GEVURAH: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Lesson 2 “From Love of Friends to Love of the Creator”
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Congress Lesson #2 April 30, 2022, Transcription
Lesson 2:
Excerpt #8 Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 12, “The Essence of Man’s Work” (03:25)
S. (44:45) What is it for you to bestow contentment upon the Creator?
We came to the common agreement that building a common prayer will help us sharpen our common request to the Creator and shooting bullets of love to the friends at all times.
1.Rav’s Introduction: You know that I explain everything according to the form that we have in the shattering of the vessel that the Creator created and then He shattered it and He gave it to us in order for us to collect the parts, the fragments and then in this way connect once again, back to a complete vessel. By this we discover the Creator, by this we correct ourselves, by this we reach connection, unity between us and with the Creator, it is all actually in a single picture. And therefore in this Congress also we should try all the time to depict to ourselves how we are gathering the broken pieces into one complete vessel and how we elevate the broken vessels together to connection, which is actually our friends, until we will connect this entire puzzle into a single form and that form will be the form of all of the friends connected. Then we will see that this puzzle brings us as it says, “and he saw the image of the Lord“. And therefore “you have made Me”, it’s not just that you have made Me, you yourselves when you connect between you, you make Me, “that without you gathering I do not exist”, says the Creator. It is a lot deeper than how it sounds, maybe in this way we need to constantly see this form of connection of the broken vessels, in our work. Therefore we also need to try not to let go ever of the matter of this system. How do we detect it, how do we constantly feel it, establish it before us, and how do we through each and every action, that we plan to do, each one of us and all of us together, in different forms, all in all we want to move the system to a state that is more and more and more connected, more and more united. The topic of the lesson as I read it is, “From the love of friends to the love of the Creator” and indeed it cannot be any other way. Also from the side of the system like we are talking now, because only if we put together the vessel to the extent that we put it together, then in the connection between the friends we reach a state where we can implement our relation to the Creator. And the vessel is entirely composed only of the connection between the friends. It turns out that the connection between the friends, the essence of the connection between the friends, the form of the connection between the friends, the intensity of the connection between the friends, this gives us the form of the Creator, the image of the Creator. And this is how we attain connection with Him. Therefore we must more and more and more explain each one to all of the others and to himself, especially how much our gathering in a single vessel, in a desire and intention, in locating this goal that exists before us, how important it is for us, and each one you should check himself always, how much is he actually carrying out these conditions to reach so that we will all reach the Partzuf of the soul of Adam HaRishon. Baal HaSulam also writes that ‘there is only one soul in the world, and it exists in each one of us and it is one, it is not divided into parts but rather everything depends only on the extent of the connection between us. To the extent, as much as we come closer between us, we can depict this soul, each one according to the degree of his connection with the others, and so it’s worthwhile for us to understand that everything actually exists in the free choice of each one and it is given to everyone to feel and to discover it and in this way to reach one’s adhesion with the soul, with that system, with the Creator. Again, again and again, we see that as this lesson is number two: “From the love of friends to the love of the Creator.” There is a reason why this is written, it’s not some chance but rather it is truly so. First we have to build the vessel and only from that we can relate, we can express our relation to the Creator. This is actually the topic of the lesson, I am very pleased that you, relatively, are accepting it and how can I put it? You are absorbing it.
2. S. (51:25) We want to hear from you, if you can share from your unique place you’re in, what is it to bestow contentment to the Creator for you, what is this sensation?
R. As much as we ourselves put together this vessel called the soul of Adam HaRishon, out of the parts which is “us”, what the Creator created. And He created these desires so that it is all within His hands but when these desires start to feel themselves, that they exist, that each one exists on his own, isolated, the fact that they are willing to connect in order to build the image of the Creator and they build it. Not as the image of the Creator but is the image of Adam, similar to the Creator, this is something truly great. Because we simply won’t with our flesh, with our desire, make a copy of the Creator within us, like to be an imprint of Him. By this each person expresses against his egoistic desire and we want to do it only so that the Creator would dwell within us. This actually testifies to how much we honor Him, above our comfort, above our whole ego and we only want Him, His form, His nature to take that upon ourselves; and that is our work, this is our life.
3. S. (53:22) Thank you, you really brought us back to the system which is always good, and we heard, really, the connection with the Creator, is the connection with the friends and the image of the Creator is the image of Adam, the man who is similar to the Creator. Now we want to realize it in this part of our lesson. Now we’re going to focus on the work between us.
Reader Excerpt 2 RABASH, Article No. 13 (1986), “Come Unto Pharaoh 2” (54:09)
4. R. Otherwise we’ll be called a shell, that seemingly does everything for the Creator but if it comes to a realization as it seems to man but without love of friends, that’s the shell. We see such examples around us truly without limit.
5. S. (55:26) He writes here that “the love of the friends equals the King’s honor.”
R. Yes, as much as you respect the Creator, the King, then you do want to realize it, you’re capable of doing and are doing it, building Him seemingly, yes. You have built to me, specifically the material matter in the relations between you because we need to reach a state that the Creator will do well between us, Divinity will dwell between us, yes, meaning that is the main thing.
Reading Excerpt 13: (01:26:47)
Rav’s Words – Rav Laitman, daily Kabbalah lesson, 7.4.2022 “Strive to put the friends into your heart. . .”
Reading Excerpt 6: Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 52 “While they speak, I listen . . .” (01:28:20)
6. R. (01:41:27) What can I add to what I’m hearing, feeling, and seeing? I think that the Congress is very successful, and people gladly connect to it and understand that they can receive power here; powers to overcome and advance. And we are gradually becoming more and more connected to this system of Adam HaRishon, that we have to understand that it’s built in such a way that we have to always add to it, and we have no more to add to it, to its corrections, besides a request that we always have to ask and ask and ask of the Creator more and more for corrections until the system of Adam HaRishon becomes corrected. And then we will discover it in full and us in it as well as its active components. In general, everything is built in the way that we just have to ask the Creator to connect the broken vessels, everything is ready for correction. The Creator made it so that we just needed to ask of Him in order to bring all of creation to its complete form. Meaning our whole work ends with a request with prayer. Let’s hope that we will learn that and see in each and every place that besides this request, there’s nothing else we need to do. And the Creator is only expecting us to make the most precise request because the request can be comprised of a state that we are in and what we are lacking in it, what we want to happen. Everything besides the force that corrects which the Creator brings, so we have to focus on that: how do we turn to the Creator as much as we can together in order to ask Him for something that is as close to correction as possible? We work with Him together in partnership and this is how we try to also see the corrections, how they go through the broken vessels and all the broken vessels, in front of our eyes, become this process from shattering to correction. By that we bring contentment to the Creator in that He broke the vessel, He prepared it all for correction and we clarify what needs to be corrected and we turn to Him, and He corrects until the final correction. This is what this part of the lesson in the Congress describes.
7. S. (01:45:50) Can you direct us more to that place that we won’t be afraid to ask from the Creator. That we won’t feel that we’re ashamed or embarrassed of it, but just lead us there like you take a child can you put them there and you say, “come on cry, scream, ask”?
R. After we read this from all the readings of the Kabbalists, that this is what we have to do, and that only prayer leads us to correction, and if we don’t ask it won’t happen; rather worse states will happen in order to push us to the prayer. We only need to learn from all the states we go through, from everything we learned from Kabbalah that how all of us, each of us and all of us together in smaller groups, bigger groups, that we are always in this address, in this request non-stop and that’s how we will advance. We will make room for the Creator to work, He truly enjoys us asking it from Him and it is written in many places about this; and this is how we come to this state. That we crown Him as King of all the land, meaning who creates light and darkness and the darkness was created by the shattering. We discover the darkness and through the darkness we discover the Reshimot that are yearning from the light and that’s why we make this demand from Him and accordingly He corrects creation and shines in it, appears in it, becomes revealed in creation and this is called, “the revelation of the Creator to the created beings”.
8. S. (01:48:14) Is that a border or should we yearn to see that limit in the middle?
R. No there’s no difference, one elevates the other. Meaning that both the connection with the parts of creation and with the force that binds them and corrects them, that really becomes one, it becomes one. They don’t remain the Creator and the created beings as two different parts, but gradually they arrive at a state where all the difference between them disappears and also between them and the Creator, this is something I cannot explain because it’s an emotional manner, but you’ll begin to see how it just disappears. In our world we have some inclination to be with people that we wish to love with people we want to love. We want to be with them as one, as one body, in unison, in a single feeling and understanding, now it’s not possible in this world. But in spirituality, that’s what happens that we unify. Break all of the boundaries.
9. S. (01:50:25) In quote six, Baal HaSulam writes “you will talk, and I will hear”, what does it mean? Why will I hear if they talk, who is that me, who are those?
R. I can’t explain this now, it’s a complicated thing: me and them and the hearing. I can’t explain this now. Besides, it’s not important for you, follow what we’re talking about, and you will succeed, “and from your actions we will know you”, meaning that’s how you will know it. I hope such questions will not be asked but rather what we need to perform, what we need to do, and we look for how to do it.
10. S. (01:51:27) More or less it’s clear when I turn to the Creator from within me. But when I see the friend, and try to imagine the Creator through him, how can I turn to the Creator through a friend, what’s that process?
R. You’re asking the Creator to correct the relationship between you between the friends in such a way that you will feel no difference, no distance between you. Let’s say the Creator knows how to do it, ask Him to do it.
11. S. (01:52:15) As a result of the circus between us in our ten, we feel like a nuclear bomb. We are about to explode from this anger towards the Creator. Why is he not acting? Why? We are here, right. What can we do more?
R. Firstly, to understand that everything in you including this anger is created by Him, it’s also Him and you have to ask for the corrections, the right corrections, so your anger will not help. It’s like a little child who can yell next to you and scream and fall on the floor and do all kinds of things, if he’s asking for things that are bad for him he will not give them, and there are examples in the articles of Rabash and Baal HaSulam about this. We have to understand that all that we feel we have to feel it, it’s not by chance, and it’s only for us to respond to it correctly and connect above all these emerging conditions.
S. The Creator is our above degree, so in order to reach the degree above we have to justify everything in the state we are in.
R. Yes.
S. About justifying, the only annulment, is it enough to justify or do we have to know the reason behind the action of the Creator?
R. No, you need to justify first, that’s where you begin, that’s where the contact between man and the Creator begins when a person lowers his head and says I agree, because you have created me including all the condition that I’m in, and all of the hatred that I feel towards the world and towards everyone and you, that was also created by you. I accept all that I have to correct, meaning more accurately I’m going to have to ask you to correct these things, and I assume that these conditions have to happen in me so that thanks to them I will discover my connection with you. That’s it.
12. S. (01:55:29) It seems like the Creator has blessed us with as a Kli with this new level of yearning, like we engaged in this prayer of many together and it’s really felt, The question is that when we come down from this in a way and we maybe don’t feel it as much, how do we actually step into that place where we still can move forward and pushing our friends forward the Kli and the whole world as far as not getting a fuzzy sensation and using the impression it gave us?
R. Only by discussing it together and deciding how to get closer. You could do some mini- Congress between you every day, whenever you want, between yourselves and make decisions and come together and demand and make a request and advance in these small steps of your own.
13. S. (01:56:53) The general soul in the general hatred that’s revealed between everybody is there a connection between them?
R. Say it again.
S. The general soul. the one soul, and the hatred, the general hatred that’s revealed between everyone, are they connected somehow between them?
R. We have to divide between the hatred that exists between people which could be corporeal hatred and that’s not where we’re talking about, we’re not discussing that, we’re only talking about the hatred that appears between people who wish to connect and then they discover how much they reject each other, that kind of hatred is what we need to correct, and the corporeal beastly hatred on the level of this world we don’t correct it. We have to first make spiritual achievements. Therefore try to detach from the corporeal hatred and maintain connection above that.
14. S. (01:58:31) Today there’s a connection, a huge connection and one purpose, to give joy to the Creator, to give him contentment. Did we succeed even a bit?
R. Of course, because we have made corrections, many corrections, many connections all over the world, we overcame the obstacles and of course that brings contentment, and we made many corrections, a lot of corrections. In the meantime we’re not allowed to see it because it will corrupt us, we’ll begin to take pride in that. So we have to continue this way.
15. S. (01:59:27) What kind of actions advance you to see the Creator behind the friends? What can you do for that?
R. Only praying for the friends in order to bring contentment to the Creator, but if you pray for the friends you bring him contentment, that’s for sure.
16. S. (02:00:03) The plea of the Creator, it is always towards the Creator, or I just have to incorporate and support that ascent, or should I awaken it?
R. Of course we have to build our address to the Creator from the beginning to the end and ask him to help us to build the prayer.
17. S. (02:00:38) What kind of request should we make to the Creator for the friends who cannot be in the lesson?
R. A request to be connected so that by that we can bring the Creator an opportunity to bestow to us because that is how we bring him contentment.
18. S. (02:01:26) We felt that we love one another, and we are scrutinizing the correct request we have for the Creator. Is this plea or request for the Creator to give us deficiency for the friends to turn to him?
R. If you’re asking for it then of course. We need to ask for every little thing, every little thing. The Creator wants to hear it, he doesn’t want to understand it on his own, he has no problem understanding where we are and what we want, what we need, the problem is that we how much we understand what we need and raise that deficiency towards him. We need to feel and scrutinize the deficiency.
S. What does it mean to ask for the Creator to correct? What is he correcting?
R. The relationship between us. He will correct the relationship between us.
19. S. (02:02:38) We are very grateful to you for this Congress. We thank the world Kli and to you. We have two questions. How to make the connection in the ten an even greater, even stronger, if physically not enough friends gather together or it doesn’t matter, and the most important thing is it we’ll be together?
R. We have to connect more and more friends and more and more times ask the Creator to help us be together. That’s it.
20. S. (02:03:25) What can we do if we feel that we have the urge to cry and guilt and desertion?
R. Okay, okay cry. That too is a prayer.
S. Is that a sign that we are damaging the King, the connection, and the desire to receive is ruling everything?
R. Anything you go through, laughing, crying, asking whatever it is, turns it all to the Creator. It is a simple matter we in our hearts are tied to him constantly, there is no breaks or stops in the middle, we are directly connected to the Creator. The question is do we want to communicate something to him or it kind of passes through because he awakens some emotions in us and it just kind of goes back to him without any participation on our part but if there is participation on our part that’s a different story. So we have to try to respond in as serious a way as possible, that this response comes to us from the connection between us.
21. S. (02:05:14) The Creator is doing everything, but the man is giving importance to what he sees and not what he needs to believe.
R. A person should have faith that the Creator is willing to accept his request and to respond to it.
We will clarify this in the next lesson, we will raise a prayer, that is still ahead of us.
22. R. (02:36:05) Our dissemination is important because that’s how we expand our general Kli. The Creator’s goal is that all of humanity, no exceptions, great, small, all kinds of people, all human beings will return to him. Those who go and fulfill the will of the Creator to correct the whole Kli of Adam HaRishon it all depends on Kabbalah dissemination then in the Creator eyes there’s no more important action. Therefore the more we disseminate and in the masses in all kinds of languages, the goal of creation, the purpose of life, the correction of creation and build such circles for people to come closer and become closer to each other, by that we are working together with the Creator. How many organizations out there, I don’t know any, that actually work to connect people, to connect between them and between them and the Creator. I don’t see any. Wherever I was and places I went, I didn’t see someone who is truly working towards connecting all of humanity to a single point. Therefore our dissemination is the most important action, and it helps all of us be liked by the Creator, come closer to the Creator, and if not for dissemination then why do we exist? To spread the Creator’s name in the world and how to get closer to him. To make a path for each and every one to do that. There’s nothing more important than that, so we have to try, further and further, to expand the boundaries of our dissemination and give it as much room as possible in our work, in our actions. Okay so let’s keep doing it, let’s continue and specifically from all of us taking care of all kinds of dissemination in the world, that strengthens us to connect and connect us through that work, and this is how we will get closer to the goal of creation. You are all great and special and you are all drawing all of humanity in the direction of connection and wholeness, the Creator. So good luck.