MONDAY PRAYER: HOD-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT AND DAWN MONDAY
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to the Book of Zohar, item 46
Morning Lesson January 14, 2023 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #46
Reading Item #46 twice (00:25)
1. S. (06:59) What is that Malchut that transfers from the Creator to the lower one on the still degree?
R. Malchut is Malchut everywhere, this is what it does. She receives the lights from above and then down below.
S. It seems that Malchut transfers it automatically, all the still parts of man which is the light of Nefesh. That a person doesn’t make any effort, just receives it and that’s it
R. This is what you understand for the time being, fine.
2. S. (07:58) He speaks about the vessel of Hochma he says it’s pure and the light that transfers from Ein Sof relates to the purification of the speaking part of man’s body. What makes it so pure than the rest of the degrees?
R. The light of Hochma is the highest light, it comes to the vessels in order to sanctify them, correct them, connect them.
S. Does it come from the Creator or is it a result of man’s work?
R. No it certainly comes from the Creator.
S. How do you work with it? What is our work with the light of Hochma?
R. If you are on the level where you can work with the light of Hochma this is already something else.
S. What does it mean to be on a degree that I can work with the light of Hochma? What should I be? How should I work?
R. You have to have a screen, that matches it and you want to work with this big screen, with coarseness of phase 3 or 4 and by this you draw the light of Hochma and work with it.
S. Where does the light of Hassadim work with the light of Hochma? How do I attain this Hassadim?
R. Hassadim you have to have so you will have the intention to bestow but performing an act in order to bestow is done with the light of Hochma.
S. What is the essence of this action? Can you give us some idea how I can attain the light of Hassadim through the light of Hochma?
R. If you want to bestow upon someone you have nothing to bestow. You have to connect with him, receive his will to receive, make a coupling on this will to receive with the upper light, and what you have your pass on to the one whom you received the desire. Is this clear?
S. Less than more, I don’t understand the action yet. So to engage in the light of Hochma I sit with the ten. How do I build the light of Hassadim? What are the conditions to attain the light of Hassadim?
R. The light of Hassadim is a condition that what you do will be in order to bestow.
S. How do I attain it, what action? What do I do in the ten to attain it if it’s possible to attain it?
R. Imagine that you are with more friends and you want to do together an act in order to bestow, So what do you do?
S. So what do I do in the ten to finally attain the light of Hassadim?
R. How do you do it?
S. Exactly. How do I do it? What should I do in the ten in order to attain the light of Hassadim? I understand it’s the most important thing so how do I attain it?
R. You attain it because you pray to the Creator, you present Him with the desires you have and you ask for corrections of Hassadim over them.
S. What should my attitude be towards the friends?
R. That you want to connect to him together and together in the common vessel receive the light of Hassadim that will tie you together and will give you the possibility to be filled with the light of Hassadim and continue.
S. What does that have to do with annulment, to lower myself before the friends?
R. Of course you annul yourself before the friend.
3. S. (12:43) I am a little bit confused. Do we purify the still part of our will to receive and reveal the world of Assiya after this purification ends or do we move any impurifications onto the barrier and right now just try to control our ego?
R. No, no, we are in the middle of the work and now we are going to attain the power of the screen, or after the restriction, the screen and the reflected light we now try to connect ourselves to the Creator according to the qualities of equivalence of from, right?
4. S. (14:37) How does a person know what vessel he’s in, what he’s working with, what he prays, what he demands?
R. if he’s already in states that we read about then he knows what state he’s in and to what degree he is rising.
S. And a person that doesn’t feel it, what should he do?
R. He needs to start from scratch, from zero.
S. What is that zero point?
R. When he doesn’t want to receive anything but only to bestow, and from this he gradually begins to accumulate the power of resistance for reception, the power of bestowal and in this way gradually rise as he says in item 46.
S. There is another question: how does the person reach that purification?
R. Through the upper light that shines on a person gradually all of his desires that were working in order to receive come into working in order to bestow, one at a time. This is called gradually.
S. And that matter of purity, what is that purity exactly?
R. Purity means that vessels that worked in order to receive now receive the intention to bestow.
S. Only the intention has that change?
R. There is no work, there is no change but only in the intention.
5. S. (16:57) Technical question: he speaks about the vessels and calls them KHB TM but he states the vessels of Malchut, Tifferet, Bina and Hochma, what about Keter?
R. The Vessel of Keter is the comprehensive and inclusive vessel that is clarified later. We haven’t come to it yet.
6. S. (17:26) He is describing the way the lights clothe in the vessels, so the upper vessels depend on the lower ones and there’s still no dressing of the light, in there it’s only the light of Nefesh. If there is no drawing from the lower vessels he’s describing a state that there is no clothing of lights let’s say in the vessel of Keter, the light of Yechida is not clothed yet.
R. Of course.
S. So the state he’s describing here is only partial of the development? I don’t understand. How do the pure vessels, why are they completely dependent on the lower ones because without them there is no clothing right?
R. The pure, the more refined Kelim like Keter, Hochma, Bina are dependent on the work on the lower vessels, ZA and Malchut. The courser the vessels have the intention to bestow the higher vessels begin to be with the intention to bestow, they receive from them lights and screens.
S. There is still no work of the lower one so how could there be such a clothing?
R. I don’t understand your diagrams and pictures. The heaviest vessels are in the bottom ZA, Malchut right? If they work in order to bestow they can raise their lights very high to Hochma and Keter.
S. Correct so that’s what I’m trying to scrutinize. As long as the Malchut wasn’t purified so the light of Haya can’t clothe in the Keter?
R. No clothing of light of Haya in Keter right, until Malchut reaches receiving in order to bestow with all of her coarseness.
7. S. (20:46) How do we annul towards friends in the ten?
R. I do not understand the question.
S. We want to annul in order to use the lights correctly to scrutinize the intention so we have to annul first.
R. Correct, from the most refined vessels.
S. How do we do it?
R. We annul ourselves as much as possible.
S. What do I have to annul when I come to the ten before all the friends?
R. That you want to do everything only for their sake at your own expense.
S. I have to disconnect from the intention for myself and try and feel what are their desires and intentions?
R. Yes.
S. What do we do afterwards because how do we feel this first?
R. How you feel it I can’t tell you, you feel it.
S. What do I feel that I’m concerned about the friend that I want to do everything for them? So if we feel that what do we do, what do we do with that? Now we’ve decided that we’ve annulled, what next?
R. So you annul your coarseness and join the friends and whatever the friends want to do you do together with them.
S. What are we doing this for?
R. In order to join them.
S. For what?
R. You said that it’s what you want.
S. I understand it’s a beginning, what do we do with, what do we do onward after we feel that we’ve annulled?
R. All of you join together as one man in one heart and then you raise all your work to the Creator, to Keter from everyone because you are already connected.
S. What do we want from it?
R. To be connected to Keter, to the Creator.
8. S. (23:43) What is the purification of the light? Does that depend on our ability to give? How do we feel the purification?
R. Through ourselves.
S. And what purifies the light, our intention?
R. Yes.
9. S. (24:24) With the light of Hassadim we build the vessel?
R. You can say so.
S. And the vessel and the light of Hochma, so the work in raising MAN changes?
R. Yes.
S. So there’s like an exchange here, the upper and lower heaven?
R. Yes.
10. S. (24:57) Correcting our intention, does that depend on the friends that are connected or the intensity of our work in the ten?
R. On the quantity, the number of the people and the intensity of their connection, the power of their connection.
11. S. (25:32) Where does the intention to only want to bestow and not receive for myself come from? Is it after we feel the good of the Creator to some extent and we want to respond to it or does it come from something else?
R. It comes from the Creator.
S. Does the intention bring it, does it conduct it?
R. Yes.
12. S. (26:29) In simple words this game with the vessel, what does it do to the Sefirot?
R. The game or the playing with the vessel develops us and brings us into actual similarity with the Creator.
13. S. (26:54) The vessels KHB TM that it covers, that conceal Ein Sof and measure His illumination towards the receivers, are those vessels screens that receive from the Creator according to the state of the created being?
R. Correct.
S. So in the right work a person gets a screen that lets him receive in order to bestow?
R. Yes.
14. S. (27:38) What you’re teach is that I discover my nature according to what I feel and these worlds, these degrees, these lights I receive it’s only the understanding that I can work through the friends in order to reach it. So that’s what Kabbalah teaches?
R. Of course, anything that we can understand in spirituality is only through the friends.
Reading Item #47 (28:32)
Reading item #48 (31:45)
15. S. (37:17) He starts everything we read in 45 that by engaging in the secrets of the Torah he purifies the animate part of the will to receive in him and builds the point of the soul, so he summarizes it. What does it mean engaging in the secrets of the Torah and the Mitzvot, what is that in our work?
R. It is something that is still don’t know. It is also an upper light because everything is an upper light but it’s clothed in vessels that we still don’t feel, don’t know, don’t use.
S. Let’s say we understood. So what’s purifying the animate part of the will to receive?
R. Describing means he can work with them in order to bestow.
S. So we have to reach that.
R. Don’t you know what it means to describe something, to depict something?
S. To describe? To purify, what does it mean to purify?
R. Let’s say you have some foul air in your room, bad smelling air. You come with some sort of balloon, air purifier, air freshener and you perfume the air. So by that you purify the air and it becomes pleasant, nice, fresh.
S. So he says one greater from Ein Sof called the light of Neshama. What is the light of Neshama that he’s speaking about?
R. The light of Neshama is a special light which is intended to purify a part that is called Neshama in the vessel.
S. So are we building the soul, purifying the soul, what does he mean?
R. No. Here Neshama is part of the will to receive, a part of the Kli that we have to purify.
S. And then what?
R. So before that you have Nefesh, Ruach and then Neshama you got stuck on and then Haya and Yechida.
S. So we don’t even have a soul, we have to build it?
R. Correct.
S. Interesting, I thought that we were born into this world with a soul.
R. What you think keep to yourself.
S. So we come to the world without a soul.
R. You’re funny.
S. They tell us we come with a soul to this world and you’re saying we don’t have a soul.
R. What soul do we come to this world with, it’s just words. Okay, today is not a joke day.
S. I understand but I didn’t know what it means that I come without a soul.
16. S. (40:53) What is the process of building a Partzuf? How do we know we’ve built a Partzuf in the ten?
R. When you get to it, you’ll see that you’ve connected together into a Partzuf which is truly called the ten as one, when everyone is together as one man in one heart. In the meantime your heart is on the level Nefesh or Ruach or Neshama, maybe even Haya or Yechida. But this is what to build out of your will to receive in the ten. Best for us is that in the ten we do what they tell us to do and then from the experience, from our actions in this way we will attain what is happening to us and what is written in this text.
17. S. (42:20) You said that if you want to bestow upon someone you have nothing to bestow. You have to connect with him, receive his will to receive and make a coupling with the upper light on that desire. How do you make a coupling with the upper light on the will to receive of a friend?
R. When you incorporate with a friend and you really want to help him, you feel his desire, how he wants and you raise that desire through us to the Creator and ask the Creator to give us an ability to fill the friend’s desire. Then the Creator fills the friend’s desire and that’s called that we have filled their desire.
S. And what is the word coupling with the upper light mean in this case?
R. Coupling with the upper light means that I connect to the upper light in order to pass it from the Creator to the friend. That’s a very important action and very practical.
18. S. (43:53) How not to be confused, sometimes we try to satisfy the friends desires by ourselves and forget to turn to the Creator; there is perhaps some mistake here if I try to satisfy the friends desires by myself.
R. That doesn’t work.
S. How can I understand that I turned to the Creator? I asked him inside.
R. There is no result.
S. How do I understand that only through turning to the Creator this work was done?
R. It is just simply to connect with the friend and rise to the Creator with the friend’s desire.
S. Do I need to connect with the friends in this, to incorporate the desire and then the filling is correct?
R. Yes.
19. S. (45:11) In the text he talks about complete vessels.
R. Repeat.
S. Here in the text he talks about complete vessels, and vessels that hide the light of reception from receiving. Where do we clothe here? Where is the clothing on the light here?
R. We receive the deficiencies from the friends, we incorporate in those deficiencies, we raise these deficiencies to the Creator and receive in those deficiencies a correction and a fulfillment and we pass it back to the friend. We are working in the middle here between the Creator and the friend as the lower one, upper one and the upper upper one.
20. S. (46:59) Purification means the intent to strengthen the connections and to raise MAN?
R. Yes.
21. S. (47:25) With your permission, the topic of the structure and transition in 248 and 365, do and not do, is there a part of the commandments that we’re supposed to do? That we can already purify or do we continue advancing by searching? I want to connect, that’s the do. What should we not do so we don’t blemish, spoil the connection? Can you elaborate on those organs and tendons?
R. I do not understand your question exactly, you got confused there from the middle of the question. What do you want?
S. I want to know what I need to do in the process of connection and what I should not do so I don’t spoil it, so I don’t spoil this structure and the transition between the various degrees?
R. Join the friends and do everything they want, that’s it. And ask the Creator to help you join them and to help you perform actions that the friends want of you. And you are a zero, you don’t receive any desires of your own only from the friends and the Creator. You are in the middle connecting them, the friends and the Creator together.
S. Zero, is it from the commandments to do?
R. Zero means that you for yourself don’t want to decide anything. On all your actions that you connect to the Creator and the friends, the friends and the Creator are the ones deciding about that.
22. S. (49:40) When we satisfy our regular corporeal desires, do we move away from the light and is there an expiration date for the light?
R. The light doesn’t have an expiration date. When we distance by that we’re just awakening the system to bring us to connection in a different way and it will force us to connect in a different way.
23. S. (50:34) What does it mean when It says from one degree to the next the light acts more? What does that mean, the lights acts more?
R. That’s according to the coarseness that we discover. So according to that the light works in a certain degree, in a certain intensity.
24. S. (51:27) He says here in 47 that only when 613 organs are completed the Sefira from the world of Assiya brings the most important light which is the light of Ruach that’s connected to the purification of the vegetative part of a person. Do we need all 613 desires to be corrected in order for it to be corrected and purified or can we correct other parts of the desires say Nefesh or Tifferet or other parts on different degrees?
R. We have to start our corrections and this is how we begin according to the ladder, according to the ladder NRNHY in each and everyone’s soul, that’s how we correct. Now in that we have no choice because everyone starts their corrections from easy to difficult.
25. S. (53:06) We don’t have a lot of time until the end of the lesson and there’s a part we wanted to dedicate to the upcoming Arava Congress and also to scrutinize and share. So let’s take the deficiencies that the friends have, their questions about the Congress.
26. S. (53:34) Hello friends, hello Rav, we want to update and give you a report. It’s a preparation for several question for Rav regarding the upcoming Arava Congress, February 2023. From the 23rd to the 25th of February there will be an Arava Congress in Israel, a physical gathering for men from all over the world. We call it the Arava Congress just out of habit because of our tradition of having Congress’ in the desert but in this case it will be in southern Israel. The women at the same time will gather here physically at the center. There will be many other big mirror congress’ for men and for women all over the world and the whole event will be broadcast on our sites on the regular channels. We also want to point out that women and men from the world Kli who will come to the Congress in Israel will be able to stay at the center in Petah Tikva from the 21st to the 28th of February. At the end of the lesson we’ll have a detailed report about the event, registration and staying here but first we have a few questions for Rav.
27. S. (55:10) The first question we want to ask is, let’s do a short workshop on the Arava Congress. We wanted to ask this from all the friends, how do we see this upcoming Congress? How do we come into it as one Kli and come out of it into the next degree? How do we see the upcoming Arava Congress, how do we get into it united and come out of it as one Kli?
Workshop: How do we see the Arava convention? How do we enter it united as a single Kli and come out of it in the next degree?
28. S. (59:25) We want to ask a few questions about the upcoming Arava Congress. We will continue the discussion we just started. The first question is this Congress is special for many reasons but one of the most conspicuous reasons is that this Congress is exactly three years after the last Congress we had in Israel and then we went into the Corona period where we were all virtual. This is the first official event when we all gather in one convention. There will be a central convention here in Israel and there will be mirror congresses all over the world. How do you relate to this occasion?
R. I see this Congress as a very important Congress because we feel how lately we supposedly have this force on one hand and on the other hand we aren’t exactly in the direction. This is what we have to receive this direction in the Congress. I understand it’s not like it used to be in Tel Aviv but it will still cause us to connect, to unite, and to advance towards the goal. We did a lot of work throughout the last years more or less counting from the end of the corona to today and we can really now take a very special path towards it and enter our final stage of spiritual advancement, yes.
29. S. (01:01:58) So, we wanted to continue at the content meeting we had, an initial meeting we had with you about the Arava Congress, we asked you if you could you tell us what is the main goal of this Congress, how do you see this Congress; so you said that you see us becoming one world Kli in this Congress so we will be able to feel as one group of men and one group of women?
R. Yes.
S. Can you elaborate: what does it mean to become one group of men and one group of women?
R. We want connection because specifically in the connection we are returning to the structure of Adam HaRishon that we had before the sin, before the shattering. That’s why we are gathering part of the men in the desert and part of the men all over the world wherever they are in the communications devices, and same with the women, part of the women that are coming to our Center here in Petah Tikva, not to the desert that our place in Bnei Baruch, Petah Tikva, And the rest of the women are also like the men anywhere else in the world and they connect to us through their communication devices or whatever Internet. I really hope that this Gathering will be warm, will be special, will be powerful, and that it will give us, it will give us a feeling of connection into one vessel of all of us, all of us together and that’s it, that’s all I wanted to say. I feel this vessel and I understand and before the Congress we should be working on these connections that will actually will realize in the Congress and it will give us an ascent towards a spiritual degree, that’s what I think.
30. S. (01:04:44) What exactly do you feel, what is the next degree we have to realize at the Congress and after, and to what we have to aim ourselves now?
R. I think we will rise to the state that we are in one system, in one heart, in one intention, and in this way, we can really rise, we can rise to our first spiritual degree.
31. S. (01:05:23) So what is the place of the individual ten in relation to becoming one Kli?
R. We aren’t losing our ten, the ten remains our ten as our main vessel, as our soul and are all connecting together into a broader vessel that includes as many tens as possible in it; and in this way we come closer to the Creator, to the intensity and in the quality of that vessel.
S. Another point that we want to clarify with you is regarding this occasion, situation of walking in the desert. We see throughout the development how every emergence always happens through the desert so what is this walking through the desert that we have to do in order to come out in spirituality?
R. Usually when we go out into the desert we see how we disconnect from the whole world and we only feel ourselves towards ‘the skies’, that’s what we have; and in such a way we feel spiritual uplifting. Let’s hope that here too we can do it and we can feel it. I’m speaking about the man and the women here in the Center where I’m sitting now, they will gather or in their homes, wherever they are connected to children, families and they can’t come here, so there will be in the internet connection, the virtual connection, and we see that this connection also doesn’t take down of the intensity in the heart when we want to come and connect.
32. S. (01:07:50) What is the place of studying The Zohar in this Arava Congress?
R. We’ll learn The Zohar and we have prepared all the studying in The Zohar and we will keep scrutinizing what we need to study exactly in the Congress and we will go through lessons there on the Book of Zohar, on everything we have there, it will really helps, it helps our spiritual assent.
33. S. (01:08:47) You said at the Arava Congress, the male part and the female part can become one vessel, one Kli so how do you see the participation of women in the Congress, how do you see our participation at the Congress, what is our special participation as women?
R. I think that the women will participate from the place they’ll be and the men will participate from the place they will be but we have one goal, and we have an understanding of the vessel that we have to attain in unity and connection. And all in all, we, after we connect the man between them and the women between them, we also connect the both together and we reach the vessel of Adam HaRishon that includes the male part and the female part.
S. There is something special, some special activities, some special connection that help women connect simultaneously with the connection of the men at the Congress?
R. We’ll speak about that with the group that is taking care of it, that they choose what materials we are going to study, what we are going to engage in during the breaks but we will have to think about it. We already have plans and we still have time for it, we will do it together.
34. S. (01:11:06) Lately, we are seeing that the women’s group is getting strong in terms of participation in the lessons, in working in the tens, the whole group of Bnei Baruch, have two lessons a day, so many activities of connection, and you can really feel in the world’s women’s group, this strengthening. How can we get even stronger until this Congress to become one world women’s group?
R. I have nothing else to add except for what we are learning, men, women, we need to connect more and more together check their intentions as much as they understand uniting the intentions, uniting the desires and in that strengthening, that each one will see themselves as willing to help their friends, that’s it.
S. You said before, that in the desert we direct ourselves to the sky because it’s complete disconnection from any corporality. How do we create a situation in the women’s Kli where we too will have this feeling of a desert where our hearts and faces are towards the sky?
R. It all depends on the person’s effort and not that it all depends whether they are in the desert or in the middle of Petah Tikva or anywhere else, no. The desert is something that a person can feel on his heart that when he doesn’t have the upper force then he’s in the desert and then in the desert, he can cry out to the Creator.
35. S. (01:13:12) What process should women’s group go through in order to advance to that state that you just describe of one world group?
R. I think that except for connection that they’re constantly discussing and concerned about having a connection and increasing strong connection, the more the possible, except there’s nothing to be concerned about. The women, on purpose, they have a burdening of the heart, which is children usually, that belong to the Women group. That’s why we need to strengthen them, to help them, and they need to understand that the connection between them also includes taking care of the children, and then it really closes them together very strongly.
S. With what internal preparation do we need to be in order to not miss out on such a great opportunity?
R. You, the women, are very strong, lately there are many groups of women and also individual women around the world that are connecting to us, really dozens and hundreds, and we have to recognize and bring them closer as much as possible; bring them also in our hearts, also in our circles and in this way we can advance to the Congress.
36. S. (01:15:25) We have a relatively small group and we will have a mirror Congress here, we’re inviting all the friends from the area. How do you recommend, do we have two separate Congresses, men and women, because we will be in the same area, same place so how do we do it?
R. Better if it was separate, the male part and the female part of the Congress, and they won’t have a contact between them, that’s the best. If it’s not possible so at least that every part will be on their own side, I don’t know, but try you know what to do.
37. S. (01:17:02) I think we got our package.
R. You got your answers, okay. So I’m wishing you a good preparation, a warm closeness and really try to see this whole Congress as something that ends a period of studying after this pandemic. That we came back about a year ago and let’s hope that we will continue towards revelation of the Creator, that is really before us. I really, really hope that after the Arava Congress that we are doing that it’s not far from us, good luck.
38. S. (01:18:11) How important is it for the friends all over the world to try together in their own areas or should they watch it virtually? Is there an importance to an effort to gather physically in every region, in every area, in every country?
R. There is a different whether we are, let’s say are at home or that we go and gather somewhere that people gather from a few areas, let’s say South America or Asia. It’s huge distances right and they could do it this way or that way, I’d still recommend to gather in a few places. And also, advertise it so more people can come even from other places. I went to a few Congresses in South America and I really enjoyed it there. Try, try and see how you can organize it, I am for, I think that ‘if you change your place, you change your fortune’, as we say. And we can come to some friends relatively that are not too far away but I’m still distant enough, and also see what you can do with the children, it’s not simple but still this work, this effort, it does help us, it helps us come out of where we are right now.
S. If there are several tens in a certain area, should they all gather all the friends from that area, or should they gather by tens because some tens thought ‘we’ll take our own place and gather there as a ten, although there are people other people in that area?
R. If there are tens that speak one language, like you are representing South Americans for instance, so I think that it’s desired that they all as much as possible connect together, and each one can see themselves as their connection being very beneficial
S. Meaning not by ten but by area and anyone that can should come to that gathering?
R. Yes, yes, yes! Good luck to everybody, warm hug and keep going.