BINAH: 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 27, 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. #35
1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:30) I’m happy that we are learning from these sources. There are people among us and many more of them each day who are approaching the right perception, the right approach to the learning and the implementation of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Meaning that they are approaching the Creator so let’s see how it is today compared to yesterday and compared to the day before how we perceive these things and therefore each day it should be as new in your eyes, as it is written
Item 35 (01:25)
2. R. (02:42) In other words it is not like a person is doing something he only opens himself, his heart to others and then to the extent he is willing to connect with them as much as he can, to take a step forward towards connection with the friends to that extend the light shines on him, corrects his heart, makes a connection and only in the connection between at least two, a person and his friend, the upper light can be there can enter there and there will be connection between opposite qualities there. There is room for mutual responsibility there and to that extent we begin to get closer to each other and build the place for the Creator to be between us because then love thy friend as thy self we begin to understand that this is the vessel for the revelation of the Creator because the Creator will be able to shine in this vessel, be present there and fill it and by this we bring Him contentment.
3. S. (04:04) What does it mean that we are opening our heart and giving the conditions to correct it?
R. When we are willing to remove and lower our ago and try somehow to come closer to the friends so that we this inclination, with this this position, the inclination to bestow, to love, to connect will develop in us and then out of these propensities, these dispositions, the Creator will be able to enter to be there according to the law of equivalence of form to the extent that I tried to be connected to the friends. In this tendency the Creator can clothe me, fill up my tendencies and then in this way by getting closer to each other we make room for the Creator to appear until we begin to feel him, until we begin to work with him in mutual nearing between us. Each one towards the other and all of us together towards the Creator and this is really the whole of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Each one when we annul ourselves before each other and by getting closer to each other through our connection we begin to build a connection to the Creator, a place where according to the equivalence of form He will begin to enter and fill our tendencies, our inclinations towards each other. So it turns out that we are already in adhesion from between us to Him and this is how we come to state that all of us connect together, and this is called from the love of people to the love of the Creator.
4. S. (06:30) I do not understand that third condition that the heart will be above the mind because we always start studying from our mind. We have to think, we have to understand, we speak about it in the workshops and only then we absorb it in our feelings so that is why I don’t understand, why does it say first heart and then mind?
R. There’s no doubt that only desires cannot be directed to the Creator rather in order to direct them we need a lot of intellect and efforts and all kinds of additional activities, but the substance of creation is a desire, so the intellect only comes in order to serve the desire, to show us where we are with the desires. All in all this is what we need to direct our desire to the Creator and the intellect is only in order to direct it to Him. Only in order to direct our desires to Him. We are not responsible for our desires, we do not control them but through the intellect when I work, when I operate on the desire, the desire then begins to change. I bring my desire into all kinds of activities, all kinds of states, situations. I connect with my desire to the friends’, and I try to influence my desire with all kinds of means and then through these indirect activities I influence the desire. When the desire changes this is called me changing because I in the end, am the desire and the intellect comes as an axillary system where through the intellect I can change the desire and not me directly but through the Creator because the Creator holds the desire of each and every one.
5. S. (09:27) Just like the Torah creates the process in our heart so it means that as much as we advance the ego also works in the heart, but it works in the opposite way. How can both of these qualities live in the heart that are so opposite?
R. Desires and thoughts in a person’s heart are in all the collisions and connections there are such movements there in every direction and through the reforming light all those desires and thoughts gradually rearrange more and more correctly in one direction from light to heavy and this is how we correct ourselves and by correcting the easier things, the smaller things, we gradually approach greater and tougher connections, corrections. This is how it happens, but it is in our hearts and also in our minds but in our hearts there are all kinds of desires. All the desires that only exist in reality in the hearts of each and every one and in all of those desires in each and every heart we are connected end this is really the system, this is the system called Adam one Adam and as much as we want to come closer to being one heart by this we grow stronger, more effective, more influencing the Creator especially when the hearts join together, unite together they become a very strong force that influences the Creator. Only through the connection of the hearts this is what we can do. One heart cannot bestow upon the Creator, there is no connection. In order to have equivalence of form you have to have a desire that is above. The desire of bestowal has to be above the desire of reception therefore if we connect to some extent in our hearts then out of the common heart that we build, the common desire, through it we influence the Creator. This is all of our work
Item 36 (12:52)
6. R. (14:08) A person needs to see how in his engagement in approaching the Creator he also wants to give this labor, this effort to others and connect the hearts so that they will be filled with the knowledge of the Creator by connecting among them and in this way he will cause the correction of the world. This is called the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. The Earth, the land, is the desire, the common desire of all the hearts all the created beings will be filled with the upper light with mutual bestowal between them and then the upper light, the quality of the Creator will clothe in them. This is really, in the end, what every person should eventually do.
7. S. (15:17) We learn that in order to reach something that has no smell or taste you cannot do it through your desire but through exertion so what is the exertion, it is also type of desire? Why through exertions and effort?
R. I do not know what you are translating over there, I wouldn’t translate it this way. We are only desires in each and every one there is a desire to satisfy himself, this is the whole of man and nothing more. We need to use this desire in order to become similar to the Creator. When I, in contact with a Creator, I will be able to bestow upon the other it is just like the Creator who gives to us in general and then in this way we built between us such a connection that is similar to the quality of the Creator and by this we come to equivalence of form with Him, we draw near Him. In other words the end of our development should be when we connect and help each other come to mutual bestowal and in this Mutual bestowal we come to equivalence of form with the Creator. All of a sudden I begin to feel, to the extent that I get closer to others, I am changing and not only me I begin to feel that the friends are changing, that all of us together are getting closer to each other. That we connect. This is how we move closer and closer to each other until we begin to feel the quality of the Creator between us, mutual bestowal. We have to also perform all kinds of activities, even artificial ones which are also called commandments by which we also draw the reforming light which operates on us and brings us closer and connects us. This is how we come to a state where we enter the mutual responsibility, the connection, this is how we advance.
8. S. (18:35) When I use my intellect to direct my desires, where do I get this power from to direct my intellect properly. Where do I get this power from?
R. I’m not sure what you mean by intellect today you are suddenly using words that we do not use in our learning.
S. This is what came through in English when we said mind.
R. Okay, mind, I understand. So how do we use our mind or intellect? Only to obtain the quality of bestowal. If I use my mind in order to acquire the quality of bestowal then I’m advancing correctly on the path. Then I can influence, I can increase my feelings and in this way advance towards the Creator.
S. Where do I get the strength to use my mind in the right way?
R. By having to come closer to the friends and I see in our relationships between us, basically in our corporeal relationships, that we want to come closer to each other, that we are being repelled from one another and out of this repulsion, this rejection, if we overcome this rejection that’s when we can learn what it means to come closer, what is our nature which is the grow apart from each other and what it means to go the opposite, to come closer to each other and then out of these two opposites we learn basically what is corporeality and spirituality. We gradually begin to elevate these actions to move closer and further away to this spiritual level.
S. Is this my ego working?
R. Everything is in the ego. We still do not have anywhere else to understand and think and decide, only in our Egos.
9. S. (21:37) When Baal HaSulam writes that one should engage in the Torah with the aim to extol the Creator and make Him respected and important in the world, Is he speaking about dissemination and the importance of dissemination on the path?
R. Of course dissemination is the greatest most meaningful means for our advancement because basically we need to see to the correction of the common vessel. If we remain only in one ten then even though we can be concentrated, focused on inner work there but it is very very difficult instead of spreading this work over many people that we bestow to and we disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah and bring them closer to us and in this way we magnify the vessel. We also see how in human development we grow according to human development. We have grown from a small group of people thousands of years ago until we’ve grown to where we have billions of people. Why do we need it? It is all in order to do the work more easily and quickly so that each and every one takes a tiny piece to move it from place to place as we read the stories of Baal HaSulam so each one can do this and in this way move all of the King’s treasure so the more we disseminate, circulate and help more and more people come into this matter of, even the tiniest most partial mutual responsibility by this we nevertheless make it easier and quicker.