Morning Lesson November 14, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - Shamati 58. Joy Is a “Reflection” of Good Deeds
1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we are seeing a very unique phenomenon: people who are coming to spirituality, to the wisdom of Kabbalah to learn about what has to do with the soul. At first, they are really inspired, excited and then they go into some state where they do not know what is going on with them. They go into an inner stoppage and this might take a long time. Here we have to understand this phenomenon, why such a person who comes so excited having found this wisdom and such feelings, thoughts and questions about creation, and answers about creation. Even though he might not understand all of it but still, it’s all in front of him. It is like he comes to the shore, the ocean is in front of him and he can’t drink the whole ocean all at once, but it is already in front of him, he is already in contact with something. There is no more need to search for something because it is all there. And here we see that our advancement in knowing the components of the revelation of the Creator don't awaken so much joy and excitement within us. Why? Because it is all dependent on the intention. Are we really working on this to achieve a spiritual vessel meaning bestowal, and if we are in some degree of bestowal, we would surely be joyful in that vessel. If we haven't yet reached that vessel of bestowal then we are in all sorts of states where we want to escape, we block ourselves, we feel like moving away from this or falling asleep, because spirituality the more we even just manage to hear what it is, and not even know what it is, it is repelling to us. It’s bestowal, love of others, devotion, something that is opposite to our nature. So how can we nevertheless aim ourselves correctly towards the goal? Even though we do not want it we acknowledge in a healthy manner that we do not want it, that we cannot do it, and what should we do in relation to that? And this is a big discernment that if we feel joy than it has to be a result of good deeds. Let's read.
Reading Shamati 58. (4:28) (twice)
2. R. (7:05) We should read it again. It says read even hundred times until somehow the matter in general becomes evident.
3. R. (10:01) Meaning that even the slightest smallest state, if we have some contact with godliness, if we want it to remain and if we are willing to remain in that state for eternity, it becomes true spirituality, and then we advance.
4. S. (10:46) How many times should a person ask for the burden of the kingdom of heaven to stay for eternity?
R. All the time, non-stop. Because whatever we receive as we want to receive spirituality, it is only from above and always by first proceeding the MAN, the deficiency for it. So we have to make sure that we always have a deficiency towards the Creator, that we want to discover Him, to discover the spiritual state in order to give Him contentment, and more than that we do not need. This is called longing for eternity.
5. S. (11:50) What is the issue of the Klipot it speaks about at the beginning of the article?
R. Klipot, shell is what attracts us not to bestow through the group to the Creator. We have a very simple path: me, the group, the Creator. And the Creator is not outside of the group, it appears within the group. So it’s me and the group and the extent I am included in it, I assimilate in it, this is how I complete my entire path. A lot is written about it in the book of Zohar and other places. So this is how we need to determine our state. Either me separately or us together, and together means that in that togetherness resides the upper force which designs my group and draws me into it, and as I am included in that vessel, I am joyful.
S. Sometimes when the state of joy is revealed in the group you want to open it up and go deeper inside of it. Is this a correct approach because it seems that we are making a flaw here somewhere?
R. I’ll tell you from my experience. I spent a long time many times being in connection with the group and outside the connection with the group, and I would demand from Rabash explanations why it is happening. He would also always say one thing. Just keep going, anything but leave. This is the most final principal thing, that you do not let go of the path. You cannot do something today, in a month, in 2 months you will see changes, but at least maintain the external framework. That is the group, the gathering of friends, the lessons of course whether it is conventions or meals, whatever you can. Physically you have to keep that framework, because with respect to the physical state there is nothing to scrutinize and there is no discount. Now how much you can join your heart, your longing and your ability? This is a different thing. That is already a spiritual issue according to how much the Creator sets up these disturbances on your path trying to strengthen you, teach you in different ways.
S. If we have a meeting in the 10 and let's say it's 30 minutes long and in this meeting a really joyous state is revealed and we want to extend this state so we push the meeting to go longer. We do this either for selfish benefit or is this something useful, spiritual?
R. This is not important. Don't try to start scrutinizing whether it’s egoistic or not because by this you measure the connection and the joyfulness from connection in some intellectual way, and this is not worthwhile. It is recommended just to continue as much as you can on one hand. On the other hand if you decide about half an hour, then make it half an hour, OK, extend it 5 more minutes but no more than that. Because then it just becomes more than necessary, not recommended. The main thing is to be grateful that at the end of gathering, we should all be grateful to the Creator for bringing us to that connection and giving us the opportunity to connect. And we are thankful to Him, and we hope that we come closer to Him and we truly hope that He will appear in our connection.
6. S. (17:16) What is our assignment? To find the point of adhesion with the Creator each time we lose it we try to locate it again. Is this what he means by eternity?
R. Yes, to always to be seeking and the Creator will each time tear our connection, disconnect, and then we have to look for it again, and then He disconnects and then we look for it again, and this is called the ins and outs. And by many actions like that we each time correct a new broken record. And this is how we advance. So do not let go but the other way around. It says the Torah comes out of Zion. Zion refers to the word Yetzia, exit. And specifically from the exits when we are thrown out of the spiritual sensation and we are then drawn back to it, specifically from the Creator throwing us out and then we come back to Him in this way we correct the shattered records that come from the shattered vessel of Adam HaRishon. And each one corrects what he has to correct, and the faster he does that the faster he comes to the final correction. As we read with regards to an earlier teacher who went through 400 ups and downs in a minute, so we have to try to understand the necessity of being thrown out, and then we come back and then we are thrown out again, and we come back again and this is our work. After a few such actions we come to a more scrutinized connection, something clearer in our thought and feeling, and we advance. And as we advance further there are greater disconnects because we’ve achieved some height and then we fall from it. So the descents each time are greater than the ascents because the descents reveal to us the new vessels, the deficiencies. And the ascents are only in order to correct and determine the contact with spiritually, so the ascent is very short. The descent is typically longer but we have to resist it, we have to resist the length of the descent and as quickly as possible not bear the distance from the group and spirituality and work on it intensively. In short, to always be working on attaining the connection between us and the Creator, this should be our constant direction.
7. S. (20:51) No translation
R. The more we receive reason, we find reason, then the next time we have to go even higher above reason. This is always the case. So when we go above reason it is not that we do not require reason, on the contrary, we acquire the reason of Kedusha, of bestowal. And this is how we advance. So if we go above reason, we become more sensitive, wiser and we discover more in the vessel called above reason, but we actually have more reason of Kedusha, so we understand both corporeality and spirituality, and what we need we receive.
8. S. (22:11) We experience ascents and descents and we raise a MAN and as a result the Creator sentences us. But how here in this height do we receive the sacred Malchut?
R. To accept the Malchut of heaven for eternity means that we want only that to manage us. Only the connection between us and the Creator should appear according to our expectation in our connection. This is what should be in front of us when I look through the group at the Creator, like when you are shooting with a rifle. You have your eye, you have the first aim and the second aim, because one is not enough, you need to have three points, your eye and then two aims and then you can align yourself. So this is how it turns out that I come closer to the friends. I want to unite with them and in the connection with them I want to identify the Creator. This is called Israel, the light and the Creator are one. The one who yearns is called Israel, straight to the Creator. The Torah is the mechanics, the Kli, the vessel through which I advance. More accurately it is the light that reforms and blessed be refers to the Creator. So in that exact way I am in contact with him.
S. This is what we do each time, this is the cycle of work. But he writes that sometimes it happens that we do not receive it for eternity.
R. As much as we can. Look, we cannot measure if it is for eternity or not, whether it is real or how I feel. At least for now I want it to be like that, and that’s enough.
S. It turns out that it is up to me, it is my decision that I want to have it for eternity?
R. You only. It is up to you only, it is all according to man's decision.
9. S. (25:11) In the beginning you interfered in the workshop and said the friends were in a dead end. What is the test to check because I don’t see any joy?
R. First of all you look at your state and you see that you do not have what you want, so you are unhappy, you are not satisfied with the Creator, with the group, with the teacher, with wherever it is you have fallen into. Meaning your egoistic attitude corrupts everything. And why do you feel it like that? Specifically for you to turn upside down. So try, and we talked about it before. Try in each and every moment to invert your thinking, not about yourself but about the Creator. That you are willing to do something for Him, for His benefit, to make him happy. Try. In all kinds of states, in all kinds of actions you do, try to make it so that are doing it in order to bring Him contentment. Make these exercises, start practicing it and you will see how it pulls you out of that hole you are in now. You will see that by that you begin to have some illumination, some joy, some direction, some high spirits. So try it. I spoke about it a few months ago already.
10. S. (27:26) How is this joy expressed towards the friends, to come with high spirits?
R. You always need to approach the friends with good spirits and try to awaken them even though you internally feel opposite to this. But towards the friends you have to treat them like that, that’s it. Always try to awaken them.
11. S. (28:03) So the entrances and exits are not permanent but the permanent work we check like we check the illumination of a light bulb?
R. It is right.
12. S. (28:34) The article says that the moment the joy comes we have to learn the words of the Torah so the reason of Torah would be revealed?
R. The upper light is called Torah and for it to appear we need our own vessel for it that would be also in some form of bestowal. And then according to the equivalence between the light and the Kli the light called Torah will appear in the Kli on our part which is called the will to receive with an inclination to bestow.
S. If the light and the words of Torah are light how can we learn this?
R. It says that you have to write it on your heart. Meaning you do not study it in your intellect, you learn it from how much you change your own qualities, and that is how you learn in a practical way, not intellectually but in practice, in your feeling, your relation towards the friends.
13. S. (30:05) Is it correct to say that the more we nullify relative to what we receive from our teacher then we can use the force of the teacher and the force of the 10?
R. If you realize what the teacher tells you, and our teacher we should understand is Baal HaSulam and Rabash – I am just the communicator– so if we follow what they wrote to us, we then use their strength and we advance.
14. S. (30:51) We learn that ‘everything is clarified in the thought’, and in the article it says, “joy is revealed through MAN, which is good deeds”. What are the deeds, and why through deeds and not through thoughts?
R. “Deeds,” meaning that we change our intentions from in order to receive to in order to bestow, this is called a good deed.
S. Typically after a successful act or deeds we receive additional coarseness and lose a degree so how does it sit with joy?
R. In order for us to go forward, to advance; and in order to get used to being joyful in all actions in ups and downs.
15. S. (31:52) Does the joy come immediately as a result of good deeds or does it come at other times?
R. When you manage to organize yourself to be in the correct attitude both to ascents and descents since you receive everything from the Creator – none else besides Him – then you feel joy without any stop. We have to reach such joy where all, both the ascents and descents are joyful for us. ‘Joyfulness’ is the vessel, it is the vessel because you justify the Creator, you aim to give to Him, you do not demand anything for yourself and this is basically expressed in this single word, ‘joyfulness.’
S. Is there a way to know if it is a joy from sanctity or from the Sitra Achra, other side, how can we tell?
R. To the extent that you can be in that permanently in the lessons with the friends and this is ‘joy from Kedusha,’ ‘joyfulness from good deeds,’ from the connection with the friends from actions of bestowal.
16. S. (33:23) What should be the preparation in the 10 in order to reach a common joy and an ascent?
R. Talk about it between you, discuss it and clarify it, it’s all in front of you. Most importantly, you have to discuss the importance of the goal, the importance of our state. Every person that is with us is weighed, measured against hundreds and millions of other people, so I think about this.
17. S. (34:25) What is ‘the burdening of the kingdom of heaven’ the person undertakes?
R. ‘The burden of the kingdom of heaven’ is our work that we have to clarify what belongs in order to receive and what belongs to in order to bestow and we have to sort this out – this is Klipa and this is Kedusha – and we have to ask the Creator as we cannot do this alone to take up on ourselves the actions of bestowal, of Kedusha, and this is possible only by always praying to the Creator and asking Him for these forces, the strength, because we have nothing that can be in Kedusha so we turn to the Creator and we receive the strength of Kedusha and accepting this process is called, accepting the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven.
18. S. (35:30) Why is the Kingdom of Heaven considered a burden?
R. Because we are happy about it. It’s not that we do not want it but we are happy that we are under this pressure and it obligates us to advance spiritually because if we do not have any pressure on us through different events that happen to us then according to our nature, we would never come closer to spirituality. So it is actually very important to us to feel this burden of the kingdom of heaven – as we call it, “as an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load.” We want it, it is still not there yet but this happens afterwards, when we start to love the difficulty because according to the measure of the level of the difficulty, we recognize the Creator. According to the coarseness of the Kli, we reveal the higher force.
19. S. (36:38) What does it mean “the Creator of the person where he is”?
R. The Creator is the judge and he judges the person according to the general state the person is in which we do not know. This has to do with who we are, what we are, what we’ve went through, what exact point of the shattering we come from in the soul of Adam HaRishon – these are all calculations of the Creator – but most importantly, this is what we have to be inclined to connect to giving and connection between us. We have to understand that there’s no games we can play with the Creator – all our games are only between us. That if we try to be connected to each other by this we’ve built the spiritual vessel because we do this above our ego. If we try to search for how we come closer to the Creator in this vessel then we, somewhat, establish this vessel which has some connection because we no longer just rejecting each other, we’re also trying to connect to the Creator and position ourselves to Him.
20. S. (38:24) Can we summarize what are the acts of sanctity to which we can reveal joy?
R. The actions are only the connection between us, only the connection between us. It is written that “a desolate city cannot be ruined,” meaning that if there is a desolate city where the people in it are huge criminals but if they are connected between them – just like you see in gangs or in the mafia as they unite because they have an important goal of a robbing or stealing someone something. So if they are connected, these criminals in the city, then you can’t go and conquer that city, you cannot because there is a Creator over the city. But they are criminals? It does not matter that they are criminals, the force of connection they generate between them is more important than the actions they do. Between themselves they are not criminals, they are righteous, they want to justify each other, connect to each other, achieve love to each other because they know otherwise, they cannot reach the goal, and their goal is to rob. But still it is connecting them and then there is Kedusha among them because even though it is in order to receive in a crude manner, they are still somewhat compatible to the Creator through their connection. So the main thing between us is the connection
21. S. (40:32) In the state where there’s no taste in the work and there is no force of life, no joy, do we look for the egoistic feelings that the group can give or agree with the state and remain in it?
R. When there is no taste in the lesson then you need to look for a taste in dissemination, in work in the group in different ways, this is what I recommend. But under no circumstances to leave anything – not the lessons, not the group work. The lessons or meetings, this has to be just ongoing, mechanically.
22. S. (41:28) In the sources it says that when joy comes to the person it is recommended to read the Holy Sources, why is this?
R. Because they bring the light that reforms, they bring light to the person. I am recommending you read during the day when you meet together a few times, the articles we read in the morning during the lesson, and this will fill you up. This is good both for today and for the next day, what we’re going to learn. You receive those materials in advance so you can also read in advance what we are going to learn the day after. Most and the best thing is to tie ourselves to the text from Baal HaSulam and Rabash.
23. S. (42:37) To make a distinction between corporeal and spiritual joy, it is not clear?
R. Corporeal joy is from reception, spiritual joy is from bestowal, that’s it. In addition, corporeal joy is from separation – that I raise myself as opposed to others – spiritual joy is from connecting and each one wants to see himself as lower than the others. Meaning the difference is both in the state of the Kli and the fulfilment that comes into the Kli.
24. Rav reading: (43:53) “Joy is the reflection of good deeds. If the deeds are of Kedusha, holiness, hence Joy appears. However, we must know that there is also a discernment of Klipa, shell. In order to know if it is Kedusha, the scrutiny is in the reason. In Kedusha there is reason and in the Sitra Achra, there is no reason since ‘another God is sterile and does not bear fruit.’ Hence when gladness comes to the person, he should delve into the words of Torah in order to discover the mind of the Torah. He must also know that the gladness is discerned as upper illumination that appears by MAN, which is good deeds. The Creator sentences one there one is, meaning according to his state. In other words, if the person takes on himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven for eternity, there is an immediate upper illumination on this which is considered eternity, too. Even if one evidently sees that he would soon fall from his degree, He still sentences one where one is, meaning according to his present state. He does not look at what happened and what will happen but in each and every moment He sentences the person according to the present moment, Meaning if the person has now made up his mind to take up on the burden of Kingdom of Heaven for eternity, it is considered ‘wholeness’, this is how the Creator accept this, However, if he takes upon himself the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven and he does not want this state to remain in him forever, this thing and this deed is not considered wholeness, and naturally the upper light cannot come and rest on it. This is because the upper light is whole and eternal and is not about to change. With a person, however, even in the state he is in, he doesn't want it to be forever.”
25. S. (46:59) Why is MAN good deeds?
R. MAN is called the result of good deeds. That the person makes calculations, actions and efforts and ultimately comes to a prayer where he understands that only the prayer can help him. But it is after scrutinies, efforts and connections with the friends. And so the MAN is called the result of good deeds.
26. S. (47:43) What is the intention of another God is sterile? What is another God?
R. This refers to the Sitra Achra, the ego. If you are asking for that then you don’t receive the right response. So it seems to us that we are making a lot of effort and we’re working but we are not asking correctly.
S. So we are seemingly turning to another God and not the Creator?
R. Yes, I want to receive knowledge and power and to know and to rule everything. So I am addressing the ego, and with that I am certainly not going to succeed. But bit by bit even if this is what I do, it gradually teachers me, not through the path of Torah but through the path of suffering. I suffer blows and I am not happy but each penny joins another penny until there is a great sum total and I ultimately begin to realize that this is not the right path, and then I begin to turn to the Creator directly.
S. So the prayer for connection to reach bestowal, this is the main prayer?
R. Yes, that’s the problem. That connection for us is like this stumbling block which we always stumble upon. It is there all the time in our path, and we can’t stand it and we try to bypass it and it just stands there and it does not move, like the stony heart.
27. S. (49:49) It says that in the Sitra Achra there is no reason. What is the meaning of that?
R. There can’t be reason in the Sitra Achra because reason, Daat means the combination between Hochma and Bina. And in the Sitra Achra there is no Hochma or Bina. There is no restriction, there is no screen above the will to receive, and there is no reflected light where you want to be in bestowal with the will to receive. So it turns out that we are in an opposite state to bestowal, to the Creator to Kedusha, and this is why it is called that this force is sterile and does not bear fruit. Meaning it has no power, it can’t bring anything. Our ego can only lead us to crisis both in this world and in the spirituality. But by this it becomes help made against me, meaning it acts against the Kedusha, and by that it teaches don’t do this, don’t do that, and this is how we learn.
28. S. (51:25) So we study the Torah all the time so do we have to wait for joy from it?
R. Yes but if you receive joy from studying, from being with the friends, from working on the connection between you that gives you an illumination from above called the Torah even though you do not yet feel it in practice but you receive it time and time again this small illumination this is what holds us and progresses us.
29. S. (52:20) It says that with the person however even if he wants the state, he is in that it will not be forever, is he talking about up until the final correction because after the final correction we are in attachment and we are in a constant state of bestowal, so is this right?
R. Yes, we are always rising through the rungs of the ladder even now, even just the people who have nothing to do with us, you see what is happening in the world. People are making mistakes, they try to do all kinds of things, this is also part of the scrutiny, the whole world, everybody is making a spiritual action, it is just not according to their view, it is not in their view. But everybody is doing it, everybody's working for the Creator, it is just if it is within reason or not according to your reason. We want to do this with our agreement on our own accord, with our own prayer but all humanity does not know about this but they are engaged in the work of the Creator but in every that the Creator is forcing them to do that, this is nature that is obligating them to act this way.
30. S. (54:15) What does it mean that sanctity has reason but there is no reason for the other side?
R. Sanctity is called the coarseness, restriction, screen to work with the coarseness in order to bestow, so accordingly there is reflected light and the reflected light becomes the vessel. My intention to give in return to the Creator according to the accordance to how he gives me and how I give to him when we meet there that's how we feel each other and this is called the revelation of the Creator to the created beings in the mutual bestowal between the Creator and created beings this is how we work.