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

Daily Kabbalah Lesson (morning) April 3, 2024.

                          

Part 1.

Rabash. What Is the Blessing, “Who Made A Miracle For Me In This Place,” in the Work. 15.

Reader: Shalom, we are learning the Ma'abarot of the Rav, “What Is The Blessing That Made Me A Miracle For Me In This Place, in the work”. You can ask questions and get the study materials from the study materials tab in the Arvut system. You can also ask questions here. Make sure you speak loud and clearly into the mic.

Reading Article: (00:38) “What Is The Blessing That Made Me A Miracle For Me In This Place, in the Work”. Our sages said (Berachot 54), “A person had a miracle and was saved from a lion. Raba told him, ‘Whenever you come there, bless, ‘Blessed is He, who made a miracle for me in this place.’’” We should understand what this comes to teach us in the work.

It is known that the purpose of creation was because his desire is to do good to His creations. For this purpose, He created in the creatures a desire and yearning to receive delight and pleasure. Otherwise, if there is no desire for the pleasure, a person cannot enjoy, as we see in nature that if a person has no desire for something, he cannot enjoy. For example, if a person is not hungry, he cannot enjoy eating, etc. Therefore, we see and say that the Creator created within our nature a desire to receive delight and pleasure.

We should not ask, Why did the Creator create such a nature? Since our sages said (Hagigah 11), “If one asks about before the world was created, the writing tells us, ‘since the day when God created man on the earth.’” This means that we cannot ask anything about why when He created the world, He created it specifically with this nature that we see. After all, He could have created with a different nature. We cannot ask about this, but we learn everything by way of “By Your actions, we know You.” That is, we begin to learn from the actions we see and not before.

Also, we see another nature, that the branch wants to resemble its root. That is, as the quality of the root of the creatures, which is the Creator, is to bestow and not receive, likewise, when one must eat the bread of shame, he is ashamed. In the words of The Zohar, this is called “the bread of shame.” According to this nature, it follows that when a person receives from the Creator into one’s vessels of reception, which contradict the quality of the Creator, who is the Giver, he feels unpleasantness. Because of this, there was a correction called “Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment,” where as long as the lower one has no equivalence of form, called “desire to bestow,” a person is placed under concealment and hiding of the Kedusha [holiness]. We also should not ask about this, Why did the Creator create a nature of shame? And why did He make the branch want to resemble its root? It is all for the above reason, that we cannot ask about prior to creation.

The Kli of the created beings is the desire to receive pleasure. Before the will to receive was created, we have nothing to speak of. We attribute this Kli [vessel] to the Creator, meaning that we need not work with this Kli, but every person who is created, if he did not corrupt the Kli, that Kli is perfect. That is wherever the will to receive sees that there is a place from which it is possible to derive pleasure, it immediately runs there.

This is not so with the Kli called “desire to bestow,” since a person wants equivalence of form. Since we attribute this Kli to the created being, meaning a person has to make this Kli, since the creature wants equivalence of form, for this reason, it is up to a person to do this.

This is as Baal HaSulam said about the verse, “which God has created to do.” “Has created” refers to the Kli, called “will to receive,” and “to do” pertains to the creatures, who must make the Kli called “desire to bestow.” This is not from the nature that the Creator created. Rather, He began creation from the will to receive, and you, the created beings, must make the desire to bestow. Therefore, when a person must begin to work in order to bestow, it is a different nature than the one with which man was created.

For this reason, all that one should do in the work of the Creator is to make the Kli, which is the opposite action to the Kli with which man was created. When one begins to come into the work of bestowal, he still does not feel how much his will to receive interrupts his work of bestowal. This is a correction so that man will not see the truth about the measure of evil within him, since when he sees the evil within him he will certainly run from the work and will not even want to begin this work. This is why Maimonides says that we must first accustom a person in Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], “until they gain knowledge and acquire much wisdom,” and then they are shown the matter of Lishma [for Her sake], called “in order to bestow.”

We should know that a person being governed by the will to receive for oneself is called “exile in Egypt,” since when we begin this work, we are gradually shown from above the measure of governance of evil on us, as it is written, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work.” That is, they saw that they could not perform the work of bestowal that they started to do, since the Egyptians controlled them. At that time, they saw that they could not emerge from the exile in Egypt, but the Creator can deliver them. This is called “a miracle,” for anything that one cannot do by himself, but by help from above, is called “a miracle.” This is the miracle of the exodus from Egypt

We should know that when a person wants to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, he has ascents and descents. The order is that during the descent, when a person comes into a state of despair, he sometimes comes to a state of wondering about all the labor he has done in vain. This is called “pondering the beginning,” when he wants to escape from the work of the Creator altogether. But suddenly, he receives an awakening from above and receives vitality and passion for the work, and completely forgets that he ever had a descent. Rather, he is content with the ascent. At that time, a person cannot enjoy the ascent more than when he was placed under the governance of evil during the descent.

We should know that the exile he feels, that he is in exile, is measured not by the exile, but by the sensation of bad and suffering that he suffers because he is in exile. Then, when he is tormented because he is under the rule of oppressors and he must do all that they demand of him, and he has no right to do what he wants, but he must serve and carry out all that the nations of the world in his body demand, and he is powerless to betray them, to the extent of the pain he feels and his desire to escape them, to that extent he can enjoy the redemption.

As we see, it is written about a Hebrew slave (Exodus 21:2), “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years, and on the seventh he shall go free for free.” Certainly, the slave should be happy that he has been liberated and is in his own right, and that he has no master over him. Yet, we see what the Torah says, “And if the slave says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go free.’” We see that it is possible that a person will want to remain a slave. And yet, it is written (Deuteronomy 16:12), “Remember that you were a slave in Egypt.”

This means that being a slave is a bad thing, yet sometimes a person wants to remain a slave. Thus, what does it mean that it is written, “Remember that you were a slave in Egypt”? And who says that being a slave is so bad? After all, there are people who want to be slaves, as was said, that the slave said, “I love my master.” The thing is that exile is according to the level of suffering and pain that one feels in the exile. To that extent, it is possible to be happy about the redemption. This is like light and Kli [vessel], meaning that the suffering we suffer from something is the Kli that can receive light if it liberates itself from the suffering.

For this reason, in the exile in Egypt, where it is written, “Remember that you were a slave in Egypt,” it means that being a slave is so bad because there, in Egypt, the people of Israel suffered. This is why the writing says “Remember,” meaning that we must remember the suffering we suffered there, and then it is possible to be happy about the redemption from Egypt.

There, in Egypt, the writing says, “I also heard the groaning of the children of Israel because the Egyptians are enslaving them, and I remembered My covenant.” It follows that in Egypt, when they were slaves, it is written, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt,” because they suffered. He also says, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work.” Therefore, we were given the commandment to remember Egypt, as it is written, “so that you remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.”

It follows that according to the rule, “There is no light without a Kli, no filling without a lack,” although we have already come out of Egypt, we should rejoice at the redemption from Egypt. For this reason, we must remember the exile in Egypt, meaning remember and imagine how the people of Israel suffered in the exile in Egypt. Then we can enjoy the redemption from Egypt even today.

Otherwise, we cannot rejoice over the redemption from Egypt because the suffering are called “the Kelim [vessels] to receive the joy.” This is why we see about the Hebrew slave that he did not want to go free. We could ask, How can someone not want to go free? The answer is that because he did not suffer while being a slave, he does not want to go free, as is explained when he says, “I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go free.” But concerning the exile in Egypt, it is written, “so that you remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt,” since there they suffered, as it is written, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work.”

Accordingly, we can understand what we asked, What does it mean in the work when a person should bless in the place where a miracle was done to him. The thing is that when a person begins the work of bestowal, he comes to states of ascents and descents. An ascent is that after a person has been under the governance of the will to receive, enslaved to fulfill all its wishes, and he wanted to overcome it and not obey it, but the will to receive was stronger than him, that person suffered from being removed from the Creator.

Afterward, he received an awakening from above and began once more to feel some elation of Kedusha. At that time, the person wants to annul before Him “like a candle before a torch,” and then a person enjoys the state of ascent. However, one cannot elicit from the ascent, progress in the work because he does not appreciate the nearing he has now received from the Creator, since he does not have the Kelim [vessels]. In other words, during the ascent, he forgets that he once had a descent. Thus, although he feels that now he is close to the Creator and he appreciates it, he soon forgets. Naturally, he no longer has a Kli, meaning a lack, so he can appreciate, as it is written, “as the advantage of the light from within the darkness.” For this reason, he makes no progress as he should be making through the ascent.

Hence, during an ascent, he must remember and say, “In this place, where I now have an ascent, I had a descent and the Creator saved me and raised me from the netherworld, and I emerged from death, called ‘removal from the Creator,’ and I have been rewarded with some measure of nearing to the Creator, which is called ‘some measure of Dvekut with the Life of Lives.’”

For this, a person should be thankful, for by this he has now come to a state where there he suffered, and now he is in a mood of delight and pleasure because the Creator bringing him closer has given him new Kelim of a lack that he can fill with the state of ascent that he is in now.

It follows that he extends a light of joy in new Kelim that he has obtained now by looking at the miracle that he has had, where the Creator saved him. Therefore, when he considers the suffering, it is as though now he is the recipient of the suffering, and now he fills them up with pleasure.

It follows that depicting to himself the state of descent causes him that the ascent he has received now will spread in new Kelim according to the rule “There is no light without a Kli.” Hence, during the ascent, when he begins to contemplate the state of descent that he had, the suffering of the descent are regarded as Kelim in which the light of the ascent may spread.

This is similar to what was said above concerning exile and redemption, that according to the suffering he feels during the exile, so he can enjoy the redemption. That is, the exile is the Kelim of the redemption. This means that the redemption cannot fill more than the Kelim it has from the exile. This is why in the work, when a person depicts to himself the state of descent, this is considered what our sages said, that a person should make a blessing, “Blessed is He who made a miracle for me in this place.”

There are many ways to depict the suffering. Let us take as an example, a person who wants to rise before dawn, and he set the alarm clock. But when the alarm goes off, the body does not want to get up. The body feels suffering if he should rise out of bed now. Nevertheless, he sluggishly overcomes and comes to the seminary. When he sees that there are many people sitting and learning, he receives a desire and yearning to participate in the lessons, and he becomes happy and high-spirited, and forgets in what way he got out of bed and came to the seminary. And if a person wants to receive new Kelim in which there will be joy, he must depict to himself in what way he got out of bed, meaning what level of desire he had then, and what mood he is in now. Then he can also say, “Blessed is He who made a miracle for me in this place,” meaning how the Creator now gave him nearness to Him. From this he acquires new Kelim where the joy over the Creator bringing him closer to Him can spread.

Likewise, a person should accustom himself with anything to compare between the time of suffering and the time of pleasure, and to bless for the miracle of delivering him from suffering to a state of pleasure. By this, he will be able to thank the Creator and enjoy in the new Kelim that have been added to him now when he compares the two times to one another. From this, a person can advance in the work.

This is as Baal HaSulam said, that it does not matter whether a person receives from the Creator something great or small. What matters is how much a person thanks the Creator. To the extent of his gratitude, so grows the giving that the Creator gives. Therefore, we must take note to be grateful, to appreciate His gift, so we can approach the Creator. Hence, when a person always looks during the ascent at the state he was in while in descent, meaning how he felt during the descent, he can make a distinction as in, “as the advantage of the light from within the darkness,” and he already has new Kelim in which to receive joy and be thankful to the Creator. This is the meaning of what is written, that a person should bless, “Blessed is He who made a miracle for me in this place,” meaning in the place where he is now, during the ascent, since there cannot be an ascent if there was no prior state of descent.

However, how can there be a descent if a person was not previously in an ascent and descended from it? The answer is that usually, every person thinks that he is fine the way he is. That is, a person does not see that he is worse than other people in his surroundings. Therefore, he goes with the flow of the rest of the world—a little bit of learning, a little bit of praying, a little bit of charity and good deeds and so forth. But his main concern is to earn well and have a nice apartment and furniture, etc.

This is so because he feels that if he has made an arrangement for himself with the Creator concerning how much he should work for Him, once he has done all his spiritual chores, he feels complete and is free to worry about improving his material state. That person always sees that as much as he may try to make his corporeality complete, he always sees that he is in deficit compared to others. This is regarded as a person being in a state of wholeness.

However, when he begins the work of bestowal, he comes to a state of descent, since he sees how far he is from the intention to bestow. It follows that now that he has descended from the previous period, when he understood that all he needed was to observe Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds], and did not pay attention to the intention to bestow, but then he received an awakening from above and began to annul before Him like a candle before a torch, and forgot the state of descent that he had. Then, when he is now in a state of ascent, he can say, “Blessed is He who made a miracle for me in this place.” In other words, previously he was in a state where he had a road accident and he became unconscious about spiritual life. That is, he completely forgot about the need to work in order to bestow. Afterward, the Creator helped him and he came to, meaning regained contact with the Creator. By this depiction, he can receive new Kelim so he can receive abundance of joy at the Creator helping him.

However, we must know that when a person asks the Creator to bring him closer to His work, meaning to do the holy work for the sake of the Creator, and a person thinks that the Creator does not hear his prayer, and he has already prayed many times, but it is as though the Creator does not hear his prayer, Baal HaSulam said about that that one should believe that the fact that now he is praying to the Creator, he should not say that this was by his own awakening, to pray to the Creator to bring him closer. Rather, even before he came to pray, the Creator already answered his prayer. That is, a person should appreciate the fact that now he can pray to the Creator; this is regarded as having contact with the Creator. This is a very important thing, and he must be delighted at the fact that the Creator has given him a desire and yearning to pray to Him.

Accordingly, we should interpret what our sages said (Megillah 29), “Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says, ‘Come and see how fond is the Creator of Israel, for wherever they exile, the Shechina [Divinity] is with them.’” We should interpret that “the exile of Israel” means that the quality of Israel in a person has drifted from the Creator, meaning that a person suffers because the quality of Israel in him, meaning the desire Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], where one should do everything for the sake of the Creator, that desire is in exile under the rule of desires of the nations of the world, and he regrets it.

We should ask, Why specifically now is he feeling removed from the Creator, while prior to this state, he felt that he was far from buying a bigger flat or nicer furniture? All of a sudden, he received suffering from a different remoteness—that he is far from the Creator! The answer is that “the Shechina is with them,” meaning that the Shechina gave him this feeling that he is far from the Creator. This is the meaning of, “Before one prays to the Creator, the Creator gives him a desire and yearning to pray.”

Question: (Petah Tikva Center): (36:02) I was impressed by the states that he depicts to us. That each thing you can give gratitude to the Creator. Even if we got up out of the bed and got here, you can give gratitude to the Creator. From that we build new Kelim, new vessels. That's something very nice.

Question: (Petah Tikva Center): (36:33) Why does he always write that during the time of the ascent, you need to think about the descent? I thought that we only think about the ascent, about moving forward, the next state, but here he repeats that time and again. You have to think about the descent because those are the vessels? 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: I want to understand, how does that settle with that in which we always need to be in gratitude and moving forward but you always need to hold the two states, right? 

M. Laitman: Typically, we need to hold before us both states. But mostly when you think about the state of descent that you have a mind and emotion and some understanding and some connection, when you have connection with the group, with the Creator, it adds a lot to you.

Student: I need to always hold onto two states within me, inside?

M. Laitman: Preferably, yes.

Student: He speaks in the beginning about being a slave. What is the difference between a slave who feels suffering and wants to go free, and a slave who doesn't feel the suffering? I mean, they're both slaves, so what makes this change in the slave?

M. Laitman: It is a totally different degree. A slave who knows he is a slave, and wants to go free. That he recognizes the slavery and how opposite it is to what he needs to be.

Student: He writes that I loved my lord, landlord, I wanted to be here. What suddenly makes a person say that I don't want to be a slave anymore? Because we're always slaves, we're constantly slaves? 

M. Laitman: No, no. Being a slave means that you feel the master above you, and commands come from him, and you have to fulfill them.

Student: Normal people are still not slaves? 

M. Laitman: They are slaves but they are slaves on a corporeal degree. 

Student: And we first and foremost want to become slaves in that we want to reach the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Then from that degree we also want to become free, we want to rise above that degree?

M. Laitman: We wish to transcend our slavery to the will to receive and belong to the Creator, to a desire to bestow. And we want this desire that is in order to bestow to rule us, and we want to be slaves to it.

Student: I shift from a slave to the will to receive to a slave to the will to bestow? 

M. Laitman: Yes, but you want that to happen. 

Student: Meaning, in any case, I remain a slave?

M. Laitman: According to your desire, that is a question here. Do you remain a slave if that's what you want? Or is that not considered a slave but rather being free? 

Student: A slave to the will to bestow is free in comparison?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: It is a slave under better conditions?

M. Laitman: It is a slave with conditions that you wish to serve, to be a slave to. And then there is more degrees to that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:01) What exactly is the work with memory? I didn't understand that. In the whole article, he says, that you need to remember, that you remember that you are a slave in Egypt, remember the state of the descent in the time of ascent. What is this work with memory and remembering? He always goes back to the past, and we say that it's forbidden to look backward, it's the lots of flames. How do we work with that?

M. Laitman: I have to remember all the states, and each time hold myself above them. 

Student: What does it mean to remember all the states? 

M. Laitman: All that I have been through in exile, in Egypt, in the slavery. I, along with it, I keep myself above that.

Student: If I don't remember, if I don't have a good memory? 

M. Laitman: Then you do not come out of slavery. 

Student: What should I do if there are people who have good memories? 

M. Laitman: No, it does not have to do with memory. 

Student: That's exactly what I'm talking about, what is this memory? How can we remember all the states?

M. Laitman: The states, these states are in the heart. The heart understands, the heart remembers.

Student: I need to remember in practice, you're saying, or not? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Student: All the states I went through since I started the path, I need to remember them?

M. Laitman: You will remember them, whether you want it or not. 

Student: If I don't remember them now? 

M. Laitman: You suddenly will.

Student: Okay, but what do we do in order to awaken that memory? 

M. Laitman: In part of the path you do not remember because it can disturb you, and make you veer off the path and completely get confused. But comes a time when you begin to be immersed in them, so to speak. You wish to remember them because otherwise you are not correctly specifying the current states.

Student: We, it's all a matter of remembering the state of descent and making a comparison between the time of suffering and the time of pleasure? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Doesn't the work need to be that in which the person rises above the calculation of pleasure and suffering? Here it is as if it always takes him to, okay, where do I get more pleasure? Because that's where I had more suffering. There's pleasure, suffering, pleasure, suffering. A person needs to rise above those calculations, no?

M. Laitman: Right. 

Student: How does this calculation of remembering help us rise above these calculations of pleasure and suffering? 

M. Laitman: You will get there, and then you'll start asking and I will be able to answer you. There is still no such desire that I can respond to. Soon, still we are moving forward correctly. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:23) Why do we need to give so much gratitude, where we go to a state that we don't feel the Creator, and then we shift to a state where we do feel the Creator?

M. Laitman: Why do we need what? 

Student: Why do we need to give so much gratitude, that there's this emphasis on gratitude? 

M. Laitman: Well, because in feeling the Creator is the entire salvation.

Student: A person works, he puts in exertion, he gets reward, he gets this closeness. It's like a person who you get this payment at work, you tell the manager, thanks. You're not really in this gratitude, like it says here?

M. Laitman: Because you labored and you are given what you deserve. So, here the Master is not even relevant. He is just fulfilling the conditions as you are. But, in spiritual work it does not work that way because each time you receive an exchange for your labor it means that you get closer to the Creator. And that, for you, is all of your provision, sustenance, and gratitude.

Student: He writes that with the gratitude increases the giving that the Creator gives. Is the presence of the Creator, and the connection with Him, doesn't that give enough of an impression to the person? Meaning, what is this thank you that is all the time? Meaning, there's a Creator and the person gets impressed from Him? 

M. Laitman: Well, let us say that you came to your parents, you are already living on your own, and then you participate there in eating lunch. Or you come to them and you already begin to appreciate what they have done, and how your mother gives you what you are used to from childhood. And how much they relate to you and treat you, and that is a difference. And you know that it took time and effort to make everything that they are giving you. So there is a difference, same thing here. To the extent that a person thanks the Creator, and develops his vessels, then he feels that the Creator prepared it for him, especially for him, and so forth. Everything depends on the vessels.

Student: How can we appreciate more what the Creator cooks for you? Because it's as if you say that we don't appreciate things but only afterward.

M. Laitman: The more we grow, the more we know how to appreciate it, how to be thankful for it, and really, that is how it happens. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:22) This article teaches us that a person needs to pay attention to that in which he needs to bless the state in which, naturally, he would not do that. There's this command here to make this action. Are the Mitzvot always unnatural, meaning that it's not in our initial nature? Is that the definition of a Mitzvah? 

M. Laitman: We always do what the Creator wants, always. The question is, how do we accept it? Either, we are aware that this is what the Creator wants and therefore we carry it out and we tell Him, thank you for giving that to us. Or, we think that that is how it should be by nature. Somehow it passes and other such forms of relationship, but it always emerges from the Creator and comes to the created beings. And now the question is, how does the created being accept it, how is the created being thankful for it, and how does he move from stage to stage? 

Student: There is a matter here of you can identify it in many articles and explanations and interpretations that the Creator gives us this deficiency and light in two different times. We need to do the work in order to connect between them, which is not exactly something natural that happens and that we will feel. But that we give him some room here to make a connection between the state that we were in a deficiency and the state in which we need to attract light into that state. What is that, is that the entire work, or is that just one Mitzvah? I want to feel whether that is always the rule in the person's work, to connect the light and the Kli, and that the Creator gives it to us in this separate way, and we need to connect it?

M. Laitman: Yes, that is something we need to connect. But the question is, why, what for? What is the obligation or the motive power?

Student: Yes, this is a question that came up because if we want to reach a state where we are connected, and we feel the Creator consciously, the Creator seems like He gives us states where we will be unconscious, and we need to forcefully make it conscious. That's the whole work here that I understand that Rabash teaches us?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:04) He writes, according to the value of the suffering that he feels in the exile, then he can enjoy the redemption, meaning that the exile are the vessels for the redemption. Now, I wanted to ask, there is this process here, whether you get the descent, you do work and then you receive fulfillment. Now, when vessels reveal, when the descent becomes revealed, the feeling is not so simple when you go through that, and you go through that whole process. But when he writes here that the exile is the vessels, or rather vessels for the redemption, and according to the suffering you feel in exile, that's the pleasure you feel in the redemption. It's as if the vessels expand, on one hand?

M. Laitman: In a way that it is not the suffering itself that grows but in your awareness, they do. 

Student: On one hand, when you go through this suffering and you go through the process, in the end it's good. But the body remembers this unpleasant state, and there's this feeling that in the future, you suspect that you're not going to hit the accelerator because you know that what's going to happen? 

M. Laitman: That is not good work, you have to try to look at suffering as that which brings you to correct results. Treating the suffering the way that you described is, undesired suffering, suffering by which you do not advance. You just go through them for lack of choice without any gratitude for them.

Student: How can we reach a state where we, like professionals, experts? Like a person who goes to the gym and then he, suddenly, reveals that he's weak. He tries to strengthen, that's why he's weakened and he's working on that. How can we work like these experts where we do not see suffering in that, but something that comes to help us and to be in this process, like an athlete? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, clear. 

Student: How can we develop this atmosphere here between us? 

M. Laitman: That is something you do not have the strength for but the environment does.

Student: In the work, in our investment and connection, can we reach a state where there will be such a force, such an atmosphere, where we even look forward to suffering because we understand that those are vessels that help us grow?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah  Tikva Center): (56:20) More or less, on that same point, the exile are the vessels for the redemption. Is it the same vessel, where at one time, I feel suffering in it, and at another time, I feel suffering in it? In the redemption, is that the same vessel?

M. Laitman: No, no, it does not have to be. 

Student: What does it mean to shift into vessels of redemption? 

M. Laitman: That, in the depth, the distance of the exile, in it, you feel the redemption. Let us say it's in the same Kli, okay, in the same deficiency.

Student: It's not the same feeling? 

M. Laitman: It is, of course, an opposite feeling because it is either redemption or exile.

Student: I'll explain my confusion: It's like wine. In the beginning, when you don't have the discernment, you feel suffering from the wine. Afterwards, you feel pleasure from the wine. Is it the same thing here, where in the beginning you feel it as suffering, but in practice after the reforming light changes you, then you feel pleasure in it? Seemingly it's the same feeling, but the interpretation of it, is that more or less correct or not? 

M. Laitman: Well, let us say, I don't know why we need this. Also, it is something that is obvious from life. Why do you need to add some examples to it? 

Question (Petah  Tikva Center): (58:16) I want to ask about this mechanism of the miracle, also the name of the article. It says that anything that a person cannot do with his own forces, but only with help from above, that is called a miracle?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: There's also a preparation that a person does beforehand, and after he receives that miracle, it's what he needs to do with it. Here, the miracle isn't just some surprise, right? 

M. Laitman: No, no, no, the miracle is just a process on the way. 

Student: It needs to be anew each time, where you can have many miracles? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Can you explain what a person needs to do in order for the miracle to happen? What preparation he needs to do in order for there to be a miracle? 

M. Laitman: He just needs to do what is up to him to do.

Student: Which is?

M. Laitman: Which is to always yearn for getting closer to the Creator, praying to the Creator, and this is how he'll go from one miracle to the next.

Student: This mutual work here, the mutual work with the Creator, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes. 

Student: He says here that there are ascents, descents, a person ponders the beginning. He identifies that there's a miracle so what is this identification? What does he call a miracle?

M. Laitman: That it does not happen by nature.

Student: It becomes part of the work. It happened yesterday, it'll happen again today, it'll happen in another hour, so why is it not natural, it becomes nature? 

M. Laitman: That it repeats itself, no, not necessarily.

Student: Not exactly in the same way, in a different way each time. But the process is one where it becomes the nature of a person, no?

M. Laitman: The fact that it happens each time in a certain state, a certain degree, does not mean that it is by nature.

Student: What does it mean not to do it by way of nature? How does he say, that the miracle is that a person cannot do from himself, but only with help from above?

M. Laitman: Yes, that there is some action here that a person needs before it to discover the Creator as a partner, let us say. 

Student: I’ll ask differently, what can a person say that I did that, and where can he say that it wasn't me, it was the Creator? 

M. Laitman: I do not think that in spirituality there is something that, basically, anything that comes from the Creator, you can call it a miracle. I do not have the words. 

Student: Shall I continue or should I leave it?

M. Laitman: Continue, please. 

Student: There’s a will to receive, who created it, the Creator, meaning it's not me. I didn't make that.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: The will to receive, the person cannot progress with it because in the end it makes harm. As much as he enjoys from it, he falls from it, and he finds that it's not good.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Who caused him to feel that? 

M. Laitman: Of course, the Creator. 

Student: The Creator, now he works in order to try to do something with that, to exit from it. Who pushes him to do that work?

M. Laitman: The Creator.

Student: The Creator, and then a miracle happens. He identifies the will to bestow that he suddenly gets? 

M. Laitman: Well, if it is like you say, then that is really miraculous. 

Student: I'm shortening the process, I'm sure there's a thousand discernments here, but the Creator does that. And here, really, the Creator does everything in the end. What is unnatural here, this is all according to the nature here. Where does a person say, oh, that's a miracle? 

M. Laitman: That a person identifies it, that a person identifies it and not that this is how it happens. 

Student: That he identifies it, and also becomes a partner in that?

M. Laitman: He says that that is the Creator, yes. It cannot be that it happened by just orders of natural force. 

Student: A miracle is a surprise, even though it comes as a surprise each time in the process?

M. Laitman: A miracle is a new degree, yes.

Student: Meaning, as much as a person prepares for it, he doesn't know exactly what he gets himself into. 

M. Laitman: Let us say. 

Student: Okay, I'm looking for words. 

M. Laitman: Yes, that is something we will understand from experience.

Question (Petah  Tikva Center): (01:04:20) He writes here that the matter of exile is according to the suffering that he feels in the exile. To that extent, he can get pleasure from the joy from the redemption, which is like light and vessel. Meaning that the suffering that he feels from something is the vessel in which he can get light, if he feels the suffering, if he protects himself from the suffering. What does it mean to protect himself from suffering?

M. Laitman: If he accepts that what he has is not suffering. 

Student: He feels far from the Creator, if he feels suffering? 

M. Laitman: If he justifies it, justifies these distances. 

Student: That means that he liberates himself from the suffering? For us, what is it?

M. Laitman: This, I do not know. You asked.

Student: I don't know what it means to liberate ourselves, because a friend asked a lot of questions because the Creator does everything. What does it mean that a person frees himself from the suffering that he feels? Now he brought me here and says, you're far from me  now I feel that it makes me suffer that I'm far from the Creator. But it's not that that frees me, that I'm far from the Creator, I need to give thanks to that?

M. Laitman: The Creator always did, does it, He is always the first one. 

Student: He writes here, many times in the article, that we need to enjoy the redemption. What does it mean to enjoy the redemption, in what vessels do I do that?

M. Laitman: Redemption means that you discover the path of bestowal and see that it is before you and you are able to go for it. 

Student: I can enjoy that because I feel that if I enjoy that, then I draw it into the will to receive? 

M. Laitman: No, why, no, why? When I continue on the path to advance towards the purpose of creation, the purpose of life, together with the Creator and I follow Him.

Student: It's possible to enjoy that, to feel pleasure from that?

M. Laitman: Depending in what vessels.

Student: I'm asking, what vessel do I enjoy? 

M. Laitman: In vessels of bestowal, it is permitted to enjoy.

Question (New York 2): (01:07:10) He depicts a state where a person invests in spirituality. But his entire yearning is to fulfill his corporeality. How do we exit that state? 

M. Laitman: It is a problem, if all of his longing is to fulfill corporeality, then what is he asking? How to move to another kind of longing?

Student: He asks, he invests in spirituality, but he finds that, afterwards, his whole deficiency is to fulfill his corporeality. How does he make it so he wants it? 

M. Laitman: He does not come out of it because he doesn't want to. Why is he driving us around? 

Student: Only a prayer can help him.

M. Laitman: A prayer too, I do not know how it will help him if he does not have the desire for it. First of all, he has to be in an environment that actually develops his desire for that, desire for redemption, desire for bestowal, for connection. And then, if all of that is more or less open to him, then to long for that with an open heart. Otherwise, it is not going to happen.

Student: He needs to put on the scale more of a desire for spirituality than the desire for corporeality, and that's what will invert it.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Suffering during the time of the descent is a vessel for the light. How can we ask while we focus forward and not look backwards?

M. Laitman: We cannot, whether we want it or not, but we are always reliant on and connected to previous states. What we do need to do is, simply, through the group, to incorporate again in the relation with the friends and renew our desire through a connection with them. And only then can we be certain that we are moving in the right direction. Do not forget that you are in a Ten, and that to me is like the life buoy. 

Student: (01:09:55) In a state as a slave, can we consider that the time of preparation? 

M. Laitman: Let us say so.

Student: He recommends making a drawing. What should we do with that in order to be like a child? How do we work with an imagination of something that we have no connection to? 

M. Laitman: What does it mean that I am in a group? What does it mean that I leave the group? What does it mean that I'm connected to the group? How do I, in relation to the group, how do I advance, how do I awaken them? How does it advance me, changes me? And again, in such a way, between us, we do these actions. 

Student: How is the suffering of the detachment and oppositeness, how is that where it's felt by the created being in the suffering. How does that turn into pleasure of connection with the upper one, what changes in the created being?

M. Laitman: In the relationship of the created being, his relation to the Creator changes. How the Creator shines, more or less, accordingly the created being feels changes of states.

Student: Is that connected to the relation to the group? 

M. Laitman: Could be. 

Question (Woman Latin 24): (01:11:44) To what extent can you feel that it's good to bestow if it collides with the will to receive? What is there more in the work, ascents or descents?

M. Laitman: In connection to the value of ascent and descent, I think they are pretty much of equal measure. And the first question was? 

Student: To what extent can you feel that it's good to bestow if it collides with my will to receive? 

M. Laitman: Then, what comes in a collision with the will to receive is clearer, it is clearer.

Question (Petah  Tikva Center): (01:12:42) He advises to say, thank you, here. He says that there's a condition for a person to come close to the Creator, there's a condition that he has to give gratitude. What does it mean to give gratitude, to thank the Creator? What is that action? It's an action, it's a feeling?

M. Laitman: It is a feeling and an action because as I feel His attitude towards what I did. And as he goes with me somewhat together, then I say to Him, thank you very much for this, for accompanying me, correctly. 

Student: Why is that called to give to Him? I'm receiving from Him, what do I need to give Him? 

M. Laitman: I am aware of the fact that the way I am going and the way He is moving me from one state to another. I receive it as a spiritual ascent.

Student: In this thing called gratitude, there's like this magic that changes states in a person. When a person feels good, it's not hard to give gratitude. The whole body gives gratitude, my whole bones will testify. But if a person's in a descent, it's dark, it's difficult, sickness, war? Where can he find the forces to say thank you, what can he be thankful for?

M. Laitman: The Creator is advancing him always, only, towards the same goal by actions that are not so disclosed. 

Student: How in a state of a descent or difficulty, a person searches for something to thank the Creator? What can he hold on to in such a state and say thank you, not just with your mouth? You can do everything that it will feel like gratitude in a state of difficulty? 

M. Laitman: We need to connect to the friends. 

Student: That's something outside of a person, because inside you can't say thank you when it's difficult. How from the connection with the friends can he change his state from difficulty to gather something from the friends. To receive something from that connection in order to be in a state of gratitude? 

M. Laitman: You fall on the hands of the friends. 

Student: The fact that he even has friends, that's a reason 

M. Laitman: What is he has a reason, if he does not have a reason, there is nothing to do.

Student: The fact that there are friends around him, that's already something to give gratitude for. He needs to find something to hold on to. Also in a descent, in difficulty, in a bad state, you need something that'll get, let a person lift his head a bit. To say, okay, this is good, I can thank this, because without that you can't advance. Is there a connection between adhesion and gratitude? Because he says we have to reach equivalence of form and adhesion.

M. Laitman: I do not want to get confused with you. We started with something simple, what does a person need to do? As I told you, we need to find ourselves falling onto the hands of our friends. He cannot, he does not have. I do not know what else, you are bringing all the excuses, then let him go back home. 

Student: Even in the prayer book, it says that when a person opens his eyes, he has to say, I thank you. Even before his brain started working or whatever, like an automatic action?

M. Laitman: That is how it is written. 

Student: How do you put it into human nature? 

M. Laitman: That I do not know, I am not studying with you how to observe the prayer of the early morning when you rise. 

Question (Petah  Tikva Center): (01:17:26) He writes that we learn from your deeds we will know you. Meaning, the deeds we see start teaching us and not before. We see a second nature, where the branch wants to resemble the root. Meaning, just like the root of the created beings, which is the Creator, has qualities to bestow and not receive. Where do we see this second nature, the root in reality?

M. Laitman: What root?  

Student: The quality that is called bestow. We say from your deeds, we will know you. He says here that we see a second nature. The branch wants to be like the root. How does the branch see the root? 

M. Laitman: It can be seen just as we talk about with all our senses. If I have a special quality that I develop, then in it, I see that which is in nature, as well. 

Student: Before I see the root, I have to develop sensitivity towards it? 

M. Laitman: Of course, that is how it is with everything. 

Student: Each one of us has a Ten. We know that the Ten is the most precise place to grab the root, to grab that quality. He also said earlier not to forget that we're in a Ten, and it's like a lifesaver. How to recognize the quality of bestow in the Ten?

M. Laitman: Ask them, ask your friends, your Ten. That you say that you want to identify this in them. 

Student: If I ask my friends how to see the second nature, that will, already, expand the sense you were talking about earlier?

M. Laitman: I do not know what it means to expand the sense but I know that by you engaging in this, you will advance. 

Student: We are in a reality. Every day a person wakes up, goes to sleep. There's a reality around them that influences him. In that reality, there's a Ten so what advice can you give to see the quality of bestowal through the Ten? You said to ask the friends, but is there something else?

M. Laitman: In the relations between you, in the relations between you. You need to see that there is the quality of bestowal there, in the group, in your Ten.

Student: What is the quality of bestowal of?

M. Laitman: The quality of bestowal is that you want to bestow to one another in helping each other advance towards connection between you.

Student: If we can't see that goal?

M. Laitman: If you do not succeed at seeing it, then you make efforts to see.

Question (Petah  Tikva Center): (01:21:37) The concern about corporeal things, that's called a descent or exile?

M. Laitman: No, it depends why he is doing this. It may be necessary in order to advance towards spirituality.

Student: What does it mean, necessity in order to advance in spirituality?

M. Laitman: Well, that he must have it. 

Student: He writes that a person who does a bit of everything, but his main things are to make his corporeal state better. That's a descent or an exile, compared to spirituality? 

M. Laitman: Yes, a descent or exile.

Student: It seems that it's too simple, that discernment. We always say that what happens in the Ten, distance from the friends, the hatred, the separation, that that's a descent or exile? That's really like that, that discernment?

M. Laitman: We will talk about it.

Reader: (01:29:59) Next part of the lesson, and we'll sing a song first.