NETZACH: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 211. As Though Standing before a King
Morning Lesson June 10, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam. Shamati 211. As Though Standing before a King
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, please let’s read.
Shamati 211. Reading (00:33) “As Though Standing before a King” Twice
2. R. (04:23) Ask as much as possible and then we will be able to scrutinize, if there are no questions I do not know what to say. It is clear to us from what we heard that all the pleasure is in what we receive, there is a danger that they might quench our deficiency or desire for revealing the Creator or drawing near to the Creator. What can we do so we can draw near the Creator? Nevertheless, if there is a deficiency how to build such a process. This is the question, let’s see.
3. S. (05:06) How to create such a deficiency above everything you receive?
R. Through exertion in thought, when we think a lot about how we nevertheless get closer to the Creator and what type of deficiency we should have, how we can approach the Creator and remain with that deficiency. Every step as we get closer we have to think how to build such a process.
S. In principle the Creator does not give the person a pleasure, so he does not lose this request from Him?
R. Yes.
S. How to discern this deficiency from the Creator relative to all the others? What does it mean that I want the Creator?
R. I want to get closer to the Creator means I want to get closer to bestowal, I want to be in bestowal, and I want to bestow, this means getting closer to the Creator.
S. What does it mean to be in bestowal, I want to receive a certain reaction from Him or to belong to Him?
R. If I perform actions that are similar to Him then of course I will feel something of His situation, disposition, what more do I need? If I am similar to the Creator by performing acts of bestowal like Him then I will also feel like Him through those actions and through the similarity and should I ask for anything else?
4. S. (07:53) It seems that in this article Baal HaSulam proposes a certain rule, that the moment I receive a corporeal pleasure I need to awaken in me sorrow that existence exists, but this competition exits. If I am asking correctly, what is that competition? There is only one desire and I need to receive in it the sparks of holiness but instead I receive something corporeal and now I regret it?
R. I feel pleasure from some situation, from some action. The question is the following: to what extent does this pleasure put out, quench my desire, my deficiency to get closer to the Creator. My deficiency for bestowal or what we call a deficiency for Kedusha, holiness, this is the question.
5. S. (08:10) Any pleasure I get comes from the Creator and upon receiving that I realize that I am blessed, and I thank the Creator. Following that I ask for the same pleasure for my friends so in what way is this something that we should watch for how can this quench our desire?
R. If you ask for pleasure for the friends it is not the same deficiency that you had before so how can you combine these two deficiencies. You had initially a desire to feel it the Creator to reveal the Creator to connect with Him and that now you feel a different disposition. How can these two different forms of desires, these two inclinations, how can they connect together and not to interfere with one another.
6. S. (10:41) What is a corporeality pleasure and why does it come at the expense of the deficiency of spirituality?
R. Any pleasure is a pleasure, what is important is the reason for the pleasure, either you want a pleasure to enjoy, this is called corporeal pleasure, even if you want to understand and to feel something spiritual. If you want to enjoy for yourself it is called corporeal pleasure because the vessels that you want to satisfy are corporeal vessels or you want spiritual pleasure which is in order to bestow. When you don’t aim to enjoy the pleasure itself but the fact that you passed this pleasure so to speak, to the Creator.
S. Is there any such thing as taking time off in connection with the Creator? I decide now that I want to enjoy for myself. Is this customary or is there such a thing?
R. You see that it is possible, and you want to tell yourself this. That now you are going to enjoy for yourself, you disconnect from the Creator from spirituality, from the study and from everything and you go and have fun, right? It’s possible, it is possible.
7. S. (12:28) When I receive pleasure for my own sake for my own benefit, how do I develop a deficiency or a correct frustration?
R. Only through the group. You cannot turn yourself away from the pleasure you have from yourself to the pleasure that you will have outside of you, because outside of you, you have no means but the group. If you connect with them and want to bestow to them, then it is like wanting to bestow upon the Creator. That’s it.
8. S. (13:25) How to connect myself, to tie myself to the Creator, when I do not enjoy myself, for example I have a very tough job from morning until night. So in this state, how do you get along?
R. Precisely when a person has hard work and he’s physically busy with hard labor, then he has more possibilities to think about the Creator. Whereas if he has an easy job, something more with his intellect, it is more difficult for him to think about the Creator. So this is why Kabbalists throughout the generations preferred working physical jobs, hard physical jobs, because then their mind stays clear.
9. S. (14:43) no translation
R. Of course the ten helps them to stay in contact with the Creator. If we constantly think about our ten and that we want to be connected, and that between us, at the center of our connection we want to discover the Creator in order to bestow upon the friends, to bestow upon the Creator, then we have a very simple system, relatively, and if we concentrate on this then we can very quickly feel movements and changes in that system from us to the friends, and from the friends to the Creator. That’s it. Look at the system and how it works. I’m alone, I connect to the ten, the more I make the ten as one, by this I can turn to the Creator through the ten as one, and then everything remains in our concrete work. So think about it. These are pretty simple systems. We don’t need to create all kinds of charts or maps, kinds of structures in the air. No, no. In all your actions, don’t go out of the reality of the ten, of the group, and then you will see how it happens.
10. S. (17:11) As far as I understood the article, this spiritual flavors, the pleasures, should be stronger from corporeal ones, and accordingly I am asking for those flavors from the ten so that somehow it would rule over corporeal things, or each time I have to rise above it?
R. You need to ask for your desire for spirituality to be greater than the desire for corporeality, that the flavors you will feel in spirituality will be more than the flavors you will feel in corporeality. You need to ask for all those things, constantly ask like a baby.
S. Then I simply raise it?
R. ….. Yes
11. S. (18:30) Every pleasure that we feel in the connection between us in the ten, if it does not awaken us to greater bestowal, is it also considered corporeal?
R. Any pleasure that is in order to receive is called corporeal.
S. How each pleasure awakens a deficiency, how can we use it to grow the deficiency?
R. If you direct every pleasure that you somehow feel, to use it in order to bring contentment to the friends and through them to the Creator then, it will become a spiritual pleasure.
12. S. (19:23) What does it mean to receive condolences in the connection between us, not to receive condolences?
R. Just never relax, very simple.
13. S. (19:39) At the end of the article he writes that through this regret he can keep from losing vessels of holiness, through the sorrow. But we learned that we have to work in joy. Why does it say, through the sorrow?
R. Because he regrets that he might quit, that he would lose it, so he’s under pressure. These pressures help him stay in place for the time being, until he acquires such vessels with which he can go forward. There are vessels with which you can only stay put, stay where you are, and barely not fall backwards, and there are vessels with which you already advance, it all depends on the level of connection with the group.
S. I can only hold onto the vessels of holiness through sorrow?
R. Sorrow means you regret that you still do not have the forces, the strength to bestow.
14. S. (21:02) To see the help of the Creator in this pleasure, is this something we have to do?
R. Correct. Correct. Turning all the bad and good things into help.
15. S. (21:25) It says in the article that we should feel the sorrow. How can the friends help a person do it? Should I imagine the friends and the Creator getting disappointed from me to reach this sorrow?
R. We don’t need to get into negative feelings, on the contrary, we need to constantly be drawn, through the connection between us, into positive feelings and to the Creator.
16. S. (22:04) Can I ask for the friends to receive what the Creator wants to give me if I restrict and do not to receive it?
R. Yes, yes, it is also written, there is an article about it.