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

I to my Beloved, and my Beloved to me

Morning Lesson September 04, 2022 Transcription

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

Part 1:

“I to my Beloved, and my Beloved to me” – Selected Excerpts from the Sources

1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, ‘I to my beloved and my beloved to me’ this speaks to the relationship of the person to the Creator, first of all, ‘I am to my beloved’ and I discover then that my beloved in advance was already directed towards me. ‘I to my beloved and my beloved to me’, this actually is our work, our disposition, to discover such an attitude towards the Creator that in our attitude we will discover the Creator’s relation to us.

As much as ‘I am to my beloved’, I discover that ‘my beloved’ is towards us, towards me and this is the essence of the month of Elul. Elul is also an acronym ‘I am to my beloved and my beloved to me’ in Hebrew, that in particular we have to develop during this time, during this month in the approaching towards the new year, Rosh HaShanah, that we check the relationships between us and our relation to the Creator. How much we are greatly aimed and that everything should be aimed towards connection, towards adhesion, that I am for Him, He is for me.

Therefore this period of time that we are aimed now it is a very special time, it is the time of developing our relationship with the Creator. That within that connection between us we can aim ourselves to Him. Of course the vessel from which we aim toward Him, come closer to Him is the connection between us, this has to come first. But we can already speak also about our direction toward approaching the Creator and reaching adhesion with Him. So let’s start with the excerpts. Let’s see what the Kabbalists tell us.

Reading 1 (02:55) twice

2. S. (06:19) It says here that first I annul my will before the Creator and then he can shine in that desire because it’s already corrected. What is this process?

R. It is a simple process, that you are from the will to receive in order to receive and you make a restriction over yourself, over that intention in order to receive. With the desire itself you cannot do anything, you can only make changes over the intention, how you use the desire but not the desire itself. So over your whole desire you make a restriction that you do not use it for yourself but rather you want to use your desire as much as possible for the benefit of the Creator.

This is your giving, your attitude towards the Creator in the corrected form, the right form, as He is towards so you are towards Him. And then in such a way you begin to be in equivalence of form. You connect with each other and then according to the degree in which you are in equivalence of form with Him, the filling that is in the Creator, the upper light passes on to you and you are filled with it, you are filled with it. And this is how we reach equivalence of form. How much filling will you receive? As much as you will receive, that determines your spiritual degree, it determines how much you feel and understand the spiritual world because it fills your senses.

By that you truly reach adhesion, identification and connection with the Creator and the month of Elul symbolizes this for us which is the disposition from the side of the person towards the Creator. After he went through the shattering and all kinds of scrutiny of that shattering, disappointments the person now moves to corrections and this is symbolized by the month of Elul. There is a lot to talk about here but let’s take it slowly. The month of Elul is usually the month of asking for forgiveness, that we ask for forgiveness as we are in the will to receive in order to receive and we want to rise above it to in order to bestow.

3. S. (09:25) I feel that the first step towards changing the vessel of reception is the receiving, the reception and restriction. How can we stay happy during the process of restriction?

R. It depends on what you are going towards. If I restrict my will to receive, that I exist in it in a very limited way, what we call the awareness of this world, the lowest and worst degree of anything possible, then I begin to open up my vessels in a different way, in bestowal. Meaning in connection with the upper force, with the vessels of the Creator, the vessels of the Creator are in order to bestow with the intention to bestow. Then by that I am in joy and I’m advancing.

Therefore as much as I am able to connect my will to receive and the intention to bestow this is how I advance. And I begin to feel the Creator, the Creator’s world, the world of bestowal and in that I attain the world of truth. Bestowal, love, connection, this is what we need to try to reach in the month of Elul, the month which we are now beginning which symbolizes this work for us, it is such a period of time.

Reading 2. (11:44)

4. R. (13:44) This means that we should reach such an intention that the most important thing is for the Creator to receive from me, how He enjoys from me, in what form. So in that same form that He enjoys maximally I am willing to stay, I want to be in that. Therefore I no longer think about how much do I enjoy but rather how much in my state I am delighting the Creator. This is called I to my beloved. That to the extent that I disconnect from my self and I think about how much I am directed towards the Creator, to that extent the Creator can already bestow to me. And this is how I begin to discover Him according to the law of equivalence of form.

5. S. (14:49) Why is it my beloved and not my master or king or teacher?

R. This testifies to a certain special relationship or address. Kabbalists say that this is the most correct address.

S. This indicates a specific connection?

R. Yes, this comes from the Song of Songs.

6. S. (15:30) This article seems like something hard to practice. All week we were talking about working in the ren and this is working directly with the Creator. Can you explain this?

R. Only in the beginning it appears to us that these are two different things, later on it seems like these two are one after the other. First we have to connect to the friends, bestow to them and then through them to reach the feeling of the Creator and to bestow to Him through the friends. And when we get closer and closer to this it turns out that it truly becomes as one work even though it includes two parts and there is always the preparation in the work with friends in order to turn correctly to the Creator. But we are not so meticulous, so careful. The Kabbalists are sometimes not so careful about it in their writings because it is already well known and clear to them that this is how it happens, this is how it has to happen, this is how it is arranged.

7. S. (17:01) I understand that I have to annul the will to receive before the will to bestow but how do I check that I’ve canceled the will to receive towards the will to bestow and not towards a greater will to receive?

R. From experience.

8. S. (17:23) The face of the Creator, is it that the intention of bestowal, the intention of the Creator?

R. Yes.

9. S. (18:12) It is written that there is a condition to this because the person cannot obtain the disclosure before one receives the discernment of the posterior so I wanted to ask, what is that condition?

R. The condition is that the person first has to receive all the vessels, the corrupted vessels. He has to feel them, he has to try to correct them in asking for the force of correction and afterwards the person already reaches Panim, the face.

S. So it starts with, it seems.

R. It seems, as if, yes.

10. S. (19:15) About the same condition: if a person really feels the importance of concealment as a disclosure what happens with his deficiency to reach spirituality? Where is the deficiency, the desire to break through if concealment and disclosure are the same?

R. I don’t understand, can you say it briefly?

S. The condition at the end is that disclosure and concealment are just as important. When we get to that state does it not cancel the person’s deficiency towards bestowal, towards spirituality?

R. No, the deficiency towards spirituality means specifically to be in equivalence of form with the Creator. So the fact that the person comes closer to the Creator in order to bestow, this actually is what is important for him.

11. S. (20:25) What gives the will to receive the ability to identify the will to bestow and nullify?

R. The will to receive when it begins to be connected even a little bit with the desires of the friends it already to some extent disconnects from itself and becomes combined with the desires of the friends. And already by that it has the ability to perceive and capture something outside of it, something which is strange, foreign not only perceiving what is inside of it, what comes into it but rather what comes out of it, what rises from all of its nature to his head. Rather it already starts to be connected with desires and thoughts that are foreign, of the friends.

Out of that he already begins to become incorporated with them and out of that he already has a perception, a different kind of reception, a new kind. So he understands that there is something outside of him. It’s not simple, it takes a lot of time until a person grasps that there is a reality outside of himself and also the existence of the friends and the existence, the reality in general outside of us. Where does it come from? Why? I don’t have the vessels with which to perceive it. And as much as he connects with the friends he develops vessels actually for the revelation of this alien force, this force which is outside him. This is how he comes closer to the Creator.

This rule, from the love of people to the love of the Creator it’s a formula of physics, it’s a scientific formula. It’s impossible in any other way to develop vessels for the perception, reception of a force that is higher than us. There is a reason why it is called higher, upper, it is above our perception. So in order to receive it to perceive it, it is possible only by me acquiring vessels from the environment by me annulling before the environment and becoming incorporated in it. So to the extent I am incorporated in it I draw their vessels to me, I include them within me and by that I am already capable of beginning to perceive the upper force, the Creator because I already understand this method. All of this is called I to my beloved and my beloved to me.

S. Why is it that it feels there has to be complete resistance?

R. Yes, of course. This is why it says that one who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater. That if in a person there is a high soul then his evil inclination is also great, the resistance is great and he has to work on it for a long time and not to come out of it.

S. Only when he discovers resistance is there the ability to nullify himself?

R. Ultimately yes but for each one it’s in his style.

12. S. (24:53) At first the person expresses his love towards the Creator by serving his creation. But how does he express love towards the Creator, from himself as an individual or from the whole of creation? Can you explain this transition from the love of the person to the whole of creation?

R. I can’t explain. I don’t have the words. We need to begin to feel this, we have to begin to feel this. It is impossible to convey it through words.

S. The thought itself though, is it correct?

R. I wouldn’t say that this is how we need to advance. We have to understand that first of all we have to build the vessels. And our vessels are that we connect to the friends and we learn over them, with them, how to bestow to them, how do they bestow to me, do I feel that they are bestowing to me or maybe I’m blocking their relation to me. And it happens over a long time and the person becomes obtuse, he doesn’t feel that there is some special relation to him, he doesn’t even believe that something like that is actually happening.

S. But afterwards the person begins to study the process of all the friends’ relationship with the Creator.

R. It will come. Don’t become confused with this technology.

13. S. (26:58) About the posterior before the revelation it says that one should say it’s as important for him as the disclosure of the face meaning that one should be as glad as if he already acquired the disclosure of the face. Why is this condition important?

R. Because it is not important for me in what form I have a connection with the Creator so long as I have such a connection.

14. S. (27:38) What does it mean that the Creator nullifies his will?

R. That he cancels the restriction, not that he revokes it and the condition of the restriction no longer exists but rather that they rise above the restriction in the relations between them.

15. S. (28:08) What does it mean exactly to incorporate with the friends’s vessels? Where is that foothold because we are already familiar with it and try but what does it mean to incorporate?

R. To become incorporated means to have shared feelings, that if we yearn for connection with the Creator then we begin by this to also understand each other. Because actually our dispositions are similar dispositions even though I have a will to receive of my own and the friend has his will to receive. But when we yearn for the Creator then we also begin to understand each other.

16. S. (29:08) To see a new world, does that have to do with the personal correction, that we then correct ourselves? How do you start this?

R. Don’t be concerned about it before you reach it. You like to talk about things that we haven’t yet reached, a new world, how will we do it. Let us scrutinize precisely and do exactly what we need now, and out of that we will reach it and scrutinize what it means a new world.

17. S. (30:05) Is the love of the created beings somehow related to the Vav Hey because he writes that Yud Hey is my beloved to me, the revelation.

R. Yes, we will reach that soon.

18. S. (30:27) Are there time differences between self annulment and the fulfillment of the light in our vessel?

R. Yes, of course it doesn’t happen in the same time. How does one know that he has annulled himself, that he is preparing the right vessels?

19. S. (30:57) There also a comment on the Creator’s salvation as the blink of an eye, so there is a gap.

20. S. (31:09) How do I reveal how I can bring the Creator more pleasure?

R. This is according to your inner feeling. Where can you can annul yourself more, from there you can give more contentment to the Creator.

21. S. (31:30) What does it mean that the Creator cancels their limitation?

R. The Creator cancels the limitation of the restriction, we can see this on the path. I don’t know how to say this but the connection between us becomes less and less limited.

22. S. (32:03) We read that the Creator annuls his will but how can the Creator do that being whole and complete and unchanging?

R. The Creator doesn’t cancel his will, He lowers the restriction and He gives us more light. Meaning He comes closer to us according to our vessels, according to our screens.

23. S. (32:35) How do we portray to ourselves as if we have achieved the disclosure of the face?

R. That if we can discover the Creator in the inclination of bestowal from us to Him, we discover how much He is bestowing to us. This is called the revelation of the disclosure of His face.

24. S. (33:07) In order to acquire the light of the face we have to first receive it from the posterior. Does it mean that first I have to reveal that everything is the Creator, that He works out of love to us but first I have to discover Him from the bad?

R. I don’t need to discover Him from the bad, I need to discover my own nature, that it is bad.

25. S. (33:44) Sometimes I feel that I am unprepared and I really don’t know what to do. How can I rise above this situation?

R. I think that the safest means, the quickest one, is that I adhere to the friends and then all of the things, good or bad it doesn’t, which they immediately become connected to their connection that they’re in. And then I add to it both the coarseness and the refinement and everything that I have and I enter them if annul before them in the most correct way.

26. S. (34:45) Is it correct to say that part of equivalence of form, that revelation and concealment are the same, it’s all revealed to me and I have to discover it through my attitude to the friends and bestowing to the friends?

R. Yes.

27. S. (35:11) About the attitude to the friends, during the day each one’s attitude towards the friends influences whether he comes to the lesson or not, what he does during the day?

R. To come to the morning lesson means that you come to an attack with the friends, that you are together and you want to attack all the disturbances that we have along the way from you to the Creator. This means to come to the morning lesson, it’s like you come to a battle. Therefore one who doesn’t come, he’s truly a traitor.

S. What kind of attitude needs to be between us to create such a force that we’ll obligate or push a friend to come to the lesson during the day?

R. That you show everyone how much you appreciate the friends only according to their presence in the morning lesson.

S. How can we show such an attitude? Not to relate to him, not to give him something, what?

R. No, to speak about the importance, speak about the importance. It is impossible that one does not get up for the morning lesson. If he is at work, we have some friends who are in such places on the planet that they cannot be present during the lesson. But if he is in a timezone in the evening or at night then he can be present. Meaning it’s only about the importance. As Rabash writes, if they would call out to him and say that there’s a fire and soon everything will burn of course he would jump out of that. This is how it is for us, everything depends on the importance.

I cannot imagine to myself that somebody can not get up for the morning lesson, so maybe we have to cancel all kinds of things that are not so important during the day and go to sleep earlier. There are people who suffice with 4 hours and for others 8 hours is not enough, it all depends on a person’s nature. But nevertheless along with that if one maybe shortens his time of sleep, his hours of sleep. He should also raise the importance, the importance of the lesson.

S. I thought in the last week or two there was such a thought that if we give the friend a warmer attitude, a more cordial attitude then he would feel that he is drawn to the lesson, but it turns out that maybe it’s not so.

R. I tell you we checked all of these things during the time of Rabash and we saw that people don’t know how to manage their time. I learned next to Rabash that either you work next to some book or computer or you are doing your work or you are eating and then you are resting or sleeping and that is all, there is nothing else. This is how we organized our life, there was no empty redundant time when we would just be sitting and talking but it was precisely under the definition of what are you doing right now. And this is very important because just having some free time as we call it, this is the worst possible thing.

Reading 3 (40:30) twice

28. S. (42:14) What does it mean to awaken a desire up above? We learn that He has a constant desire to bestow, we just need to change ourselves.

R. The Creator has the desire to bestow to the created beings hundred percent to all. If you want to have a special relation to you that the Creator will treat you with a special treatment, correcting you, bringing you closer, transforming you to a corrected vessel then you have to awaken His desire. You hear?

S. Yes, I hear you, we even read that in the excerpt but I do not understand how to awaken the Creator’s desire?

R. To ask, to ask and do all kinds of actions that He appreciates, that He likes and then He will pay attention to you and listen to what you are asking and do what you’re asking.

S. What does it mean to do what He likes?

R. You don’t know what the Creator likes? The Creator likes when you love the friends, when you help them, when you come closer to them, when you disseminate the knowledge of Him in the world and influence the world to move towards connection, adhesion, to return to the system of Adam HaRishon, all of those things are what He likes. If you do that then you start getting His attention and then you ask for correction. What correction? To give you more strength and possibilities to approach Him, to fulfill your role, to fulfill a more important role and thus you advance.

S. All of these actions that you describe of coming closer to the friends and dissemination, they add to the person a feeling that the Creator hears him?

R. Yes, yes, good. Specifically through that a person feels that he advances toward the Creator. The more he comes closer to the friends he has to feel that he comes closer to the Creator.

29. S. (45:20) What does it mean that we complete our will to receive when we rise above the restriction?

R. Wait.

S. It says here that when I aim my will to receive in order to do good to the Creator to give Him contentment then my will to receive becomes complete meaning I can use it.

R. So what’s the question?

S. So why is it that I cannot use my will to receive for my own benefit and to be complete in that way also?

R. Because by that you don’t return to connection with the others. The Creator shattered the general will to receive to pieces and in order for all those pieces to feel that they have to connect and that they actually connect and through their connection they’ll recognize the Creator who’s the force that’s connecting them and thus they’ll attain the Creator’s degree. The whole shattering was in order to raise man, each of them and all of them together to the level of the Creator, that is the indication that the Creator loves them, wants to take them to the highest possible level.

30. S. (47:43) If we awaken the Creator’s desire then we can ask to delight His creation?

R. Yes.

31. S. (48:01) Huge gratitude to the Creator and to you. If one ten can keep what the great Kabbalists say then will the whole world be corrected?

R. Imagine that if there’s one ten in the world that can correct itself completely, one hundred percent, but it’s comprised of all the ten because that’s how it is in our vessel, if so it means that we’re all corrected.

32. S. (48:52) Can we ask the Creator for anything, isn’t this insolence, because the Creator is bestowing anyhow. We should be in gratitude for whatever we have or maybe it’s ok to ask?

R. Our whole progress, our whole growth when we grow and advance is in order for us to more and more bestow, love, embrace everyone, bring contentment to the Creator more so there’s no shame about it.

Reading 4 (49:53) “Our sages said as a gazelle…”

33. R. (50:50) So the fact the Creator departs from us hides from us so in His concealment there is also an intention that by this He is attracts us to search for Him to reveal Him and this way we increase our deficiency our tendencies towards Him and so His escape it is also for our own good for us to reveal the vessels, the deficiencies to reveal Him.

34. S. (51:35) I hope that my question is related to the point. Why does the Creator enjoy a more sophisticated ego when we in fact want the Creator egotistically even to connect so it will be good for us, what we call Lo Lishma, not for His sake. Why does it seem as though the Creator loves a more sophisticated ego?

R. That’s right, one who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater than himself, so the more ego a person has the more potential force he has to cling to the Creator, to enter the Creator, to connect to the Creator, it’s just, the issue is that it needs to be corrected but as it’s said, the angel of death it is destined to be a holy angel, the angel of death meaning our ego in its worst most corrupt state and that form will be inverted into the holiest.

S. So I am sorry for asking in this way but what is the difference between this crudeness of an ordinary ego and the sophistication that he wants to grab everything for himself but in a different way so that ultimately it exists in a different final form that this ego, in its final form, in its corrected form.

R. The whole ego in all of its forms from the lightest to the heaviest it all enters under the intention to bestow and then from the worst, cruelest, most negative forces it becomes the best possible force and that’s how it should be and a person who has a great will to receive actually can achieve the highest possible degrees of sanctity.

35. S. (54:02) Is this state necessary for the Creator to run away in order for us to yearn for Him?

R. Yes only after we don’t see we don’t feel the Creator then we begin to long for Him and this longing straightens us and aims us correctly to get closer to the Creator.

36. S. (54:40) What is the source of our intent? It says there’s none else besides Him, on the other hand our intent is the only thing of value that we have where we can reach equivalence of form with Him for bestowal. So what is the source that gives out the intent?

R. The source of the intention comes from the connection between the Creator and the created being that seemingly comes from the same point. The Creator gives birth to the created being so by giving birth to the created being creating in the opposite form the will to receive and creating a point in him called the intention to bestow and that intention to bestow develops in the created being for a long time until it appears to the created being and begins to attract him to reveal the Creator, and also this happens in a, I would say in a process, a very great process of our nature until we actually discover it in actual practice in a person.

37. S. (59:20) What can we learn from the comparison of the Creator to a gazelle?

R. That He is always facing us either facing our face or facing our posterior.

38. S. (01:00:00) What does it mean that the Creator turns his face back considering that we say that the Creators force is constant?

R. It really does indicate that this force is constant and its intention is constant but it plays with us as if He hides Himself and reveals Himself in order to build within us feelings of revelation and concealment, revelation and concealment. And that’s how we advance towards in order to bestow. So that it’s not a revelation and concealment that work on us but what’s important to us is that it comes from the Creator. Where there is no difference between revelation and concealment then we can say that we are above the restriction.

39. S. (01:01:03) What does it mean that we are always searching for the Creator? What is this action?

R. Because we are always looking for our source, our source of life. The reason why are we so, in what state we are in, and what do we think and what is happening. We are always looking for what for and where from, and that is called the Creator.

40. S. (01:01:39) According to the excerpt number 3 what does it mean a complete desire by the receiver?

R. The complete desire of the receiver is a complete desire that can be only on the condition that it’s one, and that can only be in the final correction when it’s all in order to bestow. When he’s all open and working and operated and feeling the fulfillment in full, that’s at the final correction.

41. S. (01:02:12) According to the excerpt number 3 what desire of ours awakens His desire?

R. Our desire for connection, for corrections, to reveal Him, to perceive Him, according to the law of equivalence of form to resemble Him, this awakens the Creator.

S. If I understand correctly she means that we are not the bosses of our desires so how can we resemble His desire?

R. I do not understand what you said.

S. If we’re not the bosses of our desire what does it mean that I have to awaken my desire before His desire?

R. I have to awaken the Creator to correct my desire so that my desire will be as His desire. Don’t try to interpret for me what they are asking.

42. S. (01:03:18) What does it mean the revelation of the Creator’s face in the ten?

R. This is that we are connecting between us in the ten in a way that we begin to feel that we are in connection between us. Even perhaps in a tendency towards love. This means we are revealing the influence of the Creator between us.

43. S. (01:04:03) How can a person perform limitation in actuality when he feels strong feelings of rejection towards the friends?

R. Today the questions are kind of twisted. I have to try to connect with the friends despite whatever attitude they have towards me and be towards them open as best I can so as to set an example for them and give them the ability to hold on to me. And thus I’ll be able to connect to them and pull them to me. This is basically my whole work.

44. S. (01:05:11) How not to be obtuse to the friends’ influence over me?

R. That is a problem. I think the best is if I hear them and try to follow what they say, try to cling to them like a baby to his mother. So nullify myself as much as possible more and more, and then from the annulment I will be able to to raise myself to be like them. I have to try to accept the friend’s attitude towards me as the Creator’s attitude towards me.

45. S. (01:06:19) What is the attack during the day in the ten?

R. The attack during the day of the ten needs to be that the closer they connect to each other, with that they want to approach the Creator. This basically needs to be our constant tendency, how do we connect between us and from the connection we approach the Creator to connect to Him.