SUNDAY PRAYER: YESOD-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT AND DAWN SUNDAY
Zohar for All. Introduction of The Book of Zohar. On the Night of the Bride, item 136
Morning Lesson January 26, 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”. On the Night of the Bride. #136
https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/jnB9Pwgl
Reading Item #136 (00:33) “Dumah said, “Lord of the world, I have one thing in regard to him…”
1. R. (07:17) Certainly the whole text here is not so clear, what is it about? We need to read it again, at least one more time so that at least the text itself will become more familiar and then we can scrutinize because these are the same stages that everyone has to go through.
Repeat Item #136 (7:56): “Dumah said, “Lord of the world, I have one thing in regard to him…”
2. S. (14:39) What is the meaning of David related to Malchut in disconnection from the quality of mercy and had to be careful that the judgment would not be open in Malchut?
R. Because King David was Malchut of all of Israel, the whole world eventually; to the extent that each one corrects himself he will be incorporated into Malchut and this is thus his behavior.
S. What’s the meaning that she is sweetened with the quality of mercy?
R. Because Malchut to begin with is the force of Torah, the force of the covenant, the force of connection.
3. S. (15:52) What does it mean, all the external ones immediately approach her to suckle from her, what does the word suckling means here?
R. Suckling means that they want to draw from her all of the forces and use them each one for his own purpose, not for the general purpose of Malchut, of the whole of creation; but rather each one for his individual purpose, for his sake, that’s called suckling.
4. S. (16:43) Is the angel Dumah a faithful servant of the Creator, what lack of connection condition can raise us above it?
R. We have to rise above all individual desires and instead of them to be connected not to the desires but the intention, then we would use it correctly in that we will correct all of the Angels; that’s all of them following the shattering are directed at all kinds of different directions they are scattered you can say, and what we want to do is to arrange them to a single direction to be connected together to a point in which the Creator can be revealed, and only in it.
5. S. (18:09) At the beginning of the passage it says that Dumah received it and we learn that angels don’t have any sense, any feeling and that is the difference between us and them right?
R. I can’t say precisely because the angel does everything it is supposed to do.
S. If I may continue, it says here that he sent Uria so he will be killed by the swords of the children of Amon, David can control that if he will be killed or not?
R. Now we are getting into all kinds of interpretations from a fairytale. We will wait, let’s wait until we understand it.
6. S. (19:13) What is the story here, what is the meaning in the ten or to a person the story about Bat Sheva and Uria?
R. This is about Malchut how much is connected to all of the souls, how much she entirely incorporates all of Israel. How much all of them become corrected through connection between them; as much as the independence of the created being becomes conspicuous and can become revealed by the created beings connecting between them. So we have something and its opposite here; we all need to be adherent, incorporated in the Creator in one hand and on the other hand we want to be independent, each of us and all us together. So there are few contradictions here, so how can we all of us together and each of us exist independently? That is one contradiction. How can we keep the Creator’s commandment where this commandment is opposite of our independence? There are many questions here that awaken more and more as Humanity grows, as the souls grow. This is what we have to scrutinize.
7. S. (21:18) Today when we read about the lamb, what is the meaning of the lamb?
R. There is a law that Israel needs to reach corrections, they are called lamb…?
8. S. (22:26) Can you explain what does it mean by for you are appointed only over incest?
R. He is responsible for it in order to awaken in people a desire to connect to connect, in order to receive. Which is the opposite of the purpose of creation. This is why the desire is very strong.
9. S. (23:27) What does it mean that he killed Ariaha?
R. He doesn’t want to use it because it is considered that he killed him. The quality of GAR.
10. S. (23:57) Is there a relationship between our desire to be independent and our work to overcome ego and Avuit, our will to receive?
R. I did not understand
S. The desire to be independent is opposing our ability or desire to connect? Is there a relationship with the Avuit, the coarseness and the work we have to invest in, in order to overcome?
R. We need to understand that in the connection between us each one seemingly loses his individual independence by this he requires the general independence of the entire vessel of Adam HaRishon and by this he truly becomes free. He is together with everyone performing the same actions by which they revive the system of Adam HaRishon and then it is considered that the dead are free. When one gets rid of his individual ego and he becomes incorporated in the general will to receive which is the Creator.
11. S. (26:11) When you said the external one wants to suckle, what does that mean? Is that our uncorrected desires?
R. The external ones that want to suckle these are those same desires of ours we have not yet corrected. They want to be connected to all the other desires and receive from them in order to receive.
S. How do we correct them?
R. As usual. First of all, we sort, scrutinize what are they? Who are they? What is it that they want? We separate them from the general system and gradually we correct them and to the extent that we do correct them, we bring them back to the general system.
12. S. (27:29) What does it mean that your words can be used against you?
R. Because it could be that your intention was not precisely clean and then by manipulating these intentions with the same deed you end up with the opposite result.
S. What doesn’t a person need to ask to be sorry for if the Creator does everything?
R. The Creator does everything in order to bring us to the purpose of creation. We need to assist Him in that as much as possible and in that would become the partners of the Creator. As much as we work with him in the same direction then we perform actions of a Mitzvah. As much as is not in the same direction, accordingly our transgressions are measured. This is what we need to see.
13. S. (29:05) David prayed to the Creator confessing his sin and the Creator stated that he did not sin at all. What caused David to believe that he sinned, and why does the Creator say that he did not sin at all?
R. We can determine our actions according to how we feel ourselves in relation to the Creator and not to any other calculation. Our calculations can be the opposite and all twisted. The most important thing for us is to know how we exist in parallel to the Creator, going in the same direction, towards the same goal or not and this is how we check ourselves. On each and every step we need this is how we need to check ourselves. We will talk more about this.
14. S. (30:45) You have already been explaining about these contradictions, so why is it by sentencing himself to death by corrupting the Covenant, he helps himself. Can you go into that deeper because it has something to do with the death of an individual, so what is happening here actually?
R. Repeat please.
S. Why by sentencing himself to death, by corrupting the Covenant, by corrupting the Brit, he helped himself?
R.This is good to scrutinize the situation even though it is not good for the attainment of the goal, but along the way when want to change when he did something, made a mistake or didn’t complete something he has to continue, so for the time being it means that his actions are correct. We in general should realize that there are no mistakes, there are no mistakes. Even all kinds of great shatterings there are no mistakes but rather we have to go through all of these states from the beginning of creation to the end of creation in a necessary way. The question is how much do you understand them, accept them correctly, how much do we identify with them. How much do we understand that here I have to make a mistake and here I have to fall and here I have to connect and rise and so on, and through these relations, that I become the Creator’s partner in the ascents and descents. I actually build my vessel or the Creator builds my vessel but with my presence, with my agreement and by that I rise. This is how it works.
S. What is our attitude to be able to scrutinize this, what should we do in the Tens to be able to scrutinize this so what is our attitude?
R. Only connection, all of the scrutinies external ones, internal ones, those that are far away or close it doesn’t matter which ones we have we have to check them towards connection. There is only one discernment to what extent we are more connected, and of all of the discernments thousands of discernments that we have, we replace all of them with a single discernment. I will be coming closer to this discernment which we are carrying out or not. We are getting closer and we accept it and we are moving on, and if we cannot get closer by it, we throw it away and we don’t keep it. It is really simple.
S. What is this covenant actually worth if we need to corrupt it? I don’t understand that part. What is the Covenant worth in the ten if I also need to use this contradiction of needing to corrupt it?
R. The Covenant means connection, its the correction of the vessel and as much as it goes along with being corrected that is the purpose of the vessel to be in adhesion with the Creator and here we are always in doubts. Then through these doubts we correct ourselves we correct our intention. Well for the time being let’s put it this way.
15. S. (35:43) When we break this Covenant it means that we are going to hell and that we have to return back to the Covenant?
R. Of course we can go back to the Covenant and the Covenant becomes more and more powerful and special but it takes on a new form each time.
16. S. (36:25) What does it mean to judge yourself, is it supposed to happen in the ten as well, is it some kind of annulment?
R. Yes, it is some kind of annulment that I do not accept anything for myself except for these qualities, maybe the tiniest ones that remain in me which I can identify with the Creator.
17. S. (37:03) In the text to different kinds of punishment from the Creator himself and from the angel of death. What does it mean that the punishment comes from the Creator himself when the person doesn’t completely fall into the will to receive and holds on in some kind of way?
R. Well there is a difference in the disconnections and the falls because there is no punishment because punishment is a correction and we need to learn that. In principle there are no point punishments, no falls, it is all in order to add vessels to add discernments and to advance another step and another step towards the purpose of creation.
18. S. (38:10) If Dumah is responsible for incest then why does the desire to sentence someone who is not responsible for awaken in him?
R. We will learn that in the future. We still don’t understand these discernments, these little points in a character in our personalities.
19. S. (39:12) It is written that he repented for incest even though he did sin in it at all. Later on it says that this repentance helps him so why am I required to repent for something that I didn’t do and eventually it also helps me?
R. It’s also to see that he understands that he was in some kind of problem, some transgression and it becomes clear to him that is not a sin and he receives this discernment as a correction. This is how we go over all the transgressions and corrections of these kinds and these kinds, yes.
20. S. (40:36) This degree that we are on, is it a necessary degree to understand the righteousness of the path?
R. I don’t really care what is happening.
21. S. (41:19) We learn that there is None Else Besides Him and here seemingly the Creator is split into multiple forces. Why do they want to show us this, is it in order for us to see inside of us different forces?
R. Yes. Certainly.
S. These forces of Duma and the angels, are these foreign thoughts and forces that exist inside of us and they lower us?
R. There’s no strangers this is just how they are labeled, this is how these forces act, one is for this one and this one is against, but at the end of the day the whole accumulation of these forces they have to connect together into one system, complete system and and we will receive it this way and we will receive it this way in general. Like in our bodies, there’s different systems this one’s for and this one against this is how it is always working.
S. Regarding the gratitude and connection, should we feel gratitude for these forces that appear?
R. That’s what’s written about a person has to bless for the good as well as the bad.
22. S. (42:54) In the beginning of the first paragraph in item 136 it says, Lord of the world I have one thing in regard to Him he opened His mouth and said, as the Lord did surely the man who has done this deserves to die. What does it refer to? What is it about? What is this death?
R. Death is the will to receive in order to receive that wants to kill a man, a person, and disconnect this connection that he has between himself and the Creator. This is called death. We in the meantime are not related to this system; we don’t have either death or life.
S. Where it says as the Lord lives, what is this about?
R. That this is how he reveals it, that there is a discernment where he reveals the Creator is alive and towards that he reveals the rest of the states.
23. S. (44:12) What is common to the sin of David where it said that he killed Uriah and the sin of Moses where it says that he struck the rock with his staff?
R. So the question is what is the connection between these two states, these two actions? It’s that he didn’t act accordingly, he didn’t do it in the path of correction. That’s how it is that’s one thing. The next thing.
24. S. (45:39) What is gratitude for a true sin? Because here we are giving gratitude for the sin then we ask for forgiveness and then we repeat it, so what’s it mean to truly ask for repentance?
R. I cannot express it in words. The fact that the Creator lets a person feel that whatever he has done, it is opposite to what he needed to do for the correction of creation. In the meanwhile we’re not talking about discernments of Aviut, degrees, screen, Sefirot, that’s how it is. A person reveals how he did opposite things to correction on one side, on the other hand it really helps him turn around and make correct actions.
Item 137 (47:10) “David said about that..”
25. R. (52:38) Meaning we see here that how much the system is curled it’s also balanced how it always treats each and every soul. One soul kind of takes it out as if from the Sitra Achra and also again puts it back and then takes it out and puts it back in again, and that’s how it is towards each and every one of us until we all receive the correct discernments what does it mean holiness and Klipa, Kedusha and Klipa.
26. S. (53:24) Can we think of an action that we did not do as though we did it and out of that to feel that state and carry out the correction? If so, how do we do it?
R. No, no, no, impossible on the action that we didn’t make, how could we imagine to ourselves that we did it and then from that height that we did it we rose to it, we made these actions, no. We need to ask the Creator that he really will help us rise to that same height.
27. S. (54:18) What is Din, judgment, and why should it be hidden and concealed?
R. Judgment is the quality of the will to receive that is in each and every degree. That once it’s concealed and once it’s revealed and we need to work with both of those conditions in this way, in that way, or maybe in the middle to some percentage and this is how we are in our world too in our lives, this is how it is, we’re just used to it. In our lives we immediately somehow scrutinize how much there is in each one of our states, how much there is good, how much is bad, how much doubt, what options do I have to get out of this bad state or to a good state, and this is how it is. It’s the same kind of thing as what it speaks about here.
S. But why should it be hidden and concealed this scrutiny?
R. Without it being concealed in the world a person cannot develop because our entire development is something as concealed and revealed and something illuminates and then we scrutinize from all these things. The optimal means to bring us to truth. Maybe it’s not pleasant like in our world, it’s not pleasant it hurts on one hand on the other hand it’s really good it’ll be great if we could go through it and reach the goal, maybe it’s not right now but later on, and it’s not us but we also need to draw the rest of society and so forth and so on.
28. S. (56:45) What does hell mean to us?
R. It depends for each and every person what is hell to him. Hell is the control of the ego in the worst possible way that can only be revealed to him in that moment. That’s it, so maybe I want to kill people, I want to steal from them, I don’t want to consider them at all, I just want to disconnect from them completely and I don’t want to see them; hell each and every person has and reveals that in a different way. A small child he cries, cries, cries, and he’s crying to Mom and Dad and for him it’s the end of the world whatever he’s crying about there, but we understand that it’s all nonsense and in a few minutes he’s going to forget about it and he’s going to be happy again, so we need to see these things and the awareness of hell as part of the ladder.
29. S. (58:15) The corrected Malchut is corrected with the quality of judgment where the judgment is hidden and concealed and the quality of mercy is revealed, but it says here that when one opens his mouth he sentences himself to death by speaking because by this the judgment that was hidden becomes revealed and Dumah can suckle from his soul. What does it mean that a person opens his mouth by this he sentences himself to death by speaking and he gives strength to the other force, he gives the possibility to suckle his soul?
R. I guess it’s not the state, the degree, to use the mouth.
30. S. (59:12) Yesterday we read that actually Uriah did a correction for Batsheva that only he could do. What can we learn from that about the dependency between us that we depend on each other for the corrections?
R. Whatever each person is able to bring out. Soon we are going into these types of study, words of the study, articles in the Zohar, you’re going to hear less and less explanations from me, maybe here and there, just in order to maybe enter into the material but to start picking apart the material and come to all these conclusions you’ll have to do that yourself.
31. S. (01:00:17) About the Covenant between us, when a friend brings the ten an action that he thinks will intensify the Covenant and he sees that the friends have no desire to take part, they’re not interested should he let go of this action or actually persist and wait for the desire to awaken?
R. This is a great problem that we need to scrutinize it, but in principle we don’t need to work with some kind of action that goes towards someone. We have all these different kinds of recommendations from Kabbalists, from their articles and writings so read these articles and extract from these articles and realize them and implement them and that’s how we will advance.
S. When is it considered that a friend is keeping the Covenant and when is he blemishing the Covenant?
R. Whenever he sees that this action of making the Covenant is done before everyone and not just whenever he feels like it and that by keeping this Covenant they can reach something real and tangible and from that place and in the place of study it appears there, and you should pay attention to that and go with it.
32. S. (01:02:09) Can you explain the story of Uriah because it seems like David did everything correctly and he didn’t receive the upper force and he received the corrections, so what is the sin?
R. It’s a correct question, read it a couple more times this entire topic and you will see. At least scrutinize the question, from that you will have a clear answer. That’s a real serious question that’s asked in many places.
33. S. (01:03:03) Maybe the sin of David was that the judgment is revealed inside of him he loses his connection with the Creator and he is able to make this connection only through mercy which is Uriah, and because he killed him he simply does not have the possibility to restore his connection and this is what he sins in?
R. Maybe, I’m not giving an answer. The Zohar asks and by delving into the Zohar you’ll answer it yourselves.
34. S. (01:04:19) Can we say that Uriah is actually the reforming light?
R. Yes.
35. S. (01:04:46) It was written that Bat Sheva was of David from the creation of the world, what is this connection that exists between the female and the male, how can it be that there is a desire which isn’t mine and I have to be cautious and say this is mine and this isn’t mine?
R. That’s hard for us still to understand, but there are parts in the will to receive and the intention to bestow that they are still not connected to one another and cannot work together. Therefore there’s a problem, how to connect them together and how to correct Malchut, the general Malchut.
S. What does it have to do with the general Malchut, a desire appears in a person and he needs to calculate also regarding the general desire how do you do it?
R. But a person is part of the general Kli, the Shechina.
S. When the desire appears in a person usually in the beginning he also feels that he doesn’t quite know how to connect with it and how to direct it correctly and what does it mean. Does this mean that we have to go through a certain correction of this desire in a person, so what is the correction about Bat Sheva has to become incorporated in the mercy. What do we have to do when such a desire appears and act with it and take it through the ten or how do we work with a new desire?
R. If we connect then we start to feel where are these pieces within us, Bat Sheva and David and Uriah and the general desire and how much we’re coming closer to one another in order to connect them all to one point.
S. What is incest in spirituality?
R. Incest is the revelation of truth how much we are opposite to one another, it cannot be that there is no connection between us.
36. S. (01:07:32) How do the judgment and Malchut influence the connection in the ten, how with the help of bestowal can we reach the quality of Mercy and David?
R. We are changing a little bit and a little bit until we come closer and start knowing and understanding other people and other souls and different souls, and how much we can actually nonetheless be in connection with them. It’s very similar to how we grow up in this world, at first a child completely doesn’t need a connection with anybody. He’s got a few toys and those are his and don’t touch him, those are mine. Afterwards he already begins to feel that there is the mutual desire with others not that he just wants what the other has but he also has a desire to play with the other, it means that there is a matter of connecting to the desire of the other, and that’s how they start connecting between them, they have something mutual, something common and greater than the game itself. It’s not that he has a ball and I have a ball but there’s this ball between us and we buy this ball we can touch our desires, that’s already something different that’s much more interesting. Meaning we are rising from the level of connection through the means through this ball, to different means through connection between the desires, where we are happy that our desires are acting together, and so forth, and after there is a lot more. There are many degrees and a lot of things like that, as much as I can incorporate in them and them in me, accordingly we can measure our passion, the extent of our connection between us we are really yearning for Unity. That specifically it’s not just the game itself that becomes the matter here but that we and the game are enjoying by acting as one. I think that the more that we will advance in the future, in the near future that the games will be more and more social games that really will act as a single gate.
37. S. (01:11:38) Undoubtedly the story of David connects with all the other religious and moral issues of humanity and my question is, is the way we should relate to the development of the souls with this part with David and BatSheva. How can we scrutinize it in the work in the ten, how can we scrutinize the spiritual development in the story of BatSheva and David and how do we scrutinize this in the ten?
R. BatSheva and David are a couple, they have to compliment one another but in order to scrutinize these things they need someone that will bother them, that will cause some kind of riff between them where the light excels from darkness and we need something and someone that will shine on the darkness that from within the darkness they’ll understand what the light is.This is how we also see in our life, that sometimes we need to awaken some kind of a bite in the other, and then we will see a sting a little bit, otherwise there is no flavor in our relationship. We need to reveal this flavor and we will reveal the opposite and this is a problem, so this whole story of BatSheva and David that’s what it speaks about. There are obviously many other deep matters here, we will learn about them later, it will be clear to us by ourselves when we go through it.
38. S. (01:14:24) In the matter of revealed mercy and concealed, as long as the soul doesn’t have strength to reveal the judgment, we’re among the Mercy of Heaven, right?
R. Yes.
S. Meaning we revealed the same suffering and ,it is as if we feel right now we reveal that our guarding us that according to our development, they give us an opportunity?
R. Certainly, undoubtedly without all the punishments, the forces of judgment and all those that are revealed are first and foremost to protect us so that we will not run away into all kinds of states that we will not be able to return from.
S. In every step and state we need to be in gratitude?
R. Correct yes.
S. To be grateful, how can we be grateful from pain and suffering?
R. It’s written that one needs to thank the bad just like the good because there is no bad and good, these are all discernments to teach you how to go on the path towards the final goal.
39. S. (01:16:18) If everything is designed for me to gauge if I’m close or far and the Creator does everything, what determines between the Mercy and judgment?
R. What determines between Mercy and judgment it’s not important to me, what’s important to me is whether I’m coming closer to the goal or not, that’s how I examine my state.
S. And the state is as if the more I feel farther the more I come closer?
R. It could be because then you’re scrutinizing more than you normally do.
S. How do I make this step and scrutiny that now I know that here would be the scrutiny, and from then we’d continue onwards?