TIFERET: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN

Lesson on the topic of “Fear”

Morning Lesson June 30, 2022 Transcription

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio

Fear – Selected Excerpts from the sources. #2

1. Rav’s Introduction: Yesterday, someone asked me by email if there can be a love of the Creator more than the love of friends and it is a question that we spoke about here and there, but when I got this question I started seeing that I guess it is not very clear that it cannot be that you relate to the Creator better than to the friends because the friends are the vessel which we need first, as it is written from the love of the people to the love of the Creator, and therefore we need to understand that to the extent that we are drawn towards the Creator even before that we need to be drawn towards the connection be with friends.

In fact it happens the other way, the opposite way sometimes, you could say it is always like, that the other person is drawn to the Creator, that this is his goal and by nature he cannot feel that the friends could be more important to him, even if he is love our friends and then the ten, and we begin our path with an attraction, an appeal to find the Upper force, the one that governs us, but when we are drawn to him we gradually began to discover that there is the matter of the vessel here, which is the love of friends, connection, the importance of humanity even, the importance of the vessel, so it turns out that the relation towards others becomes for us closer than the relation to the Creator, even though the Creator is more important in everything and he is the goal, and the final goal.

At the same time there appears in an importance of the friends, and it is because if the Creator shines he shines through them. So it turns out that this is how I get the importance of the friends more and more, and I begin to see, to establish the society in my heart, which is actually my vessel, my heart, in my vessel in my heart is where I reveal the Creator and my relation to him. So the question that was asked requires a simple answer, that the importance of this society should be to us today the most important, the greatest, although the final goal is the Creator and it is always before us as though as a kind of a Northstar, but to get to that Northstar is only possible in the chariot called the ten, in the vehicle called the ten.

Reading item #2: (04:33) “ The most important point about fear of Heaven is….”

2. R. (05:59) We have a law to twice reading and one translating, if you do not know. If we read something from the sources we need to read it twice and all the additions to it, all the explanations even once is enough, whatever we understand or do not understand, but the source should at least remain in you.

Reading item #2: (06:30) “The most important point about …”

3. R. (07:15) In other words he should want to come to fear and that it will really, he will have this inclination, he wants to come to a state where he is in a state of fear anxiety, is he doing one hundred percent of what he can in order to come closer, in order to bestow upon the Creator.

Continues reading #2: (07:44) “And when a person is rewarded with such …”

4. S. (08:18) How to see and feel and in what to see the greatness of the Creator?

R. According to the measure of the fear that we want to develop in us, according to this we will discover the greatness of the Creator. How does it develop? To the extent that we make efforts towards it together with the friends, to think each one where he is easy close or far from the Creator, to what extent is the Creator doing everything, sustaining everything, operating everything, and that a person belongs to the Creator and is under his control. But I would say this is a beastly approach, an animate approach like a living organism, it is afraid of what is before it, what is above it, but we have to yearn, although we cannot still, we have to yearn for the Creator actually because he is high, he is sublime, he is the origin, the source of everything, not because he controls me but because he has the quality of bestowal, he has the quality of love, and he envelops everyone and includes everyone and fills everyone with that quality, and even though I do not feel it because I’m opposite from him, I have the opposite quality from his but I try to think about it all the time, more and more, and this relation towards him did he is great and sustaining and governing and controlling everything with love and he is pulling us towards connection, this should be to me a constantly present in my subconscious.

5. S. (10:52) What is that place of fear that we have to yearn for?

R. Fear is an internal feeling, an internal fear or feeling that I’m still not in a state where I’m constantly thinking about the Creator although he is everything. The Creator set it up this way that although he is everything, and he runs everything, and he is present in everything, and controls everything but at the same time he is concealed in order to allow us to discover him in every single thing, that he fills the world so we would do it of our own, according to our efforts, so that we would prepare the vessels and our vessels will be connected with such a quality of bestowal that we will discover them as one vessel and in them, in that one vessel we will discover the one Creator.

S. What does it mean to turn your gaze or your attention at, and how to somehow …

R. It is when you return to that thought, that fact several times a day until you begin to live it all the time, no matter what you do in this world you are also in this feeling all the time. One who begins the Wisdom of Kabbalah receives an illumination that holds him in that and then it is as if he is hypnotized at the beginning, afterwards it let’s go of him this illumination disappears more and more and more, in order to make room for a person to continue this illumination, to extend this illumination of his own accord from the Creator until it becomes the light of NRNHY

6. S (13:32) What is the connection between fear and keeping the Torah and Mitzvot for the sake of the Creator?

R. Observing the Torah and the Mitzvot, the commandments for the sake of the Creator meaning I am arranging organizing all of my desires and intentions, gradually as much as I can, because I’m growing like a little child I’m growing and I can activate myself more and more with thoughts and desires, it is called with mind and heart in directing myself through the template of the ten towards the Creator and it is very difficult for me, especially it is difficult for me to organize a society in my eyes that we are or were connected and through that template that mold, I will direct us, all of us to the Creator so I present him with the ten in such a way that he can clothe in it, fill it, enjoy it by being revealed towards the created beings, because bringing contentment to the Creator means allowing him to be revealed to the created beings, in the created beings, and this is what I try to do at least sometimes.

But from time to time I return to it more and more, until of course the Creator too help me in that, and in that I begin to see that my whole life I am living through this vessel where I imagine that we are connected and we are drawn towards the Creator and the Creator from his perspective also grows closer to us to that extent until we begin to permeate one another. The Creator permeates us, fills us, organizes us, and surround us in such a way that we become more and more an appropriate, a correct vessel for his filling, and this is called revelation of the Creator to his created beings.

7. S. (16:27) If I pray to obtain this fear, the spiritual fear, and the Creator answers my prayer, is this the same as me attaining the desire in order to bestow, and if so is it a consent state who is fear to no fear and back again?

R. There cannot be a permanent state because then we get stopped in it and we cannot advance to the end of correction so there is no such thing as something permanent, not fixed, everything changes into a descent and then another ascent. It is like a wheel turning so likewise I am traveling from here to the end of correction, and also it is not important to me how this wheel turns because the most important thing in all those states, the descents, the ascents, darkness, light, greater importance, lesser importance, I need to learn in all of this how I do not lose contact with the Creator and when I learn all these states to be in contact with him through any situation when the wheel turns then I will be ready for the final correction, for a state where there are no more changes but complete and permanent adhesion of mine with the Creator.

S. To obtain this fear is it the same as attaining desire to bestow from reception?

R. Fear is still not a desire to bestow, it’s a vessel for the desire to bestow but it’s on the way, it’s the building of the vessel. Fear means that I’m afraid that I might not be able to give contentment to the Creator, that I might not be a vessel for his revelation so he enjoys me, takes pleasure in me, that’s it.

8. S. (19:15) What is the fear the faith of the article is talking about and how can we work together with the fear with that faith?

R. The connection between faith and fear is that in the vessel of fear faith is revealed.

9. S. (19:56) After reading the excerpt about cleaving to the fear of the Creator, where is the that fear of the Creator, in me or in the ten?

R. Well, in a person too, but mainly it is established correctly in the ten because there the fear of the Creator becomes a vessel, a real vessel for the revelation of the Creator. The thing the thing is that the Creator can be revealed in the vessel of bestowal according to the equivalence of form between the light and the vessel, so it turns out that the fact that we are in a state of fear together it indicates the stability and readiness of the vessel for the revelation of the Creator because the fear is the vessel for the revelation of the Creator. He says it in the end of the introduction to the book of Zohar, in the Commandments of the Torah, the first commandment is fear, meaning the first act that we need to attain is fear.

10. S. (21:32) When I read the article I understand it in my intellect what is fear but is there a way to feel the fear of the Creator?

R.  You will begin to feel that the Creator is organizing, arranging fear for him, what does it mean for him? That you will be anxious, can I achieve bestowal upon him? You will begin to calculate more more to respect more and more the power of bestowal, that you will be able to receive from the Creator and then relate to him in this way. I want the Upper light to influence me and for me, as a result of it, to relate to the Creator with anxiety, can I bestow upon him?

11. S. (23:05) The fear of the Creator, is it something that you can measure, and if so, how much fear should there be in the ten so that a vessel for his revelation will be built?

R. This we cannot measure whatsoever because we do not have a vessel for it but the measure of fear is that same measure of restriction and screen and reflected light that the will of receive,  that the common will receive between the friends, develops towards the Creator.

S. It is not clear. About the screen and reflected light you said that it develops the yearning for the Creator in truth it is not so clear, these are spiritual words and we are in the corporeal world. Can you explain it more simply what can we as a ten attain relative to the Creator so the Creator himself will build in us a vessel for his revelation?

R. This is what we’re doing now, we are studying together, we’re trying to to connect at least during the study, to be together afterwards during the day we might be able to connect or think about our being connected because if I don’t have, even if I do not have a strong ten, then I am altogether in the big body, entity of many tens who think about their situation internally and towards the Creator, so altogether it is a big vessel, there’s nothing like it in the world, and we really are in that vessel of the last generation that is approaching the Creator and is therefore being tended to by him.

We can feel it from day to day how it is happening and how the Creator is tending to us. We need to try, to exert, to try to shift everything we are learning a bit more through the ten, and a bit more and more, until we begin to feel that in this way we are connected and incorporated in a Creator and the Creator specifically through the ten is tending to each one of us. It’s difficult, it takes a long time and patience and strong nerves, but this is the system and this is how it works. Basically we only need to make the connection, to connect the pieces, the broken pieces, the pieces that were broken from the vessel of Adam HaRishon.

12. S (26:43) We learn to justify the Creator in different life situations. Can you compare it to the fear of the Creator?

R. It’s part of the fear of the Creator, yes, whether we want to or not we are still going from side to side step by step in the correct states because this is how we are accompanied by the upper light that’s influencing us so even though we do things and make efforts that are incorrect here and there like kids a child doesn’t know what he’s doing but all together Providence directs him to grow and so are we but here we can still add to the Creator’s work, it is all the Creator’s work, but from us what is important is the disposition toward connection. Arvut, mutual responsibility this is what Baal HaSulam writes specifically about that and “The Mutual Guarantee” the Arvut article all those articles for beginners that talk about connection between us and then toward Him this is what we have to add, to the extent that we add it, He leads us and more effectively.

13. S (28:43) Doesn’t wanting to have the fear of the Creator also mean being afraid of being separated from the ten? Does this kind of fear help us?

R. Yes you are right we need to be afraid of not to disconnect from the ten and the Creator plays all kinds of tricks on us sometimes where He brings us closer to the ten and then pushes us away from the ten there are all kinds of exercises in this I experienced them once and not immediately but after some time the person begins to grasp how the Creator really did these things nevertheless for his own good.

14. S (29:48) Fear comes to a person as a result of love for the Creator or fear of punishment from the Creator?

R. Fear comes to a person as a prize as a reward but he begins to be afraid is he doing the right thing can even come to the contentment of the Creator fear is really a payment a reward a prize that a person receives.

S. So you can say that it comes as a result of the love for the Creator?

R. It comes from the Creator’s love for a person.

S. The love of the Creator to man?

R. Yes.

S. Not from man to the Creator?

R. No.

15. S. (31:12) You answered it’s not clear yet. Can you keep such a connection to the upper force from fear without first having love?

R. There cannot be love without fear, fear comes before everything if we have no fear we won’t be able to make any contact with the Creator.

S. But for me to be afraid not for myself it’s like I need to first love, no?

R. So you’re afraid for yourself first yes out of your own self love your animate self love am I achieving something am I not did I waste my life or not this is what everyone goes through until, because you are connected with the friends and you’re studying the reforming light brings you calculations am I doing this in order to really come to a state where I annul before the group and the Creator and I really want to dissolve there.

S. What is the difference between when the reason that obligates him to work is to believe in the greatness of the Creator or the greatness of the Creator?

R. It will fall into place later nevermind don’t start sorting and measuring what operates you it’s better to be drawn toward the goal.

16. S (33:10) You say repeatedly the path is tough, it takes time, strong nerves, how can we mitigate it without disconnecting from the path?

R. We need to sweeten it to mitigate it only by organizing ourselves more building our connection in our system doing all kinds of conventions connections we worry about friends who are weaker I don’t know it is written do anything that you want to do other than leave other than leaving because the Creator brings a person to the good fortune good fate and places his hand on the good fortune as Baal HaSulam explains to us in the article “Matan Torah” and tells a person take this and the person needs to grow stronger and this growing stronger really is all of our work throughout our life to strengthen ourselves in our inclination tendency leaning toward the group toward the Creator toward the end of correction continually.

17. S. (35:12) You reminded us earlier that we need to try and take all the discernments through the ten through this mechanism of the ten. What does it mean if I want to take this topic of fear and take it through the ten? What does it mean how to do it?

R. In the beginning connection through the ten seems artificial to us and it’s like some sort of a burden that the Creator burdens us with loads on us and says take this, it’s as if you put something on the horse, yes, the reins on the horse’s neck. The reins you pull them what you put on it, okay anyway so in the beginning it seems to us this way, why do we need it afterwards we see that it’s the vessel and without that vessel it’s impossible and then we become drawn towards the ten by ourselves and to be organized correctly in the ten because in such a way when it’s organized correctly we feel how much the Creator dresses in it. Through this, the reins and the bridle, this instrument I put on myself, which previously I didn’t think that the ten was so important, I was told but I had no choice but afterwards I see that precisely by putting on myself it is called as an ox to the burden and the donkey the load. When I put it on myself precisely by this I can advance toward the Creator and precisely by this He leads me He leads me until the end of the correction but at the end of the correction only at the end of correction do we achieve the complete connection between us and along with it the complete revelation of the Creator in this connection.

S. So again where is, let’s say we’re learning about fear. How do I take this disturbance of fear and put it through the ten? What does it mean to take it through the ten?

R. It means that I cannot attain fear towards the Creator unless I attain the fear relative to the connection with the friends and we need to discover how far are we today from the connection we don’t care about it we don’t worry about it to that extent I don’t care about approaching the Creator this is a true measurement.

S. This discernment is very obvious that the lack of inclination toward connection and the lack of care toward connection, the inability to move.

R. That’s attainment, it’s not so simple.

S. But it doesn’t change, it only becomes more extreme and becomes worse.

R. More and more and more correct that’s why the students of Rabbi Shimon wanted to kill one another this repulsion and rejection their inability to keep the connection between us is revealed more and more and it’s revealed together with this inner demand that we must have the connection and nevertheless and then these two things begin to appear one against the other the demand the necessity for it and the hate and the rejection towards it and then all of it erupts in a big demand to the Creator in a prayer a common prayer especially from the ten to the Creator and then He takes care He begins to take care of you, you can feel it when He takes care of you before even but you feel that He’s taking care of you.

S. How does this change happen? At some point will you want connection or you will never want this thing called connection?

R. You want it first formally and later more and more emotionally with a greater need for it but this is the main part of our spiritual vessel.

18. S. (40:59) In the vessel of fear, faith is revealed and everything is clarified by the thought and here in the end he says that thoughts and actions are annulled before the King. What does that mean?

R. That’s how it works out like that.

19. S. (41:36) What does it mean that everyone in the ten presents or represents the Creator?

R. In total the ten is ten Sefirot in which we reveal the Creator the ten is the vessel and the Creator is above the vessel and He arranges this vessel in order to be revealed in it and then building this vessel we reveal how much we yearn for the connection with Him we want to be in order to bestow we ask Him for the forces of bestowal how much He can activate us behind the scenes and how much He can appear before us clearly it all happens in the ten only later in place of the ten we see how everything accumulates and all of the corrections of Adam HaRishon will mobilize themselves and through our effort everyone will come closer and closer and connect more and more and eventually the single vessel of Adam HaRishon will be accumulated and this is the end of correction.

20. S. (43:12) Is it correct to say that if there is fear of the greatness of the Creator then a person is already working in Lishma, for her sake?

R. If there’s fear and love that’s the end of correction, fear is the vessel love is the light that fills the vessel.

21. S. (43:35) What does it mean to connect during the learning? What does it mean to pass everything we learn to the learning through the ten?

R. We want to think together that the light that influences us during the lesson is also influencing us and it’s connecting us and it is arranging us in such a way we can be more connected between us tighter between us and worthy of being a single vessel, a single soul, that’s it.

22. S. (44:21) Why is it that after we obtain the love it does not put out fear and the fear continues?

R. First of all the fear has to continue because we’re not in the end of correction because hence the fear and love are two kinds of attainment, for the vessel that advances towards connection has to go through Fear and love.

23. S. (45:00) By revealing fear, does that awaken shame?

R. Shame accompanies each one individually here and there, it is possible that sometimes it accompanies the entire ten but it is not mandatory no.

24. S. (45:20) I just heard from you that when I discover I’m in the state that I’m not in fear, that I’m not afraid of the friends, does that mean that it is already great attainment?

R. Repeat please.

S. You said that when I discover that I’m not in fear of the friends or the ten it means that it was a really great attainment?

R. I do not understand, it is along the way if the Creator wants to show me that I’m not in proper care for the ten then by that I seemingly receive an opportunity to care for the connection in the ten and I thank the Creator for revealing this flaw.

S. When I discover it and I see that it is, my hands grow kind of loose and I forget myself and I do not come out of the state, so and I do not understand because in many places it is written, this state is close to us. How do we stay in the state and not run away?

R. First advice is to connect with the friends and try to come to the connection with them more and more and by that to attain confidence and security.

25. S. (47:16) I never have enough time to work, it seems to me that I’m not succeeding in holding onto the Creator, like he is slipping away, when will I have the time to hold on to them and if the state that I feel is that spiritual fear or egoistic fear?

R. Everything for now is egoistic fear but it is approaching a state of becoming a spiritual fear.

Reading item #3 (47:55) “Our sages said, “Everything is in the hands…” Twice

26. S. (52:03) It is written that the Creator adds, this is what you taught us, I’m to my beloved and beloved is to me, the 1/2 shekel, there needs to be some willingness where I bring myself and then the Creator can give back?

R. Yes.

27. S. (52:40) It is not clear why everything is in the hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven?

R. The Creator does everything but he does it to you according to how you prepare your vessel, your vessel is called fear this is the only thing you need to prepare.

S. Why is it not in his control?

R. In the Creator’s control, otherwise there will not be a created being, that is what the created being has to prepare.

S. It seems like there’s something not in the hands of the Creator.

R. Erase the creature and leave only the Creator, the will to receive the Creator created, that is why he is called who created being, because there is a special quality that he can develop which is called fear and by that he becomes disconnected from the Creator, he becomes free. Independent, he has free choice to grow this quality and be like a man who resembles the Creator but stands next to him. A person, a man has to be similar to the Creator in this structure to be completely similar to the Creator except for one discernment. That is what he’s building inside of him, his free choice, I want it and I demand it, this is called my sons have defeated me. Otherwise there is no benefit from the entire creation. There are certain discernments in the Creator which is included and that one of the discernments which is called free choice, which is what separates man and the Creator and that remains and exists and that is why person being remains independent, this is truly a gift from above.

28. S. (55:21) What does it mean this word ,this still of Holiness, to what degree does it refer?

R. Still level of Holiness is the first degree of bestowal, let’s say like a baby, he still does not understand that he doesn’t know what he’s doing and how to do it, but he exists somehow according to what he was given by his parents, by Nature. He received all of these different forms of existence. It is so controlled by the upper one he cries and demands and so on and so forth but it is not his, rather he exists instinctively and we also enter spiritually this way, we begin to develop from the still of Holiness until we are grown and acquire more more spiritual qualities and we become independent truly.

29. S. (56:50) It says here the Creator gives love and not the fear it seems to me the complete opposite with all the blows and fears and maybe hunger, what love does the Creator give?

R. We shall see.

30. S. (57:14) The first thing that we should ask the Creator to do in us, is it the love of friends or the fear?

R. You cannot attain the love of friends unless you advance in the path of fear, will I have love of friends, am I in it, do I care about the fact that I do not have it, either of these things, these questions they are in you, the Creator already placed him in you but you do not pay attention to them, it is not important for you.

S. So what should we focus on now, on fear or love of friends?

R. The fear that I will not have love of friends.

31. S. (58:11) You said before the ten is felt like a burden, like a donkey to the burden and afterwards he becomes involved and we want the ten to clothe us and pull us, when does the shift, this transition happen, at what degree, what state?

R. It will not give you anything if I tell you when because these degrees is still all concealed for us, it is over our heads but it will happen, so as the ox to the burden and the donkey to the load you do it first coercively and later it will be with your own desire.

32. S. (59:02) It is written here in order to acquire the fear it is through the remedy of Torah and commandments, and it is written when a person engagemes in Torah and Commandments in order to bring contentment he activates this, so if I understand it correctly it is about the efforts we will make to connect and we also after I had intentions for the sake of the Creator.

R. The main thing is through connection.

S. It feels like in the past it was clear but now it is not clear how do you add the Creator in our efforts to connect, it becomes a whole lot but there’s no approach, access to the feeling?

R. Keep going, keep going, you will go through stages in which you think that you are approaching connection, later you will find out that you are not approaching, later still you will discover that you are really far from it. Then later from the importance of the connection that you will attain you will ask the Creator to help you with it and then together with him you will reach connection. There might be a state that in which you feel that the friends want to throw you out of the ten and then you come to the Creator and you ask him to come to the ten. You tell them that I am bringing him, him meaning you, just like parents bring a little child to the group to the kindergarten but wait all in good time.

33. S. (01:01:03) The quality of fear, is this what distinguishes man from beast?

R. You could say so.

34. S. (01:01:27) What does it mean to always remember on the level of thoughts?

R. That you will constantly be thinking about it.

35. S. (01:01:45) Does fear create prayer for the friends?

R. Certainly yes because if I have fear about whether or not we are connected, do we have a ten where we can discover the Creator, where we can connect with, of course I will also pray for the friends.

36. S. (01:02:33) This fear awakens in me a sense of sadness, how do we work within the fear to also feel joy?

R. I am facing actually a very clear state, for if I bring about the connection about the ten in my eyes, in my feelings, I discover the Creator in this way because the ten is the vessel and the relations with this vessel is the Creator it is a simple thing. It is right before me except that I cannot see it, maybe I have such friends that can see it, but I do not see it. So I have to make sure that I come to the states where I pray, I do everything in order to connect, put them together and for the Creator to reveal himself there. The more i advance towards, the more I yearn for it, the more I ensure that it will happen to me, it will happen to me and I will be able to hand it out to others as well.

37. S. (01:04:03) What should one do in the ten in order to acquire this prize of fear?

R. What should a person do in order to acquire fear? He needs to think why he is still not connected to his friends in the ten. In such a way that the Creator is revealed between the force of bestowal, he might imagine the Creator as something that is not love and mutual bestow and then embrace a connection he sounds like he imagines the Creator to himself as a different quality. So we need to think carefully about who is the uppermost force in nature, that connects nature, and controls all of nature, it is the force of connection and if a person wants to connect to the force of connection, ascribing himself to go ahead, he should see this is what he wants.

38. S. (01:05:38) Can we really have free will if the creator gives us the fear?

R. Yes, of course after all the desire is free.

39. S. (01:05:56) Is there a different fear that is connected to the Creator, this is the fear of not being able to bestow to him?

R. No, if it is relative to the Creator there’s only one type of fear.

40. S. (01:06:05) Can fears of the corporeal world can somehow be connected to the fear of the Creator?

R. No, because it is what the Creator has given us in order to awaken us to approach him

41. S. (01:06:25) When the person is rewarded with such faith meaning that is filled with the greatest of the Creator is felt in his heart when and in what state does one feel the greatness of the Creator, is it after you know that has the screen?

R. Yes.

42. S. (01:06:53) I noticed it when I am disconnected from the Creator even slightly, bad things happen corporeality and then I remember to turn back to the Creator but when I am happy it is hard to.

R. Awaken the group to discover the Creator is in joy and connection and this is what we need to be drawn to.