YESOD: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Baal HaSulam. Study of the Ten Sefirot. Vol. 1. Part 3. Chapter 1, item 1
Morning Lesson June 13, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Baal HaSulam. “Study of the Ten Sefirot” (TES). Vol. 1. Part 3. Chapter One
1. R. (00:14) we’re going to go according to what Kabbalists recommend, to just go through above, run through all the materials so we have some kind of impression, the taste from each and everything a bit and then once we have it, so this general observation on these books so we can work with it in a more free way from beginning to end, end to beginning, go deeper, connect the soul into it and so on. So we have reached the third part. In each and every part we have the part itself and then the inner observation part, Histaklut Pinimi, except for the questions and answers, words, interpretations, but in every part, every part has like a different weight and this most important is its inner observations, so for now let’s start and see what he wants to explain here.
Reading Part 3: (01:57) “Number one, All the worlds have self and …” Twice.
Continues reading: (04:30) “Inner Light One. There are five….”
2. R. (05:01) Meaning Olam world comes from the word He Elem, concealment, that it conceals the light inside it.
Continues Reading: (05:11)
“Number Four. He explains first meaning the very beginning of every …”
“Number Six he explains Ein Sof…”
3. S. (06:07) There’s something interesting and number six, what Ein Sof is here, connects it to the Malchut that doesn’t stop the Upper light. I don’t understand anything.
R. Let’s read it together.
R. Rav reads, “Meaning it is unattainable.” What does unattainable mean? It’s called Ein Sof.
Sof to indicate that the Sefira of Malchut that ends and stops all the degrees does not make an end and a stop here on the Upper light. Quite the contrary, the bestowal of the light begins in it, in the Malchut. Why? Because the Malchut makes a restriction, screen, reflected light, and its Zivug D’Akaa with the Upper light allowing the Upper light to appear and to fulfill the first nine Sefirot above them Malchut and therefore to disclose, reveal itself.
S. So it turns out that that same Ein Sof that we always check everything towards the Malchut?
R. Of course that everything that we say is in relation to the Malchut, without that there’s nothing to talk about. How do you know that there’s light in the first nine Sefirot of the Partzuf? Only because through them the light reaches the Malchut and the Malchut rejects them and considers how to receive in it’s reflected light. It is the guest sitting in front of the host, if the guest doesn’t reject and doesn’t reveal his attitude towards the actions of the host where the host wants to give him something excetera excetera then you see that nothing happens, it’s all only according to the action of the Malchut.
S. It turns out that Malchut doesn’t make any ending or disconnection so the state of the Malchut there’s no ending thats Ein Sof?
R. No, Ein Sof that’s later, that’s a concept, but here were talking about the Malchut, the Malchut in that it rejects, it simply shows us how much it wants to be in a different, in a new style of connection with the light, that by the guest rejecting the host not wanting to receive from him he wants to cause he wants to initiate a new attitude towards the host for both of them to go into a mutual connection the host for the guests and the guest for the host and for that way to connect with one another.
Continued reading: (09:55) Inner Light seven. “Expansion indicates the light …”
4. R. (10:33) Meaning to light that comes from place to place how come it comes and what does it mean from place to place? From desire to desire and by passing from desire to desire it changes, the desires change and this way we have the passing of the light through the desires.
S. Why is the expansion coarseness expanding, to expand, why is it also getting more coarse?
R. No because the light that goes through the vessels clothes in the vessels and by that acquires its clothing in the vessels and that’s called coming coarser. Like in our world the light that passes through different vessels receives a clothing from them, the light changes in terms of its color intensity etc, and this is called to become coarser, that it doesn’t remain like it was even though that in its essence it’s it’s the same light but it appears, shows itself differently.
Continues reading: (12:03) “The vessels are consequences of the light itself …”
5. R. (12:55) Okay, so we yet have to discover them.
Continues reading: (13:02) Number ten. “Clothing is like concealment …”
6. R. (14:09) That’s why everything depends on the measure to which the light clothes in the vessels in the clothing and accordingly it becomes revealed because the lower ones cannot reveal the light in and of itself but only on condition that the light is clothed in the vessels and these vessels will fit the vessels of the receiver and then the created being, the receiver, can receive the light, meaning there has to be some kind of compatibility between the two and the compatibility between them comes according see the dresses that are suited for it, that fit it.
7. S. (15:00) So he says that the vessels are an upshoot of the light itself, meaning what?
R. Of course everything comes from the light
S. Yes, but how is the Kli built?
R. The light that influences the will to the receive obligates it to change, that’s called that it builds the vessel for itself.
S. He says that the light that expands it gets these two discernments, I don’t get what he says here, that the light doesn’t offshoot from, how can the light be revealed because it needs to be revealed in the Kli itself?
R. You’re speaking in a way that not only do we not understand you but you don’t understand yourself.
S. No, I understand what I’m saying, because my question is how could it be that a vessel is an upshoot of the light itself if the light is supposed to be revealed in the Kli. How is the light going to be revealed then?
R. The light is revealed by building a vessel suitable for its revelation then it can be revealed in the vessel.
S. So what comes first, I don’t get it?
R. The light is always first, the light is always the first.
S. How is the Kli, the vessel built?
R. From the four phases that the light builds the will to receive and passes through them until phase four.
S. Okay. Thank you.
Continues reading Item #20: (16:47) “When the above expansions …” Twice.
8. R. (18:17) That’s called a Parsa, that stop.
Continues reading: (18:28) “This means that after the light has expanded …”
9. S. (19:15) He writes earlier that there’s a screen …
R. There’s a screen and there’s a curtain and there’s screens and there’s all kinds of different, it’s all screens but in different kinds of forms more or less, that they conceal the light, that’s why they’re called in different names screen, partition, and so on.
Continues reading Item #30: (19:59) “Because the force of the Restriction…”
10. R. (20:19) Meaning there’s no will to bestow that in any way she can work with.
Continues reading Item #40: (20:30) “By that he tells us that we should note …”
Reading Item #50 “The screen and the curtain are one thing…”
11. R. (21:28) It’s not clear, why aren’t there questions or it’s completely clear and nothing to ask about. Maybe you want us to go through it in a different way but I don’t really have anything to explain because we were speaking about the will to receive that draws the light, we were speaking about the light that comes to the will to receive but when it comes there it bumps into the screen, the screen throws the light back. Just like the guest and the host, that the guest doesn’t want to receive and supposedly returns to the host what the host wants to give him, and then they still have some kind of connection between them, right? So they’re in a mutual connection one wants to give to the other and then they scrutinize the states between them until everything can be organized, that the guests receive under one condition something from the host, the host can give something to the guest under a special condition and then they are both satisfied.
12. S. (22:44) The curtain and the screen it says are two different things, the curtain is a condition set from above that first there must be a screen and they make up the sort of the same thing you’re saying as an agreement?
R. We will learn later on in the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, Assiya and what conditions they have in order to pass through the screen called Parsa, from below upward and from above downward that’s why there are differences between just a screen to a partition and a curtain because they are different conditions whether you can go through the screen or not, that’s why it’s not just called the screen but a partition and a curtain.
13. S. (24:01) It’s more or less clear what a screen is, it separates …
R. They’re all the same. The question is under what conditions they exist, what conditions you can go through or not, can you work with this or not work with this. We will learn all of them, we will have a lot of this still to come but actually it’s the same screen just working under more difficult conditions.
14. S. (24:46) In item ten it says that there’s a compatibility between the light and the vessel. What kind of mechanism creates this adaptation, the ability of the Kli to receive the light?
R. The reflected light that comes from the screen that is on the vessel on the Malchut it clothes the Upper light and to the extent that it clothes it they can both be accepted in the Malchut, you see? As much as you can reject what the host gives you and you reject it and say I don’t want it, those rejections, those forces, the pressure from the host and from the guest eventually put them in a state in the middle where the guests can receive and it won’t be as reception but as bestowing to the host.
S. What are the desires to receive which is the opposite of bestowal?
R. We are the will to receive but if we don’t want to receive for ourselves and we reject our will to receive meaning the reception from the host we reject it completely then and the host presses so it turns out that now I start thinking that I’m going to receive for the benefit of the host and not for the benefit of myself.
S. Is it not completely opposed to our source which is the desire to receive?
R. No, on the contrary that will to receive here by agreeing to receive only in order to give joy to the host, he actually becomes the will to bestow.
S. And on the part of the Upper there’s no mechanism to adapt the light to our abilities to start changing?
R. How? It the Upper world and the will to receive are opposite
S. I remember something from the AHP of ascent that the Creator builds in him the state of the created being, is it not the same mechanism?
R. No, I don’t know what that is, that the Creator created in him a state of the created being, I don’t know. Maybe we talked about it sometimes, but it’s not in the mechanics of the Partzufim, okay?
15. S. (27:47) What’s unclear is he begins this part, the light of Ein Sof, that clothes in the world of Atzilut but we also on the second part we talked about the Igulim, Yosher, Adam Kadmon, where did all that go?
R. Because it wasn’t Ein Sof from there he lights up all those circles descends through the world of Adam Kadmon and reaches Atzilut and then he explains what happens in Atzilut in such a very general way, very inclusive and very simple. Later you’ll see all the details but now that’s how he explains it. All in all he explains principles that guests, that host, the Upper light, restriction, screen, reflected light how they all organized all these things together.
16. S. (29:00) What does the host give and what does the guest reject?
R. The host gives pleasure to the guest, the guest wants to cause him pleasure by receiving from him so it turns out that each one receives and each one gives.
S. The host gives the guest additional desire?
R. He already gave him a desire, he gave him the desire already.
S. What do you mean that he gave him a desire?
R. The host created the guest, the Creator created man and in man there’s a desire now the question is is man in that desire, can he give something back to the Creator, to the extent that he can he can also receive and it won’t be with considered receiving but as bestowing, and at by that they will both be equal, and this equality brings them closer to one another, meaning man will discover the Creator.
S. And suppose the next portion that the host will give the guests then it’s considered additional desire or?
R. An addition of a desire, yes, and the guests will be able to receive more and by that bestow more to the host.
S. And then at what point does that additional desire become bestowal in relation to the host?
R. At what point does the addition of desire …
S. I mean if the host adds desire but the guests take it without making any restriction or screen over it so that desire is in order to receive.
R. Yes, so the guest doesn’t feel the host. He to begin with can feel the host if he’s able to restrict his desire and use it at least not for his own benefit. Is that clear to everybody? Everybody heard me?
S. What does it mean to his own benefit?
R. Restriction. The spiritual world begins from the restriction. If I can perform a restriction on my will to receive and not receive in order to receive for myself, then from that point, from that state and onward I can already be in the spiritual world. Meaning then I enter let’s say that room where the host is and I can be before him. Now in that table when I’m before the host all kinds of pleasures can appear and I can choose, for now I’m given the smallest pleasure, I restrict it, screen, reflected light, and I say that I want you to receive it only for the host. The host says I want you to receive it and enjoy it and I say I want to receive it that you will enjoy it, and then in such a way we scrutinize, me and the host, as much as I receive in order to give him pleasure and not that I want anything for myself, that’s it.
S. Last question. The desire that the guest gets, does something in him change after the restriction, screen or it remains the same desire?
R. The desire that comes from the guest?
S. The desire that comes from the host to the guest.
R. The host that he gives to the guest?
S. The portion that he gets in the guest, it changes after the restriction and the screen?
R. The portion depends on the desire of the host and the desire of the guest. As much as there is a greater will to receive in the guests he feels more flavors in that portion because we’re speaking about the light of Ein Sof. How much can you taste of it? As much as you desire the desire to bestow that you have because in order to receive, you can’t taste it, you’ll feel darkness, a complete lack of flavors and a lack of light.
S. So nothing changes in the portion but only?
R. Correct.The light doesn’t change it all depends on the desire of the guest and as much as he can relate this desire to the host. That’s all of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.
17. S. (34:49) The restriction, is it already a certain sensation of the Creator I need to feel him in order to restrict myself?
R. No, it’s just a condition that then you can start using your will to receive in order to bestow to the Creator. When do you reveal the Creator? Not right away, not right away. It’s like a baby that once he receives from the mother, does he feel that he receives from the mother? No, he doesn’t even feel what he’s receiving, for him it’s just milk let’s say, but gradually by receiving and more, and more, and more, he reaches a state that he starts recognizing who he got from and then from there and onward he starts correcting himself and changing himself to the giver but on the first degrees when he receives he doesn’t know what he’s receiving and from who he’s receiving but these things are very concealed from him, just like now with us, we now are in the state that we have no attainment, who’s managing us, who’s feeding us, who we’re bestowing to, if we are bestowing, nothing. That’s still all before us, clear?
S. So how do I practically make the restriction?
R. Try and think that you’re receiving everything you have from the Creator and that you want to receive these things and use them but not enjoy them, not to enjoy them, try, from now till tomorrow morning, tomorrow morning you’ll tell us and then we’ll discuss what you attained.
S. Just to specify about this exercise, what does that mean to receive and enjoy or more correctly put how to do it?
R. No, you can enjoy but not from receiving and enjoying, but from this you’re giving to the Creator and enjoying.
S. More focus on the Creator?
R. Yes, of course. Okay so till tomorrow we’re doing all these exercises and we’ll discuss it tomorrow. It could be a very good state, so until tomorrow.