TUESDAY: HOD-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Tuesday
Rabash. What Are Day and Night in the Work?. 34 (1988)
Morning Lesson July 9, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 1:
RABASH, Article No. 34 (1988), “What Are Day and Night in the Work?”
1. Rav’s Introduction: So we’re continuing on the same direction as Rabash dictates to us, that in order to rise from Lo Lishma to Lishma from in order to receive to in order to bestow, from lack of connection to connection and different aspects that we have to prepare ourselves in order to really feel the Creator’s world, the world where the force of the Creator governs and we will enter it and feel it and establish ourselves in it, please.
RABASH, “What Are Day and Night in the Work? (01:28) “It is written and God called light day…”
2. S. (33:51) What does it mean to look at the actions of the Creator after he’s done them?
R. What we go through is the actions of the Creator.
S. All the states we go through seemingly are?
R. Yes, of course and There’s None Else Besides Him.
S. Wanted to stay at the end of the article. It’s truly a continuation of what you said yesterday, that we have to be here together, not go out, but just be here together, with each other on the path and the Creator will take care of everything is just written here at the end of the article, and it gave me the feeling of a continuation of yesterday. Thank you very much, Rav.
R. Very well, thank you.
3. S. (34:48) We read so much about this principle but in truth we don’t accept it, the will to receive doesn’t accept it?
R. Of course, we know that to begin with, that the will to receive will not accept in order to bestow, and above reason, actions that are not to its benefit, not organized to benefit it. How can it accept it?
S. On what does it depend for a person to receive this principle, the advantage of the light out of the darkness, that the night is as the day, etc.?
R. Only according to the lights that work on it from above, that besides hearing or reading, he also receives some influence of the light, the light that reforms, and then in those vessels that are now being renewed in order to bestow, he’ll understand the text correctly.
S. But then he already feels the darkness as light?
R. Yes.
S. But my question is, if when a person feels the darkness, the night, the remoteness, can he before the light shines for him, over the darkness, can he attribute it to the Creator and understand that it’s to his benefit?
R. He can say it in words of course, but not out of his will, the will is still not corrected.
4. S. (36:50) There’s this relation towards the descents like a punishment, like I did something wrong so now I experience a descent?
R. Correct.
S. Is it a punishment?
R. Correct, punishment.
S. Because here it seems like it’s just a cessation of adhesion and it’s a positive thing because without it there was no adhesion?
R. This is what a person already needs to add, to the feeling of descent, fall, disconnect, that this is what’s happening to him, that these things are happening to him in order to put him through exercises, so that he examines this is day, this is night, this is darkness, this is light, this is closeness, distance; to teach him.
5. S. (37:52) It is written that a person says that he believes in the sages that said that this is so, this is why he trusts them and he is careful with self reception, now we know that either a person receives or he made a correction and he works in order to bestow, so what is the act of caution that he has to take here?
R. That he won’t be confused, that is, if it’s happening to him for no reason, everything is meticulously aimed, measured and coming directly from the Creator.
S. The caution is still not clear.
R. Cautious in, to not relate it to himself.
S. It is also written he should be afraid that a stranger might draw near, what does that mean?
R. That whoever is still in order to receive, called foreign, won’t be able to get close to and understand the work of the Creator, the upper system.
6. S. (39:13) Rabash writes: “The descents are things that are called correction that allow longevity when he’s rewarded some nearing from the Creator”. How do we use the descents correctly so as to prolong the times of ascent?
R. To join the descents to the ascents.
S. What does it mean to join the descents to the ascents?
R. That I appreciate them like a part of the path, that they also come from above to advance me, and I receive corrections by them, and that’s how I turn the darkness to light.
S. So does it all depend on my approach to the descent, on my perspective?
R. Of course.
S. So what does it mean to appreciate the descent, to make it longer, do I have to want the time of ascent to be longer than the time of descent?
R. No, you have to think, make sure that I’ll accept the time of the descent as very important to me because by that, I become included with the vessels of reception and then I can raise them to in order to bestow.
S. I have in me an expectation to be in a constant ascent, not in a descent?
R. Okay.
S. Why is it okay?
R. Because you want to raise everything within you for the benefit of the Creator.
S. So I need to aspire to a state where both ascents and descents are the same in me, in my relation, in my attitude or should I appreciate the time of ascent more?
R. Of course, the time of ascent is considered as more and I want to join everything to it all the times and actions all that I go through and the time of descent I just need to detect that during the descent I’m in a will to receive, the Creator sends me.
7. S. (41:36) In ascent and descent light and darkness a person feels it with respect to the quality of bestowal right, so with what vessels is it felt?
R. We only have the will to receive, we don’t have anything else.
S. So here’s my difficulty, why should the will to receive mind if a person is not advancing in bestowal? Why does he regards it as darkness? I want to bestow meaning to have the intention to bestow, I’m not succeeding, so the will to receive accepts it as darkness it’s actually that’s its direction, that’s it’s the trajectory of the will to receive, the opposite of giving?
R. The will to receive wants to be filled with the upper light, it wants to grab hold of the Creator and be filled by the Creator, the will to receive is very, how to put it, it wants to feel that it has contact with the Creator; the Creator is its source.
S. So what interests it is pleasure? I did not receive pleasure because I have no connection with the Creator? I’m far from it so I see it as darkness, I’m talking about it as if its some person. So it has got no problem with not having bestowal, what interests it is pleasure?
R. Yes.
8. S. (43:23) What is the difference that a person receives a descent because he didn’t know how to keep the abundance and being taken down from above in order to be promoted to the next level?
R. There’s a big difference. It’s also in the trajectory, in the direction, in the vector, how it comes to develop further.
S. I basically, he didn’t know how to maintain/keep the abundance. Was that avoidable?
R. You can avoid anything, the question is: Can he already develop vessels, prayers, requests and add to it more forces; in the end we do everything.
S. So basically two kinds of descents?
R. Correct.
S. Why only in the final correction there’s an understanding that the darkness was also given by the Creator and not that the darkness is against the purpose of creation? Why is it only in the final correction?
R. Not only at the end of correction. Every time we turn darkness into light, we understand that the Creator gave the darkness to us for this work.
S. But I don’t find it difficult to say that the darkness was given by the Creator. Why is it hard for the created being to admit it?
R. No, but what does he do with the darkness?
S. What does it mean?
R. Just saying it.
S. That it forces him to work, that is the problem?
R. Of course. It’s also not the problem, it obligates him and he works and by this he corrects the darkness.
9. S. (45:52) There’s a state we know when we enter darkness, we don’t understand what’s going on to us, and then we come out of the darkness and we also don’t understand what happened. And the more advanced state is that we come out of the darkness and we manage somewhat, to understand what we went through and what’s the goal and to work with it, so maybe there’s a more advanced state?
R. There is, of course there is.
S. Yeah and how can you enter the darkness when you’re in the darkness but you’re working, your understanding, why it’s happening to you and you’re truly conscious of this state, how do we prepare ourselves to enter the darkness that way?
R. Just as you say we have to try to understand, discern, connect to it, to be in both.
S. But there’s something that I can do before that, to prepare myself so that in the darkness I’ll be in work and it won’t swallow me?
R. Yes, so in every place you have some darkness, some helplessness or something, you try to understand that these things come in order to develop your vessels?
10. S. (47:39) How is it possible to appreciate the help we receive?
R. The more we think about it the more we understand that the Creator did everything only for us. So all this work, this game that we’re playing with Him, that He’s playing with us actually, are all for our benefit, so that we will receive both vessels of reception and vessels of bestowal and be able to cope and work correctly with both kinds of vessels.
S. And still he says that sometimes a person cannot properly appreciate what he receives and then he loses it?
R. You can never, a person can never appreciate correctly. It’s a matter of degrees until the end of correction, we cannot appreciate what the Creator does for us correctly.
11. S. (48:59) In what way can a person express his desire not to receive?
R. That he’s not receiving, that he’s asking the Creator to watch over him so he doesn’t receive, so he doesn’t surrender to the desires to receive that awaken in him?
S. Basically turning to the Creator and the concern is the expression of it?
R. Yes.
S. How is it possible to give it room for expression in the connection with the friends?
R. That we help each other, give each other examples, and in this way, advance.
12. S. (49:58) What does it mean that the darkness is the Kli?
R. They are desires that still haven’t been completed and we need to bring them to a state where the darkness shines as light, where we can receive in all those desires which are all desires to receive, so we can receive in them but in order to bestow, but we will use all of them.
13. S. (50:35) How to gain, receive gifts from the Creator?
R. We should try to be good kids, really, try to be with an open heart as much as possible and then we will receive from the Creator gifts.
14. S. (51:03) What does it mean singing in the verse that the righteous are singing?
R. Singing is gratitude, when the righteous, those who justify the Creator already, through their singing, they exalt and extol and raise themselves to the Creator.
15. S. (51:36) How can we identify the ascent?
R. Identifying the ascent is possible not according to my mood because it might still come from vessels of reception but rather I appreciate an ascent by having a drive to come closer to the friends and to the Creator and I truly am very much drawn toward uniting everyone.
16. S. (52:20) What’s the difference between darkness and Klipot?
R. Darkness is darkness, when a person feels that he doesn’t have the right positive spiritual forces, this is darkness and he cannot move, he cannot perform any actions that are above the will to receive and even within the will to receive, he only performs those actions that the will to receive supports and pushes him to do it.
17. S. (53:13) What’s the meaning in this sentence: day to day he expressed night?
R. That both days and nights we have to join all of them together and in this way we advance during the nights, as well as in the days.
18. S. (53:45) What’s the fastest path to raise a friend from suffering? What’s the fastest way to help a friend who is suffering?
R. Connect to her, in all the actions so she understands them correctly, that we want to be closer to her and to be together with her “as one man with one heart,” and then with our relations, she and we, we can rise. It’s like a person who’s drowning in water, so you jump to him, you reach him in the depth and then you begin to float back up with him together, okay?
19. S. (54:56) Rabash writes when a person wants to serve the body and not the Creator, that is called darkness, when does a person reach that state, where he can choose whether to serve the body or the Creator?
R. Along the way, he’s got the ability to understand whom he’s serving, himself or the society, his own body, or the Creator.
S. Meaning this scrutiny, a person can do it every moment?
R. Not every moment, and not every person, but I’m telling you that along the way as he corrects himself, he begins to understand that he has this ability.
S. We have to work on this, think about this all the time?
R. Of course, you don’t think about it all the time, you’re adding, you have to work according to what is revealed in you.
S. So a person can appreciate the state and understand he’s either in darkness or light?
R. Yes.
20. S. (56:23) During the reading of the article, I thought of everything we reed as mountain climbers, that they stick a peg in their foothold and then even if they fall, they have some place to hold on to, to keep going from, now the Creator also helps and the pace of progress always increases and we as if do the same ascent, the same climbing but we have to do it faster, we have to each time add. So the time of being in the same place where we park, gets shorter, we have to each time add more strength but where from and the one who survives is the one who’s strong, and in our reality we see that those who are strong in our group, not necessarily strong in kind of taking space but they actually, these people fall. So my question is, what is a strong friend, what does it mean to grow stronger in these states?
R. The strong are the ones who have experience on the spiritual walking, the spiritual path, there is none so wise as the experienced.
S. And in these states we are already in such a process, how to not lose friends also?
R. That’s another question, don’t just add them just like that without any order, not losing friends. You also have to think in advance that you’re holding them bringing them closer constantly with them, you’re praying for them, yes.
21. S. (58:56) The text we read from Rabash, there is an impression of the Creator, how to know that… (was asked to repeat). The text starts with an impression of the Creator, how to know that this initial impression is correct? That we have truly entered the Creator’s game and not our will to receive?
R. If I am connected to the ten, and I see them constantly before me, and this is how we advance, then I am on the right path. That’s it. I must always see myself as the last in the Ten and that I am chasing after them.
22. S. (01:00:37) How to not forget that everything comes from the Creator, to raise us to the next degree, because I don’t use all my time for spiritual work. I’m also in the corporeal world, and sometimes I drown. How to strengthen myself on the path?
R. Only through the friends. The safest is only through the friends. You still, nevertheless, you cannot advance without being connected to them, so try to be connected to them all the time, and constantly more and more so, this will certainly develop in you vessels of bestowal.
23. S. (01:01:40) What does it mean to engage only in what becomes revealed and only to rely on the Creator?
R. That every time we want to connect more and more to the society, which are actually the tools, the vessels for spiritual advancement, until we reached the purpose of creation where we are always one man in one heart truly, so in this way, we should constantly see ourselves, that the group is the goal and I am incorporated at its center, and there I’m incorporated. This is my purpose, every step of the way.
24. S. (01:02:39) How to make it so that I’m connected to the Creator during the night?
R. In both darkness and light, day and night, we’re always connected to the Creator because there is None Else Besides Him, and only from Him we receive all the discernments, although the darkness and the light seem to us as opposite from each other, but they all come only from the Creator and only to Him we are connected and by Him we are operated. Now, how can we be connected to the Creator at night? It is actually the opposite, at night it is possible to find connection with Him because the sensation of the night gives us opportunities to search how we can grip hold on to the Creator and constantly stay attached to Him, and that sensation of darkness, when we are afraid of disconnection from the Creator awakens us to connect, to adhesion, to contact, that is tighter with the Creator.
25. S. (01:04:06) Can I clarify the question we have to feel that the importance comes from above that we need the descents because we feel the treatment from the Creator but at the end, Rabash warns that one has to go through ups and downs but not to be impressed by, overwhelmed by the descents, what is that?
R. In order not to be impressed by the descents, a person has to say that even though he’s in the darkness in this connection in distance from the Creator, but these things come to him because now he is being added vessels of reception in which he feels this connection from the Creator, darkness, helplessness, inability, powerlessness. He’s totally loose, powerless, spoiled, in a word, on the one hand. On the other hand, now he is being given additional force of reception with which he can now come closer on top of it, come closer on top of it, to the Creator if he adds himself above reason meaning despite his feeling adds himself to the operations of the Creator that are now being performed on him. That is it.
S. Meaning I still need to get some impression from the connection with the Creator how to find that place during the descent where I do need to be impressed by the connection with the Creator?
R. I am impressed with the connection with the Creator actually at the time of a descent not at the time of the ascent at the time of ascent since when my vessels of reception are expended to me from above I discovering them that through them I can connect even more with the Creator although I have no flavor in it no attraction to it, but I can determine that in them I can’t, I can’t connect to the Creator, and that way I advance. What else should I say? Ask, go ahead, ask.
S. Meaning I have to make some difference with regards to the descent not to be impressed by it and then there’s the help of the Creator meaning I have to differentiate between what’s not allowed to be impressed by the descent and being pressed by the Creator, like that?
R. No, not despair, not giving up, it doesn’t mean I don’t accept what I’m going through. If we don’t accept then it is as if we are erasing everything we are getting from the Creator. We are erasing the whole work of the Creator, we should actually be impressed by what is happening to us, but what we are going through it is his will we will feel it this way, and this way we will go through the states and sometimes in such states there are states where we cannot go through them without falling, without falling. The greatest Kabbalists too were in such falls, disappointments. This is what they went through.
26. S. (01:09:01) The more we advance on the path, should we expect darker and deeper nights?
R. Repeat please.
S. The more we advance on the path, the desire and deficiency also increases, so it puts us always in a deeper descent, deeper darkness?
R. Yes, of course. If we were to compare the darkness, we had a few operations ago and today, we would see it wasn’t darkness, it was something like some children’s game. Now it is true work, it is the real thing.
S. So in terms of correction, do we need to expect greater darkness?
R. We shouldn’t expect greater darkness, we should expect that in the greater darkness, we will position ourselves in greater connection.
27. S. (01:10:45) How does one contend with the anger and the rage that sometimes come up as a result being put into another state of darkness by the Creator, even though we know he’s the one that’s doing it and it’s for our benefit?
R. First of all, if he passes it to the Creator’s authority that is the Creator who did this to him then he already understands that he is being played with, then he doesn’t have that rage and the anger anymore. not real ones, what else? Usually what helps is to come closer to the group again, to read articles, and in this way, to advance.
28. S. (01:12:10) If I can be specific again not to be impressed by the descent that is for the benefit of the Creator or we have to feel the actions for the benefit to the Creator and the created beings, how to correctly describe this?
R. We needn’t attribute anything for the sake of the Creator. The Creator is complete; he doesn’t need our work whatsoever. All of his work is in order to build in us vessels of reception, vessels of bestowal, correct one so that we as created beings will feel all the aspects, all the facets of creation, that is it.
29. S. (01:13:19) You say everything depends on our observation. How to then turn the descent to an ascent?
R. By changing the relation of a person toward a person’s relation toward what he’s experiencing. If he previously felt that he was acting into descent if he can turn it into the ascent then what he does, first he has to understand it’s over his benefit that the Creator is giving him an opportunity to turn his vessels from reception to bestowal, then of course, he will be able to rise this way.
30. S. (01:14:29) In every lesson we mentioned the light that reforms and corrects us. Can we say that this light, which is the truth, the inner meaning? Is it embedded in the articles that we read?
R. Of course, we can, in all the articles of Rabash and Baal HaSulam there is a hidden light that precisely through reading and discussing, we bring them out.
31. S. (01:15:46) It says in the article that when a person yearns to receive the good and the pleasure then he receives more pleasure from his adhesion with the Creator, but only on the condition that he refuses the pleasure. What does it mean to be adhered to the Creator on one hand and not to receive anything? What is the essence of that receiving? We learn that when we’re disconnected from the Creator we receive nothing, and when we adhere to him we receive the importance of adhesion in the Creator when the essence of the adhesion, the importance of adhesion, is reception for us, so what is adhesion to the Creator?
R. Adhesion with the Creator means that we are completely, in all our vessels, are connected to Him.
S. How can we disconnect the ego from us, so we won’t disturb us from being in the equivalence of form with the Creator?
R. The process itself as we connect to the Creator includes us having to correct our vessels of reception and stopping the use of them in order to receive.
32. S. (01:17:50) Are the ascents and descents that we experience in the work for us to be able to balance ourselves better with the friends?
R. Not only that, to connection with the friends and connection to the Creator until the end of correction.
33. S. (01:18:20) When darkness is felt as light there’s still a very strong inner struggle, so how to reach inside, in a clear vision, in order to not receive the pleasure for oneself and be drawn in the right direction?
R. Only to connect with friends and along with them, take common action.
34. S. (01:18:58) Are there days and nights for the ten? Or is it something personal, individual?
R. There are also, there are times that the whole ten is in days or in nights.
S. Do I need to live the day and nights with the friends together with them?
R. Which states will come and you will feel this.
35. S. (01:19:49) Rabash writes about spiritual days and nights, but I have such an impression that I’m so far away from these days and nights. Is it because I lack any feeling of suffering or the result being disconnected from the Creator?
R. Yes.
S. So how to reach the degrees of days and nights Rabash describes here?
R. Come closer to your friends.
36. S. (01:20:39) The hours in which we learn are the hours that turn night into day. How can we extend the time of the study?
R. Only through the connection between you as you talk about it.
37. S. (01:21:12) What is the state of descent, is it when my animal part is suffering, but my heart desires to be with the friends and the Creator?
R. Sometimes this is the way it is and sometimes it is a higher state, when I want to rise to the Creator but something stands in your way.
S. How to distinguish between a spiritual descent and simply a bad mood or lack of strength?
R. Yes, sometimes we feel this way.
S. How to distinguish between these two?
R. That is something you have to try to understand on your own, where these states come to you from.
38. S. (01:22:14) Can you say that descents and ascents are our spiritual path?
R. Yes.
S. Is it in the Reshimot, the records or is it dynamic, does it change?
R. In the Reshimot it changes dynamically.
39. S. (01:22:34) In the article it says for you the day and for you the night and the purpose is to do good to the created beings. Do I need to feel that he who includes everything is the best?
R. I didn’t understand the question.
S. Should I feel that everything including everything is the best?
R. In the future, yes. In the meantime, no.
40. S. (01:23:10) What does it mean that Malchut is the guidance of the world by people’s actions?
R. Yes, that is how Malchut is built according to the actions of people in this world, Malchut takes different shapes in order to bestow to them and so to educate them.