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

Daily Lesson (Morning) September 2, 2024.

Part 2: Baal HaSulam. Letter 59.

Reader: We are reading Letter 59 by Baal HaSulam. 

Reading Letter 59: (00:10) 

A letter that Baal HaSulam wrote to his disciple regarding the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah in English in the United States

To the famous Kabbalist, my great teacher and rav, Rav Levi Yitzhak, may he live long and well,

I received your latest letter, and for the first time since you went to America, you have given me a sliver of hope that you will succeed in your mission. I am certain that you understand that I am referring to the English replication that you did, from which you wish to give lectures in English, as this is the only way you will be able to make money in America, and perhaps even substantially, which was my intention.

I do ask that you will send me a complete copy of the book you wrote, to see if you have not veered from the path. In the first book that you copied, I did find a big mistake concerning the conveyance of Kabbalah, where you did not give Moses his rightful place, but I did not send my comments because you had already printed it.

Indeed, there is one drawback that you must remove from within you, which is like an iron partition between you and obtaining funds from anyone: Since you know that the distance between you and the donors of the money is as the distance between heaven and earth, you try to elevate the donors to your place, to heaven, so you can receive the money from them, since you must be with them in the same place, of course. However, they are heavier and stronger than you are, and I guarantee that you will never be able to raise them to heaven, and therefore, you will not be able to stretch out your hand to them and receive money. This way will never succeed, and no grievances or anger will help you.

If you want your mission to succeed, do the opposite, the complete opposite. Let those who listen to your words, the donors, stay in their place on earth. Do not move then one bit from their earthliness or from their views and wishes. I mean, deliberately prepare such words that will not soften their earthly heart or bring them any faith in anything at all, so that you will come down from heaven to earth and be with the listeners in the same world and in the same view.

What you want from them, prove to them with clear evidence that they themselves should have known before they heard your words. That is, not because of faith in the next world and so forth, but out of national pride and recognition of self-value, that the wisdom of Kabbalah is an important asset to the Israeli nation, which has been forgotten in recent generations and must be expanded and revealed, and this will be our glory before the nations so countries will see us as we truly are—a nation of an ancient culture.

At the same time, you should add that the nations are vying to rob this wisdom from us and equate it with Christianity, and it is a commandment of paramount importance to save it from their thick and crass hands no less than what we do to save the souls of Israel from assimilation. The only way toward salvation is to slightly lift the veil from the wisdom of Kabbalah, and reveal some of its luster and beauty to all before the eyes of the nations so they will see that there is none like it in depth or wisdom, and will be embarrassed and ashamed of their notion to compare this wisdom with the arid Christianity.

At that time, it will be clear that “It is a wise and intelligent people,” a nation of an ancient and persisting culture, and not as they boast among themselves, that they are the true heirs of the Bible and the people of Israel—by which they involuntarily admit to the antiquity of our culture while degrading the teaching of our sages for two thousand years and mock us. Naturally, this great cessation and vacuum revokes all the merit of our ancient sages, similar to cursing a man who had many millions for a few days in his youth, but since then and until now he has been frayed, barefoot, penniless and indigent, and devoid of the sanctity of the Creator and the name of the whole of Israel to show them a portion of this wisdom, which can present the beauty of our ancient culture through the days of our exile since our Temple was ruined to this day. Thus, they will see the difference between the wisdom of the hidden that is present among the nations of the world and our own wisdom of the hidden, and do add of your own understanding similar to these words.

Speak to them with love and humility, with confidence that they will accept your words, and then I hope that they will open their pockets before you willingly, and you will connect with them in true friendship, you will benefit from them and they from you, and you will be rid of any strife or quarrel, and you will see before you a new world. But the strict condition is that you do not cut off their corporeal, earthly threads. Be very careful not to make them faithful in any way at all. Leave them completely as they are, and lower yourself to them, to their very place, and then they will listen to you.

All these words and points that I have given you, expand them as much as you can and replicate them in the best English, spiced up with commentaries on a verse or two, but under a strict condition not to fill your words with moralism, but with contemporary phrases and praises. Compile sermons of half an hour, which is more than enough. Do not jump too high, and there is no need to make a name for yourself as a first-rate speaker, but only as a first-rate fundraiser. Remember will this point.

Also, to the above points, you can add what the nations of the world do in order to preserve their ancient culture, how they invest on it, and how every nation respects the benefit and necessity to cherish all the great ones they had had throughout the generations, and the words of our sages will come true in us, “Worthless is the dough whose owner testifies that it is bad.” If we do not respect ourselves, we cannot hope that others will respect [us].

Hence, a heavy duty lies on us to reveal the truth also among ourselves, that our culture is ancient and persisting, and yet, that even today, as far as religion goes, we are in the first place, and not necessarily only as the cradle of religions.

You should also promise the listeners that after you publish your book and advertise it in the masses, you are completely certain that the intellectuals of the generation will set their hearts and minds on replicating all the necessary books and establishing seminaries to make the wisdom known to all.

It would be good if you suggested these ideas before the best speaker, so he will embellish them with appealing and attractive expressions. It might be good to spend some money on this.

I should not elaborate any further; remember not to let a day go by without learning in my books.

Hoping for your success,

Yehuda HaLevi Ashlag

But most importantly, see that you have a regular yearly order of study for the seminary, and collect for half a year or more, and know what is before you.

M. Laitman: (14:07) I think it's understood to us, more than what he writes here. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:24) It's clear that he's writing about a specific case. But I want to ask about us when we disseminate today. Is the approach he's explaining here relevant to us? 

M. Laitman: What's the approach? 

Student: He tells them, don't raise them to your place. It's a mistake to try and bring them up to a place of faith, but lower yourself to their earthliness. And don't mention any ethics of the path of truth, but leave them in what they're used to according to their own desires. And he even explains what study materials to choose. And not more than half an hour. And be careful in interpreting the internality of the excerpts, but only half of it.  It's a very detailed instruction. So is that approach right also, when we disseminate it in our days? 

M. Laitman: I can't tell you. I don't go in that way. You know.

Student: Correct? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. I really don't. I don't know. I can't put any kind of critique on Baal HaSulam. He's way too high and deep than that which I can talk of or even think or attain. Therefore, I can't take this letter and rewrite it in a lighter way, in an easier way. Also, I can't. I don't think so. 

Student: You said that you're not going on this path and we all know it. So the question is, why? Why actually is the approach that you taught us how to disseminate, it's not this approach?

M. Laitman: In what way is it different? 

Student: 180 degrees. Here, he's telling, it's a very strange letter from Baal HaSulam. If we wouldn't know it's him.. he tells them, be careful from raising them to faith. Lower yourself to their earthliness. All of his writings are completely opposite. It's all very strict, usually.

M. Laitman: Because that's where he's turning to people of the wisdom, somewhat, and here not. So it's clear that there's a difference. 

Student: Right, it's so clear. So that's my question. Today, in our days, when we approach the masses, we also see that only a small percentage are drawn to this, and they continue to this approach. 

M. Laitman: But they don't want to make of them Kabbalists. In our dissemination, we just want to explain to them that the world is more complex than they think. And we can learn how to touch upon the upper light and evoke its bestowal upon us and make our life better, safer, etc.. 

Student: So that's not the approach of Kabbalists, what we're learning here?

M. Laitman: Certainly. But towards our dissemination to the streets, to the people, of course, yes.

Student: So there's a lot of questions. But the main one is that we're teaching them the connection with the upper force and how to make our life better. How is that possible? If they wouldn't be in order to bestow, how could it be that they have a connection with the upper light? What are we telling them? Is that the truth? 

M. Laitman: They discover if it's the truth or not.

Student: They can. But when we come to them and tell them we're giving you a connection with the upper force and good life and everything will be great in their will to receive. Let's just connect a bit and turn to the Creator and He'll watch over us.

M. Laitman: They need to understand that I came to save them.

Student: But when I come to them, I know that I'm studying from the Rav Laitman every day in the morning, that if I'm not incorporated in the Ten and ask it. 

M. Laitman: So they're even before that. They're even before that. But eventually, it's before them. 

Student: There's another question. How is there not a fear that he'll become like a Rabbi to them. That now they'll all start following him? Because the student, I don't know about him, but us, when we go out into the public and we draw them behind us. So how will we not become like Rabbis? 

M. Laitman: There's no fear. 

Student: Why not? 

M. Laitman: Because what you already received, it won't give you the possibility to enjoy the lie.

Student: Clear. What happened, or when did it happen, that this approach to lower the wisdom of Kabbalah to earthliness, he said it's like another profession in a religion. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And that it's even better than the rest and so on. So how? We're turning the wisdom of Kabbalah into religion in our dissemination?

M. Laitman: No, we're not. But usually, we look at it this way. 

Student: Right. And if we would come out with this as another part of a religion that tells about what he's recommending here. So it could be that more people would be drawn to it. Because that's what they understand and it's in the will to receive. 

M. Laitman: Yes, even another thousand or several millions of the people of Israel. There are different religious ones.

Student: Yes, but there'll be our religious from the wisdom of Kabbalah.

M. Laitman: No, no, I didn't see that. I saw that they became religious and belong to the people of Israel. And they have some part of the wisdom of Kabbalah that they study as part of the religion or part of their general approach. You have many such from all kinds of such institutes. But it's not that it's the wisdom of Kabbalah. 

Student: So the first question was, when did it happen that the wisdom of Kabbalah can expand in such an earthly way, like he's recommending here? Like I heard from you? Not to turn them into Kabbalists, but to explain the laws of life, connection with the Upper?

M. Laitman:  There was no such thing.

Student: And now? 

M. Laitman: No, we hope that it will be, that it will be that way. But that's under the condition that the will to receive, that the Creator holds with His hands, that it will take on this form that they won't be sufficed with our life like the general folk have today. 

Student: In our dissemination, we have to approach the wisdom of Kabbalah in an earthly way or turn them into Kabbalists?

M. Laitman: We need to teach them in such a way, such that from the study, they will understand that they're in a falsehood and that the truth is besides them. 

Student: So again, it's the approach that isn't an earthly approach? I'm teaching them that they are in a lie?

M. Laitman: There's no choice. But you're not teaching them in a lie, so that they understand that they're in a lie but rather, you're teaching them the truth. That they receive from this study, which is already the truth. There's already in this, there are systems, relations, the whole correct relations. 

Student: How from studying Kabbalah in an earthly way will they understand such things?

M. Laitman: I don't know. I'm not on that. I don't belong to that. 

Student: What do you mean, you don't belong to that?

M. Laitman: I don't belong to the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah in a form that is not penetrating into a person and leaving a person in a state that he's in.

Student: I think that's the root of the matter. Because everyone who disseminates is your student, and he was raised by you and learned everything by you.

M. Laitman: There are many more Kabbalah teachers.

Student: I'm speaking about us now. So we see how you're doing, and your approach, and your attitude to the truth, and how precise it is. And then we come with that approach, we don't know anything else. And we're also afraid to move right or left from it. So we're actually projecting. For example, we're like a mini Rav Laitman in the lesson. We're sharing your approach when we teach, and that isn't good for most of the people, it's individuals. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So is that the right thing to do? 

M. Laitman: There's no choice. There's no choice. He also writes about this. What letter was that? Where he.. well I don't remember. 

Student: He writes about it a lot, just here he writes something opposite. Here he says, let's leave them. Lower yourself to their earthliness and be careful from raising them. That's why it's so confusing about what the approach should be. 

M. Laitman: All right, you'll have to scrutinize more here. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:46) First of all, what did he say about giving Moses his place? He'd like to give Moses his rightful place. 

M. Laitman: That the Shechina is talking from his throat. 

Student: He wrote, I saw a big mistake in your book. That you didn’t give Moses his rightful place. We know that Moses is a force that takes a person out from his will to receive in order to bestow. That’s what the Rabash taught us. Almost all his articles discuss the correction of creation. Before the purpose of creation that we have to reach bestowal. That’s what you’re teaching us. Connection. You can’t connect in order to receive, only in order to bestow. This is what Rabash teaches us in the Social Writings

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Student: So it's all the same thing?

M. Laitman: Can you hear?

Student: Yes. I guess my ears aren’t working well. There's a difference between Americans and Russians in character, and the Latin Kli. Americans, we are the worst, the lowest. Our desires are like, completely earthly, corporeal. So is he speaking specifically about disseminating to Americans? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How to keep pride out of my dissemination efforts, because it ruins it? I've tried to integrate the efforts of my friends here, and my pride just ruins me out of it, as the friends have recognized this many times. How to keep pride out of my dissemination efforts? How to put the right efforts into dissemination efforts? As I approach Americans, to try to understand how to approach Americans in the right way. How to play to their lightness, and how to play in their game of approaching. In the right language of my efforts, I can lose myself in all this corruption and dissemination. So how to keep myself, my process, and my efforts? 

M. Laitman: I have nothing to add. There's none wiser than one with experience. You'll go through this stage, then a few other stages, and eventually you'll know well. What it means; dissemination. 

Student: The type of material that should be written towards Americans, I think, is very different than the type of material that should be presented to Russians, Latins, and Latinos in Israel.

M. Laitman: Yes, yes. Undoubtedly. It should be different.

Student: What sort of qualities need to be included in these writings for Americans? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. I'm not American. And I'm not Israeli. I'm Russian. I'm telling you seriously. And that's why I can't say what's better.

Student: Just like throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks?

M. Laitman: No, no, no. That can't be. That can't be. There's people that can clothe in someone else and something else. They become good actors. Also good lecturers and speakers, teachers. I'm just known in the style of Baal HaSulam because it's close to science. Close to the form that I'm used to, to learn and teach. That's it. That's why I never attract to me and also don't reject. Rather, wherever it fits, it suits, remains.

Student: Many times I've started to write something or an article, and I get carried away by cleverness, to my own American quality. To a certain extent, I want to embrace that, because that's what will be absorbed, maybe. But I lose the concept and it just becomes about my own cleverness. So what I'm asking is how to keep hold of the friends and the gold here in Bnei Baruch, but also sprinkle this cleverness that the Americans like?

M. Laitman: I don't know how you were educated, and where and how. You have excellent English, but whether you will be able to talk to the American heart, I don't know.

Student: He speaks in the letter also. He hints that when he's fundraising to let these gentlemen kind of feel as if they're having their own revelations. So how do you present the wisdom of Kabbalah, so that the audience feels like they're having their own revelation and not necessarily receiving some lesson on high from us? That they'll reveal, that they feel as if it's their personal revelation. 

M. Laitman: That's not simple. To write in such a way is not simple.

Reader: (34:48) Announcements.