, we enter a state of crisis as we see now that is happening around the world. That is it. Then we see problems, troubles, revelation of disturbances that will necessitate, obligate us to connect on a higher degree. Humanity that does not understand and is advancing through blows towards greater and greater universal connection.
22. S. (53.52) In the final correction all the aspects become one?
R. As one. We feel how, according to our source, we are completely opposite, not alike, opposite to one another none of us has something like the others and there is no chance of us being connected by nature and each and every detail of that desire that is revealed can rise above his desire to the degree of bestowal, to the degree of faith above reason and to be connected with all of the other parts. By that we come to spiritual wholeness although deep down we are infinitely distant from one another, the will to receive becomes great and over it is the greatest will to bestow where love covers all transgressions.
S. This is some kind of an additional special discernment or we do not look at it as another phase besides the 1 2 3 4 phases?
R. No. First the 4 phases are the phases of the will to receive and when we bestow above it the degree of Bina that surrounds us and embraces us like a mother who is holding all of her kids together and this is how we put together the correction. We invite this correction over us.
23. S. (55:59) We have a special state out of the four states, you describe every state we go through in the ten relates to one of the four phases so that we can overcome them?
R. It is possible, we need to learn more and scrutinize it.
24. S. (56:45) The still or phase two, if it depends on the environment then why doesn't it feel the environment, why doesn't it feel the others?
R. Because we do not feel that we need an environment. The feeling of an environment and how much a person needs it depends on the development of his desire, inside his desires are egoistic desires and then we see how we have among us such people who are capable of being connected with other people in order to succeed, to profit. They start businesses, being managers, politicians but they are still using their will to receive in order to receive. In order to bestow is already a very high degree when we try to establish it in our groups and it is starting from zero.
The more we advance, we advance because we do not want it but then we must and then we don't want it again but we must, we have to until through the studies and all kinds of events, by that we are revoking the reforming light and it connects us to some extent and we begin to feel the benefit of connection, the necessity for connection and each one who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater. Specifically, those who have an exalted soul, the will to receive is great, they resist the connection with others and it is difficult for them to connect. They are highly individualistic. They reject the connection and it will take them a long time to discover that there is no choice and that they must work on the connection.
25. S. (59:15) I wanted to continue on what you started that we need to go farther outside of myself and we see in the world that humanity is gradually developing, that the internet develops and so on, but the work for myself and for the others, at what stage will it be necessary to change that direction, to change that intention, to develop?
R. Only we can change our intention according to the method of inviting the reforming light. humanity will not feel such a great need for altruistic connections rather only from the result of the blows, the problems, the great disasters when they will finally understand that there is no other choice. We have to look for a certain form of connection between us that we are capable of reaching and to hold one another mutually. This can only be on the condition that we rise above our ego. So whether it comes through troubles, truly horrific torture that was revealed in humanity as Kabbalists write or it will happen from what Kabbalists are writing to us that there are certain actions that we should perform, that we will determine between us the actions of connection and these actions of connection will bring us the proof that only through the connection we can come to the good.
26. S. (01:03:33) Is it possible to say that if I want that in the ten that everything will stay the way it is, that is still degree with respect to the ten, if we want to grow then this is the vegetative?
R. Let us say that that is correct for now, as long as it is correcting you. This will advance you.
Reading item 37 (01:02:17) Twice
27. R. (01:03:41) That is what is special, when each and every desire has a unique life. That is why it is called the part of the animate species, the animate degree, like we see with animals, each and everyone has their own fate so to speak. Plans they develop during certain seasons and then they all disappear during another season and so on and so forth, whereas the animate, animals they move about according to their desires, they have individual lives, they have birth, they have death according to his fate and he also has this individual sensation they can feel each of them, can feel something else different, a private life for each and every one. Which is unique to each one separately, yet they still lack the sensation of others, that is what is missing in animals. Meaning that there is no preparation, no preparation to share in others' pains or in other's joys. Meaning that they cannot feel one another that is what is lacking in each and every species in the still, vegetative and animate and speaking, there is something special of its own, there's an addition and also there is something unique in its own that acts as a deficiency. The more he develops, he has the possibility of getting along and deriving more pleasure but together with that unfortunately, seemingly, he has the capacity to feel harm.
Reading Item 38 (01:05:42) Twice
28. R. (01:06:55) Look how much the will to receive that develops from 1 2 3 4 and the will to receive, look how it develops. There are fundamental changes from the degree to degree of development. How great is the difference between the animate degree and the speaking degree, Man, where everything that exists on the animate degrees is practically zero, if you can say it's relative to the degree of man. It is the final completion degree of the will to receive. That is why it is called Adam since he is ready from this moment on to resemble the Creator. Not that he is good but his potential force in him is such that you can arrange him, format him and it can become like the Creator.
Continued Reading (01:08:09)
29. R. (01:08:30) Meaning that animate could not develop. You can teach them all sorts of nonsense, how to jump, how to hand you certain objects but that is not a change in himself. Whereas man…
Continued reading (01:08:51)
30. R. (01:09:09) That is what I can do, it can add to its own desire, the desire that exists in him from the get-go. Additional desires, yearning such that he does not have right now by being in the correct environment, he acquires correct desires and he advances until he discovers the Creator. Or God forbid, it is the other way around, he is in a bad environment and acquires desires and qualities and moves towards the evil. This cannot be in the animate degree but only in the human degree.
Continued reading 38 (01:09:55)
31. R. (01:10:10) Meaning that there is no limitation to the development of the desire of the human species. It can develop without restrictions until the very end. Now the question is how we will look at other people, can see that he has a desire to receive on the still degree and this one on the vegetative degree, this one on the animate and this one is a man. Can we take them through an x-ray machine so we can see what type of desire is inside each person? Is he capable of reaching all the way up to the Creator without limitation or perhaps the most he can reach is the animate degree or even vegetative or even still. What can a person attain by connecting with others?
By complimenting other desires by this mutual complimenting of others desires each one has an original place in this system of Adam HaRishon by doing certain actions although according to my source, let's say I belong to the animate degree but there are certain actions I can reach the speaking degree, the degree of man, is it possible? Or even worse if according to the root of my soul, I belong to the still level can I even develop or if I do develop, I develop all the way up to the inanimate degree or by serving everyone on the still level, as the still level I absorbed from them, acquire from them their qualities and also to incorporation I come to their degrees. This way we come to something where as a result of this mixing everyone comes to, as it says everyone should know me from the littlest to the greatest, this we still need to scrutinize. But there are some interesting things here.
32. S. (01:12:57) In the ten, how can we detach ourselves from a wrong environment that we see almost devours us?
R. To the extent that I have connection with my ten I guarantee to myself more and more that I will develop correctly, this is our entire work. To build such an environment that will advance us because if we do not get incorporated in one another and our environment, in our ten, we will reluctantly, even against our desire, will have to incorporate with the general world. Then we will be in a descent rather than an ascent. So we have to ensure each day that we are reinforcing the tens.
33. S. (01:14:15) Is it possible to say that we entered the fourth phase of desire when we enter the point in the heart?
R. No, I do not want to be confused with you. We will learn it. Even reaching the first degree of being the still of Kedusha, holiness when I annul myself before everything that exists in this world and in the spiritual world in a way that everything I am still. This is a great thing. All the more so the vegetative and the animate, we will scrutinize these things, they will come.
Reading Item 39 twice (01:15:18)
34. S. (01:19:34) About the sensation of the others, also animals have a feeling of concern to their pups?
R. It is an instinct and to the extent that it acts within the animal there is a connection between them, afterwards there's no connection between them even the opposite.
35. S. (01:20:11) What is the connection between incorporation in the ten and incorporation outside the ten? Is there a connection?
R. Incorporation in the ten is as in the soul. There I receive the revelation of the Creator and to the extent that I work with Him with my friends in the ten, that I work tightly with them, then I learn more and more how through the changes between us we can discover the Creator in all kinds of different manners. Whereas the connection between me and the rest of the world Bnei Baruch is much weaker and with all of humanity it is even more so. It all works in circles.
S. Is there a connection between the incorporation in the ten and incorporation with all other humanity?
R. Yes, we will learn it at the end of the introduction soon. We will get to the end of the introduction, there he talks about it.
36. S. (01:21:52) There is a question he asks, how could he feel the Godliness? He says only human kind, but you have to reach Gmar Tikkun. So what will happen to the still, vegetative and animate?
R. The still vegetative and animate are incorporated within man. They help him rise through all of the degrees.
Reading Item #40 (01:22:34)
37. S. (01:25:21) Can you explain why our world was created only for man?
R. In order for a person by feeling the concealment he has in life. We're not the vegetative, not the still, not the animate. They do not feel this deficiency, this lack to attain the essence of life, the purpose of life, why we live. So this desire develops only in the human species over the thousands of years of human development and in the end humanity comes to a state where it asks what are we living for? Meaning it discovers the nothingness of the existence that we have in this world where we feel ourselves now. What's the point to live a little more, to suffer a little less, to acquire a little more and die? What’s the point? It is endless, it doesn't have the right end to it. So these questions awaken only in the human species and this is why a person in whom these questions awaken, why we live, what for and what’s the essence of life, these questions bring him to the solution, lead him to the solution. Okay?
38. S. (01:27:08) Question about the different degrees. Since in the ten we are as one could we say that in the connection between us we can reach degrees like the still or speaking even? If in the private degree I'm not speaking but with the ten I am?
R. We all have to achieve through the incorporation between us a state where we feel ourselves as one person. Who is similar, adhered to the Creator himself. Period. There is no problem, we attain everything by incorporation. No one has the ability to go through this path unless by incorporation. This is why the shattering happened, and by correcting the shattering we come to the complete desire in which we reveal the complete Creator and this is us, that complete desire.
39. S. (01:28:48) What is the connection between feeling the others and the purpose of creation?
R. The purpose of creation is attained through the sensation of others because in sensing others we develop our will to receive, to feel outside the will to receive. And then to the extent we’re incorporated with foreign desires by this we can come to a state where we will also feel the Creator. Because in the meantime he is foreign to us to such an extent that we don't feel Him. “So He will not be a foreign God to you.” So we do it by learning to be incorporated with one another. It’s a long and hard road, no one wants it, it’s undesirable, but we still advance on it and come to a state where the Creator too we can feel, to the extent that we can feel others. This is why it is written that from the love of people we come to the love of the Creator.
40. S. (01:30:21) How can the created being reach in the complicated life of this world to the speaking degree of Baal HaSulam?
R. I do not know but you see what he's telling you, Kabbalists come to it. The Creator developed the ladder of degrees by which we can rise and reach his degree. It’s the ladder of attainment, ladder of knowing, ladder of adhesion. So go ahead, you’re invited.
S. I’m trying but still we're in a world which is very difficult, very complicated.
R. Why do you care about this world? This world doesn’t interfere, doesn’t disturb you. This world only shows you how much this life in a corporeal world, how should I put it? It’s not worth making any efforts for.
S. This is exactly the point. How can I overcome, how can I take the forces to overcome what’s happening here in order to reach spirituality?
R. This is your work, at your age. I don't understand why this question even awakens in you, that you want to make a lot of noise and business and all kinds of revelations in this world. Is this what you still need?
S. In spirituality there is no age.
R. Okay don't confuse us.
41. S. (01:32:11) With all of the clear explanations, relatively it still doesn't answer the question of such a lack of proportions and the size of the universe, the time of the universe and us.
R. Because you're measuring it in your own vessels. You’re taking corporeal vessels and you’re measuring the universe with corporeal instruments and you, you skip over the degrees of still, vegetative and animate and then you measure man. So don’t measure man by the same yardstick the same gauge that you measure the universe because man hardly takes any space in the universe. You need to measure man in his essential way if you understand what I'm talking about. Essentially meaning what is the essence of man in whom there is a Godly spark from a completely different world, a completely different degree? This is what exists within man and this you can’t compare to everything that exists around you.
S. So there is no chance of even understanding Baal HaSulam?
R. That is a different question. Don't worry, you will understand, they will understand. Why? Because man is a feeling being and if he feels trouble then he has to look for a way to get rid of it. So they will discover and understand and everyone will rise to it, don’t worry, don’t worry. Don't start answering things that even your question is unclear to you.
S. This ruler, will develop in between us now?
R. No. The ruler, the yardstick exists but we have to discover it at least after we discover several steps in spirituality so it's clear for you what you're talking about. Why are you jumping beyond it already? Patience. First do what Kabbalists are telling you to do now and advance from degree to degree.
42. S. (01:34:53) Can you please explain these four phases, what they mean in our spiritual advancement?
R. Of course. One, two, three, four are four degrees of development. First of all we see them before us in this world, corporeal world which is still, vegetative, and animate and speaking. We see that they exist and also these four degrees are in our spiritual development when we begin to rise in our desire to bestow meaning in a desire to receive with the intention to bestow. Then we also go through those four degrees. This is what we have before us. The inanimate degree is a huge degree, it's not simple, we have to rise on it. We're not like the sacred still, the still of holiness, we're not there, and then the vegatative and animate. These are degrees before us, and the speaking. Just imagine that if we are in the inanimate degree, what is it? In spirituality degrees of spiritual development mean that we are in a restriction and above our will to receive. Meaning to be in the inanimate means that whatever happens to me, no matter what and however it influences me, I will be above it, I will be above it.
I will be only in the desire to bestow, in the intention to bestow. I will not descend below the restriction. This is called being still of Kedusha, of holiness. This is called already being in the spiritual world even if I still can’t do anything in it. But at the same time I am already above my ego. I still can't perform acts of bestowal with myself but to receive for myself I am protected from it, and I do not allow myself although I really want to. This is called sacred still, the still of Kedusha, of holiness. And then from this I begin to develop as the vegetative, etc. We will learn it soon. patience, have a little patience.
43. S. (01:38:14) According to what you said on the vegetative degree, how does the environment influence the will to receive and how the will to receive influences the environment?
R. The environment hardly influences me on the still, vegetative, animate and speaking, the environment hardly influences. But our group influences, our environment, the world group influences me. Humanity doesn’t influence. I understand that I have to somehow be incorporated, help them, disseminate to them, but nothing more.
44. S. (01:39:06) Is the person's desire predetermined, whether it will be on the degree of the vegetative, still, animate or speaking or in every person all desires will develop?
R. Each one will develop all the NRNHY that was prepared for him, that he has within him, that essential part of him which is himself and parts where he is incorporated with others. But he has to complete himself with all the NRNHY.
45. S. (01:40:05) Is there incorporation between desires and different degrees?
R. Of course, between the degrees and within the degree.
46. S. (01:40:22) Is it possible and important to determine in the ten what each degree is friend is on?
R. We don’t relate to it, we don’t look into it, we accept everyone as being on the same level and wanting to be incorporated. So that each one can help the others.
47. S. (01:40:51) Are the degrees still, vegetative and animate nature called Creator?
R. We will come to it and see and then we won't have these questions. First, we should come to stand before these questions and practice and then we will ask.
48. S. (01:41:23) Are the degrees in the ten determined by a need for connection?
R. Yes, of course, not only mutual dependence but one system. One system is what we discover.
49. S. (01:41:44) Is the attitude from the Creator described in item 33 is that what we need to feel towards the group?
R. We need to go through all the stages he tells us about here.
50. S. (01:42:07) The more I work in the ten and do what is needed I understand how much I don't feel the friends and humans all together. Will that ever change in the future?
R. It will and it won't, it will always be like. The more I advance the more I feel myself as deficient in my advancement and at the same time I am advancing. This is how we walk on two legs, deficiency and filling, deficiency and filling. This is how we advance.
51. S. (01:42:48) You told a friend from Turkey to try and feel pleasure in his deeds. When I feel the pleasure from bestowing to the ten and making the effort to connect them I feel I fall into the will to receive because of the pleasure. What should I do? How to distinguish between pleasure from bestowing and pleasure from receiving?
R. The important thing is to feel oneself closer to the friends and by this you're certain to resolve every situation correctly.
Reading Item # 41 (01:43:49)
52. R. (01:46:19) I think we spoke many times about these things. Five worlds: Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya and accordingly the general light developed in NRNHY from below upwards. And their signs: the tip of the Yud, the world of Adam Kadmon and Yud, Hey, Vav, Hey are the worlds of Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya. Basically clear things but let's answer our friends' questions.
53. S. (01:47:00) Is there any other being in the world who acts to get pleasure not content with taking in order to live?
R. Besides man, none. Each one functions only according to it’s own program. Its inexorable, rigid program, unchanging, and only man develops by developing his own program by himself. He's got the root of the soul but his development he himself determines. Of course that too is rooted in the root of the soul but still he develops, develops alone.