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

Daily Lesson (Morning) July 21, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam Letter 6.

Reader: Hello, we are reading from The Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter Six. You can find the study materials in the Arvut system, in the study materials tab. You can also send questions. If you ask a question in the study hall, make sure you stand up, have a microphone close to your mouth, and ask loud and clearly. Again, the writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter Six. 

Reading Letter 6: (00:37) To my soul mate... may his candle burn forever:

I have already written you two letters but did not have the time to send them to you. In truth, I would like to see you prior to my leaving on the 22nd of Av. Now I would like to offer you a taste of the honey from my honeycomb.

It is written, “You destroy those who speak falsehood; the Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.” There is an allegory about a king who took it on himself to teach his son tactics of kingship. He showed him the land, his enemies, and his friends. The king also gave his son a sword from his hidden treasures. The sword possessed a wonderful power: When he showed the sword to enemies, they would promptly fall before him as dung on the earth.

The king’s son went and conquered many countries, took much spoil, and succeeded greatly.

In time, the king said to his son, “Now I will go up to the tower and hide myself there, which you will sit on my throne and lead the whole earth with wisdom and might. And here is also this shield, which until now has been hidden in the kingdom’s treasury. No enemy or harm-doer will be able to harm you while this shield is in your possession.”

The king took the sword, tied it to the shield, gave them to his son, and the king himself went up to the tower and hid there.

But the king’s son did not know that the sword and the shield were tied to one another, and since he had no regard at all for the shield, he did not watch it. Thus, the shield was stolen from him, and with it, the sword.

When the news spread through the land that the sword and the shield had been stolen from the king’s son, the ruler of the earth, they immediately became brazen and his enemies waged war against him until they took him captive, he and all his many possessions. With their enemy in their hands, they poured out their vengeance on him, and avenged him for all his abuse of them in the days of his father’s leadership. Each day they would beat him ferociously.

The son was embarrassed before his father because his father’s plight hurt him more than his own, so he resolved to make a sword and a shield just like the first ones, to appease his father and to show him his wisdom and might.

With tactics, he made a sword that was similar to the first and made a shield similar to the first shield.

With his arms in hand, he called on his father at the top of the tower: “Be proud of me, for a wise son makes a father glad.” And while he was calling his father, his enemies were bruising his brain and liver. And the more they beat him, the more he braced himself and overcame in order to appease his father, yelling, “Now, I am afraid of nothing, and who can fight me when I have my sword and shield in my hand?”

And the more he boasted, the more his enemies beat and hurt him, stones and sticks landing on his head, and blood running down his face. And all the while, he tried to keep upright, proudly, like a hero, to show his father that now he is afraid of nothing, that compared to his might they are as the dust on the balance, since the sword helps him, or the shield helps him.

This is what the poet implied, “You destroy those who speak falsehood,” meaning those whose faces are as the face of a monkey before the face of a man, who make by their own strength a sword such as the Creator has made. And moreover, they wish to boast of their work as the Creator boasts. It is said about them, “The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit,” for he makes a man made shield and boasts that he feels no pain, etc., and this, too, the Creator abhors—one who shows false pretense saying that he is wise and strong and fearless, yet he is full of deceit and seeks cunning tactics. This the Creator abhors.

However, all the wholeness is in the holy name, God of my righteousness, whose every organ and tendon knows that the place of instilling of the Shechina [Divinity] is in the place of justice, meaning in the absolute knowledge that all His thoughts are just, and never has a man anywhere in the world taken a bad step, just as one will not make a good step by himself.

And although everyone believes it, it is knowing that they need—so it may settle in the heart. It is like a first concept, where the pouring out of a truly faithful heart to the Creator can disclose this concept in the world, like any simple and acceptable thing settles in the heart sufficiently.

This is the meaning of “And you will seek ‘from there’ the Lord your God and you shall find.” This is also the meaning of the blessing, “Good who does good,” who does good to others, for His attainment is truly on the good, as this is why He is called “good.” This name is easily attainable by any person, and it is also called “God of my mercy.” But because it is so easily acceptable, due to the ease of accepting it, the individual does not remain over all the people.

This is why the work in exile and keeping Torah in poverty is evidently revealed to the eye of all the organs of a servant of the Creator—the holy name, “God of my righteousness.” That is, it was not at all bad in reality even for the slightest moment, which is the meaning of “and does good,” meaning that it does not appear on the “good,” but only on the “good to others,” as in “That, too, is for the best.” This is a very deep and important matter, and that unification leaves no room even for... at that time, other than him.

This is also the meaning of “The Lord is one and His name is ‘One,’” which is attained as simple to the ones who are whole.

Yehuda Leib

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:22) What is the shield he's talking about, is that faith in the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Sword and shield, these two tools are what he needs so as to stand guard over his state, as he understands it. 

Student: We learn all along the way that we shouldn't trust ourselves and our strength until the day we die, we always need the force of the Creator, and He actually protects us. So, I'm asking if it's correct to make this comparison when he talks about a shield,  that the king gave it to him, but he lost it. And after he lost the sword and shield, he couldn't protect his property or himself or anything. Is it correct to make this comparison from the story? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, we simply need to read the letter, as it is.

Student: So, as it is, it's incorrect to make this comparison?

M. Laitman: I'm not sure, again, say what you think?

Student: That the shield is faith in the Creator; also, I marked it afterwards to read again,. He says if you don't have faith, then by tactics he tried to create a new sword and shield with all kinds of tactics, and it didn't help him. So, I'm saying is what the king gave him by inheritance, the sword and shield, does that, in giving that to him, and then he lost faith and he thought he could protect himself, his property, his life. That's the issue here? 

M. Laitman: Yes, you could say so.

Student: They do with their own strength a sword as the act of the Creator, and they want to be proud of that act, as the Creator boasts. And it is said about him that a person deceives the Creator. Does that mean a person shouldn't say to himself, I can do anything, and I don't need the Creator?

M. Laitman: We don't know, exactly, how we think. It could be that in the purest thoughts and intentions, at least that's how we see them to be. It could be that we're gravely mistaken, and we turn everything from good to bad, unawares.

Student: That's what I see here, that the actions are not always important, but the intention, that's where the Creator measures us.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:59) The son already lost the sword and shield, and he sees them coming to him. What is he supposed to do, what choice does he have?

M. Laitman: He has no choice. 

Student: So. he has to make his own sword and shield, what else can he do? 

M. Laitman: He could understand that it's not within his power.

Student: And then what?

M. Laitman: He did not discover that in the previous sword and shield, the true ones, the real ones, there's a special power that he doesn't have. But that he received as a gift from his father.

Student: Still, the son sees the enemies are coming, he doesn't have the sword and shield that he had.

M. Laitman: So, he needs to cry out, to ask, to understand that what's happening to him is happening because his father made it happen. And this is a state from which he needs to grow.

Student: My question is when you have all kinds of challenges, difficulties, your first attempt is to try to deal with it on your own.

M. Laitman: That's how it appears from the letter, yes. 

Student: Yes, so it seems as though the solution, here, is not to cope on your own but to immediately turn to the Creator to help you, on the one hand. On the other hand, it's like you already choose to lose a battle. What am I supposed to do, to surrender to the difficulties? 

M. Laitman: No, surrender before the Lord who sends this to you. And you understand it all comes to you from Him, There's None Else Besides Him, and so you turn to Him as the only source that can help you. And that's also why He gives you these conditions.

Student: And I still need to make the effort to overcome the conditions, how?

M. Laitman: You need only overcome the fact that you don't see the Creator, overcome the concealment and turn to Him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:46) It's interesting that the son all along the way didn't forget his father. He always says, “I’m fighting for you. And he wasn't thinking about himself at all, as far as I understood. He thought he was doing correct work. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But he just didn't pay attention to one thing, that the sword and shield are interrelated.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, how could he remember the Creator but remember Him incorrectly, where is the mistake here?

M. Laitman: The mistake is the Creator's work, here; the Creator gives him all these conditions, makes the sword disappear, and the shield, and so on. And that is the problem, that he doesn't relate these things, these happenings to the Creator. 

Student: He as if wasn't in double concealment, here, He always remembers his father. He says, I fight the wars for you, and I'm injured for you, he feels himself as a hero. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And still he's missing something major here, so what are these swords and shield that he doesn't understand are interconnected? Where is that point? 

M. Laitman: He discovers that he has it, by nature, a sword and a shield, but with that  he doesn't know how to bind them together. Otherwise, he would have bound them, related them to the Creator from whom they come, these forces, the sword and shield. But he relies on whatever he feels like relying upon.

Student: Is it possible that he missed the connection with the friends? 

M. Laitman: There are no friends in this, it doesn't speak of friends, here. It's, each thing is separate on its own. That’s how he wants to scrutinize it.

Question (Women USA West): (21:15) Can we say that the son is the Jew, and the sword is the Torah? Sword and shield of the Torah?

M. Laitman: I don't know, it's not written here, so I'm not about to go imagining things, like that. 

Student: So, if you could explain what is the shield and the sword.

M. Laitman: Sword and shield, simply, two forces by which he can save himself from his enemies, defeat his enemies. 

Student: How can we depict it to ourselves, what are these forces? 

M. Laitman: What is the problem in picturing a sword and shield for a person who feels that he's about to be attacked?

Question (Women Hebrew 1): (22:33) What caused the son to lose the sword and shield? Can we learn from it, and how to guard the gifts of the Creator?

M. Laitman: What caused? I think what caused it is that he didn't relate correctly to the sword and shield, in this one thing, namely remembering that it's tied to the Creator. He needs it, sure, but he didn't think about how it comes from the Creator and that's why it's important.

Student: How to keep those gifts of the Creator?

M. Laitman: Ascribe the same importance to them as you do to the Creator from whom you received them. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:45) The concept of God of my righteousness, I'll read first: “All the wholeness is in the Holy Name, God of my righteousness, whose every organ and tendon knows that the place of instilling of the Shechina is in the place of justice. Meaning in the absolute knowledge that all his thoughts are just, and never has a man anywhere in the world taken a bad step just as one will not make a good step by himself”. He continues, and at the end, “but then the work in exile and keeping the Torah in poverty is evidently revealed to the eye of all the organs of a servant of the Creator. The Holy Name, God of my Righteousness, that is, it was not at all bad in reality even for the slightest moment, which is the meaning of, and does good, meaning that it does not appear on the good but only on the good to others, as in, that too is for the best. This is a very deep and important matter, and that unification leaves no room, even for at that time, other than Him. This is also the meaning of, the Lord is One, and His Name is One, which is attained as simple to the ones who are whole”. When we lose it, when we lose the justice, we lose hope. How does this fall happen, of losing the righteousness or justice? What is that, also, when it dwells in the person it protects him?

M. Laitman: When he sees that all your words are just, that's how he looks at the Creator's laws. 

Student: Yes, when he has a doubt, not about himself but about?

M. Laitman: The force that establishes them, forms them, reveals them, yes?

Student: What kind of prayer can he raise with this pain because it's a pain he doesn't know?

M. Laitman: I don't know if he feels pain.

Student: I have a pain, when I miss that I have a pain. 

M. Laitman: Then pray.

Student: But the pain is not personal, it's about what's happening, outside.

M. Laitman: Outside, then it's not pain, it's not pain, yet.

Student: Okay, I will check.

M. Laitman: Check it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:44) You said a few times that the son didn't call upon the Creator in all the actions. I want to continue from the friend: We had a Zoom meeting yesterday where we read the article twice. And I thought, how do we not just remember the Creator in a certain thought but put him into our action? That's the question, how do you put the Creator into the action, not just remember that there is some upper force?

M. Laitman: We come close to Him, we study Him, and we see how He organizes, and is at the foundation of each and every action, everything that happens to us; and so, we become tied to Him.

Student: It's a very strong feeling, this thing, how do you also give that to the friends?

M. Laitman: I don't give that to the friends, they have to attain it by themselves, they have to work on it by themselves. What they hear in the article, from the article, that's what they need to hear. And more than that, it's impossible to tell them because it will harm them.

Student: That's exactly the feeling because sometimes in the Zoom, we feel like there is some sort of philosophizing. 

M. Laitman: And the way you're acting together, I don't think it's right, it's true. 

Student: So how do we do it, correctly, friends are investing all their strength and energy. How do we work correctly in our meetings, so we really bind the Creator with us, and feel it and not philosophize? 

M. Laitman: The Creator should be as an outcome of our work, of our exertion. Our exertion that we make to combine all reasons and relate them to Him.

Student: This is in man's feeling.

M. Laitman: It's always the way a person feels it. Everything that's revealed is revealed in man's feelings.

Student: How do we help each other in that, it feels like something very personal?

M. Laitman: I think that you’re all, you want to be connected to each other too much through the understanding of the source texts, of the study materials. You need to lean more towards adhesion. But in understanding the texts, there each one has his own approach. And I haven't seen, anywhere, that you need to be so open with each other  because it may be that by that you just confuse each other. 

Student: When we meet, it's better to just read the articles and keep quiet? 

M. Laitman: Read it several times. Could be that there are some amongst you who don't understand the simple meaning of the text, maybe some words they don't know, so that you can explain to each other, yes? The actual text, itself, and more than that, you don't speak about it, you don't speak so much. That's the meaning of not revealing one's heart to the others. That's what you need because, otherwise, you bring out the precious things; as though you throw them out, making them cheap. They go out to the world, and then they cannot be held and brought back in again. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:00) This letter is very, I'm trying to apply it to what we are now experiencing. As long as we are under the screen of the Kabbalists, we have a shield, decisions, all kinds of things that we can check against the Kabbalists and navigate ourselves. Now the feeling is such that, also in the last few days as we are trying to scrutinize things, it's as if we swing the sword and heads are flying. The decisions that we can take without spiritual attainment, first, they're incorrect. How to, what did I want to say; also, the examples, Rabash warned the students to keep their distance from students of Baal HaSulam when Baal HaSulam departed. You cut off ties with all the Rabash students when the teacher went. There's no shield, everyone takes according to the vessels, you understand, so everyone just follows their corruptions. So  how do, this is our shield, we sit opposite you and scrutinize each and everything to the point of very simple decisions, even with what friend to sit. One person didn't come, you understand? So, we had a meeting on Shabbat, and everyone just comes and presents their thoughts based on their flaws, and everyone applauds.

M. Laitman: And, so?

Student: I didn't agree, I didn't agree, not with one person or the other or anything. Why, because it's not any decision, any scrutiny according to what each one thinks, according to his flaws, that's how one is. 

M. Laitman: That's how it always is.

Student: So, what do you do? 

M. Laitman: Nothing you can do but just take it into account, that what you see, what you see isn't the real form of the person, good?

Student: No.

M. Laitman: No, so what to do? 

Student: We talk about equality, brotherly love. I understand we have to build our foundation of the group of the Kingdom of Priests, as Baal HaSulam describes, which can then spread, disseminate. But, I don't know, maybe friends can continue. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:05) We see that, first, the King only gives the sword to the son to fight his enemies. I'm assuming the enemies are the will to receive,  and the King is with him, the Creator is with him. Then, he gives him a shield and he binds it together with that. Meaning he gives him a screen. When the Creator leaves, there has to be a screen. That screen, we have to keep it because the Creator already gave it, He already gave it, just the son didn't bind it together. So, how do we maintain the shield the Creator gives us? How do we bind it together with the forces and work with that? 

M. Laitman: We need to understand that it is impossible to understand anything, to do anything if they're not bound together, the sword and shield.

Student: And he gave him the screen, afterwards, first he gave him the sword, but this is your strength, but to keep it you need My screen. How do we see that he gives us the screen and that we use it? Because he didn't put it together, and that was the problem, he didn't see how they have to be tied together. 

M. Laitman: It all depends on the adhesion between us, the adhesion between us such that everyone is as one man in one heart, even on the minimal, the smallest degree. Just the lowest, least measure of understanding of that sword and shield, and then we can be one vessel. 

Student: Now, in this case, the son lost both the shield and the sword then he tried to build with his own strength. How do we watch out from building something false? Meaning, one of the problems was that only after he achieved a certain degree he started looking for the father who already hid in the tower. How do we not lie to ourselves because I feel like I'm each time telling a story to myself, and it ends up being something different. Meaning this is not a vessel of bestowal. How do we not lie to ourselves? I also heard the friend before, about his pain. 

M. Laitman: Only through the connection, only through connection. 

Student: So, we have to turn to the father in the tower. 

M. Laitman: Yes, but when you all want to connect and you feel the state you're currently in compared to the desired state, you understand? Then you can turn to Him. 

Student: Meaning in feeling this gap? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:51) How do we make actions, action of connection between us, that will begin from the Creator and also end there? Not our strength and intentions but that it will be with Him, with His intention? 

M. Laitman: It all depends on the connection between us and the extent to which we all want to connect to the Creator. And so, to rise towards Him. 

Student: But how do we, because he writes that he thought he could make the sword and shield by himself, the son, and he called it tactics and deceit. Meaning, there has to be some way to go the whole way with the intention of the upper force, you have to start there. How do you start such an action that goes through Him? 

M. Laitman: Through connection with the friends. You don't have the right place to start,  if not for that; and that also you don't have but you can ask for it because it's in our hands, seemingly. And then you raise prayer, and I suppose you get something in return. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:41) You told the friend before, when he said that every friend speaks from his flaws. You told him he does not see the friends in their true way. What did you mean, what does it say? 

M. Laitman: I didn't mean anything by it, other than as we say, anyone who judges others is judging them through his own flaws. 

Student: So, what is the advice to do in that situation, a person sees that he can't trust the friends as he trusts the Rav?

M. Laitman: Why does he trust the Rav? 

Student: That's how a person feels, that the Rav, from his perspective is the Creator. He feels that there's blessing in what the Rav says. If you go after the Rav, again, it's not our sword and shield like it's written here, that’s from the Creator. And what we, he feels that what we build with our own strength, he can't rely on that. Also sees it in the friends perhaps, what is the advice in that case? 

M. Laitman: Annulment towards the society, and this annulment, itself, has to be aimed at the Creator. 

Student:  That he's going with eyes shut after the friends, hoping this is what the Creator wants from him?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And this is different from the allegory here, how, because here, he also builds it by himself, he says, I'm a hero. What's the difference between the feeling of the Creator that he lost, and the feeling of the Creator that a person still does not have when he goes, follows the friends, blindly? 

M. Laitman: I don't know about the sensation of the Creator, I'm not going into that.

Student: But here, the son wants to do his dad's will. Meaning, he's connected to Him, he feels Him, feels His pain, at least that's what he imagines. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: And to him, he's doing all these actions. He rebuilds the sword and the shield, he does it by himself. What's the difference between what he's doing and what the Rav says, to follow the friends blindly and hope the Creator is there? Why is it not the same? 

M. Laitman: It is the same. 

Student: But here, it's written in a way that this situation is condemned, that it's not good to do it that way. How to see the Creator's blessing in our action being broken, how to see that the Creator is truly giving the blessing? How to be certain there is blessing in this and to follow it, correctly? 

M. Laitman: In that you understand better and better where you are, what you're connected to, to what goal, and with your friends. All that should give you some kind of foundation on the path. 

Student: And this is supposed to give man the ability to trust and believe that if he follows the friends it'll be blessed? 

M. Laitman: Not always but they also have a Rav, they also have the articles that they want to follow and implement what's written there. And that's a higher degree they were given, it's actually the Torah. And so, the more they engage in that, the more they engage in connection for the purpose of reaching the internality of these articles through their connection. Eventually, ultimately, this should culminate in a connection with the upper force. 

Student: The friend doesn't see that the friends understand correctly, and he also really believes that there is blessing in what the Rav says as opposed to what the friends say. He feels a difference between these two things, he feels he can rely on this and not on that. 

M. Laitman: Yes? 

Student: These are things I'm hearing from friends who are afraid of that or thinking that it's going in a bad direction. And this article kind of makes it more stand out.

M. Laitman: I don't understand, exactly: Each and every friend is connected to other friends, is connected to the teacher. The teacher gives them some way of understanding the article and so they advance. They advance the more they are incorporated together.

Student: So, to trust and believe that the friend, the Rav also drives everything the friends are doing? The Rav is with them and he's also in that process?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: This is very significant, Rav, because we're doing some actions recently where we, some friends feel, me too, that we're doing it of ourselves, out of ourselves.

M. Laitman: Why, don't we talk about this in every lesson? 

Student: The workshops that we're doing without your presence, and I don't see input on the conclusions we get to in our Ten, input from the Rav, on that. We stay with our thoughts, we haven't scrutinized things with you. And, also, any Ten can come to all kinds of conclusions and it looks like we're going with that, and it influences. We discuss within the Ten, each one comes, each Ten comes to its conclusions and it's not scrutinized in front of the Rav. How could there be so many different conclusions and they're all right? 

M. Laitman: I never said that your conclusions are correct but scrutinizing them, we need to do. But again, according to the rules that we learn and according to which we need to live and overcome. And come closer and closer to the correct form of connection in which we'll discover our proper goal. How can I, what do you want of me, in short? Where do you feel that I'm missing there, for you? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:20) I think the question is, you encourage us, and I think it's right that we should become more independent. So, we ask questions about how this society should advance. And people, as part of that discussion, share their opinions but we don't know what is actually right. Or even what it means to discuss things correctly and reach an agreement.

M. Laitman: When are you discussing things? 

Student: We had a discussion on Friday. 

M. Laitman: So next time when I'm not in a discussion, pull me into the discussion. But don't ask me, I should just be present and then we can talk. That's what I would recommend.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:27) I will ask it in a very clear way because we had a discussion here, the Petach Tikva group, about how to arrange the Tens and so on. But I want to tell you one thing which is in the background, not very much spoken about, I want to put it on the table. You said more than once, that when you're not with us, there's the friend, and he determines everything. He consults with whoever he wants, and he decides. There are many opinions, as we have in every society, and it's fine, it’s well that each one has an opinion about how to organize the society, and how to disseminate, correctly, and so on. But there's no confusion, because ultimately, there's one person, and he assembles whatever team he wants. They think together, and ultimately, he decides. That's very simple for me, I have no doubt here, it's clear, and that's how we should govern ourselves when Rav isn't there. We cannot pull Rav into every single discussion, everywhere, in every Ten, it doesn't work that way, so that's the point which I think can solve things if we just understand it and accept it. That there is an organization, and an order to it, even when you're not there. It's not just about dissemination, it's the whole of the organization, that's how it's run. 

M. Laitman: Yes, in the meantime, this is so. What are we doing next, what is the order? 

Reader: (53:11) We can continue to the next part of the lesson, so let's sing.

Song: (53:20)