TUESDAY PRAYER: TIFERET-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Tuesday
Lesson on the topic of “Pesach (Passover)”
Morning Lesson March 5, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Passover – Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #1
1. Rav’s Introduction: We went through preparations to this state of Passover and we understood that it’s impossible without ascents and descents because by the descents the Creator is giving us the will to receive, the evil inclination as it’s called, the distance from Him so that we feel how far we are. And by the good inclination we get closer to the Creator and from all the states of closeness and distance, closeness and distance more and more, by that we feel our states, how we approach the purpose of creation. And the purpose of creation is to adhere to the Creator to be close to Him without any limitations and correspondingly we have to feel how far we are from Him. So through the ascents and descents, with descents first, distance first and then ascents; getting closer through these steps we ultimately reach a state where we are in adhesion with the Creator. And it’s impossible to have an ascent without a previous descent. So we have to get used to this, know how to undergo these states and how to respect the descents because in them we acquire, recognise and attain the state of ascent that comes after. There cannot be an ascent more than a previous descent and in each and every descent we have to already start to understand, feel and detect the coming ascent. And that’s how we advance. Meaning our entire path is by going down and then going up, descent and ascent. First we feel that we grow further apart, that we are not well, that our connections disappear even in our corporeal life. And then the opposite, we get closer to spirituality on top of that and go deeper in a more and more tangible way. And this is how through ascents and descents, first descent then ascent, each time by this we are treading towards the state that is complete and only ascent, which is the final correction of all the descents. We’ll read what’s written about it for us, especially by Baal HaSulam and we’ll also advance towards this in our life, in our exercises. And then we’ll go through a few more such steps forward until we see ourselves on the way that aims towards the final correction.
2. S. (05:06) When a person is in a state of exile, what does he yearn for?
R. He yearns for redemption, he yearns to come out of the exile. But all these questions and we still need to discuss what is referred to as exile for the person, what kind of state is it? Material exile, spiritual exile? Is the exile in getting further apart from the friends or not being satisfied with his material life? So we have to scrutinize what kind of exile do we feel. From all of these forms we have to discern what’s important, that the corporeal life is unimportant to me what’s important to me is getting closer to the Creator. Am I in a society that can bring me closer to the Creator? By connecting to these friends can I further connect with them and the Creator inside them, inside that group? How do I position what’s important in my life, what am I happy with and what am I not happy with? So if a person arranges his life correctly and aims himself towards the goal and sees in front of him these milestones that lead him toward the goal, then he’s on the right track. Therefore this is what Abraham asked, look at the title, Abraham’s question, by what will I know that I will inherit it? Meaning how do I know that I’m on the right track? So let’s read the first excerpt.
Reading Excerpt 1. Twice (08:20)
3. R. (10:48) For now I don’t see questions, let’s continue. We’ll go back to it again afterwards because this whole topic requires getting into it.
Reading Excerpt 2. Twice (11:08)
4. R. (13:31) Meaning it’s not a problem to escape Egypt, to escape the ego. The issue is that by being immersed in the ego and fighting to come out of it and coping with it in a way that we want to leave it but can’t, by that we receive from our ego, from our will to receive new additional vessels, great vessels by which we can then actually discover the true lessons of the new land.
5. S. (14:27) We’re beginning an intensive study today towards the state of Passover. What is the emphasis of this study we will have in the upcoming month?
R. It’s not towards Passover, we are not studying the holidays the way they appear on our calendar like times you can post on the wall and follow that. Rather we are studying our path of progress towards the final correction. It’s not a short path, it includes many stages and now this close stage to us is what we need to learn on ourselves and feel where we are. And that is that our nature is a will to receive and we have to begin relating to it correctly. And to relate to it correctly is like everything in life, we have to feel it as good as well as bad, that state that we’re in. Why is that state called exile? Why is it called Egypt? Why do we need to go through this state meaning being in Egypt, being in Exile? It’s for everybody who later wants to reach the land of Israel, the exodus from Egypt, the upper degrees, the spiritual degrees.
All of those things are learnt specifically from studying the state of exile in Egypt, of being distant from spirituality, from Kedusha. And when we study this good state of exile, how good it is for us, how much it teaches us, educates us, formats us correctly, then we’ll understand the necessity of it and then we can already come out of the exile into redemption. There is no redemption without exile first. What is the exile really about? We’ll have to learn. It’s not material exile, it’s not that you have nothing to eat, drink or dress, it’s not some hard physical work, quite the contrary. The exile we have to detect it as exile from spirituality, but we don’t yet know what spirituality is.
So precisely when we’re in that state called exile we begin to feel what spirituality is. Where does it exist, why we’re far from it, what are we missing for it, why do we need spirituality? And then bit-by-bit we begin to receive vessels, deficiencies for spirituality. And when these deficiencies reach a complete quota then we escape the state called exile; then it truly appears to us as unbearable and we emerge from it. So the state we’re in now and we’re starting to learn what is exile and redemption, this state is necessary.
S. What can accelerate in us the feeling of these states, that we will practically feel these lessons, these states in an acute manner on our flesh, not just theoretically but actually?
R. If we don’t learn what the exile is then we won’t know if we are in it or not. We need to learn about our state and determine based on what we learn, are we already in exile or maybe we are already after the exile. We’re not looking at Earthly history or geography as they study in school, we study it on ourselves. Do I feel on myself where I am? If I determine that spirituality I want to attain the state of the soul that has to open itself to me and show me the spiritual world, and the Creator fills it with a state called redemption, then correspondingly I have to find myself now in a state of exile.
6. S. (21:16) It says here in the excerpt we read that the preparation includes the exile as well as the study and the Torah and the Mitzvot. So how do these two processes coincide with the exile as well as the study of the Torah?
R. We’ll discover all of that on the way.
7. S. (21:45) They say that we are rewarded with the holy land when we re-evaluate or we appreciate our path?
R. Yes, when we examine where we are and we clarify and then choose a better and better path.
8. S. (22:17) It says here this is why Abraham the patriarch was perplexed and he did not understand from where they would take such great vessels of reception as to be rewarded with the holiness of the land. What are great vessels and how do we obtain them?
R. This we still don’t feel, great or small vessels we’ll see that soon. Abraham began to attain that spirituality, it’s received in great desires, great vessels. Vessels are desires and in the meantime he didn’t have a really great desire for spirituality but just the beginning. He wants to attain the goal of life, the purpose of life, the upper force, connection with all those things but it’s not that it fills him up as a necessary thing. So then he asks as each of us can ask, where do we take great desires for spiritual life? What do we have? We have small vessels, we want it but other than that there are other things. So he was told wait, great vessels will come, you’ll be able to work with them and truly discover great desires for spirituality and in these desires you’ll discover the upper world.
S. So having a big vessel, does it mean that you’re a big egoist?
R. Yes, a great vessel is a great egoist.
S. And it is said that in the last generation there are the greatest egoists right?
R. Yes.
9. S. (24:35) Can we say that the Creator takes the happiness, the ability to be happy away from the person so the person would need Him or he would need to have connection with the Creator?
R. This too happens. We’ll continue.
Reading Excerpt 3. (24:59)
10. R. (25:47) Meaning there has to be a period where you feel not good and doing hard work, and then you emerge from that period to another period with a great possession meaning with knowledge, power, all the means you need in order to continue forward.
Reading on (26:16)
11. R. (27:59) Meaning it was unknown, it was unclear that the exile is necessary, the state of exile is necessary in order to escape Egypt. This is where Abraham still asks.
12. S. (28:29) What is this need that we have to prepare?
R. We have to feel where we are, under what desires, thoughts, what governs us and do we agree with it? That our ego is in control and determines our entire life and we can’t do anything about it. We see that all created beings agree to live this way, that they’re operated by the will to receive and don’t ask anything beyond that. All their questions are just about how to carry out the will to receive that awakens in them and aims them to various goals in each and every moment. And we begin to feel that this is a bad state, that with this we just end our lives without any special goal, nothing upper, higher. Meaning our goals are within our life like the life of animals, and we don’t agree with that. We want to use our current existence to attain a higher degree, something that belongs to the human degree, similar to the Creator; to understand the force that governs us, activates us, organisers this whole place this corporeal and spiritual universe.
We wish to attain a higher degree and this is why we are called Adam, as in wanting to resemble the Creator, to understand, feel and know the Creator. This is what we want to live for. Otherwise just to go through life from day, to day, to day, that’s just useless. As it says more than once in the Torah that if this is life then I do not need it. I need life only if each and every day at least I can somewhat reveal to myself the true goal of my existence. I’m not like beasts and animals that only live to keep themselves alive and then they die, I want to rise from that to the human degree. Adam, human comes from the word Domeh, similar to the Creator. To understand how to receive life on a higher state, that’s basically our work and our goal.
13. S. (32:35) Spirituality is not in mind so I can only get it together with my friends, so what is spirituality?
R. What is spirituality we need to attain but probably this is what we’re missing. As in our world, in our life there is everything, we can achieve anything except for one thing called spirituality. And spirituality is above space, above time, above our life. To attain it I have to attain it in new vessels, desires that I don’t have. So I first have to acquire desires to bestow and in them I’ll feel spirituality.
14. S. (34:17) I really don’t see such a great need to come out of the exile in myself so the question is, acquiring these great vessels is it a matter of time or is it a miracle?
R. It’s both miracle and time. The issue is that the Creator will obligate you to want spirituality. At first you discover emptiness in your life, your existence and from there it already depends on you, how much you’re going to develop within you, by yourself, with your yearning towards it.
15. S. (35:33) These great vessels that the person receives from the Creator, the desire, intellect and the strength to cope correctly with reality and bring it to the complete correction of the vessel of Adam HaRishon, this makes me think about you Rav. How you have taken throughout all the years where you reached all the means and the group in order to be able to reach anywhere, reach out everywhere on this planet and make everybody listen to the truth in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Is this how it is?
R. Bit by bit you will see on yourself how you are now going through stages of exile, where you learn what is exile from spirituality and how you get closer to spirituality.
16. S. (36:51) This is exactly my question, how does the exile format us and what is the process we have to go through?
R. Exile is actually a necessary stage for us to want redemption. Exile awakens in us necessary, existential questions, what do I live for, why am I alive? Exile is not that I feel bad but rather I feel bad because I lack in my world the meeting with the Creator, it’s exile from the Creator. And from that I also achieve the exile from the means to be connected with the Creator which is the desire to bestow. In that quality I attain the Creator. So recognising exile is necessary before coming out of exile otherwise why would I come out? I don’t have any need, any urge to leave, I don’t feel anything negative in the exile.
S. What is the process we have to go through in order for it to format us?
R. The process is we have to measure what do we lack in order to reveal the Creator. The whole difference between exile and redemption is concealment and the revelation of the Creator. Why is He hidden, how can I reveal Him? These are the questions that we have to clarify and answer. So we’ll go through them. This is the whole process that we now need to study before Passover, this is the whole exodus from Egypt.
17. S. (39:24) This question comes up all the time, everyone is asking it. How can we feel that we are in exile when we have a great group, the only teacher in the world who actually knows and the books? So how will we feel in exile? I know that it’s about finding the Creator and not finding self-pleasure but that too I guess is pleasure but in a different form. And also you said that it depends on our investment in the society, so how will we feel that we are in exile?
R. It is all true but what are you asking?
S. How to come out of these comfortable feelings so that even though we are in exile we don’t feel that we’re in exile?
R. So you have to do what the Kabbalists write, then you’ll begin to feel that your life is the life of a beast not the life of a human, and then you will want to come out of that state.
S. I feel like an upgraded beast. I have the group, the friends, the books.
R. No, that’s still not the state of the beast, no, that’s incorrect. You are not giving right definitions to your states. If you don’t want spirituality then you are a beast.
S. If spirituality is a clothing, a garment over corporeality not just spirituality on it’s own, is it some addition, decoration?
R. You have to throw away all your smart philosophies, then you’ll feel that you are actually in a state of being naked where you have nothing except all of this wise stuff, all your wisdoms.
18. S. (41:45) How does a person who engages in the wisdom of Kabbalah feel that he’s getting closer to the spiritual state?
R. By being dissatisfied with the state that he’s in and constantly searching how to rise, how to elevate his state higher and higher closer to spirituality to more and more bestowal and connection with others.
19. S. (42:29) At what moment and after what preparation does this question awaken in a person, the need for the inheritance of the land?
R. This is after we already understood that we have to be connected to each other and in this connection we need to acquire the exodus from the ego.
S. Why in principle when this feeling awakens in a person it turns out that before the entrance to Egypt the person needs to have some additional guarantee that we will be able to come out of there with some addition?
R. Before the entrance I don’t know.
S. For example Abraham, he asks this question. So in principle why should I go in there, what do I get out of it? There is a reason for the question about the inheritance of the land.
R. Right, yes?
S. So the person lacks confidence or guarantee in order to enter Egypt. It’s as if it is the future pleasure makes him take this step on the one hand, on the other hand the confidence that the Creator will truly deliver him from Egypt.
R. Yes, the thing is that in order to get out of Egypt it is necessary to accumulate a great negative attitude towards Egypt because you are under the governance of your ego. And only if you begin to hate it, to disregard it, that you don’t want to remain in it no matter what, then the forces appear in you to come out of it, to disconnect from it. Hatred is what pulls you out of Egypt.
20. S. (45:00) How can we know that indeed we’ve accumulated this hatred, that we have sufficient force to go?
R. When this hatred will appear in you then you succeed, you will no longer be able to remain in the ego.
S. So we reach a certain quota?
R. Of course, always.
21. S. (45:29) If a friend wants to acquire the desire to bestow could he find a response from the Creator or does one need to strengthen his desire to a certain level?
R. Certainly, yes he has to receive all kinds of responses from the Creator whether he feels them or not. But when they begin to accumulate in him then he feels that he already has something for and something against his state in Egypt, and then he comes closer to the exit. This is still ahead of us, we are going to learn about it, it’s not simple.
22. S. (46:23) Can he be in exile and not to know that he is in exile?
R. Yes there are all kinds of states here where a person is aware or maybe not aware of where he is, under which desires he is, and this is how he advances. Yes, these are different states.
S. Do we needs to pray to be in exile?
R. Of course, yes. Certainly without a prayer the person doesn’t open up his desire, he doesn’t open up his familiarity with the state that he’s in.
23. S. (47:26) Our nature is the will to receive, we’re egoists. So how can I rise above the corporeal, egoistic desires so that I’ll be able to justify the Creator?
R. Through the group. If your soul has already developed and it deserves to come out to a higher degree, to the recognition of the upper world then you reach a group where if you will connect with that group that is already the next stage of your spiritual development. You have to connect with the friends and try to be with them as one man with one heart and then you can exit to a higher degree, a spiritual degree.
24. S. (48:50) It seems that the whole problem is to enter the exile, so what’s the entrance to the exile and how do we hasten it in the ten?
R. The entrance to the exile it is also not so simple as we can read about it in the Torah. How the sons of Jacob were outside of Egypt, outside of the land of Israel. They were in the desert and there they had all kinds of events. They wanted to sell Joseph and they didn’t understand what was happening to them at all until they started to enter Egypt through all kinds of events that occurred to them back then, and this is how this is how it unfolded.
25. S. (50:25) What kind of work do we need to do in the ten in order to reach the deficiency that’s discussed here?
R. Only more and more to try to connect between us. The work becomes a lot more concrete and clear and understood, not less difficult more difficult even, but more and more focused, concentrated on the connection between us. So this is what we have to do.
26. S. (51:19) I understand that in this degree of exile I’m like a little baby or a little child. At first I don’t even know what state I’m in, what stage I’m in. So when does this point come where I begin to want to be like the Creator?
R. When you will want to connect with your friends, truly to annul within them.
27. S. (52:01) What was Abraham concerned about, he was already in the process of connection with the Creator, no?
R. How will I know that I will inherit it? How will I know precisely where I am and how do I come out and with what forces? What am I lacking? All of these things about the state, the current state they actually organize these questions: How will I know that I will inherit it? Where am I?
S. He didn’t understand that the will to receive will grow?
R. Apparently not. Once you reach his state then you will understand his questions.
28. S. (53:07) How do we acquire vessels to feel where we are?
R. Only out of lack of connection with the friends.
S. It’s important to know where we are in the process?
R. Without that what can you ask for?
29. S. (53:35) What are the torments of the exile? Why does a person need to feel that he’s being tortured?
R. It depends on which desires he is in. Opposite he feels the torments, the afflictions.
S. The torment is in wanting to come out of the ego and he is not allowed?
R. If he’s in that then yes.
S, What does it built in him that he wants to come out but he can’t?
R. A deficiency.
30. S. (54:15) If we feel that it’s difficult but we have a way to turn this into a creative process and if we help each other and not focus on the difficulty but on the curiosity then what will be next?
R. I don’t understand.
S. We’re saying that it’s a difficult process, right, but there is no desire to focus on the difficulty there is a desire to turn it into a creative process. Can we focus on the creativity of coming out of exile?
R. Go ahead, get closer to each other. It’s all in your hands. It’s your creativity or your creation, so much so that what you do between you, you are actually making the Creator, the common force that is linking you, even that you do with your own hands.
Reading Excerpt # 4 (55:39)
31. R. (58:02) This means that we have to reach a state where we very much, very much yearn to come out of the will to receive for ourselves and not to want to receive anything for ourselves. And then to turn to the Creator out of lack of choice and realize that our request depends only on Him, and only He can give us the answer to our request. And then to ask of Him as much as possible that He will give us the possibility to emerge from the exile, from the governance of the will to receive.
32. S. (59:06) Prayer for the friends and the yearning to connect to them, is that the same and what’s the difference between prayer for the friends and[…]
R. In principle it’s really one and the same but one emphasizes the other.
33. S. (59:45) That exile in Egypt in that time there was a leap. Instead of 400 years of complete degree the exile lasted 200 years but Baal HaSulam writes that it’s the root of all the exiles continuing to now. So what’s the reason, why wasn’t that exodus enough to bring complete correction? Why did it actually cause more exile that continues till now?
R. Because they didn’t get enough taste of the exiles in order to finish it, complete it all the way and reach the goal from it. This is what is happening to us today. Today let’s say we are in certain situations with wars and problems and difficulties, but it’s not enough for us. We still don’t feel how much that state is bad; we want to come out of it but not so much, if we came out of it a little bit fine, now we can continue. We are not demanding a complete redemption because we don’t have the complete exile in our feeling. It depends on how much we feel not where we are, we are in what we feel. And if the person doesn’t feel that his life is truly in exile from the recognition of evil, from eternity, from wholeness, from the good force but rather he’s still drawn to all kinds of seductions of this world then he imagines to himself like a little child some more toys, some more toys, this is what happens to him. That he has this exile which is prolonged and extended to much more time, much more time.
34. S. (01:02:27) It says I will give them the need for the lights as I will give them lights. So we ask from the Creator for the ten for the need for the lights or the lights?
R. Both, whatever you can ask for, ask for it. The most important thing is that you ask.
Reading Item #5 twice (01:03:02)
35. S. (01:05:29) What is the illumination from above to feel worthy to leave our ego?
R. Illumination from above, the term is for us all of our states. It comes to us as a response for our raising of MAN and this is how we should understand it, that what we ask for ultimately is what we get. It’s just not precisely what we get but it’s according what we need in order to advance towards the purpose of creation.
36. S. (01:06:35) How can I distinguish between the corporeal descent and the spiritual descent? How can I separate these two states or are they the same, or is one the consequence of the other?
R. A spiritual descent is for the purpose of ascent, we feel it truly that way. Corporeal descent is a descent in forces or possessions which a person feels and it’s something completely different. So it all depends on how a person accepts it, receives it, how a person accepts it. The person determines if he is in spirituality or corporeality.
37. S. (01:07:53) The question is if the only thing the created being is missing isn’t any request that is not a deficiency it’s like skipping over what’s needed? For example instead of asking correct us, connect us, help a friend, I need to ask give us a desire for correction to help the friend and so forth?
R. You’re right in something, to some extent.
38. S. (01:08:34) You said that the need for correction depends on how much we feel it and it says here that if they achieve some illumination from above they already will be satisfied. So the question is how to achieve the complete need to emerge from exile so as to bring all of creation to correction? What should we do if the Creator gives us both the need and the fulfillment?
R. What else we need to get from Him? We need to pray to Him that He will give us even more urgency for redemption. And the redemption will be redemption from the ego.
S. from what I understood the Creator gives a need meaning the desire to pray.
R. Of course, everything comes from the Creator but it depends on what is it that we want to receive.
S. We work in the ten, we attain a certain degree and we are happy with that, we’re satisfied that we connected. How to acquire a great deficiency to continue the prayer?
R. This is only in the group, only in the group.
39. S. (01:10:23) Going through individual states of good and bad, good and bad and from that a prayer awakened. I felt the gap between something temporary and something regular. I was in a depressed state and a friend helped me showing me that I actually have everything. I can’t see satisfaction in corporeal fulfillment […]
R. These moments also lead you to the goal, keep going and you will get closer.
S. How to go through it with the ten?
R. Try to resolve these problems, these questions together with the friends.