SUNDAY PRAYER: GEVURAH-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN

READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Sunday

Patience and Persistence

Patience and Persistence – Selected Excerpts From the Sources

1. Baal HaSulam, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

The wisdom of Kabbalah: It requires great sages who examine their hearts and study it for twenty or thirty years. Only then will they be able to testify to it. […] For the wisdom is deep and cannot be revealed by testimony or by experimentation except to those believers who dedicate themselves to it with heart and soul.

2. Baal HaSulam, “The Quality of the Wisdom of the Hidden in General“

When one is insufficiently developed, one cannot wait for the payment very long, and chooses works with instantaneous reward, even if for a lower price. A more developed person might wait and choose works that pay better, even if the payment comes after a very long time. Know that this is the standard for the sages, for it depends on the material development of each one, and anyone who can prolong the repayment can get a bigger reward.

3. Baal HaSulam, “One Commandment“

The focal point in the work of the Creator is the first footing.

4. Baal HaSulam, “One Commandment”

It is hopeless to wait for a time when a solution is found that enables one to begin the work of the Creator in Lishma. As in the past, so is now, and so will it be: Every servant of the Creator must begin the work in Lo Lishma, and from that achieve Lishma.

The way to achieve this degree is not limited by time, but by his qualifiers, and by the measure of one’s control over one’s heart. Hence, many have fallen and will fall in the field of working Lo Lishma, and will die without wisdom. Yet, their reward is nevertheless great, since one’s mind cannot appreciate the true merit and value of bringing contentment to one’s Maker. Even if one works not under this condition, since one is not worthy of another way, one still brings contentment to one’s Maker. This is called “unintentionally.”

5. RABASH, Assorted Notes. Article No. 118, “Except for “Leave”

Man is but a guest, and the Creator is the Host. It is known that our sages said, “Anything that the landlord tells you, do,” for so is the custom, “except for ‘Leave!’” This is so because when one leaves the domain of the landlord, he is no longer his host, so as to listen to His voice.

6. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 187, “Choosing Labor”

A person cannot decide either way, when one cannot determine the Creator’s will and the will of his teacher. Although one can work devotedly, he is unable to determine if this devoted work is appropriate or not, that this hard work would be against his teacher’s view, and the view of the Creator.

To determine, one chooses that which adds labor. This means that one should act according to one’s teacher. Only labor is for man to do, and nothing else. Hence, there is no place for doubt in one’s actions and thoughts and words. Instead, he should always increase labor.

7. Likutey Moharan, Last Edition, Mark 48

The work of the Creator requires great persistence, whatever happens to him. Remember this well for you will need it very much as you begin the work of the Creator. It requires great tenacity, and to be strong and brave, to brace oneself and stand still, even if you are dropped down every time. You must not allow yourself to fall off altogether, for it is necessary to experience all those falls, descents, and confusions prior to entering the gates of Kedusha [holiness], and the true righteous, too, have gone through all of it. Know that man must cross a very, very narrow bridge, and the rule and the most important thing is not to be afraid at all.

8. Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot”, No. 133

It is like a king who wished to select for himself the most loyal of his subjects in the country and bring them to work inside his palace. What did he do? He issued a decree that anyone who wished, young or old, would come to his palace to engage in the works inside his palace.

However, he appointed many of his servants to guard the palace gate and all the roads leading to it, and ordered them to cunningly deflect all those nearing his palace and divert them from the way that leads to the palace.

Naturally, all the people in the country began to run to the king’s palace. But the diligent guards cunningly rejected them. Many of them overpowered them and came near the palace gate, but the guards at the gate were the most diligent, and if someone approached the gate, they diverted him and turned him away with great craftiness until one despaired and returned as he had come.

And so they came and went, and regained strength, and came and went again, and so on and so forth for several days and years until they grew weary of trying. Only the mighty ones among them, whose patience endured, defeated the guards and opened the gate. And they were instantly awarded seeing the king’s face, who appointed each of them in his right place.

9. RABASH, Article No. 22 (1989), “Why Are Four Questions Asked Specifically on Passover Night?”

Reason dictates that each day he should advance and move forward. Yet, he sees that it is actually the complete opposite—each day he is regressing. Thus, reason makes him say, “This work of going in bestowal is not for me. Rather, it is work for a chosen few.” He understands that he would be better off escaping the campaign.

And what is he told? That he should once again go with faith above reason and disregard what reason compels him to do. As it is written in the essay “Faith in His Rav” (1943), one cannot see his true state. Instead, he should go above reason, and only in this way can we reach the goal and be rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator.

10. RABASH, Article No. 34 (1991), “What Is Eating Their Fruits in This World and Keeping the Principal for the Next World”, in the Work

Only those who say that they want to escape from the work but have nowhere else to go, since nothing satisfies them, those people do not walk out from the work. Although they have ups and downs, they do not give up. This is as it is written, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work, and they cried, and their cry went up to God from the work.” In other words, they cried out from the work because they were not advancing in the work of the Creator, so they could work in order to bestow contentment upon the Maker. At that time, they were rewarded with the exodus from Egypt. In the work, this is called “emerging from the control of the will to receive and entry into the work of bestowal.”