YESOD: TIKKUN CHATZOT – World 1 “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us”
SOURCE OF THE LESSON
“Rising Above Ourselves” – World Kabbalah Convention 2022
Lesson No. 1: Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections
1. RABASH, Article No. 1 (1984), Part 1, “Purpose of Society – 1”
We gather here—to establish a society where each of us follows the spirit of bestowing upon the Creator. And to achieve bestowal upon the Creator, we must begin with bestowal upon man, which is called “love of others.” And love of others can only be through revoking of one’s self. Thus, on the one hand, each person should feel lowly, and on the other hand, be proud that the Creator has given us the chance to be in a society where each of us has but a single goal: for The Shechina [Divinity] to be among us.
2. Degel Machaneh Ephraim, BeShalach [When Jacob Sent]
One who truly wants to serve the Creator must include himself with all creations, connect himself with all the souls, include himself with them, and they with him. That is, you should leave for yourself only what is needed for connecting the Shechina [Divinity], so to speak. This requires closeness and many people, for the more people serve the Creator, the more the light of the Shechina appears to them. For this reason, one must include himself with all the people and with all creations, and raise everything to their root, to the correction of the Shechina.
3. Maor VaShemesh, VaYechi
The essence of the assembly is for everyone to be in one unity and for all to seek but one purpose: to find the Creator. In every ten there is the Shechina [Divinity]. Clearly, if there are more than ten then there is more revelation of the Shechina. Thus, each one should assemble with his friend and come to him to hear from him a word about the work of the Creator, and how to find the Creator. He should annul before his friend, and his friend should do the same toward him, and so should everyone do. Then, when the assembly is with this intention, then “More than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to nurse,” and the Creator approaches them and He is with them.
4. RABASH, Article No. 8 (1985), “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 2”
Those people agreed to unite into a single group that engages in love of friends is that each of them feels that they have one desire that can unite all their views, so as to receive the strength of love of others. There is a famous maxim by our sages, “As their faces differ, their views differ.” Thus, those who agreed among them to unite into a group understood that there isn’t such a great distance between them in the sense that they recognize the necessity to work in love of others. Therefore, each of them will be able to make concessions in favor of the others, and they can unite around that.
5. RABASH, Article 6 (1984), “Love of Friends – 2”
By each joining the society and annulling oneself before it, they become one body.
For example, if there are ten people in that body, it has ten times more power than a single person does. However, there is a condition: When they gather, each of them should think that he has now come for the purpose of annulling self-love. It means that he will not consider how to satisfy his will to receive now, but will think as much as possible only of the love of others. This is the only way to acquire the desire and the need to acquire a new quality, called “the will to bestow.”
And from love of friends one can reach love of the Creator, meaning wanting to give contentment to the Creator.
6. RABASH, Article 13 (1986), “Come Unto Pharaoh 2”
We should know that we were given love of friends to learn how to avoid blemishing the King’s honor. In other words, unless he has no other desire except to give contentment to the King, he will certainly blemish the King’s honor, which is called “Passing on Kedusha [holiness/sanctity] to the external ones.” For this reason, we mustn’t underestimate the importance of the work in love of friends, for by that he will learn how to exit self-love and enter the path of love of others. And when he completes the work of love of friends, he will be able to be rewarded with love of the Creator.
7. Rabbi Nachman of Breslev, Likutei Halachot [Assorted Rules]
The essence of love and unity is in the desire, when each one pleases his friend, there is no disparity of desire among them, and all are incorporated in one desire, by which they are incorporated in the upper desire, which is the purpose of the unity.
8. Baal HaSulam, “Letter No. 4”
You lack nothing but to go out to a field that the Lord has blessed, and collect all those flaccid organs that have drooped from your soul, and join them into a single body.
In that complete body, the Creator will instill His Shechina incessantly, and the fountain of intelligence and high streams of light will be as a never ending fountain.