📜 FRIDAY PRAYER: BINAH- KABBALAH MED-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN FRIDAY
Rabash. What Is the Meaning of “Spies,” in the Work?. 35 (1991)
LESSON MATERIAL
What Is the Meaning of “Spies,” in the Work?
Article No. 35, 1991
It is written in The Zohar (Shlach, Item 82), “Rabbi Yosi said, ‘They took upon themselves a counsel, to slander everything. What is ‘everything’? It is the earth and the Creator. Rabbi Yitzhak said, ‘The earth, this is true. But the Creator? How do we know?’ He told him, ‘This is the meaning of the verse, ‘Nevertheless, strong is the people,’ meaning Who can overcome them, for ‘strong is the people’? In other words, even the Creator cannot overcome them. Thus, they slandered the Creator.”
We should understand how such a thing can be said in the work, about the Creator, since we are speaking of people who want to draw near to the Creator. How can it be said that they do not believe that the Creator is almighty? It is written in The Zohar (Item 63), “‘And they returned from touring the land.’ ‘Returned’ means that they returned to the side of evil, and returned from the path of truth, saying, ‘What did we get out of it? To this day we have not seen good in the world. We have toiled in Torah and the house is empty. Who will be awarded that world? It would have been better had we not toiled so. We labored and learned in order to know the part of that world. That upper world is good, as we know in the Torah, but who can be rewarded with it?’”
We should understand what is the sin of the spies, if they said that everything is true, “but who can be rewarded with it?” In other words, they were saying that they are unworthy of the good, as it is written, “That upper world is good, as we know in the Torah, but who can be rewarded with it?” Thus, why is the sin so grave?
In Midrash Rabbah (Shlach 15:7), he says, “Rabbi Yehoshua says, ‘What were they (spies) like? Like a king who arranged for his son a fair woman, from a good and wealthy family. The king told his son, ‘She is a fair looking woman and she is from a good and wealthy family.’ The son replied, ‘I will go and see her,’ for he did not believe his father. Promptly, the matter perplexed and irritated his father. His father said, ‘What should I do? If I tell him, ‘I will not show her to you now,’ he will say that she is ugly, and this is why he does not want to show her.’ In the end, he said to him, ‘See her, but because you did not believe in me, I swear that you will not see her in your house, for I will rather give her to your son.’’”
This is perplexing, for it implies that the Creator showed that the land is good, but the spies did not see the good land, since they said that they did not see there any good. Instead, they said that they saw there only bad things, for they said, “It is a land that devours its inhabitants.” Thus, what is the allegory about the king’s son?
To understand the above, we must understand what we learn, that we have two things before us: 1) to receive delight and pleasure, which is the purpose of creation, 2) how to obtain the delight and pleasure.
Because we see that although everyone agrees that we should receive delight and pleasure, without labor, one does not attain anything. The labor is that we must offer some payment to the landlord so he will want to give us what we want. In the work, this is called “desire to bestow,” for only in vessels of bestowal can we receive abundance of Kedusha [holiness], which is as we learned, “You will be holy for I am holy,” meaning that everything must be in order to bestow.
Before one obtains the vessels of bestowal, he is placed under the Tzimtzum [restriction] and the concealment that were placed on the upper guidance, so that man is unable to see the truth. That is, a person is unable to see His guidance, the way He behaves with the creatures in a guidance of good and doing good, as Baal HaSulam said (in the book Shamati, essay, “Faith in the Rav”) about what is written, “They have eyes but they will not see,” that one must believe in his rav [teacher] about what the rav arranged for us—an order of work on the “right.” At that time, a person should depict to himself as though he has already been rewarded with complete faith in the Creator, and he already feels in his organs that the Creator leads the whole world in a manner of good and doing good, meaning that the whole world receives from Him only good.
And even though when he looks at himself, he sees that he is bare and destitute, he should say about this, “They have eyes but they will not see,” where “they” means that as long as one is under multiple authorities, called “they,” “they will not see” the truth. And what is multiple authorities? It is two desires.
This means that man has a will to receive for his own sake, which is a different desire from that of the Creator, whose desire is to bestow, and a person wants only to receive for his own sake. Hence, when one is going to criticize what the Creator gave him, he sees only suffering and pain, since there are two desires in the world.
Therefore, when one must thank the Creator and say, “Blessed is He who said, ‘Let there be the world,’” to praise and be thankful that the Creator gave us a world filled with abundance, yet, now he sees the opposite, then one must exert and go above reason and say that everything he sees is not the truth, and believe what is written, “They have eyes but they will not see” the truth.
It follows that every work and labor that one must give is in order to obtain the desire to bestow, for only then can one see how the Creator created a world so filled with abundance that our sages said, “There has never been joy before Him as on the day when heaven and earth were created.” This is so because to the Creator, there is no issue of time. Hence, He immediately saw the wholeness of creation at the end of its correction, since the purpose of creation was as it is written, “His desire to do good to His creations,” and to Him, past and future are all the same. Naturally, at that time He saw the delight and pleasure that the creatures are receiving.
However, when one begins to work in order to obtain the desire to bestow, begins the order of ascents and descents, since in everything there are things that are good for one and bad for the other. However, everything must be balanced. For this reason, often, a person does not keep to the middle road between them, but leans to one side more than to the other, and spoils everything.
It is known that in the work of bestowal, a person must walk on two lines, called “right and left.” “Right” means wholeness, and “left” is called in the work, “a path that requires correction.” Because of it, we have two orders in the work:
1) Songs and praises, which pertain to the state of wholeness. That is, when one is satisfied with the guidance of the Creator, with how He behaves with him, he thanks the Creator for the good that the Creator has given him.
2) Prayer and litany, which pertains to when one sees that he has deficiencies and wants the Creator to satisfy his needs. At that time, a person asks the Creator to grant him his wish. However, since they are opposite from one another, meaning when a person thanks the Creator, and certainly when a man is thankful, one should try to give to the Creator many thanks, for the gratitude should be evaluated according to the measure of the good that the Creator has given him. Thus, it is upon man to depict to himself the greatness and importance of the matter.
In other words, a person says that he does not deserve this good that the Creator has given him. Thus, how can he then say that he is deficient? Certainly, a prayer must be from the bottom of the heart, meaning to feel his need in all his organs or the prayer will not be from the bottom of the heart. Thus, how is it possible can it be said, once he has thanked the Creator for all the good that he has received, that he is deficient, and pray and cry to the Creator to grant him his wishes?
Therefore, those two things cause descents and ascents, since each one cancels the other. Yet, we should understand why we need both, and why prayer or gratitude is not enough, but rather both are required, but since they cannot be in the same carrier at the same time, we arrange them consecutively.
In other words, first we thank the Creator because He chose us from among all the nations, although we are lowly and inferior compared to His greatness, yet He chose us out of every nation. This is as our sages said, “One should always establish the praise of the Creator and then pray.” Thus, when one thanks the Creator because He has been good to him, meaning certainly when the Creator gave him all that is needed, how is there a place to then pray for the things he is missing, and for the prayer to be from the bottom of the heart?
The answer is that on one hand, one should receive vitality during the work. When one does not have anything from which to live, he is distraught and cannot observe the Torah and Mitzvot properly, as it is written, “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and you shall speak of them when you sit in your home, and when you walk on the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
Thus, there is a complete order in observing Torah and Mitzvot. If one’s mind is not settled, his work cannot be done in the order that it should. Hence, when one praises the Creator and depicts to himself the greatness and importance of the Creator as much as he can, from this one can derive vitality and feel the importance of the Creator, that the Creator gave him a thought and desire to speak with Him. From this, one should derive contentment.
One should imagine what mood he would be in if the greatest in the generation, whom the whole world praises, if that great man gave him permission to speak with him, how elated he would be, since when he feels this pleasure of being able to speak with him, he would not feel that he needs anything in the world. The pleasure that one feels more than usual makes him forget all his worries and his whole body gives itself up to the pleasure he is receiving now. That is, if during the reception of the pleasure, he can think about anything other than the pleasure he is receiving now, it is a sign that the pleasure he is receiving now is incomplete.
Hence, when one depicts to himself that the Creator permitted him to speak with Him, it does not matter what he says, but the importance that he has an opportunity to speak to the Creator, from this one should derive delight and pleasure that he has such a privilege. It follows that the work of the right is that one should believe that he is speaking with the Creator and that he does not need anything right now.
However, one should know that anything that depends on faith, the body does not agree to this work, especially because this work is considered a correction, and anything that pertains to correction invokes the body’s resistance. This extends from the breaking of the vessels that occurred in the world of Nekudim. Therefore, there is much work on this.
Baal HaSulam said about the work of the right, when a person begins to slight it because he begins to work on a line that is contradictory to the right, which is the left line—that the work of the right is work in wholeness and truth, meaning that one must believe that the Creator is great and important, and man is utterly base. It follows that both are true. It is hard to walk on this line, and the body objects. He said that in the state of the right, a person is considered “blessed,” since he is happy with his share and does not need anything. At that time, a person is fit to receive abundance from above by way of “The blessed clings to the Blessed.” In this quality, he has Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. Hence, precisely in that state, a person can rise in degree.
However, we must also walk on the left line, which is the way to see how one sees the faults that need correcting. In other words, in the right, the work is only to depict the greatness of the Creator and believe in His greatness and importance. But the quality of the left is specifically to look at oneself and see the faults in him, in order to correct himself so there is no flaw in him. But the main flaw that one should see is the bad within him, meaning what is the essence of the evil that we must find, meaning that we must search and find.
Certainly, each person knows that there is evil in him. The thing is that we must know the root of evil, which is what prevents one from being able to receive the good that there is in the world.
The world was created for a purpose, and it was said that the purpose of the creation of the world was His desire to do good to His creations. Since man suffers torments in the world, and asks, “Why does it seem to us in this way?” For this reason, one must believe in the sages, who said that one should know that there was a correction on the purpose of creation, so as not to have the matter of shame upon the reception of the pleasure. This can be only if during the reception of the abundance, it will be in order to bestow. In that state, there is no place for shame.
Hence, only then, when he believes in the sages that we must obtain vessels of bestowal, otherwise it is impossible to obtain the good that the creatures should receive, then one realizes that all the bad is only the will to receive for one’s own sake, and man should do everything to root it out and receive in its stead the desire to bestow, called a “second nature.” At that time, he will be rewarded with the delight and pleasure that was in the thought of creation.
According to the above, we should work in two manners:
1) On the path of the right, which is the time when one works so as to feel that he has wholeness and he is content with his situation, and he can thank the Creator for it. This is the time when he can receive from above abundance and advance in the rungs of Kedusha [holiness]. However, although this is time to receive abundance from above, he does not lack anything, meaning he has no Kelim [vessels] to receive the abundance, so he must shift to the other line, called “left.”
2) This is the path of the “left,” by means of criticism that one passes on himself. The right line means that one looks only at the Creator, meaning to understand and to learn about the measure of the greatness of the Creator, and not about himself, to see what he is missing. Rather, he wants to look at what he has, meaning what the Creator gave him, and be thankful to the Creator for this.
However, the path of the left is to examine oneself, how much bad he has and what is the bad within him, and to try to correct it. At that time begins the matter of the spies who slandered the earth. “Earth” means the kingdom of heaven, as they said, that this matter of the kingdom of heaven is not for them.
According to the above, we should interpret what is written, “Rabbi Yosi said, ‘They took upon themselves a counsel, to slander everything. What is ‘everything’? It is the earth and the Creator. ‘This is the meaning of the verse, ‘Nevertheless, strong is the people,’ meaning who can overcome them?’ In other words, even the Creator cannot overcome them. Thus, they slandered the Creator.”
They said that “We were born with a nature of doing everything for ourselves, so how can we accept the burden of the kingdom of heaven with the aim to benefit the Creator, meaning to do everything in order to bestow? After all, we began the work many times and in our view, we have done all that we could. But not only did the Creator not help us advance at all toward the aim to bestow, but we have even gone backwards. Thus, we must determine that even the Creator cannot help us emerge from the control of the will to receive. Otherwise, we would have moved a little bit forward. But after all the labor we have given in order to obtain the desire to bestow, in our view, it has all been in vain. Therefore, we are in a state where we have neither the corporeal world nor the spiritual world.”
This is why it is written, “What did we get out of it? To this day we have not seen good in the world. We have toiled in Torah and the house is empty. Who will be awarded that world?” That is, they saw that they were not advancing in the work. But what was the sin? It was that they should have had faith in the Creator that all those descents that they felt in the work were not because they did not go forward, but that each time a person sees that he is far from the goal, it is in order for him to find a real need for His salvation. And the need is called “a Kli [vessel] to receive the filling.” Yet, what was missing there and for which they could not continue and wanted to escape from the campaign was the lack of the right line.
The meaning of “right” is that one must have vitality during the work, and we receive vitality specifically from wholeness, which we can obtain precisely when we are not looking at ourselves, but at the Creator, and all the effort is to think about the greatness of the Creator and not about ourselves, meaning what we acquired, some progress in the work. Rather, we should think what a privilege we have that we have some contact with the Creator.
This means that when he performs a commandment or says a blessing, he should say, “I am happy that I believe that I am doing the Creator’s will by observing His commandments. Although I understand that we must observe the commandments of the King with more importance than I ascribe to observing the Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds], I cannot appreciate the importance of the act, even though the act is incomplete. Still, I am happy that the Creator has given me a desire and yearning to do something in observing Torah and Mitzvot, even if these actions are not so important. Yet, it is important to me, since now I can say that I am doing the Creator’s will.”
From this, one should derive vitality and joy because it is the truth that the Creator is great. Hence, when one has a desire to do something in the work, this is very important. A person should believe that even when a person does things by coercion, it is still important, since in terms of the action, there is nothing to add and the act does its thing.
Therefore, since the spies did not go on the right, as well, they wanted to escape the campaign and said that even the Creator cannot help them. That is, they understood that the Creator should bring them closer in the way that they understood, not in the way that the Torah obligates us, as it is written, that there are two writings that deny one another until the third wiring comes and decides between them. For this reason, the spies, who strayed to walk on the left line and abandoned the right, saw that they could not come and inherit the land. It was all because they went by the wrong path, as Moses had arranged for them.
This is the meaning of what is written about a king who arranged for his son a wife and said, “I will show her to you (but) I swear that you will not see her in your house, for I will rather give her to your son.” We asked, But the spies did not see her, that she is fair and comes from a good and wealthy family?! We should interpret that in the work “father and son” are “cause and consequence.” The present is called “father,” and the future is called “son.” In spirituality, “seeing” means attainment. Since they took the wrong path, they could not see it “in your house,” meaning in the state they were in, in vessels of reception. Rather, “to your son,” meaning after you repent, when you are rewarded with vessels of bestowal, you will be able to see all the merits that there are in the inheritance of the land that the Creator promised to our forefathers.
LESSON
Morning Lesson December 6, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 35, 1991. What Is the Meaning of “Spies,” in the Work?
Reading Rabash. Article No. 35 “It is written in The Zohar…”
1. S. (41:04)
R. This article is quite dense.
2. S. (41:12) Why is the right line the perfection of truth?
R. Because the right is giving and the left is reception.
3. S. (41:27) How to work in thought to separate myself from the spies and not to speak bad about the Creator or the friends? How to work to differentiate to separate myself from the spies and myself and not to slander regarding the Creator and the friends?
R. Those are only exercises. I have to see all of the disturbances that I have relative to the path to the Creator to the friends and as something that was given to me specially on purpose so I would rise above it.
4. S. (42:13) What is the sin of the spies in the spiritual work?
R. You have to answer that, all of you. It’s lack of faith, really.
5. S. (42:37) How can you touch the left and make sure that the right is strong enough?
R. You are holding on to the 10, you trust them. You trust that the connection with them will always be stronger than your connection to the left.
S. In what confidence is there that the left won’t suddenly overcome, rise and be like the spies?
R. You’ll be able to overcome it again. If you are connected to the 10, if you can tie yourself to them and tie them to you, then you need to be covered in the right.
S. There’s no fear that the left will grow?
R. The fear is good. Fear is in order to increase the right.
S. So I go back to the 10 so back home?
R. Yes, it’s not so smooth but that’s a direction.
6. S. (44:14) To continue the question, he puts the correction of Creation and the purpose of Creation in the world of the shattering, and the world of Nekudim and we speak a lot about the connection between us it says that you can’t receive in an order to receive the abundance and you answered the friend a little bit but I wanted to continue how does the connection between us how does that connect to in let’s say I ate, I drink, I think, I do all kinds of things.
R. It has to do with the importance, whereas the Creator compared to how you see yourself.
S. If I put a 10 between the Creator and myself does that help me be aimed towards him?
R. Yes.
S. How?
R. By attaching to yourself the 10.
S. How does it help me to not receive in order to receive if I placed the 10?
R. You have additional forces compared to your single force that may not be able to help for the time being but you have additional forces of the ten.
S. This increases the importance of the Creator as opposed to the desire in order to receive.
R. Yes, of course more.
7. S. (46:07) One of our tools we have is prayer, and from the excerpt it’s a lot more than what we can imagine because if you’re in gratitude you see perfection so how does this transition help your deficiency?
R. I didn’t understand the question.
S. In our vessels is prayer and we have gratitude and we have a deficiency of a request when we are in a state of gratitude and being grateful and actually the gratitude is at least how I see it. It’s receiving the laws of nature and I identifying with them how do we transition to a deficiency?
R. What kind of deficiency?
S. Of a request.
R. What are you lacking?
S. The desire to be adhered to stay on the right line
R. Okay, then scrutinize it and pray.
8. S. (47:46) What is the extent that a person needs to feel the force of Faith or before he awakens the deficiency?
R. He has to connect with the force of faith and be in soul devotion to it so that it feels to him that whatever is that no matter what’s coming to him he’s going to be saved helped.
S. We awaken a prayer to awaken the deficiency of what we’re in we’re not okay and until we reach the state to where we’re even willing to reach, to look at the state of what we’re lacking for correction we need to build a lot of connections and a lot of strength.
R. That’s included in the same work.
S. The prayer and the beginning should that accompany the process of building faith and afterwards to start searching what else we need to add in order to correct? What I’m trying to scrutinize are the conditions of the work we are in very clear order here and working in Torah and Mitzvot?
R. Yes.
S. I’m trying to figure out to the extent that we need to feel that we have enough strength to start awakening the deficiencies
R. It depends on the level of your grasp in the Creator in the right in the connection and the friends. The more you or as much you are to them you can advance.
S. Is this something we need to experience ourselves from the right line to the left line where we hold the right and the Creator awakens the left?
R. The Creator awakens the left typically we have to constantly think of increasing the right.
9. S. (50:26) It says in the end of the article that father is present and future is son what is Father and Son or future and present in the work?
R. Present and future?
S. What regular times?
R. States.
S. We need to be adhered to the future state?
R. We need to do everything in order to accept the future.
10. S. (51:08) He says that all of these processes that we’re doing daily, we need to be settled in our mind. What does it mean to have a settled mind? How do I reach the lesson every day to the friends and settled in my mind?
R. When you wish to rise above everything you’ve had thus far, and try to require a new state.
S. To constantly demand a new state?
R. Constantly.
11. S. (51:53) First of all, out of gratitude for this article. It’s like a shower. When we start the work from left to right we reach some state that one hasn’t attained or achieved anything, not spirituality, not in corporeality. Why do we reach such a state? Why do we feel that?
R. This is the most correct point in order to create the right scrutiny. That I have nothing, no present, no future, and that I am powerless, senseless, and not sure what to do with myself.
S. Is this an indication for advancement?
R. Yes.
S. At that time where to grab onto it? What’s correct to do?
R. You hold on to the group. You try to enter into it even more because, there you find your next state, your next degree.
12. S. (53:22) How can we use the spies in a positive way?
R. Where they can, the questions of the spies and we want to rise above them. Spies are not simple people, they’re smart, they always go forward, they’re messengers. So by trying to work with them and against them we are advancing without the spies you can’t do it.
13. S. (54:28) How to see our flaws where, we see the friends in lack of strength? It seems to me that the Creator is going to let go of me and leave me.?
R. I didn’t quite understand. How do I see my own flaws in order to not let go of the friends?
S. When I see the friends and lack of strength, how can I even see my own flaws and see that the Creator has not left me?
R. I’m thinking of the friends first of all because I depend on them. That’s why I constantly scrutinize their state and how do I hold on to them, how do I ask for them and then I advance with them. The work of the spies is that they see that if they wish to move forward they have to be more and more in adhesion.
S. When I see the friend with lack of strength, how can I justify the Creator? How can I not see the Creator as abandoning the friends?
R. Of course, I see that too but I don’t want to be adhered to that opinion, but I see it. I have to understand them and that as well their state.
14. S. (56:32) What’s unclear is that if a person on the left line says, that a person needs to look only at the greatness, and not to look at the right and not to look at what he is lacking but in the left line he needs to look at himself and what evil he has in him and try to correct it and then he writes in the article that’s unclear that a person is not guiding the middle line but that he’s tending towards one side more than the other and he’s spoiling everything but he just told that so what he’s on the right he should only be on the right and then left only on the left so what is this combined line?
R. How will he advance if he doesn’t combine these two lines, and walk on the middle line. That’s the main thing here, otherwise he will not advance.
S. What’s this action of combining these two lines?
R. He takes as much as he can from the left and in order to mix it with the right and to move forward.
S. After he’s on the left which is a very advanced state and he needs to go back to the right and that’s this merge?
R. It’s the opposite. He has to be on the right, go back to the left and take from the left as much as he can correct and by the right.
Yes, the spice helping there.
S. Of course.
R. He is the one who is combining, merging these two qualities.
15. S. (58:40) If I’m grateful to the Creator am I doing it consciously or is the Creator the first and the last, how to scrutinize this?
R. No, you have to recognize the fact that you need to be grateful to the Creator and this is true for every person in the group.
S. No translation
R. Without spies you can’t do it, you’ll have no reason to.
16. S. (59:41) When a person agrees with the Creator he gets more obstacles. Is that in order to strengthen the person, to strengthen his understanding, and to strengthen his path?
R. Yes.
17. S. (01:00:03) What does it mean to combine the right with the left as much as possible?
R. For the will to receive to also submit itself before the next step forward.
S. Can we say that the left line are the spies?
R. Yes.
18. S. (01:00:47) I will read thank you for your patience it says here “ therefore these two things cause ascents and descents since each one cancels the other but we should understand why we need both of them and why they need but, you cannot be in my topic at one time and for that reason we arrange them one after the other” my question is to relation is such a special state we can’t be in both states Rabash writes to us how can we between prayer and gratitude between those states what gives us the strength to go in the right line or whoever leaves the work to go to the left that he condemns the Creator?
R. What helps us go in the middle line?
S. To choose the right line to go in gratitude.
R. If it is speaking of the action it is because I am adhered to the friends.
S. Isn’t the adhesion with the friends stemming from the right line the right force to advance to adhesion?
R. Let’s say it is.
19. S. (10:02:48) How not to criticize what the Creator is sending us?
R. The fact that you are connected together with the friends constantly wanting to raise the greatness of the Creator in your eyes.
20. S. (01:03:25) How can I keep the friends on the path when the entire world slanders the Creator?
R. You say they have eyes and they cannot see, ears that they cannot hear that is how you look at the world. But, instead of the world, what is important to you is your group. You are adhered to them, you are only in adhesion to them. You attain the goal and the Creator is revealed in the center of the group.
21. S. (01:04:10) Does the force of faith fluctuate from state to state but nevertheless constantly grow on us like a …. Like this?
R. Right, that is how we rise in the ladder of the degrees.
22. S. (01:04:50) What should we do to have a constant concern for the Creator?
R. To be connected with the friends and by that to prepare yourself to be close to the Creator.
23. S. (01:05:17) It says in your article that the work in the right line is that a person has to believe that he is now speaking before the Creator, sometimes it is easy to do sometimes it is hard, how to hold ourselves in that state and if we do not have that state what does it mean?
R. If you don’t have it then you don’t have it if it exists then cling on to it as much as you can. This is only done in the group after you connect with the friends.
S. Lack of connection.
R. Yes.
24. S. (1:05:59) It’s not clear how you explain that to reach the right line, the middle line is when we are in the right line, then we go to the left and take as much as we can to correct and then connect the two lines. Can you explain that?
R. No, we will learn it separately.