THURSDAY: YESOD-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Wednesday.
Rabash. A Prayer of Many. 15 (1986)
Morning Lesson June 20, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 15, 1986. A Prayer of Many
1.Rav’s Introduction: We’ve read about, we’ve learned, we’ve talked about how many times a plea to the Creator has to be not from one person but from the ten, from the group, even the smallest collective is two, nevertheless, not from one. So our tendency has to be to feel first of all that we are connected together as much as possible, “as one man in one heart,” and from that turn to the Creator and not alone. A person who turns to the Creator alone, he seemingly fails to keep this principle that the Creator is respecting all of us and for us to be no less than a ten, although the smallest collective is two, that we have to connect the friends, and only from within this connection, when we are together with the power that we extract from this as a common power, we use it to turn to the Creator and the Creator hears that prayer. Therefore, our prayer is called the prayer of many as the name of the article suggests. Let’s read it and feel what else we are lacking to reach such a prayer.
Reading Article. (02:48) “It is written in The Zohar,..”
2. S. (25:32) What does it mean to feel the life of the Torah?
R. To feel the life of the Torah is when a person feels himself in a place of choice on a certain path and on which path he should now take and this happens every moment. If he wants to advance in order to bestow in connection with the environment toward the Creator, this means that he is following the path of Torah, which it’s of course against his will. He has to overcome himself, he has to connect with the friends, he has to subjugate himself before the Creator, take upon himself certain conditions that he didn’t think about before and now he’s getting them and in this way to advance; this is called the path of Torah when he advances more and more toward the Creator.
S. He says I need to ask for the collective in order to give to the Creator the ability to give to each one. Should I think what He should give to others, meaning do I need to ask for them basically what the Creator wants to give them?
R. I, who am seemingly, I am like a lawyer, an attorney who is asking for them, a defending lawyer, a guardian. I am asking the Creator to give them help to come closer to them. I can ask for that, if I am not asking for myself but I am asking for them, then my prayer, such a prayer can be received.
S. My friends are telling me, like sort of an advocate?
R. Yes, good.
3. S. (28:37) The prayer of many, is it a prayer from within the many or for the sake of the many?
R. It is for the sake of the many and from within the many also, but typically, more importantly is for the many.
S. He writes here that if there are real people in the collective that can achieve adhesion with the Creator and he’s willing to relinquish himself and he wants to come closer, should my prayer be for those people in the collective that I detect that they can give more contentment, should I ask for them or do I ask for everyone without any calculations?
R. Without calculations. I have a ten, I need to ask for the ten, and I’m willing to pay for them but whatever maybe, as long as the Creator comes closer to them and will give them the strength to advance.
S. So a prayer of many is a prayer for my ten?
R. First of all.
S. So when is the many all the tens, the whole Kli, the whole vessel?
R. Later on after doing it in my ten, I get the power, the understanding, the experience let’s say, and then I can turn to the Creator and ask for more tens, for all of the global Kli and even for the world.
S. What is the prayer for my ten?
R. That the Creator will help us connect together, to be “as one man in one heart,” and that within the connection between us we begin to reveal Him, His attitude to us and for us to arrange our attitude to Him the way His attitude is toward us and in this way all of us will come closer to the Creator.
S. Should my prayer be to help them or to help us?
R. No, my prayer should be to help my entire ten of whom I am also a part.
4. S. (31:26) So exactly on this point, he writes, “therefore, he prays to the Creator for the collective,” meaning that if there are several people in the collective. So first of all what does it mean: several people in the collective?
R. Well, several.
S. What is it, a selection?
R. No, he feels that there are a few special people there.
S. In a ten, can I say some of them deserve more than others?
R. Maybe, it’s possible.
S. So they can reach the goal of adhesion with the Creator and they can bring more contentment to the Creator. How can I know in my vessels what will give the Creator more contentment?
R. You are speaking after all from within your vessels, you are not required to speak the truth but only what you feel.
S. So I look at the ten and I see some friends that can bring contentment to the Creator and I focus my prayer on them?
R. Yes.
S. More contentment then, he relinquishes himself and he wants the Creator to help them, so they can reach the goal of adhesion with the Creator and that will bring more contentment to the Creator than if he himself were rewarded with nearing the Creator. So he relinquishes himself and he wants the Creator to help them because this will bring more contentment above than will come from his work?
R. Yes, why do you have to give up on yourself because you have reached a certain attitude, a relationship with the Creator and now you are asking for them instead of you meriting some result from the Creator, you are asking for them, you will advance them and you will accept them.
S. This is clear. It makes sense that if I ask for someone else then I come closer to the quality of the Creator but why do I need to actively tell the Creator, “don’t give me anything?” What harm would it do if I advance along with them and receive along with them?
R. All, that’s how it works out you are telling the Creator that this is more important to me.
S. Let’s say we are in a boat and it begins to sink and I tell the Creator, “save my friends,” and I’m jumping off the boat to drown in the sea. Why do I need to jump off the boat? I can stay in the boat with them and save everyone?
R. No, it’s saying that I don’t care about what’s happening to me as long as you do this favor to them, bring them near you.
S. But why do I need to relinquish myself? Why am I jumping off the boat?
R. Because for me this is more important, for me now, this is more important that the Creator will bring them closer and not me.
S. Does a person feel that this request of the Creator cannot work together, that he will bring me closer and they, too, will have to choose between them and me?
R. Yes.
S. Okay, last question from the end of the article. There’s a point I didn’t understand. I ask for the collective, for the whole collective, and then he says that it may be that the collective doesn’t have the vessels to receive the abundance, so because of it I’m answered first because I have the vessels because I asked. This is very strange. It says if I am asking for the friends, for the collective and they are not ready yet to receive what the Creator wants to give, so it turns out that I am receiving. So it’s all upside down so to speak.
R. It’s not written here, but you’re asking for them, and there’s a possibility for you to give them that.
S. Why should my friends in the ten and there’s those that deserve the most, why does it seem like they don’t have vessels? It seems like they have vessels that are very ready for spirituality?
R. The Creator shows that they are not ready.
S. But I ask for them nevertheless?
R. You are asking for them, you receive, and in the connection to them, you pass it onto them. Through that you grow and develop and they grow and develop. You grow in vessels of bestowal and they grow with vessels of reception, and this goes from one to the other, left and right, left and right; that’s how you grow.
5. S. (37:21) I wrote a sentence from the beginning of the lesson: I am willing to pay for them whatever it is. What is the meaning of willing to pay for them whatever it is?
R. What I demand of them according to the path of ascent I am willing to do it.
S. What can I really do for them?
R. You can give them forces; you can exert for them.
S. What forces, what strength can I give them or am I asking that they will be given?
R. The strength to connect. What other kind of forces do we need; the force is to connect.
S. So what does it mean to pay? I am asking for them so we both gain, they gain and I gain. I pay for something, give of my own and it is no longer mine, it is theirs?
R. I don’t understand you.
S. That’s it, I heard I am willing to pay for them whatever it is or no matter what?
R. Yes, whatever the Creator will demand of them I am willing to pay for it.
S. With what, what is the payment, how is it expressed?
R. Exertion, all kinds of forms, whatever they demand of me.
S. In other words, I shouldn’t think of myself in any way and only about them, is this the payment?
R. Not nothing but whatever they demand, “each shall help his friend.”
6. S. (39:04) What does it mean that we have to ask for a complete thing and that complete thing comes from above?
R. That we can’t demand to have a corrected, a whole corrected will to receive like they give from above, but we need to ask for it, nevertheless, we need to ask for it. Why is that a question?
S. Because it says in the article that only a complete thing comes from above, so I want to understand what a complete thing is. How can I know, how can I ask for it?
R. According to my degree, where I’m at, if I ask, I need to ask according to my state and then I receive from above the same quality and quantity and quality of light that fills me, corrects me and raises me.
7. S. (40:16) In the beginning, I heard you say that we have to pray together, all of us together in the ten, and then I heard only about them and I’m not connected. It feels..?
R. I am willing to work and they will receive the results.
S. Shouldn’t we say that we are one ten, one organism and am I not a part of them and only toward them and I am not out of the equation?
R. Well, that’s how it’s written, that’s how we speak about it. I am willing to work for them but for me I will get nothing.
8. S. (41:07) I want to scrutinize the request from the friends in the ten. You choose something that looks right to you. How do I select from the ten like a mother, so like with ten kids, and say Moshe and only little Moshe today, and all the rest will be on the side here. How does that work?
R. I don’t understand the question?
S. How do I choose or select a friend of the ten? I’m not allowed to ask for the whole ten, I am sitting here and I want that Shimon will receive. I don’t know specifically why him, what do I do? I have my ten but I want him to receive and I think of him?
R. So what are you asking?
S. I’m asking if this thing that comes out is that correct, what do I do with it?
R. You calculate what is best for the ten and not for one.
S. But I can’t see the entire ten as one body, I’m capable of seeing individual people?
R. It won’t help, you have to look at everyone together and not one or two because if you choose one or two then you are choosing according to your will to receive. If you are looking at the ten then you are closer to the desire to bestow.
S. How do you imagine the ten, all of them together, how do you see that?
R. I don’t see a face, I see the essence, that in this way we can turn to the Creator and reach Him and bestow upon Him.
S. I lost you here, Rav?
R. Okay. What can you do?
9. S. (43:55) It’s written in the article, that the pleasure comes for the collective, is destined for the collective, the abundance. What does it mean that I am asking of the Creator and the abundance comes to the collective?
R. To the ten, to the ten. For the time being we are speaking only within the boundaries of the ten.
S. In a person there’s a question that awakens: I want to adhere to the Creator. What does it mean that this quality clothes on the entire collective, on the entire ten?
R. Because what one has, everyone has.
S. Can I feel this abundance clothing in my friends?
R. Yes, yes.
S. How?
R. Try to come closer to them and you will feel.
10. S. (45:15) It says that since everything needs to be directly from below, that’s where he gives the awakening from below, and the awakening from above, the others will receive. The question is fundamental: how can a person break within him the will to receive and transition to a state of bestowing to the other, how does he rise above it and reach that stage?
R. I guess you will have to go through it and then you will feel how it is done. When you perform acts of bestowal then you already have the ability to say it, too.
S. Now on a different topic, when Maimonides wrote that I have to ask for the past, there is a big transition. What should I ask the Creator about the past to correct in me, when it doesn’t belong to him but only to the Creator, the work in the ten?
R. I don’t know. We will speak later at a different time, at a different place.
11. S (46:44) To ask only for others excluding myself, what does it mean anyone who prays for others is helped first, so you are still asking for yourself, is it that still egoistical?
R. No, because you intend only for others but because in your request for others you develop your desires to bestow, then you are rewarded first, but your deficiency is really to help others, clear?
12. S. (47:42) The entire article he speaks about the prayer for the collective but there is a part that I want to scrutinize. Where here it says that here begins a new, true world, the person needs to come out under the rule of the evil inclination called receiving in order to receive. Then it gets to the part where it turns out that he prays to the Creator to give him the strength to make redemption, meaning to return all his actions for the sake of the will to receive and come back to the Creator. So here he prays for himself in a matter of redemption or is this also about the collective because he sees that he cannot pray for the collective, what does he do?
R. He prays as much as he can for the collective and accordingly he receives a change on the way.
S. Meaning the desire for redemption is also for the collective?
R. Yes.
13. S. (48:50) How can a person who is in the will to receive pray outside of his nature? How can I convince my ego to pray such a prayer?
R. When you are in a ten, whether you want it or not, you are also under the influence of the Creator on the ten, and gradually your reason broadens, expands and you begin to feel that there’s a collective here who think like you, or a little differently, maybe in a different direction. Meaning that besides you, there are several other people here that have a different goal etc.. Therefore, when you are in the collective, you gradually begin to think about them, even though initially you had no intention to do so. This is the influence of the upper light on the person; it influences this way.
14. S. (50:18) What causes us to reach redemption in the work and what brings us to repentance in the heart?
R. Repeat, please.
S. She is asking what causes us to repent in the work and what brings us to repentance in the heart?
R. Repentance in the work is I suppose when we perform actions in order to bestow upon each other without the intention. Repentance in the heart is when we are already do try to be in internal bestowal upon each other. She needs to explain what she means.
15. S. (51:45) Can the prayer of many be as a correction which ultimately leads to the attainment in the ten or in the society that There’s None Else Besides Him?
R. And repeat, please.
S. Can one be you the prayer of many as a correction that leads to the attainment in that There Is None Else Besides Him?
R. I did not understand.
S. A prayer is a request for correction, for a correction of our perception of reality that There Is None Else Besides Him, that there’s nothing else but the Creator manifested in the clothing of the ten?
R. So what is the question?
S. The question is, is the prayer of many truly a process that we correct our perception of reality?
R. Yes.
S. Which ultimately leads to the attainment of There Is None Else Besides Him, so the separation disappears, so there’s only the Creator, just in different clothing of the friends in our corporeality but the attainment is recognizing there’s just the Creator and nothing else?
R. Yes, yes.
16. S. (53:42) My prayer should be for the ten in such a way where I hold the name of each and every friend, or in general my ten?
R. I really don’t understand the questions. Again, ask again.
S. My prayer for the ten, do I need to hold the name of each and every friend in the ten or is it enough for me to aim in general for my ten?
R. How did you understand it?
S. If I understood the question, when I ask for the ten, do I need to hold and pray for each and every friend in the ten or I pray for them as a single collective, as my ten?
R. Was this the question?
S. Yes, yes, thank you.
R. So keeping,..
S. When I pray do I need to pray for each and every friend in the ten or do I pray for them as a single collective, they are my ten?
R. As a collective, as one collective. If I’m praying for the ten, then I’m praying for the ten, not for a friend. Why, why is there such a question?
S. I can pray for them one by one and then I seemingly go over the entire ten, where I can see them as one collective, as one thing?
R. Correct, both exist but if we are talking about a general prayer, then it’s a general ten.
17. S. (56:21) We understand that the connection can improve the relationship between us, the connection between us. And we need to ask for His help in order to come out of the control of the ego. But when we talk about it deeply, there is a different deficiency in the ten. The question is: what is the benefit of connecting between us and what does the Creator want us to do after we merit bestowal?
R. Is it clear, what did she ask?
S. She is asking, what does the Creator want from us when we are rewarded with bestowal, if he wants us to pray for bestowal? What does he want to bring us in this?
R. The Creator wants to bring us to connection because we are the result of the shattering of Adam, the system of Adam. And the Creator wants to bring us back to connection, because then we will be able to feel, to detect, that whole, big vessel that is then revealed as a result of the correction of the shattering. And we will be able to receive all of the light of Ein Sof that was never revealed, it will be revealed within us, in the created beings and by this, we will justify the Creator’s actions in the breaking, in the connection, in the thousands of years of all our development that cost us so heavily; at that time everything becomes revealed.
18. S. (58:58) The prayer for the entire collective, where is it more accurate to aim the feeling about the faith that the Creator will respond, reply, or work without a reward?
R. Toward work without a reward, for the reward to be special. We cannot really work without a reward at all. On the contrary, we have to work with the biggest reward each and every time but the reward is not egoistic. So that in the end, within the effort of our work, we ask for the correction of the entirety of the vessel.
19. S. (01:00:27) How to ask towards something that I cannot feel since the will to receive prevents me from asking?
R. If I position the ten against the will to receive, then I can already begin to depict these two forms, my ego and opposite that the ten, and then I can correctly detect which is more important and which is less important.
20. S. (01:01:20) If I’m asking for the other, for the Creator to connect everyone, to fill everyone, it passes through me, I receive the pleasure, right?
R. Yes, yes.
21. S. (01:01:44) Why does Rabash explain to us in the article that he who will pray for his friend is answered first? It sounds like we’re paying ourselves, why do I need to know that I will receive first?
R. If I’m praying for others, meaning I have in me deficiencies for everyone, so if that is the case then of course, all the abundance that comes to the group goes through me; it’s a system.
22. S. (01:02:42) Is a complete action, inspired by this action, is a complete action, the entrance of direct light and the rejection of it to the next Partzuf?
R. Yes.
S. Is the prayer of many the way we learned about it in the article, is it a request for me for a screen and for the others?
R. Yes.
23. S. (01:03:26) We spoke about the importance of the connection. How can I tell if my ten and I are connected enough in the ten, in preparation for the congress, how can I tell that I’m in the right place and that me and the ten are in the right place?
R. I did not feel the question, again, please.
S. We are coming up to the congress and we spoke about the importance of the connection between us today in the lesson. How can I check if we are connected enough coming into the congress?
R. We cannot check it, we cannot. We do not have any ability to check it.
24. S. (01:05:05) We learned that a person sees everything through his own vessel and what he sees in the others is actually found in him but not in the others. But here in the article, it says that there are few requests, prayers that ask for the strength to work for the collective. So is it possible that the person himself is asking too little for the collective and that is why he sees what he sees?
R. Yes.
25. S. (01:05:50) In what is the power of the prayer of many?
R. The power of the prayer of many is a complete power, it is, it draws, summons from above a response that the Creator has to answer to, the force to bestowal has to answer it and this is how they begin a dialogue between them.
26. S. (01:06:30) If a person does not feel worthy to turn to the Creator can he nevertheless turn to the Creator for his friends?
R. Yes, of course, everyone can. It’s not forbidden for anyone.
27. S. (01:06:39) What is the process of equivalence of form in the ten?
R. The equivalence of form in the ten with one another you mean? When all of us speak about the same goal and about the one force that we need to acquire and that we can help each other, stimulate each other to reach a great force of bestowal, this is how we work.
28. S. (01:07:40) I have no desire for the friends, I don’t want to pray for them, I make an effort. [No translation]
R. Did someone understand the question?
S. I think I understood, he says what we are talking about now, the efforts we have to put in, in asking for the friends, it’s really a preparation for the prayer. So the prayer is a result of the efforts of discussing how to pray?
R. Did you understand what he said, no?
S. He says that in the article, that he sees that when he checks his mouth and heart, that they are not equal when he’s asking for such a thing, if he has a power to ask for such a prayer, then he has a test whether he agrees or not to such a prayer but if he knows that what he says is only lip service, what can he do when he sees that the body does not agree to such a prayer, what do I do. So he is asking about that. What can I do if the body disagrees?
R. So he checked and saw that his heart and his mouth were not going together. So how can you make them go together? How can he correct them so they go hand in hand, parallel. So what do we do? What should we do when our hearts and what we say are not equal, not the same. Well, it happens to us every minute.
S. He replies but the answer is also not clear. He also says the only famous advice is to pray to the Creator and believe above reason that the Creator can help him and the whole collective. And he should not be impressed that he sees that he already prayed many times and his prayer was not answered. That’s the advice that he gives. What do I need to believe above reason that the Creator can help him, it’s not so clear what to do with it?
R. There is nothing you can do with it, keep going.
29. S. (01:11:05) “My house will be a house of prayer for all the nations.” The friends are raising deficiencies and it’s an opportunity for us to pray for them. Sometimes I raise the deficiency and they pray for me?
R. Yes.
30. S. (01:11:36) Yesterday we said that the lesson is the prayer. I see that I do not have the deficiencies on my own for prayer for the Creator, they awaken when I come here, when we gather with the friends. I hear their deficiencies. I hear how we awaken one another and then the deficiency of the friends awakens. I can feel it and I can turn to the Creator with it to come closer with the prayer to the Creator, come close to the Creator in such a way. From the beginning, Rav and the Kabbalists teach us to work in this way, there’s no prayer from myself, only in incorporation with the deficiency of other friends. And I demand a request for these deficiencies. I see that we’re not even touching the problem of praying for ourselves and feeling an awakening for ourselves, and we have to pay attention that it is for others, it always comes from others, no?
R. Yes, you are right but we have to discover it.
S. What?
R. Discover that we are praying for others to begin with.
S. There are deficiencies that awaken me by paying attention to that and disrupting some spiritual matter and that it’s good that it’s this way, right?
R. Yes.
S. Another thing, it says that we should pray for the ten. If in the lesson we are incorporated in many of the questions from the friends, the entire Kli, each friend has a different deficiency, it’s true that it’s all relative to the Creator but it’s their deficiency, I don’t feel like I am doing it for the ten but toward all the friends in the lesson. So where do I do it only for the ten, where in the beginning of the lesson, you said it has to be for the ten?
R. It is included there.
S. So it’s okay that we are here in the friends from all of the world?
R. Yes.
31. S. (01:14:00) He says that he’s looking to bestow purely without any turning to Him, the body begins to resist it. So the remedy is to be satisfied with bestowal, to have a taste in bestowal and this is seemingly like the remedy for the will to receive that objects to bestow without a reward. So he has a reward but it’s in bestowal, something new?
R. That’s not a good thing.
S. It’s not good?
R. No because he’s going to bestow in order to receive a reward.
S. But he’s not looking for satisfaction in order to receive satisfaction, he’s asking or what it seems?
R. How can you be sure that he’s not doing it for that satisfaction?
S. That’s a question, so how to be certain?
R. That is what I am asking.
S. From the get go he does not want anything for himself, he gives up on himself, he does not even consider himself in the prayer for them and then he is answered first. So it’s clear that he is already in that state so he’s answered?
R. So that means that he has no choice except to receive pleasures from bestowal, then he will be able to receive it without any problems, without anything back for himself.
S. And also for the pleasure from bestowal, he needs to scrutinize it further?
R. Yes.
32. S. (01:16:00) In the last part of the article he reminds us that a person’s work in our world is to exit that domination of the evil inclination. How does he ask everything to go from his domination to the Creator’s, and that’s asking the Creator to help him repent for the past and for the future, and that the answer that he will not repeat the sin, so that’s the answer that he asks?
R. Yes, okay friends, we see that we do not have a general awakening today. So let’s go to the next part of the lesson.