Introductory Lecture: “Rav Kook” – 08.10.10
Posted on August 10th, 2010
Question: What is spiritual pleasure? Is it simply very intense enjoyment or something completely different?
Answer: The only difference between corporeal and spiritual pleasure lies in which desires I experience it: egoistic or altruistic. My egoistic desires of reception are limited. They gradually reveal their own emptiness, and I am forced to seek greater pleasure. As a result, I am never satisfied.
I have tried to fill myself with pleasure but failed since pleasure is a “plus” and I am a “minus.” When I attempt to receive pleasure, I only gain temporary satisfaction which resembles a “short-circuit” as it quickly dissolves leaving me empty again, and then the feeling of emptiness is twice as great. It has doubled because the pleasure I so eagerly sought has gone, forming the sensation of emptiness in addition to the emptiness I had felt before. So it follows that I’m always at a double loss. As a result, we evolve in our world from generation to generation, augmenting our empty egoism.
Yet nowadays a new problem arises. The ego that once grew, bringing me a sensation of emptiness, stopped growing. Logically this should have made me content, but I feel that I have nothing to gain pleasure from now. This new problem is worse than the previous one since there is no hope for fulfillment. Beside that, I feel that egoism is integral, representing the sum of all seven billion individual, egoistic desires. I discover that I depend on everyone, and everyone depends on me. For this reason, I find that I don’t know what to do with it, which drives me to extreme desperation.
During this period, a person might find solace in drugs, which only postpones the realization of the total crisis for some time. Yet, even this “solution” expires for it makes a person aware that this path is false, and that to disconnect from life means to agree with death. But nature does not allow it! We are faced with the question, “What to do next?” And the answer lies in transitioning from “pleasure from reception” to “pleasure from bestowal.”
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”
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Question: What does The Zohar mean by, “When a person lies asleep and the soul leaves him and testifies to that person” (Chapter “Lech Lecha [Go Forth],” Item 359)?
Answer: The soul is the Light in the desire (Kli). We can correct our desire to receive only in the Sefirot of Keter, Hochma, and Bina, while correction in the Sefirot of Zeir Anpin and Malchut can only be partial. For this reason, the largest Light that can manifest in us for now is the Light of Neshama, while the Lights of Haya and Yechida can serve only as small supplementary illumination from below upwards.
Therefore, our collective desire is called “the soul” (Neshama), by the name of the greatest Light that the soul can contain within it until the end of correction. If the desire exists in a state where it is able to attain the Light of Neshama, it is called the soul (Neshama). That’s because we name desires by the names of the lights which fill them. However, if the desires cannot contain these lights and be filled with them due to the lack of the screen, there is no soul. It is because the filling is the screen and the Reflected Light, the property of bestowal.
The soul is not my reception of Light from Above. The soul (Neshama), like all of the Inner Light in the desire, is formed by my giving this Light to someone else, by passing it through myself and thereby getting filled by it. This is called my Light, the Light that I receive. I receive the opportunity to bestow, and that’s what fills me.
This is why “at night,” when I am not yet able to correct my desires and gain control over them with the help of the screens (the property of bestowal), I receive a negative impression in my desire called darkness. But what is “darkness”? Darkness is when I cannot bestow and this state feels as “night,” meaning the lack of bestowal on my part. I feel regret and prepare to correct my desires.
I merit the “day” through my work “at night.” I got up at dawn to attend the Kabbalah lesson and united with my friends; I made various corrections and obtained new desires and screens. In all of these screens and desires I create a new form of bestowal that fills me. This means my “day” has begun.
Hence, “night” is also a spiritual state for it is the preparation of desires. And if a person doesn’t have a desire to attain bestowal, even the “night” doesn’t exist for him for we define “day” and “night” according to our spiritual states.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/10, The Zohar
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.
The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy
Philosophy loves to pride itself on understanding all the negatives [does not state who He is, but rather who is not Him] about His essence. However, the sages of Kabbalah put their hand to their mouth at this point [when the Creator Himself rather than His manifestation with relation to us is being discussed], and do not give Him even a simple name, for we do not define by name or word that which we do not attain. That is because a word designates some degree of attainment [based on the perception of the attained object in our senses].
However, Kabbalists do speak a great deal [to the extent of the researcher being similar to the properties of the Light] about His illumination [His manifestation with relation to us] in reality, meaning all those illuminations they [researchers themselves] have actually [practically, in sensations] attained [within themselves], as validly as [our] tangible [world, meaning the reality which we sense from the beginning through our inherent qualities] attainment [of objects and properties].
– Baal HaSulam “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Lech-Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 463 and Chapter “Shoftim (Judges),” Item 1
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 19, Lesson 11
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“Kabbalah Today,” A Lesson on Current Events
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Before Baal HaSulam there were two methods of correction (or of studying Kabbalah): through the mind (the method of the Ari) and through the heart (the method of Baal Shem Tov). Baal HaSulam took both of these approaches and unified them into the middle, third line, creating an effective, precise, and simple method that is suitable for the modern souls. It is the only means enabling us to attain correction.
The scientific part of Kabbalah is based on the Ari, while the inner work comes from Baal Shem Tov. Baal HaSulam wrote the book, Talmud Eser Sefirot based on The Tree of Life by the Ari, adapting it to our generation. However, if you look at his entire teaching as a complex, then the four compositions Talmud Eser Sefirot, Panim Meirot, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” and “Preface to the Sulam Commentary” are devoted to the "physics" of the Upper World and are based on the teaching of the Ari, while all the other articles are devoted to a person’s inner work and are based on the method of Baal Shem Tov.
The Light of Correction comes to us while studying the "physics" of the Upper World, but it only comes through the group. If the group is not organized correctly, does not study together, and does not desire to unite, then it is impossible to attract the Light. The group is the magnet that attracts the Light that Reforms. And it must have a form that makes it ready for correction. Everyone must expect it!
We must reveal two things: 1.) our evil and lack of unity, 2.) the desirable state, the state of universal connection. We must expect that we will go from the first state to the second state with the help of the force called “the Light that Reforms.” The group is obligated to understand this very clearly since otherwise what kind of Light would you be able to attract? The spiritual vessel or desire must precede the Light.
This is why all of creation was created and why it develops until the very World of Infinity: It is in order to create a need to reveal the Creator in creation. We are not required to reveal the Creator or the Light! We have to reveal the creation! We have to understand that creation was not created in order to remain a point and to live as an animal. Rather, its destiny is to become an independent individual that has freedom of will. Therefore, our desire must always come first (Kli Kodem Le Ohr).
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”
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It is written, “You will eat what has long been laid in store for you.” We exist in the same place in the same state, and nothing changes. Everything has already been created by the Creator in His initial plan, and plan and action are inseparable for Him. He wished to create creatures that are equal to Him and in adhesion with Him, and His desire itself signifies action.
Then, what are the past, present, and future? All this exists only in relation to us, while in reality there is no time. It is impossible to say what happened earlier or later and what existed before this desire emerged in the Creator.
We are incapable of speaking and thinking beyond the concept of time. As soon as we leave the boundaries of time, all our words fade since our whole life rests on the concepts of “before” and “after,” and all our sensations are connected to time. Therefore, only by coming out of ourselves from egoism to bestowal do we lose our “pulse,” the sensation of time that lives within us, and begin to understand what life above time is.
We exist in an eternal and unchanging reality. All we do is attain it in relation to ourselves. This is much like an unconscious person who gradually regains consciousness. He is in the same reality but does not perceive it. Bit by bit, he reestablishes his perception. This is what happens to us as well.
The entire wisdom of Kabbalah is devoted to helping us come to our senses and to bringing us to complete consciousness. In fact, this is what is meant by complete correction. And Kabbalists don’t tell us what will happen later. The development after our correction will require completely new senses.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/10, Article “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”
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When a person comes to study Kabbalah with the question, “What am I living for and why?” it is necessary to explain to him the following:
1. What this desire is that has emerged in him and what kind of fulfillment it demands;
2. What is human nature (the ego, the source of evil), how to correct it, and that this is our only free action (freedom of will).
To accomplish this it is necessary to study Baal HaSulam’s articles with him, especially “The Freedom” and “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” which explain that the revelation of the Creator to the created beings is the means to attain the goal of creation. Other articles by Baal HaSulam help a beginning student form an integral picture of existence: the worlds, the beginning, the development, the goal of every element of creation, evil and suffering as the force of movement, and so on.
When a person has the general picture, he goes on to discern: How does advancement and correction take place? He learns that the soul is the main creation which was broken by the Creator and then becomes corrected by us. To accomplish this one already needs the articles of Rabash. Their purpose is to put a person into his place inside the society in order to discern the breaking and what needs to be corrected. How do you correct the breaking of the souls?
That is why we are studying together using Kabbalah books, in particular, the books of Baal HaSulam because they are able to give our generation the force, the Light that Reforms and corrects us until we reach the level of the Source.
It is not necessary to go through this material in order because a person goes through different states. A beginner finds himself in the middle of the study process, but that doesn’t matter. What counts is that he is working together with everyone because we are all inter-included and intertwined in our souls and desires.
Therefore, it is not so important which article you begin studying, but it is best to have a clear order of study which is directly aimed at the goal.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”
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There is no greater joy than resolving doubts. Doubt arises from the difference between reception and bestowal, the Light and desire. If I eliminate this difference and bring them into unification or oneness, there is no greater pleasure than their adhesion. The two seemingly opposite things suddenly unite. They come to agreement and peace, and this leads to an explosion of joy. I am created in such a way that I feel pleasure from this.
Pleasure is a result of the revelation of the Light within the spiritual vessel or desire. The Light can be revealed only to the extent that the desire corresponds to it. So, what do I perceive? Is it my own desire? No, it isn’t. Or maybe it’s the Light? No, it’s not the Light either. I perceive the result of their interaction either as suffering or as pleasure.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”
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