HESED: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Baal HaSulam. The Freedom
Morning Lesson June 17, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. The Freedom (The General Shape of the Progenitor Is Never Lost)
Reading Heading (00:12) “The Freedom of the Individual”
1. S. (01:46) What is the connection between wheat not taking on another form or another species and not finding two people with the same attribute?
R. Wheat remains wheat, and nevertheless we see that in each one of us we are all people, right? So we are not similar, rather in each one there is this special collection of qualities so that each one is completely unlike others.
S. Meaning despite the fact that there are all sorts of styles of people we are still people.
R. Those styles, the multiplicity of styles of people is a result.
Reading (02:42) “The General Shape of the Progenitor is Never Lost”
2. R. (03:23) In other words it might change within its own boundary, but it will not become a new species.
Reading Continues (03:37) “This is so because each and every source …”
3. R. (04:28) In other words it is certain that we are very different from each other, and we do not even know where and why. It comes to us from all kinds of forms that are within us in a concealed way and here and there they become revealed and connect into all kinds of forms of connection so that we operate sometimes in a way that seems odd even to ourselves. Well, it happens.
4. S. (05:11) It’s very interesting what he writes here that we do not even understand the nature of ourselves.
R. Of course not, what, you understand yourself?
S. No, but there’s this feeling it’s kind of like real clear that with time that I will respond one way to one thing and another way to another, and it is instinct, I begin to identify with it, I get to know it.
R. Yes.
S. How can you exit from that?
R. Now you’re asking something else. Where is the boundary of my free choice, free action? We will talk about this, this is basically the article itself The Freedom, that’s what it deals with.
5. S. (06:05) Also about this except and also before we read the next part I wanted to ask, here in all these pieces is Baal HaSulam writing about corporeality or spirituality?
R. I think there is a difference. It operates in a person that is without the wisdom of Kabbalah living in the world as well as on those that are living in the world with the wisdom of Kabbalah, but what they can do in addition with regard to everything that operates on them, we will learn this later afterwards down the line.
6. S. (06:50) What does it mean that each one of us has one source, one root?
R. Desire. Each one has a very unique desire in the general will to the receive that the Creator created and each one is responsible to connect that unique desire which has his own foundation into all the other, with all the other desires, and in this way all of us all the desires come to the final correction by which we become similar to the Creator in mutual bestowal between us and we come to the common general form of bestowal which is the Creator. This is why everything begins and ends within the sphere called the soul of Adam HaRishon, and within that system we have to create the order, meaning the connection between all the parts which initially was broken, and we have to discover the distance between us, the separation, and help each other come to connection and bring the broken state to a corrected state. This is our work.
7. S. (08:51) We learned that we already exist in the final corrected state. The question is, these three factors enable us through the environment to influence the final form or not?
R. We are in the final states in order to bring us in our awareness to the final state the Creator in order to do that the Creator creates it from the final state its opposite state and gives us all the inner and outer forces so that we shift from, transition from the first broken opposite state from the final one into the final state so that by correcting ourselves by ourselves we study the will to receive, how it needs to be put together, how with these pieces it connects into one desire and by this gradually understands that by doing this is he is building the Creator and this way it turns out that he corrects all of creation, and by this he understands and feels what is creation itself, what is the essence of the connection between the broken parts ,and what is the upper force that by this he builds, he makes, and that in the right connection between all the opposite separate broken pieces, by connecting them correctly he begins to know the nature of the Creator and becomes adhered to him, similar to him, etcetera. This is our work.
8. S. (11:05) We have confusion from the beginning of the article. What’s the difference between our forefathers and our progenitors and impressions, the records that we have from the shattering? We understand that everything that manages us every single moment are those records, those Reshimot.
R. Correct, and the same goes for the forefathers, the ancestors, they are forces that hold us.
S. How to relate to them?
R. Relate to them like forces of nature, there are many such forces in the system that we are in.
9. S. (11:43) What does he mean when he says, since it will never be that there are two people with an equal attribute, what does he mean? Why does he mention this?
R. He mentions it because each one of us has a different desire and his relation to others is also different and we are only learning a method by which to be connected so that our final connection that we will put together we will call it the Creator, Bo Reh, come and see, the Creator, and this is why we call him Bo Reh, the Creator, Bo Reh, come and see what you can assemble from all the broken pieces that are in the reality before you.
S. Where each and every soul has its own uniqueness if we are all equal we are all equal, why does he each have his own character, his own attribute?
R. I do not understand what you said that everyone’s equal.
S. That is what they say.
R. I don’t know what they say. Go to the market and listen to what they say there.
S. I’m sorry, let’s say it this way. They say that all the souls make one big connection, and we will all be one big soul, that’s what they say that we’ll all be one soul, so it’s not clear to me, this sentence why is he saying that each has his own attribute?
R. Because each one is a separate part and very unique from the rest of the pieces in that common soul called Adam.
10. S. (13:33) If there are no two people that are identical…
R. There cannot be such a thing in creation.
S. Yes that is clear, so what do we connect upon, upon what’s similar between us? Where can we connect if so? Is it around the yearning for the Creator with qualities that are similar, that are close, what do we connect upon, based on what?
R. We connect in the qualities of bestowal, not in the qualities of reception. Your question is very very good because if we were broken then in each and every one of us there are pieces where none of them is similar to the others so how then can we be connected, right? The thing is that if we want to bestow upon each other each one from his own then we can connect between us with the forces of bestowal. When I accept your desires as foreign, but I want to satisfy them, and you do the same for me and then we help each other out and in this way we are building a complete system.
S. That’s our common foundation that we can identify?
R. Yes, yes. It is not as is done egotistically that there has to be something between us where one ties to the other. Here what ties us together is above us, what we build with an act of bestowal upon the others. You can continue here and say, so how do I know how to bestow, what to bestow, how to satisfy the other, right? Because we become incorporated in one another and there’s a common force that envelops us and gives all of us common joint illumination.
S. Wait so that is not clear. Let’s say I want to bestow to my ten or to a friend and the friend wants to bestow to me so the qualities there are equal or not? So how did they connect there?
R. Precisely because they are not similar you can be incorporated in one another and build a common Kli where you are incorporated in him, and he is incorporated in you.
S. In the desires to bestow?
R. In the desire to bestow, of course. How could it be in the desires to receive?
S. But also the desires to bestow aren’t similar and you still…
R. But you are taking the desires of others and you’re bestowing to them. You’re working with the desire to bestow of yours with the desire to receive of others and he is doing the same with you.
S. If the friend has a stronger desire, bigger, so he can just bestow to me more and I bestow less, how do we connect anyway?
R. What is that mechanics for use? Two pieces of iron do they fit or not?
S. So how is it if not like that? I’m trying to understand how do we connect if we are still different and each one has different forces?
R. To begin with we are all one vessel. Now we are all broken. When we want to be corrected we are presenting a desire to receive, a desire to connect to each other, and then each of us start seeing how he can help the other, the help for the other becomes his reception, as much as I give he receives, and this way we connect our desires to bestow to each other.
S. So I’m asking again, there’s a matter of the intensity of the connection or maybe I’m mistaken.
R. The intensity of the connection is according to the intensity of the bestowal.
S. And I can connect to friends who are bestowing more than me? I can still connect even though I am hardly bestowing?
R. Of course, what does it matter? Big or small, they are equal if they’re in the same direction, same action, maybe they’re not in the same degree but they’re in the same world.
11. S. (18:53) Isn’t this like the same thing as the common prayer ? Isn’t this something what would bring us all together no matter how different we are from each other?
R. I do not understand what he said.
S. This concept of each one of us being unique but then we have to connect. I was understanding it like what the common prayers are, we have all different prayers, but we try to come to a common one.
R. Yes, that is correct of course. Each one of us has their own Malchut and he activates the upper nine and that is how he connects to others this of course that each one of us has something in his own. Do you want it to be like we see how cubes connect, how building blocks connect and build? That’s not how it is. It is the Upper light that bestows and organizes things, all we want is to present our desire for connection, all the rest the light does. We’ll talk about it some more; I see that is not yet clear.
12. S. (20:37) We speak about it that I want work in order to connect the friends, it sounds like a different kind of work?
R. You’re not going to connect them, who are you that you can connect everyone? You’re praying for them to connect, that’s what acts, that’s what works.
S. But it still sounds like there’s a difference between wanting to bestow to the friends which is something happening in my desire, or to ask for them to be connected. It sounds like it’s somewhere outside of me.
R. I do not understand.
S. To make sure to ask from the Creator to connect the friends, does it happen in me, in my desire? Where do they connect?
R. You are praying for them to connect.
S. What does it mean for me to see that they are connected? Where does that happen?
R. You do not need to see that, you pray for them to connect.
S. Then it would be easier to bestow them as a connected ten?
R. That is the results already. What you are asking basically is why do I need them to connect?
S. I’m asking what the difference is between wanting to bestow to one friend or to the ten?
R. There’s a big difference. There’s a big difference because with the ten you’re expressing yourself fully and bestowal you can no longer see the actions that comes back and with one friend you can see the action that comes back, even in your subconscious.
R. Okay I can see that this is not yet in our emotion I see in the friends as well so let’s continue.
Reading (22:52) “The Necessity to Preserve the Freedom of the Individual”
13. S. (30:19) What does Baal HaSulam mean, to what extent do we have to keep the freedom of the individual?
R. Basically we must not disturb, just as we see how the Creator supervises our world, we must not disturb anything between humans, only if we can advance them to a good place, to connection between them. It’s not that we’re bringing them to some method, only to connection, no religion, nothing secular, nothing scientific, nothing, only one thing, because the connection works for the sake of everyone. Certainly, the connection is not forceful or in some kind of control, alien control, and this way we can talk about connection. All other methods he does not want to say about religion of all sorts or to criticize religion and what is done in humanity, but he puts them all together as nothing will help humanity to correct itself by all the methods they are acting with, only working against the ego, because that comes naturally from nature, that is it. This is why the next step is to start explaining about the will to receive, existence from absence, and how much this is exactly what needs correction.
S. It turns out that we have to let a person develop in their true desire and only above it we don’t limit anything.
R. We, in our method we don’t limit anything, just one thing, just don’t do to your friend what you hate, that’s it. If a person does not harm others he can keep on going but ultimately the evil inside him develops to such an extent that we have to limit him, to add him in a good way to others, otherwise he will induce bad.
14. S. (33:17) Question about freedom of choice. Adam HaRishon, the first man, it says that he was circumcised, that he was an angel and that he sinned, so how now can we have freedom of choice once we are in the will to receive already?
R. Adam HaRishon I do not know him, I don’t know, but the fact that there was this system called Adam HaRishon and it broke, it divided into many pieces, that is something that we are learning, and we are the results of the shattering of this system. Each and everyone has a piece Adam HaRishon.
S. Why do we say that the choice is in strengthening, so why after we still strengthen and try to strengthen even more on the path after many such strengthening we look beat back and we feel that it was not our efforts, that someone brought us, that it was not our choice, why does it feel like that?
R. Because this is truly the way it is, this is the truth, we do nothing. We were brought and only with each and every moment standing before him a person should say now this is my choice, the choice is in my hands.
S. Where is the border between the individual and the collective?
R. I do not know what you are asking.
S. He was speaking about the freedom of the individual, who is the individual? I’m an individual?
R. Yes, you too are an individual.
S. So where’s the limit, the border between the individual and the collective?
R. That a person must not disturb his tendency to correction.
S. How do we keep the freedom of the individual? What is that freedom that nobody can touch, that it’s mine?
R. He should choose the path that he should walk on and learn what is truly what is better for the soul, the eternal part in him.
S. The more I blend with the collective and connect so that my point of individuality remains there or is it.
R. Your point of individuality always stays with you because that’s the central point, it is the root of the soul.
S. He says about other methods I do not understand what he’s talking about.
R. That none of these methods will help a person, it will only confuse him for some more time or incarnations because they do not work with the will to receive and the free choice.
S. He says that they made a mistake, that there’s a soul clothed in the body, and they imagine some force.
R. Yes, all kinds of philosophies, yes.
S. What is the point of the heart, how can we define it?
R. The central will to receive that we have from Adam HaRishon. The heart is just the will to receive but the point in the heart is the foundation, when the Creator says I’ve created the evil inclination that is exactly the point in the heart.
15. S. (37:08) You said that we have to reach an agreement, but I do not agree with the friends.
R. It is not necessarily bad, but you have to scrutinize. I also do not know how we cannot not agree about something if we are learning from one source we want a connection, so let’s agree and that’s it.
17. S. (37:48) During all the years we see oppression like in animals that the strong survives, and sometimes the freedom of the individual that brought destruction.
R. Each one has a free choice to reach the correction of his soul, by that he does not limit rather he helps others to also correct the soul of each and every one.