The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson. May 10, 2026
Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson we will watch a recorded lesson from the 4th of October 2002. This is the article, "What is the Reason for Which Israel Were Rewarded with Inheritance in the Land in the Work?" We will read the article together in the Ten, we have 33 minutes to do that. Tens who were done before that time has elapsed, we'll start a workshop summarizing the main points of the article.
Reading: (00:53) Rabash. What Is the Reason for which Israel Were Rewarded with Inheritance of the Land, in the Work?
The verse says (Deuteronomy 9:5), “It is not for your righteousness or the integrity of your heart that you are going to inherit their land, but it is because of the wickedness of the nations that the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to fulfill the oath that the Lord swore to your forefathers.”
We should understand this, for it implies that the reason that the Creator gave the inheritance of the land to the people of Israel is as it is written, “because of the wickedness of the nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you.” That is, were it not for “the wickedness of the nations,” there would not be any interest in giving the inheritance of the land.
We should also understand the second reason. He says that it is because “the Lord swore to your forefathers.” Were it not for the oath, would the Creator not need to give the land to the people of Israel?
This is difficult to understand. Our sages said, “The world was created only for Israel.” This means that all the good things that exist in the world are for Israel. This implies that it is for different reasons that the people of Israel are given the good, expansive, and coveted land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
The text provides two reasons: 1) the wickedness of the nations, 2) the oath that He swore to your forefathers.
Yet, the writing tells us that we should not be mistaken that the reason He is giving us the inheritance of the land is our righteousness and the integrity of our heart. Rather, it is for the two above-mentioned reasons.
Baal HaSulam said about what is written (Genesis 15:7-14), “And He said to him, ‘to give you this land to inherit it.’ He said, ‘how will I know that I will inherit it?’ And He said to Abraham, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will torment them four hundred years, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.’”
He asked, what is the answer that the Creator replied to what Abraham asked, “How will I know that I will inherit it?”
The Creator said, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.” This means that the answer was to the question, “How will I know?” That is, Abraham says that he wants guarantees about the inheritance, so the Creator answers him so that by this answer he will be certain of the inheritance of the land. Thus, we should understand the answer, for it contains a guarantee of the inheritance.
He said that this means that when the Creator told him “to give you this land to inherit it,” Abraham saw the greatness and importance of this land, since the matter of the inheritance of the land refers to Malchut, which receives all the lights from above and bestows upon the souls, since Malchut is called “the assembly of Israel.”
Abraham saw according to the rule that “There is no light without a Kli,” meaning that “there is no filling without a lack,” that if the Creator were to give to Israel a little bit of illumination and awakening from above, they will settle for little and will have no need for higher degrees. As a result, Abraham saw that there was no way for the people of Israel to receive the inheritance of the land, since they have no need for it.
This was the question, “How will I know?” It is not that he did not believe what the Creator had told him. Rather, his question was that he said that he could not see them having a need for it. It is like giving something precious to a person who has no need for it. He cannot enjoy it. It follows that even if they are given the inheritance of the land, without the need, they will not be able to enjoy it. Although from the perspective of the giver, everything is fine, if the lower one has no need, what can the giver do? This is what Abraham asked.
The answer was “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers.” That is, they will be in exile in Egypt, which is called “a land that is not theirs,” meaning that the people of Israel, who want to work for the sake of the Creator, the Egyptians will control them. Each time, the people of Israel will want to come out of exile, as it is written (Exodus 2:23), “And the children of Israel sighed from the work, and their cry went up to God from the work.” Generally, the nations of the world are called “will to receive for oneself.” However, there are many desires in the will to receive, and each desire is attributed to a specific nation.
This is why they are called in general, “the seventy nations of the world,” corresponding to the seventy discernments in the desire. This extends in a manner of “one opposite the other,” meaning opposite the seven Sefirot of Kedusha [holiness], which are HGT NHYM, each of which consists of ten Sefirot, which together make seventy nations.
Also, there is the discernment of “Israel,” which are named after Yashar-El [straight to the Creator]. These are opposite from the will to receive for oneself, but are rather discerned as the desire to bestow upon the Creator. In other words, he wants to bring contentment to his Maker.
Therefore, since the Egyptians controlled them, they had to do all their work for the Egyptians, and not for the Creator. This is why it says, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work.” It means that the children of Israel wanted to work for the sake of the Creator but the Egyptians controlled them; this is why they sighed. That is, they saw that not only were they not progressing, they were retreating. This is why it is written, “And their cry went up to God from the work.”
Then, when they saw that they could not emerge from exile by themselves, they asked the Creator, as it is written, “And their cry went up to God.” That is, the Creator helped them come out from the exile in Egypt. This is as The Zohar says about what was said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” It asks, “With what?” And it replies, “With a holy soul.”
It follows that specifically when they are under the governance of evil do they see—each time more so—the governance of evil. At that time, a person comes to feel two things: 1) The will to receive, which is the governance of the Egyptians, is so bad that it removes him from the Creator. That is, before he began the work in order to bestow, he did not know how much harm the will to receive causes him. This is so for the known reason that a person is not shown the power of the evil at once. Rather, he is shown bit by bit, for otherwise he will immediately escape from the work and say that this is not for him.
According to the above, we should interpret the words of Maimonides, who says that the matter of Lishma [for Her sake] is not revealed to a person at the beginning of the work, but “Until they gain knowledge and acquire much wisdom, they are shown that secret little by little.” We should understand what it means that “they are shown that secret little by little.” We should understand how there can be such a thing as “little by little.” After all, when a person is told that he must do everything Lishma, everything is revealed to him. What else is there to reveal?
We should interpret that when he says “they are shown,” who is it who shows them this secret of the matter of Lishma? We should also understand what he says, “Until they gain knowledge and acquire much wisdom.” Who knows that one has been rewarded with “Until they gain knowledge and acquire much wisdom”?
We can understand this as The Zohar says about the verse, “Or make it known to him that he has sinned.” He asks, “Who made it known to him?” and he replies, “the Creator.” We should understand why he says that the Creator makes it known to him that he has sinned. In what way did He inform him?
We should interpret this in the manner that is written in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar] (Beresheet Bet, Item 103), “If one engages in Torah and Mitzvot even for his own pleasure, through the light in it he will still feel the lowliness and the terrible corruptness in the nature of receiving for oneself. At that time he will resolve to retire from this nature of reception and completely devote himself to bestow contentment upon his Maker. Then the Creator will open his eyes to see before him a world filled with utter perfection without any deficiencies whatsoever.”
Now we can understand how the Creator informs him “that he has sinned.” We should interpret that even when a person learns Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], the light in it informs him that the will to receive is the cause of all the evil, the obstructor to man’s ability to receive these delight and pleasure that He wishes to give to the created beings. And the light in the Torah is regarded as the Creator notifying to a man that he has sinned.
We should also interpret why Maimonides says that we must begin to accustom a person to work in Lo Lishma, and not in Lishma. This is so because the matter of Lishma is revealed to a person by his receiving the light of the Torah. It follows that if he does not engage in Torah even if Lo Lishma, from where will he take the light of the Torah? This is why Maimonides says that we must begin with Lo Lishma.
By this we will understand what we asked, “Who knows if they have been rewarded with “much wisdom,” so it is permitted to reveal to them the matter of Lishma? The answer is that the light in the Torah knows how much they are inspired by the light of Torah, and to that extent it is possible to reveal to them the matter of Lishma.
By this we will understand what Maimonides says, that they are shown that secret little by little. It means that the matter of for the sake of the Creator means not for one’s own sake. A person must feel what is not for one’s own sake, and this reveals to him the light of the Torah. Hence, each time, the light shows him the amount of bad that is in the will to receive, since through the light that a person receives from the Torah, he sees each time a little bit of the bad that there is in the will to receive. This is why he says that he is shown “little by little.”
Evil is interpreted in two manners: 1) the quality of the evil, meaning how much one loses by receiving for himself 2) how much the body objects to the work of bestowal.
Those two, a person receives from the light in the Torah little by little. This is the meaning of the words “They are shown that secret little by little.” That is, through the light that he receives from the Torah in Lo Lishma, he reveals the two above matters. In other words, the measure of the evil found in the will to receive, and the measure of resistance of the body, each time to a greater extent, when one sees that he is able to overcome. This is why it says, “little by little,” meaning that each time, the light reveals to him, which is called that it is impossible to reveal to him at once.
Now we can understand what we asked, Why does the writing say that specifically through the wickedness of the nations, they were rewarded with the inheritance of the land? The reason is as the Creator promised Abraham, that in this way, meaning if Israel suffer from the Egyptians in exile, meaning all the nations of the world, with all the bad qualities in them, want to control the people of Israel, and the people of Israel want specifically to do everything for the sake of the Creator and not for the sake of the seventy nations. At that time, they feel the lack and they will see that they are powerless to overcome them.
Then it will be as it is written, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work, and their cry went up to God from the work.” At that time, the Creator will give them the required help for this. That is, each time, they will be rewarded with a “holy soul,” and this will be the reason that the children of Israel will need to receive the inheritance of the land, since they will receive it out of necessity, to save themselves from the control of the nations of the world.
This is the meaning of the words, “but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out from before you.” In other words, specifically through the wickedness of the nations, the Creator can give them the inheritance of the land of Israel, since the sensation of bad when they reveal that this evil obstructs from achieving nearness to the Creator, for this is all that we need, since the matter of “near and far” in spirituality is the matter of equivalence of form. When there is equivalence of form between the light and the Kli [vessel], the light dresses in the Kli.
Hence, the sensation of evil, called “wickedness of the nations,” causes the need to be rid of the bad, and then a person begins to purify himself from reception for oneself, and sees that it is out of his hands. At that time, he begins to pray to the Creator to help him, as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” As said in the words of The Zohar, he is given a holy soul. In other words, each time, he receives help from above by being given a soul.
It follows that the ascents and descents are the reason that cause the need and desire to receive the inheritance of the land.
This is why he says that the reason is that “the Lord swore to your forefathers.” That is, it is not that the reason is that He swore to your forefathers, and this is why He is giving them the inheritance of the land. We asked, but our sages said about what is written, “Beresheet [in the beginning], there is no Resheet [beginning] but Israel.” It follows that it was all for Israel and not because of the oath He swore to the forefathers.
Yet, we should interpret that when the people of Israel are qualified to receive the inheritance of the land, when they have a need for the inheritance of the land because, as he says, “but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out from before you,” this is the reason that the children of Israel will inherit the land.
It is known that “land” is called Malchut, and Malchut is called “the assembly of Israel,” since she assembles within her everything that there is in ZA, who is called “Israel.” This is called “the unification of the Creator and His Shechina [Divinity].” Through this unification, abundance pours out to the souls.
All this comes from the beginning of the thought of creation, as our sages said, “There is no beginning but Israel.” This means that the purpose of creation, which is His desire to do good to His creations, refers to the children of Israel. But in what way will they receive the delight and pleasure? The text tells us about this, that the main reason by which they are made fit to receive is the “wickedness of the nations,” and also “to fulfill the oath that the Lord swore to your forefathers.” The inheritance of the land is as He notified Abraham when Abraham asked “How will I know that I will inherit it?” The Creator’s answer was that the children of Israel would be in exile, meaning in the “wickedness of the nations.”
It therefore follows that a person cannot ascend the rungs of holiness unless he feels a deficiency in the state he is in. That is, the deficiencies and suffering he feels give him a need to find a way by which to satisfy his deficiencies. But if he does not feel any lack within him, although he might know that there he has deficiencies in the work, but this does not pain him, so this lack cannot be satisfied because he does not seek counsels for it, and without an awakening from below, meaning without a person asking the Creator from the bottom of the heart, the prayer cannot be answered because if he is not suffering from the absence, he cannot ask with all his heart.
This is as it is written in the Midrash, “Seeking good” (Psalms 23), “‘For the Lord your God blessed you in all the works of your hands, even if you sit idly.’ The meaning of ‘all the works of your hands’ is that if he did, he is blessed, and if not, he is not blessed.”
We therefore see that without an awakening from below, meaning if there is no work on the part of the lower one, the blessing cannot come. The question is, Why? The answer is that when a person begins to work, the work gives him the need for it. That is, there is a difference in the need for the matter. This means that we should understand to what extent a person wants to obtain what he wants, since the work and the counsels that a person invests in order to obtain what he wants expand the lack for the matter, so when he obtains it, he will be able to enjoy it.
Therefore, when speaking in the work, although there is a need within man to ascend in the work, that need still does not make within him a necessity for the matter. So naturally, when he is given something from above, and he still does not know how to appreciate what he is given, he will lose it into the Sitra Achra [other side], since he will not be wise enough to know how to appreciate something in spirituality.
This is as our sages said (Hagigah 4), “Who is a fool? He who loses what he is given.” That is, when a person does not know how to appreciate when he is given some nearing from above, it promptly leaves him and he suffers a descent, since he does not know how to keep the nearing.
Normally, if someone is permitted to enter somewhat into the King’s courtyard, he is concerned and seeks ways by which to enter the King’s house and he does not settle for being in the King’s courtyard. Therefore, when a person is brought a little closer, he is happy that he was brought closer and does not worry about finding ways to go forward. Therefore, that person is thrown out. Then, when he suffers a descent, which is called “a road accident,” meaning that he had an accident as he was going to approach the King.
That is, another car crashed into his car, meaning that the car of the corporeal world crashed into the car of the desire to bestow, and then all the vitality that he had from the desire to bestow departed from him and he was left unconscious. In other words, now he feels that he no longer has spiritual life. Rather, until he gradually recovers and begins to feel that his entire vitality, on which he now lives, is only from the will to receive for himself, at that time, he begins to seek advice once more how to reenter the work of bestowal.
It follows that in order to have a deficiency, to need to ascend the degrees of the work of bestowal, he is given from above the descent, so he would have a need to advance, since without a real need, a person cannot receive what he should obtain. Hence, if a person wants to keep himself from having a road accident, he should keep himself so he does not crash with the car of the will to receive. By this he will be certain that he will not lose what he is given, meaning the ascent he has received.
According to the above, we should interpret what is written (Deuteronomy 5:15), “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there.”
We should interpret that in the work, a person must remember that he had a descent before he came to an ascent, meaning that the Creator let him feel the bad in him. In other words, a person should believe that this feeling, that he is a slave among the Egyptians, namely that he has no permission to do anything for the sake of the Creator, but all that he does is only for the sake of the Egyptians within man, this comes from the Creator.
Afterward, he must remember that now that he is in a state of ascent and feels that he is somewhat close to Kedusha [holiness], he must remember that he should go forward. Therefore, now he must remember that as he was previously a slave, meaning that he was in a state of descent, now he also needs to find within him a lack, so he will need to go forward. Otherwise, he will have to be given a descent from above, since without a need, a person cannot advance and must stay in the state he is in. Therefore, in order not to need to be given a descent, during the ascent he must find within him a place of lack. This is the meaning of what is written, “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there.”
It therefore follows that a person should begin the work like the general public, meaning in practice, and to aim that it will be for the sake of the Creator.
This means that a person observes Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] because the Creator gave us the Torah of life, where by observing what the Creator commanded us, we will be rewarded, as our sages said, “You can trust your landlord to reward you for your work.” By this, we will be happy in this world and happy in the next world.
The fact that we must believe that even if views and thoughts that do not let us believe come to us, we must ask the Creator to give us the power to believe. Afterward, there is a higher degree, which is “not in order to receive reward.” Rather, he is rewarded with feeling that observing Torah and Mitzvot is regarded for him as though he is serving a great King. From this, we come to inherit the land.
Reader: And now, friends, let's continue to the lesson from the 4th of October, 2002.
M. Laitman: () An article from Volume 3 of Shlavei HaSulam, The Rungs of the Ladder, the Torah portions Devarim and Ekev, titled, “What is the Reason for Which Israel Were Rewarded with the Inheritance of the Land in the Work?”
The reason for inheriting the land is that a person enters Egypt. Abraham, our patriarch, was the first researcher of nature, as the Midrash describes. He began contemplating the stars, the moon, the sun, the earth, nature on the face of the earth, and human beings on the earth. What all this actually is, what our life is, why we live, whether there is logic in everything, and clear absolute laws in what we discover in nature. Could it be that all this orderliness, this nature that functions so precisely every moment, every law, every cause and consequence, could it be that this entire system operates without purpose and without any goal? If in all its parts we discover causality, purpose, and reason how can it be that this whole thing exists without reason and without benefit?
These are the questions Abraham, our patriarch, began to ask. And as it is written, the upper force revealed itself to him and said that, yes, there is a reason. That is, Abraham felt and discovered that there is a reason for the existence of the entire universe and all of humanity, and that the reason is to become like the upper force itself, to return to Him, to attain His degree. This is the purpose of man. How do you do this, Abraham asked. Then the path was revealed to him. The way to this can only be through a person passing through developmental stages. From not understanding why he's alive, the question begins to emerge within him: Why do I live? What's the meaning of our lives? As Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” this is where it begins, just as it began with Abraham.
The development is that, first of all, a person needs to come to know his own nature, how he is constructed, how he thinks, how he decides, how his body operates. Body here does not mean the physical body, but the inner body of desires, the self within him. And together with this development, as he studies his own body he also learns about the nature opposite him. That in parallel there is another nature, and this other nature is truly opposite, all the qualities, thoughts, and desires are opposite.
M. Laitman: (37:51) What does opposite mean? If the nature into which we are born, and in which this entire world exists. Is a nature aimed at fulfilling oneself, then the opposite world, which is called the upper world, their nature exists in order to fulfill others, outside one's own vessel, outside one's own desires. What does this give? Really, it's something very strange. We do not understand how it can exist, but if we exist within this opposite nature, then one becomes open to perceive life, to awareness, and to a wholly different world.
The entire purpose of this world, and the person in it, is to transition into that other nature. Why this world as well? It's as Baal HaSulam writes at the beginning of Pticha, the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” that there is no reckoning with the still, vegetative, inanimate levels of this world. The entire reckoning is only with man. And if man rises, then all the other parts of creation in this world rise together with him.
Meaning, nature itself changes. Its laws also change on levels lower than man. As strange as that sounds, that too changes. And we will still merit to see this. And here, Rabash describes for us the entire path from the moment a person begins to ask until he comes to the opening of the eyes, meaning that the second nature opens up before him. This path is the path of Egypt. What is Egypt? It's when a person begins to discover his own nature as evil, that remaining in this nature is to his detriment. This nature is called Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], meaning that all the calculations made in his body, his thoughts and desires, are calculations only for his own sake, and that limits him, and it prevents him from living in an eternal and perfect way.
A person can acquire a second nature only through what is called the recognition of evil. Meaning through the investigation of one's own nature, a second nature becomes revealed in parallel. And then one sees to what extent they are opposites - good and evil, to such an extent that one decides that there is no benefit whatsoever in remaining in this nature, and it is worthwhile, and good, and necessary, and absolutely decisive to move into the second nature.
When a person makes this decision and only he can make the decision itself - the actual power to transition into the second nature, he does not possess that. So, he asks from above, that is, from the side of the second nature, that this upper force, the second nature, which is higher than the nature of this world, that it will help him.
M. Laitman: (41:41) In other words, he turns to the upper force, to what's called the Creator, and then he merits that gradually his qualities begin to improve. What does it mean? Gradually, all the qualities at once all of them, but all of them gradually. Meaning, however many qualities, thoughts, and desires a person has everything in one's internality, all at once they change by one, two, three percent, and so on, until the person merits fully acquiring the second nature, entirely. That's called reaching the final correction of his qualities, of what's called his soul.
Then he reaches the purpose where he has completely acquired eternity and perfection, and exists on the degree of the upper force. This is called acquiring the land of Israel. And it is impossible to reach this without going through the entire process that Abraham went through, together with all the sons and grandsons and everything that came from him, all of Israel, the result of one man who began an investigation into the upper force and how to attain it. There is no other way but through Egypt, through confusions, failures, the blows of Pharaoh and so on. That's what we try to do upon ourselves.
Precisely, this article one who goes through it sees that he is progressing correctly. It's kind of like a summary. Are there any questions? First the guests, afterward the veterans.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:01) According to the article, you can understand that for the purpose of advancement, when a person is already in spirituality, he reaches the sense where he seemingly loses his attainment. And we know that really after a person crosses the barrier- the Machsom, on that degree where he is, he attains wholeness, perfection, all those things that you talk about. How can that be understood? How can he experience something so complete, so absolute, and completely lose it.
M. Laitman: (44:37) No, the question is this. How does a person lose spiritual degrees, such that between the degrees he falls into states where everything is completely lost to him? First of all, what is lost is lost only from his sensation at that moment. It's like with you, for example. Right now someone gives you some piece of news. Let's say, it's very good news, or maybe, heaven forbid the opposite, some very powerful news about something. It presses and covers something smaller. Nothing is actually lost. And with us as well, our entire history, everything we've gone through in previous incarnations, nothing disappears. Because everything accumulates, and upon that accumulation we stand today and continue rising higher and higher. We ascend in holiness and do not descend in holiness. That's the law.
Now, while a person goes through all these inner events, things really do happen where he completely loses everything he attained. Suddenly the intellect disappears, and he finds himself in states that are truly like dead ends. Blocked, hopeless. If you felt those things together with the intellect, they would not appear so terrible. They would appear goal-oriented. You would say, now I need to go through a certain period, but afterward I'll still have a purpose. You went to university, you know, it's not an easy life. You know, you'll have to work hard there too, but afterward you'll become someone worthwhile.
So you have this calculation that it's worthwhile, you have a goal before your eyes, and that sweetens the labor and the suffering you experience while working hard. That is not called recognition of evil. Because with that if you sweeten your state through the hope of a good future, you cannot truly feel it as evil. You can feel it as truly evil only on the condition that the future becomes erased from you. And that's the difficulty with us.
A person comes here, begins to study. A young guy like you, seemingly confident and certain of everything, and he has decisive power and intellect and strength, and suddenly, after a few months, he feels these inner blows that he has nothing, no hope, nothing at all. Darkness comes over him. Nothing remains. Everything disappears. Everything's lost. He becomes weak, confused. This life is worth nothing. Spirituality doesn't exist at all. If you feel only that state, then indeed you can determine that it is evil. That you are shaken, and that you're completely inside it, and there is nothing besides it. If, together with that you had the recognition that this is what I am going through, that this is me, and this is what I go through, seemingly two things at once, that you observe yourself from the side of the intellect, then that's not evil you know I must go through this. I'm strong. I'm a hero. I'll go through it, and afterwards I'll achieve something.
Our problem is that when we go through bad states, and also good states, in order to truly feel a state, we need to lose the intellect and remain only with the sensation. And this is difficult for a person, because we are, as it were, beings of thought. We can think, we can understand things, we have things by which we can decide. I need to supervise myself, hold myself together, direct the world. We have some sense of myself, of I. And when we enter into a sensation, only a sensation without the intellect, then that sensation of self disappears. There remains only the one who feels, the will to receive alone, without the brain, without an intellect, only the will to receive, to enjoy which now feels suffering, and that's very difficult.
Then a person is truly left only in the hands of the upper force, and that's all. And then he truly feels that he has no possibility at all to change anything, or to participate in his own state in any way. Whoever, in any case, comes out of that, and moves on, and enters again, and moves on again, reaches the state of, and the children of Israel sighed from the work.
Meaning, that a person already sees that he simply has no possibility to determine anything regarding his state. And that comes only after such states accumulate, and then he truly merits coming out of it. Meaning that he recognizes that his nature is evil, and then he exits. That's the difference between those who remain and move over to the land of Israel, and those who stay in Egypt and continue more incarnations and more incarnations, until eventually the day comes when they too become sick of it. Another 200, 300 years, I don't know how long. That's how it comes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:12) You say that if I went through very difficult suffering in life...
M. Laitman: If you went through difficult suffering in life, but without a purpose- without a purpose, meaning you didn't know for what and why, and you did not connect it to your spiritual development then those are still beastly or corporeal sufferings. It's not that they were without benefit. There's benefit in everything, and everything has purpose, but those sufferings were still before entering Egypt, before the seven years of famine that occurred in Egypt.
Meaning, in a person's development, there are seven years of satiation, and seven years of famine, and afterward Pharaoh, and etc. So certainly each and every one of us in previous incarnations suffered greatly, a lot, and humanity as a whole suffers. Life is, in general, somehow an escape from suffering. Everyone somehow manages to escape from it in one way or another. But that is not yet called suffering in the spiritual sense. Those too are sufferings, but they are still corporeal sufferings, or human sufferings, but not spiritual sufferings, through which a person really comes to the recognition of evil, and exits, and crosses the barrier- the Machsom.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:43) In this whole process of the recognition of evil in a person, it isn't done by him. There is some force which starts, and then he reaches the light in the Torah. What happens when a person gradually loses that yearning for the light of the Torah? From where does he get the power to want it?
M. Laitman: All of a person's development comes through the light that shines upon us, what's called the surrounding light, the Ohr Makif, or the reforming light, and there's no other way for us to develop. It's in general, as we learn in the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah", that there's a vessel, and there is light, and the entire development of the vessel depends on the power of the light that shines upon it. Everything the vessel will go through and feel at what pace, everything depends on the light. So what can we do?
Our entire participation, our involvement in the process, is only to the extent that we ourselves can add to it, to draw the light upon ourselves, so that it will shine faster, more strongly, and make changes within us faster. We can only add to the pace not to the process itself. The process itself needs to unfold exactly as it has been determined. It depends on our final state, each and everyone's final state, and on the initial state, and the path is determined according to those two endpoints, you understand?
Meaning, I cannot make any other changes. I'm built in a particular way, and I have a unique structure, and with this whole structure, qualities, desires, thoughts, my entire self, my I. I need to gradually undergo correction. And I cannot change the stages of correction, only the pace. When I change the pace I also change my sensation from bad to good, even during the corrections themselves. But still, as one goes through them one needs to experience the states of the nature in which one exists. Everytime I must feel it, certainly until crossing the barrier- the Machsom, we feel bad states. Only you can shorten them, instead of a hundred years, you can shorten them to a few months. Now, you are asking whether we have some additional way. It's as if the question is whether we can, in some way, influence the light so that it will shine upon us.
Student: It's not a matter of influencing the light. It depends on my yearning. And when I first came here, I had a tremendous yearning. I received it from above and now it is sort of fading away.
M. Laitman: Yes, the light, the intensity of that power of the light influencing me is constant. Like all people in this world, everyone in this world each one has this constant illumination from above advancing him. So humanity advances, and humanity is advancing technologically, internally, in terms of how we think, what we desire. Culturally, it's all developing. It's because the will to receive constantly grows, and the light shines more and more, and the will to receive grows. That's the general providence for the whole world. If I want to emerge from that, to rise to a completely different line of development, general providence. Then I need to add of my own will, myself, for the light to come, for more of it to come. And if I start learning, and in the beginning my desire was great, and I learned that I wanted to achieve something, then I see that it's vanishing. What do I need to do? It's specifically when this will to receive, when this desire for development vanishes, then I can say that I want, that I invoke the light.
In the beginning you were given this awakening from above. It didn't depend on you. You suddenly woke up. It isn't you. It was the light that came first. It illuminated upon you, and then you were drawn to it. It's not on your account. It doesn't mean that you were advancing yourself. You were being promoted from above. You were chosen from above to be advanced. You were given this awakening, and it's not on your account at all that you advance. You advance more than the rest of the world, but it's still on account of the Upper One. From above you were given an awakening. You were given it once, maybe twice, maybe one more time, and then you're left, let go. There's a number of awakenings from above that a person is given, and if he doesn't add, he doesn't progress, he doesn't do what's necessary, he's let go. So, you need to advance him again with everyone, general advancement, and then maybe you will be given further awakenings, maybe an incarnation or two. Who knows? And you will want the same thing, you'll need the same thing. So, determining that it's your desire that you want advancement, that is done specifically in a state where you don't want it. When you don't want it, it's a sign that you are left, left alone from above.
Student: That's it. There's no strength for that.
M. Laitman: (57:24) No strength. That is called "and the sons of Israel sighed from their labor." Right? There is no strength. So what can you do? From where can I gain these powers? Gaining these powers, what does it mean to attain a desire? Yes? To attain a desire, to pull, to ask, to show interest in that light that will come and correct me. I don't have the desire for it. What can I do? I'm not the Creator who can create desire. I'm not light so that through some kind of secondary illumination, I can awaken in me this desire. Right? I don't have this medicine by which I can awaken. You know, it's like appetite through something salty, bitter, or something like that, you can awaken a person's appetite. I don't have such a thing. If the light doesn't shine, we're done. I'm 100% dependent on it.
So, there's no way out of it. I'm in a critical state. So, there is one free choice, due to which there occurred a very special process in the entire structure, formation of the souls- where the upper soul- the general structure of the vessel- the created being, which the Creator created, it split into thousands of parts. One part, which you cannot ascend now, cannot rise. This general soul also could not rise above. But now, if we share with each other we receive awakening from each other, then we will have the power to ascend. And that is why there is a complete, full world all around you, many people, of whom some also have awakened towards the same goal. And you need to look for these people and to organize your life such that you're near to them, to organize a group from them, so that in your difficult state they will affect you with an awakening.
There is no other way by which to receive an appetite for advancement. It's only from that kind of environment. This should now become clear that without the power from the environment that must come to you - you were given an awakening, you will let her be left, dropped, and that's it - you're done. So now you have to quickly, so long as you still have some involvement in your advancement, until you're left from above, quickly you need to look for such a society that will awaken you to advance. And there's an entire teaching about how the society should influence you and how you need to contribute to this society in order to receive from it, for it to truly be an awakening towards spirituality and not an awakening towards who knows what. But after all this wisdom that we talked about it turns out that it's a very corporeal, simple, primitive thing, and I would say something that we tend to disregard: finding friends who will give me an example, who will give me an awakening. It seems to be so far from spirituality and everything, but that's what truly exists. And there is a very sublime, truly spiritual thing here. It's because you demand help from yourself, but it's from the other parts of your soul which seem to you detached from you.
Meaning, this is what you do - by connecting with others, demanding an awakening, upliftment from them, you're actually gathering the parts of your soul. This is work which you don't see right now, you don't understand how it works, it doesn't seem to be right. Also, there are many problems, issues, and various disruptions in the connection between you and this society. But actually this is the spiritual work, because each and every one is a part of your soul.
M. Laitman: (01:01:56) If you build that general vessel, that is progress. It cannot be in you. In your part of the whole of the general soul you cannot have more appetite, more of a desire for spirituality than what awoke just now. All the additional desires rising towards the goal, that can only come from the society. You have exhausted yourself, you could say, you're done.
Now join to you other parts which are parts of you, and they exist in each and every one. From that you will receive more appetite, more of an appetite, more desire, and then you'll yearn again for the light, and so again, and again, and again. So it follows that as much as we... What does it mean to rise through the degrees? You join another soul, you receive more light in it? You join to yourself another soul - more light. And so it is that you rise, it's as though it's an inverted pyramid. When you rise, you have all the souls that you join to yourself, and you have all the light that enters all these souls. That is the only way in which you can grow, by joining to yourself more parts. In general, you just need to be like Adam HaRishon, with the entirety of the volume of his vessel, with all the light that enters those vessels. And so it is with each one.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:47) If every person in the group is part of my soul, does it mean that my soul is limited according to the number of people?
M. Laitman: If we could not see bodies. If we could wear such spiritual eyeglasses we wouldn't have seen the bodies, we would see the souls. And the souls, we would see the soul as not being disconnected from each other. Now with our current glasses, we see them as being separate.
Student: If every person in the group is part of my soul, does it mean that my soul is limited according to the number of people? Is that correct?
M. Laitman: So, what you're asking is, there are just seven million people and we learned that there are six hundred thousand parts in the soul of Adam HaRishon, which they later split into many more. But in my group we have five or ten or twenty, a hundred people, it's a limited number. Yes, so what is the connection between this and that, the relation? So, Kabbalists write, and Rabash also writes that the pyramid, the way the entire world is built, it's built in such a way where each upper part includes all the lower ones. It’s as we learn in the Partzufim, each upper Partzuf includes within it all the lower Partzufim, they're part of him, right? But it's for the sake of correction that he excretes- so to speak. More and more and more parts, and then corrects them gradually, gradually, and it all accumulates above.
So, if you see a group in which there are a hundred people, maybe then you need to understand that behind them stand all those seven billion, and there's no problem at all in that each one of your friends is measured against all the, let's say, the Chinese people, and another one, all the Indians, doesn't matter, that is truly how it is in terms of spiritual power.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:11) How is it possible to reach the end of correction if there's always a chance that I'll meet someone new?
M. Laitman: I don't understand. Baal HaSulam writes in "The Freedom," that article, that it turns out that you have nothing more to do in this world than, other than this one thing - to each time seek a better society. If I have just this one, one free choice, just one thing, one place where I can determine something there's nothing to think about, there's no reason to think about anything else. Rather, and if so, what is that only thing? To seek out a better environment each time, to look for it, which means to build it to myself, for myself. The society, it's not that I find it in an advertisement, in the newspaper, right? Or I drive and I see, drive around and see where I can find a society in the world.
The society is that which I build, buy yourself a friend, that's the work. But ultimately it all focuses in this - how to build such a thing in this world, which will provide for me a desire for spirituality. You understand? There is a thing here which is very delicate. I need to look outside of myself for a provider of, a provider for my spirituality. You're starting to work in order to bestow to begin with, without knowing what it is.
Student: Meaning, what you're saying is that if I chose for myself a good society, then I cover all the possibilities.
M. Laitman: If you've found a good society, you've found everything, there's nothing else besides that you should be looking for. And in this, you need to get better and better to improve all the time. The parts of your soul are there. What can you do? Even though it may not seem like that, look at these faces, yes? But without the faces, inside, that is how it is.
Now you can see how it's built in such a special way where you have to skip over, you have to really work on your attitude towards others from the beginning. Meaning, that spirituality we see begins in the very moment where you begin to work with the society. In that moment it is spiritual work already, already against the desire, against the ego. Here it begins to be, here you can either connect with someone outside of yourself or not, meaning there's, in order to bestow here, you're already starting to contend with the second nature, the spiritual nature, which seems to be right here, right? On this planet, on this earth, spirituality is here. Work in it, at least.
Student: If I want to fulfill “Love your neighbor as yourself?”
M. Laitman: I just want to add, regarding this work one more sentence. It has to be connected to the goal, and the goal is the Creator. That's already folded in.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:40) If I want to observe “Love your friend as yourself,” how do I implement it?
M. Laitman: You observe the commandment. I don't know what it means to observe the commandment of “Love your friend as yourself.” Why do you need these words? Why? To get confused with, you know, do you know what a commandment is, and what loving yourself means. You have to connect with such people who also have the same goal in mind. And it doesn't matter to me what their beastly qualities are. These beastly qualities, which are now in order to receive, when they're in order to bestow, they'll be the very best. And it's the same with me. Right now I'm a beast. Right now, with all of my deficiencies - in order to bestow, they invert and appear to be good. And so I need to see the friends, to look at them only with respect to their goal they share. They have a good goal, the same goal as I have. We need to connect together then that’s it. Skip over all the disruptions, all the character, and habits, and customs, and his face, and so on. That's it. That's the work.
Meaning, to choose only according to the goal. I think that if you now landed into The ARI's group or the group of Ramchal, you would see there are people with such qualities and such faces and all these habits. You wouldn't connect with them. You would choose for yourself a group of, I don't know, high society, something, models or something, I don't know, beautiful people, as you say, you call them in society. Yes, from Ramat Aviv Gimel, high society. So you understand what it means that choice is a friend. It means that you're connected with him in terms of what truly matters to you, what's most important to you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:02) Rabash writes that when a person comes to a state where he cries out to the Creator, he says, one who comes to purify is aided with the holy soul. What is this thing, the holy soul?
M. Laitman: One who comes is assisted with the holy soul. The holy soul, that means that whoever comes, which is to say brings his vessel, he received a lack from the friends, from the society, he's assisted with the holy soul. That vessel is filled for him with light, which is called soul. The holy soul, that light that fills the vessel.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:41) What do you do if you yourself did something bad to someone, or you breached his trust or something, and you feel that he doesn't want to connect with you?
M. Laitman: The work in society includes the entire mechanism of the relationships between people. But again, Baal HaSulam writes that if the connection is on the background, like a business background, a social background, have some kind of a good party or something, that's also good, but it's just not spirituality.
Meaning, in each and every action, the action of connection between people, the goal should be clear. Even if he's doing one thing to the society, to an individual, or to the whole society together. That's why we need to depict. And if I once did something bad to someone, and he felt it and understands and is trying to give it to me, then it's worthwhile to be above everything. And if we skip over all, as they say, love will cover all crimes, and then we will benefit. These are simple things. But again, this is only if there's a goal first. Like he writes in page 64 there, The Creator, me, and my action need to be together. And my only action is actually the work and connection in society and receiving upliftment from them.
Meaning, I need to influence the society in such a way and demand from society in return for them to eventually give me upliftment. And there needs to be a very clear relationship here, a very healthy one. I'm investing in you, and you must supply me with upliftment to the greater. We should not hide these things, and how will we build such a new society. If not, go home. It's a waste of time, if not. A person is just deluding himself. If he doesn't do this then all the rest is at the expense of the upper light, the upper force. So lay in your bed. I'm saying it this way. It's not exactly because nevertheless we sit and we gradually grasp the mind that it takes. But it takes time.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:34) In our society, each one is inspired by the other, and by this he lifts him. What happens when I'm in a society outside of this framework, in which not only am I not lifted up, they also think bad things about me or try to bring me down? Can I protect myself from this?
M. Laitman: When I'm here for three hours a day, that's the good case, right? Let's hope that you do the same. And the other hours, well, I'm in various places, including with my wife at home, who also helps me advance through a different path, yes, but still. So the question is: how do I in these 20 hours - let's say, I sleep here and there, 15 hours I'm in various other societies - how can I not be influenced by them? How do I protect against them? How to relate to them?
Baal HaSulam says, it's like when you enter a chicken coop, right? You understand. They all start Ko-ko-ko towards you. Each one of them is a great hero, right? If you're on their degree, then you get agitated, angry at them. How can they do this to me? If you're a bit above them, right? Maybe some probably feel like that, right? Or to slaughter that chicken, that did that to you. But if you're on a degree slightly above that, you simply don't feel it. That is their nature, and it's their nature, and that's it. So it depends- I'm not saying to disrespect and disregard the society you're in, but spiritually speaking you need to feel that you're so high that they simply can't touch you. I go to work. There is a manager. There are other people there. I go home. Also, I have someone managing me there. So I surrender there in what I need in this life. I relate to life in that way I give them on the corporeal level what they need, because that's our life. We'll talk about why our lives are divided like that at some point.
Why from above, this whole thing is built like that. Our correction, why is it arranged like that? See what we need to deal with, how to go through life. Maybe a year out of 100 years, we can truly engage in something good. But if I relate to these things also in a deterministic way, why and how and in what way I'm doing it this way, then it's pure correction. It's me operating and it works on me like I'm sitting and studying it's also work every single moment. And then you'll see how this manager, this person, is that Pharaoh and the wife is a help against him, as it's written. And that's it. And through them, you can feel spirituality no less than you can through friends.
Nevertheless, the way you are alone, no less than you are there. We just shouldn't depict all kinds of images, like suddenly someone imagines angels that are governing him from above. And you know how a person starts imagining all kinds of things. We just have to be careful not to imagine, because we can't understand the upper providence yet. And if a person depicts all kinds of things that are happening to him, this is happening like this and like that. This is because of this or that. Except they're lying. He doesn't see the upper providence. He doesn't understand the upper force. He's not in it yet in all his feelings. And if he imagines it in such a way, it prevents him from feeling correctly. Eventually, it confuses him, and otherwise he'll leave it. Otherwise, he'll go mad. But certainly, in a purposeful way see how I relate to them in a manner in which this is truly a help against him. So don't be afraid to be in another society or in some place that I'm confused. I'm a thousand kilometers from them in spirituality.
M. Laitman: (01:20:15) Like Rabash used to say, he'd work paving roads between Jerusalem and Hebron. You know, that was back in the time where everyone worked, not like today. And at those times there were all kinds of new immigrants, you know, professors from Germany and from Italy. He says there was a big immigration at the time. And so after the work, they all finished work, let's say, at 5 p.m., 6 p.m - they worked until there was light. There's no light - they don't work. Very simple. Understand? Not according to eight hours or something. And after that they'd have a bonfire, and they'd sit around it and blah, blah, blah, all night, into the night. And you would go to sleep so you can wake up at midnight and start studying until six o'clock in the morning, until whenever wakes up. They even tell them, the elders, how could you disregard our society? He's a philosophy professor, and this is some lawyer from France. And this, you know there was an immigration not like today. Yes, everything was not like today. Well, anyway. So he says, I have nothing to talk to you. You're like a kindergarten. And simply, it doesn't interest me to sit with you. On purpose, he said it like that, disregardingly. So they thought that he's just some kind of prideful guy, and he has nothing in him. And they start relating to him in such a way that, okay, he's a good guy. Actually, when he wakes up in the morning he warmed up the water for the tea for them to drink, when he woke up early. But in that, they let him be. He decided that you and your spirituality, and you there with me, your politics, and I on my own. For me you're a kindergartener. So I'm not saying that you have to be in such a way. But we need to do this in a smart way so we don't evoke hatred. But you need insight, at least to define it this way. And then you'll see that there really is no one to talk about anything serious. They're all immersed in simple, redundant things.
Reader: Okay, friends, let's share impressions from the lesson, and what we take from it to implement in the 10-6 minutes workshop.
Song: (01:28:46)