The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: June 14, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. What It Means that the Good Inclination and the Evil Inclination Guard a Person in the Work. Art. 11 (1991)
Original lesson date: 02/15/2002
Reader: Hello friends! Today we're going to watch a lesson from Rav from the 15th of February 2002. It's based on the article, What It Means That the Good Inclination and the Evil Inclination Guard a Person in the Work. It's article number 11 from 1991 in The Writings of Rabash. It will be 49 minutes, the reading, please.
Reading: (00:44) Rabash. What It Means that the Good Inclination and the Evil Inclination Guard a Person in the Work
Article No. 11, 1991
The Zohar says (VaYishlach, Items 1-4), “Rabbi Yehuda started, ‘For He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.’ When a person comes to the world, the evil inclination immediately comes with him. It is written, ‘My sin is ever before me,’ for it makes man sin before his Master. The good inclination comes to a person from the time he comes to be purified. And when does one come to be purified? When he is thirteen years of age. At that time, a man connects in both, one on the right, and one on the left, the good inclination on the right, and the evil inclination on the left. And these are really two appointed angels. When a man comes to be purified, the evil inclination surrenders before him and the right governs the left. And both the good inclination and the evil inclination join to keep man in all the roads he travels.”
We should understand that when we are speaking in terms of the work, we understand that the good inclination guards a person when he walks on the path of the Creator and wants to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, so he receives the guarding of the good inclination. Yet, what guarding does one receive from the evil inclination, for which he will achieve Dvekut with the Creator? This implies that if he is not guarded by the evil inclination, he will not be able to achieve Dvekut with the Creator.
The verse says (Genesis 25:23), “And the Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and one nation shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.’” RASHI interprets, “‘One nation shall be stronger than the other,’ they will not be the same in greatness; when one rises, the other falls.” That is, they will not be in greatness at the same time.
It is known that the order of the work is to come to a state where all your work is for the sake of the Creator. This is out of one’s hands. Rather, this force is something he should receive from above, as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” However, achieving a degree of bestowing contentment upon one’s Maker permanently comes to a person after he has revealed all the bad in him. At that time, a person receives this power called “second nature,” which is the desire to bestow.
In other words, a person must first reveal all the bad in him, which is called that he already has a complete Kli [vessel], meaning a complete lack. At that time he receives the complete light, as our sages said, “The light in it reforms him.” However, before he has the revelation of this Kli, meaning a need for the help of the Creator—since the help must be complete help, as our sages said, “From above, there is no giving of half a thing, but rather a complete thing”—the lower one’s deficiency must also be complete.
And since it is impossible to reveal to a person all the evil because while he still does not have good, he will not be able to subdue the bad, since the bad will be more than the good, therefore, when a person begins to engage in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds], he increases the good each time, and to that extent he is shown the evil. At that time, man’s work is balanced, as our sages said (Kidushin, p 40), “One should always see oneself as half guilty, half innocent.”
For this reason, he is shown the evil gradually, according to his effort to acquire the good through his efforts in Torah and Mitzvot.
According to the above, when a person wants to walk on the path of achieving Dvekut with the Creator and do all his work for the sake of the Creator, meaning to bestow contentment upon his Maker and not for his own sake, as it is against human nature, who was created with the will to receive for his own sake, and all of man’s work is that he is told that he will not obtain this by his own strength, but only the Creator can give him this power called desire to bestow, and a person should only prepare the Kli to receive this power called “second nature,” it follows that specifically through the evil inclination, which grows within him to its completion, a person sees his real deficiency—that he is unable to obtain the desire to bestow by himself. This brings him to a state where the Creator gives him the desire to bestow.
Thus, both the good inclination and the evil inclination lead a person to achieve the goal of equivalence of form, called “Dvekut with the Creator.”
By this we can interpret what we asked, Why does The Zohar say, “For He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways,” which pertains to the evil inclination, too, which guards a person so he will achieve Dvekut with the Creator? But if it guards a person so he will achieve Dvekut with the Creator, why is it called “evil inclination”? “Evil inclination” implies that it brings a person thoughts and desires that object to Kedusha [holiness]. That is, it makes a person think that it is not worthwhile to exert in Torah and Mitzvot, so how does it guard a person so he will achieve Dvekut with the Creator, so he will do everything for the sake of the Creator and not for his own sake?
The answer is that if the evil is not revealed to a person to its true extent, he cannot receive help from the Creator because he still does not have a real need. It follows that he still does not have a real Kli. The evil inclination gives him thoughts and desires against the Kedusha, and this is called “the evil inclination,” as Baal HaSulam said, that the evil inclination means “a depiction of evil,” meaning that the evil inclination depicts to a person that if he works for the sake of the Creator and not for his own sake, it will be bad for him. When the evil inclination draws such depictions to a person, it makes him leave the work of bestowing upon the Creator.
For this reason, when a person comes to feel the depictions of the evil inclination, he wants to escape from this work that is only for the sake of the Creator. At that time, he sees that it is impossible to overcome the depictions that the evil inclination draws for him. Yet, only then can he overcome and say that the Creator will help him emerge from the control of the evil inclination, since then he sees that this is above nature for a person to be able to do something against the black state where a person sees the depiction of the evil inclination.
From these depictions, a person sees what is bad, meaning what measure of evil exists in man’s heart, who cannot do anything for the sake of the Creator unless he sees there something for his own benefit, too. Through these depictions, a person acquires an image of the bad each time. One cannot see these images all at once, for he will not be able to endure them. Rather, one is shown a little bit, and that depiction soon leaves. Then, it is as though the person forgets the depiction of working for the sake of the Creator and not for himself. Hence, he has the strength to start the work of bestowal once again. When he thinks that he is already at a stage where he can work only for the sake of the Creator, the evil inclination promptly comes to him and gives him another depiction of work for the sake of the Creator. This depiction moves him once again from working for the sake of the Creator.
It follows that specifically through the evil inclination, a person can achieve the state of truth, meaning that one cannot deceive oneself and say that he is serving the Creator and all his work is for the sake of the Creator, since when the evil inclination gives him the depictions of what for the sake of the Creator means, he sees that he is far from this work. It follows that a person cannot fool himself that he is walking on the path of truth, since he sees how the body objects to this, to such an extent that he must believe above reason that the Creator can help him emerge from the governance of self-love.
It follows that without the keeping of the evil inclination he would never be able to see the truth. Thus, just as everyone understands that the good inclination guards a person on the way to achieving his completion of being adhered to the Creator, meaning to work entirely to bestow, likewise, without the evil inclination, a person would think that he is doing everything for the sake of the Creator.
But when the evil inclination comes to him with bad depictions and tells him that it is not worthwhile to work for the sake of the Creator, it becomes utterly clear to a person that everything he did in Torah and Mitzvot before was all for his own benefit, since now he sees that when the evil inclination shows him the state of working only for the sake of the Creator, he agrees that the evil inclination is correct and the person really does not see what he will gain by working for the sake of the Creator.
This causes a person a state of descent. That is, before the evil inclination came to him with these depictions, he knew that everything he did was for the sake of the Creator, meaning that he was observing what the Creator commanded man to do. Otherwise, why would he observe Torah and Mitzvot? But not for the sake of the Creator? Everyone knows that someone who works not for the sake of the Creator, his work is worthless, so when a person engages in Torah and Mitzvot, he is certain that he is working for the sake of the Creator.
But now that the evil inclination came to him with the bad depictions of work in order to bestow, he sees that he is far from working for the sake of the Creator, and working not for the sake of the Creator is unworthy work, so he wants to leave the work of observing Torah and Mitzvot altogether, since by nature, a person cannot work for no reason. When a person works, he must see that he is doing something. Hence, if he sees that he cannot work for the sake of the Creator—as the evil inclination made him see about what it means to work entirely for the sake of the Creator and not at all for his own sake, and not for the sake of the Creator is worthless—he comes to a state where he wants to escape the campaign altogether.
Now we understand how The Zohar interprets the verse, “For He will give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” Without the evil inclination, a person would never be able to achieve the work of bestowal, since only the Creator can give this power of being able to do everything in order to bestow, and without a lack, a person cannot receive anything. But he does not have this lack for the Creator to give him the other nature, meaning the desire to bestow, since he thinks that he is doing everything for the sake of the Creator, since as long as one does not want to work for the sake of the Creator, the body does not object to the point where a person needs the help of the Creator.
But when a person wants to work in order to bestow, the work of the evil inclination comes to him and begins to make him think that it is not worthwhile to work for the sake of the Creator. At that time, the evil engenders in him a need for the help of the Creator. It follows that specifically by the bad, he comes closer to the Creator. That is, the evil inclination keeps him from fooling himself that he is working for the sake of the Creator.
It follows that when a person prays to the Creator to help him, the prayer must be clear. That is, he must know what he is missing, meaning that the lack will be revealed in him without any doubt, for if the deficiency is not revealed to him for certain, but he is unclear about the lack he feels, this is not a prayer. Hence, when the evil inclination comes to him with bad depictions, the person knows for certain what he needs, and this is called “a complete deficiency.”
This is similar to what is written about Jacob, who said “Deliver me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and strike me and the mothers with the children” (Genesis 32:11 and VaYishlach, Item 70). It says, “This implies that one who prays his prayer, his words should be properly interpreted. When he said, ‘Deliver me, I pray Thee,’ it seems as though it should have sufficed, since he does not need more than deliverance. Yet, he told the Creator, ‘And should You say that You have already saved me from Laban?’ This is why he explained, ‘from the hand of my brother.’ And if you say that other kin are called brothers, too, as Laban said to Jacob, ‘Because you are my brother, should you therefore serve me for nothing?’ He therefore explained, ‘from the hand of Esau.’ What is the reason? It is because we need to interpret the matter properly.”
We should ask about this: We can understand that when we speak of a flesh and blood king, the one who seeks help should have a clear request, so that the king will understand what he is asking. However, when someone asks for something of the Creator, why should the request be so clear? Does the Creator not know what is in one’s heart? He certainly knows man’s thoughts, since the Creator is called “He who knows the thoughts,” as we say, “He who knows the thoughts, please save.” Therefore, why must we clarify the prayer and request that we pray that we will “interpret the matter properly”?
The answer is that a person must clarify the prayer so it is clear and interpreted to the person. That is, a person must know what he missing, since sometimes he thinks that he needs luxuries and prays for them with all his might, while about things that concern his life, without which he cannot receive a life of Kedusha [holiness], this he relinquishes. He thinks that he needs things by which he will come to be a respectable and perfect man, and this is what he asks, when in fact, he is lacking things that pertain to his life, meaning that without them he will remain as though dead, as our sages said, “The wicked in their lives are called ‘dead.’”
Therefore, when the evil inclination pictures for him bad depictions about the work of bestowal contentment upon his Maker, through this evil he sometimes comes to a state of “pondering the beginning,” like the spies who slandered the land of Israel, as The Zohar interprets. At that time he sees that he is truly evil and has no faith in the Creator.
It is as Baal HaSulam said, that one should see to it that on the path he is walking, he will make every effort he can make, as an awakening from below, to obtain faith in the Creator. This is called “I am the Lord your God and you will have no other gods.” These are regarded as Kaneh [trachea] and Veshet [gullet], which are two signs that the life of animals depend on. That is, in corporeality, if these signs stop, life ceases from an animal. Likewise, in the work, if the “I am … and you will have now…” stops, the spiritual life departs from him.
For this reason, sometimes a person cries and prays to the Creator to help him with what he thinks. But even though he cries bitterly, his request is not answered, since he is in mortal danger yet asks to be given nonsense. That is, a person thinks that he is fine, that all he needs, in his view, is some complementary thing, when in truth, he is lifeless. Therefore, the angel called “evil inclination” comes and through its depictions, shows him that it is not worth it to annul before Him because the will to receive will gain nothing from it. At that time a person can see the truth—he is truly wicked.
It is follows that specifically the revelation of this evil keeps him, so he will ask the Creator to give him life, called “faith in the Creator,” so he can adhere to the Creator, as it is written, “And you who cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.” It is as The Zohar says, “For He will give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” That is, both the good inclination and the evil inclination keep the person, so he will achieve Dvekut with the Creator. Without the evil inclination, he would not know the truth, what help to ask of the Creator.
According to the above, we should interpret what our sages said, “To the righteous, the evil inclination seems like a high mountain.” We should explain and say that when a person sees that the evil inclination is so big, like a high mountain, this is a sign that he is righteous, meaning that he is walking on the path of truth, by which to come to be righteous. Otherwise, the evil inclination would not appear to him as a high mountain. This is so because a person is shown the evil in him only to the extent of the good that he has, since the good and the bad must always be balanced. Then, it can be said that a person should decide and choose the good.
By this we can interpret what is written (Genesis 28:12), “And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” The famous question is, Why did the angels of God ascend first? It should have said “descending” first, and then “ascending.” In the work, we should interpret that “angels of God” are those people who want to be messengers of the Creator, to do the holy work, as our sages said (Sukkah 10), “We are messengers of Mitzva [singular of Mitzvot].”
Therefore, those who want to be as angels, to do everything for the sake of the Creator, are called “messengers of the Creator.” They must first rise in degree, meaning do good deeds, which is called “an ascent in degree,” and then, when they are in an ascent, when they are in a state where they are walking on the path of wholeness, they might think that they are in utter wholeness. But since they desire to achieve Dvekut with the Creator, they are shown from above the truth, that they are still far from doing everything for the sake of the Creator. Through the recognition of evil, a person descends from his degree and begins to see the truth, to see what he is missing.
This is the order of the work. First, a person receives an ascent from above, and then he receives a descent from above. It is all for the above-mentioned reason that through the ascents and descents, the person obtains a complete lack. And the lack is so great that no one in the world can fill the lack but the Creator Himself. This is called “a complete Kli,” ready to receive His help.
It is as Baal HaSulam said about what our sages said (Avot, Chapter 2:21), “It is not for you to finish the work, nor are you free to idle away from it.” He said that “It is not for you to finish the work” refers to the work of achieving a state where all his actions are for the sake of the Creator. A person cannot finish this work. Therefore, why should one begin this work, which he cannot finish anyway? Normally, a person does not begin a work that he knows he cannot finish. Thus, why did they say, “nor are you free to idle away from it”? This implies that a person should begin this work. So, the question is for what purpose should he start?
The answer is that in everything, there must be desire and yearning to obtain the required matter. Otherwise, when, if we receive something without a prior need for it, it is impossible to enjoy, as it is known that there is no light without a Kli. For this reason, a person must begin the work of bestowal, and then he sees that after he has made many efforts to obtain that force, yet he cannot have it, later, when the Creator gives him this power of bestowal, he can enjoy it.
Baal HaSulam said about this, that this is the meaning of “We will do and we will hear,” which Israel said when the nations of the world did not want to receive it, since they saw that it was impossible to go against nature. But the people of Israel said, “We will do by force, even though our heart does not want this, and by this we will be rewarded with hearing. In other words, the Creator will let us hear that this work is acceptable to the heart. This is called “Reply unto your heart.”
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Reader: And now, friends, we will go to a lesson of the Rav from the 15th of February, 2002.
M. Laitman: (35:04) We have read the article from, Rungs of the Ladder, Volume 1, page 286, What is that the Evil Inclination and the Good Inclination, they guard the Person in the Work? Both, these are angels that come from above and come to the person to bring him to the purpose of creation – and what is it upon the person to do? The person only has to discern between the good inclination and the evil inclination, and freely decide which to support, what to choose. And that is called a prayer, as he says, A prayer should be properly interpreted. We've all seen how a baby, let's say, cries, shouts, we don't know what he's shouting about, exactly, but his mother knows precisely what precisely he's crying about, what feels bad to him. And she discerns with great precision everything to do with her baby's cries: if it's just crying for no reason or, everything! So the Creator also has no problem, He sends us the reason which makes us cry, and He knows exactly, ahead of time, how we would cry and over what. And of course, there's no point in such an act if we know in advance what the end will be. And there's no need for the action, itself, but rather this whole operation, meaning sending the evil inclination to bring us this crying. All this, we need so that we may properly scrutinize the reason we're crying: what we want to gain from it, what influences us, who influences us and so on. Meaning, all these things being sent from above, don't come just to happen to us without any discernments from our perspective, from our side. Rather, it's specifically for the purpose of us discerning things in them.
And so through a person's attention regarding what's happening to him, considering it and connecting it to, well, saying that what happens to him comes from above, from the upper source, upper force. Why it came, for what purpose, what I need to do with it, how should I react, what it needs to bring me to all these things that a person scrutinizes? That is actually called praying and if he scrutinizes all these things being sent to him by the Creator, fully; then it means that he's praying properly, a worthy prayer. And this – only this – is our work, actually, as it is written, From Your actions we shall know You. From the actions of the Creator on us, towards us, we know Him, we begin to see what He's doing. We begin to justify, ultimately justify His actions, and then other than justifying, we also want to resemble Him in all these actions. To the point where this is the purpose, the goal of our prayer, only this. It's not over the troubles that we feel and not why they come and not anything. Rather it's the opposite, it's to resemble Him; and here, in this work of scrutinizing the prayer, and it is written that there's nothing other than prayer – it's written in many places.
M. Laitman: (39:46) What does it mean that there's nothing except prayer? It doesn't seem clear, and this thing is not so easily accepted by a person, by his heart. So, the prayer is specifically the scrutiny that we need to engage in, with respect to whatever happens to us. And here we need to paint pictures, in a sense: if he says that the prayer should be proper, that the scrutiny should plummet to the depths of the message that the Creator sends to us, plummet into the depths of that. So anything that He sends us needs to be properly interpreted; what's most difficult, here, is that we cannot interpret the words, simply. That's why Baal HaSulam labored so to create for us a Table of the Interpretations of the Words in the Study of the Ten Sefirot, so that whatever we read, we then interpret properly, we'll interpret the words, properly. This will help us discern later in our feelings if, well, exactly what it says. Because there is a difference between branch and root in this. In our world, the main thing that we interpret is adhesion or separation, closeness, distance.
Again, the main problem is that we cannot interpret the meaning of being close or far because, actually, all of our work, all of our motion towards spirituality; when we are in this world, we're used to being in a certain place, right? And the place where we want to be in, that also remains in the same place, and we just need to skip over the distance. And the distance, without me changing, without the place changing, right? Rather, it's me by some force, some third force, right? Either I walk on my legs or with a horse, a carriage, a train, a plane, it doesn't matter, then I move from place to place like that. In spirituality, it doesn't work that way – in spirituality, the meaning of moving from place to place is to change within. Where I change, I change, and that means to move from place to place. I have a few people I know who are in prison, actually, I heard from them recently. They're sitting in prison, and it seems that they're so close to home, but they can't get out, so it's the same kind of feeling. What is that distance? Meaning that the thing is nearby but it's impossible to cross that distance without making some special corrections. That's how it is in spirituality, we need to interpret the distance between us and between spirituality, such that it doesn't close by any other strategies other than inner change. And that is actually the essence of what it means to scrutinize the prayer, to scrutinize the request properly. Whereupon it is received above, accepted above, where instead of the distances, instead of other requests, I pray for the transformation of my inner qualities.
Until a person reaches that scrutiny, where he has to skip over the distance, meaning to skip over the disparity in qualities - and this is the only way in which he interprets the concept of space and spirituality, the distance between him and the purpose of creation - then it means that he's come to the true request that opens the entrance to the spiritual world for him. And until then, the relation between good and bad, things sent to him from above, they're there to clarify this concept, especially this concept. What else did he tell us here?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:52) What qualities need to be corrected? There are lots of qualities, so which qualities need to be corrected?
M. Laitman: What qualities do we need to correct to come to what?
Student: To spirituality.
M. Laitman: To spirituality. So first of all, what are these qualities, what does it mean to reach, what is spirituality? If you interpret all these things, then you will know the answer. What is spirituality: Spirituality is to give everything, it's all about giving. So I don't need to know any more about that already, right? So, maybe one can lie to himself, one needs to lie to himself and somehow put it differently, you know, so as not to flee the battle! So let's leave spirituality for a second, let's not interpret that, what then? Getting closer, getting closer means to come to equivalence of form, to enter spirituality, to reach Him and to enter. That's completely – it's like being there, where I will be as I am there – and you see, these are things that start to sort of chill the whole thing, put a damper on it. What do I need to do for this? Well, I'm told you need to get up very early and to perform many actions, duties here, thousand and one things, all these things, I need to make my life bitter. Look what I need to make of my life: just to get close to a state where I don't even think about myself at all but rather give everything.
Well, it's not realistic, yes? So either we need to lie to ourselves and somehow to still go for it. Or we need to do some exercises in order to see, not the, how to say, to see not the act itself of bestowal, because we will run away from that! But the outcomes of it; but if I see the outcomes of the act of bestowal, I will want, well, I will want these outcomes. But I would want them as I am now in order to receive, and that's also wrong. So, there needs to be some kind of – there needs to be discernments, actions, so that this idea truly becomes acceptable to me, this is not simple.
Student: There is just one quality, really?
M. Laitman: Now you are saying, what do we need to change, actually? Why do we need to change many qualities? We have the will to receive, that will to receive we need to change to the desire to bestow, the will to bestow. But this is not true because the will to receive we cannot change to make it the will to bestow. The will is creation, it is something from nothing, and it's like some substance, an element. You can't turn one to another, into another, but what can you do? You can use the will to receive differently, from where does a different mode of utilization come for the will to receive? From the first nine Sefirot, as we learn, From Your actions we shall know You, and by knowing You, from that we will also learn and adapt ourselves, liken ourselves to Him, how?
M. Laitman: (50:25) If before the will to receive there exists the first nine Sefirot, where the host bestows upon me in nine different ways and I feel pleasure from that. Then Malchut receives the pleasure from the Host, from the nine dishes, let's say, and in total, this is called the structure of the ten Sefirot. If I feel Malchut – that I receive, everything is nice and well, very well, everything is full of the light of Ein Sof, as we say, and this is Malchut of Ein Sof, Malchut of infinity – and if suddenly I feel in that bestowal that it comes from the first nine Sefirot. That they are bestowing to me, and I'm opposite to them and I feel suffering, which is called shame. Then here begins the problem: I don't want to receive, just not to suffer, I make a restriction.
From where did I learn that I'm against them? According to the qualities, this brought me to a terrible feeling of shame. I learned it from feeling the nature of the first nine, not the pleasure that I received from them but their nature. Meaning this whole idea of bestowal is impossible to learn unless we feel the upper one and what He does to me. That's why it is impossible to say that Malchut can change from in order to receive to in order to bestow, if she doesn't learn from the first nine. She needs to know this, she needs to know them, to study them, to feel them; and then, later, to try to be like them. How will she do that all of a sudden, from where will she take the power to ask from them, these first nine, that instead of giving me pleasure, please bestow upon me the power to be like you, right?
So, Rav makes all sorts of examples, these descriptions, such as – well, if you want to correct a person, then don't give him, well, you do need to give him the bare subsistence, right – to eat a little, to drink a little, to get him up, right, so that he can live. But other than that, you mustn't give him anything. You teach him a trade, you help him get some work, something, give him the ability to make something of himself, it's the same thing, here. Malchut can receive only the necessities, the necessities. He writes about it in Matan Torah, the article, In Conclusion of the Zohar, meaning that other than the bare necessities, as it is written, You eat a piece of bread and salt, you drink some water, a little bit of water, and so on; so, we need minimum things that we need in life. In our days, it's a bit more than a piece of bread and salt and water, right? But this is allowed, this is permissible to receive that, there's no shame. And here we're under the concealment, and it's also an outcome of that. But here you can do anything, you can even steal in this world, this is not taken into account. There's no such commandment, no such transgression. However, if you want to belong to the first nine Sefirot and receive from them, consciously, you can do so only in a way that you bestow to them through equivalence of form. Then it is already considered to be above the barrier, above that zone in which you receive only the minimum required to sustain life. Therefore, in our world, there are different laws. It is as though Malchut receives for herself and lives as she does. However, if you want to live a different kind of life in connection with the first nine Sefirot, resembling them. Then, please, you must learn from them and become like them. That is already called the spiritual world. Is there anything else?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:08) If I understand correctly, in this world, our actions don't determine if we are close or far from spirituality. But also, it's the influence of the first nine Sefirot that determines a person's behavior in this world, no?
M. Laitman: Certainly, what we receive from above comes through the first nine Sefirot, even from Malchut of Ein Sof. But that does not mean that, here, we work according to the first nine Sefirot. Of course, there is nothing but the ten Sefirot, they project their relationships and qualities onto our material, as well. But it cannot be said that we receive from them because to receive from them means to feel that we receive from them, to know that we receive from them. And that is possible only according to equivalence of form. That, in our world there is also giving and various actions that seem like acts of bestowal. Certainly, these are results of the spiritual first nine Sefirot but they do not come to us directly. We do not recognize this, and therefore it's not considered that we are receiving from them, so it's not called bestowal.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:39) Why do I need the short version of the Shulchan Aruch, if all the actions I perform, well, I don't bestow through them?
M. Laitman: Why do we need to observe various actions in this world that are explained to us in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch and in other books? Every smallest aspect in spirituality, whether a part, a larger part, or all of reality, is similar in its structure. The law throughout all of reality, and in any part of it or even in the smallest detail, is always the same law. Only according to the substance, itself, the particular spiritual part – whether it is corporeal or spiritual, in whichever world it is found – the law appears differently according to the substance in which the law imprints its form in the substance, in the matter.
Therefore, if you take the quality of Hesed, the quality of mercy, then in spirituality, it is Hesed, the Sefira of Hesed, for example. So, whenever it appears, the influence of Hesed will take a different form. You need to begin with the original ten Sefirot as they exist in Ein Sof, in infinity, where they are in their standard, original form. Then, wherever they subsequently appear, their appearance changes according to the degree on which those Sefirot are found. Even in this world, you can divide this world, seemingly, into ten parts, into ten qualities of bestowal, of giving, and of receiving, right? And according to the material even the first nine Sefirot, the form of bestowal in our material, they are also a reception, bestowal for the sake of receiving; in other words, the general and the particular are equal. If that's the case, then at every degree and in every place, wherever you take a spiritual object, for instance, a desire – whether the smallest desire, a larger one, or the whole of reality as a single desire – you'll find the same structure and the same laws. Only that according to matter, they appear different each time, according to the degree, according to the coarseness and the strength of the screen.
It follows that the whole of reality is one desire which contains 613 parts. If we take any one of those 613 parts, it also contains the 613 parts. And any part of that part also contains the 613 parts, 613 desires, where in that same general or particular desire, or an even more particular desire, and so on, to Ein Sof, to infinity in its division. And this is how a person becomes corrected, at every degree, we ascend, I have changed. In the state in which I have changed, if I now perceive myself as I am, I possess a desire that must be composed of 613 parts. And if I perform the correct work in all 613 parts of that desire, then it is considered that I perform 613 Mitzvot, 613 commandments. And this is so at every one of my degrees – whether there are 125 degrees or 6,000 degrees, or whether you divide them into 613 degrees, it does not matter – at every degree, I need to correct my entire body, my entire Partzuf. At each degree, the work of the Partzuf corresponds to its coarseness and its screen, then all 613 parts are organized and operate differently, depending on whether the degree is lower or higher. Therefore, I always need to be concerned with the fulfillment of all 613 parts of my desire within this structure, within my Partzuf which is called the soul. In this world, we have no Partzuf, we have no soul, we have nothing except an animalistic desire to enjoy – to enjoy, and that's all. But since this animalistic desire is a copy of the spiritual desire, so it also contains 613 parts. We don't distinguish these 613 parts within our desires, we have a general desire to enjoy and various forms that are also divided in that manner.
M. Laitman: (01:02:59) However, in this world, we have a general correction, what is this general correction? Use your desires however you wish, whether in order to receive or in order to bestow. But in order for you to know how to use these desires correctly, you're given a copy of the spiritual laws in this world, which are presented in the form of the 613 mitzvot, the 613 commandments. If you take a book of Torah – the whole Pentateuch – if you will count, there, so you'll find positive commandments and negative commandments. And altogether, they number exactly 613 commandments, 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments. Soon, we'll have a book where this will be laid out in detail, we made such a list in Book 17. Maybe it's worthwhile to translate it into Hebrew, as well.
Now, in these 613 Mitzvot, 613 commandments, there are things we can understand, like loving others, treating them well, helping the living and the dead, and many other matters. There are personal matters: how to eat, what to eat, etc.; there are also things that relate to the Creator, our relationship to the Creator. Of course, from the height of Kabbalah, all these things exist in the desire to receive for one's own sake, so they're not to be taken into account as spiritual corrections. There are things a person performs in order to adapt themselves to spirituality at the lowest degree, that is all. Since the general and the particular are equal, so a person also takes into account these corrections that they perform at the level of the still degree of holiness. It has no connection to spirituality, by doing something with your hands and feet, while your intentions are certainly for your own benefit, you cannot make any spiritual correction. A correction is changing the intention from receiving for oneself to bestowing. But these actions, nevertheless, make you into still of holiness, the holy still, what does it mean? Still means that the intention doesn't change. You don't change the intention. But by observing these actions, if you're to fulfill everything written there completely, purely, beautifully, directly, and honestly, doing whatever your hand can do. You don't have to get divorced in order to fulfill the commandments related to divorce. May the parents live long and the children as well, there's no need to create situations in order to perform commandments connected to them. Whatever situations come your way, if you fulfill what pertains to them, that's called making yourself into a holy still.
M. Laitman: (01:06:39) What does holiness mean here? It means that through it, you don't progress, spiritually. Through this, you do not grow or develop, instead, it's the minimal, correct form of existence. It's not the desired goal – certainly not the desired goal – but it's where we begin. Therefore, in matters that come before us, within simple and reasonable limits, we also try to observe them; but again, I remind you that this does not contribute in the slightest to a person's inner correction. In these actions, we do not need to direct any special intention. If a person wishes to add intention, the intention should be aimed at improving the desire not the action. I cannot change my hand so that it acts either in order to receive or in order to bestow, I need to change my desire, my intention. If I give you something, then I truly need to be thinking not about how it will come back to me, not because I feel sorry for you and my heart aches for you, etc.; that the giving should truly be giving without any self-aim whatsoever. So, if I begin working on the intention, that's called spirituality, then what do I compose that intention upon? Upon the desire, therefore the use of the desire, not the action, the use of the desire with the correct intention, that's called performing a spiritual Mitzvah. Using hand or foot, speech, or any external bodily means to perform a commandment is called observing the language of the commandments, observing the commandments in a corporeal form, that's all. But the correspondence exists because every detail in reality – even the smallest and lowest one – is also composed of 613 parts, that's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:20) How is this scrutiny, that it's actually an intellectual act, leading to a prayer, which is an emotional action, something that is central and happens inside of me?
M. Laitman: How the scrutiny that is an intellectual action bring you to prayer – that prayer is supposedly an emotional plea to the Creator? That cannot be, we have a beast in us, and we have a man, Adam, in us. The man in us, Adam, comes from the word, Edameh – to be similar to the upper one, to resemble the upper one. Meaning all kinds of discernments we can go through in the first nine Sefirot, the work in the first nine, scrutinizing in them. That is called the work in the mind; the work in the emotion, the feeling, whether pleasure or pain, that's the beast side in us. The beast feels but doesn't understand the reason for it; the man, the one who feels and researches the reasons for his feelings. That's why it can't be that I work without researching and an intellectual effort. But intellectual is according to the feeling, where is it, who's in my heart, who's directing my heart that I'll feel this way? And also afterwards, in my mind, the same thing. In the first nine in my mind that I'll think this way and conduct it this way, and solve all my problems this way.
So, to make anything of our feeling, we can only do the scrutiny in our intellectual work, intellectual isn't exactly intellectual but in scrutinizing. The scrutiny is in our mind, that you scrutinize your feeling. That's why he tells us in the introduction to the Tree of Life, Baal HaSulam explains that there is bitter and sweet, and truth and false. And the beast knows the difference between bitter and sweet, or an undeveloped person understands bitter and sweet. What does it mean not developed? It could be someone with a huge brain but all his brain scrutinizes and does everything correctly and good in order to bring him a sweet feeling and run away from the bitter – that's called the mind works under the feeling. And then it's not worth anything else beyond the feeling, and that person can never grow, because he doesn't need a greater brain, just whatever brings him to pleasure. But you see a person successful, confident, standing with his two feet on the ground, he's entirely on the ground but actually, although if a person wants to grow above the beast in him that only feels bitter and sweet, he must disconnect from that feeling. And start scrutinizing the reason of the feeling, the source of the feeling; and then, in order to be dependent on that feeling that I won't confuse him, that it's worth this way to think or that way to think. And a person, because once he feels he can't be, he can't be objective, independent only after he performs a restriction. That's why our path that we first of all restrict, or we get help from above to do it, we ourselves can't.
M. Laitman: (01:13:49) But first to reach that decision that I want to not be dependent on my feeling, that's the first stage. Then I ask for forces to scrutinize as much as I can in my sources, in my first nine Sefirot. From scrutinizing them, the way they are disconnected from Malchut, from the vessel of feeling. By that, I start appreciating them on their own – not as much as I enjoy them but how they themselves are. By that, I want to identify with them, to be with them. When I know those first nine, so I actually learn the actions of bestowal, but how could I feel pleasure in those first nine Sefirot? So, I don't only feel the method – the ways in the first nine – but through those first nine, I feel the pleasure, how the Creator is enjoying by bestowing. The Keter standing above all those first nine, I feel how He is enjoying by giving me, the Host. And then, I don't want to work with my Malchut as I used to, but I want to feel like the Host, like He feels. That's called that I'm starting to demand a screen.
Student: So, it's a completely different feeling?
M. Laitman: Completely disconnected, completely different – look how many stages there are to reach that idea that I want to enjoy like He enjoys! Malchut doesn't understand what it means to work like the first nine, to enjoy as a Giver and not enjoy as a receiver. It's also, there aren't really words here. It's not precise what I said, but okay.