YESOD: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN

Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 148. The Scrutiny of Bitter and Sweet, True and False

Morning Lesson July 3, 2022 Transcription

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 148. The Scrutiny of Bitter and Sweet, True and False

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 155. The Cleanness of the Body

1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, these are two very important discernments as it is clear to us what is bitter and sweet and truth and false. Bitter and sweet are discernments in the heart and truth and false are discernments in the brain and other than those we have nothing else. Where sweet should be true and bitter should be false and the truth and false in the brain should be felt clearly. Let’s see what he writes.

Reading Shamati 148 (01:13)

2. R. (02:27) If we could feel and sort out the bitter and the sweet we cannot do it with true and false. We are very confused with see it in our lives, in our path and everything and that’s why the main thing is to scrutinize as much as possible the scrutiny of bitter and sweet and true and false. Faith is the work through the connection in the ten. The reforming light comes and it scrutinizes it, the Creator is scrutinizing. It is saying since he cannot scrutinize, the worker cannot scrutinize the matter of a true and false for himself, that’s what he writes at the end.

3. S. (03:24) You said before that for us the work of true and false is the main work, and the work of the heart is for the masses. Then how do we scrutinize this work of bitter and sweet?

R. No, the fact that there is work, that people scrutinize outside of the wisdom of Kabbalah and people do the scrutiny inside the wisdom of Kabbalah. There is a big difference here and their scrutinies are very different. Bitter and sweet it’s clear to us, yes? True and false it’s clear to us what it should be. Bitter and sweet is a physical scrutiny and true and false is an intellectual scrutiny, a scrutiny of the mind, and we need to try and scrutinize both. So what is he saying? That true and false is in the brain, in the mind of the person it gets scrutinized and then we have to make as many scrutinies, when we connect, we bestow, we give, we receive.

Then from these scrutinous, it doesn’t matter how many we do, we get more internal collisions and harmonies as a result of these actions in the brain and as a result we’ll scrutinize things. That’s what he says. The bitter and true and false themselves can only be scrutinized in the brain not in the heart. So we have a problem here. That we can detect the bitter and sweet by ourselves, even if we make a mistake about them nevertheless we’ll know how to scrutinize even in an opposite way. We have with what to scrutinize, we have the feeling for it but with true and false where do we take that feeling from? It can change for us each time. So what will we do? In the brain is the work of the true and false and for that we have to work in faith.

Meaning for true and false we need to add a special quality called faith meaning faith in the sages, because the worker cannot clarify the matter of truth and false. Meaning by asking to receive from the Creator the force of faith then we can scrutinize the truth and false in each and everything. Whereas before that we couldn’t do it. It could be bitter or sweet but which one is true, which one is false? We won’t be able to scrutinize it before we ask the Creator and the Creator is the one who does the scrutiny. In the end only there is only one thing we need to understand. We don’t have any way of scrutinizing what is true and false, what is the work in the brain, this is done by the Creator. We do not have any flavors, any discernments, we have to acquire the upper light and the upper light does the scrutiny. It’s not such a good article, we have to write more about it but that’s what he heard and what he wrote down at the time.

4. S. (08:02) From some experience we have we understand that truth is bestowal. So how to make the heart listen and follow the mind?

R. The heart is in the hands of the Creator who holds all the hearts. The heart is the will to receive and the Creator holds it and changes it and teaches it, educates it, we have no control over the heart. Through the mind, the brain, we can come to ask the Creator to correct our hearts, no more than that. This is the work. There is the work in the brain and the work in the heart. What is he saying? True and false it is in the brain and bitter and sweet is in the heart.

Hence we have to pay attention to the work in the heart. To be in bestowal and not in reception and by nature only reception is sweet and bestowal is bitter and the work to turn reception to bestowal is called the work in the heart, the will to receive is in the heart. The brain is only to organize and arrange things in order to invert the heart, this is what he writes that in the mind the work is in true and false and for this we need to work in faith. What does it mean? When I receive for me it’s sweet, when I have to give or not to receive for me it’s bitter.

Now I will change those discernments to have an opposite feeling about them. This is what he says, for that we need to work in faith, meaning to have faith in the sages, because the worker cannot clarify the matter for himself in true and false,we cannot. Bitter and the sweet we can feel, truth and false we cannot feel and we can always get confused and eventually the upper light comes, work in the ten, the upper light shines on it and gives us correct discernments, precise discernments gradually, until the correct attitude is constructed in us toward bitter and sweet, true and false. I am willing to take questions but it will be difficult to reply from this article, let’s see.

5. S. (11:26) If all our nature is the will to receive for ourselves why does Baal HaSulam separate between the work of the heart and the work of the mind what does it mean in the ten?

R. These are two forms of the word because we have two different scrutinous in the brain and in the heart so the scrutiny in the heart which is according to the bitter and sweet and the scrutiny in the brain which is the truth and false. This is natural, this is how we are born. This is how we develop in egotistically both in the heart and in the mind now the question is how can we change the heart and the brain in order to bestow, what does it mean that the heart would be in order to bestow, anything that was good to him before will change to bitter and everything that was bitter before will be sweet because the heart is the desire, how else can he feel, so what would be the work in the brain is true and false with, whatever was false before will now become the work of the truth and whatever was truth before it becomes false, we have to invert both of these, we have to change the mind and the heart from reception to bestowal this is what we are talking about.

6. S. (13:13) Whatever I understand from you and what I see inside me is that the mind follows the heart so first we have a direct influence of the Creator to our heart and the correction in the heart will happen and then the difference of feeling bitter and sweet that feeling of taste will influence what is truth and what is false so we always decide what is a truth and false according to our feeling according to bitter or tasteful can we say that first correction in the heart and then the mind?

R. This means what is correcting what, the heart corrects the brain, or the brain corrects the heart, is this the question?

S. No, which one comes first?

R. What does it mean, comes?

S. So we are receiving influence of the Creator inside the ten so when it starts to affect us, does it start with the heart or with the mind as much as I feel it starts from the heart, is this true?

R. Yes, it is starting with the heart, the brain cannot understand anymore than what the heart feels, this is right.

S. Can we also say, Rav, that in bestowal I think there is no calculation, so how can we depict truth or false in bestowal because it is like we are drunk, and when we are drunk we do not know anything we are zero, but we are happy, so how to depict truth and false in the state of bestowal?

R. We are making calculations in bestowal also in our will to receive because we are a will to receive, and from the will to receive we bestow, hence we have no problem to measure and weigh our desires and to compare how much we bestow from time to time.

S. But calculation is in the will to receive not in vessels of bestowal?

R. We do not have any vessels of bestowal, we only have the will to receive but in the will to receive I can measure exactly how much I am bestowing. This is like the same money, the same currency, the same money except that before I counted it for myself and by this I give it to you.

S. We always build the next degree from calculation of the past degree so we always have to go two degrees lower to go one degree up?

R. You can say that, in truth, we just need to go down one degree to work with a greater coarseness compared to before and then I rise to a higher degree but you are speaking nicely.

7. S. (17:18) Should we demand that the pleasure we received is for the friends and if yes then how can we measure that we received for the friends?

R. You measure everything in your vessels as much as you connect the friends to you and you received in to the will to receive which is now getting clarified in you that is now added to you this means that you are receiving for the friends, there are no friends outside of you as much as you can connect them to you and receive for them in you that is the meaning that you are receiving for them, they are not outside of you somewhere else.

8. S. (18:27) I don’t know how to explain but today for some reason my ten was not able to connect and the Latin 1 was the next option so I will tell you how I feel no difference in the importance and the greatness of the friends in bringing the importance of the Creator to them only together and we are only one there is no difference.

R. Beautiful thank you, I am happy to hear.

9. S. (19:21) What does it mean to ask the Creator for faith?

R. The force in the power to be above the will to receive and to make the will to receive into a vessel of bestowal this is called the force of faith with which I pray and ask the Creator and in truth we do not need anything else but the preparation for it and the prayer itself.

10. S. (20:40) Why does the lie seem false and the truth feels bitter isn’t acting to the friends something false?

R. There is truth and false relative to the will to receive and there is truth and false relative to the will to bestow and in all kinds of states and degrees we have these discernments of truth and false we have to scrutinize and check them and accept them and progress with them, so we always have these two which we have to scrutinize, the truth and the false.

S. How do we different determine the different states should I say that the false and we see the truth?

R. You do not have to lie it doesn’t mean that you have to lie it is your sense it is you’re egoistic desire that is lying to you and you have to catch it you have to be above it, there are many things in it because we just read a few lines, but in truth if you have to take into consideration in such a scrutiny as bitter and sweet and truth and a false, you have to take everything that is written about it by Rabash and Baal HaSulam and scrutinize it all together because otherwise only scratching the surface and we do not have any tools to scrutinize it, should not do it like that they did not prepare the article correctly for us it is better if they correct themselves.

11. S. (22:55) What is this scrutiny of truth and false, what are we scrutinizing?

R. You are scrutinizing truth and false, you are scrutinizing what is that truth how can we come to the truth, and how to hold on to it, and it is the same for what is false, what is a lie, how to move away from it how to scrutinize, and move around and away from it how to establish it in such a way that you are not approaching this lie anymore and you are not giving into it.

12. S. (23:40) Is giving here completely sweet?

R. No, we’re not doing any scrutiny about the bitter and sweet that was a scrutiny in the Garden of Eden before the shattering and now we cannot do it now we can scrutinize only truth and false.

S. So the scrutiny has to be both in mind and heart not in a single quality?

R. It is correct.

13. S. (24:19) So the most important is to scrutinize whatever we can in truth and false so do we need to try to make bestowal sweet or try to enjoy the bitter?

R. No, until bestowal becomes sweet, that’s what we have to achieve.

S. So there is a truth and false towards the will to receive and the will to bestow, so can it be truth for both?

R. No, because they are opposite.

S. So the work in the heart and that mind is basically my work with criticism?

R. Of course it is work with the criticism otherwise what kind of work is it, all the work starting with criticism from the scrutiny, this article is not so clear, they pushed this article in but this is not something that we can really examine we have to add additional articles on this topic so let’s go to the next article.

Reading Shamati 155 (25:33)

14. R. (26:59) It is clear there is the matter of the body and the soul and we are not talking about our body and soul as we are thinking about it but it is the will to receive and that will to bestow, pay attention to the will to bestow and be meticulous about it as much as possible all kinds of meticulous about its movements and their condition send opportunities, while the will to receive does not have to attain and scrutinize it but only to work by pushing it, stopping it and restricting it, so it turns out that with all the possibilities we care about the cleanness of the will to bestow making sure that it is not according to quantity and quality and the will to receive as least as possible so we do not want to care about it too much. This is also a very small article, we will ask our team that prepares the articles that next time if they bring such a short article they should also add additional material so we would be able to scrutinize it better.