The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) May 20, 2024.
Part 2: Baal HaSulam. “The Love of God and the Love of Man” (Two Parts to the Torah: Between Man and the Creator and Between Man and Man)
Reader: (00:02) We're reading in the writings of Baal HaSulam the article, “The Love of God and the Love of Men.” We are in the subtitle, “There are Two Parts to the Torah Between Man and the Creator and Between Man and His Friend.”
Reading: (00:26) “The Love of God and the Love of Man.” (Two Parts to the Torah: Between Man and the Creator and Between Man and Man)
Even if we see that there are two parts to the Torah—the first, Mitzvot between man and the Creator, and the second, Mitzvot between man and man—they are both one and the same thing. This means that the practice of them and the desired goal from them are one: Lishma.
It makes no difference if one works for one’s friend or for the Creator, since it is engraved in the created being at birth that anything that comes from another appears empty and unreal.
Because of this, we are compelled to begin in Lo Lishma, as Nachmanides says, “Our sages said: ‘One should always engage in Torah, even if Lo Lishma, since from Lo Lishma he comes to Lishma.’ Therefore, when teaching the young, the women, and the uneducated, they are taught to work out of fear and to receive reward. Until they accumulate knowledge and gain wisdom, they are told that secret bit by bit, and are accustomed to that matter with ease until they attain Him and know Him and serve Him out of love.”
…Thus, when one completes one’s work in love of others and bestowal upon others through the final point, one also completes one’s love for the Creator and bestowal upon the Creator. And there is no difference between the two, for anything that is outside one’s body, meaning outside one’s self-interest, is judged equally—either to bestow upon one’s friend or to bestow contentment upon one’s Maker.
This is what Hillel Hanasi assumed, that “Love your friend as yourself” is the ultimate goal in the practice, as it is the clearest nature and form to man.
We should not be mistaken about actions, since they are set before his eyes. He knows that if he puts the needs of his friend before his own needs, then he is in the quality of bestowal. For this reason, he does not define the goal as “And you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might,” for indeed they are one and the same, since he should also love his friend with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, as this is the meaning of the words “as yourself.” He certainly loves himself with all his heart and soul and might, and with the Creator, he may deceive oneself, but with his friend it is always spread out before his eyes.
M. Laitman: Questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:56) What is the difference between commandments, Mitzvot, between men and the Creator, and Mitzvot between men and his friend?
M. Laitman: Where can we read that? Everyone, think. Where would you find an answer? What's the difference between Mitzvot between man and man, and between man and the Creator? You don't remember? Maybe Matan Torah?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:10) He says that anything that is outside the person, outside of himself, he actually has no feeling of that.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Nevertheless, we do say that there is between man and the Creator, and between man and his friend. And we also say that between man and his friend there is feedback, so it's possible to work there, but with the Creator we don't have that. So, what does it mean that there is no difference, that anything that is outside of him, a person has no attainment of that?
M. Laitman: Man does not feel what's outside of him. Therefore, he can't distinguish and diagnose and weigh it.
Student: It seems to him that he does feel his friend to some extent.
M. Laitman: But when he feels his friend, okay. But other than that, he can't compare it with anything else. Because he doesn't have the proportions, the scale.
Student: What is the comparison that we should make between a man and his friend?
M. Laitman: What's the question?
Student: What's the comparison, what is there to compare between a man and his friend?
M. Laitman: That if a person does to his friend the same he does to himself, that means he has love to his friend.
Student: For this, he needs to feel what his friend wants?
M. Laitman: Correct.
Student: And we don't have that?
M. Laitman: Without feeling that, there is nothing. The whole Torah is about how to measure our emotions.
Student: It says here that you actually don't feel your friend, you only feel yourself. Outside yourself there's nothing.
M. Laitman: So, how do you come out of that?
Student: You need to find a way to feel the friend somehow.
M. Laitman: Yes. Yes. If you don't have the feelings of others outside of you whatsoever, then what can be given to you? What tools or what actions for you to do? You can't. You see, so one has to be sensitive to certain actions with respect to both himself and others so that he can measure and weigh these actions. From that, he can understand where he is and what else he lacks.
Student: It's very confusing because, let's say, when you look at a mother who feels her child and takes care of the child and makes him feel good.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It seems like she does feel him. She doesn't know that she actually only feels herself.
M. Laitman: That doesn't matter. But it matters to us that I have to love the others. I first have to feel the others and as opposed to that, feel myself and measure how much my attitude is different towards myself and towards the others. Then begin the corrections.
Student: That's fine, but he actually tells us here that he has no feelings of the other.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Outside of himself, the person feels nothing. Not the Creator, not others. How do we acquire such a vessel so it would be possible to feel others?
M. Laitman: That is said to be made by the Creator. The light that reforms. It gives us the sensation of others.
Student: But we need to lack this thing?
M. Laitman: That too is given by the Creator. He gives us both the vessel and the light.
Student: Yesterday, when there was a Congress, did we advance in some way towards this thing? Is this what you see?
M. Laitman: Yes. I actually felt that people who are almost new, who haven't truly felt in life something that belongs to the others, they have awakened. They did, many of them.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:25) Like you said in the giving of the Torah, he answers to this question. In item 13, he says, indeed there are two parts to the Torah. One is commandments that apply between man and the Creator, and two, commandments that apply between man and his friend. However, they both intend for the same thing, meaning to bring the created being to the final goal of adhesion with him, as explained. In item 14, he continues, but through great labor one rises and gradually ascends to a second nature, and then he is immediately rewarded with the final goal of adhesion with him. Therefore, reason dictates that the same part of the Torah that applies between man and his friend is more capable for man of bringing him to the desired goal because working in the commandments between man and the Creator is set and fixed and has no suitors and a person easily gets accustomed to it. And everything one does because of custom can no longer bring him to such a benefit whereas, commandments between men and his friend are changing and suitors surround him wherever he turns, therefore their virtue is more certain and their purpose is closer.
M. Laitman: It's a beautiful language, simple and succinct.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:04) He doesn't really answer. We read it as though he's answering the question, but actually he doesn't answer the question. He only reinforces the question. So, why do we need this whole huge part in the Torah that engages about between man and the Creator? Let's solve everything just between us?
M. Laitman: That he didn't answer. He answered, what gives you the part of the Torah that speaks about man and man.
Student: He does that in the excerpt we read now also. He says that at the end of the excerpt, between a man and his friend, it is always spread out before your eyes. So, when you work with the friend, you get feedback. It's clear to you what it is that you're doing.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Why is the rest of it needed?
M. Laitman: How do we come to all the rest of the Mitzvot?
Student: No, I'm not asking about that. I'm asking for what do we need all of the huge part in the Torah that is seemingly between men and the Creator?
M. Laitman: Because that's the main thing.
Student: It's not the main thing according to what he says here.
M. Laitman: No, this is the primary thing we need to attain. The relationship between man and the Creator.
Student: I guess I didn't understand the whole excerpt we just read. Because in the excerpt we read now, he explains three times why there is no reason to engage in anything more than between man and his friend. This is what he explains.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: He locks it from all sides. If a person tries to run away from it, he says, no, you shouldn't run away from that. You should only work between you and your friend?
M. Laitman: That's true. But what next?
Student: He doesn't say next. Also, in the excerpt we read from Matan Torah, the giving of the Torah, he doesn't say what's next. He doesn't say, but afterward, you'll discover that, I don't know, there's another degree of working with the Creator that you will attain only if you work with the friend, let's say. He doesn't say that.
M. Laitman: So, what does he say?
Student: He stops. In both cases, he just stops in that place of work between men and his friend. There, you'll discover the right place for the work. So, I'm asking, why is all the rest needed?
M. Laitman: I don't remember, but I think it's written clearly, in a clear fashion that there is a matter of between man and the place, the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:50) In the article, one should always sell the beams of his house if you want that. Should I read a little bit from there?
M. Laitman: Read.
Student: He says, you should interpret in the work the beams of his house, the incidents, everything that a person went through in his house, and then he continues. Between man and the Creator, meaning when he has complaints towards the Creator, why does he not satisfy all his needs? This means whatever the person thinks that he's lacking, the Creator should satisfy these things, because of the rule that the good does good.
Sometimes one has complaints. He feels the opposite, that his state is always bad in relation to others, who are on a higher degree than what he has. It follows that he is in the state of spies, who slander the upper Providence because he doesn't feel the delight and pleasure in his life. And it is difficult for him to say, only good and mercy shall chase after me all the days of my life. It follows that he is then in the state of spies. And our Sages said about this, one should bless for the bad, as he blesses for the good. Later on, he shifts it between man and his friend. The whole matter of the spies, that we have to actually scrutinize it with the friends.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Reader: (17:23) We can read from the giving of the Torah, items 13-14, in the writings of Baal HaSulam. On the giving of the Torah, item 13.
Reading: (17:52) Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]
If there are two parts in the Torah: 1) Mitzvot between man and the Creator, 2) Mitzvot between man and man, both aim for the same thing—to bring the creature to the final purpose of Dvekut with Him. Furthermore, even the practical side in both of them is really one and the same, for when one performs an act Lishma, without any mixture of self-love, meaning without drawing any benefit for himself, then one does not feel any difference whether one is working to love one’s friend or to love the Creator.
This is so because it is a natural law for any being that anything outside one’s own body is regarded as unreal and empty. And any movement that a person makes to love another is performed with a reflected light and some reward that will eventually return to him and serve him for his own benefit. Thus, such an act cannot be considered “love of others” because it is judged by its end. It is like rent that pays off only in the end. However, the act of renting is not considered love of another.
But making any movement only as a result of love for others, without any spark of reflected light or hope for any kind of reward in return is completely impossible by nature. It is written in The Zohar about this with regard to the nations of the world: “Every Hesed [mercy/grace] that they do, they do for themselves.”
This means that all the good that they do, either toward their friends or toward their God, is not for their love for others but for self-love, since this matter is completely unnatural.
Therefore, only those who observe Torah and Mitzvot are capable of this since by accustoming themselves to observe Torah and the Mitzvot in order to bring contentment to their Maker, they gradually depart from the bosom of the natural creation and acquire a second nature, being the above-mentioned love of others.
This is what brought the sages of The Zohar to exclude the nations of the world from love of others, when they said, “Every Hesed that they do, they do for themselves,” for they are not involved in observing Torah and Mitzvot Lishma, and the only reason they serve their gods is for reward and salvation in this world and in the next. Thus, their worship of their gods is because of self-love, too, and they will never perform an act that is outside the boundaries of their own bodies, for which they will be able to lift themselves even as a hairsbreadth above their basic nature.
Reading Matan Torah Item 14: (23:10)
Thus we can clearly see that toward those who observe Torah and Mitzvot Lishma, there is no difference between the two parts of the Torah, even on the practical side. This is because before one accomplishes it, one is compelled to feel any act of bestowal—either toward another person or toward the Creator—as emptiness beyond conception. But through great effort, one slowly rises and attains a second nature, and then one attains the final goal, which is Dvekut with Him.
Since this is so, it is reasonable to think that the part of the Torah that deals with man’s relationship with his friend is better capable of bringing one to the desired goal since the work in Mitzvot between man and God is fixed and specific, and is not demanding, and one becomes easily accustomed to it, and everything that is done out of habit is no longer useful. But the Mitzvot between man and man are changing and irregular, and demands surround him wherever he turns. Hence, their cure is much more certain and their aim is closer.
Reading Matan Torah Item 15: (25:29)
Now we can understand the words of Hillel HaNasi to the proselyte, that the essence of the Torah is “Love your friend as yourself,” and the remaining six hundred and twelve Mitzvot are but an interpretation and preparation for it (see Item 2). And even the Mitzvot between man and the Creator are regarded as a preparation for that Mitzva, which is the final aim emerging from the Torah and Mitzvot, as our sages said, “The Torah and Mitzvot were given only so as to cleanse Israel” (Item 12), which is the cleansing of the body until one acquires a second nature defined as “love for others,” meaning the one Mitzva: “Love your friend as yourself,” which is the final aim of the Torah, after which one immediately obtains Dvekut with Him.
But one must not wonder why it was not defined in the words: “And you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” He did this for the above reason that indeed, with respect to a person who is still within the nature of creation, there is no difference between the love of the Creator and the love of his fellow person, for anything that is from another is unreal to him.
And because that proselyte asked of Hillel HaNasi to explain to him the desired outcome of the Torah, so his goal would be near and he would not have to walk a long way, as he said, “Teach me the whole Torah while I am standing on one leg,” he defined it for him as love of his friend since its aim is nearer and is revealed faster (Item 14), since it is mistake-proof and is demanding.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:33) Towards our fuel in the work, is the only fuel of bestowal is to love the one we bestow to? Or does bestowal have a value of its own?
M. Laitman: The fuel to bestow, you're asking. So, to bestow to man and to bestow to the Creator, right? So, what's your question?
Student: As I see it, it's the same thing, at the moment, as far as the way I look at it, practically. Outside of me, there are others, I can see also there's a Creator, it's the same thing for me because it's outside of me. I can't differentiate between the two, I'm relating to the others and to the Creator, as one and the same?
M. Laitman: No, I don't think it's that way. To the others, it's still, to the others it's possible to bestow because you understand them, you know them, you get some kind of feedback from them. But between man and the Creator, you don't have any contact, you don't have a feeling of the Creator. Also, as much as you bestow to Him, and also as much as He wants to give back to you.
Student: I'm asking about the fuel, our filling in spirituality, is the desire to bestow.
M. Laitman: Yes, that's our filling.
Student: Now, for me to want this filling, for me to respect it, I need to somewhat feel the one I'm giving to. I need to love Him, I need to have some form of feeling towards Him, that's on one hand. On the other hand, we see that we advance through darkness, meaning, the Creator gives us, that's on one hand, to feel the one I'm giving to, that's fuel. I feel that if I feel Him somewhat, I'm capable of performing actions towards Him. Otherwise, I have no need for the desire to bestow, what do I need it for?
M. Laitman: When will you have a need to bestow to the others?
Student: If the Creator gives me somewhat the feeling of the other, some feeling towards him, otherwise, I have no need for it?
M. Laitman: It's clear if the Creator gives it, so obviously everything will work out, yes.
Student: Another question is whether we can advance only by, let's say, if the Creator gives me somewhat the feeling of the other, can we advance and develop that point? Or the feeling of darkness is necessary because I'm not succeeding in bestowing, not succeeding in overcoming. If we can advance only out of developing the feeling of the other, more and more.
M. Laitman: And the feeling of darkness will push you to develop the feeling of the others?
Student: That's what I’m asking: What's the role of the feeling of darkness? What do we need, if the Creator could, let's say, open for us a little bit more and more the feeling of the other? Then what do we need the darkness for?
M. Laitman: Then you don't need it but if you don't have it, and you want to know whether you could or not and how much, so then the feeling of darkness is important. Well, what?
Student: I'm just trying to concentrate; we're advancing on the path and now we want stronger fuel. I'm asking, actually what I'm asking is how to develop the feeling of the other more and more. Because I feel that that's where it's the most powerful fuel. To understand, that's it, I understand there's also the feeling of the darkness, but?
M. Laitman: Try to depict to yourself that your heart is in the heart of the friend. Where he feels, what he receives, what he gives. Try and feel it there, be in there.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:49) In the article, it says the 613 Mitzvot are a preparation for, love thy friend as thyself. What does that mean, how do those Mitzvot prepare us for, love thy friend as thyself?
M. Laitman: We're built in a way that our inner world includes 613 desires. That they are all connected to our environment, and in our environment, we have friends. We have the others, as we say, and we need, or we can fill ourselves by bestowing to the others. Or by receiving from them, so by bestowing to the others, we have 613 possibilities. Desires, actions, paths, and in them, we have to work, that's it. Actually, we don't use them, who knows what the 613 commandments can be. Nobody can say even twenty or thirty, hardly, what they have possibilities to bestow to the others, but that's how it is.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:08) Is everything that I do for the friend, is that automatically something that brings pleasure to the Creator, delights him?
M. Laitman: If you try to bring joy to a friend, that brings joy to the Creator.
Student: It doesn't matter what action, even if I give him a pencil? Or are we talking about qualities?
M. Laitman: No, it depends on your relation. Just as Rabash says, that behind every friend is the Creator.
Student: Meaning, that it's not the action but the attitude, or the relation, to how I do it.
M. Laitman: Yes, our intention, what we say, the intention.
Student: Now, what does that, correct, what should my attitude be towards the friend so that from there, it will be that form of attitude towards the Creator?
M. Laitman: All of your relationships with the friends are only because you want to reach the Creator through these relations.
Student: I am doing something now for the benefit of the friend, I have no Creator in this equation. Did I bring contentment to the Creator in that? I really wanted to do good to him, to that friend, but that’s where it ends. There’s no continuity, there’s no kind of line that extends from this action that I can say.
M. Laitman: According to what we understand from Shulchan Aruch and all those prayer books, we start by wanting to give contentment to the Creator. Then we start going down into actions that we can implement, and with the hope that from that we keep going toward the Creator.
Student: Meaning that in the equation of a person, there should be first, the Creator, and to express it towards the friend, that's the relation?
M. Laitman: The purpose is to bestow to the Creator; the means is to bestow to the friend.
Student: If a person doesn't even understand, he has no concept of what it is?
M. Laitman: It works out on its own, but that's called with no intention.
Student: While you're doing these actions, the intention is built?
M. Laitman: Yes, what are you aiming for, who are you aiming for?
Student: We need to search for it all the time
M. Laitman: They say that without that the action itself is very weak, it doesn't really make a change in all the forces that reality includes.
Student: Without that scrutiny, then the action is weak.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:30) In the two articles of Baal HaSulam that we read, it says love thy Lord thy God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. That's also towards the Creator and also towards others, it's the same. So, there's your hearts, let's say it's our desires, and you said that from that too we barely know what desires we can carry. What are the other ones here, the other parts that are called, your soul and your might? Are these things that we have to depict somewhat?
M. Laitman: No, no, those are forces that through them, we want to bestow to the others, that's how they come out of us. From the soul, that's a NRNHY, in short Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida. Those are the lights that come through us, they go through us, and they extend towards the others.
Student: Is it something practical?
M. Laitman: No, it's just so you know that, by you doing something for someone, so in your desire, you're opening great instruments. For the light to bestow through you to him, to the others.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:11) Can the light pass to a specific friend? Or does the light have to move to the whole Ten?
M. Laitman: No, it can go to a specific friend.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:29) How can you explain the reality that the Torah has two parts?
M. Laitman: What two, the revealed and the concealed?
Student: It's written that, no, no, we just read right now that the Torah is divided into two parts, between man and man, and between man and the Creator. The question is general, in general, how is it that the Torah, this force, is divided, it has some kind of division?
M. Laitman: Torah is the upper light, and it works according to the way we direct it, and to whom we direct it.
Student: The Torah is meant to correct the evil inclination, right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That's why it was created?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Or more correctly, the desire was created?
M. Laitman: The desire was created before the Torah. I created the evil inclination and created the Torah as a spice.
Student: What does it mean that the Torah is divided into two parts in this context?
M. Laitman: What can I say about that: The parts of the Torah, the revealed and the concealed. Is that what you meant?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:00) I'm just trying to clarify the question. He's asking if it's between man and man, and between man and the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: Why is it divided that way into two? Why isn't it one Torah that's arranged for everything?
M. Laitman: Because it's actually two worlds, I'd say. The intention between a man and his friend is for your neighbors, and whatever a person meets in his life. There are also commandments that happen throughout life between a person and the Creator, this already should have an eternal commitment, whole. Through in all conditions, and even though it's something very great it takes a person out of this world completely. Meaning, between those two parts, there is clearly a difference towards man.
Student: It seems to me like the friend is asking us, in the end, There's None Else Besides Him. There's the created being, before the Creator, and None Else Besides Him.
M. Laitman: Right.
Student: In the beginning, we have to grasp it in these two different perceptions of reality.
M. Laitman: Right.
Student: There are the created beings and the Creator.
M. Laitman: Right.
Student: Why, why don't we, immediately, from the beginning, start working on that one possibility?
M. Laitman: I think that my relation towards a friend, I can depict even now, in some way. In my relation to the Creator, I have no idea about it.
Student: Why did he make it that way?
M. Laitman: That, I don't know.
Student: What does it give us, maybe not why, but what does it give us that we have something that's revealed, the friends, and something that's concealed completely called the Creator? What does that give us?
M. Laitman: There's the revealed Torah, that I can interpret and perform, and understand where it exists, and between who and who. And there's the concealed Torah, which I have no idea whatsoever. Maybe I've been done performing it, and I have no idea about it. There's nothing about it. But we go from the revealed to the concealed, and then we have to go into that same area where I open my intentions, and who are they destined for, for what type of attitude between me and the Creator, and Him to me. It's a completely different area.
Student: We can say that there's Torah, as long as we're in the quality of in order to receive, and then there's a Torah when we're already in order to bestow?
M. Laitman: That's already a different type of division because when I see a person before me in this world and decide that I'm performing actions for him, for his sake, it doesn't mean that I'm already in the upper world and engaging in the concealed Torah. It doesn't mean anything yet.
Student: Yes, but as long as we don't have the quality of in order to bestow, we have a certain form of work. And then it's really different work, it's really a different Torah or a different perception of the Torah?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, of course. Depict it to yourself, if you talk to a friend and you have some kind of connection with them, you give, he gives, and in this way, you can exchange all kinds of things, or you don't understand how to connect with him and how to send anything towards him.
Student: Also, not what he is giving me?
M. Laitman: Yes, there is no system of connection between you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:17) Meaning the relation of the giver, or my relation towards the Creator, I can see in the connection between me and the friends in equivalent form?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Meaning this whole process that we're building between us?
M. Laitman: Between us, you mean between you and the Creator?
Student: Yes. These relations that we're building between us and the friends. It's in the scrutinies that we're doing between us?
M. Laitman: You must implement it between you and the friends. Otherwise, between you and the Creator, it won't work.
Student: I'm asking, what is that relation that I have to relate to the giver? He's always talking about this, the giver of the gift, and not to the gift?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: The giver of the gift, it's the Creator. He's giving us all that he gives us. He's the Good That Does Good.
M. Laitman: Also, you can.
Student: I'm asking to reach equivalence of form as the giver of the gift. I need to reach all those actions that you talked about, all those 613 actions, and then I can discover it?
M. Laitman: No, no, no.
Student: Then what is it to discover that I'm in equivalence of form?
M. Laitman: Equivalence of form means that by your unique actions, you know how to make a restriction on yourself, a screen, reflected light, and an action through the reflected light.
Student: Meaning through the actions of the screen, where along the way, the screen is also refined and becomes more powerful?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I'm actually choosing that the friend will gradually be more important to me than myself.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Then what happens to this is that I'm discovering that the friend is gradually more important to me, and I seemingly ask for his lacks, as if they're, and they become my lacks already?
M. Laitman: Yes. Of course, because you have nothing to give him. You can only be the connector between him and the Creator.
Student: I need to receive the abundance from the Creator to ask for the friend what he lacks through me.
M. Laitman: First of all, to discover what the friend is lacking, and then those deficiencies, to raise them through the Creator to the friends, and receive from there what you see that you have to give, and then give it through you.
Student: To reveal the lack of the friend, you can do it only through the scrutiny between us, or do we need to come to a state like we talked about at the beginning of the lesson, where to reveal the friend, the sensitivity to the friend, what his deficiency is? How do I come to that sensitivity?
M. Laitman: You don't need to get into all those details. So, that type of scrutiny you don't need to reach.
Student: What is it to discover the deficiency of the friend and ask for that?
M. Laitman: You'll see how it happens.
Student: Does the deficiency need to be only towards love of friends?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:43) A person cannot go out of his desire to receive.
M. Laitman: Correct.
Student: To do this action, he must have the reforming light.
M. Laitman: Correct.
Student: We read in several writings that in order to receive the reforming light, I must work towards the friend.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Why in the work before the Creator, there isn't directly this reforming light? What's missing there?
M. Laitman: You're asking me why you don't have reflected light, or what, I don't get it?
Student: I'm asking, we read again and again that a person needs to work between him and his friends, because the person should change gradually and eventually, we'll reach love thy Lord you're God?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Meaning in this action toward the friend, I'm probably drawing the light because otherwise without that no change would happen here?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I'm asking why in the action before the Creator which we're told not to do directly but always through the friend. I'm trying to understand when I work before the Creator or try to work before the Creator what's missing there? Why isn't the light there?
M. Laitman: You don't have feedback. You don't feel the friend to such an extent that you feel that you're giving to him that you're receiving from him. You still don't have a response from Him.
Student: The first part of the work of a person until he changes must be with something that there's a real feedback?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Then that's where there's light?
M. Laitman: Well, let's say.
Student: That's what I'm trying to understand, but let's say, what I'm trying to understand is what is this action before the friend that draws the light?
M. Laitman: What light?
Student: The reforming light, we said a person cannot change and he can't reach bestowal he must have the reforming light in order to change.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Where will I find this light only in the actions between the friends? I perform actions between the friends and then at a certain point, I apparently draw a little bit more light, a little bit more light, and then in the end, this change will take place in me. I'll move from Lo Lishma to Lishma?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I'm trying to scrutinize. Where is this light in those actions that we're doing between friends? We care for a friend. We pray for a friend.
M. Laitman: When you want to change and resemble the bestower, that you actually want to be a bestower then that light that reforms comes to you to the extent that you have engaged in such actions.
Student: What's missing in the actions between the Creator and a person because there are many people in the world for thousands of years trying to reach this Lishma and direct actions before the Creator, all kinds of actions that we do with our hands and feet. What is missing there that lacks the light there, the reforming light that doesn't work that way. Because it seems like a flaw there if I understand it. Otherwise, they would all reach it?
M. Laitman: If people would think about the Creator to receive the light from Him, so obviously they would already receive it. But the thing is that they don't aim for it, they don't aim for it. And that is the main desire, the intention.
Student: If a person did these actions towards a friend and received the light, he made some step forward and received light? Yes, he did, he advanced toward bestowal. Maybe he already started, he entered Lishma. So, where are the actions between man and the Creator when do they become, and what are these actions that a person is already in the process of Lishma. He already did all the actions that we learned about and the intention, even advanced.
M. Laitman: Meaning he's already in actions in order to bestow.
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: He's already in bestowal. And what are you asking?
Student: It seems that now there's another set of actions from a person towards the Creator that before that he didn't really need to engage in.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What are those actions then?
M. Laitman: Until those actions, it’s Ibur and Yenika, impregnation and suckling.
Student: What does that mean?
M. Laitman: Those are the previous degrees and the preceding degrees to the true degrees.
Student: That means that the real degrees in the end is that a person is already in bestowal working before the upper force. But he can't do it in the first state, he can't even try and go there but only after he solves that question on how to break through the Machsom, the barrier then maybe can start engaging in those actions?
M. Laitman: Yes, that's on the third degree.
Student: Of Mochin?
M. Laitman: Of Neshama, of soul.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:30) We were talking about the feedback that I'm supposed to feel through love. Is that the same attitude, I have to be persistent and keep giving love towards a friend until I feel something changing towards me from him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That feedback, the true change is that I see the changes in the friend, not in me?
M. Laitman: Correct.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:08) In one of the lessons as a preparation for the convention, you mentioned a spiritual test that the Creator is putting us before. So, I wanted to ask, did we pass the test? Or how can we know that we broke through into the spiritual world?
M. Laitman: No, if you were to break through to the spiritual world, you would feel it. You would feel. Here, there was no breakthrough yet, but you are in the degree before that.
Student: There was a feeling, a very internal feeling, not noisy, not too much background noise, it was very internal. We can also say about the music. The music was amazing, but again, it was very like a melody, like a dance with the Creator. That was the feeling.
M. Laitman: Yes, okay.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:31) In Matan Torah, in item 14, that we just read, why work between man and a friend is more beneficial? So, he says this, the work and the commandments between a person and the Creator are constant. And nobody demands it, and a person gets used to it easily, easily accustomed to it. And then there's no benefit. So, I think he's, like he mentions, religious people who do the same actions every day and don't feel any feedback. But the commandments between man and man are changing and irregular and demands surround them wherever he turns. Hence, their cure is much more certain, and their aim is closer. That's what a Kabbalist feels that he's surrounded by people who demand it.
M. Laitman: I don't know. A Kabbalist feels that around him, there are always possibilities to connect to the Creator. That's it.
Student: Through people?
M. Laitman: Yes, usually.
Student: How do we reach this feeling? Because he says it's not constant. Because a mother sometimes feels that the baby's hungry, tired, or cold?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: According to that, she works. What feelings should we get from our friends? They feel cold, they feel tired. What are the feelings of the deficiencies of the friend?
M. Laitman: That you are in this constant changing of states with your friends. And then from that, you have the possibility of always choosing some special relations that you want to define with them, in order to discover a certain fragment of the spiritual world.
Student: I still don't know how to work with fragments from the spiritual world, so what can I do?
M. Laitman: So, you already have the ability of grasping something to some degree in the spiritual world, in a certain frame. And this is how you go and connect it.
Student: I see the friends in my Ten. What can I do with them?
M. Laitman: The main thing is to be as much as possible in a heartfelt manner, connected to them.
Student: That's something that comes from me. How can I feel their demand, like he says here, that the work with the friends is that they constantly surround him, the ones who demand it, how to reach that feeling?
M. Laitman: Yes, we'll start being in this more and more, demand this more and more. From being in one group, learning, reading, and how you take this into consideration. To the extent in which you're connected, to the extent in which each can bestow to others.
Student: Demand the feeling of the friends, that we feel the friends, it's a demand from the Creator to feel it?
M. Laitman: Yes. Okay. We still have the last period of the lesson. What are we doing? What are we going to do?
Reader: We can keep reading the article.
M. Laitman: To continue to read? Yes, that's what you're thinking. So, where is it?
Reader: We are continuing. Matan Torah. Item 16 or should we go back to the love of the created beings? Love of God and love of the created beings?
M. Laitman: The love of the created beings? Should we continue Matan Torah or the love of God and the love of the created beings? Well, let's do love of God and love of man. Where are we?
Reader: We're in the subtitle, “Why was the Torah not given to the patriarchs?”
M. Laitman: Yes. Okay.
Reading: (01:04:27) “Why Was the Torah Not Given to the Patriarchs?”
By this we have clarified the first three questions. But there still remains the question how it is possible to observe it, for it is seemingly impossible. You should know that this is why the Torah was not given to the patriarchs but to their children’s children, a complete nation of 600,000 men from 20 years of age and on. They were asked if each and every one were willing to take upon himself these sublime work and goal, and after each and every one said “We will do and we will hear,” the matter became possible, for it is clear beyond doubt that if 600,000 men have no other engagement in life but to stand guard and see that no need is left unsatisfied in their friends, and they even do it with true love, with all their soul and might, there is absolutely no doubt that there will not be a need in any person in the nation to worry about his own sustenance, for he will have 600,000 loving and loyal people watching over him so not a single need is left unsatisfied.
This answers why the Torah was not given to the patriarchs, for in a small number of people, the Torah cannot be observed. It is impossible to begin the work of Lishma as is described above, which is why the Torah was not given to them.
M. Laitman: Questions? It's clear, so let's move on.
Reading: (01:07:10) “All of Israel Are Responsible for One Another.”
In light of the above, we can understand a perplexing saying by our sages who said, “All of Israel are responsible for one another.” Furthermore, Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, adds, “The world is judged by its majority.”
It follows, that we are also responsible for all the nations of the world. I wonder; this seems inconceivable, for how can one be responsible for the sins of a person whom he does not know? It is said specifically, “The fathers will not be put to death for the children, and the children will not be put to death for the fathers; every man will be put to death for his own sin.”
Now we can understand the meaning of the words in utter simplicity, for it has been explained that it is utterly impossible to observe Torah and Mitzvot unless the entire nation participates.
It follows that each one becomes responsible for his friend. This means that the reckless make the observers of the Torah remain in their filth, for they cannot be completed in bestowal upon others and love of others without their help. Thus, if some in the nation sin, they make the rest of the nation suffer because of them.
This is the meaning of what is written in the Midrash, “Israel, one of them sins and all of them feel.” Rabbi Shimon said about this: “It is like people who were seated in a boat. One of them took a drill and began to drill under him. His friends told him, ‘What are you doing?’ He replied, ‘Why do you care? Am I not drilling under me?’ They replied, ‘The water is rising and flooding the boat.’” As we have said above, because the reckless are immersed in self-love, their actions create an iron fence that prevents the observers of Torah from even beginning to observe the Torah and Mitzvot properly.
Now we will clarify the words of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, who says, “Since the world is judged by its majority, and the individual is judged by its majority, if one performs one Mitzva, happy is he, for he has sentenced himself and the entire world to the side of merit. If he commits one sin, woe unto him for he has sentenced himself and the entire world to the side of sin, as it is said, ‘And one sinner destroys much good.’”
We see that Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, takes the matter of the Arvut [mutual responsibility] even further, for he says, “The world is judged by its majority.” This is because in his opinion, it is not enough for one nation to receive the Torah and Mitzvot. He came to this opinion either by observing the reality before us, for we see that the end has not yet come, or he received it from his teachers.
The text also supports him, as it promises us that at the time of redemption, “The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord,” and also, “All nations will flow onto Him,” and many more verses. This is the reason he conditioned the Arvut on the entire world, to tell you that an individual, too, cannot come to the desired goal by observing Torah and Mitzvot, if not through the assistance of all the people in the world.
Thus, each and every Mitzva that an individual performs affects the whole world. It is like a person who weighs beans on a scale, and each and every bean he puts on the scale induces the desired final decision. Likewise, each Mitzva that the individual performs before the whole earth is full of knowledge develops the world so it will come to this.
It is said, “And one sinner destroys much good,” since through the sin he commits, he reduces the weight on the scale, as though that person took back the bean he had put on the scale. By this, he turns the world backward.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:07) Is it a condition that only when you support the will to receive, a person can come out like you write that 600,000 were?
M. Laitman: Well that's changing, it changes.
Student: It's two options, either the friends complete me and then I can go out, or because it doesn't always happen in a whole nation.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It's either the Creator completes it or the friends?
M. Laitman: All together, that's what he writes that happens.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:12) How can I check that I'm not turning the world backward?
M. Laitman: No, there is no backwards. We're always moving forward, only sometimes there's a pause, a stop but there's not even a retrieving or a retreat.
Student: He says there is, what, it's not valid?
M. Laitman: This is not in relation to actions like ours.
Student: Yesterday, in the last lesson in the convention, he said that happiness is a measure of advancement.
M. Laitman: Well.
Student: Is that serious?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: If I'm not happy?
M. Laitman: I'm not a clown to make you rejoice this way, but you're supposed to be happy because it's a great commandment to be in happiness.
Student: If you go out of the convention with a feeling of, well more work, not happy, and?
M. Laitman: I'm happy, I'm just not in an age that I need to jump up and down and cry out and be and rejoice that way.
Student: How do you express happiness?
M. Laitman: In me, happiness is expressed in a different way. I'm sitting, I'm thinking, I'm enjoying from it. It's like I'm singing within me to the Creator for what He's done. But in truth, we have plenty to be thankful for, in all forms.
Student: On what?
M. Laitman: The fact that we were born and developed not in some other place. And we are truly on the border of salvation and the inclusive revelation. Although it doesn't appear to us right now, we need to nevertheless believe in the sages who wrote and where we are, that in this action itself we are hastening the end.
Student: If I feel that I'm pulling friends backwards?
M. Laitman: It just seems to you, you're still lacking the weight to be able to pull them backwards.
Student: What’s the advice?
M. Laitman: That a little more, and a little more, and we're advancing. Do you think that I don't expect it? We'll go together and we will succeed.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:42) How, on one hand, to keep going and increase the spirits of the convention, on the other hand, not to fall into a previous state, to look backward and yearn for something we got once. But yes, to take something from there and extend it onward and increase it?
M. Laitman: I don't know how to tell you, I see things advancing and advancing quickly, specifically when we are also receiving many friends, men, women, don't disregard the women, and we, with that, are breaking through forward. Do you understand? I think we now have a very good period, a very beautiful one. You'll see, you'll see that the Creator Himself will show us where we can already be in our corrections.
Student: What's our work right now, after the Congress, is there something new or as usual?
M. Laitman: Our work now, at this moment, is to thank Him for drawing us and pulling us and not letting go of us. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:38) He writes that Arvut and love is that I prefer the friend's needs over my own.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Can I get an example? Because in my reality, most of my connection with the Ten is that I study with them four or five hours a day. That's it. I don't understand where does that calculation come, that I prefer their need on my need. I don't reach such a situation that I stand before that choice. Let's say I even fail, it doesn't matter.
M. Laitman: Four hours a day, I study.
Student: I'm studying right now, I'm sitting with them.
M. Laitman: With them together.
Student: I don't get such a calculation. What calculation do I have? I'm studying?
M. Laitman: Besides that, I'm impressed by them, to the extent to which we're together, to the extent to which they're drawn towards the purpose of creation, and it impacts, I'm influenced by it.
Student: Yes, but he defines Arvut, love, that I prefer, he says that I prefer their needs over my needs. I'm asking, where's the calculation? Because, by me sitting with them, reading an article, I don't reach such a calculation?
M. Laitman: To the extent in which you want to be under their influence.
Student: Under their influence? Under their influence, I'm reading an article, I'm under either the influence of the teacher or Rabash?
M. Laitman: No, all together you're under the influence of the group. Even though they're not talking.
Student: What does it mean that I prefer their need upon my need?
M. Laitman: You feel that you are gradually surrendering, subjugating before the society and they are influencing you upon more than you are influencing them. That is how it extends day after day, more and more.
Student: Can we say that all kinds of needs awaken in me, all kinds. He sends it towards the lesson but I still prefer to be connected to the text? That means I prefer this?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And that is how you reach love, if I constantly do that?
M. Laitman: Yes, as a result of the action of the upper light upon you, you will feel that you will feel more and more of an attitude towards them all the way towards love.
Student: That's why I’m constantly asking. What is the rest of reality for? It’s such a reality that is very narrow. I sit here, under the influence of the group, that’s it, that’s reality. But if you look at the world, how many things are happening. How there, do I prefer?
M. Laitman: What is happening there?
Student: What do mean? That is where everything happens, look what is happening in the world. I just want there also, to prefer their deficiency upon mine?
M. Laitman: No, it is better not to think about that.
Student: So why didn’t the Creator create a reality, that I am sitting with my Ten and just studying all the time? Why do I need the rest?
M. Laitman: He created it that way. People asked for many calculations, hence the world developed in this way as it is now.
Student: Shouldn't it have been like this?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: It’s enough to sit in a cave with ten people and that's it?
M. Laitman: Why not? Why is it bad? It's not bad at all.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:04) I still want to ask if it already came up, what our right attitude towards things. There are some who say look, everytime we do a Congress something happens in the world. Once we held a big successful Congress and the Corona broke out. Then, afterwards there was a Congress and a week after, there was a war. Now again they are saying that something happened in Iran, so they are saying it’s because of what happened here. Is that the right attitude or should we just ignore this?
M. Laitman: Not to completely ignore it, no. But don’t connect it in some direct line like that. That this is happening because of this or that. There is a certain connection, but not by us doing a convention and waiting for what is going to happen in the world.
Student: If not a direct line, why even connect between anything?
M. Laitman: Because there is a connection, but not the way you think. Once we did this and that happened and then we did this and that happened.
Student: Is there anything to even ask about that connection?
M. Laitman: No, no, no. That has nothing to do with us, as some side thing.
Student: So, if I understand from you don’t connect between the things, not even to engage in it?
M. Laitman: Yes, what is important for us is those actions in which we can bestow. That we can directly place them and influence them to bestow.
Student: So the connection between us and between us and the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Reader: (01:27:10) Announcements.
Song: (01:27:23)