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

Daily Morning Lesson August 13, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work? Article No. 36, 1989.

Reader: Dear friends, the first part, we will study a lesson from the Rav, from 2002. It's in the article "What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work?" from Rabash. You can find it in the Rabash writings or on the link in the study materials. We have 35 minutes to read it.

Reading: (00:40) What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work?

Article No. 28, 1987

It is written (Deuteronomy 4:2), “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, to keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”

The interpreters ask, we can understand that the Torah should say, “Do not add,” that you should not even think of adding, since it can be said that it is good to add because this will increase the glory of heaven. Yet, for what purpose do the words “and do not take away from it” come, saying that should not lessen? It is simple: If the Creator has given us Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], we must certainly observe them and not breach the Mitzvot of the Creator.

In the literal, there are many answers. But what does this teach us in the work? Also, we should understand why indeed we are forbidden to add. It makes sense that it is good to add to the Mitzvot, especially since in the work, the order is that a person adds each time.

It is known that there is a matter of one line in the order of the work, and there are two lines, called “right” and “left,” and there is a middle line, as is explained in previous articles. We will reiterate it here as needed.

We should also know that there is a rule, meaning one rule, which applies to everyone, to the whole of Israel, and there are also individuals in Israel. That is, there are people who cannot be like the general public, meaning behave in regard to Torah and Mitzvot like the general public. Instead, they understand and feel that the work of the general public and its aspirations—what the general public aspires to achieve through the work in Torah and Mitzvot—do not satisfy them. Instead, they have other aspirations and goals than the general public.

Still concerning observing Torah and Mitzvot, it is said, “You will have one law [Torah]” (Numbers 15:29), there is no difference between a complete righteous and an ordinary person. However, this is so with regard to actions, meaning that they should aim to keep the commandments of the Creator as He has commanded us through Moses, and this is called “the intention of the work of Mitzvot,” and in this, everyone is equal.

But regarding the intention, meaning what one intends while observing the Torah and Mitzvot, meaning what he wants in return for his work, when he relinquishes other things and dedicates his time and all his energy to observe Torah and Mitzvot, in this there are already discernments, which in general are called Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], or that his intention is Lishma [for Her sake]. For the individual, there are many discernments in Lo Lishma and many discernments in Lishma.

Concerning Lo Lishma, the rule is that everyone begins in Lo Lishma. Afterward, there are individuals who emerge from Lo Lishma and come to the degree of Lishma. At that time they should be discerned by way of lines. That is, all those who, as long as they agree with Lo Lishma, there is a matter of correction in them. This is considered that they cannot see the true path of the work. Instead, they must feel that they are walking on the path of truth. Otherwise, they will not be able to keep observing Torah and Mitzvot, since naturally, a person needs to benefit from his work. If Lo Lishma is not the truth, but what is truth, it is that Lo Lishma is very important. But since they will not think of Lo Lishma, there is a correction that they think that they are working Lishma, so they will value their actions, for how can one benefit from a lie?

Baal HaSulam said that we should believe that to the extent that a person imagines that Lishma is very important, he should believe that Lo Lishma is even more important than he appreciates the Lishma, and that the importance of Lishma is beyond man’s ability to grasp.

In the work of the general public, there is only one line, meaning the action. This is one way. That is, he should know that with each and every act he does he is advancing, and many pennies make a great amount. It is as the allegory we said about it, that a person receives a rent from a factory that he has rented to someone. Each year he receives a certain sum, so he is certain that with each passing year, his fortune is growing.

It is likewise in the work of the general public. For example, if a person reaches the age of twenty, he has seven years of wealth of Torah and Mitzvot. If he has reached the age of forty, he knows that he has the wealth of twenty-seven years, and so on. It follows that he has nothing to worry about because his reward is secured. And so it is, since a reward is received for Lo Lishma, as well. But this is called “one line” or “one way,” and there are no contradictions here in the path of the work on which he is going.

However, when a person wants to break away from the path of the general public and enter the work of Lishma, we should discern two lines: 1) “right,” which is called “wholeness,” where there are no flaws. This can be in one of two ways. The first way that there is on the right is that he reflects and says, “Everything is in private Providence and man has no choice for himself.” If that is the case, he calculates and sees how many people there are in the world to whom the Creator did not give a thought and desire to observe the commandments of the Creator, while he did receive from the Creator a thought and desire to have some grip on Torah and Mitzvot. Although he sees that there are people who have been rewarded with higher degrees in quantity and quality, when he looks back he sees that there are people who have no grip on spirituality. Instead, their entire lives are about what they can find in corporeal lusts. They do not feel more than any animal, nor think of any purpose, that the world was created for some purpose. Instead, they settle for being able to satisfy the same wishes they had had as children. If they can satisfy those wishes, they consider themselves happy.

Yet, he sees that the Creator has given him mind and reason not to live like an animal, but to know that he is human, that being human means being at a higher level than animals, meaning having contact with the Creator—the ability to keep the commandments of the Creator. He believes that he is speaking to the Creator both in the blessing for the prayer and in the blessing for pleasure. He prays to Him for this little bit of grip that he has on spirituality, he walks about happy, and feels joy in life. He feels that he is not like other people, whose goal in life is only that of children, without any spiritual notion. This is called “right,” since he feels himself as a complete person who lacks nothing.

The second manner that is found on the right is as Baal HaSulam said, that one should believe above reason as though he has been rewarded with complete faith, that thus he should depict to himself, as though he already feels in his organs that the Creator leads the whole world as good and doing good, meaning that the whole world receives from him only benefits, and he is one of them. How elated he should feel at that time, when he is going above reason, as though he has a world filled abundantly, and he has only to thank and praise the Creator for awarding him with achieving the delight and pleasure. This, too, is called “right.”

This right line gives to a person that only here he has a place where he can thank the Creator for benefitting him, and only in this way he is regarded as whole and blessed because he lacks nothing. At that time he can be adhered to the Creator, since “the blessed clings to the blessed.”

From this a person can receive vitality because a person cannot live on negativity. It follows that through the right line he receives vitality in the work of the Creator because only from wholeness can one receive joy, and life without joy is not considered life.

There is another merit to the right line: By thanking the Creator for bringing him closer, although a person has only a small grip on spirituality, if he is grateful for a small thing, it causes the goal of serving the Creator to receive greater importance in his eyes each time. And since the Shechina [Divinity] is in exile, or as it is written, “the Shechina is in the dust,” meaning that spiritual work is unimportant, only corporeal things matter and a person appreciates them, and man is influenced by the public, hence, corporeality is more important than spirituality for him, as well. By walking on the right line, meaning by thanking the Creator for every single grip he has on spirituality, it increases his importance of spirituality.

Baal HaSulam said that by seeing above how a person appreciates everything that is spiritual, and the evidence of this is that he is thankful for everything, it causes some illumination from above to be given to him, since it is apparent that he will know how to keep it. It is as our sages said, “Who is a fool? He who loses what he is given.” The rule is that anything that is not so important is not kept from being lost. For this reason, an illumination from above is not given if a person does not know how to keep it. When they see that that person appreciates every little thing in Kedusha [holiness/sanctity], he will certainly keep what he is given. It follows that the person’s exertion to praise and thank the Creator for giving him the mind and reason to draw a little nearer to Kedusha causes him to be given some illumination from above.

However, one should also walk on the left line. Right and left are regarded as “two lines that deny one another.” The left is called “something that requires correction.” The left line entails criticism, when a person should see his true state in spirituality, if he is truly on the path of a desire to bestow or is deceiving himself, or is altogether oblivious.

It is known that the most important is to achieve Dvekut with the Creator, which means thinking only about things that yield equivalence of form, and not the contrary. That is, he criticizes the order of his work, if he has already advanced in his work toward achieving the goal, or to the contrary, meaning that he is regressing and should think what he must do in order for his actions to be complete. In other words, he must see his powers in the work, whether he has the power to overcome, and if not, what should he do.

At that time he sees that only the Creator can save him from his state, so he can emerge from self-love and work only for the sake of the Creator. This means that he sees that only the Creator Himself can help him, as it is written, “I the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.” This means that the people of Israel were enslaved to the discernment of Egypt, which is the will to receive for oneself, and they were slaves to the Egyptians and had no possessions in Kedusha because the Egyptians, meaning self-love, took everything.

This is called “The wicked, in their lives, are called ‘dead,’” for “the poor is as important as the dead” because the Sitra Achra [other side] took all their possessions. Nothing went into the domain of Kedusha until the King of all Kings appeared to them and redeemed them. This matter is always valid, meaning that whenever a person is in exile and prays to the Creator to deliver him from exile, the Creator delivers him.

This is the meaning of “He who comes to purify is aided.” However, alone, a person cannot come out of exile and enslavement to self-love. It follows that the left line is a place where he should pray to the Creator to deliver him from exile. Otherwise, without a left line, he can never know that he is in self-love because while in the right line, it is impossible to see any flaws, so there is nothing to correct.

Now we can understand the order that we have in the prayer, of chants, singing, and praising, and the meaning of prayer and request. Our sages said (Berachot 32), “One should always praise the Creator and then pray.”

The question is, If a person wants to ask something from the Creator, he should first establish the praise of the Creator: why he should do this. We can understand that when we ask a favor from flesh and blood, it can be said that first he needs to show him that he regards him as important. It is as though he is bribing him, giving him pleasure, and afterwards asks him to do him a favor, as though the giver will return a favor to the receiver like the receiver did a favor to the giver by giving him the contentment of praising him. But with regard to the Creator, can such a thing be said?

As we explained concerning the need for the two lines, right and left, we should understand that when a person wants to come into the holy work, he must first know what it is about, meaning whom he wants to serve. That is, first he must appreciate the greatness and importance of the King whom he wishes to accept him as a slave, to be as “slaves serving the great one not in order to receive reward.” Who is it who gives him the desire to serve the King without any reward? Only the greatness and importance of the King gives him the fuel to want to work without any reward.

Therefore, the order is that he begins to walk on the right line, and then all his work is to imagine the importance of the King and thank Him for giving him the desire and thought to take part in spirituality. It could be anything, even if he is given a small thing, to have a little bit of a grip on spirituality, he regards it as great and important, as said in the clarification of the right line. It is the same with the second interpretation of the right line, as it is written in the name of Baal HaSulam, that “right” means “turn to the right.”

This means that he must believe above reason and imagine that he has already been rewarded with faith in the Creator that is felt in his organs, and he sees and feels that the Creator leads the entire world as the good who does good. Although when he looks within reason he sees the opposite, he should still work above reason and it should appear to him as though he can already feel in his organs that so it really is, that the Creator leads the world as the good who does good.

Here he acquires the importance of the goal, and from here he derives life, meaning joy at being near to the Creator. Then a person can say that the Creator is good and does good, and feel that he has the strength to tell the Creator, “You have chosen us from among all nations, You have loved us and wanted us,” since he has a reason to thank the Creator. And to the extent that he feels the importance of spirituality, so he establishes the praise of the Creator.

Once man has come to feel the importance of spirituality, which is called “One should always establish the praise of the Creator,” then is the time when he must shift to the left line. He must criticize how he truly feels within reason the importance of the King, if he is truly willing to work only for the sake of the Creator.

When he sees within reason that he is bare and destitute, that state when he sees the importance of spirituality, but only above reason, that calculation can create in him deficiency and pain for being in utter lowliness. Then he can make a heartfelt prayer for what he lacks.

But if he does not have the right line even though he has prayed to the Creator to help him, it is as though he is asking the King to do him a favor and save him and have mercy on him. Since the King is merciful, he is asking Him for money to buy himself some bread. But a person does not know that he is in prison among those who have been sentenced to death, and now he has a chance to ask the King to save his life, meaning pardon him, and the King will pardon him and give him a chance to live a life of happiness, and he asks the Creator to have mercy on him and give him bread, and he settles for this, it is because he has been incarcerated for so long that he has forgotten everything, that there is a world where he can lead a happy life.

This is the benefit from first establishing the praise of the Creator and then praying. The reason is that once he knows the importance of spirituality, that it is “for they are our lives and the length of our days,” hence, when he prays, he knows what he needs and for what he must ask the Creator’s mercy on him and to give him life. It is so because while he was on the right line, he felt that corporeal life is as “the wicked, in their lives, are called ‘dead.’”

By this we will understand what we asked, Why should one establish the praise of the Creator and then pray? This is appropriate for a flesh and blood, whom we must first appease and praise, which makes the giver compassionate and giving, as the pleading person told him, that the giver has good qualities. But why do we need to establish the praise of the Creator before we pray?

According to the above, this is simple. It is in order for him to know what he is missing, for then he will know for what to ask the Creator’s help. This is similar to the allegory I once said, that a person was very ill, and a party of physicians came to examine him and diagnose his illness. The patient showed the doctors a tiny sore on his finger and told them he was in pain, but they did not want to look at it. He asked them, “Why aren’t you looking at what I’m telling you, and no one wants to look at it?” They replied to him, “You are in mortal danger, between life and death, and you want us to look at something so trivial?”

It is likewise with us. When a person has no idea what he is missing and he asks for something small like that sore, when in truth he is in the domain of Tuma’a [impurity], as in, “The wicked, in their lives, are called ‘dead,’” how can they regard him from above when he is in the domain of the dead? He needs to ask to be given life, as it is written, “Mention us to life.” But although we say, “Mention us to life,” which life do we expect? This is the question!

However, once a person has begun to walk on the right line, he begins to know what he is missing. That is, afterward, when he shifts to the left line, he has an example from the right. Yet, this, too, is not acquired at once, but is constant work, as it is written in the prayer for every day, that we must first establish the praise of the Creator and then pray.

Yet, the two lines must be balanced, meaning that one will not be greater than the other. Instead, he must always walk as in the corporeal allegory, on two legs—the right leg and the left leg. It cannot be said that he should walk on one leg more than on the other, and walking on only one leg is altogether impossible. Therefore, those who want to walk on the path of truth and achieve Dvekut with the Creator, must walk on both the right and the left, but not walk on one leg more than on the other.

Now we should interpret what we asked, What is the meaning of “Do not add and do not take away from it”? We asked, How does it pertain to the work that we should not add in the work? And on the other hand, it is perplexing: “Do not add” can be said when the Torah tells us, “Do not add.” But why the commandment, “Do not take away”? How can we think that it is permissible to take away from the 613 Mitzvot, but the Torah should tell us that we are forbidden to take away?

According to the order of the work, we should interpret this in regard to the two lines. It means that it is forbidden to add on the right path. Instead, a person who wants to walk on the path of truth must dedicate a certain amount of time to the right path, and then he must walk on the left line. It is in this regard that the commandment not to add comes—on one way more than on the other, nor take away from the lines. That is, one should not say, “Today I want to walk on the right line,” or to the contrary, “Today I want to walk on the left line.” It is about this that the commandment, “Do not add and do not take away,” comes. Rather, as our sages said, “One should always establish the praise of the Creator and then pray.”

The right path is called “wholeness.” At that time a person can be very grateful to the Creator. Afterward, he must shift to the left line. On the left path is the time to see his real state, as it seems to him within reason. Then, he has room to pray, since prayer pertains precisely to a place of lack, and the greater the lack, the more heartfelt is the prayer.

This is the meaning of what is written, “From the depth I called You, O Lord.” Therefore, the two lines must be equal “until the third writing comes and decides between them.” Then, after the work in two lines, he is rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator. This is called the “third writing.” That is, the two lines pertain to man’s work, but the middle line pertains to the Creator. This means that by walking in two lines, from those two, a place is made where the Creator can place His blessing. This is called “until the third writing comes and decides between them.”

Now we can interpret what The Zohar says (Pinhas, Item 321), “‘Their leg is a straight leg.’ The authors of the Mishnah said that one who prays should correct one’s legs in one’s prayer, as the ministering angels, so that his legs will be straight.”

We should understand why if the legs are not straight, his prayer cannot be accepted. It means that his legs imply something, that for this reason, when he prays, he feels deficient and comes to the Creator to satisfy his lack, his legs must be straight.

According to the above, we can understand the meaning of his “legs.” The “right leg” is the right line or the right path. This is the place to praise and thank the Creator. The left leg refers to the left line and the left path, and the prayer cannot be accepted before both lines are straight and not that one is bigger than the other.  

Reading

Reader: We are going to move to the lesson from August 18th, 2002. 

M. Laitman: (37:28) We heard the article "What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work?" This is from portion Va'etchanan. "Do not add and do not take away," meaning to go in balance between two lines. To not add or subtract is not a matter of quantity, or power, or don't run too fast, or don't be lazy, don't be idle. So, don't add or subtract means always keep yourself balanced. What does it mean, balanced? To cause the action of the middle line, to allow the Creator to make a correction on you. How? To be on the right line, that's first, and to make sure, first of all, to be on the right line, and not to allow anything from the left line to overpower and control you. To be on the right line means, the right line means the importance of spirituality. That spirituality, the goal, the qualities of bestowal, the Creator, which is a force of bestowal, it's not just something really big, but a force of bestowal. That's how to interpret it, that this will be important to me. And then, if it's important, then to go to the left line. The right line, that importance is received only above reason. We don't attain it within reason. Within reason, we can attain the importance of spirituality beyond the Machsom, the barrier. This is called complete faith, the light of Hassadim with illumination of Hochma. Below the barrier, in our state, there we have, as though a branch from that root of faith. We also have a state where, as if we have the correction of faith, meaning that, as though we feel in our organs that there is presence of the Creator. And that "as if" is attained especially through the effort in the society. When we complete this work, when we acquire in the work on the right line faith according to our path, to our degree  what is faith, then we move to the left line, and we see that within reason we got nothing. The qualities are not corrected, the thoughts are foreign, lowliness with respect to the right line. Then we come to a prayer that the Creator will help. If I have prepared the right line, the importance of spirituality and the goal and the faith in that, that all was set out for me, and I've seen on the left line that I myself am the opposite of that.  I'm not in wholeness, rather in deficiencies and lowliness, and as a result of that, from these two lines comes the power of prayer. Then from above there is an answer of the prayer, the middle line. And in this work, we always have to be in balance between the right and the left, so that one's wisdom will not be greater than his acts. Meaning that he won't enter a state where he says, I'm not capable of doing anything, or I have no strength, or everything is in God's hands, so nothing depends on me, and so forth. Meaning just to not have more left line than the right, that I have no power and no nothing and can't be and so on. Or the right line, that everything is in the hands of heaven, the Creator sets up everything, and who am I here? I just nullify, and I'm always under His control. This is called the shell of the right line. No, both these lines have to be balanced. This was given to us, and we shouldn't fall to these two shells, the shell of the right, the shell of the left. 

M. Laitman: (43:12) Rather, balance the two lines in such a way that they generate the middle line. The middle line itself actually doesn't exist. There's no such thing as a third thing. There's the qualities of the Creator, the right line, that appear towards the created being, and the qualities of the created being that appear towards the created being, and that's the left line. And the middle line is the correction, to what extent the created being can be compatible to the Creator. The Creator does that through the light that reforms. And so a person who arranged these two lines correctly, that one shall not subtract nor add, then the middle line arranges in him and forms in him, and this is what's called human, man. Because the qualities of the Creator and the qualities of the created being, they're not called man. These qualities are not us. It's two angels. The bad qualities are not us, and the good qualities of the Creator are not ours as well. We are the preparation for the middle line, and the middle line that we will later acquire through our status. So, a person needs to carefully see the reward, and punishment, and labor, and everything that happens, and so that what he's working on is not his qualities. He has to work on how to separate from the qualities of the Creator and the qualities of the created being, to stand outside of both of them, and over the appearance of both of them, to do the work of nor to add nor subtract. If he's under the control of the qualities of the Creator or the created being, he cannot cause the situation for the middle line to come. And so, he has to look at these two qualities of right and left as two angels, two forces, given to him from above equally. Both his nature is not his, and the right line, the nature of the Creator, also certainly isn't his. Not to be influenced, not to be tied to any line; rather to have his point, his neutral between them, and that's where he begins.  Meaning, not to allow himself to be under the influence of any one line. That's no longer the human. This is called nature. Nature of reception or nature of bestowal. The work can only be only in the middle line, even if I'm just one point, one point, just the beginning, the point in the heart. But this point is between two lines, right and left. Both of them don't belong to me. As it says, "Go to the craftsman who made me," the right line, and "There’s None Else Besides Him," the left line, or the other way around. Any questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:50) It says that both of them need to be balanced, so why not one line and all together?

M. Laitman: What? If the two lines are balanced, then how to start with one line? Start with the right line, meaning, from my place, from where I am, who am I, what am I? If I just think about myself as having no connection to spirituality, then the "I" is just a will to receive that wants to enjoy all kinds of things, and so I can research myself and be a good psychologist or physiologist, just observing nature. Am I included in nature? So that's nature, fine. Nature could be the left line, if I relate to it that way. But otherwise, it's just, it's not a line, it's just nature. If I want to relate to all of reality in a conscious, spiritual way, then I have to position the "I" as totally not connected to the Creator or the created being, but in the middle between them. To be completely neutral, uninfluenced by anything, to observe myself, the beastly nature that I identified with before, to see it from the side, to observe. What I have is how I was born. That's my qualities, that's what I thought of as me. I look at this, and who is me? It's some sort of body with all kinds of qualities and all kinds of thoughts. The qualities were given to me by the Creator from birth. The thoughts and all of my understandings were given by family, environment, school, all the people around me. Is that me? That's not me. Where is me? Where can I truly see who is me? From the moment where I now revealed it, from now on, I want to build my self. So let's build it. How can I build my "I"? All that there is in me is not me. What is the "I" of the person. We don't know what is the middle line. The "I" of the person is a deficiency that never existed in reality, as if an artificial deficiency. A deficiency to bestow to the Creator. The Creator didn't create this deficiency. He didn't create it. A person has to come up with it. So, when I position myself on the right line, now I need to determine what am I going to do. So, first I'm told, you have to go to the right line. What is the right line? To see who you're dealing with. What is the nature of the Creator? Great, whole, bestowing. Wants to give you a reward for all kinds of actions — research, all those things. Acquire faith in that. What does it mean to acquire faith in that? As though you have this feeling of greatness and importance, as though. But you know you're doing it, as if it's like that, you're not deceiving yourself. You're working on a force that, as if  you deceive yourself, as if it's there. But that deceit, you are writing it down, as if you're registering that you're doing it deliberately. Like Rabash writes, as though you feel in your organs that you came to the sensation of the Creator, the sensation of importance, greatness, adhesion, as though you're already in spirituality. If you have acquired this feeling, you've worked on yourself. Doesn't matter how you call it. Then go to the left and see what you can do with the left. You'll discover on the left, of course, the opposite state. Who am I? What am I? Meaning, the nature, the Creator rooted in me, that I'm nothing and no one, and so forth.

M. Laitman: (52:21) From these two things, to combine them in such a way that will form a prayer, so that not one or the other will be greater. So there will be a uniform deficiency. That this deficiency will be that I, I myself am a deficiency and I want to be like You in wholeness. This is called that in your prayer, two things are connected together, two lines together. The deficiency, the feeling of the bad, the recognition of lowliness on the right line, and the recognition of the Creator, and the recognition of the good, that's on the right line. The other is the deficiency of the left. So if you've connected both of them correctly, you have both of them at a maximum intensity, as they complete each other, and neither one controls the other, this means you've come to a true prayer. Meaning, you have to make sure they're in a correct merging, and the maximum intensity you're capable of. Then it is called prayer. And for that prayer, you receive something called middle line. What is the middle line? I don't know. It is something new that is born. Meaning, to compose a prayer within me, I can't. But to receive the answer to the prayer, that is something from above that I never had before. When I receive that from above, I receive a vessel of the soul from above. Meaning, spiritual desires that belong to me, not to the Creator, the right line, and not to the left line, the created being, the nature that I was in, but rather that is new. It is the true "I," my share in the spiritual world, the beginning of the soul, a new vessel. And that's how the human starts growing. This vessel is the "I" of man. And then these two lines, he looks at them and relates to them as two angels, two parameters, two forces of nature. The nature of the Creator and the nature of the created being, that he was given to use correctly, to merge correctly, and so as to give birth to something third. The middle line is a third thing that didn't exist before. It's only something that the human gives birth to. Of course, the Creator does that through the light, but the deficiency has to come from man. Feeling that deficiency, recognizing the deficiency, that preparation has to be from the side of man. Until that exists in man, it cannot be born. So, the vessel that is born in the middle line is something that was completely non-existent in reality. And there, the created being feels, this is me, independent, it is this screen and reflected light, this vessel, and that is truly me. But he feels that this is me, and this "I" is actually desires of bestowal, to resemble the desires of the Creator. And there's no shame there, there's no unpleasantness, no sense of lowliness, nothing. All of the negative feelings are not about the "I" of the person. It's the deficiency of the left line that is given to us to begin with. It's not us. It's what the Creator created as existence from absence. Only for us to be assisted by it, to see the opposite of the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:28) And what is the choice of man? 

M. Laitman: Man's choice is to reach the right measure of right and left, so that the prayer will be created. What is a prayer? So that a deficiency will be made, that upon which we can receive an answer from above. Where the light that comes from above to this deficiency, then from this deficiency, the correct Kli is created. A screen and reflected light. And this screen and reflected light is already a Kli with which he can start working on his own.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:16) This condition of prayer, you said that on the one hand there has to be a very great deficiency, on the other hand what, faith, adhesion? What's the other side? What are these two ends?

M. Laitman: Both ends, the middle, the point of the heart is neutral, it's the beginning of the middle line. It's always against the light. The light is always in the middle line. And the two ends are the qualities of the Creator on the right side, and seemingly the qualities of the created being on the left. Meaning, these two forces, bestowal and reception, were given to you so that you in the correct qualification or connection between them within you, you can take as much as you can from the right line, compared to what you can take from the left line; to do the right merging, so that you're not influenced by one or the other, but rather be under the awareness of why I need these forces in me in order to reach the goal. Only in such a way I take them, otherwise I don't need them, not the qualities enough to bestow I don't need, and there's no qualities that are enough to receive and we don't need. If I take them without a calculation, the purposeful calculation, I find myself on the right Klipa or the left Klipa, the shell. And then I take them and I stand in the middle and want to reach the middle line. The middle line is called that I'm operating, and now I'm making a connection, right and left, to the Creator, upon which I want to reach, and all of these are as one point connected. And then it's considered that I'm truly building in this correct action, the middle line. This is what's written in the letters from Baal HaSulam.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:20) What is the correct merger? 

M. Laitman: The correct merging or merger is where I take the qualities of the Creator and the qualities of the created being, so that the created being will upon them come to the Creator. What is he in the final correction? All the right line and all the left line, everything that's revealed in them will be now together. And now what do I do? Now I take from them a certain measure that I will be able to build for correction, for the request for correction. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:07) How do I understand that this is correct? On the one hand, Baal HaSulam says here…  

M. Laitman: How exactly to do this? He tells you to start with. You need to connect them together in you, your qualities of who I am, what I am, and the qualities of the Creator, who is He and what is He. And your current action needs to be that both of them should be together. Try now to start, and you'll see what clashes you have within you, explosions, and that this already begins as the accumulation, the creation of the force of the prayer. The fact that you see that you cannot connect them, and you are trying to connect them, that is already a prayer. The prayer is not that you composed it and everything, and I thank God I'm controlling the situation, and no. All these things that precede it also.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:21) You said that in the deficiency to bestow there's no sense of lowliness. The question is whether there is a sense of wholeness, or that feeling is not connected at all.

M. Laitman: In the desire to bestow there's also a deficiency of itself, for a person not to fall to the shell of the right, the Klipa. In everything there's a reason why they say that they need to be in the correct mingling and the right merger of the two lines. Every line is dangerous in the qualities that a person can truly be under his qualities, and then enter to a state that seems to him that he's in wholeness. Every line can give wholeness of its own. What is a shell? A shell is where you enter a certain one direction, and that you're there is not what's important. What's important is that when you are there, you feel yourself as being in the correct state, in the whole state, and then you don't have any preparation, no possibility of exiting.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:52) The importance of the Creator is always above reason or within reason?

M. Laitman: The importance of the Creator is always above reason, because I don't have in what to — or how should we say this — in what way to see Him or feel Him or checking that I'm filled by this in my organs. Rather I can receive Him in importance from the friends, and then use it. But for that I need to invest in the friends, for then it comes as a force that can be used. And after the Machsom, there's the importance a person acquires where he receives the feeling of the Creator, so this brings him importance, which is truly called faith, the force to bestow from that he receives. And then he even has the possibility to receive in order to bestow when he has complete faith, where the faith already, the importance of the Creator, comes to being realized.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:16) What is the shell of the right exactly?

M. Laitman: The shell of the right are the thoughts that tell you that you're fine, that you're whole, that you did good things, and you should suffice certainly with what you are. Let's say that that's the right.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:44) What does it say, that only half an hour for a person on the left?

M. Laitman: Being for half an hour on the left line, and all the rest of the right line, is actually showing us how much we are in a problem of merging from the right line. Meaning to swallow, to receive the impression about the importance of the Creator, the importance of the goal and the work, about He is Good That Does Good, and does want our exertion, and so on. There's many things here. Yes. Meaning truly half an hour against 23 and a half hours. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:41) How can you really say, now I'm on the right line, now I'm on the left line? How does one know?

M. Laitman: If a person cannot do the correct merging in the work between right and left, then he doesn't control himself, and he's always under his nature. We just call it to be between right and left on the sling somehow. And he's thrown to the right and he says, oh, it's so good, and then he sees those words seem to be crazy or what, sometimes the opposite, and there's sometimes despair. Who am I? What am I? And nothing is worth it. So he's not in this and he's not in that, meaning he's never him. He's either the nature of the Creator or under the nature of the created being. Two angels that are controlling him. So he's an angel. The moment you sit and cry, you're an angel. What controls you is the left line, and then you're stuck in it, or the opposite of that, the right line, meaning you're missing wings. That's it. You're just ready to fly. Both this and that are not our state. We, the "I," can only be when it's merged from both, in order to advance and create something new, completely new. When I take a part of the beastly part, the desire to receive, and a part of the godly part, the desire to bestow, and I want to build from both something new, something new is the third one. It's truly new. There hasn't been such a thing in reality. We talk about the deficiency. The desire is what exists in spirituality, and here comes a new deficiency, a new desire altogether that's just built upon both, but it's new. It turns out that you are giving birth to your soul. You are begetting your new state. You are the owner of the action. It's clear that the Creator is bringing you these forces and bringing you all the components of that Kli, but you are building this Kli. You have no shame after that, really. It's like you, to begin with, have brought forth this and caused and performed this action.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:02) How does a person who exists in the current state can see that?

M. Laitman: We can be in all these states and supervise these states in a way that you don't let yourself be in some feeling, bad or good. We must constantly be with our intellect besides our feeling. How should we say, both mind and feeling come to balance them, where it's not more this, more than that, or that more than this. If it's more intellect than feeling, then you're smart, you're wise. Why should I do all those things? I nevertheless can't, the Creator is bigger, He'll do, and if not then no, and what do I care? And so on and so forth. That's with more intellect than feeling. And if the feeling is more than intellect, then I'm immersed inside my feeling, and the intellect simply can't activate the head. What needs to happen? We need to seek in the society for forces that will help you balance. We have no choice.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:17) It's okay, everything's right, we have a group, but I can sit and scrutinize if it affects me or…

M. Laitman: A person is constantly under the influence of the society, and the influence of all of reality, the universe, the environment. Along with it, he must, must try to constantly connect the three points: I, He, and my actions, my present state, so they will be as one. There is no new teaching here. I'm explaining to you the same letter from page 64. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:11) The balance between left and right. I have to keep redoing it?

M. Laitman: Balance between the right line and the left line must be renewed every second. It cannot be ever in balance. Spirituality, we talked about it, is something that constantly changes. There are no moments, there's no time in spirituality when I reach something and then, ahh, there's no such thing. If you go, ahh, then you're not in that state that you attained.

Student: But society has to do the balance all the time?

M. Laitman: In order to find the strength to balance, you need the society.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:57) Because of the barrier, is the right line below and the left line is, is that the state? 

M. Laitman: Does going… Is connecting to the right line called above reason, and connecting to the left line is called within reason or below reason, right? No. No, because you do both with complete awareness, complete control. If you are in one of them without your own control over this, it's not above, it's not below, it's simply, you are simply sunken under them, and that's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:56) But the control is in reason. How can I control it?

M. Laitman: How can you control them? When you know to begin with why you're going to the right, then it's called right. If you don't know, but you are in this feeling that controls you, this is not called being in the right. You may be able to call it the shell of the right. It's just that all kinds of states are brought upon you. Right means you determine that this is right for me, and I go for it. How do you know that now you're going into the right? Is it written? This door is right, that door is left? Come in. No. Rather, you choose for yourself things from the sum total that is revealed to you or that you want to reveal, and you say, these things belong to the right. These things in front of me belong to the left. It's not like they are to the right or to the left of you. There's nothing. It's all desires, qualities, thoughts that you divide into right and left.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:14) You said that the right line is devotion above reason.

M. Laitman: I said that right is called above reason, above awareness, above the attainment, above the feeling, because right is called importance of the Creator, His desire to do good to His creations. The promise that we will have a reward, that our punishments are corrections. All those things, I don't see them with my own eyes. It's not palpable, it's not something that is revealed to me in a sense. So, there is something here that I have to rely on, something that is not in my senses. It has to fill, I have to fill my senses as if I know it, as if I'm filled with the sensation of the Creator. And then the sensation of the Creator gives me confidence, His importance, everything. I'm not, but I'm not in this feeling; I have to fill my feeling as if I feel the Creator, as if I have come to feel Him.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:38) I can't understand what He's saying. 

M. Laitman: You're saying this: if I am purportedly in the right line, and with it I go to the left line, and let's say I've come to some prayer, and I come to some state called middle line, the middle line, is it not purportedly, or is it? My middle line will also be purportedly. But after a few efforts in this, the Creator will open Himself up to me, and then I will really feel His greatness and importance, which will give me the power of real faith, and then I will see both my qualities as actual shells that are truly opposite from the Creator, and to the extent that I feel and see the real Him, I will also see my own things in the real way. And then it will be holiness, opposite from the shell, and then it will be the real middle line, will be the power of the soul, will to receive in order to bestow, meaning will to receive with a screen and reflected light. We have to try several times until we are actually rewarded with it being real and not like a kid's game. Kids also play as if it's true. By this, they learn to later be in real actions.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:21) What do they need to do after the barrier, and what to do before?

M. Laitman: So, before the barrier, it's as if we're playing a game. It's a preparation period; that's why it's called this.

Student: What do you really have to do in the middle line and then pass the barrier?

M. Laitman: No, before we cross the barrier, we can't make a real middle line. It cannot be real. Real means I really have qualities of bestowing and receiving. Before I cross the barrier, I don't have it. My nature is a beastly nature, the nature of this world. It's not real.

Student: But if I try, and try, and try?

M. Laitman: By trying many times, I become experienced, right? And when I, just like at school we learn, we learn, we learn, and then we can go to work.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:26) He wrote that you also have to use the left line, because right and left are two contradicting lines. Because the left is something that needs correction. The left is a matter of criticism, that a person has to really criticize his state in spirituality. If he really wants to bestow, or is he cheating himself, or does he not pay attention at all? How can a person be truly objective if he's not in spirituality?

M. Laitman: I don't even want to answer these questions. Try and see. From the reality we just talked about, it should be clear. You're asking me to give you a feeling?  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:24) On one hand, there's existence from absence, which is left. And there's existence from existence on behalf of the Creator. So, what is this new thing? Where is that thing between existence from absence and existence from existence? I mean the middle line. 

M. Laitman: Guys, believe me, we have nothing more to say about this. Start working. You'll have questions from the work. And then we'll be able to talk. Very simple. Your questions are simply just from the intellect, without any experience. Forgive me for saying this, but I can hear it by the question. I feel it's – there's no point talking. That's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:26) How can we be in doing things, what you're saying? Can you give an example from life? Can you give an example what it means to do this?

M. Laitman: No, I've already given an example from life. I think I've given enough today about the merging, and how to do it, etc. What example from life? Start working, and you'll see. What do you mean, example from life? Example from life is I'm in a certain state and I catch myself, stop myself. Where am I? I stop myself now. Who is there? There's the Creator, the goal, the importance, adhesion, desire to do good to His creations, reward and punishment, all those things that we can talk, say about the Creator. What do I know? What do I recognize? What do I understand about Him? Okay, let's say I thought about it. I was impressed by it. Now I'm going to the left line. Oppose that it's who am I? What am I compared to His qualities? And according to what I feel and see about myself, right? I begin to compare this with this, or maybe this, with that. And in every action where I begin to compare now between us, I maintain the balance between them. And from this, the prayer will be created so that I, with my negative things, want to be opposite His positive things. Start even in this way to connect these things inside. And that's it. And then you will be sort of in the middle between the left and the right, if you can call it left and right. As you know, it's just like kids building sandcastles. That's what they do. So, let's start building it this way. It's not real, but that's it. Start looking how you can constantly maintain yourself as me and my goal, being like the Creator, and the elements He gave me on the right side and on the left side for these things to be together. Not that one will be more than the other, and that I will control that state every time. And afterwards, when you do it, you become accustomed to creating this inner state that you're constantly building. You have to build it every moment, right? And it will change every moment, and you have to rebuild it. It will change, and you have to rebuild it. It's like a missile heading toward the target. And then you try to keep it in all the states you are in, in life—at store, at work, in bed, while studying, never mind where and what. Try. You're saying an example from life. This is from life.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:34) We say that we need to reach Lo Lishma first. From that, to get the true force of faith. What is that true force of faith?

M. Laitman: What does it mean to receive the real power of faith? Anything that awakens in me, that is opposite, not corrected, opposite from the Creator, through the power of faith, I can correct it. The power of faith is the sensation of godliness. It's the sensation of wholeness, of eternity, of the importance of the intention to bestow. All the things we feel in spirituality or in the Creator is giving. It's the quality of the giver, the bestower. The fact that it seems to you now that you are a believer, But it's good, it's warm, it's soft, it's—I don't know how you feel, good things. So, translate it into one word: the Bestower. Not that He's bestowing upon you. The quality of bestowing is soft, good. That's it. And not towards me that it's soft and good, and then I'm the receiver. The quality in itself is like that. And if I want this quality, this is what it should look like. This is what I should look like. Meaning, to take upon myself the quality of the giver, to be the giver, and to feel what I feel, as we're saying soft, and warm, and good, that it's the same thing.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:32) From Lo Lishma, it's exactly against that feeling you're speaking about. It's the left line, the qualities of the created being. So, it's a feeling that constantly comes to feel what you're saying against the true faith. Sounds like it's contradicting.

M. Laitman: A few more days, think about it, and we'll talk. What are we learning? 

Reader: Let's share impressions from the lesson. What are we taking to implement in the Ten? 

Reader: We'll move to the next part of the lesson, and before that we'll sing a song together.

Song: (01:32:20)