SUNDAY PRAYER: HESED-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Sunday
Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, item 1
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah
1. R. (00:24) Meaning the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah is an article of Baal HaSulam that is a relatively long article that he wrote as a brief of the Wisdom of Kabbalah itself for beginners and usually we start studying the Wisdom of Kabbalah from this. Then we can continue to the Talmud or The Study of the Ten Sefirot if we want to walk that path, or we remain in the study of other articles or continue with the prefaces that Baal HaSulam wrote; some are very heavy and deep. So let’s start reading. It’s good for both men and women. It is a must for all of us to understand how the system works in a brief and in a comfortable way so we will be able to work with it. So, when we begin to study the Wisdom of Kabbalah in general we start with the Preface of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.
Reading Item #1. (01:51)
2. R. (06:41) What did we hear here, that there is a Creator and He invents or brings out a will to receive outside of himself, that in the Creator there’s no will to receive. And this will to receive He wants to fill it with his relation, with the will to bestow, with light, a certain light, a special light; and both of them are extended from the Creator: the will to receive is extended from the Creator externally, not really from the internality of the Creator but according to the desire of the Creator it begins to develop outside of Him. And the will to bestow, the light, the fulfilment of the will to receive extends directly from the Creator; and they are both extents from the Creator, just one directly and one indirectly, that is how they come.
And all of the Wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of the desire to receive and the desire to bestow light, that extends from the Creator and comes directly and indirectly and how they interact between them. How the light the desire to bestow fills the vessel that is the desire to receive and the entire Wisdom of Kabbalah speaks only about that.
3. S. (08:31) You said that the vessel is filled by the relation of the Creator through the force of bestowal. What is exactly the filling of the relation from the Creator and not just something sweet or a present?
R. A vessel is a desire to receive that feels and senses that the upper light fills it, and the most important thing for it is the relation of the Creator, the Upper towards it; this relation that wants to fill it and this is what fulfils the vessel.
S. In other words there is some filling, some pleasure and there’s also a relation those are two different things?
R. We will clarify it later, there’s a lot of fine-tuning here.
4. S. (09:35) This abundance clothes as the desire in the will to receive, in other words the desire is the equivalent of the abundance which is clothed in the will to receive?
R. If the desire is the same vessel that in it the abundance is clothes, that’s what he wants to ask me right? The desire is the vessel, the emptiness that is revealed; and the light, the filling, is the bounty that fills the emptiness of the vessel.
5. S. (10:12) The Creator created the will to receive so why do we say that there is no will to receive in Him?
R. It still hasn’t been developed on its own, which is why the Creator created it. But because the will to receive needs to reveal itself out of the creature that feels the deficiency, that wants the filling, therefore we don’t have a creature yet.
6. S. (11:13) To continue the scrutiny from the friend, it says that this pleasure is related to the abundance and the desire to receive the abundance is attributed to the will to receive to the created being so the Creator wants to give the abundance, what should I do in order to receive the abundance?
R. That we will clarify later, what demands what conditions are for the reception of the bounty.
7. S. (11:48) What is abundance?
R. Abundance is what is filling the will to receive.
S. Does it have to be pleasure or it can also be suffering?
R. Whatever the will to receive wants, this is called bounty for it.
8. S. (12:16) It is written that only by measures and change of values of the will to receive. What is the difference between measures and different values of the will to receive?
R. The changes are in the quality.
S. In the will to receive, can I give an example of a different quality of will to receive?
R. Of course, depending on what he needs and what he wants, and the form he wants it, there are many forms.
9. S. (13:01) He writes here that everything that is received in the will to receive imprinted in him extends from his self-existence from existence, and is not at all a renewed creation. What does this mean existence from existence, a renewed creation?
R. There is a renewed creation; existence from absence that is now coming and this is the will to receive.
S. The question is why did He make our will to receive in the way that it causes all the troubles in life?
R. Don’t add to it a bunch of different things from yourself, speak to the point.
S. What’s the reason He created in us the will to receive?
R. He created the will to receive according to his desire.
S. Meaning what?
R. To fulfil and to bestow to the will to receive.
10. S. (14:11) Here in the first excerpt he asks, we must understand this refinement that we acquire and what is the coarseness that we must refine through Torah and Commandments, and the answer we must understand here from this first item or should we keep this question in mind until we continue reading?
R. We have to attain this question and the answer in practicality, on ourselves.
11. S. (15:07) What is a direct or indirect form of the abundance and the will to receive the abundance?
R. Direct form is when we have a connection with the cause that is coming from it, the reason. And indirect is that it’s undergoing several stages and arrives in an indirect way to where it needs to go.
S. And in managing our will to receive, the Creator manages us through several stages?
R. Yes. Managing our will to receive is managed according to several stages, yes.
S. Can I ask what they are?
R. It’s the ladder of degrees that is between the Creator and the desire to receive that is now revealed and gets into action. Throughout the entire ladder of degrees between the Creator and the certain state that is revealed in the worlds we have actions; and these actions form and give birth and fill up the desire to receive, and so it begins to exist.
12. S. (16:46) What is the will to receive actually?
R. A desire to enjoy, a desire to enjoy is what is coming from the Creator?
S. Does it mean that there’s a place and is it something that exists or is it something that the Creator is missing so he wants to be filled with it?
R. There is not a deficiency of the Creator but a deficiency of a lack of fulfilment with the creature feels that he lacks. The lack is in the will to receive and fulfilment is called light.
S. Will we ever understand the essence of this thing called will to receive or will always remain the way you described it now?
R. The will to receive we can feel, understand, and attain, where is the fulfilment of it we can also continue to understand and attain and feel it as our fulfilment as our filling but how much it fills us that depends on our work.
S. When the light fills the desire, is this the Creator or what is this thing when the light fills the desire?
R. Light that fills the desire has a 5° of the desire that receive the NRNHY, five degrees of light, and all in all there are 125° of desire and 105° of the light the fulfilment, and everything depends on how much the desire to receive opens and is capable and able to receive the light according to equivalents of form and fill itself fulfil itself.
13. S. (18:59) If the will to receive is a desire to enjoy, then can we say that we are in the quality of reception and we want to enjoy reception and when we are in the quality of bestowal do we want to enjoy bestowal?
R. According to the explanation we received from the wisdom, we are not able to receive in order to receive because it is opposite from the Creator. Rather we can receive the light that is coming from the Creator according to identifying the equivalence of form with the Creator and this is called ‘in order to bestow’ that is much as I enjoy and receive in that. I give contentment to the Creator.
S. Pleasure from bestowal a different kind of pleasure as I understand it?
R. Pleasure from the bestowal to the Creator, just like the Creator bestowing to us and in this way we need to reach a bestowal to the Creator.
S. I understand, so enjoying bestowal upon the Creator is it felt in me this pleasure or is it not felt in me?
R. Yes, yes we feel it and on these pleasures we need to put a restriction, a Masach, a screen and returning light, and enjoy the bestowal to the Creator more than the reception from Him.
14. S. (21:03) When we learn we’ve been learning in TENS for years, does the will to receive grow or can we diminish it?
R. The will to receive to the degree that we are able to use him in order to bestow grows and appears to us in such a way.
S. The more we advance the more it grows so what should we do with it?
R. To receive an order to bestow.
S. To invert it?
R. Yes.
15. S. (21:47) Does the system in the work, that we have to become a conduit, that we just receive and pass it on does it only depend on or require the connections so that in essence requires our connections?
R. To receive an order to bestow still is the essence of our connection with the Creator, yes.
16. S. (22:21) Enjoying, is this creating something new? Can they be synonymous?
R. I don’t know, I don’t even want to think about it if it’s not written down why do we need to imagine something out of nothing.
17. S. (22:51) Why does the Creator create this will to receive when we actually cannot receive its filling in its initial state?
R. The Creator brings out a will to receive because otherwise he will have no connection with the creature. The creature has to be different from the Creator, meaning different from the desire of the Creator to bestow to the creature, to give him all the best to fulfil him. The Creator has to create him in an opposite quality, to think only of itself, to receive, this is the nature of the creature. It turns out that the Creator and the creature are opposite and depend on one another. Just like two opposite things in nature.
S. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah we will only suffer this way, meaning if you didn’t send a Kabbalist we would only be suffering?
R. We need to learn how to equalize to the Creator, become similar to the Creator, how to receive all the good that He has that he wants to pass to us, to give to us, like a mother who wants to feed the baby. This is what we need to know how to receive from Him. This is why our entire study is called the wisdom of Kabbalah. Kabbalah is reception, how to receive from the Creator what He wants us to receive.
18. S. (25:13) What does it mean that our desire to receive is indivisible as mentioned in item one.
R. The will to receive doesn’t disappear. Rather it always exists and receives new forms.
19. S. (25:47) From where does the Creator feel his wholeness, the abundance He had since ‘There is None Else Besides Him?” Whom could we compare His wholeness with Himself?
R. Yes.
20. S. (26:19) You said the abundance is what the will to receive wants. In order to feel the abundance and filling that the Creator wants to give us, do we need to use the will to receive in the way that the Creator thought about in advance, regarding the feeling that has to be in it?
R. Yes, yes of course it is all included within.
21. S. (27:07) How to give to the Creator what can we give Him?
R. There’s nothing to give to the Creator because He is whole. His only one desire is that He depends on us. He is wanting to fill us with pleasures. If we receive what we receive from Him, it fulfils our desire to receive, and the pleasure that we receive from Him then He is content and in such a way, we return to Him as returning light. In this measure what he gives to us, we give to Him and in this mutual bestowal. We connect and become adhered.
22. S. (28:43) It says here that everything that is accepted into the desire to receive that continues from existence from existence, sometimes a person gets pleasure from hurting others control over others and you’re saying this is from the Creator?
R. It’s from our will to receive which comes from the Creator. It moves into the will to receive and the will to receive without its correction to be equal with the Creator, enjoys feeling reception even in opposite from the Creator. This is called a pleasure of separation, and this is completely opposite in form from creation from what the Creator intends. Through such reception of pleasure we become further from the Creator.
23. S. (29:34) What state of salvation does humanity have to be in so that we feel the desire to receive against the Creator?
R. Ask again.
S. In what state do we need to be in in order to feel the pleasure and all the joy of the Creator?
R. In the same state as the Creator, we need to come to what is called equivalence of form with Him, then we will feel the way he does in every single state.
24. S. (31:03) Should we demand the Aviut [coarseness] in order to rise to 5° of light?
R. Yes, that’s true, that’s correct. You asked well. We have to scrutinize it but you asked well. We have to use the will to receive the will to receive the farthest from the Creator, the coarsest in order to invert it, to refinement and a very high vessel in order to be in bestowal, in order to feel the Creator completely. This is why it’s written that anyone who is greater than his friend’s inclination is greater than Him. How great can a person be? To the extent that he is evil is great but that evil is corrected. It became good.
25. S. (32:45) What is before the fulfilment or the desire?
R. The desire comes first and it always determines the filling.
26. S. (33:00) It’s clear that the desire to bestow that we are reading about is not in us and we need to attain it, is the desire to receive that we are reading about existing us or do we also need to attain that?
R. No, we receive, the will to receive and when we perform actions on it, operations on it we invert in order to bestow through the right intention. This is how we can receive in it a feeling of light.
27. S. (33:54) In this stage of development, the size of the creature is in equivalence of form with the Creator right? It includes all of the light?
R. Yes.
S. Now it lacks a sensation it doesn’t feel a sensation?
R. The created being? I didn’t understand the question.
S. The creature and Creator are in this stage of equivalence of form?
R. They both want to bestow upon each other, is this what you mean?
S. Yes, but the creature doesn’t feel the bounty of the Creator?
R. It depends what stage of the connection between them we are talking about.
S. Exactly this stage as it says here where the light fills all of reality.
R. The light that fills all over reality, the light is the vessel that the Creator created and the light fills the will to receive, fills it and gives the will to receive a feeling of who fills it. Meaning someone who loves it, who wants it to do good to it etc., etc. when the will to receive feels it, it eventually comes to the restriction that it cannot tolerate the light that shines in it and how opposite it is from its own nature.
S. This was the question meaning he does feel the connection?
R. Of course, of course only through feeling what happens between them happens.
28. S. (35:55) In our state what is the spiritual bounty and what is the bounty for us? Because the corporeal bounty doesn’t fill us any more?
R. For us, the abundance is the upper light that can enter the vessel according to the equivalence of the form of the vessel in it.
S. Is it possible to accept the spiritual abundance before the Machson?
R. Of course not.
S. What is the abundance for me now? What can I be filled with?
R. Nothing, you’re living out of a tiny illumination that’s called a thin candle, a very thin candle.
S. How do I work with it? If the goal is abundance, where do I search for?
R. Search for it in connection with the friends and pray to the Creator.
S. There’s no pleasure in it really?
R. This is why there’s no pleasure in it so you would find it correctly, in order to bestow and not in order to be receive, for now without the abundance this is how we will continue.
S. Until you know that you want to bestow.
29. S. (37:24) The Creator has a special relation to Israel and special relation to those who are not Israel?
R. Those who yearn for the Creator to approach Him are called Israel [straight to the Creator] Yashar- Kel, [straight to the Creator]. Those who yearn for the Creator they can be as Baal HaSulam writes in the article: black, white, red, yellow, doesn’t matter who from the people, all the people, if they yearn for the Creator they are called Israel because of their goal. According to their goal, if they don’t yearn or long for the Creator, then they’re called nations of the world. Today, you might still be to a degree of the nations of the world, he doesn’t care about the Creator, or the purpose of creation and tomorrow he does want to attain it and feel it, and this is why he becomes Israel. Just like we see in Babylon, those who connected to Abraham, and connected themselves to the first group of Israel, right? They are called Israel Yashar Kel, straight to the Creator and who was there? From the Babylonians that were there.
S. It comes out that everything that is written after that is related to that state called Israel because if not, you don’t feel the Creator.
R. Yes, yes it doesn’t matter who or what.
S. I am looking at myself during the day and I would say that there’s only a few minutes that you feel Israel, maybe hours, but the rest of the time you don’t feel anything.
R. Yes, you disconnect from the whole thing that’s clear. But the account is according to those minutes when you are connected.
S. How to get more minutes in Israel?
R. How to accelerate the development? Through the friends for each one to think about it and then all of our inclinations and tendencies will connect and it will pull us to one source, to the Creator.
30. S. (40:24) The Creator created us from the desire to receive, and in our perception it breaks and arrives into many different desires, the still, the vegetative, the animate, family, sex, home, and it seems that all of them seem to bring us to bestowal, in the end?
R. Yes.
S. How do we separate what we can correct and what we can’t or everything that is revealed to me right now I can already begin to work?
R. Anything that is revealed to you in general we are living in such a time where we correct everything and everything is open for us.
31. S. (41:20) What is the approach that needs to be in the Ten in order to remain in reception, in order to bestow and arrive at real equivalence of form?
R. To be connected and all of us, together bestowing upon each other and out of this to the Creator. Mainly the first stage is to connect among us, to bestow upon each other.
32. S. (42:38) It’s written here, that we have to understand the matter of purification?
R. Yes, this refinement is to bestow upon the friends.
33. S. (42:59) The revelation of the mutual desire in the work in the Ten, and to pray for the fulfilment is our work because each Ten and each person is different and until then we’re just pray for the revelation of the desire to receive?
R. Yes of course, it’s like that.
S. If so, we need to get to know one another. Where do we begin?
R. No, we don’t need to know anything. We only need to study together and the upper light which influences us will scrutinize for each and every one, our own nature, our point of exit, our original point, etc..
S. The mutual revelation between us?
R. The common revelation the light will do it for us or the common feeling, the light will do for us within the Ten with each and every Ten.
34. S. (44:16) The value of the enjoyment that is written, the value of Sheva, is this why it’s written that Kabbalah is a science of sensation?
R. Yes, we can feel and understand and sense everything to be filled with it.
S. The reason is helpless in feeling and understanding?
R. The intellect cannot feel, it can only understand what a person feels and first we feel and then comes the understanding, the intellect.
35. S. (45:35) Can it be said that the light is the revelation of the Creator and bestowal is to ignite this light in the other, to become the partner of the Creator?
R. Yes, we can put it this way.
36. S. (45:55) Is the complete state light and the desire together?
R. Yes, of course, the light fills the desire and the desire with its intention to receive in equivalence of form with the light, fills the light.
S. The desire, the Kli, needs to receive the correct form in order to attract the correct light?
R. Yes.
S. In the work between us and the Ten, we shape the walls of the vessel that we are in an equal relation to the friends?
R. Correct.
37. S. (46:27) Is the condition of how the vessel of reception comes to restriction based on what is fulfilling it or are there more opportunities?
R. No, only to come to relate to the source and out of this it begins by itself to become organized and restricted and bestow back to the source.
38. S. (47:20) In the sentence, each is greater than his friend, his nature grows bigger than his friend is regular?
R. The will to receive is regular.
39. S. (48:10) On one hand we are a desire to receive, and the Creator wants to bring us contentment. On the other hand, we are walking through a desert that is filled with nothing like Baal HaSulam writes, how to understand what is pleasure? Because there is a sensation that in our understanding and understanding of the Creator of the pleasure are two different things.
R. It’s because we don’t have the right answer.
S. Right, so it seems that our understanding of pleasure and that which the Creator understands as pleasure and that which he wants to pass to us are two different pleasures?
R. Completely opposite. We want to enjoy reception and He bestowal.
S. How do we want, how to come to the correct desire?
R. Ask from the Creator to replace this desire in you.
40. S. (50:08) Even though we say that we move forward with both right and left, with both legs, the advice is always to adhere to the love of friends. Is there a balance? Is it possible to go to extremes in bonding and love of friends?
R. I don’t know, I’m not sure what you mean.
S. The advice is that we always go with both feet right and left, but then it says that we need to adhere to the love of friends. Is there balance? Is it possible to go to the extreme in adhering to love a friend?
R. No, no, no we need to walk on both right and left together and in this way we will come to love of friends. Yes, we will talk more about it. There are many variations that matter in it. I think that today it’s enough that you had two pretty intense lessons, difficult lessons and we will continue tomorrow as well as today at noon and tomorrow.