SUNDAY: BINAH-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Sunday.
Rabash. What Is the Prayer for Help and for Forgiveness in the Work?. 4 (1988)
Morning Lesson June 2, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 4, 1988. What Is the Prayer for Help and for Forgiveness in the Work?
1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:35) It is seemingly the most important thing because we are talking about prayer we are talking about help and that this help will include the forgiveness in that we do not succeed and the do not apologize and we don’t even know what for, but we are asking for forgiveness and progress in the work. The prayer is the most important and only unique thing that can help us in attaining the purpose of life, that we turn to the Creator, the one unique and unified force, There Is None Else Besides Him and He is the one who is orchestrating our past, present and the future. Let’s hope we manage to properly contact Him and then he will reply to us in full.
Reading Article. (02:00) “Our sages said, man’s inclination..”
2. S. (21:06) It is strange, for you hear the prayers of every mouth and if you were to believe truly his prayer will be complete and the Creator hears complete prayers, meaning a person yearns with all his heart for the Creator to help him. What does it mean to believe truly, after all he does not feel anything, how is he supposed to really feel anything for the Creator him, and what does it come to really believe, what is this concept?
R. That a person has nothing to do besides accepting the words of the sages, that the Creator is orchestrating everything and left the man with only one thing, that you turn to Me and ask.
S. The problem, let’s put it this way, we are learning a lot about prayers this week, how does a person know that his prayers are answered? He does a lot of work and he feels they are not answered, how can we understand that they are answered?
R. That’s true, that we don’t immediately feel the response from the Creator on the one hand, but on the other hand we have to have faith in the sages, what they said, that the Creator hears the prayer of every mouth. Then when He hears, He replies. Accept it is possible, we will not feel the answering of the prayer but it comes and it enters the person and all those responses from the Creator accumulate in the person until the person begins to feel, to identify them and with them he begins to answer the Creator.
3. S. (23:44) What is considered the help of the Creator?
R. The help from the Creator is the answering of the prayer, if you do not have a deficiency then you are not going to feel the response.
S. What is the answer to the prayer, how can we identify He is answering?
R. That you have the right deficiency, what are you asking of Him?
S. But He hears every mouth?
R. Yes but what is every mouth, every mouth that asks for help. How can one ask for help what for what he cannot do on his own which is that he would have the good inclination, the force of bestowal. If he asks that from the Creator then the Creator has to listen, not immediately but a few times as he establishes himself and learns how to turn to the Creator and he begins to identify that he has some contact with the Creator, some inner contact. That he turns and knows who to turn to, also he receives a response from that.
4. S. (25:45) Why do we need to ask forgiveness from the Creator, why is it not enough to ask for help to pray, and say to Him, “I’m sorry” that it won’t happen again, “help me,” like forgive me?
R. Because the Creator prepared everything perfectly and if we do not know how to use it correctly what He prepared, then for that we as if need to ask for forgiveness. Because by that we correct our deafness, our flaw, that we do not understand what He wants from us. That we are far from Him, that we are thinking in the wrong direction then what we should and so forth.
S. Am I to blame for something that I’m going backwards, what is forgiveness all together when I am asking from the Creator?
R. Forgiveness is that I cannot feel and that I cannot reach the request that is required of me.
The request that is demanded of me is that I will ask, that I prepare myself, that I want to receive the right and correct assistance, I have to direct myself to do that assistance. Here the question is whether I am not giving the Creator my request in the right way, I am not presenting it to Him, and that, too, I need to ask forgiveness for.
S. Is it like a form of recognition of evil?
R. Yes, it is how much more I lack in order to achieve the right functioning.
5. S. (28:25) Each person says I made a mistake and the Creator gave me a desire to implement that action. You answered a friend that forgiveness is that I could not come to the right request, but the forces in order to come to the right request is also coming from the Creator, so am I to blame for this state?
R. No, we receive strength forces in accordance with our work. If we connect in the ten and we try together with the ten to aim ourselves towards the right goal, then we know exactly what to ask for. Because all these conditions, of what I need to achieve, with whom, and what way do I achieve them, do I reach the goal? What is the connection between the goal and the Creator? If I aim myself correctly then I know what to ask for, so even though we do not know yet exactly what to ask for, we don’t have the correct deficiency, that, too, is what we ask forgiveness for, because it is already a correction.
S. Let’s say, I have a desire and I think what I have to do with the desire is to reverse it, because the purpose of the desire is to get fulfillment but I do not want to get fulfillment, I want to reverse it and connect the desire to its root. This request is between the fulfilling the desire without the Masach [screen] and between reversing it and connecting it with its source. This is the choice that I have?
R. You can say so.
S. In this case, let’s say, in a desire there are hard judgements and I cannot stand against them, I cannot stop reception, so what do I do?
R. You do not need to prevent anything, you have to use all that the Creator created, so as to form the correct prayer, the correct request.
S. Sometimes I know that if I come to that request my job is done on that desire but I want that fulfilment in the reception so much that I do not want to lose it with a request?
R. That is true, so soon you will discover that your requests are not throwing you out of the right path.
S. I feel that reception is more tasty, it is more tasteful and I think that in reception I can taste more but I know that if I request the Creator to connect that desire to bestow, but in my mind the reception is attracting me more, so intentionally I do not make the request?
R. Subconsciously I do understand, so what can you do? You begin to work against the disturbances. This is what is called the evil inclination, that it shows itself over-powering the person, when the person is already on the way towards truth and then the desire that awakens in him pushes him backwards and then a person asks accordingly more and more and more. Ultimately, he needs to reach a state where the evil inclination and the good inclination will work within him in parallel too, and then on these two, like on two feet, he can move forward.
6. S. (35:11) How can we check the changes that take place in the ten are the result of the prayer and not from the ego?
R. We discover that to the extent which prayer shapes the results and the evil inclination shapes the results and they are both connected in the right response from the Creator.
7. S. (36:13) Where is the boundary between, I have exerted and found, and the place where you ask for help from the Creator?
R. When I ask for strength and put in the effort to ask for strength, a person will ultimately reach a state where he understands that everything depends on the Creator, and alone in my own strength, I certainly cannot advance even one step forward, and then accordingly my request becomes deeper.
8. S. (37:27) To the extent that we are advancing, the evil inclination is also growing, how can we come to the feeling of death of the evil inclination?
R. We reach the system of the evil inclination through the system of the good inclination because the Upper’s will is not to make us fail but on the contrary, to the extent we can overcome, we are given something to overcome. That is how we have to see things that the Creator is always helping us and always gives us balanced states.
9. S. (38:26) Every stage in the spiritual work needs to include request and forgiveness from the Creator, on the other hand, request for Him to give us the force of bestowal? Is it every moment that it is built on these two things is forgiveness and request?
R. Yes, every step forward has to be comprised of both the good inclination and the bad inclination.
S. How to ask forgiveness correctly, it is not just some kind of formal appeal, what do I need to feel here and how do we do this?
R. A person cannot attain this on his own, he has to first connect to the group, he has to feel that he is in a group as it is called and then he can build his correct request and appeal from the Creator for the ten. This is how he gradually connects and corrects himself until he comes to a response.
10. S. (40:08) It looks like we need a constant prayer to be able to be helped and to come to this faith. How do we need to constantly pray to come to this point of this real faith before one is helped?
R. He receives help as well but in a different way, it’s help in understanding what he lacks, and from that point he continues to correct himself, so he has already received help before as well, and this is our entire work.
S. It is a feeling that we lose contact and a need for constant prayer, it is like a searching process. If I do not keep on praying it will not be heard, so where do we get the power to constantly want to pray to the Creator?
R. This is of course coming from the friends because that is where the person can very quickly, you can say, immediately feel what he lacks. The deficiency he receives from the lack of connection with the friends, that is the correct deficiency and if he will always run towards realizing it then it will be sufficient for him to correct everything.
11. S. (42:19) How can I evoke the deficiency in us so that we would be able to overcome the evil inclination?
R. The deficiency that I have to awaken in order to overcome the evil inclination is the deficiency in and for connection with the friends, because then it is certain that in any state wherein, the correct connection between us will give us the solution. It will give us the solution and therefore it is the only thing we need; the only thing we need.
12. S. (43:35) Now I feel like the evil inclination is mine and that is why it is hard to give it up and to get rid of it. Is there a way to feel that the evil inclination is not mine and stuck with me and that I have to hate. Is it a proper movement of thought here to go with?
R. Then what, the good inclination is yours?
S. Yes, I need to go against myself now, so this is why I cannot hate it, but if I were to feel myself, to have the good inclination and the evil inclination was given to me from the Creator, then maybe I would be able to give it up? Maybe I did not express myself correctly?
R. Well, let’s wait and soon you will feel it clearer.
13. S. (45:09) We are told we have to recognize the evil inclination and we are in a process that we are in slowly, slowly, and until we feel and understand that we need it, so why is it so hard to ask from Him? We wish that he would ask all day long, why is it so hard for us?
R. Because it is not under your control and your evil inclination receives only what is under your control.
S. Is it possible to put the evil inclination to death, is it even possible?
R. We need to want to; we need to come closer to that.
14. S. (46:13) It works out that the forgiveness is a restriction that we are raising something inside of you. Let’s say if I bring a gift to a friend, physically, and I also promise him that next time I will not do something, so I raise in me and it turns out the forgiveness is a certain form of restriction. Is that right, and then the request comes?
R. There is something psychological in what you’re saying, but no.
15. S. (46:56) The right connection is that the center of the group or through the center of the group we return to the Creator?
R. Through the center of the group we address the Creator.
16. S. (47:19) I have two ways to relate to this source: one is the root of the sin and the other is the essence, the main part of the sin, what is the practical difference for the ten?
R. The root of the sin is the Creator, “I have created the evil inclination,” that is the source of the sin, the root of the sin. Now, for us to come to the fact that it comes from the Creator in order for us to invert it and from that root we will rise to the Creator with our request, with proof that this is all we are missing to invert it to the good inclination. That is a sign we have come to the right goal, from a thing that is against it.
17. S. (48:34) Is there a difference between the lack and deficiency or are they one and the same?
R. No, there is no difference. Let’s say there is no difference for the time being.
S. In order to come to the prayer or request to the Creator do I first come to the center of the group and then collectively, do we come to the prayer together?
R. That is not already dependent on a person, it is upon a person just to raise his lack to the Creator. What the Creator does beyond that, the calculation of the person towards the ten, that’s not on us.
18. S. (49:58) This article was a true explanation of all the levels that we go through from top to bottom, every level and every level. My question is: when the evil inclination looks like the bad guy in this story but I could not do nothing to come closer to the Creator, so the evil inclination is actually the hero because without it I cannot get closer to the Creator?
R. Right, so what do you want to say by this?
S. I want to say not to dismiss the evil inclination because without it we are nothing?
R. Okay, the Creator also says that, “I have created the evil inclination,” that specifically by it you come to the purpose of creation.
19. S. (51:41) We know that in the spiritual work we have to come to joy and a person can find himself in joy only from gratitude and not from a request, so what is constantly to be in joy in the work, to be in gratitude or nevertheless in request?
R. We need to be constantly in a blessing to the Creator, “Blessed be You, the Lord,” etc.. Upon all the kinds of things that our sages corrected for us. This is what we need to do, but besides that also in the questions and requests, this is our work to be in between the two lines.
S. Meaning faith on the path and holding on to the Creator is what we have to do all the time?
R. Yes.
20. S. (53:18) He said that “Before you call I will answer,” does it mean that every friend who has a lack, physically, that’s already answered?
R. No, that is not the answer for me.
21. S. (53:44) About coming to the complete prayer, Rabash writes, a person should believe that the Creator hears the prayers and that he truly believes this prayer would be complete, so what is it that we need to believe in order for the prayer to become complete?
R. The Creator deliberately wakes up all kinds of questions and states within us so that we will receive a feeling of the negative, the feeling of deficiency and then we will be able to ask for correction and that is the only way we advance.
22. S. (54:48) A person needs to elevate his deficiency to the Creator and if he did not do that it is considered negligence, if I understand correctly. The question is: how to settle this article with Shamati article 1, which says that “There Is None Else Besides Him” and everything is from the Creator?
R. If “There is None Else Besides Him” then you can connect to that whatever you want, it is not an answer for us. None Else Besides Him is always present throughout all of creation, behind all the actions which seem to be against or in favor of creation, against or in favor in the attainment of the goal. You can answer anything with None Else Besides Him.
S. He says in Shamati 1, what was yesterday, the action that happened yesterday, don’t take up on yourself because that came from the Creator, and here it is also that I was negligent about the past too, so please help me settle between those two?
R. You do not need to straighten this, you need to keep going, you need to continue and then every moment will be as new.
23. S. (56:32) In this article and all together what we have been studying about prayer lately, this labyrinth which is called kill the evil inclination is mentioned, to battle against it, to kill it. From my personal experience that the more the time passes, the more states I go through I understand that I need to manage myself with it and I cannot cancel it. The point is that it is not later, I am studying it all the time and trying to learn this all the time and the more I enter inwards I am more perplexed. I know that I am not allowed to let go because if I find the right formula I will reach that side that is called to be in the right prayer or more correctly, connection with the Creator.
R. Yes.
S. Here I am coming and asking, why are we not talking about that? I remember you asking Rabash who used to go up on the roof in the greatest heat on the aluminium roof and he would point to himself and say, “let it suffer.” There are many such things that we are not dealing with and something that is very much needed to learn and understand this?
R. Learn it on yourself, that is what Rabash said.
S. So he needs to investigate it?
R. Yes.
24. S. (58:14) Sometimes I see the evil inclination but I cannot return to the Creator for Him to correct it. I turn to the Creator only when I feel that the evil inclination is hurting me. My question is: why is it not enough to be aware of the evil inclination for us to turn to Him?
R. But then with what will I turn to the Creator if I do not feel that He is hurting me and is hindering me, He truly hates me. I have to reach a state where I hate it and then I turn to the Creator.
25. S. (59:11) A person comes to the correct request when he understands that he is not capable of doing anything and from this dead-end he turns to the Creator? Do we have to come to such a dead-end state each time in order to turn to Him?
R. Preferably.
26. S. (59:50) There are many times feelings of humiliation in the prayer or like a thousand times you raise it and you didn’t get an answer, so what’s the prayer with it? Even the very appeal is kind of like lowering you and I feel like it doesn’t enable me to truly appeal to Him properly. What do we do with that feeling of humiliation?
R. Continue, keep going because this stems from the evil inclination in us.
S. Can we somehow circumvent it and deal with it, is this humiliation necessary?
R. It’s necessary and if you don’t really want to feel it that means you have more to work on.
27. S. (01:00:53) It is written that there are people that to begin with want to work in order to bestow and that their work is very difficult, and there’s those who to begin with want to receive a reward and later believe that somehow from Lo Lishma they come to Lishma. Do we have to go through this process, meaning move from a state in which we are demanding a reward into a state in which we are not demanding a reward or how does that work?
R. We have to yearn for only one thing, to understand that each time we receive correct directions from the Creator towards in order to bestow on our part.
S. What does it mean to establish yourself in a state of not demanding a reward and in our work only in order to bestow?
R. That’s what I said, for this we receive directions each time.
28. S. (01:02:07) What prayer is more precise: the prayer to correct myself or the prayer for the friends?
R. I don’t know about precise but more helpful, useful prayer is for the friends.
29. S. (01:02:32) The Creator has no lack, if it’s clear that forgiveness that we are asking from Him, is it in order to make corrections in us? What change in the request for forgiveness for the Creator do in me?
R. First of all the Creator attains all of our deficiencies and He awakens them within us, so that we will reach a state where He is clothed in us.
30. S. (01:03:12) Only from the center of the group you can turn to the Creator. What is the center of the group?
R. It is the collection that is the ten.
31. S. (01:03:26) How can Torah and Mitzvot kill the evil inclination?
R. By working to draw the light that reforms called Torah and by that light correct our actions and that is called Mitzvot.
32. S. (01:03:55) The asking for forgiveness is the state of a request from a person?
R. The request for forgiveness comes from a combination of the good inclination and the bad inclination because if we didn’t have the evil inclination we would have nothing to ask for, there would be no deficiency or reason to turn to the Creator.
33. S. (01:04:27) What does it mean that the Creator hears?
R. The Creator hears means that our prayers are included in His degree. The Creator is also not something that is undefined, it is Bo-Re, come and see which means it’s a specific degree, a specific state and that is something that we can define.
34. S. (01:05:06) What’s the difference between a prayer from the heart and a prayer from the mouth?
R. A prayer from the heart is a true prayer and prayer from the mouth we also know what it is from our world.
35. S. (01:05:26) If the purpose of creation is to receive the upper abundance, what is that, can you explain?
R. The upper pleasure is to be bonded with the Creator; to resemble Him.
36. S. (01:05:40) What does it mean that a person has the intention in order to bestow?
R. That he wants to do action similar to the Creator.
S. Every single action or specific ones?
R. No, it doesn’t matter what action, what’s important is what intention.
S. The intention needs to clothe my prayer. What exactly, because there’s always this specific gap that you are asking of and so it won’t fall into my desire to receive?
R. What do I want right now from turning to the Creator?
37. S. (01:06:49) Another central thing he defines in the article which is kind of like a solution which is to engage in Torah and Mitzvot. What are the means that helps change our nature?
R. For the attainment of the goal we have nothing besides Torah and Mitzvot because in doing the actions of in order to bestow it’s called Mitzvot, we understand how weak and incapable and not built for it, we are. Then we turn for help and by that we attain the light that reforms called Torah.
S. Meaning they push us to the request?
R. Yes.
S. When does the group engage in Torah and Mitzvot?
R. When the friends wish to connect between them and clarify what is their common deficiency.
S. How is it felt in a person when the will to receive in him feels that it is about to be killed, what does he feel?
R. He discovers that his will to receive is standing between him and the Creator, that if he won’t nullify it he will never reach the purpose of creation, he will never be able to connect to the Creator, feel some equivalence.