KETER: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Baal HaSulam. The Freedom
Morning Lesson June 15, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. The Freedom (The Environment as a Factor)
Reading heading (00:12) “Free Choice”
Reading heading (01:05) “The Environment as a Factor”
1. R. (05:36) Meaning that everything depends on the choice of the environment and that is why we should only discuss this, we should choose that, and we should care whether or not we have a good environment. Also when you have a good environment, let’s say we set the ten then nothing ends there but rather the work begins about improving this environment. So you have to organize things and have a schedule of activities. As much as we can act, we cannot determine for ourselves how we advance from one degree to another but through what we are activating for ourselves and advancing every day, every week, every month of the year, this is a must. So how do we realize our only choice in order to reach the goal? We do it by correcting the environment, correcting the society. It depends on nothing else but only to the extent that we can organize our environment.
2. S. (06:52) Is this choice given to every person by the Creator everyday every moment, to choose the right environment?
R. Yes. In a sense, yes but we cannot always detect it but yes. Anytime we do something, it doesn’t matter what, we also change the environment. We change the influence of the environment on us.
3. S. (07:34) Like you said we know that we need to choose every time, every moment, a new environment, that is our work. The physical environment of Bnei Baruch and the ten we already chose it; we are here all the time, but it is not so clear. What does it mean to choose a new environment each time? What is this work?
R. To change the environment each time means that you are, you care about it, and you decide how much you can improve your environment day by day, week by week. You have once a week a group meeting, a ten’s gathering, and you decide that we need to change something here, to improve something there.
4. S. (08:50) How to be concerned that around us we will always feel the spiritual environment.
R. How to ensure that we feel that we are in the spiritual environment? By depicting to ourselves what a spiritual environment is and how much we wish to approach that form. What is a spiritual environment? Where each one cares about the friends, each one wants to feel the friends standing in his heart and in the connection between us we expect to reveal the Creator. That is it, it is not many things and all of it is within our power. It is within our control; no foreign entity can come in and disturb us.
S. How can we improve the conditions, as Baal HaSulam says, improve the conditions of the environment?
R. Talk, talk between yourself and see how you can do it, how we can communicate, connect, and be incorporated in, and feel, it is actually beyond words, to make internal efforts in each and every one to be closer to the other. There are those who you can see, there are those who you cannot see and there are those who try, on the contrary, to conceal themselves. There are always four types of people in each and everything so we should try and come to a state where we are nevertheless more open, closer, and we appreciate each other more and more and so on and so forth and each one feels that the other one is a part of him. There is no other choice here, that is how it’s going to be revealed in ourselves.
S. It’s in my relation, in the way I open up my heart and collect the examples from each and every friend? By this I improve the environment so it can operate on me?
R. Yes.
5. S. (11:29) You just said now that a person should make his only choice but in order to make his only choice he has to choose out of something meaning there are certain different insights about certain things, certain preferences, what does it mean the only choice? Do you come to the wisdom of Kabbalah and then he’s given a certain worldview?
R. I see what is written and accordingly I see what has to be done. I do not here specifically, like everyone says, I try not to listen to my heart rather I try to see what the book, the words of Baal HaSulam and Rabash are passing to me. I try to read and understand their text in as objective a manner as possible.
S. Unfortunately there was no translation to Russian but according to the tones you were using.
R. There was no translation?
S. How should I make this choice each and every moment?
R. If you try each and every moment to be adhered to the environment even more since its only in choosing the environment, meaning how much you try to penetrate it each and every moment into its essence, by that you determine your correct future so it’s happening every moment, each and every moment. It is happening, it works on all of us in all kinds of ways. There are people who suddenly jump, and they ask and there are those who are more silent, like our friend from Kiev 1 and so on and so forth. there are all kinds. Different times are passing over each and everyone.
S. If a person already made a choice, so what, can he regret it?
R. Always go forward, don’t go back, and pick through what happened, no. Each moment should be as new in your eyes, meaning each moment you open up a new state, a new world, a new scene and in that moment you are deciding your future, do not look back, do not regret anything, nothing, there’s no yesterday, there’s only tomorrow and tomorrow starts from this moment.
S. Let me be more precise, how much is this choice influenced by my friends?
R. Only you, only you. Take into account that what appears to you as your friends it’s only you. You do not need to look down on everyone but make a calculation with yourself and look ahead to see what needs to be done
6. S. (15:37) I heard that each time we choose the environment and the influence of the environment, we talked about it in the first part and then the second part, but we still have to work in the ten that somebody is convinced about something he doesn’t change his view even if the whole ten says something else. How can we strengthen the influence of the environment on each other?
R. That’ll come, sometimes it takes a long time before a person feels that he is dependent on the environment and despite the fact that he really doesn’t want to hear it and he’s not quite impressed by them and maybe I’ll together he hears maybe one percent of what they’re speaking and what they engage in, and it seemingly goes by him, but then gradually, each has his time.
7. S. (16:40) The question is, what about non-Kabbalistic books? How should one restrict oneself in the acquisition of new books? He mentions here that books can lead you also to harm?
R. I don’t even know what you’re talking about. First of all what books? Who buys books today? You have the internet today where you can go in there and read that’s one thing. The second thing is that it’s not worthwhile to read anything other than the words of the Kabbalists, Baal HaSulam, Rabash, could be Ram Chal, there are several others, but only the words of Kabbalists. Enter our site and what you see there that’s actually your library, besides that there’s nothing to do. Don’t worry, if God forbid or all together you need to hear something you will hear it. The Creator arranges all the news you need, the Creator will make sure that you will hear what you need to hear, you don’t need to chase after anything else.
8. S. (18:06) There are a lot of different methods and faiths that say they know something about the choice, and they close themselves in communities and we don’t do it even though in the past we had an opportunity.
R. For us to close ourselves down in some monastery or some closed group somewhere?
S. Yes I’m asking why we understand this principle…
R. We’re in the stage of the last generation where the wisdom of Kabbalah needs to open up to all the people in the world and we need to see our state as we are the presenters of the wisdom of Kabbalah, presenting the wisdom of Kabbalah to the whole world and all the languages to all the people all over the world and that’s the main thing. What is done in the spirit a person doesn’t yet know but what you do corporeally you will see what you do, therefore each of us as much as capable should advertise and spread out all this knowledge and even if people read a little of it even if they don’t understand the act itself by the emergence from you that comes from you and what is close to strange people to aliens operates and awakens light in the world.
9. S. (20:06) We learned that the Creator brings us to the group, gives us the friends, maybe that’s what happens for us, he chose the environment for me, so what is my choice, maybe by not leaving?
R. You read what you need to do and perform what is written in the book and don’t start asking your questions you won’t find yourself in that. You’re being told what to do, incorporate in the group, forget about yourself in the group, all in all simply annul yourself there, that’s what needs to happen.
S. That’s what I’m doing?
R. I heard everything you have to say. I don’t need to hear anymore, enough, you said what you said, why talk so much.
10. S. (21:15) The gap has become very strong between our environment to what’s happening in the world to such an extent that it seems that we have some salvation in the connection between the friends, and outside the group it’s just a danger to live, and you just want to close yourself in like a Kabbalist commune and not leave, on the other hand you’re saying that we must be connected to this world to give them something, but you also say that Kabbalists a lot of times unite between them and close off, so how to find a balance?
R. There’s no necessity in our times and it won’t help us to isolate and differentiate building some kind of commune or monastery or some kind of closed society that no one can enter, and we do our spiritual work there. We are in a stage of the last generation therefore we must truly forcefully oblige ourselves, coerce ourselves, to advertise the wisdom of Kabbalah to the whole world and maybe you didn’t hear the extent to which Baal HaSulam and his students did, how much they’ve done, how they tried to print and spread out the books and the article, also what we have done in the previous years, the newspapers with millions of copies that we printed, all of that didn’t just pass for no reason but rather certainly there’s a great contribution to the advancement of the world in the right direction through these thing I really think that now in these upcoming times we have to once again awaken the printing of these printed newspapers and at least spread it in the main areas in our country. I think that there’s a benefit in such a thing and that’s it and we will see.
11. S. (24:11) How can we find a balance between the desire to make a stronger environment in the ten because a better environment to someone who is working and the ten is to awaken the work also for someone who is in it and for someone who isn’t always working someone can feel it as like a weight or a burden, how can we find the right balance?
R. That’s the work in the heart. I can’t sit here until when yes and when no, it’s not like turning a button here, you’re evoking your attention, yours, and your friends, therefore if we need to see from within, you also can’t say about a person from the outside the extent in which he is moved or incorporated in the whole world or not. The heart understands as it is written so let’s hope that we will feel closer and closer to one another, and we will have such states that we will truly feel as one man in one heart.
S. You answered a friend earlier not to look at the past but only on the present and future, why do we not relate to the past, also nice feelings we have?
R. Because the past is the past, what can you do for me? I need to know how from this point from today I can reach tomorrow and in the most advanced way because tomorrow doesn’t yet have a form, rather it’s the way I build it today and this is what I need to be in and to look at yesterday what will it give me? What will that give? I will fill my mind and my heart with all kinds of impressions from yesterday that cannot help me for tomorrow, therefore it’s not worthwhile to be in that. that’s it. if I am an author or a poet or maybe a musician or all kinds of things, then I go from yesterday to today to tomorrow and I travel that way, but actually for our work where we are drawn towards the building of tomorrow I must be concerned only with that, that’s why it’s written that the eyes of a person, one’s eyes are arranged in his head in such a way that he can always look forward.
12. S. (27:27) Lately people feel worse feelings of anger and hatred in family at work, on the other hand it seems that people’s sensitivity has changed, how can we break the lack of faith they have about connection? What environment can we present to the world in order to bring faith into connection?
R. It’s a problem. We just in general need to tell them where we are, how we’re changing, why we’re changing, and what the benefits of these changes will be soon as we discover it, but in a comfortable way we have to explain this to people, it’s a problem, but really the Creator which is nature, God in Gematria is nature, in the numerical value is nature, the way he changes in us and all of humanity he works on us and we will reveal him more and more therefore we need to be integrated from many contradicted qualities.
13. S. (29:06) That Baal HaSulam writes here that the good environment creates good minerals, land, how do I know that I chose a good environment because I fell and not a few times so how do I know that I’m in the right environment?
R. I can’t tell you, that’s something that you need to check, that’s what’s written in the article Arvut, The Giving of the Torah, Matan Torah, the article The Freedom is a continuation of those articles.
S. What’s the minimum you have to check to know you’re really in a good environment that can help you?
R. Do you understand what the goal is from the Kabbalists that you read, and are you in an environment that somewhat is going to implement that which the Kabbalists write? That’s important for everyone you’re asking good.
S. It doesn’t depend on the Rav that environment?
R. It could be though, although we don’t learn from the Rav, we learn from what the Kabbalists write us. In my place someone else can sit here and together with you read what you’re reading and all of us read, and you don’t really need to add too much to these texts you can truly advance without me. You simply need to have the correct organization and you will advance.
S. The impression we get is that a good environment without a Rav you can’t trust..
R. No, no, no, it just appears that way. The Creator is above us there’s an Upper force that spins everything, if you organize everything and watch to read and observe somewhat that what you are reading then you are activating the Upper force.
Reading ‘The Necessity to Choose a Good Environment’ (31:44) “Now you can understand the words of Rabbi …”
14. R. (35:58) What beautiful words it’s clear right? Something very special. If a person stops he goes down, he descends, but he has to be concerned constantly how he advances in free choice meaning in strengthen the environment, strengthening of the ten, because even he even acquired, and there’s something but he stops and didn’t advance yet and the Upper light does not operate on him and the Upper light is in absolute rest, he’s in such a dynamic that depends on a person and if he stopped his actions then the Upper light also has nothing to settle on and then the person loses what he had also, what he attained, he needs to constantly move forward and this again depends on the environment.
15. S. (37:08) What’s an environment that the Creator relates to that there’s Torah in them?
R. That the environment wants to reveal the Creator in it and wants to advance to a state that they will be bestowing like the Creator.
16. S. (37:35) We as your students and parents to our children, we see our children are exposed to the environment, the school, the streets, and God forbid what’s going on there, how can we as parents build the channel that they will listen to us?
R. Mister, this is not for the lesson for the whole world, you’re stealing time from people who don’t have those questions, we’re only asking according to the text. We will speak about that later.
17. S. (38:36) I don’t really understand that Kabbalists like Abraham, Moses, Rabbi Yossi supposedly created the environment themselves and then they entered under the environment, under the influence of that environment, so how do I understand their choice?
R. I don’t understand what you’re asking about.
S. They gathered the people around them like Abraham.
R. Right.
S. What was their choice that they can influence…
R. No we’re not speaking about them at all they gathered people and helped people advance the ones they gathered to the goal that’s why it’s one of them made a great correction in the world that helped that group more and more and more to advance a few steps ahead towards Gmar Tikkun the end of corrections, that’s what they did. From Adam HaRishon that discovered the shattering until the last person that will be, everybody works only towards Gmar Tikkun, the end of corrections.
18. S. (40:11) The demand to invest in the ten and it push it ahead, does that come from the sentence, “and that your eyes will see new?”
R. Yes.
19. S. (40:36) Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma he was a great Rav, why does Baal HaSulam write that it’s a wonder that he chose a good environment?
R. No, he wants to tell us that how could it be that such a Kabbalist that has everything still takes the small society and just bows down before them in order to bring them ahead and in order for them to help him advance, that without them even he will lose everything he has, that’s what they want to tell us. It’s worth reading these texts a few times and you’ll see what’s written in them, that’s a great sage Rabbi Yossi if he wouldn’t advance in the right society, even though they’re students, even though they are small but if he’s incorporated in them and surrenders towards them, subdues, so does he advance.
20. S. (41:54) What would you advise a friend who feels more sensitive to the environment on the outside than his ten?
R. That he should stop his connections with the environment on the outside, as much as he can, help him so that he won’t be immersed in it, in all kinds of things, TV, radio, news, all kinds of things.
21. S. (42:30) Am I responsible to turn myself into the good environment for the friends?
R. You must, you must be the good environment for the friends, and in this way each and everyone.
22. S. (42:48) I have a ten, I have Bnei Baruch, what other environment do I have to choose for myself?
R. Nothing, that’s enough. You have a ten in Bnei Baruch and that’s it. Just incorporate in them more and more, draw them ahead and they will draw you ahead, and in this way you will be able to see how you advance.
23. S. (43:21) Should we build such an environment for our friends that also in our daily lives and family and work and vacation and everywhere we’ll be able to keep our intentions for 24 hours?
R. Yes, of course, that will be without disconnecting.
24. S. (43:40) How can a person lose what he had if he leaves the good environment because there’s a sentence that says there’s no lack in spirituality?
R. But that’s not spirituality. If he emerges from the vessel where he had attainment of some sort, because he’s already in a different vessel in our corporeal vessel.
25. S. (44:05) It’s written that when we’re dead we don’t take gold or money or jewels with us but only Torah and good deeds, what does that mean?
R. To the extent that what you came to the refinement of your will to receive that is something you extend.
26. S. (4:28) What does it mean, make yourself a Rav and buy yourself a friend?
R. That’s the verset, make yourself a Rav meaning you need to choose, he writes it for you there in the beginning of the article, that you need to choose a person that according to your opinion is capable of teaching you how to reach the purpose of your life, the correct purpose, and buy yourself a friend is considered that you are arranging the group where you, in the group they implement that’s what you are learning from the Rav.
27. S. (45:22) Rabash used to listen to the words listen to the news.
R. No you can use you can hear the news, Rabash also used to listen to the news but no more than that, where all the opinions of people, you don’t want those entering your head.
S. Only to?
R. Just the report of what’s actually happening, not why it’s happened or all kinds of other philosophizing around it.
28. S. (46:06) I’d like to be more precise, from the article can we say that there’s a part in man that through it he can choose an environment and after he chooses it then the environment starts working on him and bestowing upon him, except for that part and then he can choose, and he has an independent part in choosing?
R. No, if you choose an environment, that environment already does everything for you, it is not that you remain free to choose another environment.
29. S. (46:50) Why is it written to choose a good environment each time?
R. No, that means that by you being there in your group together with the friends you are trying to improve this group, you’re not going to jump from one group to another and from another group to another group.
30. S. (47:15) We have your conversations with reporters about current events and the show with Oren and asking about the news, is that just for the external public or should we listen to that too, that you’re explaining current events?
R. You can hear it, I’m not saying no, although these are not the main texts, but in place of opening Baal HaSulam I wouldn’t say it’s worthwhile to hear me, but in place of opening some newspaper or program on TV then it’s worthwhile to hear me.
S. Yes, they need to be updated on what’s happening in the world?
R. Yes, that’s possible.
31. S. (48:12) Choosing an environment as much as I understand it means that I agree to be under their influence, that their desires and thoughts will become as mine, that’s on one hand, on the other hand I also want to bestow back to them with the good with the love with the concern is that the direct path to Arvut that we choose for one another, me, and the friends?
R. If you start that way it will be good.
32. S. (49:01) You said that Rabash used to listen to the news, every country has media and in every country there’s events that are happening in the world, they are delivered in a different way to their listeners. How to prevent ourselves from all those distortions and those lies?
R. Don’t listen to that, that’s it. If you listen to even the news from several different places in several countries then you will see that they’re all different, and they’re all confusing you, so don’t listen to them, I don’t listen to them I don’t hear them, I don’t hear the news because it’s…
S. But you do listen to the news and when you hear someone presenting?
R. I don’t hear the news, I’m telling you I don’t listen to the news, and you’re saying that I do hear, I don’t hear the news, that’s how it is.
S. [No translation]
R. Don’t listen, I would recommend that you don’t listen to anything.