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

READING: FROM MIDNIGHT TO DAWN TUESDAY

Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, item 184

Morning Lesson August 20, 2023

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

Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. #185

Reading Item #184 (00:15)

Reading Item #185 (02:00)

1. S. (06:00) Why does he have a need to call the inner organs of Atzilut in the names of the worlds now?

R. Because Atzilut is that world on which all the worlds of BYA clothe and all the Partzufim and parts that are included in the correction of the world all the corrections take place below the general Tabur of Galgalta. Hence, it’s important for us to add everything to the general structure.

S. So it’s only to show how they are parallel or now he calls Arich Anpin for instance Atzilut, so something is added here?

R. No, it’s simply to aid in general understanding of the worlds.

S. Okay sometimes he divides things differently now. He said in the past he called the new MA Atzilut, now he says Atzilut is AB, SAG. It’s as if these divisions suddenly change.

R. Yes because it depends on what he’s trying to say. When Atzilut is AB, SAG he wants to say Atzilut expands from Tabur down to Parsa and by that it’s similar to AB, SAG like in Galgalta where AB, SAG clothed from Peh down to Tabur of Galgalta.

S. If I only read this and I look at it it’s clear but a few items ago he called it the new MA, he called Atzilut the new MA. Why is it sometimes this way, sometimes differently?

R. It depends relative to what he is calling it this way.

2. S. (08:27) Maybe to make things a bit more simple, the work of the Partzuf is it in three Partzufim. There is its place, there is an ascent and there is a descent. That’s why he says that the Parsa here is in its place because this is seemingly its natural place and then there’s movements all the time. This thing of the three Partzufim is always confusing in the lesson, maybe we’ll make things simpler.

R. I don’t understand what you’re saying, which three Partzufim?

S. When there is a structure, a structure of..

R. Atik, Arich Anpin, Abe ve Ima?

S. Yes, for instance.

R. This is called GAR, they expand down to the Parsa. Below the Parsa it’s already ZAT of Bina and Yeshsut is MA and BON. What’s new about it?

S. The thing is maybe I’m trying to scrutinize what he is trying to explain to us when the structure is the same but sometimes we see in AK all this matter of Atzilut and BYA and there is Atzilut and BYA in their place.

R. He wrote about it as well, simply five Partzufim not more than that.

3. S. (10:16) There’s no time in spirituality, right?

R. No.

S. So what does that mean?

R. I don’t know what you’re leaning into but everything that happens happens above time.

S. When we read the Preface it’s like a story that begins and there’s a cascading of different states. So who is this for? It’s for us but if there’s no time why is it described like a story?

R. It’s described in such a way because these forces descend on us and work.

S. But reality is that everything is simultaneous or..?

R. No, I don’t want to get confused with you.

4. S. (11:13) In item 184, I didn’t understand. He divides AK with respect to the second restriction or maybe I didn’t understand that BYA are above Tabur?

R. No. Where do you see that?

S. 184.

R. Hence, this discernment of the Parsa at the place of the Chazeh splits the degree into four special phases, called ABYA: Atzilut—through the Chazeh, and BYA—from the Chazeh down. Continue?

S. Yes, from the Chazeh down?

R. Yes.

S. He says it’s with respect to the second restriction.

R. It doesn’t matter relative to the first or second restriction. Your problem is where is the place of BYA?

S. BYA, all of it.

R. All of BYA is below Tabur.

S. But here he says it’s below the Chazeh, that’s why I don’t understand.

R. Atzilut is AB, SAG that end above the Tabur and from its Tabur below is its BYA where there are two Partzufim, MA and BON.

5. S. (13:03) It’s not clear what’s the importance of this division, how the world of Atzilut is divided until the Chazeh and below the Parsa specifically with respect to AK as before there weren’t these discernments then. Why did Baal HaSulam decide to show how AK divides in such a way?

R. Because they clothe on it and that’s why they say that’s how it’s divided.

S. What’s the importance of such division in general? This is the title of all these items – The Manner of the Division of Every Partzuf to Keter and ABYA.

R. Yes.

S. What should we take from that?

R. Each Partzuf in every world and in general the structure of creation is divided in this way.

S. But they’re divided in different ways as well?

R. That’s why it’s important for him to mention here that this is one style.

S. What is the characteristic of this style?

R. Everyone is divided into AK and ABYA.

S. This division between AK and ABYA of the Keter and all the rest?

R. Yes, yes.

6. S. (14:27) In the end of item 185 it says that here the Parsa stands in its place which is the Chazeh of Arich Anpin. What does it mean that something has a true place?

R. That this is the border between the first restriction and the second restriction. Where are we?

Reading Item #186 (14:59)

Reading Item #187 (15:50)

Reading Item #188 (17:30)

7. R. (18:47) That’s clear, yes? The end of a long reading.

8. S. (19:10) He talks about every object, every individual having the whole structure of the worlds. Now we learn that ZON of Atzilut has the MAN, that’s the role of ZON of Atzilut. So every individual goes through that too?

R. Yes

S. So it’s the role for every part that takes place. Now everything we learned in the Preface, can we take things from there for our prayer, these discernments?

R. This whole structure is a structure by which deficiencies, our requests are rising to higher degrees as MAN and from there we receive and return the MAD.

S. But when we pray we’re aimed at the Ein Sof, we don’t go into all these details in our prayer, we’re aimed at the Creator. Can we still take something from the Preface and add it to our prayer?

R. By learning about it here you’re incorporated in it and that’s already included in the prayers. By that we have concluded the Preface.

9. S. (20:52) Is this a way to end the Preface?

R. You’re going to have a meal?

S. It seems like we stopped in the middle, at least not at the end.

R. Well that’s how it is. You can take all the writings of the Torah and you see that the end is the end. They don’t make a celebration out of it or raise a toast.

S. What can we learn from this approach that we simply end it?

R. Well we finished explaining what’s happening to us in the Preface.

S. No summary, no conclusion.

R. Calm down, all of it is on you, it’s all on you. That’s it?

10. S. (22:04) Thank you for teaching the Preface, I feel that this time we read the Preface it was something very special. To continue with what the friend talked about, out of all these divisions, the maps he shows us with the BYA clothing in different places, all the rules we learned until now, we can clothe them in each and every state. These are constant rules of nature, every individual can use these laws with respect to it. My question is: Can we take our current state as a ten, if you can show us an example?

R. No, because we’re not of the same nature.

S. We’re not of the same nature?

R. No, we’re not made of the order to bestow. You can’t divide us, our desires, our connections as a spiritual Partzuf, above Chazeh, below Chazeh and so on, you can’t. We do not have this division. We aren’t implementing the necessary requirements, conditions of spiritual vessels.

S. Can we see something in these laws as something we should aspire for in our ten?

R. We need to aspire to it, to the upper world that we have learned about but we’re not in it, not that our desires are from it or our intentions, we’ve got nothing from it.

S. Can you take one of these laws as an example and show us how we should aspire for it? We as a ten should aspire to maintain this law?

R. The first law is, ‘love your friend as yourself,’ it’s also the general law. If you try to uphold it then from that you are starting to keep all its general aspects as well. We have nothing more to do, we are not included in these laws yet.

S. A few items ago we read about the MAN, the request. In the ten we really feel that we’re trying to reach the right request. There’s a frequency in us, like a chord that lives in us all the time, that we want to reach the request. How can we with what we learned here calibrate our request?

R. If we want to do it then we can try and reach such connection where we will all feel, ‘as one man in one heart.’ According to how much we learn we’ll feel what’s happening with us as one body, ascending, descending, dividing, this way, that way. But it’s on the condition that we’ll become one mass, entirely aimed at one goal, entirely feeling itself as one, existing as one.

S. What’s the thing that will help us become this one mass?

R. Connection, nothing but. If we will be connected correctly then as a result of the effort to connect, we will feel ourselves as descending, ascending, changing.

S. I didn’t understand that answer, I asked what we should learn and you said connection?

R. What should we learn?

S. Yes, what should we learn in order to become one mass now from our state?

R. All the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. All the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash because they contain the reforming light, the strongest light.

11. S. (27:08) Everything we learn if I understand correctly is about a system that has a role, a preparation for us to enter the story and start activating it. But our part only in the end it’s written about NRN of the righteous. If I understand correctly, that’s the lower ones, the humans?

R. Each thing we learn is working on us from Ein Sof down to here.

S. Yes but where do we fit in, in this whole cascading?

R. We don’t and when we’ll have the powers to join this story we’ll enter.

S. But he talks about NRN of the righteous.

R. But we’re not NRN, we’re not righteous.

S. Not us personally but where do humans enter the system that if they can reach a spiritual degree they can activate the system, this part is not there?

R. Why not there?

S. Suddenly from nowhere it’s written about NRN of the righteous.

R. These are desires that can be in the intention in order to bestow, they’re called NRN of the righteous, NRN of Tzadakim and if we can be like them then we join them.

S. Yes, but nothing is written about these desires, where are they made in this cascading? Everything is described one state after the other, suddenly there are these righteous desires.

R. Righteous, Tzadakim because they want to justify creation, the Creator. Where do they come from? From desires in which they awaken.

S. But the whole part of the lower ones is not in this story, right?

R. The lower ones don’t belong to what’s written in the Pticha, in the Preface and in the Talmud because they are in order to receive and here they speak of desires that are entirely in order to bestow, other than the instance of the shattering.

S. In other places we learn that there’s a continuation of what we learn, the soul of Adam HaRishon breaks and there are sparks that fall.

R. Okay, you can learn.

S. But why here he doesn’t write about this whole thing?

R. He didn’t think it was necessary because we need to learn what can help raise us to the purpose of creation.

S. What can help raise us to the purpose of creation?

R. The reforming light and Adam HaRishon talks about the descent of creation from above down.

12. S. (30:09) Can we learn to yearn or is this something that we can only receive from the environment?

R. We can receive a yearning from the environment.

S. Is there a way to learn to yearn?

R. We can teach yearning and we can receive yearning from the friends.

S. An actor to act out the yearning but first of all it’s most important to get it from the environment and everything?

R. If a person is in the environment then gradually he receives from the environment the purpose, the goal of the environment and he yearns to it as well.

S. The work in the Preface is only to increase our yearning in one direction?

R. Yes, to arrange our yearning.

S. And the light that reforms will take care of everything.

R. Yes.

13. S. (31:37) This is the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, it’s only the Preface. What would you suggest that we should take? What do you take from the Preface in order to learn the wisdom of Kabbalah because you’re learning your whole life?

R. The Preface includes everything we’re learning about, everything. The articles of Rabash, the articles of Baal HaSulam, everything we’re learning from both of them is included there. I can’t understand what you want from this article. After all, it’s a short article about creation, the structure of creation, that’s it.

14. S. (32:41) The Torah also starts from the story of Genesis not from man’s work. There’s cascading from above downwards and there’s man that as you said has to do his work from below upwards. Does Rabash teach us this work which is from below upwards?

R. They all speak of the work from below up, otherwise there’s no point to their writing at all.

S. The articles of Rabash?

R. And Baal HaSulam.

S. But here Baal HaSulam in the Preface as you said it’s about everything that’s in bestowal, not the things in the lower ones, everything that’s above.

R. And this is what we have to come to.

S. So there are two parts. There’s a part of the cascading from above downwards, that’s what we should return to. The light is both in the writings of Rabash which is work and also in these writings?

R. Yes.

S. So what’s the difference when we read the work, when we’re taught what our work is compared to what we learn about the upper system? Is there a difference in the light and what is the difference?

R. The difference in the light exists between every word, even between every letter but we are learning these writings because in general we receive from them the reforming light.

S. So when Baal HaSulam wrote the Preface what did he want to give our generation?

R. He wanted to give us an understanding about the cascading from above down, concatenation as we call it. And of course we could expand it, we could add to it the story of Adam HaRishon, many other things. Nevertheless, to talk about something that’s more connected to the study, short and to the point and he decided that this was enough. That’s how I understand it.

15. S. (35:25) We talked about the cascading from above downwards. Can we say that this cascading ends at the exit of the new MA, is that where the ascent begins?

R. The cascading down or the concatenation from above down ends..I don’t know how to say it more clearly but it ends with the lower ones reaching Sium when they discover where they are and they begin to raise MAN and they yearn to rise.

S. That’s in the new MA, that’s where this whole story begins because in the new MA there’s no screen, you can’t do anything alone, it’s all done by the lights above.

R. I don’t understand you.

S. What I understand from this is that He created the will to receive and He gave him forces of overcoming after discovering shame as the force to overcome, that’s the screen. Every time he performs a Zivug, a coupling and fails partially, then there’s a small coarseness and smaller until nothing is left and also there’s shattering from this state. From there starts a specific correction of the Creator that elevates it. That’s why there begins the ascent, from below upwards.

R. Yes, yes.

16. S. (37:23) I really want to understand what we read but I don’t understand anything and in order to understand I would ask ten questions for every sentence. When will we understand what we read?

R. This happens with each and everyone who is in the study for some time already. Everyone is going through such states because we are learning about things that are completely non-existent in our world. We have nowhere to learn it from, not an action, not anything. That’s why we learn the way we learn and gradually a person enters into it and begins to find himself there and advance. There’s no way around it, don’t cry about it just keep going.

17. S. (38:26) Can we ask to learn the Preface again tomorrow but from the part that starts in the second restriction?

R. No, we can’t start it, we have other things to do. If you want it you can decide on another hour during the day, however you want to do it. I have no objection, on the contrary. That’s it.

18. S. (39:08) The feeling now as we read at the end of the Preface is as if Baal HaSulam speaks from an attainment that is above the whole world, incorporating all the worlds in it and everything is in one thought?

R. Yes, that’s how he feels it.

19. S. (39:40) Without you we wouldn’t understand Rabash and without Rabash we wouldn’t understand Baal HaSulam. There’s a feeling that through something we also need the friends?

R. Of course, you need this entire structure.

S. Yes, and I’ve seen there’s an explanation by Rabash on the Preface, an explanation. Did you learn this article with the explanation of the Preface?

R. I don’t even remember it.

S. Yes, there used to be in the previous book we had, Kabbalah for the Student, we put an explanation Rabash made. You gave us to us.

R. The Rabash did on the Preface? Show me.

S. In the writings of Rabash, the third volume.

R. Guys, I don’t know volume three, not volume three. All those things were done after me. So what’s in it?

S. I simply thought that for many friends, it was a bit difficult for them.

R. Rabash wrote this article that you’re speaking of?

S. Yes, there is an article by Rabash that is called an Explanation, Interpretation for the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. He divides it into the four phases of direct light, then he moves onto the first restriction and the ten Sefirot of the circles etc.. He goes over the entire Preface. I can send it to you after the lesson.

R. Send it, but it wasn’t printed before us.

20. S. (41:44) I didn’t understand, what do you mean it wasn’t printed before us?

R. The study of the Ten Sefirot was printed, Preface was printed.

S. It was printed in Rabash Volume 3 but no, it wasn’t printed in any other way.

R. You have to check it, I don’t know. Show me the book and I’ll tell you. One thing is clear to me, that many people don’t feel like they went through their Preface. Okay, that too is good, it’s correct and there’s room to go over it again.

21. S. (42:36) There is the constant structure of the worlds before the three ascents. The last structure we learn about the world of Atzilut dividing over all the worlds like Adam Kadmon is after the ascents? This whole structure that’s described that there is an Atzilut in every degree and BYA in every degree is after the three ascents?

R. No, it’s just a way to divide it.

S. As the constant structure?

R. Yes. Okay, we are done with the Preface and there’s nothing to ask. We are done. What are we doing next?