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

Daily Morning Lesson: September 19, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. Purpose of Society - 1. Article No. 1, (1984).

Reader: Hello friends, we will now enter a special lesson for the memorial day of the Rabash. Last Wednesday, of course, we mentioned it, and that was the Hebrew calendar date of the departure of the Kabbalist, but still, it's very, very important for us to dedicate a day for him and really take seriously the one who's so important to our Rav. We want to adhere to our Rav and follow exactly who's important to him, his teacher, and read his article, and to incorporate with the spirit of this giant of spirit.

And we'll enter a lesson now. It's a lesson based on the article "Purpose of Society 1," which you can find in the writings of Rabash. We'll read the article together in the Ten. It's the first article that Rabash wrote for the request of Rav. It's an article intended for the society, intended for us. We'll read it now, as if Rabash wrote it directly for us, and we're reading it now for the first time, and feel how Rabash wrote it for us.

After that, we'll go into a lesson with Rav from September 20, 2002. And after that, we'll go into a joint discussion with the management, where we will continue to clarify what we'll get from the lesson, and we'll also go into scrutiny about the regional congress, and we'll continue that afternoon. We have a regional Shabbat, and after that, the memorial, the Rabash memorial meal. And so, let's go into reading the article together. We have eight minutes for it, please.

Reading: (02:32) Purpose of Society - 1

Article No. 1, Part 1, 1984

We have gathered here to establish a society for all who wish to follow the path and method of Baal HaSulam, the way by which to climb the degrees of man and not remain as a beast, as our sages said (Yevamot, 61a) about the verse, “And you My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, are men.” And Rashbi said, “You are called ‘men,’ and idol worshipers are not called ‘men.’”

To understand man’s merit, we shall now bring a verse from our sages (Berachot, 6b) about the verse, “The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole man” (Ecclesiastes, 12:13). And the Gemarah asks, “What is ‘for this is the whole man’”?

Rabbi Elazar said, “The Creator said, ‘The whole world was created only for that.’ This means that the whole world was created for the fear of God.”

Yet, we need to understand what the fear of God is, being the reason for which the world was created. From all the words of our sages, we learn that the reason for creation was to benefit His creations. This means that the Creator wished to delight the creatures so they would feel happy in the world. And here our sages said about the verse, “For this is the whole man,” that the reason for creation was the fear of God.

But according to what is explained in the essay, Matan Torah [“The Giving of the Torah”], the reason why the creatures are not receiving delight and pleasure, even though it was the reason for creation, is the disparity of form between the Creator and the creatures. The Creator is the giver and the creatures are the receivers. But there is a rule that the branches are similar to the root from which the branches were born.

And since there is no reception in our root, since the Creator is in no way deficient and needs nothing to satisfy His want, man feels unpleasantness when he needs to be a receiver. This is why every person is ashamed to eat the bread of shame.

To correct that, the world had to be created. Olam [world] means He’elem [concealment], so that delight and pleasure must be concealed. Why is it so? The answer is, for fear. In other words, it is so that man would fear using his vessels of reception, called “self-love.” This means that one should prevent oneself from receiving pleasures because one craves them, and should have the strength to prevail over the craving, the object of one’s desire.

Instead, one should receive pleasures that bring contentment to the Creator. This means that the creature will want to bestow upon the Creator and will have fear of the Creator, of receiving for oneself, since reception of pleasure—when one receives for one’s own benefit—removes him from cleaving to the Creator.

Therefore, when a person performs one of the Mitzvot [commandments] of the Creator, one should aim that this Mitzva will bring him pure thoughts that he will bestow upon the Creator by keeping the Creator’s Mitzvot. It is as our sages said, “Rabbi Hanania Ben Akashia says, ‘The Creator wanted to cleanse Israel; hence, He gave them plentiful Torah and Mitzvot.’”

And this is why we gather here—to establish a society where each of us follows the spirit of bestowing upon the Creator. And to achieve bestowal upon the Creator, we must begin with bestowal upon man, which is called “love of others.”

And love of others can only be through revoking of one’s self. Thus, on the one hand, each person should feel lowly, and on the other hand, be proud that the Creator has given us the chance to be in a society where each of us has but a single goal: for The Shechina [Divinity] to be among us.

And although we have not yet achieved this goal, we have the desire to achieve it. And this, too, should be appreciated by us, for even though we are at the beginning of the way, we do hope to achieve the exalted goal.

Reader: We'll move to the lesson from 2002.

M. Laitman: (11:03) When we came to Rabash after a year and a half, I was already going to drive him and take him to different places. After six months, I was already with him in hospital for a month, where he had this ear infection.

And I felt after a year that there's something that maybe is cooling me off and delaying my progress. And I asked him what to do, because there's some kind of a routine. And the body perhaps agrees to it. But if I look at it kind of objectively from the side, I see that I can stay like this for 20, 30 more years. And what am I going to do in practice? Basically, everything's okay. I come, I have a Rav, I go to the beach with him and study with him and ask him whenever I want and receive answers more or less. It kind of comes out as a kind of Hasidism. There's a Hasid and there's a Rav, maybe in some special way, but still there's some calmness that kind of sets on me.

And he said that it's not sufficient if it's me and him. There's a stage where whatever student it is, besides exceptional cases in history, but a person has to receive inspiration, additional desire from his environment, because it's insufficient to what he receives from above, meaning the Reshimot awakens in him.

And because each of us is a piece of Adam HaRishon, the collective soul, and we have to come back to a state where we are connected together in this general vessel called Adam, or soul, or created being. So in order to be drawn to that state, just like a piece of metal to a magnet, we need that magnet that we are drawn to. Our root has to work on you from His nature. You are an individual, so it has to work on you with the rest of the force, all the forces in all the souls that contain it. And how does a person activate such a force upon himself? Only by connecting in this world to other people who are in the same direction, same desire, that his view and their view is similar. And this is how he can advance, meaning to increase the desire for the root, return to the root. I want to ask him, OK, so what can we do? He said, we'll wait and see, because those who were in the synagogue there, they were Hasids that remained to Rabash as a kind of inheritance from the students of Baal HaSulam, who gave birth to their children, and so on. So it's not really students that are facing the goal. And then I went to Tel Aviv, to the Institute, and I started teaching there. And many people came from there. And that's how the group was formed. And truly, by the group, I'm just telling you about myself, I went through a very important stage forward, and then there are also stages where a person can advance on his own.

M. Laitman: (15:47) Why does he write here in the article "The Purpose of Society" and not "The Purpose of Man?” Because if a person who, in the society, positions to himself some purpose that is different from the purpose of society, then he has to know that nothing's going to come out of that. Because the society that is around him still has to, it's going to work on him in such a way where, whether he likes it or not, he'll accept the society's goal. He'll have to submit himself to society, whether he's even aware of it or not. So a person has to work with the society and find such a society that it will appear to him, according to whatever tests he can do, whatever inspection he can do, that the society's goal is truthful. Because ultimately, it will be his goal, whether he likes it or not. That's what he writes about in "The Purpose of Society."

And if a person finds this kind of society, then he already has a different kind of work, how to receive as much inspiration from the society as possible. We know, in our society, there are some things we accept, some things we don't accept so much. And somehow, we're impressed by that. In the Freedom article, Baal HaSulam writes that the only choice a person has is to be impressed by the society, meaning to receive additional strength, force, from how he is inspired by the goal.

Why? Because we've made some process of development throughout all the generations of our life cycles. Everyone reincarnated many times until we came to the present life cycle, where we're sitting here. And in these life cycles, in each and every one, we've developed by what? We have a general will to receive a heart. And in that will to receive, in the heart, there are all kinds of desires. A person goes into the society each time in every life cycle. And from the society he receives additional desires, additional directions for development. Until he comes to a life cycle where he is given an opportunity to choose a society that develops towards spirituality, as opposed to all kinds of other goals.

And Baal HaSulam says there in that article, the Freedom article about free will, that this is man's only choice, because we have a record called point in the heart. And that record is awakened from above by the general surrounding light and the individual, the particular surrounding light that goes down to the person. So a person awakens towards the Creator. The Creator gives an awakening from above, and a person awakens towards the Creator. This is an awakening from above. Each of us felt it, that suddenly he wanted to know, why am I alive? What is this for? This question comes from the Creator shining on him and pulling him towards Him. But it's not sufficient. After there's an awakening from above, a person needs to go and get additional forces for progress, which will be on his account and not on the Creator's account. After the awakening from above, the Creator can leave the person. He gives the person another awakening, another awakening. He holds him like that for a few months, sometimes years. But these are awakenings that basically almost don't advance the person, because advancement is possible only when a person himself is searching for a society that he will be impressed by, that he will get strength from, and use these forces to move forward himself, make a few steps towards the Creator.

M. Laitman: (20:33) How does it work? Why can a person receive strength from society? Because he finds a society where there's also, let's say, 20, 30 friends, that each one of them received an awakening from above, just like he received from the Creator. So each one of those people has a burning point in the heart that pushes them or pulls them towards the Creator. These points, these forces the Creator gave them, all these friends, they could be very weak friends, that they themselves cannot advance and push themselves towards the Creator. But the Creator gave an awakening from above to each of them. Then the person can collect from each one of his friends these awakenings, and that will be as an additional force for him, that by that it is considered that he himself advances himself towards the Creator. That's the whole thing.

What does it mean that he advances himself towards the Creator? The Creator is called the Upper Light that fills the Kli of Adam HaRishon. This Kli, this vessel, is composed of all the souls. So if a person takes his group, let's say 20, 30 people, where there's already an awakening in each and every vessel, and he brings himself closer to them so that they are as one, then he has some part of Adam HaRishon, of the collective soul, that the Creator takes care of that part and wants to especially correct this part and bring it closer to Him. That's good. So we see that everything here depends on man getting closer to the right society, to the friends, where he found that they also have an awakening towards godliness, towards spirituality.

That's our whole patent here, meaning we don't have anything more to do in life besides this action, bringing ourselves closer to each other, to each one who has this spark from above, that point in the heart that the Creator awakens and that point the Creator awakens it and pulls the person upwards. One who I see that the Creator is pulling him upwards, according to what I see, it can't be more than that. If I see such people, I should connect with them as strongly as possible and that means that I make a society for myself. And then I have forces with which I can advance.

M. Laitman: (23:32) Now, it's a complete illusion if a person thinks that with his own strength, without connecting with others, that he'll be able to make any step forward, any degree higher towards the goal. He might become smarter, he might understand better in his intellect, but this will be "wisdom in the nations, believe," meaning he'll just acquire wisdom, knowledge, not spirituality. Spirituality can be received only if I connect to my vessel, a second, third, fourth vessel of other people. Because Adam HaRishon is the vessel that contains all the souls. If I don't attach to my soul the souls of others, then I just can't grow any other way, I can’t. We also see this from the process that happens between the lower and the upper one.

How does the upper one grow? By connecting to himself deficiencies of the lower one. He includes deficiencies of the lower one within, by which he can receive much from above, additional abundance, and thus increase his degree. Meaning there's no other way to advance, only at the account of friends from whom I take their parts, their souls, and connect to my soul. All in all, at the end of correction, all the souls connect together to a general Kli called Adam. But if I do at least a little bit now, to some extent I enlarge my vessel by connecting with others, by that my vessel becomes greater, and then the abundance is added to it each time, and then it is considered that I ascend. The spiritual ascent simply means enlarging my vessel at the account of connecting with others.

If we are in a society where we see it is not operating towards connection, where there are forces in it that conversely are operating towards destruction, destroying the connection. If we exist in a society or a group where they start to establish for themselves some other goals, different than connecting with the Creator. If the head of the group draws people to himself instead of directing them towards the Creator, he makes himself a guru or something. Those things are completely disqualified, and from such societies we have to run away, and truly search for friends who are aimed only towards the Creator, towards searching for an additional spiritual force. Yes, you want to say something?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:39) You said that, aware or unaware, we always get influence from society. How can a person do it in a conscious manner?

M. Laitman: A person receives, consciously or unconsciously, the influence from the society. We see that from our life. So in the article "Free Choice" or "The Freedom," it is sometimes called this way or that way. Baal HaSulam says that our choice is not the choice of how to be inspired by society. Our choice is the choice of society. After you choose a society and you enter it, meaning you connect to it, whatever is in it pours into you, within you, whether you want to or not. You have no control over that at all. That is not your choice.

Again, where does that come from? It comes from the upper root, from the fact that in Adam HaRishon we are all connected. What is the difference between Adam HaRishon and us? In Adam HaRishon, all the souls are together, connected together, and we are divided. We have these partitions between us, you know. Did you see the home of the bees, right? You call it a honeycomb, yes. There are many cells there, right? So for us, the difference between Adam HaRishon and us, in our degree, that same vessel of Adam HaRishon, it's like a honeycomb. Each one lives inside his cells. If we break our boundaries, it’s considered that we make corrections and go back to the same state that existed in the root. That state is called correction. That's what we have to go back to, to break the screens that separate each one from the others, the screens in the souls. These screens are our ego. It's the will to receive within us.

So, a person reaches in his development or all of his life cycles, and also in his present life, let's say, you are developed through these societies that you were inspired with unconsciously. You don't choose your parents, where to be born, or which qualities you'll have, none of that. So far, you reached it without operating or creating or making anything within yourself, by yourself. Now you're being given an awakening towards the goal. That too is not yours. Now they give you this knowledge that you have something in your life that you can do, that if you'll end your life before you do something according to this choice, then it is as if you didn't live. That's clear. Nothing remains of your life. It is all at the account of the upper one. It's not considered that you existed in spirituality, that you did something, that something was established independently in spirituality.

But rather, the middle line, the person, the created being starts by choosing what he wants to be inspired by. Not what he wants to be inspired by, but whether my inspiration will make me jump a little bit higher towards the Creator. If he makes the right choice, then he has inspiration at the account of the society created around him. So that inspiration, that extent which he jumped up is called Adam, that's called the middle line. This is the structure of your soul. This is something you did. If not, then it's as if you didn't live, you do not exist yourself, your I, as we call it.

M. Laitman: (30:23) Now, in other words, it's clear to you how we are inspired from the society, but doing it consciously means that I certainly choose the right society. If you're wrong about that, it's still at your expense. It's the Creator confusing you even more in order to scrutinize for you the correct vessels for the future scrutiny. Your choice means that you are truly capable already of distinguishing between the people who can influence you towards the Creator, or people who can influence you with all kinds of other theories or all kinds of other things. Here in this free choice, there is a great struggle in the internality of the person. What exactly is he yearning for? Is he willing to suffer and accept from the society things that are against his spirit? That is, does he understand that by this he is going to acquire forces of giving, of bestowal, of concession? These are things that are difficult to agree with, if it is possible at all.

But whichever way you look at it, it's only by adding, combining additional forces from the environment that I can rise up, as much as I add them. There is no other solution. And after I add to myself the desires of this society, then I approach to what do I do with them, with these additional desires. Then with them, I will approach the implementation. Then I open the "Study of the Ten Sefirot," also with the correct guidance. And together with my group, I begin to study it with the desire, with the intention that I received from them, additional to what I have.

And then I draw upon myself additional surrounding lights that actually come down to them, to all of my friends, so that they will also come down on me. Because the individual vessel of each one receives its own individual surrounding light. So how can it be that the surrounding light that comes to your soul, to awaken a point in your heart, how can it come and awaken a point in my heart? It can't. It's simply not the same frequency. It's like two different radio waves. You see, they don't collide. But if I took it from you, if I became incorporated with your desire, then I already invite surrounding light upon me. Seemingly, it's the same surrounding light that you receive, but it has already become one of my individual lights. This is how we advance. And then in this way, I have two surrounding lights, three surrounding lights, four, etc. And from that, the reforming light already operates on me so that I ascend.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:26) But a person has an inner society, right? The Kabbalists, the books he reads, you once said it. So how can we make that greater too? Because you read the same page ten times.

M. Laitman: Except for the society, I cannot add anything to myself. It doesn't matter if I understand better or even less the "Study of the Ten Sefirot." It doesn't even matter if I read a language that I can understand well or not so good. That is, if you are Israeli born and you understand Hebrew and I don't understand as well as you, it doesn't matter. And also my mood, my spirit doesn't matter at all. My vessels of perception, my ability, my IQ, none of that matters here. What's important is only if I added to myself an additional desire. Only according to this additional desire, the reforming light comes.

Student: So with regards to the society that we read about in the books, the Maggid of Dubna, the Rambam, all that he mentions...

M. Laitman: I don't know, we're not talking about the inner society, that you can add to yourself the great Kabbalists, the great Hasidim that engaged in Kabbalah. You add them when you read their books, just like with Baal HaSulam, while you read his book. That is something else already. That's the connection to the source. That's not the society around you. Then through it, through this source, you receive the light. It brings you a glowing through his books. That's something else. You don't need to work on that. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:08) If I already have a society that goes towards the Creator, but my brother, for example, is not walking that path, doesn't have that feeling, is it possible to influence a person to have that feeling?

M. Laitman: You're asking already, can we influence strangers who do not have that awakening from above? They were not awakened yet. The Creator doesn't bring them closer for the time being in a personal way, right? But rather, can you do it? How can you do it instead of the Creator? Tell me. If we're talking about the fact that each one of us, I mean, how did you awaken? Usually a person awakens by that he reaches in his inner development to a state where he feels that there's some light upon him from above. What does it mean he feels it from above? He doesn't feel anything from above. But rather, he has already some inclination, some awakening, he awakens, he wants something. He doesn't know the direction yet, but he wants something and he cannot find around him the source of this attraction, right? It's not money, it's not honor or money or knowledge, none of that satisfies him. So it's as if this awakening came from a different world.

But if it comes then, this is why Baal HaSulam writes in the "Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot" that those who come to study Kabbalah are those who ask, what is the purpose of our life? Meaning, what is the reason for our life? After I check myself and I see that in my life, whatever it is, if I'll have all the possibilities that all of humanity had throughout all of history or everything they had, let's say, can I imagine to myself that this can fill me up or not? If I see, I feel that it's all tasteless and it cannot fill me, then I reach a state where I must have Kabbalah. Through it, I reach truly what I'm now turned on to, what I now want.

Now, if a person is still not in that, he hasn't yet reached this question in his inner development, meaning the revelation of this vessel. Can he be influenced? Well, first of all in truth, we don't need to be concerned about that. Our dissemination is built only to bring all people the knowledge of what Kabbalah is and when do you need Kabbalah. If you truly have the burning question of what is the purpose of our life and in our whole life we cannot find any satisfaction, through Kabbalah you will reach it, you can find it. Everybody should know that. That is, if we're searching for such people who have that question, only them, we don't just say, everyone, come to us, come, we will all study. They don't need it yet. If he wants honor, he wants to be the Prime Minister, he wants to be rich, it's not going to help.

You know, you have a brother who doesn't want it, I also have such a brother. I was now in Canada, I was with him, a four floors house, you know, they have a basement where I can, I have my permanent place there also, you know, three, four rooms bigger than my apartment here. That's the corner he leaves for me, see, with a sauna inside, that's just the corner in his house. I can't talk to him, I can't, I can't talk to him, he doesn't even want to hear me. If I ever wanted to sit with him in the evening, you know, maybe he'll hear me. He runs away, he says, no, today I decided I'm going to be in the pool. He has a pool, you know, you go to the pool underground, you need to see this madness. So he sits in the pool, he runs away from hearing. How can he talk to such people? It's impossible.

M. Laitman: (39:04) However, there are people who are seemingly searching, but very soon they need to reach an awakening. With them, it's possible already, you know, to speak, but if they can sit next to you, seemingly to be at your presence, they will awaken faster, meaning they'll go through stages. 

Let's say you, in order to reach your present state, you had to go through 25 and a half life cycles. And he is, let's say, he needs to reach, he is in life cycle number 18, and he reached to reach the point in the heart and that feeling in life cycle 21. So you can, let's say, shorten these three life cycles. If he'll sit next to you, if in some way he'll be near you, you can make him be interested in all kinds of things. If he'll just help you, all kinds of things, it doesn't matter if he understands or he doesn't understand, it's as if he's in this society, an awakening, upliftment. Then he'll know, he'll start appreciating it, and he'll shorten his time of development. But nevertheless, he will shorten the time of development.

But until he will develop, you nevertheless will not be able to talk to him. Let's say those three life cycles that he's missing, within five or ten years, he'll turn on, he'll go through them, carry them out, he'll catch that gap. So it's just, you know, the lack of the vessel, what can you do? What's the difference between me and the fish here? You see the fish in the aquarium. They have a lack of the vessels that I have. We're in the same world. He's an animal and I'm an animal, me and the fish, right? Lack of vessel. Give him more will to receive, all the way to my degree, you'll see how it suddenly stands up and starts asking questions. It's just a deficiency, and it exists in each of us. The only question is, what degree has it developed? To what degree has it developed? That's the question.

And so the main law that we have in spirituality is no coercion in spirituality. We cannot coercively, forcefully cause a person to develop, so to speak. It's not going to be development, because it has to happen only according to his demand, his degree, his understanding, and God forbid, with no kind of coercion.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:02) What do you do with a spouse who has a hard, strong resistance?

M. Laitman: Yeah, also between spouses, if the husband wants to study or in our time, the wife wants to study, you can't interfere with the other, it's two different souls. 

Student: There's no way to... 

M. Laitman: Perhaps they cannot understand each other. You need to somehow make them appreciate each other, understand where they have a point of connection and where they don't. What can you do? This is just something that requires good, nice treatment and understanding that each one will understand. You can't do anything about the soul. It's just, you have to freely let each one live his inner life.

What degree of connection a person needs to have, that's what he will have. And there's no coercion, there are no... not by force. If I'm still at a degree with the Creator that this is how I'm developed, I don't have an actual targeted draw towards Him, so I cannot be influenced. It's prohibited. It'll just be a corruption. Therefore, you can't do anything by force. Externally, you can do whatever you want by force, but that too is not coming from the good side, from the side of Kedusha. But internally, it's not going to work. If there's no desire, there's nothing you can do. Desire is the creation. If a person doesn't have a desire yet...

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:54) How can a person know if the awakening he received, that drive, even if he feels it, is actually from above or it's his? Or maybe it's by adding something?

M. Laitman: How can a person know if the awakening he has received now is from above or what? From him or from the environment? What does it matter? It matters not what he received, who he received from. What matters is what direction this awakening is aimed at.

Student: I'm talking about an awakening towards the Creator, right?

M. Laitman: To what awakening to the Creator? I have an awakening towards the Creator. What do I care? How do I get it? In order to get an awakening towards the Creator, one time I go to the books, the other time I listen to music, the other time I go work here in the kitchen, or I go give a lecture. I'm going to look for all kinds of sources of awakening towards the Creator. It doesn't matter to me where from. What does that matter? I always look for an environment for myself, as we call it, that will give me an awakening.

Student: (No translation)

M. Laitman: (45:26) He's asking if a person comes to the group, and ultimately his appearance in the group works to the detriment of the group, and the group might even kind of break, fall apart, if that person is working against the unity of the group. We've had examples here with friends who were with us for years, and suddenly they declined, and they didn't do damage to the group. They didn't do any bad action, but even their passive presence weakened their friends, who were once inspired by them, who were with them, you understand? So this part of the group now fell, and it doesn't want to wake up, and it's incapable of that, and not willing. What can you do?

Also, Baal HaSulam says, he writes about it, he says, in corporeality there's a law that if a person doesn't steal, that's a good citizen. He goes to make money, he receives something in exchange, meaning he gives labor, he gives, he receives, and he could even sit at home and do nothing, but he's not harmful. In spirituality, one who doesn't contribute is harming, because our force is shared. It's shared across many people. We receive from above, as a group, a certain force, let's say 10 kilos of pull, and if there are some people among us who are not active at all, they're just sitting and not adding anything to the society — it's not about physical activity, and it's not physical activity, or dissemination activity, or giving lectures, or spreading books, or in the study that the study itself awakens, he awakens other people through the study, each one according to his soul. I'm not saying that there's a standard for each, for everyone, and it's a fixed, rigid thing. No, each one has his own area where he can stand out, but each one adds to the other, and then that gives society some wholeness. But if a person doesn't give to society, if he doesn't give, not that he doesn't harm, he doesn't give, he cannot be in the society.

Baal HaSulam says it's like drilling a hole in a boat. This is in "Matan Torah," right, in the article "Matan Torah," he writes about it. It's like you're drilling a hole and everyone is sinking, only, everyone is drowning, only because you're not adding, you understand? How the society has to be only for the purpose of giving strength to everyone in the society. And I'm not saying that from now on we're going to put everyone through a filter and throw anyone that doesn't look to us. No, we have to work on everyone awakening and connecting and each one giving his part.

But one who's harmful, God forbid, you're from New York, you know how it is. In America it's actually very well maintained. The laws there are always dynamic, it's alive. I heard that up to 30,000 laws a year, all kinds of regulations, corrections they're changing. This means that the society is vibrant, that it's typically in a younger society. And so, according to the development of society, you have to keep adding and constantly work and see, are we compatible to this? And the first condition of being in the society is to always add to it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:21) We said that it is possible to advance only if I add to myself additional vessels, meaning other people who have an awakening. How can I even check that I'm adding additional vessels, or that I'm connecting? How is it possible to check that? How do I know that I actually added?

M. Laitman: You can't examine how many vessels, how many forces you join to the society from yourself. Rather, you do it in working on connecting with the friends. This becomes deliberately hidden from the person, how much he gains from that, because afterwards these things need to be in order to bestow. From this he begins to learn the benefit of making concessions and connecting to the other. Connecting to the other is possible only when I begin to feel his desires, his life, as I feel mine. That I begin to care for him, I begin to live his concerns. That means that I connect with him. Why is it done this way? So that we will ultimately come to a single vessel, to the same Adam, Adam HaRishon, one soul.

So, basically, from the beginning of our work in Kabbalah, until the final point at the end of the road, we're working on one principle only. Nothing's changing. It's giving up on the ego, connecting with the rest of the souls, until there's a single soul as one body and one heart. That's it, because only through this concession you acquire additional vessels that ultimately appear to you in additional vessels, not your vessel, but additional vessels you've joined to yourself. That's where you reveal spirituality. The Creator never appears to you in your individual, personal, original vessel. The only original point you have is the point in the heart. Besides that, what you add to it is where you reveal spirituality. That's where the Creator dwells.

So, the principle of concession, of "love thy friend as thyself," as the great rule, and screen and reflected light, everything we learn, it's all just one action. There's nothing besides that. In the work of society, where does he write it? "The Purpose of Society," "Love of Friends," he writes about these things as very important. Look how many articles and letters we have about that, because that's where the only action takes place, what you can do in spirituality.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:23) But if as much as we work on that, but we don't feel we're getting better, then what?

M. Laitman: If as much as you work on it, you don't care about other people, it could be a sign that you're not in the right society. What does it mean? That you're not receiving from them the correct response, that they too care that they don't care. You're saying this, I'm working on the people around me. I want to connect to them. And I see that after all the efforts, I don't care about connecting to them or not. Why don't I care, even though I invested a lot of strength into that? Because I probably don't receive an addition of forces from them. I always work on my individual force. So perhaps you're in the wrong society, meaning they towards you are not doing the same work.

If you felt in return some response that they too wanted, and you had that a little bit when you were divided to groups, and you felt like if I'm not connecting now in the smaller groups, opposite the other groups, it was not exactly a spiritual goal, it was a false goal, but at least in front of our eyes. So you knew that if I'm not going to connect with them now, this is a catastrophe. So you felt that they're working in the same direction as you, then that would bring a result. It's just that we can't hold on to it for long. But there was a result. We see this in many just ordinary things in the world during time of war, when times when people need unity, meaning perhaps you are with people who are not working in the same direction. You need to find another society perhaps. Let's search together.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:26) How can we define what is the line that separates a state of descent, or which line separates between a temporary descent, something which is some kind of a distortion in my state, when I don't know what's happening, I'm confused, I don't know what's happening with me, versus the state that you described before. I'm actually harming the society. I discovered I'm actually harming the society. I find that about myself or a friend, is there a way to somehow…?

M. Laitman: You're asking, what should I do if I reveal that I'm harmful to the society?

Student: No. I was asking differently. What is a descent? What is a descent? Just a descent.

M. Laitman: You know, in accounting, there is plus and minus, debit, credit, there are such things, right? How much credit do I have and how much do I owe? So it depends with respect to what I feel, what do I measure, how much I'm in an ascent, how much I'm in a descent. If I made more money, I'm in an ascent, right? If I lost, I'm in a descent. This means that in order to know if I'm in a spiritual ascent or descent, I need to define what is spirituality. But in that, I'm ascending or descending. With money, I know. With honor, I feel it. But in spirituality, what is that? Spirituality means forces of bestowal. Forces of bestowal, to bestow. If I feel that this is important, that it would be very good if I had such a thing, that the Creator is the giver, and in order to resemble Him, if I want that, I need to achieve the ability from somewhere to get that, to give up on everything, not to think about myself.

He writes there, in the article for the conclusion of the Zohar, that there is no greater separation between man and the Creator than if a person thinks about himself. Because just as the Creator has no such thought, then first of all, that should be in the person. This is how we begin spirituality. It's called delighted in mercy. Restriction, the first screen, that a person, towards himself, internally, in an introvert manner, he does not think. All his thoughts and all his actions are outwardly. If you're already in such a task, in such a direction, it is considered that you're in a spiritual ascent.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:20) So, this calculation I can do towards myself, my relation with the friends. 

M. Laitman: In the work with the friends, is even more conspicuous. Am I thinking in my life about the friend? What does this mean about the friend? Instead of my desire, instead of my heart, instead of my soul, instead of what I am, me, me, me, I take his internality from him, you know, like a disc on a computer. You replace the disc, let's say a hard disc, the entire computer is now replaced, it's inverted, right? I can put your soul into the computer, and the computer will work with your soul. I can put my soul in, etc. If you replace the disc, if you bring out yours and you put in his, it is considered that you're working on connecting with him. It's very simple. How? It is a problem, but to work with his desires, instead of your desires.

Now, I'm not saying we're capable of that. I know that these things are not acceptable to our will to receive. A person rejects that. But to go through this point of crisis, to agree that spirituality is thus, and we are the opposite of that, that is necessary. This is the point of truth, that I am not spirituality. Spirituality is the opposite of that. And not to imagine, instead of spirituality, some false picture, where I'm flying in the heavens, where I don't know, I'm rewarded with some beautiful images. Not to imagine, instead of bestowal, something else. Spirituality is bestowal. That's it.

Now, it is impossible to reach that. It's true. You cannot, we cannot reach it by our own forces. There has to be some miracle from the heavens. Yes. I don't want it. I don't want it. Do I hate it? I hate it. This is all truth that you are discovering. After you discover all of the truth, it will come. It will come necessarily, you can't want such a thing, but to scrutinize the truth that you are against spirituality, that it is the opposite of you, you are actually scrutinizing what it is. And this is called contact, but contact in the posterior, not face to face, not desire to desire, but the opposite. And this is already a state from which we jump there. And also when we jump, we don't want to jump, anything but that, nobody wants that. This is why it is called a miracle. This is why it is truly by jumping, a leap, I came there and I found it, I reached it and I found it. Only that way. Throughout Sukkot, we will talk about it, I hope a lot. Wait, maybe we have other new people.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:43) Where in love of friends, if the group helps and develops together, then in the group, if one has some descent or it doesn't contribute to the society, then the group throws him out. So where is love of friends in this situation, in the group? How does the group weigh these matters?

M. Laitman: This is already a big problem, how to work in the group about this matter with a friend who is not behaving exactly appropriately according to our code of conduct, etc. That's a problem, but never expect that you will be in a good state, that you did something for a minute, ah, I can rest. There is no such thing, you understand? Because first and foremost, we have to get used to the fact that we are always, to begin with, in an uncorrected state. And the range, how can I call that, our sensitivity to the corruption always increases. You understand, there are devices where it's one to ten, one to a hundred, one to a thousand, you see that sensitivity.

So each time that a person advances, what does it mean he advances? He sees in his same relation to spirituality, in his connection with the Creator, an even greater gap, and  even greater, and even greater. It's not because he enters a greater gap, it is simply that they open up to him how much he, where he truly is, and he was there before also. Therefore, the advancement can be measured, the truth is, as much as you see yourself in the opposite way, corrupted, not wanting it. Because this is given to the person according to his strength, his willingness to suffer. It's a sign that you're already a man, that they can allow you to see the picture of how weak you are, how corrupt you are, how much you are truly… 

Baal HaSulam writes there in the first part of TES, in "Inner Observation," that shame is a feeling that has been prepared for the especially high souls. In "Inner Observation," part one, it's not simple to feel shame. Shame means the gap between me and the Creator. These are already high souls. This means that you, when you truly feel shame towards the Creator, you came out to a level of communication with Him, an acceptable level. It means that you're already in a good degree of the development of your soul. And one who doesn't yet reach that, it doesn't mean that he's in a better state because he's not ashamed. He's not ashamed. It's like a baby who's not ashamed. He takes from each one, and we forgive him because it is lack of development.

We'll talk more during the holidays about these things. We will try during the holidays to study these general things because we have people here from all places. He's from Austria, they're from New York. Today they are coming from Moscow, from Estonia, maybe from other places. He's from Matityahu. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:11) How is it possible during the study to work with the desires of others? And how is it possible in daily life when you're with the friends to, when you're not with the friends to work?

M. Laitman: During the study, we don't study with the souls of others. The time of study is a completely different time. It's a time to want to connect to the root from where, what you're studying comes to you from. It's to know what is happening to me. I'm learning how the screen comes with the reflected light on the will to receive and it performs a certain spiritual operation. It pulls, it goes up, it goes down. I'm studying about the soul that is doing all of these operations. I want to know, what does it mean to know? To live inside this action by myself, by my understanding, my feelings, in all of my awareness. This is what I have to do during the study. But from where do I want that? From where will I want that? Not to relate to it philosophically or just as wisdom, but to want to live in that state. I can receive such a desire only by a previous connection to the friends before the study. If beforehand I operated in the society, then during the study I will have a desire to connect to spirituality.

Student: So, where throughout the 24 hours do I use the desire of the other? 

M. Laitman: I should be constantly concerned that I won't have a desire for spirituality, because according to the desire, that's the vessel, I will advance, I'll come closer, right? Now, this desire can come only at the expense of others, only at the account of the friends. So, to the extent that I'm truly concerned about rising up, I have to connect with them on my plane. 

Student: I have to take deficiencies. 

M. Laitman: What does it mean to take deficiencies from them? If I connect with the  friend, I begin to care about him. It means that all of his deficiencies pass on to me. What does it mean that his deficiencies, his desires pass on to me? Listen to what he wants, listen to, appreciate what he wants, and you also receive from him an impression and inspiration towards spirituality.

I'm not talking about the degree of love, that is already a correction of an actual connection. But all of these things, what does he explain to us here in "The Purpose of Society"? All of these things, we need them in order to create a vessel for the reception of the abundance. That a person by himself is not capable to receive anything, only through connection, where we connect with others in those points of contact.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:20) What does a person need to be cautious to not be harmful to the society?

M. Laitman: The greatest problem for a person in a society is if he harms it, weakens it. Rabash writes that levity destroys everything. Beware of levity. You can have jokes, bring about joy, a good spirit, but be very careful that it won't be levity inside. If a person does all kinds of such things, joy and everything in the society, he causes that, but inside he has a burning heart towards the goal, then he is doing a double good work. He raises the spirit, and also he puts inside of it a yearning for spirituality. But it could be the opposite. In short, levity, that is the problem.

What is levity? Lowering the importance of the goal, lowering the importance of the Creator in the eyes of everyone. Even from his example, I come here, I just sit, I don't care about anything, I study, I don't care about anything, I even sit on the side, I don't participate, I also don't show others that this is important for me. So by that I cause it that they will also not be inspired. They’re very clear things.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:49) A person, you're basically saying to care for the friend, to care for the desires of the friend. Is this about the spiritual progress of the friend, or his other desires, or both?

M. Laitman: First of all, I have to be concerned about the friend, that he, how shall I put it, I have to be concerned about his mood, his spirit. There is also an article about that. Everything that I'm saying, it is written plainly here, black over white. We don't have to even, we already did this work. You have all of these articles before you. If there's a question, he answers that. What do I need? First of all, if I don't know what to do for the friend, make him feel good. That's it. Give him a good spirit. In that you can always add, no doubt. No person can say, leave me alone, I don't need a better mood, unless he's in such a despair that he doesn't even want to respond or hear anything. So from this point, you can begin to develop a relationship with him.

The problem is not what to do, how to do. The problem is not to forget that my spiritual progress depends on this. Egoistically, I have to constantly keep in mind that if I do not create a glue, adhesive in my society, connect everyone to one mission, to advancement in one direction, it doesn't matter if inside we quarrel and shout at each other about things that are not related to spirituality. What about our actions? It's like any company or something. It doesn't matter. Arguments, we'll have that. But if I have to constantly create between us as much collision as possible, purposeful ones. By this, we will scrutinize the connection. And in this connection, it will quickly feel spirituality.

Rabash said that…It was one Sukkot, actually, we were very inspired. And I asked him on the second or third day of the holiday, “we're in a good situation, what's missing?” He said, what's missing is a few grams of attack. And now in the group, you can really, we're talking about 30 or 40 people. That was in 85, 86. So he said, to take this whole group now into spirituality, all that's missing is an attack, a few more grams of a pushing force. That's it. You only need to add an attack. The holiday too can cause it. It didn't work out for us at the time to do it to dozens of people together. But I'm telling you, these things are very close to us.

Baal HaSulam gives this example. It's very easy to jump on it, to jump over it. But this thread you have to jump over is next to a wall. And that wall is our inner resistance.

M. Laitman: (01:13:07) I can't hear you. The stony heart is that point that we cannot correct. The point of existence from absence that the Creator created, and it's impossible to correct it. We can restrict it. And on top of the restriction, connect all the other, as I said, foreign desires, souls. Meaning, I never work with my own personal Malchut. I work with the first nine, as it's called. I connect to myself all kinds of additional vessels. And in them, I already said it today, right? In them, I receive the revelation of Godliness. In them, I receive the light. I don't receive light in my own soul, but in yours, and yours, and yours. And then all the souls I added to myself. This is why it is called "love your friend as yourself." It is the great rule of the Torah, rule also inclusion and collective. When you love your friend as yourself, connect all those vessels, those souls, into one big collective, that's the great rule of the Torah, meaning for what? For the revelation of the light inside the vessel. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:00) What does it mean, an attack?

M. Laitman: What does it mean, an attack? An attack means that everyone together make a kind of agreement that now let's say, today we're beginning a holiday, right? We have ahead of us from Shabbat to Shabbat, from Saturday to Saturday, a week. Someone a little more, someone a little less, but a week. During this week, we disconnect from all the other society in the world, from all the other foreign thoughts and as much as possible we immerse ourselves in an effort to together, think about only one thing, how to come closer to spirituality. And then we will want that each one will think of the same thing as we do. If we do this, you will feel each day, each moment, how much the tension increases, how much you're beginning to perceive things deeper, how much the general sensitivity is such that there's already a penetration into spirituality, even if we don't cross the barrier, you will begin to receive a spiritual feeling through the surrounding lights. It might go away after some time, but for a short time, you can also get an understanding and feeling and recognition, awareness of spirituality. You can do it with a strong social effort, with an attack, even if afterwards it's a descent then we can make it so there's no descent afterwards. We can make like an irreversible jump to cross the barrier. We can also not cross and stay below the barrier but receive such a strong illumination from above that it will afterwards serve as a testimony to the powers. But it's only through general effort, a common effort, a common warming.

What? I didn't understand.

Student: Why don't we make a week like that where we do between us in the group? We can talk about...

M. Laitman: Why aren't we doing such attacks, 

Student: Intensive.

M. Laitman: intense week, a marathon? Because of fear that it might become a routine next time and to succeed in it next time will be impossible. It's best to connect it to the holidays, Pesach or Sukkot. When there's an illumination of surrounding lights, there's a general awakening. There's also an external opportunity to connect, to unite. And each holiday is like a new awakening and then even though you didn't succeed in a previous holiday, in the next holiday you have a new illumination, a new condition, you can succeed. Whereas if you do it in the middle of the week, when you initiate this whole thing, and you don't feel anything special in it, then, you know, it's like, habit ruins everything. And afterwards, the next time, it won't work. This is why I'm not in favor of doing these things. But only on the holidays, yes. I hope we will use this holiday as effectively as possible. Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:17) Where I am in society, I wish to give as many forces for the friends, to help them, to pull them, to draw them, to provide their needs and everything they need. Is there a point when a friend is in a descent, at some point beyond which I say, I'm risking myself, putting myself in danger, I'm not willing to help anymore. So to the point of, you know, up to here and that's it, beyond that I'm not entering that place.

M. Laitman: There is no doubt that a person is in all kinds of states in which he discovers that he can or cannot, wants or does not want, after great efforts and great ascents, relatively, right? We come to states when we cannot do anything, kill me, I cannot move my finger. And really, in short we go through many things, especially weakness comes in relation to the work, to life, to the general society, sliding and disrespect toward the work, toward the family, general apathy to regular life. Also, well, general weakness and hopelessness in spirituality, these things are revealed as things that should be beneficial to a person, help a person. What does it come from? From each of us, as a will to receive, operates according to the illumination from above. When there's more illumination, we're happy, we don't care about anything. You know what, kill me, I don't care. If I'm attached to this illumination, I don't care about life or death or anything. A moment later, I don't care what happens. When that illumination quenches, is put out and disappears, I fall and I can't do anything, I don't care about anything, also, kill me, I don't care about anything. Even now, I'm less than the line of life, below the line of life.

It all depends on the intensity of the illumination from above, on the will to receive, on the soul. The ascents and descents, illuminations and restrictions, we need them in order to build the vessel. The expansion of the light and its departure makes the vessel suitable for its task. It's written. Especially, when can we work? Not when we receive an awakening and spirituality attracts us, and then I'm a hero, right? It's not counted on me. It is given to me, you know. It's placed before my nose and I run toward it. It's when spirituality departs and then when the Creator restricts Himself, by this He gives me an opportunity to somehow search for the strength to come closer, or if not go closer, at least to justify the concealment. What does he write about it, that the Upper One deliberately hides Himself? Page 106 in "The Association of the Quality of Mercy with Judgment," that during the concealment, it's here in Shamati page 106, "The Association of the Quality of Mercy with Judgment."

So Rabash explains here that descents come to us on purpose, so that during the descent a person will try to justify the Creator, that he does it on purpose, that a person will make some effort to go forward by himself, to take a step forward.

Baal Shem Tov gives this example of a mother with a child. She wants to teach him to walk so she moves away and then he stands and cries, doesn't know how to make another step, but he does it still because he wants the mother and she moves away another step, so again he has to do it and this is how he begins to walk, he has no choice. The same goes for us, through concealment we're drawn forward, but if we let go and cry like a little child who doesn't want to make another step, nothing will help, and you're still a baby. You deserve only to sit, not to walk. So once, twice, three times and a person is left until he's given another awakening, but by this, time is stretched and all our work is to shorten times from life cycles, from centuries of development, to years and even days and hours. Okay.

Reader: I'd like to share our impression from the lesson and what we should take from it to realize in the Ten. 

Song: (01:29:46)