WEDNESDAY PRAYER: HOCHMA-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. On the Night of the Bride, item 145
Morning Lesson January 30, 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. #145
1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:36 ) Yes, let’s continue. As much as we can understand, we will understand it, and if not we can always go back until we delve into the Book of Zohar as we should.
Reading Item 145. (00:55) “HaVaYaH is written 6 times here,”
2. R. (08:48 )Well we don’t have so much to ask here but rather it’s how we see that there is a certain order here in the words and in the sentences and that they determine the degrees in which a person can rise.
3. S. (09:09) The Creator is talking about Zeir Anpin?
R. Yes.
4. S. (09:25) What are the 6 states of ascent or revelation of creation?
R. The light that comes from ZA to Malchut corrects Malchut. It opens it up and this is what it’s all about here, Beresheet, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth created the heaven and the earth.
S. This is how the light comes to us?
R. There is only one light that was created and it is sufficient until the end of correction. Soon
we will get deeper in it but he speaks about the entire deed or act of creation Beresheet
Reading Item 146: (10:46) “While they were seated Rabbi Elazar and his son,..”
5. R.(11:08) The Keter of the world Atzilut.
6. R. (14:33) Meaning that this is truly revealed to them the light and the act of the end of correction.
7. S. (14:43) The donkey driver is Malchut and the light is Zeir Anpin?
R. Why? This depends on how we measure it. Certainly Zeir Anpin is a degree which is closer to the Creator and Malchut is the last one. That’s on the one hand, but on the other hand everything depends on Malchut.
Reading Item 147: (15:20) “This verse, and he struck the Egyptian man,”
8. R. (17:14) Maybe a bit more, it explains more.
Reading Item 148: (17:20) “This verse is clarified in the upper seminary…”
9. R. (17:29) It is all one. Let’s make an effort to understand it through the connection between us and not through the intellect. Then maybe we will see how much the Zohar works only in a complete group. Let’s do it.
Reading Item 148: (17:54) “This verse is clarified in the upper seminary…”
10. R. (22:38) This means that these qualities, all the measures will be the measures that are required at the end of correction.
Reading Item 149: (22:54) “And in the hand of the Egyptian was a spear..”
11. S. (27:14) Why in this story Atik is always concealed?
R. It will be revealed at the end of correction. Atik is hidden until the end of correction.
12. S. (27:48) This is a very, very dense text. But we seem to have received a token during the circumcision.
R. Well, this is how they wrote it. It was written by Rabbi Shimon and his students, yes?
S. Yes, but we seem to have received a token after the circumcision. What is this token and how can we use it going forward?
R. We need to want with all of her heart that we will be able to connect between us and that what is written in the Zohar will become clearer in the connection between us in one heart. In such a way we immediately enter the feeling of the world of truth. This is what is needed. In that there is no one who is wise or has a full or understanding or not knowing or young, none of those, but only the straightness of the heart, if one opens his heart then in this way you can enter and feel that state and out of the feeling that stayed you will begin to understand it.
13. S. (29:31) Regarding the last passage in 148, it says, about a man of virtue and this term from the end of this world to its other end, what does this mean? Is it talking about some qualities, some scale of measurement in spirituality? We say there is no space but from the end of the world to its other end it seems to be like some limitation on size, can you explain?
R. We always limit spirituality in our vessels. That we don’t open ourselves to such measures or qualities where we have no control. Therefore in time, movement and place that we want to connect between us and above them as much as we are able to, this is how we will perceive and grasp spirituality. We determine our measures in the connections between us.
S. Maybe to be more precise, what is it that Moses is a man of quality, a man of virtue?
R. That in the measure of the weight he wants to get closer to the end of correction he is certain portions in order to correct the vessel that was given to him, and the entire vessel was given to him, which the Creator created so that we will be able to collect it gradually however all the way.
S. What to explain now it says that Moses was loyal in his house? The most trusted in the house of the Lord?
R. No.
14. S. (32:03) I am sure that you have heard this question many times, but it goes in layers many times. My question is what does it mean to actually open up the heart? How do you open the heart? This question comes up millions of times?
R. We open the heart through our friends. None of us have a heart. The heart, Lev in Hebrew, means Lamed-Bet , the thirty two paths of wisdom, Hochma. The heart means that we want to connect between us and together we discover the forces of bestowal through each other and when they are revealed then that we feel our heart and before that we have no heart. Afterwards we will be called ‘wise of heart’ because in us in the light of Hassidim we will also discover the light of Hochma.
15. S. (33:22) How to work in the Ten, clarity and correctly without falling into all sorts of imaginations and swings?
R. Work only on connection. We are only talking about degrees of correction. How do we get closer to each other? How do we get closer in the connection between us in our mind and our heart? How do we reach one heart? The feeling that is shared between us and later on it becomes a single feeling and all of these degrees and all of these states, we have to go through them. This is actually our way not according to the intellect, it’s how we check ourselves but only according to the incorporation of the hearts.
S. The text here talks about Moses and clarity. We want to attain this clarity of perception of this text. How do we not fall into a philosophy?
R. Hear what is written in the book and what I say and do it. That is all.
16. S. (35:13) Here we see that the Creator is realizing His plan but why is He killing the Egyptian? It’s the will to receive but we don’t need to kill it, right? We just need to use it to bestow?
R. This is true and above that Moses will also be judged and sentenced because he struck the Egyptian he will be sentenced. But we need to understand that later on what he achieved by this and how to see, atone for it.
17.S. (35:58) There are times in the connection between us that we can communicate without words. What is the place of all the names and letters and what we just read here and the connection between us?
R. We can connect and communicate certainly without words but within the inner feeling and it will be even more precise and it doesn’t require any correction. However we need to reach that and in order to reach that we have to put in effort in all the different forms of connections that come before us in such an incorporation as being as ‘one man in one heart.’ When we reach the one heart, it doesn’t mean that we cover each other, we complete each other, we connect in our hearts so that we will have one great heart that can contain all of the upper light. That’s it.
18. S. (37:44) You talked about the common heart. Is the common heart something that we build together? Each one of us has a separate heart. How do we feel a common heart?
R. We build a mutual heart and we feel it as a mutual common heart. That there is no Adam, rather the Adam HaRishon we build. He has a heart where he reveals the Creator and the Creator is connected to him. This is a place of sensation and action of the upper, truly the upper. Imagine to yourselves that you, in your heart, begin to feel the Creator that He is with you and this heart includes all the hearts.
S. How did Moses atone for his crime?
R. Maybe you can explain precisely what you mean with your question but you are asking? How did he atone for his sin?
S. He killed the Egyptian.. How did he atone for his transgression of killing the Egyption?
R. Wait, we will see that later on, we will see it. Of course it is a sin but without sins we can’t advance.
19. S. (40:58) In item 148, it is written you shall do no wrong in judgment in measurement of faith can you explain what it means?
R. I don’t know exactly how to explain this now. That we need to always go above and beyond limitations and to always yearn to reach an even higher degree than what we are in from the current measure. That’s actually the meaning.
20. S. (41:51) You always speak about the word connection as though it is the same word for each time you feel it in a different way. Are there certain degrees of our attainment?
R. Yes.
S. So it’s okay this way, that this is how I understand it?
R. Yes.
S. In this entire article we hear that here at the beginning of the revelation is the Yesod of Zeir Anpin and the question is: do I understand correctly that the Yesod of Zeir Anpin is the knowledge, or the certainty, confidence, that there is no other force that rules the world, only the Creator?
R. As a rule, yes. But not only this. Yesod of Zeir Anpin gives us everything, everything comes to us from the Yesod of Zeir Anpin.
S. What does it mean, everything?
R. I can’t explain what everything is. I can’t explain everything, it’s everything that we receive.
21. S. (43:39) Could it be that this killing of the Egyptian can also be seen as both the sin and also a higher sacrifice that we kill our egoistic roots?
R. We will clarify these things later on.
22. S. (44:03) In item 147, he killed the Egyptian man who was 5 cubits tall. Does it mean that Moses overcomes 5 degrees?
R. I don’t deal in guessing, it will be written, we will clarify it.
23. S. (44:37) In the text it speaks about the state called from one end of the world to its other end, how do we as a Ten, we find ourselves in that state? What is the connection between the state and us?
R. If we want in our small group to receive everything that comes to us from the Creator that is called that we want to receive from the end of the world to its other end.
24. S. (45:30) Our whole lesson is about we can describe it in two words on one hand, wholeness on the other handed deficiency, a lack, should we come here with a certain measure of wholeness and also a lack and also come out of the lesson with a certain deficiency not to settle for your answers and the feeling that we are full or whole but rather we also we are also beings with a lack and all the other hand we should also be whole with what we do so how do we not settle for the answers of the Kabbalist who is now giving them but on the other hand to keep the wholeness and to annul and on the other hand.
R. If you notice I never give you an answer that can shut you. The opposite, after my answer I think you see yourself in a greater deficiency and you exit the lesson not as if you were filling up with understanding and knowledge and sensation rather the opposite you feel yourself that you didn’t get what you wanted and what you expected, and that’s actually the true goal as the result of the lesson. To what extent that person gets up from the chair, he went through the lesson and he sees that as if he has more questions than answers. That is correct and how it needs to be.
S. How do we transform this deficiency into a common vessel?
R. If you understand that specifically by the deficiencies by the darkness that we advance and not by the light, the light comes from above. Rather we advance specifically by the darkness and we’re not afraid of the darkness that it may be more and more darkness, and also like it’s written in the Zohar, who among you comes through the darkness to the light, through the bitter to the sweet and so on.
We are not afraid of the revelation of evil, rather the opposite that the revelation of evil illuminates to us the darkness illuminates us and that’s called the work and the nights that we need to do. As much as we may hold ourselves and hold on to these nights, first, second, third shifts, then we begin to come to the day and the day is not our work, our work is specifically at night. Thus we also see how the Kabbalists determine that the lessons will be at night, how much they respect the darkness. That the main thing is to hold ourselves and within ourselves through the darkness to the light but the light itself that the Creator already opens up and fills the created being.
S. The person cannot do it by himself?
R. On our own, how is that possible?
S. It rings you back to your statement that everything is revealed through connection.
R. Yes.
25. S. (49:49) I heard you say that you should depict in the Ten that the Creator is between you and includes all the hearts. How in the Ten do I become a wise disciple of the Creator and can I learn to be a correct member or correct friend in the Ten?
R. I want to open up my heart to all of the friends in the Ten and I see just how incapable I am of this. In my mind I can understand what needs to be done in the sensation something is stopping me, and the difference between what I understand that needs to be done and what I do I need to actually do, this difference this delta, I need to feel in prayer. However I am incapable and there I feel the sensation of this vessel in prayer. That I ask of the Creator to help me to be entirely, entirely and request towards him and that he should fill this request of mine and will correct my heart. If the Creator will not do this nobody can do this it will not happen, it will happen only by my request and upper mercy.
S. As a Ten, how can they help this prayer for each one?
R. All of us together, if we want to fulfill it then truly it will occur. That is how it is promised to us, so let’s do it.
S. You said about the prayer, that when we pray for something we don’t let go of it until it happens?
R. Yes, until one says I do want it and also the Creator says that I am interested in the whole repentance of the man. The man also reaches a state that he does everything until the end, in order to pressure and obligate the Creator. Learn from the little kids, just how much they are in deficiency and pressure and they don’t let go. If the little kid wants something, usually he will not let you rest until he will get what he deserves, and he deserves because he’s doing the work according to root and branch.
S. The prayer can take place if I’m in a prayer now it can really take a lot of attention and I don’t stop until I get it?
R. You enjoy from this that you have a great deficiency with which you turn to the Creator. You understand that it actually is the highest point of connection. What more do you have to do? if you rise to such a peak, to such an apex, that you have nothing to turn to but the Creator and that the Creator prepared this for you and that you need to learn and to cry out and to request and to beg and everything possible, and you do not let go until you get it like a kid like a child. If he wants it, he will finish it but he will not let you go this and this and that and so and so until you will give it to him.
S. But with a Kabbalist if he’s asking for some small thing and not letting it go sometimes it’s not worth it and maybe you should stop?
R. Big or small, it’s not important most of the requests big or small doesn’t matter it’s you measuring it how important it is to you, How important it is to you, if I want to grasp onto the Creator through the Ten, even as in the eye of the needle, that I’m only thinking about this and nothing more. A hair’s width not the eye of the needle. In this measure, to this extent in the width of the hair and this extent you hold on to the group and nothing else that you have and you don’t need.
26. S. (55:37) Many times when a person asks to bring his Ten into his heart he discovers that his heart is truly full of forces of rejection and seemingly any available place is only rejection. Should we ask the Creator to remove those forces of rejection?
R. You can ask for whatever you want and whatever you think is bothering you.
S. Can we really insist on this point or should we then move on to simply a prayer for connection
R. I don’t dictate to you but the main thing is to not let go. If a person doesn’t let go, doesn’t leave then the Creator teaches a person how to go from request to request and goes to rise to the true requests.
27. S. (56:47) I heard you say that it is impossible to advance without transgressing. What is the correct transgression that advances us so that we need to break the existing connection each time in order to build a stronger connection? How do we do that?
R. No we don’t need to break connections, we need to see them already as states from which we can already rise to more actual connections.
28. S. (57:24) What are the conditions that we need to have in the Ten so that he will open up our hearts?
R. That we will want to love one another, that we will want to connect in our hearts.
29. S. (57:50) Is the state of darkness that it speaks about here it’s actually a state of leaving the ego of succeeding in coming out of yourself, of our own nature but still we have to reach the other nature? or does it simply mean that we are in the ego and that’s the darkness?
R. No, only in the ego is not darkness we need to be in a certain measurement between the darkness and the light and then we can understand where we need to be in motion towards.
S. Here the study of the Zohar is bringing us to that place?
R. Yes.
30. S. (58:48) You mentioned the heart in common with all the friends and the Ten and I feel that my desire and my ego always measures the friends according to how much they join the meetings and how much they disseminate and participate in the lesson and I don’t feel that we are equal on that level. How can I overcome this egoistic measurement and just to love each friend in the group in an equal manner?
R. Soon you will reach a state that it will not be for you such a measurement of who’s more or less, rather you’ll feel everyone that everyone needs to be connected, that without everyone connected to one desire then there will not be success. Of course each one to his extent in his personality, but it must be such that all of us will be connected. Try to see them in this manner and to feel them and motivate them towards this and you will see that you will advance very quickly.
31. S. (01:00:23) Sometimes it seems to me as though I am not allowing the Creator to breathe and not for acceptance and he doesn’t allow me to breathe as though we were in a struggling fighting with each other is this feeling correct and can I actually defeat the Creator in such a struggle?
R. If it’s a sensation that it must be correct. Now is it true? That I cannot say already, it’s worthwhile to let the Creator rest. What does that mean it’s worthwhile to let the Creator rest, what does that mean, that try to work with the friends and after you scrutinize with them all sorts of things. then you turn to the Creator after you scrutinize things.
32. S. (01:01:28) Before the morning lesson we come to the lesson feeling the love of connection between us. At the end of the lesson we build it, but after that lesson ends, how can we keep the common connection throughout the day?
R. This you need to talk about between you and perform it between you. How do you and that same desire you attain at the morning or afternoon lesson, how can you make the effort to realize this desire? to realize it. It all depends on you.
33. S. (01:02:25) In the text he speaks about Behinot, discernments or phases, how did these discernments or phases influence the vessels, did they shape a form of the vessels or how do they influence us?
R. Yes of course, the internal element of the vessel is called Behinot discernment.
34 S. (01:03:35) We are aware that the connection between us and the Ten is what causes everything in the world. Is this what should create the power of our prayer and if we are not aware of this, is this what causes the concealment of the light?
R. The connection? Our connection doesn’t stop us and it doesn’t conceal anything from us. It’s the opposite, our connection advances us and opens up everything for us.
S. Does realizing and knowing that we aren’t connected cause the light to go away?
R. No, it doesn’t depend on our awareness. Our awareness is already the result of how much the light is concealed. We cannot say how much it is concealed because for this we also need to know and measure how much it fills us and how much it is concealed from us and then we can measure the borders and the intensities. There is no room for such a question.
35. S. (01:05:00) The Creator will only give us what we should have, he’ll give it to us even if we don’t ask him so what is the need for the prayer?
R. Prayer is the main thing. Without the prayer we don’t have the deficiency. Without the deficiency we will not advance because all the advancement of all the degrees is through revelation of deficiencies from our part.
36. S. (01:05:41) What is a sin in spirituality? Why can the revocation or canceling of the ego become a sin?
R. The main sin in spirituality is that the created being forgets the Creator and disconnects from him. All the rest are sins on the path and without them you cannot advance. But if a person disconnects from the Creator that is the sin because then what is he dependent on.
37. S. (01:06:13) You said that the Zohar works on a complete group. What is a complete group?
R. A whole group is a Ten, as the definition by Baal HaSulam, it also from the Torah we see how they divided up the nation in the desert into Tens and to hundreds into thousands.
38. S. (01:06:49) Is the world, Olam, a spiritual Partzuf?
R. The world is not a spiritual Partzuf. There is no such thing. As a world Olam is something general but not a Partzuf, a Partzuf is 10 Sefirot bigger or smaller but 10 Sefirot.
39. S. (01:07:16) Jews or Egyptians, where are we in all these stories?
R. We are in everyone, it depends on the will to receive that is revealed to us at the moment, it could be Jews, it could be Egyptians, it could be anything.
40. S. (01:07:40) What is faith made of?
R. Faith is comprised, I can’t really say that it’s comprised of anything. Faith, it’s as of the … writes, it’s a small tendency of the gentleness of the heart. The faith is a small tendency from the gentleness of the heart. Meaning some connection that is very thin and small with the Creator,that is called faith.
41. S. (01:08:38) Is the true prayer the one that comes instead of the blow?
R. Let’s say, but not an obligation, not an obligation.
42. S. (01:09:09) I heard you say that we need to turn to the Creator, to cry out to Him, like to squeeze Him like a child. How do we turn to the Creator and kind of pressure Him and squeeze Him, and at the same time we make our friends happy also?
R. You need to demand of the Creator to help us to advance in all the words of request and crying and tears and not to let go from Him, not to let Him up, and that’s how we will grow. To reach the internal deficiency such that we will be able to reveal it to the Creator and the Creator will not be able to stand up to it, and will give us and fulfill us for the deficiency. Meaning that the deficiency needs to be strong and true and real.
43. S. (01:10:30) What does it mean that we advance more in the darkness if we are constantly doing everything in order to go towards the light?
R. That our progress is from deficiency and thus, it’s called from darkness.
44. S. (01:10:57) At the end of the lesson should we feel completely empty? There are lessons where I come out of them completely delighted and happy, is that a bad sign?
R. When I’m empty, I’m also happy, I’m even happier than when I’m feeling myself full, it all depends on how we appreciate our internal sensation.
45. S. (01:11:24) What does it mean if I have questions in the lessons or if I don’t have questions in the lesson?
R. It’s desirable but if I don’t have questions it’s not so important, but that I shall have a deficiency, a tendency, a yearning, this is what I want to have.
Reading Number 150, Twice. (01:12:01) “ Sit, O dear one, sit and we will renew..”
46. S. (01:17:20) Something small, he says that Shavuot is the end of correction and that we learn that Purim is the end of correction. Can you explain this?
R. No, I cannot reconcile this and it’s not important, Purim is from the side of the vessels, and the night of Shavuot is from the side of the preparation of the lights. You can find many more such things in the Zohar and the Torah.
47. S. (01:18:01) It says to make efforts to extend the light on Shavuot. What is that state called the day of Shavuot? Do I have any connection to that?
R. It’s Shavuot, the festive day of Shavuot.
S. I’m asking about the inner state?
R. After you already come out of Egypt, we have a special occasion called the day of Shavuot?
S. I’m asking if we’re trying to implement what is written here, let’s renew the correction of the bride this night. If there is such a feeling that we’re invited to participate in this correction?
R. Of course because each one with his deficiencies is allowed to come and participate, for without him the bride will not will not be revealed.
S. So what is the state called Shavuot where we can demand the special light called the giving of the Torah?
R. When we can disclose our deficiency to the bride, when we will place above her the screen; the canopy above the bride and groom.
S. I really feel how the reading here is inviting us, the Kabbalists are inviting us to participate, to join them?
R. Yes, let’s join them, let’s join the canopy, the Huppah, that’s why we are called those who build the canopy.
48. S. (01:20:00) The staff that Moses has holy letters written on it, does that mean until the end of correction we have to go in faith above reason?
R. Not until a certain point but in general we always need to go in faith above reason because there’s no knowledge and no reason in spirituality only faith above reason, and reason is there so we can build faith above it.
49. S. (01:20:56) In 150, it’s written that the renewal of the moon is called the correction of the night of the bride,if I understand correctly. How do we renew the Illumination in our work?
R. They become as one, meaning it doesn’t matter what light we are under, the sun and the moon will shine with equal light and equally, just as we see the moon and we see the sun, and it will be equal and they’re equal in size. Visually you have to reach a state of spirituality where we see them as equal, where it doesn’t matter which vessels we are working with, vessels of reception or vessels of bestowal, for me it’s the same importance.
S. It says that there’s Malchut called a year, a stage of renewal, so every day and every month, is that part of that year or does it happen at the same time? How do we do it, these stages?
R. From beginning to end, and all the time and always. We always aspire to, we want the light of the sun and the light of the moon to be identical for us. That’s what we need to see, that the light of the sun and the light of the moon will be as one; equal. Meaning the act of bestowal and the act of reception, there is no difference for us, rather it’s exactly the same.
50. S. (01:23:47) At the end of the year, after the great Zivug will there be the Malchut or will there only be the light that will fill everything?
R. No, Malchut and Keter will be as 10 Sefirot in total and the upper light will be revealed among all these Sefirot, and everyone will attain it this way in one vessel, which is 10 whole Sefirot.