WEDNESDAY PRAYER: MALCHUT-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT AND DAWN WEDNESDAY
Zohar for All. Introduction of The Book of Zohar. Two Points, item 120
Morning Lesson January 16, 2023 Transcription Testing
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
1. Zohar for All. “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”. Two Points. #120
Reading Item 120 (0:40): “Rabbi Hiya started, ‘Fear of the Lord…”
1.S. (05.55) What does he talk about here first and last, what starts and what ends?
R. As we learn Malchut is the last Sefira and it includes within it everything that is before it as its vessel. That is why anyone who wishes to approach the Creator has to go through this Sefira, Malchut, this quality. And to the extent that it does go through it and it becomes incorporated with it to that extent it is able to include within itself all of the Sefirot that are above Malchut because Malchut is all of them; she receives all of them, she’s a vessel for all of them and therefore even though she is the last one she actually gathers everything. This is why she is also called Malchut, that she rules over all of the Hochma. Eventually all of the Hochma is revealed in her.
S. And then something new begins and something new at first begins?
R. Well no, there are many processes that pass in such away from Keter to Malchut and from Malchut to Keter and there are many, I would say currents, flows between them that interconnect and operate together and influence each other but whichever way you look at it, the beginning of Hochma is Malchut and that is why it is called the fear of the Lord.
2. S. (08:00) What is this fear that we must feel, that in the beginning of Hochma and at the end of Hochma: how do you want to feel this fear?
R. We are created beings and we receive everything from the Creator according to our connection to Him. This is why the measure of our connection with the Creator is called fear. It is not ordinary fear as we think but rather because fear means that I’m afraid of something, I am afraid of something but rather spiritual fear is when I am actually disconnected from the upper one. In terms of my impression from Him is seemingly negative and all that can come out of the Creator is good. So my fear is rather about how much will I be able to serve Him, to love Him, to give back to Him, to connect, maybe to give Him something, as much as a person is even capable of that. So we learn in the wisdom of Kabbalah how we can relate to the Creator from below upwards. This is why he starts with that, that the gate for Hochma is Malchut who is the last one but she is the first one for the entrance. Let’s continue.
Reading Item 121.(10:10) “At the end of all the gates ..”
3. S. (19:19) How to overcome the contradiction in entering the wisdom through separation?
R. Everything that we want to scrutinize, we always scrutinize it by how much we have things that we don’t understand, which are contradictions and we have to to delve even deeper into these contradictions in whatever we know and what we don’t know, that we understand or we don’t understand, we agree with it or we don’t agree with it and so on. And then to the extent that we seemingly have that first resistance, the collision between what one side says, this is how we can advance towards the solution and then according to the measure of the separation, the measure of the misunderstanding, the resistance, the condition, according to that, later on we do understand the question and also understand the answer.
So we shouldn’t be afraid of defective things or not. We can understand things that I don’t agree with it or that in general there is a lack of connection between me and the Creator. These things actually, as much as they are revealed more and more in the true and opposite manner out of the oppositeness, we attain the wholeness.
S. How to practically do it and direct myself to attain connection and not a contradiction?
R. We don’t agree with anything but nevertheless we do what we are told to do in order to discover the points of connection and from them we then can already get close in our view, in our attainment to the Creator.
4. S. (22:00) The work with the two contrasts, we correct every state and bring contentment to the Creator? The work with the contradictions it needs to accumulate until we have some Kli that can receive the first measure of light of Hochma?
R. Yes.
5. S. (22:43) The new Rosh, it has new flavors, new colors. What is special in this Rosh? So in terms of our feelings?
R. When we start from here on, we seemingly enter an additional connection with the Creator. That He’s revealed in us out of the contradiction and this is why we attain light from darkness more than in the text before us.
6. S. (23:50) We read in the text that man is born like a foal of a wild donkey. What does it mean, in what aspect is the will to receive is that wild donkey and how can we feel it?
R. That a person, man was created in the will to receive, which is the opposite of the Creator and therefore it cannot understand or even depict to himself any quality or any power and he has no understanding of the Creator and this oppositeness from one end to the other. In all the points in the nature of the created being it is opposite to the nature of the Creator and therefore, here we are beginning the stages of the attainment of the Creator in that we are being told by the authors of The Zohar, how much in each and every point we have to go from the opposite: from what is the farthest from the Creator and get closer gradually.
7. S. (25:35) We felt a unique experience during the reading of The Zohar and friends discovered interesting things happened and the question is: is the ascent of the ten in spiritual degrees to do in discipline in the Reading of The Zohar?
R. Yes in general, in discipline, in the connection, in the study around The Book of Zohar. Yes, it is written everywhere. Know that there is nothing like The Zohar. The Kabbalists who took care of it, they inserted into this text, so much power that for sure it has to help each and every person in the world to reach the end of correction.
8. S. (26:50) In the text, it is talking about fear and opening locks. Is there a connection between fear and opening locks?
R. We haven’t started to study yet, so let’s wait with some patience until we reach that.
9. S. (27:25) What does it mean to cool his purity from our heart?
R. To cool His love from our heart means we have to get closer and feel the results of that.
10. S. (27:50) What quality or ability is required from the created being to go through the last gates as opposed to the other gates?
R. We go through all of the gates by overcoming our lack of equivalence of form. That is the test that we have to do in each and every gate. Are we reaching equivalence of form with the Creator or not and according to that we pass through the gates.
S. About the last gate which is mentioned as the most important: how does the created being prepare himself for it?
R. The last gate is the first gate for the entrance to the Creator, the entrance to spirituality. How do we go through it? Through connection between us as much as we are able to depict that to ourselves.
S. Connection between us is to increase connection or maintain the same actions of connection?
R. To gain and maintain because this is the first gate. It’s called the last from above down but it is the first from below up.
11. S. (29:15) The locks are those 125 degrees of spiritual ascent?
R. We will read about that. I don’t like to jump ahead but rather to keep ourselves in one file together going step by step.
12. S. (30:05) I wanted to ask about everything that appears through opposites. Why does it work in such a way that the revelation is always from one thing and its opposite? Why can’t you directly discover?
R. This is entirely impossible in any wisdom, in any kind of knowledge that there is in the world. If we discover something it is always exactly like light out of darkness, otherwise we cannot distinguish between these different discernments because our whole attainment is through opposites, through the discernments and distinctions, differences and therefore, the advantage of light out of darkness this is what we obtain in all kinds of different manners; this is the entire wisdom of Kabbalah, how much the Creator is revealed to us as the one who is great, ruling and special upon the created beings.
S. So when I look, I see that it is possible to see the opposite,darkness, lack of connection, lack of the Creator, you can identify that?
R. In relation to what?
S. As opposed to understanding what is called connection?
R. So opposite the light, so there has to be two opposites.
S. So the opposite is the Kli? Why do we discover the opposite all the time?
R. Not the opposite but the opposite you also discover it opposite the light even though you don’t detect yet that this is the light. You understand it, you do not understand. That also is a little bit of light that enters into you and it gives you this feeling and this understanding.
S. That’s clear but let’s say we want to reach a connection between us so we long for it but we discover a lack of connection between us?
R. And from here we discover that we need to reach connection otherwise we won’t even know what connection means. So we have to reach a state where what is my lack, what am I lacking, that has to be first of all. And then we connect, we get closer and we search for points of gripping of connection and in this way we start to discover the points of light and points of darkness and we do not disregard the darkness, it leads to the opposite.
As much as we have questions and you can see how much I’m letting each and everyone ask because I see great importance in that. That you will discover those questions and without questions it is impossible to advance? There is no righteous in the land that has done good that did not sin. Which means that on all the points of darkness, this is what is seemingly called a sin. We have to fall a little bit, to get stuck and to check what is the reason, why did we enter this point of darkness, then we are ready for the light.
S. So the revealing the opposite, how do you know, how can you feel something that you did not attain? I see that only the opposites appear. I can’t see how through the oppositeness you actually invert it to what you want to attain?
R. Yes, I’ll tell you. What we discover, well we discover everything upon connection and lack of connection between us. This is why there is a demand to create people and to create their society and to start connecting between them and to bring them to all kinds of conflict and connections until they discover that there is something to it, that there is some matter, some issue in the special connection between them. That specifically, as much as in the beginning, they don’t understand what kind of a special connection exists between people, later they discover that this connection is actually a spiritual connection and out of that they begin to rise already to all kinds of spiritual discernments.
S. So in the opposite between connection and the lack of connection, in terms of the essence of the quality, what needs to happen from stage to stage?
R. More and more discernment between darkness and light, disconnection and connection, hatred and love and if we advance in this way, then we reach already states that become more emotional in regard to disconnection and connection. This is actually the entire wisdom of Kabbalah as much as we connect between us and feel the result of it.
S. And is our vessel the gap between the opposites?
R. Yes, our vessel is the gap.
13. S. (36:50) In these two opposites there is one that is felt very clear, there is lack of connection and the other side which is connection is something that we perceive more in our understanding, in our depiction, we aspire to it but it is not ours, meaning we don’t have the connection and lack of connection. We have lack of connection which is felt and connection is something we aspire to. Is that how it should be?
R. Yes, for the time being everything is ok
S. So what are the two opposite here?
R. Here the opposites are connection and disconnection.
S. So we don’t have a sense of connection. We are missing one opposite, so how will we have a Kli?
R. We have that already. Nevertheless, we are already in a certain society where we are able to get closer to seeing one opposite the other.
14. S. (38:00) About the fact you said that you let us ask questions, what is more important in the ten: to raise a question and get an answer or to scrutinize it in the ten and try to clarify it. I am asking from the growth, when we start growing we begin to cope with such states, so where is the middle line here let’s say?
R. This will be revealed to you soon. You cannot yet distinguish between the two. It is like little children, they do not distinguish what is good and what is bad as much as you tell them about it. Some time has to go by, they have to go for some time until they start distinguishing these points.
S. So the scrutiny will come out of the feeling?
R. Yes, it will come, yes just continue and it will come.
15. S. (39:13) Do we want to go from darkness to light because the Creator wants it or because it is my desire? I mean is it His desire that then becomes mine or is it my desire and then it becomes His? And this is how He opens up the gates for me?
R. Someone who awakens to the wisdom of Kabbalah is someone who is searching for the meaning of life. The purpose of life awakens because he lacks inside the point of light and this is why he reaches this wisdom and the study and is willing to invest in that. So in each and every one of us there is a lack for the upper light to unite a little bit, to connect with the Creator in each and every one of us and this is why we have to invest in that and we are willing to invest from our side from birth. And also we learn how to invest more and more forces in order to reach connection.
16. S. (40:43) It says in the text, open up for me the gates of righteousness. What kind of righteousness or justice do we have to discern to make these actions?
R. That we don’t deserve it or get it through our ego or through all kinds of thoughts and calculations that are egoistic. That we are willing to give up on everything so long as we enjoy but rather we have to think about the righteousness, the justice that we will truly be just, standing with the force of righteousness. What does righteous mean? It is that you have to pursue righteousness. This is just the beginning of the article. We will learn more. Let’s continue.
Continuing Reading. (42:00) “Thus, the locks, the doors..”
Reading number 122 “The letter Bet from Beresheet..”
Reading number 123 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..”
17. S. (55:30) Can the ten become the hall of the King and what are the conditions for that?
R. Of course, if you connect in such a way that you answer the conditions of the hall of the King then your group becomes the hall and that is where the Creator appears in all his glory.
18. S. (55:55) It is written that the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil is rewarded and becomes good. How are we rewarded, what can be rewarded?
R. For us in the meantime, it’s only the work in connection and whatever appears to us we only try to be more connected and then we will start discovering in our work all kinds of other points. It’s like in any profession, the deeper you go into the profession, the more you find more and more and more unique points of expertise that you have to clarify and do, add and so forth, the same thing with us. In the meantime, we need to work only on the connection between us as a group as a ten, and when we start discovering all kinds of discernments in that then these discernments, they will be for us as entry points to our expertise to the connections between us and that’s how we will advance.
19. S. (57:37) The recognition of evil is recognizing the lack of connections? When we connect we raise MAN and connecting us, and with that we connect the friends to the Creator. Is that the correct statement?
R. Correct, correct, very succinct and very well said.
20. S. (58:21) In the text it says that in the Creator there is no will to receive it all.. So if the Creator has no will to receive at all, what was the Creator yearning for and what reason did He actually create the will to receive? Did He lack experience of something or feel something? Why did the Creator create the will to receive which is the complete opposite of Him?
R. First of all, the creation has to be somewhat different from the Creator and what can be different from the Creator is only the will to receive because the Creator is entirely a will to bestow. So He created a will to receive and the correction is that the will to receive remains a will to receive. You cannot invert it but by its intention it takes on a shape, a character as if it is a bestower and in such a way it begins to resemble the Creator. And this is what we call in Kabbalah, equivalence of form. It’s not that there is actual equivalence between them except for this outer form that each of them, the Creator and the created being want to bestow to each other, to think of each other and to be close to each other. That is basically the correction of creation from behalf of, on behalf of the created being and that is how the created being becomes like the Creator.
21. S. (01:00:45) Today it is truly felt that there is this revolution. A great light is felt in the reading of the Zohar I wanted to ask, the process by which these two points connect into one point, is it by this is the middle line created?
R. Yes, it’s a kind of, from that the middle line will be born.
S. The inverse relation between lights and vessels because in the most refined vessel the distance between these points is the nearest and it’s easiest to connect
R. Correct.
S. This is exactly the boundary between the weakest light and the light that is the closest all has to be the weakest?
R. Correct, very good discernment.
22. S. (01:02:15) It is written at the end of the excerpt that the two points are good and evil but which Malchut is called the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the good mind the tree of life has no evil so what is the evil here the bad?
R. What is opposite to the Creator, what’s opposite to the Creator is always evil, that’s always true.
S. This related to one of the points to Malchut or to Bina?
R. Only to the Malchut.
23. S. (01:03:11) When we pray for the friends to have the fear of the Lord, are we praying for them to have the importance of connection, faith above reason, the importance of annulment, the importance of prayer is that what we are praying for?
R. As we advance, we will more and more feel what we should ask for, both in terms of ourselves and for others. I’m very happy that we’ve entered the stage. You’ve become a lot more sensitive and wise. The mind and the heart are beginning to connect some more. It’s a very good period and I’m very happy with you. I’m very satisfied especially with the women, they really reveal themselves as wise and it’s good.
24. S. (01:04:39) When a person cannot justify the Creator should he limit his will to receive and reach a prayer in order to see the Creator is good and do you have any practical advice that you can give the Ten for how to do that? When a person cannot justify the Creator how to work correctly?
R. We always have complaints to the Creator, and inside we always have some kind of germ that keeps telling us something against the Creator a bit more and a bit more that is that evil inclination that is the serpent that a lot has been written about but it’s good. Because by that serpent we begin to better and better feel where we are, who we are, how much we still need to advance, and how much I can now take some action so the evil inclination always gives us good direction. We have to grab it and grasp it like you grab hold of snakes and then move forward.
25. S. (01:06:48) If we get a vessel for the light of Hochma then we are connected then the connection and the correction occurs automatically?
R. We will know everything in the right time, we strain ourselves a bit and think you feel like asking and then think. I don’t want to block anyone but get used to developing a kind of thinking mechanism and analysis of your own.
26. S. (01:07:47) How do Malchut and Bina connect in He and His name are one, in the relations of the good mind and the tree of knowledge what kind of relations they should have between them?
R. That’s still ahead of us, I’m not yet ready to answer that there’s no sufficient basis to clarify these things.
27. S. (01:09:02) About the last gate, I heard you tell once that many times we come close to this opening then we give up, it seems that there is a risk there that years of exertion may be lost why is it so?
R. True, so that we know what we have to prepare in advance, and still everyone will have the final correction so even those who got stuck on the path, we help him and no one has left behind. no one is left behind.
S. What should we prepare in advance?
R. Readiness to reach the gate together.
S. Do you have some advice on how not to give up every time, how do we not give up?
R. In mathematics, there is a law that a straight line is not straight, it keeps twisting opposite to what it was before, and that is what keeps it straight. Meaning it wants to turn and then goes the other way and then wants to turn again and then goes the other way, and that’s why it stays straight. They say it in different terms there, so what am I saying that we do not need to be afraid of ups and downs and falls and despair. There is no righteous in the land who did good without committing a sin and that isn’t each and every stage without that you cannot move from one side to the other. Just like you walk on two legs, with each and every leg you have to stop and then you change your leg, to the other otherwise you cannot change your legs. We will learn together how to hold each and every one and all of us together we will overcome everything. The path ahead of us is beautiful and good and safe and it is assured if we will continue just as we are now thankfully moving forward.
28. S. (01:11:51) To continue with what the friend asked, we gathered with our Ten. We had a 4 hour workshop, a very active workshop. I had a very clear feeling that we are advancing towards certain gates but how do we open the gates? How do we make them open, regarding the contradictions if we delve into the contradictions, does it let us express let me express myself? Does it let some light come in just like we felt in the ten not just connected but one heart, how can we advance onward and not be afraid that we will not be able to open the next gate?
R. Both from above and from your end, there was a correct action but I assure you that you will soon fall and be depressed or despaired, and things will get bad and even people will start erupting with their frustrations and so forth, it’ll happen. We will look at you and laugh. Why laugh? Not because laughing at your difficulty but because the other side of it on the other end of it, it is progress that comes from that bad feeling and then another good feeling and then another bad feeling, we can never see in nature anywhere in action that does not flip into the other opposite action, darkness turns to night and so on and so forth whatever feminine you look like whatever laws of physics you observe you will always find connection of opposite forces. So I’m happy to hear that you had a good feeling, a good awakening and I will be happy to also see you in the opposite way.
S. [Translation from Russian] Please tell me, will the fear remain? Or will there be less fear, or will it, on the contrary, increase in order to overcome it?
R. The fear that the group has to feel needs to guard the group so they know that there are not control of the states and don’t understand everything that’s going on it’s not fear, we call it awe or reverence, that they know the Creator is above them and he governs all the states, and orchestrates all the states. So it’s good that if you have fear it just needs to better connect between you and you will see that as much as you come together, the fear disappears and if you lose connection between you, each and everyone goes into a state that they don’t know where they are, that is all given to you so that you will build your connection better and better between the friends.
29. S. (01:16:21) When you mentioned that a person is growing on the path he has a greater expertise and if I get it right then he has also greater judgment towards the friends and towards the path and towards everything towards life, if this judgment is with the right intention then it becomes like a prayer and he finds more ways and details on the prayer is this right?
R. Very good, very good. Excellent.
30. S. (01:17:35) Fear, do we or do we develop when we do, for example, connection above hatred or what I feel distant and said I connect with the friends is that feeling of fearing to be distant to the Creator?
R. Yes, and no. Fear has several degrees and several steps we will feel it and we’ll be able to identify it where does the fear come from related to life I don’t want to my children to fear me my little children, rather for them to have a necessary amount of fear for them to overcome their ego, their uncontrollable and be able to hear me, this fear has to be as a foundation for all of our actions because all of our actions are founded on our ego the desire to receive. There’s nothing we can do here which is why fear is the first commandment that we need to attain. We will talk about it, we have a lot ahead of us about that.
31. S. (01:19:30) The fear is called wisdom and also comes against something that’s proven. Do the feelings of those two opposites aim us towards the correct thoughts, and how would you direct us towards this connection between the mind and the heart supposedly?
R. Very soon we are going to study that openly in a wide way.
32. S. (01:20:31) We were saying that we advance from one thing and it’s opposite and the serpent comes in order to help us advance, so sometimes it feels like the serpent comes to me when I am alone and I need to deal with it alone and then it disappears and it comes back again, how do we just hit it on the head as a ten and how can we grab it so it won’t disappear and really be able to grab it and overcome it?
R. Two things, first of all connection and second, experience and everything will be okay.
Reading number 124 (01:21:24) “ for all those who do them are the faithful..”
33. R. (01:27:44 ) Yes, for now we are going to stop reading the Zohar for today. We will continue in the next article next time, just that it’s important to understand what he’s trying to say here he said before the creation of the world. The laws of the world have been formed, it says that the Creator looked in the Torah and created the world because it’s impossible also according to our mind, even today as we understand it, it is impossible that out of complete chaos without any thought without any plan, even with the next step, which is why at first the Torah was created with the arrangement of the forces of the world of all of nature, and only then was the act of creation.