MONDAY PRAYER: HESED-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Monday
Zohar for All. Introduction of The Book of Zohar. The Fourth Commandment, item 208
Morning Lesson February 11, 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 Fourth Commandment. #208
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we need to learn those Mitzvot, commandments, meaning those are the laws we have to keep in order to get closer to the Creator gradually. So we have a certain number of laws and this is how the Book of Zohar brings it to us and takes it to us and pulls us to keep those commandments correctly, so let’s read about the fourth commandment.
Reading 208 (01:05)
2. R. (02:51) There is nothing to add here it all follows the laws that we have already learnt that every Partzuf grows from the smallest measure to the biggest measure as we are used to it also in this world so this is how we see that this is in spirituality as well. This is how the quality is growing and the connection is growing between the Partzufim, between the degrees. Let’s go on.
Reading 209 (03:26)
3. R. (04:33) Yes, this means that both ZA and Malchut have to reach a state where both of them connect and reveal the upper force. One is through darkness and the other through light but actually it is with the same intention.
Reading on (04:55)
4. R. (11:00) So what does he want to tell us here? That it is not about the darkness and light that we are familiar with or what we may imaging to ourselves but it is all in respect to the corrections of the created beings, to the correction of the Nukva. If the created beings are corrected and for them anything that comes from the Creator, it all comes from him, it all comes out of mercy and love, this is how they accept it then they feel the internal force that exist in the light that shines on them, and this is how they connect between them and together with the Creator and then the darkness shines as light. The light and the darkness have actually the same direction and the day cannot distinguish between the two of them because it is all light, it is all day.
So how can we reach this? Through the inner correction in the created beings. It is not like the light will change or the Creator’s attitude changes; I the lord do not change, rather all of the changes are only in the created beings and therefore as much as we try to rise to a state therefore it does not matter but we get from the Creator because it is all mercy and love and connection, then accordingly we discover a whole state as the light of day, one day. This is how the day and the night connect into a single day.
5. S. (13:32) What does it mean that in our work we reach a state where we do not care what we receive from the Creator and everything just happens as one day?
R. If we work in complete equivalence it doesn’t matter if we receive or we bestow, the most important that through this process through this operation we can act back to the Creator we will impart to him, imparting each other through all of us to the Creator because the Creator is filling all of us together. In such a way we answer him so what matters is that our answer is always love advancing towards him, to connection and that this is it.
S. What does it mean that I work in complete bestowal?
R. It means that everything that you receive from the Creator is only in order to pass it onto all the other people.
S. Everything that I receive from the Creator, what does that mean?
R. Everything, including everything. It doesn’t mean anything but everything that you receive is in order to bestow.
S. I received different things in life.
R. It does not matter what you receive, you receive from the Creator and everything you receive you pass it onto others.
S. Can you please explain how to pass onto others what I receive?
R. That you have no thoughts, I talk about an ideal state of course but I have no thoughts at all, no calculations of doing anything for my own benefit meaning in my own desire to enjoy to be filled, to receive but instead I only want to pass through myself to others, because in such a way they can receive without receiving for me they cannot receive and this is how it is with each and every person. Each one should be unique, singular in that he receives from the Creator and passes it on to others.
S. So it doesn’t matter what I receive because I give it to the friends?
R. Of course and this is how you also receive from that. This reception is not considered reception anymore.
S. How in each moment even if you receive something bad, how to give it as good to the friends?
R. Everything depends on the intention, everything depends on the intention. This is the only thing we have to pay attention to.
Reading on (17:14)
6. S. (23:00) When we are filled with light and we pass this light to the ten we automatically wait for a response. This means that the Sitra Achra is clinging to us?
R. Of course. We can not perform such actions right now, it is happening gradually.
S. How not to wait for it so there is no such state of emptiness when we do not receive a response?
R. For this we have to be with the right intention in order to bestow to the Creator.
S. And this is the reason why we feel emptiness that we cannot continue doing anything?
R. Yes but it will all come. It is only through prayer that we can reach a state where the truly pass on to each other what we need to pass on so that by this we will keep a single system which is all interconnected and uniform.
7. S. (24:32) How can we make sure that we pass onto the friends what we receive from the Creator? How do we ask for these spiritual desires?
R. This depends on how we receive from the Creator. If we receive in order to make the right coupling through that a truthful coupling meaning they’re with the restriction and screen and reflected light then we seemingly pass it on to the Creator but there is nothing we can give to the Creator. We can only give it to the friends and this is how it works then. There is nowhere else to pass on what you receive so if you are alone in the world let’s say you would be the only one in the world then you would remain that way all blocked. Only on the condition that you are connected to others then you begin to value them and how grateful you are to them and to the Creator for the fact they exist so you have what to pass on and whom to pass on to, and then you rise from your degree where you are disconnected from everybody up to the degree of the Creator gradually, bit by bit when you pass on what you receive to others.
8. S. (26:39) Can I pass on to others what I receive from the Creator joyfully?
R. Certainly. To the extent you feel that how much by this you are fulfilling the general Global vessel that it actually belongs to you and you add that moment, you make yourself the Keter to this vessel, the one who bestows and by that you get great joy out of your role and you are doing it with all of your heart.
9. S. (27:38) What is the action of passing on to the friends, does it happen naturally or do I have to make an active action?
R. You are passing on the light to them. That part that you receive you pass it on to them.
S. And this happens naturally? What does it mean to pass on the light?
R. Yes you pass it on, you want them to receive it through you, you are already willing to do that.
S. What does it mean to receive the light?
R. This means that you receive from all of your friends the deficiencies and on top of those deficiencies you make a coupling and you receive the upper light and in the upper light that you receive through the vessels of the friends you pass it on to them. This is how they have the same light that you received for them otherwise they cannot receive, otherwise you cannot receive, otherwise everything is blocked.
S. From the moment I receive the light and I am including into their deficiencies, does it happen naturally or I have to do another action?
R. Many actions and operations here. Nothing is done or is blocked or disappears, it is all through man’s actions.
S. What is important in this process?
R. In this process what is important is that in everything you want to become as a conduit the one who is passing on from the Creator to the friends.
S. Meaning to incorporate into their deficiencies is the first action which is driving the whole process?
R. Yes.
10. S. (29:47) This light the Kabbalists feel, it as something abstract or according to each deficiency he knows this goes there? How does it work?
R. We will reach this and then we will be able to sort it out.
S. How can we work with it when we really don’t know how to work with it?
R. This is what I’m saying, it will happen gradually. Gradually we will learn what can we pass onto the friends, what can we receive for them. How by this we give contentment to the Creator through our actions as much as we pass it on to the friends, and what remains for us? Pleasure out of the fact that we bestow both to them and to the Him.
11. S. (30:47) Is there such a thing that I received and I didn’t pass it on?
R. That is a very big question, actually there is none. We stumble across this also in technology, in electronics, that if we do not have a way out then we don’t have an entry either.
12. S. (31:19) I wanted to ask whether the light that I pass to others, does it come from the first Mitzva called fear and then from that fear I can pass onto others? The others are actually the Creator, that I give Him contentment? Can we say it that way?
R. The commandment of fear is not enough, we have to add to it a few other discernments.
13. S. (32:00) What does it mean to collect the deficiencies of the friends?
R. To become incorporated in them, to become incorporated in their desires.
14. S. (32:18) At 210 right at the beginning it says that the sin of the serpent is that it connects below and separates above. Can you explain what that means exactly? Does it have to do with the work in the ten?
R. Not yet, not yet, we will learn that later on. Connection above and below which is through the serpent, we will have additional excerpts about this.
15. S. (33:08) Can we say that the light of wisdom will shine in my AHAP and through that I will deliver it to GE of the friend as Hassadim?
R. Well you can think so for the time being, later on you’ll correct it a little bit.
16. S. (33:51) It talks here about white light and black light. What is black light and how to understand it correctly in our work?
R. This is how it is called, white light, black light. It’s towards the person but in principle the light of course is one light of adhesion.
17. S. (34:46) If I receive blows and suffering how do I pass that on?
R. In principle you don’t receive either blows or suffering, you advance and you only receive what is necessary in order for you to advance towards the Creator. So all the blows and suffering you receive in a way that is very relative because I’m not sure how to say it but it’s like an athlete who doesn’t succeed in doing something, it doesn’t work for him and he receives such responses. These are not sufferings, are not blows but rather these are measurements for him. The Creator doesn’t surround us with anything that is redundant, unnecessary. He doesn’t give us anything that is too difficult in order to implement His decisions but to the contrary He tries to help us in any possible way. Therefore we have to understand that we are always with the help of the Creator.
S. Meaning I suffer blows and I feel blows and suffering due to my lack of correction?
R. Of course.
S. Can I pass that onto the friends as an indication to correct my broken state?
R. Yes.
18. S. (36:50) When we as a ten build a strong screen and we have a stable intention to bestow what are we still missing to receive the upper light?
R. As we learn now in order to receive the upper light there also has to be an open way to pass the upper light onward. If only you receive then you don’t have the intention to bestow. You need in advance to be connected with other friends so that if you receive from the upper one then you pass it on to them. This means that you are not blocking the path of the light and it can pass freely through you to the others.
19. S. (38:15) We are all in the same system and there is None Else Besides Him. Does it mean that we already receive and pass onwards but we’re unaware of it?
R. No, we need to know that we are receiving. We measure it, we resist receiving in order to receive, we receive only to bestow, meaning first of all we connect to those to whom we want to pass it on. There are many operations here and sub operations that we need to carry out.
20. S. (39:20) To incorporate in the deficiencies, in a simple example, if in a workshop I hear that for a friend it’s difficult for her to wake up in the morning I raise that deficiency to the Creator? Is that called incorporating as well?
R. Yes, that too is called being incorporated.
S. When I hear that a friend feels bad but she doesn’t express this, this also means to raise a deficiency?
R. Yes.
21. S. (39:59) Everything that happens around us comes to help us. How can we take anything that we get and use it towards the goal?
R. How is it possible to take anything and turn it so that we use it towards the goal? It’s only inside the connection, I cannot do these things without working with the infrastructure, with the substance. If I connect with the friends and together with them I work in passing our substance, our filling on then it works.
22. S. (40:59) When we work with the friends, we scrutinize things. How do you recommend that we do this scrutiny, when each one speaks from his heart or should we bring quotes from you or quotes from the sources?
R. It doesn’t matter you can use this as well as that.
S. If we don’t have the strength, because you said take anything and pass it through the ten. If there’s no strength, how to use this when we don’t have the strength, how can we use it as help?
R. Only through prayer, through connection with the friends. Nevertheless when you do it together If there’s no strength then you do whatever you can.
23. S. (42:03) Maybe you answered before but I would still like to ask. How much does the prayer give us the power to drive, to move this process of passing it onto one another as we should?
R. The prayer can give us all the forces that we need including the end of correction because the prayer is an appeal to the Creator and there is no greater or higher request than the prayer to the Creator. And there is no answer or response that is more meaningful, stronger or greater from the Creator than His answer to the prayer.
S. One of the actions that we do before we activate the prayer for the friends is how important is the scrutiny that it will be correct and true before us when we say open the heart? How important is it really that this scrutiny will be true?
R. If we take upon ourselves to truly reach the Creator in our request we obligate Him to answer us; and then both the request in the prayer, what we call raising the prayer and also the answer for the prayer they are already in a state where they connect between them as one line of reflected light and direct light, raising MAN and getting MAD. And then we succeed in being in a connection between us and with the Creator.
S. This process in itself already opens the hearts of the friends?
R. Of course, first of all we already begin to feel how much we are dependent on each other and how much we are connected with each other, how much by being connected and becoming connected with each other we make this connection, we make this pipeline, this conduit from us to the Creator and this is our work.
24. S. (45:11) It says here in item 210 that the Sitra Achra cannot enjoy the abundance, however if the ZON are connected below, then the Sitra Achra can receive the abundance. Therefore Abba and Ima become separated up above, and they stop their coupling. The question is what is this wonderful and harmonic essence that comes out of this precious book?
R. That there has to be a correct connection between the upper degree and the lower degree.
25. S. (46:21) This question is about passing on the Hassadim. Actually the portion of light that I’m passing is harsh judgment because there’s no screen for this portion of light. If I’m passing the light of Hassadim from my ZAT to the GAR of the friend it turns out that I’m passing on to him harsh judgment because he doesn’t have a screen for this portion of light.
R. But then you cannot pass anything to him. You first have to make sure that you have a connection between you and the connection is through the connection between your screens where one is in order to receive and the other one is in order to bestow. One should be receiving in order to bestow and this way when you annul the ego of each one the light can pass on to the other. So it only depends on the common screen between us.
S. In order for us to be able to pass to the friend what we receive from the Creator the friend has to be willing to receive. But if he doesn’t want to receive, if he resists it should we apply all kinds of tricks like relations in order to pass it on to him or should we wait for him to be ready?
R. If we are on the way of correction towards connection then there’s no such thing that you want it or not. If I see that by that I can even better arrange the system, the general system then how will I not receive? So my reception is not as reception, it’s as bestowal so why will I not do it? It’s just not that something like that can exist.
26. S. (49:16) We see that after we spend a few days in connection, separation and disappointment come. Is that in order for us to draw light from the darkness during those times in order to push us to connection again?
R. All the darkness that comes to us is a result of our success in light and connection, it’s in order for us to continue to draw the light and continue in connection and so in this way every time. Then we think we receive darkness from the Creator and we ourselves pass on the light. So what’s important is that we establish this network of connection between us, the same network of Adam HaRishon that disappeared.
27. S. (50:30) Is the deficiency created naturally as a result of efforts towards connection or should we actively look for common spiritual deficiencies?
R. Also search, but in our search we don’t understand where it comes from, where the desire to search or the answer comes from. We always have to be drawn towards connection, to find where else we can make the connection happen and also how to fulfill the Kli. That we each time re-establish in a new way and thus we fulfill the vessel of Adam HaRishon. Ultimately we have to reach a state where we have a single Kli and a single fulfillment.
28. S. (51:37) If the reception is for self reception in other words I don’t pass it, the abundance is still there but it goes to the Sitra Achra?
R. The abundance from the vessels doesn’t pass to the Sitra Achra, no, we’ll learn that. There is no such thing, the shattering already occurred.
29. S. (52:29) In this process where a person has to raise the deficiencies of the friends and receive an answer for it and pass it on to them, how do we create such responsibility in the ten so that each one will feel that he is equally responsible for this process?
R. Why does that need to happen?
S. How can we do such a thing without a common responsibility, each one for everyone?
R. If we want to connect then what does it matter to me how much I give and how much others give? What’s important is that we all give and build a single connection to all and if I give more to all then I’m only happy that I’m able to provide for all the force of connection. We don’t measure who’s giving more and who’s giving less. We’re happy that each one can just give his penny.
S. So how can I ask this, but in order for such a process to happen a person has to feel that he is now responsible for the entire ten, otherwise it will never happen right?
R. Yes.
S. So how do we develop this responsibility because we always have a desire to get rid of responsibility, to throw it on someone else.
R. No, if we want to get rid of responsibility it’s only to increase responsibility. We are receiving all these things on the contrary to rise above them. That’s why you don’t feel a desire for responsibility and so forth, it’s only to climb above that.
S. So how do I increase this feeling of responsibility? How do I devote myself to this responsibility? It’s like non-stop responsibility.
R. You just have to together with friends, connect and breakthrough. Another 30 years I’m not going to help you, it doesn’t matter how many unless you accept these spiritual laws and are willing to take them upon yourself.
S. I understand in general what needs to happen but I just feel that taking this responsibility when a person tells himself, I am now responsible non-stop to gather the deficiencies of the ten and to pass it on to the Creator. To be in this nonstop internal activity, how can we create the willingness for this kind of emotion?
R. To care about it, to always think about it, talk about it and then it will happen. To awaken this from within, from yourself.
S. Then immediately all kinds of thoughts pop up in a person, I need to be responsible for many other things, the family, work, all kinds of responsibilities. What do I do about those?
R. Yes, put that aside, without it you can’t exist. So to the extent that you need something in order to survive you do it, but what’s most important is connection with the group.
30. S. (56:38) Do I pass everything that I receive to the friends, everything I get from the Creator to the friend? Does it mean that both the black light and the white light, is this how it is without any kind of change?
R. You can do that, please. We basically have to participate in a single action. In this action both positive and negative come together, so let’s connect all of us together in both positive and negative and build this big vessel and then we’ll succeed.
31. S. (58:06) I don’t manage to understand, what does it mean that I pass light onto the friend? I don’t have my own light, what does it mean that I pass light on?
R. Light of confidence, light of longing for the goal.
S. Why is it called light?
R. Because it’s a force.
S. I can give the friend confidence, confidence on the path, yearning towards the goal?
R. Yes that’s right, and that’s the light that you can give but in that tendency you make way for the upper light.
S. I open the way for the upper light, it’s not that I give him light?
R. No of course not, that’s not in question.
Reading Item #211 (59:16)
Reading Item #212 (01:03:06)
32. S. (01:08:26) In item 211 it says to the extent I’m capable of keeping my intention, keeping myself from the left side and only seeing the greatness of the friends in this way I keep the Sitra Achra outside of the ten?
R. Yes, basically that’s what it says.
33. S. (01:09:16) I listen with attention to the lessons, the gathering of friends and I feel the constant mercy of the Lord that this concern will be passed on to the friends. If I think about it to make it clear, if I tell it to the friends in my thought does it actually enter into the general count of concern?
R. If the friends are ready for it then yes, and if not then no. it all depends on how they receive it.
S. If in my thought I repeat it in order not to lose it but I already depict to myself how in my thought I tell them that, do they become stronger in the ten?
R. It strengthens in you not in the ten. You don’t need it to strengthen in the ten, in the ten you need to discuss it together, what you read, heard.
34. S. (01:10:48) Why is separation between the Partzufim defined as death?
R. Because then the upper light stops and therefore, well, let’s continue.
35. S. (01:11:50) How through the study of topics that are seemingly far away from us we develop sensitivity towards receiving in order to bestow?
R. By the light that we awaken of course from our study. There is no connection to in order to bestow but we awaken the light and it’s all because during the study, by the study we awaken the light. And that light influences even though we don’t really intend towards it, lean towards it. And yet we get closer to those discernments that exist between in order to receive to in order to bestow, we begin to distinguish, to discern that there is really something in the world that is in order to receive and there is something that is in order to bestow. And this is how we further and further begin to to see where are those discernments, where can I see what is in order to bestow, that such a thing exists or not, or we just philosophically, theoretically talking about it. And then when we nevertheless continue more and more to try to attain what is it in order to bestow, what can that be? So it turns out that we are moving towards this awareness, this acknowledgment of in order to bestow, the force of bestowal. And bit by bit these things become included in us, and we then indeed can be in order to bestow.
S. And to give efforts of connection with the friends as we do it?
R. Yes.
36. S. (01:14:23) In what are we the lower ones bothering the connection between ZA and Malchut?
R. We are a desire to receive, therefore as much as we want to reach in order to bestow we’ll accordingly bring Malchut closer to ZA.
37. S. (01:15:03) You said a bit ago that we connect the positive to the negative. How do we do that?
R. What example can I give? Why did we get the shattering of the vessel? So something positive in one can connect with something negative in another, and then a positive thing in the third one and again a negative thing in the fourth one and so on. In other words because of the separation of the vessels they can be in connection, they can form connections in spite of their oppositeness. I am lacking words here, help me out here. So it turns out that when we connect then even the negative things we connect also work for the benefit of connection. Think about it and it will become clear.
38. S. (01:17:01) How can we understand the sin of the serpent that connected instead of ZON?
R. The sin of the serpent is something we cannot unpack right now, it’s an entire story. We have to learn it in a complete way, it will happen soon.
39. S. (01:18:00) In the end of 211 it said that man should know that everything is one and not separate so even the other side will disappear from the world. Meaning not only the other side won’t suck from the abundance but it will just disappear from the world. And the friends from Turkey said as much, that the evil inclination will work for the benefit of the good inclination. Does that mean that the force of the other side that the Creator created won’t be destroyed but it will work for the benefit of the good?
R. You can say that but I don’t want to get into those things because it will confuse you even more. There is no point in philosophizing about it, try understand everything the way it is, directly.
40. S. (01:19:15) When we are in an active action of passing the abundance how does our attitude change towards the sources in the lesson?
R. Repeat, I did not get it.
S. We were saying that we need to be a conduit to the light, to be one vessel in order to bestow. And if we’re in that state and I am the active part of the system and pass the abundance onwards how will my attitude change towards the morning lesson?
R. You see them as sources of light.
41. S. (01:20:20) In the previous excerpt, why if I perform a coupling between Elokim and HaVaYaH should be there fear from this coupling? Why should I have any fear if I rise from below upward, why should I be afraid of the light?
R. You’re not afraid of the light you’re afraid of receiving it in order to receive. It’s fear of being a receiver. Clear?
42. S. (01:21:07) Since we started reading the Zohar after the first euphoria a very harsh feeling came, that next to me there’s an ocean of light and it mainly increases the will to receive and obviously I can’t touch that light because it will be in order to receive. So the question is that paragraph we read on why we study the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to know what’s written there, what does it mean to know what is written?
R. We pass the surrounding light on us from those verses, those excerpts written by Kabbalists because they felt there’s a special light in them that could also help us advance.
S. But it just distances me from the Creator because the will to receive, there’s nothing to grasp here.
R. You have to work against it.
S. How?
R. How? Again, we’re going to start from lesson number one. Connect with the friends, pray, ask during the reading. In every point of contact we have sources of lights you ask to influence you.
S. That I know and I’m trying.
R. You hear it, but you don’t know it. I have nothing else to say, all of the sources are before you, it’s all before you. You’re missing only a prayer the way I see it.
43. S. (01:23:28) In 212 it says that the force of judgment in the Nukva becomes light, true light. Is true light my personal observation or is it in the ten, what is true light?
R. Repeat your question.
S. In 212 it’s written that the force of Din becomes the true light. Is true light something private?
R.This is group work, you connect in order to awaken an even greater influence of light from above. So it turns out that there’s light in the middle of that connection as it’s written here. The light appears specifically as a result of the adhesion, the connection between you and against that the other feeling of death, Mavet, as a result of the separation between you. And these two opposing states are the ones that shine.
S. So the actual light isn’t something I can get alone, only in the ten?
R. Of course, we are talking about it for a long time already.
44. S. (01:25:47) In 211 it’s written that a person should know that everything is one and then the other side will depart from the world and will not be drawn below. Does that mean that only we bring the separation in the system?
R. Of course, only we introduce separation, only we in principle are the source of all evil. That’s it.
45. S. (01:26:36) I also had the same question as the friend. What is the work in the ten of the black light uniting with the white light of upper AVI? Is the white light the same as the actual or true light or is this different work?
R. The white light is like a real light, true light. The black light is the attainment of separation, white light is the attainment of connection.