WEDNESDAY PRAYER: YESOD-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN

READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Wednesday

Following the Creator in the Desert

Morning Lesson February 06, 2023 Transcription

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

Part 2:

Follow the Creator in the Desert – Selected Excerpt from the Sources. #8

Reading Item #6, twice. (00:16) “After the fact, said Baal Hasulam,..”

Reading Item #7. (02:20) “It is written, that I shall come to pass..”

1. R. (03:55) Meaning before we feel any inclination to the Creator and turn to Him in some way, we need to understand that this is coming from Him, He made this for us. And this is how we need to feel that we are in His hands, as it is written, ‘I am the first, and I am the last.’ That the Creator always begins the work and we only feel the result of the work. That is why we are called creatures. It is not that once he created us, but every single moment, as it is written, ‘the one who renews the act of creation,’ every moment he creates us in some way opposite to Him, to think etc..

2. S. (05:04) How can a person, it says that a person is trying to be favored by the Creator, is humanity favored by the Creator or is it someone specific who does something?

R. I want to do something so that the Creator will take joy, either because He is great and rules everything, or because I depend on Him and who knows what He can do for me, to me, or maybe I simply want to cause Him, to bring Him contentment, or maybe He doesn’t even need to know about me, maybe not know about me. I just want Him, to be good for Him, to be good, to have good and that’s it.

And out of that I check myself, how much I arrange all of my actions and thoughts and desires in actions, in such a way that it is good and beneficial to the Creator. I can do these actions, that I as if to conceal myself, I don’t want the Creator to know about me, although I am not sure for certain if it is possible or not but I would want for the Creator to know about me, I just want to do good to Him. I feel that I received so much, so many good things from Him that I want to do good to Him. Maybe I want to do good to Him not because I received something good from Him but even because I didn’t receive good things or even received bad things but still I aim to give Him good. There are a lot of questions here but in essence they’re different states.

S. So that is not clear, it says that the Creator will bring him closer by giving him a desire to call Him the Creator. So there is no act that the Creator turns to everybody or is there somebody specific or a specific group that He will turn to?

R. The Creator wants to bring all of the people to scrutinies and corrections. First of all, to scrutinize, to clarify who I am, what am I, why am I, how am I connected to the forces of nature that are called the Creator, how does He influence me, how can I influence Him through the friends directly and so on. After a person makes these scrutinies, thoughts, desires, he understands that alone he cannot do anything and it is a wonder that the Creator has created it in such a way that through the breakage but he has prepared for us, he has prepared a vessel, an opportunity to connect mechanically in the mutual interdependence out of which we arrive to a spiritual connection.

S. So why Bnei Baruch? That it is not a big group or more sensitive than the rest of the world because you don’t have a lot of people who study Kabbalah; we have maybe 100,000, so why isn’t it the whole world..?

R. That doesn’t matter to me, that doesn’t matter to me, that I cannot speak for them or answer that. I have the Creator in my pocket. What can I say?

3. S. (10:10) Is the feeling of the desert, the beginning of the true connection with the Creator?

R. The feeling of the desert is already the feeling of the connection. It is the absence, the darkness, the uncorrected connection but it is already the sensation of the connection. Meaning that you have an opportunity to advance only in the degree that you connect. This is in essence a walk in the desert. You can take every step only to the degree that you connect with others. This is a huge help from the Creator, this is why I said, ‘walk after me in the desert.’

4. S. (11:11) Where is there a connection with the 10 here? It seems like I have a personal connection with the Creator, where is the 10? Or is there first a personal connection?

R. We always have to depict things that they belong and connect only to the 10, because without the 10, there is no calculation, we are not connected, no connection, nothing. Spirituality is a system that if there is no 10, there is no contact. There is no contact.

5. S. (12:15) What is the correct reaction to the action of the Creator and what does it mean to do good to the Creator?

R. The correct response to the Creator is giving gratitude constantly for each and everything. That is the right response. I’m constantly in gratitude. Along with that, I can be in a request that I want to come closer to him more and more, but still gratitude.

6. S. (13:10) no translation

R. There won’t be another state if you do not finish your current state. That is why you must see what is in you and what states you are going through, who you have to turn to and what you have to change. After it is clear to you what is happening with you, you can think of the next degree.

S. If the calculation was done and I did not receive it in happiness…

R. It’s okay, it’s okay you are learning, not too bad. The main thing is to learn. For the Creator you will always be like a child. You have nothing to be ashamed of. So try and learn and do not be ashamed of asking for him to forgive you. Show him that you understand your deeds.

7. S. (15:20) Without a sensation of love and goodness from the Creator, can a person somehow come to bestow to him?

R. No. No, we still have to yearn for love and bestowal and receiving for the benefit of bestowing. The Creator wants us to receive so I will receive. I just have to check if I am receiving it for myself or not.

S. You just answered to a friend that ‘Why does a person give to the Creator?’, maybe it’s not that I receive good from him but in order to bestow to him to give him benefit?

R. Yes, yes.

8. S. (16:25) We are two and a half weeks before the Congress. We receive a few communications from friends that their health condition does not allow them to be at the Congress physically and also our medical team has recommended that whoever his health doesn’t allow him should not come. The question is if someone participates virtually, will he attain less than someone attending physically in the desert?

R. We see from our studies, as much as the Creator is considerate in each and everyone’s state, in the private state of each and everyone. That is why I cannot tell a person that you can stay here or you have a note from the doctor. So do not come and so on. Me, myself I’m going to use all my forces to come and be there with everyone in the desert, in the Negev.

Let us hope that the conditions will be good and right. Let us hope that we will be able to withstand it. I think that our audience in the last 20 years has also aged in these last 20 years. This year we’re going in the winter to the desert for the last time. What will happen next year? The Creators is great! Let’s live and see. For the last time, what will happen next year? We are going to have to search for some other conditions that are more convenient, better that suit us. Not that we are searching for something convenient and comfortable, but the problem is that it can be dangerous for a person’s health so we shouldn’t do what we are not allowed to.

That is a transgression. If you put your health in danger the Creator gave you a body to live in, to take care of and from it you can reach Gmar Tikkun, the end of Correction. That is why this time there is nothing to do already. We are going to the desert, but I hope and I think that this will be the last time in the winter and in such conditions. Next time we have to think how we will do it, and not count on people that should have been thinking about it and warn us. I am not mixed here with the whole audience here that feels these things, but too bad.

This time we are already in the middle of the way and we cannot turn. That’s it, but next time I think that next winter we are not going to go to the desert, but it will either be in a different time, sometime between summer and winter and maybe a more convenient place a better place. We see that this place is not that cheap either and isn’t so unique. We will think. We will think, the people that are in charge have to invest a lot in this, especially that the people who prepare the place have to be a bit more concerned about the place. Here are these people, I guess are in a state that they do not care. They can be anywhere, in any state and that is not right. They can’t understand that the other people need different conditions.

S. (21:48) As far as you are concerned, you would make a change right now?

R. I don’t know if we can. I think we cannot change things, but to change it for the better, why not. I do not feel, at least me, I feel myself that I am not in the state that I can sleep like in the army, in some puddle that you lie in there and expect to get a bit warm from you. We are not in that state. That is why the action itself, to keep it brief it is incorrect and I think it is because our people that are taking care of it are not so alert about this.

S. The question is can this be corrected?

R. I don’t know the details. I don’t think you can bring all the men here because all the women will be here, even more than 200 right? They will not fit in this building, so that is not good. You cannot think like that. I don’t know what to do. Let us just go and do it as much as we can and let us hope in those days it’ll be warm and good and no rain and that we will warm each other up.

S. (23:57) Okay, you said that we are going to the desert and you are going full force that you are coming.

R. I am going without any other thoughts.

S. Okay, friends who feel that the conditions..

R. Whoever feels that it can be severe to him, so they have to stay at home. They have to live and not die, but I’m not going to give approvals to anybody. If you want to cover yourself with a note from the doctor, please go to the doctor not to me.

S. (24:47) From the spiritual perspective, is there some harm if I watch for my home if the conditions are not comfortable or my health does not allow?

R. There is a difference between a health state that comes from above or that I’m at home because it is warm and pleasant and that is why I’m staying. There is a difference so I cannot tell you what to do.

S. Thank you.

R. I also do not know what is happening with our friends from outside of Israel. I think in Israel everyone was in the army more or less and we were in all kinds of conditions as such. So, you know it stays for your whole life, that approach to go out in the field. But whoever comes from abroad and isn’t used to it, well we will warm them up. We will organize it for them.

S. (26:30) In the desert when we go out for a walk, what is the meaning of the walk?

R. Walking means walking, follow me in the desert.

S. What does it mean that a person feels fear, that the cause for it is that the Creator is Great?

R. There is a few different kinds of fear, let him read in the Zohar. There is the commandment of fear, there is fear of punishment of this world or the next World. There are all kinds of fear, so let him read about it.

9. S. (27:15) You said to a friend that a person can want to do good to the Creator even in such a way the Creator does not see. How can a person conceal his deeds from the Creator?

R. That’s called giving in concealment. Sometimes we interpret this, that a person does not know whether he is doing things correct and right for the Creator, but the fact that the Creator doesn’t know? That is hard to imagine, but by restriction, screen and reflected light we can perform things even towards the Creator. It is under the topic of ‘My sons have defeated me’.

S. If I have made the decision that I will not look towards the Creator, but only follow with what I decided to do for him.

R. Good, that is great.

10. S. (28:56) I wanted to ask about the entrance to the desert. I need to go there like a fight or like a fighter, like a warrior to attain or I have to go with annulment and annul myself before giving. How do I prepare myself for the entrance to the desert?

R. I come to the convention in order to incorporate with the center of the gathering and that is the only thing I’m thinking about, that I have to be adhered to in my Ten as much as it is there. I don’t know, maybe they are only there partially, maybe they are not there at all. I’m going to be adhered to the center of the convention and to constantly be adhered to them. It is an opportunity, a very special opportunity, rare. We got such an opportunity after a few years and who knows how many years ahead before we get the next one and we have to try together to be, just together into one group to adhere to one another and in such a way we go through the desert.

The main thing is for the desert, is to disconnect us from one another and even though we need to be more and more and more connected to one another. That is why when I come to the desert, I look where I can be the closest to everyone to everybody. Who do I want to live amongst. Who do I want to be amongst? That’s what I want to do? It is a very nice action. It is very special. We should not speak nonsense there or things that are ..no frivolity. We need the contrary. We need to hold each other, hug each other and in such a way continue and we will get good results. For sure. We have a great preparation.

11. S. (32:11) About the state that you have described that I only want to do good to the Creator without him knowing about me. Where is that mutual connection with the Creator?

R. In the center of the group.

12. S. (32:39) We are doing here a local Congress in Almaty. The question is, there are some friends that do not want to come to the local Congress, they say that they are connecting well virtually. How to relate to such an attitude from the friends?

R. I cannot say. Where will they be, in Almaty?

S. Yes, they are doing a local Congress for men and women and inviting all of that is nearby.

R. What can I say? Whatever you decide. Whatever you decide the way it should be, but it is better that we all get one opinion.

S. (33:41) He explained that they already made a decision, they are doing a congress in the area for all the people in the area and as I said understood there are some friends that just despite everyone that are gathering for a physical Congress, they prefer to remain alone in their home and connect virtually because in the connection, in the virtual connection they can feel they can attain the same or more and so on and this is what Yarganat is speaking about. What is your opinion?

R. Let us imagine a state where there is no connection with the world BB, what is happening in Petach Tikva and all together let us say that there is no internet, no connection between everyone. So then obviously in such a way there is a tendency for all the groups in the state that they are in, to connect together in the borders of their State and their Country. That is why I think that should be done first. You have to feel that you have a State, a border where you are connected and you have a mutual language, a common place, a common account. Things that hold you together as a family. I really recommend doing that and then it will be a lot more secure and good and not like now that they think this and they think that.

13. S. (35:50) What does that saying, ‘Center of the Congress’?

R. I don’t understand.

S. You said that we constantly have to search for the center of the Congress. What is that center?

R. What does he mean, I do not know.

S. What is the center of the Congress? You said that we are arriving to be in the center of the Congress. What is the center of the Congress?

R. Well that’s simple. We have groups that in our eyes, they are called the fundamental groups, the central groups, that represent the convention and the management and so on. That is how we come in.

S. When I come to the Congress and I am at the Congress what do I need to think about? What do I need to search?

R. You need to search for your ten and through the ten how you come close and connect to the whole Congress, the whole convention. That’s what I think.

14. S. (37:23) About what you just mentioned, to connect with your Ten, many friends who will be a part of a Ten that is in a different place some will stay physically and someone will fly to Israel what does it mean to search your Ten?

R. If I do not have a Ten at that place or part of it so I connect to everybody meaning everyone

S. Meaning everyone has to connect to this central focus point, the global Bnei Baruch or to the friends that they’re in the virtual room or in the physical?

R. Virtual room is not connected. First I have to be as much as I can close and connected to my friends during the year, and then through them I connect to the Convention. In the year and through the …. I connect with the friends that I stay with throughout the year

S. Meaning no matter where I sit, I connect with those friends who I sit with throughout the year and through them.

R Yes, but let’s say that none of them come to the convention so I don’t connect to them. I have to connect physically to other people that are next to me.

R. You studied enough articles and excerpts that from this you can feel where your place is where you have to be adhered to and the idea of the convention in order to reach the center of its connection and in such a way, connect everyone. That’s something you have to feel already.

15. S. (39:44) I want to ask you about the inner desert. I was thinking when I just came to Kabbalah that I am the desert and just two or three years, I was drinking non-stop and now we are entering this desert and it seems as desert it makes me alive so it is so important so how do we awaken this inner desert so it awakens the thirst for this connection?

R. First you have to hug and come closer to one another and when you are even a bit with some accumulation of potential forces , forces between you, then you will start feeling the emptiness in you and acknowledge it and filling it, bring it to life ,to such an extent that you will feel that you exist inside you in the connection between you that is what has to be.

S. I am very impressed by the Zohar lesson. We spoke about fear which is the entrance. Tell me please we are at the footstep of this Congress so we need to ask for this fear? because everything is the hands of the Creator other than the fear of him?

R. Of course, we already talked about it.

16. S. (41:52) I wanted to get back to the topic of virtual and physical Congress. The question in relation and attitude, there are friends that say they’re more comfortable at home that if they arrive physically they can say something wrong. There are many distracting factors but at home they can pray more, they can include themselves in the Congress more, do things more correctly. The question is how to relate to it in the most appropriate way that I really justify to the friend or that I feel that there is something wrong about it and I have to pray and ask?

R. None of us wants to feel uncomfortable. We all like that everything is ready and convenient. You’re doing what you like or what you need to do and advancing easily. Everything happens and happiness and friendship and with songs and so on drink something, I eat with the guys I think with them, at home you cannot really do all this. You can but it is very limited so I don’t understand people that want to be under home, I understand that I like sitting at home, but the fact that they prefer instead of going to the Congress the desert to a convenient place, they prefer to stay at home and it convenient warm place,they’re missing out big time. I don’t recommend doing that.