KETER: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Baal HaSulam. The Freedom
Morning Lesson November 28, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 3:
Baal HaSulam. The Freedom (The Law of Causality)
Reading The Law of Causality (00:15) “It is worthwhile taking some time to grasp..”
1. R. (03:28) Meaning what does he want to say? Everything revolves around the law of causality and it works on all the still, vegetative, animate and speaking. Also, on each and every species and on the connection between species and types and this law advances us towards the goal. And we live under this law as long as we need to in order to maintain it. When we do not have a reason to maintain it, to keep it, so then we come out of this existence. That is how we die. I mean that is how it happens, that is what he is saying, that all of creation, every individual creation that’s the creation in this world. It is pushed by previous meanings that forces it to receive the changes upon it until it reaches its, until it reaches its purpose; to fulfill its part in creation in a complete way.
2. S. (05:03) He mentions here the law of causality in the still, vegetative and animate. What is this law? What is this law of causality in the still, vegetative and animate?
R. That each and every part in creation exists in order to maintain all of creation and feel something in it, fills its place in creation.
S. He’s asking the questions that we need to dissect to allow us to look at it from all sides. Why do we need to analyze it?
R. That it needs to be clear that we are in the creation, each one in his own space and he needs to keep his destiny.
S. Why do we need to clarify it, if it is, if it is a law of causality? Who needs to clarify it?
R. Each and every one or else you will not keep this law.
S. What does this law say? I have not understood it yet? What is this law of causality? What does Baal HaSulam mean when he says that?
R. That you must fulfill your role in creation. That is it.
3. S. (06:40) I wanted to ask, does the force of the ego continue to push people forward or is it something that will end?
R. I do not understand.
S. This uniqueness, the ego, does it still push people towards progress or is it something that will end soon?
R. Why should it end?
S. Maybe we have reached some level of completion in this development?
R. But did we correct this ego? The Creator didn’t create anything for no reason. I guess this ego also has a role. Did we fulfill this role or not? If we finish with it, I guess it is about to disappear and if we had not fulfilled it yet, so we will probably need to use it until with it, we will also reach something. The ego is a very strong force that’s specifically with it we reach a lot of achievements.
4. S. (08:04) Why is there a contradiction between the feeling of this individuality and the entire system? Why doesn’t it connect together?
R. Because the entire system exists in order to sustain itself entirely and each and every detail doesn’t feel more than his own ego, his desire. That is why there is separation and contradiction between every part in the entire system completely.
S. And in the corrected state we are going to be in this full feeling of the individual and the entire system at large?
R. That is at the end.
S. What is the contradiction in the beginning?
R. There is no connection between all the parts. There is a shattering and there is no connection between the parts. That is why each and every part feels himself in his selfishness and does not feel the others. On the contrary he feels that all the others must fill everything that he wants.
S. That too, it is out of little selfishness, he doesn’t have a lot of it in the beginning, it grows in a way?
R. Right, it grows and becomes even more farther away than the others.
5. S. (09:41) The nation of Israel has a purpose and we study it, so how can we learn about the purpose of the ten and the purpose of our society?
R. From the Kabbalists; from the Kabbalists. They reveal what our destiny is.
S. Can we pray on this topic?
R. We can raise a prayer about any topic, yes.
Reading on. The Four Factors. (10:35) “Bear in mind, that every emergence..”
6. R. (12:17) Meaning in each and everyone of us there are four reasons for the way that specific kind behaves. So it is the causes within itself and the cause and effect from its internality and from the alien forces and the alien forces themselves in the way they change. So we will see how we are activated by these four causes that work in each one of us.
Reader Continues: (12:58) “The source is the first matter..”
7. S. (14:20) Two questions one it seems that in the first part of the article Baal HaSulam builds in us some questions, some clarifications,some research that we have to delve into. So, I wanted to ask what is the proper research that we have to delve into; into the words of Baal HaSulam?
R. He gives you the foundation for his research and then he starts advancing with it. Sometimes to one branch, then he goes into a different branch in order to later on connect all the branches together and bring them into realization. It is according to his mindset.
S. The second question is about what we just read. The source that has stripped its previous form is defined as the source in which lies the potential destined to be revealed. That essence, it is felt that we are moving, passing to one another. How do we really guard and keep it, for it to be clean and not always dirty?
R. I do not know. I know one thing. If we take care of all these causes because we need to reveal them in us and pass them on. So, by that we develop ourselves and reach an understanding about the forces that work in us. That we are activated by them and how we need to be activated and through being activated how we need to be worthy for that force that is activating. Everything all together brings us to identification between us and the Creator; to the connection between us. So that is what we are learning about. The first cause, the second cause we have of him on behalf of nature that continues and extends from alien forces and so on. It is all as it appears in us so that we can connect them all together and present them back to the upper force that is working on us; existence from absence.
S. And that same source sometimes it feels that it talks about the desire to receive and another time it talks about the point in the heart, what should I grasp onto?
R. The source is our root in Keter. Meaning even though it is the will to receive it disconnects from the Creator’s will to bestow, in order to develop in us as a created being. As long as it is still in the Creator and annuls in the Creator and isn’t felt that it exists and then when it is revealed, then around it already begin, the forces of creation start revealing themselves.So it is the will to receive let’s say. From Shoresh, 1, 2, 3 and 4 and so on.
8. S. (18:17) If we are acted upon by open reasons of cause and effect. How could we speak about freedom?
R. It is like that for sure and we need to reveal it.
S. Can it be said that the point of freedom is where we feel that the point of ,’from something from nothing?’
R. We can’t talk about that now, we can’t determine our point of freedom yet. No, not yet. I can’t even explain it yet.
S. But it is in this direction.
R. You do not even need to think about it right now, let us gather more signs.
9. S. (19:43) What is the connection between Reshimot that we only speak about in our lessons and the source?
R. The source is the foundation from which we come out and the Reshimot are the details that are revealed from that source.
10. S. (20:10) What does it mean to pass to the friends the essence?
R. Again?
S. What does it mean to pass essence to the friends, the source to the friends?
R. Whatever he asked he has your building your theory on that?
S. The previous question I understood that we need to connect to these questions and suck from them.
R. Okay keep your confusion to yourself. I don’t know what essence. Usually we reach that word and let it go because essence can’t be attained.
11. S. (21:20) Is it correct to think that the best that a person can do with his freedom of choice, freedom of will is to give it to the Creator? Maybe this is why it is created for the person to give it to the Creator?
R. It’s all true only if we do it through the friends. Otherwise we would just get a double lie and nothing except for that.
S. Let us talk about these double lies.
R. There’s nothing to say about it, the person will lie to himself. You will discover it later on. He will think that he is the wisest, the most successful.
12. S. (22:19) In this article Baal HaSulam really shatters all of the illusion of freedom and shows a person that he is activated on all levels. What is the purpose? What is the spiritual action that he wants to derive from this?
R. He wants us to know whether we have freedom or not just like the article itself. The article is called The Freedom; do we have freedom or not? That is what he wants to bring us knowledge about that.
S. The impression is that we do not have freedom, at least not as we perceive freedom.
R. So we need to understand on what level, yes and on what level, no. Still to be a free nation in our land that is our purpose. That we will be free in our desire, in our land, in our will and that is the essence of man and specifically from all created beings, still, vegetative and animate and even of speaking. There is a part of the speaking that has an ability to rise to a degree where they are free. That they are as the Creator; like the Creator.
S. How does a Kabbalist receive freedom? What is freedom in a Kabbalists eyes?
R. I don’t know. That is not the topic now. After we learn all this and understand it to that extent we will be able to understand. I will not give you an answer now, what should come in only a few more pages.
13. S. (24:25) What does it mean that the softness was stripped by the old source?
R. That the will to receive that the Creator created gets all kinds of forms. So the will to receive gets some certain kind of desire and then according to that, his form changes and then it changes more and more and more and from that we see that the will to receive that receives all these forms on itself, it changes and we can learn according to these external changes. Also, his internal changes, what happens to him.
S. Meaning that it moves from forms of reception, to forms of bestowal?
R. That is what we will learn about, yes.