FRIDAY: HESED-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN

READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Friday

Rabash. What Is, “The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,” in the Work?. 4 (1991)

Morning Lesson July 5, 2023

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 4, 1991. What Is, “The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,” in the Work?

Reading Article. (0:33) “It is written in The Zohar, Noah:..”

1. R. (31:55) I think it’s basically clear, right, what’s happening here?

2. S. (32:14) Rabash writes in a simple way, that usually we see that suffering pushes a person away from the Creator-

R. Yes.

S. Because he cannot attribute the suffering to someone who is good and doing good. Let’s say we reach a state where a friend shares with us and we understand he’s going through suffering, and then there is me, and there is the ten, and the Creator. What kind of relation should I arrange? I may see that the Creator is hiding from him, he is giving him suffering deliberately?

R. I didn’t understand the question.

S. I’m trying to understand what I should do correctly?

R. You should try to show your friend correct behavior, an example.

S. How will he identify with my example, with my suffering?

R. Why suffering? You don’t feel suffering, he feels suffering.

S. Right. So what can I show him? That I am happy and I feel good and everything?

R. Yes, you need to show him that in the Creator’s world that we’re all influenced by, you can be in the opposite state, opposite to what He feels.

S. Why would he accept my example because he might say that, “Okay, he feels good and is not suffering,” – but I do suffer.

R. But you are friends and you can influence him, and he still relates to you, not like to something foreign.

S. Many times when we try to do that it doesn’t work. I am trying to see how we can truly succeed in this because we have plenty of examples.

R. I don’t see what you are saying.

S. What should a friend come to? For him to see that indeed it all comes from the Creator?

R. Obviously everything that we feel comes from the Creator and we need to each give the others good, beautiful, examples of how to respond to it. The Creator influences each and everyone. How does each and everyone respond to it?

S. So I should publicize my attitude, the way that I relate to do such a thing?

R. Yes, yes of course. That is called giving an example, strengthening the friend.

3. S. (35:28) About running away from the honor? A person runs away from the honor of the greatness of the Creator or runs away from his own honor?

R. His own, his self honor. Meaning if he raises himself above the Creator then that state should be erased as quickly as possible.

S. I was also impressed from the article that we need to work without the greatness of the Creator. Is that also something that a person should avoid?

R. Right, right. If a person doesn’t feel the greatness of the Creator, he needs to develop his feeling as if he feels the greatness of the Creator and then go that way. This is called advancing in concealment, yes.

4. S. (36:37) Good and doing good is obtained in faith above reason, right?

R. Yes.

S. On the other hand he writes that suffering pushes a person away from the good and doing good. So my question is, does suffering within reason specifically cause a person who wants to justify the Creator to go above reason? It sounds like they are bringing him closer actually?

R. Suffering brings a person closer, that’s correct, it softens a person.

S. Meaning they bring him closer to attaining the providence as “good and doing good” above reason, not within reason.

R. Yes.

5. S. (37:35) Rabash recommends to us that during the preparation that the person should run away from the greatness and the honor. What does it mean for us in the work to run away from the greatness and the honor?

R. Not to receive strengthening from that. Meaning I want to advance in the work, not from greatness and honor, but from the desire to bestow to the Creator. 

6. S. (38:20) He mentioned two stages there, with the greatness of the Creator, without demanding the greatness of the Creator. Can you explain these two kinds of work and when should we do each one of them? When should we demand the greatness of the Creator and when we should say, “no I don’t want the greatness of the Creator,” are these two different stages? Do they come intermittently?

R. No, if he feels that the greatness of the Creator raises him and gives him strength to go forward, then on the other hand, he doesn’t have the greatness of the Creator and he looks for it and he advances nevertheless. So you see, does he need the fuel from the greatness of the Creator or not?

7. S. (39:20) What does it mean to reject the greatness of the Creator after you have a desire for it?

R. That a person doesn’t want to take it as a force that will advance him.

8. S. (39:39) What does it mean that a person should love the Creator even if he takes his soul away?

R. Meaning to the very last drop, that as much as he can, he goes by faith above reason and he doesn’t need any strengthening from his reason in order to get closer to the Creator.

9. S. (40:23) He mentions in the article the work of above reason, how to be careful that the work above reason won’t cause you to run away from reality but rather it would be in order to get closer to the friends and the Creator? How to be careful not to use this work in faith above reason to run away from this reality, but rather that it would be in order to get closer to the friends and the Creator?

R. The whole work in faith above reason is aimed at not wanting to use our power, our reason. Rather, we want to use only vessels that are above reason and these are vessels where we do get closer to the friends. In vessels that are below reason or within reason, we can’t get closer to the friends. We can just go a few initial steps, just to feel that there is some foothold there, but not more than that.

S. Sometimes there’s a situation where I don’t feel good in corporeal life and I just say everything is good. It all comes from the Creator and that helps me to overcome. But it’s not that it brings you closer to the friends and the Creator is just serves you on a daily basis?

R. Yes, correct.

10. S. (42:25) It says here that the state of a descent comes to a person when he wants to invest a greater effort in order to reach adhesion with the Creator. What does it mean to make a greater effort, a greater exertion?

R. It means to rise above a stronger reason.

11. S. (43:02) I apologize for the question, but what causes bodily suffering, what is the purpose that it serves and how can we disconnect from it?

R. Physical suffering is created just so that we respond as quickly as possible, in each and every state. And then from that, we will rise to spiritual suffering.

12. S. (43:45) He’s asking about the second stage where he says here that we should reject the idea of yearning. Meaning, even though we understand that if he will truly have a feeling of the greatness of the Creator, the body will surrender to the holy work, nevertheless he runs away from the honor and greatness, and says he wants to work for the benefit of the Creator even though he has no feeling. So the friend is asking, how is it possible to reject this yearning which is described in that second stage and how can we work without such yearning?

R. We can begin without any longing or even any desire at all, and then it will come. This is called from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma.

13. S. (45:10) So what should be the right fuel, the right motivation, in the work?

R. The greatness of the Creator, and if not that yet, then the greatness of the friends, the greatness of the group.

S. So how can we work on the greatness of the Creator without the greatness of the Creator?

R. You are with them together, and you care about what states you are in with them. Meaning they begin to influence you from literally zero.

S. From where do you get the greatness of the Creator? That’s what I don’t understand. How do you get the greatness of the Creator?

R. From appreciating the friends.

S. From where will I have appreciation for the friends?

R. From what you see in them.

S. What is great in them?

R. That they can rise above each and every state, upwards.

S. And from that you begin to receive the greatness of the Creator?

R. You start from there.

14. S. (46:36) In what is the Creator great, because He is good and doing good?

R. Well, yes.

S. How come a person who is entirely, “a will to receive in order to receive,” will determine that “the good and doing good,” means great. It sounds like the exact opposite. Why would he even want to crown, “the good and doing good,” as someone who is great?

R. What is greater than, “good that does good?”

S. I agree with you in the feeling. It is so. There is nothing greater than that. But I’m asking it just sounds like a wonder that the will to receive will decide or determine, “the good and doing good,” which is the exact opposite of itself, that this is a great thing?

R. This is about people who have a point in the heart, and they wish to advance to knowing the Creator. And then it turns out that the importance and greatness is measured above reason, above human qualities.

S. This means, if I understand you correctly, that the person who wants to determine that, “the good and doing good,” is great, there is something else besides the intention for receiving for himself, otherwise there would be no contact, no connection to it right?

R. Yes.

15. S. (48:40) When a person yearns for the greatness of the Creator, then this fuel is fuel that where he is receiving justification for it in the vessels of reception right?

R. Well, let’s say.

S. So why does he later need to, I mean in this transition to the second stage where he’s working without the greatness of the Creator, then what is he working with?

R. This is exactly the issue. Whether the Creator is greater than the vessels of reception, the feeling of reception, or he is great because he works in vessels of bestowal.

S. Okay this is clear, but where begins the above reason here because it seems like all of the time he is searching for some way for the desire to move, so when do you work in a clean way without any reasons? If you always require some fuel to move you?

R. So here you exactly go through the transition, from, “for one’s self,” into, “bestowal.”

S. So, in this transition, what is the greatness you are looking for? Or you are not looking for greatness?

R. I am looking for a force in bestowal.

S. And these are new vessels already?

R. Yes, of course.

S. And in bestowal you don’t need the greatness of the Creator. What is that? Is it a reason that compels you to work? Is this why you work?

R. The greatness of the Creator is a cause that forces me to work. Well, let’s say, yes.

S. Can you explain the stages that he gives here? He gives three stages, and he tells us exactly what a person goes through, from the need for the greatness of the Creator, and up to the point where he’s working in a state which is completely clean, and doesn’t need the greatness. Can you go through these stages one by one?

R. He writes about it, doesn’t he?

S. Yes, but maybe you can open it up more so we can understand it better?

R. Look at what he writes in the last part, read.

S. Reading: “Accordingly, a person should learn from the state of descent and from the state of ascent. That is, the state of descent comes to a person when he wants to make great efforts to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. Yet, he sees otherwise, as though he did nothing, but he is in the same state as before he began the work on the aim to bestow. At that time, a person should have faith in the sages and what they say, and not in what a person thinks and says, since these descents give him room to ascend and draw near to the Creator.” 

Okay, but I don’t understand from where do we take those vessels of bestowal, if it’s not from the need of the greatness of the Creator anymore because we always said that specifically the greatness of the Creator is what you need, this is what raises you above reason this is what gives you the power, and now it seems like we have some new creation here, these vessels of bestowal. Where do they come from?

R. From the same vessels. That the Creator shines on them and they become, “in order to bestow.”

S. And then they work, they need a reason to work? Does the person need a reason to work or is he simply always, “in order to bestow?”

R. But he is already in such a state where he doesn’t need reasons, okay?

16. S. (53:30) Why is the work, “above reason,” considered as more important than the work, “when he feels delight and pleasure?”

R. Because he doesn’t do the work because he feels good. Rather because the greatness of the Creator necessitates him.

S. And can we perform an act of bestowal when we are in the delight and pleasure? Or does it have to be above reason?

R. When he’s in good and pleasure he can’t come out of it, he’s there because it forces him. When he makes a restriction and rises above the good and delight, and the delight and pleasure, then he can make actions of bestowal not by being bound by the good and delight.

S. Meaning he is constantly searching for a place where he can do work without a reward?

R. Being free. Bit by bit.

17. S. (54:54) If I understand correctly, in the descent we need to acquire the greatness of the Creator in order to get the power to work, and in the ascent we get the greatness of the Creator. I don’t understand how can you cancel that greatness of the Creator? What does it mean to cancel that greatness?

R. If a person wants to examine himself and see what he is working for, then he has to check whether the greatness of the Creator obligates him, or the greatness of the pleasure, what he receives, is that obligating him?

S. What is this action of cancelling? Cancelling the greatness of the Creator. What is that? What exactly do we do?

R. Basically we never do that. We can never do that.

18. S. (56:14) How do we yearn for the King’s greatness?

R. If we are disappointed from our success in all kinds of things and we demand only one thing, that the Creator will be revealed as the upper force and that he can shape us and give us forces of bestowal, and then we will be able to be in bestowal.

19. S. (57:20) It says here that, “the saboteur sits inside of the flood.” He writes that spiritual suffering resides inside of the corporeal suffering. Is this a law, or can spiritual suffering be separate?

R. No, separately, no. It is one because of the other. There is a connection between them.

S. He writes in the beginning that, “the fact that he suffered the corporeal suffering because the Creator did not give him what he thought, and it pained him, these sufferings cause death in corporeality.” Why is that death? Usually suffering doesn’t cause death?

R. He doesn’t want more, neither that, nor it’s reward.

S. And then he says that later, “he comes to spiritual suffering.” Meaning that he cannot overcome with faith?

R. Right, that pains him.

S. So, the work with spiritual suffering is actually inside of corporeal suffering, that’s how it works. You must have corporeal suffering in order to begin the work?

R. Without corporal suffering you can’t, because it’s what he understands.

S. And if a person doesn’t have corporeal suffering, I mean there are such times?

R. Then he’s indifferent to everything.

S. He cannot work in spirituality either?

R. Only through corporeality he comes to spirituality. He has to feel unsuccessful, that he is in a narrow place, in terms of his work, or family, or something. He has to come to a state that pressures him and moves him.

S. So what do you do, well not me, but let’s say if you are successful you are a good manager in the work you make a lot of money you are successful you have a good life, what do you do?

R. So what do you want then?

S. Then I cannot work in spirituality?

R. No.

S. So what should I do?

R. He should not do anything because the Creator is blocking him by giving him all the best.

S. So what is his work, of such a person?

R. He has no work.

S. But he has a point in the heart and he wants to….

R. If he has a point in the heart and through the point in the heart, he feels in troubles, meaning that he can not attain the Creator, spirituality, that he has no contact with the goal of life, that is a different story.

S. But then it is spiritual suffering which is not inside of corporeal suffering, so you can’t have spiritual suffering which is separate?

R. It’s possible that one cannot tie one thing to the other.

S. But it is incorrect? It is always one inside of the other?

R. Yes.

20. S. (01:00:38) What is spiritual death in our work?

R. We do not have spiritual life, so we cannot say that we have spiritual death. But a person who achieves spiritual life, then he also has a feeling of death there.

21. S. (01:01:11) Who is this saboteur that kills the spirituality in the flood, in the rain?

R. It is the saboteur who sits inside the flood, he explains to us. It is the will to receive that does not allow the person to keep advancing.

22. S. (01:01:38) It says for the sake of the Creator, does it mean not for my own benefit, what does it mean to give contentment to the Creator?

R. Basically, it says from love of the created beings to the love of the Creator, meaning that if I need to do something for the Creator, at first do it towards the created beings, and that is how we aim ourselves.

23. S. (01:02:24) On what depends our ability to suffer?

R. Again.

S. On what depends our ability to suffer, to go through suffering?

R. The greatness of the goal.