HOD: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Baal HaSulam. The Freedom
Morning Lesson June 12, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Baal HaSulam. The Freedom
Reading article from beginning (00:13 – 01:46)
20. R. (01:49) Clear? Up to here the questions are powerful questions, freedom of will.
21. S. (02:00) It is not clear what he asks, this introduction.
R. Okay, I will read it: “ ‘Harut [carved] on the tables’; do not pronounce it Harut [carved], but rather Herut [freedom], to show that they were liberated from the Angel of Death.” Meaning that the person is liberated from death, we have to understand what is death and what it means to be liberated from it. These words need to be clarified, for how is the matter of acceptance of the Torah related to one’s liberation from death? Furthermore, once they have attained an eternal body that cannot die through the acceptance of the Torah, how did they lose it again? Can the eternal become absent? If they attained an eternal body how can it disappear suddenly? There are many questions here. In total the questions we don’t understand: what is the liberation from the Angel of Death, what is death and how does it disappear and come back, so let’s continue reading.
Reading on (03:32 – 05:03)
22. R. (05:05) Meaning we seemingly demand freedom but we do not know what we are demanding, what we want, what we yearn for, all these things are convoluted. Each one in our world as we can see has his own concept of what is freedom and what should be in order to reach freedom and what many strugglings of humans are revolved around; and it’s interesting to the person who wishes to reach his freedom, he needs to jump on other people and obligates them which is totally against freedom. So how can this be, how can we naturally reach the state of freedom? That’s what he’s saying that mankind is fighting and struggling for thousands of years over this concept of freedom because internally we disagree with being enslaved and this is why we have to scrutinize what it means, freedom of the will, the truth full freedom of will and how do we come out of our confusions into this concept of freedom, especially in our times when we see these things become more and more relevant.
23. S. (06:36) What is this “eternal body” writes Baal HaSulam in this text?
R. That is the will to receive that is already in the form of bestowal like the Creator and this is why it is eternal like the Creator, that’s it.
24. S. (07:09) Why do we think that our freedom depends on others and that we basically complain to them if you do not feel freedom?
R. Again?
S. Why, when I want freedom, I come with a demand to others that they should as if liberate me from the chains? It’s as if they put me in chains and I come with a complaint to them, “give me my freedom”.
R. Yes.
S. It’s correct to do that?
R. Yes, so what is the problem, that you depend on others for your freedom?
S. I do not know, even in the Arvut article, he writes, ‘they cannot come out to spirituality if they are not all clean from self love’.
R. Right, and?
S. So I have to complain to my friends in the ten, in the world Kli that because of them I am not free.
R. Then what do you think they will tell you?
S. That “it is because of you we too are not free”.
R. Good, so there is mutual guarantee here so what do you do next? No, that’s correct.
S. So we are stuck then, it is like instead of, like there is some mutual demand here, mutual claim, complaint.
R. This is where you have connect together to help each other to come out from slavery to freedom.
S. How can we help by this?
R. You begin to help each other as much as you can support each other, there is no other choice but to start from the lowest state possible.
S. Is this picture correct what I said that I have to complain to my friends?
R. Yes, as long as there is a demand, this is always good, the question later becomes how to then realize it. What you have from your will to receive is correct, it doesn’t matter what it demands, it’s correct, it comes from the desire. Now the question is how do you realize this desire?
S. How?
R. In the correction of the desires there are already corrections there, there are corrections.
25. S. (09:51) So everybody understands freedom as, like being free.
R. You say that, you give us an example of just exactly how freedom is different for different people, for you it’s the liberty to philosophize before everyone.
S. Right, freedom of what though, what does it mean freedom of what?
R. We will see in the article.
Reading on, “Pleasure and Pain” (10:43 – 12:51)
26. R. (12:52) This is clear, right? That in our will to receive, in each and every one’s will to receive we make a calculation consciously or even subconsciously: how much he is giving or receiving, does he have a positive surplus meaning profit, or if he does not? And accordingly this is how we consider everything. When you walk, when you give and receive, it does not matter what kind of movements physical or internal you are making, it is always measured according to profit and loss, and if the loss or the payment is more than the desired the profit then we cannot give rather we need to go deeper and bring more and more proof that we are profiting and we should be doing that action.
Reader continues (13:59 – 14:28)
27. R. (14:29) Yes, that is how we’re made and we always make the calculations if something is worthwhile or not, and that’s how we’re acting. Meaning to receive more pleasure and deduct as many sufferings as possible, that is all of our actions, that is how it is for each and every person and not only for people but also for still, vegetative, animate and speaking. Meaning everyone is working in the same way, there is no difference between the various created beings except how much each and every one according to their will to receive can make the calculation about what is more worthwhile for them.
Reader continues (15:23 – 16:39)
28. R. (16:41) This is also clear to everyone, we all behave according to what society dictates and that is how we live; and if it was possible each one would always show up wearing pajamas and would never, never change it because it is the most convenient, most comfortable. That’s how Rabash used to say, “in your pajamas you typically have big pockets, it’s comfortable, it’s good, the fabric is soft”, flannel or something. So what do we do instead, we suffer from all kinds of clothes and garments and attires that we have to buy and work, and make a lot of money and buy so we won’t feel ashamed in front of others. Look at what we’re doing above our simple will to receive. It is all clear, there are no questions, it’s clear.
29. S. (17:58) Baal HaSulam undermines the foundations that we’re in here, the will to receive, the influence of the environment. Meaning we are in the rules of this game clarifying what’s our freedom, and he says, “no, the rules of the game to begin with, let’s question them, it’s clear that we’re all a will to receive.
R. He’s only starting to tell you what he wants to do, you want to make a calculation about the whole article? He’s explaining to you our nature. He’s not discussing with you yet what we have to do, he simply explains your nature: that man’s nature is to yearn for what’s comfortable and what’s good. But there’s the environment that decides for the person and places various conditions on a person as conventions. And a person because in addition to his will to receive has shame which is included in the will to receive and so he has to keep the laws of the society and then reluctantly he’s making a calculation: how much he can follow his our desires and much he follows society’s desires and in this way each one finds themself in the middle.
S. So you said according to his desire, according to the desires of society. So a person has the ability to choose some desire that is against the desire of society?
R. We will learn about it.
S. Because he already said there isn’t any, he’s already determined, he said, “I drink, I dress, I speak only according to the fancies of society”.
R. We’ll see, why is he writing the article, “The Freedom”? Freedom means that I rise above my will to receive and I become liberated from it, I can look at it from above and in this way advance not according to my developing desire and not according to the society’s developing desire but according to what I determine which is both above my desire and society’s desire.
30. S. (20:39) In the beginning of the article he deals with different aspects of freedom, like that the animals suffer from being in captivity and that people try to achieve freedom in the simple sense that a person can just do what they want. Question: in this aspect of freedom that a person can just choose to do what he wants, is that something that humanity will have to achieve in order to rise to a higher level of freedom?
R. Not every one but every one will come to it, that is also divided into five levels: still, vegetative, animate, speaking and spiritual above the speaking. That’s why each and every one has the qualities with which he was born and with whom he advances and in the incorporation between them they scrutinize additional things, spiritual things since then all of humanity in its entirety comes to the attainment of the Creator, the degree of the Creator as it’s written, “return oh Children of Israel to the Lord your God”, and that’s how we advance.
S. It’s just that we see that in the world, the world treats this concept differently and people have different levels of freedom. Sometimes people can’t choose very basic things, they’re being enslaved.
R. No, all this is simply to understand why the Creator is arranging it this way, this is incorrect. What you receive, what each and every one receives, they receive the necessary things for advancement. If they can not advance through the correct choice then “they are being advanced through the choice of Heaven”, as we call it. So it’s not according to the good, beautiful development, you see it about the people of Israel, how they advance through blows and pressure because there’s no choice and he needs to advance even more but he doesn’t want to, these people, and that’s why things happen to him in this way.
S. The question is this: to come to the primary freedom, the freedom of the will to receive, people will still have to reach some minimal understanding of freedom, right? Like North Korea, will they ever achieve spiritual freedom, or first they have to undergo all the other stages towards ordinary freedom?
R. They’ll have to go through these discernments nevertheless they will go quickly through it. As a result of their incorporation with all humanity, they are more advanced, they will go through the stages very quickly.
31. S. (24:23) In the world a person can always understand that he’s part of the society and find a place where he’s free. The question is how can we do things that are against what is customary in society?
R. We have to make these efforts that are not customary in the society in the ten by creating a small society and mini society called ‘a ten’ and inside the ten we can behave according to the spiritual laws. Although we exist in a wider circle which is normal egoistic society but that does not disturb us, on the contrary, we received negative influence from them and together with that we process them towards an altruistic connection between us.
32. S. (25:53) Is suffering caused by the lack of spirituality or is it the will to receive that suffers?
R. All the sufferings come from the lack of attaining spirituality, attaining the Creator, all of the suffering that stems from the foundation of the shattering of Adam HaRishon.
Reader continues (26:28 – 27:40)
33. R. (27:41) If we only advance, only act through pleasure and pain then we have no free choice between what? If I’m locked between pleasure and pain, pleasure and suffering then we are like machines, there is nothing you can do. If that is the case what are our lives about, where is the free choice, where is the goal, where is development? There is nothing. We are operated on by two forces plus and minus and that’s how we act. There is no difference between a man and an animal where we are completely influenced by the forces of nature.
Reader continues (28:33)
34. R. (28:53) Meaning secular people.
Reader continues: (28:57)
35. R. (29:22) He writes beautifully. After everything we see in nature we are either in pleasure or in suffering and they all lead us to what nature wants. We have no choice in the matter whatsoever because I cannot escape the suffering and I cannot escape the pleasure. They work on me and they ruin my life basically. I see you disagree with that but there is no choice.
S. (30:09) How this simple sharp truth, a person can’t accept this, humanity can’t?
R. Because it erases his freedom, the human in him, he remains an animal. We constantly see ourselves as being operated on by pleasure and sufferings.
S. Why does he not even just clarify it intellectually? Why isn’t all of the humanity engaged in the question of let’s see, let’s find who we are, what governs us like he writes here in just barely two pages. He describes how we were organized without a choice and this whole picture is hidden, no one wants to look at it, talk about it it, it’s very weird weird state.
R. But you see what’s going on in humanity. Humanity doesn’t want to talk above the level of pleasure and sufferings because it brings immediately to such a scene, such a feeling, such a situation where it’s completely locked between these two forces. And they operate it, activate it, manage it and it has nothing. As it’s written everyone are as animals.
36. S. (32:10) A person who receives an awakening of the point in the heart or awakening from above, does he move to another providence or continues under the providence of pleasure and pain?
R. I don’t know, we haven’t read about it.
S. I’m asking about pleasure and pain. Is it all along the way, doesn’t matter where you are?
R. Of course pleasure and pain. Our will to receive doesn’t understand anything else. Pleasure or suffering in the simplest way is possible and it’s organized into different reasons and degrees but it’s either pleasure or suffering. Then we make a calculation how much we can suffer in order to reach the pleasure or how much pleasure we should receive and avoid the suffering and torments. But all those things come down to pleasure or suffering.
S. It says about blind nature, is it nature that is blind or me that is blind?
R. Same.
Reader (33:36) “The law of causality”
37. R. (35:36) Again, the law of causality. It is worthwhile taking some time, time to grasp such an important thing. Meaning how we exist in the world as beings with a self, our ego. Where each of us regards himself as a unique entity acting on its own, not dependant of others. And I am at the center of the world and everyone else is around me, and I barely take them into consideration and everything is directed only to me. This is how I am set up, in my mind, my heart, my perception, in general, independent of external, alien and unknown forces and in what this being, this self becomes revealed to us.
So there is a general issue here. Where am I standing, in what world, what influences me, how am I connected to others, how are others influencing me? Is there any system between us that ties us together and makes us dependant on each other? All this has to do with the causality, what happens with us, what happened, is happening and will happen. It is true that there is a general connection among all the elements of reality before us. It is a general connection between all the parts and all the pieces, etc., which abides by the law of causality, by way of cause and effect moving forward.
As the whole so is each item for itself. We are all connected to each other. Meaning that each and every creature in the world from the four types, still, vegetative, animate and speaking abide by the law of causality by way of cause and effect. Each one develops and the development of each one depends on how much others, how others are developing. Moreover each particular form of a particular conduct which a creature follows while in this world is pushed by ancient causes, compelling it to accept that change in that conduct and not another whatsoever. In other words each one is carrying everything that came before him and continues with it and in this way connects with the others, with the entire history of each and everyone.
This is apparent to all who examine the ways of nature from a pure scientific point of view and without a mixture of bias. Indeed we must analyze this matter to allow ourselves to examine it from all sides. In other words how can we see this whole general structure of nature, still, vegetative animate and speaking in such a way that it connects from being contradictory and distant from each other, even though they are connected. So even though we have things that are contradictory and totally removed from one another we have to see how they are all in one system and support and mandate one another.
Reader “Four factors” (40:05)
38. S. (41:33) How the law of causality that he’s speaking about in the previous excerpt the cause and effect in any degree of?
R. I don’t know, I don’t know, you’re asking well, it’s a good question but I don’t know. We will study together, why is this article called The Freedom, because he wants to tell us to explain to us whether we are free or not. If we’re not free, everything we do, all of our actions, all we think, it all comes from above and we are compelled to do it just like a computer, you insert data and this is what he has and then it acts, processes all those numbers and even those it comes to all kinds of results, these results don’t come from it, they comes from the software, from whatever it was filled with.
So if we are like that, like a machine and there is nothing from our part, from our side that comes out, there can be results from our various connections but it is all mechanical, it is like doing it in the game, for example, that you build. So what’s the point of creation? You tell me why did the Creator do it? This is why the article, The Freedom, wants to explain to us that we can, through special actions between us, build something that did not exist before, it did not exist before. Only on that desire, when we come to freedom, there, we can exist as free beings where it is really we and not us as some force in the hands of the maker and there is nothing in us, we’re like toys. If you take a toy, manipulate it somehow and the toy, it has nothing of itself, so we need to see how we develop ourselves into a state where we have real free choice.
This is what distinguishes the still, vegetative and animate from the speaking, the one who is similar to the Creator and then so we want to come to the degree of Adam HaRishon. In the meantime, we are on the levels of still, vegetative and animate and this is why in this we are no different from all of the creation which the Creator created and governs. How can we rise above the degree where he governs and govern ourselves, by ourselves, similar to the Creator. He governs creation and we come to a state where we govern creation. This is really the purpose of our development. Otherwise there is no reason to study, to do anything, to exist in something if there is no such purpose where we come to independence.
S. This term freedom, independence, it’s something that is included in the general structure of cause and effect. Is it part of this cascading of the process or it’s something that is above the system of cause and effect?
R. These four factors are developing, we will read them in our development and above them we have to come to free developments, free development.
Reader “Four Factors” (46:33)
39. S. (48:03) According to this I don’t see that Baal HaSulam is offering us a way to check existence from absence. How come?
R. He’s not going there yet, he’s only telling us in what four ways reality exists, the source, the unchanging conduct of the source, internal conducts and external conducts and we will get there tomorrow, we will advance, let’s move on.
40. S. (49:06) What are the roots of the human desire for freedom that is so central in all cultures?
R. The roots of the desire that the Creator wants him to bring them to his level.
41. S. (49:31) On one hand there’s the feeling of advancement, pleasure of working in the ten and increasing efficiency for the Creator on the other hand there is a feeling of the great suffering end of the world, a sensation of the whole world is a prison. We work in tens, we disseminate but in the world this is what is happening, how can we get out of this prison and release the world?
R. This is what we are learning the more we learn and mainly the more we connect among us, accordingly, we will know with what we can help the world and how the world will listen. We have to prepare ourselves better in their groups, especially the women.
42. S. (50:30) Is the angel of death the will to receive?
R. The angel of death is the will to receive, yes.
43. S. (50:44) The secular person, for him the most difficult thing is to hear that he has no freedom of choice, it is one of the main resistance that a person can feel, that it erases his personality. What is that inner struggle of a person for freedom and how is it a result of implementing love your friends as yourself?
R. If religious people have a place to turn to the Creator, have room to turn to the Creator and demand of him, ask of him and be dependant on him, this is something outside of their nature. So although they are locked inside nature there is something outside of them and they turn to the Creator hoping that the Creator will change their fate.
Secular people on the other hand who do not believe in the Creator, they have only the materialistic nature where they exist but still it is kind of blurry for them because there is still some force, some spirit that is beyond nature etc. The person cannot live only in the materialistic way because it erases all the life from him, all of his future and he resists very strongly, our nature, our very nature. This is why we need to understand and see, in the materialistic approach, a kind of religion too, because that too is a kind of faith nevertheless, we do not need to discuss it right now, but we will see how empty it is. We will advance and feel how we can see the actual reality and how we will explain to the whole world how we come to the general perception, the inclusive comprehensive perception and the Creator will be revealed and from that it will be clear to us how it is happening in all of the general reality including the upper world and the lower world.
44. S. (53:37) Can we disseminate this article to the general public? It obligates you to come out of the box of this world?
R. Of course, except when you see that we disseminate it in such a way that instead of bringing people closer to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the words of Baal HaSulam. We don’t push them away so we have to circulate it correctly, to the right people, to the right kind of audience so it is effective and instrumental and especially can bring humanity closer to the truth. Try, try. Go ahead, at least pieces, parts of the article for sure it needs to be circulated.
45. S. (54:37) What did you mean that we need to prepare ourselves more in the groups and namely the women?
R. Because we are already in the state of the last generation, what is the state of the last generation, it is that the Creator wants to bring us into one system and therefore we need to act as though we are already connected in one system. We see how the world feels itself more and more enclosed together and it is not dependant on wars or bad things or good things, never mind, it is just that this is how the the Creator’s closing us in, so we need to quickly as possible explain to the humanity that connection is necessary and within the connection how can we come to a mutual responsibility.
46. S. (55:52) Why is everything so unclear and confusing in this article?
R. This article is very fundamental, it is written scientifically, look at how he divides things into short sections with headlines in a bullet list and he devised these things but we don’t understand. It’s hard for us to process it. Let’s hope that during the day you will reread it and it will be clearer to you besides we will continue tomorrow.
47. S. (56:33) Should the ten help the person reach freedom by direct support or can it work as help against?
R. No no no, we need to help each other however we can.