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

READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT AND DAWN FRIDAY

Baal HaSulam. Introduction to the Book of Zohar

Morning Lesson December 28, 2022, Transcription 

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

Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #8

https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/ALlyoveA

Reading Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #8

1. S. (03:27) It says here that if we like different things between friends then we can’t reach adhesion but I need to see not what I like or the friend but I need to love the friend. What does it mean to love the friend?

R. But that’s exactly what we’re talking about, about the equivalence of the desires. The compatibility between desires in spirituality it cannot be any other way.

S. It says here that, what do I need to pay attention to?

R. Everything he loves I need to love. Everything I love he needs to love and the other way around, also regarding hate.

S. But what is this talking about, in respect to what, all the desires?

R. Of course it’s not about all the desires. Each one is born as a beast in his desires we’re not talking about it. Still, vegetative, animate, they are not correctable that’s how we teach it only the human in us, only the human in us. Still, vegetative, animate, speaking degree, it has to be similar with everyone.

S. In other words I need to love what the friend loves on that degree of Adam?

R. Ultimately you should love what the Creator loves and also hate accordingly,

S. How can I understand this through the friend?

R. The speaking degree, speaking degree, is a degree in which you are similar to the Creator and you should resemble the Creator I need to resemble the Creator and everyone the same, meaning maximum bestowal as much as each one is capable.

2. S. (06:14) It says here that there isn’t a matter of disparity of form between them or proximity, but the matter is of equivalence of form, that they are equal in form. Can you explain what this intention is that he speaks of, how can we make an intention?

R. Intention is the inner content of the desire.

S. But how can an intention be made? In a gun you have the aim once you spoke about it, you aim for the target, but how do I do that in our relations? What is the intention and what do I intend?

R. What do I wish to receive at the end of the action?

S. How do I know that I’ve succeeded in intending in the right direction? Where do I get feedback from?

R. What feedback? I wish to receive something at the end of the action. That’s why I am performing an action at the end of which I am already in a new state. That new state is what I aim for from the beginning.

S. He writes here that In the intention we need to reach the equivalence of form, that’s what I’m asking about.

R. Yes, so I wish to reach the Creator in equivalence of form to be like the Creator through a certain action.

S. What does it mean each time that you say equivalence to the Creator? What do I equalize towards?

R. I bestow like Him, I think like Him, feel like Him.

3. S. (08:15) What’s the difference between opposite of form and difference of form?

R. There is a disparity of form where you are different from the other and there’s opposition of form where you’re completely opposite from the other. These are degrees of equivalence or disparity of form.

S. It seems like there are three degrees of coming closer that Baal HaSulam speaks of the transition between disparity of form and oppositeness of form. It’s clear what he likes and what he doesn’t like, but the opposite in form…

R. Opposite forms they are opposite, yes.

S. So what is the difference between them?

R. What one likes the other hates.

S. He explains that in disparity of form?

R. No, but here this is the diametrical opposite.

S. How do I go from oppositeness to disparity? How do I come closer a little bit?

R. By changing your qualities according to the friend.

S. This change brings me to a certain form of coming closer?

R. Certainly, a change means that you’re not on the other extreme end.

S. It seems like there’s differences in prayer, it feels like there are two prayers here between equivalence of form to oppositeness and between disparity and proximity. What’s the difference between them?

R. To the extent that you feel like you’re unlike the other you activate the prayer to correct it.

S. What am I asking for here in there?

R. Equivalence of form.

4. S. (10:35) We learned that we need to maintain the disagreements.

R. Correct.

S. This maintains the individuality, the uniqueness, so it turns out that everyone needs to be like this?

R. Like a cookie cutter? No, no, no, we have to check ourselves relative to the friends and if there is a difference meaning, an argument, a conflict, we have to check it exactly in what is it, which qualities, which virtues, and make corrections there.

S. You see both from life and from spirituality that opposites complete one another and here it seems like there’s no room for completion.

R. No, here it’s complete completion where we reach equivalence of form on adhesion. It brings about the final correction.

5. S. (11:45) The example of the rock and the mountain, it sounds like it’s the same. If I have a mountain of ice cream and I take a spoonful of it then it’s the same ice cream, but in spirituality it becomes a significant change. So how can there be connection? We say Creator and created being there’s disparity of form, between them there’s relationships of guidance and providence.

R. But it depends on how they use their qualities, If one is a receiver and the other is a bestower then if you’re using these qualities correctly then they are in equivalence of form, each one wants to bring contentment to the other, one is using his desire to receive in the other is using his desire to bestow.

S. How can the created beings understand the Creator? He’s whole, He’s complete, there’s…

R. I look at a baby and a mother how much he is receiving and how much she’s enjoying it.

S. The baby doesn’t understand her, how can he justify her?

R. I guess it’s so; I add a little bit of understanding and intention, I’m giving you an example. It doesn’t have to do with the action itself but only the intention.

S. So they can be connected together even though they’re different?

R. And how? How can it be that inside a mother’s body the baby’s body develops? It’s a foreign body, how can nature agree with it, you understand? It’s only when they have the correct intention between them.

6. S. (13:44) My friends and I have two different desires but we want to reach equivalence, each and every one of us will still hold onto their own different desire but above these desires will there be equivalence of form between us?

R. How?

S. That’s what I’m asking,

R. In what? Equivalence of form in what?

S. Equivalence of form in wanting to bestow upon one another.

R. In what are you bestowing to one another? You’re opposed to one another, you’re in opposition?

S. This question stands, how do we maintain each one’s individuality, uniqueness?

R. You wish to be close, connected, and together with that can you remain opposites? If the intention of each and every one is to bestow good to the other you don’t need to change your other qualities you need to change your intention.

S. That means that the desires stay different but there is intention that connects between us?

R. Yes, certainly it doesn’t interfere but by nature we’re all different from one another, each one is different from the other, how will we ever reach connection where we’re all moving about like small pieces in the machine of Adam HaRishon, the one machine.

S. When we want to connect in the ten to reach this one point of connection we speak of the desires of each and every one of us are different, right?

R. Yes.

S. Beyond that we say that for us it’s more important the connection between us than that desire that each and every one of us has?

R. You cannot change a desire, never, in anyone only the intention.

S. This connection between the intentions, can we say to connect to something or someone it turns out that  we reach some common desire but here we say something else that the desires remain different and that’s how it should be. and above that we build another layer.

R. Yes.

S. Can you elaborate on that? We speak about a lot for a long time, we’re not hearing this for the first time there’s a feeling that there’s something missing there to start working this correctly.

R. The important thing is to bestow whether I receive, or I give I bestow more or less I bestow. In what exactly when I receive or when I give it’s not important as long as I bestow. Meaning we evaluate a person according to his bestowal and again I’m saying it like a baby and his mother, he smiles, and he repaid all 24-hours that his mother is infested with him with a single smile, you can never equalize things ever. That’s why the wisdom of Kabbalah is so universal.

7. S. (17:46) This connection that we reach it’s the connection in intentions?

R. Yes, and mutual bestowal that’s why one can receive in the other can bestow or both can bestow but the question is it’s not even the question of what are they giving or what are they receiving but only the intention.

S. The desires never connect?

R. How can it be? They will become as one, one.

S. It all started from a single desire that shattered, aren’t we supposed to reconnect it?

R. No, even that desire was not a single desire.

S. How does it work if we look from above, each one stays in his own desire?

R. Yes. and it does not matter which desire it is and what changes in the desire, He doesn’t consider it at all.

S. Our Kli, that’s our intentions, that’s our Kelim our vessels?

R. Yes, we make the calculation only according to that.

S. What leads to intentions for connection?

R. Each one aims towards bestowal to bestow to the other and in this bestowal we connect and in this bestowal, I’m telling you a baby equals his mother, a guest equals the host.

8. S. (19:49) If the desire is built of a collection of desires and the intention is one intention on all parts. How does the intention connect to all the desires?

R. The intention unites, combines, or connects all the desires because you have seemingly one address, one in the receiver and one in the bestower, and that’s why it goes from the bestower to the receiver from the receiver to the bestower.

S. That’s many intentions that connect to one intention or it’s one intention for everyone?

R. Everyone, it’s not important it’s truly not important.

S. Why don’t desires connect but intentions can?

R. Desires cannot connect because a desire for bread is not like the desire for water and the desire for bitter is not like the desire for sweet, but the intention is to bring pleasure to something or someone. The intention can be one.

9. S. (21:27) What does it mean in the ten that one bestows and one receives? In what is that expressed?

R. It’s expressed in the action, but the intention has to be one otherwise it does not connect. The connection is not through the actions because in the actions we exist in this world, receiving and bestowing, physically let’s say receiving and giving. The main thing for us is the intention, what do we wish to attain, and we should all be connected in that.

S. What does it mean that I receive, what does it mean?

R. Let’s say there’s a country and in this country everyone wishes to bestow to the others and so each one receives something and to some extent bestows, so there’s no difference between people, everyone bestows and everyone receives as it is written, go and profit off of one another.

S. I don’t understand, what’s this difference between receiving and between giving, maybe I don’t need to understand?

R. You don’t need to know what it means to receive and what it means to bestow?

S. I do but I don’t know in what it is expressed, what does it mean that I…?

R. By receiving and by giving, Ask the friends they will explain to you.

10. S. (24:06) What desires can we adhere to the friends with our intention?

R. All the desires we cleave to the friends with our intention to do good to them and though them to the Creator

S. All my desires are still, vegetative, animate,

R. Why?

S. What other desires do I have?

R. To connect with the friends.

S. Is it a desire or an effort that I’m making? I don’t have any such desire.

R. I desire I wish to give pleasure to the Creator because in this case I resemble Him and I cleave to Him, I rise to His degree.

S. It’s not a desire to give contentment to the Creator it’s an intention.

R. Ahead of this intention start attaching the actions to it, what can I do in order to give pleasure to the Creator? For this I have to connect in the ten meaning I have to collect the ten, assemble it,  try to do everything in my power, it depends on me so that they will connect and this action I aim it at the Creator I dedicate it to the Creator.

11. S. (25:26) There are two friends who have desires who are in hatred, one towards the other, how can we build a connection in our intentions in such a state?

R. They have to rise to a higher degree where they can be connected because connection is the Creator.

S. He’s also asking in relation to the world. In the world we can see that there are desires which are so contradicting and resisting one another they want to destroy one another, so in such a state how can we bring to connection in intention?

R. If the attainment of the Creator is more important to me than all the other conditions then I come to connection.

S. For those who are studying the wisdom of Kabbalah you can say if the attainment of the Creator is more important to you then maybe there will be an ability to rise above the desire, but how can you say this to people in the world that they don’t have their own perception?

R. That’s something else.

S. He’s asking about that too.

R. We have to translate it to the language of the masses, to average language, normal language, that we have no other way to save ourselves from the end of the world, from all the blows, all the natural disasters unless we create between us a calm area between us, good relationships, mutual help, by that we calm those natural forces down and we’ll continue to live in a good world.

S. How do desires that want to destroy one another, how can they coexist?

R. They complete one another.

S. In what do they complete if they want to destroy one another?

R. Nature is set up in such a way that there’s no problem with the forces of nature but only a problem when a person doesn’t let them connect and complete one another. There’s nothing in nature that’s actually in opposition between one another it’s only us who cannot arrange the correct form of connection between them.

S. According to nature nothing is contradicting one another?

R. It depends on the person.

S. What creates this, that there’s so much contradiction between one and the other?

R. We do it.

S. How?

R. Us, the contradiction and opposition between us.

S. What do we do that it’s so…..?

R. The hate, rejection.

S. This is in control of a person to hate or not?

R. Yes, how? Do we need to keep love your friend as yourself?

12. S. (30:03) I have an example regarding the desire and the intention, it might help. For example, one has a desire to build buildings and I have a desire an inclination to write songs, poetry. The question is what is a person doing it for?

R. That’s clear.

S. If I build or write for honor then it’s one thing and if each and every one of us does it for everyone then it is he enjoys my songs and I enjoy his building.

R. Exactly.

13. S. (31:00) No translation

R. No, not seeing it with your eyes. The eyes do not belong to spirituality the heart is a container for the desire for all desires and so when we connect them to one desire to one heart now we begin to feel what we attain together.

S. Still I need to do my correction?

R. Yes.

14. S. (31:59) [no translation]

R. Talk about it among each other and you’ll see how you can connect with intention, with desire, with thought, and then you’ll understand one another better and you’ll come closer to one another. The most important is to depict that there is one common Creator among you.

15. S. (32:50) We in the ten we are different. Each one is individual, is different from one another, we can even have opposite desires to connect to the ten but we if we all cleave to one intention so through our desires we wish to bestow to the other.

R. Yes, that is a precise definition.

S. To such an extent that I and the friend can connect the ten even if our desires are opposite, but we share the same intention.

R. Yes.

S. We are learning the Zohar studying the Zohar. It’s clear the book is about love, all the Kabbalists books are about love, but this is probably a special book of love for the Creator, for the created beings. We’re going to finish the lesson and go to the world now and it turns out that we have to forget about it completely. I can’t do it, but also cannot continue it directly in our lives and the world. So why is it set up like that that you have to forget about everything and fall into your egoistic desires and only with them you can work in this world and with people and live like that.

R. The thing is we can only influence this world from the upper world, only the Creator. According to our order you could say, He will change the world but not that we ourselves do it directly, that’s why we need to think how through the Creator we can correct the world, but of course we ourselves won’t correct it.

S. We go out to the world every day and receive a certain charge from the lesson on the Zohar. What to do with it? It turns out that you can aim only to the ten what we achieved. You see the friends internally in the ten but you cannot aim at the world directly.

R. No, you can’t under no circumstances they won’t understand you and by that you will only harm the world. We have nothing to go out to the street with and with flags and saying we’re for love, it won’t help.

S. ……… relationships

R. No, there’s no need. You need to be like everyone, quiet calm, and loving peace, that’s it, and not to stand out in anything special.

16. S. (36:23) What do I need to add to my intention to reach bestowal? Intention, I understand that’s good I aim, but that’s how I reach bestowal only intentions in this world? Only with intention you can reach bestowal? What about the actions, physical?

R. If the intention is correct it will push you toward the physical action.

S. What is the most effective physical action to reach bestowal?

R. Connect to the others.

S. Can you explain what it means to connect to the others?

R. Recognize what they’re lacking and try to help them somehow.

S. To annul before him also?

R. Possibly, it’s not a question it’s recognizing the situation/

17. S. (37:27) You said that with one smile a baby can repay his mother for the 24 hours she invested in him. What smile can we give the Creator for his investment?

R. Well smile for me, come on.

S. I’m trying

R. I can see. If you do it like a baby from the bottom of his heart that is wagging his hands and feet and looking at his mother and looking at her like you don’t need more than that, you don’t need more than that. So let’s connect between each other and to the Creator like that same baby. All the best, a hug.