The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning), September 22, 2024.
Part 1: Rabash. A Prayer of Many. 15 (1986)
Reader: We wanted to have our entire day be around prayer, we want to enter a common attack on the prayer, so we chose the article, “A Prayer of Many” by Rabash and we'll read it.
Reading Article: (00:23) A Prayer of Many. 15 (1986)
It is written in The Zohar (Beshalach (When Pharaoh Let), and in the Sulam Commentary, Item 11), “And she said, ‘I dwell among my own people.’ He asks, ‘What does that mean?’ He replies, ‘When Din is present in the world, one should not part from the collective and be alone because when the Din is present in the world, those who are noticed and are noted alone are caught first, even if they are righteous. Hence, one should never retire from the people because the mercy of the Creator is always on the whole people together. This is why she said, ‘I dwell among my own people,’ and I do not wish to part from them.’”
“When Din is present in the world” refers to the desire to receive, which is self-love, the nature in which the creatures are born, due to His will to do good to His creations. And because there was a desire for equivalence of form so there would not be the bread of shame, a sentence [Din] was passed that it is forbidden to use the vessels of reception, except when one knows that he can aim for the reception to be in order to bestow. Then, one is permitted to use the vessels of reception.
Accordingly, the meaning of “When Din is present in the world” is that when the whole world is immersed in self-love, there is darkness in the world because there is no room for the light to draw the creatures down due to the disparity of form between the light and the creatures who receive the light. It is on this disparity of form that the sentence was passed that the upper abundance will not be given to the creatures.
Therefore, when a person awakens and wishes for the Creator to bring him closer, meaning give him vessels of bestowal, which is called “bringing closer,” he asks the Creator to help him. However, it is known that the help that comes from the Creator is called “upper abundance,” which is called Neshama, “a soul.” It is as The Zohar says, that the aid received from above is in a holy soul.
For this reason, when a person comes to ask the Creator to bring him closer to Him, but he is seen alone, it means that he understands that the Creator must bring him closer personally. Yet, why does he think that the public can remain in its current state and that only he should be treated differently by the Creator?
It is because he understands that he has merits that others do not. And although these are individuals who do not belong to the collective because they understand that they deserve to draw near the Creator more than others and consider themselves righteous, they are caught first. In other words, the Din, which is self-reception, is present in them more than in all the others, and they become worse than others in the qualities of self-love.
This is so because he thinks that he deserves more than other people. In other words, it is enough for other people to have what they have, but when he considers himself, he deserves more than the rest of the people. This thought is considered actual reception, meaning 100% self-love. It follows that self-love begins to develop in him more than in others.
It therefore follows that he is constantly working in self-love. And yet, to his own eyes, he seems righteous, since he wishes to work as a giver. He tells himself that his request of the Creator to bring him closer is right because what is he asking? For the Creator to give him strength to keep Torah and Mitzvot in order to bestow. And what fault could there be in wishing to serve the King?
With that, we can interpret the words of The Zohar. It advises those people with an inner demand, who cannot accept the state they are in because they do not see any progress in the work of God, and believe what is written (Deuteronomy 30:20), “To love the Lord your God, to listen to His voice, and to cleave unto Him; for this is your life, and the length of your days.” They see that they lack love and Dvekut [adhesion/cleaving], and they do not feel the life in the Torah or know how to find counsel for their souls to come to feel in their organs that which the text tells us.
The advice is to ask for the whole collective. In other words, everything that one feels that he is lacking and asks fulfillment for, he should not say that he is an exception or deserves more than what the collective has. Rather, “I dwell among my own people,” meaning I am asking for the entire collective because I wish to come to a state where I will have no care for myself whatsoever, but only for the Creator to have contentment. Therefore, it makes no difference to me if the Creator takes pleasure in me or can receive the same pleasure from others.
In other words, he asks the Creator to give us such an understanding, which is called, “entirely for the Creator.” It means that he will be certain that he is not deceiving himself that he wants to bestow upon the Creator, that perhaps he is really thinking only of his own self-love, meaning that he will feel the delight and pleasure.
Therefore, he prays for the collective. This means that if there are a few people in the collective who can reach the goal of Dvekut with the Creator, and this will bring the Creator more contentment than if he himself were rewarded with nearing the Creator, he excludes himself. Instead, he wishes for the Creator to help them because this will bring more contentment above than from his own work. For this reason, he prays for the collective, that the Creator will help the entire collective and will give them that feeling—that they receive satisfaction from being able to bestow upon the Creator, to bring Him contentment.
And since everything requires an awakening from below, he gives the awakening from below, and others will receive the awakening from above, to whomever the Creator knows will be more beneficial for the Creator.
It follows that if he has the strength to ask for such a prayer, then he will certainly face a true test—if he agrees to such a prayer. However, if he knows that what he is saying is only lip service, what can he do when he sees that the body disagrees with such a prayer to have pure bestowal without a hint of reception?
Here there is only the famous advice—to pray to the Creator and believe above reason that the Creator can help him and the whole collective. And he should not be impressed if he sees that he has already prayed many times but his prayer was not answered. This brings one to despair and the body mocks him and tells him, “Can’t you see that you cannot do a thing? And as if you are completely hopeless, you are now asking of the Creator to grant you things that are unacceptable to reasonable people.”
At that time, the body argues, “Do tell me, who among the pious and practical people wish for the Creator to give them something that is completely unreasonable? Moreover, you can see for yourself that you were not granted even smaller things than the demand you are making now of the Creator to help you, even though you asked the Creator to help you. And now you say that you want to ask the Creator to grant you something great. It is indeed a very important thing because there aren’t many prayers in the world that ask the Creator to give them strength to do things for the collective, that the whole public will be rewarded with delight and pleasure by your labor. This is called ‘pure and clean bestowal without a hint of self-love.’
“And you think that your prayer for small things was not granted, but great and important things are certainly priceless.” For example, we might say that it is worthwhile to go to a certain person who has such precious paraphernalia that you’d have to search the entire world to find such objects, since they are found only among a chosen few. And a person from the middle-class came, who barely had the usual paraphernalia in his house, and it suddenly occurred to him that he, too, should try to obtain those objects, too, which are found among the chosen few. Certainly, if someone heard about it he would laugh at him.
It is the same for us. When a person is not educated, but is below average, yet wishes to ask the Creator for Kelim [vessels] that are found with a chosen few in the world, here the body itself mocks him. It tells him, “You fool, how can you even think of asking the Creator for something that even learned people do not have? How can I give you strength to work on such nonsense?”
And here begins the real work, since man’s work in this world is to exit the domain of the evil inclination, which is called “receiving in order to receive.” And now he wishes for the Creator to help him walk on the path of pure and clean bestowal without a hint of self-reception.
It follows that this work is truly against the evil, since he does not wish to leave any possessions with it. Rather, now he wants his work henceforth to not be for the will to receive. Rather, he asks the Creator that even what he worked for before, and what was registered in the domain of the will to receive, will all be moved from its authority to the authority of the Creator.
It follows that now he prays for the Creator to give him the strength to repent. That is, the Creator will give him the strength to bring all the deeds that were for the will to receive back to the Creator’s domain, both those of the past, and those of the future. It is as Maimonides says (Laws of Repentance, Chapter 2), “Repentance must be for the past, as well.”
He writes, “What is repentance? It is for the sinner to leave his sin and remove it from his mind, and resolve in his heart never to do it again, as it is written, ‘Let the wicked forsake his way.’ And he should also regret the past, as it is said, ‘For after I turned back, I repented,’ and He who knows all mysteries will testify that he will never return to this sin.”
Now we can understand the importance of a prayer of many, as it is written, “I dwell among my own people.” The Zohar says, “One should never retire from the people because the mercy of the Creator is always on the whole people together.” This means that if one asks the Creator to give him vessels of bestowal, as our sages said, “As He is merciful, you be merciful, too,” one should pray for the whole collective. This is because then it is apparent that his aim is for the Creator to give him vessels of pure bestowal, as it was written, “The mercy of the Creator is always on the whole people together.” It is known that there is no giving of half a thing from above. This means that when abundance is given from above to below, it is for the whole collective.
For this reason, one must ask for the whole public, since any abundance that comes from above, always comes for the whole people. This is why he says, “The mercy of the Creator is always on the whole people.” Thus, there are two meanings to that, since to have pure bestowal, it would have been enough to pray for only one person besides himself. But there is another issue here—a person must ask for a whole thing because it is a rule in spirituality that what comes is always a complete thing, and all the observations are only in the receivers. For this reason, one should ask for the whole collective.
And since the abundance comes to the whole collective, and since there is no light without a Kli [vessel], meaning it is impossible to receive fulfillment if there is no vacancy for it where the filling can enter, he is therefore answered for that prayer that he was making for the public. It is as our sages said (Baba Kama, 92), “Anyone who pleads for mercy on his friend is answered first, since he needs the same thing.” It means that although the abundance comes to the collective, the collective lacks the Kelim.
In other words, the abundance that comes from above is enough for the whole people, but without Kelim—deficiencies, so they can fill the cavities—the public does not attain the abundance that comes from above. Rather, he who has deficiencies is answered first.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:15) Meaning, the request a person makes is for the collective, the Ten, but one who attains the abundance, when he attains the abundance, the vessels are not with everyone. So, how does he, how can he fill everyone's vessels in order to ask for everyone, to fill, who am I asking for, so that the request would be to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, how can I fill each and every Ten in the Ten, or the entire Ten in order to fill?
M. Laitman: The entire Ten.
Student: So, how do I fill the entire Ten? I want to fill it.
M. Laitman: Like for example, a woman who has many children, she feels the lack of all of them.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:14) He writes, anyone who asks for mercy is answered first. If I pray for my friend, I am rewarded before him.
M. Laitman: You receive and then it flows through you to him.
Student: What's the incentive here? It's like exploiting the friend in order to receive.
M. Laitman: No, you want to exploit the friend in order to give to him.
Student: To give him, but what motivates me is that I will receive first.
M. Laitman: No. No.
Student: What? What's a prayer for one friend? What's a request for one friend? What does it mean to ask for the entire Ten?
M. Laitman: What does it mean to ask for the entire Ten? That the Ten will be for you as a single person, as a friend.
Student: So one who prays for the Ten is rewarded first. He receives and it passes through him to everyone.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And what are the stages for making a prayer of the Ten, a common prayer of the entire Ten to the Creator?
M. Laitman: They have many desires, many attainments even, perhaps, and they wish to join them together.
Student: That's a prayer?
M. Laitman: It's a special kind of work
Student: Is it preparation for prayer or is it the prayer itself?
M. Laitman: No, it's preparation.
Student: And what's the next stage?
M. Laitman: They feel that there's one man in one heart, and they begin then to demand.
Student: So if we wish to build a prayer today, it will come to a moment of prayer.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It means that we have to make an effort to connect, to connect our desires as one.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And what's the result of the effort?
M. Laitman: You feel each other as one man.
Student: And from the feeling of as one man, is this a direct outcome that comes or is there another action that comes from us?
M. Laitman: No, to feel everyone as one man.
Student: And what happens from here, what's the order of the actions?
M. Laitman: From here, you turn to the Creator, as you want to be in one heart, and He is in charge of that heart, and you demand that He supply you with the desire, the fulfillment to that desire.
Student: To fill us, that's our request.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What do we need this fulfillment for?
M. Laitman: To resemble the Creator; to be close to Him.
Student: And then the desired outcome is, we feel as one Ten in one heart with the Creator inside of us?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How long does this state last, or should last?
M. Laitman: As long as you can hold.
Student: So, it enlivens this feeling all the time, so it won't stop, but actually grows stronger.
M. Laitman: That's out of our hands.
Student: Again, the desire grows and we start all over again.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:03) Throughout the entire article, there's a very clear line, where he writes that a person constantly gives up on himself, makes concessions for the attainment of others, the contentment of others. So, what's happening here? It turns out that there's no exertion that develops a person. He works so others will…
M. Laitman: It's his own exertion.
Student: His exertion develops them, not himself.
M. Laitman: Instead of demanding for himself, he demands connection. And through the connection, he can fulfill the others.
Student: But ultimately, he brings attainment to others. The friends develop.
M. Laitman: Yes, but through him.
Student: Okay, but it turns out that the exertion each one is putting in, is in order to develop others.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, how does he develop? Everyone develops the others?
M. Laitman: By being connected to the others, and through them, the abundance passes.
Student: Abundance passes through a person. He's developed from that?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course.
Student: What does he give up here when he says he gives up his person?
M. Laitman: His self-reception. He doesn't want to receive anything for himself. He only wants to convey it to others.
Student: By passing to others, you still receive.
M. Laitman: Everything that passes through you.
Student: Everything that passes also stays with you.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: When a person becomes a conduit of abundance to the Creator, then he feels this network of connection like himself, it's him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And that's the connection, and then a new stage begins, a deeper connection.
M. Laitman: Maybe. The Creator provides such conditions, such circumstances What you feel within you as fulfillment, that's the answer you get from the Creator.
Student: What is a prayer of many?
M. Laitman: Prayer of many? It's a prayer for the many. You want that fulfillment will come to them through you and for them to feel that they receive it.
Student: How do I raise such a prayer? For them to reach spirituality?
M. Laitman: It's like a woman who wants to fulfill her children. That's it.
Student: That it will be fulfilled. A Kabbalist feels the network he's in. He wants to fill everyone, the Ten he's in. In this network, you feel it. You want to be filled like a mother. But they run in different directions, so a Kabbalist cries to the Creator to save them. What does he do?
M. Laitman: The Kabbalist has to make a connection between them.
Student: How?
M. Laitman: There are many exercises, he uses his power.
Student: We're here like kids and each one is with his thoughts in different directions, but you feel like, if we come back to this connection, how? Using which thought? What is my thought that they will return to it?
M. Laitman: You want to be connected to them, for otherwise you don't have a connection to the source of life.
Student: This is the request from the Creator, the prayer, that I want Him to do it because I'm incapable?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And when the mother is at home, the kids connect. When mother is not home, each one is in his room, his corner, they fight, they quarrel, there's no connection there. How to reach such a state, when even when the mother is not in, they want to exert towards connection?
M. Laitman: They're no longer children.
Student: What does that mean?
M. Laitman: They've grown.
Student: Okay, so when they grow up a little bit, each one finds his place, his necessity?
M. Laitman: Not just, each one wants to be connected to others also.
Student: But they don't connect in truth. Each one is in his corner and they quarrel.
M. Laitman: That's an indication that they're still small.
Student: Small, so the sign of maturity is when even when the mother is not in. Let's say a mother is at home.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What do they need to add between them when the mother is not home?
M. Laitman: The image of the mother who will be between them.
Student: What should they say to one another? What's the image of the mother?
M. Laitman: They behave as though she's with them.
Student: And that make-believe thing, does that advance them?
M. Laitman: Yes, that's all of our advancement actually.
Student: When we grow the upper one?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, the child says, you know, Shimon takes an excerpt and reads it, and the mother says, read it. You go back to the source. Is that one of the exercises, for example?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: (30:03) Or he says, wait until dad gets back. The image of the mother, the character of the mother, this is a special quality. I remember that when my mother, when we were young, we waited for mom to leave the house so we could give her contentment. We would clean and organize and do everything she expected us to do at home. I imagine that's how it is for the Creator.
Each prayer is only for the friends to reach the purpose of creation. Meaning, the one who likes to travel, to eat, to ride a bicycle, we don't want him to receive this fulfillment for what he wants, rather the other way around, to pray that they will reach the purpose of creation.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And when one friend prays for the other, it's written that he's answered first. Meaning, it passes through the friend. Why does he need me in the middle? Why can't he pray directly to the Creator? He prays, he receives. Why does he need a mediator?
M. Laitman: It's your place and connection to creation. To always be the connector between one and another. And so it turns out that everyone is connected to everyone, and everyone is an outcome of that connection.
Student: So there's no direct filling from the Creator to an individual person?
M. Laitman: There is. That is it.
Student: Through a friend?
M. Laitman: No. The fact that he connects the others together, that's his fulfillment.
Student: And that gives contentment to the Creator? Because that's the Creator's desire for everyone to be connected?
M. Laitman: Yes. Yes. It follows that what you attain from the connection and relay onwards, that's the part of the Creator in you.
Student: And the mutual fulfillment happens in the Ten? One fills the other?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And between Tens, or between other friends, other points in the heart?
M. Laitman: Those are different degrees of connection already.
Student: From what point does a person begin to operate with this mechanism called prayer?
M. Laitman: Prayer?
Student: When does he start to work through the prayer?
M. Laitman: From the moment he can locate himself.
Student: What does it mean to locate oneself?
M. Laitman: He begins to feel that he wants, that he demands to have his self, me, and has the purpose to life, and he demands that it happens.
Student: If I could be in the prayer, there's nothing that you're holding in your hands all the time?
M. Laitman: That depends on you.
Student: You can force yourself to pray?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I see that I could forcefully subjugate myself.
M. Laitman: Well?
Student: But the prayer does not erupt from you, it doesn't come out. How do you begin to carry yourself with the prayer, to give it this power, and you begin to control it?
M. Laitman: By being in a request. You're always in a state of request, lack.
Student: Your lack is your prayer?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Every lack is called a prayer for a person?
M. Laitman: Let's say, yes.
Student: Because it's not always translated to an inner demand that they connect, that they bring you closer, that bring them closer to you.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: (35:00) That's the source of the question. How does this transition happen when they let you pray in a way that's more suitable for the entire system?
M. Laitman: That depends on your inclination.
Student: An inclination for what?
M. Laitman: Helping, praying, being involved in the connection between them, with them.
Student: Is there a way for a person to know if he's calibrated correctly with the system?
M. Laitman: When he annuls, how do you not know?
Student: I don't know, that's what I'm asking. Is there a way to find out on the right track?
M. Laitman: If you, no, if you annul yourself towards the system, then you need to feel that you're receiving an addition in return.
Student: Now, what does it mean to annul before that system?
M. Laitman: That you want them to attain what they want to attain.
Student: You want them to attain what they wish to attain, clear. So, on the one hand, I want them to attain the spiritual developments they wish to attain, and their adhesion, the Creator there’s also spiritual fulfillments. So, work in both directions as long as they can attain what they want, what they need?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: This care and concern, is that the beginning? And I say, this is the most important for me, to care about my friends, to attain everything, from corporeality up to Ein Sof. And it starts. So, what holds it?
M. Laitman: What?
Student: This system, what sustains it?
M. Laitman: The Creator's will, that we develop as we do.
Student: So, by doing these actions, asking to pray, annulment before the Ten, a certain force enters there, the Creator, and we feel He's given us more strength to do something we can't feel in our will to receive.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: (37:34) I have a question like that. There's a friend in the Ten, who all of Rav's answers are clear to him, our studies accepted by him. So, maybe there's some innovation, but everything is clear to him. Every question, every answer, we heard it a million times. I can phrase it nicely, or write it. What to do with a friend in the Ten, who feels everything is clear to him, he doesn't know, he's not impressed by the words of Rav?
M. Laitman: Why can such a thing not happen?
Student: It can happen. So, what do we do? Is that a correct state?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: Why is it not correct?
M. Laitman: Because that state in itself makes a boundary, the recognition of a boundary.
Student: The boundary between what and what?
M. Laitman: In what he studies, in what he does.
Student: What should he add from himself to acquire innovation like in his first day?
M. Laitman: Additional lack.
Student: So how to add a deficiency?
M. Laitman: He's connected to the others, so from his connection to the others, here, there needs to be some kind of inclination towards further lacks.
Student: What will he hear that he hasn't heard for 30 years?
M. Laitman: But they have vessels, each one of them. And when they connect together they have vessels on a higher degree, on a higher level. That he cannot attain by himself.
Student: The answers he's going to hear from the Rav, verbally, are going to be different? Or are we going to hear the same words, the same permanent vocabulary?
M. Laitman: Could be the same words.
Student: What will we receive in these words, in the exercises, I'm sorry?
M. Laitman: He will try to implement them.
Student: (40:00) Can you help such a friend? Can you give him the tools, the vessels?
M. Laitman: Yes, share with him.
Student: In what? He's present, what can I give him? When he feels saturated like that.
M. Laitman: You need to give him the ability to attain what he may attain in that innovation.
Student: But he says, clear answers, everything is clear. He doesn't receive anything from that. He's bored even, I would say. He doesn't want to run away, he doesn't disparage everything.
M. Laitman: I don't understand what you want to hear.
Student: Maybe he wants to ask, what kind of effort a person has to put in, so that we can leave everything he knows off to the side and move forward?
M. Laitman: He needs to open an additional lack.
Student: Where will he take this additional deficiency that he cannot feel?
M. Laitman: If he doesn't feel it, you need to pray.
Student: Pray for what? Ask for what? Even he himself…
M. Laitman: He himself what?
Student: The prayer, too, right? To need to have a new deficiency?
M. Laitman: No, we're not talking about the lot of you, we're talking about him.
Student: Him, he needs to pray. So, renewal is additional vessels.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Look, when you get a medicine, the doctor doesn't give it to you. You have to obtain the medicine. He says how much you need to receive, how many times a day, what's the dosage. So, there are clear discernments here. Here, you need to obtain a deficiency. It's not like a person doesn't want to obtain a deficiency, it's simply not clear how to do it. To be incorporated with everyone. Okay, we incorporate. Even his action to be incorporated is not clear.
M. Laitman: It's in order to incorporate a shared deficiency.
Student: It's not like someone resists. It's not like a clear action where they take a ball from somewhere. What does it mean to incorporate? I do everything the friends do. There isn't a single action I don't do. So, I will incorporate. I don't know if I incorporate or I don't, but in the final result, I don't see that I incorporated them because I'm still in the same state.
I'm not looking for ways out. I'm looking for the doctor sitting before me to prescribe a medicine, but not a general medicine to a disease called egoism, but to tell me the dosage, how to take it, what kind of medicine. Seventeen medicines I need to take daily. So, I need to know which medicine to take. When it's general like that, it's not clear. I don't even ask for where do I take the forces to take it from. I don't care. I'll work it out with the Creator, the friends, but it needs to be clear what to do.
M. Laitman: What to do? Incorporate with them together with one lack.
Student: The action itself is not clear. In corporeality, it's clear to me. It means to participate in all the actions with them. As a result, I need to receive a certain outcome. And if there's no outcome, what can I do?
M. Laitman: In spirituality we incorporate in one another to connect together our lacks. Then, as a result of those lacks, we have what we call reflected light.
Student: (44:37) Okay, a different question, why is it set up like that, that in our method, after many years I see different kinds of people, I mean after all there are not that many conditions to adjust spirituality, you pay Maaser, I don't think it's a, there's a real debate, once you decide it's a clear action. The Ten is also clear: roles, incorporation, but the morning lesson, specifically the lesson during the night time, not for the majority but for half the friends, it's really not simple to wake up, to sit there, to do all kinds of things there.
If you take this condition out, you'll have millions of people. Because the goal is great, it's exalted, there's no question about it. So why are there people who yearn to come to lessons, even after 20, 30 years, every word for them, they tremble, and there are those who, it's so difficult for them. They come in, they fall asleep, we can't say that the person who's like bent over and is sitting there, you know, with his face buried.
And as I said, this is full of impressions. No, we don't cheat ourselves, deceive ourselves, half the people, full of impressions, every lesson. Whether you're there or not, let's say, today in the lesson, you weren't there, it was an amazing lesson, people sang and clapped. Together with that, I'm sure that half the people were not in a good state, so why is it like that, or maybe we have to just continue, and that's it? It's like organs, the liver does this, this does that, that's how it needs to be. Why do we need to expect everyone to be fully inspired, maybe it's a normal state?
M. Laitman: Normal.
Student: Yes, normal, that's how we incorporate by the way. There's also the other way around, there are people in dissemination who do amazing things, and there are those who have no ability and no desire to do, some have ability but no desire. So when the friend asked, he said it's not a normal state, but if it's a normal state, then fine. No, the fact that it's normal, maybe it's normal, but we know, at least from your example, that you invest a great deal of effort in how to excite your students, to keep, pique their interest, to tie them to the path, we heard it from you many times, that even you consult with us, what to do to bring excitement to the friends.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So it's important nonetheless, you can't leave it like that, normal or not. The will to receive works on everyone, so maybe we need to think how to generate in the lesson a certain flow, that will give the energy to people who feel less, as well.
M. Laitman: Everything will be alright.
Student: (48:15) There are three conditions to the prayer, that's what Baal HaSulam writes. One is to believe that the Creator has a desire to help you. Two, that you've done everything in the spirit of your own strength, and the third condition is that I'm better off dead, if I can't acquire the quality of bestowal, I'm willing to die, there's no point in continuing. So I want to ask about the first condition: What does it mean to believe? You explained that belief is the quality of bestowal, is this here just simple faith, that there's an upper force and has a desire to help you, just like a simple belief? We're not talking about the belief or it's the quality of bestowal, it's a simple belief, every person believes?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It's written that He's Good, Who Does Good, anyone who attained it writes that the Creator has a desire to pass it on, so we just have to believe, like believe in sages. And the second condition is clear, that a person did everything and you can't do it alone. I think in our group, there are many people who are close to that. They've tried everything. But the third condition is even more obscure. How can it be that if I don't get the quality of the bestowal, I'm ready to die? I don't want to continue the next moment in my ego. Can you explain how a person can reach such a state?
M. Laitman: Because he hangs his entire life, his existence, only on the Creator.
Student: (50:10) That's clear, but he doesn't want to live the next moment?
M. Laitman: He doesn't want to live that. What for?
Student: For others, for the Ten.
M. Laitman: No, no, no, no.
Student: I don't understand. It's not worth living for the Ten?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So, if not, what is worth living for?
M. Laitman: He doesn't want to live. He receives that kind of desire from the Creator.
Student: So, if the quality of love and bestowal is not revealed to him the next moment, he doesn't want to live?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But for the sake of the Ten?
M. Laitman: No, no, no. It's no. It's all, these are all outcomes of his desire.
Student: You say that a person can reach such a state?
M. Laitman: Where he wants to die?
Student: He wants to die, I mean he wants to live, but…
M. Laitman: If he can't bestow?
Student: Yes, if he can't bestow the next moment, can he reach such a state?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: With his own strength or the Creator gives it?
M. Laitman: Of course, always the Creator. We work for Him, with Him.
Student: But it's like placing a condition before the Creator. If He doesn't give me bestowal, I want to die?
M. Laitman: Let's say.
Student: He writes elsewhere that if I can't get to it, at least to reward the others. Why so total? You know, either give me quality of bestowal or I'm better off dead.
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: Why wouldn't he want to advance others, a Ten, humanity?
M. Laitman: What for?
Student: It's not considered bestowal for him?
M. Laitman: Towards the Creator.
Student: Okay, not on the condition that I will reach bestowal, but at least let me continue for others to do something.
M. Laitman: Yes, that is correct.
Student: (52:31)What is this special prayer where we pray for the health of the friends? We ask, but something is happening that does not depend on us.
M. Laitman: How to relate to it correctly?
Student: How to relate to it?
M. Laitman: We need to rise to a degree where you see that everything depends on you.
Student: Depends on you.
M. Laitman: All people in the world completely depend upon you at every given moment. You just need to raise the importance of that.
Student: Is there such a state where we have to pray for spirituality? Typically we say that you need to pray for the quality of bestowal, that's what the Creator says.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But nevertheless, we do pray for the health of the friends.
M. Laitman: That's if a person truly feels such a lack.
Student: I'm certain a person wants to be healthy, feels a deficiency in his friends from the Ten feel it. It's legitimate.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: The essence of a person is a prayer to reach a connection with the Creator?
M. Laitman: He gives the person an opportunity to advance.
Student: By wanting to reach a connection with the Creator. Otherwise it's not worthwhile to live. And then inside this prayer you understand that you depend on the Ten, that's the place.
Student: (54:40) When we sit with you in the lessons, you feel something very special. This upper inspiration, I don't know how to call it, each one feels it differently, it's something very special with you, something uplifting, something that brings you up, gives you new thoughts, new feelings you never experienced. When we're not with the Rav, let's say we, the friends, we conduct a social time between us. How to reach that feeling between us, such a complete feeling, such an expansion.
M. Laitman: You don't relate correctly to one another.
Student: Are we capable of reaching it or it's impossible because the Creator, when the teacher is not there then we can't reach it, it's a different condition.
M. Laitman: You can.
Student: We can reach the same feelings, thoughts, in the same way?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What's the principle here?
M. Laitman: The principle is that, simply, you all want to attain the general force.
Student: And out of wanting to attain this force, that's my friends, you see.
M. Laitman: I envy you.
Student: Without even asking for it. That's actually a great example because to care about the corporeality of the friend, is that something that also advances you?
M. Laitman: For certain, yes.
Student: Why for him it always happens, I never have that thought, I'm not that capable.
M. Laitman: Ask the Creator to give it to you.
Student: It looks natural with him, I don't think he's asking more than me. So why does it exist with him?
M. Laitman: He was born that way.
Student: That's how he was born. And this action is spiritual, even though he was born this way.
M. Laitman: There's a part that's spiritual, a part that's corporeal.
Student: It depends on his intention. If a friend is cold? For me, it's the other way around. If he would do such a thing, I would get mad at him. He didn't ask me if I wanted this.
M. Laitman: It looks to you as though he's damaging your independence, right?
Student: You have this quality, he saw I'm cold, he came, but he's not asking me, I would, you know. Now, today, throughout the day, we decided to be in prayer. That our prayer would be to reach connection with the Creator, the eternal connection with the Creator. How do we come to it today?
M. Laitman: What do we lack?
Student: Mutual desire. So that everyone would think about that, only about that. It won't give us any corporeality, only this desire will be before us. But if suddenly forgetfulness would come to us, we'd all forget about it. Suddenly we begin to talk about things of this world, we're impressed by the landscape, the trees, and the lake. That suddenly becomes more important. We all fall suddenly, we sink into this lake. Where would we get it again? So we can come back to the prayer, so we won't let it go. It will be like a slow simmer, but not disappear.
M. Laitman: That requires prayer, yes, as you said.
Student: (59:35) What does it mean, each shall help his friend?
M. Laitman: It means we always have to think about the friends as well, and so, mutually, around the circle.
Student: Yes, what our friend said, that suddenly, it's not on the goal, he sees the landscapes, and how, as friends, can we help each other? I'm highlighting, you know, help each other. How can we do it?
M. Laitman: Try to find within yourself a lack that you can connect to the friend, and with those two lacks, when you connect, you will receive from the Creator a response. It all revolves around the connection, and how to increase the importance of the connection.
Student: (01:01:00) Baal HaSulam wrote that the whole world is to serve me, and I to serve my Maker.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is that, where does that fit? In the world, nature, where does that belong?
M. Laitman: It all belongs to the Creator, relates to the Creator.
Student: So, the whole world to serve me, and I to serve the Creator, that belongs to the Ten, or to nature in general?
M. Laitman: It pertains to the Ten.
Student: All of reality, all of it is just a picture? It’s not, we shouldn’t relate to it?
Reader: (01:02:02) In truth the whole world was created to serve me. All the lacks a person sees in others, and which he believes are his own, that gives him what to correct. And so it follows that the whole world serves him by providing him with his lacks, and he doesn't need to search by himself. Rather, they do a great favor to him by producing for him his lacks.
Student: So there is an opportunity to...I’m in the place of work. I'm in contact with external people, foreign people, and they show me my own flaws, if I'm developed enough to understand it. So, it turns out that I don't only work with the Ten, I can work with the world, with the family, and each one I see flaws. I need to understand that these are my flaws, and then pray to the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So why do we say no, only through the Ten, the whole work is only in the Ten? And it turns out that there's work outside of the Ten.
M. Laitman: No, from the Ten you can truly receive everyone's lacks.
Student: So I don't need to see flaws in people on the outside, the flaws I need to correct are enough for me to see in the Ten.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But the reality is such that the Creator created it. Let's say, well not us, we are most of the time in the Ten, also physically. But there are people who most of the time spend the time not with their Ten physically, rather they spend time in all kinds of places. So they have to work with people on the outside. If I detect flaws in them, can I relate those to me and correct them as well?
M. Laitman: Yes, why not?
Student: Yes, it was written the whole world is made to serve me, not the Ten, the world, also the Ten.
Student: (01:04:25) What is that prayer to pray for one's enemies?
M. Laitman: Asking for the enemies?
Student: That with all your enemies don't rejoice, when the enemy falls don't rejoice, that's what comes to mind. Is this from the article we read? You told a friend when he asked you, that every person in the world depends on you. What does it mean that every person in the world depends on me?
M. Laitman: It's through incorporation.
Student: If I don't correct myself, every person in the world will suffer?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So a Kabbalist feels the whole world is suffering because of him, that's what he feels?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: He doesn't relate it to the Creator, that's how he created the world?
M. Laitman: Well the Creator is the general force.
Student: Can't you go crazy from it, that the feeling the world is suffering because of him, that a person is carrying this guilt? You can lose your mind.
M. Laitman: Yes, but the person doesn't feel that.
Student: No, a person, no. I'm asking about a Kabbalist.
M. Laitman: The Kabbalist feels it as his own mistake.
Student: Yes, but this burden, it's like he's walking around, this burden, it's like this permanent, persistent depression, what balances it? You can't live like that all the time. What balances it, what gives him joy? Because when you look at the world, you see everyone is suffering, I mean most people, and you have to rejoice, nevertheless, otherwise how can you advance? You only advance from joy and happiness. So what brings happiness to a Kabbalist?
M. Laitman: A Kabbalist is happy about participating in creation. That gives him joy.
Student: But you just said he also suffers.
M. Laitman: That is something else. He suffers and is happy.
Student: Is it simultaneously?
M. Laitman: Yes, could be close to that.
Student: This state of work between the individual and collective, the mutuality that exists between the collective and the individual. When does it become exploitative?
M. Laitman: Exploitative? I don't know.
Student: When there's a stall toward one another, and what, to what point it becomes exploitative?
M. Laitman: It's all about the intention. How could it be otherwise?
Student: Meaning there was an action we did together, you sat off to the side and you looked and you said, you have to stop this exploitation. What was your intention about our action?
M. Laitman: How should I remember?
Student: I remember, I have Rav's words. You said you had to stop this exploitation. You speak maybe, you asked him during the lesson, what does Rav leave behind them? And you said, I leave behind a building. No-one in Israel has a building. It's registered on Bnei Baruch, this foundation. And I leave behind what I was able to do all these years.
You know, it's the book of Zohar, the new edition and other books that Rabash, Baal HaSulam, and myself wrote. I leave behind my students, those who want to advance toward the Creator. I hope that the students of the next generation will be more flexible, wiser. They'll know how to connect and find common points of connection, correct points of correction, and not that there's this force working through them to exploit the others, take advantage of the others. That's it. The group in general, not you, but there will be a group of all the students of Kabbalah that will respect everything Baal HaSulam and Rabash wrote and would want to advance.
M. Laitman: So, what are you looking at me for?
Student: (01:09:47) No, there's, I understand what you're saying. If I understand correctly what you said, the actions we do for one another, an action will be considered as advancing, as bestowing, as if it's the intention is to bestow. If the intention is for my own benefit, my will to receive, that's exploitation.
M. Laitman: Yes, clear.
Student: It's very, very subtle because this line of exploitation can be, you can find it in every action.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: A waiter came by and brought a new tablecloth. He looked at my friend. I wanted to ask about the part that I pushed forward. It's not what you meant, but what you said is that the students from the next generation will be more flexible, wiser, will know how to connect, find common points of connection, and not that there's a force working through them to take advantage of one another, exploit one another. When you speak of students, the next generation, what is the next generation? Do you see us, the next generation, or the one after you, us?
M. Laitman: After you.
Student: After us. What do you see in that generation?
M. Laitman: In this generation?
Student: No, I mean the next generation. What do you see there?
M. Laitman: That it'll be clearer to them why they need to connect, what purpose they need to achieve. What is the difference between how we connect and how they will connect?
Student: It's not even students who are here, it's students who will come, the next generation?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Okay, and in our generation?
M. Laitman: In our generation. In our generation those who want to achieve bestowal have to acquire a special force that will elevate him above the intention to receive.
Student: The next generation after us comes with a more corrected version, or the other way around?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Student: The more corrected, the more sensitive to connection?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Baal HaSulam was always, constantly praying. He says he went to talk to rocks. What did he talk to rocks about?
M. Laitman: For this you need to be either a stone or Baal HaSulam.
Student: No, but I mean, I want to feel this power of prayer. He prayed for those stones, I guess.
Student: Rav, for this state to be tomorrow, the next generation?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: They don't have to replace the entire generation. It could be a more advanced state of ours.
M. Laitman: The projection is a spiritual projection. Spiritual preparation, it's when people come and they have a different desire.
Student: So, if we spoke about how our friends came and said, we decided that we want to reach a prayer today, to engage only in that.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: We understood that yesterday was one generation, today is a next generation. The generation yesterday did not put so much time for prayer, and we got up this morning and decided this is our common goal today.
M. Laitman: Yes, so what do you want to…
Student: That's a new generation?
M. Laitman: If you decide, it's a new generation.
Student: It's clear. I want to ask, corporeally, simply, in what way the next generation depends on this generation? The students that will come, in what they depend on us and our work?
M. Laitman: They're dependent on everything.
Student: On everything?
M. Laitman: Yes. You are preparing the ground for them, just like in corporeality.
Student: Like a parent to the child?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Reader: (01:15:19) Announcements.
Song: (01:15:23)