THURSDAY PRAYER: HESED-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT AND DAWN THURSDAY
Zohar for All. Introduction of The Book of Zohar. The Donkey Driver, item 90
READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT AND DAWN THURSDAY
Morning Lesson January 10, 2023, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Zohar for All. “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”. The Donkey Driver. #90
https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/KJWljPMB
1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:52) We are in the middle of the article and I don’t have much to add. Let’s get into it; let’s penetrate it.
Reading Item 90. (01:10 ) “Rabbi Elazar looked at his words..”
Reading Item 91. (02:46) “And Benaiahu, Ben [son of] Yehoiada,..”
2. R. (5:00) It cannot be attained by the lower ones.
3. R. (05:55) Meaning you can’t recognize the light that comes from the Creator directly but only after it passes through a system called ZAT of Bina. That’s what comes to the lower ones and that’s what they can attain.
4. R. ( 18:12)We only have two questions because the text still speaks about everything but it is not so clear about what there is to ask
5. S. (18:25) When we are reading the Zohar it feels like there is a giving force behind it so when we are reading it and holding that same giving force towards the friends or towards the Kli feels like there is something that wants to pass through was so how is there an effect that when we all that intention to give to others as we reading it?
R. Of course, even if we are a tiny, tiny little part of the belly belonging to the system nevertheless we are part of it everyone is part of it all people. and so to the extent that we at least try to be in that same direction, Who is He, what is He. We are also talking here about the head of the world of Atzilut, the world that is not known, cannot be known, nevertheless we are connected. There are we have roots for each and every person that has a root up above .In is reading we have to somehow depict our attitude towards it even if we have no interest in it and we don’t want it and we don’t have a deficiency for it nevertheless we need to try and awaken the deficiency from above so he will bestow to us and employ us and teachers sell from the unknown it will become known.
6. S. (20:47) It talks about the souls, Benaiahu, Rabbi Hamnuna Saba which are sublime souls that are revealed to the righteous in this world and then the righteous too are worthy of seeing the light of Yechida that shines in these higher souls. What are these souls that are revealed?
R. Vessels that can make such couplings and we can see some illumination from them. They work on us, and they raise us using their light and in this way we advance and become close to these degrees that were clear to us that we couldn’t know them and later we are able to know them. Eventually all of us will have to attain all the lights and all of the vessels, all of creation and all of it will shine in all of us and all of us together.
S. You are saying these are vessels that are revealed. How does it happen in the work? We connect and then there is a feeling between us too; a new desire that suddenly appears?
R. By that we build new vessels, higher vessels. When each one nullifies himself towards the other, and then all of us connect and this is our new vessel, our place to receive the light, a new light.
S. And it’s like that righteous that is revealed?
R. Yes.
7. S. (23:12) no translation.
R. He is describing souls that are connected between them.
8 . S. (23:36) As a ten, what should we do, so that these high souls will appear in us?
R. Only connect and pray. We have nothing more to do but during the connection we will scrutinize what else are we missing and we will have additional work for which we can ask the Creator and we will rise to a higher and higher kind of work.
9. S. (25:53) It seems like at this sublime place there is no room for any doubt. My question is: they all seem to be circling regarding the thirty-two paths, can you give an example of what those paths might be?
R. The 32 paths are thirty-two paths of wisdom through which the light of Hochma descends to the lower ones.
10. S. (25:39) You answered that the hosts are the connection of the souls. It says there that all the hosts belong to Him, meaning there are many connections of souls?
R. There are many connections between the souls by which they reveal or discover the ways the Creator influences them. So they discover all the many ways by which the Creator influences them and this is what you refer to with this.
11. S. (26:45) In the excerpt in item 91, it says that this verse comes to show the high secrets of the Torah. How can we come closer, how can we even prepare, are we even permitted to come closer to it
R. Everything is permitted. Each and every one has to attain, up to his height, as much as his soul is capable of rising towards the Creator. You don’t need to restrict ourselves in anything. Rather to climb to the highest possible to connect with all our might with everything we have got.
12. S. (28:05) Who is the righteous who lives? Is it a person who completed all these corrections and how can we come to such a degree?
R. It’s a degree, it’s not a person, it’s a spiritual degree to which we also have to yearn to come to. The son of the living man and… are those names for the degrees that they attain along the way.
13. S. (28:52) I wanted to clarify something about the study. We are all truly inspired by reading in the Zohar and we study in the evening too. So first of all is reading the whole article, to just let it wash over us with this hour, is this correct to do it and is it correct to also start scrutinizing what it is talking about here; to start detailing it. Is this form of studying correct?
R. Soon we will receive additional explanations from the Zohar itself. What can I tell you? We are talking about GAR of Atzilut and how the souls through their MAN awaken GAR of Atzilut to light on to them and return from above down, that’s it. All the rest will come from the practical study and how much you can awaken these lights… and Hamnuna Saba and so on and so forth.
S. The donkey driver, the impression is that we are talking about the highest system, that we are very far from it and in order to activate it can we, in order to start understanding where these connections are, how they are created, all of these forces and how do they operate?
R. While you read and wish to attain these things, you awaken on yourself the lights that surround your soul and these lights cleanse your soul and make it worthy of receiving a feeling; of detecting the things you are reading about.
14. S. (31:20) What characterizes Hochma that is clothed in Bina?
R The light of Hochma clothes in the light of Hassidim and by that it can come down to the lower ones. The light of Hochma by itself cannot hold the connection to the lower ones it is through the Bina. We have Keter, Hochma and then Bina, then ZA and Malchut. So through Bina we get the connection through Keter and Hochma through ZA and Malchut.
15. S. (32:09) Are there any restrictions on the expansion of light of Hochma from above downwards?
R. Of course, all the restrictions are on the light of Hochma and everything is in the expansion of these lights from above down: that’s what all the prohibitions, the warnings are all about. The degrees, the clothing it is all on the light of Hochma the light of Hassidim has no prohibition on it; no limitation.
16. S. (33:03) How can we draw these highest spirits that he’s talking about here? How can we draw them up on us? Does it depend on our deficiency for connection?
R. We connect between us and we yearn to reach these upper righteous ones and we wish to receive those lights that exist in those degrees called the upper righteous ones and that’s how we receive from it. Gradually it fills us and we feel ourselves with those lights and they enter so those lights enter within our vessels. It is called our attainment to the extent that we adhere to the Creator, we Become similar to the Creator and so on and so forth.
17. S. (34:44) In item 90, he starts by saying Rabbi Elazar looked at his words, it doesn’t say he listened. Why does it say looked? What is the meaning of looking at a word?
R. In attainment there are two degrees: hearing and seeing. So people say, ‘I heard from someone’ who is a higher degree from a prophet or someone and there are those who say, ‘I saw it.’ Certainly seeing is higher than hearing but in the degrees of prophecy there are two forms Hassidim and Hochma. Hassidim is in hearing, to hear if it is a spiritual one and seeing is for the spiritual eyes seemingly. That is why we have two degrees of attainment: hearing and seeing.
18. S. (36:20) What does it mean to be the son of the living man?
R. We will learn about it later. We have to discover who the donkey driver was and then we will also talk about it.
19. S. (36:58) It says here in the text, they merited being MAN for the great coupling of that Rosh of Atik Yomin after their demise. What does it mean that they became MAN after their demise?
R. Meaning after the degree was refined, they receive a higher deficiency and rise to a higher degree. This is the meaning of the departure of the soul.
20. S. (37:48) You said we should try to want to attain what we are reading. It is imperceptible; it is abstract. How do we connect a desire to this text?
R. Nevertheless when we read we should try to know what we are reading.
S. How to want to attain it?
R. To want to attain it, yes.
S. It speaks here about AA of Atzilut called Hochma Stimaa and there is a coupling there but there is no extension of Mochin below. So how can there be a coupling if there is no extension down below?
R. I guess there is and that’s what he writes. There is a coupling but there is no extension of Mochin and drawing of Mochin and below. I guess below there are no proper vessels for drawing the light to the lower degrees: that is why there is no drawing of the Mochin.
S. Is it that the system is set up so that the lower ones activate everything?
R. Yes but perhaps the deficiency of the lower ones are not strong enough to draw it to their place.
S. So what’s the purpose of such a coupling?
R. I don’t know there are many things we read. What he writes and as much as we can understand that there is probably such a state, such a place where they make a coupling an awakening above but there are no forces to draw it below. We learn it.
Reading Item 92. (40:04) “Of many deeds is Mek’abze’el,..”
Reading Item 93. (43:30) “This is the holy, hidden palace in which..”
21. S. (48:49) We started reading the Zohar in our gatherings. Is it necessary to read it in a more concentrated manner, does it help to read the Zohar more slowly so that you can focus and concentrate or more quickly more strictly to cover more text?
R. Never mind, either way is good. It is good that you are going over the Zohar even several times, the same text quickly or slowly it all leaves impressions and it accumulates in you. It is good. I’m happy to hear it.
22. S (49:50) Who is inviting these upper lights on us; those unknown lights that refine the matter of the donkey? Is that the will to receive who is calling them or the light itself pulling us ahead?
R. The light itself which is on the upper degree yearns to come down in all the degrees and clothe in us and in this way, organize us, arrange us towards the end of correction.
23. S (50:46) How can our thoughts during the lesson serve the desire to feel the Zohar?
R. It all depends on the thought, as it says: everything is clarified in the thought.
S. Yes but the thoughts can disperse going in different places.
R. So keep it that way. Go toward the Creator, towards the connection with Him and towards clothing in all the systems in the Partzufim that we learn about. Try to focus your thoughts on this and then you will start seeing how the more you concentrate, that the more you feel changes in the upper influence.
S. So try to be in the texts, try to feel there, that is what is happening to us.
R. Yes.
24. S (54:57) What is the difference between the Partzuf of Atik and Atik Yomin?
R. No difference.
S. We learn in the Zohar about the cascading of the lights from above down and below up.
R. They are cascading from above downwards?
25. S (52:38) Should it be MAN from the lower ones so that we will invoke the end of correction? Is it an accumulated process; when it comes it comes?
R. An accumulated process; the end of correction is an accumulative process.
26. S (53:02) What are those degrees that are seemingly revealed here and then become hidden again in the Rosh of the Atik?
R. They don’t become concealed, they accumulate and they do not disappear but at the end of correction they will appear.
27. S (53:43) In item 93, it says the lights that come to enlighten the world are called nourishment. How can lights become nourishment?
R. Lights fill the vessels, this is why they are nourishments; precisely the lights are the nourishments.
28. S (54:30) In the beginning of ninety-three, it says this is the holy hidden palace in which all the degrees are hidden and assembled and in the Guf of the palace are all the worlds and all the holy hosts are nourished by and exist. Can we understand here on the one hand everything is hidden and before that we can say that the Mochin are not drawn below and on the other hand everything is nourished by it and it shines? Can I understand how come?
R. There are indeed some incidents here. I’m not sure how to say it. Let’s say, on one hand the lights are not drawn and on the other hand they are revealed below. Not according to their drawing below but according to the matching, the congruence of the vessels.
It is like a transformer, although there is no connection between them directly; electric connection, but there is a connection between the coils and through the electromagnetic field, through the electric field. So there are many matters of connections between the Partzufim. We will learn it.
S. Maybe this word inspiration, everything we feel in the 6,000 years it is like an inspiration, it’s like a field and not a direct extension.
R. Yes.
29. S (57:00) I noticed that a hundred pages almost of The Zohar, he speaks only of the world of Atzilut and compared to TES we barely touch Atzilut in the first volume. Are we going to continue to focus only on the world of Atzilut in the Zohar and why is he focusing on that world only?
R. Look, first of all we have not finished the introduction to the Book of Zohar. There is more material there, this is number one.
And number two the main thing for us to study is the head, the top of corrections which is the world of Atzilut so that it is emphasized this way in many places. It is called the studies of Atzilut and this is what we study. That is number one and number two the worlds of BYA, what happens in them is not that they themselves do and create; from what they draw the lights, this is what happens.
S. I noticed in this article and also in the previous articles in the Zohar, at the end of correction there’s a moment that everything happens. All this entire 6,000 years act as a preparation for this moment where something happens at the very end.
R. Of course, this is so. Why should it be otherwise?
S. No, it is interesting, like we’re doing this only in accumulation and only in the end something should happen.
R. All of the 6,000 years are called the eve of the Sabbath and the end of correction is called the Sabbath, Shabbat: one who prepared on the eve of Shabbat will eat on Shabbat.
30. S (59:05) Is it possible to lose a degree of prophecy or that high soul that is helping us?
R. No. Usually you rise in holiness you do not decline in holiness and if you do decline, you are brought lower these are very unusual cases
31. S (59:50) Is each degree born out of a Zivug and each correction a result that depends on us in this connection?
R. Each and every degree requires its own correction and the higher the level, the greater the correction that it requires and then the lights pass through it and also receive lower degrees as well and vice-versa. The more we ask from below, the lowest degree, the light should come and correct from the higher level because in order to correct a lower one, a one who is worse, it requires a higher, upper light.
32. S. (01:01:42) When you interpreted your black book in The Zohar you brought an example of the old man who is searching constantly and when the process is slower I am more satisfied. How does that relate to the light if the light of Mercy comes to nourish the face. That the light of wisdom makes the small face into a big face from smallest to greatest? Is the correction yearning for our growth? How does it work there searching inside of yourself when I am not connected with the friends yet..
S. So the question is if I’m satisfied and I am standing in place then the process becomes slower I simply receive, but if I’m looking for additional deficiencies from the friends, this is called drawing the lower light the degree that will develop the next degree.
R. Yes.
33. S (1:02:30) You constantly say that everything is clarified in the thought. What is it in the thought that clarifies everything for us? How do we connect to these thoughts?
R. The thought connects the feelings. This is why together they correct a person.
34. S (01:03:12) You said that any minute it is possible to awaken the end of correction. What is the desire or level of desire that can awaken the end of correction?
R. I don’t think we can already do it, but to gradually approach it we can do this, we can, so we should try to connect. What is the end of correction? The end of correction is the end of correction of the shattering, meaning we have to connect in such a way that there is no higher degree than that but every time we want to reach ‘there is no higher degree than that’ we elevate ourselves this way more and more and more and in this way step-by-step we raise ourselves to the end of correction.
35. S (01:04:25) What is that one in which all the worlds are assembled?
R. It is the degree of Rav Hamnuna Saba. Soon we will read about it too.
36. S (01:04:41) Do the lights awaken the souls or vice versa?
R. Our deficiencies, the MAN awaken the souls and those souls awaken the upper sources of light which come down and correct us.
37. S (01:05:07) What is a kiss in spirituality?
R. A special Zivug, coupling. A special Zivug. There are three degrees of coupling: Embrace, kiss, and mating, corresponding to Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama and in this way we advance. Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama which are embrace, kiss and mating.
38. S (01:05:51) So what is the coupling of the end of correction?
R. The coupling of the end of correction is when the will to receive can be with intention to bestow in its fullest depth.
39. S. (01:06:11) What exactly is the light of Hochma and the light of Hassadim and what is their central action on a person?
R. The light of Hassadim, the light of Mercy is a light of the correction of the vessel. The light of Hochma, the light of Wisdom is the light of the purpose of creation; the filling of the Kelim, the vessels. Through the light of Hassadim we have to prepare the vessel for reception of the light of Hochma.
40. S. (01:06:39) How and by what level of the correction is determined, is it always from the worst to the best?
R. Let’s say it’s a yes.
41. S (01:07:09) We learned that the righteous is the one that justifies the Creator so what does it mean the righteous in the world of Atzilut?
R. The righteous one is one who justifies the Creator in every place and in every situation; there are several kinds of righteous, the incomplete righteous and complete righteous.
42. S. (01:07:35) Do we identify our donkey driver only after he leaves, or does he continue to accompany us, nevertheless?
R. The donkey driver doesn’t leave us, he leads us until the end of correction
43. S (01:07:56) We don’t lower in Kedusha, but what happens when the friend leaves the path, don’t they lower in sanctity?
R. They will have to join us in the future, you cannot quit and not finish anything, each and every soul has to do its role; to carry it out and to connect with the rest of the souls until the complete work of everyone.
44. S (01:08:38) You advised us to hold on to our concentration in the reading of the Zohar when the thought is dispersed, how to do it?
R. We have to remind each other to do all kinds of exercises in between so we do not fall asleep or disconnect from one another. But as much as possible each one will not be connected to the text of the Zohar but connected to the friends and then together with the friends we connect to the book of Zohar. Just connecting to The Book of Zohar does not have much of a remedy in it, it is not very powerful; but when we connect among us and together all of us connect to The Book of Zohar this is really a very significant action.
Very good. I’m happy with the questions.
45. S (01:10:01) How should the purification of the Kli be so that the upper lights will awaken from above, from love?
R. The upper lights awaken when the plea, the litany from below is similar to the nature of the lights; the lights want to come and bestow and fill the vessels, so this is how we too should work.
46. S (01:10:50) to get to know the donkey driver and to demand that he walks ahead of us, is the result of attaining a certain degree of correction of the donkey?
R. Ye, yes.
47. S (01:11:28) Is there a difference between the reforming light that imprints the changes in us and the donkey driver?
R. No, it’s the same. It is the same.
Reading Item 94. (01:12:06) “There were two temples that were nourished for it..”
48. S (01:21:03) Your teacher told us that Kabbalah exists about 2,000 years in these ways, how did this work? How did Kabbalah operate in Israel during the times of the temples?
R. This is a very broad topic, a deep one too and I don’t think I can now share about it. Let’s ask the content people through prepared materials on the topics and then you will be able to see, and I do not think we need to waste time on this during our lessons. We will see how to do it. In short, all of the content people, men, and women. Think about what to do and how to give you materials on this. I do not think we should fill our lessons with this. We have a lot of material. We can spend a few minutes talking about it but no more than that.
49. S (01:23:11) To study the Zohar do we need to keep the efforts to connect during the lesson or do we need special preparation before the lesson that is necessary?
R. Also before the study and also during the study. We need to try to be connected because the light of Zohar is revealed in connection. That is clear, That is clear from all the introductions and from all of this material. What He brings to a person, when He demands from us, the only connection to us is the return to being a single system. There is no other goal to the study of the wisdom of God, and specifically to the study of the Zohar.
S. In order to hold on to the connection, as we continue to work, more effort will be necessary to put into the connection. today during the day will be necessary for must
R. Yes of course we were still learning about it and we’re delving in deeper again more and more but without too much pressure because people need to get used to it gradually.
50. S. (01:24:32) You said half virtuous. What does it mean virtuous ?
R. Half in debit and half in merit, is such a state he goes to correct himself. He succeeds in half and then the other half succeeds.
51. S (01:25:09 ) What is the connection between the ruin of the temples and the sin of the tree of knowledge?
R. The sin of the tree of knowledge is the sin of the general correction without which you cannot experience correction, it all starts from the shattering. Until we correct it and reach the final correction.
S. What are the ruins of the temple? How is that connected?
R. The ruins of the temple is How should I put it it’s the destruction of the first and the second until they are distracted you cannot make any correction there has to be a coupling on the light of mercy and the right of the wisdom and the shattering of all these coupling and then they can be corrected and they can brought from the shuttling until it is correct and until they couldn’t hold the light of the final connection Mercy & wisdom info
S. He supposed to hit you of all the people in the world is it a result of the ruin of the temples
R. Yes it all depends on that