HOD: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot, item 16
Morning Lesson August 01, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot. #16
Reading Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot. #16 (00:39) “We must know the nature of the two kinds of discernments….”
1. S. (06:17) So the complexity here I think is a way to resolve it, in this Garden of Eden there different trees that you can eat from, and one tree, it’s forbidden to eat from, our work is that in each pleasure you need to find these two swords that what you can and what you can’t receive from the Creator.
R. There’s nothing difficult here, because the scrutiny is in you, in your will to receive or in the will to bestow. In every turn and every action, every thought of yours, you have to use the power of bestowal and you don’t have the power of bestowal, so you ask the Creator to give it to you. There’s no confusion in the work, because ultimately you have to scrutinize and that you have no desire to bestow and you turn to the Creator and ask for that, because you have nowhere else where you can get it from, only from him. And what you can do, is with the things that are necessary for life, you’re using your will to receive, and this is called neither condemned nor praised, meaning you need it necessarily to keep your animal alive.
S. So to live and sustain your animate body, in the example with all the other trees in the garden, can you enjoy them?
R. You can eat from all the trees of the Garden because in them you are working like an animal, and where you work as a man, the tree of Good and Evil there you have a problem, you can’t receive from it.
S. So the complication is in that you need to differentiate the trees?
R. That’s our inner work, with which intention are we working.
2. S. (09:44) So he says here by way of allegory that, the wickedness of the righteous, etc. In this world we don’t see that the righteous they merit something and that the wicked are punished, we see the exact opposite.
R. Maybe.
S. What does he mean here?
R. He says that if we could see in this world the actions of the righteous as good and the actions of the wicked as bad then we would never make any mistakes, there would be no scrutiny.
S. So every time we need to what?
R. We are working in order to acquire the quality of bestowal and through the quality of bestowal we can see all the actions of the Creator and of us correctly.
S. And right now we don’t see it?
R. No, right now we don’t see it, we can’t, we do everything opposite and even the Creator appears to us as doing everything opposite and there’s nothing good in the world.
S. And we actually have to come to see that in the world everything’s good?
R. Correct.
3. S. (11:16) A person has to act in a certain way, first of all we have to go through the lie and invert into the truth, and then only then we can achieve something that’s the scheme?
R. Yes as long as we advance.
Reading again excerpt #16 (11:51)
4. S. (17:32) Do the scrutinies always accompany us?
R. Scrutinies always accompany us and to the extent that we are advancing correctly we will keep hating the scrutinies and will need to scrutinize what they’re giving us, we become like a lab, and these scrutinies raise, us and grow us, just like a normal person in this life and he goes and he scrutinizes new things constantly, they accumulate in him, and they make him into the person he is in this world, the same is true for spirituality.
5. S. (18:36) During these days, the days of the shattering, there is a feeling of heaviness. How do we use this opportunity?
R. I think that it’s not simply burdening, but rather those are special days that are good for advancement. It’s not coincidence, it’s written on the day that on the day of birth and the day of death are the same day, it’s written about the Messiah on this day, the day the Messiah was born is the same that he died and so forth, so don’t pay attention to what’s happening these days although there’s a special illumination and there’s a special opportunity.
S. So how do we use this opportunity?
R. We’re doing it, there’s no problem. If a person participates in the lessons and wants to go over them again and implement them in his life and the life of the group then he can do it. He can do it.
6. S. (20:27) How do tears make the transition from the opposite to the equivalence of form with the Creator?
R. The tears are when a person is completely despaired of his own powers, of his own ability to attain something by himself, instead he feels that he must fall truly fall down before the Creator and only with the help of the Creator, only if the Creator will do something to him, a special action of correction, only then you can transition from the feeling of this world to the feeling of the spiritual world, and he has no chance of doing it by himself. So that’s what he does and he crosses. He is ready to connect with the friends, he is ready to do anything because he can see that the Gate of Tears means that he couldn’t reach anything by himself.
7. S. (21:52) How can we rely on our senses before we become a spiritual ten, especially if we’re experiencing different emotions than what we see in our eyes?
R. Those sensations were talking about, that we have to reach a state where you have no chance of succeeding, rather everything comes from above. This is the correct sensation and it will dominate all of us.
8. S. (22:19) Can we cry for the friends?
R. You can do whatever you want. The main thing is for us to bestow as much as possible to one another and then what will happen, will happen, the important thing is to help everyone. In the ten of course.
9. S. (22:50) After every Gate of Tears, does the Creator once again strengthen the ego?
R. No the Creator continues to strengthen the ego but he gives us the power to work with it correctly.
10. S. (23:13) Is crying the feeling of lack?
R. Crying is not the feeling of a lack but the feeling of a lack of power that you have no way of attaining what I’m after.
11. S. (23:32) Are we capable of reaching a state of tears not out of despair, becoming despaired of our own forces but for yearning for the Creator?
R. That’s not enough, we need to reach despair. By wanting to reach something, that’s not enough, when we’re unable to reach something, it’s not in our hands at all, it’s in the Creator’s hands. And he’s opposite and distant and all the rest all of that, that’s how it comes to us.
12. S. (24:22) Why is the desire for love and the fear of Heaven, why do they awaken only briefly, can we extend their length in order to come out of the ego once and for all?
R. Try it, it all depends on the person.
13. S. (24:43) Is the broken gate a prevention on the part of the Creator or on the part of man?
R. Only on the part of man, from the point of view of the Creator there are no gates or locks, it’s only inside of a person.
14. S. (25:00) Why is the serpent leading us to the scrutiny?
R. We don’t have a serpent yet we didn’t talk about it.
15. S. (25:15) Is there good and bad involved in our basic needs too, does a person need to be in constant restriction?
R. A person needs to be in permanent restriction in order to receive and open up those desires where he can work with them in order to bestow.
16. S. (25:40) What is the fruit of the tree of knowledge?
R. We didn’t talk about it yet.