FRIDAY PRAYER: KETER-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: BETWEEN AFTERMIDNIGHT AND DAWN FRIDAY
Zohar for All. Introduction of The Book of Zohar. The Letters of Rav Hamnuna Saba
Morning Lesson December 28, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Zohar for All. “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”. Otiot de Rav Hamnuna Saba [The Letters of Rav Hamnuna Saba]. #31.
Reading Letter 31 (00:33) The Letter Chaf At that time, the letter Chaf came down
1. S. (14:03) It is written here that the answer of the Creator within the twenty-two letters of ZON are lower than MAN.
R. How else is it possible to connect the created being if not through MAN and MAD.
S. How does the letter express her MAN?
R. A letter is a certain portion, a certain form, a desire, a desire of light inside of it. It comes from above and it dresses in that person who is raising that letter.
S. What does a Kabbalist see when he sees the letter, the Gematria of the letter? Let us say the letter Chaf?
R. He feels what he is doing, what is happening to him. He has a certain connection with the Creator, and this is what he feels.
S. Let us say he has a specific connection with the Creator through the Ten and here suddenly he sees a certain letter and feels a certain change.
R. He feels his connection with the Ten and the Creator in a certain state and that is a letter.
S. Meaning he adapts himself according to that letter when he expresses it?
R. In advance it could be that he doesn’t match it. It depends on the situation but whatever happens to him, itself, it forms in his connection in his desire with the Creator, towards the Creator. It forms a certain kind of connection that is called a letter. In Hebrew it is called a symbol. How else can I say it? It has a certain number of qualities. That is what is called a letter.
S. What is this collection of qualities, is it certain flavors towards the Creator?
R. It is a certain accumulation, a collection of qualities of the Creator and a created being that have reached a certain connection between them. This is why it is expressed in that form. That form of connection is expressed in a certain form or shape, an emotional one that can also be depicted graphically as we do. This is why what comes out of the connection between us and the Creator is the letters
S. Could you say that we could draw this graphically, that some how many times you told us that there’s a point there’s a horizontal and vertical line inside of these letters. How do we feel exactly about all these components?
R. In the end it is all about reception and bestowal. In the end it is all reception and bestowal and nothing else because through these two qualities passes all of our connection with the Creator. He is the bestower, the giver, we are the receivers and out of our quality of reception we want to resemble his quality of bestowal. To the extent that we do resemble the Creator in our qualities we seemingly draw the letters, black letters on a white background. The letters themselves are defined through their cascading from above downward. All in all we have nine Sefirot that cascade from above down from the Keter to the Yesod not including Malchut. These are nine Sefirot and then another nine Sefirot and also another force field in Malchut that is Bina and Zeir Anpin have 9 Sefirot and Malchut has 4 and 9 + 9 + 4 equals 22 letters, not less not more.
S. You are always teaching us to seemingly not be smart and not to get into these little details and not to go through the intellect but through the friends and everything through the Ten. Now we read a complete verse about the letter Chaf, what is a Kabbalist supposed to feel in the reading of this verse, the observation of this letter, this Ten?
R. To try to express from within himself a letter Chaf.
S. Give us a hint we are going to collect with our Ten today. What does it mean to express the letter Chaf between us in the Ten between us?
R. The letter Chaf is the Malchut of Bina, the Malchut of Bina, which means that she receives everything that is in Bina and she passes it on down, look what he writes here, that at that time when the Chaf came down the connection between Bina and Zeir Anpin was stopped because the Chaf that dresses in Zeir Anpin and imparts all of her lights to it and so on. Meaning the letter Chaf on her own forms of bestowal. The bestowal of Bina to Zeir Anpin to the lower degrees. Look what he writes here that it follows that upon the descent of Chaf the connection with Bina and Zeir Anpin has stopped. Meaning this connection no longer exists. That is the quality of the little Chaf, that she holds this connection. Well, we need to read it a few more times and afterwards along with all of the other letters to somehow try to discuss it. It is all gradual. I don’t even intend to tell you that you need to do some homework because you will not be able to do all of that.
We simply read in order for you to get to know what is here. Where do the 22 letters come from, the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, 9 + 9, 9 from Bina, 9 from Zeir Anpin and 4 from Malchut This is what the Keter and Hochma received. Keter and Hochma have no letters, there is just pure light and the letters, the vessels, begin from Bina. So nine vessels in Bina and nine in Zeir Anpin and four in Malchut. They create twenty-two manners, forms of equivalence with the light and thus between the light and the desire this is why the light feels the desire and that is called a letter. A letter or a simple shape, a manner that is in twenty-two different forms the desire can resemble the lights. The bestowal in the light is manifested through the feelings of these letters. We will learn all of these things but here comes the alphabet, here comes the passing of this wisdom from the Creator to the creative beings of how to connect how to build this vocal connection Etc.
2. S. (24:08)Help us, how to imagine to ourselves correctly the letters after all every letter asks for herself when she comes to the Creator and the letters, are the letters egotistical or is their holiness in them?
R. The letter is a desire filled with a quality of bestowal. A letter is a form of bestowal from the side of the corrected desire. We will learn all of these things. It is not only just two letters but how do we pronounce them, why is our vocal vessel, the throat, the pallet, the thirty-two teeth, the cheeks, the lips, it is all built in such a way in order for us to be able to express through the letters with her help. In principle we can express a certain spiritual structure and this is all summed up in the essence of man who is called speaking, which actually does not exist in any other creation that the Creator created.
3.S.(26:03 ) Are all these events described in the Zohar actions in the past or are they actions that happened every moment in the moment?
R. Letters are laws that the desires can connect by and be similar to the light. This is why here we are studying what kinds of forms are there for the desires in which way the desires can connect and to what bestowal what kind of light. level of light they are then suitable for.
4. S. (27:17) I hope this question is correct. When a letter justifies why the world should be created by her, does she come to distancing a form from the Creator by that and therefore forms like a line are created can you repeat it?
R. Well, we will learn all of that soon. Okay?
5. S. (28:08) I hope it is in place, the worlds that move they’re shook. What is the root of this matter nevertheless these are upper worlds?
R. The upper worlds however need to be similar to the quality of bestowal and here they are in the state where the possibility to bestow is in doubt.
S. We also need to use those same states somehow to be afraid of the Creator in the Ten?
R. That is clear, that is obvious, in all the states. Every letter is a vessel that guides the light from above down and we need to try to build this vessel inside of us and through it to relate to each other and to the Creator in such a way that we will begin to understand the letters. We will form them inside of us. That is, there are twenty-two letters, meaning that there are twenty-two forms of relation to a person turning to another person for the sake of bestowal.
6. S. (30:07) I hope the question is appropriate. I was thinking it’s actually our work, our future work when we connect to correct these letters, is that our work?
R. I wouldn’t say so. Our work is to build ourselves, our desires in the form of the letters so that later on in shifting from letter to letter, from state-to-state in such a way we will be able to bestow to each other and to the Creator.
7. S.( 31:12 ) It is written in the text, he writes that when the Mem begin to reveal the light of the face of the creator in the worlds that the clothing of the Chaf and then she also lowered the Chaf from the throne.
R. What is the question?
S. So if he is asking, what is this clothing of the final at the end of the letter Chaf?
R. Again.
S. What is the clothing of the Chaf and the end of the letter?
R. The final Chaf? The clothing of each and every letter is the Hassadim. This is why all the letters begin from Bina
8. S. (32:27) I know now that the letters they clothed in us and that we are supposed to work with them but how do you work with a letter like Chaf that can almost destroy bestowal? How do you deal with that?
R. We will talk about that, that is incorrect. We will talk more about it but it is incorrect.
9. S. (34:06) We touched a little about the forms of the letters, according to the form of the letter Chaf is very similar to Bet.
R. We are not engaging in comparing the character or the qualities of the letter. Where he talks about it we will also talk about that. Otherwise we can get into such fantasies here that we will not be able to get out of it.
10. S. (34:45) You said that the best way to understand the letters is to exert and connect with us and that it seems like it is the only action for all the letters but how will we be able to discern between the qualities of the letters?
R. We need to reach a state where from the kind of connection between us from the kind of connection of bonding between us we will feel what is the content of this connection and then in such a way we will be able to understand the essence of the letters.
11. S. (35:47) All of the letters want to rise. What does that mean? You said that the letters have specific qualities of bestowal that they want to rise to the King’s throne of bestowal so why can’t they all do that?
R. All the letters cannot be connected directly to the Creator. Some are closer and some are r farther away according to their qualities and this is what the Zohar is telling us about.
S. Does it have an egoistic sense of completely giving?
R. Yes, the throne, yes.
12. S. (35:47) What can we learn from the behavior of the letters about our work?
R. Well we need to learn. We want to take on each and every form of every letter.
13. S. (36:19) Why is an act of resembling, of mimicking, like a child who knocks on a toy hammer like his father with a hammer, help us acquire the mind at the end of the work?
R. But you see that this is how it works in our world as well. From the action we rise to the degree of the thought.
14. S. (36:50) As a Ten we want to feel what is written in the text but we cannot come to a common decision on how we can study the letters, what would you recommend for us to learn the letters in the Ten as a Ten?
R. I do not think that we need to truly learn the letters, but rather each and every letter is a sign, a symbol of the bestowal of the Creator to the created beings. Where seemingly there is a depiction of the white light upon the black background. This depiction is called a letter or a sign. It’s like a code. A letter is like a connection of qualities of bestowal upon this desire to receive, now the qualities of bestowal are being projected. This is called that the Creator is drawing the letters upon the black background.
15. S. You said that Bina and Zeir Anpin each have nine letters. What is the difference between nine letters and nine Sefirot?
R. There is no difference, only that there are Sefirot that is filled with lights which are called letters. We will learn that.
16. S. (39:16) We need to make it a bit easier for us to connect with what we are reading the letter in Russian besides a symbol that also means a signal want to get the big closer where we simply get signals while .. signals
R. Yes, yes, also.
S. Can we say that the light of Hassidim feels the channels through which the signals pass?
R. Let us read what he says and what he writes.
17. S. (40:06) If the letters are desires, will we draw the letters according to the desire of each Ten? How should we look at it correctly? Will each Ten have different letters?
R. Each and every one at any given moment we’ll have different letters, and we will go through these letters, meaning these vessels and lights from one to another and to the Creator and by this we will correct reality.
18. S. (41:05) Can we discover the letters from below up as the correct forms of MAN that successfully I received in the upper one?
R. Exactly, correct.
S. So from above down the Creator carves the letters in the desire and we from below up discover them as a connection between the lower one and the upper one?
R. Yes.
S. Every letter for us is actually a connection between us, a correct form of connection between us that creates a channel, a conduit for the light?
R. Yes, you said it very nice.
19. S. (41:48) I heard that we will feel the essence of our connection with the letters, through the letters and you said try to fill the letter Chaf so it turns out that the first thing we have to feel is the connection between two: what exactly should we feel?
R. We simply need to feel the connection without letters and all kinds of things. It is not important; the main thing is the common feeling that is where we start. Then later when we enter into those feelings or sensations just like in our world, then we can explain this in some kind of words, expressions, sounds.
S. Thank you, you just answered precisely the question about the sounds, but I would like to be in a more precise way. How exactly do they influence the sounds, the letters as we see them, the sounds as we hear them, and it is a momentary influence?
R. Of course, here we are already moving to a completely different field, a field of expressions of our feelings. We will wait with that a little, we will have a little bit of time, we’ll read about it, learn how we in our world pass sensations, feelings. How they are clothed in our world with sounds or without sounds, musical sounds, tones. There are certain instruments that we create and so on and so forth. All of those discernments: wait, you will discover it all, you will hear it all, about a person and his actions in this world on the way towards equivalence of form with the Creator.
S. I wanted to ask and it is also connected to a friend’s question: when we work on connection between us, we create what? We create letters, what exactly do we create?
R. You create measures of connection between your desires and their feelings and by that you seemingly correct the world.
S. Where in our work, when we work in connection, where does this thing called letters come in?
R. In our desires where we want with our desire, each and every one and all of us together to express some measure of bestowal. All the letters begin from Bina, yes, Bina ZA and 9,9 and 4 and that is what we want to express.
S. So our connection is what exactly? When do we want to work on our connection?
R. The connection between us cannot go in any other way but in twenty-two plus five, let’s say, it’s not important. In twenty-two standard forms of connection between us in mutual bestowal from which we appeal and talk and send feelings to one another.
S. It is just that I heard you say that the letters are a match between the desire and the lights that they have a match with the quality of bestowal, so in our work of connection between us, when we reach a certain point of conduct which is called connection, does it mean we have created a letter, by that do we create the letters?
R. Yes, if we work on our desire to connect to something, to someone and to express by this the good attitude of bestowal towards others then by that we create the letters. That is how it is written. We will read it soon.
20. S. (46:48) We need to aspire to become a channel so that we can feel these letters?
R. Yes.
21. S. (47:20) When the letter Chaf is on the throne, she feels His greatness in concealment, above reason?
R. Yes.
S. The letter Mem, it covers, it discloses the Creator in the world when she comes down from the throne? Is that the revelation of the Creator? Are those the states?
R. Yes.
22. S. (48:00) If we can’t attract the light through the letters, how can we carry through to the intention in connection with love?
R. But otherwise we cannot draw it. It is the same work, it is the same thing. If we want to connect we must receive within us in our desires the form of the letters.
23. S. (48:33) Are the qualities of reception and bestowal born in each letter separately or is it the connection, the collection of the letters that determine the matters of reception and bestowal?
R. Connection between the letters.
24. S. (49:02) Do I understand correctly that if I want to be like the letter Chaf for the ten, then I give them everything that I have from the Creator, like from Bina and everything I get from the ten I give it to the world through dissemination?
R. Yes.
25. S. (49:27) Is every letter the uniqueness within us with which we can bestow to each other and to the Creator?
R. Yes, exactly.
26. S. (49:47) What do the five final letters represent, why are they necessary?
R. They represent the end of bestowal, the end of bestowal. We will learn about that. Chaf, Reish, Shin and Tav.
27. S. (50:04) Why do the letters come in with the opposite order?
R. Letters enter in an opposite manner because here he writes about it because this is actually from below upwards.
28. S. (50:28) Does every letter depend on the one next to it, just as we depend on each other in order to reach the end of correction?
R. Yes, there is a connection between the letters and how they bestow upon one another. They cannot be connected to one another because all together the world is one bestowal in a continuity of unified bestowals.
29. S. (51:03) Are the letters operating on us according to the root of our soul individually or as a ten?
R. Both, that we will learn. It is still before us, ahead of us. Until we learn who we are, why each and every one is and so on. Why we gather together, what we need to do in the world. How it is arranged from above and how we need to connect between us and activate ourselves, operate ourselves from below, this will come.
30. S. (51:47) Do we hear the letters inside of us and maybe each one of us is a combination of letters, so the connection also produces a certain sound of the letters?
R. Yes of course, of course. The entire connection of letters and words into sentences all stemming from our connection.
31. S. (52:16) What is the shattering that he speaks about in the text the shaking?
R. This is actually the jumping, the leaping to the next degree.
32. S. (52:35) If the match between the light and the vessel is a letter, why are there only twenty-two letters, there should be an infinite number of letters?
R. No, no from Bina, ZA and Malchut: four in Malchut, nine in ZA and nine in Bina, in ZAT of Bina, the lower of Bina and that turns out that we have 9, 9 and 4; twenty-two letters. There cannot be any more or any less. It is the upper system which transfers the upper bestowal to our world this way and therefore, the Hebrew alphabet is built accordingly; it is not that we invented it.
33. S. (53:29) To continue the first question: why is there specifically four in Malchut and nine in Bina and ZA?
R. That’s Chaf, Reish and Tav because Malchut clothes on Zeir Anpin from Tabur downwards, on the four lower degrees, the four lower Sefirot.
34. S. (53:56) How important is it for the ten to attain the letters in the connection between us: is it even possible?
R. We need to attain all of the letters, all of the words and sentences there are in the upper connection.
35. S. (54:18) How to distinguish between letters, how to understand which letter symbolizes what? What specific desire for bestowal is symbolized by every letter?
R. We will learn that, we are starting now with the qualities of the letters, we are going to be learning all of this.
36. S. (54:47) What happens to the qualities and characteristics of the letters when these are translated to another language such as English?
R. This will confuse us right now let us not talk about that right now but certainly in every language there are roots and upper roots, and we just didn’t receive the key for them. The Kabbalists gave us the key for the upper force of bestowal and reception to the symbols, the signs of Hebrew: the lines, horizontally, vertically in bestowal and reception and the circle.
In short through these forms they passed to us the laws of reception and bestowal and we need to work according to them. Therefore, just like we learn Latin when it comes to Medicine, you learn Italian when it comes to music, nomenclature and so on. We need to, nevertheless, learn Hebrew because it is the language of Kabbalah.
This language would not be revealed, it would not be a spoken language, it was also not spoken to begin with. People did not speak Hebrew. They spoke all kinds of other languages, even in their neighbors’ languages.
Hebrew was only for the symbols, the signs of connection with the upper world. And only from beginning to build the state of Israel they decided that we would talk Hebrew but people did not speak Hebrew before that. Therefore, Yiddish and Ladino and such languages besides the other foreign languages were very popular amongst the folk in the Jewish community because it was prohibited to speak in Hebrew, to write in Hebrew was prohibited only under the condition that you’re writing something on the Torah.
37. S. (57:29) Again, it says here that about the two hundred thousand worlds: what is the meaning of that?
R. We will talk about that later, it is not that there are two hundred thousand worlds. It talks about the 200,000, the intensity of the power that is in them.
38. S. (58:03) Do these letters tell us that we are bestowing egoistically and if so how can we correct this through the connection between us?
R. Well, what we learn, restrictions, screen, reflected light, connection. This is how we come to a state that to the extent to which I emerge from my will to receive and am included in the desire of the friend, that I become a desire to bestow and this is how we can understand already the characteristic of the higher up degrees.
39. S. (59:00) The Creator created some specific combination of letters in order to establish the soul of Adam HaRishon?
Reading Item 32 (01:03:10) The letter Yod entered,..”
40. R. (01:07:43) It doesn’t explain more than that but we will learn it in its place. Meaning, there is a matter here that is hard to explain to us the letter Yod, to the extent that it includes within it the upper forces and a connection between man and the Creator: a very special connection and a very exalted one.
41. S. (01:08:10) I heard you say that the letters are forms and we have to adapt ourselves to these forms. What exactly does that mean?
R. Forms of bestowal, forms of bestowal. It is in this his formative form the Creator presents to us His attitude.
42. S. (01:08:54) We said that reality is built of a will to bestow and a will to receive with an intention to bestow or an intention to receive. Why do we have twenty-seven forms and discernments in this? Where do they stem from, please help us to understand it because we don’t understand it.
R. All together in truth we don’t have anything more than the quality of reception because the quality of bestowal is the Creator and we exist within Him. We have only the quality of reception. Bestowal comes from the Creator to our vessels and then to the extent in which we feel to what He bestows to us, that is our entire life. We are all within Him; in the Creator.
Then there is the matter of the correction in which we want to resemble the Creator. That is to bestow to Him in the form that He bestows to us. Otherwise we won’t know what bestowal is. We need to learn from the Creator what bestowal is, what forms this quality of bestowal has; which we don’t have yet and in such ways bestow to Him.
That’s why there is the matter of the letters, signs, molds, forms by which the Creator bestows to us and we can bestow in return to Him, upon Him. That’s what we are learning. How we can bestow to the Creator like a guest that wants to bestow back to the Host.
43. S. (01:11:33) I would like to ask if the relations between the letters are circular relations of equality with a fixed center like in the ten that where we always aim ourselves towards this center which is a common center and it manages our work so there is a state of certain relativity or relations between us but there is always somebody who is closer, who is guiding the other ones. Are there similar relations between the letters?
R. Yes, and we are yet to learn this, it is still ahead of us.
44. S. (01:12:30) It says that the question is MAN, and the answer is MAD of the upper one. Are the words enough for the correction of the boundary? It is felt that we as a world Kli only want to ask and ask. Sometimes you place a boundary, you stop us so what should be the sign that we need to be stopped from the lower one?
R. Only to the point of what we are learning, ask about that and that is it.
45. S. (01:13:13) Are there specific connectivity between letters that separate Kedusha from Sitra Achra?
R. We will learn this.
46. S. (01:13:35) Here the letters come and speak before the Creator like records, musical records. Is that the rule that every vessel, every letter can talk to the Creator?
R. Each and every letter is like the quality of the Creator.
47. S. (01:14:08) If we can attract the light through the letters, how can we arrange the intention and connection between the worlds in the ten?
R. This is still ahead of us. We need to learn how to combine the letters.
48. S. (01:14:40) You mentioned the level of speaking which is the only one from all of the other levels that can create speaking. What is so special about the speaking level?
R. What is so special about the speaking degree is that it can articulate and express letters that no other degree can do it, neither still, vegetative or animate.
S. Is the extent of our connection, does that influence the words?
R. Yes, certainly.
49. S. (01:15:25) I am written by the word HaVaYaH, and I am called by ADNI. How does that work with I have not changed the HaVaYaH?
R. We will learn why we express it differently; ADNI from HaVaYaH.
50. S. (01:15:57) Why was the letter Shin chosen to suppress the letter Yod? What is the meaning of choosing a letter with a letter?
R. Because in this way you can bestow, you can influence from 1 degree to another and that is why we have an order of the letters, where in such a way the light is poured between the degrees until it reaches the lower Malchut.
51. S. (01:16:50) We learnt that the tip of the Yod resembles the root but when you speak about it, it seems that the root is not attained. So we have all the letters before Yod that we are going to talk about. How can there be attainment in all of these letters that there are vessels there?
R. Before the letter Yod?
S. Yes, because the tip of the Yod is the connection to the root, so in the root there are vessels from Aleph to Tet, how can there be vessels that are above the tip of the Yod?
R. I don’t grasp the question.
S. HaVaYaH it is said that the tip of the Yod resembles the root.
R. Yes, the point.
S. Yes, the tip of the Yod. And that’s what connects it to the root, how can there be vessels there in the root?
R. There is only the tip of the Yod.
S. So what are the previous nine letters to Yod, that are in a higher world? What does it mean?
R. We are going to learn about it. Now we are about to learn about Tet and Het.
S. How can it be that the Yod is at the beginning of everything? That it is somewhere between the letters? Why is it at the beginning of everything?
R. Yod symbolizes the beginning, the point and we start from it but before we start there should be preparations in us and that’s how Yod, it’s the 10th letter. I don’t know how to explain it, we will see.
52. S. (01:19:30) If the book of Zohar is read together and being in the quality of bestowal it suits in the same in the letters that are now resembled is there a, what happens in such a situation?
R. There is a remedy when we read together, we raise our deficiency together and it connects between us and reaches the Creator’s deficiency, desire to bestow to us and then there is the upper water and the lower water, and everything is poured down into our desire from above. This is going to go ad infinitum I am letting you ask but..
Reading Item 33. (01:20:35) “The letter Tet entered,..”
53. R. (01:29:37) This is written in such a language that it is hard to ask.
54. S. (01:29:45) In the text the letters can be misused in comparison to the worlds. Can a person also misuse the letters in raising MAN and does the Creator take it into account that we might make a mistake?
R. If we reach the level, the degree of the letters and we can ask about these things, and we will see that we will have to be aware of these things but for the time being we don’t have such a problem we are not there. It is like a little child they don’t let him touch anything that might harm him.
55. S. (01:30:48) It is said that this in comparison to that was done by the Creator and we learnt a few years ago when you spoke about… you can hear almost all the wisdom of Kabbalah in these two sentences. Is this the literal meaning, the secret meaning?
R. It is a …,a hint
S. So what is he hinting?
R. That a simple sentence contains all the wisdom.
S. It’s different to the style that he spoke of before, only the style changed? It is like he’s opening it up?
R. Yes, learn something from it.
56. S. (01:31:51) He mentions in previous ones that also externals that enable a person to attach to kedusha..
R. There are external ones and internal ones and the external ones can resemble the internal ones, the vessels of sanctity and confuse the others as well. Like a monkey before a human, one might mistake the human for an ape. As we learnt from many years in school that the monkey, the ape precedes the man and man developed from the ape and today I think they are speaking a little bit differently about the comparison from one to another.
S. So there are desires in me that I could think they are desires of holiness but in fact they are desires of reception, of impurity?
R. We will reach such discernments and we will be able to scrutinize them and decide.
S. Do I have the ability to discern between monkey and man?
R. Check?
S. How can I know?
R. How can he know?
57. S. (01:33:33) What does it mean that we are talking about transitions in Yesod of ZA?
R. We will learn about this later. How these sides, right and left pass the abundance from above down. How they process it, position it in such a way that everything will be received correctly and so we will receive it in the Malchut and then the souls.
S. He writes here further on, that this begets a sin, meaning the left pipe it gives birth to a sin, Het. How does this influence us?
R. On that it is written simply, that there isn’t a righteous person in the land that did good before sinning. Each and every one must go through all those states by which he corrects his soul. We should yearn only for the good, for bestowal, for connection but we might go through states that we are not able to be there in bestowal, in connection and we have to understand that too has to be incorporated into us.
S. It says here that also the left pipe overcomes the right one, so it seems like the sin.
R. You can see it and everyone. How easy it is to do bad things compared to doing good.
S. Do these come to us from above when a person falls? This comes according to a certain plan, to the same person?
R. Yes.
58. S. (01:35:57) As if there is a race between letters, is there a superiority between them?
R. Correct, if there are several, then there are differences between them. In what? Either for the better or for worse, for which qualities and so on and so forth.
59. S. (01:36:30) When the Creator responds to the letter Tet, He said that you don’t have a part in this world that I want to create but only a part in the next world. I wanted to ask what is this world?
R. This world compared to the next is Malchut compared to Bina.
60. S. (01:37:04) This desire to create the world is this an un-scrutinized desire to bestow in the highest possible form?
R. We have to scrutinize these things, agree on the creation of the world, and ask the Creator to correct the world.
S. So they stem from the fact that they are not able to recognize what they are capable of?
R. Yes.
61. S. (01:37:48) Do the letters illuminate our deficiency and or our strengths?
R. Correct, correct.
62. S. (01:38:19) What does it mean that this point of connection between us influences the words?
R. We will learn it, it is not easy to explain it, but we will learn about it but the degree of connection between us influences the words, the feelings everything because that determines the degree of the connection between us that is a simple explanation.
S. Can it influence our words, the degree of connection?
R. Don’t invent things. Don’t make all kinds of tricks with words and actions, it is all inventions, and it will lead to nothing good.
63. S. (01:39:38) What is the connection between the Sefirot and the letters? Is there a connection?
R. Between Sefirot and letters of course there’s a connection. How else do you express the desires? Is it all based on what we want?
S. If we will succeed in connecting in the ten and rising in the Sefirot each so far is like a rising letter? Is that how it works?
R. Now It is much more complex. We will rise and we will see.
S. So we should make a connection between the Sefirot and the letters?
R. We shouldn’t do anything in the head except to try and understand purely what is written and everything else will come from attainment.
64. S. (01:40:52) Every letter it says here it explains from paragraph to paragraph in a very scrutinized way exactly what the flaw of that same letter that has this clinging to the Klipot. What does it mean that a flaw that can create this clinging to the Klipot?
R. In order to receive. What do you mean it is not clear what kind of flaw can happen here. In order to receive that’s the flaw in a desire and that is why this desire instead of belonging to bestowal it belongs even in 1% to the quality of reception.
65. S. (01:41:40) We have these two letters Tet and Het, and we can use them as left and right line. How do we use these letters exactly? Let’s say to use them effectively in our ten, in the correct way as the left and the right line, as these pipes as they are described, how do we do this?
R. If you want to connect with your heart and soul straight from heart to heart, then you will walk on a middle line in such an action and then both the right and the left will participate in it correctly.
66. S. (01:42:43) It says here in the text that the sin is from the Chaf that is included in Yesod in which the thin light comes out to the externals from which the externals acquire strength to resemble the Adam of Kedusha. What is the role of the thin light?
R. A thin light is a spark that comes from above and awakens the heart of a person to bestowal.
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #8
Reading Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #8
1. S. (03:27) It says here that if we like different things between friends then we can’t reach adhesion but I need to see not what I like or the friend but I need to love the friend. What does it mean to love the friend?
R. But that’s exactly what we’re talking about, about the equivalence of the desires. The compatibility between desires in spirituality it cannot be any other way.
S. It says here that, what do I need to pay attention to?
R. Everything he loves I need to love. Everything I love he needs to love and the other way around, also regarding hate.
S. But what is this talking about, in respect to what, all the desires?
R. Of course it’s not about all the desires. Each one is born as a beast in his desires we’re not talking about it. Still, vegetative, animate, they are not correctable that’s how we teach it only the human in us, only the human in us. Still, vegetative, animate, speaking degree, it has to be similar with everyone.
S. In other words I need to love what the friend loves on that degree of Adam?
R. Ultimately you should love what the Creator loves and also hate accordingly,
S. How can I understand this through the friend?
R. The speaking degree, speaking degree, is a degree in which you are similar to the Creator and you should resemble the Creator I need to resemble the Creator and everyone the same, meaning maximum bestowal as much as each one is capable.
2. S. (06:14) It says here that there isn’t a matter of disparity of form between them or proximity, but the matter is of equivalence of form, that they are equal in form. Can you explain what this intention is that he speaks of, how can we make an intention?
R. Intention is the inner content of the desire.
S. But how can an intention be made? In a gun you have the aim once you spoke about it, you aim for the target, but how do I do that in our relations? What is the intention and what do I intend?
R. What do I wish to receive at the end of the action?
S. How do I know that I’ve succeeded in intending in the right direction? Where do I get feedback from?
R. What feedback? I wish to receive something at the end of the action. That’s why I am performing an action at the end of which I am already in a new state. That new state is what I aim for from the beginning.
S. He writes here that In the intention we need to reach the equivalence of form, that’s what I’m asking about.
R. Yes, so I wish to reach the Creator in equivalence of form to be like the Creator through a certain action.
S. What does it mean each time that you say equivalence to the Creator? What do I equalize towards?
R. I bestow like Him, I think like Him, feel like Him.
3. S. (08:15) What’s the difference between opposite of form and difference of form?
R. There is a disparity of form where you are different from the other and there’s opposition of form where you’re completely opposite from the other. These are degrees of equivalence or disparity of form.
S. It seems like there are three degrees of coming closer that Baal HaSulam speaks of the transition between disparity of form and oppositeness of form. It’s clear what he likes and what he doesn’t like, but the opposite in form…
R. Opposite forms they are opposite, yes.
S. So what is the difference between them?
R. What one likes the other hates.
S. He explains that in disparity of form?
R. No, but here this is the diametrical opposite.
S. How do I go from oppositeness to disparity? How do I come closer a little bit?
R. By changing your qualities according to the friend.
S. This change brings me to a certain form of coming closer?
R. Certainly, a change means that you’re not on the other extreme end.
S. It seems like there’s differences in prayer, it feels like there are two prayers here between equivalence of form to oppositeness and between disparity and proximity. What’s the difference between them?
R. To the extent that you feel like you’re unlike the other you activate the prayer to correct it.
S. What am I asking for here in there?
R. Equivalence of form.
4. S. (10:35) We learned that we need to maintain the disagreements.
R. Correct.
S. This maintains the individuality, the uniqueness, so it turns out that everyone needs to be like this?
R. Like a cookie cutter? No, no, no, we have to check ourselves relative to the friends and if there is a difference meaning, an argument, a conflict, we have to check it exactly in what is it, which qualities, which virtues, and make corrections there.
S. You see both from life and from spirituality that opposites complete one another and here it seems like there’s no room for completion.
R. No, here it’s complete completion where we reach equivalence of form on adhesion. It brings about the final correction.
5. S. (11:45) The example of the rock and the mountain, it sounds like it’s the same. If I have a mountain of ice cream and I take a spoonful of it then it’s the same ice cream, but in spirituality it becomes a significant change. So how can there be connection? We say Creator and created being there’s disparity of form, between them there’s relationships of guidance and providence.
R. But it depends on how they use their qualities, If one is a receiver and the other is a bestower then if you’re using these qualities correctly then they are in equivalence of form, each one wants to bring contentment to the other, one is using his desire to receive in the other is using his desire to bestow.
S. How can the created beings understand the Creator? He’s whole, He’s complete, there’s…
R. I look at a baby and a mother how much he is receiving and how much she’s enjoying it.
S. The baby doesn’t understand her, how can he justify her?
R. I guess it’s so; I add a little bit of understanding and intention, I’m giving you an example. It doesn’t have to do with the action itself but only the intention.
S. So they can be connected together even though they’re different?
R. And how? How can it be that inside a mother’s body the baby’s body develops? It’s a foreign body, how can nature agree with it, you understand? It’s only when they have the correct intention between them.
6. S. (13:44) My friends and I have two different desires but we want to reach equivalence, each and every one of us will still hold onto their own different desire but above these desires will there be equivalence of form between us?
R. How?
S. That’s what I’m asking,
R. In what? Equivalence of form in what?
S. Equivalence of form in wanting to bestow upon one another.
R. In what are you bestowing to one another? You’re opposed to one another, you’re in opposition?
S. This question stands, how do we maintain each one’s individuality, uniqueness?
R. You wish to be close, connected, and together with that can you remain opposites? If the intention of each and every one is to bestow good to the other you don’t need to change your other qualities you need to change your intention.
S. That means that the desires stay different but there is intention that connects between us?
R. Yes, certainly it doesn’t interfere but by nature we’re all different from one another, each one is different from the other, how will we ever reach connection where we’re all moving about like small pieces in the machine of Adam HaRishon, the one machine.
S. When we want to connect in the ten to reach this one point of connection we speak of the desires of each and every one of us are different, right?
R. Yes.
S. Beyond that we say that for us it’s more important the connection between us than that desire that each and every one of us has?
R. You cannot change a desire, never, in anyone only the intention.
S. This connection between the intentions, can we say to connect to something or someone it turns out that we reach some common desire but here we say something else that the desires remain different and that’s how it should be. and above that we build another layer.
R. Yes.
S. Can you elaborate on that? We speak about a lot for a long time, we’re not hearing this for the first time there’s a feeling that there’s something missing there to start working this correctly.
R. The important thing is to bestow whether I receive, or I give I bestow more or less I bestow. In what exactly when I receive or when I give it’s not important as long as I bestow. Meaning we evaluate a person according to his bestowal and again I’m saying it like a baby and his mother, he smiles, and he repaid all 24-hours that his mother is infested with him with a single smile, you can never equalize things ever. That’s why the wisdom of Kabbalah is so universal.
7. S. (17:46) This connection that we reach it’s the connection in intentions?
R. Yes, and mutual bestowal that’s why one can receive in the other can bestow or both can bestow but the question is it’s not even the question of what are they giving or what are they receiving but only the intention.
S. The desires never connect?
R. How can it be? They will become as one, one.
S. It all started from a single desire that shattered, aren’t we supposed to reconnect it?
R. No, even that desire was not a single desire.
S. How does it work if we look from above, each one stays in his own desire?
R. Yes. and it does not matter which desire it is and what changes in the desire, He doesn’t consider it at all.
S. Our Kli, that’s our intentions, that’s our Kelim our vessels?
R. Yes, we make the calculation only according to that.
S. What leads to intentions for connection?
R. Each one aims towards bestowal to bestow to the other and in this bestowal we connect and in this bestowal, I’m telling you a baby equals his mother, a guest equals the host.
8. S. (19:49) If the desire is built of a collection of desires and the intention is one intention on all parts. How does the intention connect to all the desires?
R. The intention unites, combines, or connects all the desires because you have seemingly one address, one in the receiver and one in the bestower, and that’s why it goes from the bestower to the receiver from the receiver to the bestower.
S. That’s many intentions that connect to one intention or it’s one intention for everyone?
R. Everyone, it’s not important it’s truly not important.
S. Why don’t desires connect but intentions can?
R. Desires cannot connect because a desire for bread is not like the desire for water and the desire for bitter is not like the desire for sweet, but the intention is to bring pleasure to something or someone. The intention can be one.
9. S. (21:27) What does it mean in the ten that one bestows and one receives? In what is that expressed?
R. It’s expressed in the action, but the intention has to be one otherwise it does not connect. The connection is not through the actions because in the actions we exist in this world, receiving and bestowing, physically let’s say receiving and giving. The main thing for us is the intention, what do we wish to attain, and we should all be connected in that.
S. What does it mean that I receive, what does it mean?
R. Let’s say there’s a country and in this country everyone wishes to bestow to the others and so each one receives something and to some extent bestows, so there’s no difference between people, everyone bestows and everyone receives as it is written, go and profit off of one another.
S. I don’t understand, what’s this difference between receiving and between giving, maybe I don’t need to understand?
R. You don’t need to know what it means to receive and what it means to bestow?
S. I do but I don’t know in what it is expressed, what does it mean that I…?
R. By receiving and by giving, Ask the friends they will explain to you.
10. S. (24:06) What desires can we adhere to the friends with our intention?
R. All the desires we cleave to the friends with our intention to do good to them and though them to the Creator
S. All my desires are still, vegetative, animate,
R. Why?
S. What other desires do I have?
R. To connect with the friends.
S. Is it a desire or an effort that I’m making? I don’t have any such desire.
R. I desire I wish to give pleasure to the Creator because in this case I resemble Him and I cleave to Him, I rise to His degree.
S. It’s not a desire to give contentment to the Creator it’s an intention.
R. Ahead of this intention start attaching the actions to it, what can I do in order to give pleasure to the Creator? For this I have to connect in the ten meaning I have to collect the ten, assemble it, try to do everything in my power, it depends on me so that they will connect and this action I aim it at the Creator I dedicate it to the Creator.
11. S. (25:26) There are two friends who have desires who are in hatred, one towards the other, how can we build a connection in our intentions in such a state?
R. They have to rise to a higher degree where they can be connected because connection is the Creator.
S. He’s also asking in relation to the world. In the world we can see that there are desires which are so contradicting and resisting one another they want to destroy one another, so in such a state how can we bring to connection in intention?
R. If the attainment of the Creator is more important to me than all the other conditions then I come to connection.
S. For those who are studying the wisdom of Kabbalah you can say if the attainment of the Creator is more important to you then maybe there will be an ability to rise above the desire, but how can you say this to people in the world that they don’t have their own perception?
R. That’s something else.
S. He’s asking about that too.
R. We have to translate it to the language of the masses, to average language, normal language, that we have no other way to save ourselves from the end of the world, from all the blows, all the natural disasters unless we create between us a calm area between us, good relationships, mutual help, by that we calm those natural forces down and we’ll continue to live in a good world.
S. How do desires that want to destroy one another, how can they coexist?
R. They complete one another.
S. In what do they complete if they want to destroy one another?
R. Nature is set up in such a way that there’s no problem with the forces of nature but only a problem when a person doesn’t let them connect and complete one another. There’s nothing in nature that’s actually in opposition between one another it’s only us who cannot arrange the correct form of connection between them.
S. According to nature nothing is contradicting one another?
R. It depends on the person.
S. What creates this, that there’s so much contradiction between one and the other?
R. We do it.
S. How?
R. Us, the contradiction and opposition between us.
S. What do we do that it’s so…..?
R. The hate, rejection.
S. This is in control of a person to hate or not?
R. Yes, how? Do we need to keep love your friend as yourself?
12. S. (30:03) I have an example regarding the desire and the intention, it might help. For example, one has a desire to build buildings and I have a desire an inclination to write songs, poetry. The question is what is a person doing it for?
R. That’s clear.
S. If I build or write for honor then it’s one thing and if each and every one of us does it for everyone then it is he enjoys my songs and I enjoy his building.
R. Exactly.
13. S. (31:00) No translation
R. No, not seeing it with your eyes. The eyes do not belong to spirituality the heart is a container for the desire for all desires and so when we connect them to one desire to one heart now we begin to feel what we attain together.
S. Still I need to do my correction?
R. Yes.
14. S. (31:59) [no translation]
R. Talk about it among each other and you’ll see how you can connect with intention, with desire, with thought, and then you’ll understand one another better and you’ll come closer to one another. The most important is to depict that there is one common Creator among you.
15. S. (32:50) We in the ten we are different. Each one is individual, is different from one another, we can even have opposite desires to connect to the ten but we if we all cleave to one intention so through our desires we wish to bestow to the other.
R. Yes, that is a precise definition.
S. To such an extent that I and the friend can connect the ten even if our desires are opposite, but we share the same intention.
R. Yes.
S. We are learning the Zohar studying the Zohar. It’s clear the book is about love, all the Kabbalists books are about love, but this is probably a special book of love for the Creator, for the created beings. We’re going to finish the lesson and go to the world now and it turns out that we have to forget about it completely. I can’t do it, but also cannot continue it directly in our lives and the world. So why is it set up like that that you have to forget about everything and fall into your egoistic desires and only with them you can work in this world and with people and live like that.
R. The thing is we can only influence this world from the upper world, only the Creator. According to our order you could say, He will change the world but not that we ourselves do it directly, that’s why we need to think how through the Creator we can correct the world, but of course we ourselves won’t correct it.
S. We go out to the world every day and receive a certain charge from the lesson on the Zohar. What to do with it? It turns out that you can aim only to the ten what we achieved. You see the friends internally in the ten but you cannot aim at the world directly.
R. No, you can’t under no circumstances they won’t understand you and by that you will only harm the world. We have nothing to go out to the street with and with flags and saying we’re for love, it won’t help.
S. ……… relationships
R. No, there’s no need. You need to be like everyone, quiet calm, and loving peace, that’s it, and not to stand out in anything special.
16. S. (36:23) What do I need to add to my intention to reach bestowal? Intention, I understand that’s good I aim, but that’s how I reach bestowal only intentions in this world? Only with intention you can reach bestowal? What about the actions, physical?
R. If the intention is correct it will push you toward the physical action.
S. What is the most effective physical action to reach bestowal?
R. Connect to the others.
S. Can you explain what it means to connect to the others?
R. Recognize what they’re lacking and try to help them somehow.
S. To annul before him also?
R. Possibly, it’s not a question it’s recognizing the situation/
17. S. (37:27) You said that with one smile a baby can repay his mother for the 24 hours she invested in him. What smile can we give the Creator for his investment?
R. Well smile for me, come on.
S. I’m trying
R. I can see. If you do it like a baby from the bottom of his heart that is wagging his hands and feet and looking at his mother and looking at her like you don’t need more than that, you don’t need more than that. So let’s connect between each other and to the Creator like that same baby. All the best, a hug.