SUNDAY PRAYER: TIFERET-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Baal HaSulam. The Freedom
Morning Lesson December 22, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 3:
Baal HaSulam. The Freedom (Two Creations: A) Man, B) A Living Soul)
Reading The Freedom “Two Creations: A) Man, B) A Living Soul” twice
1. S. (07:59) Several times it’s mentioned that he put a breath in his nostrils, what does that mean?
R. Apparently it added to him some light, later it will be clarified.
S. Why not in the heart or the ears in the eyes?
R. It will be clarified later of course there is nothing random.
S. But at least something from this we can take to the work otherwise it’s just like…
R. No, you can’t grasp onto anything and you do not have to because you were incapable of it yet because this is how it’s written that to the degree that you are able to use something to accept the material to that degree that material can be adapted by you, and this is how it works. The book is open before everyone who ever understands understands and everyone understands according to his level of development, which doesn’t depend on reason, on mind, but on the development of the soul.
2. S. (09:26) He tells them and it’s telling me that man will be created from dust from the ground meaning a collection of a certain number of markers. What does it mean that there are several markers that are connected together?
R. That all sorts of desires that would connect artificially meaning by the upper force and not by them together.
S. And that is the essence of man?
R. Yes.
S. The whole essence of man is in the separated parts?
R. Yes, yes.
S. There’s nothing else from all this so we’re like beasts according to what he says here, right? There’s no advantage to man over a beast, not still, not vegetative, animal and speaking. When does the advantage start to be of a man over a beast?
R. When a man becomes man.
S. Meaning?
R. Resembling the Creator, meaning that he begins to bestow a little bit, that he begins to have the force of bestowal and before that the force of reception that exists in all of creation and all the creatures exist in man as well and he has no privilege over the rest of the parts of creation.
S. There’s no reality to this force. What does he mean there’s no reality to this force?
R. There is no need, there is no need, no necessity for the force of bestowal to appear in the world.
S. Why?
R. Nobody needs it, rather the Creator creates it purposefully in an artificial way.
S. Oh, so we should discover this actually.
R. Yes.
3. S. (11:40) According to this verse it sounds like the desire itself is a dead thing and there’s no life in it and only the forms of reception give it vitality, is that right?
R. Yes but they are also not alive. For us it is called dead, still, because they do not attract they do not draw something from the Creator who is called the source of life.
S. So what is that state in which a person is only in forms of reception? What is that, a transition form for a person? What is that state?
R. It is a state in which he wants only to receive and has nothing from the force of bestowal and doesn’t understand that there is such a thing as bestowal, like us.
S. Is this a transitional state?
R. It’s a form of life that passes through us.
S. Why all together is there a need to move to forms of bestowal? Why isn’t it enough?
R. Because there we resemble the Creator and can rise above life and death and feel the entire world from end to end.
S. That’s simply the will of the Creator? That’s what He wants for us to move to a form of bestowal?
R. To forms of bestowal we can go if we want to connect to one another we feel that we can’t and we ask from the Creator and he gives us the force of bestowal. That’s it and by the upper light we turn our will to receive to the force of bestowal.
S. So at the moment we’re not even considered alive?
R. At the moment we are not called alive at all.
S. So what are we, what is this form?
R. The evil in their life are called dead because they’re not connected to the Creator.
4. S. (14:03) The moment a person ends his desire then a deficiency for spirituality is created and in it a person develops the ability to be above himself meaning not to be dead or a beast?
R. You can say so but I don’t think. The moment that desire for corporeality ends begins the desire for spirituality. There’s such an event for such moments but only moments.
S. In the cases where he doesn’t become spirituality he actually loses the flavor of life, he dies, he doesn’t have any desire.
R. Well let’s say.
5. S. (15:01) What is life?
R. Life? It’s….How to tell you what is life? Life is a form of existence, of a matter, protein..
S. It says, even though the force of the will to receive was imprinted at him he still is considered a dead body without life. So matter of us, where is that combination of the will to receive with this protein body?
R. The protein body, this is what scientists call it but really what is life? Life is what exists in the upper light that we received from the Creator and to the degree that we are able to connect to the Creator we have a form of life that is called life, a form of existence that is called life.
S. We see from the beginning of the article Baal HaSulam talks about some specific form of development. How can we explain these stages of development?
R. What stages of development? Still, vegetative, animate, and speaking?
S. Yes, we see that in them is imprinted all that Baal HaSulam taught to us so far. How do we see this transition between every developmental stage, how do we carry it out?
R. That in all of these stages exist all the other stages and they all come out in essence from the upper light from the Creator, and our only reveal or appear before us in this world as the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking.
S. In every degree is there some connector between them?
R. Yes, and we studied in the third part of the Talmud Eser Sefirot that there are situations that connect between the degrees–the dog of the field if you remember, the monkey between the animate and speaking, and so on.
S. This last degree, how do we make that leap from where we are now to ape, to man, to the speaking, because there’s every stage of development of still, vegetative, and animal, this clear, and then there’s some part of transition to the speaking that is somehow still concealed. How to go through it?
R. This can only be through the connection between us. Rise from the animate degree to the degree of the speaking is an ascent that is above us and it cannot be done by the forces that are in us. Rather, only if we make a connection between us, a spiritual action, this will we have to do. This is why Kabbalists are telling us how to do it. To this we already need an instruction that is called the wisdom of Kabbalah.
6. S. (19:10) Did there necessarily have to be a man alone and the living soul apart?
R. Yes.
S. Why?
R. Because the living soul ,Nefesh, Haya is a transition to become Adam man which resembles the Creator.
S. Couldn’t there be a state in which the Creator created us a perfect man or both man and the living soul?
R. No, no, no, it doesn’t relate to one another, and be a man and the living soul. There is soul, there’s a living soul, and there’s a man and we’re talking about man.
S. But the Creator creates both, he gives both of them.
R. The Creator created everything there’s nothing to say.
7. S. (20:34) You said that it’s all about connection, but connection we hear every time connection connection, but you what do you mean, which form of connection do you mean now? What connection should we ask for now? In which state are we now? There are many forms of connection but what do you mean with connection? What should we do now?
R. To rise from the animate degree to the degree of speaking in general we have to do only through connection, we have no other means. The degree of speaking the degree of man is that he is a one man for all, as one man in one heart, this is why we have to be connected between us in a form that we don’t feel that we are separate. In this way we reveal the upper force the one unique for all, who dwells above us, we have no opportunity no way to rise from the animate to speaking unless through connection because we have to acquire a special force that belongs to the speaking degree and this is our force.
S. What is our task today to help each other to find this force? How can we help each other to get to this force?
R. Only by giving an example, give an example, support, pushing forward, somewhat hug and strengthen the other ourselves this is what can be.
8. S. (23:13) I think we learned maybe in four phases of direct light that vitality is the light of Hochma, is that right?
R. Hayut is the light of Hochma.
S. Is it right to say about what the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about that alive, Chai or animal, what receives the light of Hochma?
R. No no, this doesn’t relate to one another.
S. So what does it mean what is vitality?
R. Vitality, Hayut is something that comes to a creature at a certain degree the shining of wisdom of Hochma and he uses it, it can be as animate or alive in our world, that it’s alive and has some portion of the upper light it gives it vitality and some force to move but it is not the Chai, the spiritual livelihood.
S. The difference between spiritual, vegetative and animate, what makes something move from vegetative to animate?
R. The vegetative cannot actively change its state rather it can only somehow be protected by its actions, and that’s it, and this is the vegetative completely completely dependent on the changing seasons and everything that comes to him and has no way of protecting although he feels the dangers and the good and the bad but it has no way of doing many things, he has not many choices of doing something against it. Whereas the animate can do everything has strength to move, to protect, to do certain things, to clothe himself to run away and so on, which is why more and more he is related to the animate as it is written.
S. I feel together with the Zohar and lately that we seemingly manage to influence our state, we’re not just passive, from time to time we do manage to connect, to raise some prayer, it’s like we’re going outwards a little from time to time.
R. Correct. We’re influencing our state very much, we are already at a degree that is transitional between this man and the spiritual man.
S. Yes, here in this place is starting to clarify in us, especially in me, these discernment between the states, thank you.
R. Yes, you are right.
10. S. (26:45) What are the forms of bestowal that need to be received in the will to receive if the will to receive only identifies reception?
R. The form that we need to reveal are mainly that we cannot change without a tight connection between us and the Creator. This has to be revealed in a way that is as clear as possible, only this is missing. We need to connect in such a way that we reveal the force of the Creator between us. This is a must.
S. How is this force revealed if the will to receive of ours only depicts to us things that we want to receive for ourselves?
R. No, our will to receive also depends on us as much as we want to be connected to receive through our connection the upper force we demand that He reveals and He will reveal.
S. But why do we want to receive the upper force?
R. We need it to feel the spiritual life.
S. Why?
R. Why? This is the purpose of our life to develop to the spiritual life so that from there we can give contentment to the Creator. It will all work out friends this is slowly slowly. We‘re talking a few words here a few words there, there it’s understood there it’s not eventually it’s…Our state is a transitional state therefore it’s not so clear sometimes, sometimes more or less where we are, but a little more a little more patience and you will see that it works out.
11. S. (29:20) Now we are experiencing forces of life and vitality and what we have to do. What is the advice that a Kabbalist can give to the broad public so that a person will feel the force of vitality?
R. I don’t know how to turn to people that are looking for the force of vitality in the current state of the world where it doesn’t exist. The only thing it can offer is to start coming closer. Coming closer and then we are not going to, we’re going to survive and we’re going to be as one man in one heart with one Creator within us.
S. In that a person will feel some additional force? Strength?
R. Because we’re going to look at one another as the element of connection we are going to have strength.
S. What is that force that a person can feel?
R. The Creator this is the Creator.
S. He gives us life, vitality?
R. Everything absolutely everything. What else can we do here so many questions.
12. S. (31:20) When we act in benefit of the world instead of our own benefit?
R. Okay, we can’t continue like this. They have to understand how to ask and how we need to answer, otherwise we don’t understand one another.
13. S. (32:47) Do we as students of Kabbalah, do we have to correct all the degrees of corporality in order to truly make that great transition to the spiritual degree of man?
R. We don’t need to correct any degrees in corporate reality, we only need to correct the connection between us, this is the only problem, only this, only the connection between us, men with men, women with women and then also between them.
14. S. (33:34) I want to bestow but the Creator constantly arranges things so I will forget. So how to ask Him to not do this anymore, how to enter the state of the light and not exit it?
R. You know how to convince so you’ll be able to convince the Creator as well. You can.
15. S. (34:12) In the preparation section we talked about the infusion. Is this related to the word breathing or to feeling or to absorbing?
R. It’s simply connection, connection.
16. S. (34:46) I can’t not look at the fact that this part of The Freedom is about genesis like we learned in the Zohar, the deed of creation, and here nevertheless Baal HaSulam is talking in a way that is dividing reality in a corporeal way. You also answered a friend that we’re now in this transition between the corporeal man in the spiritual man or the corporeal desire to the spiritual desire, and we feel this, and in that matter of the act of creation that the Zohar opened, what can we do today so we don’t just go by it like this that we the matter of creation of genesis will strengthen the connection between us today and it will be new?
R. It is written for them to be for new for you everyday, that every day we have to see as a new state, so try to delete to this point what happened to this point, and from here on press a new button and that’s it and see the world in a new way, the friends in a new way, start updating everything anew.