TUESDAY PRAYER: NETZACH-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Tuesday
Baal HaSulam. The Love of God and the Love of Man
Morning Lesson April 16, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. The Love of God and the Love of Man
Reading (00:33 – 02:44) “Love your friend as yourself Rabbi Akiva says this is the great rule in the Torah…”
Reading (03:03 – 05:31) “If we can somehow reconcile the above words, there come the words of Old Hillel to that foreigner who came to…”
1 S. (05:38) How can we work with these two instructions, “that which you don’t want done to be done to yourself, don’t do to the others” and “love your friend as yourself”?
R. Repeat?
S. What can we take from this piece here as far as our work: that which you hate don’t do to your friends, can we work with that?
R. Well of course we can, we need to see to what extent he, relying on his predecessor’s Baal HaSulam, his words are counted Hillel and other people, and they all interpret ‘love your friend as yourself’, which is the general law of all the reality.
S. So, if I understand correctly he says that, well actually, what’s the difference between ‘that which you hate don’t do to your friend’ and ‘love your friend as thyself’?
R. The difference?
S. Yes.
R. I didn’t understand the question.
S. Is it this one first and the other one later? How do you work with these instructions? There are like two different instructions: that which you hate don’t do to your friend, and love your friend as thyself in our work?
R. Surely first hatred, you need to sustain, to uproot it from yourself to reach love.
S. So, let’s scrutinize this matter of uprooting the hatred for myself: what does my friend hate that I have to not to do to him?
R. I don’t know, it doesn’t say this one.
S. What I hate I should not do to my friend?
R. This is when you see how much you hate things, you should believe that your friend is in the same state just like you, and that is why you shouldn’t do those things to your friends.
S. What does he mean here, what is it, ‘that I hate’, how to interpret it correctly for us in our ten, in our advancement?
R. You are told simply, you don’t know what good and bad is, what they are, where is where does that happen? So you don’t know what good and bad means but what you feel according to what you have done, what is done unto you and you don’t see to be something good, you’re suffering, so don’t do the same thing to your friend.
S. But in what should I interpret this? We also say this to the children in this sentence ‘what you don’t like, don’t do to the others’, also for us?
R. It’s correct, correct, that’s clear according to the will to receive of each and everyone, for that you don’t need to raise the spiritual degrees.
S. What does he mean, what are we talking about: I don’t like coffee with sugar, my friend does like coffee with sugar, what I bring him coffee with sugar, not coffee without sugar like I love because I hate coffee with sugar but I will bring him coffee with sugar, is this what we’re talking about?
R. We’re talking about if you love something, you should examine it. Does your friend also not like it?
S. And if he’s opposite?
R. And if he loves the opposite then you should learn that’s what he loves, so you should relate to the opposite.
S. So again the question comes: what is ‘that what you hate, don’t do to your friend’?
R. That’s what you don’t like, what does bad to you, you shouldn’t do something bad to your friends in all the ways that are related to him, to his friend.
S. What is hated by me?
R. You should examine, how should I know, all kinds of things, you go by your flavor.
S. Okay, because then what happens is, let’s say, in the practical work in the ten, each actually brings his flavor, his color, you know, according to his taste.
R. But each one should examine himself with respect to the friend.
S. So he feels himself, he feels what I hate, let’s say for example work in the ten: I like when we do workshops, another friend doesn’t like when we do workshops. When I’m on duty, we do workshops, when he’s on duty we only read the sources all the time.
R. Yes?
S. So, I’m saying reading sources is not loved by me only but I do love to do worship, so I am constantly doing workshops.
R. Yes.
S. So according to what, should I go?
R. The way you like doing what is pleasant to you, you should see your friends that enjoy the actions that he enjoys.
S. So when I’m going to be on duty, I should read the sources?
R. When you will be on duty, let’s say this way, when you’re on duty, you’ll try to do according to what your friend likes, friend likes. Is this clear? You don’t go according to the action itself but rather the result, the pleasure, according to that, is that clear?
2. S. (12:06) Can we scrutinize this matter a little more, meaning, what’s hated on me is a certain attitude that I received from friends, they disparage me or something like that, so the commandment is to relate in such a way that I hate being related to, to not relate that way to a friend, is that right, and then there’s different expressions, but the attitude?
R. The main thing is the result, just as you don’t like an unpleasant result from the connection with the friends, don’t reach that result yourself.
S. How do you measure this result: in feeling?
R. Yes.
S. And the feeling is the relation that I received from the friends?
R. Yes, you take into account what the friend likes and what makes him suffer and that’s the way you relate to him so you can reach a great relationship.
S. Meaning, if in the example that the previous student gave, let’s say I’m on duty today and my friend wants to read the sources, then I need to aim so that my attitude towards them should be such a loving attitude, we’ll call it bestowing, and from that also, the action will be drawn from that?
R. Yes, certainly each and everyone will act differently and make a different calculation, but the result should be the right result.
3. S. (13:50) The description describes like I’m working before a friend, most of the interactions in the ten is like between me and all the friends, one wants to workshop, one wants reading and a third one want to do scrutinies, what do I do if each friends has have different desires?
R. You may relate to them the way you want, but ultimately the goal is for the whole group to enjoy, that’s why you should take into account all the things that exist in the group when you vote and you go according to the majority, everything is according to the majority.
S. Simply by the majority?
R. Yes, there’s nothing here, we also see in cases in the Torah when Moses counted people then he said “it all goes by the amount”.
Reading (15:32 – 19:25) “Love your Friends as yourself …”
4. S. (19:30) How does it work with people who are on the way to spirituality, we are hating ourselves more and more, so what does it mean, love your friend as yourself?
R. We haven’t got to that yet, to the recognition of how much we love yourself, it’s a period that we similarly want to rise above ourself and then it’s hard to measure someone outside with ourselves because for that time we become indifferent relatively towards our self.
5. S. (20:23) What is better, to do something that the friend loves or what I understand that is good for him, even if it makes him suffer?
R. According to what is written you don’t know, we need to do what the friend feels is good for him according to the desire of the friend.
S. But let’s suppose his desire is not according to what makes him advance, let’s say spiritually?
R. So you decide what advances him and what not, it’s not that it is good for him with you?
S. So that’s the question, what should I do in that state, let’s say a friend doesn’t want to come to the lessons, for instance, so I guess that’s not good for him, so what should I do in such a case?
R. In such a state we ask him first of all, at a time when he’s capable of controlling his heart whether he needs help to rise and come to the lesson, and then you go according to that.
6. S. (21:54) Who is the Hebrew slave in our work, is it a state or what kind of work is that?
R. The Hebrew slave is one of the desires in a person when he operates for the benefit of the person, for the good of the person.
S. What does it mean that I have to give him the pillow?
R. You need to give him the pillow because otherwise you are not observing the commandment of the commandment of the Creator.
S. I understand that if I relate to it, a Hebrew slave is like my friend or my inner desire, that’s my confusion?
R. No, it depends on how you take this story, we will come back to this.
S. Let’s say it’s a friend, so what does it mean that I buy a slave, I buy a friend and I need to serve him in order to realize the quality of bestowal?
R. If you buy a friend you need to serve him, of course, to the extent that you want him to be your friend.
S. Yes, but the pillow, it’s never understood what it means since we’re not talking about corporeality, right, and if it’s not corporeality, so what is it?
R. It doesn’t matter whether it’s corporeality or spirituality, if you do good to him, then by that you are doing the commandment, the Mitzah.
S. Yes, this I understand but if I have something that is necessary for me, the pillow’s necessary for me, so how can I give it to him? I understand that if I’ve finished with what I need so I can give him but if I haven’t, how can that be?
R. That is the whole point, for things that are just like that, additions, we don’t talk about, but rather only what is important to you and you’re giving it to him.
S. Even if it’s necessary for me, even before I’ve satisfied my own necessary needs?
R. Yes, correct it depends on which degree, otherwise we wouldn’t be talking about it.
7. S. (24:56) Why is it that the deeper we go into the study of Torah in order to reach love of friends, ultimately I see that I hate my friend and I can’t keep this Mitzvah?
R. We didn’t yet get to the observance of this Mitzvah that’s why it seems this way.
S. And when we do observe this Mitzvah, I don’t hate him any more?
R. You cannot keep this Mitzvah, yes, so what are you asking? The results are known, if you cannot observe a Mitzvah before a friend, you hate them, if you can observe a Mitzvah then you love him, that for you is the sign.
8. S. (25:59) How to increase my sensitivity to the friend in order to understand what action I’m now doing to him?
R. We need to understand that if I have a few friends and if I don’t manage to get together with them, together, a group that will observe such Mitzvot, then we will never reveal the Creator, we won’t build a vessel for the revelation of the Creator.
9. S. (26:37) You answered a friend about deciding in a workshop according to the majority, what decision do we take according to the majority?
R. I don’t know, also that’s not correct, [Rav comments on background noise] we are not yet observing some kind of Mitzvot that we can count whether we are observing it according to the majority or not, yes, so there’s nothing to say.
S. I’m still, is there some discernment, when should we vote, when should we find what the majority thinks or not?
9. S. (28:26) We say ‘from love of people to the love of God’, Baal HaSulam, the title is ‘From the love of God’ to the love of man’, so what is he trying to tell us here?
R. He wants to say that if you want to come to the love of the created beings then you can remove that from to love of the Creator and if you love the Creator, you also have to love all His creation and vice versa, meaning, if you want to reach the love [Rav comments again on sound quality]
Reading (30:10 – 33:25) “Love your Friend as yourself..”
10. S. (33:32) It’s not a problem to give someone a pillow but how not to disregard, disrespect someone who will agree to take it from you?
R. Well, they mean that you’re bringing this to him out of love and not that you have no choice, you’re throwing him a pillow.
S. And I call him a slave?
R. That does not have to do with the relations that are between you at the moment, we will talk about that.
11. S. (34:30) What is the most important condition in order to reach the rule to love your friend as yourself?
R. The most important condition, it depends on what state we are in, what degree we are in, meaning whether we are at the beginning of the path, in the middle or the end and so on. Love thy friend as thyself moves us all along the ladder but the most important condition is that to the extent in which I connect with them the friends, under that condition I built a place in them for the revelation of the Creator for the connection with the Creator, and this is how I observe eventually ‘love the Lord, thy God’.
S. How do we build this place?
R. We built this place through connections with the friends, to the extent in which there is connection between us and we keep them and are concerned with them happening, according with those connections we build a place for the revelation of the Creator. Let’s say now we dispersed after the convention and we are in a more distant feeling from one another to the extent in which we try to nevertheless build the connections between us, accordingly we are composing a place for the revelation of the Creator.
12. S. (37:14) To continue the previous student’s scrutiny, when I give the slave a pillow, I do it as something above reason, right, because I don’t want within reason.
R. Well?
S. So, there’s a place if I don’t bring the right intention, it makes me suffer this action?
R. That’s clearly, it is always like that.
S. So what should be my intention here?
R. You should come to love so that you will do it from.
S. [No translation]
R. Yes it could be.
S. [No Translation]
R. And then you implement the matter, you have to see if it’s an egoistic demand or that you are implementing the Mitzvah of the Creator.
S. How do I scrutinize that?
R. For the desire or against the desire.
S. (38:38) We will summarize the main points we heard from Rav in the lessons in our tens, go ahead.