SUNDAY PRAYER: BINAH-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Sunday
Zohar for All. Introduction of The Book of Zohar. The Second Commandment, item 203
Morning Lesson February 09, 2023 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Zohar for All. “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”. The Second Commandment. #203
https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/F2LYqFgK
1. Rav’s Introduction (00:28): Yes, so we are continuing on the same subject, and I don’t have more to add. The Zohar itself will tell us. So, The introduction to the book of Zohar.
Reading Item #203 (00:55): “And thus, one should evoke the fear on the other side…”
2. R. (27:22) This is what the Zohar tells us. Maybe we’ll try to answer a few questions and understand better. The issue is that we are created beings opposite to the Creator based on our nature which is only a will to receive and when we receive from the Creator, somewhat sparks of bestowal, then it turns out to be opposite to us also and so how can we connect these two qualities love and fear? Good and bad? How can we connect between them all the time so that together they’ll present us with an outcome of wholeness? That’s a problem. So the Zohar explains to us. Let’s see it through the friends’ questions.
3. S. (28:52) Here it’s written that to awaken the quality of Bina which is the quality of fear. What is this quality of fear in front of the Creator and how do you awaken it?
R. The quality of fear is in us but it is within us from a certain perspective that we are in a will to receive after the shattering as we awaken by the light then we awaken to receive. And therefore our awakening is not a positive awakening, as if, but a negative awakening. Like we see on ourselves, we want to know, we want to acquire, we want to understand we, we, we. And then we start hearing about the corrections that we need to make, where ‘Love Thy friend, as thyself,’ is the general correction which is then detailed to many others but all in all, it is not in our nature. So when we talk about our corrections we have to see how we position this against that and that’s how we come to our inner balance and accordingly we can feel the Creator as the middle line in His revelation and this is how we can organize ourselves to resemble Him.
4. S. (31:10) I can’t understand completely. Can you expand? What is he talking about fear here? What is this, the fear of the sorrows that the Creator is bringing me or that I am not connected to the Creator?
R. What does she mean here?
S. The fear in the text.
R. So this too in the meantime I would like to speak about it in general. We, from our nature, we want to receive and therefore, our fear is the fear of not being able to receive and fulfill ourselves; therefore, we need corrections that will calm down our passion and yearning for fulfillment, so that we won’t lack anything. How will we not lack anything? Because we are connected to the Creator, which is all of the goodness. Now, it’s not that the Creator provides us with fulfillment, rather He provides us with the quality of confidence, the quality of Hassidim, mercy and then we are happy with that, we are satisfied with that, and we don’t need more by resembling Him. That is essentially what the corrections are.
5. S. (33:15) My question is about the domination of Hochma and Bina: are they together in all states or just in the Partzuf Arich Anpin?
R. Hochma and Bina typically need to be balanced and by that balance will come to all the other Sefirot even though each Sefira is opposite to the other and each and everyone fulfills a different role, but all in all, we balance them, we connect them in such a way that they work out of harmony between them and that’s how it will happen.
S. So if one is dominating over the other this is how we feel the light from the Creator as either Din or Hessed, judgment or mercy?
R. When we have a surplus, let’s say in the influence of one Sefira, one quality over the other we feel that as an imbalance. When we balance ourselves through connection with the friends and in receiving from the Creator in the middle line, then we bring ourselves too to that state. And then it follows that we arrange ourselves in a way, that just like the Creator arranges it from above, we arrange our structure from below and then it follows that His bestowal enters our Kli, vessel.
S. How does the work with the friends differ in each and every state in order to balance it?
R. This is according to how we discover the influence of the Creator in our state and we want to connect it to, that’s how it should be.
6. S. (36:08) What does it mean that I love the Creator even if he takes my soul and this is called complete love?
R. These are very lofty words. I don’t know how I can pass, communicate what I reveal in that and then there are also other degrees above me, so we will just say that we reveal the relationship with the Creator that fulfills everything, that encompasses everything and that we have no one else to connect ourselves to, to think of, to bestow to; it is all just one force that includes in it everything. That’s the main thing, that it includes everything else in it. Then, even though we think we are opposite to Him when we get closer to Him, getting closer is by becoming incorporated with all sorts of opposite, contradictory qualities.
7. S. (37:46) What can we do in order to grow this, to feed this fear in the ten?
R. To speak about it, to give an example, to try to get closer to each other. Try to practically show each other how much we want to support each other and that these examples will be in front of everyone’s eyes and that’s how we will advance. Besides studying we should also support each other during the study and outside the time of the study and thus we will see how that power that the Zohar wants to transmit to us, how it enters and how much it works. At first we won’t feel its actions, we might even feel something else, a sort of resistance on our part but then we will begin to feel how we have to calibrate ourselves so that the upper light will further and further enter us, fulfill us and give us its qualities. Our goal is to reach a state where we are as one vessel, with one light. This is called the adhesion of the Creator with the created beings.
8. S. (40:20) How can I give the Creator the correct answer, react to Him correctly whenever he takes my soul?
R. The correct response is that you will do everything He wants from you and agree with it with everything you have, completely, totally in heart and soul, in all the desires and thoughts you agree to be in actions of bestowal towards the Creator and the Creator meaning, to all of humanity to embrace everyone, and through you fulfill everyone and more than that you don’t want. That’s how it is, this is called complete love.
9. S. (41:32) We see in the writings of the Zohar that Hochma and Bina go hand-in-hand; they are always together. Is the source of this phenomena in the world of Nikudim when the Sefira DAAT, when she brought them the MAN of the lower ones she caused a never ending Zivug?
R. Yes, yes.
10. S. (42:18) It says that Hochma and Bina are never apart. Where do we find Hochma in the state of Hafetz Hesed, delighted in mercy?
R. No, Hochma is not Hafetz Hesed but they are not separated because they want to complement each other and thus give each other a possibility to appear and work together so that each one helps the other.
S. You should fear from the cooling of love that it’s a natural state where the light comes out of the vessel and spreads and it is expelled: so what does that mean?
R. And we have to continue more and more. It is true that everything passes and not in a way that appears in our world. That something just cools down naturally but in the upper world the cooling down is because that there are many vessels and they’re all going into action and the light that fills them further and further expands and spreads and so it is as though it cools down. What we have to do is always work on increasing the light so that the vessel will be closer and closer to it through its demand in its prayer and so we will hold it in the Kli.
11. S. (44:22) Fear not to realize myself in this incarnation, the fear of not finding connection in the ten and not building the vessel, to lose your teacher, are these the correct kinds of fears that we need to pray or should we pray only for fear that we will not bring contentment to the Creator.
R. Exactly only pray for that, to bring contentment to the Creator because this fear, this tendency, this goal includes everything in it, completely includes everything in it. therefore do not be afraid about anything besides that only not to move away from the Creator.
12. S. (45:35) Active agreement with whatever the Creator presents to us, is that reaching equivalence of form?
R. Yes, yes.
13. S. (46:02) He warns here a couple of times not to harden your heart. Don’t harden your heart for whatever reason during the Din because then you will fall to the other side which is called evil so he talks about the judgment, the heart is automatically just compressed so how can you avoid that?
R. By holding on to the means and the means are the group, the mutual work, everything that has to do with the study so that helps us to elevate the means, to respect them.
14. S. (46:56) A friend thinks of the friends, he listens to them, this attitude that he has to the friends in the ten, what is the fear that needs to appear at the time that he is thinking about the friends?
R. That at least I do not disconnect from them that in the connection between us we search and find the Creator each time in a new degree, in a new intensity, new aspect. That the more we connect between us, increasingly we find there more and more pleasure that we can pass on that we can send, that we can awaken in the Creator and we see the group strengthening in that force and it comes together and thus the Creator also appears in us, shines in us more and more.
15. S. (48:18) How can a person be fearful of losing pleasure from the Creator if he does not feel that he’s bringing contentment to the Creator?
R. Well, he can’t.
S. But how do you reach that fear?
R. We talk about it all the time.
16. S. (48:55) When he explains to us about GAR of Bina and ZAT of Bina I cannot identify those states by corporal situations, right?
R. Through corporal states of course not but GAR of Bina and ZAT of Bina there is a big difference between them because GAR of Bina is the quality of bestowal and ZAT of Bina is something else.
S. It’s just that he explains GAR of Bina, he gives corporeal examples like you are rich, you are blessed, you have children around the table so what I’m trying to say is that I should not take corporal situations and identify these states with those, correct? Because we are talking about spirituality, right?
R. Yes, right.
17. S (50:25) We always talk about the Creator being love and when we talk about fear, we talk about fear of not losing love, and here in the text it says that first fear was created and only then love is discussed, so first it is fear but if there’s no love, how can you be afraid of losing love. So why does fear come first?
R. Our nature is to be fulfilled to acquire to take everything to grab onto everything for our own benefit so if we do not make some kind of attack, some kind of foundation of fear below all of our actions then we will not be able to act correctly.
S. When we talk about love many times in order not to be confused we are always saying that love is bestowal it’s giving and we say that reception and bestowal will always go together they are always balanced the fear the spiritual fear should we change the concept of fear with some concept of reception?
R. The fear of receiving of not giving the fear of my own state of my incorrect state whether whether it is in the reception of the bestow.
18. S. (52:30) It says GAR of Bina has to be included in the ZAT of Bina, can we say that fear will help us raise MAN and MAN has to be raised in order for Bina to be whole and this leads us to love covers all crimes and help us with corrections?
R. Very nice you said everything correctly.
19. S. (53:02) Can you please explain how fear helps building the correct intention?
R. Fear does not allow you to escape, and and not let you use your inner qualities, it awakens and holds a person in this sharp yearning, it uses all of his resources that he has in order to attain such realization of this fear that it will invert the death of the Kli to the maximum.
20. S. (54:23) What makes each one of us special, it’s this special form in which everyone comes and unites these two opposites, this fear and love and this Hochma and Bina?
R. Yes that is correct and at the end of the day we need reach a state where all ten Sefirot, we use them completely entirely, and they add to one another.
21. S. (55:03) Does the Creator have fear?
R. We do not speak about what the Creator has.
S. His suffering is this some kind of a fear?
R. His suffering is not our suffering, how do you even say it, like when we speak about parents who are suffering for their children, they are not suffering because they feel the evil that is in him or the sorrow that is in him or the deficiency in them, they feel that their children lack it and this is much greater suffering than what we say, “the cow wants to feed more than the calf wants to suckle”, and this is one thing, and another thing, is we need to understand the difference in degrees, the upper and the lower, the Creator and the created being where the main thing for us is to reach an understanding of the degree of the Creator in something, so that we could adhere to him and yearn to fill him, and to fill him, how can I fill him, by developing my will to receive in order to receive from Him, in order to bestow to Him. So first of all there needs to be an intention in order to bestow and to that extent then I open my will to receive.
22. S. (57:40) What is the connection between the fear of the Creator and the faith in the Creator?
R. The fear of the Creator is that I am afraid not to fulfill Him, not to do whatever He wants; this is the true fear of the Creator. Faith in the Creator, this is a precursor. It is a state that is built next to this fear, where I prepare my vessels of bestowal so that I will be able to pass them to the Creator and He will fill them.
23. S. (59:05) This quality of fear and love if we meet, encounter it in the work in the ten, do we look for the middle line between these two forces?
R. Yes.
S. Through searching the middle line we find fear and love?
R. Yes and it cannot be one without the other, if you have fear without love, or love without fear, they are not complete. They will very quickly disappear.
24. S. (01:00:03) All the actions above reason, are they the ones that will help us build fear in the ten?
R. Yes, all the actions are in order to build within us fear. And then after fear, to build on top of that, love. Not that fear will hold us, and direct us, and will reveal more correct vessels, better more connections, but that love actually will hold us and it will move us.
25. S. (01:01:33) When we feel bad is it because the Creator is pulling us closer to Him because the spirit, in form can feel bad?
R. Yes, it is the origin or the source for the bad feeling.
26. S. (01:02:18) In this world, fear is unpleasant, something that can even lead to diseases of all sorts. What kind of a fear are we talking about? What is it similar to?
R. We are talking about fear not to bestow to the Creator.
S. This fear should be accompanied with joy, happiness?
R. Yes, it should always hold me in the way that I am directed and aimed in this direction, in quality and quantity, the maximum that I can bestow to the Creator. The fear: am I bestowing enough to the Creator, according to those preparations that He made within me.
27. S. (01:03:20) How to transform natural fear to the right fear that will lead us to love?
R. This is by work with the friends. Try as much as you can and you will see how it goes.
28. S. (01:03:45) You said that today and yesterday, that we should be always in fear not to lose the connection with the friends and with the upper One through the friends. If I’m always in fear, where is their room for confidence that the Creator will definitely help and the friends?
R. We need to try to work in the connection between these two opposites, that they seem to us as that as much as we can, that we can be also in fear, and also in confidence, and also in joy, and also in anxiety and so forth and so on; it does not bother one another. If we’re talking about bestowal to the Creator and then we will learn how to be in all of them at one time.
29. S. (01:04:45) Following what we learn, it is not so clear that all kinds of terms of fear and shame add to each other?
R. You can ask me about many different discernments: what is the connection between them, how do they complete one another? I get that there are a lot of questions there and how they need to complete one another. Maybe one comes first and what comes after, maybe together, they, as if create between the two, a third quality, a fourth quality even, and there’s a lot of discernments there. We will learn it throughout time and we do not need to rush. There are many many, there is a lot to learn here.
30. S. (01:06:15) Is it accurate to say that this fear of not being able to bestow to the Creator first comes from fear of not being able to connect with the world Kli or my ten?
R. Yes, yes.
S. If all of our fear is not being able to bestow towards the Creator with the great desire that is inside then it paints a picture of being in darkness, like a black screen with black letters: what do I do in this state, how can I connect when I’m in this state?
R. You connect in the darkness, with the friends, the ones that are close to you, that you are with them in contact, physical, virtual, you hear, see one another, and from that more and more you warm up this connection between you by reading, asking questions, workshops, and this is how you start understanding them, feeling them stronger, closer and this is how you warm up. That’s it. Just understand that if you are making a calculation on the connection between you, where each one thinks about himself, then you are just burning yourselves. I don’t know, like in nature, if you make a calculation where there is nevertheless some kind of feeling of how much you can warm up the other, awaken him, then you by that, you are actually igniting one another in a good way and pushing them forward.
31. S (1:09:25) In difficult times it is as if the whole world is waiting for me to act. I dream about the friends, I dream about overcoming disasters. Can this power, this kind of dream change the world?
R. Yes this is your desire, it is not a force, it’s not a dream it is simply what you are activating, your desire and desire is the main thing and it changes the world.
32. S. (1:09:53) Can we think of a certain desire as a collective fear in the ten?
R. A specific desire as a collective here in the ten? This is something that we need to reach. We need to reach this discernment and aim it at the Creator. This is our vessel, this is our Kli, the worthy, corrected, right one aimed at the Creator this is how it looks, this is how it seems, how it appears.
33. S. (1:10:56) What is the essence that is hidden in the sentence in the book that says that no Hochma will be depicted without Bina which is love without fear.
R. Because it is impossible to scrutinize something by itself only by its connection with something else
S. Why do I need to love you in order to be your student, why?
R. That is how it is written.
S. Thank you, I will do so.
34. S. (1:12:11) It is written that in each and every commandment I need to awaken fear but in love fear units with it. What is special about fear that I need to awaken it in love as opposed to all the other commandments?
R. We need to feel in each action giving, connection; therefore, in each and every action we need to feel this distance and closeness. Each opposite action and to see them through the middle line that we are constructing and we are making it and then we will place ourselves, our will to receive in the middle line. This is what we need and then all the corrections will be corrections for bestowal. Even if all of us are in the vessels of reception but our actions, they will be in the direction of bestowal.
35. S. (1:13:38) Naturally we do not know what love is, we do not understand it and in comparison we do sense or detect what fear is. Why is that so? Why with the help of fear do we achieve love?
R. I think that fear is the foundation for all the correct actions because it aims a person to use all of his qualities in the right way by coming closer to the Creator and turning to the Creator. So there is no nothing more correct than to acquire fear, so let’s hope that we can understand it, feel it and use it correctly.
36. S. (01:15:16) You say that fear is a useful quality but we said that we are on the edge and even destruction does not stop us and fear doesn’t act us to annul. Why does this happen?
R. Because we do not place besides the feeling of fear the feeling of punishment. What is the punishment? That is the main thing. Fear can’t be just like that on its own so I’m afraid, well? Then in place of being afraid I overcome it, I cannot tolerate anymore the fear that fills me and I in spite of that go to attack. Punishment is the right answer for the fear as the punishment should be from the recognition of evil from recognizing the essence of my actions, what I do relative to the perfection of the Creator. If it weren’t for that and the feeling of the perfection of creation then there is no fear not punishment or anything, but everything eventually something that I can kind of annul, but only the I, I need to be part of the general collective me and they can control me and if I’m in this vessel this called the ten and if they think of me in some certain way then I am under their influence and if it turns out that I have no choice I have to come closer to them to incorporate in them I have to understand them, feel them, I need to arrange myself calibrate myself in such a way that I will be, as a result of them as one of the ten, as Rabbish says, one who is the last and before him everyone, and then I can be certain that I am incorporated with them in the right way this way and they are all controlling me and I want them to control me.
37. S. (01:18:40) First of all I have some happy news, our friend from Turkey who was in the earthquake and was affected by it he is here with us now and he’s a foundation, a pillar of our ten. I have an incredible fear of not being able to connect with the friends. I feel this is absolutely necessary for me and this is something vital for me and this is something I want. Is this a truth here?
R. We need to come to a state in which we feel connection between us such that we have no disconnect we are always connect always connected. We need to exert somewhat and then soon we will begin to feel that we are connected.
38. S. (01:20:08) About this calibration this connection in the ten this constant feeling to wanting to connect and on the other side I also feel a lot of judgment, hardening of the heart, so how can you use this hardening of the heart to avoid and keep softening the heart constantly in the ten?
R. Try to write all your complaints, then start sorting them a little bit more, what is the reason for each complaint, what do you benefit from it, in what way can we correct it, etc., otherwise maybe you will have confusion in your mind from all the rest of the discernments.
S. So how can you come to the softening of the heart in the ten? We can constantly soften the heart and help each other to soften the heart?
R. Yes, yes.
S. How do we soften the heart in the 10 constantly?
R. If you aim your heart to the help of a friend then you can’t think. You only think of how to help him and that is what we feel.
39. S (01:22:20) Is it correct that fear and intention appear as similar things?
R. Yes.