NETZACH: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Baal HaSulam. Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]
Morning Lesson May 22, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Baal HaSulam. Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]. #12
Reading Item 12 (00:11)
1. R. (01:14) Yes this is our nature, that we only want our own benefit. This is our nature, this is how the Creator created the will to receive and we have no control over it.
Reader (01:32) “Thus, then one is at the farthest distance …”
2. R. (01:42) That we’re entirely opposite to the Creator, this is actually the beginning of our path, the beginning of our state.
Reader (01:53) “Since the root is all bestowal…”
3. R. (02:13) This means that our opposition to the root, to the Creator is that the Creator is entirely bestowing only and we are in the opposite state, only receiving. And this is in each state at every moment in everything that we do, it doesn’t matter in what. We are always in reception 100% and the Creator is in the totally opposite form, against that.
Reading (02:45) “Therefore the situation is regarded as…”
4. R. (03:12) But if a person is in the right environment which is developing mutual bestowal between people then he can learn from that, what is mutual bestowal and become incorporated with that, and he too will be operated in that way.
Reading (03:31) “And then one is initiated….”
5. R. (03:45) He cannot understand otherwise. Meaning you have to start to talk to him, to somehow perform certain actions but to explain it in a language he understands, which means it’s to his benefit. Otherwise he will not understand these actions.
Reading (04:03) “called Lo Lishma, not for her sake….”
6. R. (04:57) Women and children mean desires to receive in each and every person including in every man who is already a grown-up. They teach them to perform actions of the bestowal so that through these actions of bestowal one will reach something, the revelation of the Creator, the revelation of the purpose of humanity and so on and so forth. Why do they explain it in such a way? Because otherwise he will not get it. We nevertheless just like we put information into a computer we have to work with the same template, with the same pattern, the same language as it is built and all his parts are connected and wired together only in order to succeed, to gain, to profit.
So we have to explain to him in such a style, in such a way what is it for, why are we doing all this in order for him to implement, to realize his original software. Once he understands all of these things, once he gets it, then gradually the filling that he gets inside of his software, the original software which is the software of reception, gradually it will start to influence him. So he will understand that there is a new software, a different one that works through some special upgrade, that it can elevate him. It’s not that he will know with his mind how to use all kinds of things in this world, but rather he will raise himself to a different level of emotion, understanding and incorporation; to eternal, complete life which is entirely under new conditions, new kinds of software, that he will work with it. Just like in our time maybe it’s easier to explain it just like a new software in a computer. When you take the previous data, and you use it according to a new calculation. This is how we need to understand, that this is what the Creator intends for us to shift from in order to receive to in order to bestow.
Reading (07:48) “It is as our sages said…”
7. R. (08:06) Which means that a person actually needs to disconnect from all of his earlier software which is in order to receive and shift to a new software, in order to bestow. And then he will be as what we call a son of the next world.
Reading (08:26) “through the natural remedy of engagement…”
8. R. (09:32) Which means there is a special system in which a person enters and it updates him, corrects him, it puts into him a new quality which is called the quality of the bestowal. And then all of the elements, the data that he receives, they all become processed, they all go through that new quality, that new software and he receives results of the upper world, of the upper system. Just as the Creator is in actions of bestowal, in calculations of bestowal so the person is also. Even though he will receive it in his desires to receive, he will be able to elevate them and to process them just like the Creator in order to bestow. And then after he does this work he is in equivalence of form with the Creator. And in that way he begins to feel and understand the Creator, according to those forces of equivalence of form.
9. S. (11:03) You said that a person who is dropped in his vessels of reception but he doesn’t understand, he doesn’t process like the Creator.
R. Well how can a person have vessels of bestowal? He can have vessels of bestowal only on the condition that he discovers to what extent he is in in order to receive and he is willing to connect with the friends in order to build the group. In the group to build relations of mutual bestowal even by playing, acting, the way children play together. We too will have to play in something between us, as though we are in the quality of the bestowal, as though we are in actions of bestowal, as though we are giving, as though we care, as though we love each other and in that way through our actions, which are actions in acting, not true ones, but through that we awaken what we call the reforming light.
That we want to advance truly. It’s as if we don’t truly want it, but as if. We come from Lo Lishma to Lishma, this is how we advance towards in order to bestow, to a state where we truly want to become incorporated, connected together in one desire between us. We ask of the Creator that He will bestow upon us the upper light such that it will connect us, all of our desires into one desire, so that we will feel that we depend on each other. We don’t look at the faces that you now see before you, so many faces, no I don’t see the faces I see only desires. That I have to become incorporated in them and to be in them entirely such that it will be one desire only towards the Creator. And then I discover the upper force that is standing behind this image. and this brings me closer to adhesion with the Creator.
S. After striving to incorporate in those desires of the friends Baal HaSulam writes that also the bare minimum he receives should also goes to bestowal.
R. Because we nevertheless are still in the levels of the still, vegatative and animate. Besides the degree of Adam we are yearning towards the Creator, seemingly towards bestowal. But in all the degrees of the still, vegatative and animate we are still in an existence called this world. So in such things I am still in a state which is seemingly egoistic. I receive and I’m nourished and I live in our ordinary life, that’s it. Bit by bit we will later on start to feel how we have to balance this corporeal life with a spiritual life. About this it says not to be praised or denounced. We will learn how to do it, this is not a problem. Our problem is only to yearn now from the internality of our heart towards connection between us and with the Creator.
10. S. (15:09) How can I say, I don’t know…
R. Go ahead and say it, don’t be ashamed.
S. I have some sort of jealousy that I cannot accept any other created being which is closer to the Creator than me. I cannot accept any other created being which is higher than me, it can be you, it can be Baal HaSulam, it can be holy Ari, it can be Moshe Rabinu, I have such a jealousy that no one can be closer than me to the Creator. Is it something that I have to work on, is it a problem, or how to relate to this?
R. The Creator has no one who is closer to him than you because you are speaking from the point of your heart and from the point of your heart you are truly the one who is closest to the Creator and you have a place in him that is your place, it is your place. There is a place a box and it says there that it is yours, that is one thing. The other thing is that if you will not connect with the Creator then through you all the other souls will not receive what they need to receive so you are unique and you have to connect with the Creator and you have to supply everyone your connection with the Creator so that you will be no more than this connection this is called in order to bestow when you connect all of the souls to the Creator and you provide them with this connection only, and as for yourself nothing besides being that connector. This is called in order to bestow so you are, you have a correct feeling you have a special unique role and no one can take it from you and be in your place but realize it.
S. I want to continue for me, it is really, it is really hard to incorporate, to annul because it’s like one hand it’s like waters are coming like in a state that you cannot take your head up and breath…
R. I understand you. Each one of us no matter how in what state of excellence he’s in, he has certain tendencies, dispositions, skills, and physics and math and music and dance, sports, whatever each one has, there is only one thing each one can do which is coming closer to the Creator in order to be the connector between the Creator and others. Each one has a place there each one can succeed there.
S. But I’m not successful, I’m a zero, I am not successful, I am ashamed?
R. On this we will talk in a while, then you will tell us if you are successful or not. When you’re driving on the road and you can’t see the goal and you see who knows when except that you know that it is coming at a certain time, but here you are on the path and you don’t know how long it will be and it depends only on you to shorten it.
11. S. (23:17) In item twelve it says that as he keeps growing so he will receive from his environment portions of bestowal from others, bestowal upon the others, so the question is if we focus upon the ten what practical actions can help us receive these portions of bestowal upon the others?
R. Of course that’s what he’s talking about, especially for women. That’s very important ,start coming closer to one another in the tens and provide good examples to one another and from that you will see how your spiritual vessel is built and it begins to exist and give you spiritual discernments.
12. S. (24:17) In item twelve Baal HaSulam says that the Creator is entirely a will to bestow without any sparks or hints of reception later on he says the more one grows his goal is only to bestow contentment upon his maker so why is bestowing contentment to the Creator not considered reception from the side of the Creator?
R. Because what are you bestowing? You are bestowing the Creator the vessels that he can fill. The Creator does not receive anything from you except for a willingness to fill your vessels which is the only thing he needs from you, that you’d want to receive like a baby, you want to eat, and he is willing only to bestow. It is like a cow but over swells because they haven’t taken milk from her, when you bestow to the Creator it’s the ability to receive from him, that is what you bestow to him, it gives him pleasure, you prepare the vessels for him, you can receive in order to bestow.
13. S. (25:36) At what stage does the transition occur from Lo Lishma to Lishma, how precisely does it happen?
R. The transition from Lo Lishma to Lishma takes place gradually slowly according to how much a person can participate in it, how much a person organizes his life, his internal life, maybe a little bit the external but most the internal, the desires the thoughts what is he thinking about interested in doing, so he’s entire life will be not in externality. In externality we all have a family a job and so on and so forth but rather man’s inner world should eventually be aimed at attaining bestowal through the friends to the Creator.
Reading Item 13 “If indeed there are two parts in the Torah . . . “ (27:07 – 28:12)
14. R. (28:15) In other words, if we work in bestowal outside of ourselves and we’re bestowing upon the friends and the Creator without any difference between them because they’re all standing outside of us as a superior system, the higher system, and we don’t feel any difference, I bestow and that is the main thing, that in this action I am adhered to the Creator. And then for me to bestow upon others, upon the friends, upon humanity is bestowing upon the Creator because what are you going to give, what will you give Him? There is nothing you can give to the Creator unless by bestowing upon He’s created beings.
15. S. (29:13) You mentioned that to obtain a new soul we need friends. So how should we develop a dialogue between the ten so we can communicate with the Creator?
R. We need a connection between us so that the upper light will clothe in us as it is in the Creator. In other words, we will create between us, and each of us is an egoist, but we will create between us such relationships that will be similar to the nature of the Creator, to bestowal. And then the upper light which is really the Creator with clothe in us as it is in the Creator. This is what we need to do, to build such a system: a system it’s called ‘the formula of connection between us’, a formula of connection between us is entirely reception, egoistic, each one toward everyone. If we try to shift the form of connection between us, meaning the software that exists between us into bestowal, then it’s as if we’re upgrading ourselves. We shift ourselves into a new software, a new connection between us, and then in this new connection, in this new software we will feel new results. These new results will be called ‘the upper world’, the spiritual world, and in this way we will do more and more measures, levels of connections between us from coarseness: root, one, two, three, four, from world to world, until we comes to complete connection and then in the connection between us, we will discover the Creator, Himself. And in the measures of connection before it, we will feel him to some partial extent.
16. S. (31:52) What does it mean that “he won’t feel any difference whether he is working for the love of one’s friend or to the love of the Creator”?
R. You won’t feel it, because there really isn’t, there really isn’t. You need to understand that you really don’t have anything to bestow upon the Creator because He doesn’t have any vessels of reception. All the vessels of reception of the Creator that you can bestow to are the created beings outside of you. And therefore, when the Creator broke the vessel and gave this vessel the quality of ego, the will to receive, He allows each one to bestow upon His vessel, meaning upon the Creator. To the extent that you bestow upon people, you are bestowing upon the Creator, there’s nothing else. There is no ‘me’ and created beings and the Creator but the created beings through which I receive the influence on me bestowal on me and to which I bestow and this is how I bestow upon the Creator. So the created beings are between me and the Creator as a source of bestowal upon me and as a source of bestowal from me to the Creator and there’s nothing else. This is why the law of ‘love of people’ is general and for everyone and 100%.
S. What does he feel when he bestows to the created being in order to bestow to the Creator?
R. Who feels, the person?
S. Yes.
R. So say it again.
S. What does a person feel when he works for the love of the Creator and what does he feel when he works for the love of his friends?
R. If he works on love of his friends and doesn’t intend by this to work for the Creator, then there’s nothing in this work. It is something that exists in this world, too, it is egoistic love. If he wants, though bestowal upon his friend to bestow upon the Creator, then it is already an altruistic bestowal above a person’s reason because here he’s working above his will to receive, it doesn’t come back to him; and in this way, he’s already in spirituality.
S. So what does he feel when he works like that?
R. He feels that he’s bestowing, he feels that he is bestowing and that power to bestowal he attains is actually the Creator.
S. And he doesn’t feel the difference because he doesn’t have the ability to see the difference, he doesn’t feel the difference between working for the Creator and the friend because he can’t?
R. No because there’s nothing else, there’s nothing else. There are no created beings in the Creator, in bestowing upon the created beings to that extent I bestow upon the Creator and to the extent I want to bestow upon the Creator, I bestow upon the created beings, there’s no difference between them.
S. So why is it two different terms?
R. Because I, as a created being, cannot relate differently from now.
S. And at a certain point I will be able to relate differently?
R. For you it’ll be the same.
S. So there isn’t a state where I can tell the difference between the Creator and created being?
R. None, none, in bestowal, none, no difference.
S. What law does that come from, what principal?
R. It stems from the fact that the vessels of bestowal are all in the created beings and this is the only connection between the created beings and the Creator, and from the Creator to the created beings, we all meet there in the middle in the common Kli that the Creator created; and He broke the vessel in order to give all the parts, all the pieces of the vessel and afterwards the whole vessel, to be in bestowal. Only by being in mutual bestowal upon each other can we come to bestowal upon Him, who is “Him”? The common, general vessel: this is called, there is no Creator without a created being”.
S. Except for the vessels, we say there is a filling, too.
R. The filling is your own relation, our own attitude.
S. But sometimes we say that there is a vessel we have to create and the Creator fills it.
R. Because we come with a thought, what is called an intention to fill the vessel with my relation but the Creator participates in this and we are as partners with Him, and then we fill the vessel. Without my participation, the Creator cannot fill the vessel of Adam HaRishon. I need to cause the connection of the vessel of Adam HaRishon and its filling.
S. What is the difference between the connection and the fulfillment?
R. One is the vessel and one is the light.
S. Is there a difference between light and vessel?
R. Of course, when did you hear differently?
S. So what is the light and what is the vessel?
R. The desire: when I connect all the other desires, when I connect all those individual desires into one desire, it’s called the correction of the vessel, when we’re all as ‘one man with one heart’ and then this heart, to the extent that it becomes as one, is filled.
S. With what?
R. With the upper light, with the filling, where the light and the vessel are equal all working in bestowal.
S. So what does it mean that there is no difference in the work between the love of the friend and working for the Creator?
R. Of course there’s no difference, what difference is there? None, from my perspective, no difference, if I’m correct it there is no difference. This is why I do not detect the friends as standing on their own, for me it is all ‘a field that the Lord has blessed’.
S. We just said there’s a difference between light and vessel?
R. One is the will to receive and one is the filling, that’s it.
17. S. (39:02) When I disseminate something gives me strength and then the same strength weakens me which causes fear. This fear makes me stagnate and I fall into reluctance. How can I deal with this, get rid of this?
R. Only through our connection, only through our connection with your friends. All the states of correction of the vessels can happen only on condition we are connected, supporting one another. Read the article The Arvut, The Mutual Guarantee again and see how he writes about it.
18. S. (40:01) Why is it written, ‘Lishma”, for her sake and not for His sake?
R. For the sake of the Torah, he explains it.
S. What does it mean ‘for the Torah’?
R. Well, for the sake of the Torah, for the sake of the software, to implement it, to realize it. But you need to read it in its place. Ask and they will send you the articles that it talks about, what it means ‘for the sake of the Torah’.
19. S. (40:37) We always say that we go from love our friends to love of the Creator. The meaning to bestow to the friends, that’s something I can depict to myself, but the intention to bestow to the Creator, who are we aiming towards on the other side?
R. Start bestowing through the friends and you will discover the Creator. The Creator is basically the thing that is revealed in you, an image that positions you and the friends together and wants to get a result from your labor, from your efforts. You are asking more about the form of the Creator; in this way, with this approach you will discover Him. More than this, I have nothing to say, it is all the result of the labor, the effort.
20. S. (41:54) Something I’m trying to scrutinize for many years: it is written here that “even the necessity he gets also flows for the intention of bestow from to be able to bestow”, and also in the preparation, you said there is no rest. So what I see more and more is that the will to receive wants for himself in everything, meaning also things of resting or just wants it for himself. So, should we also give up on that and not that I have to make the corrections, the efforts, even though I’m afraid or it seems like death to the will to receive not to enter all kinds of things that I know that are only for myself?
R. All those things are appearing because you lack connection with the group, if you were connected with the group it is built in such a way that then all the fears will disappear. Try it, in such cases connect more to the society. Don’t decline in your demands but only connect to it, more to the friends.
Reading item # 13 (43:33 – 45:11) “If indeed there are two parts in the….”
21. R (45:12) We are truly like that, acting out of self-love to the extent that it directs us in which direction, which style, which power. Everything is operated by self-love.
Reading item # 13 (45:38 – 47:05) “If indeed there are two parts…”
22. R. (47:12) In other words we all operate, initially within the will to receive for ourselves, and we have no thoughts of doing anything good to anyone but only to the extent that we are connected to the extent that someone. To the extent we are connected, we operate, if there is no connection, we can not operate. Even if we imagine anything, we will not be able to operate, to act toward someone else unless there is a connection between the desires, mine and his and then we’ll be able to do everything, we will be able to work. To the extent and in the manner by which we are connected, so its clear to me that by my bestowal upon others, I’m ostensibly bestowing upon myself.
What we do through using the wisdom of Kabbalah correctly is we begin to feel this system where we are connected together which come to us, of course, through the upper light which shines on us, on all of us, and awakens each one to be connected, awakens some of us to be connected, normally we do it in a ten. And then when we awaken the connections between us through the upper light, it becomes a system which, through mutual support, can help each one come to bestowal upon others. Meaning each one toward everyone else and by this, we begin to feel the Creator to the extent of our equivalence of form and bestow uponHim to adapt ourselves to it and in this way, advance.
23. S. (49:27) So it turns out that every action I do, even in the ten and on the path, I do it for my own benefit.
R. For the time being, of course, but afterwards through the reforming light a change happens and then you can understand that you can act in true bestowal without connection to your will to receive. There will be connection to your will to receive but it will be inverted above the will to receive.
S. The cause that awakens this light that reforms is that we are aiming to give contentment to the Maker, that’s the element that bestows?
R. Yes, yes, yes, of course.
S. And if I work in the ten without that intention, I forget about it, I work with the friends.
R. This is called, “operating on the level of Nefesh”, there’s still progress in it even if, it’s written that “commandments do not require intention”.
S. How to ascend from Nefesh, from this state, to not remain?
R. For this, you already need to be incorporated in a bigger will to receive, you need to be incorporated with intentions to bestow, meaning to have a direction, an inclination, a disposition, an objective, a road so that you understand the operations you want to do it will come from you but the results will be in someone outside of you. So that the relation between the beginning of the work and the end of the work will be in two different desires, and in two different bodies, in you and in the friend.
S. Where’s contentment to the Maker, here?
R. By wanting to bring contentment to the friend, to satisfy the friend. By this you’ll bring contentment to the Creator.
S. I have to be aware that I’m bringing contentment to the Creator?
R. Initially, you may not be so aware, you have a place in your mind and your heart, but afterwards, of course, yes.
S. Artificially, do I constantly have to bring this thought in: to give contentment to the Maker?
R. Yes, yes, of course, of course, I am acting in order to bring contentment to the Creator and this is why I’m bringing contentment to the friend.
S. What contentment am I giving to the Creator, what am I doing for Him?
R. By relating to the friends as He relates to the created beings.
S. And what am I causing Him, I’m giving Him contentment?
R. You are the cause through which He can bestow upon others, you are opening a path for His bestowal. This is called ‘making connection between us’ and afterwards, zivugim, couplings with the upper light, and the upper light travels through us to the created beings, to Malchut.
S. And without that, the light does not work on them?
R. Without it, no, no, this is called ‘all of creation being under the restriction’. We have yet to discover this restriction in a way that all of us will feel ourselves in complete darkness, in absolute, pitch darkness. We are approaching it and then we will have to explain to everyone what is the reason for the darkness, and what is a way to come out of it.
24. S. (53:44) If one does everything for himself, is everything that he gets from his nature bad?
R. I didn’t understand, when a person accepts in his nature? Repeat please.
S. If one does everything for himself is everything that he gets from these actions, or result of actions, bad?
R. Yes, yes what was the question? Aren’t you reading the articles, didn’t you read about these things? These are questions that are really asked and explained everywhere, you need to read more.
Item #14 (55:04 – 56:59 ) “Thus we can clearly see that toward those… “
25. S. (57:04) What is Lishma and Lo Lishma in the ten, what actions are Lishma or Lo Lishma?
R. In order to bestow upon the Creator though the friends is Lishma, for her sake, and in order to receive self benefit from this is Lo Lishma, not for her sake, that’s it. But you begin with Lo Lishma, not for her sake, because we have no choice.
S. If the actions are always Lo Lishma, so what makes it Lishma?
R. By doing it together, praying to the Creator, receiving from above the reforming light and then we come to Lishma.
26. S. (57:56) Baal HaSulam writes here that “everything that is done from habit cannot bring him benefit”. But you said many times, “habit becomes second nature”, so how can I understand what Ball HaSulam writes here?
R. This is not related to Lisham, to for her sake, because in Lishma you constantly have more and more egoistic will to receive that’s revealed and that you have to overcome. Therefore, there are no habits here and no second nature.