HESED: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Lesson on the topic of “The Approach to Studying the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
Morning Lesson May 19, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
The Approach to Studying the Wisdom of Kabbalah – Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #18
1.Rav’s Introduction: (01:50) This means that a person doesn’t learn in order to become wise, but in order to become adhered, is searching for each time how to be similar, what does he know how to be similar to the Creator from? So this is why truly out of lack of choice the Creator had created not one man but rather between other people, so that upon them, upon the connection between them, a person learns in which form in which ways he can come closer and become similar to the Creator. This is how he does it, therefore our whole study is in order to come closer to each other, and through the adhesion between us, we will learn through the steps where we get closer to each other, we will study the laws of the spiritual nature, and in our coming closer to each other we will learn how we come closer to the Creator. Because behind every friend stands the Creator and if a person comes closer to the friend, then that is truly within the reach of his hand, and in such a way he comes closer to the Creator. The Creator has no image, no form, and there is no possibility for man to in any way to depict the Creator, but only out of coming closer to others and for this purpose, the Creator broke the general Kli into many pieces.
So by a person putting them back together by coming closer to them, by that he actually, bit by bit, he builds the image of the Creator. This is why the Creator is called BoReh, come and see, and where does one reach a collection of images that are opposite to the person, but that they are in his vicinity and he can understand them, feel them, compare them with himself, and to the extent that he comes closer to them, by that he gradually recognizes that these are not people, but rather this is, as it as it is called, behind the people stands the Creator. That I got closer to the friends and suddenly I feel, well not suddenly, it is bit by bit, but this is something that wasn’t known and clear in advance. That behind them I discover that I have the upper force and he is establishing the friends for me, he is establishing the condition, he is establishing everything and by me getting closer to them, and I truly become with them as one man in one heart, this is how I actually reveal to myself that system called BoReh, the Creator.
Therefore our work is actually right ahead of us and each and everyone is invited, and it is the same for everyone. Okay? The most important is that when we gather together in the morning or in the day or in the evening or whenever this lesson takes place, the most important is that we all make an effort to come closer to each other but with the intention that behind our coming closer to the friends, we are coming closer to the Creator which is one in the same. However in practice we are seemingly coming closer to the friends, and as a result we are coming closer to the Creator until he begins to be revealed. It is just like we focus a lens, when we turn and turn the lens until the axis of the lens begins to be aligned together, and then we see the image that we intend to recognize. It is the same between us. If we bring our hearts closer to each other than after even two hearts, because the minimum of many is two, we can already recognize the Creator who is standing behind it because he shattered the vessel and he established it in such a way that if we return to adhesion, to that formation of us being together, then we discover him, the root cause for our state.
2. S. (07:45) When we connect with the friends and there in the depth of the connection between us, what do we discover as the Creator?
R. In the connection between us we truly discover upper qualities gradually until we discover that form of the upper force that is managing the relations between us, from the good form and also from the bad form seemingly. In favor and against. This is why we called this form the Creator BoReh, come and see. This is what we discover, I don’t know what else to tell you.
S. Let’s say there’s a connection with the friends where the person is incorporated, then there is the person himself, let’s say me and when I meet that force in the depth in the middle of the ten what did I owe to that force, how do I build a relationship with it?
R. You should continue to connect with their friends because if you would let go of them then also the form of the Creator will stop being clarified before you. You have to constantly try to connect to the friends in such a way that the concept of the Creator will become even more and more clear and then Israel, the light and the Creator is one. Specifically on this axis you have to constantly be directed. It is impossible in any other way. To reach the revelation of the Creator. Yes?
3. S. (10:03) What you describe this moment, if I understood correctly, we make the smallest nearing between the friends the Creator begins to be revealed and we need to begin to notice signs of the Creator. On the other hand we learned that only with the accumulation of complete measures, Seah of the right deeds, we can discover the Creator. So do we discover the Creator gradually, if so what are the first signs of the Creator?
R. We discover the Creator gradually and his first revelation is actually the most difficult because we are coming from a state where we have no connection between our qualities, in the right form so that we will build the image of the Creator. As it says you have made me, that we truly assemble him out of our broken qualities, they are all egoistic, they’re all not built in a way that they can bring us some recognition of the upper force. Therefore the time of preparation is the most prolonged time and we see this also even in our world, how long does it take us until we see a person standing already with his own forces and knowing how to arrange his life and to be in control of his life and how to relate correctly to the environment and the environment to him. It takes twenty, even 30 years until one establishes himself correctly in the world and he starts to be in a give and take with the world, meaning to be independent. This is what we have to reach, these are already degrees of mutual responsibility, we didn’t study that so much, but we will study it, it’s not yet so relevant for us but we will reach it.
S. When each ten discovers the same Creator, that same image or for each ten its own way, each ten discovers its own part in the Creator?
R. We can’t talk about it because no one can identify precisely what is it that he feels, what is it that you should feel, what is it that the others feel then how can we make some comparison between these images, between these forms. For that we have no possibility, for the time being we have no possibility to measure that. The way that I, let’s put it this way now I drink a cup of coffee, how can I compare the things that I feel, not according to the consistency of the coffee, or what this drink is made from, or other such things, no, I’m not talking about external things outside of me but inside of me, the way I perceive it, the way it invokes favors in me, the way my body responds. This is still far away from us but when we attain the Creator then gradually we begin to attain him with all the details because this is actually what he created and he shattered it so that we would reach from the shattering to unite all these things, to detect him specifically in such a way. Well it’s still but not really that far, all these things will come in a very rapid and continuous manner.
4. S. (14:55) The revelation of the Creator and the complete perception of reality, depends on the information from our connection in the ten or how many people around the world connect to the same goal?
R. About this there is a matter of mighty in quantity and mighty in quality as we see also in our world. That as Einstein, there was just one like him, and opposite him there were a hundred million or how many other scientists who also do many things, so there is mighty in quantity and mighty in quality and we need both this and that. Therefore we need to try each one of us to do as much as he can personally towards the ten and towards the Creator who is standing behind that ten, and this for the time being is the correct form in which we relate to reality.
5. S. (16:50) When we attain the ten between us each friend attains that at the same level?
R. We cannot compare how each and every one attains the Creator because this is already an inner quality within the person, it is his will to receive and even when we reach equivalence, let’s say the same degree of coarseness, the same degree of the screen, the same action, we cannot say that we understand each other in a way that it is as you said, that it is truly the same thing. It is not the same thing, and it will never be the same thing but rather each and every one completes his impression, his inspiration with the others and in that form we attain the Creator because we assemble him. You have made me. This is how it comes. But when we reach the end of correction and I can’t speak about it, I don’t know what it is, but when will you reach the end of correction then apparently there we already rise to a level where we begin to feel not each one himself and his incorporation in the others but rather will you begin to feel a different level of emotion and mind that are shared. As it was in Adam HaRishon before the shattering, before the sin and then apparently it happens in a way that there are no differences, no nearing or discernment but rather everything is attained as one. This transition from all of us together connected together and operating together to one, we will discover it together. It is something very special. It is a leap into the degree of the Creator, really.
6. S. (19:41) Why is the Creator outside of me in the ten and I cannot discover him inside of me, in my inner world?
R. The Creator is not outside of the ten the Creator is inside of the ten and he is revealed only on the condition that we connect between us. There is no possibility to discover him because he created the ten and he shattered it in order for us specifically by discovering him we will be able to get to know him. Because we as created beings are built in such a way that we perceive reality out of two discernments, for and against and in the connection between them, this is how we perceive reality. Between the black and the white we need a contrast. If there is no difference then we cannot discern anything because we come as a result of the shattering. If there is shattering then we are able to receive, perceive, to discover something the manners of the shattering, if there’s no shattering then only one thing appears then we cannot discover it is unattainable by us.
We attain not the thing in itself but the gap between things, therefore this is how we exist and therefore discover the Creator we can do it only in as much as we have resistance, between us, collision, distancing and as much as we complete, complement this distancing, plus over the minus and then in the gap over the plus and the minus, in the differences between them we discover the Creator. When we put resistance between them, a resistor, and then upon it we discover the Creator. This principle appears in all of the forms of our awareness of reality in sounds and colors, it doesn’t matter which one in all the levels, the corporeal ones and also the spiritual ones, these are simple.
7. S. (22:49) An instrument where we’re able to perceive, the synthesis of the emotions of the friends, the desires, the music, everything that comes together, the Creator of the sensation which allows each friend to connect to that common sensation, common feeling, is that analogy, is that correct?
R. Yes that’s true, because without us trying to connect we will not feel the collision, the contrast, the gaps, in all kinds of different manners, on the level of sounds, in the manner, the encounter, the approach, in anything. Therefore we have to come closer between us then only when we come closer than we will fill the gap between the nearing and distancing, and this gives us our whole stature, all the discernments between us. Because we exist only in the distinction between one and the other. The Creator in general he feels everything, he is whole and we in order to exist and belong to the whole, we don’t yet understand it but where can we exist if the Creator is everything and we also reach a state where we discover him, we are in the adhesion with him, we clothe over him, so where are we? Where here is the room even for the created being? This is a very special philosophy, if we can use this word for it, philosophically, well then we will see, we will discover these things.
5. S. (25:40) Where’s that point of inversion where a person hears with the heart and not with the mind?
R. When he despairs of his mind, his intellect, and he starts more and more, to understand that the heart understands and that everything that he is going through, he attains it with the emotion nevertheless later on he starts to compare the emotions and to work in them so that all of his emotions are not the same emotions that he has now. Because the emotions that he has to detect, to arrange before him, these emotions are feelings of equivalence of form or lack of equivalence of form between him and the Creator. So this is how he feels it, this is how he develops a new sense. That is entirely above reason, above the ordinary calculations, in short this is how he reaches it.
6. S. (27:19) In the connection between us we have to hold onto the intention in order to reveal the Creator or we are just connected?
R. In the connection between us we must bring all of the components of the connection, meaning from where I start and what am I doing it for, what are the components of the connection in the emotion and in the mind, how do I see the result of the connection as the connection between the friends. How in this connection do we reach a state where inside of the connection the image of the Creator begins to be revealed? This is something new that does not exist in any one of us, but it can be revealed between us. Between us. Meaning where there was the place of rejection, where we were in a state where we didn’t see within, we didn’t want to be there, specifically if we go in there in those discernments we make them precious, important, between us then in them we begin to feel the Creator. Then we bring him from zero to the degree of importance of 100% and in that way there we are in adhesion and only in that form, according to the degree of adhesion between us, we make the conditions for the Creator to be revealed.
10. S. (29:40) Is it correct to see it in such a way that collision, the conflict it takes place from a whole state and from that state, that whole state is the state of the ten and I find myself in resistance to the state of the ten that is in a more whole state compared to me?
R. That’s correct, this is how it happens in a sense, each and every time, the resistance, the conflicts, the revelation of the shattering is deeper, of higher quality and opposite that certainly we reach higher quality connection.
11. S. (30:49) Please tell us,, can we in any way understand what is that sensory organ with what you can sense the Creator, it does not connect to the body or is it not perceived just like the Creator himself?
R. We can depict and detect the sense in which we discover the Creator because we build the sense, as it says you have made me. This is not about the Creator himself, but rather about the vessel in which we discover the Creator. This vessel actually is within the reach of our hands because we put together the parts between us, the broken parts, and we want them to be united, and in the thread between them or in the unity of these broken pieces, this is where we discover the Creator. Where there was a broken piece and another broken piece and all kinds of broken forms, there many levels of the shattering of the broken pieces, by that we reach the form, which is called complete Tekiah, the sounding of the shofar, the horn, this is how we reach it and then the Creator is revealed out of these Dinim, these judgments by the way we will reach that.
12. S. (33:00) On the introduction you said that the smallest collective is two and then that you can detect the Creator, as if he is standing behind us?
R. This is not what I’m saying, this is what is written.
S. What exactly that nearing of the hearts we have to imagine we are one, what is the connection that’s required of us in the lesson, in what do we have to the big picture?
R. We have to learn for the connection of the hearts in order to discover the Creator and the Creator is revealed in as much as we are different, we even hate each other, we even want to kill each other like the students of Rabbi Shimon and along with that we are drawn to connections. So from one hand we reveal to us the very bad conditions for connection more and more, on the other hand we nevertheless through effort work and great efforts we want to connect between us, and one does not hinder the other. Meaning it does hinder you bet, but it doesn’t cool us off from our work and when we, together with the resistance, the forms of resistance that hinder us from connecting we nevertheless discover or reveal a necessity for connection, we discover the Creator with a higher intensity between us. This is how we discover him.
S. When you say that even two hearts connect in the ten during the lesson can you look for one or two friends to start this connection with them or to look for it in the entire ten or in the entire world vessel what’s the correct point of departure?
R. No we should not come out of the ten or leave the ten and all of these searches try to locate the Creator, we have to do it inside of the ten. But it comes out of the fact that all the friends in the ten or some of them, understand that there is no choice. That we have to be connected in such a way that the form of the connection will give them the revelation of the Creator.
S. We have to start from one or two friends in the ten where it’s easy with me or go for the whole in with the ten?
R. That is possible, Rabash also writes that maybe a person to take to himself a friend or two and with them to do these exercises but in the end he will have to accept the others, the other friends and actually it’s the opposite. When he sees that he has problems there, he won’t be afraid of that but rather through that he will discover more and more manners of the revelation of the Creator for him.
S. When you say the Creator is standing behind each friend it’s easier, what am I looking for behind each friend, what do I cleave to?
R. I want to connect with the friends so much so that the Creator will be revealed behind him.
13. S. (36:39) I want to ask about this distinction of “you have made me” when we’re building the Creator, what is this thing, how do we create the image of the Creator through nearing? How does it happen, this thing called the image of the Creator?
R. From something and its opposite. As much as you have the friends opposite you and as much as you want to be together with him in one heart, in one body as one man, according to that you want to connect two opposite things and you want to connect them into one. You want to connect two opposite things and you want to connect them into one and it turns out that by that you discover a new form which is above your will to receive on the one hand and by this you start to attain what does it mean in a will to bestow and the will to bestow, that is the Creator, this is how you discover him.
S. What makes our work on the connection, what makes it the kind of work where we suddenly create the Creator. Where does this addition come from, that suddenly there’s a Creator between us?
R. I don’t have the words, I told you now, but you didn’t quite get it. I want to reach the friend, reach the connection with the friend, along with that I discover how much we are contradictory, and we put together the separation, this should be clear to us more and more. This becomes clear to us more and more specifically because we yearned for connection then it becomes clear to us how it is done, both the separation and the unity so much so that we discover that they come from a single source, a single cause and that cause is called BoReh, come and see, this is how we discover him.
S. Is it correct to look at it in such a way that our ability to be adhered to one another, this is our adhesion with the Creator?
R. No, our adhesion with each other could be and all kinds of different manners, all kinds of different states, it’s not adhesion with the Creator.
S. So what is adhesion with the Creator?
R. Adhesion with the Creator is that we between us find such states that they are contradictory where we hate each other, and we rise above that, and we are in the hatred but also in connection and love simultaneously. Then we have these two elements, come and see.
S. So the Creator is someone we create from opposites?
R. Yes.
S. Has to be opposite to the Creator?
R. Otherwise you will not discern, how can you see something that is not opposite from something else.
14. S. (40:53) We’re talking about being in an effort to perceive the Creator through the friends, what about the effort to transmit the Creator to the friends?
R. Not to receive the Creator through the friends but to build the Creator through the friends.
S. And how do I, what about the effort to help the friend? Now I’m helping the friend to build the Creator, how do I do that?
R. By trying to set an example. We don’t have anything else to do just to set an example.
15. S. (42:01) What does it mean that I have to correct, to fix the broken pieces, can I correct the broken pieces, I can only ask the Creator?
R. That’s the meaning of to correct. When I locate the shattering and I ask the Creator.
16. S. (42:28) In this effort to connect with the friends and to feel the Creator there, if I understood you correctly, you said that it’s not enough to have just connection but rather we need the opposite form as well, we need resistance. So how do we include this opposite form inside the image of the Creator?
R. There is nothing that we can detect as a single quality, rather when you speak about a single quality you’re also talking about something that is opposite from it. For us created beings who are not the Creator, this is how we can detect each and every discernment. It’s to the extent of and in relation to an opposition to something else but otherwise we have no other feeling, no sensation, sensation always exists between two.
S. I at least see more that you don’t discover any special hatred towards the friend, but you are simply being thrown away or you become disconnected and you’re something else, the desire disappears then it comes back, so it is seemingly opposite forms, how can we include them in the feeling of the Creator?
R. You don’t place them inside the feeling of the Creator rather by feeling a thing and its opposite you put together the image of the Creator who did not exist there previously. This will be revealed, will be accumulated and you will receive an awareness of this image. It is just like you identify images in the dark and you see more and more and more of them, and it gets clarified.
17. S. (4:50) You are always separating the Creator and created being but I feel that the Creator is a complete form of the created being so the image of the Creator is actually looking into a mirror, it seems like the Creator is complete form of me, can we say it this way?
R. I wouldn’t say so. First of all I’m not the Creator, rather I see the Creator as a form that I attain out of the effort to rise above myself and I come to two opposite forms and by beginning to ascribe them both to one source, I attain that source and then those opposite forms become from me, the revelation of his unity. That’s how I feel the Creator. From a thing and its opposite. It includes two opposing forms, light and darkness, we will talk about it.
Reading quote from Rabash: (46:43) “one must believe that there is none else besides him….”
18. S. (48:30) What does it mean to take one or two friends in the ten and do exercises with them? What about the other friends, can that harm the work of the ten?
R. The fact that I can’t get into tighter contact with all ten friends, for now, and reluctantly I take only a few friends and with them I am capable of working, in the form of the connection between us, in such a way to reveal the Creator, to approach others later, everyone. Not that we are creating a group within a group, so this is allowed to do, Rabash also writes in a few places a person takes a friend and begins to work on him with the connection as much as possible in order to hasten the development. Although this is a restricted form of development, nevertheless from this he can expand further.
19. S. (50:10) A few days ago I heard from you that it’s better to have a lesser connection but with the entire ten and now you said that it’s better to have a high-quality connection with a few so what is better?
R. If I cannot be connected, the entire ten, let’s say an equal form of connection, then I need to try to be in connection with one or two friends or several friends. A part of the ten as long as I begin to move towards connection with the friends. A ten might be too much for me, and if it’s two or three it will be better, it’s simply recommended that this group that we’re creating inside the group will not be at odds with the complete group, rather it’s only a way to let us in and that’s what we do in our world as well. When I come to school as a child and I connect with a few friends, later I get to know the entire class and so on and so forth. It’s according to man’s nature. He is drawn to something close to him, similar to him and that’s what we need to do but nevertheless try to understand why you are doing it because the end of the act is in the initial thought. Eventually we need to see ourselves Incorporated in everyone, connecting everyone, the whole reality, the whole world becomes as one group, as one.
S. Is it inner work or should these friends know that I have chosen them?
R. No, we need to talk about it, there’s nothing here that is concealed, in concealment each one of us has a complete righteous, ready to love the whole world.
S. Can it cause envy in the ten?
R. We need to see, of course, then we need to be careful.
20. S. (52:55) If we cannot compare the spiritual attainment with each other how can we determine that our spiritual feelings are actually what the Kabbalists wrote about in the sources?
R. We try, we need to try and come to a state, whereas kabbalists write about and gradually we’ll discover in practice where we truly are, but we have to play with it.
21. S. (53:30) How to stop resisting the Creator’s control and to start to feel his control or more precisely?
R. This depends on how much we connect between us and this way we’ll discover the attitude of the Creator towards us even corporeally.
22. S. (53:58) If the common emotion and mind, we achieve it on the next degree, how do we create the conditions for the Creator between us on our current level?
R. To the extent we wish we connected it in spite of opposition between us and specifically owing to the opposition between us, rejection, hate, misunderstanding, impatience to one another, if in spite of that we try to create a common field, then accordingly we build the conditions for the revelation of the Creator because the Creator comes to us from assembling wholeness out of two opposites.
23. S. (54:57) Why don’t I see the shattering between me and the Creator, but I do see a division in between myself, I see the shattering inside of myself?
R. That’s for the time being, it’s not the final form.
24. S. (55:19) What is the relation of Adam HaRishon to the Creator before the shattering, was he fearful of the Lord, did he love the Creator?
R. Before the shattering was adhesion to the Creator, there’s no difference between him and the Creator. Like an embryo and it’s in its mother’s womb.
25. S. (55:49) Can we say that through the perception and attaining the emotions of the friends we can also perceive the Creator, feel the Creator?
R. Yes, gradually we are approaching it.
26. S. (56:06) Is the feeling of the Creator, is that the tendency of the heart to connect with the ten above my resistance, how do we reach such a disposition?
R. I simply need as much as possible to overcome the disturbances and I understand the disturbances are not disturbances rather they guide me towards increasing the connection since without those disturbances I will not advance. It’s not disturbances in the way that I want to reach somewhere, I’m driving somewhere, and these things are on the road preventing me from getting there, rather in spirituality disturbances are for me to correct myself and then I’ll be able to advance on the path. Otherwise, I will not be able to advance, therefore the disturbances themselves are the ones that make up the road, the path, that’s how we need to understand it, without connecting these disturbances to me and continuing with them, I will not be able to advance.
27. S. (57:58) Should I try to become incorporated to the ten with internal questions, will that help our connection?
R. We need to understand that anything that is revealed for or against, those are all parts of our complete vessel that stands to be corrected, to be connected but in the correct form to us and then we put together the image of Adam HaRishon. Our complete corrected form there is nothing redundant in creation, even the bleep out the shells, all kinds of things that are, as it’s written we should burn them without leaving a trace, it is written this way and in such a way that the negative becomes positive, that everything the Creator created has a right to exist and we simply need to locate its correct place in the system of Adam HaRishon.
28. S. (59:17) What is the definition of the shattering, for the correction of the shattering, is my prayers sufficient?
R. Other than prayer we have nothing to do, this is completely sufficient for correction, but the prayer has to be as wide and as deep and possible, but it corrects everything because we don’t have any powers by which to correct the connection between us, to bring the Creator to clothe in the connection. Meaning, to adapt ourselves in our vessels to the complete vessel which is him, we don’t have a way of doing it but through prayer we ask, and he does.
29. S. (01:00:09) Is the connection a screen?
R. Connection is not a screen, connection is a result of having a coarseness and screen. They are in equivalence and in mutual work so above the coarseness we can connect.
30. S. (01:00:39) Can we reach a prayer without connecting to the ten, without performing acts of bestowal in the ten?
R. Hold on hold on, if I don’t connect in the ten what am I asking for? The ten is the vessel which I receive the revelation of the Creator and this for me is the goal, to reveal the Creator. To build a vessel for Him, a house, a temple as we call it. If I don’t do it, I don’t do it, fine. But if I have the opportunity and I wish to reveal the Creator and I wish to build Him a house and I build it from within the ten, where else? I need to assemble ten desires to be as ten Sefirot and in this way I reveal the Creator in them until the whole world, whole of reality will connect to that more and more and they will become the ten complete Sefirot and this is the entire reality, and the force is the force let’s say, the surrounding light around this ten.
31. S. (01:02:13) I feel that in my heart that I choose two friends from the ten by this I really disconnect from the other ones, so how can I correct this kind of attitude?
R. No, we have to reach a state that with those friends that I now come to connect with, we make the connection in order to later bring ourselves to be used to serve the entire ten and to help to give them an example for them to serve them so they will all connect. Because the end of the act is in the initial thought, we have to see what we are coming to? If we are coming to the complete form, to the end of correction, it doesn’t matter how we depict it although we are very far away from it, it doesn’t matter. If the form that I am building brings me closer to it then this is the correct form.
32. S. (01:03:21) If I feel hatred towards a specific friend in the ten, how should I cope with it?
R. You have to work on it gently to the extent that I can approach this friend and I approach her, and to the extent that I cannot approach her I should try to be near the rest of the friends who’ll help me get near to the friend who I hate. And, that’s how we come closer, this is what we do in our life as well; If we want to come closer to a person then we build a relationship with people who are close to him and through them I get to approach him.