Film "Melodies of the Upper Worlds" - Part 1 - Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Academy

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Film "Melodies of the Upper Worlds" - Part 1

January 03

09:10 PM

In this film, Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman reveals the spiritual meaning behind each melody composed by Baal HaSulam and RABASH. Each melody reflects an inner ascent of the soul, and Rav Laitman opens a window into the emotions and intentions behind them.

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מקובל ש... When a Kabbalist begins to perceive the upper world, he enters a different dimension. The entire world is revealed before him. It's something that doesn't exist in this world. He perceives an entirely different picture: forces that bring our world into action, and souls that are not attached to bodies. Past, present, and future stand before him in the present. He experiences all this. He lives fulfilled with the eternal, perfect sensation. He feels that he encompasses the whole of the universe. This deep emotional experience is impossible to express through words. In the books of the Kabbalists, they only advise us on how to attain such an impression, such a sensation, and the discovery of this reality. It's difficult for a Kabbalist to convey to us what he feels, what he faces, what's being revealed before him, what the concealed world is. Of all the means that we have in our world to express an idea or to give a picture and to convey it to people who don't experience spirituality, there's only one medium that somehow expresses the impressions and delight of a man before whom the upper world reveals itself: sound. ולכן מקובלים, יחד עם זה שהם כותבים מאמרים. This is why Kabbalists, in addition to writing articles and very difficult material, also write songs and melodies. It's one more way to express the sensations of a Kabbalist in a more concise and direct way from heart to heart, through sounds, without words. So that these sounds would enter our heart and change us in some way, somehow tuning us into perceiving the upper world. There's a soul in each one of us. The soul of a Kabbalist resembles a musical instrument that already plays properly and feels properly, similar to King David's violin or harp. This is the inner cleave of a Kabbalist's soul, inside which he feels reality in a certain way and can express it through sounds. That's why King David was able to write a book of psalms for us that's fully composed of the impressions of the upper world. We have an enormous gift from the last great Kabbalist of our generation, Rav Yehuda Halevi Ashlag, Baal HaSulam. By listening to these melodies, we come closer to the true sensation of the upper reality, spirituality. By listening to them, one gradually draws closer, and as though they're entering the upper world. However, for every person, regardless of how much he knows and how long he or she has been studying Kabbalah, the sounds are the shortest, most direct, and the simplest means for experiencing something from the spiritual. In the upper world, a Kabbalist feels, states, that are better or worse, negative and positive forces. He exists between them, governs them while they govern him. It's really similar to what we feel in this world. A Kabbalist expresses all these states through melodies. This is why there are seemingly sad melodies and there are more joyful ones. But in reality, this is how we hear them. A Kabbalist who listens to this melody and senses the pictures that it awakens feels only excitement. These sounds may seem sorrowful. A melody may be sad, but in reality, it's not. It's full of excitement, and it sounds sad only to our ear. It sounds to us as if a person who wrote it lacks something. And that's so because in our world we use letters, notes, lacks a fulfillment, kalim, and not the light that fills them. We feel only the kalim and not the light. Nevertheless, when one listens to this music, he slowly approaches the state in which these kalim are being filled with the light. He will then feel the same inner experience that a Kabbalist feels. I wish that all of you would become worthy of feeling those vast spaces, the sensations of the entire upper world, the Creator, the upper light that fills the soul, our collective cleave. Baal HaSulam thought about us. He wanted us to come closer to this state, which is why he left us his melodies. Let's listen to them and reflect on these melodies as being the means for entering the upper world. בני איחלה. אלו שהם בנים של איחלה means the sons of the king's palace, those desiring to reach the palace of the king. The king's palace is Bina, the property of bestowal, the force of the Creator, the spiritual. The sons are those who yearn to resemble the king in their properties, to become like him. As sons, they yearn to understand the king, and through their understanding, to come closer to him and to feel him. For this, they're ready to pass the entire system of corrections, change themselves from beginning to end, from the nature in which they were created to the nature of the king. This is what this song is about. When we reach such a state and become Bnei Echela, it is called the final correction. This is why we sing this song during Mincha, the evening prayer, on Shabbat. Shabbat symbolizes the ascent during which this entire world rises to the upper world completely, and then we all enter the palace of the king. Those who undergo their individual correction, who study Kabbalah, feel three ascents on Shabbat. The first ascent in the evening, during the onset of Shabbat; the second, the next day, Shabbat morning; and the third, the biggest ascent during Mincha, at the end of the day, when Shabbat ends. And then, during this highest state, we sing the song Bnei Echela. The lyrics of this song are composed by the holy Ari, and the melody by Baal HaSulam. For this reason, due to the unification of the Ari and Baal HaSulam in one composition, we entering into this song really reach the highest ascent that a Kabbalist can experience before the general final correction, where the entire world rises to that very palace. So this is a very elevated song, like an anthem of ascent. This state, so far, is being attained only by those who study Kabbalah, and later, we expect all of humankind will attain it. Kilatza Nafshi are words from the Psalms. These are the words that King David used to express his state that he felt as he ascended in his attainment to the state of complete correction of his entire soul. Then he turned to the upper force, the Creator, with these words, which mean, "Thank you for saving my soul." The melody of this song was composed by my teacher, the last great Kabbalist of our generation, Rabbi Baruch Shalom Halevi Ashlag, Rabash. He sang this song to me more than once. Maybe this melody seems sad to us, but in truth, it's not sad. It's tender, and it expresses the feeling of someone who enters the property of Bina bestowal, the properties of the Creator, where there are no cries and everything rests in peace. Rabash expresses the entering into this state through this melody, when he undoubtedly sees that all of his kalim, his entire soul, all of his desires, submit to this upper force and begin to reign in it. This is a short song. It sings about a serene peace, about a man entering the upper force and staying there in the state of absolute rest, the peace of the worlds. Chazal Seder Pesach expresses a state of a person at the beginning of his path. He's full of energy. He's ready for his journey, and he knows that the process of correction lies in front of him until he corrects himself to receive the light, the Torah. But in Exodus from Egypt, rising above his nature, he already sees a full guarantee that with the help from above, he has the power and he is able to do it, and that all of this is prepared for him past these 49 gates corrections, the so-called Lag Bomer, the 33rd day of Omer, in the middle and all the days of Omer, in order to come to the reception of the Torah. Tzedik Ketamar Ephrach. Basically, there are two states in every song. One is the state of the cleave, the soul on which the man has worked, corrected, and then attained delight and excitement, and he now sings from this delight. This is why in Tzedik Ketamar Ephrach there's a sensation of the previous state when one lacked fulfillment, suffered and searched, and that he reached the state in which he knows that this is how it was supposed to be. Because a righteous man eventually comes to justify the entire process through which he has passed. Thus, the rapture that comes from before being in the outermost oppositeness of sensing himself very distant from the Creator, and now he enters the palace of the king, and the upper world, it bursts out of him in his present state in the form of a melody, and the melody comes from within the sensation that fills him. This sensation encompasses two opposite states. In his previous, most distant state, that seems hopelessly far from the upper, and in the present state, when he has reached adhesion with him. In essence, this song is special because one's grateful, but not for his sake. Rather, one is grateful for being able to be righteous, meaning for being able to justify the Creator in all that happened to him on his path. He sees now the causality and inevitability of all the states that he passed. He understands that all of them were arranged for him from above so that he could attain this elevated state. Lagid Baboker Hasdecha expresses states that we experience in our world. When we fall asleep, we in essence lose awareness, disconnect from the world, from life. We enter a state where we're detached from life, and we're left only with so-called Kisted Dechayuta, a level of minimal life, when in essence we're not sure whether we will rise after sleep or not. So why do we rise? All of a sudden, we receive some awakening from within, and then we wake up and again continue our life on a new day. But this state in which we disconnect from reality and enter into dreams is very special. It's similar to states that exist in the spiritual as well, and this is because everything that exists in the corporal is the result of the spiritual. And this is why in the spiritual there are also states called day, evening, and morning, only that in the spiritual all of them happen because man himself creates day, night, and all of the times. He puts himself through these states by himself. If he doesn't take himself through these states, if he doesn't push himself, does not advance, then time does not pass, for there's no time in the spiritual. There are only actions, cause and effect. So until one goes to sleep in the spiritual sense, meaning disconnects from the spiritual reality, and puts himself into drowsiness, a disconnection from the spiritual, the Creator, the upper forces, one performs special corrections whereby he prepares the desire to rise inside of himself. If one prepares himself correctly, the upper light comes against these desires and wakens him, just as the sun awakens us in the morning. However, without the light that comes from above, one will not be able to wake up. In essence, this is why after one rose in the morning, meaning awakened again for the spiritual, this is called rise in the spiritual, he praises the upper force, the Creator who awakened him and gave him the awakening for reaching the goal of creation, corrections, sublime, eternal, perfect states. And then one sings, "Proclaim your mercy in the morning," because this is really mercy from the higher that awakens him. Waltz is a very special melody. It's truly classical, with all the characteristics of a waltz corresponding to our traditions. This melody does not belong to Baal HaSulam, though it did come to us through him. He heard it from his rav, Admor from Persov, who educated him. Baal HaSulam lived in Warsaw, just like his parents. There was a small village close to Warsaw, Persov, and in this village lived Rabbi from Persov. He was a Kabbalist, and when Baal HaSulam was growing up, he used to go to visit him together with his father. Baal HaSulam's father also studied with the Rabbi from Persov. Gradually, as Baal HaSulam grew up, Rabbi from Persov started to draw him closer to himself. Through him, Baal HaSulam attained the revelation of the Creator, the spiritual, and became a Kabbalist. After a certain period of time, Baal HaSulam started to discover that he surpassed his teacher. Baal HaSulam then left and went to the land of Israel. This melody came from Rabbi from Persov, passed on to Baal HaSulam, from him to my rav, and I heard it from him. Kel Mister Terah is a song that we sing towards the end of Shabbat, at the end of the day, when we're already approaching the coming out, the end of Shabbat. The end of Shabbat is the time when the divine Shechinah, sanctity, that comes to man during the spiritual ascent starts purposefully abandoning him, leaving him in darkness, in the lack of fulfillment, so that all that he received on the Shabbat serves as the driving energy for an independent attainment of what he received as a gift on Shabbat. Shabbat is called a gift. A gift is something that's not given to man as a reward, for he has not labored for it. And so is Shabbat. From above comes the upper force called Shabbat. He experiences various sensations, phenomena that he goes through, but he does not yet deserve it according to his Kalim. They're given to him as a gift. A person is granted his ascent, his revelation, but after some time this sensation begins to wane and to end. Then a person says, "Kel Mister Terah, the Creator is hiding. You Creator have revealed yourself to me in a state of Shabbat as a gift, and now you go away from me again, back into hiding. I understand that this is necessary so that I can come closer and reveal you even on low days," meaning at the time of your concealment, on weekdays, when I'm in a state of weekdays separated from sanctity, but I must ensure that all days of the week connect to the degree of Shabbat. This song expresses the sensation of all Tan Sefirot, Keter, Chachma, Binah, Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Chod, Yesod, and Malchut, and this is because one perceived the properties of the Creator in them, and now as he goes into concealment and the Creator distances himself, he knows exactly what he needs to attain by himself. This is already inscribed in him as Reshamot, and he acquired the strength for this from being given the gift in Shabbat, and now during the week a person raises himself to the level of the previous Shabbat, and later when the following Shabbat comes, for him it will be an even greater gift. This continues until all these Shabbats unite into the level of final correction. The most important thing in Kabbalistic music is not the notes themselves, but all these fine nuances that exist between them. We learn that there are Tanim, flavors, Nikudot, dots under the letters, Tegin, crowns on top of the letters, and Otyot, the letters. What are letters? Letters are exactly the finest nuances formed at the end of the Klee's entire impression from the light. These are called letters, impressions of Reshamot leaving the Klee and entering it again, as the light was leaving the Klee. This short impression inside and outside in the departing light is called a letter, meaning a symbol, the largest informative part. It's the same with sounds. When we play these sounds, these melodies, there's a big difference between one who knows and one who's ignorant, between one who plays correctly and the one who plays nicely. And it lies in how much one understands where the important things are. What's most important does not lie in the sounds, but in the tiniest symbols, in how the sound begins and ends, not the sound itself. Regrettably, not everybody is ready to express this. I had a wonderful student. He was very close to me. His name was Vitali. He played violin. So he said to me, "I'm ready to play only on the condition that you hold my hand."