Afternoon Lesson January 17, 2024, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part One:
Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 110. A Field that the Lord Has Blessed
1. Rav’s Intro and reading of article: The field that the Creator has blessed is a very famous expression. It's like a field or gardens, he walks in the field, he receives from it everything, he sees well, and he uses this field in his life so that if he wants to come to a state when he receives the field that the Lord has blessed. This is something completely different, here he needs to relate to his life that the Creator gave to him, and the Creator is in this field. And the person can receive from the field everything he needs. In order so that wheat comes out of it so that he can receive pleasure from this field, what grows in this field he blesses, the Lord blesses. Then we can truly say that the Lord has truly blessed the field.
He tells us here in the first excerpt that a field that the Lord has blessed so the Creator that's clothed in the world, his force that's clothed in the world is called a field. From this field, there can be good and it can be bad depending on the person and how he perceives this. Sometimes from the field, there is the Shechina, called the field, and sometimes a Sadeh [field] becomes a Sheker [lie]. The Vav within the Hey is the soul and the Dalet is the Shechina. When the soul is dressed in it and this Shechina [Divinity] it is called Hey, the letter Hey and it symbolizes the Creator, and when one wants to add to the faith, he extends the Vav from below and it becomes a Kof.
At that time the Dalet becomes Reish from the qualities of poor and meager he wants to add. Then it becomes Reish, by way of the expression “A poor was born in his kingdom,” when the meager has become poor. In other words, by inserting the evil eye into himself in both mind and heart. In everything that the Creator depicts before us, before him, this is the state that is what is called the “The boar from the wood will gnaw on it,” the eye is hung since it returns to the leftovers, that the Sitra Achra [other side] is destined to be the holy angel.
We can by our attitude, we can make this field blessed by the Creator or vice versa and he continues. This is the hidden meaning of the “May the glory of the Lord be forever.” Because he has come to a state of the animal of the Yaar [forest], from the word Iro [his town]. It means that all of his vitality has been poured out, yet he constantly grows stronger, and then he is rewarded a state of “A field the Lord has blessed,” when the evil eye has become a good eye. This is the meaning of May the glory of the Lord be forever because he has come to a state.
This is the meaning of “A hanging eye,” meaning it hangs on a doubt whether with a good eye or with an evil eye and this is the meaning of returning to leftovers, and this is the meaning of “One, to receive one.” as our sages said, “There was no joy before Him as on the day when heaven and earth were created.” This is the most joyful day. This is so because at last, the “Lord will be One and His name One,” and this is the purpose of creation.
But for the Creator past and present are the same. Hence, the Creator observes creation in its final shape, as it will be at Gmar Tikkun [the end of correction] when all the souls in their complete perfection are included in the world Ein Sof, as it will be at Gmar Tikkun, the final correction. Their perfect form is already there, and nothing is missing.
But with the receivers, it is apparent that they still need to complete what they must complete. This is what is called “Which God has created to do,” meaning the deficiencies and the petulance. This is the meaning of what our sages said, the petulant, meaning we have to add with our prayer, the deficiencies, the petulance, and the anger. But this is what the sages said, “The petulant yields nothing but petulance,” and also, “All who are gluttonous or insatiable are angry.”
This is the true form of the will to receive in its true form, as obscene as it is. And all the corrections are to turn it in order to bestow, to give pleasure to everyone and the Creator through them which is all the work of the lower ones. Before the world was created, it was in the form of “He is one and His name One.” This means that even though His name has already departed from the He and has become revealed and is already called “His Name,” He is still one. So, that in every place it would be One, nevertheless. This is the meaning of “One, to receive one.” From when it comes out and comes to unity to one this is the whole article.
2. S. (10:49) Thank you that you read and explained the article. I understood from your introduction that our life is a field that can be either the field the Lord has blessed or worse than that, what determines it?
R. What defines that the person wants to grow in this field, this field is ready, the Creator placed all the seeds in the ground and all that is lacking is the person's work, the sowing is ready, and it depends on the person's attitude to this field to life. When he wants something good to grow, something good, something correct or it's not important to him, he isn't paying attention to it. If a person relates in his life that it's like a field that the Creator has blessed, so he needs to be connected with the Creator and perform all kinds, make all kinds of efforts so that everything that is needed grows whereas in this field.
3. S. (13:06) In this field does it have a connection to the Ten that a person is in?
R. Yes, of course, we can perceive the Ten as the field, and we have to treat it as a field of our work that if we perform this work correctly then in this field the future world will grow correct, corrected world when we are in the Creator’s field that He blesses, blessed by him, and then we can advance this way.
S. What does it mean that a person is in the field, and he is searching for the Creator? What is this action of searching for the Creator in the field?
R. It's the same in our life we're looking for a field where is the Creator. We want to reveal him, we want to address him so that we would be able to reveal him and meet him so that we would advance in this way and our life following him, or ahead of him, by his side, it doesn't matter like a small child. When he doesn't know where to go to a place he is in, but his mother is next to him and then he adheres to her it sticks to her, and he doesn't run to someplace if he doesn't know it.
S. If a person is in the Ten what can he do now, how can he find the Creator, what does he do to find the Creator?
R. If he connects with his friends and makes up for them as a Ten completes them, then this group becomes literally as a holy group a so-called holy society where he comes and finds the Creator as a whole. What is called the group in which he finds the Creator in general, and the group is this field and he knows how to together with them he can advance to the goal of creation.
S. How does a person need to enter into this field?
R. A person comes out to the field when he wants to advance to the goal of creation. He accepts the group that he is in as something the Creator gave him in order for him to come to the goal.
S. What does it mean, am I in the field now sitting with the friends? When can we say a person is in the field?
R. You are in a field with the friends; this can be a field in which nothing grows or some thorns are growing in it. There is nothing good there, maybe you treat your friends unite and strengthen in such a way so that the correct harvest would grow and when it can sustain the whole world the whole of humanity, and then as it is written from a field from barbs or thorns they'll be corrected.
S. What is the action in the Ten that inverts the thorns field and creates the field that feeds everyone?
R. We unite together we bless the Creator because he cares for us, and He guides us to the final correction and that's how we advance. In the connection between us, to the extent that we can unite closely internally, we care for our connection which is called “field” to such an extent that we understand that we need the Creator's blessing, and He has to bless us. Without Him, no seed will give the result by growing in this soil and that's why all of our work is in connecting between us and addressing the Creator so that he helps us to work correctly in the field and extract harvest that can really satiate all the creations.
4. S. (20:11) A request to help the translators. The text is very complex, if someone is asking about the text before he quotes the text, please state what paragraph it's in so we can help understand you.
5. S. (20:40) The article is very emotional and powerful; the question is how can we be one like the wheat growing in the field?
R. It all depends on us. How we relate to the soil, the harvest has to grow in how we treat our work in the field, our general work of all of us. How do we relate to the Creator when in essence he is the force that gives the soil force? As a result of this desire of ours, from this desire, comes the harvest. That's why everything depends on our work between us, us turning to the Creator and the field, the connection that exists between us in the group and the Creator.
S. Why can't he see his friends as okay? Why can't he see his friends?
R. The friend, maybe he is correct, maybe he is right or not so right, but it's better if he turns on a prayer for the Creator that he despite of everything and in his prayer he wants for his friends to be united with him in the prayer, and then they in their prayer altogether will address the Creator and the Creator will give the force to the soil and from this yield will grow.
S. Everything depends on the prayer in order to come closer to the Creator and the friends but what causes the prayer? Can we say that prayer depends on a man's choice or not?
R. The prayer depends fully on us, not on the Creator. Not on anything else but on how much we want to attain in this place and to what extent we want to invest all our strength and put all our hopes on this. Then what comes from this is correct, this awakens the Creator and compels him as it is said, “My sons have defeated me,” when we ask, we compel the Creator, to make him give us the harvest, the field. When we feel and understand and reveal to the whole world that this is called the field. The whole world will be understood, clear to us, opened up before us, and this is how we advance onward, all together, one soul, a single force. Everyone depends on everyone else connected together and then will reveal that actually there is a field in front of us, a field of life, the field the Creator has blessed. He blesses us and we reveal him.
6. S. (26:36) We need to ask each time for the Creator's blessing in the field?
R. Always.
S. How is it expressed in the work in the Ten?
R. That we want to receive forces from the Creator and knowledge on how to work with our life, to turn it, to raise it, to the level of the spiritual world.
7. S. (27:27) In this entire field and this entire work I really want to become similar to the Creator and what gives me the greatness of the Creator is his nullification, his humility that he does everything and does not show himself in anything. It's simply unattainable such a nullification in my intellect and when I compare you with the Creator you also have this quality. You're such a great Rav, you give so much to us, and you are also in this humility and nullification. How to attain such a nullification, it seems like this is the greatest blessing to reach such a nullification.
R. This happens by itself when a person works correctly in the wisdom of Kabbalah. He receives from above such an influence that he becomes like this modest. What does he need? He needs to turn himself in this way so that he heeds to the Creator. That means not to want anything, that everything that's coming from the Creator to this world flows through the soil so that the plants will grow.
S. Now that we are coming closer to the Congress what do you recommend for the Ten for the World Kli to reach such a nullification at the Congress?
R. That we have to be together in self-annulment, each one towards the rest, and from each one we will have this Torah, how to say, what has to grow, the shoots, the sprouts, and that we would feed everyone in the world.
8. S. (30:30) When you feel that you are surrounded by everyone who has the same love as you have, there's this feeling of this great present that gets evoked and you want this present to spread to other people as well. Can we add somewhere that maybe we are not doing this work enough, how do we come to a state where everyone feels One Love?
R. Get closer to your friends and organize together with them a request to the Creator so that he reveals himself more.
9. S. (31:22) We have such a question in the Ten we work together on bestowal, and we work in our heart, and we want to walk in above reason and in the text, it says a poor was born in his kingdom, he became poor and meager. What is this meagerness and how can we avoid it?
R. I cannot talk about it through your text because it has poor translation in it.
S. When we work together on bestowal, we shouldn't think that there is some poorness meagerness?
R. Not in any case the opposite. This is the problem with all translations.
S. It surprises you?
R. You will still be more surprised by what’s in these translations. But this is natural in this way are all the books that they're in as such.
S. Is it better to study the original?
R. Yes, you need to know the original.
10. S. (33:25) You are speaking sensitively and emotionally, thank you for this. The friends came to our Sunday meeting, a physical meeting, and we had a heated argument or discussion. We come out to the field to work and that needs to be our effort. So, a student says that everything comes from the Creator I'll do nothing all day, and nothing will change. Can you tell us the difference between our general efforts and where There Is Nothing Else Besides Him? I don't know, there was this discussion, that’s why I asked.
R. It's talking about, it’s said very openly which the Creator is made to do. Meaning, everything the Creator has done, he has done it so that the people, his creations, will continue the work even more. He created all the problems in the world in advance and they are all getting revealed, according to our development in order to push us, in order to push us to further growth and development, which is why we need to try to translate correctly, understand the sources, and then you will understand everything.
S. When we create a prayer, we gather it together in the Ten. Which do we want so that the Creator’s influence spreads in the world or that people will have it easier?
R. Basically, it's the same thing; it depends on the measure of the Creator’s revelation. Either He gets revealed a little bit which in any case becomes a little easier and better for people or he reveals himself a little bit and then his eyes just open up. We are in such a state in which it becomes necessary to reveal the Creator, otherwise we will simply not survive. The Creator has brought us to such a state that we must recognize that it is necessary for us to hold on to him, grab on to him, and together with him go towards this mutual correction.
S. Is this correct? Our work exists and we have this huge desire that that Creator comes to the world, so he starts to reign.
R. Yes, yes that's what he wants us to reach.
11. S. (37:18) In paragraph number four of the article it says, for the Creator's past and future are one, and he looks at the creation in the final state. We see the changes in the states. How to not get confused about the past and future states?
R. We need to live in the current state and demand for the Creator to be revealed in it.
S. If I am scared of the thorns in the field and the friends only see flowers. What do we do with these different impressions?
R. You need to come closer to the friends.
S. This is always correct, right?
R. Yes.
12. S. (38:16) If we are in the field blessed by the Lord, what's the connection between these two states?
R. I feel that the Lord has blessed the field, the field. When I start to work in it, in the field I put my strength into it, for the field to be fruitful, for the green to come out of it, and then this field turns from just some land into the land into this field that the Lord has blessed. Why did the Creator bless it? Because I in my work and my expectation, I asked the Creator for him to bless the field, and then the Creator's blessing spreads to the whole world. Then the whole world is called a field that the Lord has blessed.
S. What is this harvest we get?
R. Everything, everything. The main thing is that we start to see the next world.
S. And feel that we are one with this field? Is this feeling that we depend on each other?
R. We are all in the field and depend on each other. The field is the connection between us, the network of connections between us.
13. S. (40:56) What does it mean that the person comes to the field that is blessed by the lord?
R. That from this tree the fruits will come out, meaning that he attains the essence, the purpose of the field in the field itself and the world that’s around it, how it truly appears in its correct form. From the beginning of creation until the end of creation, where our universe truly is, and where we are. And then he feels and blesses the Creator from the beginning of creation to the end of creation he just feels the Creator and is adhered to him.
S. You just said to the friend that we see the future world in the field blessed by the Lord. How can we see the world as a field blessed by the lord?
R. If we are adhered to the field and to the Creator, then we reach a state in which we see the next world.
14. S. (42:44) It is written that the Vav within the Hey is the secret of the soul, of the Holy Shechina [Divinity]. When I read these letters in Hebrew my heart starts to awaken. Why does this touch my soul so much?
R. Because the heart feels there is a connection between these letters and the Creator. We will reach a state where we reveal the secret of the letters. It's all in our courses and we will reveal how each and every letter explains to us the connection between the soul and the Creator.
S. What is the meaning of Hey is the secret of the soul?
R. It symbolizes the soul for us, the letter Hey because this is the fifth letter in the alphabet. We will learn this, we will learn all the letters, the forms of the letters, and the connections between the letters. Soon, we will learn these things, they are in our courses.
15. S. (45:13) Everything is given to us, but we must cultivate the field by the same attention that we give the Creator, [no translation]?
R. Yes, we will see the whole connection between us as one vessel, and in this way, we will reveal within this vessel the Creator and the state of the final correction.
S. We are only a relationship or not?
R. In each and every one of us there's this ability to connect from friend to friend, and from friend to friend. These connections allow the Creator the upper light to enter into us, and to connect us, then we are in between everyone, and in all such forms we connect, and out of that, we reveal the Creator. And the Creator is revealed within us, in this connection, but he is concealed. By us starting to connect in such a way between us we start to reveal him.
16. S. (47:29) When the Ten decides to work in modesty there are 613 Commandments where the light corrects us.
R. Yes, of course, and then we receive the upper light directly from the connections between us that we are trying to carry out, and in this way, we advance. Until we will have a connection, the correct one, between all of us. Then the upper light gets revealed, in everyone. This is called the end of correction.
17. S. (48:42) How to constantly adhere to the group with the Creator, not three times a day but constantly what is this quality?
R. This is the constant adhesion between us we need to attain it, and then we will simply feel the state constantly. We will reach that.
S. What can we do now, what is this quality?
R. For now we are just going towards it, coming closer, and learning about it.
18. S. (49:34) How do we get out of the eternal trap that means everything that we want is revealed to blossom for the friends that the Lord has blessed, is always actually from my own self? It's as if everything I want is just about me, how do I get out of that? I just feel like a spider trapped in a bathtub with no way out.
R. Yes, we come out of this by praying to the Creator together with the friends.
19. S. (50:45) We say that when we correct our desires from reception to bestowal and unite as one man in one heart. Then is this how we will create a good soil for the Creator to be revealed in us and the whole of humanity?
R. This formula is absolutely correct, excellent.
20. S. (51:40) It is a huge joy, the whole lesson. The question is, the field blessed by the Lord, is he in the same state or is he constantly growing?
R. That's how he's trying to raise us more and more to the Creator, but it depends on our request and our prayer.
21. S. (52:29) Thank you for the special lesson. I heard in the lesson now that we must reveal the Creator, otherwise we won't survive without this. Does this mean us students, or does it mean to reveal this in dissemination?
R. The time has come to open it in dissemination with all our strength as much as possible
S. The revelation of the Creator?
R. About everything without limitations.
22. S. (53:25) I am trying to understand that the soul is already, the perfect soul, is already in its place and it feels like it's waiting for me. How to understand this meeting, it almost feels like the final place of “I for my beloved and my beloved for me,” in its perfect form. How to understand that soul that is waiting for me?
R. The soul is part of God from above and that same part is standing and waiting when it will be able to dress in you. To the extent that you connect to all the friends in the world and on this, there are degrees in the connection, and accordingly, the Creator gets revealed within that connection.
S. I can meet my soul in my lifetime?
R. Of course, of course.
23. S. (55:23) To what extent does the friend's correction depend on my correction?
R. It depends completely because the Creator looks at us and is waiting for when there will be a whole Ten.
24. S. (55:59) There's a state that is hard to advance in this field. What would I become this plow to simplify the work for everyone prayer or intention?
R. Prayer, a request.
25. S. (56:33) How will we be one when we pray for the quality of bestowal for the whole world for the quality of bestowal? How will we be those who are bringing the quality of bestowal close to this world? And this world closer to the quality to bestow?
R. I will say in my words that I want for this to happen. This is simply the state we don't need to twist things around here.
26. S. (57:39) This world, the world that Baal HaSulam sees, do we have to see it with his eyes?
R. We will see, and then we will understand. It’s impossible to explain it.
S. What can we do to speed this up?
R. Just to connect there is nothing new there.
27. S. (58:25) The field blessed by the Lord and the field not blessed by the Lord are there two different fields?
R. It's the same field whether it's blessed or not.
28. S. (58:49) Thank you for letting me ask. My question is to continue the question from Germany about the secret of the letters. If it’s possible to read the section, can we read this
excerpt at the end of, the field of lies starting from when a person wants to continue in faith? “The Vav within the Hey is the soul and the Dalet is the Shechina. When the soul is dressed in it, it is called Hey, and when one wants to add to the faith, he extends the Vav below and it becomes a Kof. At that time, the Dalet becomes Reish, in the form of poor and meager, who wants to add. Then it becomes Reish, by way of “A poor was born in his kingdom.” What does it turn into? What is the secret of why she became poor and what does it mean?
R. We will learn this next time.