On the Spiritual ladder

 KABBALAH
ON THE SPIRITUAL LADDER part I
rabbi Michael-­‐ben-­‐Pesach Portnaar, Ph.D. Verkabbala Uitgevers 1
Society for promotion of the knowledge of Kabbalah Centre for Lurian Kabbalah E-­‐mail: [email protected] Internet address: www.kabbalah-­‐arizal.com Spuistraat 293 1012 VS Amsterdam The Netherlands Telephone: +31 (0)20 620 26 31 All rights reserved © Publisher Verkabbala Uitgevers, 2008 First edition No part of this e-­‐book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the publisher, except for personal use or for the purpose of articles and reviews with the unedited mentioning of the source. ISBN: 9789080806382
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An appeal to the reader When you feel that you are stuck in a part of a text despite your effort to find the answer, then you can contact me via: [email protected] I wanted this e-­‐book to be available for my students as soon as possible, so there is a possibility of grammatical mistakes. We are still working on it. 3
About the book This book, about the individual spiritual work, is written on the basis of the master book of the great kabbalist Baruch Ashlag “The steps of the Ladder”. He for his part used the holy Zohar – comment on all five books of the Torah, partly of Prophets and Writings – to write The steps of the Ladder. It only remained for me to give during our night lessons an explanation and clarification on this book. Be aware: while reading the text without having heard the audio recording, the reader can get the impression that not everything goes smoothly. The linguistic usage is often not correct and between times there are interruptions for additional explanations. While listening the lesson, one will notice that this is the only way to keep the power in the book. To get the utmost of the lessons; don’t hurry and don’t try to only understand it with your head, but let the text sink in. Because this book gives the basis for the individual spiritual work, one is advised to work it out thoroughly. It is even necessary in order to experience the spiritual worlds. This e-­‐book is only an illustration to give a person an impression of this study package of our Institute of Lurian Kabbalah. 4
Prayer before the learning of Kabbalah (of Arizal) 5
[Riebón ha-­‐olamiem wa-­‐adonéj ha-­‐adoniem, aw harachamán we-­‐ha-­‐sliechót. Modiem anáchnoe l’fanécha ADONÁJ ELOHÉJNOE we-­‐ELOHÉJ awotéjnoe, b’kieda oe-­‐w-­‐
hiesjtachawája, sje-­‐kerawtánoe l’toratécha we-­‐la-­‐awodatécha, awodát kódesj. We-­‐natáta lánoe chélek b’sodót toratécha ha-­‐k’doesjá. Ma ánoe oe-­‐me chajéjnoe asjér asieta iemánoe chésed gadól ka-­‐zé. Al ken anáchnoe mapieliem tachanoenéjnoe l’fanécha, sje-­‐tiemchól we-­‐
tieslách l’chol chatotéjnoe wa-­‐awonotéjnoe, we-­‐ál jieh’joe awonotéjnoe mawdieliem bejnéjnoe l’wejnécha. Oe-­‐w’chén j’hie ratsón mielfanécha ADONÁJ ELOHÉJNOE we-­‐ELOHÉJ awotéjnoe, sje-­‐t’chonén et l’wawéjnoe l’ier’atécha eo-­‐l’ahawatécha, we-­‐taksjiew oznécha l’dwaréjnoe éle, we-­‐tieftách l’wawéjnoe hearél be-­‐sodót toratécha, we-­‐ieh’jé liemoedéjnoe ze náchat roeach liefnéj chiesé chwodécha k’réach niechóach, we-­‐taatsiel aléjnoe or m’kór niesjmatéjnoe b’chol b’chienatéjnoe. We-­‐sje-­‐iet’notsetsoe nietsoetsót awadécha ha-­‐
kedosjiem asjér al jadám gielieta d’warécha éle ba-­‐olám, oe-­‐z’choetám oe-­‐z’choet awotám oe-­‐z’choet toratám oe-­‐t’miemoetám oe-­‐k’doesjatám jaamód lánoe l’wal niekasjél bie-­‐
d’wariem éle. Oe-­‐wiez’choetám taier ejnéjnoe we-­‐má sje-­‐ánoe lomdiem k’maamár n’iem z’mierót jiesraél gal ejnáj we-­‐abietá niefla’ót mie-­‐toratécha. Jieh’joe l’ratsón iemréj fie we-­‐
hegjón liebie l’fanécha ADONÁJ tsoerie we-­‐goalie. Kie ADONÁJ ietén chochmá mie-­‐piew dáat oe-­‐t’woená]. Master of the worlds and Lord of the lords, Father of mercy and forgiveness. We thank you, HaWaJa”H, our Elokim and Elokim of our ancestors, by bowing and kneeling, that You have brought us closer to Your Torah and Your holy service. You have initiated us into the mysteries of Your holy Torah. What are we? What is our life that You have given us so much mercy. For this reason we give our prayer and kneel before You, because You give mercy and You forgive all our transgressions and sins. May our sins not bring separation between us and You. For this reason, may it be Your will, HaWaJa”H, our Elokim and Elokim of our ancestors, to attune our hearts in such a way that we will fear and love You. Listen to our words and open our uncircumcised hearts to the mysteries of Your Torah. May our study, which we are about to do before the throne of Your glory, be pleasant as a pleasant fragrance. Shine upon us the light of the source of our souls in all our conditions. May the sparkles of Your holy servants glow, through whom you’ve revealed these words to the world. May their merits and those of their ancestors and the merits of their study and purity assist us, so that we do not stumble on the subject of the words which we are about to learn. May You shine upon us due to their merits by what we learn, as a pleasant expression of praise of Israel: “Open my eyes so that I will see the wonders in Your Torah”. May the words of my mouth and the contemplation of my heart be pleasant to You, HaWaJa”H, my rock and my redeemer; because HaWaJa”H will grant from His mouth wisdom, knowledge and understanding. 6
(asjréj iesj mefachéd tamied) ‫ירשא אשי מדחפ תדימ‬
Praised be a man who always fears 7
Lesson 1 We start with the lesson, the first night lesson in Amsterdam, it is 10 November 2005. We’re sitting in an attic room and across me are five course members, so I have someone to talk to. Why is it also necessary to learn at night? The Zohar learns us from the creative powers how everything works and tells us that at this moment all the high powers are as it were stimulated and are waiting for a stimulus, an appeal from below, from the human being. We know that nothing comes from above if it’s not stimulated from below. We know that at night nukvah, the malchut, or Din, strictness rules. And in the morning and the rest of the day chessed, mercy, love rules. This is the way it’s made, forever: in the first part of the night Din, strictness rules. At night we also see that which looks bad and imperfect in our eyes, bad powers come outside, everything reveals itself, everything wants to live. And this all lasts till 2 or 3 o’clock in the night, dependant of the season of the year. Dependant of the eternal calendar. And at that moment, just like now (around 3 o’clock), when a man wakes up and overcomes his body and engages himself into Torah… Torah is the middle line. Everything that we learn from the Torah is the middle line and the middle line is as it were the true reality. And when we learn Torah, our wavelengths go as it were up and give the high powers a sort of encouragement. It’s not simple what I’m trying say, but I mean… we’re not yet able to experience it. Later I will explain it in other terms, so we can understand it. By which we as it were will cause above the middle line and then light chochmah will come from above to us, the power of wisdom mixed with mercy. We can deserve that. There exists no other way to pull chochmah down, otherwise it will be just like the sin of Adam. But if it’s mixed with love, mercy, in the way that we call it up from below to above, then it will come from above to us and to the whole world. This was a short introduction, I don’t want to run ahead of things, but still I want to give a bit more information so that it will move us. A man exists out of three parts, we know that everything exists out of five: keter, chochmah, binah, z”a and malchut. Five powers, five phases. Then why do we say that a man has three compartments? The man, the soul of a man exists of course also out of five compartments. But we can only experience the lower three, we can’t receive light from the higher two. And that for the sake of corrections. When all corrections will be completed, then we’ll also be able to receive light in our two higher compartments. Then we’ll have power to receive light in all our compartments. Till the coming of the Mashiach we can’t receive in our two highest compartments. 8
But we experience the light that has to come in the two highest compartments as surrounding light, it comes towards us, but it can’t enter the kelim, it only shines to us as or makif, light that as it were shines from outside. It helps us to continually correct our kelim. So we only have three kelim. Every man has three kelim. From the beginning till the end of the creation. And we call those three kelim after lights: kli Nefesj, kli Ruach, kli Nesjama. The kli nefesj is the kli in which the light nefesj can reside or be experienced, the lowest light. The 2nd compartment in the soul of the man is a compartment where the higher light Ruach can enter. Ruach means spirit. The third is Nesjama, and that is the real soul. The highest what a man can experience within himself. All these three form the soul of the man. The higher, the finer, and the stronger the light that can be received. Light nefesj and light Ruach are lights of chassadim, lights of mercy. But we have already said, a lower, so malchut de atsilut, can’t exist without a bit of chochmah; we are also a product of it, so we also need to have a bit of chochmah. Just look how it all fits together, there are three compartments in the man. The first two in which light nefesj and ruach reside, they are lights of chassadim. That is good, it gives as it were life, an existence. It gives light which is strictly necessary, which means strictly necessary for the human being. But then we also need a bit of chochmah and that comes from Binah, from the light nesjama of the soul. And above those three still remain two of our compartments that we still don’t experience and where light chaja enters, that is light of Atzilut. Chaja is light of life, light which is more stronger, light of Atzilut. And the last one is light Jechidah. Jechidah means unity, when all the five compartments, five lights can be received. So the highest two compartments as it were shine on us from a distance, because we don’t have the place yet to receive them. Let’s say like this: nefesj is the lowest, is the power that is coupled, linked to the body. Nefesj is the lowest part of our soul; the lowest light which is the lowest part of the soul of the man. Nefesj is coupled to the lowest part of the body. We have already said that we in the Kabbalah don’t have anything to do with the body. If we say body then we of course mean the wish to receive. Know that we never have anything to do with the body. Of course, the body is a part of us, our covering and it is necessary to reside our wishes in it. So the body is the wish to receive. That is what exists. The physical covering is just needed to reside the higher in it, because the higher can never come without covering. Nefesj is the lowest that exists. Nefesj is the 1st compartment, the 1st department of the soul 9
of the man and the most lower and the most stubborn. Why the most stubborn? We have said: to drive a car, you need the most power to start the engine. You need the highest power to start the engine. When the car has started, then you need less power to let it move. But to start it… there lies the problem. It is exactly the same with Nefesj. Nefesj is connected with the body, with the most crude part of the man. And when we learn the spiritual, for example Zohar or other sources, then we of course come to the Nefesj, but besides Nefesj, we then mainly come to the next compartment, which is Ruach, the 2nd compartment, the 2nd department of the soul. The highest is Nesjama, the actual soul, which is the third part, the 3rd compartment. Nefesj corresponds with Malchut, the lowest. Ruach corresponds with Z”A and Nesjama corresponds with Binah. We only work with these three. We’ll also see that all the corrections we do only concern these three parts. The above compartments are Chochmah and Keter or the 4th or 5th light. Chochmah corresponds with Chaja, vitality and Keter corresponds with Jechidah, unity. The absolute unity is achieved with Jechidah. One gets from those two above compartments only surrounding light. Surrounding means that it doesn’t enter, but it shins. Those two then enter in Binah. So those two come in the kli binah, in the department binah. But they are as it were latent. We receive from them little by little. Of course we receive something from them, a certain effect. When a person learns the spiritual, let’s say Zohar, Torah. Torah is given from above and Torah is the middle line. Only by learning Torah… the Creator Himself is concealed in the Torah itself. We can’t say ‘I walk in the street and think to encounter G’d’. Of course there is an effect, but we can’t know who or what the Creator is, what the powers are, how the system works. And the Torah gives it to us. The Torah is for example the power of Ruach, or the power of Ruach is the Torah. Nesjama can for example also be the power of Kabbalah, higher, so the power of the inner, inner powers of the universe. So Nesjama gives us the Kabbalah, the inner Torah, the higher and Ruach gives us the regular Torah. What we learn ‘you will not do this or do that’, like it is written in the Torah, they’re all laws of the universe, only in wordings of the human being. A man can learn that, and of course when someone reads for example Torah or Kabbalah, then it will influence our Nefesj. But it’s not enough. The Nefesj is very stubborn and is bound to the gravity of the human being. Just like when starting the engine of a car, by which we need an enormous power to start it. It’s exactly the same with nefesj. 10
We can learn all kinds of things, we can experience the spiritual, start to experience it, but if our Nefesj is still coupled to our wish to receive… The wish to receive is a very heavy wish, because a man is nothing else than the wish to receive for itself. That is our nature and the Torah says a man is only the wish to receive for itself. And we have to make sure that we don’t comply to it. But start to convert our wish to receive into the wish to give. Even when we receive, we have to give. Can you imagine what our task is? Our nature is to receive and we have to work up power to change our wish into giving. Giving also means receiving. That we start to receive, but for the sake of giving. Giving also means receiving. That we start to receive, but for the sake of giving, not receive egoistically and that is the hardest – the Nefesj. How does the light Ruach enter in the compartment of Nefesj? Only when Nefesj is aroused. When Nefesj is aroused, then the 2nd light, Ruach, can enter the compartment of Nefesj. When the Nefesj – the lowest part of our soul – sleeps, is latent, then there is virtually no place for the Ruach to rest on. Ruach is a sort of Sjechinah, a Divine Representation. Then there is no power, no place to enter in the kli, in the department of Nefesj. You need to first always make place within yourself for the light. If you don’t make place, then who will do it for you? Nothing comes from above if you don’t make place within you so it can enter. You can only eat when you’re hungry. If you don’t have an appetite, then you won’t eat, even when the table is beautifully set. It’s here exactly the same, in the spiritual. You need to make place. And then Ruach will as it were float, like it is said: ‘the spirit of G’d floated above the waters’. Ruach will then float as it were above the Nefesj. And also enter Nefesj, influence Nefesj. Question: is Ruach the same as Ruach HaKadosj, the concept of ‘the Holy Spirit’? Answer: Yes of course. Ruach is the Holy Spirit, which is the 2nd compartment. So if we want the Holy Spirit… that is the only thing that can revive us. Look, when we wake up from our sleep, then we are a bundle of sleepiness, because what happens is that Nefesj and the body are mixed with each other. Nefesj is a bit of light, low light, and the body is complete darkness. And Nefesj and the body are as it were mixed with each other, we then don’t see the reality. Why? Because they are mixed with each other. And when we get up, then we are just like a piece of meat and we have to make place for the Nefesj, but not in our body. The body is the wish to receive, there is nothing, no change. I mean, there is darkness, only the wish to receive, that is darkness. We have to arouse 11
ourselves up, arouse our Nefesj, that we make a separation between our body – the wish to receive – and the Nefesj. To make separation, this is how the Torah begins: ‘Breishit’ that separation was made. G’d Himself, what we call G’d, makes all those separations. Separation between waters, He separated the above waters from the lower waters and that is what we call body; above waters is then Nefesj and between them is drawn a separation line. Do you see it? Every day we have to arouse within ourselves… to make as it were the separation, the apparent separation between the lower and the higher. The whole intention is to first get up, so that we make our lowest compartment Nefesj free. That we first work up power to separate, divide the lowest compartment from the body, which is the wish to receive; just receive like every animal does. It gets up every day, has to eat and goes out hunting. The nature of the human being is to receive. There is nothing wrong with that. It begins with egoism, that’s just natural. The human being is made like this, according to the instruction. The human being is different than every other creature. The man has to work up power, because the man has two within him: the divine nature and the human nature, the human nature is Nefesj. Also animals have Nefesj, but Nefesj of the animal nature. So every morning we have to work on this. Therefore we have to in the night separate the Nefesj from the body. Preferably during the true middle of the night (the right time can be found through our website). It is from above a favorable time to do it. And if we manage to separate the Nefesj from the body, like the higher waters and the lower waters, then we make place free. When the lower compartments are free, then in there light Ruach can enter. Light Ruach is Sjechinah, the Divine Representation, G’ds spirit, Ruach Hakadosj, we let the holy spirit rest on it and that gives us life. Nothing else gives us life. Do you understand? And that breaks through all resistance and the man feels unity with the Divine powers here on earth, fortune and fulfillment. In this way we pull in the morning step by step pieces of the wish to receive, the body – if we talk about the body, then we mean the wish to receive. Remember that! We never talk about the flesh – and turn what possible into Nefesj. At first the light Ruach comes and floats above the Nefesj. Why float? Because we don’t have the power yet to receive it inside, this is called floating, but you also have to feel it. Have power, feel that it floats above you… if we get up in the morning and drink a cup of coffee, then nothing floats, only my body exists, then Ruach comes, the spirit of G’d, in Hebrew it is called Ruach HaKadosj, it begins to float above our Nefesj, the lowest part, and gradually by 12
learning Kabbalah and Torah it enters. That is what we are going to do. Not that I have chosen for it, but I have to do it: we’re now going to learn the Steps of the ladder. A step of the spiritual ladder corresponds to powers with Sjlavej haSulam, The steps of the ladder that we’re going to learn, the point is to arouse the Nefesj. The steps of the nefesj, that we’re going to learn, is written by Baruch Ashlag, the son of the great divine man, and is of course based on what his father has told. His father gave comment of the Zohar and the son wrote it down, of course with his own contribution, his son had a heavy soul. With heavy I mean that he wasn’t as genius as his father, because this way the Creator creates the human being. The father was Nesjama, higher. Therefore when we learn for example Yehuda Ashlag, then we always work with Nesjama and Ruach. But the son was also sent to this world to help us. In particular with our Nefesj. Baruch has also written a lot, the five books of HaSulam for example that we’re going to learn, the steps of the ladder. Do you see the beauty? You have to climb from the bottom to the top. It’s mainly about the spiritual work, because Zohar talks hardly about spiritual work. But this book does talk about it. What we’re going to learn here – Sjlavej HaSulam – is about the five books of the Torah, only on a different level, lower. That doesn’t mean spiritually lower, but a lower level. It arouses our Nefesj, the lowest part of our soul. We’re going to deal with Ruach, the second compartment in Zohar itself. Zohar has of course everything in itself, attracts also Nesjama and Nefesj. But Slavej HaSulam is pre-­‐eminently suited to arouse our Nefesj by learning at midnight, in the early morning. Zohar is the connecting piece. And above that we have Ets Chaim – The Tree of Life, that is the third. We place the Tree of life of AR”I above the Zohar. How is that possible? How can you say that when everything comes out of Zohar? I will explain it later. But if a student only comes Thursday evening because he doesn’t have time, and doesn’t do the night study, then it’s not necessary. He can only come Thursday evening, because Thursday evening we do Zohar and Zohar is a must! Zohar is the link between Nesjama and Nefesj. Nesjama is very high and gives us light of chochmah, light of life and the other two; Ruach and Nefesj; nefesj is only the light chassadim, light of mercy. That's quite something, but Ruach is a bit higher. Zohar is the link between those two, but of course, Zohar has everything in itself, all the tree parts. For example, Slavej HaSulam, the steps of the ladder has all the tree parts in itself. By learning the Steps of the Ladder we’ll also receive Nefesj, Ruach and Nesjama, but of the level of Nefesj. And if we learn Zohar we’ll also receive again all tree; Nefesj, Ruach and Nesjama, but of the level of Ruach. 13
And the highest of all is of course the Tree of Life, by which we’ll also receive those three; Nefesj, Ruach and Nesjama, but of the level of Nesjama. How dare I say that the Tree of Life of AR”I can give higher light than Zohar? AR”I has also took from Zohar, because nothing exists higher than Zohar. How can we then say that Ets Chaim gives higher light than Zohar? The Zohar is given to the man as it were as a link between heaven and earth, as a link, middle line as it were. What has the divine AR”I… what was given to him? To take as it were the highest, the Nesjama, only the Nesjama from Zohar – Zohar has everything in itself – and reproduce it in a wonderful way. And that is then the Tree of Life. We’re going to learn that during the second part of the lesson, by which we’ll attract Nesjama. But we begin the lesson with Nefesj. We begin with Slavej HaSulam, the steps of the ladder, because that is the hardest that there is. We always think that we should start with the most highest, but you first need to start the engine of the car, you first need to do work from below. You have to work up an enormous power, to divide the Nefesj, you have to do it every morning, the true beginning of the morning (you can find the exact times on our homepage). Then you have to make a separation between Nefesj and the body. That is an inner movement by which the wish to receive as it were stays below. You let it lie there. You don’t focus on the lower and you pull all sparks of light up and you make a separation. Through it the light can enter and live, instead of receiving it in yourself, in your wish to receive, because when you receive in yourself, then you receive death, spiritual death. When you do something for yourself, what happens afterwards? You lie on your bed, sit in a chair and feel that there is no movement in yourself. You don’t feel a connection, you’re not whole. You only feel a fragment, a piece. You don’t feel whole in your powers. So we need all those three aspects. In every lesson those three aspects are also interwoven with the level of the lesson. A man can decide for himself if he wants to only follow the Zohar classes, the evening classes, or also the night classes. Anyway, it’s for every one of us important to get up at night to arouse our Nefesj. I advise everybody, also those who don’t follow our night classes, to get up at night. That’s very intensive, but you have to do it at night, even when you do it 1 x a week. If you start doing it occasionally, then you’ll notice that it becomes very easy to get up at night. Of course you need to every time take trouble to get up, just like you need to every time start the engine of a car, but after that you’re awake and you’ll receive the whole day light because you took trouble to wake up. 14
We have said: nothing comes from above if it’s not aroused from beneath. You can sleep, but then you sleep through the most favourable moment of the day and then you say: why is it this way and not that way… Because you slept!!! While all the powers were ready to help you and you slept through all night. Do you understand? It’s all up to us. The night class is meant to arouse our Nefesj, which is the most difficult to do. Also king David got up at night and wrote all the psalms. He was awake at daybreak and that is the absolute condition to progress faster. It’s actually ingrained in the creative plan that a man gets up at night. Why? The human being loves the evening, of course. He works the whole day and in the evening he can relax a bit. But it’s not like this in the creation. Because when it’s dark, then all the heavy powers take place and pull at us. All the powers are of course holy, but they try to… because we have said that when it’s dark, when the night rules, then that is Malchut. And the Z”A is masculine, there comes only chessed, love. But we slip up on the feminine element, the night – Din – strictness. Therefore it’s important to go early to bed. You can’t expect anything good in the evening by doing all kinds of things. Don’t try to persist at night. Look at the people here in the entertainment district, not only here, but everywhere. They try to persist with drink and other kinds of things, because in the evening the Gvurah, the strictness rules. When the din rules, it gives as it were a feeling of fullness. In the morning we only feel mercy, a bit of emanation of Nefesj, Ruach, but not the heavy powers and therefore we feel ourselves in the evening become full, but without light. Therefore you have to try to go early to bed and as it were be ahead of the day. Zohar itself will learn us how it works in the matter of spiritual powers. The whole mechanism, how it works in the universe, in the operational system that I’m trying to tell you in simple words. Three components of our soul, but Nefesj is the most stubborn and there is no other way to arouse it… look, the whole point of our work, like it is set up from above, is to overcome our body. Because our body makes the darkness, we feel ourselves in darkness. The body, of course also our body, our flesh, but in the Kabbalah we mainly speak of the wish to receive. We only want to receive, just like a child, but the whole point is to overcome it. Of course we have to receive, but overcome it, because that gives us liberation. Because if we… Look, life is short. You’re young and you think you can do everything. It’s just an 15
appearance… you will… what can I say… When the soul leaves the body, when a man dies here on earth, that means that the body dies, and then a man is shown everything. Everything!! The soul sees clearly, it doesn’t matter of who, even of a villain. But if he repents in time, before his death… You can often see it in a man, some people have experienced it when one of their relatives died. Before a man dies, he feels great, liberated; ‘now I can finally take a trip to Greece’ or ‘I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that’. You know, they feel like.. because the soul as it were becomes free, by all kinds of spastic movements, all kinds of… the body is already dying, the soul is released and the man says ‘I’m going on a trip, I’m going to do that’ and suddenly he dies. We’ll learn it in Zohar, that a soul is shown what he didn’t do, and what he did do and his crimes etc. Life is short and if we don’t prepare ourselves now, then how will it be when our soul leaves the body? Because we think that everything is here. Why? Our body, the darkness is in us, the wish to receive darkens everything in us and we think ‘now, that is everything’. If we arouse ourselves, the Nefesj to begin with, then we won’t fall for the bad principle. The bad principle is what pulls us to satisfy our self-­‐interest. It’s the nature, the most powerful thing what there is in the man and therefore it sometimes seems ridiculous, or for a man who begins to learn the spiritual and then stops. We call it the spiritual, it’s just a word. Actually it doesn’t exist, spiritual or not spiritual… Do you understand? If you arouse yourself from your body, then you’re in the spiritual. Spiritual means the true reality. If you don’t arouse yourself, then you’re in the lower powers, primitive powers, matter. It’s not darkened, but the world is created in this way. We’ll step by step experience it and understand what it all means. And now I’m going to end this plea for the night study. Slavej HaSulam is for us the basis for our study. Zohar is the connecting link, of course everything revolves around Zohar, because it connects the higher with the lower. How it connects… We speak for example of Avraham and of other kinds of characters. I’ve always said that in the Kabbalah no word is said about our world. I mean not the flesh, but of course there was a man Avraham of flesh and blood, but we don’t talk about that. We speak of the power of Avraham, about a certain Nesjama, the soul, power in the higher and we connect that with the power of the lower, Nefesj, what we call Nefesj. 16
The steps of the ladder The only source of the spiritual, of the laws of the universe is of course the Torah itself. What Mosje received, that is the source. But on that source a comment was written. That means, no comment, but an explanation of the Divine powers itself. Not as a story what we read, but qua powers and that is Zohar of course. The only Zohar is the book of Zohar, the spiritual inner reproduction of the laws of the universe, the inner reproduction that we call comment, but it means clarification, spiritual clarification of the Torah. The Torah is the only source of the spiritual. But then we still have two sources. We have Slavej HaSulam that arouses our Nefesj. That is written in a lower, earthlier (linguistic) usage. What we’re going to read starts with Breishit, in the beginning. In Slavej HaSulam we’re also going to learn the five books, the whole Torah. In a different way than the Zohar. Zohar is high and it’s the same here. What we’re going to learn is built up of Zohar. We’ll also see in Slavej HaSulam a piece of Zohar and the comment of Yehuda Ashlag, very special, from the point of view of the spiritual work. All those powers that we speak of in the Zohar, of the operational system, we’ll study all those powers, but from the point of view of the spiritual work. How must we work with the Torah and the Zohar, with an eye to the spiritual work? Arouse from below to above, while Ets Chaim, The Tree of Life arouses us from above to below. Also Zohar does that. Zohar is the connecting link. In the Tree of Life is an enormous light that makes from above our kelim, makes engravings. And because it’s an enormous light from below, from Slavej HaSulam we pull… Slavej HaSulam is the pulling power by which we have to make a great effort to make a separation between the lower part of our soul, Nefesj, and the heavy wish to receive. This way we can see the three sources. All the three sources revolve around Zohar, all the three are from Zohar. Ets Chaim, The Tree of Life is only one book. One book. No other man has received it, no other man. Not that one rabbi says this and another rabbi says something else. But to one Divine man. So from Ets Chaim, the Three of Life we pull the light as it were from above. Ets Chaim is of course also built up from Zohar. The source of Ets Chaim is Zohar. We’ll continually encounter Zohar. Also AR”I speaks of Zohar, but he took the highest out of Zohar and built around it Ets Chaim. While Zohar tells us in a more fabulous language, lily and so. The Tree of Life doesn’t speak of those things, it only gives us powers, the whole ladder of powers. He gives us the 17
tree without all those metaphors, seeming metaphors. So all the three sources are from Zohar. And all three clarify the Torah and nothing else. There exists only one Torah and one Zohar. Therefore, all three help us to understand the spiritual and ourselves. Does everyone see it? All three are one. Only different, but not more than these three. And this work – the steps of the ladder – is only just given to the last generation, to us. It’s only 15, 20 years given to humanity, because we are ready to do this enormous work on ourselves. All the previous generations could barely work on their Nefesj. They didn’t know, it was for them… but it’s for us a life-­‐saving appliance. There has never been such a generation like ours that has developed such a self-­‐love. On one hand it seems a handicap, because we are far off from the Divine and on the other hand it’s a blessing. Do you see it? Two things can fill the same part. Because we are so low, lower than any generation before us. On one hand we’re in darkness because we have fallen so low and on the other hand the lower you fall, and if you correct it, the higher light you can receive. The generation of the auteur of Zohar was the only generation that was so high, but it was only given to individuals, but we… every person of our generation can already work on himself, while then it were only a phew. It’s in our generation possible because we are so low to the ground, low in our self-­‐love – this is all during the time, the power of the Mashiach, of the liberation power – therefore a stronger medicine is needed. The worse the illness, the more powerful the medicine needs to be. Which medicine do we need? Of course Zohar and other higher things to arouse our spirit. That’s of course great, but how can you arouse in yourself the separation between Nefesj and body? Look to all the philosophers. Great philosophers. Aristotle, Socrates, all great, but they could only arouse themselves for ideas. They were great in their head, but the lower Nefesj was not corrected. And therefore we need a very powerful medicine against our ego in our time, our very advanced self-­‐love, by doing this study at night. Instead of sleeping, we get up. Only by getting up gives already an enormous correction, because you overcome your body, your nature. ‘Which moron gets up at night, don't make a fool of yourself!’. Our body, our self-­‐love tell us: ‘don't make a fool of yourself, why do you have to get up, others sleep and 18
you get up, act normal!’. You conquer, because there is no other way to make a separation between the Nefesj and the body. No other way. And therefore other people chose for other kinds of classes. They go to a class, learn the spiritual, but don’t get up at night. ‘Leave me alone, I want to sleep. I’m going to do other kinds of things’. There are no other kinds of things in our time to arouse yourself quickly and efficient and receive light. Only by the night study! I’m telling you this straightforward. I don’t want to give false hope, do you understand. Only by getting up… you arouse yourself and the reward is great. Not the humane, but in everything. You overcome death, we overcome death instead of sleeping. We progress very fast, can you imagine when you do it every night. Can you imagine what it will be in three months. It will be like a resurrection of the death. We get up at night instead of sleeping and if you don’t get up you miss a chance, the favorable moment, and by morning around 4, 5, 6 o’clock, all the misery comes in us, all kinds of sinful thoughts etc. because your chance has already passed. We didn’t take it and all the misery comes afterwards to us. Those sinful thoughts never occur in the beginning of the night, of course there are sinful thought, but they’re not effective yet because the soul is in the beginning of the night still awake. But after 3, 4, 5 o’clock, the body relaxes, comes to its senses, and demands this and that and all the misery comes afterwards. Therefore when we wake up in the morning, we’re like a lump of meat and need coffee. We missed the chance and that’s a pity. Everything is in the light of the spiritual work. HaSulam deals with the Torah texts and a part out of Zohar; afterwards he will explain us from the perspective of the spiritual work. And now we’re going to start with the text. 19
Sjlavej HaSulam The Steps of the Ladder It’s important that I first read out loud, this way I can pull it down and then I’ll translate every paragraph and give a bit of comment. ‫ בראשית‬ – Breishit This is the first chapter of Genesis which means: in the beginning. Also we’re going to start with the first chapter of the Torah. Our knowledge of the Torah will greatly increase, because we’ll run through the whole Torah, the whole Talmud, and also the laws, only by learning this book. We won’t get lost by all those different books, because we’re only going to do the core. ‫ויהי ערב ויהי בוקר‬
‫ תשמ"ה‬,‫ מאמר נ"ה‬ And there was evening and there was morning So everything in this article is about this subject, about this verse somewhere in the beginning of Breishit. ,‫ "ויהי ערב‬,‫ דף צ"ו ובהסולם אות קנ"א( וזה לשונו‬,'‫ אומר הזה"ק )בראשית ג‬,"‫ "ויהי ערב ויהי בוקר‬,‫על פסוק‬
‫ יום‬,‫ על כן כתוב בהם‬.‫ שהוא ז"א‬,‫ נמשך מצד האור‬,‫ ויהי בוקר‬.‫ דהיינו המלכות‬,‫ נמשך מצד החושך‬,‫שאומר הכתוב‬
‫ כיון ש"ויהי ערב‬,‫ שואל‬.‫ מ"ט‬,‫ ר' יהודה אמר‬.‫ ושניהם עושים את היום‬,‫ להורות שהערב ובוקר הם כגוף אחד‬,‫אחד‬
‫ מהו הטעם שבכל‬,'‫ אל כן אחר שהכתוב הודיע זה ביום א‬.‫ שמשניהם יוצא אור היום‬,‫ויהי בוקר" יורה על יחוד זו"ן‬
‫ ולא יבוא להתפרד זה‬,‫ ואין לילה בלי יום‬,‫ לדעת שאין יום בלי לילה‬,‫ ומשיב‬."‫יום ויום כתוב "ויהי ערב ויהי בוקר‬
‫ שיהיה אור היום בלי‬,‫ כדי להורות שאי אפשר שיארע פעם‬,‫ על כן חוזר הכתוב להודיענו זה בכל יום ויום‬.‫מזה‬
‫ עד כאן‬,"‫ כי לא יתפרדו זה מזה לעולם‬,‫ שלא יביא אחריו אור היום‬,‫ וכן לא יארע חושך הלילה‬.‫הקדם חושך הלילה‬
.‫לשונו‬
Page 1, line 6 – (we mostly don’t read what is written in the brackets, that is a quotation of one's sources) about the verse; ‘and there was evening and there was morning’, says the Holy Zohar, and that are his words (literally translated: that is his tongue or language, but I translate it as words), quotation out of the Torah and a bit of comment of Zohar; that the verse says that it’s extended from the side of the darkness, which means, the Malchut. (And in the Torah, Genesis is written) and there was morning, (then the Zohar says) that is extended from the side of the light that is Z”A (first we’re going to translate it word by word 20
and then we’re going look into it and give some clarification). Therefore it is written one day, to learn that the evening and the morning are as one body and both make one day. Rabbi Yehuda said: what is the reason of that? He asks, since, quotation (he also explains, he says) ‘since, and there was evening and there was morning (is written in the Torah), that learns us about the unity of Zo”N (Zo”N is Z”A and Nukvah), that from both comes out the light of the day. Therefore the verse says, what is then the reason that in every day of the creation is written, quotation: and there was evening and there was morning. And he answers: to let us know that there is no day without night, and there is no night without day and they are not separated from each other. Therefore the verse repeats (so Torah) to let us know that it’s impossible that there ever will be light of the day without the preceding of the darkness of the night. And therefore no darkness of the night will occur without the following of the light of the day, because they will never separate from each other. Till here the language of Zohar. Everything is built up on the basis of Zohar and the comment of Baal HaSulam. In the first paragraph we’ll only explain the things that are strictly necessary to understand the context. The rest will follow after every article. What we’ve just heard is a translation and the explanation of Sjlavej HeSulam and a small clarification from my side. 21
Lesson 2 (One of our course members is a woman. You won’t find in any other Kabbalah night classes women sitting next to men. You won’t find it in America or Israel. It’s a tradition, I don’t know why. It’s absolutely not a problem for me. It’s even better when men and women come together, because for me exist souls and not bodies.
The sort of people, nationalities… we work on our soul. The exterior jacket of a person doesn’t interest me at all… of course there is a difference, also qualitatively qua souls between men and women, but both are human. Being human means having both left and right in yourself, that is the difference. Just the opposite: they complement each other) We went through the first paragraph. As a rule the auteur begins every article with a verse from the Zohar and then it is clarified within the framework of the spiritual work. How we can apply it, and what contains such an article in the aspect of the spiritual work. That is the purpose of Sjlavej HaSulam. Page 1, line 15 – (Yesterday we talked about the verse from the Torah, from the Genesis, Breishit ‘and there was evening and there was morning, one day’, the same verse is repeated every day. So Zohar said that both are structural, necessary. A day exists out of evening plus morning, darkness and light. And now he’s going to clarify it to us. And one needs to understand what is written above, according the way of the spiritual work (you always say it like this: according the way of the spiritual work. How can we understand what is written in the Torah, in the Zohar, how can we understand that, what is there written for us in the spiritual work. So he says a priori that what the Torah tells, is not told as an history of a nation, people or something else, but what contains it for us according the way of the spiritual work.
What does light mean and what means darkness (he poses us this kind of questions, and he will explain us that), and why is it impossible that a day exists other than out of those two together (it’s a new concept that a day exists out of those two. Of light and of darkness comes out for us one day, that means that out of both are built up one day. That is crucial.)
From this can be understood that a day begins from the moment that the darkness begins, the day begins from that moment (therefore yews begin the day in the evening.) and we need to understand how it’s possible that we can use the word day for darkness (because the day starts from the evening), because from the moment when the darkness has already fallen, I can already start counting the time of the day (you can see that the times in the Universe are different).
‫ ואחר‬,'‫ ואחר צמצום ב‬,‫ שהיה בעולמות העליונים‬,‫ כי לאחר הצמצומים והסתלקות האור‬,‫הנה ידוע‬
‫ היינו מחציה ולמעלה‬,‫ עד שמקום בי"ע נתחלקה לשתי בחינות‬,‫ יצאה מערכת הקליפות‬,‫השבירה‬
‫ כמבואר בתע"ס‬,‫ ומחציה ולמטה נעשה מקום של מדור הקבע של הקליפות‬,‫היתה בי"ע דקדושה‬
.(‫ דף א' תתקל"ח אות פ"ח‬,‫)חלק ט"ז‬
22
Line 20 – (look here, it’s already a bit familiar to us. We talked about this in the basic course) That after all those restrictions and the emanation of the light due to those restrictions (they were there in the higher worlds, for us that is of course the Atzilut and before that in the world Nekudim. The world Nekudim was such an intermediate phase. There was a sort of restriction of the light, so that the whole creation could not receive it), and after the second restriction (so first there was a restriction on Malchut, only the Malchut could not receive, so nine sfirot could receive it, but Malchut not. That is the first restriction on Malchut, and after that there was a restriction on Binah, so Binah, the four below sfirot Netsach, Hod, Yessod and Malchut were also restricted), and after the breaking of kelim (because there was also the breaking of kelim to mix the higher with the lower. According to the higher plan it was only in this way possible to let the whole creation correct itself. Because otherwise only the above half… for example only the above half of Atzilut could receive the light and not underneath), it came out of the system of unclean powers (where there is a restriction, there is always talk of unclean powers, so for example the lack of comprehension. It is also assumed that there is a shortage of Holiness, Holiness means fullness of ten sfirot, and everywhere where shortage is, is restriction. Everything is necessary, a structural shortage, but still there are klipot, unclean powers. Unclean powers are always present where shortage is) till the place of BiY”A (that is an abbreviation for Briyah, Yetzirah and Assiyah) divided in two aspects (do you remember, above the parsa and under the parsa, among which Nukvah, which was created with one sfirah in Atzilut, so one sfirah above and nine sfirot were as fallen under Atzilut, as it were in the klipot), that means, from the half and down were the three worlds BiY”A of Holiness (Holiness means that the light chochmah can enter there. That is Holiness. And otherwise there is shortage, that is then from the half of Atzilut, let us say the place of Atzilut, from what we call parsa, the dividing line and beneath), became the place of mador/compartment or department of klipot (So from the world Briyah some kind of form of unclean powers comes into being. We have said that in Briyah 90 percent of the powers are experienced as good and ten as shortage, not as bad. We have always said as good and evil, it’s no evil, but we call it evil in regard to Atzilut. So evil means that ten percent is not experienced, ten percent is as it were hidden and that is as if klipot shines.) as explained in TES (also for him TES was important. Also I use TES, but 23
only when I don’t understand something and not as main course. TES is also a masterpiece of Yehuda. We’re not going to explain it in further detail as he already recalled it and said that there was a restriction, a tzimtzum, first on Malchut, that was in A”K. That means that all the nine sfirot can receive from above, that are the qualities of the Creator and the tenth not, why not? Otherwise there would not be a creation and something had to be left for the creation itself. So the creation could later come by its own contribution to its fulfillment, so the finishing touch is given to the human being and not to the worlds, not to the angels, otherwise there would be a robotic system and that’s not the plan of the Creator. Therefore there is established a restriction on Malchut by which Malchut at first isn’t allowed to receive, as if the restriction was set up by Malchut itself, but of course it was set up by the light from above, before the man was created. And after that, the Binah became the second restriction, that is then the world that we call Nekudim. So at first the Malchut stood at the point of our world and then Malchut went op and was mixed with the Binah, that is then the beginning of the great correction. What does it contain? Malchut is Din, how can you make something out of Din, only strictness, what is correction? That means giving light, and you can only do that by mixture with the Binah, the Binah is Rachamim. So the Creator Himself has established it in this way so that the Malchut came to the Binah. Because the feeling of something is five or ten, but when the Malchut rises to Binah, so let us say under the Chochmah, then Malchut has only two compartments above herself and not five – Keter, Chochmah, Binah, Z”a and Malchut. When the Malchut rises to Binah, then she makes herself short and the light can only enter in two compartments, that means tzimtzum-­‐beth. But the point of Malchut is not to stay there, but to as it were work up power and let the light also enter in the lower compartments. But when we don’t have enough power, then we’re going to restrict it. It was in this way established in the worlds and we are a product of it. We have as it were just like Nukvah one sfirah above the water and nine beneath. Or as we have said a phew classes earlier that Nukvah had one sfirah, the kKther in Atzilut, and then she gets five tough leaves, and they become gradually masach and the masach reflects. Everything always starts with restriction, without restriction there is no correction and then the light is received inside, because inside means to the place that was restricted. Then the light goes down, bringing down means pulling up, pulling down or pulling up is the same. When the light goes up, then she gets more compartments in which the light can enter. That’s the trick of the concept of correction.) 24
‫ נמצא‬.‫ ואין לו שום חסרון לרוחניות‬,"‫ כי האדם "עייר פרא אדם יולד‬,‫ומזה נמשך למטה בעוה"ז‬
‫ שנקרא אצלו‬,‫ עד שנגיד שיש לו הרגשת החושך‬,‫ מאין בא לאדם הרגש וחסרון של רוחניות‬,‫לפי זה‬
‫ כי בו בזמן שהוא מתחיל להרגיש‬,‫ כי אנו צריכים לדעת‬.'‫ בזה שהוא מרגיש שהוא מרוחק מה‬,‫לילה‬
,‫ אחרת איך אפשר לומר‬,‫ כבר מתחיל להאמין באפס מה ממציאות הבורא‬,‫שהוא מרוחק מהבורא‬
‫ שמאיר‬,‫ שיש לו איזה הארה מרחוק‬,‫ אלא שמוכרח לומר‬.‫שהוא מרוחק מדבר שאין מציאות בעולם‬
.‫ בשיעור שהוא ירגיש שהוא מרוחק מהבורא‬,‫לו‬
Line 24 – (we’re now going to see the whole principle of the correction, Baruch was the master, master of the correction. Baruch was a hard worker, he had built up heavy conditions, but he shows us in his book how also an ordinary man, not a divine man, can come to his fulfillment without any special attention and purity from above, that is the uniqueness of this book. In that (he poses a rhetorical question as it were) and what is then attracted down, to our world We’re not yet talking about A”K. Then he said that the light enters in Atzilut and in the other worlds there is some kind of shortage; a little bit in Briyah, a bit more in Yetzirah and even more in Assiyah. And then he says – and what is then pulled down to our world. It’s actually a continuation of BiY”A) because the human being is created as a wild man (look at a child or baby, they’re just like an animal, it doesn’t have anything human. The human being is as it were created as an animal) and the man has from his birth absolutely no desire for the spiritual (he only wants to receive and has no need for the spiritual.) Then from where does the human being get the feeling, desire for the spiritual (that he gets the feeling that he has a shortage for the spiritual. So he asks us this question, we’ll see), as far as we can say that he has a feeling of darkness (how does a man get the feeling of darkness, that is what he tells us) which is called night (feeling of night, that we have experienced night. Most of the time we feel that it is night, that the light as it were lacks in our experience, in our observation), that he feels that he’s far from the Creator, the light (the Creator is light). So how does it come that a man experiences that he’s as it were in the night, or in other words, that he’s far from the Creator, the light (one of the students asks if the Creator is called light in the book? No, that is my addition) So he says that he has the feeling that he’s far from the Creator. And I say that he is as it were far from the light. A student says: so an emanation of the Creator? Yes. Actually we can say that the light is the Creator. Why? 25
We can’t say what in essence the Creator is, therefore we say that the Creator is that which we experience, therefore we say light. We can’t say what we don’t experience and the Creator lets us experience through the light, pleasure, all kinds of forms of pleasure, comprehension, wisdom, it all comes from above), because we have to know that at that moment when a human being feels that he is far from the Creator (look what he says here) at that moment he begins to believe for a little bit in the existence of the Creator In the shortage we see that we come closer to the good. So at the moment when a man feels that he’s far from the Creator, then he as it were begins to believe that the Creator exists, because otherwise there would not be a shortage. A child consumes it, an animal consumes it, plants consume it, done. And only the man experiences it, of course when an animal doesn’t get food, he also feels it, but that is absolutely instinctive, is not aware of it, only the man is aware of his shortage. Look what he says, that shortage is a form of progress and not that we think where the Creator is, when you ask this question to yourself, that you’re far from the light, then it means that you know that there is light. Even when it’s a little bit, that you know that there is light. And light is the Creator.) How else could it be said that he is far from something that doesn’t exist in this world (how else would a man say that he’s far from something that doesn’t exist, do you understand. That already means that a man experiences, that you experience that you have shortage and that means that YOU with that indicate that you believe that there is something, or a state, or something that exists what is light, the Creator. And that is the beginning of the way to perfection in every state.) But it’s necessary to say that the human being has some shine of the light from a distance (so it begins to shine at him from a distance and he experiences that as a shortage. He doesn’t have the strength to see it as power, then he has a shortage. So a shortage comes because there already shines something to the man from a distance. Look how interesting it is, when the light shines from a distance, not in our kelim, when it’s in your kelim then you can experience it, that means that it’s already inside, but if it’s not inside and shines from a distance, then it feels as if there is a shortage, because it’s not yet in me), that shine that shines at him will make him feel that he is far from the Creator (so this state is structural. Go outside and ask if someone has a shortage, of course he will have a shortage, but other kinds of shortage, this is not good, that’s not good, etc. But when he feels within himself a shortage, then it means that a light already shines at you from a distance, because you feel a shortage with regard to the light, which is perfect.) 26
‫ תיכף מתחיל האור להאיר‬,‫ היינו להרגיש מציאות חושך‬,‫ שתיכף שמתחיל החושך‬,‫נמצא לפי הנ"ל‬
‫ שאין לו‬,‫ שמרגיש חסרון‬,‫ זאת אומרת‬.‫ ושיעור הארת היום ניכר רק מבחינת השלילה‬.‫באפס מה‬
‫ שעכשיו הוא מתחיל‬,‫ אלא שהאור מאיר לו בבחינת חסרון‬.‫ שיאיר לו בבחינת החיוב‬,'‫אור ה‬
.‫ שחסר לו אור ה' הנקרא יום‬,‫להרגיש‬
Line 30 – (what he’s going to unfold now is very important, that we go through it very carefully. It’s very important that we don’t think that things go bad with us while everything is just fine, that we become as babies of whom the plastic car is taken away from and that we feel bad because others have this and that while I don’t have it. So he tells us that everything is structural and good.) So we understand of what is said above, that immediately after the moment that darkness begins, that means that he from that moment starts to feel the existence of darkness, and immediately begins the shining of light (So from the moment that a man begins to feel that there is darkness, that that is the moment that light shines, this is an enormous comprehension if we can apply this. Don’t flee from the feeling of darkness, don’t have a drink, take drugs, or what so ever, because it’s all structural, do you understand. You have to make use of the chance and persevere at that moment. Because you know that it’s all good and don’t get depressed, of course it takes time) and the extant of the shining of the day is only seen from the aspect of the night (so the extent of the light is seen from the aspect – night. So if it’s night in your experience, it doesn’t have to be the physical night, we speak of the feeling of night, because there is no light, then you feel that it’s night.) That means that he experiences a shortage (That we from now on don’t get scared of shortage. So don’t say; why am I pathetic, why do I have a shortage. You have to know that if you live good, of course when you commit a sin, then it’s your fault that you have a shortage, but if you try to live good and experience as it were shortage – I live good, why do I have shortage? At that moment you have to know that it’s your shortage and it’s structural. That is very important) that there is no light of the Creator in him (that’s his shortage, that is what a man experiences, that the light shines at him from a distance. But that is the beginning of the day, of the light. This is important for us to understand) that now he begins to feel that he lacks or Hasjem, which is called day (so qualitative, day is light, he says; light of the Creator is day. So what the Torah tells us about day and night, we have to see it in the framework of the spiritual work, that day is already an advanced phase, what we call gadlut. And when the 27
light only starts to shine, just like with the lily, 1 sfirah above and the rest below, then the light shines from a distance, it can also be that all ten sfirot are in darkness and this state is called night. This state is also absolutely structural. If you know the laws of the universe, then why should you complain? If you know that the state of darkness is structural and not bad, then you’ll be able to step by step manage more. If we for example wake up in a dark room and immediately go to a room where an enormous beam of light is, can we then see? It’s exactly the same with the spiritual. Just look how we woke up this morning, one lump of flesh, I also woke up this morning just like an animal. Then the first thing that we have to do is to bring out the lowest part, the nefesj out of our body, then it becomes like a throne. A seat where the higher light can enter, the light ruach and ruach becomes on its turn a throne, seat. We say throne because everything from above sits on a lower as a King. I have to as it were prepare a compartment of my soul for the higher light, consider it as a seat for the king of higher light. That is what he learns us.) ‫ שהאדם צריך‬,‫ אם יש מציאות כזאת‬,‫ הוא לא יודע בכלל‬,‫מה שאם כן מי שלא מאיר לו אור היום‬
‫ יש לפעמים שהוא‬,‫ היינו בגוף אחד‬,‫ ונגיד באדם אחד‬.‫ הנקרא יום‬,'‫להרגיש חסרון של אור ה‬
‫ בזה‬,‫ ומרגיש יסורים‬,'‫ ומשתוקק להתקרב לה‬,'‫ היינו שהוא נמצא מרוחק מה‬,‫מרגיש בחינת חושך‬
.'‫שהוא מרוחק מה‬
Line 34 – (he gradually unfolds it for us. Look carefully what he says.) What one can’t say of someone at who the light of the day doesn’t shine (he says that it’s different for someone at who the light doesn’t shine) he absolutely doesn’t know that such a reality of shortage exists when the light shines at him from the front (so he doesn’t know that such a reality exists) that a man needs to feel shortage of the light of the Creator (he says, that others absolutely don’t know and experience the shortage of light, that there is such a reality, that there should be shortage of experiencing the light, do you understand, because it’s necessary that he… a phase of course), that the light of the Creator is called day (later on we’ll see that it’s chessed, by day it’s chessed.) (Look and now he says us something very special, that is penetrated in all his books and that we also get penetrated by learning it. He just spoke of one man, that he experiences shortage of the light of the Creator, which is structural, he began to see the light from a distance. And he told us that another man absolutely doesn’t experience anything, he also doesn’t know that such a reality of shortage of light of the Creator exists. He as it were spoke of 28
different people, and now he’s going to tell us something great that we have to keep an eye on. He says: we speak of one man who has both within himself. You always have to know that we don’t talk about other people, other groupings, etc. We always speak of one man, one man can find himself in a state, condition by which he’s a holy man or in a state when he’s a wrongdoer, do you understand. That’s what he wants to say: conditions, states, we only live in conditions. Remember that we always speak of one man, I have all souls within me. Therefore on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, all yews pray to the Creator, they appear for the Creator regardless of their state, maybe you’re at that moment a holy man, but you say that you have sinned, killed, and done other kinds of crazy things and you have to mean it. And when you speak bad of someone, then it’s like killing someone. When you for example say something wrong to someone, something by which you evoke the evil to him, then what happens to that person? His face becomes white, that means that his blood is as it were taken away from his face by your fault. By your fault, you said something and he felt he was grabbed by the collar, he felt offended by the things you said to him. And he found it hard to not get angry, but he had to deal with the things you said to him. And it was difficult for him not to get angry, of course it’s a correction, but you caused the flow away of blood, by that you shed blood. Do you understand what I mean. It’s not that you actually kill someone. If you for example in this way insult someone, or make someone angry by which the blood of that person is shed. It doesn’t matter how much, but it’s a form of death. It’s very fine, this act isn’t taken literally, you won’t get punished in this world, by you will be punished from above. You caused that to another soul who is related to you. When the Torah says another, then it means another aspect of you in yourself. Do you understand what I mean. Other, you will love one’s neighbor, that also means the other in yourself who you see as someone else. You must say: in me there is also someone else. How many times do we not act out of hate? Everything is one, therefore he tells us, learns us that we always speak of one man. Of course we sometimes speak of someone else, but we always have to bring it back to one man. Do you understand. 29
It’s always in one person. It’s a great sin that we commit by projecting it on someone else. It mustn’t interest you, everyone has its own corrections, how can you then say something bad of someone else. Everything is in yourself and you have to work on yourself, then you’ll see the light, but if you say… others have this and that, then you run away from your own work, and you not only run away, but you also commit a sin. We mustn’t do that, of course we do it all, we have to be careful. And the more you’re attentive, the more you’ll be protected by the chassadim – ten chassadim – as we’ve said or thirteen sfirot, that means that you already experience chassadim with a bit chochmah inside. Chassadim is only mercy, which is 5 sfirot (or 10) and 13 sfirot is with a shine of chochmah. And at that moment nobody can blame you. You have to see it like this, as a memory aid: if you blame someone or something, regardless the situation, then you have at that moment a shortcoming. Because you have only yourself and the Creator. And if you blame others, then you have shortcomings! The feeling of shortage is caused by you, but here we’re talking about structural shortage when the light begins to shine at you from a distance. We always speak of one man. That means in one body, we always speak of a man in one body). That sometimes one man (one man in one body) experiences the aspect of darkness (so it’s not that one man experiences darkness and the other doesn’t. Again, we only speak of one man in one body. There are sometimes moments that a man experiences darkness), that means that he’s far from the Creator (it’s structural, you don’t have to put a stop to it), and he passionately desires to come closer to the Creator (he directly gives us a tool, that at the moments when you experience shortage, shortage means that you are far from the Creator. When the Creator is in you, then you feel great, then you brought yourself in accordance with the laws of the universe, no unclean powers will then suck at you and you are surrounded by mercy etc… at that moment you don’t need anything or anyone. Everything is in harmony. And if it’s not like that, then you feel that you are far from the Creator, he says that, and he then strives to get closer. A man has to desire for unity. And don’t escape from reality and take drugs or something else), and at that moment he feels suffering, from the fact that he is far from the Creator (look what is told now, enumeration as it were, different phases. He told us that a man feels far from the Creator. Then he says that he at that moment he has to desire for the approach. Like in our world when someone is far from his beloved and searches for contact with him or her. It’s the same here. And feels suffering that he doesn’t have it. He suffers that he’s far 30
from the Creator. But what kind of suffering is it? It’s no suffering, it’s kelim. The suffering makes as it were place for the light to be received and if you at that moment resist, then you do it against the light. Look, the fact that you now feel shortage means that the light is already being experienced from a distance. And if you at that moment persevere, passionately desire that it enters, that means that it’s outside of you and if you at that moment desire for it and suffer that you are far from it. Then you can by it, by your suffering and desire, desire is as it were a positive manifestation of your striving and suffering is as it were negative, yes. Desire gives you as it were a positive manifestation of impulses and suffering as it were negative. Everything exists out of two and out of both; plus, minus or right and left. By both aspects you create a field of tension by which the light, by which you make yourself receptive to experience the light. Just look how many aspects we named.) ‫ שהשני‬,‫ שרואה‬,‫ ולפעמים מרגיש חושך ויסורים‬.‫ מי גורם לו שידאג על רוחניות‬,‫והשאלה היא‬
‫ והוא רואה‬.‫ והוא חוסר הן מבחינת פרנסה והן מבחינת כבוד‬,‫מצליח בגשמיות ברכוש ובנפש‬
,‫ הן מבחינת הכשרון והן מבחינת היחס משפחה‬,‫ אליבא דאמת הוא יותר מוכשר מהשני‬,‫בעצמו‬
‫ וזה כואב לו ביותר‬,‫ ולמעשה הוא עומד הרבה מדרגות יותר תחתון מהשני‬,‫מגיע לו יותר כבוד‬
Line 38 – (look carefully, everything we learn in Slavej HaSulam – the steps of the ladder is very close to us, it’s our soul, everything that we learn, everything that we experience.) and the question is, who caused that to him (to the man), that he would worry about the spiritual (yes or no? Why do others have a good time in a bar, drink free of troubles, while we worry that it hurts, that it appeals to us in a certain way, that we worry about the spiritual, who caused that to us that a man suddenly searches… gets concerned about the spiritual, it’s a question that he asks.), and sometimes he feels darkness and suffering, when he sees that another person has success (so our problem is not that we don’t have success, but that another one has success, that is my problem, do you understand. It’s not our concern to look at others and say that he has this and that while I don’t have it.) It gives him sorrow. That he sees that another person has success in the material world, in his desires, as well as possession as nefesj (his lowest soul, but it also means his inner, that he feels great; as well as materially as from inside), while he, (the person that feels shortage, says) who now has a desire for the spiritual, feels that he lacks merit – parnasa, as well as in maintenance as in the aspect of honour. With merit I mean money, so parnasa means merit in money, that he lacks of it, as well as financially, socially as honour, social status, etc… While another person has this all, this is what a person feels when he begins to worry about…) and that person sees within himself (is also Aramaic) that he is truly more suitable to experience it and have it than the other person (he is actually more suitable than the other to have all the good in life because of the 31
work he has done on himself, that he deserves it more to have it than the other person), and also from origin (so he says, the other one is a country boy, while I come from a descent environment for example. He gives it as an example. Why does he have it as well as materially as socially, while I don’t… do you understand?), that according to the work that I have done to myself and from my origin, that it’s more suitable for me than for the other person, but in reality this person (who has a shortage) stands much steps lower on the ladder than the other, and that gives him great sorrow. ‫ שהוא בעצמו הסתכל על כל‬,‫ שהיה פעם‬,‫ ואפילו הוא לא זוכר‬,‫ואין לו אז שום שייכות לרוחניות‬
‫ את היסורים שלהם על מה הם דואגים‬,‫ שבזמן שהיה רואה אותם‬,‫ שלמד איתם בהישיבה‬,‫החברים‬
‫ שלא יכולים לעשות חשבון‬,‫ היה נראה בעיניו כמו ילדים קטנים‬,‫להגיע לידי שלימות בהחיים‬
‫ ופעם‬,‫ פעם הבינו עיקר החיים הוא כסף‬,‫ לזה הם משתוקקים‬,‫ אלא כל מה שעיניהם רואות‬,‫תכליתי‬
‫ ועכשיו הוא נמצא ממש בדברים‬.‫ וכדומה‬,‫הבינו עיקר החיים הוא לקבל עמדה של כבוד בין אנשים‬
‫ אלא שהוא יקבע את שלימות תקות‬,‫ ועתה הוא מרגיש שאין לו טעם בחיים‬,‫שהיה צוחק מהם‬
.‫ שזה נקרא מטרת החיים‬,‫ שהם קבעו‬,‫ושלות החיים באותה הרמה‬
Line 43 – And he has absolutely no relationship with the spiritual (he feels within himself that he has absolutely nothing to do with the spiritual), and he doesn’t even remember that he worked on the spiritual and he looks at his friends with whom he had studied the spiritual (so he studied with them in the Talmud academy, he studied with them something about the spiritual) that in the time when he studied with diligence (that in that time when he looked at his friends) when they were suffering about the fact how to become successful in this life (that means that they were worrying about the earthly things, the friends with whom he had studied the spiritual were worrying about the material, about senseless things), that in that time (when his spiritual work was reviving, flourishing, he looked at his friends) as small children (in that time he looked at his friends as small children, because they only wanted success in this life. But he’s now in the state of shortage and he forgets the time in his life when he had a prospering life and when he looked at his friends and thought that they were small children, because they only worried about senseless material things. But he’s now in a state of shortage and darkness and he forgets this moments. Therefore he tells us to remember the good moments and that you understand that the state of shortage is only temporary and that it will change. The state of shortage is necessary and you’re maybe at that moment busy with a higher step and it only shines at you from the outside and hasn’t entered inside you yet. And it’s only a perception that you have a shortage, because the light hasn’t entered yet, then we 32
experience it as shining from outside and we look at others, he has this and that, because I haven’t brought my portion inside. When I receive my portion, then I won’t look at others. At such moments try to think of good moments that you had, don’t think of the past, but try to experience it. You have to live now, but call up the good in yourself if it helps you to get out of that sate you’re in. Only because you’re not capable of being in that state of darkness. And if you are capable of bearing the state of darkness, then you can also be in it. And you will see that both states are good for you, the state when you experience the light and the state when you’re in darkness. Both are good for you, but you have to learn that. Such a person is called a tsadik, a person who is called righteous, not that he justifies. A man can’t be righteous, a man can be in a state of justification of the operational system and such a person is called righteous. But we can’t call someone as righteous, it is also written ‘you mustn’t trust yourself till your dying day’. Which is written in the ‘Chapters of Fundamental principles or Ethics of the Fathers’, he was a great rabbi, a high priest, but it’s written in the Talmud that he turned his back to the Creator, after eighty years of learning Torah. This learns us that everything is possible. A man mustn’t trust himself. From one side you can say that this rabbi didn’t work good enough on himself, with all his intellect. While we don’t work with our mind in the spiritual and the longer we carry on, the more difficult it will become for us to sin. So listen carefully, you still have time to go back, because later you won’t have to power anymore to sin, do you understand what I mean. That is the result of it, of our study, while someone who learns Talmud and all kinds of others things still can sin. Why is it like this, because the Talmud and so are also holy? Because the Talmud and the regular Torah come from the world Briyah, Yetzirah, Assiyah and in those worlds are good and evil, kosher and not kosher, allowed and not allowed. While we try to make an effort to experience Atzilut. You can experience Atzilut only through Kabbalah, you can’t experience other things. The Talmud for example, you learn it for fifty years, but we’ve learned at the beginning of this lesson that Briyah, Yetzirah and Assiyah were as it were fallen outside… that is the second part, the part where klipot are, unclean powers. And therefore someone can study for so long, but it still can be a comedy, because he works with his head and understands it, but he doesn’t necessarily correct himself. He receives spiritual tingling, of course he also receives light, but it’s not comparable with what we do with the Kabbalah. We burn all the ships that we leave behind us, we always say that in the Kabbalah, you always go to a new island, far away from your previous island. And you always 33
burn the ships so you can’t go back to your sins, while we can experience shortage, sometimes even stronger, because the closer you come to the Creator, the more it seems that you have a shortage, because the more radiant you see the face the Creator. Thus the more radiant you see the face of the Creator… that we are like a reflection of the light, then you feel that you have a shortage. You have to learn that it’s all structural and that it’s a sign that you’re getting closer. At the moment when he feels shortage, means that he is farther than in the state when he looked at others as small children. Why was it like this? He then looked at them as small children, who only thought about the needs of our world, while he lived elevated, but now suddenly he feels in a state of falling, that he has a shortage and then he has no power anymore to even remember at the moments when he was in a state op revival. And he thinks; life isn’t worth anything, etc. While even now he’s in a good state, only in the feeling of shortage, that means that he perhaps approached a newer or higher step, but he doesn’t experience it yet, then it is seen and experienced as darkness. But now we know that both darkness and light are structural parts of one whole. So you don’t have to feel pathetic when you’re in a state of darkness when you know that both, darkness and light are structural. Not that you bring yourself in darkness, then it’s your fault that you’re in a state of misery. When you do normal, work on yourself, have a good life and feel shortage, then it’s structural. Also therefore you have to be absolutely thankful. Then you have to strive to get closer. Learn Kabbalah… So he was talking about the state when he looked at others and thought that they were as small children) that they couldn’t make a calculation (make a calculation means to look at the final goal of life), but only look where their eyes look at (that was their occupation) for that they strived (only what their eyes see, his friends, but later we’ll see that he’s talking about one person, but he tells us as if… sometimes they look at life as if the main goal is money. How often don’t we think about money). And sometimes they think that the main goal of life is to have honour of other people. (sometimes you think of money or you think of achieving a social status. What doesn’t a man do to get honour and status? And now he finds himself in those states, in the state when he laughed at them and now he feels that he has no more taste in life (he sees his state as something negative while it’s structural). So what we now learned was an application of what there is written in the Torah; there was evening and there was morning, one day. He translated it for us into the spiritual work. He’s going to do the same for the whole Torah. 34
Lesson 3 ‫ שהיום הזה מתחיל מבחינת‬,‫ והאיר לו בחינת יום‬,‫ אלא שעתה הקב"ה ריחם עליו‬.‫ומה הוא האמת‬
‫ ואז‬.‫ זה נקרא התחלת זריחת היום‬,‫ בזה שמתחיל להאיר בלבו בחינת חושך‬,‫ זאת אומרת‬.‫שלילה‬
‫ שמתחיל‬,'‫ שהוא אור ה‬,‫ שיוכשרו להאיר בהם היום בבחינת החיוב‬,‫הוא מתחיל להתרקם בו כלים‬
.‫ ומתחיל להרגיש את טעם התורה וטעם המצות‬,'‫להרגיש את אהבת ה‬
,‫ כמו שכתוב "על כן כתוב בהם‬,‫ שדוקא מבין שניהם יוצא יום אחד‬,‫ומזה נבין דברי הזה"ק הנ"ל‬
,‫ וכמו כן שאמר ר' יהודה‬.‫ ושניהם עושים את היום‬,‫ להורות שהערב ובוקר הם כגוף אחד‬,‫יום אחד‬
‫ שאי אפשר שיארע פעם שיהיה אור‬,‫ כדי להורות‬,‫שעל כן חוזר הכתוב להודיענו זה בכל יום ויום‬
‫ כי לא יתפרדו זה‬,‫ שלא יביא אחריו אור היום‬,‫ וכן לא יארע חושך הלילה‬,‫בלי הקדם חושך הלילה‬
.‫ שאין אור בלי כלי‬,‫ לפי הכלל‬,'‫ א‬.‫ והיינו כנ"ל‬.‫מזה לעולם‬
.‫ הנקרא יום‬,‫ גם כן צריכים אור‬,‫ בכדי לעשות כלי‬,'‫ב‬
Page 2, line 3 – (last time we read a part about someone who did spiritual work, but when he was in a state of falling, he didn’t have the taste for it anymore and didn’t remember the good moments. Now he’s going to tell us in what state that person actually was, because he studied, worked on himself, he lived good, but suddenly he was in a state of falling, and now he’s going to tell us what happened to him). So what is the truth then, but now HaKadosj barug Hoe, (this is an abbreviation for the Holy One, blessed be He. It’s taken from the Torah, the Holy One blessed be He, but we say HaKadosj barug Hoe. Later we’ll remember it all, we’ll also start using it) The Creator showed him mercy, and shone him the aspect of day (so when this person experiences darkness, that in reality at that moment mercy is shown to him from above, because it’s a state of the beginning of the day), that this day begins from the state of night, which means that it starts to shine in his heart, which is called the beginning of daybreak (when in the morning the light slowly starts to shine through, this is the state when he’s in the darkness, that is then the beginning of the day. So day means the state of spiritual revival), and then kelim starts to build up within him (but the word hidraken is used) that the kelim would be fit and day could shine in it. That is the light of the Creator, that he now starts to experience the love of the Creator in the state of darkness, and he starts to experience and feel the taste in the Torah and in the regulations. And of this we’ll understand the words of the holy Zohar, as mentioned above, that only of this two (darkness and light) together comes one day (so darkness and light, night and day make one day. 35
It’s a very important concept. Like it’s written in the Torah: and there was evening and there was morning, one day. Therefore it is written in the Torah “one day” and not “the first day”, like it’s translated in every Bible. It should be one day because both form one day, both night and day, yes… in the spiritual both states are necessary), to learn us that both night and day make one body (so don’t have a preference, that you only want the state of day and not the state of night. Only experiencing good isn’t right, you need to experience both to move forward. I can for example tell you when Sjabbat starts at Friday night My wife lights the candles and I feel step by step the pressure drop lower and lower in myself. And step by step you have the feeling that you, especially at Friday night, are being sucked empty. You don’t know what it going on, but that happens at Friday night when the Malchut starts to rule, so the Din. And she starts to grow as it were and then you have the feeling of being alone, because the light of day Chessed is gone when it’s night. It’s always like this, when the chessed is gone, when the mercy is gone and when it’s dark (also physical), then you have the feeling that chessed leaves you, even on Sjabbat. It’s very important that we don’t run from the feeling of darkness. Because morning can’t come without darkness. It’s a state that we have to go through), and that is what rabbi Yehuda said (one of the ten rabbis who came together to write Zohar), that the Torah comes back to us (I try to translate it literally) to let us know that every day is like this, (therefore it is also written on the second day of the creation; there was evening and there was morning. Why is it written this way? There are no superfluous words in the Torah, why is it like this? To let us know that all seven days, and every day of the creation, exists out of two compartments; evening and morning, together they make one day), to learn us that there’s never light without the preceding of night, darkness (we have learned in lesson seven of Zohar that you can find everything what will happen in the future in the story of the Creation, Genesis. Because you can find everything in the bud, in the root, therefore the Zohar pays a lot of attention to the book Breishit; the book of Genesis. There are two versions of Zohar; either 21 books or 10 books. It are the same books, only the size is different. The version of 10 books is smaller and thicker. So Zohar pays a lot of attention to the book Breishit, which is two books out of the ten or four out of twenty-­‐one. Can you imagine… Because everything that is in the beginning, can also be found in everything that will later 36
take place. Do you understand? Because there is nothing more than the seven days of the creation. Everything was as it were programmed in the seven days of the creation and later it all unfolded qua powers. That all the creative powers would descend to our world, to the lower world. All the creative powers have already descended to our world, no Apocalypse will take place anymore. It’s now our task to rise up and correct ourselves. And the same is with the darkness, night (lajla), that after darkness comes light of day. Because (now we come to a conclusion, always look for a conclusion) both can’t be separated from each other. So darkness and light, day and night can’t be separated from each other, because they are as one. Can you imagine that they are one. It’s a great revelation if you realize what this means. There is a moment, pfff, when you’ll get a sleeping nirvana. It’s all a correction because our body is very stubborn. It has to be this way, don’t ask yourself why, it just has to be like this. I have already told you that also the great wise need to be careful to not get lost. The Creator created the world in this way, so that the human being would always need Him. Image that you don’t need the Creator, the higher powers anymore (G’d forbid), what would then become of you. When you feel yourself as King Kong, what will then become of you? Nothing, do you understand? Therefore it’s important that we have in every situation day and night, so we can work on ourselves, so we have work to do. Remember this and don’t look for rest, but work on yourself. This is a great thing that we can work on ourselves, and don’t try to relax, because this only causes death in yourself.) And that means like it is said above. According the two principles (a principle is very important for us, a man has to learn principles, not the principles of a human being in this world, but the spiritual principles, the laws of the universe, but he calls it a principle to not always say the laws of the universe): ‫ )א‬ There is no light without Kli – without a receiver -­‐ ‫ שא'ן אור בלי כלי‬ – (what does this mean? There is always light, but we can’t talk about the light itself unless it’s in me, unless I receive it. Do you understand? When the light enters my kli, only then I can experience it and know what it is. For example: you can’t know what kind of birds are flying in the air unless a bird flies towards you, and you capture it and put it in a cage. Then you can say what kind of bird it is. 37
It’s the same with the principle we’ve just learned; there is no light without kli. Remember this very well. There is no question of light when there is no kli. We can’t know anything about coffee when you haven’t tasted it. I’ve experienced it once in my early days in the Ural. I went with my mother to visit someone in the hospital. It was a girl, an adolescent of a village nearby and I knew what a banana was, but she didn’t. She was fourteen, fifteen I think. My mother gave her a banana and she grabbed it and thanked my mother. But I saw that she didn’t know what to do with it. She looked at it and thought that it was a toy or something else… my mother also saw it and said that she had to eat it. Oké, but she didn’t know how. My mother started to peel it so she could finally eat it. She didn’t even know what it was. After she had eaten it, she knew what it was and she had a kli for a banana. Also we have to develop our spiritual kli. So light is also a pleasure. A banana had for her absolutely no pleasure before she had a kli, before she tasted it. Before that, the banana did not attract, appeal her. There was no light for her, light is pleasure. Or coffee, spiritual pleasure. So the law is: there is no light without a kli. And now the second principle.) ‫ )ב‬ To make kli, we need light, and that is called day (so we need light to make kli, which is called day. So day is light. The state ‘day/light’ makes in a man kli, to taste what day is.) ‫ שכל החיים‬,‫ היינו שמרגיש‬,‫ מדוע אם האדם כבר זכה לקצת יום בבחינת השלילה‬,‫אבל יש להבין‬
,'‫ בזה שהוא מרוחק מה‬,‫ ולזה הוא מתחיל להרגיש יסורים‬,'‫שלו הוא רק באם יזכה לדביקות ה‬
‫ היינו שכל החיים צריך להיות רק בחיים‬,‫ שיפול ממצבו של העליה‬,‫ אם כן מי הוא הגורם‬.‫כנ"ל‬
,‫ למצב שתמיד היה שוחק מאלו אנשים‬,‫ ופתאום נפל למצב השפלות‬,‫ וזה כל התקוות שלו‬,‫רוחניים‬
‫ ועכשיו הוא בעצמו נמצא‬.‫ הוא להשיג המילוי למלאות תאוות בהמיות‬,‫שכל תקות החיים שלהם‬
.‫ וניזון מאותם מזונות שהם ניזונים‬,‫איתם במחיצתם‬
Page 2, line 13 – but we have to understand, that if a man is worthy to experience a bit of day, then why does he experience it as night. Because he feels that all his life now only depends if he’s worthy to merge with the Creator and this causes him sorrow, (what kind of sorrow) that he’s far from the Creator, as said above. (And when does he feel this? When he’s in a state of night. The feeling of night is a sign that a bit of light already shines at you, but it’s only the initial phase. And only in this phase a person feels sorrow, because he knows that he’s far from experiencing the Creator and this 38
causes him sorrow. The last time we’ve said that it’s actually no real sorrow, it’s only your feeling, because we have shortcomings in our resemblance qua qualities with the higher. He asks if it’s like this, then who’s the causer if his sorrow (this is very important. Is it his neighbor, the society, your boss, … ?) that he fell from the state of revival, that means (what does revival mean?) the state when he feels that all his life is meant for the spiritual (I don’t want to say that the materiel isn’t important, it’s absolutely necessary. But that the spiritual is for him the main course and the rest is as a dessert. This is as it were the state of revival. That he feels that the spiritual is very important for him. Because there are states when you ask yourself what you’re doing, and that means that you’re in a state of falling), and that’s all his hope, and suddenly he fell in a state of lowness, in a state in which he always laughed at other people (when he was in a state of revival, he laughed at other people because their only concern was the material world. But now he also fell in this state and doesn’t have the power to realize it. All their hope was to satisfy their bestial desires, but now he finds himself in the same state and he is fed of the same feeding by which they are fed (don’t forget that everything is in one person. It’s told in this way, but it’s always in one person. Sometimes we have earthly desires and think why we need the spiritual for, sometimes we only want to focus on the spiritual. It are different states in one person. Therefore it’s important to be every day busy with the spiritual. It’s also written: if you fail to learn one day, then you’ll be thrown back two days. After a while you’ll have a system, kelim in yourself that will demand it from you. But you have to stay careful and persevere. Why? I can’t say; I’m already learning Kabbalah for twenty years, because every day you have new corrections, every day is absolutely different from another day. If you fail to do your corrections of one day, then it gradually piles up. Just when you go to vacation and when you come back you have piles of documents, mails, … It’s the same every day, if you don’t do it one day, then you’ll end up in the material, nobody can resist this, it’s the work the Creator has given us, we have to do it every day. 39
Just like you drink coffee in the morning, or something else. It’s the same in the spiritual. Because we don’t only have a body, yes or no? We have to also feed our spiritual part, do you understand. We have to feed both, and not only our material part. ‫ שיהיה עכשיו במצב‬.‫ שפעם הוא במצב עליה כנ"ל‬,‫ איך נשכח מלבו‬,‫ועוד יותר מזה יש להתפלא‬
‫ שהוא נמצא עכשיו‬,‫ שהיה מסתכל על אנשים האלו‬,‫ בשיעור שלא עלה על זכרונו‬,‫של שכחה‬
‫ איך מלאו לבו‬,‫ ולא מתבייש מעצמו‬,‫ היינו שיש לו עכשיו רק שאיפותיהם ברמה כה נמוכה‬,‫ביניהם‬
‫ היה‬,‫ שהם נושמים לרווחה‬,‫ היינו שמהאויר הזה‬,‫ שתמיד היה בורח ממנו‬,‫לכנס לתוך אויר כזה‬
‫ ואינו מרגיש שום חסרון‬,‫ ועכשיו הוא נמצא בתוכם‬,‫ שזה אויר מחניק את הקדושה‬,‫תמיד אומר‬
.‫בהם‬
Line 19 – and the more surprising is how could he forget that he also had a state of revelation as said above.
That he now remains in the state of oblivion, and he doesn’t remember that he once laughed at those people, but he now finds himself amongst them (amongst the people who only focus their lives on stupidities) and now he also has desires/wishes of such a low level (because he’s now in the state of falling and he forgets that he also had states of revelation, do you understand?), and he’s not ashamed of the way he fills his heart now with such an air (metaphor) while he always ran away from this air, the air which he now fully inhales (it’s bad air, air by which they only think of earthly, childish things) he always said that this air strangled the holiness.
(It’s really like this. If you enter the material world, then it’s like you’re being strangled), but he now finds himself in it (in such an air), and he absolutely doesn’t feel any shortage (once a man is in the material, then he absolutely doesn’t feel any shortage, because you’re totally focused on the material and the true reality, very subtle things, very high, life itself, evaporate from you.) ‫ וצריכים‬."‫ הנה הכתוב אומר )תהילים א'( "אשרי האיש אשר לא הלך בעצת רשעים‬,‫והתשובה היא‬
."‫ הוא "מה עבודה הזאת לכם‬,‫ המובא באגדה‬,‫ ששאלת הרשע‬,‫ זה ידוע‬.‫ מהו עצת רשעים‬,‫להבין‬
‫ באה אז השאלה‬,‫ שבזמן שהאדם מתחיל לעבוד בעל מנת להשפיע‬,‫ שהפירוש‬,‫ופירש אאמו"ר זצ"ל‬
.‫ מה יהיה לך מזה שאתה לא עובד בשביל תועלת עצמו‬,‫ ושואל‬,‫של רשע‬
Line 25 – And the answer is, see here what the holy writing says (he quotes psalm one of David), “fortunate is the man who didn’t listen to the advice of the wrongdoers”. And it is necessary to understand what is meant by the advice of the wrongdoers (of course everything is in one man, but it also corresponds in which company you are. So be choosy and don’t hang around with people who pull you to the other side. You’re environment is important. 40
He asks a question, what is then the advice of the wrongdoers), that is “what is the work that you do” (so when you arrive somewhere in a gathering, of that kind of people, and they say what for work is that that you do? What is it that you’re occupied with? Do you understand? And then a man feels that he’s going to be mocked and doesn’t have the power to resist it, that is very difficult.) my father, my master, my teacher and rabbi (look how he speaks of his father), said that in the time/ in the period when a man begins to work (he quotes from the Talmud Esser haSfirot and especially Zohar ) to give (giving means in the higher sense. That you give from your ego, you give from your own love, for the sake of the higher. That is giving. There are of course also other kinds of giving, but that is the main form of giving. Remember this very well, not that you only give money, which is also important. But when you give money, try to also give something from yourself. Don’t only give superfluous things, money is never superfluous, but when you give, give something from yourself. Otherwise you didn’t do anything, do you understand? That is very important. So when he starts to work on himself, which means that he begins to give of himself. Well, getting up at night, even at home, that is already giving. When you give instead of sleeping. You give of yourself, this way you already give), then comes the question of the wrongdoer (in yourself, in every man this question comes up, so not somewhere outside of you with other people, this is also possible, but we always talk about one man. That in you this question comes up of the wrongdoer) and he asks you, what will you get from it (do you see it, he wants to catch you in a rational way, he asks you what you’ll get from it), when you don’t work for your own needs (when you don’t work for your own needs. Because that is absolutely impossible for a human being, it’s not given to us to not work for ourselves, from the moment we are born, do you understand?) It’s not different with us, therefore it is ridiculous for people in our world, because we are born in this way, therefore we have to… therefore it is said: above your nature, belief above common sense, this is the tool. We absolutely can’t discuss with our earthly mind, that is impossible.) .‫ אז הוא נופל ברשת שלו‬.‫ אולי באמת הצדק אתו‬,‫ הוא מתחיל אז להרהר‬,‫וכשאדם מקבל שאלה כזו‬
‫ שבזמן‬,‫ זאת אומרת‬,"‫ "אשרי האיש אשר לא הלך בעצת רשעים‬,‫ לפי זה צריכים לפרש‬,‫נמצא‬
‫ אם הוא לא רואה שמזה יצא לו רווח לתועלת‬,‫שבאו אליו הרשעים ויעצו לו שלא כדאי לעבוד‬
‫ עכשיו אני רואה שאני הולך על דרך‬,‫ ואומר‬,‫ אלא שמתחזק בעבודה‬,‫ הוא לא שומע בקולם‬,‫עצמו‬
.‫ הוא מאושר‬,‫ האדם הזה כשהוא מתגבר‬,‫ נמצא‬.‫ והם רוצים לבלבלני‬,‫האמת‬
41
Line 30 – And when this question is asked (thus from his bad side, not bad side, but common sense, but we call it a wrongdoer in himself), he then starts to ponder/contemplate over it and agrees with the advising of his ego, which he calls wrongdoer. Then he falls into a trap, web. Therefore we can explain the verse of the first psalm (he says it one more time, it doesn’t matter if he says it one more time, it’s all about the work we have to do and not… therefore you often see me following in the footsteps of others, that we sometimes repeat certain things etc.) “Happy is the man who doesn’t go into the advice of the wrongdoers, meaning, that in the time when the wrongdoers give him advice that it’s not worth working (with work we mean for the sake of giving, for the sake of the Creator) if he sees that by his work he doesn’t have an advantage for himself (so if he doesn’t gain something for himself, then it has no point), that at that moment he mustn’t listen to those voices, but has to strengthen his work and say: (say to what we call wrongdoers, that whisper in himself, we always speak of one man, that at that moment he has to say to himself), now I see that I’m walking the path of the truth (you have to always say it like this), but they want to throw me into confusion. So the man who concurs this (the advice of the wrongdoers), then he’s happy (so this is what the psalm speaks of, about a man who concurs the advice of the wrongdoers and the thoughts that are being whispered in his head. What do you think my people think? They usually think: I don’t sit outside, I don’t go to the marketplace, I don’t hang around with people who waste their lives doing nothing, and therefore I’m good, but what does he say to us? That every man has those kind of thoughts and don’t think that it’s that simple, that they’ll set you free, because that is also a part of reality and it’s also a part of our growth and not that you follow for a while Kabbalah therapy, become free of those thoughts, feel nirvana etc. Mirjam says: if the thoughts don’t come up in your mind anymore, then it moves and settles in your body, because when I play the piano, then my fingers act very strange. Michael says: Yes, it absolutely works in this way. You have to see it like this, the wrongdoers have different ways to disguise themselves in good guys. This is very special. They for example whisper: “you know what Henk, go and work on yourself now, do this and do that.” There is someone for example who types out the Zohar lessons for us. And if the wrongdoers notice that you have an interest in something, then they’ll try to take advantage of your goodness and so they’ll disguise themselves as good guys and say: “go and type out the lessons, it’s a good thing you’re doing. Do it at least 42
for a few hours” This way he’ll get tired as he’ll have to put a lot of energy in it and this will be at the cost of his spiritual work. So always be careful that you don’t fall into the trap of the whispers. It’s not simple, but we’ll learn it step by step. There was once a big lecture and a lot of great rabbi’s were present. First a great rabbi of this generation had to speak. He was about 75 years old and he began to speak about: we need money for all these projects and it would be good if you helped out with the projects etc and he finally said: you know me right? This great rabbi said this. You know me right? I’m already at this age and I’ve gone through a lot, so I would not plead for something that is wrong or not good. And in the room sat another great rabbi and he raised his finger, stood up and said: no we don’t know anything about you. Can you imagine, he said that straightforward. The fact that you’re that old doesn’t mean anything, why? The eyes of everyone opened. Why not? When someone’s young, then you can see his lusts, aspirations very clearly. He doesn’t have to disguise anything because his bad principle whispers something to him and he does exactly what he’s told. But such a great rabbi of 75 years old, he wanted to say that he’s already this far and that he’s not subjected to such lusts, etc. But the rabbi who had raised his finger knew how the human being worked and not like the rest of the people in the room. He meant to say the following; that you indeed are old and don’t chase women anymore, but your ego, your own love has adopted another form. At your age you’re not subjected to sex, lusts and other things anymore, but your bad principle has found another substitution, which one? Honor, he comes on stage, he tells something. Instead of low lusts, his ego is disguised in something else, not drugs or women, but honor. It are fine things. Can you imagine, we have to always be careful that we don’t fall victim to … and think: I’m now perfect. ‫ כמו‬,‫ ענין חטא הוא‬.‫ שאומר לא עמד‬,‫ מהו דרך חטאים‬,‫ ויש לפרש‬."‫ "ובדרך חטאים לא עמד‬,‫ואח"כ אומר הכתוב‬
‫ שצריכים ללכת‬,‫ היינו שהדרך האמיתי הוא‬,‫ אם הוא עובר בבל תוסיף‬,‫ שהחטא הוא‬,(‫שביארנו )במאמר נ"ד‬
‫ שכל זמן שאין לו ברירה‬,‫ שהגוף מבין‬,‫ ולהיפוך מזה הוא בחינת ידיעה‬,‫ הנקרא בחינת אמונה‬,‫בלמעלה מהדעת‬
.‫ אלא רק להאמין בבחינת למעלה מהדעת‬,‫אחרת‬
Line 36 – (writing, that is the continuation of the verse – psalm 1:15, of the same verse) ‘and I did not stand on the path of sinners’. And we have to explain this, what is the way of sinners, about which he speaks of that he did not stand on it (he’s now going to explain us 43
what sin means).
The aspect of sin, is as we have explained (and he says where we have explained it), that the sin means whether he breaks the principle of not adding in the aspect of, ‘you will not add’ (such an principle exists in the Torah, you will not add and you will not decrease. All those prescriptions… but a human being is tended to add or decrease things, and with adding a man things to become better. So if something is written, then I’m going to make it heavier, then I’m better, but that’s forbidden.
You can’t for example on Sjabbat turn on the light, but of course you need light, so you can set timers to automatically turn the light on and off.
But there exists a Jewish movement called Karaism and they understand everything literally. It’s for example written in the Torah: “you will not turn on the light”, so they just wall in the dark…
This is of course not the way to do it, but sometimes they add things, so what does he say with “you will not add”, what is then the sin?) this means that the true path is to go above your understanding (this is something very special that we’ll learn, to go above our understanding. They don’t understand it so they just do it literally, he does it with his earthly intellect, he tries to interpret the Torah with his mind. But WE have to go above our understanding.
and that is called the aspect of belief (because the mind does only say what the facts are in my reality, but we have to go above our understanding, believe by which I still research, but we go above our mind), and the opposite of that is the aspect of knowing (the opposite of belief above understanding is the aspect knowing.
We want to know), that the body understands that it has no other choice, except to believe that there is no other solution than to go above your understanding (our body always wants to know and needs facts.
We have to teach our body that there is nothing to do about it, except to go above our mind. Because whispers inside us want to understand… go back to sleep, why do you have to get up at night, you are crazy, you don’t have any benefit of it, and so on…
Or on the contrary; the whispers say how holy you are, you are so good, you did enough. The whispers inside you have only one purpose to put you off from your work. Only by going above our understanding our body will surrender.
Your body listens to you, leaves you alone and right at the moment when you think you won, he’ll catch you again. It doesn’t mean that your whole life is a battle, of course not. You just have to be attentive, because there are everywhere temptations. The temptations aren’t bad, their purpose is to make you an adult, so we don’t stay as puppets.
44
But if you keep learning, then a sort of spontaneity will arise in you, a kind of system that will give you signals and help you in time to do and to do not certain things.
45
Lesson 4 Whenever the lesson starts, we always have to keep in mind and arouse in ourselves for which reason we do it. To say that we serve the Creator is maybe at first sight aimed too high, but of course it’s like this, because every time we conquer our body, we serve the Creator. On the other hand when we submit to our body and are only occupied with the material world, then we cause annoyance to the Sjechyna… because we don’t experience the Sjechyna. Then it’s like we cause annoyance to the Sjechyna, but of course it’s not like this. The Sjechyna goes through us, but we don’t feel anything. By this we add an extra shortage to our world. But if we get up at night, do our best, then we bring the Sjechyna in our world. This is the whole point, like Avraham introduced love in this world, by giving. We’re following in the footsteps of Avraham, it’s not our merit , but we do it because it is imposed on us from above and we have to carry it out. So what we learn now is not meant for our intellectual part, to get a kick out of it, but it’s meant to attract the light, and that it may correct us. And if it corrects me, then it also corrects the world. That’s why you feel that you’re not only working on yourself, but also directly or indirectly on someone else. So before the lesson starts, always be on this wavelength. Before we start, just a few words about the attitude of others with regard to the night lessons. When someone has a wife, man, friend, girlfriend, family or relatives, and … but especially family. When they notice that you suddenly pay a lot of attention to the spiritual… When it’s done by day, or in the evening, then it’s okay for them, but when it’s done at night then they feel as if something is taken away from them. For a human being in our world it works in this way, like a child. So when someone gets up at night, around 3 or 4 o’clock, then the other thinks and feels jealous as he or she gets less attention while the spiritual gets more attention. Just like a child they get jealous and think: “why do you do this”, “I don’t understand why you have to do it… go back to sleep, don’t be a fool”. How do you have to behave in such a situation? On one hand perseverance and on the other hand you have to understand that no matter what or how the other person thinks of you, you have to keep going, because it’s you 46
development and that absolutely doesn’t concern anyone, not your wife, not your children, nobody. So in this you have to be persistent and don’t give up, because it’s a sort of temptation, a sort of test that someone undergoes to see if he’s persistent. My wife said; “no, and now you stop…” sorry I can’t, it’s socially very beautiful, but from above you’re like a child, so how do you have to behave in such a situation, careful and gentle. Try to explain it in a calm way, that it’s important for you, that it is your life. Not from one day to the next bang your fist on the table, absolutely not, but be persistent, determined. Conquer this also when you’re being mocked after you told them… you don’t have to tell them, it’s your business. When you tell someone, then of course he’ll think it’s ridiculous, while others won’t think that, but it doesn’t matter. You have to be careful with mockers as they’ll squirt poison on you, we don’t see how this works and they keep us off from our spiritual work, so learn to go about with it, but be persistent. We’re now going to start with Sjlavej HaSulam. I’m not going to give a summary of the previous lesson. Our task it, even if we don’t know what the previous lesson was about, to go further… ‫ עכשיו הוא‬,‫ ואומר‬,‫ והוא לוקח זה לבחינת תמיכה‬,‫לכן בו בעת שהוא מרגיש איזה טעם בעבודה‬
‫ והאדם‬.‫ תיכף הוא נופל ממדרגתו‬,‫ היות שיש לו כבר איזה בסיס‬,‫כבר לא צריך לבחינת אמונה‬
‫ זה‬,‫ להסתכל אם כדאי אפשר להחליף את בסיס שלו‬,‫ ולא עמד אפילו לרגע קט‬,‫שהוא נזהר בזה‬
.‫ להסתכל על הדרך שלהם‬,‫ משום שבדרך החטאים לא עמד‬,‫נקרא שהוא מאושר‬
Page 2, line 41 – (yesterday we learned about the verse from the psalms, the first psalm: “Happy is the man who doesn’t go into the advice of the wrongdoers” and now he continues) Therefore, in the time, at the moment when he feels some taste in his work (with work he of course always means spiritual work) he thinks it’s no longer necessary to have the aspect of belief (because he feels himself very strong and he does good, so he thinks he doesn’t need belief anymore. I’ve already worked myself up, so I don’t need belief anymore, because we only need belief as a support. As long we don’t have the power to see, to comprehend, then we need belief. But, nevertheless we’ll see that Avraham and others still chose for belief. Even if you could see the Sjechyna, etc. that I still chose for belief above understand, mind. 47
So he thinks he doesn’t need Emunah, belief anymore as he’s determined…), because he now has some base (he has built up some base and he says; I don’t need belief anymore. Like when we often get reckless and feel that we’re in a state of revival, then you feel at that moment a form of gadlut, and you think that you’re at that moment perfect, but you have to always know that the states of gadlut are always short flashes, but the base is of course ‘belief above understanding’, so actually katnut, up to seven sfirot, that we have to hold on to. So we have to stay for the majority of the day in our own state of katnut, so you choose for katnut, even if you can have gaflut, you choose for katnut. What good is it to you when you pass your day in gadlut? You have to be able, try to get gadlut, but you don’t have to experience it. You have to as it were, when you feel the state of gadlut coming, hit at it, so you’ll get a new beginning, katnut as it were, you let go of your gadlut, you avoid it, do you understand? From above you deserve to have the state of gadlut, but because you’re modest… yes… it’s an art, it’s Jewish mathematics to not go into… to not be a King Kong, because there lurks the danger. Therefore you have to be very careful. And stay for the majority of the day in belief above understanding, just like a horse who has blinkers on. The horse is obliged to only look forward, we also have to be like this, without looking around. So he thinks that he doesn’t need belief anymore, he feels… why, because he has a certain base, foundation) but immediately he falls from his step (so always be attentive that you don’t do it, because what is it to you) and the man who is attentive and doesn’t even think for a moment that it is worth the effort to change his base (base is of course belief above understanding) such a person is called happy (that he doesn’t think for a moment of changing his base, that he doesn’t constantly change his mind, but goes further in determination. You then build something up. People are often… we also do this, and of course the more we invest in this study, the more determined we get. Our base gradually gets more solid), (so why is he then happy?) because he didn’t stand in the way of sinners, to look at their way (to not look at them, this of course means in one person, we always have to remember this, but of course also in different people. Do you see that it’s not black-­‐and-­‐white, on one hand outside yourself, and on the other hand in yourself, because we also have all the sinners, all the sinful thoughts, sinful wishes in 48
ourselves. A sinful thought comes from above, but our attitude towards that wish… so when there comes across a sinful thought in you, then it’s up to you whether you go into it, focus your attention on that wish or not. You don’t have to sin, you can do everything in your little attic room, while you have all the sinful wishes in yourself. Don’t oppress them because they’ll hit you back twice as strong, just let it simmer in yourself and don’t fix your attention on it. You feed yourself with the things you pay attention to. So when such a thought occurs to you, let it be. We have of course a body and therefore all kinds of needs, even when we don’t want to do or satisfy them, they still don’t leave us alone, do you understand. Just don’t focus your attention on it, then it will correct itself, do you understand?) ‫ היינו אלו אנשים‬.‫ מה זה מושב ליצים‬,‫ ויש לדעת‬."‫ "ובמושב ליצים לא ישב‬,‫ואח"כ אומר הכתוב‬
‫ אלא‬,‫ שכל רגע יהיה יקר בעיניהם‬,‫ שלא לוקחים את חייהם ברצינות‬,‫שמבלים ימיהם בלא כלום‬
‫ ועד כמה שהאחרים צריכים לתקן‬,‫ אם אנשים אחרים הם בסדר‬,‫יושבים וחושבים על אחרים‬
,‫ והרד"ק מפרש‬.‫ וזה גרם להם כל הירידות‬,‫ שהם ידאגו על חייהם‬,‫ ועל עצמם אינם חסים‬,‫מעשיהם‬
‫ והענין הזה‬,‫ ומגלים סוד זה לזה‬,‫ לרעה ונותנים דופי ומום בבני אדם‬,‫הליצים הם ערומים בדעת‬
.‫ וזוהי סיבת הירידות‬.‫ ובמושב ליצים לא ישב‬,‫ ומפני זה אמר‬.‫ יושבי קרנות‬,‫לאנשים בטלים‬
Line 45 – (it are sometimes practical questions, practical advises also from the Torah) and then the writing says [‫ הכתוב‬ – haKatuv] (so he continues with the verse from the first psalm), ‘and he didn’t stay in the companion of mockers [‫ ליצים‬ – Letsym]’ (we have to also here pay attention to both sides, as well as of mockers outside yourself as of mockers inside yourself. Constantly pay attention that you don’t fix your attention to facetious, mocking thoughts inside yourself. Remember this very well. And the mocking thoughts are also a tool to help you, to conquer it. And it is good to know, what means to stay in companion (‫ מושב‬ – mosjav means a settlement, but we say a companion) of mockers. That means, to spend your days with people (actually waste your days), who don’t take their lives seriously (it’s literally written like this. So a mocker doesn’t take his life seriously. He makes up excuses. All the excuses that a man makes up, of course it can sometimes be a joke, but it’s not… very sporadic, people do it because it’s already in their system and they make up excuses for everything), while every moment should be precious for them, and you are concerned about them (do you see, at that moment you think about others and don’t work on yourself… at that moment you’re just as rash, you feel relieved because you project it on others) whether those people are okay, that to what extent they need correction (we speak of corrections of others. 49
It’s like this. Others have to do corrections, others are bad), while they’re not worried about themselves, (it strikes us all, or we talk about other groups, about religion, even about… you have to be very attentive… of course it is sometimes useful to say it, but we always talk about states, about the state of another person, but also here be very careful, remember this, we all commit a sin against this, all of us. Inside ourselves, inside our head we have to be always attentive that… so don’t only be attentive by not saying it, but also be attentive to not think about it… suddenly you get annoyed by others and think why they don’t correct themselves. At that moment you have to do a correction in yourself because at that moment you are the mocker with regard to your spiritual work. Because if you do it anyway, then you’ll pull all the powers that you had thrown out back inside your heart and then it will become fuller. It’s an enormous work that we have to do, this is an enormous advice you have to follow, because who has the power to do it? But our task is to strive for it and then it will happen to us. When you increasingly want to achieve a certain step, then step by step you’ll get to it), that they should worry about their own lives and this causes all their falling (this falling is caused by… a kabbalist never uses superlative words if it’s not necessary. All the falling is caused by the mocking thoughts about others and suddenly he falls, comes in a state of falling. We don’t know why, he paid too much attention to others and not to himself, to others that they are not good and how others should correct themselves, with good intentions, that they should correct themselves. This brings us all to a state of falling.) Rabbi Radak –‫ רד''ק‬ says (Radak was a great Talmudist, especially outstanding in grammar. He was a great grammarian of the Hebrew language. He also wrote long comments on the Torah and about the linguistic usage. But he was of course also a great rabbi. He also gave definitions of words etc. and he often used them. He had said, gave a comment to what mockers are) that mockers are those who are naked of intellect, not covered (that means that they look without caution, without shame and without modesty a person is naked. So be naked of intellect), and they do bad and show defect within a human being (defect, shortage within a man), and they reveal this secret to one and another (they actually gossip, they pass it on to others), and this refers to loafers, idlers (he may have work, but idlers means that he doesn’t work on himself. 50
He wastes his time on stupidities, but not only stupidities that he’s a idler, but he does wrong to others by talking bad about them and this is sometimes even worse than real evil, because it’s very difficult to wipe it out. Even when it’s true, you don’t have to talk bad about another person, because also this is called mocking, even when it’s true, you don’t have to do it. When it’s necessary, then we can of course reprimand someone, but be very careful. Is he prepared to listen? It’s also written that if someone is not ready to listen to your advice, then you shouldn’t give him one. Because we have said that there is one principle: ‘nothing comes from above if it’s not aroused from below’. It’s exactly the same here. Someone is for example in the doldrums or does something wrong and you want to give him advice, you want to as it were give him from above advice, because from above only comes good. And you want to give him advice while he doesn’t want to listen, while there is no raising from below. And you want to give him from above, what will become of your advice? Nothing. Because he doesn’t want to listen to your advice, he doesn’t accept it. And if he accepts it, then he will take it in his not-­‐corrected kelim and not-­‐corrected intention. He didn’t have an intention, do you understand what I mean? If someone has the intention to listen, then he also has the kli to receive it. It can happen that it slips his mind that he needs advice, then you can point him out a few things, but don’t immediately give advice when he isn’t ready to listen. This means that you ask someone to drink something, while he has no cup… So it refers to idlers) they who sit in the farthest corners. (There are literally people who just sit around and talk with each other and so, but it refers to your own thoughts and wishes that give you advice on idlers) and therefore he says, and in the place/companion of mockers he didn’t sit, because this is the main reason of all the falling (and then he says in the same verse that he therefore will be planted in the waters and will grow and have a lot of green, produce a lot of fruit etc. Why? Because he preserves all his powers, all his powers stay in his heart etc.) ‫ענין חשיבות הכרת הרע‬
‫ תשמ"ז‬,'‫מאמר ב‬
The importance of recognizing evil ‫ "יקוו המים מתחת השמים אל מקום אחד‬,‫ רי"ט( כתוב שם וזה לשונו‬,‫בזה"ק בראשית )חלק ב' ובהסולם אות רי"ח‬
‫ יקוו המים אל‬,‫ וזה שכתוב‬.‫ היינו ישראל‬,‫ אל מקום אחד‬.‫ היינו התורה המכונה מים‬,‫ יקוו המים‬.‫ותראה היבשה‬
‫ לאפוקי אומות העולם שלא‬.‫ כנ"ל‬,‫ מקבלי התורה‬,‫ פירושו ישראל‬,‫ ומקום אחד‬,‫ פירושו תורה‬,‫ אשר מים‬,‫מקום אחד‬
51
‫ ואומות העולם‬.‫ ובה מתקיים‬,‫ והתורה היא ישוב העולם‬.‫ ועל כן נשארה הארץ חרבה ויבשה‬,‫רצו לקבל את התורה‬
.‫ עד כאן לשונו‬,"‫ נשארו חרבות ויבשות‬,‫שלא קבלו אותה‬
Page 3, line 10 – (as usual the auteur first quotes a piece from Zohar and then he gives additional comment on the Zohar haKadosj like it is always said.) It is written in the Zohar Bresjiet and that is his language (what it’s about. Literally, that is his language. And now a piece of Zohar is quoted, but from Bresjiet, genesis, from the Torah itself.) ‘Let the waters (the Creator says) under the heaven be gathered together in one place (as written in the Torah) and let the dry land appear’ (let all waters flow to one place, that was after the above waters were separated from the lower waters and a firmament was made. We’ll learn what it means, parsa, the separating line, this is what it’s about and then the Creator said ‘let the waters be gathered in one place and let the dry land appear’. The dry means a place where life can come into being), (he says what it means that the waters have to gather in one place) that means that Torah is called mayim – ‫ מים‬ (something flowing), (he’s now going to tell us what it means in one place), so Torah has to gather in one place, Israel, they who strive for the higher, to the spiritual, to the eternal. And that is what is written, let the waters be gathered in one place (what does is mean here that the waters have to be gathered in one place. We have already said in the Zohar lesson that you can find everything that is going to take place in the story of the creation and therefore I can say that what is written in Genesis that let the waters be separated and be gathered in one place, then later – I add – during the receiving of the Torah, the waters will flow to Israel, to those who make themselves suitable for the spiritual), that waters means Torah and one place means Israel (do you see, he repeats it, it’s all right. He knows why he repeats it, it has to help us), the receiving of Torah (so Israel is the receiver of Torah. Do you see it? Who is Israel), as written above (receivers of Torah. They who make themselves suitable to receive the higher wisdom, they are Israel. It is said directly like this, it’s is qua powers, nothing else. And they who don’t make themselves suitable are not Israel. Who doesn’t listen to the Torah isn’t Israel. Because Israel is always bond to the idea of giving to the Torah, that is Israel, and not an ethnical group or so. Everybody who comes to the Creator becomes Israel. ) In contrast with the people of the world (we don’t have to immediately think about other people, this also exists, but we have to always think about our thoughts that belong to the people of the world, thoughts that are not yet corrected. And when we think of Israel and people of the world outside me, then we make a separation and not a unity in ourselves. 52
The intention is that we collect everything in ourselves and work on our people of the world so that they’ll get corrected, our thoughts and wishes) who didn’t want to receive the Torah and therefore the earth stays without form and void (also here we don’t have to think about other people. Why not? It doesn’t help us. The Torah doesn’t speak about that. It’s about the thoughts in a human being and the wishes which are not yet corrected, that they belong to the people of the world and this means that a part of the human being stays dry and void. All the places in our inner feel dry and void and without water, lifeless and dry means without water and water means Torah. So all the places in our inner that are not irrigated by the Torah are dry and void. Those are our thoughts and wishes that didn’t accept the Torah. So the places in yourself that are dry and void, where no Torah is, where no life is, where no water sprouts out of springs and feels like death, as if it’s an iceberg, then those places in you are you people of the world.) The Torah is the seat of the world/the place where the world is (the world means where life is. That is the Torah, also the places in us where we receive light by listening, by not resisting, but examining and going with our belief above our understanding. Life comes in this places), by the Torah, life becomes lasting (so our task is to be receptive for the Torah, then the light of the Torah will come in the places that we call people of the world, and who thinks that he doesn’t have them, well… let him think that. But know that every man has these places, even the greatest holy man had them. But we have to work on them while they give us a feeling of dryness. And when someone doesn’t accept the Torah… what does it mean to not accept the Torah? That he lives his own life, ‘I’m the boss, and I don’t let light of the Torah enter in me’, like there was an British law in the Middle Ages that said that no King may set foot in an Englishman’s house without being invited. Having a territory in our world is a good thing, but in the spiritual we have to let the Creator enter everywhere in us, because this way we make one territory. Do you understand? And don’t be afraid to lose yourself, you absolutely can’t lose yourself. Only then you can come into your own. And not when you struggle, resist the Torah. This is an enormous submission, and you have to realize that this is the only way. 53
Not that we are good guys, but there comes a moment, it’s like this and no other way.) And the people of the world ‫ואומו העולם‬: who didn’t receive them (the Torah) they stay formless and void (look to our thoughts that don’t receive the Torah. There is a lot of wisdom there, but bare wisdom, there is no love beneath it), till here is the language of Zohar (so this quoted from the Zohar and now he’s going to work it out/build it out). ‫ אבל איך זה מתפרש על‬.‫ דהיינו על ישראל ואומות העולם‬,‫ שמפרש על בחינת הכלל‬,‫ויש להבין את דברי הזה"ק‬
‫ "שכל אדם הוא עולם קטן בפני‬,‫ שהזה"ק אומר‬,‫ כידוע‬.‫ היינו בחינת ישראל ואומות העולם בגוף אחד‬,‫הפרט‬
.‫ וישראל‬,‫ שהוא כולל בעצמו כל הע' אומות‬,"‫עצמו‬
Line 16 – (He’s now going to work this paragraph of Zohar out. You can see that everything is about Zohar. It’s work that we have to do from below to above. Because WE are the engine who put everything into action. Remember this very well, that nothing is fateful. Of course everything comes from above, because they want to gives us from above, but it’s still up to us, even though it’s apparent, it’s still up to us to arouse it from below. From above comes a … actually nothing comes from above, we just make place in ourselves free and then we automatically feel, experience it, it’s great. Just reading the Zohar, following it with your eyes and looking at the letters, this is already a great thing. Step by step… Also I didn’t knew Hebrew, they were also for me strange, odd letters. From time to time I use the dictionary, and word by word I proceed, I keep working. I now see that I got under his feet. He’s now going to tell us something in a small paragraph, while I needed a lot more words to explain it. It’s very relevant what I’m now going to translate, it’s very important, because this is the whole approach of our Kabbalah study.) And we have to now understand the words of the holy Zohar, that explains us that the general aspect (we have always said, ‘everything in the world has two aspects’. This has to be carved in yourself. That in every moment and in every state two aspects exist. This way you won’t get lost in details. So every aspect, thing, phenomenon exists out of two ‘the general and the particular’. Always keep this in mind), is Israel ‫ ישראל‬ and the people of the world (outside yourself, this is the general aspect. As separate things, entities), but how can you then explain the particular aspect, this means the aspect Israel and the people of the world in one body (we have talked about this, that everything is in one body. 54
So Israel and the people of the world are in one body. So once again: there are two aspects, the general aspect which means that there are two separate entities. Israel has the quality of altruism, strives for the light, directly to the Creator. And the other aspect is the people of the world, the aspect that doesn’t strive, but wants to receive for itself. So this is the general aspect. And the particular aspect is that everything is in one body. This is relevant for us. Those who study Kabbalah should only focus on the particular aspect… therefore we always say that we have to pay attention to the particular attitude of the human being, the particular attitude towards the Creator. Yes or not. We always speak about building up a particular relationship with the Creator. What does this mean? That we don’t say that Israel and people of the world are outside us, like nationalistic religions say: we are this and we are that, or that group is this and that group is that. Of course this also exists, but this is for the mass. So in one body, that is the particular side. So there is a general side and a particular side, do you see. The particular is all in one body.) Like it’s known that the holy Zohar says (just look what the Zohar says), ‘that every man (Zohar doesn’t say Israel or the people of the world… that every man) is a small world on itself’ (do you see. It doesn’t say this or that etc. Every man is a small world on itself. This means that a man has all the powers in himself, yes? That he’s a world on himself, says Zohar), that a man encloses in himself all the seventy nations and Israel (do you see it, it says every man… this is what Zohar tells us, the most holy writing that the Jews have received. The particular is our way of approach. Why? The Creator is one and you have to be one. This is also said in the Torah that the Creator is one and you have to be also one. This means that you have to feel and correct all the powers in yourself like they’re in the Creator.) 55
Lesson 5 ‫ התקן‬.‫ "העולם הזה דומה לפרוזדור בפני העולם הבא‬,‫ובפרקי אבות )פ"ד מכ"א( רבי יעקב אומר‬
‫ אם לא מוצאים שם‬,‫ זה ברור שלא שייך לתקן איזה דבר‬."‫ כדי שתכנס לטרקלין‬,‫עצמך בפרוזדור‬
‫ היות‬,‫ זאת אומרת‬.‫ מחנכים אותם על דרך השלימות‬,'‫ והיות כשמדריכים בעבודת ה‬.‫שום קלקול‬
‫ כמו שאמרו חז"ל )במ"ר כ"א סנהדרין‬,‫ וכל אחד משונה מחבירו‬,‫שבהכלל ישנם הרבה יחידים‬
."‫ כך אין דעתן שווה‬,‫ל"ח( "כשם שאין פרצופיהן שווין זה לזה‬
Page 3, line 19 – (he often quotes from other sources) And in the book Verses of the Fathers – corridor (this is a very important book that dates from the first century. At that time there was a group of really wise men who were called Tannaim. They had a strong connection with the roots, spiritual roots. And therefore they knew which prayer one had to pronounce, which words, which names to use to bring about a certain correction in our world. Therefore the Verses of the Fathers is very important for us) rabbi Ja”akov said (quote), ‘this world (so our world) looks like a passageway, hallway to the future world. Correct yourself in the hall to enter the throne room’ (so he says that our world is just like a hallway, correct yourself in this hall before entering the throne room where the King resides. It’s very interesting what he says. It resembles to what’ve learned with the Nukvah. She first makes as it were all kinds of corrections, first one sfirah which is kether, then she gets five tough leaves, which make the masach and only afterwards she’s able to reflect the light, Gvurot, by which she makes a corridor, and along which also the soul of the human being enters). It’s very clear and evident that there is nothing to correct when there is no shortage or defect (when one doesn’t find a defect or fault, then there is nothing to correct. So there has to be something to correct). Because during the education to the service of the Creator, one is brought up to the perfection (so when someone is educated to serve the Creator, which means to learn the spiritual, the eternal, then one is first learned the perfect way. But not yet the real service of the Creator. Because the real service means that you’re able to work on yourself, but the mass of course first learns the perfect way. Do this and do that and they immediately feel themselves better and complete. But not how to work on themselves. There is nothing wrong about what they do. They’re just not ready yet to work on themselves. It’s already quite a task for them to attend a meeting, let alone that they have 56
to get up every night, or at least try to get up.) because (‫ שבהכלל‬ means the mass, a person who still is a part of the team spirit. He’s in a phase when he’s not ready to work on himself personally), in the mass there are still a lot of individuals who are different from others, like the wise men have said (we always speak of the wise men of misjna till 2000 of our era and the wise men of the Talmud till the 5th century of our era. Of course there were also other people who were very wise, only a very phew, but afterwards it was over. Of course there were also divine men, but they didn’t see those connections anymore, the connections between the spiritual root and the spiritual manifestation in our world. ‘just like the faces of people differ, also their wisdom/knowledge differs from each other’ (do you see, he uses the word [‫ ]פרצופיהן‬ partsufim for faces. Partsuf literally means face. ‫ משום שאין אדם דומה‬,‫ וזה הוא בכוונה תחילה‬.‫ שיש הרבה שיעורים בקיום התורה לגבי הכלל‬,‫מכאן אנו רואים‬
‫ והיות‬.‫ אלא כל אחד כפי יכולתו‬,"‫ אין לחייבו את האדם לקיים "לא ימוש ספר התורה מפיך‬,‫ אי לזאת‬.‫לחבירו‬
‫ שיש בהכלל כולו ביחד הרבה‬,‫ נמצא‬.‫ מתחבר כל אחד להכלל‬,‫ שבאופן כללי‬,‫ נמצא‬,‫שהכלל כולו נבחן לגוף אחד‬
‫ שהוא מקיים על ידי קריאת שמע שחרית וערבית ויצא ידי‬,‫ נמצא‬.‫ היינו שהרבה תורה נלמוד באופן כללי‬,‫תורה‬
."‫חובתו לדעת ר' שמעון בר יוחאי "והגית יומם ולילה‬
Line 24 – And therefore one is obliged to bring up the mass in the way that the upbringing would be similar to every nefesj [‫ ]נפש‬ (to every low soul, because they bring up everyone, the mass in the same way, they're all tarred with the same brush, just like in religion. They don’t separate them from each other. One learns a bit more, another remembers a bit more, it’s all about remembering. Who can remember more, one has a better talent in remembering, so he feels better than others… In this way they bring up people to the service of the Creator, which is also something, gives a certain frame.) So that every individual would have a certain grip (something to hold on to) in the Torah and in the laws. And that is what the wise men say, rabbi Ami [‫ ]רי אמי‬ said (the words of another rabbi. One rabbi quotes from another rabbi. Because he doesn’t appeal to his own knowledge, but goes back to the sources and adds something to it that is relevant for our generation, so rabbi Ami speaks in the name of rabbi Josi) that even when a man (Adam in Hebrew means the person Adam, but also a man, a human being) learns in the morning one chapter; the morning prayer and one prayer in the evening (with prayer he means: ‘Hear O Israel, G’d is one’) then that is enough. With this he fulfills the command/law which is called ‘the book of Torah will not leave your mouth’. (So when a man, with regard to the mass, says a prayer (even one paragraph) in the morning and in the evening, then he fulfills the command/law which is called ‘the book of Torah will not leave your mouth’. This is the way how the mass learns.) 57
(But rabbi Yochanan, who was a great leader of the wise in Israel says… So there were two main schools. One in Israel and one in Babylon. It is remarkable that there was a prophecy in Babylon. Ezekiel for example was from Babylon. It was a wonder that his prophecy was done outside the land of Israel. Because the Creator arranged it in the way that the prophecy could only be done in the land of Israel. Nobody outside the holy land could do it because it is outside the wavelengths, the light is then obscured to give a clear prophecy. But then it was only out of necessity, temporarily, that the Holy Spirit could be present outside the land of Israel, but not a prophecy by which the Creator speaks to a great Prophet and he then speaks for all times, not in this way. It has been a long time since there was a prophecy. We don’t have Prophets anymore from let us say 600 of our era. Because there came so much wisdom from above, that there is probably no necessity for a Prophet anymore. In our time we absolutely don’t need any wise men, to be educated, to be brought up in the spiritual. Only people who are committed as a teacher and who accompany and guide others so they in their turn can do it on their own. But not the mass, there is of course always a mass and will always be till the coming of the Messiah. The mass doesn’t want to think or work, working is not a problem, but to work on themselves. What did they say to Mosje when the Creator appeared to him on the Sinai. It was great, the manifestation, the noise, the fire and the voice of the Creator came out of the sky and the people got frightened. What did they say to Mosje? Don’t let the Creator talk to us, you talk to us. Why? Do you see, it’s deeper than plainly the voice of the Creator. They said; you’re a human being, a divine man, we can listen to you, but the Creator, no. Do you understand? They were afraid of the Creator, and that is correct, because who personally works on himself, has to do with the Creator. And the Creator is not a human being, you don’t see Him in front of you. At certain moments He shines in you and at other moments you’re in complete darkness. And at that moments you feel absolutely abandoned by the Creator, and the closer you come to the Creator, the more difficult it gets. You can’t do this, you can’t do that… not with your hands and feet, but you get a discipline inside yourself by which you choose… you can’t do this anymore, you can’t sin like yesterday. It has to be the same with us, that as a result of our study you sin less and less. And this means that you, within yourself, fear the Creator more. I’m not talking about fear of punishment, like the mass does it, but fear of being thrown back from the closeness to the Creator, or fear of not doing pleasure to the Creator. What is pleasure? 58
That you’re aware of the fact that you bring yourself continually more and more in accordance with the Creator. But not the mass, he says in the last line, that if they recite only a small chapter in the morning and in the evening, before they go to work, that is sufficient for them. But in another opinion rabbi Yochanan of the school of Jerusalem says in the name of someone who was before him, rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, that when a person who belongs to the mass says in the morning and in the evening the words “Hear, Oh Yisrael, the Creator is one”, then this is sufficient. But a person who doesn’t belong to the mass, he of course needs to say it with the right intention, kavannah. It is not sufficient for him to only pronounce these words. Also we can pronounce these words “Hear, Oh Yisrael. The Creator is one”. You can also say it with your name, “Hear oh Jan… the Creator is one” if it brings you closer) and this may not be said to the regular people (otherwise they would stop learning and only say these lines. It is forbidden to say this to the mass that it’s sufficient to only say “Hear oh Yisrael, the Creator is one”. Because they’re not aware of this. When they would know, then they would study less and sin more. Let them study, this way they sin less. But Rawa (a great wise man) said that it is a law/command to say it to the regular people (that it is sufficient to say it two times a day in the morning and in the evening. What he meant to say is that there are two ways to go about it. For the mass and for the individual. Because you firstly have to bring up the mass so that they would feel themselves perfect. Just look at the different religions in our world. They say give money and we’ll reserve for you a place in the afterlife. This is the way how the mass learns, because they have no knowledge, just like you do with a child, do this and you’ll get that. The whole religion exists by the grace of expectation and reward. Or in this world or in the world to come. And when one learns Kabbalah, only individuals learn Kabbalah, a person sees himself as an individual qua soul, that he doesn’t belong to the team spirit anymore. So he feels the need to have a personal connection, he starts to work on himself, and realizes that it’s not sufficient to belong to the mass. But I noticed that there is also a sort of mass in the Kabbalah. In the American-­‐English lessons they say that you’ll get rich and have success. This is the way they learn, but even when this is the case, when one wants to work on himself like a grown-­‐up, he has to step by step abandon this expectations. The point is that we arouse ourselves for the higher, and not for success. By your accordance with the higher, you’ll receive everything of this world, but that which is good for you. And 59
not that you say, give me this or give me that. You don’t know what is good for you, this is very important. So we have to try to not learn Kabbalah to have success in this world… but in the beginning… of course you see the success of the pop stars who learn Kabbalah etc… and you think, well. Of course pop stars also feel that Kabbalah is mystic, where the source of all powers lie. And when I tap all my deep creating powers, then of course it will bring me success in everything that I do, but it does not have to be your goal. Then you become just like king Solomon who chose for wisdom, which means belief above understanding. And through that you’ll get everything else. But don’t link your study with your earthly success. What we get from above is accordance with effort and that means that you receive from above what is necessary for you. We have learned that the great rav Eleazar who was an enormous scholar, young, but very close to the Creator. He was poor and asked the Creator for a bit of money, but did not receive it while he was the greatest of all his generation. But because he had so much power in himself, that it was good for him and his progress to learn Kabbalah while being poor. And he had power in himself to manage it, therefore it was not given from above to not live in poverty. It is also written that when one learns Torah in poverty, this is also written in the Verses of the Fathers, that when one learns Torah when he’s poor, then he’ll also learn Torah when he’s rich. And who refuses to learn Torah when he’s rich will live without Torah when he’s poor. ‫ משום שאין אדם דומה‬,‫ וזה הוא בכוונה תחילה‬.‫ שיש הרבה שיעורים בקיום התורה לגבי הכלל‬,‫מכאן אנו רואים‬
‫ והיות‬.‫ אלא כל אחד כפי יכולתו‬,"‫ אין לחייבו את האדם לקיים "לא ימוש ספר התורה מפיך‬,‫ אי לזאת‬.‫לחבירו‬
‫ שיש בהכלל כולו ביחד הרבה‬,‫ נמצא‬.‫ מתחבר כל אחד להכלל‬,‫ שבאופן כללי‬,‫ נמצא‬,‫שהכלל כולו נבחן לגוף אחד‬
‫ שהוא מקיים על ידי קריאת שמע שחרית וערבית ויצא ידי‬,‫ נמצא‬.‫ היינו שהרבה תורה נלמוד באופן כללי‬,‫תורה‬
."‫חובתו לדעת ר' שמעון בר יוחאי "והגית יומם ולילה‬
Line 30 – we therefore see that there are different ways (different classes) in fulfilling the Torah with regard to the mass (and why is that?). At first because no person looks like another person (also in the mass there exist differences). And if it’s like this (that everyone differs) then a person can’t be forced to fulfill the commandment or law ‘the Torah cannot leave your mouth’, (every person has his/her way in fulfilling this prayer), because everyone follows his own ability (do you see, even in the second century of our era, the wise men pointed out that every man is unique. It’s not pressed for time, absolutely not). (And now he’s going to tell us something… On the one hand he says that no person looks like another person, but on the other hand he says:) and since the mass is considered as one body (if a soul doesn’t distinguish itself from others, is still latent, then it is seen as one body. 60
By body we of course don’t mean our body of flesh and blood. The Torah never speaks of the material body. Body means the wish to receive for itself) we see that in general everybody is connected with the mass (he doesn’t yet work on himself and for the mass a book is worked out with laws. For example the law book “a short book of the Jewish laws” (Kytsur Sjulchan Aruch). Of course this goes for everyone, but for the mass this book is a must, because it gives them as it were a framework. But for someone who works hard on himself, this book only gives a reach from left to right and is not binding. It turns out that the whole mass together learned a lot of Torah (someone learns the laws of marriage, another one learns the criminal laws, the third person learns about food, but all together they integrated Torah. And of course we have to project this on one person. Also we have sometimes wishes of the mass and sometimes wishes of individuals. It’s like this. If a certain wish hasn’t developed yet, is not yet corrected, then you are a part of the mass. You have to see it like this. What we learn here is not black-­‐and-­‐white. Of course he’s now talking about on the one hand about the mass and on the other hand the individuals, but you don’t have to see it as black-­‐and-­‐white. Because there is the general and the particular. If we talk about the general aspect then we have indeed the mass and the individuals outside yourself. And if we see it as one person, then we have a lot of wishes that are not yet corrected and belong to the mass spirit, mass-­‐people. Always keep this in mind, then you won’t get lost in I and the OTHERS, because the Torah always speaks of one person. Everything is in one person, remember this very well. Always project everything we learn on yourself, we have to bring everything we learn in accordance with the Creator). It turns out now that the person who belongs to the mass, fulfills all his obligations by only saying in the morning and in the evening ‘Hear, Oh Yisrael’, one small prayer, according to the opinion of rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (the author of Zohar, because there exists an alternative law of him:) ‘you will pronounce the words of the Torah day and night’. It is written that you have to pronounce the words of Torah day and night. So when someone only learns by day, which is understandable. Then he belongs to the mass and doesn’t want to. Everywhere in the world, kabbalists learned at night and at the same time they worked by day. And not for example in the Talmud academy, like it is now. Before, when there were real wise men, all of them worked, had a job. 61
They refused to become a rabbi, so that they would be paid for being a rabbi. They had a regular job to not constantly be connected with the higher. And they also learned Torah in the evening or night, while they worked by day. But nowadays, what do the traditional Talmud academies do? They spend all day learning Torah and they think that they come closer to the Creator. But you have to work! Even when you have a lot of money, even when you’re multimillionaire. To work means… if you have work to do of course. If you don’t have any work to do, then you have to do it in another way. Dedicate yourself for example to translating or something else, it doesn’t matter, but work! This helps and not that you spend all your time learning Torah and receive at the same time money from the stock exchange and think that you’re doing business. No, you have to work, it’s a must. When you learn in the night then of course you are closer to the Creator, because you are concentrated and so on. But by day you see people, you work on the society, of course in your eyes it seems that you are farther from the Creator, because it seems like that. On the other hand, your progress, your spiritual merits increase, because you put in a great effort, even by day when you earn a living by working or when you’re busy with the outside world, because also in the outside world you pass on something which will return to you in signals to correct yourself. It’s just like buttering one's bread on both sides. If you of course do it the right way and don’t think you won’t enjoy it, because this is also a part of it. If you have disturbances and you keep going and overcome them, then you’ll progress twice as fast. When someone spends all his time learning Torah… Of course there are different gradations. Some people are imposed to do it, but not only for themselves but also for others. The same principle also exist here; the general and the particular. When someone only learns Kabbalah, day and night, alone or as a teacher, or as a rabbi. Then on one hand he does it for himself and on the other hand he does it for others. Because you have to know… it is written ‘Blessed is he, the person who learns, but it’s a greater blessing when a person learns and gives it to others’. So it’s one’s duty, someone who learns the spiritual, to also teach others. Even when you know a little bit, also then you’re capable of giving. Of course when someone is prepared to listen. You never have to impose it on someone. If you feel, you start to talk and you feel that he refuses or is not interested, then you must not continue. This is a great principle). 62
‫ שאמרו עליו )ברכות ל"ה( "הרבה עשו כר' ישמעאל‬,‫ שר' שמעון בר יוחאי‬,‫ה הוא דבר חידוש‬
‫ ואספת‬,‫ היות שכתוב‬,‫ שר' ישמעאל אומר‬.‫ והרבה עשו כרשב"י ולא עלתה בידם‬,‫ועלתה בידם‬
‫ תלמוד‬,‫ יכול דברי ככתבן‬,"‫ לפי שנאמר "לא ימוש ספר התורה הזה מפיך‬,‫ מה תלמוד לומר‬,‫דגנך‬
‫ אפשר אדם חורש‬,‫ רשב"י אומר‬.‫ דברי ר' ישמעאל‬,‫ "ואספת דגנך נהוג בהם מנהג דרך ארץ‬,‫לומר‬
.‫ וזורע בשעת הרוח‬,‫ ודש בשעת דישה‬,‫ וקוצר בשעת קצירה‬,‫ וזורע בשעת זריעה‬,‫בשעת חרישה‬
."‫תורה מה תהא עליה‬
Line 36 -­‐ (this is a part of Talmud… What is said? That there are two opinions, views and both are good. You have to see it like this that both are good. When there are two opinions in the Torah then it’s not like in our world that one is better than the other, or that the other has a reprehensible point of view, while the other is right. No, because we have said… that there is a unity on a higher level when there are two opinions. Just like we have said that there is the general aspect and the particular aspect. So one rabbi talks about the same aspect but from a general point of view and the other rabbi talks about the particular. If we know that these two exist in every phenomenon, then we can understand that there is no contradiction between the two opinions.) And this is something new, that rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, about who is said that … (so there were two opinions, let’s say two schools. One of rabbi Yismael and one of rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Rabbi Yismael was a great rabbi, but he was from the general kind, also spiritually of course. He was occupied with the way of acting in our world, of applications, the practical way. While rabbi Shimon bar Yochai had a point of view, of course everything comes from above, that every person is unique, and that the execution of every action is also unique for every person. And we know to which aspect rabbi Yismael belongs, because we have the general and the particular aspect. The particular is of course rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the author of Zohar. This means that everything is in me, in one person. And everything is unique with regard to the soul of the human being. But the mass is of course learned otherwise. As long as they don’t ask for the uniqueness of themselves. And that’s correct as there will come a moment when someone from the mass will say: “I’ve had it with this and suddenly he has a shortage, shortage of what he’s doing and he asks himself what he’s occupied with. He wants to progress, but he sees that learning the Torah like the mass does is not giving him the necessary… he doesn’t receive life from it. He does all the standard things, but it has no depth. Then he starts with the Kabbalah, but in the way like rabbi Shimon bar Yochai does, he sees himself alone, he and the Creator. Or he finds a small group of people who also individually strive for the Creator, but every person of 63
that group sees himself as an individual and has his own progress. That is the only thing that binds those people and of course they also link up inner connections. But not the way the mass does it. They sing with each other, dance, etc… and yet there exists within them an enormous distance, hatred and other things. While a kabbalist cannot… someone who learns Kabbalah, does inner work, I don’t want to praise ourselves, but someone who learns Kabbalah will step by step be enfeebled from hatred. Your ability to hate, will simply by the result of your study diminish, you’ll no longer be able to hate and that of course comes from above, because a person in our world cannot hate. When you’re at the baker and you put your hand in your pocket, you need 20 cents, but take out 50 cents, then you feel some sort of irritation, you don’t notice it, but of course there is a small irritation that you experience, because you would have liked to take out directly 50 cents. We experience all kinds of irritations that are also a form of hatred which stand in the way of our spiritual work. But we’ll notice that it will not bother us anymore, gradually less and less. In the meantime other irritations will confront you. Because it’s always like this. You can’t say that you’ll reach nirvana and don’t have to do anything, if you have nothing to do, then your life has no meaning anymore. You’re holy and it’s time to bury you), many did like rabbi Yismael (so the general aspect) and had success (why? The general way, do this and you’re ready). And many did like RaShb”I (Rashb”I is the abbreviation for rabbi Shimon bar Yochai) and they did not succeed. Rabbi Yismael said that it is written that you will bring in the harvest (this is written in the Torah in the second chapter when we said about Shma ‘Hear, Oh Yisrael’, there is written that you’ll bring in the harvest, as a blessing) what does this mean (that it’s written in the Torah that you’ll bring in your harvest) it means that the book of the Torah cannot leave your mouth (this corresponds with what is said in the Torah that you’ll bring in your harvest. Weird hè? While there is something written about harvest. It’s not consonant with learning Torah, because rabbi Yismael always meant it literally), would it be possible to apply the words ‘you will bring in your harvest’ (as it’s written in the Torah, to understand it literally. He says it like this. According to rabbi Yismael, who always did the general, if it’s written in the Torah ‘you will bring in your harvest’, then he understands it literally about bringing in your harvest as in our world.) like it is done on earth. Rabbi Yismael says that what is written in the Torah, you have to understand it literally. That is his opinion and also the mass who learn Torah think like rabbi Yismael. 64
Besides, also other religions do exactly the same. I talked with a prominent priest and I asked him that it’s written in the first verse of the Torah ‘in the beginning the Creator created Heaven and Earth’, I asked him what it meant. I was of course not mocking with him or asked it in a provoked way, G’d forbid. He was just like a traditional rabbi who said to me; “do you see the Heaven and pointed with his finger above, that was created by the Creator, afterwards he pointed with his finger down and said, do you see the earth, this is what the Creator created”. That is the opinion of Yismael. Why? They only see everything literally, while no word in the Torah is written about that. Rabbi Yismael was also absolutely holy, because the general position was given to him, the general for the mass and to the mass you of course have to say, yes, the Heaven above us and you point with your finger above… It’s like this, then they feel happy or satisfied and perfect. Go to a synagogue or a church on Saturday or Sunday. Look at their appearance, they feel themselves perfect, “I do good things, I’m good”, they feel perfect just like a child of 5 years old. On Saturday or Sunday they put on nice clothes and feel great. They go to religious institutions and do their best, have no frictions in themselves, have no problems with themselves, have no problems with the Creator… the Creator loves me, the Creator is dear, just like daddy is nice and mommy is nice, so the Creator is also nice. He gives me everything I want. Yes? I believe in the Creator… Give me this, give me that. This is the opinion of Yismael, while RaShb”I had to accomplish the individual bond between the man and the Creator. And therefore we learn Kabbalah. In the first night lesson we learned that ‘there was evening and morning, one day’. That day exists out of two and not only when the sun shines, but you can’t learn the mass this. So RaSjb”I says:) It’s also possible that a person ploughs in the time of plough. (He of course didn’t mean it literally, but he meant that there is time for development, which means individual work), and will sow (in the time of sowing, so individual work) and he harvests in the time of harvesting ([‫ ]ורש‬ means when they bring in the grain and start to flatten it), and when there is wind (with the help of the wind they separate the wheat from the chaff, what is all meant by this?), what is Torah trying to tell us? (That everything is individual. That there are two aspects. Now we know what it means, because there is the general for the mass and the particular for the individual souls who are called from above to build an individual relationship with the Creator. It’s not up to us to ask ourselves why we have to do it. It’s not our task to say that we are the chosen ones. Does it mean that we have to separate ourselves from the mass. Of course not. We are all part of each other. We complete each other, I mean we already know that all the wishes are in one person. 65
We may not separate ourselves from the mass, but we still have to do individual work. And try inwards to connect yourself with the mass. Why? Because on the one hand we do the spiritual work individually, this way we follow the opinion of RaShb”I and develop in us one aspect, because in each aspect there are two. We then develop our particular aspect, but during certain holidays you have to be part of the people, do what the regular people do, then we connect ourselves with the general aspect. We have to on the one hand to the general things, like the regular people do and on the other hand we have to do the particular aspect. This way we don’t see me and they, as this doesn’t exist, but only my general part and my particular part. Keep in mind that everybody has the particular part, also people who belong to the mass spirit. Also they have a particular aspect. His particular soul, he only doesn’t use it, but he has something particular. Step by step we progress. So today we learned about the two aspects. The general and the particular aspect. The moment of learning is crucial. Don’t make afterwards summaries like they do in Talmud academies. It’s not necessary. The only thing that counts is your attitude, the moment of learning! At that moment kelims are being build up in us, while you hear or read what I have to say. Even when you don’t understand it, it enters you). 66
Lesson 6 ‫ "אפילו לא קרא אדם אלא‬,(‫ במה שאומר ר' יוחנן בשם רשב"י )במסכת מכות צ"ט‬,‫ויש להבין זה‬
‫ להכלל‬,‫ אלא יש לפרש‬."‫ קיים "לא ימוש ספר התורה הזה מפיך‬,‫קריאת שמע שחרית וערבית‬
‫ אבל להפרט הוא‬.‫ יכול לקיים את הפסוק "לא ימוש" עם קריאת שחרית וערבית‬,‫אומר רשב"י‬
.‫ תורה מה תהא עליה‬,‫ אפשר אדם חורש בשעת חרישה‬,‫אומר‬
Page 3, line 42 – (I’m now going to read out loud in Hebrew so you can follow with you finger and then I’ll translate and give additional explanation. As we can see we will learn in this night lesson, mostly in the first part, a lot of Torah. And one has to understand what rabbi Yochanan says in the name of rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (and he quotes) that even when a person reads only ‘Hear, Oh, Yisrael!!’, in the morning and in the evening, then he fulfills the regulation that ‘the book of Torah will not leave your mouth’, but one has to understand this with regard to the general or the mass (as we learned yesterday that there is the general and the particular aspect). This verse can only hold out through pronouncing the morning and evening prayer, for the mass. But he speaks in a different way to the individuals (he says to them) that it is possible that a person ploughs in the time of plough (so what does this mean for the individual to pronounce this prayer in the morning and in the evening? Rabbi Yismael who is from the general aspect says that it’s sufficient for the mass to just pronounce the prayer in the morning and in the evening. But rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says that only pronouncing the prayer is not sufficient, because kavannah / intention is the main point during the prayer. While for Yismael intention plays a secondary part. And this is a very big difference how the mass does it, learn Torah, and how the individuals do it. The mass just does it, without kavannah. Because to raise kavannah, one needs a special preparation. Or a soul has to be suitable to see Torah in another light. It has to be lisjma, it has to be already somewhat in the name of the Creator, while the mass does it lo lisjma. Of course this also means that the Creator is good etc.. but they expect a reward. Which is of course allowed). ,‫ שהכלל נקרא דעת בעלי בתים‬,‫ ואפשר לפרש‬.‫ומשום זה יש תמיד להבחין בין הכלל להפרט‬
.‫ הם נקראים שיש להם דעת תורה‬,‫ היינו אנשים ששיכים להפרט‬,‫והפרט‬
Line 42 – And therefore one has to always distinguish the mass from the individuals (in Hebrew it is written ‫ כלל להפרט‬ which can be translated into the general and the particular. We can see that one belongs to the mass and another to the individual. Only with regard to the inner attitude and not to social relations. 67
In social relations we are all the same. There are little differences, for example one has a certain status, etc… but in principle we have the same rights and are the same. But through inner qualification there exists the general ‫ הכלל‬ and the particular ‫)להפרט‬. And it is possible to explain that the mass (or the general) is called the opinion of the landlords and the individual (or the particular) is called the opinion of the Torah (what does the opinion of the landlords mean? This means, and this is my addition to what he’s saying, that he acts everything out of self-­‐
interest. He also learns Torah for self-­‐interest. And there is nothing wrong about this, but it’s still a way of learning the Torah like the mass does it. And the others, the individuals who learn Torah, do it with an intention by which they always try to watch themselves, correct themselves, engage a battle within themselves to undermine their self-­‐interest while learning Torah or they try to turn their self-­‐interest into doing it for the sake of the name, which is called ‘daat Torah ‫’ דעת תורה‬, the opinion of the Torah. So he takes over the opinion of the Torah, not his own opinion, but the opinion of the Torah). ,‫ אומרים‬,‫ מי שקונה איזה בית‬,‫ כי מדרך העולם נהוג‬,‫והפירוש של דעת בעלי בתים הוא‬
‫ ואם קונה‬.‫ היינו שהבית זה לא שייך לאחר רק דוקא לפלוני‬,‫שבית זה שייך לפלוני‬
‫ זה‬,‫ למי שייך החפץ הזה‬,‫ היינו כששואלים זה לזה‬,‫ גם כן אותו דבר‬,‫אפילו חפץ קטן‬
.‫ בכדי שחפץ יהיה שלו‬,‫ שהוא רכש אותו על ידי יגיעה שנתן בעד החפץ‬,‫שייך לפלוני‬
.‫ושמו של פלוני נקרא על החפץ‬
Line 48 – And the opinion of the landlords is, like it is common in our world, that when someone buys a house, then it is said that it belongs to him and not someone else. And even when a he obtains a small thing (also this is the same) and when certain people ask each other to who this thing belongs, then it belongs to the person who took it into possession by effort so it would be his. And the name of this person is called according to that thing (he’s trying to lead us somewhere. In the beginning of the article we dealt with the general and the particular, with the mass and the individual). ‫ שהוא רוצה‬,‫ שהשכר‬,‫ נמצא‬,‫ שהאדם נותן יגיעה ורוצה שכר תמורת יגיעתו‬,'‫וכמו כן בעבדות ה‬
‫ שהכל בא לתוך‬,‫ נמצא‬,‫ והוא רוצה לרכוש שכר של עוה"ז ושכר של עוה"ב‬.‫ נקרא על שמו‬,‫לקבל‬
.‫ שהוא רוכש אותם על ידי יגיעתו‬,‫ שהוא הבעל בית על כל אלו הדברים‬,‫רשותו‬
Line 4 – (He’s going to further work it out and tell us what it’s all about) It is the same with the service to the Creator (we know that the service to the Creator is to bring ourselves in accordance with the laws of the universe and this way we serve and pull all the good to us as 68
this is predestined in the Creating plan), so it is the same with the service to the Creator that the human being (pay attention that in Hebrew it is not written to make an effort but to give an effort… we’ll also use the word combination in our linguistic usage) gives an effort and wants of course for that something in return (which is called ‫ תמורמ‬ : to want something in return) so it seems that the reward he wishes to receive is called in the name of Him – in His Name. And he wishes to have a reward for our world and a reward for the coming world. So it seems that everything enters his territory or his possession, that he is the owner (‫ הבעל בית‬ has two meanings, on the one hand landlord and on the other hand owner) of all the things he possesses by means of effort (we’ll learn that the opinion of the landlords means that a person still has and experiences his own territory. “Yes, there is the Creator and me and also I have my own house (which means my own territory within myself) where nobody can enter”. “This is my territory and no king can enter my territory. I respect the Creator, but no-­‐one can enter, till here and not further”. This is the opinion of the mass. ‫ הוא שלא לעשות שום דבר‬,‫ משום שהדעת מה שהם מבינים‬,‫ואלו אנשים נקראים דעת בעלי בתים‬
,‫ ואם אין הם רואים‬.‫ שיוכלו להשיג ע"י היגיעה‬,‫ היינו שיהיה בעלות על דברים‬,‫אלא לתועלת עצמו‬
‫ שיש כאן‬,‫ אם הם לא רואים‬,‫ אין להם כח לעבוד ולהתייגע‬,‫שיוכלו להשיג משהו לתועלת עצמם‬
.‫ שהם בחינת בעלי בתים‬,‫ וזה נקרא כלל‬.‫ שנקרא אהבה עצמית‬,‫מקום להרויח עבור רשות עצמו‬
Line 7 – (He brings us step by step to the qualification of the opinion of the Torah, someone who does it because of the Creator. This means that this person is aware of his own spiritual growth, while the other does it with his “hands and feet”, which means that he takes everything literally. Of course we can find both in one person, in the particular. Every one of us has within himself wishes that belong to the mass or the opinion of the landlords and wishes that belong to the individuals or opinion of the Torah. The whole point of our study is to change our opinion of the landlords into the opinion of the Torah or the opinion of individuals. This can only be done through the light of the Torah and through effort and attitude by bringing ourselves in accordance with the light). And this people are called the opinion of the landlords, because their opinion is to do absolutely nothing except for own benefit, advantage or use. This means that there has to be territory of things. (So when there is talk that he can get territory in something, it doesn’t matter what he does, then he will do it, otherwise not. It’s very normal in our world, there is nothing wrong about this, but in the spiritual it is of course different, in the eternal context, in the eternal goal, this person has not developed 69
yet). So the territory that they look forward to is that something they can achieve through effort. And when they realize that they won’t achieve anything for their own benefit then they don’t have the strength to make an effort. And this is called self-­‐love or the opinion of landlords. ‫ להם יש‬,‫ כל אלו אנשים שיש להם שייכות לפרט‬,‫ זאת אומרת‬.‫מה שאם כן הפרט נקרא דעת תורה‬
‫ כי‬,‫ שלא יהיה לו שום מציאות בפני עצמו‬,‫ היות שהוא רוצה לבטל את פרטיותו עצמו‬.‫דעת תורה‬
‫ מטעם שהוא רוצה‬,‫ שהוא לא רוצה להיות בעל בית על שום דבר‬,‫ היינו‬.‫הוא לא רוצה לעלות בשם‬
,‫ וזהו כל מגמתו‬.'‫ רק להיבטל לה‬,‫ ולא לדאוג בשביל עצמותו לשום דבר‬,‫לצאת מאהבה עצמית‬
,‫ היינו‬.‫ שהוא רשות של הקב"ה‬,‫ והוא רוצה שיהיה רק רשות היחיד‬.‫היינו לבטל את רשות עצמו‬
.‫ אלא רשות היחיד בלבד‬,‫שלא רוצה שיהיו שתי רשויות‬
Line 12 – which cannot be said about the individuals who are called the opinion of the Torah. (We saw that the mass or the opinion of the landlords don’t do anything except for own benefit or reward in this world or in the future world. But in this paragraph he’s now talking about the individuals prat -­‐ ‫ פרט‬ who adopted the opinion of the Torah). This means that these people have the opinion of the Torah (when one gives up his opinion for the sake of the higher reason, then this person belongs to the individuals) because he wishes to give up his own particularity (to annul it as it were), so that his own existence wouldn’t exist (as it were) on its own (how can someone come up with this and strive for this? And he says that this is the attitude towards fulfillment) because he doesn’t wish to be called after his own name. (This is my addition that he doesn’t wish to be called after a thing as with this he frees himself from mortality). This means that he doesn’t wish the be the owner of any thing whatsoever (owner means boundary, but boundary in the material. So a person as it were stuns a part of his inner, kills it, he makes a boundary in himself – till here and this belongs to me and I won’t let this part, malchut de malchut, be shone through by light), because this way he wishes to come out of his self-­‐love (there is no other way to come out of your self-­‐love other than to give up from every kind of belonging in your inner and to free yourself from every thing and idea in this world that don’t belong to the eternity), so that he doesn’t have to worry about any thing whatsoever, but solely to give up himself for the Creator. To annul yourself for the Creator means that you bring yourself in accordance with the eternal. We sacrifice our ego, our self-­‐love that stands in our way to happiness, our fulfillment and not what religion tells us to sacrifice for example for your fellow man, your native country… That we don’t stay stubborn and attach ourselves to small things and appropriate them for ourselves while the whole world is penetrated with the mercy of the Creator. And we stay 70
attached to those things and with that we pull din and judgment to ourselves as there is discrepancy with the laws of the universe). And that is his whole goal, to annul his own territory – his own possession (in the Holy language ‫ רשות‬ means as well as territory as well as property). And he wishes that there would be solely the possession and territory of the Only One (because when I unite myself with the Only One who lives forever, I receive life by giving up my natural strivings, deviations of mine with regard to the eternal, perfect laws of the universe), which is the territory of the Holy One Blesses be He, this means that he doesn’t wish that there would be two territories, but only one territory (pay attention how he brought us to the true text. In our previous classes we have always talked about “me and the Creator”, this is already a great understanding, also a great submission when you say “me and the Creator”. But now he says that eventually there has to come one phase in your awareness, in your wisdom by which you recognize that there is only one territory, the territory of the eternal and you add yourself to Him, you merge with that one territory of the Creator. Only this is the way to the perfection). ‫ שיהיה רק‬,"‫ ה' אלקינו ה' אחד‬,‫ באמירת "שמע ישראל‬,‫ הם מכוונים‬,"‫וכשקורין "קריאת שמע‬
‫ וזה נקרא "דעת‬.‫ ולא יהיה רק ה' אחד‬,‫ ורשותם הפרטי הם רוצים שיתבטל‬,‫רשות אחד בעולם‬
,"‫ היות שחז"ל אמרו )ברכות ס"ג( "אין דברי תורה מתקיימין אלא במי שממית עצמו עליה‬,"‫תורה‬
.‫ שהכוונה על אהבה עצמית‬,‫ שממית את עצמיותו‬,‫שפירושו‬
And when one reads or pronounces ‘Hear, Oh Yishrael – ‫ שמע ישראל‬ (this is actually the most important prayer that proclaims the unity of the Creator), then one has at that moment the right kavannah by saying: ‘Hear, Oh Yisrael, G’d, Hasjem, Hawayah is one – ‫ ה' אלקינו ה' אחד‬,‫’שמע ישראל‬, they have the intention that there is only one territory in the world and they want their territory to be undone so that there would be only the Creator who is one – ‫ ה' אחד‬ (so the Creator is unity, unity in one, different phenomenons, different manifestations, different combinations of powers, but they all are in the higher absolute one.) and this is called the opinion of the Torah -­‐ "‫ "דעת תורה‬ because the wise men have said in the brachot (do you see, they learn Yalmud, Misjna. We will at the same time learn the whole Torah while studying Shlavej HaSulam.) that the words of the Torah are only resistant to those who kill themselves with it (weird, what does it mean when someone kills himself with the words of the Torah. So only those who let themselves die with the words of the Torah, only they become resistant for the Torah. Very, very important. He doesn’t say people who remember more, or people who learn more Torah, but our wise men have told us that only those who let themselves die by the words of the Torah, only they become resistant for the Torah. 71
Very special, because also I learned the Talmud and I felt every day fuller of knowledge as it tingles your brains and your intellect and you feel as if you grow with the day because you remember things. Your head becomes heavier, your whole attitude becomes heavier while the Kabbalah learns the inner study, then it’s as if… you are so hungry for it, that you just keep eating, but you don’t lose your appetite and want to always eat more. It’s like it falls somewhere in you, but you don’t know where. You don’t have to remember, it lives within you. This is a totally different way of learning, a different way of experiencing it. It’s the process of learning that counts and not something you analyze after you’ve learned it. Because you’re going to remove it from the context. You can compare it with eating. You taste and experience the food you swallow and eat. You don’t analyze the food after you have eaten it. You also have to know that by eating, you feed your material part as the human being exists out of two. The material and the spiritual part – the eternal part. The material part is temporary, but we have both and you have to feed both of them. So we eat every day, and we don’t skip that… your daily coffee, breakfast, dinner, … You don’t miss that. It’s exactly the same with your spiritual part. If a person doesn’t feed his spiritual part, he lets it suffer. It doesn’t go to waste, but it gets buried, it doesn’t function anymore within you. Okay, we were in the middle of line two – and that is called the opinion of the Torah – when someone gives up his territory in favor of the eternal, the true reality. Actually it all comes down to his own fulfillment), and that means that he kills with that his self-­‐love (do you see, he tells us that the words of the Torah are meant to kill your self-­‐love and only then the Torah remains resistant and alive. That is what he says. And not someone who learns better, can remember better, has more knowledge. If he still nourishes his self-­‐love, then he absolutely doesn’t do anything in the eyes of the Creator. He has then the opinion of the landlords. He of course learns good, but for himself. ‫ הנקרא השתוות‬,‫ שענינו הוא להגיע לבחינת דביקות‬,‫ זאת אומרת‬.‫ שהפרט ודעת תורה הם ענין אחד‬,‫משמע מכאן‬
‫ שעדיין שקוע‬,‫ וכל זמן שהאדם מרגיש‬.‫ אלא כל מגמתו הוא להיבטל אליו יתברך‬,‫הצורה וביטול אהבה עצמית‬
‫ שהיא‬,‫ שיגיד‬,‫ שהוא שלם בעבודתו‬,‫ אין הוא יכול לראות עצמו‬,‫ הגם שמקיים תו"מ בכל דקדוקיה‬,‫באהבה עצמית‬
‫ המכונה דעת‬,‫ עדיין הוא רוצה שיכנס הכל לרשות עצמו‬,‫ שכל מה שהוא עושה‬,‫ היות שהוא רואה‬,‫עבודה שלימה‬
.‫ בזה שיש לו שתי רשויות‬,‫ והוא לוקח זה ללב‬.‫ שיש לו שתי רשויות‬,‫ ולא איכפת לו‬,‫בעל בתים‬
Line 23 – It means from this that the individual and the opinion of the Torah are one (it’s about the same) this means, that it’s about what he does to achieve the aspect of merging, which is called in accordance with quality (so to be in accordance with quality is called 72
merging) and the giving up of self-­‐love, but all his striving to annul / efface himself has to be for the Creator. And as long as a person feels that he is still sunk in his self-­‐love, despite the fact that he fulfills the Torah and its regulations with accuracy, and he can’t see that he is whole, Shalem in his service, in his work, his spiritual work, that he could say that the work he does for himself (or for the Creator, that’s the same) is the perfect service, because everything he does, he still wishes that it enters his own property, so the property that is called the opinion of the landlords. It doesn’t make a difference for him that he has two territories (one territory for the Creator and one territory for himself. So he also endures the Creator. Do you remember the story that I’ve told about Chafetz Chaim, the great rabbi of the thirties, 1930 approximately. That he had only one son and he was already an aged, old man. When his son passed away, he went to the cemetery to bury him and all his… his students who knew him very well, every gesture of him. They saw that he didn’t weep a tear at his son’s funeral. But during the descending of the body of his son in the grave, it seemed that his face of cleared up, began to shine of love, joy and gratitude and his students could of not understand it. It were all great rabbi’s and they couldn’t comprehend it. How could it be, did he have no heart? And after a while, when he was better, Jews grieve a week or so, and when he had resumed his daily life, his students asked him; rabbi, what was that all about? When your only son was being descended into the grave, we saw your face shine of happiness. He answered that all his life he had said “Shma Yisrael – Hear Oh Israel, the Creator is one” – this is the most important prayer when a Jew, I mean everyone who strives to be in accordance with the Creator by which he at that moment gives up everything, a Jew needs to at that moment give up his whole life for the sake of unity with the Creator. He kills himself for 100 %, from within for the sake of the Creator. So the rabbi said that he had pronounced the following prayer all his life: “Shma Yisrael – Hear oh Israel, You are one and you will love the Creator with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your wealth”. And he said that he had always felt that he couldn’t fulfill it, because he felt that there was a small part in his heart that loved his only son. And now he saw that his son was taken away from him and he understood that he could finally fulfill that prayer properly. This is the unprecedented greatness and this is the opinion of the Torah. So he showed his students, the great Chafetz Chaim, also his name, his nickname means “he who wishes to live passionately”. So he told his students that he saw at that moment with all his heart and with all his soul the unity. And this is the opinion of the teprat, the individual, this is the opinion of the Torah). 73
Lesson 7
‫ ולהכניסו ברשותו‬,‫ שה' יוציא אותו מרשות עצמו‬,‫אז הוא מסוגל לתת תפלה אמיתית מקירות לבו‬
‫ ומשום זה יש‬.‫ שהכל בטל אליו יתברך‬,‫ שאין בעולם רק רשות היחיד‬,‫ שירגיש‬,‫ היינו‬.‫של הקב"ה‬
.‫ וחינוך מיוחד להפרט‬,‫חינוך מיוחד להכלל‬
Page 4, line 29 – (We came to an end in the previous lesson when someone had the feeling
that he had two territories within himself. This means that he feels inside him that on the one
hand he exists and on the other hand the Creator exists, but separately. And now Ashlag
continues.)
Then he is capable to give a true prayer (do you see, in Hebrew they say ‘to give a prayer’,
it’s important to know which words are used. So when he experiences this duality, that is a
good moment.
Actually it’s a progress. Because only then he can give the true prayer – let us translate it with
give, this way we can feel the power of the language – to give a prayer) from the walls of his
heart (it means from the depth of his heart. But in Hebrew they say ‘from the walls of his
heart’) and ask in his prayer that may the Creator let him come out from his own territory (his
own possession) and to let him enter the territory of the Holy One blessed be He ‫ הקב"ה‬ – HaKadosh baruch Hoe (Hakadosh is the Holy, baruch means blessed, and Hoe He. Also
this name has a special meaning in power.)
This means so he can start feeling that there exists in the world only the territory of the Only
One (this is our problem, that we can’t experience this) and that everything is annulled for the
Holy One, (for the Creator, for the eternal life.) therefore there exists a special education for
the mass (this means a separate education for the mass), and another education for the
individuals (being an ‘individual’ means that he experiences he’s an individual. Not due to
pride or arrogance, but he feels that the way of the mass is no longer meant for him.
Why? It’s like this... Don’t ask yourself why. Why do I feel more related to the education of
the individual, because it’s the way by which a person admits that there is only the territory of
the Creator.)
‫ יש בהם‬,‫ היינו שכל מה שהם עושים‬,‫ מדוע מחנכים את הכלל על דרך השלימות‬,‫אמנם יש להבין‬
‫ "אפשר אדם חורש‬,‫ ושואל‬,‫ שהוא המחמיר ביותר מר' ישמעאל‬,‫ שאפילו רשב"י‬,‫ כנ"ל‬,‫שלימות‬
‫ "אפילו לא קרא אדם אלא קריאת‬,‫ מכל מקום הוא אומר‬."‫ תורה מה תהא עליה‬,‫בשעת חרישה‬
‫ היינו כאילו קיים את הפסוק "והגית‬,"‫ קיים "לא ימוש ספר תורה הזה מפיך‬,"‫שמע שחרית וערבית‬
."‫יומם ולילה‬
Line 32 – However we have to understand why the mass is educated by means of perfection
(one gives the mass the perfect way, they are told what to do and they feel perfect. But I’ve
already told you that with this he means the uncorrected wishes of an individual person who is
working on himself.
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Because the individual has also wishes, aspirations that aren’t corrected yet. So you have to
always see this in perspective of one person. It sometimes helps to divide them by looking
from the general point of view by which you have the mass and the individuals. On the other
hand you have the particular point of view by which everything is in one person; both the
wishes of the mass and the wishes of the individual), this mean that everything they do (the
mass) that they have perfection
Do you understand? He does what is written and feels perfect. But he did it without having
the right intention. Of course he had an intention, but the intention to get a reward in this
world or the next. While an individual gradually progresses and separates him from rewards
and only then one can receive the greatest rewards. Of course this is structural, you can’t do it
overnight. A person has to work very hard to get to this point. There is a very interesting
subject. Sometimes it seems as if the Zohar is telling a story, but qua powers it’s structural.
The Zohar tells about rabbi Yehuda, one of the ten who wrote Zohar. He lived somewhere in
Yisrael and he had a school there, like our school, but he was a great rabbi. So one day a
young man came to his school, he wasn’t married and said to Yehuda: ‘I want to learn Torah,
because I want to become rich’. He had a reason and he knew that one could get rich by
learning the Torah.
Therefore we can also see in our world when someone learns Torah with a certain intention,
he can get rich. You can also see this in America. Everything depends on what you want. It’s
interesting that this example is given in the Zohar.
Then rabbi Yehuda said to him, go sit down and learn. Yehuda didn’t say this wasn’t the good
intention. When someone is still in the state of learning to receive a reward, then you need to
accept this. You don’t have to say this to him, if he was perfect then he wouldn’t need your
help.
So he started learning and after a while he asked the rabbi why he wasn’t rich yet? In those
days, when a rabbi had a problem, he went to a separate room where he could meditate on his
own without haste, without pushing to get an answer at all costs. So he separated him from the
rest and got an answer from above. Of course in himself. It was said to him: ‘don’t send him
away because he will become a great man, let him learn in your school’.
This was said to him from above but he wasn’t told why, not in detail. Why not? Because a
person has to make the effort himself. He is told what will happen to him but he has to realize
this, he has to be the active link. If you listen to this voice and work on yourself, then it will
happen to you. It can be the short way or the long way with a lot of side-paths. You can go to
your endpoint directly or through suffering. This all depends on you.
And how consistent will you be in following the advice. Just like with Jonah, a great prophet
who was assigned to go to the Assyrian city Nineveh outside of Yisrael. He had to assist, help
and instruct them. Because they were at the point of destruction if they didn’t repent.
During that time Nineveh was a big city, a metropolis. The entire city took this into account
and all the rich people repented so the city was saved. But Jonah fled by boarding a ship,
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along the way there was a storm that threw him overboard. He was swallowed up by a whale
and repented there. Afterwards he was spit out on the beach and he went back to Nineveh to
complete his assignment. A lot of Torah. The Torah gives us a lot of events. So he wasn’t able
to escape from the assignment he was given from above. But of course, the contribution of a
person also counts…
From above it is told what we have to do even though it doesn’t feel good. Before, we only
learned once a week and a bit during the week. And now, suddenly we have to learn every
night. Does it feel better? No, it’s exhausting and tiring but we are still doing it.
So rabbi Yehuda left his room and approached the young man who wanted to get rich. He was
warned to not send him away. Afterwards another man entered the school and told the rabbi
he was very rich. His father had left him thirteen cups – everything is of course spiritually, but
it also happened in real life – in paz, very high quality of gold, platinum but much more
expensive, the best that there is, and he showed a cup. This man was rich but he knew that a
person has to also learn the spiritual, the Torah. He was rich, but not rich of Torah.
It’s written if you can’t learn, for example you’re a business man, you have a busy life in the
politics etc, then you have to find someone else who can learn for you. You pay him, you
make a professional contract by which he learns day and night and you both share the Torah.
The person who is rich supports the other who learns the Torah for himself and for his
supporter. How can this be given in our world? When you truly come to an agreement then
it’s possible that another person learns for you. Nothing disappears in the spiritual. If an
agreement is made, then it will happen.
So this rich man came to the school and told Yehuda he wants to learn the Torah. Wants to
find someone who can learn the Torah for him, but a part has to be given to him.
It’s not enough to be rich without the Torah. Why? When someone dies and his soul is set
free, he will be asked what he has accomplished on earth. All the material goods stay behind
and isn’t yours anymore. So what remains of him? Then he receives a part of the Torah
because he had an agreement with someone.
So rabbi Yehuda went to the young man and told him he could learn the Torah for someone
else. Of course he agreed because he wanted to get rich. The rich man gave him a cup and he
started to learn the Torah for him and for the money.
And of course one day, after had had learned the Torah for a while, the rabbi saw this young
man called Josie crying. So he asked him what was wrong, by that time he had already
learned a lot… and Josie had the feeling that by learning the Torah this way, he was giving up
his life, and the true richness in the afterlife.
Whether we’re learning about the right line or the left line. We have always said that the right
line is mercy, love and eternity while the left line is chochmah, din, strictness without mercy.
Someone who strives to get rich in our world has a hard life, you can see it on his face, it’s
like a rock. He is deliberately working on his suffering.
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Also Josie who wanted to get rich by learning the Torah realized something, that he was
lacking the future world. What does this mean? That he wanted to get rich by learning the
Torah, and because of this he had his own territory next to the territory of the Creator. This
was tearing him apart.
So he was crying and then rabbi Yehuda understood that he was finally ready to work in the
Name of the Creator, that he wanted to receive without expecting a reward through the Torah.
He had started learning Torah to get rich and by learning the Torah, the light of the Torah
gradually transformed him. The more rewards he got the more he understood how great it is to
work on himself without receiving (visible) rewards.
Then they called the rich man… and from then he was called rabbi Josie. In the beginning
when he started learning Yehuda had given him a different name: Joshie ben pasa, son of
platinum. Because we have already said, the intention is also carved in the name, so when one
is given an extra name from above then this is part of his destination. When someone wants to
get rich then this is also initiated from above that he gets rich as a phase to his development.
So when he was crying he became aware he didn’t want to learn Torah for a reward, because
then he would have his own territory. So they called that rich man and rabbi Josie – he was
called rabbi from then on, it doesn’t matter if he received a certification or not, how many
rabbis have a certification? But from above he was called rabbi, why? From the moment when
someone starts working without expecting a reward then he is seen as rabbi from above. But
when someone still asks and expects a reward then…
So the rich man was called and he was told to take his cup back but he would be given more
than half…- because everything he learns in the Zohar gives power. He’s not learning words
but powers that are raised through the Torah in rabbi Josie and all the corrections he does, this
will also be given to the other person in the future world when both souls break up from their
bodies. Then they will be joined together for the parts that he had learned for him, more than
the half of the Torah will be transferred to the other soul.
This is hard to understand for us because we’re still trapped in our bodies. He also asked the
rich man to give the cup to the poor, this was his condition.
From that moment rabbi Josie started making great progress and he went down in history as
Josie ben Pase, son of platinum. He became a great wise man; also his sons became great
Kabbalists.
So this is the story of someone who at first wanted to get rich but afterwards he realized that
the highest and greatest pleasure is the knowledge of the eternal. Then suddenly you don’t
need rewards anymore, you can give it away. Through this he had obtained one territory with
the Creator.
It’s great to experience moments when you are one with the eternity. This means that during a
certain moment in the day the wave lengths in you correspond with the wave lengths of the
eternity and this in broad daylight and not in a dream or a vision. A kabbalist, a person who
works on himself doesn’t need visions; you can do this every day!!!
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By doing this your name will be written in the book of life. And when you have a busy day
etc… you have to work, do things… then still you have to find a moment in the day to work
on the eternal, to bring yourself in accordance with the eternal.
Okay, so the mass is educated in perfection. Do this and that and you will get a reward in our
world and in the future world.
…that even Rashbi (rabbi Shimon bar Yochai) who is stricter in his position than rabbi
Yismael (because we have explained that rabbi Yismael says that one has to do literally
what’s written in the Torah while rabbi Rashbi underlines the individual work and the right
intention.
that it is possible that a person ploughs in the time of plough (this means doing individual
work and not only for the mass), then what will the Torah mean for him. Still rabbi Rashbi
says: ‘even when a person says hear, oh Yisrael’ (it’s a short prayer that announces the unity,
two times a day, this way he fulfills the regulation that is given to him from above) that the
Torah may not leave your month (We have to talk about the eternal every day. There is also
an indication that reading only with your eyes is not sufficient. Remember this very well. For
example when I read the Zohar, I always read with my lips, by whispering a bit, this way you
don’t disturb anyone. Try doing it also. Because reading with your lips means also making
zivug.
Why? Two elements of your palate touch each other when pronouncing words and then it
goes outside. Speech has been given to us so we have to use it. Don’t only look with your
eyes, that’s not sufficient. Only for the spiritual, I’m not talking about certain information in
our world. But for the eternal you have to pronounce it with your lips. This will also bring you
in the state of now. When only reading with your eyes you can be everywhere but when you
pronounce it then it forces you to stay in now. This is very important. Try to do this.
Very quietly, nobody has to know, but you have to pronounce the words very quietly.
Therefore it says: it may not leave your month.) this means, as if he fulfilled the verse: ‘you
will pronounce it day and night’ (this confirms you have to pronounce it quietly, it doesn’t
have to be loud. This is very important.
So he is emphasizing the position of Rashbi about the importance of inner work as an
individual and the point of work the mass does. Because a person can’t be thrown in the
depths from the start. A person can’t work from the start for the Creator, he has to gradually
work on himself and come to this phase. There are people who are learning the Torah for fifty
years and are still doing it for their wallet and also for other things. While it has to be the
other way around.)
‫ שאין אדם יכול‬,‫ ואנו רואים חוק בהטבע‬,‫ היות שצריכה להיות אחיזה להכלל בהתורה ומצות‬,‫אולם‬
‫ ואם‬,‫ והיות שלהכלל יש דעת בעלי בתים‬.‫ אם הוא לא רואה התקדמות במעשיו‬,‫לעשות שום דבר‬
.‫ אז הם אפילו לא יבינו מה שמדברים אליהם‬,‫ שיש דעת תורה‬,‫יגידו להם‬
Line 37 – (We’re filling our the cup of platinum drop by drop. We’re not going to explain
everything in detail, just try listening and your inner will understand the content.
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The passage about the poor and rich man is very important. If we work on ourselves every
day then we will create a new system in us.) however, the mass should stick to the Torah and
regulations (It doesn’t matter which intention they have. At first they should stick to it), and
we can see a law in the nature (the law in the nature corresponds with the laws of the
universe, of the spiritual. And we see that ‫ חוק‬ means the law that is eternal, immune.) that a
person is not capable, can’t do anything if he doesn’t see progress in his deeds (he’s saying
that this is a law of the nature, therefore it’s important for us to go above the laws of the
nature. Because this is what the nature says: ‘if I can’t see any progress then I’m not capable
of doing anything. Because he doesn’t receive a reward.)
And since the mass follows the opinion of the landlords (the opinion of the Torah and the
opinion of the landlords. Landlord means that he’s doing everything for himself, to receive a
reward. He learns the Torah for rewards, he’s making a deal with the Creator. A person says
to himself: ‘If I go to the synagogue in the morning, or the church, doesn’t matter then my
children will have a good life, be rich and maybe I’ll go to the future world etc’. This is what
he’s telling us about the mass.
A landlord owns a house, he has a own territory. He benefits from it and doesn’t allow anyone
to enter his house. Do you see, there is nothing wrong about having a house in our world. It’s
about the spiritual.
If you have a house or a yacht, the point is that you start learning to accept that there is only
one territory. It doesn’t matter what you have, that’s given to you, but you have to accept that
the Creator is one, that there is only one territory and you’re his manager, you have to manage
your property.
Therefore rich people, if they are aware of this, they donate money. It’s obligatory, they feel
they have to do this.
and if they would tell him that there also exists the opinion of the Torah then they would not
understand what you are talking about.
(Do you see what he’s telling us; when you tell someone who belongs to the mass and also
someone who doesn’t belong to the mass, because everything is in one person. So these
people won’t understand it.
The opinion of the Torah means a person makes the effort to get to the right
intention/kavannah to learn the Torah for the Creator and not for other reasons, but to reach
this point one has to grow.
You can see that I have underlined this in our course from the very beginning. In the past wise
men learned differently, they had to find this out themselves, step by step, the time wasn’t ripe
then. But in our time we can immediately make a person aware of this without giving him
high hopes.
We also saw this with rabbi Josie who wanted to learn for money. Rabbi Yehuda let him learn
at his school because every intention comes from the Creator. Maybe his intention will change
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later. Therefore I will never ask your intention, let alone the intention of the group who only
come on Thursdays and don’t learn at night.
Your intention comes from above. It’s not my task to question this. Even you don’t know why
you are doing this, do you understand? It doesn’t matter why you are doing this. If you want
to, then do it, but the intention doesn’t matter. The final goal is salvation, complete salvation,
complete unity with the laws of the universe and this will bring fulfillment to you and the
entire Creation, it’s all about this.
‫ כמו‬.‫ בודאי לא יבין אף מילה‬,‫ ואם ידברו אליו בשפה האנגלית‬,‫ מי שמדבר רק עברית‬,‫כי זה דומה‬
‫ היינו‬,‫ בטח שלא יבינו שפה אחרת‬,‫ שהם מבינים רק השפה של אהבה עצמית‬,‫כן שדעת בעלי בתים‬
.‫שפה של השפעה‬
Line 40 – (He is now going to explain the last paragraph in detail. That the mass would not
understand if you would say: ‘do it without expecting a reward’. They think: ‘How can you
work without getting something in return?’. This also concerns us. Who can say that he can
work without absolutely expecting anything in return? Nobody, but still we’re trying and the
quicker you do this, the faster you’ll progress.)
Because this resembles to the following, for example when someone only talks Hebrew and
he tries talking to someone who only understands English, of course he won’t understand a
word.
It’s the same for the opinion of the landlords, that they only understand one language (Look
how he’s explaining this, simple language. They only understand the language of self-love.
The mass only knows one language. Remember this very well.), of course he would say that
he doesn’t understand another language, this means the language of giving (Language of
altruism.
They only understand one language. What do I gain from this? When I go to a synagogue or a
church. There is only one thing on his mind, what do I gain from this. Maybe nothing material
but a great feeling, a pleasant moment, … All for himself.
Do you see what we’re learning? You can’t find this anywhere else. It’s a challenge to
overcome your human aspirations. You have to learn giving, this doesn’t mean only in the
material, but also a part of yourself, of your ego, self-love. Learn step by step the other
language. The language of giving. Because everyone knows the language of receiving, all
people, animals, plants, they understand this language from their birth – the language of selflove – of course there is nothing wrong about this language.
We are made to receive. The point is that we overcome this, then we’ll be like the Creator
Himself, and not like children who only want to receive. Because you never get enough out of
receiving, nobody. It will always attract us, it tempts us… the more you have the more you
want. Which business man stops? He continues till he has a heart attack and then he has to
stop.
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I’ve seen this happen to a lot of people. They had heart problems so they were advised to stop
working. For a while they take a rest and once they feel better they start working again. While
this should have been his salvation. A heart attack, hernia or another disease one gets, if
someone doesn’t respond to it adequately then something bad is bound to happen, G’d forbid.
So after taking it easy, he’s starting to recover and you can see on his face and attitude that he
learned something from it. But the bad element inside him starts chasing him again: ‘come on,
go to work again, there is a lot to do!’ and he forgets what had happened to him and continues
his career till he gets another blow, G’d forbid, but this time much worse to get him on the
right path again.
Remember this very well, work on yourself. Listen to your own ideas but be careful. There is
a memory aid: the ideas, inspirations you have are only constructive when they lead you to
give more instead of receiving. Then you will receive but in a kosher way. You won’t get any
diseases, or misery etc.
Before, when I was giving private sessions, I met a rabbi from Belgium, a great film maker.
He wanted to take it easy through learning the Torah, Kabbalah, because he was constantly
having new ideas… another film, one more, another one, etc.
I’m not trying to say he should stop making movies, but don’t get rushed or hunted by your
bad element, otherwise you will never come to your fulfillment, because he was constantly
wanting more and more… while he wasn’t receiving any blessing. There is no blessing in
‘more’, why? There is no end in ‘more’. One is constantly tempted from inside, the bad
element will whisper to do this and that etc, but why? Your bad element profits from material
wishes.
Of course not everything is bad. Everything that people do in our world for the economy is
necessary. Even though it’s for them, they also do it for society and its progress. They’re
indirectly forced to also do for others. Even in a selfish way they still do for others. A baker
for example wakes up at night – 3 o’clock – just like we do, to bake bread. But he does it for
himself, for his family, for his company and children. Nevertheless he also does it indirectly
for others because people need bread in the morning.
‫ שיש שלימות בהכלל‬,‫ כנ"ל‬,‫ שזה נחוץ לטובת הכלל‬,‫ בכדי שתהיה להם אחיזה בתו"מ‬,‫אי לזאת‬
‫ ואין‬.‫ אז בטח הם יפסיקו מלקיים תו"מ‬,‫ שאין שלימות בעבודתם‬,‫ ואם יגידו להם‬.‫מבחינת הריבוי‬
,‫ היא דבר גדול מאוד‬,‫ היות שכל אחיזה שיש בתו"מ‬.‫ שלא אומרים להם האמת‬,‫זה שקר חס ושלום‬
‫ שמי‬,‫ אם כן כל עבודה‬.‫ כי ישראל ערבים זה לזה‬,‫היות שכל פרוטה ופרוטה מצטרפת לחשבון גדול‬
.‫ מצטרפת לעבודה של כל אחד ואחד מהכלל‬,‫שהוא נותן‬
Line 43 – In order that the Torah and regulations stay with them (His sentence structure is
often complicated because he’s from the Nefesh, the lower part of the soul, in contradiction to
his father whose language was brilliant. Also the language Ari used is pure because the higher
you go the more simple it gets.) it is good for them that they have perfection (the mass) and if
one would tell them (to the mass) that there is no perfection in their work, then of course they
81
would stop fulfilling the Torah and regulations (when you tell the mass their work is selfish
and not for the Creator, not for giving and thus not complete then they will stop. Why?
Because this is the law of the nature; “if I don’t progress then I won’t continue”. How many
students didn’t we have? They came and wanted to see results. And when someone didn’t see
results… maybe he was aiming for another goal, maybe he wasn’t ready, it doesn’t matter
then he went somewhere else to learn Kabbalah.
Go, if you want! There is no other Torah and Kabbalah. Of course there are other Kabbalists,
but the path we are taking is not pleasant. How did we start our courses, at first I was only
talking about general things. Gradually, and now after three years we are working on
ourselves. In a very fast tempo and this guarantees a great progress. But we don’t have to look
at our progress like the mass does. They only look at their wallet.
And these are no lies they are taught (Look he’s now going to tell us that it isn’t a lie. Isn’t it
easier to just tell them they have to try giving from the start? Look how rabbi Yehuda did it.
Someone came to his school to get rich and he told him he could learn at his school.) this
doesn’t mean that the mass isn’t told the truth. Since this is already an attachment to the Torah
and regulations, (it doesn’t matter in which form, it’s already a good thing.
Even when a person wants to do it in a primitive form, then still it’s a good thing because you
attach to the Tree of Life and don’t waste yourself.) because every nickel is added to another
nickel till it becomes a large account, (so everything what a person does, you get up at night,
and another night and every night is added to the rest. It’s not 1 + 1 +1, it’s not like a material
account, like 1 + 1 is equal to 2, but a lot more is added every time…) because Israel (Israelis)
are responsible for each other (this means all the altruistic wishes in a person, this is Israel,
everything that wants to give inside a person, that is Israel, so every spark in you that you give
is added and mixed to another spark of giving and it’s the same with fulfilling the regulations
in the Torah and with regard to the mass.
Because one goes to the synagogue in the morning or the church, or another one visits the
hospital… do you understand? Together they fulfill the Torah, clear? The third one does
something else, for example he gives money to the poor. But someone who works on himself
– my addition: as an individual, he fulfills the entire Torah on his own. Because when a
person tries to fulfill the Torah like we do, then everything is integrated, as you’re trying not
to do it for yourself, you’re not expecting anything in return, then all your wishes, this means
all of Israel that is in you plus all the people of the world that are also inside you, which are
the egoistical whishes, they will all work in one direction. You will let them go in one
direction.
This way you work on yourself and this means that you have the entire people, the entire
humanity inside you while you work on yourself. But the mass does it differently. One does a
certain regulation, another one does another regulation. So they do it together, this is what
he’s trying to say) so if this is how it works when someone gives work (In Hebrew they say:
‘to give work’ and not ‘to do work’. So Kabbalah says that you have to give the work you’re
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doing.) from the mass, then they are all connected to each other and it becomes one huge
work from the mass.
(That’s the difference between us and them. Every correction that we do affects all our
powers. Even when I work on a very small correction, then my entire system, inner receives
from it, is affected positively by it.
While someone from the mass goes to the hospital to help sick people, but this is another form
of giving. He’s maybe doing it for another reason, it doesn’t matter.
Even when an individual does the smallest correction then initially it’s for you and then your
environment. Just like when there is an earthquake or a tsunami. The first waves are in the
epicenter and then it goes to the surroundings and after that there are effects fifty or maybe
one hundred, thousand kilometers away, shocks that go further and further.
It’s the same with us. When you work on yourself, then initially it affects you and not others.
The point is that you work on yourself and then you also work for the entire world. When you
live in Amsterdam then your environment is affected by it first and after that the entire
country and then it spreads even further. Just like concentric circles, the most powerful one is
in the middle, even for the smallest correction, let alone when you wake up at night to work
on yourself.)
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Lesson 8
‫ גיבור באיכות הוא‬.‫ גיבור בכמות וגיבור באיכות‬,‫ שיש שני גיבורים‬,‫וזה כמו שאמר אאמו"ר זצ"ל‬
‫ להכלל אנו‬,‫ אי לזאת‬.‫ שלשניהם יש כח שקשה להתגבר עליהם‬,‫ וגיבור בכמות הם ארבה‬,‫אריה‬
,‫ אפילו לא יודעים את פירוש המילות‬,‫ כשמתפללים‬,‫ ומשום זה אומרים‬.‫ שהם גיבורים באיכות‬,‫צריכים‬
‫ אף על פי‬,‫ שמאירה בבחינת מקיף להאדם‬,‫ היות שיש בהמילים הקדושים סגולה גדולה‬,‫זהו ענין גדול‬
.‫שהוא אינו מרגיש בבחינת פנימי‬
Page 4, line 48 – (He’s going to give a lot in this paragraph so we’ll have to go through it
slowly. In the previous lessons we talked about the mass and the individual, about the ways of
approaching the spiritual by the mass and by the individual. He’s now going to explain this
further.)
And like my father had said (he called his father; ‫אאמו"ר זצ"ל‬, such a long title. Because he
and his father were Hasidic, also qua position they belonged to the Hasidic community.
Yehuda could not leave the community, just like his son. It’s a difficult position they were in.
They lived in a place where the mass surrounded them), there are two heroes, hero in quantity
and hero in quality.
The hero in quality is the lion (he’s giving us an image) and the hero in quantity is the
grasshopper (It’s understandable, the one has the power of the individual and the other has the
power of the mass, the grasshoppers.), and both have powers that are difficult to overcome.
If it’s like this then we need the mass, that they are heroes in quality. (I would say that they
are heroes in quantity. Maybe it’s a mistake? We’ll see…
Therefore it is said when they are saying a prayer, even though they (the mass) don’t
understand the meaning of the words they are pronouncing, (and the most, the majority of my
people don’t know the meaning when saying a prayer. Also in Israel, the majority doesn’t
understand the prayers. Let alone outside the land of Israel.) it is still a great thing (he’s
saying that even though a person doesn’t understand the meaning of the words in the holy
language, know that it’s still a great deed that a person pronounces these words) because there
exists a great tool in the holy words that shines on a person’s front as or makif (surrounding
light) despite the fact he doesn’t feel the light as or pnimi. (When the light is within him.)
(When a person from within belongs to the mass and is not ready to work on himself yet, if he
says a prayer and doesn’t understand a word then still he will receive the light of or makif.
If someone doesn’t understand the prayer then the light shines to him from outside because
the light doesn’t enter him. But if someone knows what he’s doing, pronounces every word…
Nobody in our generation knows what a real prayer is. Nobody, also not me. I mean: I know
what I’m talking about, but the power… when saying a prayer everyone receives the or makif,
surrounding light. The previous generations had the power to see the connection. With the
earlier generations I mean tana’im, in the years 200 till 500 or maybe even 700 of our era.
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After that people didn’t have the power to make the connection between the spiritual roots
and the manifestations of those roots, let alone that we can taste it. For example; for me it’s
enough to read one passage from Hear Israel. I can taste that, but I don’t have the power for
more, do you understand?
After a prayer a great chassied can only stay three hours in the Shechina. Of course the light
stays with you the entire day… But in our generation and the previous generations nobody
can stay in the Shechina longer than three hours.
Don’t think the unclean powers can’t catch you after saying a prayer. Here in Amsterdam, in
the synagogue they are already caught a second after their prayer. But the true holy people
could last up to three hours.
Shechina is the divine presence, which is always present, but it cannot stay longer than three
hours in us. When you have the feeling the light can’t enter you, when you have the feeling
it’s around you, just like an aura, then it’s outside of you.
Actually, nothing is outside you. Everything is penetrated by the light and the holiness; we
think it will shine to us in the future. There is no future… that’s the spiritual. There is only
now, but we feel that it will happen tomorrow, later, because we think it shines to us from the
outside. But the longer you are occupied with the spiritual... The whole purpose of our
aspirations is to purify and to build our kelim – on the one hand to purify it and on the other
hand to build it – so we can experience the light.
Nothing comes inside and nothing is outside of us, we are only not capable of experiencing it.
Our kelim are not clean, are not in accordance with the light itself and due to this we
experience as if it shines outside of us, when our ego is too strong and doesn’t allow us to
experience it.
The entire purpose is to not break your ego, G’d forbid, it won’t help, neither running away.
You just need to open yourself for the light, you need to surrender yourself because it’s
absolutely not possible with the mind!
Question from student:
Is Shechina the coordinating light?
Michael’s reply:
All souls that have been here form together the Shechina. All souls, including the souls that
are still in this world and the souls of deceased people. The flesh dies, but the soul continues
to exist. The soul is eternal. A small piece of light comes to this world and afterwards returns
to its source and unites there, whereas everything that was built and experienced here is taken
above. The body stays behind, together with the reshimot, traces of your actions.
Question from student:
So the Shechina is constantly getting stronger?
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Answer: Of course, everything comes from the Malchut of Atzilut. The shining from the
Malchut of Atzilut is the Shechina to us, the divine representative. But everything is already
present there, in the root.
Student: so it doesn’t get stronger? Or new souls are added?
Michael’s answer: Yes, of course new souls are added. New souls can only come into being
as it were through the powers of the Great Righteous Person.
It’s incredible what has been given to the human being. Look, a great righteous person for
example has an enormous power and can work up power by his commitment. How does this
happen? Where do souls come from? Through merging.
Most souls come from the breaking of Adam, the first person, he had everything in himself.
These are called old souls, who come from Adam. But potentially in the course of history
there are also other powers present that create new souls.
It’s written: ‘I will renew your souls at the arrival of the Masiach’. We can’t go deeper into
this because otherwise it will become philosophy. But it’s said about Avraham and Sarah that
they made souls in Charan – this is a place in Israel. They created souls.
How? Avraham brought the local people to the Creator, so they could approach the Creator.
Because it’s said when one contributes to the awakening of another soul he gets a piece of
another soul.
This means when one goes deeper in himself you will get assistance from another soul. A soul
who has already done his work here. This soul can for example enter you because you have
the same structure, the same root. Why? There is a law that says everything that is in
accordance with qualities, go towards each other. So if you have the same root as another
soul, for example someone who has died or someone who is still alive, then the other can as it
were enter you, after your birth as it were to help you, because the higher always wants the
help the lower.
I mean qualitatively higher, not higher in this world. Then he enters your life to help you, but
you have to be very careful to keep him, you have to become the throne, the wagon, the
carrier in which the soul can reside, who is higher than you. So you need to be careful.
Because if you do bad things, G’d forbid, then he will go away. Why? Because there is no
resemblance anymore.
Remember that everything is within you. If there is accordance with the higher within you,
then this will cure you. You need to say you’re smaller than everyone else, but it has to be
constructive.
Persevere when your life is important to you. We overcome our body by getting up at night to
learn. This way you progress. You (students) come all the way here from outside while I don’t
have to go outside, I just have to go to another room. I’m serious, every effort counts.
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The main point is to overcome your body. A body is good at finding excuses like: I’m not
willing to do it, another time, ... Don’t say you will do something later, it’s always a snapshot
in time.
Don’t think about the future, I’ve already told you this. Also, don’t make plans for the future.
Only quick flashes what you can do in the future but don’t think about the future, also not in
the spiritual.
Do you know the feeling, emotions you will have in the future. I don’t. I even don’t know
which impulses will be stimulated within me in a minute. It’s not my task, it comes from
above. If I would say: ‘I’m sure I ‘m going to do this and that’ then I would be hindering the
Shechina as I would be the one deciding whether or not the Shechina will enter me.
Why? There exists a law, a principle – you can draw everything into principles – ‘there is no
violence in the spiritual’.
The divine presence, the Shechina is built so delicately… of course it penetrates you. But the
entire point of the divine presence from above is that you experience it. It’s not enough to be
penetrated by it. Do you understand?
Of course, from above everything is Einsof, every one of us will reach its destination. But the
entire point is that you attract what is considered as desirable. That you start experiencing it
and are aware that it comes from above. The power, the divine light is above, everything is
potentially present there.
Everything what’s below is also present above. But it’s not necessary above. Only Malchut
needs it and the Creation which is in essence a product of Malchut. We need a bit of
chochmah. The divine presence is, when the Creation experiences chassadim, mercy in which
a bit of the light of chochmah is also present. The number thirteen is the divine presence in the
Creation.
Remember this very well, this way you can discover a lot of phenomenons; for example that
the higher doesn’t need gadlut. Above there is always a complete rest and serenity. Which is
gadlut but in its smaller state. And how can a small state be serene? Because they don’t need
gadlut, for them it’s the same. But for us it’s important to sometimes experience gadlut, but in
short flashes. Then you have ten sfirot, or let’s say you experience thirteen powers and
afterwards you come back to your smaller state. The majority of the day we only experience
katnut. It’s all up to you. ‫ שהגוף לא‬,‫ ורואה‬,‫ ויודע קצת פירוש המילים‬,‫ מה שהוא אומר‬,‫ אם הוא רואה את המילים‬,‫אבל לא אומרים להאדם‬
,‫ מה שהגוף אומר לך‬,‫ ואל תתחשב עם המחשבות זרות‬,‫ זה לא שייך אליך‬,‫ אז אומרים לו‬.‫מסכים למה שהוא אומר‬
‫ מה שהחכמים שלנו‬,‫ רק כשאתה תגיד המילים‬,‫ היינו‬.‫ אלא סוף הכבוד לבוא‬.‫שאין אתה מסכים למה שהגוף טוען‬
‫ שאין‬,‫ היינו‬.‫ אין אתה צריך לשים לב לכל זה‬,‫ שאנחנו צריכים להגיד את כל הסדר של התפלות והבקשות‬,‫סידרוהו‬
.‫ הכל שקר‬,‫ מה שאתה מוציא מהפה‬,‫ זאת אומרת‬.‫ שאתה אומר שקרים‬,‫לך להתחשב מה שהגוף טוען‬
.‫ ואליבא דאמת אין אתה בעצמך מתחשב עם הבקשה שאתה מבקש‬,‫ שאתה מבקש דבר מה‬,‫היינו‬
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Line 4 – (He’s teaching us the spiritual work, this makes the book so unique. He is giving
practical things for everyday life and for our Nefesh of course, that we keep stimulating her.
The most difficult part is to stimulate your Nefesh. Stimulating your lowest part is very
difficult. In the morning your body wakes up with you. Your body, self love only wants to
rest and will always try to convince you to take it easy. But we have to gradually bring up
‘sparks of holiness, of eternity’ and leave the rest below. Gradually try doing this because
nothing disappears in the spiritual.
If we gradually bring sparks up, every day, every night and we do this with the right intention
then there will come a moment that all the sparks have been brought up, above the parsa,
above the separation line, above the line where the unclean powers are.
Just like Atzilut with regard to Briyah, Yetzirah and Assiah. They are with regard to Atzilut
unclean powers. While Briyah, Yetzirah and Assiah are spiritual worlds for us, but through
the eyes of Atzilut unclean powers are still present there.
You have to also build these four worlds within yourself, within your inner. And the entire
point is to bring everything to Atzilut. Your own Atzilut that corresponds qua qualities to the
general Atzilut.
This is the entire point. And the more we do this, the more power we have to overcome our
body. Of course after the sins of all the generations… the inertia increased. In the beginning
the entire point was that a person would, through his own efforts, bring himself to the clean
side, but due to all the sins… but that’s okay because what happened was necessary, they
were the expressions of the free will of the people. This triggered suffering, wars, epidemics,
… this was necessary for us to become free afterwards. It could have been different, but it’s
okay, because everything happened in accordance with the states, conditions of the people, in
accordance with the expressions of the free will of the people.
The free will could have also been expressed in another way. Everything is up to us, do you
understand? We could have already been in a much higher level of life. Not everything
depends on fate. Do you understand? Everything is up to us.
But one doesn’t say this to a person (that a person for example receives surrounding light
even though he doesn’t understand the meaning of the prayer. It’s also a great thing when
someone pronounces a prayer in the holy language even without understanding the meaning.
Because he has the power, sgoula to attract the light. Even though it’s surrounding light,
which means you can already experience it from outside.
It’s already a great thing to experience the light from outside. At that moment you experience
the aura, but not within you. So a regular person who says a prayer and pronounces the
Hebrew words experiences there is light about to enter him.
We’ll see later on why you need words to understand the meaning), and when a person sees
(understands the words) what he is pronouncing/saying (he’s now referring to an individual
who works on himself and not the mass), and he knows/understands a bit the meaning of
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those words then he experiences (the individual) that his body doesn’t agree with the things he
is pronouncing (what is he saying? Someone from the mass says or reads a prayer in a casual
prayer book without feeling anything. He says the prayer, feels the light surrounding him and
feels complete and perfect…
But an individual feels more than words because he looks at them and confronts himself with
the words. He feels resistance, he feels his body resisting to what he’s pronouncing. The mass
doesn’t feel this because they feel complete and perfect. They exist and the Creator exists, two
territories.
So a person from the mass feels great. But someone who works on himself and understands
the words he’s pronouncing, he can also understand the meaning the great wise men wrote in
their prayers to bring us to Atzilut through their prayers.
So the prayer is a complete formula. When a person works on himself and learns the meaning
of the words and their connection to the spiritual worlds, then through that formula he can rise
to Atzilut.
When you wake up in the morning, you’re in our world. You wash your hands, say a blessing
and gradually enter the world of Assiah. You continue praying and you enter Yetzirah qua
powers, then Briyah and eventually when saying the standing prayer you enter Atzilut.
Therefore it’s also called standing prayer. Standing with the three parts in you. You have the
entire partzouf, you experience gadlut in yourself and in the morning you have mochin for the
entire day.
In the afternoon you say another prayer, because then you have other powers like gvurot, as
chassadim is starting to get weak in the afternoon, around one or two o’clock. In the
meantime gvurot is getting stronger in the afternoon. In the evening there is no chassadim
anymore.
The evening is full of gvurot because the power of nukvah rulez in the evening. This is not
bad because this is also a holy power, it’s only more to the left and therefore you have to say
another prayer to soften it a bit. This is how everything is built.
So he’s saying that gradually he understands a bit of the prayer but his body is protesting,
doesn’t agree with the words he’s pronouncing. For example it’s written: ‘you will love the
Creator’, but he feels in his heart that this isn’t the case. Do you understand what I mean?
I don’t have the power to pronounce the prayers. I’m telling you straightforward. I only say
for example ‘Shma Israel’ on Shabbat. But in the week I don’t have the power to say more
prayers.
My Zohar study is the prayer. But in the morning I don’t have the power to say a long prayer
like every Jew. I don’t feel it. I can’t pretend, but I just can’t. For whom should I pretend? For
others? I take the Zohar and immediately I feel the connection, light.
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Also on Shabbat I hardly say a prayer. I just can’t do it. However, it would be a good thing to
do it. If you can’t but you still do it, you will receive the light or makif. If you don’t have
much time, you have to work etc, then it would be good to do it more often.
It’s not black and white. For the mass maybe but since I’m professionally occupied with the
Torah, for me it’s enough to only say one sentence, ‘Sma Israel, hear Israel’. If I say this with
devotion then for me it’s more than enough for the entire day.
Question from student:
Like in the Amida, the standing prayer, the part when you ask recovery for others… when you
do it with the right intention, is it complementary to the Zohar study? Or is it already woven
in the Zohar study itself?
Michael’s answer:
Of course everything is in the Zohar, also the prayers etc. But you’re still not dismissed from
saying a prayer.
Ari knew that he would die in a year and half. Nobody knows the day of his death. This is not
given to us, only the last day he will know of course. But Ari felt that he would be dying
soon. He was 36 years old and he did everything. In the morning he went to the synagogue
and said all the prayers and afterwards in Aramaic.
All Jews went back to their wives but he stayed. He did all the extras while he didn’t have a
lot of time. He had to pass Kabbalah to humanity. But he was still able to do everything.
Every day he learned the Talmud, with all its extras, laws, he did everything, also the four
parts of the Torah. He found time to do everything.
I only take what it is important for me because life is short. Therefore I only take Zohar, as
Zohar covers everything from all sides. It’s the quickest way. The Zohar gives the four kinds
of Torah, on four levels.
When I take Talmud then I get tired quickly, I want to sleep because there are more
lewoushim, it’s covered more, the light is coarser. It’s also beautiful, but it makes me sleep.
Do you understand? And another person sleeps when Ari talks about the spiritual. Not
everyone can endure it.
In the beginning I couldn’t endure it either. At the start of our course there were also people
who couldn’t endure the material. People who wanted to use their head. Do you understand?
So he’s saying that a person who works on himself feels that his body doesn’t agree with what
he’s doing. Just like with me. I don’t experience the connection when saying a prayer. I’m
being honest. Who does feel it in our generation? Maybe someone feels it, but that’s not my
task to find out. Even though I understand the words of the prayer. I enter Atzilut, Briyah,
Yetzirah and Assiah. And still, it’s too much for me.
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Then it is said to him (the person who works on himself, he feels that the prayer doesn’t
rhyme with his heart) don’t pay attention to strange thoughts that occur to you because they
don’t belong to you (During the prayer. A strange thought comes from above when you say a
prayer to lead you astray. Nobody is immune to strange thoughts.
The first wise men were always an hour too early for the prayer to prepare themselves, to
meditate before the prayer started.
The prayer itself lasted one hour and afterwards the stayed for another hour to meditate and to
let the powers they had received go to their place. Not that we can decide where they need to
go.
Who can do this? Ari says that even the generations thousand years ago didn’t have the power
to see the connection between the spiritual roots and the words.
Let alone that we can understand something. But it doesn’t matter for us. It was written by the
last prophets in the Great Assembly. They wrote it. On the other hand we are higher than them
because we are closer to the ending. Our ego is finer than the previous generations. If we look
at the previous generations then we can see they’re rougher than us. We are much lower, our
ego is finer.
We’ve hidden our ego behind culture etc… Before they killed each other out of self-interest.
Now it’s different. The ego is finer, the culture is developing and we grant each other as it
were more, while we still want to kill.
Our ego adapts itself to the spirit of the age. Now it’s more difficult to admit which desires are
present in us. Therefore people lie more in our time. Everything is focused on self-love, to
fulfill our wishes so one can feel like G’d, they’re occupied with human desires.
In our time there are very fine angels and there is a reason for this. Gradually more people fall
so low they scream out for help: ‘get me out of here, it’s terrible’. We’re not able to see which
grief is suffered in our time, it’s hidden behind our culture, etc. But everything is structural to
bring us up again.
The finer the technology, the greater our urge will be to ask for liberation. The novelties will
cause a greater urge to the eternal.
because you don’t agree with the arguments of your body. (when you’re saying a prayer your
body tells you: ‘don’t act as if you’re saying a prayer’. However, you have to persevere.
Why? The higher you get, then the bad side wants to get you. The worst thoughts occur when
you’re saying a prayer. Why?
Because at that moment the unclean powers want to profit from your prayer as well. They
want to receive the light as well. They don’t have anything of themselves. Just like a parasite
who sucks from others to live.
It’s exactly the same. When someone doesn’t wash his body then from his sweet and from the
food of his skin all kinds of parasites, insects come into being
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Question from student:
Is it possible that the unclean powers were already present but we start to see them due to the
prayer?
Michael’s answer:
Of course everything is already present, nothing is added to a person. We just say it this way,
in the words of our world. Of course nothing is added to you. All the unclean powers are
already present in you, in us.
This means that we don’t have the power to experience the number thirteen. Do you
understand? We only receive a bit of chassadim, but not enough. There is still a lot of
covering and therefore… these are the places where we experience the unclean powers.
But when we persevere and experience the number thirteen, then we can absolutely nullify the
unclean powers. Then we will not experience the unclean powers. But if we fall short, then
they will immediately appear again. This is the way it’s set up from above. It’s a stimulus to
keep us going; otherwise we wouldn’t be motivated to do anything. Do you understand?
When we fall short then we experience the unclean powers. The unclean powers aren’t so bad
as we think, it’s klipot. Klipot means skin. An apple has a skin as well otherwise it would rot
very quickly. It’s the same with us.
Try making yourself familiar with these terms, like klipa. Step by step, because unclean
powers is not exactly the same as klipa. The words unclean powers feel as if it’s bad, but
there is nothing wrong with the unclean powers, it’s just klipa. Klipa is the skin/peel that
protects the fruit. Remember this very well!
So the skin that protects the fruit is the unclean power. As long as you’re not capable of eating
the fruit, taking it in you because you don’t have the power, then you will experience the skin.
Question from student:
Are there also powers to make masach?
Michael’s answer:
Yes, that’s a sort of surrounding light. Every pure light is always surrounded by some kind of
skin. This protects a person from attracting the light of chochmah in his uncorrected state.
Imagine this surrounding skin wouldn’t exist. There would be no protection, a person would
attract the light from above to below, to his egoistical desires and he would not see the light.
But due to the klipot we can step by step experience it. Do you understand?
The truth is inside, the power, chochmah is inside but surrounded by all kinds of coverings
that are called unclean powers. We want to work on ourselves to gradually come to
chassadim, which is another kind of layer within the skin, but it’s still a covering.
The first layer within the skin is chassadim and inside there is chochmah. The chochmah is
the seed as it were. A person has to go through the layers. Therefore when you say a prayer, in
the beginning the words you are pronouncing hit the unclean powers or skin.
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Do you understand? In the beginning it’s like this. At the start of your prayer you enter
Assiah. You start building the prayer in Assiah and Assiah exists as it were out of 90 % skin
and 10 % fruit (or pit?).
The entire ladder is holy but if you look from the perspective of Atzilut, then there are klipot
in Briah, Jetzirah and Assiah. You always have to remember from which perspective you are
looking. From our perspective the entire ladder is holy.
When you’re saying a prayer, at first you come in Assiah. This world is also holy. On the one
had you receive holiness from Assiah but on the other hand this is the first world out of four,
Adam Kadmon not included. With regard to Atzilut it’s 90 % bad and 10 % good in Assiah.
You will also experience this when you enter Assiah. Therefore we experience some sort of
bad thoughts in the beginning, bad wishes… And then you will step by step go higher.
When we say Hear oh Israel for example then you enter Briah already. And when we stand
during a prayer, when you say the Amida that is derived from the word Amad to stand, then
you shouldn’t experience unclean powers anymore. Why?
When saying the standing prayer there shouldn’t be any sucking of the unclean powers. If you
experience unclean powers before the standing prayer, then it’s okay because this corresponds
a bit with the imperfections of the worlds Assiah, Jetzirah and Briah in respect to Atzilut.
Of course the unclean powers will never go away… but when saying the standing prayer, then
qualitatively, from inside… it comes down to experiencing it from within.
Saying a prayer is 100 % good. But you have to feel it otherwise it will get mechanical. For
me reading one sentence from Zohar is enough. We’ll be learning Zohar from Aramaic. It’s
the most intimate language of the Creator and the angels don’t understand a word what it
means. What does this mean, also qua powers? Angels are situated somewhere in Assiah,
Jetzirah and Briah but not Atzilut because there it’s face to face qua powers, there are no
coverings in Atzilut.
And the power of Aramaic is the power that shines through everything. They can’t experience
this because the angels aren’t in Atzilut. There are only high powers in Atzilut. Chochmah.
And therefore the language is Aramaic. There is also Aramaic from the Babylonian Talmud,
but the Aramaic from Zohar… of course both are the same Aramaic.
Still the Aramaic from the Zohar has something special I can’t explain. Step by step we will
experience it. But Hebrew is also great. Later on we’ll see when the Creator wants to cover
certain things from the angels because he wants to talk to a person in private.
Look, the Creator revealed Himself to Avraham in a vision. Why in a vision? Because he
wasn’t circumcised. Not being circumcised doesn’t mean that the foreskin was still there. It
means that the klipot were still catching him. Therefore Avraham couldn’t see the Shechina,
the divine presence. Only afterwards when he was circumcised.
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It’s all about the accordance with the higher. He could only see when he was circumcised of
the unclean powers. And when the Creator called upon him to ‘go somewhere’… when he
had visions; these visions are written in Aramaic in the Torah.
The Zohar tells us the reason for this, why the visions in the Torah are written in Aramaic, so
that the angels next to the Creator couldn’t charge Him, like a prosecutor does, because the
Creator was talking to a man who wasn’t circumcised. Which means he hadn’t reached his
perfection to talk to the Creator face to face.
We can see in the Torah when the Creator talked to Mozes or someone else, that this person
was in accordance with the laws of Atzilut. Then no visions are necessary.
Therefore He talked Aramaic with Avraham so the angels wouldn’t understand anything and
say: ‘what are You doing, You’re talking to someone of flesh and blood who doesn’t
correspond with the laws of the spiritual work… who hasn’t risen to Atzilut’. So therefore He
talked Aramaic with him.
So in Aramaic a person is as it were spared. He talks to a person without the angels knowing
about it. For example directly from Atzilut to a person with regards to the work he’s doing.
Maybe he’s not circumcised at that moment but the Creator knows that this person is
circumcised qua effort. Circumcised means being circumcised of three klipot, three heavy
klipot that a person has. We will learn about this later on in the Zohar. This is called being
circumcised from within.)
So you don’t have to listen to your body, because eventually honor will come to you. (Having
honor means when you are in accordance with the higher and ‘honor’ as it were will shine on
you. This means overcoming your body.)
This means only when you say all the words that are written by the wise men, (we have
already said that the book of prayers is perfect and written according to the spiritual ladder) in
its entire order meaning the prayers, questions and requests to the Creator.
(We have to say everything because it’s build according to the spiritual ladder. The prayers
and also the Torah.
Especially in the first phase of your study you can rise to the higher by saying prayers but it
may decrease. However, you have to keep doing it, not only with your mouth but also with
you hearth and mind.)
You don’t have to pay attention to the things your body is saying. (It’s written by the wise
men in a way that a person can go through the entire ladder, once a day. So you can receive
power. How else can we receive power? Otherwise we only have a small light to stay alive.
How can you receive more light? If you’re only occupied with your work and other daily
things but not the spiritual… You will gradually die out and end up having dementia or other
misery, etc. but when a person learns Kabbalah, learns from within then you will grow every
day from within, not outside.
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And the older we get, the stronger we’ll become. Do you understand what I mean? The body
doesn’t interest us, but you get stronger qua powers.)
This means you don’t have to pay attention to the things your body is demanding from you,
otherwise you would think you are lying. (He’s telling us not to pay attention to what the
body is saying. Do you see? The body wants to make you believe you are saying lies ‫– שקרים‬
shekerim. It’s exactly the same with our study at night. When you get up your body says
weird things to you. Your body says: ‘you don’t want to get up, you rather want to sleep, why
are you doing this’. It’s exactly the same thing.
Getting up at night is already the biggest prayer one can say. Remember this very well.
Getting up in the morning and saying traditional things while your body sleeps is much easier.
First coffee, then the prayer. This is also good but there are levels, gradations for everything.
When you manage to get up at night then this is already a prayer. Do you understand? Even
without saying one word. However, I want to advise everyone to wash their hands after
waking up, especially the finger tips. While doing it you have to be aware that you’re washing
away the klipa, the unclean powers that had entered you in your sleep. Don’t think what it
means. Just wash the klipa from your hands after waking up.
I’m also advising everyone to wash your hands before eating, especially when eating bread
and not for other things. You may also do it for other things but wash your hands before
eating bread.
You should have the right attitude from within, that you don’t’ eat for yourself, for your belly
but you eat to serve the Creator. People bake bread and it has a certain quality and you bring it
as it were to the altar. Swallowing something is just like an altar. So wash your hands before
eating bread. Not because your hands are dirty, but because…
Why? Everywhere where the light ends… the light enters us. Where does it stop? The light
comes and ends in the finger tips. Also the toes because light goes down as well. Look how
sensitive our finger tips are, we have also nails on our finger tips.
You need to also cut your nails because this is the spiritual place where the klipot reside.
Therefore a lot of dirt gather under the nails. I’m not talking about the flesh, it’s spiritual.
So when eating bread wash your hands first but don’t only think about the physical, think you
are washing your hands before making a sacrifice.
In the time of Aron and his sons, in the Temple next to the altar there was also a place to wash
your hands. They washed their hands and feet. Not because it was dirty, but to purify
themselves.)
This means (your body says) everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie, (Your body is
telling you it’s all a lie, ‘just go and relax’. But you have to overcome this. You’ll see that
nothing is wrong with you. You think you have to sleep more, relax more but these are only
suggestions of your body.) you request something (in your prayer) but to be honest you don’t
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consider your intention to match the request you’re putting forward. (So in other words at the
moment you’re saying a prayer, you think your attitude doesn’t corresponds with the request
you’re putting forward. So you submit a request but your body is against it.
So, what you have to do? There is nothing you can do. We’ve already said several times not
to focus on the thoughts that occur to you. Try to overcome the suggestions of your body.
The Creator created everything for a reason. We have to overcome this and only then we will
receive salvation. How can someone receive salvation if he isn’t prepared for it? Can someone
receive salvation if he doesn’t deserve it, hasn’t done anything? No, a person can only achieve
something when he makes an effort.)
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Lesson 9
Last time we talked about someone who already started working on himself, an individual and
not a person from the mass. An individual doesn’t feel perfect, in comparison to a person
from the mass, he feels a discrepancy between the prayer he’s saying and his true inner state.
He doesn’t believe his own prayer.
Before, I was like the mass pronouncing every prayer in correct order and I felt perfect. But
when you start working on yourself you will notice that something isn’t right: the prayer itself
is perfect and complete, written by the wise men, but what you say doesn’t rhyme with your
inner feeling. An example will be given now.
‫ כי החסרון‬,‫ ואתה לא חושב אפילו מה שאתה מבקש‬,"‫ אתה אומר "השיבנו אבינו לתורתיך‬,‫לדוגמא‬
‫ אז‬.‫ אם כן הוא טוען טענות אמיתיות‬.‫ וכדומה‬,‫ וכסף‬,‫ הוא כבוד‬,‫ מה שאתה מרגיש שחסר לך‬,‫שלך‬
‫ אינו טוען שאתה תבקש‬,‫ מה שהוא טוען‬,‫ אלא שזה‬,‫ שאין לך להסתכל מה שהגוף טוען‬,‫אומרים לו‬
‫ לכן הוא בא אליך וטוען טענת‬,‫ שלא תתפלל‬,‫ אלא הוא רוצה להכשיל אותך‬,‫באמת על תשובה‬
.‫ שאל יסתכל עליהם כלל‬,‫ אלא שזהו מחשבות זרות‬.‫צדיק‬
Page 5, line 12- For example, you say ‘bring us back, our Father, to Your Torah’ (these words
are written in the prayer), but you don’t even think about what you are asking (so you say:
bring us back, but you don’t even think about returning, you’re just saying the words),
because everything we say in a prayer is our shortage (you need shortage in order to raise
something with your prayer. Otherwise there is no use.
A person who doesn’t experience a shortage from within but asks: ‘do this and do that’,
doesn’t feel what he’s asking for. Is that a prayer? Remember this very well, it’s very
important we have a feeling of shortage, only then it makes sense receiving an answer.) and
you don’t even think about what you are asking, that you want to be brought back to the
Torah, to the study because the shortage you really feel (so in the heart) are honor (with other
words, lack of attention), money etc. (These are your true shortages and still you’re asking for
something you don’t feel.)
And when your body brings forward its true pretentions, then one says to him (to that person.
Do you see, you have antecedents everywhere. This is done on purpose to make us work.
Therefore, the questions asked to Kabbalists are always answered in such a way a person
can’t grasp it immediately. Because it won’t help. I only answer as far as I feel your kelim is
ready for it.
The same goes for asking questions, it should be asked in a few words, not more. And only
one question, not immediately two. You’re allowed to ask several questions in our world, but
in the spiritual you need to learn ask one question at a time. Only then I will give an answer.
But afterwards don’t put forward arguments on what I said, because this means you’re having
a hard time accepting my answer.
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However, you need to see my answer as the start for the work you need to do and not expect
an obvious, ready-to-use answer, because that won’t help. On the contrary new and more
questions need to occur to you by which you need to continue searching for the answer, etc.
Do you understand? It’s a process. An answer needs to initiate you to search further, make
connections and think about other places in our teaching material to find the answer to your
question. But don’t expect a ready-to-use answer. Because it won’t help.
So one says to this person; who experiences in his heart he needs more attention or honor but
nevertheless asks to return to the spiritual, to the true study.), don’t look (pay attention to)
what your body is demanding, pretending, telling you, because he doesn’t want you to ask for
answers but the body wants to trip you.
A body doesn’t want answers. A body wants to trip you. It originates from the bad side and
the bad side doesn’t have any constructive arguments; it only wants you to fall in its trap.
It’s very important we don’t give answers to the bad side, because whatever you say, it will
find new arguments; it’s inventive just like a snake. She is very good in the argumentation of
our world because she’s submitted to the lower powers and only wants to trip you. And from
the moment you fall, she has food to survive.
Without food she can’t live, she’s like a parasite. If a person regularly washes then there is no
place for parasites, but from the moment someone neglects taking a shower then parasites
come into being.
It’s the same with your body, because body means the wish to receive for itself. We’re not
talking our body of flesh and blood, but about the wish to receive for itself.
When someone says his body wants something: my body doesn’t want anything! It’s my wish
to receive that wants something and not the body itself.
Your body wants to trip you in many ways. Look it can for example say: ‘Why do you think
Zohar is the truth?’ or ‘one sentence from the Zohar is enough, it’s worth more than
everything else. It tries to catch you on different levels. He can also suggest you’re too tired
for the night study, that Zohar is enough and already gives you enough light etc. Everything is
possible.
Therefore you have to be careful here. How? Everything that comes from within and suggests
you make an extra effort is good. But everything else that suggests you better don’t do
something probably comes from the bad side. Like: ‘continue sleeping; don’t be foolish, this
is nothing for you etc’.
And the other way round: the bad side will try to push you for the good; ‘continue
translating… do this and that so you get tired and don’t have time for other things. Just be
careful it doesn’t lead you away from your work. Because the bad side can be very smart.)
Therefore the body comes to you and pretends to be righteous (disguises itself as being
righteous) but they are strange thoughts (weird - ‫ זרות‬ means strange to the Creator, strange to
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the Torah and to the holiness), and so in general don’t look at them. (Do you see? It doesn’t
say don’t listen to them, but don’t look at them. Not looking means not paying attention to
something within you, because one can also look inside.
We’re constantly looking inside ourselves. When suddenly a memory crosses your mind you
can look at it without really being concentrated or when waking up you can be fixed on
thoughts within you. So looking doesn’t necessarily mean outside you.
Therefore he’s telling us not to look at our body that has the wish to receive for itself.
Looking means being fixed on something; either inside, behind, outside, left or right of you. It
doesn’t matter, don’t pay attention to it.)
‫ שאין‬,‫ הוא כנ"ל‬,‫ שכל מה שהוא עושה הוא בחינת שלימות‬,‫והסיבה שמחנכים אותו ללכת בבחינת‬
‫ כדוגמת הסדרים הנוהגים בדברים‬.‫ שאין הוא רואה שם התקדמות‬,‫האדם מסוגל לעבוד באיזה דבר‬
,‫ ורואה שאין הוא מתקדם בהמקצוע‬,‫ כשהאדם מתחיל ללמוד מקצוע של נגרות‬,‫ למשל‬.‫גשמיים‬
‫ ואם במקצוע השני אינו מצליח‬.‫ אלא תלמד מקצוע אחר‬,‫ נגרות אין זה בשבילך‬,‫אומרים לו‬
,‫ כיון שאין לך שום התקדמות בלמודים האלו‬,‫ אין אתה יכול להמשיך בזה‬,‫ אז אומרים לו‬,‫להתקדם‬
.‫ אלא הוא יכול להיות רק פועל פשוט‬,‫אלא הוא לא מסוגל להיות בעל מקצוע‬
Line 17 – And the reason one (a person) is raised to follow this way, the way everything he
does is perfect (like the mass), as said above, (so one says to a person do this and do that and
you will feel complete and perfect. You will receive everything in this world and in the future
world. Then he feels complete in his service because he knows he will receive something in
return for the work he’s doing.) because a person isn’t able to do any kind of work if he
doesn’t see any progress (he’s saying it directly). Like in our everyday life for material things.
(like in our material world when someone doesn’t make progress then he doesn’t continue. He
will give an example how it’s in our world).
For example, when a person learns a profession (a carpenter) and notices he doesn’t progress
(in the profession he’s learning), then one says to him the work of carpenter is not meant for
you, go and learn another profession (for one it’s easier than for another).
And if he doesn’t make progress in a second profession as well, then one says to him, you
cannot continue this profession because you aren’t making any progress in this study and thus
you are not able to become a professional (have a profession), but you can only be a regular
worker (without having a profession) (‫)פועל פשוט‬.
(It’s the same with a prayer, the study of the Torah or something else. They say: if you can’t
manage to do something then focus on something else. For example, there is a codex for the
Mishnah. It says if a person can’t learn the traditional study, the Talmud, the laws etc within
three years then he has to stop because he won’t be able to make progress. The wise men say
one has to do it within 5 years and if he can’t he has to try something else.
Many who learn the Talmud think they progress. They are memorizing everything and are
able to reason about logical constructions. They feel they are progressing, but actually their
progress doesn’t mean anything. Progressing means experiencing the spiritual more, when it
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gives life to you. So chassadim with a bit of chochmah, this means progression, when you feel
you’re gradually going deeper. This is progress. But if you are learning the traditional Torah
and after three years you don’t experience anything, then one has to stop. What do you have
to do next?
The inner Torah, so Kabbalah. It sounds a bit weird, because the people who learn Talmud
think you have to master Talmud first before starting with Kabbalah. But who masters the
Talmud? Nobody, but this is how they think. The other way round.
We only have to listen to the first wise men, to which Ari also listened, because they saw the
connection between the spiritual roots and the people after them didn’t see it anymore. We
have to look at their deeds, how they experienced things… This should be the book of laws
for you and not the books that are written by rabbis after them.
And it’s written: when a person starts learning Kabbalah, he will succeed more quickly. The
faith of a person isn’t important in the Kabbalah. If someone doesn’t progress by learning the
traditional study, if he doesn’t experience the spiritual, doesn’t see the salvation then he has to
go to the essence, the core and that’s Kabbalah.
We can also see in our time that more people go to Kabbalah. Everyone will succeed in the
Kabbalah. This is also written. Why? Because Kabbalah talks to your inner self and the inner
doesn’t recognize our earthly faith.
From the outside a person can be Jew, Christian, Muslim or Buddhist, but the inner is like
Adam. Adam was the inner person and therefore the inner of every person recognizes the
Kabbalah. The Kabbalah is written for the inner person.
The inner person doesn’t know about the different religions. Do you understand? Therefore
everyone can succeed in the Kabbalah. And when you ask my orthodox brothers they say: no,
Kabbalah is for the divine people.
The bad side says exactly the same, but actually everyone who learns about the inner, so
Kabbalah, the laws of the universe will succeed. Absolutely, everyone!
They say you need talent to learn Kabbalah. But the only thing you need is a strong desire
with the correct intention/kavannah. Then you will succeed.
‫ מטעם שברוחניות כל מה שעושים הוא‬,‫ שהוא כן ימשיך בעבודה‬,‫ שרוצים‬,'‫וכמו כן כאן בעבודת ה‬
‫ כל‬,‫ אלא אומרים לו‬.‫ לכן אסור להגיד איזה חסרון בעבודתו‬,‫בגדר השלימות מבחינת הכלל כנ"ל‬
‫ ואין שום מעשה‬,‫ מטעם שכל פרוטה ופרוטה מצטרפין לחשבון גדול‬,‫מה שאתה עושה הוא שלימות‬
.‫ אז כל המעשים יתקנו‬,‫ אלא כשיבוא הזמן של גמר התיקון‬,‫ברוחניות הולך לאיבוד‬
Line 24 – And it’s the same here in the service for the Creator (service for the Creator means
that we try to be in accordance with the laws of the universe. This is the only service that
gives the Creator pleasure, when a person works on himself.
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So when you work on yourself, you also work for the Creator. It’s different than in our world.
Do you see? In our world you have to work for your boss and for your boss it doesn’t matter
how you do it, as long as the job gets done. He wants to exploit you. Also a king wants to
exploit.
Of course he does everything for his citizens. But still, his citizens have to keep filling his
treasure chest. One has to serve the army, follow his plans, etc. While the Creator wants us to
try and acquire the laws of the universe, which are complete/perfect laws and can bring us to
salvation. Through this we give pleasure to the Creator.
Just like a mother who feeds her child. If her child eats then she’s happy. When her child
doesn’t want to eat and the mother asks her child to do her a favor by eating, and if the child
listens and eats then of course the mother feels great. It’s the same with the Creator and us.)
That one wants (the ones that educate the mass, of course they want…) a person to continue
his service (not like above, when a person wants to become a carpenter but doesn’t succeed
stops. Here, they want a person to continue.
And when you immediately give him difficult work, of course he won’t continue. Do you
understand? Therefore he is given mass work so he feels perfect and feels he gets a reward for
everything he does.
Why is he given this work? Maybe, later on he will grow up and work… realize what the true
service for the Creator is. So they want him to continue his spiritual work), for the reason that
everything one does in the spiritual is within the context of perfection, in the aspect of the
mass (he’s saying it’s not wrong what the mass is doing, otherwise they would stop working.
If they don’t see any progress, perfection in their work then they will stop.
So what’s the starting point of the educators of the mass? They want the mass to continue
their service for the Creator. But they are as it were given more easy things to work on.
Question from student:
But Shabbat is a special day right?
Michael’s answer:
Absolutely. Everything they do is good, it’s not a lie, it’s also a way... all the laws, those
thousands of laws made in our time are meant to keep a person from breaking the Torah.
At first they made a couple of laws, afterwards a few more etc. But someone who knows the
principles knows how far he can go. So he doesn’t break the laws of the Torah. When
someone learns and applies Kabbalah then he’s able to live without those laws, and at the
same time remain loyal to the Torah.
All those laws are meant to make the mass feel perfect. We have to concentrate on the
principles. Remember this very well and not the special cases, details that don’t help us. From
above only principles, general laws are given we have to apply in our world.
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We have to climb up just like nukva, to the general principles. The higher, the more general
and the more eternal. And to understand the eternal you have to climb up to the principles and
pull them down and apply them in our world instead of holding on to things that are not
important, only last for a short while and die out very soon.
Do you understand? People in our world hold on to things that are not important, have a short
life span and that don’t give life power to you. The entire point is to attract the laws of the
universe from above and to cover yourself with them or let them enter you. Through this you
will be protected against short-temperedness, all kinds of wishes you experience that day. The
inner principles you have attracted from above will protect you.)
Therefore it is forbidden to tell such a person (a person from the mass who is religious) about
any kind of lack he might have in his service. (Do you see how careful we have to be? This
might also be one of the reasons I don’t go to a synagogue. I don’t have the flexibility to play
an act with them. They belong to the mass, to the team spirit. It’s the same in every religion
and every culture.
By learning Kabbalah you will learn the motives of a person. You will know what a person
can get up to, you will know that nobody is resistant to sinning. Therefore you won’t look up
to others. King Solomon had said: ‘There is no righteous person who does good and doesn’t
sin’. He didn’t say, some sin and some don’t. This is how it is. There is nobody who is good
and doesn’t sin, do you understand? Even unconsciously… how many sins don’t we commit?
But it’s okay, you have to fall and get up again. But never fall in the same pit, but try to
progress.
So you may never reprimand someone for the work he’s doing. I remember when I started
learning Kabbalah, I was so amazed I wanted to tell the entire world. At first my orthodox
brothers. I even brought people here to celebrate Shabbat together and I told them about
Kabbalah. But they didn’t understand me. They thought I had brought them here to instruct
them just like a sect…
They are given an enormous assignment, everything depends on them, the whole progress.
But one says to him (to the person who feels perfect and complete in his work, a mass person
who does mass work for the Creator. But he believes in G’d. We’re not talking about
someone who is professor or a mayor, Jew or not Jew. Someone who does some kind of work
and believes in G’d, but like the mass who doesn’t work on himself), everything you do is
perfect because every penny is added to another penny (eventually it becomes a large amount
of money. Do you understand? One does this, another does a bit of something else. With or
without intention they all do a bit of something) and no deed is lost in the spiritual. (So even
the work my brothers do, even though they don’t do it for the Creator, but for themselves, for
their family, for this world, the future world, to be healthy… it all helps and counts as work
and doesn’t go to waste.
Why? He makes an effort. He gets up early, goes to the synagogue or the church, doesn’t
matter what exactly. He puts in effort, even though it’s from the outside.) And when the time
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of Gmar Tikun, the final correction will come, all deeds will be corrected. (Also the deeds that
are lo lishma, so not for the Creator, but only to receive for themselves.
‘If I fulfill a certain regulation then I will earn more money, honor or rest.’ Doesn’t matter,
when the final correction for the entire humanity will come, also these kind of deeds will be
corrected. But we don’t want to wait, we want to consciously work on ourselves even though
it seems too ambitious.
On the one hand we don’t want to, but on the other hand we are pushed from above. From
above you are given to walk this path, learn Kabbalah. Everyone knows this method but
nobody is interested in this short but powerful method that isn’t group related.
To enter the true spiritual one needs courage to bring himself, individually to perfection. I
can’t and don’t want to walk another path anymore.
‫ מסיבת שאין הוא מסוגל‬,‫ אלא בשבילו מספיק עבודה זאת‬,‫ שלא אומרים לו חס ושלום שקר‬,‫נמצא‬
‫ האם באמת הוא מסוגל‬,‫ היינו‬,‫ ששם מלמדים את האדם ללכת בדרך הבקורת‬,‫לעבוד בבחינת הפרט‬
‫ או שהוא‬,'‫ במה שהוא מבקש מה‬,‫ אם פיו ולבו שוים‬,‫ זאת אומרת‬,‫לקיים את מה שהוא מבקש‬
.‫ וצריך תמיד לראות את מצבו האמיתי‬.‫ שאין הגוף מסכים למה שהוא מבקש‬,‫רואה‬
Line 29 – And we we’re not saying a lie to him, (to a mass person. It doesn’t matter he has
said this already. A great rabbi can repeat the same thing several times, but in another context,
because we’re evolving.
The entire point is that it helps us. And if the rabbi thinks repeating is necessary then we have
to follow him. We know that he’s leading us to salvation and therefore we have to know that
it’s structurally necessary for us. Look he’s saying that he’s not told a lie…) for them this
work is sufficient (for them personally this is sufficient, for the mass. So you don’t have to
give them more. We have already said you don’t have to give someone more than he needs,
do you understand?
Also when you give someone a present: if you know he won’t appreciate it then you don’t
have to give that present. Everything you give has to be appreciated. It’s all about filling the
shortage of a person. If someone doesn’t have a shortage, what can you then give?
I remember when I was a business man; I was friends with a manager of a big company.
Once, I went to him with my wife and he told us that everything he gives to his wife isn’t
good.
He said: ‘when I buy her a new red Jaguar, she says why it’s not white? And when it’s white,
she says why it’s not blue?’ He was giving an example. Why? If someone doesn’t experience
a shortage, then it’s misery and thus don’t give anything.
It’s the same in the spiritual. Don’t say: go and learn the spiritual or even think one might
have a shortage for the spiritual. If someone doesn’t have the proper shortage, then don’t ask
them and don’t advertise Kabbalah.
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At first I was giving a few interviews because I thought it could be useful for others to
discover our website. Last week someone from the TV: NCRV called for an interview. But I
told her I don’t give interviews anymore. Then they asked me if I knew someone who did? I
said I didn’t know but could give her advice. I asked if she had a pen ready and told her to
write the following: www.kabbalah-arizal.nl and she also started to laugh. I told her she could
find more on the website than interviewing me…
So he’s saying it’s sufficient for the mass. Like he said, they feel perfect and it’s important
they continue their work. Even though they are not doing it in the name of the Creator, they
still do good deeds, unconsciously. Because every penny is added to another penny and it
eventually becomes a large amount. And during gmar tikun everything will be corrected. So
their work is also useful.
Now look why it’s enough for them.) for the reason he is not capable of working individually,
(well then, how can you blame someone for not working as an individual? Do you
understand? It’s important to understand this. Before, I also didn’t have the feeling for this.)
because the individual is learned (like I learn you) to follow the path of verifications (to
examine the correctness and truth of his deeds…
A person from the mass doesn’t have to do this. He follows a set of regulations. He just does
them. Okay, he does some effort to bring up faith, but his belief stays below knowledge.
While we have to bring up faith above knowledge. Above knowledge means we have to
overcome our doubts etc… A person who works on himself has doubts, so right and left
because there is mercy and din, chasadim and gvurot and they stand against each other, they
don’t fight but are in confrontation.
And we feel this when doing individual work. We always have right and left, therefore we
have doubts. While someone from the mass doesn’t feel this, he feels perfect and complete.
It’s great to look at them. I’ve seen it a lot.
Also how they treat each other and their children… it’s great to see this. They feel perfect,
like angels, they feel more important, higher than others. They think they are doing the perfect
service and others who are doing individual work are going astray from the right path.
I’ve done my best, but after so many years… for me only Kabbalah can bring completion. We
can’t know why it’s like this. From above they look at you and you are given a sign to walk
this path.
So the individual examines his deeds and asks himself:) if he is truly capable of
accomplishing that what he is asking for, (while someone else just says words without
thinking about it.
So the individual asks himself, because the body says to him: you don’t mean what you are
saying, you want success and money instead, why are you pretending you want something
else?) this means, he asks himself if his month and hearth are on equal basis (because one
says something while his heart desires something else), he wonders if his tong and heart are
on equal footing, if they rhyme with each other when he asks the Creator for something or
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does he notice that his body (the wish to receive for itself) doesn’t agree with what he is
asking. And one constantly needs to look if his state is the true state.
(Do you see? And individual has to constantly examine his state, while a person from the
mass feels perfect in what he does. They only choose the right side, a bit of emouna, a bit of
faith, a bit of under-knowledge but they don’t examine their deeds, they don’t have a left side.
It’s the same if someone walks on one leg. Can someone walk on one leg? Even though you
have one leg you still need an artificial leg, a stick or something else. It’s the same with us.
We can only walk on two legs. If someone works on himself, then he needs two legs. That’s
reality.)
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