TUESDAY: HESED-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Tuesday.
Rabash. What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?. 4 (1989)
Morning Lesson June 25, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 4, 1989. What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?
1.Rav’s Introduction: Everything we read in the Torah, the flood of water, all kinds of incidents that happen with humanity since the beginning of creation to this day, all those things we need to understand them internally, internally; internally means that it is all happening within a person and man is a small world and we need only understand what are these incidents he goes through internally in his awareness, knowing of the reality where he exists. So let’s see, we all heard about the flood, so let’s see what it means, what it really means, a flood of water in our work.
Article. What is a Flood of Water in the Work? The Zohar, Noah, interprets the verse…
2. R. (43:39) So, what do we need the flood of water for? Who can answer?
S. I’m asking what is the role of the ark because on the one hand he says that the who and what is a saboteur, on the other hand, he helps me and sees me, sees my life, so what is the role of the ark here?
R. I asked first. Why do we need the flood of water in the work?
S. I think that thanks to this we come to work entirely above reason and we’re not activating my mind here because my mind is what gives me this who and what, this is the saboteur.
R. Okay let’s say, and..?
S. And to overcome this saboteur I need the Creator’s help because I feel that the Creator is actually the ark.
R. Okay, yeah.
3. S. (45:13) The flood of water on the one hand, and peace on the other hand, that’s in one end and the two are made from the two other lines, the flood of water is a huge amount of water from every kind, and here begins our work after this wash of good or bad in our eyes of course and then we have the beginning of the work?
R. Okay, somehow we can make it tangible, yes, that’s it okay.
4. S. (46:10) I, too, had a question because these questions come to us on the one hand as saboteurs, as destructors. On the other hand, we can see them as good news, they tell you you’re like many others or on the path of revealing the evil inclination and to discover these questions and they awaken all kinds of more qualitative processes, deeper prayer as we just learned and now there’s a question, these two questions always come together, one next to the other: who and what or can we see them as scrutinies that have similar meaning. How do we go through this process in the ten?
R. We go between them, we skip from one to the other, from one to the other.
S. How do we detect them? How do we understand that it’s exactly these questions that come?
R. No, they come precisely within us and in a very tangible way.
5. S. (47:46) In the state of flood of questions, how do we cover ourselves and go into the ark so as to keep ourselves on the path and give strength to the friends?
R. Well, the ark is built from several conditions, first condition has to be the ten which has to come together, the second condition, that in relation to each other and in relation to the mutual goal they have to connect to each other and complete full, mutual aid, meaning that each one comes out of himself and works for the ten.
S. And then he can cover himself in this ark?
R. And then each one can enter that ark and be covered by it.
S. It is written in the article that the other side, the evil inclination, can’t reach a person if he’s in the ark. How does it happen, do we not notice, not pay attention to the bad forces, that they don’t operate for us?
R. We absorb them and match them within the group.
6. S. (49:57) Do we need a flood of water in order to build the real vessel?
R. Didn’t understand.
S. You asked a question, why do we need a flood of water? Do we need the flood of water in order to build the vessel for the right prayer?
R. Yes.
7. S. (50:37) Who or what is this Creator that we must obey unconditionally? Is it revealed only in our connection?
R. Yes, only the Creator is the root of us and therefore, the more we put ourselves together, closer to each other, the closer we are to our root.
8. S. (51:28) Can we say that ‘what’ corresponds to matter, and ‘who’ corresponds to the intention? That one is related to the matter and one is related to the intention?
R. More or less that’s how it breaks down.
9. S. (51:52) The question is this; In what should we yearn for if not for the greatness of the Creator and how and what conditions can we ask for Him, ask Him with faith above reason that within reason, so we become worthy in being in the ark and holding each other there?
R. We simply need to always try and be inside the ten, try to complete the ten in every state, in every place, and then we’ll see how we change and then our ark becomes a special kind of vessel.
S. It is written here that a person should ask the Creator to have mercy on him. What does that mean? What does it mean on our part and what is that state?
R. When we are incapable of exiting the state, then we erupt in prayer and cry and request to the Creator to help us, to show us our true state, how to come out of it, give us strength and so forth, until we emerge from this horrible state, that, too, sometimes happens to us.
10. S. (53:01) Is the ark which is faith above reason, a present that comes from the Creator, when the flood comes or is that something we have to build in the ten in order to prepare ourselves for the flood?
R. No, faith above reason is a spiritual force that we cannot achieve on our own but rather the Creator gives it to us as a gift.
11. S. (54:47) Every time we overcome the questions of the saboteur we automatically get a part of faith above reason? If so, is this how we build the inner reason?
R. Yes.
12. S. (55:25) It was written in the article about the language that a person has to enter the ark and speak a different language, the language of bestowal and not the language of reception like the saboteur; the question is this: If a person doesn’t pay attention and begins to listen to this speak, can he no longer be saved in that stage?
R. No, no, nothing works that way. Let’s wait and not skip through the degrees that we have to go through and we’ll discover everything within us; inside ourselves.
S. But if a person already started hearing or agreeing with it, I just want to understand what’s next.
R. The more he can realize, specifically in the group, what he understands from the articles.
S. Advancing after the fall in order to really overcome some sort of peak, should a person understand that he has to build an ark, meaning a ten because without it there’s no meaning in the advancement, no progress? So he turns to the friends and says, “let’s do something else.”
R. Yes.
13. S. (57:16) What does it mean to be a complete ten where each one completes it, what does it mean to be a complete ten and that each one completes it; completes the ten?
R. Well, we talked about it so much, you just need to go back to a few articles from before, we also have perhaps, like a whole portion that talks about it, right?
S. In the archive we have a section under, The Writings of the Kabbalists, under Rabash, we have all the social articles concentrated together so we can find all the articles of Rabash there, social articles, you can find lessons connected to those articles, it’s all there.
R. Good, thank you.
14. S. (58:27) The question is about the state of muddy waters. When the person is in the state, should he ask for help from the ten or should he summon all the forces himself to overcome it?
R. There are different kinds of states, there is such a despair that where a person can no longer ask of anyone and then he is just detached from everything, and there is a despair where he knows that only he is powerless but there is power in the environment and he has to somewhat, somehow connect to them and how can he do that? And then it turns out that through his cancellation before the environment he connects to these forces and that is how he connects and advances.
S. Just to make a precision, the article talks about murky water and she’s asking specifically about that state that Rabash describes as ‘murky water.’ Should a person deal with it by himself or turn to the Creator? How to deal with the situation called ‘murky water?’
R. How to cope? With all the disturbances we need to overcome them only through connection. One time it’s water, the other time it is the wall, it doesn’t matter in which ways we discover the disturbance; the treatment for the disturbance is always through connection between us by overcoming in connection between us we pass through the disturbance.
15. S. (01:01:23) It is written in the article that we shouldn’t demand from the Creator his greatness but follow him with our eyes shut; does this also relay to the ten, when someone doesn’t see the greatness of the ten he should go with his eyes shut, to see his greatness and behind the Creator and then get the strength from the ten?
R. To go with eyes shut means that I accept the ten as the greatest, most complete thing even though I don’t feel it, I don’t see it, but that that’s how I accept them, relate to them and work accordingly.
S. How can we help each other so each one will want to go with their eyes shut and see the ten as great?
R. We will help each other only if we raise the ten in the eyes of others so that each one will be inspired by what he hears from the friends, but we have to do this all the time, not just every now and then.
16. S. (01:03:11) How can a person hide from the saboteur, how can a person hide from him?
R. A person can hide from the saboteur by entering as if a kind of a cloud goes into the degree of delighted in mercy, meaning that he doesn’t care what happens, it doesn’t matter to him, he stays in connection with everyone as much as he can, connection to the Creator as much as he can, and inside this bubble he tries to sustain himself and exist there for a while.
17. S. (01:04:17) He says here that a person shouldn’t set conditions to the Creator, only if I see greatness I’ll be able to work for You, instead he should ask only to have this strength to overcome and be in desire and mercy. Why is the strength to overcome not regarded as a condition?
R. Because a person can’t without the force of overcoming, without the force of prayer, without a few conditions that a person has, that the Creator loves him, he cannot be active and then he can talk about as a person, as a man.
S. But you can also say that he doesn’t have greatness of the Creator then, he doesn’t have, which can also be a basic condition, if he has no greatness of the Creator then for Whom is he working?
R. He has to develop it, he has the ten, he has the prayer, he can reach the greatness of the Creator if he demands it, if he asks for it, prayer.
S. Yes, he says if he demands the greatness of the Creator it is already a condition, so it’s not clean work anymore but if he asks only for the strength to overcome, that’s fine, that can bring him the desired mercy. The question is: Why is asking for the greatness of the Creator something that is seemingly flawed, wrong?
R. Yes, because basically it is as if indicates that you want to take off you a great stage of the work, of the effort, the Creator will seem great to me and now I can work for him of course, of course that will happen, but in doing so you’re robbing yourself of many stages of progress.
S. But if I ask for the strength to overcome then again I’m asking to rise above the disturbances and then it will be easy for me to work in my connection with the Creator?
R. No, that’s not a force of overcoming. The force of overcoming is that we ask to have the force of the right more than the force of the left and we will wage war between them and that is how we rise, by these two forces, ultimately. But that’s it, that’s what I ask, to be able to work with two forces.
S. So that’s what we should ask to have in the ten, that the force we should ask to have in the ten all the time?
R. Yes.
S. In other words desire and mercy is not a kind of annulment, it is work that is very, very..?
R. Delighted in mercy is a certain kind of work and not a simple one.
18. S. (01:07:54) How in a state when a saboteur chases you, he has a flood of disturbances, he can’t remain in a state where it’s not important for him what happens, it sounds like indifference in that state?
R. No, it’s not indifference, he’s found above that. It is good that I am persecuted, that someone is trying to catch me, by that I’m moving forward towards the goal and that is actually great assistance on the Creator’s part who is chasing me and thus, forcing me to run towards the goal. So we have to see the other side all the time, how much we gain from it.
S. How in that state do I not disperse into many directions but really in a purposeful way you go into the ark of faith?
R. He has nowhere else to run.
S. So it’s an escape, he escapes into the ark?
R. It’s as if he escapes, but then he sees that it’s not an escape but rather a straightforward run.
S. So when he enters the ark, in that state what happens to his thoughts, the thoughts he has within reason, what happens to them?
R. All of his thoughts are about becoming connected, he cannot see any other discernments that will help him advance besides being just more and more connected.
S. From a different angle, in this coming weekend we will all be in the World Congress: how do we all enter one common ark, one common prayer, one common feeling?
R. Yes, we’re going into a very large gathering across the whole planet and I am very hopeful that we are all treating this opportunity seriously, where we can be “as one man in one heart,” in one prayer to One Creator, and let’s hope that good results will come out of it.
S. How can we from today, already kind of exercise this feeling of everyone being in one prayer?
R. Do it as if there is nothing besides today and the same thing tomorrow, there is nothing besides tomorrow and then by these efforts you will come to results.
19. S. (01:11:10) At the end of the article, Rabash says, we have to try to go with faith above reason but he also writes, I always have to have reason otherwise I can’t go above reason: How do I maintain the right work and don’t fall into my own reason?
R. Try and see how it’s built, this is a kind of learning that we have to receive from above.
20. S. (01:11:50) Can I answer the question you asked?
R. How do I know what question you’re talking about?
S. I will tell you. A flood of water is needed so that the light of wisdom dresses in the light of mercy, in this way we will come to, love the Lord with all your heart, with all your might, with all your soul and Amen for everyone.
21. S. (01:12:29) Desire and mercy is that a state a person enters once and goes in and out?
R. In every degree in every state
S. What can I do in order to make sure that in every degree I reach it or try to reach it?
R. Well, you don’t complete the degree without going through the state of Hafetz Hesed in it.
S. What should I do in order to come to that degree? Whatever I am, let’s say, I’m in some place and I want to go into this degree of the desired mercy, what should I do?
R. You have to reach a state where to put it in the simplest way, if everyone is good, everyone is well, then you are well.
S. And all the disturbances and interferences that I have, I put them aside as if I don’t..?
R. With them together.
S. Is there a way to help the friends come to this place?
R. Each and everyone goes through the path.
22. S. (01:14:10) He explains here about the three lines, three discernments and he explains that a person enters the left line, the scrutiny within reason of the deficiencies he has only because he intends that at the end of his scrutiny there will be a prayer for more adhesion with the Creator, in other words it is done deliberately. From experience, I, at least see that often a person discovers a deficiency, it’s not because he intends to reveal himself so that he will have a prayer, but he is carried into that state but I understand that this is not the desirable state, so how do we enter such a scrutiny within the intention so that it ends with the prayer for more adhesion?
R. I need to look at the friends, I need to see how much they are inclined toward revelation, connection, the correct intentions, how much I wish to improve their state and out of that, I, too, would want to be in the same state.
S. This means to use envy?
R. Envy, lust and honor, yes.
23. S. (01:16:14) I wanted to ask if the state of delighted mercy and covered mercy, are these the same states?
R. Delighted in mercy is concealed mercy, yes.
24. S. (01:16:33) The evil that appears in the ten when we feel that he can’t cope with that, is that the exact place to reach a request for the force of bestowal from the upper one, the need for bestowal?
R. Yes.
S. These are the conditions to build the ark?
R. Yes.
S. That’s it, nothing to add.
25. S. (01:17:04) What in our state but really exactly can we define as the ark?
R. In our state, in truth, our ark is a collection of all the desires, all the friends, men, women who wish to reach the purpose of creation; that is the ark.
S. And this guards us from the flood?
R. Yes, it’s not only the flood, it protects us on the way to the goal.
S. And I previously heard that one should leave within a cloud or enter some cloud, so this is the cloud, its a cloud of desires, thoughts of the whole world group?
R. Yes, correct.
S. That’s where a person should feel himself, that this cloud accompanies him all the time or only in the floods, even if the rains are not so bad?
R. All the time.
26. S. (01:18:27) You answered the friend that delighted in mercy is when you want to reach a state were if it’s good for everyone, so it is good for you, that’s what I heard, and in this approach there is a very harsh accusement towards the Creator, why did you give my friend this or that, there’s always a quarrel with the Creator that You will give something better for my friends than what He gives in my eyes. The question is: Should I be with these arguments against the Creator for a friend?
R. No, of course not. You have to have complaints to yourself, how come you’re not covering such complaints, such arguments that awaken in you the right answers.
S. So what should I say when I see my friends, they have eyes but they cannot see for the time being?
R. Yes.
27. S. (01:19:40) There was a question previously if we would like to enter the state of the ark this weekend in the Congress. We know that the Congress is all about the prayer, seemingly in the ark you are safe, everyone is safe and also there’s this feeling in the Congress where everyone is safe, there are no concerns, no fears. Can you help us understand this, it sounds like a contradiction? If you guard it from all your concerns and the state of constant prayer?
R. Even in the state of protection there is a prayer for that as well. We should always be in prayer, our attitude, our relationship to the Creator is really a prayer.
S. And also the state of being protected is good for the will to receive because it always lives in fear and now it is guarded, when you’re in an ark you’re protected. In the article the emphasis is on asking for the force to overcome, not something to help you work within the will to receive but rather something that will demand that you will work in the state of bestowal with nothing in your will to receive.
R. So what is the question?
S. Again I’m trying to understand the state of the ark, especially in the Congress. What is this state in the Congress we want to be in?
R. We want to discover that all of us are inside an ark and this is our Congress across all continents around the world, we wish to discover that we have no other action that should help us and advance as toward our final goal of correction except for all of us to connect in our hearts and to turn from the bottom, from our common heart to the Creator, that we want to feel Him in this common heart.
S. And the force to overcome that we’re supposed to ask according to the article, what is that exactly in the congress?
R. Force to overcome is only to overcome all the disturbances between us that prevents us from connecting you and me and Him and you and Him with me and so on and so forth; these are the forces of disturbance, it’s not something so tough, so difficult, rather in mutual thought, a mutual desire, we relatively easily come out of it.
28. S. (01:22:52) Previously you said or at least I heard you say that the importance, the importance for the greatness of the Creator is only possible if you receive it in your ten. Now the question is: If we take, for example, two tens, both do everything they need, they have Zoom meetings, they come to the morning lessons, and one of these tens is able to generate the importance for the greatness of the Creator, what characterizes such a ten?
R. It succeeds.
S. What does it do differently that the ten that doesn’t succeed?
R. They feel they share one foundation and in truth everyone has that foundation, after all, all of us need to reach one ten, all those buildings of individual souls. Hence, we need to try and feel that we are in one ark, are in the same place, the same common desire, we’re holding one another, it is written, “the judgment of a penny and the judgment of a hundred is the same,” whatever happens in the ten, happens in the general tens.
S. The question is: In our ten there was a stage where each one pushed and gradually we understood that this push, it granted us the importance but at the same time we saw it from our ego, we’re pushing because we want to control or want everyone to go according to your way but it didn’t increase the importance. And little by little, it came down, down, down, now we’re missing that a bit now?
R. Keep going. I think it went down because you started to get lazy.
S. So anyhow we need to push? Ego-not ego, to push the ten forward?
R. Yes, it didn’t feel any novelty there, so you lost the desire and your interest and your deficiency and something that pushes you.
S. So basically we shouldn’t take into consideration the fact that I’m pushing because I want to control or not, the main thing is to move the ten, to generate the movement?
R. Yes, for the time being, yes. Later you will start to work in quality.
29. S. (01:26:42) I heard once an advice, that if the inclination comes asking me the questions of ‘who’ and ‘what,’ I should ‘blunt its teeth.’ Is it the same technique as running away to the ark or these are two different kinds of techniques?
R. No, ‘blunt its teeth’ is typically an individual action against the evil inclination and running into the ark belongs to a different stage. They have an ark you can run into it and hide in it among the friends.
30. S. (01:27:40) To continue the question about the two tens that similarly work the same and one of them wakes up and the other one drowns. We see that even though people come to the lessons and they meet during the day, what generates some warm pillow of air that lifts the ten is those moments that the friends open their hearts, when there’s a warm Yeshivat Haverim, a gathering of friends. You also said that we could go about the Congress, don’t even come to the lesson but have some warm meal amongst yourselves. So what is there in the opening of the heart in the connection between the friends that enables above all to lift everyone with this internal work?
R. We need to look for means that will help us be in the connection of the hearts. How to find them? That’s a question, but we need to look for them.
S. We see that actually, actually when we open our hearts, when the friends speak about the importance of the goal, how important it is for them and how the friends are important for them, it enables everything we learn, somewhere in our intellect to find an emotional form. How do these two things connect?
R. You need to understand that from experience, from experience.
31. S. (01:29:45) When should we work in Hafetz Hesed and when should we ask for the greatness of the Creator so we can work?
R. Hafetz Hesed [delighted in mercy], when we ask for it we are actually asking for the spiritual degree, and then we’re asking for what?
S. When do we ask for the greatness of the Creator so we will have the force to work?
R. That’s when we feel we lack any other means for advancement but as much as the Creator can influence us, appear among us, that’s how much we will be able to advance.