HOD: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Lesson on the topic of “Speaking with the Creator” 1
Morning Lesson September 06, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Talk to the Creator – Selected Excerpts from the Sources
1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:30) We cannot speak to the Creator the way we do with people. Rather we have different conditions here, with people we have a common feeling, the same soundtrack where we can talk to the friends, to people, to other people in general but with the Creator when you need to find this channel. I to Him and Him to me, so we can understand, hear as it says to feel the Creator. Speaking with the Creator means we have two instruments here that need to be, I need to hear the Creator meaning I need to have a mechanism of hearing.
Kabbalists explain to us it is called being on the level of Bina because Bina is hearing. Then I will hear what the Creator says to me. I toward the Creator should be on the level of Malchut which also rises to the level of Bina. Then I will be able to speak to Him and He will hear me. Meaning we need to be on the level of bestowal, I to Him and He to me. I bestow upon Him that is my work, I have to rise to this level and the Creator to me, I have to be able to hear what he says to me. This too is not simple. Reaching the level of speaking with the Creator is our nearest goal. Let’s think about it and see what he tells us in the excerpts.
Reading Excerpt #1 (03:00)1. RABASH, Article No. 3 (1988), “What It Means that the Name of the Creator is “Truth”
2. R. (03:58) In other words, a person is constantly seeking how he relates to the Creator and how he feels what he is getting in return from the Creator. Until he kind of polishes, makes his qualities subtle so he begins to hear and feel how exactly he is relating to the Creator more and more subtly with the greater subtlety and how he receives how he hears the Creator more accurately, so that the whole matter of precision is to the extent that a person is in the quality of bestowal. Right. Then by this, he begins to gradually hear,understand, and feel that the Creator enters his senses and polishes them, corrects them, refines them and his senses then becomes closer and closer to perceiving the Creator, to the perception of the Creator.
3. S. (05:31) When I imagine that when I’m in front of the King, I feel that I am forced to continue on the path. So my question is, “what is this force coming from that I feel for myself, from the environment, is it directly from the Creator?
R. This is the force that comes from a point in the heart that exists in every person and if his heart awakens to connection with the Creator. It is called speaking with a Creator. Then the person begins yearning for it and searches by what means he can expand this, widen this channel between Him and the Creator. This channel, this connection. And then he constantly becomes more and more sensitive to how he can broaden and expand this connection This is how he advances towards connection with the Creator.
4. S. (07:01) It is not clear what is the meaning that at the same moment he lacks nothing, that at the moment I’m talking to the Creator, praying to the Creator. What is the meaning I lack nothing?
R. I don’t know what he means, if I am in contact with the Creator and I am in a mutual connection. I want to convey something to the Creator and accordingly he wants to clothe in my giving. Then I really lack nothing but only to be in this connection. Then in this connection I will find everything.
5. S. (08:04) What is the definition of life in this excerpt?
R. Life is a person’s level of connection with a Creator. This is spiritual life, less than that is not considered spirituality, it’s already a corporeal existence.
6. S. (09:25) What is it that we are rising from our points?
R. It means we’re getting to Lishma for her sake when all of our qualities are in order to besow.
S. You said that Malchut we need to rise to Bina and then Malchut needs to come to the quality of Bina.
R. It is the same thing. Either I come to the level of Bina or Malchut rises to Bina. It is the same thing. I am Malchut and Bina is in order to bestow, or Lishma, for her sake.
S. You also said that first I need to say something to the Creator and then to hear from Him, what do I need to tell Him so that I will hear them?
R. When you come into contact with the Creator then you feel what you want to tell Him. I can do it instead of you.
7. S. (10:51) We are trying to turn to the Creator and I heard from you that we have to have a precise address. What is this precise address to the Creator?
R. Precise? I didn’t say that today. Maybe that was in relation to something else but precise means to the extent as much as possible in order to bestow. This is the general meaning of precise.
8. S. (11:25) I feel here that it’s not enough that we understand that we have to ask the Creator to pray for all of our deficiencies of the friends, but here it’s enough that I’m talking to the Creator and that it brings vitality. What is this thing, that it’s enough that I’m connected to the Creator and I’m talking to Him?
R. The Creator is the original of life, it’s the upper light, it’s the source from which everything that exists, emanates, and it becomes filled and receives its vitality. Therefore, when we connect to the Creator, we shift into a different existence than we have before. We begin to live on the level of bestowal. On the level of bestowal there is no boundary, no end to the connection to the giving, to the receiving. It is all on a different dimension altogether. This is how we become incorporated in a new connection.
9. S. (12:51) When a person prays to the Creator in the request and gratitude, it is already in the process of the spiritual development or does Rabash mean for a regular person?
R. No, their requests and their gratitude when we turn to the Creator that is still not spiritual it could be on the corporeal level when the person turns to Him. It is not necessarily, I need to come to Lishma for her sake, which is really the quality of the bestowal that I received from the Creator, it does not exist in me. I have no basis for it and we need to try to come to it.
S. If it’s possible when I pray for the good that will come to the friends ,I only want that. Does it mean that I am breaking the barrier, that I’m rising above it?
R. Yes.
10. S. (14:18) Of course it’s not clear what it means to speak to the Creator because the work we do for Him even when we’re in the lowliness state we try to bring wholeness so what is this about? It’s kind of a dialogue with whom? We try to rise higher and higher?
R. I have nothing to reply to you. You need to just sit and listen and listen until it settles in you. You have many ideas, you also read and hear many things and you want to put it all together and you think that by this you will achieve spirituality quickly. You should actually come more calmly, listen more calmly. Listen more.
11. S. (15:36) You were very precise in the introduction about two ways of communication with the Creator, hearing Him and speaking to Him and I would like to ask about the specific work in his actions. What does it mean that I hear Him in our work, that I tried to hear?
R. I try to flow along with everything that I get in life because it all certainly comes from the Creator and every single moment in life I want to be connected to Him. In this connection to feel how much he is turning to me every moment in a different direction. This is why, that way. this way, and it turns out that I want to cling to Him,to adhere to Him. This is really my goal. Being adhered to the Creator means that every single moment I tried to follow Him until I discovered that he is going, walking in front of me and not that I’m walking alone and the Creator is behind me and then I come out of the garden as you remember when we read it.
S. Is this actually the stage in the work where we enhance our sensitivity for the quality of bestowal?
R. Yes, of course. We have to constantly be nearing moving closer to the quality of bestowal.
12. S. (18:06) Who talks to the Creator, the Ten or me? Who meets the Creator in my heart thanks to Ten?
R. It might be me and it might be the Ten and it might be either.
13. S. (18:28) You explained it very nicely the matter of the connection with the Creator my question is for there to be communication the message needs to be moved from one side to the other, the Creator holds our hearts, when do we come to the feeling that besides faith above reason we can communicate with Him, that we feel that connection?
R. There is nothing besides this. Only in faith above reason can we communicate with a Creator.
S. The moment that person reaches faith above reason he feels the connection with the Creator just like the Creator feels us without any?
R. Not the way the Creator feels us but we begin to feel the connection with the Creator.
Excerpt 2: (19:35) “What It Means that the Name of the Creator is “Truth” ( twice)
14. S. (22:10) Do I understand correctly that the only topic we can talk to the Creator about is only his creation, the friends?
R. Yes, yes, everything that we turn to the Creator is in order to ask for the friends in order to awaken the Arvut, the matter of mutual responsibility where each one is asking for the others. Where we all want to be more connected and more adhere to the Creator we have nothing else with which to turn to Him. The Creator needs only this lack, this deficiency, in order to bring us closer to Him.
15. S. (23:11) At the end of this excerpt we just read, Rabash writes that all the importance is in Him believing that he is now speaking to the King, so I need to convince myself that I’m talking to the king and that’s supposed to be enough for me? How did we do that? How can I convince myself that this is enough for me? Even though without stealing Him that I’m talking to Him and how to believe that I am truly talking to the Creator without feeling it?
R. You’re still not speaking to the Creator with your vessels. You have to come to the state where you are actually connected to Him, feel Him, feel that you were speaking to Him and He accepts and hears your plea and answers it in your vessels. This connection with the Creator has to be much more palpable than real world connections, so what you’re saying is more virtual than real. There is more to advance.
16. S. (24:50) In these excerpts it is talking about me seemingly talking to the Creator one to one and you always told us that the Creator connection with the Creator can only be through the Ten?
R. Just imagine that you are with the Ten and you’re relating to the Creator through them.
S. I should depict that I am?
R. Yes, that the whole Ten is connected and turning to the Creator. Just imagine it this way and see how the Creator will eventually answer you.
S. The answer of the Creator will also come from the Ten?
R. Yes. Yes yes, the answer from the crane shirt will also go through the Ten because the Creator’s relating to the Ten already and not to you individually. For Him there is no individual, he doesn’t feel it the upper degree, he feels the whole Ten below it that is the connection between the degrees.
17. S. (26:23) He writes about the connection with the Creator supposed to be more important than all kinds of gifts and even His answer, how can you hold on to that connection above this feeling?
R. The main thing is the connection and not what I receive in the connection. I could receive through this connection with the Creator as if it doesn’t really happen but let’s say for example I could receive the worst things from the Creator but if I receive it from the Creator, I am content. I don’t need anything else. I only need to be in connection with Him and in other words I elevate my connection with the Creator because it’s with the Creator higher than anything I might receive in the feeling. My connection with the Creator isn’t itself the feeling.
18. S. (27:35) How did we come to talking to the Creator a little each time or do we suddenly start feeling Him?
R. Try each one separately and everyone together. However you want as long as you check all the forms of connection and from this you will understand what is the right way of connection.
19. S. (28:15) Today all of us are talking to the friends in the Ten and I feel that it’s nevertheless different from how I talk to people out there, now in what style in what way should I talk to the friends as if I am talking to the Creator how would it look like?
R. I cannot tell you. You have to find it. As long as it is from the heart and in the style in the manner of love and connection.
20. S. (29:01) How do we feel sufficient in how we talk to the Creator and demand more than that?
R. What more do we need if we are connected to HIm? If the King is the absolute good that does good to everyone and what I received from Him I receive only good and correct things then with what am I turning to Him? I am turning to Him with only one thing, that I want to correct myself in order to bestow, God forbid that I might think anything bad of Him but only good. Because if I am connected to the ‘good who does good’ then I have nothing to ask of Him. Only one thing to ask me so I do not even that I will understand or feel but that I will believe that I am connected to a good to a King who is good for you is good and that’s good.I don’t want to hear that he was good who does good I want to believe that he is good who does good.
S. The minute we are in a situation that we feel that we are approaching the King when we’re in some sort of request from Him, is there anything more to ask? Or does the connection itself bring correction and right thoughts or do I need to add a request to ask for correction?
R. Try and you will see what you should do and what’s worth it. There is none as wise as experienced only when you start turning into Him this way. That way you start receiving and discussing it ,then you see what’s the right plea. In the end the right plea is the right to request that I have to correct myself so that anything that I feel I am receiving from the Creator and anything that I received from the Creator is good and doing good.
S. I am asking for myself to correct me or….?
R. First of all, to correct me to correct these vessels.
S. You said to ask for friends, where am I asking for myself?
R. It is two separate things and which one is more important, this or that we will talk about it, but first of all I need to be corrected in my connection with the Creator so that my relation to Him will be organized and will be established.
21. S. (32:00) Is it dangerous for me to feel the Creator and to talk to Him or egoistic pride?
R. No, if I want to turn to the Creator then I have to turn to Him through the ten otherwise I’m not turning to Him but to something that I am just imagining it in my ego, first I have to emerge from my ego and that is called be connected with the ten and through the ten I turn to the Creator and ask Him for correction.
22. S. (33:11) How can I check that the Creator hears with me and it is not just my fantasies?
R. I can’t check it, I cannot check what I feel, what I am receiving, that is what I have but if I go above my will to receive and I turn through the group to Him then I can be certain that I am turning to the Creator. Then what we receive from the Creator, what I received from the Creator in this way is already certain that I received it from Him. Here there are many manners of connection, basically is the whole of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of Kabbalah is the wisdom of connection between us and the Creator through the ten. So there are three things here: the individual, the ten and the Creator and the communication between them is the whole of the wisdom of Kabbalah. there is nothing more, because there is nothing more, only this exists.
23. S. (35:00) You said earlier it doesn’t matter what he wants to feel, he feels good that does good, he wants to believe in good with those good, what is it to believe in good who does good?
R. I don’t remember saying it this way.
S. It is not important that a person feels the good that does good but he wants to believe?
R. In other words a person wants to rise from the vessels of reception to the vessels of bestowal and in these vessels of bestowal to feel the Creator.
24. S. (35:38) I to the Creator, I’m talking in the darkness and I hear Him in the darkness, the heart tells me that I’m talking to Him?
R. I guess so, why are you asking me?
Reading Excerpt #3 (36:05)
25. R. (37:47) What’s important to us is the connection to the Creator and not that we want to receive something from Him, rather only to connect to Him. Meaning so why are we connected to Him? So we will have something from this or not? It turns out that with certainty of person needs only the connection with the King to be in more vessels of bestowal, with more bestowal and more sanctifying of Himself and then it is considered that the King is so important in Him that he just wants to be connected with the King.
26. S. (38:39) In connection with a friend, when I reveal a shattering, it’s truly hard to relate this shattering to the Creator because the mind thinks that it is the force of the separation behind the ten. It is really hard to relate the shattering to the Creator, how can I overcome the state?
R. But the Creator created the shattering to beget you, to birth you so that you will exist because without the shattering you wouldn’t come out to this world as we say it, to breathe this air and that is why He has no choice. In order to take you outside of Him, where you were inside of the Creator before he has to make you in a way that you are outside of Him and then He distances you from Him four degrees: still, vegetative, animate and speaking so that you will be far from Him and be able to develop as a differentiated part, differentiated creation. As still, vegetative and animate are connected to the Creator and perform actions that he wants from them without any struggle, without any feeling that it is not there. Only a person feels that he exists from two forces, the good inclination and the bad inclination as we call it and then against that we have all kinds of problems, he hesitates to do this way and that way and so on. This is actually all our work.
S. Should I embrace the shattering and through this embrace of the shattering I will go out of myself or should I not relate this shattering with myself and so this way I will take myself out of my vessels?
R. Try this way and that way but nevertheless we need to understand that the shattering is to our benefit without the shattering we would not exist as something that is differentiated from the Creator, as something that exists.
S. I also heard from you, there’s nothing to correct in me and nothing to correct in the friend. The problem is only between us. What is the action, if there is nothing to correct in the friend and nothing in me, so what?
R. The act of connection is what there is between us, only the act of connection.
27. S. (42:49) It is not completely clear, it seems to say that it doesn’t matter what you feel as long as you speak but elsewhere it is written that it doesn’t matter what you say but what matters is what you feel so can you explain that a little bit? What really matters in my connection when I try to turn to the Creator through the ten? What should I exactly ask for and if it doesn’t matter what is happening in my heart then what is it about?
R. You address the Creator with all kinds of questions until you scrutinize that the most important thing is to be in one company in one society which is connected, in connections of love between them and then to the extent in which there is love between them,in this measure of connection that is between them, they can reveal the Creator. Where the Creator is the upper light that is revealed in the ten which is connected in connections until the connections of love, unity to love. Okay?
S. If I heard correctly it doesn’t matter what happens inside of me as long as my response is towards the ten and through it to the Creator and as a result of it there will be love?
R. Yes.
28. S. (45:00) I wanted to ask this: my nature makes me always always want something in return, especially with this article. I can’t understand this intellectually but how can we come to make a request with a desire to bestow so I will be able to hear it from the Creator afterwards?
R. Try to talk to the friends, only with friends. Try to talk to them and get to it together with them.
29. S. (45:41) When you answer the friend’s questions I feel as if you’re raising a prayer to the Creator for us on our behalf. How can we join this effort with you?
R. Connect to me, connect to me and together we will rise to the Creator. Okay?
30. S. (46:45) In order to reveal the Creator we all have to turn to the Creator intensely but how can I know that everyone is turning to the Creator with all their hearts?
R. So talk between you, connect between you, decide between you and activate this prayer to the Creator that you want to be connected in order to reveal Him as by this you bring Him contentment, that you prepared a vessel for Him. Okay?
31. S. (47:30) We said that man’s purpose is not to get an answer from the Creator but only the possibilities to thank the Creator, that is enough. All the billions of people in the world are basically in some sort of request of gratitude to the Creator so what does it mean that I received this real connection with the Creator?
R. This is called that you now have the ability to turn to the ten and through it to the Creator and that you really can present to Him the whole vessel of the ten through your heart. That you are connecting to the friends and this connection you can present to the Creator as the vessel. The Creator doesn’t need anything else and then in that vessel He can begin to be revealed.
S. Is it possible to say, as we say all the time, that I don’t need to wait for the answer from the Creator? Maybe the answer from the Creator is that I understand that I have changed, that I became more connected?
R. Yes, it could be that but we need to be sensitive to it in order to locate that this is me that is really changing, yes. If it was in the right place then you need to feel in that place the extent to which you have changes, it may not be immediate but after a while.
32. S. (49:59) Can it be said that seaking is that relation between light and vessels?
R. There is something in that but well, let’s say yes. It is much deeper we’re yet to learn that, what the matter of speaking is.
33. S. (50:56) Good morning. Is turning to the Creator done when the person hides himself in the shadow of the friends?
R. I can’t connect to that, I don’t know why you are saying it that way, explain that to me.
S. I think when a person elevates, raises his friends in order to turn to the Creator then he’s basically hiding behind them. He’s basically in their shadow and because he hides Himself then the Creator is appeased and can turn back to him?
R. Well, I can’t answer it in a clear concise way here, it is all the way around in this, I can’t say unequivocally.
34. S. (52:14) What Rabash writes in excerpt number two, is it one of the components of acting as if I’m asking something for my ego or is it mandatory that I will ask the minimum so I can receive from the Creator?
R. I don’t understand today in your questions and your answers that this matter is clear. You’re spinning it as if you don’t understand what we’re talking about.
35. S. (53:07) Are we in a stage where we should listen and engage in the topic of the lesson as it was presented?
R. Again.
S. Are we in a stage where we should listen and engage in the topic of the lesson as it was presented?
R. You mean that he wants to talk to the Creator?
S. Yes, with all the meaning presented in the excerpts we read.
R. Yes, to the extent that we can come close we need to come closer and see this.
S. Yes but I feel that in the questions the friends are asking and the way you’re explaining to me, excuse me for saying it, what is projected from you is that there is no equivalence of form.
R. Right what I’m talking about right now with a certain slice of it and they want to hear it on a different kind of level, right?
S. This is why I’m saying that this topic is very important, it is very serious but it is as if we have no vessels. People have no vessels there in a certain place that they have been through something and according to people’s questions..
R. I want to be in them in a simple thing and not that a person is saying he’s hiding behind the friends and asking for the Creator and all kinds of other things. I heard half of the answers as if they did not understand what we were talking about. They were kind of spinning it in a much more difficult way than it needs to be.
36. S. (55:27) How can we hear the Creator when all we can hear all day is our own ego?
R. To the extent in which we can incorporate in our ten we can exit our ego and hear the Creator. This is considered that to the extent that you really connect your ear to the ten you can hear the Creator. He’s there, in them.
37. S. (56:12) I asked the Creator to correct me so I will believe that I am connected to the good who does good. How do I convey that request through the ten?
R. Continue asking, continue to ask and as much as you will be connected to the ten they will feel your request operating in them.
38. S. (56:42) How do we make the speaking with the Creator continuous and without prolonged disconnection?
R. That depends on your deficiency and how much you are immersed in your request.
39. S. (57:03) What is the power of speaking that exists between thought and action? Does it go against something, correlate to something?
R. The force of speaking that’s between thought and deed is both in the thought and the action.
40. S. (57:24) How can we enjoy speaking with the King if there are others who are suffering and not speaking to the Creator?
R. Speak with Him for them.
41. S. (57:47) The thing that perhaps is the most unclear in excerpt number three is how to integrate because the heart doesn’t want anything from the Creator?
R. You continue and continue more and more until it enters the heart. That is the correct state.
42. S. (58:30) What is the hearing, what does it mean to hear the Creator and what is speaking, what is the conversation with the Creator?
R. There are degrees, hearing is the degree of Bina and speaking is the degree of Hochma.
43. S. (58:58) Can I speak to the Creator when I raise questions to my teacher?
R. It’s not the same thing but nevertheless it’s on the way.
44. S. (59:14) How and when do I find that I get benefits from my studies or from the Creator?
R. We need to add more and more in prayer, increase the prayer. Not to the teacher or the friends but to the actual Creator and this prayer will eventually bring us a response. We will begin to feel how we ourselves are changing through the prayer; Therefore, the act of prayer is called the act of praying, the action of praying. To Lehitpalel, meaning to repeat himself, to do it in such a way that it will change a person.
45. S. (01:00:13) What is the right request when the connection, the plea to the Creator is in and of itself what is important and not what to ask and what to receive?
R. I need to try to really appreciate that appeal to the Creator, the ability to address Him. Even though I don’t feel that I am connected and He hears and He is turning to me, it is not important as long as I have the possibility to turn to Him.
46. S. (01:00:59) Can we attribute, arguments, complaints to the Creator as a request or are these complaints closer to serving the friends but not the Creator?
R. Yes.
47. S. (01:01:23) Is the conversation between the Creator and the individual or the Creator and the ten?
R. Between the Creator and individual through the ten.
48. S. (01:01:35) When does the ten become worthy of hearing the voice of the Creator?
R. If it’s connected somewhat as one then the Creator will be attained as the concept of one and they will all hear and feel how the Creator clothes in them. That’s what is called that the Creator is speaking to them.
49. S. (01:02:02) If it’s not important to me if the King gave me something, as you said in the beginning, then why is it important for me to speak with the King?
R. It’s important to me to talk to the King because I have through this the feeling of connection, the feeling of my bestowal to the King and the reception of the King towards me.
50. S. (01:02:34) The Creator is everything in our lives, there is none else besides Him. How do we pass this privilege to the others so they also benefit from this?
R. In my prayer, in my desire, in my action, when I want to bring my ten together to connection with the Creator, this is all my work. This is all our work and it is more important than our connection with the Creator.
51. S. (01:03:10) How in this world can a person be certain that he is speaking with the King and that the King hears?
R. As much as he connects with the ten he will feel that he is connected with the King because he is in the ten. In the eyes of the Creator towards the Creator the ten is not shattered and it has no dispersement or anything. It is in the state of the end of correction; therefore, to the extent to which we can resemble the end of correction, meaning even one percent of it, meaning to be connected, then by that we will start to feel that the Creator is with us.
52. S. (01:04:02) Is the way to elevate Malchut to Bina, is it gradual and before spiritual attainment?
R. To raise Malchut to Bina is a graduated, prolonged action that ends with Malchut rising to Bina and then from Bina she begins to descend once more. When she rises to Bina she receives the quality of bestowal but when she descends from Bina, in return to her place, she works in the form of receiving in order to bestow.
53. S. (01:04:41) Does speaking with the Creator happen outside of the time of the prayer as well?
R. We are constantly praying, we don’t feel our heart but our heart is constantly asking, it is in a constant deficiency and the feeling of the deficiency is the prayer; therefore, everyone prays. All the people in the world pray even the still, vegetative, and animate just like he writes there that even this, that is seeking food is also praying to the Creator.
54. S. (01:05:32) Can I speak with the Creator through my connection with my husband?
R. Also, don’t disregard the fact that a husband and wife are also as a group. We can connect between us and ask from the Creator. It’s worthwhile to do so.
55. S. (01:06:02) It feels like the lesson is the most direct conversation with the Creator after incorporating with the ten, is this so?
R. Yes.