GEVURAH: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, item 49
Morning Lesson March 21, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 3:
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot. #50
Reading Excerpt #49 (00:20) Twice
1. S. (02:53) He writes two things here, one that they no longer believe that the Creator is angry and that they come to being heretics.
R. Yes, because if they will believe so that they would not go to idle worship.
S. What is the work that they are stopping to do from one concealment to the double concealment?
R. Because they have received such suffering, concealment, it disconnected them from any kind of connection from the Creator not in heart and not in mind.
S. What does that connection mean because in one concealment they are trying to see that it comes from the Creator and then because there are other troubles that’s it, they let go, they free themselves?
R. Yes, the Creator disappears, disappears from them.
S. Where is all that effort they made?
R. That is something else. All of the effort. maybe it remains somewhere but for now it is not there.
2. S. (04:17) Can we say that in double concealment this takes place before exiting Egypt and one concealment is in Egypt?
R. No. I would not say that before Egypt there is even a concealment . Let us keep going and we will see what the concealment is. Do we see the Creator, or what we recognize that there are any phenomena in this world? There is no connection with the Creator. We will see these things we will still have to scrutinize and feel to such an extent that through them we will discover the Creator as if he is before us. We have to reach a state that just like I see you now, at least on the screen, and it is clear to me who I’m dealing with and that the communication between us is clear in such a way somehow, in such a way I also discover my relation towards the Creator and more and more until Dvekut, adhesion meaning that we start working as we’re connected and within one another. That is called that the Creator is clothed in man. that in this way man feels that the way he is he feels and moves and all he sees and all of his senses and everything he is that the Creator is in there and doing all of these deeds with him. That is called None Else Besides Him, that is the complete attainment.
3. S. (06:24) When a person cannot bestow ,the suffering from that state is that as a result of one’s efforts or the Creator?
R. We cannot say that it depends on us but that everything depends on the Creator. That the Creator takes us through all kinds of states, events, and by that he conducts us and does all kinds of exercises with us and through that reveals to us. Like us with children. We take them to all types of places, put them in all types of activities and by that we want them to learn more, incorporate more with reality, and by that they will grow. That is what the Creator is doing with us just not in the world of reception but in the world of the bestowal. So if we do want to be, to incorporate in the world of bestow and relationships of bestowal, so very quickly we will start feeling that the Creator is escorting us pushing us to it, in short he is taking care of us.
4. S. (07:59) It is written here about an emotional concealment or an intellectual concealment.
R. There is a difference between mind and heart but for now we cannot really discern between them but usually it is in the feeling and then in the mind. Sometimes it can come opposite but usually it starts from a feeling.
S. I really love to paint, but I’m really afraid that it will become like idol worship.
R. Keep painting, nothing will come out of it. If you like it, do it, paint. Idol worship can be done by people who are in a spiritual height and then instead of them performing actions in order to bestow they do an action in order to receive. That is called that they bow to an idol that they depict the Creator as doing actions of reception instead of actions of bestowal. It is still very far from us; it is still very exalted above us.
5. S. (09:55) You said that towards the Creator we need to be in such a way that we feel the friend. What kind of exercise can we do in the ten so that behind us all we will feel the Creator also in the same revealed way?
R. We have to engage in this delicately because it could be that you’ll start imagining that the Creator is really standing behind you and conducting you and that’s already, from here you can start imagining him that he is, really something that isn’t true, so what I recommend is try and do it in the ten that you together connect between you, and as a result of the connection you want to feel a special force that is revealed in you, and that is the Creator as a result of your connection, that’s it.
S. What is in addition to that feeling of connection between us?
R. He is the inclusive, that he connects us all together into this concept of One, that if we can connect between us as One that One is the Creator, that he is not there on one hand, on the other hand if we make an effort he is there between us. That’s why he’s called the concealed Creator.
S. What does it mean that we’re connecting in that way?
R. That’s what you need to discover, you need to discover that the connection starts becoming so perfect that you unite and mend, you become as one just like you were in the system of Adam HaRishon before the shattering, and then you start discovery from your connection that you’re establishing, as much as this connection is unique, that through the shattering and through the connection after the shattering, you start discovering that yes and no and yes and these two opposites that exist and also unite they give us the revelation of the Creator, the attainment of the Creator, that’s it. Without this we couldn’t attain, discover in something, feel, understand, nothing because these two opposites exist in one thing.
6. S. (13:34) He says in concealment, above the concealment, he doesn’t believe the punishment comes from him. Why does he not believe that the correction comes from him?
R. Because the Creator is in concealment, he is hiding. If a person feels bad he doesn’t believe that it comes from the Creator, he can speak about it but to feel that it came from the Creator, no. That’s why we don’t feel bad from the Creator, we can’t. You can talk about it but only talk about it.
S. Why does he relate to it as punishment and not correction?
R. No, we’ll talk about it, let it go, not yet. You’re fantasizing a lot of things which aren’t spiritual.
7. S. (14:22) Concealment within concealment, is it part of the process or do we cause us to be in concealment within concealment, meaning to see in the posterior of the Creator, do I cause that or does the process cause this?
R. Concealment within a concealment, we also cause it, you can say the Creator causes it in order to teach us how to go through all of these four states.
S. Meaning we have to go through this?
R. Of course. How will you reach Gmar Tikkun, the end of correction without going through all of these states, double concealment, regular concealment, revelation, first revelation, second revelation, how can you?
Reader Continues: Item #50 (15:25)
R. Because he can say that there is no God within me and that’s why it’s the first concealment.
Reader Continues: Item #51 (17:43)
Reader Continues: Item #52 (20:18)
8. S. (21:55) Can I somehow address adhesion? When he sees the results of lack of adhesion?
R. We can’t speak about these things yet because you see for yourself it’s confusion, we’ll wait.
9. S. (22:34) What is idolatry and how do we God forbid not come to idolatry and turn to different gods? What is foreign work, idolatry and how do we not reach that, idolatry, and not turn to other gods?
R. Idolatry means that I ascribe everything that’s happening to me to the forces of nature from the smallest things to the greatest things, from something happening in me, or somebody jumps on me, or and I relate the matter to him and not to the Creator.
10. S. (23:27) What’s the difference between concealment and exile?
R. Concealment is that I feel that the Creator is concealed from me and there are different degrees in the concealment and the exile is that he’s not just concealed but that I am under the control of the evil inclination in me.
Workshop: What did we learn here, now, in the Introduction to the study of the Ten Sefirot, please.
11. S. (28:36) What does it mean to believe in reward and punishment?
R. To believe in reward and punishment means that I am connected to the Creator as a source and from there everything that comes from there and according to my response I’m sure that I get reward or punishment and they’re both good because they both aim me to the right way.
12. S. (29:12) Are we supposed to feel the pain of the whole world, or do we need to say that this is something the Creator gave us?
R. The Creator’s giving it, correct, but we need to feel and identify with the whole world and feel the sorrow of the whole world, and that it will hurt us for the whole world more than it hurts for ourselves, because the greater the vessels are they feel more suffering, or happiness, and how can you compare a vessel of one person with a vessel of all of humanity?
13. S. (29:58) From double concealment can I be taken out of it only by the friends?
R. Also from the double concealment, also from the regular concealment, what I receive coming out of the exile, meaning coming out of exile, it goes through the friends and what does it mean to come out of the exile? The exile means that I feel that we’re not connected between us and there’s no Creator between us and redemption means that we finally feel that there is a connection between us and then according to that the Creator is revealed between us.
14. S. (30:51) I feel that I’m doing all that I can to adhere to the Creator and nevertheless there are problems. How to justify the Creator?
R. It’s a sign that you still aren’t making efforts, not making sufficient efforts in order to ascribe everything to the Creator.
15. S. (31:22) What to pray for today in the women’s meeting?
R. It’s a regular meeting or a special one?
S. Every evening many hundreds of women meet for a common prayer.
R. Oh, for what to pray. First you have to try and reach a mutual prayer, in what can we pray, for what can we pray? For the Creator to connect our hearts and that we will feel that really our hearts that are connected together and we won’t be afraid that my heart suddenly comes out of me and is connected somewhere with hearts of other women, but that were all, we all want to feel as one woman and in that one woman if we will incorporate together by this we will be able to feel the Creator as the groom, the husband, as ours. Make an effort and feel it.
16. S. (32:55) Why does it talk about reward and punishments if we know there are no punishments and rather that only good comes from the Creator, what’s the meaning by punishment?
R. If I don’t feel myself adhered to the Creator in whatever I am, that’s called a punishment, lack of adhesion, lack of Dvekut.
17. S. (33:47) On one hand we need to be in complete Arvut, on the other hand we need to believe the Creator watches over his creatures fully. What is the right attitude?
R. The right attitude is that the Creator is guiding upon us in a complete way and even though he is doing everything it all also depends on me as much as I pray and bring the entire vessel of humanity closer to the Creator, in order to give them and the Creator good.
R. I’m happy of your questions and altogether of the efforts you’re making and also that you’re connecting to the prayer. It really affects it. It’s good for everyone. Also, in the name of the men I want to say thank you for everything you are doing, for the efforts you’re doing. Thank you.