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

Daily Lesson (Morning) October 5, 2024

Part 1: Rabash. Letter 34

Reader: Hello, we are reading in the writings of Rabash, letter number 34. You can find the study material on kabbalahgroup.info in the Arvut system, you can also send questions live through these websites. Anyone asking a question in the study hall is asked to stand up, hold the mic close to his mouth and speak loudly and clearly. Writings of Rabash, Letter No. 34.

Reading Letter 34: (00:34) Rosh Hashanah [Jewish New Year’s Eve], September 14, 1957

To the friends, may they live forever.

After I have come close to you in the imaginary corporeal place, let us hope for bringing the hearts closer, as for a long time now we have not had correspondence, and the physical act brings unity, as it is said in the Rosh Hashanah prayer [Hebrew New Year’s Eve service], “And they shall all become one society.” In that state, it will be easier “To do Your will wholeheartedly.”

This is so because while there is not just one society, it is difficult to work wholeheartedly. Instead, part of the heart remains for its own benefit and not for the benefit of the Creator. It is said about it in Midrash Tanchuma, “‘You stand today,’ as the day at times shines and at times darkens, so it is with you. When it is dark for you, the light of the world will shine for you, as it is said, ‘And the Lord shall be unto you an everlasting light.’ When? When you are all one society, as it is written, ‘Alive every one of you this day.’

Usually, if someone takes a pile of branches, can he break them all at once? But if taken one at a time, even a baby can break them. Similarly, you find that Israel will not be redeemed until they are all one society, as it is said, ‘In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the sons of Judah together.’ Thus, when they are united, they receive the face of Divinity.”

I presented the words of the Midrash so that you don’t think that the issue of a group, which is love of friends, relates to Hassidism. Rather, it is the teaching of our sages, who saw how necessary was the uniting of hearts into a single group for the reception of the face of Divinity.

Although there is always one of the friends who stands out and yells, “Join your hands for a single group!” and always attributes the negligence to the friends, I still cannot exclude him from among the friends who are negligent in the matter, and this should suffice for the understanding.

Primarily, let us hope that in the new year, Shin-Tav-Het-Yod [“May you live” but also the year in the Hebrew calendar, counted in letters (1949-50)], the Creator will give us eternal life, as it is written, “For God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel,” etc., and “May you live” shall come true.

The meaning of Rosh Hashanah [New Year’s Eve] is a new beginning, when a person begins to build a new structure. It is as our sages said, “One should always consider oneself half sinful, half righteous. If he performs a single Mitzva [good deed/commandment], happy is he, for he has sentenced himself and the whole world to the side of merit. If he commits one transgression, woe unto him for he has sentenced himself and the whole world to the side of fault.”

We should understand what it means that one should always consider oneself fifty-fifty. 1) If he performs one Mitzva and sentences to the side of merit, how can he be said to be fifty-fifty again? After all, he has already sentenced and already has a majority of merits. Conversely, if he committed one transgression, how can it later be said that he is fifty-fifty? 2) How can it be said that he is fifty-fifty when one knows about himself that he is full of sins and transgression? At the same time, one is compelled to confess, “We are guilty, we have betrayed,” and “For the sin.”

The thing is that our sages are letting us understand the order of the work. There is no issue of a court and judgment above, here. Only when one comes before the court above are his transgressions and merits sentenced.

Rather, here our sages are teaching us that one should always begin the work and choose the good and loathe the bad. This is so because choice is pertinent precisely in something that is fifty-fifty, for then he has the power to choose. But when one of the sides already has the majority, he can no longer decide because man follows the majority and then it is irrelevant to speak of choice.

This brings up the question, “How can he deceive himself and say that he is fifty-fifty when in fact he knows that he is full of sins?” However, we should know that the matter of choice that one is given is permanent and always existing, as in, “He who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.” According to this rule, if one has many sins, then he has a small inclination, which is not greater than the good inclination, but is precisely fifty-fifty, so he will be able to decide.

And since the transgressions come through the evil inclination and the Mitzvot [good deeds/commandments] come through the good inclination, as RASHI interpreted, “You have created righteous through the good inclination; You have created wicked through the evil inclination,” hence our sages said, “One should always consider oneself half sinful half righteous.” In other words, regarding the choice, it is always, and if the transgressions are from... then the evil inclination diminishes. Thus, he is fifty-fifty.

Similarly, if he performs a single Mitzva and has already sentenced to the side of merit, he is promptly given great evil inclination, as it is written, “He who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater.” Thus, now he has fifty-fifty, so he will be able to sentence to the side of merit.

Therefore, on Rosh Hashanah, one begins one’s work anew. Additionally, the days of the ten penitential days are called “days of forgiving and atonement of sins,” so a man will have every opportunity to join in the work of the Creator once more, even though he’s been so remote from the work.

And the essence of the work is prayer, since only by prayer can one exit the public domain and enter the domain of the Single one. This is so because when it comes to prayers, great and small are equal. Moreover, one who feels one’s lowness can offer a more genuine prayer from the bottom of the heart, for he knows about himself that he cannot deliver himself from the strait on his own. Then, he can say that actually, those who were created with special talents and qualities of subtlety can do something on their own, whereas those without the special gifts and good qualities need heaven’s mercy. Thus, only this person can offer an honest prayer.

However, one should be careful not to escape the campaign, since it is the conduct of the inclination that where one can offer a true prayer, it brings him sparks of despair and provides him with evidence, conclusions, and inferences that his prayer will be useless. Finally, a person becomes incapable of believing in “For You hear the prayer of every mouth.” Our sages said, “The Creator longs for the prayer of righteous.” This is so because a prayer is the primary tool for the inspiration of Divinity because it is considered a prayer for the poor.

And prayer applies even to the greatest of the greatest. Without it, one cannot achieve a state of “standing” in the work. This is the meaning of, “For the poor shall never cease from the land.” We should understand why the Creator promised us this—that it is necessary to always have the poor. Wouldn’t it be better if there was no such thing in Israel?

However, in the above interpretation, “poor” means a place for prayer, and if there is no place of deficiency, there is no place for prayer. Thus, is there no place for prayer once one is rewarded with greatness? In that regard, the Creator promises us, “The poor shall never cease,” meaning there will always be a place where it is possible to find a need so that one can rise to a higher degree.

This is the meaning of, “Poverty befits Israel like a red strap for a white horse.” This means that even if he is already a Jew in utter greatness, still, poverty is befitting, for it is a place of deficiency so that he will be able to offer a prayer.

This is the issue presented in the Gemarah (Berachot 9b): “Rabbi Ela said to Ulla, ‘When you go up there, give my greeting to my brother, Rabbi Berona, in the presence of the whole group, for he is a great man and rejoices in Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds]. Once he succeeded in joining redemption with prayer, and a smile did not leave his lips the whole day.’” In other words, his being a great man is when he is already in a state of redemption, redeemed from all the deficiencies, with nothing more to do. In that state, he has work finding some fault in himself so as to pray for it. And when he was “Joining redemption with prayer,” he promptly found a place for prayer and had endless joy, as it is written, “For the poor shall never cease from the land.”

It follows from all the above that the most important thing is the prayer. Be strong in prayer and believe in, “You hear the prayer of every mouth.”

May we be inscribed in the book of life.

Your friend, Baruch Shalom HaLevi, Son of Baal HaSulam

M. Laitman: Do we have any questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:42) Interpretation is poor means a place for prayer, and if there's no place of deficiency there's no place for prayer. So how is the rest of the world praying when have no deficiency? I still don't know what is a deficiency for a prayer. What is it? 

M. Laitman: You don't feel that you have something that you would like to attain?

Student: Of course, I have many things I want to achieve. It says you need a deficiency for the prayer, but if I have many things I want to attain, I need to pray for everything that I want to attain? 

M. Laitman: No, but those things you can't attain with your own forces you can raise them as a prayer to the Creator.

Student: He writes here, we have to be careful not to escape the campaign, because the inclination, where one can offer a true prayer, it brings in sparks of despair. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: I want to ask you, to pray I need to reach despair, to reach a true prayer? 

M. Laitman: But this despair probably comes to direct you to a better path.

Student: I'll tell you what is my problem. When I hear others and their problems, not mine, I pray that they'll come out of their trouble. I see others with troubles, and they don't know how they'll come out of it, I pray for them. Not that I have a deficiency, I see that they have a deficiency, I see their problem, so is my prayer for him incorrect? 

M. Laitman: Why incorrect? It's correct. 

Student: Because I need to feel, I need to feel his deficiency? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Well, I don't feel it, I see that he's in trouble, it pains me.

M. Laitman: If it pains me, that means you feel it. 

Student: That's the deficiency I have for him? 

M. Laitman: Yes, that he awakens a deficiency in you. 

Student: And I pray for him, and then that prayer works for him? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:15) What does it mean to sentence to a scale of merit? 

M. Laitman: That what we think, that we are in some bad place, inconvenient, not good, we can't justify our state, so correspondingly, we need to correct our attitude to it, not the state itself, but our attitude to it. That we'll see it as a good state, where we overcome and get closer to the corrected state.

Student: And it's through prayer? 

M. Laitman: Yes, everything is through prayer, there's nothing, no other way. 

Student: And if it's as described here, he's standing in one place, he can't raise a prayer, what is the action that he should do to succeed in praying? 

M. Laitman: Still, to try and get closer to the Creator, and ask of Him. That's basically the shortest and true formula.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:46) What is fifty-fifty? 

M. Laitman: Well, half and half, as we understand. 

Student: What does it mean to be in that state? You also said that a person should always maintain himself in this state. I guess it's something very extremely precise.

M. Laitman: Yes. So, how can I say it? When he begins to count what he has, from Mitzvot and transgressions, and keeps himself in the middle.

Student: But he’s not because later he explains that a person is guaranteed to always find a deficiency. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Okay, find a deficiency, why is it called fifty-fifty? 

M. Laitman: Half and half means that he cannot find in his life any other state, very simple. He doesn't see that he has more Mitzvot than sins, and he's always in a state where he as if begins. And that's what leads him to such a feeling. 

Student: What is the first half, and what is the second half, and what does it mean to be in the middle between the two? 

M. Laitman: That until today what he did could be, could be divided to half and half, half sins and half Mitzvot.

Student: What do you call transgressions and what do you call commandments in this accordingly? 

M. Laitman: The Mitzvot is that he justifies the Creator and sees creation. He sees creation in a way that it's moving towards becoming more unified, more connected, and the sins are the opposite of that. 

Student: So, we read the article in the Ten, the question came, that the person needs to be on the right most of the time and just a little bit on the left when he's certain it adds. So, it's not really half, we have to be most of the time on the right. So where is the fifty-fifty here? 

M. Laitman: We should accept the state that becomes revealed to us. And the state always directs us to be half and half, half sinful and half righteous.

Student: So, a person has to look for that point constantly? 

M. Laitman: Yes, because without it he won't have any decision point. 

Student: Because if he feels or thinks that he is more righteous he has nothing to ask for. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And if he condemns more then he enters despair. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:42) We heard many times that we have to determine our state, to see where are the friends; what are the principles that always one works against the other? And if I can determine my state I can begin to arrange the work. It says that the choice they give a person is always there, always permanent. So, when you said that we have to position ourselves between the desired state and the present state, that we have to say about the desired state that he is righteous, that he is innocent, and that on the other side there are these debts that he hasn't paid off yet. But what does it mean that he is always permanent and existing, that you give it to a person a place of choice? Because he is still not free from divine inclination, he still hasn't risen to those degrees, but he can still choose. Even a student like me, I can choose what the books say, what the teachers say, how do we interpret the direction for the path and act. I have seemingly a choice. But here it says that you give a person the place of choice which is always fixed and existing. What does that mean? Permanent and existing. 

M. Laitman: It seems that until a person reaches his complete correction it always seems to him like nothing in him is changing. He just sees himself going into more and more deeper deeper line of transgressions.

Student: What you are reminded of is our work is specific, the more you woke up every day we find ourselves starting from the bottom again.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: He continues and writes, it connected for me, he sees that always he revealed a deficiency for wholeness because he sees he’s half indebted and can incriminate himself and arrange the prayer. And then it said he who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater than his. According to this rule if one has many sins then he has a small inclination. This is column number two on the third page. You mentioned it before, how can it be that if one has many sins then he has a small inclination and not greater than the good inclination. Seemingly with my simple mind if he sees that he is full of sins he’s even proud of himself oh look at this big inclination that I have.

M. Laitman: He doesn’t have anything to be proud about because the fact he even sees himself full of sins. That indicates to his distance from the Creator.

Student: He writes here that many sins point to a smaller inclination, so the closer I get to the Creator my inclination grows according to what he says.

M. Laitman: Yes, he is corrected, greater and corrected.

Student: About the arrangement of the prayer, we must feel the deficiency and must constantly be in the preparation of the heart not to let go not to run away from the campaign. When a friend in the Ten arranges his prayer does he have to choose to see that he’s in a single bundle with the Ten even if he portrays them as he’s embracing them, brings them to his heart, he holds them tightly then arranges the prayer or the important thing is that the prayer will come out.

M. Laitman: So, what is the main thing? Of course this is the main thing, but it can go out.

Student: If he prays not out of this trouble this depth of his despair that it doesn’t come out of him rather he prays like the way we arrange a prayer in the preparation for the lesson or in the Ten at the end of the lesson. Is it very important that he will first portray himself as bundled with the friends?

M. Laitman: Yes, because without it he won’t have the basic truthful point.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:14) It’s written in the beginning that in Rosh Hashana a person has to build the building of sanctity and that’s what has to be fifty-fifty. It’s seemingly clear. Is it relative to his previous states or the coming states? Why do I have to build everything anew? If I do then I have no sins and no merits. I have to build everything anew.

M. Laitman:  It speaks of the stuff that will be revealed from this point on.

Student: So, why do I need to repent if I have to erase the past? That I need to do something with the past?

M. Laitman: According to how the given moment appears I need to draw the conclusion of what state I am in in relation to the Creator. And relate to that state all of my actions, so that I have nothing besides connecting to the friends and taking all of them with me to the purpose of creation and to justify the actions of the Creator.

Student: What was before in the state of Rosh Hashanah I have to process these states as well and make a redemption there or in the new states that are revealed?

M. Laitman: No, but there are the basis, the foundation of what I feel now.

Student: I in a sense have to condemn in every action even if a commandment I can find I am condemned, so in every action I can determine as a Mitzva or as a transgression right?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:25) I want to ask about the deficiency. I’ll start from the end. He writes that the Creator promises us that the poor shall never cease. Meaning there will always be a place where it is possible to find a need so that one can rise to a higher degree. What is this promise? I can’t find this promise.

M. Laitman: What’s written?

Student: That there will always be a place where it is possible to find a need. This is the most significant challenge, to find this deficiency

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And here he writes there will always be a place to find a possible need that one can rise to a higher degree, so where do you find this deficiency?

M. Laitman: You find the deficiency when you wish to achieve the complete correction, then the deficiencies appear on the way. 

Student: If you want to reach a complete correction, it's great, it's a deficiency, but if you don't find it, if there's no desire, the Creator does this trick on you and it becomes convoluted. What used to be very sharp and clear, it becomes convoluted and the person has to find the deficiency by himself. 

Student: And so? 

Student: I was asking about the deficiency, how do you find that deficiency, how do you locate it, how do you refresh it? 

M. Laitman: By being together with the others, and everyone is looking for how to achieve the complete correction. 

Student: I'm speaking from my work, and the only thing that awakens a deficiency is the morning lesson. The rest of the time, it's difficult, verging on impossible, to awaken a deficiency for spirituality.

M. Laitman: Correct. Okay, let's say. 

Student: So, I'm trying to understand, where can I live in that deficiency, otherwise the rest of the time, I'm throwing out the garbage. But there's a promise here, it says, the Creator promises to a person, there will always be a place where it is possible to find a need. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: I'm asking, where is that place? 

M. Laitman: That place is in your life. Find across your desires, and intentions, and passions, the right direction to the goal of life, and you will see whether you have a deficiency for it or not. 

Student: Another question. He writes that the prayer works for the greatest, because  otherwise, he comes to a place of standing. What does it mean? 

M. Laitman: That he has nowhere to go, no deficiency.

Student: It sounds from what the Rabash writes that it's a necessary step on the path, a person who comes to this state. 

M. Laitman: I think that's, most of the time, that's the case. 

Student: It's a state that we should accelerate, not delay ourselves in, right? 

M. Laitman: Right.

Student: So, if we are there most of the time, what can we do to hasten the time, not to linger in it? 

M. Laitman: How to build our own principles, for each one and everyone, that we won't stand anywhere without moving forward. 

Student: That's the question. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: I'm asking. 

M. Laitman: So, what can you say about that state? 

Student: I would have liked to move away from the state, you know, it comes to you to let go of it, to move beyond it. But it looks like it comes to a state of standing, and then he's there, like clay in the hand of the craftsman. He comes to a lesson, receives a deficiency, and then again and again, it’s as if the deficiency doesn't erupt here, there's like a blockage. 

M. Laitman: That's correct. Why? 

Student: There's no desire.

M. Laitman: Because you don't connect yourself to your partners, then you end up being immersed in your own deficiency. 

Student: How can I buy a deficiency from them? 

M. Laitman: How for them? What you have to give them, what you can receive from them, and then you'll see how you can exchange deficiencies, desires. 

Student: I understand the words, and I’m going to work in the Ten, and then once again we're going to meet, but I don't know how to acquire deficiencies from them. 

M. Laitman: I told you, I have no more to say. 

Student: Can I ask another one? 

M. Laitman: Ask.

Student: He writes here also, down below, you have to be careful not to escape the campaign. Because it is the conduct of inclination that where one can offer a true prayer, it brings him sparks of despair, provides him with evidence, conclusions, and inferences that his prayer will be useless. Finally, a person becomes incapable of believing in, “For You hear the prayer of every mouth.” It's also a state that we meet on the path, at least according to my experience. Desire is very, very sly. How from the despair, well we're here, we have to come to a fork in the road, we come to a despair, and from that a prayer erupts. How from that state a prayer would truly erupt and not as he writes, a person is incapable of believing that “For You hear the prayer of every mouth.” 

M. Laitman: We should always long for revealing the deficiency. If there's no deficiency in us, if it doesn't become revealed, then we're nothing, we're inanimate. Now the question is, how can we always be increasing the deficiency? How can we do that? So here there's already work of each and every one towards the society. 

Student: What is this work? Can you refine it a bit? What do I need to do toward the society to acquire deficiency from them? 

M. Laitman: You have to respect them for the deficiency that's in them, for the goal that they're drawn to. Then accordingly, you will adhere to them and wish to be with them in a movement towards attaining that deficiency.

Student: By trying to respect them and their deficiency, in this action, with this effort, I will acquire a deficiency from them? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Turkiye): (46:24) What is the meaning of a true prayer? What separates a true deficiency from other deficiencies of a person? 

M. Laitman: A true prayer is for a true deficiency, that we each time have to ask for the right true deficiency that will appear in us. And then in all our pleas from each one for himself, for the others, everyone together, like that, we can achieve the right deficiency.

Question (Women MAK 42): (47:10) I feel more and more distancing from the Creator because I see more and more sins in me. What am I doing wrong? What should I change? 

M. Laitman: You should be happy that the Creator reveals the sins, because without revealing the sins we can't achieve their correction. And so, if the sins become revealed, then that's good, it indicates that I advance in seeing the truth, and ultimately, achieving correction. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:05) Let's say that I merited reaching the feeling of sorrow, the sorrow of the friend, and I can pray for it, but I see that the situation actually is growing worse. How do I relate to this state? 

M. Laitman: What state? 

Student: The friend's state.

M. Laitman: The friend's, not yours. 

Student: Yes, no, not mine. After the prayer, the state of the friend got worse, deteriorated. How do I relate to it? 

M. Laitman: So, it seems like your powers of prayer are insufficient. 

Student: And if I use the Ten's help, and still the state doesn't improve? 

M. Laitman: You have to search. How can we intensify the prayer? 

Student: Meaning, it's not the Creator's problem, it's the power of society that’s at stake here. 

M. Laitman: Yes, first of all, yes.

Student: You can’t translate it to words, it's a matter of feeling, but what is the power of society that can improve this state? 

M. Laitman: It's the same force that is inclined towards correction, pulling along with it the individual desires of all the friends, connecting them together and positioning them,  meaning that common deficiency opposite the Creator 

Student: Let's say the friends are sitting together and they feel that in that moment there's a common feeling, they want the friend's problem to be solved. Where's the lack here? Where's the additional force that we need? 

M. Laitman: I don't know what is a problem of the friend that needs to be solved. 

Student: He's got this problem with health, with money, with something. 

M. Laitman: And they don't feel that? 

Student: Who, the friend doesn't feel it? 

M. Laitman: The friends, the Ten, the whole Ten. 

Student: They don't feel his plight? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Well, they feel it, and they want it to be resolved. 

M. Laitman: So, from that emerges their prayer. 

Student: Well, it still doesn't work. 

M. Laitman: Then it's a sign that the prayer is not…  

Student: The feeling is not, not sharp enough to… thank-you. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:06) I want to continue the scrutiny by the friend. He says at the beginning of the article that we need to be as one bundle, and that our hearts should be for the sake of the Creator, not for my own benefit. The Creator brings us deficiencies, we just have to reveal them, draw them, illuminate them inside of us. But I'm asking, what does it mean that I make my heart be for the Creator, in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: If I feel the deficiency of the friend or the group then I need to pull myself to that deficiency and take part with it in all my heart and soul. 

Student: So, my prayer starts by wanting the friend's desire to be like mine, that I will feel from the bottom of my heart his deficiency as if it's mine. So, I'm asking how in the Ten do we come to such a state in the work that we feel these deficiencies as ours? How do we feel each other's deficiencies? For example, yesterday we had a very uplifting gathering of friends, we felt a very special state, also following the lesson from yesterday, and we're asking how from this gathering of friends, where each one raised a deficiency for the new state he wants to come to us, how do you raise a prayer so it would not be for me but be for the whole Ten? A common prayer as they say, a true common prayer? 

M. Laitman: What kind of data do you need for it?

Student: We felt in the gathering that every friend is saying what he's saying, everything is moving in one direction, and then then we established a prayer. Now you're saying everything is moving in one direction, but the prayer each one is saying it in one way or another. The question is how do you come to a prayer that will eventually be as one? I don't know how to define this question but I feel like the prayer is almost about to be perfect but it's not because I believe that if our prayers were whole we would receive from the Creator of what we needed. But we feel in the end that you're doing this gathering of friends, you're raising mutual deficiency, each one in his direction, but it's still not there. I'm asking, what else do we need to do in the work between us, so that the common deficiency will be in this point that the Creator will answer us, that we'll feel that we are rising to another degree, we're rising higher. 

M. Laitman: We have to each time renew the prayer, yes. 

Student: That's what we're doing, we rejuvenate the prayer every day, and we feel every day, oh look, it's almost there, it's almost there. I said to myself, I read this article, and I waited for this article to ask you, following the gathering of friends, how this feeling that you are just about to make it to this point, but you know, you come out of the gathering of friends happy, and everything is good, but you feel like you're not there, you haven't reached the point where you say, wow, we all feel together that we can hand in hand rise to the next degree. Maybe the Creator is doing it to us? 

M. Laitman: Of course, the Creator does it, and He does it so that you will connect and come to Him with a demand. A demand like people who are protesting, and then they have to bring their deficiency to their managers there, so it needs to be in such a way.

Student: Last question, lately we've been doing these workshops in the social time of the lesson. We feel that the social time, when we do a workshop, it really opens our hearts, it awakens us, it gives us a prayer moving forward. Other than the social time, because a friend said we get deficiency from the morning lesson, how do we continue from that? The question is, how do we bring this style of workshops during the day, so we will draw the deficiency from the lesson? Maybe we need to have more workshops in our Zoom meetings, more scrutinies? 

M. Laitman: Altogether, you need to receive in the morning lesson an impression with which you continue your day. 

Student: You gave us an advice, let's say noon lesson there's an article, so we want to prepare ourselves for the noon lesson, and we read the article. Our time is quite limited. I don't know what to do first, prepare ourselves for the article, or scrutinize, do workshops, because you feel like this is bringing you better into the lesson, preparing you for the lesson, and also this is good, there's always a debate. We have this mutual deficiency, what to do, this or that, sometimes we can combine the two, because there's a short article at noon, so you can combine both. The question is, how in our work during the day, can we extend this power we receive from the morning lesson? Is it about reading articles from noon, or doing workshops? 

M. Laitman: Based on what you will decide, definitely not some opinion from outside, that's for sure not, but rather that you will decide together what's important for us today. 

Student: We’ll continue to scrutinize it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:48) Following the friend’s scrutiny, how to feel the pain of the friend is my pain? 

M. Laitman: To the extent that I'm closer to him, the more I feel what he has, what he has in his desire. 

Student: If I don't feel the pain of the friend as my pain, does that mean that the prayer will not be whole? 

M. Laitman: Then probably I'm still lacking connection with the friend. 

Student: So, the prayer will not be answered? 

M. Laitman: Right. Something will happen, but perhaps not in the direction of our goal, but in the direction of correction, in the meantime, on the way. 

Student: I’ll try to give an example that I came up with right now. A friend is sick. He's sick, but I can't feel his pain, I can't get to the bottom of the pain. I can understand it, but I'm not incorporated fully with his pain. Meaning, if I ask for his health and healing, it will not be from the state of the friend. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So how to reach the state of the friend? 

M. Laitman: You don't need to be as sick as he is in order to ask for him, no. It's enough that you want to make his situation easier, and that's sufficient.

Question (Women PT 8): (01:01:11) Baal HaSulam writes in the prayer of Rosh Hashanah, they say, and they will become as one bundle, because when they become as one bundle, if you don't do it you cannot work wholeheartedly, part of your heart remains for you, part remains for the Creator. The question is, what part do we correct when we become one bundle? 

M. Laitman: The part that's connected to all the other hearts. 

Student: I understood from the letter that physical closeness contributes to the unity of the hearts. Can you reach unity and closeness in a virtual Ten or is a physical closeness a necessary stage in the path? 

M. Laitman: No. According to what we understand, I don't have proof from practice now, but we just have to hope that we'll connect together correctly through our efforts and that we’ll influence everyone. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:37) It's written about the prayer, small and the great are equal. So, we have a method of how to raise a prayer, there's a whole system, but if you have someone who's new, and both are raising a prayer, both will reach the same result, one who’s a huge Kabbalist and one who's a newbie in the path? 

M. Laitman: No.

Student: So, in what are they equal? 

M. Laitman: That each one wants to reach raising one to the Creator, and on their part, in their requests, they're equal. But how the Creator accepts those requests and raises them upwards, that's already not our business. 

Student: So, the small one is guaranteed to reach the highest degree like the great one in every request? 

M. Laitman: Could be, could be, and that's the power of prayer, because in prayer, everyone is equal. 

Student: Every prayer or there are other conditions regarding the height of the prayer from the starting point? 

M. Laitman: Well, there are many conditions here. I don't want to just throw words around. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:12) There are Tens in our society all over the world. You come there and you feel love and care between the friends and this warmth that dwells in the Ten. You don't have to talk about it, you feel it. And there are Tens where the work is very more mechanical. You come to the lesson, you sit in the lesson, you say what you say, you read, but that warmth is not present, that honest care from the heart. Maybe you can direct us, guide us, what makes a Ten be in that state of warmth and care, and what does a Ten that doesn't have it lack? Maybe this is something we can focus on.

M. Laitman: Yes, every Ten has to have its inner example, model of what it means to have a mutual desire, mutual goal, and how they have to connect in order to get that. Meaning to envision that to ourselves, not that we attain that, but to envision to ourselves what it should be. And to look for the sources that speak about such states that are specific and sharp, aimed exactly at the goal. 

Student: You can really feel that where that warmth exists in the Ten, the person doesn't leave the path, is at home, the Ten is his inner home. And where it doesn't exist, it feels like there's no commitment, you know, I can be there, I cannot be there. It's like the friends obligate me with their love and concern. Even someone who participates partially, he feels that he's part of the Ten, part of this connection, and when it's not there, it's hard for people to hold on to the path, because the work becomes cold and estranged even. It's hard to pass this feeling to the friends when you don't have it in the Ten, you can't talk to the friend about staying on the path, about continuing. 

M. Laitman: I understand what you're saying, but that's how it is, you keep going. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:27) About the deficiency, is the deficiency that I'm getting from others, is it in them and it's passing to me? Or through the connection with the friends, I awaken in me a hidden deficiency? 

M. Laitman: Where does the deficiency come to you from? 

Student: That's what I'm trying to understand. Where is it, not where it comes from. Should it awaken in me, is it in the friend, where is it? 

M. Laitman: In you.

Student: So, by connecting with the friends, I awaken in me a deficiency that's in me? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, what does it mean to receive a deficiency from the friends? 

M. Laitman: That they ignite that deficiency in you. 

Student: And during the lesson, I receive a deficiency from the friends? 

M. Laitman: That's a matter of feeling, I can't say how, it's in the feeling. 

Student: I hear the sources, it can awaken in me a deficiency. I'm hearing the Rav, it can awaken a deficiency. Where are the friends? I don't need the friends. 

M. Laitman: But you've all spoke, they're all next to you, everyone is working. Maybe now in the lesson not yet, but in the previous lesson, yes, and so forth. You are with them clarifying the common deficiency.

Student: That's outside of the lesson, when you're connected, but when we're not with an active connection we're sitting passively. We don't talk, we don't connect, there's no connection between us. We’re listening to you, receiving from you and the sources. So, where is the additional deficiency here? How do I awaken deficiency in the friends during the lesson? 

M. Laitman: You hear what they talk about, and your deficiency awakens from that. 

Student: If they don't speak now, they sit and they listen to you. 

M. Laitman: So, still, there is an exchange of deficiency in them all the time. The deficiency is changing, and you want to belong to that. 

Student: So, how do I ride this wave of exchanging deficiencies? 

M. Laitman: You annul, you annul before them.

Student: Are there other ways to awaken a deficiency for spirituality in me? 

M. Laitman: That first. That I'm in an environment that closes everything around me like a circle and influences me with its general deficiency. And by that, I keep evolving.

Student: Now to absorb more deficiency from the friends, does that depend on how much I awaken them, or not? 

M. Laitman: It depends on how much I nullify myself towards them. 

Student: What is my obligation to them, to awaken them? 

M. Laitman: To participate with your shared deficiency, to rise to the next degree. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:33) You told us about this exercise in the meal, where Rabash told you, eat something tasty, try to feel this flavor in a friend, as if he's receiving this pleasure. Can you do the same in the morning lesson, to do this, to make the friend feel the article, the Rav?

M. Laitman: That's not simple, it's really not simple. No, that's not a direction for now. You're not going to come out of these illusions, where you think you're already feeling that. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:31) It seems like, in this article, there's a depth of an ocean, and we're just floating on the surface. What does it mean that he who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater than him? In my Ten, I have great friends. I really think they're great. So now, I look at them, and I am thinking, I'm in a jungle of the evil inclination, which is greater and greater and even greater. So, what does it mean, he who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him? He gave it as an answer to half and half. He says, if he's committed a commandment, that he’s already sentenced to the side of merit, he is immediately given a bigger evil inclination. So, what's the mechanism where the prize for doing a good deed is to take a bigger piece of evil inclination? 

M. Laitman: So that you have vessels for what you just received. 

Student: We have to be incorporated between us, to unite and be as one bundle. If you realize your friends are great, and if you think a little more what great means, it means that someone has a bigger evil inclination and he overcomes it, it's not just great. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So how can you incorporate with a friend who has a bigger evil inclination, maybe greater than yours? Also, what a friend asked, I thought about that too. You come with a small package to the lesson, you're happy, but each one hears a lesson differently. He comes with his own package, even though we're in one Ten. So how do we become one bundle, how do different people become one? What should they do, unite their evil inclinations? What becomes connected?

M. Laitman: You all wish to connect together in a single desire, and in that you achieve a new vessel which is comprised of all the Ten individual vessels, let's say. 

Student: I used to wonder why there are friends who studied ten, twenty, thirty years, and they asked you, Rav, what does it mean to connect? What connects here? They ask you to make a precision about that. It's a question that the only answer that can come to it is like a perception of there's None Else Besides Him, the Creator shakes all of us however He wants, and we have no awareness, no say in this. So again, what is this connection? When you connect different pieces, what connects there? We're saying beautiful words, we'll open our hearts, we’ll unite our hearts. 

Question (Moscow): (01:16:15) I'd like to return to the friend’s question. When I see it in a lesson, especially when it happens physically like now, we talk about correcting the connections between us. But when I don't feel the connection, the lack of the friends, and they may have all kinds of problems, financial, health-wise, corporeal problems, do I have to work with my feelings to activate shame, for example? Will it be correct not to wait for it to come in a process where the Creator opens it to me, but I have to activate these forces within me, and if so, in what way? 

M. Laitman: That I want to connect with my friends, and in the connection between us to find a new source of energy that will connect us together, that will reveal in us new qualities, and which will force us to make this common step forward as we didn't have in the past. That is what I want to attain.

Student: Okay. Is it possible now? Now I'm sitting in a lesson, I want to connect with that source, and I have the deficiencies of my friends. Should I simply disconnect from all kinds of personal matters and be incorporated in a common design and reveal the Creator there, right? 

M. Laitman: Indeed. This desire needs to be there even before the lesson. 

Student: I'm sorry, but the corporeality of the friends is my spirituality. They may have all kinds of problems. 

M. Laitman: It's not worthwhile to take that into consideration. That would deviate you very much.

Student: I understand. There is another question if we may. We talked about a new deficiency. Self-annulment, the ability to be annulled, how to connect it to the Creator, to the maximum, to process it and begin to work with new forces in the Ten? Meaning, can there be annulment before annulment, a new form of deficiency? 

M. Laitman: There could be, there could be. Annul yourself. 

Question (Kyiv 1): (01:20:02) You spoke about the deficiency to scrutinize the deficiency in the friends, but the text says that the prayer is the main instrument for instilling the Shechina. How do we scrutinize the deficiency in such a way that our prayer, our deficiency becomes a vessel for instilling the Shechina? 

M. Laitman: We want to find such a desire, such a common yearning and intention, where all of us will weave together, and we wouldn't want anything other than that. 

Student: So, what's important is that we don't want anything else? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: The cleanness of the request? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: The cleanness of the request, should it be one thought for everyone? 

M. Laitman: The vision of our state in its final state. 

Student: How do all the friends together, how can they see our situation in the final state? 

M. Laitman: We can see and feel that, from that in which we all awaken the yearning to the Creator, and He accordingly organizes us. 

Student: How would you describe that situation that we have to yearn for, the final goal, so we can all describe it the way you talk about it? 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand. 

Student: How would you describe the final state that we all should describe together in the same way? 

M. Laitman: I would depict it to myself as one desire for everyone, one state for everyone. 

Question (MAK 4): (01:23:03) Tell me, please, the evil inclination is revealed in the friend as a deficiency? 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand. When does that come out?

Student: The evil inclination, does it show a person his deficiency? 

M. Laitman: The Creator. 

Student: But in such a state a person can't handle it alone, he only feels it is bad. 

M. Laitman: He cannot handle it from one state to his state, in each state he needs the Creator. 

Student: In that deficiency, can a person raise it alone to the Creator, or does it have to be with other people? 

M. Laitman: Both he and the friends together. 

Student: There's another matter here. Usually, we elevate the deficiency to the Creator  so He connects us on a different level, but there's a fear that a person's situation will change, his egoistic vessels will be satisfied, and he'll find a job. How to work with it? 

M. Laitman: We don't take into account all these side effects. Our goal is to feel connected in one yearning in which the Creator becomes revealed. 

Student: How to want to come to one prayer? I understand it's very difficult. 

M. Laitman: It's not very difficult, it's not very difficult. We need to start a little bit from afar, and then gradually, slowly, to make the field of vision narrower and narrower, such that the Creator would be in its center. 

Student: So, it turns out that we're not supposed to wait for some abstract deficiency in the future, but work with the same deficiencies we get now? 

M. Laitman: Indeed, at every given moment, you need to reveal Him. 

Student: If I may, another question. I read somewhere that the Creator reveals to us such a state where we will have to constantly have to think about Him and ask Him to change the situation. Should we ask that He will change the friend’s situation, or not? 

M. Laitman: Certainly, we need it. 

Question (Tel Aviv 1): (01:26:16) When you come there, give my regards to Rav Berona, my brother, in front of the whole group, for he is a great man and delights in commandments. Once, he attached redemption to prayer, and he did not stop laughing all day. What does it mean to attach redemption to prayer? 

M. Laitman: Redemption to prayer. These are two requests to the Creator, and we wish for both of them to exist as one.

Student: Usually, prayer is for a deficiency. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And redemption is the filling. So, how do you attach the filling? Will you ask for the filling of the deficiency? 

M. Laitman: Try to work on that, and you'll see that it's possible. 

Student: This immediacy? That the answer will come immediately with the prayer, the answer to the prayer? 

M. Laitman: You try to do what I'm telling you, and not what you want to say. 

Student: Can you repeat what exactly should we do? 

M. Laitman: What was the question? 

Student: The fact that he says that Rav Berona attached redemption to prayer, and did not stop laughing all day. So, there's something unusual here. Redemption immediately with a prayer, what does that mean? 

M. Laitman: He was joyed, meaning that he connected, he brought closer the redemption to prayer.

Student: In other words, the prayer is usually for a filling. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: But here he says the filling came immediately, the answer came immediately. 

M. Laitman: Immediately or not immediately, what does that matter? 

Student: Well, it's immediate. Well, I'll think about it. 

M. Laitman: Think about it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:01) From where does the evil that is revealed in us come? 

M. Laitman: Where does it come from? 

Student: From where does the evil that is revealed in us come? 

M. Laitman: It comes from within us. It is in us, it’s hidden in us.

Student: I think I once heard you say that the evil we feel comes from Adam HaRishon. Is that correct?

M. Laitman: Yes, that's where it was revealed. 

Student: And how do we work with the evil that comes from the collective, but which we experience very personally? 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand.

Student: How do we work with the evil that comes from the collective, but the evil that comes from the collective, I experience it very individually, very personally. How do we work with it? 

M. Laitman: As you feel. As you feel, and if you correct it, the attitude to it, so that would be corrected from individual to collective. 

Student: So, is it correct that we have to be considered righteous who are trying to correct the evil from Adam HaRishon? 

M. Laitman: Again? 

Student: Is it correct that we have to be like righteous people who are trying to correct the evil that comes from Adam HaRishon? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes. Each and every one wishes to correct the evil that becomes revealed in them. 

Question (Tbilisi): (01:31:46) I get up in the morning, I plan my day, and an inner voice inside of me begins to ask, for who is it for? Who are you pleasing? What is your intention? What is this feeling? It's something new in me. That for every act I do, something within me asks me, what is your intention, who is enjoying this? Something was activated in me.

M. Laitman: You need to respond to your desires and intentions. What else do we have today? 

Reader: (01:32:41) We have another article from Shamati, or selected excerpts from the sources on the topic of Rosh Hashanah. 

M. Laitman: Maybe we need both of them. We are until? 

Reader: Until 5, 5:30. 

M. Laitman: 5:30, okay. So, we already need to choose what we're going to do. 

Reader: We should read the excerpts, the good excerpts about Malchut. 

M. Laitman: Okay, we'll go to the excerpts.

Reader: So, we'll move to the next part of the lesson. Before that, we'll sing a song. 

Song: (01:33:21)