Description

Michael Laitman, PhD describes the meaning behind melodies of Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, LaMenatzeach Al-Shoshanim, Krivu Li, Chamol Al Maaseicha, and more.

Transcript

Singing evokes blessings from above, until it becomes manifested in all lower worlds. Rabbi Elazar said: "Those who aspire shall sing praises unto spiritual heights, unto the Upper Ones and lower ones, fastening all the worlds with the tie of faith. It is said about this deed, "Those who aspire to the Creator will sing this song." "Will sing" in particular, and not "sings," since it will happen in the future. For singing should resound in Malchut, singing praises to its height, Zeir Anpin. And by this, Malchut itself rises to Zeir Anpin." This is what The Book of Zohar narrates to us about that time (VaYelech, pg. 15).

LaMenatzeach Al-Shoshanim (To the Leader upon Lilies)

A lily is Malchut that contains all the vessels, all the desires, all of man's life. "A lily among the thorns," means reaching all these desires and using them in His nature, to be like God. A man must reach this state through the thorns, through many discernments, interruptions and clarifications. Therefore, he is called a victor. "What is a victor to the sons of Korach?" A victor reaches and learns the song of love. It is only from within Malchut, from the most inner point in the heart, that one begins to feel the Creator, a feeling of unification and true love. This comes at the end of the way, but until then there is the revelation of hatred and fear, confusion and lack of confidence, dependence and every possible complaint, everything that one can imagine. With all this one turns to the Creator and blames Him for everything. And afterwards until it opens up to him and he can see the whole picture and praise Him, connect with Him, cling to Him-love Him.

What does he say to the Creator? "My heart has acquired a good thing." There is only one good thing in the world-adhesion with the Creator, with bestowal, with love. Man is initially built in an opposite form from Him, as an egoist, who only thinks about himself, and only wishes to take advantage of the entire world and of the Godly force and use it for his own needs. In the process of his work, through his advancement, in his desire to find out, he later discovers to what extent he is opposite in form. When all the forces of evil, the Klipot are revealed in him, and he is able to conquer them, he reaches what is called Goodness. "My heart has acquired a good thing." In what sense? "I say my deeds are for the King," everything that is inside me is now directed to the King. He praises not himself but the Creator, because he discovers that by acquiring His attributes and understanding them, he himself ascends to the same levels.

"You are more beautiful than any man," he becomes a hero and all of Creation is below him, and he takes a hold of it in order to work in the same form of bestowal as the Creator. This is a song that can be sung only be he who has indeed reached the end of the way.

My teacher, Rabash used to sing it alone sometimes in Tiberias. I used to hear him from the next room in the long winter nights. He would be in a special state from this and I saw how deeply absorbed inside himself he was, how detached from reality and how attached to this flowing song, to the forces, to the levels, to the states that this song tells about, a song of friendship, of a union with the Creator.

Singing is the secret of attracting the Light of Greatness and Wisdom, coming from its root in the spiritual height, over the left female line, the line called "night." This is why "Those who sing at night, sing for all in whom this song resounds," as it is said about the greatest poet of all times King David, the author of Psalms, who used to write at night: "And he rose while it was still night." The revelation of the Light of Wisdom in man is his spiritual ascend, and such an ascent is possible only from darkness; it is performed only at night.

Krivu Li (Draw Close to Me)

"Draw Close to Me," is a call that comes from the Creator to a person that awakens him to draw closer. This awakening comes to a man in many fashions. At times it is revealed directly when a person feels an awakening. Another time it is felt just in an opposite manner, as a feeling of repulsion from the goal. Once it is a good, beautiful feeling, like a bright happy morning, and another time the opposite, as some kind of a fall, a descent, some unclear state, a state that can even be critical. This is also an awakening. As long as a person feels that he is in some kind of motion. Even if he feels that he is not part of God, of Godliness, of spirituality, he still feels some kind of a relationship, as it is written in the Torah, that Pharaoh is the one who brought the people of Israel closer to our Father in Heaven. There are cases where the evil force brings one to advance more than the good force. The Creator who always desires man to draw closer to Him awakens a person according to what he is prepared for. Thus a man must listen to the Creator, at any given moment, saying - draw close to Me, no matter what situation he is in.

As said already, those who sing praises at night raise, by their singing, all whose soul sings that song.
When the lower ones begin life by song, the Upper Ones help the lower ones with power, so that the lower ones realize and attain what the mortals are not able to attain. Earth and heavens, Zeir Anpin and Nukva, rise by this power, thanks to this singing!

Chamol Al Maaseicha (Have Compassion on Your Creation)

A person asks for forgiveness and pardon. As usual, in the spiritual work there are two opposite conditions. For those who are at the level of an angel, at the final stage of the Tikkun there is but one force "There is none else beside Him." For those who are at a state of unconsciousness, at the level of this world, there is also one force only "If not I for myself..." To those who are on the way from this world the world of Ein Sof the two forces are revealed at any given time, the force of the Creature and the force of the Creator that work together. On the one hand, it is the Creator who apparently arranges everything, but on the other hand, it depends on the Creature. When a person reaches the state where "If not I for myself" and "There is no one else but Him" converge and become one in him, he then has a real prayer which is composed of two opposing discernments, and he feels that he cannot decide. How can it be that the Creator controls everything in man, that on the one hand "There is no one else but Him," yet on the other hand a man still has the feeling that he exists outside the Creator's control, and can turn to Him and can consolidate his attitude towards adhesion. This may be compared to a state where a man finds himself at the age of 40 or 50 when he already knows about life and everything there is to know, yet at the same time feels like a fetus in its mother's womb, which does not understand and does not know and cannot discern anything. Then he has only one request, after all my efforts, all the labor I have put into it, test me and see if I am on the right path.

Singing is the song, the call of the soul, that contains the entire Torah, the entire Upper Light.
The song, to which the Upper and the lower ones in all the worlds awaken.
The song, like a spring from above, a repose of the Upper One, the Divine mercy.
The song that adorns the Holy Supernal Name, Malchut, the receptacle of the Creator.
And this is why it is the Holy of Holies.

I'yale Tachnuneinu (Raise Our Pleas)

Pleas mean the prayer of the many. Many means when a person discovers that he is still composed of different forces which are not in a state of adhesion with the Creator. When he judges them, feels them and clarifies them one by one, he reaches a state where he raises MAN, a request, pleas, that the Upper Force will come and correct these different opposing forces inside him, and give them one desire and one intention. He pleads that he will feel one flow and one desire in them, although they are so different and so opposite, so that they will lead him to his source.

In states of either morning or night, in states when the Upper Force shines on him and when it does not, he pleads that his prayer shall be whole until it is answered and all the requests and desires are united in him, and all his vessels become one great vessel in which he can reach adhesion with his Creator. This is what we sing on Yom Kippur, in a state when the empty vessels are revealed. From these pleas, as we raise requests for correction, we receive the Light which reforms from above, and when the vessel is corrected it reaches a state where it is filled with all the light of love and adhesion.

When the lower ones begin their life by song, their spiritual ascend to the soul's root, the Upper Ones add them power in order for the lower ones to attain the Upper Light of Wisdom that has reached and became revealed in ZON of the World of Atzilut and in the angels preceding it. This way, the lower ones increase the powers and luminescence of the wisdom in the Upper realms.

Isader Le-Seudata (I Shall Arrange for the Meal)

"I Shall Arrange for the Meal" is not a tune, it is a song of a person whose point in the heart has awakened and after a very long way of preparing for the work of Godliness reaches a state where he transcends the Machsom and enters the spiritual world. There he passes through all the levels of the worlds of BYA to Atzilut, and acquires the vessels of bestowal and reaches Gadlut, thus rising to Rosh de Atzilut where his soul is ready and welcome to receive the Light of Ein Sof, and to receive in order to bestow. Now it is filled with this light which is called "the meal of the righteous".

Now that he feels all the preparations he has been through and all the components of this work at this high state, he praises all the forces he has felt and through which he has risen to this high level and invites them to a meal. Meaning, they all take part in it now and he feels all the components in him as he conducts the big Zivug for adhesion to the Creator, whereby he and the Creator unite in his internal vessels. He invites the upper levels who used to take care of him when he was little, while he was on the way. Zeir Anpin and Mlachut de Atzilut who give birth to the soul and who used to control him and help him grow, who have led him from one state to another, from darkness to light, so that he will acquire all the discernments and thus grow wiser, until he has grown and become big. He has grown above his desire to receive and is now able to control it and work with it in order to bestow.

Now that he is in a state of the greatest, highest union with the Creator he sings this song "I shall prepare for the meal." Now for this high meal of Shabbat, a sort of next world, a sort of Gmar Tikkun, he uses all the means, all the elements, all the forces, both internal and external, he along with his entire soul and all the worlds that have brought him to this situation. Now the time of unification with the Creator has arrived, in one union, in one vessel, in the meal of the righteous.

Apotheosis of singing is the Song of Songs that contains the entire Torah, the entire Upper Light, the entire darkness and the entire Light, the entire path of all the souls up to the complete spiritual redemption and resurrection of the dead, up to that day, which is the Creator's Shabbat. Whatever is, whatever was, and whatever will be afterwards, on the seventh day, when the Creator's Shabbat comes-everything is included in the Song of Songs.
The Book of Zohar with the Commentary Sulam (Ladder), Truma, pg. 105.

Nigun (Melody)

A tune is the expression of emotions without words. On the one hand, it is more abstract and on the other hand, it is sharper and more focused. If in a song the words and the tune operate together as there are the words, meaning letters which make up sentences in a direct plea, in a certain process that begins and ends, while the tune itself which is added to the words expresses the Ta'amim, (the flavors) in the plea. Then in a tune without words a person must also express the missing words by the tune itself. We know that there are the discernments in the vessels of Ta'amim, Nekudot, Tagin and letters in the tune itself. In writing we also see Nekudot and letters but Ta'amim and Tagin are only used in special circumstances. They are internal additions which express the internal condition of the vessel, of one's feeling, of how one constructs his attitude. There is a tune that goes over the words and in many cases changes the essence of the words. In many cases I can sing the same words happily or I can sing them sadly and each time the same words will have a totally different meaning. This means that the tune expresses my attitude to what the words say. Therefore, there are Ta'amim, Nekudot Tagin and letters of which the Ta'amim express the person's attitude to what he is singing more.