The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) August 12, 2024.
Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Letter No. 43
Reader: Hello, we are reading in the writings of Baal Tzolam, Letter 43. You can find the study material in kabbalahgroup.info and in the Arvut system. You can also send your questions live through those websites. Anyone asking a question in the study hall is asked to stand up, hold the mic close to his mouth and speak loudly and clearly. Letter 43.
Reading: (00:25) Letter No. 43
14 Tammuz, Tav-Reish-Peh-Zayin, July 14, 1927, London
To the honorable ... may his candle burn:
... Our sages have already said, “The fear of your teacher is as the fear of heaven.” This, therefore, will be the measure of exaltedness that such a man obtains by his sanctity, for his exaltedness will by no means exceed the exaltedness of his teacher.
What the Rijnaar boasted about—that he was awarded a higher degree than all the sages in his generation because he acquired more faith in the sages than all of his contemporaries—we need to understand that faith does not come by lending. Such faith can be acquired by six-year-old children, too, but as a feeling of the exaltedness and the inspiration to his soul from the wisdom of the sages who have shared from His wisdom to those who fear Him.
I have already said and elaborated that the biggest Masach [screen] is in the work in the children of the land of Israel, since the domination of the Canaan Klipa [shell/peel] is in this place, and each one is as low as the ground, his friend is even lower than the ground, and his rav [teacher] is like him.
Allegorically, you can say the words of our sages about the verse, “Leave Me and keep My law”—“I wish they would leave Me” means that they were proud of the exaltedness. And although “he and I cannot dwell in the same place,” still, “Keep My law,” be attached to a genuine righteous with proper faith in the sages. Then there is hope that the righteous will reform them and will sentence them to the side of merit as is appropriate for the presence of the Creator. What could come out of their humbleness and lowliness so the Creator does not move His abode from them, if they have no genuine righteous [person] to guide them in His law and prayer, and lead them to a place of Torah and wisdom?
It is already known that it is forbidden to marry one’s daughter to an uneducated man. By this they gradually dry out like dry bones, God forbid. And what can you do for them if not repeat such words from time to time until the living one will pay attention?
... It is written, “And Moses will take the tent,” etc. Why did he pitch his tent outside the camp? The fools believe that he did it to stop the flow of Hochma due to the sin. This is unthinkable, since after the sin they need the fountains of Torah and Hochma thousands of times more than before, as our sages said, “Had Israel not sinned, they would have been given only the Five Books of Moses and the book of Joshua.”
However, it is to the contrary. It is a true remedy for opening the fountains of wisdom to a faithful source, since once Moses had pitched his tent outside the camp, the craving for him inside the camp increased, as “One who has bread in his basket is not like one who,” etc., and along with it the adhesion with Him. Thus, they were rewarded with expansion of Moses’ soul among them, for which they were called “the generation of knowledge.”
I have already said and reminded you the words of teaching that I said on the festival of Shavuot [Feast of Weeks] prior to my departure from you about the verse, “Run My beloved, and be like a gazelle”: “As the gazelle turns its face back when it runs,” etc., for having no other way to make a Panim [face/anterior], they devise this tactic—bringing the Panim to the Achoraim [back/posterior]. It is as it is written, “So is the Creator when,” etc., “He turns His face back,” since the sensation of separation and Achoraim, and the inability to receive the Panim of Kedusha [holiness] increase the sparks of craving tremendously, until the Achoraim become Panim, since the tablets were written on both sides. You should be noticing these things by now.
Yehuda
M. Laitman: Yes, this is the letter and if there are any questions, go ahead, please. None, okay, indeed it is such that it doesn't open up, here, anything besides whatever the time has caused.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (07:38) Is there no way of receiving the importance of Moses without extracting himself from the camp?
M. Laitman: I can't say about those people, that generation, about those deeds but apparently, it all follows the need.
Student: It's only in such form where they first have to depart and then look back, return their face back and you can't appreciate them before?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: Good, because in the beginning he gives advice that your teacher should be as your fear of heaven.
M. Laitman: I don't know but apparently, no. All of the actions, all of the incidents that are written about in the Torah, they are necessary acts and incidents. This is how it needs to be, could it be otherwise, I don't know but if it happened, then apparently, in advance even from the beginning of creation, it had to happen and the fact that it disappeared, that he disappeared, it gives a greater feeling of a deficiency.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:25) What does it mean, may you leave me and keep my law?
M. Laitman: Well, this means the Torah, it's the connection between people and the Creator, right? So this is the most important.
Student: Why is the Creator saying, I wish they would leave me. We have to hold on to, There's None One Besides Him, all the time.
M. Laitman: Yes, but we should see that to hold on to the Torah is the most important and without that you also won't have any connection with the Creator.
Student: What does it mean to hold on to the law, to the Torah?
M. Laitman: To hold on means to keep, love your friend as yourself, first of all.
Student: You always have to remember what for, what is the goal?
M. Laitman: Yes, that's for sure.
Student: So, it's not good to me, may they leave me. What is that?
M. Laitman: I wish they would leave me means, that don't turn to me, don't nag to me. I mean, you have something to do, I want to see that first.
Student: The work is between us.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:08) It says, there's no tactic to bring the device is tactic to bring the Panim to the Achoraim. What does it mean to do that in the Ten?
M. Laitman: In the Ten, I can't say, I can't say. Usually Rabash did not interpret such things, apparently he wanted us to attain them by ourselves. This is why, I don't have, I mean, I can't recall hearing something about it, well, Panim and the Achoriam back and face, we understand that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:12) He writes, here, in this letter about faith in the teacher, and its importance, and he talks about it from two perspectives. On the one hand, the teacher is the one who raises the person, the group. On the other hand, he talks about the expansion of the soul of Moses between them. What does it mean that the expansion of the soul of the teacher is among them in the Ten, in the group?
M. Laitman: Well, that, too, is a great thing, that the teacher comes down to them and gives them the possibility to connect with him and that he will create a connection among them and will guide them on the path.
Student: It has nothing to do with whether or not he's in the camp with them or not. It's a system?
M. Laitman: Yes, it is a system.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:23) We see in the last generations, at least, when the righteous departs from the world, there will be several streams that will argue that they continue the faith in their teacher. Is it possible, is it logical, is it real? Or is there the truth, and then there's deviations from the truth?
M. Laitman: There is truth and there are deviations and nobody knows what truly happens. But the fact that there are a few that claim that, well, let them try; over time, we see what is their worth.
Student: I'm connecting it to the evening we had, yesterday. It's tied close to this letter, loyal to the path, following the footsteps of our teachers, we also got to know the ideological group. I want to ask how do we need to take as a group a promise or a principle that we continue together, not in several different paths.
M. Laitman: So, first of all, we need to make sure that we are together around the same first higher source. That we want to get closer to Him, to adhere to Him, that's it and work on that, to be as one man in one heart around Rabash, let's say.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:26) He writes in the end, I wish you'll leave my law. He says that, he gives an advice to be adhered to the faith in the sages, that the righteous will reform them. What does it mean that a person feels this impression, is proud of it? He writes that it's a Klipa, it's a shell.
M. Laitman: To be proud in where one is, if it's the group, the path, that's not a shell.
Student: He says that He and I cannot dwell in the same abode, in the same place in that state.
M. Laitman: Well?
Student: and then he recommends belief in the sages, faith in the sages, that the righteous will reform them. What is this action, that the righteous will reform them?
M. Laitman: If they are adhered to their teacher who passed away then that will help them to be reformed. All in all, we need to perform actions that bring us the reforming light.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:28) He talks about acquiring faith, even the little ones, the six years olds can do it, but his feeling of the exaltedness and the inspiration to resolve in the wisdom of the sages, who have shared from his wisdom to those who fear him, who have already said and elaborated on the biggest screen in the work of the children of the Land of Israel. Is the adherence to Rav, the greatest thing?
M. Laitman: This is the condition, without that, a person does not enter the track.
Student: He says also that they should be adhered to the true righteous with the proper faith in the sages. What does it mean to be adhered to the genuine righteous?
M. Laitman: It means to follow him.
Student: Follow him in faith above reason; however he instructs us, like you instruct us, and you walk with him on the trail.
M. Laitman: Yes, and the most important is above reason.
Student: And that's the hope that he reforms us?
M. Laitman: That's for sure, if a person keeps that, then for certain he's following his teachers.
Student: He said to the friend that he wants us to do all the work between us.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Here he says that Moses left the camp with his tent and created a deficiency in the camp and vice versa. And I remember the days after COVID that we came back to the study hall to study, and you were still upstairs in your room and I felt a deficiency how much we wanted you to be back here to teach us. It really reminded me of that period, the desire to study with you together in the hall.
M. Laitman: It's a true memory, we will continue together, we will continue.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:41) He writes in the beginning, here, that his exaltedness will by no means exceed the exaltedness of his teacher. What is this, why do they need to be equal and one cannot exceed the other?
M. Laitman: Well, this is how it is written about the decline of the generations. The teacher is always the teacher, he's higher than the student, even though it is possible that the student will be more successful in interpretations, or in explanation, or in working with the public, the audience. But nevertheless, the teacher is the root.
Student: If I understand, correctly, he relates to the teacher, to the Creator versus the teacher.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: You cannot have the exaltedness of one over the other, the Creator and the teacher, it can't be that one can be higher than the other. How can such a thing even be? How does it work that the teacher is on the level of the Creator?
M. Laitman: Well, with respect to that student, it is possible because everything he receives, he receives it through the teacher. This is why what he knows about the Creator, he also received that from his teacher, and so in his eyes, it is possible that it seems to him that they are equal. Even though according to our view, we understand, that how can it be that some human being, let him be whoever he is, that he will be like the Creator? With respect to the students, to the same extent that he appreciates the teacher, he also appreciates the Creator, that is possible.
Student: What should the student work on so he can receive from the teacher? It turns out that in the end, he receives from the teacher, he doesn't receive, directly.
M. Laitman: Of course, that's the whole role of the teacher, what the teacher needs to do to teach the student to follow the footsteps of the Creator.
Student: And when he writes, here, later that they have to be adhered to the genuine righteous and faith in the sages with the hope that the righteous will reform them. So also here, it turns out that everything lies with the teacher. So, what should the students do in addition to expecting the teacher to perform these actions on them?
M. Laitman: They need to pray and to expect it, what can you do? The teacher is the connection between them, between all of them and the Creator.
Student: So, how do they strengthen this connection because we always?
M. Laitman: Through the connection between them and annulment towards the teacher.
Student: It stands out that you always direct us at the Creator and never at you and here he says that specifically through the teacher, you will reach the Creator. Why is it arranged like this? That the teacher never directs at himself but always at the Creator?
M. Laitman: Because, well, seemingly he's not required and it's forbidden even. How can I say this, he wants them to be directed towards the Creator, that's his goal. In teaching them, in organizing them, and to see to what extent they connect and enter the same trail.
Student: The ascent of the students, it's a teacher's decision, that it's time for them to ascend? How does it work that they rise and resemble the Creator. Is it a decision that the teacher is doing over them?
M. Laitman: It all comes from the Creator, it all comes from the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:48) Is there a degree where the teacher and the students become equal or they equalize in something?
M. Laitman: I don't think so, I don't know about such a thing. It happens as we read in the sources about the ARI but it is such an exception.
Student: He writes about one who merited a great degree by acquiring faith in the sages more than all his contemporaries. How to acquire strong faith in the sages?
M. Laitman: It's according to the same rules that we learn. We need to be connected, and to connect to their teacher and help him as much as possible. All in all, these are the rules.
Student: He writes that they are gradually, they dry like dry bones, they dry like bones. What dries you on the path?
M. Laitman: When we don't receive the light of Torah. When, today, becomes to them like yesterday, and yesterday like the day before, and so on. They just drank the time.
Student: What does a person do when he detects himself in that state?
M. Laitman: He has to fight against this direction, this tendency.
Student: In what, I sometimes hear from friends that they ask the same questions, they learn the same things. They don't feel true innovation, they feel but not truly.
M. Laitman: Maybe that's how it seems to them, I mean, okay, it's the same words. What can we do, all in all, how many letters or words do we have but we need to try each time to find innovation. To see in every word what new meaning or higher interpretation I have for it compared to yesterday, a deeper one.
Student: What does a friend fight over when he feels that today's lesson is like yesterday's?
M. Laitman: He has to awaken himself, he has to awaken himself, that's the whole problem. That it seems to us that it's the same words that I heard before. and so, behind the words, I imagine to myself the same forms, as before but that is not true, the words might be the same words but the things, the forms that we can depict behind them, it's new each time.
Student: What brings the source of innovation, what brings forth that source?
M. Laitman: The deficiency in a person, suddenly we feel in the same words something new that wasn't there before. Where did it come from, from our deficiency.
Student: How do I awaken this deficiency so it will be innovated?
M. Laitman: That's what he writes about, that I need to renew the deficiency and I have to awaken it, and to be concerned that it will be renewed and through each one shall help his friend, each and every day I search for a greater connection with my friends and the style of connection, the intensity of connection and this is how each and every day I reach discovering a new Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:53) I wish to read the last excerpt: I was reminded to you about the teaching, prior to my departure from you, about the verse, Run, my beloved, and be like a gazelle. As the gazelle turns its face back when it runs, etc., grabbing no other way to make a Panim, a face, they devised this tactic, bringing the Panim, the face, to the Achoriam, the posterior. As it is written, so is the Creator, when, etc., He turns His face back since the sensation of separation and posterior and the inability to receive the face of sanctity increase the sparks of craving tremendously until the Achoriam. The posterior become the face, since the tablets were written on both sides and you should be noticing these things by now. What should we notice, right now, if you can explain that.
M. Laitman: Everything is written here. Everything is written here and I have nothing to add.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:14) That's what I wanted to say but Baal HaSulam gives an example about Moses, possibly himself and the students. That he departs intentionally, he could even stay here and be in the same concealment, the same posterior. It's out of this yearning and the sparks of yearning, craving, rise tremendously until the Achoriam become the Panim. All these sparks need to be together, need to raise this yearning so the posterior will become the face, since the tablets were written on both sides. What is this example about?
M. Laitman: That the tablets are written from both sides, from one side, and also on the other side.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:22) You taught us that when you were with Rabash, you asked him what is the main thing about the study with the teacher. He said the main thing is to reach a study of mouth-to-mouth, Peh to Peh. The question is do we have the privilege to yearn to reach such a level with you?
M. Laitman: This all depends on the Creator, we need to ask of Him, that He will allow us to come closer to our teachers, which is Baal HaSulam and Rabash. So that we will be able to learn from them mouth-to-mouth.
Student: No, but through you, only?
M. Laitman: Well, whatever way the Creator will arrange it.
Student: There were questions, here, about renewal, renewing the deficiency.
M. Laitman: The renewal of the deficiency depends on each and every one, it's an individual matter. A person should constantly be concerned about the renewal of the deficiency.
Student: The study of mouth-to-mouth is only a student with the Rav? Or also a group with the Rav?
M. Laitman: In the group but also with the student. We need to reach such a connection, even though it's not simple at all.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:05) To continue, can you advise to a friend who feels that he's drying out? He's concerned about it but he sees how gradually he needs?
M. Laitman: Well, we have to start with checking himself. What is his daily routine? Where can he add in a simple way. Let's say to come to the lesson, to do this, to do that. whatever they want of him, whatever they demand of him, whatever he can add by himself to the whole process. Meaning, as it is written, I dwell among my own people; this means that he connects to the general flow that is in that group and try. Try, to such that everyone connects to the same idea, to the same goal. And in this way it works, it sees how it happens.
Student: The framework is the plank that he's holding to when the waves are coming.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:56) Trying to arrange the correct attitude to the teacher. Until which point the teacher accompanies his student on the path to adhesion? From which point the person, at which point the person begins to attain according to his soul?
M. Laitman: So what, does that hinder him? It doesn't hinder him.
Student: No, no, not that they clash but the question is about arranging the importance toward the teacher. The more a person advances, he attains from within his soul.
M. Laitman: So, does that hinder him from adhering to his teacher, even more?
Student: No, not that, it's a hindrance, but.
M. Laitman: Seemingly, he doesn't need him?
Student: No,
M. Laitman: No, it's the opposite.
Student: So why does he need him because the more he advances,
M. Laitman: He receives everything through the teacher. The ladder of degrees does not change.
Student: The fact that he receives through the teacher becomes clear, it's taken for granted because that's a ladder of degrees. The question is what kind of attitude he has to arrange each time toward the teacher so it will not become something to be taken for granted? Or you should be taking it for granted.
M. Laitman: The teacher is his upper one and he should always be adhered to his upper one.
Student: He represents the values of the upper one toward him each time.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: A student should not aspire for his teacher's attainment and rise above it?
M. Laitman: Yes, let it be so.
Student: He should aspire for it?
M. Laitman: He should aspire for everything, be the very first one behind the Creator.
Student: Is it possible or he should always keep himself below the teacher?
M. Laitman: No, it's possible, and actually such an inclination is respected.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:12) He gives the example with the camp, here. And it says, and Moses pitched his tent and why did he pitch his tent outside the camp? This is the trustworthy virtue for opening the fountains of wisdom to a faithful or reliable source. This example for us, what is the practical application of it? Is there anything to it?
M. Laitman: No, there's nothing, here, we're not in it yet and you shouldn't imagine or dream.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:14) I heard you say that when the teacher is worthy, the Rav comes down to him and guides him on the path towards the King's palace, towards correction. My question is with Moses, when he comes down to a person internally. Is it revealed in a small group, is it revealed to the people of Israel? Or is it revealed to the whole world?
M. Laitman: I don't know, let's see how it's revealed.
Student: Moses should be one Moses for everyone, as one Messiah, one teacher for all the people of humanity? Or is there some other form where there are many teachers who are revealed the way they should be revealed to each and every group?
M. Laitman: There's all kinds, I can't say; by each generation and its teachers, okay? So we're good.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:30) I want to go back to this topic of the posterior that turns into anterior. Posterior, or back, if I understand it correctly, he writes it means separation, disconnection, and he says that the more it increases this disconnection and distancing, it becomes the Panim, the face.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Now, we know that the Panim, face, is connection, the light of Rachamim, of mercy and revelation.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How does one become the other?
M. Laitman: It depends on one's attitude, how a person relates to it. The Panim, face, is what shines, illuminates, important; posterior, the back side, is not important, and so it depends how a person relates to them. Does he see in the posterior new vessels that he's about to correct and then they'll be filled, and they specifically, will be that force that raises them up.
Student: They will be, yes, but in the present they're not yet.
M. Laitman: Not in the present, that's why they're called posterior.
Student: So he's happy about what will be?
M. Laitman: Yes,
Student: He sees that it's built out of it.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Kyiv 1): (42:19) How, in a state where the Creator gives the posterior. How to be connected to the Creator and not to become separated by this state?
M. Laitman: With the help of the society, the group, that is together with the person, the person then connects to the group even more and together with the group, he cleaves to the posterior more than before. In this, he reaches a state where they raise him to a higher degree of connection.
Question (Beer Sheva): (43:07) There are questions by the friends about the topic of how do we reach renewal. You mentioned that a person should come out of his deficiency. My question is, we, as the last generation, can we actually dive in and extract the renewal, the innovation by increasing the vessel, by taking examples from the world clearly and adding their deficiency to us? Or is that a mistake to think like that?
M. Laitman: We need to try in every front until we come to a state of as one man in one heart.
Question (H 10): (44:01) About the greatness of the Rav, as we talked before. First of all, I want to tell you, you saved my life! Without B'nei Baruch, I wouldn't be alive today, this place of B'nei Baruch is so important and what you teach us. So my question is we know that in B'nei Baruch in Israel, or maybe outside of Israel, there are already friends in attainment. So, does your degree go above those that are, that have the highest illumination? Or remain below those that are least illuminated?
M. Laitman: On everyone.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:00) I want to ask a question about last evening, indeed, it was a very special evening. One of the special things was actually about the ideological group that, for the very first time was with us. And we felt them together and I wanted to ask first of all: How should we relate towards this group in relation, for example, compared to how we relate to the friends, let's say, how do you see that?
M. Laitman: I didn't think about it. I'm not thinking about myself at all. I also have a bit of confusion, today, because a friend of mine from the passed, passed away, and that influences me greatly, it just confuses me a little bit. No more questions? Ask!
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:23) We have a team responsible for the Tens in the society. Sometimes friends come to them and they say they dry out, they become degenerated. And sometimes it's expressed in lack of greatness of the friends, they can't see that. Sometimes they say, well, everybody's going to be virtual, so I'm going to stay home and be virtual, and we have more than one or two of those friends. How can we correctly awaken them? Well, seemingly, there are two sides to it, either: I don't see the greatness of the friends; or the friends are not influencing me; or the friends remain virtual and they don't come here physically. So how to correctly awaken the friends with love, not to kill them?
M. Laitman: If it's love, I don't think there's a difference. Whether he's close to me or he's removed from me by some distance, why is it so important if you've reached love and the connection between you.
Student: If we don't feel the love, how to correctly awaken the friends? If I don't see that they're coming closer, if I see that they're drying out but they are standing, firmly, and say, so move me to another Ten, that's their claim. How to correctly recommend to them, first activate the Ten, you have a vessel activated correctly with love,
M. Laitman: True.
Student: He goes forcefully against them. For example, you once told us that you came to awaken the friends and you made some noise at night, and you said it wasn't so nice with respect to the neighbors, etc. So maybe you have a recommendation how to correctly awaken?
M. Laitman: To awaken, correctly, it's always when you don't influence the environment but only that person or that group you wish to influence. That's one thing, and the other thing is, that you choose such actions that will make it clear to them and not to others. When you work, when we see that there is a lack of awakening in our friends, we need to draw them toward us somehow and show them that you can add, here, and you can gain, you can profit along the way.
Student: How to pull them, correctly, so that they won't feel it as a sting because before you said it's individual work, you have to awaken yourself.
M. Laitman: No, I don't think that it's possible to do it, to be in this work without awakening the friends. You have to show them that you are on fire, that you have a sense of importance to speak to them about it. Without a personal example, it will not work. It will not work.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:58) Friends are asking me, who is your friend that passed? Who was he for you?
M. Laitman: He is a friend of mine, although it's been 30 years or more that we barely meet. I went to the United States with him for a month; we were there with our families. I came with my family, my son, and he was with his wife and his daughter. He used to sing and play, sometimes, but he worked in printing. He got it from his dad, inherited it, and he continued to work there. That's what he had.
Student: What was his connection to Kabbalah?
M. Laitman: That's how I met him, he came to me and said he wants to become a student of the Rabash. I was responsible for receiving, for taking in new students, so I talked to him and I helped him.
Student: What does a Kabbalist feel when a friend of his passes away?
M. Laitman: On the one hand, it's a pity; on the other hand, there's not much sorrow because you exist but in two worlds. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:28) It's okay to mourn in the Torah but not to regret things, right? That wasn't the question but in these letters, he's wise, Baal HaSulam, but in his interpersonal work, he's not so great, he's not a person that is easy to get along with. Five, six people, look how he relates to them, he constantly complains and attacks them, and look at him, look at this one, look at that one, the way they behave. Why does the student always say he's less than the teacher? There are things that you can do that the teacher can't do, so why does one lower the other?
M. Laitman: I cannot say, we'll discover it, together.
Student: The fact that he had a method but if you just would talk to him on the side, he doesn't seem like a very pleasant person.
M. Laitman: Pleasant, no, all the great ones, those who are great in the Torah, it's not that they're tough as nails, as iron. They have no pity on anyone, no mercy, all according to the laws of the Torah.
Student: Yes, but in the end, the multitude of people is the King's glory. The mass of the people, 95% that's out there, they're garbage, but that's what you live by, that's your relation to people. If you can't manage yourself, I mean, these are the laws of Torah, right? You need to love people, you need to see them as great. Most of the time it doesn't seem like he sees anyone as great.
M. Laitman: We'll see, we'll be wiser, have more seniority, experience and we'll understand and see, it's not simple.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:07) He writes here that the faith in the Rav should be from the side of the emotion and exaltedness, and inspiration. Why does the Creator hide from the student the greatness of his Rav, his teacher?
M. Laitman: He doesn't hide it, He does it on purpose in order to give the student a place for work.
Student: So, exactly, when we read the letter it brought up a lot of pain in me that you know in your intellect and you're very grateful for how great your Rav is, and like the friend spoke about the feeling of gratitude to even have a chance to sit and hear him. But on the other hand, you still feel a great gap and how much more is still missing in the way you relate to him and it's as if you're chained by it, he doesn't let you. You once told us that you were together with a future teller with Rabash, and she told you now what a great person you're with, and you felt that. So, how can we improve the way we relate and not a few years later discover what a great Rav we had?
M. Laitman: We never have the possibility of valuing the teacher correctly.
Student: Exactly, seemingly, the Creator creates this on purpose, this form.
M. Laitman: Because we're not on his level, it's natural. What can you do, but together with that, we need to work from within our faith.
Student: Can we complain to the Creator about it?
M. Laitman: Not a complaint but a request to see a bit more, compared to what I can see now in my teacher, so I'll be able to advance thanks to that. Because after all, our ascent depends on the extent to which we appreciate, we value the upper one and the upper one, no matter what you say, let's say, me toward you. So to me, my upper one is Rabash, I learned from him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:07) He explains here that, precisely, through the distancing of Moses from them, from the camp, precisely, by that the craving towards him increased inside the camp, along with that, adhesion with him specifically when he moved away from them. The question is, is there a way to reach the same level of yearning without the teacher moving away, when he's still with them?
M. Laitman: I don't think so, I don't think so, it's unrealistic. A person cannot appreciate something that is nearby, that is close to his hands.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:05) He relates to the fact that there is faith in the sages here. Through faith in the sages that he acquired being the greatest of his generation, the Reishner. Then, he continues and says that faith does not come by lending, such faith can also be acquired by six-year-old children. What does he mean?
M. Laitman: Yes, I don't know.
Student: That what, faith in the sages is just the beginning?
M. Laitman: The sages is the beginning, it's a means.
Student: What does it mean that he defines him as the greatest among his contemporaries in his generation?
M. Laitman: I don't know, let's keep going.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:14) You said that it is impossible to see something great when a person is inside of it. Is this some kind of a law that you cannot appreciate someone who's great if you're close to him? Is this a law?
M. Laitman: It's a law.
Student: Can we choose or initiate to move away and, in order to feel the greatness, the greatness of the teacher or the friends? Or is this something we shouldn't do?
M. Laitman: Try. Rabash used to say, it was very, very, very difficult no matter how much I wanted to respect my father. It's extremely difficult because you're close, you're his son, you can't, it's very difficult.
Student: Yes, that's clear, I'm looking for solutions: Iis the solution of moving away a good one or it's not worthwhile?
M. Laitman: No, no, the solution is not to distance yourself, the solution is to look for tactics without physically distancing yourself, without changing anything. To remain a student, to stay connected to him but to grow and increase those connections.
Student: Can you recommend such tactics from your experience? Things you did with Rabash?
M. Laitman: No, no, first of all, you don't have such opportunities, but no, only the work between the friends, you can grow the greatness of the teacher there, that's it.
Reader: We have another short letter by Baal HaSulam, or should we completely change the topic?
M. Laitman: No, read it.
Reader: Okay, so we're reading from The Writings of Baal HaSulam, in Hebrew, page 748, Letter 48. Again, we're reading from The Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 48.
Reading: (01:02:58) Letter 48 9 Elul, Tav-Reish-Peh-Zayin, September 6, 1927, London
To the students, may the Lord be upon you:
I received all your letters, and what ... wrote me about the humiliations and the papers about him, he should believe me that I share and fully sympathize with his pain and misery. He should know that I feel his pain more than he himself.
But the Creator will grant him doubly, and if he could brace himself and act by the conduct of a servant of the Creator to say with honesty, “The Creator permitted all who afflict me,” I would advise him to greatly strengthen himself in this, and it will help him in all his ways.
Concerning his questions whether he can show the letter and the words of Torah of the sage’s fruit, “And you will be only joyful,” he can certainly show it to all the friends.
In the letter of ... may his candle burn, I am glad to see that he has already begun to do what I want him to in this matter.
And what ... wrote, that he sees no other way but come to my house himself, I agree with him on that, and my thoughts are already occupied with preparing supplies for the way and to rush my arrival at my home as much as possible. I have much work to do regarding that, to stand up to all the preventions that rise against me to detain me here for longer.
He should ask my son ... why he has not informed me of the complete reconciliation that I learned about.
And thank ... for the information concerning the friends’ party on the fifth of Sukkot, and concerning the whole issue between the friends, I have already written that we need not do much about it because with the Creator’s help, He will finish for us, who have already begun for the glory of His name.
Yehuda Leib
M. Laitman: Okay, this letter is between him, himself and them. Let's go.
Reader: We'll move on to the next part of the lesson and let's sing a song before that.
Song: (01:06:12)