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

Daily Lesson(Morning) April 20,2024.

Part 2: Baal HaSulam. The Freedom. “Two Discernments: A) Potential, B) Actual.”

Reader: (00:08) We are reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam, the article is The Freedom and the subtitle is, “Two Discernments A. potential and B. Actual.

Reading Subtitle: (00:19) Two Discernments: A) Potential, B) Actual: 

First, we must understand that although this selfishness, which we have defined as the force of will to receive, is the very essence of man, it cannot exist in reality even for a second. (For it is known that there is a discernment and a discernment in the “potential,” and the thing we call “potential” is in the thought, before it emerges from potential to actual, and is established only in the thought.) For what we call “potential,” before it emerges from potential to actual, exists only in our thought, meaning that we can determine it only in the thought.

But in fact, there cannot be any real force in the world that is dormant and inactive. This is because the force exists in reality only while it is revealed in action. By the same token, you cannot say about an infant that it is very strong when it cannot lift even the lightest weight. Instead, you can say that you see in that infant that when it grows, it will manifest great strength.

However, we do say that that strength we find in man when he is grown was present in his organs and his body even when he was an infant, but that strength had been concealed and was not evident. It is true that in our minds we could determine (the powers destined to manifest), since the mind asserts it. However, in the infant’s actual body there is certainly no strength at all, since no strength manifests in the infant’s actions, since no force was revealed in the infant’s actions.

So it is with appetite. This force will not appear in a man’s body in the actual reality when the organs cannot eat, meaning when he is full. But even when one is full, the force of appetite exists, but it is concealed within one’s body. After some time, when the food has been digested, it reappears and manifests from potential to actual.

However, such a sentence (of determining a force that has not yet been revealed in actual fact) belongs to the conducts by which the thought perceives. However, it does not exist in reality, since when satiated, we feel very clearly that the force of appetite is gone, and if you search for it, you will not find it.

It turns out that we cannot display a potential as a subject that exists in and of itself, but only as a predicate. Thus, when an action occurs in reality, at that time the force manifests in the action.

Yet, we necessarily find two things here in the perceiving process: a subject and a predicate, that is, potential and actual, such as the force of appetite, which is the subject, and the image of the food, which is the predicate and the action. In reality, however, they come as one. It will never occur that the force of appetite will appear in a person without picturing the food he wishes to eat. Thus, these are two halves of the same thing. The force of appetite must dress in the image of the thing being eaten, since there is revealing only through clothing in an image. You therefore see that the subject and the predicate are presented here as two halves of the same thing, whose appearance and disappearance are simultaneous.

Now we understand that the will to receive, which we presented as selfishness, does not mean that it exists so in a person as a craving force that wishes to receive in the form of a passive predicate. Rather, this pertains to the subject, meaning that it dresses in an image of things he deems worthy of receiving. It is like the force of appetite, which dresses in the image of a thing worthy of being eaten, and whose action appears in the form of the thing being eaten and in which it clothes. We call this action, “desire,” meaning the force of appetite revealed in the action of the imagination.

So it is with our topic—the general will to receive, which is the very essence of man. It appears and exists only through dressing in shapes of objects that are likely to be received, for then it exists as the subject, and in no other way. We call this action, “life,” meaning man’s vitality, which means that the force of the will to receive dresses and acts within the desired objects. And the measure of revelation of this action is the measure of his vitality, as we have explained in the act we call “desire.”

M. Laitman: Well? You're silent. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:30) What he's saying is that there's no such thing as the will to receive on its own. But it has to clothe on something that he wants to receive, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Why does he mention it? 

M. Laitman: Because it has to be an action toward a goal. 

Student: It sounds very clear.

M. Laitman: Okay, so what do you want from him? Do you want him to say something clear? 

Student: It seems strange that he's writing a whole page on something you could say in two words.

M. Laitman: It's not that simple, it's not that simple. He wants to say that if there weren't something that you do want in reality, if it didn't exist, then you wouldn't want it. Clear, it's not clear, or it is? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:34) Bestowal to the Creator, that’s something that exists, is something I can imagine? 

M. Laitman: Perhaps not, but it exists in reality. It's a deficiency that does exist. 

Student: How can I imagine such a thing? 

M. Laitman: Bit by bit, you will come to it, that you will also imagine it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:14) A desire is something actual? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: The clothing on the desire is imagination? 

M. Laitman: Why? 

Student: I'm also asking, why.

M. Laitman: What does it mean that it's real, actual? 

Student: Like food, is that imagination or the real is the desire I get for that food? What can a person say that is real? 

M. Laitman: Real, I think it's what he knows, he can obtain, it's accessible.

Student: I don't understand what that means.

M. Laitman: It's what he can attain. 

Student: I can attain this food, it's before me. That's real?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: It doesn't feel real, it feels that my desire is real. The food, it changes, it can be food, then it's something else, all kinds of clothings. 

M. Laitman: The desire also changes.

Student: What's the difference between imaginary pleasure to real pleasure, is there such a thing? Imaginary pleasure and real pleasure.

M. Laitman: Real pleasure is what you have before you clothed in something. And you can feel it, attain it. After you attain it, then you also have the Reshimot, the records. And then you already know what it is. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:04) He defines life, he said that's when the potential is clothed in the actual. That a person wants something, and he knows that that's what he wants. When we speak about the quality of bestowal, and we want to come out of Egypt, could that be that it's a level of words? Or a person wants it a bit, and that's the whole life of a person? That's going from potential to actual, this desire.

M. Laitman: Here, there's a question: This desire, which is real, does it have to be clothed in something? That we want to obtain through it, yes? And can it already be felt in a person, that he already attains it, or not? 

Student: It's a question, it's not just like another regular desire, it's a desire we have to build. The whole work is to build this desire, that's the question: What's the difference between the life of that desire, or a life like he gives an example of food. You want to eat, you see something specific, you want it, that's your desire. Here, it's already a different type of life. 

M. Laitman: In other words, you need a precise, or an accurate definition of what is a desire.

Student: To bestow.

M. Laitman: Desire to bestow, desire to receive, it doesn't matter, actually. There's no difference. There's a difference in the realization but in how it exists before us. So, what are you asking? 

Student: What's the difference? Well, maybe you answered, I might have. Let's say a simple will to receive, not a spiritual will to receive, I think that's clear. He explained it, he doesn't explain it for no reason because he wants us to reach the example of what life is. Life is a person vitality. That the will to receive is clothed in things he wants to receive. We have to take this force and clothe it on something that he doesn't know, yet. How do you build that life, that's the question. 

M. Laitman: But a person already has a preparation for it. He, let's say, is intended for spiritual attainment, right? So, what's the problem? 

Student: Because it's not like you tasted ice cream and now you see the ice cream, again. I want it, I know what I want. Here, it's something that we hear that Kabbalists are telling us about. That, right, other things don't feel good anymore, well, it's going back to the previous article. Other things, it's clear that won't satisfy us, this is something we want to taste. If we had a desire that would already be, what life are we talking about? About this new thing we want, this quality of bestowal, that this will be our life.

M. Laitman: It is the attainment of the Creator, this is all we're talking about. That we have nothing besides that. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:21) Should we aspire to undress those clothing, that we won't have clothing for everything we get pleasure, right? Otherwise, it's imaginary if I'm getting pleasure from food, what's food? It's imaginary if that's how I relate to it. I have to undress these dressings. 

M. Laitman: And then what will you attain? 

Student: The Creator, I have to feel Him in everything. What's an actual desire? I have to understand that I got a desire for Him. It doesn't matter if it's through food.

M. Laitman: It's a kind of connection.

Student: A connection but an actual pleasure, it's the same thing. If I taste food, it's food, it's imagination. 

M. Laitman: Right? 

Student: We have to undress all this?

M. Laitman: Yes. Clothing and reflected light, this is what we need to attain. This is basically, what contains all the pleasure in attainment? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:01) To continue the friends, he writes that the force of appetite won't appear in a person's body while the organs cannot eat, meaning when he's satiated. Also, the force of bestowal can’t appear in us if we can't truly bestow? 

M. Laitman: Of course not, how will I feel that I have it?

Student: If we never tasted the flavor of bestowal, how can an appetite for it appear? 

M. Laitman: There isn't.

Student: What should happen, to wait for something to happen? An appetite to bestow will appear? 

M. Laitman: Yes, the Creator should give it. The first time, the Creator gives it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:57) Spiritual pleasure, is it because there's a force to bestow? Or because this force to bestow fills other vessels?

M. Laitman: The force of bestowal fills the other vessels, yes. 

Student: Not from having an ability to bestow, but the ability to bestow, fills.

M. Laitman: Yes, you are already speaking quite deeply. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:37) The first feeling comes from the Creator, the force of bestowal: The vessel and the revelation.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Then, I look at it, like, I don't know, a scientist, I look back to see where the Creator, the upper force, can give this gift. Then, I see Dr. Michael Laitman, the Kabbalist, got this gift. I look left and right to see more gifts like this, then my desire to receive says, what's about me, when will I get this gift? Like the friends, when will they get it, they really want this gift. I see that the time is wanting this and now we need more friends with more force of light to bring into this world. 

M. Laitman: I understand you, but I'm also in that exact same situation, so, what can I say? I don't know, I came to Rabash in 1975, probably, and look how many years, what can you do. It's not a university, you go in for four years, and that's it. This is why we continue, more and more and more. Everything is written in the books, what more can you add? What we could add, I collected it in the articles of Rabash. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:12) You say that everything is in the books. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does that mean, all the spiritual attainment of a person are in the books? 

M. Laitman: No, but when you read the books, and you're ready for it, then what is written is revealed to you. 

Student: Can I really see that every time I approach your writings, something else opens up, you see there things you haven’t seen before? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What depends on what will open before a person? 

M. Laitman: It depends on a person's character, on his nature. On his inner point, what is called his point in the heart, everything depends on his inner mechanism.

Student: Because also, yesterday, you mentioned the Rabash writings, specifically now, before Passover. You said we have to just immerse ourselves in there, to incorporate in them and that will really help us go through the process. What's this action that I'm just squeezing myself into the Rabash articles? 

M. Laitman: To see the right, authentic, real writings. Be careful not to engage with things that might or might not be correct. If they've been through several hands, we should be very careful. And, in this way, advance. 

Student: I'm going to ask again: Now that we're reading Rabash articles and we're going into Passover deeper. What does it mean that we're squeezing ourselves, going into his articles? 

M. Laitman: We want to lose ourselves, there, where I enter them as if into a forest. And that it will influence me with all of its power.

Student: You just mentioned to be careful not to touch unreal articles that went through a lot of hands, that went through a few hands. We, what we have, because there's all kinds of people around the world in Israel, publishing Rabash and Baal HaSulam, they say it's the true writings. Beyond our writings, do we need anything else?

M. Laitman: I think not, I think not. 

Student: Why, I see that sometimes there's curiosity to see. Maybe there's something that we don't have? 

M. Laitman: We need to understand that what a person needs to receive, he will receive. And whatever means he has for it, it's enough.

Student: On our behalf, all of our corrections that we need to go through, we have. We have all the materials? 

M. Laitman: Correct. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:00) To continue the friend, we're in the same business. A lot of times, friends ask us or advice or give us like rare articles by Baal HaSulam and Rabash, that you see it's Baal HaSulam. You recognize the style, and so on, how to relate to such sources? 

M. Laitman: I don't relate to it, I don't relate to it.

Student: Is it authentic on your idea? 

M. Laitman: It may be authentic, it may be that Baal HaSulam wrote an article. Wrote twice as many articles than what we have but that part he destroyed.

Student: Now these parts are surfacing in all kinds of ways.

M. Laitman: Yes, yes. 

Student: Can it be beneficial for our understanding? 

M. Laitman: It cannot contribute to anything, I have doubts about this. I'm uncertain about this, and I only take what comes into my hand. 

Student: Everything we have today, it's enough for correcting, everything.

M. Laitman: This, I am certain, that I received from Rabash only. 

Student: Now, less about attainment, let's say just to enrich ourselves, because it's more things than a Kabbalist wrote.

M. Laitman: No. 

Student: For dissemination, maybe there's nice quotes that could explain things to other people, and bring them closer? 

M. Laitman: I'll tell you, I don't think it can help, very simple. I don't think it can help, even if there are such excerpts, what could there be? So, you understand, we have such examples, but I've not seen that I'm getting anything additional from them that will open my eyes or heart. 

Student: I want to understand the relation to it: Is it because you didn't get it from Rabash?

M. Laitman: I didn't receive it directly from Rabash as I did the articles of Rabash themselves, and the articles of Shamati, which were written by his hand, literally. So, this is why I don't feel that it's coming from them. I can't smell the source, do you understand? This is why it doesn't.

Student: If someone has like an impulse, maybe there's another secret to search for in there? 

M. Laitman: So, he might have some words of wisdom there, but we don't need it. Our way is to come into contact with the Creator through these writings. And contact isn't done through the intellect, through knowledge, through understanding. So, I yearn to know more what belongs to Rabash because through them, I can touch him, perhaps, even more. But, just like that, to add? I'll also say, for example, if another thousand pages of Baal HaSulam would come to us, or Rabash, for example, do you think it would help us? We would be drowning in it, like in the sea. Look what they had before. I was in Hillel's house, he had The Study of the Ten Sefirot, he had the whole Zohar ,and maybe the five books of Moses, that's all, that was it, a few books. I asked him, where are the rest of the books, where is the big Shulchan Aruch, the Jewish code of law, where is the Gemara and all that? He said, I don't need it, I don't need it. So, it depends what a person wants from the Torah, this is why I don't think we're lacking anything. Okay, all right. We're done with this topic, mister.

M. Laitman: (34:01) Let’s move to the next part.