TUESDAY PRAYER: YESOD-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT AND DAWN TUESDAY
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to the Book of Zohar, item
Morning Lesson January 15, 2023 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. #50
Reading Item #50 (00:17): “Indeed you should know that…”
1 R. (02:42) I have nothing to say if you don’t ask, it is all clear here, he simply explains to us the whole matter from the bottom to the top.
2. S. (03:02) When a person raises MAN he awakens the upper forces, private forces, for example the Partzuf of AVI and Arich Anpin?
R. Yes he can’t raise anything besides his personal deficiencies but to the extent that they are Incorporated in the general deficiency.
S. Yeah but I’m asking about the upper Partzufim. What he awakens is AVI of the entire system or AVI of his private…
R. This doesn’t matter, it’s all Incorporated, both his personal AVI are incorporated in the general Abba ve Ima.
3. S. (04:10) How do the lights that are even higher reveal in the world that is so low, for example Assiya has the light of Nefesh but how does the Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida lights show up there?
R. This means that if we awaken some upper source we awaken it from scratch, from scratch, that is why it can answer our deficiencies in whatever place we are.
S. But how, in the low world, can you feel the upper light?
R. Only according to the degree, according to the differentiation meaning to the extent that these degrees are passing the lights diminishing them and you already feel them according to your degree.
S. Is it possible to depict in some way the feeling of lights in the world? What is it that five different lights are in one world?
R. You cannot feel anything spiritual, meaning to receive a spiritual attainment if it’s not incorporated from KHB ZON of the vessels and NRNHY of the lights whatever happens and that is it. This is why you have no choice but to walk forward and forward and forward until you activate NRNHY of the vessels meaning KHB ZON of the vessels and NRNHY of the lights even the smallest light.
S. Is it possible that in the world of Assiya the first three lights will be felt and with more effort he will be able to feel more lights another time?
R. Yes, yes.
S. So there is no wholeness in this?
R. Relative wholeness.
S. You mean a person will feel wholeness even though he doesn’t feel all the lights?
R. Yes, of course. How is it possible for you to be in the world of Assiya and feel wholeness? You feel your own wholeness but at the same time it’s clear to you it’s not yet wholeness.
4. S. (07:23) Sometimes when I’m connected with the friends in the ten I feel that I love them, I feel close to them and opposite that, the friends from outside of the ten I feel repulsion and sometimes even hatred, I cannot accept them inside of me. Is this a beginning of the spiritual degree or does it mean that I’m not working correctly?
R. This is the beginning of the feeling of the spiritual work that you have to invest, you must invest love, meaning to invest forces in order to be connected to everyone but certainly there is a differentiation here between your love to the group, which is your soul, your true soul and between that and the other friends for the whole world vessel that you nonetheless should see them as being along with you in the same vessel supporting you and you have to support them. For instance this evening we will be seeing each other, we will see everyone through the internet, hundreds even thousands of friends from all over the world and we have to depict them as truly standing in our hearts and our spiritual heart is incorporated of all these friends emotions, this is my heart. If I don’t have a feeling that all these friends are connected in one desire for one goal, all of us together, supporting each other, tying each other together then I don’t have a spiritual heart. I do not.
5. S. (09:55) We do this in the ten this inclusion with the world vessel?
R. It’s better if it’s through the ten and sometimes I hear that it disturbs the friends to be devoted to a ten and to be devoted to the world Kli but you have to try both. The heart expands and starts to reorganize with the correct vessels so don’t be afraid that you are losing something or not, the main thing is that you work, you go through as many beatings of the heart as you can.
6. S. (10:50) You said that in any case you have to receive the five vessels of the KHB ZON and NRNHY lights. How does a Kabbalist feel this for the first time?
R. I can’t tell you, it’s a feeling. The feeling is something that I cannot convey, we can only talk about the vessels of the feeling but not the lights of the feeling.
S. Okay the vessels. If we’re talking about only the vessels, what does it mean that he feels these five vessels as one package?
R. That he wants to connect to everyone together in the way that he loses himself in them, Disappears in them.
7. S. (12:02) Am I always going to determine which lights are passing through me?
R. I don’t understand his question.
S. Am I always going to determine which lights to shoot through need?
Translator: The last words are not clear.
R. Okay, we will move forward.
8. S. (12:47) There are a few friends in the ten that don’t want or can’t wake up to the lesson. Does it hold the entire ten from reaching a complete and whole heart?
R. Yes but not always does it really detain you or stop you it depends on the state they are in. You should still keep on going.
S. How to do it even though it appears that not everyone is together, how to still arrive at this connection?
R. As much as you can. Some groups are bigger and some groups are smaller but the ones who are there should take upon themselves now to be a complete vessel.
9. S. (13:53) We said that it is important to go through as many beats of the heart, I want to ask what are the beats of the heart?
R. Excitements, excitements.
10. S. (14:27) Are we able to draw the light and see ourselves as small and do the friends need to see themselves as the smallest of all?
R. Yes. For connection the best thing is to see oneself the lowest of everyone, if you look from above downwards and when talking about from the inside and out so the most external one, embracing everyone from the outside and I am in the bottom, the lowest of them all. This is so as if I’m holding everyone, it’s like a cup. That is how I hold everyone. It is better to depict the place of work in the 10 this way.
11. S. (15:43) I want to share with you a sensation of today’s lesson, as if I released my reason, my mind and the stress. I am not chasing to understand anything but I am just in big gratitude for the Creator for the light that my friends are receiving and I take great joy in this and pray of course for the whole world. What is that?
R. Continue this way.
Reading Item #51 twice (16:46): “Now, that repentance and purification…”
12. R. (21:33) This means that until a person receives all the degrees of NRNHY that are suitable for his vessels it is not considered to be corrected.
Reader continues (21:47): “Thus as we have said if one purifies…”
13. R. (25:32) That belongs to that same desire.
14. S. (25:38) Correction of my intention in the 10 means correction of the part of the world of the still of Assiya or can it not be measured as such?
R. Your Domem, you’re still part, that is being corrected in the world of Assiya and also the rest of the lights you get through these correction through the still, vegetative, animate of the world of Assiya, meaning it’s not only the still part in you that is corrected but rather also all the rest of the parts but in the extent that belongs to them, the still part of them.
15. S. (26:33) What is the still part of the desire to receive?
R. It is the part that is not flexible, that is not, which cannot take upon itself different forms but rather the way it is that is what sustains it, keeps it the same and it is irreplaceable.
S. And in each degree there is a still part of the desire to receive?
R. Yes, that is correct.
16. S. (27:27) What we read in the second excerpt does it mean that the person has reached the level of necessity of in order to bestow?
R. No, first of all it doesn’t have the strength to bestow if he’s in the still level.
17. S. (28:04) What does it mean to correct all the time and not all the time?
R. It means he doesn’t return to folly, he doesn’t fall from his degree but rather he can merit the state that he will not go less than that. The upper light illuminates in him in a permanent way and so it won’t let him fall.
S. There is a certain level of connection and minimal level of connection?
R. You are right it depends on the level of connection between the friends.
S. But practically in the ten we have our work in the ten and we just don’t fall from it ever? There is something that is in the background behind everything that happens in life?
R. You raise your degree of connection above all the different states of the doubts.
S. And this is called the first degree where we attain Malchut of the world of Assiya?
R. Yes, the Creator agrees with you and illuminates on you with his light and that’s why you cannot fall from your degree downwards because the upper light already shines on them to that extent.
18. S. (29:40) What is the essential difference in the way of correction of the still versus the vessels of Ruach, Neshama, Haya and Yechida?
R. The still doesn’t know. It maintains its place, its status. The main thing for him is to not lose his state, that is called still. and this is a very important degree because then it can be a foundation of every state.
S. The correction of the vessel Ruach Neshama, Haya and Yechida is…?
R. They change, rise, fall but they change but the still you have to maintain it permanently.
S. The correction of these vessels strengthen the correction of the still?
R. Yes of course they’re all connected to each other.
19. S. (30:55) We study that at the bottom there are desires of sex, family. Do we also need to correct these desires?
R. The main thing is the connection between the friends. The main thing is the connection between the friends and if that is organized properly it will guard you from all the different connections and the states,
S. If I can add, if there is a desire that I have to do something with these desires?
R. For example?
S. For example, if there is a desire for food, whatever I nourish my body, what if I have a feeling that I have to do something with it?
R. Think about it, it’s clear this degree gives the foundation to all the rest just as in our world the still is the basis for the whole world.
20. S. (32:35) Bestowing in order to bestow is the degree of still that awakens outside of it?
R. Bestowing in order to bestow is the still level, yes. And?
S. And it awakens only externally either from below or above?
R. This I don’t understand.
S. Meaning he gets the deficiencies only from outside of it?
R. No. Deficiencies of his own awaken in him that help him build other states, higher states.
21. S. (33:26) Are we able to ignore something, one of the desires like sex, family and food or..
R. They can be together, they support each other, help each other.
22. S. (33:54) Can you please explain who or what is the known of all mysteries and what does he know?
R. That’s something we don’t know how to explain now. He knows mysteries, he will testify, he will not return to folly. This belongs to higher degrees, we’ll come to that and we’ll understand. But it’s good then we remember this sentence, it will give us later an explanation.
23. S. (34:48) When it comes to equivalence of form the first one he mentions here after that the prayer disappears, there’s nothing to pray for. How do we keep the prayer, how do we hold onto it?
R. Don’t worry about the deficiencies. According to the vessels a person has the deficiencies will appear him and he’ll have to correct them. For this there is a concern above that comes from the light that reforms.
S. But this deficiencies that awaken it feels like it’s rude.
R. That’s not your business. It’s the upper one who awakens all kind of deficiencies in you and you have to care about correcting them.
S. To simply continue in prayer regardless?
R. What else? You should say I don’t want to do that, I don’t think that’s right?
S. Not that it’s out of place but it seems that you receive from the Creator that degree of certainty and then you come and demand more things like it’s not enough?
R. You have to be thankful for all the deficiencies the Creator opens in you so you can rise to Him.
S. How is it possible to be grateful and be in demand at the same time?
R. It’s the same, it goes together, both when you discover the deficiencies and raising requests to the Creator.
24. S. (36:32) Are those desires of the still, vegetative, and animate the same desires or do they awaken new desires that we correct?
R. There are no new desires, everything has been established with the shattering of the vessel of Adam HaRishon that’s what is corrected through us in the correction.
Reading Item (37:20) #52 “After he permanently purifies the vegetative part of…”
25. R. (38:44) Meaning there’s a matter here that if we attain part of these degrees of the correction we already understand, feel and know how to be established in the whole degree of the desire: still, animate, vegetative and speaking.
Reading (39:10) #53 “After he purifies the animate part of his will to receive, and turns it into a desire to bestow, “until He who knows…”
26. R. (39:46) Meaning according with the same mechanics that was there before.
Reading #53 continues… “he can rise up to the Sefira Hochma and receive the light….”
27. R. (40:10) But in between he already receives something.
Reading #53 continues
28. R. (40:37) But still he attains something as well from this world.
Reading (40:34) #54 “When one is rewarded with permanent purification of the speaking part in his will to receive…”
29. R. (41:11) Because we don’t understand, we don’t feel, we’re not in these vessels yet. They’re vessels from a different world, from a different reality and that’s why he doesn’t want to expand about that.
30. S. (41:32) Can you explain this matter of in the Kabbalist there’s a part that is permanently corrected because we always hear all these stories about the Kabbalists who lost everything like Rabbi Shimon from the market, etc. So what’s left?
R. Apparently what they write they write, that it’s correct. But here we speak about the permanent degrees, that a person rises in them and in between all of these he has ascents and descents, that he loses all of his degrees for some time, that he doesn’t know where he is.
S. That’s what I’m asking, what does it mean to lose all the degrees for awhile if the part was permanently corrected?
R. I don’t know but apparently this corrects permanence and this corrects where he loses it for some time and one doesn’t have to do with the other.
S. We also hear that sometimes they request and say that it’s good to forget everything.
R. What I’m reading you’re also reading. We need to try to attain and not to search for answers with which you clog the question. So I’m wishing for you to live more and more with these questions and the more you’re going to be restless it’s going to help you.
31. S. (43:21) I can’t understand why I need to know all these details here, how does that help me?
R. Don’t know, so you don’t need to know. Time will come where you’ll fall into these states or rise into them and you’ll want to know, and you will find this place, this spot in the book and you’ll find.
S. How do these things help the heart’s correction?
R. Surrounding light, surrounding light that we read about in the books. Together everyone reads about it and we don’t understand and we’re confused but we yearn for that. This awakens on us the surrounding lights. You remember what is written? You remember? No. Where is it written?
S. Item 155 in the Introduction to TES.
R. Item 155, right. Read it well, it’s worthwhile for us to read about all of these things, maybe even several times because that too where you read and don’t understand anything it awakens upon you the surrounding lights and then you come closer to solving this.
S. But even it I don’t feel it along with everyone else that also helps?
R. Be sorry for that as well and receive the surrounding light for that as well and through that also come closer to everyone, yes. This is how it is, there’s nothing to do, this is our life.
32. S. (45:28) Sometimes there are moments in the ten that you feel how we’re connecting, dissolving. How not to return to our mistakes?
R. It is impossible, there is none as wise as the experienced one. I cannot say about myself that I’m never going to make mistakes, I’m not going to fall, I’m going to be strong, I’m going to guard myself. What? The opposite, never believe in yourself until the day you die.
S. So accordingly what does it mean that there’s a degree that’s permanently there?
R. It’s said you are guarded from above not that you guard yourself but from above they guard you. See what he writes, that with all the states that you’re guarding yourselves, in the study, with the friends, but no, that you can’t the next minute open yourself for nothing on one hand. But the group can guard and keep everyone and if somebody falls that means the group didn’t guard him, didn’t safe-keep him.
33. S. (47:05) How is it possible to define every degree? For example the still is the second nature, vegetative with respect to the friends. Can I give them these names?
R. No, it’s better not to say it like that, we just want to be connected to the spiritual degrees.
34. S. (47:42) The process that’s described here that the vessels are not yet purified and then they receive higher lights in a temporary way, is that the action of AHP of Assiya that tries to elevate us or is that a different process?
R. I didn’t understand.
S. The move by which the vessels that are not yet worthy for higher degrees are getting lights from above. Is that the process of AHP of Assiya that’s trying to pull us upwards?
R. Of course, there’s no descent there’s only ascent and for the sakes of ascent we get the sense and the feeling of descent. This is the addition of vessels.
Reading (48:37) # 55 “Thus, we have clarified what we asked in Item 1, Why does man need all the upper worlds, which the Creator….”
35. R. (50:29) It’s written beautifully. No questions, okay, so we’ll continue.
Reading (50:45) #56 “56 “You should know that all the NRNHY we have spoken of thus far are the five parts by which the whole of reality is….”
36. S. (52:42) He’s talking about here about the smallest part of reality, what is that?
R. Louder.
S. He’s talking here in this item about the smallest part of reality, what is that?
R. The smallest desire that’s going to be corrected, it has to be included from the five desires. Those are the laws of nature that the entire nature is connected and divided in sections.
Reading (53:31) #57 “Now you can understand the aridity and the darkness that have befallen us in this generation, such as we have…”
37. R. (55:43) Because he feels and senses how much we lose by not walking in the right, straight path. The attainment of the worlds, the completion, the wholeness and everything that is in nature. It is impossible to even explain to a person, the average person what he misses out on.
38. S. (56:18) You said that the ten is our basic spirit. What happens if one does not have a ten in the physical world?
R. However much there is, the multitude of many is two. There are a few people, they can be connected in order to reach the goal, to reveal the goal. Let them connect and attain, connect and attain. I promise that the quantity doesn’t matter, it could be less than ten. If they want, if they desire it will happen.
39. S. (57:21) The ones who engage in the internality of Torah, this refers to all those who engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah and yearn to reveal the Creator or it’s only about those who have attained already?
R. No, no, those who handle, they study, they connect as much as possible and this is how it happens for them.
40. S. (58:04) There is a turn here in the way Baal HaSulam writes because he started from researching about big questions and essence and he gave us things that are really like a key to how to read the Zohar. Suddenly here it’s like he takes us to current affairs, meaning our state and this sorrow that he cannot elaborate. How to cling to the writer in this twist?
R. What here doesn’t seem to you so reasonable or logical that he does? He explained to you all the internal things and after you are familiar with them, you heard them he now pulls you into your corporeal life to show you that you are not using what you have in society, in the family, in yourself, in everything in order to reach the spiritual degree.
S. As if this connection he does here. We were in a place that he explains about things that I don’t..
R. You were in the story.
S. Yes, and suddenly…
R. And now it’s in your face, yes.
S. So what’s the right attitude for me?
R. That you understand how you need to rise and appreciate the group, the study, the states that you’re going through. Try, try to do that more and more.
S. Should I feel a bit of the sorrow of Baal HaSulam, what he writes here?
R. Of course this is how, I always want to be adhered to the composer, to the writer.
41. S. (01:00:12) What is the role of the ones who distance themselves from the internality of the Torah?
R. They come to study Torah but they study the externality of the Torah that talks about the life and order of life in our world and not the internality of the Torah that speaks about the actions of the Creator within nature, in the depth of nature and within people, within our souls. And this is why they take from the Torah only the externality and not the internality.
S. What’s the need for them in the system?
R. For now they’re working on this. Even in the internality of the system there aren’t too many people who are jumping and wanting and are drawn to the internality of the Torah, to the revelation of the Creator, to the connection in love of others, to attaining the upper force.
S. So the ones who distance themselves from the internality of the Torah how do they add to the correction?
R. They have received a desire from about to come to the Torah but instead of the inner part of it they chose the externality.
S. Why does Baal HaSulam depend…
R. No, no, he doesn’t hang it on them, he doesn’t depend it, on them but he’s showing that they misuse it.
S. So why doesn’t he write about the ones who do engage in the internality of the Torah and as you mentioned before they don’t jump or yearn for attainment?
R. This is the outcome all in all from the upper light that shines and influences all of reality, the external Torah studiers, the internal, the close, the far. What can you do? This is the state for now. The face of the generation is like the face of the dog.
42. S. (01:02:40) It says here that you can’t explain to a simple person what he’s missing. We too, your students we don’t understand what we’re missing with respect to the upper world. How to get these emotions of the upper world?
R. Look, with all the efforts that I’m doing apparently I’m weak with my explanation. Rabash, Baal HaSulam they make efforts to talk about that, to speak about that but apparently that doesn’t influence our generation. I don’t know what to do. Try to warm up, to feel one another, to get excited from one another. I don’t know, I understand it’s missing, I spoke to Rabash and he said missing intention, missing pain, missing desire. If there is no desire what can you do? If you take some still and you put it on the table so it’s still and it doesn’t move until some external force comes and acts on it and move it from its place.
The same with a person, he doesn’t move, not in the mind, not in the heart, not physically. And so each and everyone as much as he needs to move, to keep himself at rest this is our nature. I am prepared to accept a pill to sleep a week and I’m not aware that I’m missing a week, rather I will sleep and so on. Meaning there is a huge problem how to awaken ourselves and here it is only through envy, lust and honor where everyone helps his friend, where he acts that even though he doesn’t have, how much he wants to reach spirituality, to reveal the Creator, to be included with Him, Otherwise we’re just alive, alive, dead, dead, and that’s a problem. So let’s not allow any one of us to die.
43. S. (01:06:02) Must we have attainment in order to understand the Zohar completely?
R. Yes, if we want to understand the Zohar completely, in a complete and whole way we need to reach all of the 125 degrees, the end of the ladder, yes.
44. S. (01:06:44) How can we follow the Creator’s path, the internality of the Torah if we don’t have this if there is no person that we can see. We gladly have someone but what do those who do not have, what can they do?
R. There is no such thing. A person always has friends, some event, occasion, something. Each and everyone receives some awakening. it is like, it is like in the donkey driver that he hits them and this is how they move.
S. In our small group we see that this is how it is but in general, not even the world but in Israel we see the deception, the mistakes, the way people will go because there is no one to lead them. What can they do?
R. We need to do whatever we can, whatever is possible, whatever the Creator allows us to do and we will leave the wand with Him.
S. The Creator?
R. Yes.
S. But until he helps what can they do?
R. I’m not responsible for Him, He is the upper force and not me and I don’t need to understand why it is like this or any other way.
S. That’s true but he gave the ones who understand, he let them lead the people. So how can that happen, that’s something I don’t really understand?
R. Through that each and every one of us awakens the Creator, awakens the upper force, awakens himself and in this way we awaken and we are close to that.
S. So it all depends on us?
R. Of course it depends on us. Understand that if we have today in the lesson, the daily lesson almost 6,000 people or even more come out right, how many?
S. 1,600?
R. In the lesson, from 4 to 6,000. Where were you able to think or dream about it a few years ago?
S. Tonight we’re going to have a great night with thousands of people. How much can that help the whole world that are like blind people, to lead them?
R. As much as you pray to the Creator, you and your friends, that He answers to what we asked of Him in our heart.
45. S. (01:10:36) In the text it says repentance needs to be permanent which means we don’t go back to our follies. Later on he says purity does not need to be permanent. What does this mean?
R. We will continue and then then we’ll see what it is. I don’t know what it means full repentance, I haven’t reached it. I teach you however much I understand and you continue even further and attain more.
S. I didn’t mean repentance, later on he says purity does not need to be permanent. That’s what I didn’t understand.
R. Yes, everything has to be in change, this is for sure.
46. S. (01:11:48) Where can a normal person find some kind of clue in his life that he should engage in spiritual work? For us it’s clear, we have been awakened, we were brought to the group and it’s clear that the Creator wants us to serve Him. But for a simple person he gave birth to children, that’s the meaning of my life.
R. He upholds himself on the degree of the animate, he cares about himself, about his offspring and with that he finishes his purpose in life. There’s not much to demand, there’s nothing to demand but according to how much he awakens, how much he is awakened from above. I have no claim against anyone I only want to bring anyone the ability to realize their life. To whatever degree they hear, let them hear, to whatever degree they can realize spiritually, emotionally let them realize. This is what we need to help each other with. In this we really are expressing our love to each and every person in the world. Okay friends, we by that will end the lesson.
47. R. (01:13:27) What do we have today?
S. We have a Unity Evening. A lot of content and thousands of people from the whole world Kli will connect at 6:00 p.m. till 8:45. We’re going to have two very big physical connections in the center and there will be a question about our preparation. Maybe you can gather us together for the preparation for this evening?
R. No, I don’t want to be a babysitter, I don’t want to be your babysitter. I want you on your own to speak between you, to connect. Maybe you want to ask me and tell me what needs to be my part in such an evening. I’m ready to hear and maybe fulfill but not that I care for you and explain to you what to do. Search among yourselves. The friends meet together and in the conversation between them suggest each to the others what to do. So good luck, make the decisions and I’m welcome, I’ve been invited, I’ve been invited for the questions.