The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.

Daily Morning Lesson: February 12, 2026

Part 1 Rabash. What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah - 1.

Original lesson date: 05/06/2003

Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson, we will study from the Rav's lesson from June 5, 2003. It is based on the article, "What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah? - 1.” We will read it together in the Tens. Tens that finish ahead of time, you are welcome to start the workshop on the main points in the article.

Reading: (00:36) Rabash. What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah? - 1

Article No. 18, 1987

The writing says, “And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain.” Concerning the people, the writing says, “And they stood at the foot of the mountain.”

We should understand what “came down” means for the Creator, which means a descent, lessening. After all, this was at the time of the giving of the Torah, so why should this be regarded as a descent for the Creator, as this was a time of joy?

Our sages said about “and they stood,” that it teaches that “He forced the mountain on them like a vault” and said, “If you accept the Torah, very well. But if you do not, there will it be your burial” (Shabbat 88). He asked there in the Tosfot, “Forced the mountain on them like a vault,” although they had already preceded doing to hearing. There are many answers to this question, but we should also understand the meaning of forcing on them the mountain like a vault in the work.

To understand the above, we must remember the known rule that there is no light without a Kli [vessel]. That is, there cannot be filling without a lack. It is impossible to enjoy something without yearning for it, and yearning for something is called “preparation,” meaning a need. The need for something determines the yearning, and the level of the pleasure corresponds to the level of the yearning.

It therefore follows that prior to the giving of the Torah; there had to be a preparation for the reception of the Torah. Otherwise, there could not be joy of the Torah. That is, they had to prepare the need to receive the Torah, and the need yields the above-mentioned yearning. According to the level of the yearning, so is the measure by which we can enjoy the Torah. However, we should know what indeed is the need for the reception of the Torah.

Our sages said (Baba Batra 16), “The Creator created the evil inclination, He has created for it a spice.” RASHI interpreted “Created for it the Torah as a spice,” which cancels thoughts of transgressions, as was said (Kidushin 30), “If you encounter this villain, pull him into the seminary.” And there, in Kidushin, they said, “Thus the Creator said to Israel: ‘I have created the evil inclination, and I have created for it the spice of Torah. If you engage in Torah, you will not be given into its hands,’ as was said, ‘and if you do well.’ ‘But if you do not engage in Torah, you will be given into its hands,’ as it was said, ‘Sin crouches at the door.’”

Accordingly, we see that the Torah is a correction to come out of the governance of the evil inclination. This means that one who feels he has the evil inclination, who feels that the evil inclination, with all the counsels it gives to a person about how to be happy and enjoy life, aims to harm him. That is, it obstructs him from achieving the real good, called “Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator.” This is why a person says about it that this inclination is bad and not good.

However, it is very difficult for a person to say about it. That is, the evil inclination makes him understand that it is in his interest to see to his enjoyment in life, to feel pleasure from the things he does, meaning that all his actions will be only for his own sake. It makes him understand that a person should know the rule that all the counsels it gives him are only with one thing in mind: his own benefit. And even though sometimes it says that he should do something for another, it is with good reason that it tells him to work in favor of another. It is calculated in advance that this act will later yield benefit for himself. Therefore, how can a person say about it that it is an evil inclination, when it tells him to believe that it has no other aim but his own good, and not the good of anyone else?

For this reason, a person has a lot of work to come to feel that his will to receive is bad, to the extent that a person will know with absolute certainty that he has no greater enemy in the world than the receiver in him, as King Solomon would call it, “enemy.” It is as it is written, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread.” It is very difficult for a person to determine once and for all that he is bad and wants only to fail him from walking on the good path, which is the very opposite of the way of the receiver, since the path of truth is only to bestow, while the receiver wants only to receive. It follows that here is where one must choose if he is to be called “good” or “bad.”

Our sages said about it (Nida), “Rabbi Hanina Bar Papa says, ‘That angel appointed over pregnancy is called Laila [Hebrew: night]. It takes a drop and places it before the Creator and says to Him: ‘Master of the world, what shall become of this drop? Will it be a mighty one or a weakling, a wise one or a fool, rich or poor?’ But ‘wicked or righteous’ it did not say. Rather, this was given to man’s choice.’”

We should interpret that choice means to determine, decide, and name the receiver in a person, or that it is truly a good inclination because it tends to man’s benefit and is not distracted for even a minute into caring for others whatsoever. For this reason, it is worthwhile to listen to it, since it cares only for his own benefit, meaning that he will be happy. Therefore, it should be trusted and not veer off from it to the right or to the left, but carry out all its commandments and not deviate from it one bit.

There is also the opposite view, that it is indeed bad because by listening to it and engaging in self-love, we become remote from the Creator due to disparity of form. Then the quality of judgment is on a person, which was done by the correction of Tzimtzum [restriction] that was done on the light of doing good to His creations. For this reason, the name of the Creator, The Good Who Does Good, cannot be revealed where there is self-love. And for this reason, a person must decide once and for all that self-love is the real bad and harm-doer for a person.

However, the question is, from where can one receive the strength to make a choice to say about the receiver that it is so bad as to say that from this day forward he will not listen to it?

The truth is that this, too, requires help from the Creator to show him the truth, that the receiver for himself is man’s real wicked one and enemy. When a person comes to feel this, he is immune from sinning. Then, all the concealments and punishments are removed from him because when he already knows that this is the angel of death, he will certainly run away from death. This is the time when the delight and pleasure that is in the purpose of creation can be revealed. At that time a person comes to attain the Creator, who is called The Good Who Does Good.

Accordingly, we should interpret what is written (Genesis 8:21), “And the Lord said in His heart, ‘I will curse no more the earth because of man, for the inclination of a man's heart is evil from his youth.’” Nachmanides interpreted “in His heart” as not revealing the matter to the prophet at that time. And Even Ezra adds and says, “Afterward, He revealed His secret to Noah.”

It is difficult to understand that verse, for did the Creator see only now that “the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” and before this, He did not know?

In the work, we should interpret that the Creator now disclosed, after all the work that a person has put into awakening to achieve the truth, meaning to really know why he was born and what goal he should achieve, so now the Creator disclosed to him that the inclination of a man’s heart, which is the receiver, is evil from his youth. That is, it cannot be said that now he sees that the inclination has become bad. Rather, it is evil from his youth. However, until now he could not determine that it was really evil; therefore, the person was in states of ascent and descent. In other words, at times he would listen to the inclination and say that from now on I will know that this is my enemy and everything it advises me to do is to my detriment.

But afterwards, the esteem of the inclination rises again and once again he listens to it and works for it wholeheartedly, and so on and so forth. He feels that he is as “a dog returning to its vomit.” That is, he has already determined that it was unfit for him to listen to it because all the nourishments that the inclination gives him are but food fit for beasts and not for man. But all of a sudden, he returns to animal food and forgets all the decisions and views he had before.

Afterward, when he regrets, he sees that he has no other way but for the Creator to make him see that the inclination that is called “evil” really is evil. Then, once the Creator has given him this knowledge, he does not go astray again but asks the Creator to give him the strength to overcome it each and every time the inclination wants to fail him, so he will have the strength to overcome it.

It therefore follows that the Creator should give him both the Kli [vessel] and the light, meaning both the awareness that the inclination is evil and there is a need to emerge from under its reign, and the correction for this is the Torah, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” Accordingly, the Creator gave him both the need for the Torah, as well as the Torah. This is regarded as the Creator giving him the light, as well as the Kli.

According to the above, we should interpret the above verse, “And the Lord said in His heart.” The interpreters interpreted that not revealing the matter to the prophet is regarded as “in His heart.” Afterward, He revealed His secret. What is the secret? That the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth.

Thus, the order is that first one must see by himself and choose and determine that the name of the inclination in his heart is “evil.” Afterward, he sees that he is unable to determine resolutely that he will not go back on his word and say that the inclination is a good thing and it is worthwhile to listen to it, and so on and so forth. At that time, it is regarded that the Creator says “in His heart,” that the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth, but to one who engages in choice, the Creator still did not reveal that secret that the inclination is called “evil” because it is evil. This is done in order to give man room for choice and to determine that it is evil.

But afterwards, when a person sees that he cannot say that it is utterly evil, but regrets every time, then comes the state where he cries out to the Creator, “Help me!” This is the meaning of what Even Ezra says, “Afterward, He revealed His secret to Noah.” It means that Noah is called “serving the Creator.” That is, when the Creator reveals to a person that the inclination is evil from his youth, which is nothing new that the evil inclination is evil, “but I did not tell you. Now that I am telling you this secret, that Man’s inclination is evil, you can be certain that you will no longer listen to it, since I myself revealed this to you. Therefore, I will no longer curse,” since there will not be any need for more punishments, since everything will be okay, as it is said, “And I will strike no more all the living, as I had done.”

This means that before the Creator disclosed that the inclination of a man’s heart is evil, there had to be ascents and descents. That is, in the beginning of the work you had vitality, but in order to walk on the right path, you had to strike all the living, meaning I took from you the vitality you had in the work, and you descended from there to a state of lowliness because you have evil, which is the evil inclination. Then there can be, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” But before he has this evil inclination, he feels the necessity for the Torah. For this reason, only after the Creator revealed the secret that the inclination of a man’s heart is evil can there be the giving of the Torah, since there is no light without Kelim [vessels], and only where there is a need it is possible to give him what he needs.

However, the Creator revealing to him that the inclination of a man’s heart is evil is also called “light,” meaning filling, and there is no filling without a lack. For this reason, a person cannot be rewarded with the Creator revealing the bad to him before he has a need for it, since there is a rule that it is not man’s way to act needlessly, and it is even more so with the Creator, who does not do anything needlessly.

Accordingly, from where can one receive the need for the Creator to reveal to him the above-mentioned secret? For this reason, one needs to begin the work and know that his receiver is his evil, and he must escape from its ruling, and everything he does in Torah and in prayer, or when he engages in Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds], it is to try to make all these actions bring him the recognition of evil. When he feels that he is bad and wants to perform acts of bestowal, he begins to receive vitality. When he falls from his degree, he loses the vitality.

It is the Creator Himself who makes him fall from His degree, since he still does not see the real evil in him. But through the descents he has each time, he asks the Creator to reveal to him once and for all that the will to receive is evil and not to be taken after it.

It follows that the descents he has, come to him from the Creator, as it is written, “And I will strike no more all the living,” to receive from Him the vitality in the Torah and work and to remain without any vitality of Kedusha [sanctity/holiness] because man has already been completed with the need for the Creator to help him recognize the evil permanently, so as not to yearn once more to listen to the voice of the evil. It is so because man has come to the need for the Creator to help him, since now he sees that it is impossible that he will ever be fond of the evil inclination and want to listen to it, and will go astray again endlessly. This is the reason why he needs the Creator now, to help him know that the inclination within him is bad, and is the reason why he cannot achieve the delight and pleasure that the Creator has created for the creatures.

This is why a person has many descents, for by this a desire forms within him to yearn for the Creator to help him feel that the inclination of a man’s heart is evil.

Now we can understand what we asked: What is the preparation for the reception of the Torah? The answer is—the evil inclination. When a person knows that he has evil in him, which is after the Creator has informed him this, a new need is born in a man: how to defeat it. Yet, this can be only through Torah, as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” This is the preparation for the reception of the Torah. That is, the need for the Torah is called “the preparation for the reception of the Torah.”

By this we will understand what we asked about the meaning of the words, “And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain.” What is “the top of the mountain,” and how can a descent be said about the Creator? It is known that in spirituality, the name is according to the action, as it is written about Manoah with the angel who said, “Why do you ask for my name?” Rather, it is according to the action.

For example, an angel who heals will be called Angel Refael [the Creator’s healing], and so forth. Likewise, when the Creator sends healing to a person, the Creator is called “Healer of the sick.” According to the above, the Creator revealing to man that the inclination of a man’s heart is evil is regarded as the Creator revealing to a person in what state of descent the man was born, as it was written, “evil from his youth,” meaning from the day he was born. Then, the Creator is named after the action, showing to the man his lowly state, and this is called “And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai.”

We find two wordings here: 1) Regarding the Creator, it is written, “And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain.” 2) Regarding the people, it is written, “And they stood at the foot of the mountain.”

We must understand what is a “mountain.” The word Har [mountain] comes from the word Hirhurim [thoughts], which is man’s intellect. Anything that is in the intellect is regarded as “in potential.” Afterward, it can expand into actual fact. Accordingly, we can interpret “And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain,” as the thought and intellect of man, meaning that the Creator informed all the people that the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth. After the Creator informed them in potential, meaning at the top of the mountain, that which was in potential expanded in actual fact.

For this reason, the people came to actually feel and everyone now sensed the need for the Torah, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the spice of Torah.” Now they said, by actually feeling, that they were forced to receive the Torah, meaning without choice, since they saw that if they received the Torah they would have delight and pleasure, and if not, there it would be their burial. In other words, if we remain in our current state, our lives will not be lives but they will be our burial place.

Accordingly, we should interpret “And the Lord came down to the top of the mountain” to mean that once the Creator informed them on the mountain, in the intellect, that the evil is man’s heart, and once this has been set in their minds, in their thoughts and intellect, it immediately operated, as it is written, “And they stood at the foot of the mountain.” In other words, the descent that was on the mountain operated on them and they stood at the foot of the mountain, meaning the above descents controlled them.

It follows that “forced the mountain on them like a vault” means the descent and the information they received on the mountain, meaning with the thought about them that now they will have to receive the Torah because this mountain, meaning this descent, causes them the need to receive the Torah, so they can overcome the evil in their hearts.

The meaning of “forced … on them” is that the reason that now they must receive the Torah and they have no other choice is the mountain, meaning the information they received in the thought and intellect that they are in a state of descent because they have evil in the hearts. This is like a vault, meaning that it is coercive and they have no choice. This is regarded as the mountain controlling them at the bottom.

Accordingly, we should ask what does it mean that through the miracle on Purim, our sages said, “kept and received”?

It is that thus far coercively, henceforth willingly (Shabbat 88). It said, “Raba said, ‘Nevertheless, the generation received it in the days of Ahasuerus,’ as it is written, ‘The Jews kept and received.’” RASHI interpreted that it was for the love of the miracle that was done for them.

We should explain this as it is written in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” (p 41): “There is conditional love, where because of the pleasure he feels in Torah and Mitzvot, he keeps them. But there is a higher degree called ‘unconditional love,’ that because of the miracle, they took upon themselves to observe Torah and Mitzvot without anything.”

Reader: Friends, let's summarize the main points. Now we will move on to the next part of the lesson.

M. Laitman: (30:43) We read now an article from the “Rungs of the Ladder,” volume 4, that pertains to the part of the holy days of Shavuot. Now we're on the eve of Shavuot. And this is 2003, and the article is called, "What Is the Preparation for the Reception of the Torah?" We learned that everything we talk about, each and every phenomenon that we say, it exists, it must happen, each and every phenomenon has before it a prior preparation called a vessel, the need for it. There cannot be any revelation of good or bad, big or small, it doesn't matter, if there's no prior reason. The first reason is the thought of the Creator to do good to His creations. That thought encompasses the whole of creation, meaning the entire will to receive. It swallows it, engulfs it, and brings it to its final state that has already been determined in this thought. And each and every state along the way that the will to receive goes through, stems from the previous stage, the previous state. And so through a chain of cause and consequence, we develop. If our final state is to be similar to the Creator, this means to receive from Him His qualities, His vessels, what we call the first nine, then certainly the previous state is the need for it, the need to receive the qualities of the Creator, to be in equivalence of form with Him. What is the need for equivalence of form? The prior deficiency to feel that we need that, that it is important, that it is necessary for me. That is, everything which is not the Creator's will, it's not the Creator's quality, is bad for me. That is, I need to discover that I have qualities, and all of these qualities are opposite to the qualities of the Creator, and this is why they are bad. They could be good, but not for the purpose which is compatibility with equivalence of form with the Creator. This means that even earlier, I need to be in a state where I feel myself that I'm entirely the opposite of the Creator. That is, I know who is the Creator and what are His qualities, who I am and what are my qualities, and I know the difference between us, between Him and me. And this difference, this gap, I feel it as bad to such a point that I cannot tolerate it. And earlier, also that I'm in such a, of such a great stature, even before that, there were preparations and all kinds of states, but this occasion where I am in a state which is opposite to the Creator in all of my qualities, this is called the occasion of Mount Sinai, that I'm on the bottom of the mountain, and above me, there is this entire mountain of my thoughts and my bad qualities that distinguish me, separate me from the Creator. And the Creator is on the top of the mountain. How do I know that He's on the top of the mountain? Because there is my point in my heart, which is called Moses. And when I feel the gap between these two feelings, where I am, myself, the whole entire people on the bottom of the mountain, and Moses who went up to Mount Sinai, then necessarily I have the need to receive the reforming light. And I also feel necessarily that the Creator is the one who is forcing that on me, right? So it's by coercion, as it says, that the mountain is placed on him like a vault. It's from the word “coercion” in Hebrew. The Creator comes down to the mountain. This is where He is. His qualities are there. If I'll rise above the peak, the top of all of my thoughts, about my whole nature, all my doubts and thoughts, there I will meet Him. There is a reason why this status is revealed to me, in which either I'll accept these corrections and I will rise with all of my thoughts. I will rise to these thoughts which are above them, or this will be my burial place under them, under all of these desires and thoughts. Under them, I will bury myself. 

M. Laitman: (37:13) And then, certainly, I will need the Torah, which operates against the evil inclination. I discover that this is my nature. This whole mountain is hatred, and I already begin to hate it. What does it mean, hatred? As it says, that hatred came down to the nations of the world. What does that mean? They interpreted it as if we received the Torah, and the nations of the world then began to hate us. But I hate the nations of the world within me. This is why I received the Torah, after I determined that the evil exists inside of me. Until I determine that my inclination is evil, but rather, to the contrary, I determined that my inclination is good. If it's good, then I want it. But if I want it, if I want to use it, then the Creator, that He has the purpose of creation, He wants to bring me up to the top of the mountain. Each one must be as Moses. So, the Creator gives light, and in this light, I begin to enter ascents and descents. As long as I still determine that my inclination is good, I am in a descent. Each time I see it opposite the light, until I will determine that it is bad, until these descents again, and again, and again, will finally accumulate within me into a mountain. Then I will need the Torah, I'll be ready to receive the Torah, I will have a need to receive the Torah as the Torah of correction. And when I will receive the Torah as correction, then I'll be rewarded with the desire, with the Torah as a filling. And of course, all of these things, all transpire through coercion. There's a reason why it is guaranteed that He will force the mountain on us as a vault. He forces this coercion on us; seemingly, in Hebrew, it's a double-phrasing, a word. Rather, what we can do is only to be more sensitive to what we're going through. We can see history that is written, that it needs to happen in each and every one. The entry to Egypt, the exodus from Egypt, the tearing of the Red Sea, coming closer to Mount Sinai, the status of Mount Sinai. In none of these places do we see that a person operates in any way, but rather the Torah tells us that in a deterministic manner, this is how it happened. What does it mean? That it is already sealed. We exist already at the end, following this whole development. And now, this development, which is designed, planned by force, it needs to happen in each and every one without any exception, or that a person will think about performing some action here that seemingly he can skip over it. No, we see that everything happens as cause and consequence. There's a need for a state, and then the state comes, and it begets the need for the next state, then comes the next state, and so on. But rather, our participation here is in that we can accelerate the states, that we can participate in them of our own volition, by our own awareness. As Baal HaSulam writes in the article, "The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose," that the essence of religion - religion, he means Kabbalah, he doesn't mean the popular Judaism or God forbid, in general, all of the religions. So, what he calls the Torah, he means the light of the Torah, the reforming light, when he speaks about Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] he speaks about spiritual actions and forces that operate on a person, he speaks about everything from the spiritual perspective, not in the language of the branches, but in the language of the roots, the way it operates in spirituality.

M. Laitman: (42:35) So, here, too, when he says, what is the need for religion, or what is the essence of religion, so he says that the essence of religion is to develop within us the recognition of evil. This means that the entire process we go through when we receive religion, it is in order to develop within us the recognition of evil. When we develop through the wisdom of Kabbalah, we become more sensitive to what we are going through, and our responses become quicker. We feel ascents and descents in all the things that we go through. An ordinary person who does not develop this sensitivity, he doesn't feel ascents and descents according to what he goes through in his life, for him these are ordinary things. He is sensitive to all kinds of things that exist on the surface of this world. And the fact that we enter ascents and descents, it is a result of the operation of the light on us. When we already begin to compare ourselves as a small tub, each time - that on the bottom, it is me with my desires, and above it is the Creator, who comes down to the top of the mountain, and He’s there. And then all the descents, they, bit by bit, through their accumulation, they bring me the recognition of evil, where I am, and how much I am placed under my thoughts, and where is the Creator. Where the Creator is, this is the point of my heart, the point in the heart, what we call “Moses.” This means that our whole participation in our development is only to be more sensitive to what we're going through. And we can develop this sensitivity mostly, only through the society. The society can increase within me the recognition of evil and the recognition of good in all kinds of different states. The society can increase within me the sensitivity to such states to such an extent that I will feel that these states go over me every second, every split second. And it's not that I will feel these ups and downs once, every few days or weeks or months. It all depends on the measure of the sensitivity. And then following this measure of sensitivity, when I already begin to understand them, to be an expert in them, then I begin to determine their nature, their essence. What is good? What is bad? That is, how do I decipher what is good? What do I think is good? What do I think is bad? And then, bit by bit, in the light that shines on me, I begin to tie the good states and the bad states with respect to the stature of the Creator, to such an extent that my own nature becomes hated by me. Then, certainly, I reach the status, the occasion of Mount Sinai. “Sinai” is called because a person reaches Sin'ah [hatred] to his whole nature. And this is why he is now worthy of receiving the Torah.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:53) What is the recognition of evil? 

M. Laitman: The recognition of evil, what is that? Well, if there is recognition or consciousness, then there is lack of consciousness. It's like a person who is in lack of consciousness. Meaning, I have all kinds of qualities within me, small ones, like a baby.  And then I grow, and they are a little bit bigger, and they are those that I didn't have before, and later on they develop, right? If you show your baby to an expert, to a pediatrician, he will say, you know what, he's going to be great, he's going to be mighty, he has such and such qualities. People look at the baby, and they see it as if it's a grown-up person. They can tell you how 20 or 30 years from now, he will appear with his character, with everything. And you can see it, you look at it, it's a piece of flesh. Well, he crawls on the floor a little bit, or he cries, or he laughs, right? That means that you lack the sensitivity to what there is here, to the qualities that exist inside, but they haven't developed yet. But an expert person can see them, right? So what does it mean, recognition of evil? If I'm unconscious, I don't feel my qualities at all, that's me. Later on I begin to see that, no, “I”, means what I think about myself, these qualities that exist within me. And I would have replaced them - this is wrong in me, this is not good, this is good. I start to judge myself; I begin as a judge to judge myself, my qualities from the side, and then I can already say about them, whether they are good or bad. Before I can distinguish my point as a judge for my own qualities, then I am not my "I" at all. I don't have myself, but rather I'm entirely like a baby. This is called being unconscious. When does consciousness begin? When I can look at myself from the side, and then after I look at myself from the side, I can also see my qualities, either small, or if I'm already a great expert in that, then they are great. And when I see them as great, then I can be like a wise person, I can know how to use all these qualities, how to acquire the whole world through them, and truly enjoy from that. Or suddenly I see that these qualities, they're not so good. In what are they not good? I want to be more mighty; I want to be more cunning. And so I then work on these things. I take courses, I go to psychologists, and they teach me, they help me, and I truly become a person who can use this whole world for my pleasure. Later I begin to reveal that, you know, it doesn't give me anything. I don't know where it's coming from, but I lose taste from seeing myself this way, that way, the world like this, like that. I don't care about the world; I don't want to get anything from it. Where does it come from? A little light comes from above, and it starts to give me a new point of discernment. And I begin to look at my qualities, not from the point of my ego, Malchut, rather Malchut that rose to Bina. This is from the spark, a spark from the shattering of the vessels. It's called a point in the heart, not the center of the heart itself, as before I wanted to take advantage of all my qualities egoistically, rather the point in the heart. The difference is that it's Bina in the heart, not the heart itself, not Malchut of the heart. But then I begin to look at my qualities, and I see that they're not okay, gradually, until I begin to see that they're not right. Meaning, compared to what do I see? Then I see the point of Malchut in the heart relative to the point of Bina in the heart, and I look at my qualities, and I see this is a totally different recognition, right? New awareness. This is spiritual awareness, not beastly awareness. Then I measure myself compared to different, the other kind of measurement, not how will I exploit the world in my favor, rather how I will exploit the world and myself for the sake of a more exalted goal, right? Not the point of Malchut in the heart, but the point of Bina in the heart. Then I begin to work on it. 

M. Laitman: (52:05) So the recognition of evil, you're asking about it. Every time the thing that bothers me is called evil, and to the extent that it bothers me, I want to kill it, to erase it, right? To abstain from it, to distance myself from it. If I see that this thing is truly putting me to death, then I'm willing to remove anything in order to get rid of it. To such an extent that people pay good money to get rid of all kinds of bad qualities. They come to a treatment, and they do all sorts of things, right? But here, I begin to measure myself relative to some other point, relative to a mountain, right? The peak of the mountain, the point in the heart. And then I determine that everything that's at the bottom of the mountain, meaning all of my nature, the nation, the people called the nation of Israel, I determine that all those things in me are truly evil. Either I will belong to the mountain, to Moses that climbed to the top, or I bury myself under the mountain. If I determined that this is my evil, to be at the bottom of the mountain, not at the top, this is called the true recognition of evil. As then, I truly need the reception of the Torah.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:10) But what is the recognition of evil in a group, in the friends?

M. Laitman: I don't know.

Student: How do I distinguish? We say that the bad qualities I get come from the Creator. Everything that happens comes from the Creator. This is actually the state of the awareness of the person who works. So how can I hate some kind of creation of qualities even if in my own eyes they seem as bad but they actually come from the Creator. How can they develop hatred to something the Creator actually created?

M. Laitman: That's a good question. How can I create a negative attitude to my own qualities, the qualities that the Creator has formed in me? How can there be negative attitudes to anything in the world if everything is the fruit of the labor of the Creator, right? There's one thing the Creator did not create. Rather it came through an indirect action from Him, and that is the shattering of the vessels, and the result from that - the shells. Why are the shells considered so bad? Why is it so bad? They have no connection with the Creator through this direct action. Nothing besides that. If there was some connection through a direct action, we would feel good in them. Not that we would feel it, we would be able to be in adhesion with the Creator, but rather, because of the shattering, there became this disparity. Meaning, from one source, seemingly split into two, which is in order to receive and in order to bestow. Meaning, the will to receive before the shattering was a raw will to receive, neither good nor bad. There was nothing tangible, real in it. You could say about it, that it was a will to receive. Everything belonged to the world of Adam Kadmon. Also the Nekudot of SAG, where the shattering took place. The world of Nekudim is also SAG that restricted itself according to NHY of Galgalta. But SAG was restricted. That's why in HaVaYaH of SAG, we have this entire outcome of the world of Nekudim. In Katnut and Gadlut, it's all included in the HaVaYaH of SAG. It still belongs to the actions of the Creator; it's completely inside this upper system. Only later, this bifurcation comes out of it, split into Klipot and sanctity. And also what exists in the worlds, a ABYA of sanctity and a ABYA of impurity, it's not real. It's Olamot [the worlds]. Only later in the soul, it happens really in actuality until all the evil things come out that are opposite to the Creator, that are truly distant from the Creator. Therefore, you do not need to determine... You can't tell them that they are good or bad. You have to use them for the sake of the Creator or for your own sake. Because of the shattering, you became disconnected from Him, a part that is opposite to Him. It's also not you, seemingly, but they give you this feeling. You need to determine only this, seemingly. What? That which belongs to Him and that which does not belong to Him. Therefore the recognition of evil, you determine the things that are distant from it, in opposition of form, disparity of form and not the things that He created. The will to receive with all of my qualities, the will to receive, it's not bad. It's neither good nor bad. Good and bad came out in how it's being used after the shattering of the vessels. When they wanted to use it in order to bestow, and it turned out that they used it in order to receive, then you have this split in how you use the will to receive and turn in order to receive into in order to bestow. Before that, you had neither. Even in order to bestow, you didn't have. Because that was only in the world of Adam Kadmon, which is the world of Keter. This is only the intention of the Creator, seemingly. And everything from the point of SAG and below, belongs to the world of correction. Meaning, from the Creator, two possibilities came out. The good inclination, the evil inclination, the right line, the left line, good angel and bad angel, these two angels are given to you, and in your effort you have to reach this sensitivity and determine who is truly the good angel and who is truly the evil angel in you.

M. Laitman: (59:45) They gave you in the heart, Malchut, and they gave you in the heart Bina, and from these two discernments that they gave you - I'm talking about people that they're given, they have a point in the heart - people who have these two points need to develop these two points to such an extent that they would feel that what belongs to Malchut of the heart is called “evil,” and what belongs to Bina of the heart is called “good.” That's what I said that he wrote in the purpose, "The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose," is to develop in us the recognition of evil. And what is the purpose and essence of the study? To draw the light from above that will shine to us and show us the evil in it. And what is the group? The group is in order to increase our sensitivity to bad things, evil things, and to the good things that correspond to them.  Outside of the scrutiny, good and evil, we have nothing. And before we are making the scrutiny, we see the Noga, this means, it doesn't belong neither to this nor to that. Who am I? Am I evil? Am I good? I'm like everyone. You know how much people say, what do you want from me? Later you begin to see the evil compared to the good only through the light. What is the reforming light? It shines to you; lets you feel more what you didn't see. You used to be like a baby, or you saw someone like an undeveloped person, right? Baal HaSulam explains it, that the difference between a developed and an undeveloped person is that the developed person sees the evil things like with a microscope. He can see these harming elements and is willing to distance himself from it, to the extent that he sees that it's evil. So certainly he will run away from it. And an undeveloped person, he doesn't feel it. And all we do is raise the sensitivity, nothing but that. To such an extent that good and evil will be like a mountain, a mountain of Sinai, of Sin'ah, of hate. The gap between the top of the mountain and the bottom of the mountain. All of our qualities, all of the nation that came out of Egypt is entirely at the bottom of the mountain. Only Moses, only the one point that I received from the Creator, this is the point in the heart - only that is found at the top. And I'm willing to give up everything I have at the bottom of the mountain compared to being in adhesion. With this point I will rise and ascend to be in connection with the Creator. And from that point I expect Him to bring me the means to correct these qualities, the qualities of the nation, so it will become in order to bestow. That's it. This is called the reception of the Ten Commandments. Those are all the ten Sefirot that I seemingly expect to acquire by the Torah, by the light that He brings. And later Baal HaSulam explains to us how these Ten Commandments, the thirteen corrections of the Dikna, of the beard, and how they work later through the Partzuf of Arich Anpin to AVI, Zeir Anpin, Malchut, and all the souls. How all the souls can adhere, can annul themselves and adhere, incorporate in Zeir Anpin in order to receive these thirteen corrections, which are ultimately ten Sefirot, to have ten Sefirot in this holy structure of the Partzuf of the soul.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:40) How do we reach our annulment, annulling of self? 

M. Laitman: Annulment of self is also a result of recognition of evil. If I know my nature, which is all evil, I'm not able to do anything. And only this point conquers me. I want it. It conquers in the good sense, right? I truly want to be adhered to it. Then this means that I truly trample all my qualities. Not qualities. Again, we say qualities, the egoistic use in my qualities. It's all according to the difference between them. To what extent it seems great to me, how much this point is important for me. The top of the mountain, the point of Moses, the point of the encounter with the Creator, to the extent that it appears important. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:42) In this process we actually see that the more we search for the point in the heart, Moses, we also discover our will to receive, that it grows. 

M. Laitman: Our will to receive, according to how much we're capable of determining its character, it grows, certainly, it's like a baby. But the extent that you add intellect, and together with that you add the strength to be able to use that intellect correctly, and if you don't add intellect and you just add the strength, then it will be lagging behind, and then you have to time out, and be afraid of Him, that He might do certain bad things. If we say a lion or a bear, they have intellect, they have their nature, they have strength, their power. We know what to expect from them, because that's their nature that's determined in them. But if it's a baby that grew to be 30 and remained with the intellect of a 5-year-old, then it can come here and start, I don't know, to do… You know, it's a problem, you understand? If we grow, then what can we grow? You want them to add intellect to me, then I'll have the strength of a baby who cannot move, so why do I need great intellect? If I grow only with my strength, I acquire forces, but not intellect, then I will be like a retarded person. So again, what can I do? The problem is that humanity does not develop the recognition of evil. It turns out that it grows in height above the beastliness in an uncorrected form. It's like a baby who doesn't acquire intellect and only acquires strength, forces. We came out of the caves, let's say, 10,000 years ago, we started to develop, and together with our development, our human development, we had to develop our corrections alongside. That to determine this development to be only in order to bestow to the Creator, to adhere to the Creator. And each time we acquire additional intellect, additional forces, but we don't correct them. We don't correct those things in order to bestow. It turns out that we are retarded. And that's why the way we use all the techniques, all the technology, is to our detriment, like an undeveloped baby that doesn't have the right intellect. So we are the same, we do not receive the intellect, the mind, to use it beneficially. All of humanity is like that. If a baby is in such a framework, meaning that the more bad it does, the more incorrect use it makes, it comes back to him in a bad way. Let's say it goes into the kitchen, it turns something on, it gets an electric shock. It pushes a button, suddenly something spins and harms him, and so on and so forth. We are the same without technology. We don't know how to use it correctly in order to bestow, and everything that we develop out of our unhealthy intellect, the one that's not aimed in order to bestow, it comes back to harm us until we find ourselves under the threat of destruction, never-ending wars, all those pressures. Who derives pleasure from the world? It's only in that. Ideally, we should have been now on the degree of animals, like a person whose humanity does not develop. A person on the degree of a monkey that does not develop yet the systems of man, the human, you understand? However, the upper providence intentionally needs to bring us to a state that's not like that. If we would develop, ideally, from the time we left the caves, gradually, to the extent we acquire a greater will to receive, we would invert it with the intention in order to bestow it to the Creator, we would never feel the evil in us. We would never reach the recognition of evil. Now, we have to come to a state which is called a mountain as a vault. So this stage of development that we're going through has to bring us to a state where we are in the worst possible state, and nevertheless, we'll have the awareness of Moses, like Moses at the top of the mountain. That there is a Creator, and there is a purpose of creation, and that's above us as a divine message, as something great, something that we can save ourselves with its help. We need to reach such a state, such an occasion. And when we find ourselves, when we stand in such an occasion, we'll have the true recognition of evil. And this is called the War of Armageddon, Gog and Magog. Then, we would want to be rewarded with the reception of the Torah. We would become worthy of receiving it. We'll come to hate our nature because our eyes will see that, indeed, if the Creator doesn't give us the Torah, then this becomes our burial place. Not that He has to say it, we say it. So, that's what we have to come to. Meaning, the way they tell us about it in the Torah, it has to happen to each and every one individually, and to our nation, and to all of humanity in its general form, relative to the Creator. It has to be revealed in the individual and in the collective. That's really the plan. And there's no running away from it. The more sensitive we become to it, the faster we'll reach this occasion, this state, and get through it, each and every one of us, both the nation and the world.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:16) So, what exists in this world when everybody's blocked? 

M. Laitman: This indifference that exists in the world, and you see what's happening with us. Sharon now went into this whole trip of his with all that, with regards to peace. It's an indifference that has to exist all the time until we come to that state, which is truly like a hatred between spirituality and corporeality, between the Creator and all of nature that is opposite to it. 

Student: So, the corporeal reality has to fail?

M. Laitman: No, but if we become sensitive, look, reality doesn't need to evolve into an explosion. The War of Armageddon could be finished within a small lab, so to speak, or it can be exported to the entire world. It doesn't matter. To you, what's important is to recognize the evil, and if you have a microscope and you can know it before it erupts and evolves, you can see, oh, that's a pollution that can pollute the world, and that's it. And that's all we need. We need to draw much more light that will show us that there's no specific external measurement that you need to determine as, oh, that's Mount Sinai. Rather, that measurement is your tension that you can't stand the evil. You understand?  And so, Baal HaSulam determines that. He says that in "The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose," that it depends on man's developments. A developed person who uses Kabbalah, who uses the light that reforms, he can see how horrible it is right now. He doesn't need to — he writes, we are a developed nation and so forth - he's referring to those who engage in Kabbalah. And then, well, it's worthwhile reading that. That's it. So, there's no point in waiting for hundreds of years. That's no longer the path of light, Torah, it's a path of suffering. The whole matter of being given Torah, Kabbalah, is that through this development, we can come, we can bring this development to us in advance, and not to come to it through natural development. He writes that in either way, you're going to work, for sure, but either in distress, or in happiness.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:08) There's one rule in nature: that in spirituality, if you don't have vessels, you don't receive the next degree. So, why do they add more desire to receive for us if there's no correction that comes before? 

M. Laitman: Why is the will to receive added if there's no correction over it? I told you, honey, that you have to add the will to receive until you can't stand it, until you determine it as bad, as evil. You want to be given 10 grams of will to receive, and you'll make 10 grams of a correction, then another 10 grams of will to receive, and you make another 20 grams of correction. By that, you'll be like a corrected beast, like an angel. Now I am 20 grams in order to bestow, now 30 grams in order to bestow. That's a machine that does it, not out of itself, not from recognition of evil. If you know your evil at 20 grams, and 30 grams, and each time correct it accordingly, you won't feel how opposite you are to the Creator. You don't have this disparity of form which you will later want, so that you later want to cling to Him and love Him in the Ein Sof. You have to be at an infinite status of oppositeness to Him. So, our development needs to reach that. So 2,000 more years, 1,000 years, 2,000, doesn't matter, but it needs to reach a point where you hate, in all your qualities which you bring closer, you see them now through the light of Torah, through the light. You can see these qualities that I hate them to the point of Mount Sinai.

Student: So, why can't you put it in the same laboratory?

M. Laitman: You can do it in the same lab. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why it's possible. Because ultimately, what you engage with, you're engaging with your soul, which is whole, like in Adam HaRishon. Except you just see such minimal, minimum form of it, measured from the entire structure, you see the whole thing, but as a point. And in that point is the entire structure of the soul. So, if you take light, and you shine into that point, you suddenly begin to live in a world of your soul. And here, it depends on how much you draw the light to shine into all your qualities. So, you're told this: if you draw the light through the group, then the group, for you, forms all the souls of Adam HaRishon, they as if represent all the other souls. So you're drawing such a great light into you, and so refined with all kinds of aspects that come from the rest of the souls, which will shine on you against all of your discernments, and bring you, these lights, the recognition of evil. So, it all depends on attracting the surrounding light. That's according to item 155, an Introduction to TES. That's the final point. That's it. So, what's the question? So if you ask me, couldn't you do it 10 years ago, or a thousand years ago? Of course, you could. Didn't the Kabbalists achieve that? Yes. However, we develop, well, according to what it says here, there's a connection between the collective and the particular. But whatever happens, who said that Messiah couldn't come a thousand or two thousand years ago. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:43) How will we know that we're worthy to receive the Torah? That we know what it means that Israel are guarantors to one another. 

M. Laitman: If a person is willing to be a guarantor to the others, that's the condition to receive the Torah - as one man in one heart. Then certainly that's not Torah. What he receives is not Torah, what he wants to receive is not Torah. If he wants to be, willing to be as one man in one heart but he can't do that, and that to him is like a mountain, meaning his whole in order to receive is hated, and he wants it to be in order to bestow, this is what's called as one man in one heart, uniting all the points in the hearts. So, what he's going to receive is not Torah. Torah only brings that correction, nothing else. The status of Mount Sinai is all of those ponderings, all that hatred, it's only from in order to receive to in order to bestow. In order to bestow means you unify all the hearts, which is the collective vessel where you receive the Torah. If you don't unite all the hearts, then it's not Torah what you get inside, it's something else, some science. It's a very simple, inclusive, succinct idea.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:18) What helped the coming out of Egypt, the Exodus, that there'll be a preparation for the Torah?

M. Laitman: The Exodus from Egypt gave people a feeling. People, well, you know, it's all within us. So, it gives a feeling that all of your qualities are ultimately Pharaoh from which you have to run away. Still, both in terms of intensity and sharpness, it's not at the point where you have to do it so as to do it in order to bestow to the Creator. Before you come out of Egypt and go through the Red Sea and enter the desert, before that, a person who undergoes these inner stages, until then, he doesn't have the understanding that it has to be truly in order to bestow to the Creator. He's still running away from his Egypt. He's still not coming in order to give to the Creator. You understand? It's still, it's bad for me, it's not that I do for His benefit. That's the difference.

Student: And that was Moses that was fighting with Pharaoh, and here the whole nation wants to receive that?

M. Laitman: Yes, and because of that, the exodus from Egypt happens in darkness, and in haste, and all through all kinds of miracles, which is above human nature, because he's still not prepared. It's all still forced. 

Student: So, it's a stage that has to happen before someone wants to run away from his will to receive?

M. Laitman: The Exodus is that he wants to escape from his will to receive, and also in a very... Well, it's from the plagues I feel bad, so I'm willing to escape. If there's no plagues, I don't want to escape. Pharaoh is miserable. You know, what do I... All in all, I'm still willing and capable to be in the same abode with Pharaoh, and Moses, and the people of Israel and the Egyptians. It's still not that bad. I'm still looking for how to get along with that. Then the blow comes, but then it passes. And until the very end, the Pharaoh doesn't agree, even when he says, okay, leave. Leave where? If they wouldn't escape, and even then he sent there his army after them. So if they wouldn't escape, he wouldn't take them out, meaning the person himself still cannot escape. He doesn't see where to. Doesn't see. Also, look, if Pharaoh would send not his army at them, but the opposite, come back to Egypt, look what you have here, you know, if they would kind of, his agency would work there, come to us, to the land of Egypt, look what we've got here, they would come back happily. But he sent an army that wants to kill them. These are all the issues; a person is not willing to come out. He's happy with that picture of the agency that pulls them back to Egypt, and written back there, they take it.