MONDAY PRAYER: HOCHMA-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Monday
Lesson on the topic of “Pesach (Passover)”
Morning Lesson March 11, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Passover – Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #22
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we continue with the topic of Passover indeed it is the most important topic because in everything that we have later on, all the processes, all the states that we go through this in memory of the Exodus from Egypt. Why is that? Because if it is not for the exit from the desire to receive in order to receive then our whole life is continuing at the life of a beast and this is why only this point exiting the Exile, the desire towards the desire to bestow, connection and love, it is what makes of us something special and this is why everything is built on the Exodus from Egypt as we call it. Of course Egypt as a country has nothing to do with it but rather this is how because the things are called according to the root and branch nothing more than that. So let’s continue and everything is in the memory of the Exodus from Egypt and let’s hope that we too, will exit our own Egypt and reach in order to bestow, and connection and exiting our ego.
Reading 22. Twice (01:54)
2. S. (04:46) So there is joy in the work in working Lo Lishma when the life is full of sorrow so where does joy come in?
R. From the goal, that the person believes that he is advancing towards the goal in each and every moment even though for the time being the path is very difficult. We have it in many cases in life where life itself is not happy and not easy but we know that through that we will soon reach something that is above anything that we can imagine, above everything, and this is why we are happy about the future and we are also happy about that present as much as we are able to justify the present that it is necessary in order to obtain the future.
3. S. (06:06) It says here that in order to merit truthful pleasures first we have to be rewarded with Dvekut what is that?
R. It means unity, connection and adhesion that we feel that we are together with the Creator, truly together. And from that we get the greatest possible pleasure.
S. Pleasure from Dvekut? How? How does that work with the other pleasures connect to them?
R. All the other pleasures if they are on the way to reaching adhesion, Dvekut with the Creator then they build the adhesion and the adhesion is the goal, it is the conclusion. This is how we look at it. If the pleasure that we feel here and there do not build adhesion for us then these pleasures are simply the pleasures of separation and we should refrain from them.
4. S. (07:51) Is it necessary to reach the ceiling of free choice before Lishma? Is it only the king of Egypt that prefers Lishma in Egypt?
R. What you said is correct and we need to decide about all of this before we reach Lishma. We cannot reach Lishma if we do not decide out of all the means through which we can reach Lishma.
5. S. (08:39) It happens frequently that I am angry at the friends but when it happens I am thinking about them all the day and at the end of the day even if I am angry I understand that the Creator is causing all this for me to think about the friends. When will this kind of connection change so that I adhere to the friends whole day but in a good way and with the same urgency?
R. I do not know what to tell you. Try, simply try and pray. I do not have anything to advise you.
6. S. (09:46) Where should our efforts be? In trying to emerge from the desire to receive every moment or try to wake up the friends every moment so they will come out of it?
R. It is both this and that and indeed one time you awaken yourself and another time you awaken yourself through the friends, and one time you awaken the friends and in such a way, ultimately you are consistently making efforts of uplifting yourself and this is how eventually you emerge and awaken the reforming light.
S. How to awaken the ten as time is passing there is a feeling that we already know each other everything is known. How to impress the friends?
R. That is even better; that the time goes by and then you have more and more pieces of knowledge of how much you have already done these things and those things and used it these means in order to lift yourself, to get closer to the Creator and awaken the friends, and then you search more, then you search more. You realise that without you nevertheless doing it, it is not possible, it is not possible and so before the lesson Rabash determined for us for the students that we should sit and talk for a few minutes about the greatness of the lesson, the greatness of the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the friends and all of these things should give us a certain upliftment from which onward we can continue and then we all enter the lesson together.
S. Is this something that you recommend doing because today we are reading something and then we discuss it?
R. It could be according to the text that we are reading or it could be according to how we talk. A text is better but that should be suitable for the purpose.
Reading 23. Twice (12:41)
7. R. (15:37) This means that we all in all need to reach two discernments. The first one is that we have to reach adhesion with the Creator and the second one is that it is possible to reach that only with the help of the Creator and not through our on forces and we have to invest our own forces on the in order to reach at state when it is impossible to reach adhesion with the Creator without his help.
8. S. (16:15) What does it mean to serve the Creator, again, what does it mean that there is no meaning in serving the Creator against his own desire?
R. We are fighting with the same evil force that the Creator created in order to reach adhesion with the Creator himself. This is our goal and task and this is what we have to do.
9. S. (17:18) It is said that the Torah gives the spice so that we come out of the exile so what does it mean to study and understand the Torah?
R. To learn and understand the Torah means to understand the entire system that exists in reality except for the Creator, except for the Creator. The Creator created the Torah and he created the men in order for men to attain the Torah and through the Torah, through a certain extent we also retain the Creator and this is what we should engage in, this is our life and all of our incarnations and this is what we need to reach.
10. S. (18:30) Can we say that we want to bestow but we do not get a pleasure yet we are in the state of bestow in order to bestow? And we start receiving in order to bestow when we also receive pleasure from this?
R. Yes and no, it depends on which time we are in. Sometimes the nearing comes with additional pleasure, sometimes it does not. It all depends on the person himself and what state and stage the person is in. The most important is that we are thinking about getting closer and getting connected and not fulfilling our vessels. If the vessels are fulfilled these are the vessels of reception and we want to enjoy what we have in the feeling through getting closer to the Creator which is not in the vessels of reception but it is already above these vessels. This is how it is done.
11. S. (20:07) I heard you say that this is our life and the passage that reads it is impossible to approach, the approach means to get closer to the Creator before all our actions are in order to bestow. Is that including every single action both through the study and in the physical life? It seems like a very high and difficult state for every single action to have the intention to bestow. Is that what is meant by the excerpt?
R. Yes, eventually this is how it is. Only with the intention to bestow and according to the intention to bestow, we need the intention to bestow and we live in it, there we feel the true pleasures.
12. S. (21:23) Can we say that in this excerpt, that everything is there? We know that the Torah is the light. Can we say it’s all there, the group and the Creator because it’s mostly the group that performs most of these corrections, can we say that?
R. Yes, it altogether influences us, it pushes us forward, you’re right.
13. S. (22:08) It says that Egypt is like narrow eyed, so these feelings of jealousy and suspicion towards others how can we use them in the ten?
R. Well we can use anything towards the goal, towards advancing towards the goal each and everything, it just depends on how you turn it, spin it. Try to turn it in such a way that the goal will come closer to you. Try and you will see that the Creator didn’t create any quality or desire or any incident that you cannot use for the attainment of the goal, to get closer to it. Okay? Try. If it will be difficult for you then go ahead and ask if it will be difficult for you to use certain qualities in order to get closer to the purpose of creation. Usually, a person finds within himself that nothing was created except for that purpose.
14. S. (23:53) Is it true that we are in exile?
R. Not yet, we are not yet in exile. The feeling of the exile is that you are under governance which is opposite to the Creator, opposite to the Creator, and we don’t understand that yet. Because the feeling of the exile should also bring with it the feeling of the Creator Himself, whom am I in exile from, away from, opposite to? This is the feeling of the exile. And if I don’t feel that, then I am not yet in the exile. When I move away from someone that I was close to; I was his friend, close to him, I loved him, I felt him next to me and suddenly I have to leave him and come out to a certain distance, then I feel the exile. And according to that this is how we also are with respect to the Creator, this is how we need to depict this state. And so the exile of Egypt is bit by bit, that all of humanity will get this feeling that they are far away from bestowal, from the Creator, from unity, from connection, and this will be called exile.
15. S. (26:15) Each of us are experiences this feeling of Egypt, of distance and there is a prayer, but how to collect these prayers, these demands to a demand together to come out of the exile?
R. You should talk about it among yourselves and ask that your intentions, your goals will become united, that you will yearn for the same state.
S. We have a gathering of friends today on the topic. What should we discuss, how to come out of Egypt, what is the feeling of Egypt, that?
R. Of course you should talk about that as well, it’s the most important topic.
16. S. (27:23) If we take into account that the Torah and Israel are one, meaning the Torah is the Creator’s view on creation, if Israel accepted the Torah on themselves as their own reason towards creation, is that adhesion?
R. Yes, this is adhesion and if one does not accept the view of the Creator then he is not Israel. A person or a group that take upon themselves the view of the Creator are called Israel. In the opposite case if it doesn’t happen then they are not Israel, they are called the nations of the world until they take upon themselves this method of mutual nearing.
S. And our efforts are only to shift to a lack, to be in adhesion with the Creator?
R. Yes, of course.
17. S. (28:57) When the recognition of evil arises and you think that there’s nothing worse than me, how can you even ask in that state to be closer to the Creator? Is that the exile?
R. Precisely in that state we should ask of the Creator, because the one who is lowest of all is the one who deserves before everyone, this is how it is.
18. S. (29:46) We need to bring our ten to a feeling of exile in order for them to have the greatness of the goal. How can we do this so that all these good relationships will pass then to the feeling of exile?
R. Recognition that we are not incorporated in each other.
S. What is that feeling? Each one talks about it but how do we understand that we need to do it in order to reach the Creator?
R. The Creator is revealed in the connection between you, in the point of connection between you. This is why until you achieve that point of connection you will not come closer to the Creator.
S. Meaning it’s His work when we work in the ten?
R. Of course.
19. S. (31:20) Does using the voice for the importance of the goal prevent us feeling the exile? Does using everything that we have in life for the importance of the goal prevent us from actually feeling the exile in Egypt?
R. Why does it prevent it? Maybe I didn’t understand your question. Please repeat it again.
S. To use everything for the importance of the goal, does that prevent us from feeling the exile in Egypt?
R. No, as much as I want to attain the goal and the importance of the goal, I feel more and more that I’m disconnected from it in exile. Maybe I didn’t understand the question.
20. S. (32:46) If the feeling of exile is in contrast to the feeling of the Creator, that means that I already understand what is the feeling of the Creator, so the exile is actually spiritual.
R. The feeling of exile is a part spirituality, yes. It’s already a feeling that I lack spirituality, you’re right.
21. S. (33:22) He writes at the end that nonetheless he sees that there is no way that he would be able to achieve this without His help. The question is what does the Creator like more, that we come with a demand for Him to help or that we ask from helplessness?
R. I don’t understand.
S. What does the Creator like better, that we come to Him demanding to Him to help us or that we ask due to inability or helplessness?
R. Out of helplessness, when we reach a state that we understand that nothing can help us. We don’t have the forces, we don’t have the knowledge, we have nothing in our hands, this is called and the children of Israel sighed from their work and their outcry rose to God. Meaning that we cry out to the Creator, we put up our hands and cry, save us! This is the best possible state when we don’t hinge upon ourselves, on our own forces, our own destiny, our own future, anything, but rather only on the Creator.
22. S. (34:59) I want to rest in the heart of the Creator but it seems that everything works against this desire. Why is the process that leads us to adhesion with the Creator so slow when we see that in spiritually whatever we want immediately happens?
R. In spirituality if you ask according to the path, according to the next step you need to take, then it is immediately revealed and realised and you get into that state, but it’s on the condition that you are working correctly. So search. Maybe besides whatever you imagine to yourself there is another form which is close to you but it’s still not within you, try to depict it.
23. S. (36:19) The exile in Egypt, is it a state inside the ten? Can you ask, want the ten to go into that state or do you need to make some preparation, that thanks to that the ten goes into a state called exile?
R. The exile in Egypt is a process, to be in Egypt is a process, it takes a lot of time. They say it’s 400 years, there are many calculations about it that I don’t really want to relate to but the thing is the person should discover that he’s actually in exile from the connection with the friends, from the desire to bestow, from connection. From such states we begin to count the exile in Egypt. Meaning when one is in a place in a state where his presence in that state doesn’t let him be close to people, to the friends and relate nicely and correctly to people, then from that moment on one begins to feel the exile in Egypt.
Before that it’s not an exile, before that he has a good life. What’s bad in his life? Nothing is bad, he is seemingly in a good state, he’s free. When you go out to some vacation or some place in the summer, maybe to the beach or some nice vacation home do you feel that you’re in exile? You’re not in exile, it’s the same here. Exile means according to how much one can’t stand it, how much one hates it, he wants to run away from it, otherwise it’s not exile. Everything is in respect to one’s will to receive. One suffers because he cannot be connected with the friends and also with that Creator through the friends. Everything that we attain later, the redemption, it’s only from these vessels, from these empty vessels that suffer, that are revealed in us through the exile.
24. S. (39:56) You answered about pleasure from the work and you said that the pleasure actually appears only when the Creator appears between us which is building the spiritual Kli. Meaning the state where the Creator is revealed and we build the Kli, until then there is no pleasure in the work?
R. Until then there is no pleasure.
25. S. (40:34) Can the ten go forward incorrectly?
R. Of course it can, of course it can and we can check it only if we work constantly on the connection between us so that in the connection between us we make room for the Creator between us in the center.
26. S. (41:25) You said that feeling in exile is distance, lack of connection and even hatred towards the friends. Before the congress there were times when I felt a connection but since the congress I feel more connection and closeness to the friends, even greater warmth from my heart towards them. Does that mean that I am not in exile or coming out of exile? What is this state that I feel?
R. If you feel the friends and you want to feel the Creator among them and this is your goal, to feel it as the most important thing in life, that is constantly increasing and sparkling within you then you are on the right way, and you are in the exodus, from exile to redemption.
27. S. (43:09) I want to ask if exile is a personal or collective state.
R. It can be both.
S. And if we aren’t in exile then where are we?
R. Then you are still lacking the exile. You’re in Egypt but you don’t yet feel that it is truly Egypt.
28. S. (43:46) How can we yearn for the exodus from Egypt if we’re not even in exile yet?
R. We can depict to ourselves that we are in the will to receive in order to receive even though we don’t feel it as bed and therefore we don’t feel that we are in exile. But nevertheless we should depict it to ourselves and then gradually, through the study and by talking about it we awaken upon ourselves the surrounding light, then we discover quicker our true state. You are feeling it correctly, I can see that.
29. S. (44:45) Is it when the person feels and understands that whatever he desires is for oneself and when he feels and understands that what he’s doing is to satisfy himself somehow then he are in exile? And you understand that your ego is bad?
R. Yes this is already the feeling of the exile or the beginning of the feeling of the exile.
S. Then you can go in and out of exile because sometimes you feel this and sometimes you don’t recognise it.
R. Yes.
30. S. (45:45) When a person doesn’t watch the morning lesson does it mean that he’s in exile?
R. No he is totally disconnected from everything, disconnected.
S. How is it that friends who are always in the lesson are suddenly leaving? What’s the purpose in all that?
R. They felt that it wasn’t enough for them. It wasn’t enough that they were just in the lesson before, they have to reach a more active state. Besides that they left because you didn’t hold them with sufficient strength, you were not connected together strongly enough. Each one will help his friend, this is what did not happen.
S. What is the meaning of supporting the friend? What does it mean, what are we lacking?
R. That you’re responsible that the friend will not run away and will constantly be connected to the purpose of creation.
31. S. (47:34) In the morning lessons I stopped hearing the sources, a certain animal awakened in me. I want to invest more time but the more I try to make more time for meetings the inner beast is making it more difficult. We are placing each other in a battle, one time I’m keeping it inside and one time it’s keeping me inside. How to learn to turn to the Creator?
R. It’s not a little animal. The one who has to turn to the Creator is a human, Adam, the little human that grows within you and the animal, that’s all the rest. Where this is like our body, our body is the animal but the heart within it that yearns for the Creator that is that little Adam within us that we have to grow, to develop.
32. S. (49:30) What is the connection between Egypt and the feeling of envy and when we feel the revelation of the Creator does it mean that we are in the feeling of love?
R. Yes, Egypt is envy mostly and coming out of Egypt is love.
Reading Excerpt #24 twice (50:42)
33. R. (54:37) Well what can I add? The main thing is the prohibition of in order to receive and when they started to distinguish between in order to receive and in order to bestow that is the beginning of the feeling of exile and already an opportunity for redemption.
34. S. (55:03) So if I now think about some reception for myself and I cannot get closer to the Creator, I don’t think about getting closer to Him does that mean exile?
R. Why exile? Exile is when you know how to relate to it. If you love it, like it, enjoy thinking about what you’ll receive, what you’ll get, how you’ll be uplifted, that’s not exile. You’re working for the Creator, or rather for Pharaoh.
S. What is exile then?
R. Exile is when you feel that you want what is opposite to the Creator.
S. So the exodus from the exile is when I want to go out to get closer to the Creator?
R. Yes.
S. So what does it mean that I come out of the intention for myself? You’re saying it happens only once and then we come back or..?
R. I don’t know when I said it or why. Don’t bundle everything together and build an argument when it feels comfortable for you, you’ll only confuse yourself. We need to come out of the state where we are working for ourselves; we consider it as good and begin to consider it as bad. Everything that’s done for ourselves is bad, everything that is done for the others or for the sake of the Creator is good. This inversion has to happen in us.
35. S. (57:12) We often talk about this hatred, that as we’re working in the ten if we’re working properly we would come to this hatred. Is this hatred that I don’t want to connect with my friends or is this hatred that I hate to be separated from them?
R. It depends on how you define hate. Typically hate is not toward others but for myself, that I am in the will to receive in order to receive, in my own will to receive in order to receive and I begin to develop hatred for that. That’s the hatred that will remove me from in order to receive and bring me closer, push me forward towards in order to bestow.
36. S. (58:23) Is the feeling of the exile when this nature rules you against your will?
R. Again.
S. The beginning of the exile is that your own nature rules you against your desire?
R. Yes, it’s possible to feel such a state, it’s possible to feel it.
37. S. (58:57) When I reach the right despair, according to my logic I should be happy about it. Why should I cry?
R. This is not about crying or not crying. The main thing is for which goal are you crying, what do you want to come out of it?
S. Can we be happy and at the same time cry?
R. Yes, of course.
38. S. (59:53) You said that salvation is thanks to the empty vessels that suffered in the exile in Egypt. Does this mean that the longer the exile and the more we suffer in the exile in Egypt then the more vessels we collect during this stage to use later in the land of Israel to bestow?
R. Yes.
39. S. (01:00:37) It is written in excerpt 24 of the Zohar therefore it says that if they had descended to exile in Egypt and they had been cautious not to eat, meaning not to enjoy what the Egyptians enjoy, meaning the evil eye which is the will to receive for oneself, they would not have come under the control of the exile. About this, did the children of Israel have a free choice not to eat this bread?
R. Of course there was free choice to eat it or not to eat it, but when you’re already in Egypt you have no other choice.
40. S. (01:01:40) To continue the previous question if there was a need as the Torah explains for people to come down to Egypt in order to acquire the vessels of the Egyptians over 400 years then what’s the difference between the prohibition to eat the bread, the fact that they had to receive this coarseness in Egypt? What are the subtleties in this seeming contradiction?
R. We will learn about it more. There are many contradictions in Egypt, in the exodus from Egypt. There are many, many discernments and we will learn those also along the way from our practical experience.
41. S. (01:02:52) How can we call the state where let’s say the falsehood of the corporal values is become a revealed so much so that you don’t even see a possibility, an opportunity? You see that all of your suffering, the source of all your suffering is those false, deceitful corporeal values?
R. It’s recognition of evil, recognition of evil.
42. S. (01:03:41) What does it mean in the work of the ten to go down to Egypt but not to eat the Egyptian bread?
R. To go down to Egypt means to get into the will to receive in order to receive for itself but not to accept that desire. In effect to realize it, meaning not to live the Egyptian life yet.
43. S. (01:04:28) My question is there are moments when a person doesn’t get this egoistic desire so he has no yearning to get out of this state. How together can we help each other to keep this force of nature and keep its presence and develop a deficiency and a yearning to come out of the will to receive?
R. Only through the work in the group more and more, don’t forget to be closer to one another. You’ll see how in that you are seemingly putting your foot down on the gas and moving forward, you’re getting the engine revved, you’re moving forward that’s what’s important.
Constantly accelerate, constantly push down on the gas pedal, the accelerator and with this you will advance.
44. S. (01:06:11) What should we be thinking of besides the work with the group in order to feel the beginning of the exile?
R. Only about the work with the group. Outside of the group I don’t belong to spirituality, it’s only the work with the group.
45. S. (01:06:51) In order to get out of Egypt do we have to see and feel and know that we are in Egypt, in the will to receive, in the exile?
R. Yes without a doubt we must feel that we are under the dominion of Pharaoh in Egypt, exiled from the land of Israel, from the desire to bestow, to love. This is a necessary feeling in order to ultimately run away from it.
Reading Excerpt #25 twice (01:07:38)
46. S. (01:11:27) It turns out it’s impossible to attain the true pleasure from nearing the Creator if we don’t know how to appreciate it correctly. What does it mean to know how to correctly appreciate the nearing to the Creator?
R. Meaning understand that this is the only necessary thing you need to do.
S. How to not use the nearing to the Creator for self pleasure?
R. You have to organize inside of you ahead of time such feelings, such intentions meticulously. Why do you want to come closer to the Creator? Only in order to receive pleasure from approaching Him to give Him contentment.
S. Seemingly this is the intention you begin to work with but the moment you feel some nearing then you ask for more for more?
R. You will control yourself and stop yourself. This is really what building the screen and the reflected light is all about, building the spiritual Partzuf.
S. Where can you aim yourself, move yourself away from anything that is for self-benefit? Or connect with the friends or..?
R. You have to raise all them above you. Who? The friends, the group, the goal and then you will see that with all those sensations and awakenings in you you can always be higher and higher.
S. When the people of Israel were in Egypt they felt closeness to the Creator, He let them. So how did they not use this closeness in Egypt for themselves?
R. They were connected among them, they were connected to Moses and they wanted very much to come out of Egypt. And this held them above the egoism even though they had absolutely everything, even more than the Egyptians themselves.
S. This closeness to the Creator does it obligate, does it somehow help you come out of yourself from Egypt? Meaning it eventually brings you out or it depends on man?
R. The decision depends on the person, the action depends on the Creator.
47. S. (01:14:57) What is the sorrow of Shechina that Rabash is speaking about in this excerpt? He speaks about Shechina in the dust, in the exile.
R. Yes.
S. Where do you feel that?
R. Everything is felt in the heart, everything is felt in the heart. And the sorrow of the Shechina is that she cannot receive all the delight and pleasure that the Creator wants to give her in order to please Him.
S. It sounds like an ongoing state, the Shechina and the dust. And when we feel it, we can’t just dwell in it, we have to feel it for a moment and then it’s actually a good thing that we feel it.
R. All the spiritual states are delighting, even if they are the worst. It’s because they’re on the path, they’re on the way. We get this discernments and then we move on, we move on.
S. So actually we can only feel it for a moment and then be happy that we felt it? But then what?
R. And then we advance, we move on. And then we move on.
48. S. (01:16:31) Where is my freedom of choice between Pharaoh and the point in the heart? Sometimes I feel that I have no choice.
R. Well it’s however you feel, what can you do, you have to keep on searching. The free choice is above the will to receive so first of all rise above the will to receive and then see where is your free choice so it will really be free.
49. S. (01:17:24) To continue the friend’s question if our work is control over our desires and our thoughts are training our desires and mind how do we start this?
R. It doesn’t matter as long as we use it.
50. S. (01:18:00) If the meaning of the Exile is that the people of Israel couldn’t work in order to give contentment to the Creator but only in order to receive for themselves, how can we find the forces to come out of Egypt?
R. We get the strength to come out of Egypt from above, from the Creator. We don’t have such forces within us, we are still immersed in Egypt and only the Creator who shines on us with His light which is called the reforming light, He brings us out. It’s called the light of redemption which brings us out, truly pulls us out by force from Egypt. Otherwise we would not be able to leave. We need only to discover how weak we are, what rags we are, that we are powerless to do anything, anything above the will to receive. This is who we are. And to the very last minute when we already attain the force of bestowal but still not 100% we must not be certain or even think that we can resist our will to receive. This is called the complete Redemption, when we can come out of the control of the will to receive to the fullest.
S. Can I ask another one please?
R. Yes.
S. If man’s tendency is to think he has forces […]
R. Yes, but the truth is a person constantly finds out that he has no powers and that helps him turn to the Creator and ask for the strength every time, again and again and again.