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

Daily Lesson (Morning), August 15, 2024. 

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Baal HaSulam. Letter 15, 32

Reader: (00:00) Hello, we're going to be reading in The Writings of Baal HaSulam in the section for The Letters, we're reading Letter No. 15. You can find the letter in and the Arut system and send live questions there as well. Whoever's asking questions here in the hall, stand up, hold the microphone close to your mouth and speak loud and clear. Letter 15 from Baal HaSulam. 

Reading: (00:34) Letter 15 18 Shevat, Tav-Reish-Peh-Hey, February 2, 1926, Warsaw

To my friend... may his candle burn forever.

A reply to your letter from the sixth day of [the portion] Bo [come], which I received along with your letter from the fourth day of [the portion] BeShalach [When Pharaoh Sent]: Concerning the argument, your last interpretation seems the most proper. But let me fill up your words a little: “I shall open the doors of my heart to a high guest,” such as the promise to raise himself to the high guest, who is devoid of any attainments of the lower ones.

“The hooks of the pillars of glory shall pronounce,” for in this manner of ascent, ever upward, the pillars of the heart connect in certain ties called “hooks,” (as in, “You will connect in hooks”) into a real Dvekut [adhesion], and then the upper light pours on him.

“I shall send free all my permitted ones,” as though abandoning his entire fortune, meaning all that he has attained, since the permissions of the heart are the attainments of the body.

But he is not interested in sending them out free, so they will have the strength to cling to him in arguments. On the contrary, he will surely drive them out from his home, so they will have no contact or connection with him whatsoever.

To fully execute it comes the closing verse and says, “Let them announce on what were her foundations established.” It is like a question that he asks the permitted ones. He argues and says, “Perhaps you have small or great foundations in the earth, or some pillars, foundations upon which some intellectual construction is supported?” By this he is telling them to announce if they know how to reply to him regarding the rhymes that extend onward, on which there is no human answer. By this he expels them, to announce that the earth hangs on nothing.

And regarding your letter from the fourth day of BeShalach, and what you wrote, that you do not understand my words, I am surprised. It must be that it is only due to idleness in the work, and what can I do? Especially now, receive this thing nonetheless, to have a steadfast bond of love among you, as I have cautioned you prior to my departure from you.

I have already written several letters about it, and my heart tells me that you will be slacking in this, for I sense negligence among you in general.

May the Creator have mercy on us and we will be rewarded with salvation soon...

Yehuda Leib

M. Laitman: Anyone has any questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:59) What preparation is necessary or what qualifies a person to be in a state of earth hanging without foundation in the air? 

M. Laitman: That he is in a state where he feels the Creator in any situation around him. 

Student: It sounds like it's specifically, then, more difficult. 

M. Laitman: It's more difficult, but then it's possible, it's possible to reveal.

Student: So, what enables him, he is describing here a state where I shall send to all my supporters, I will sent free. What enables him to give up everything that he has attained and to be in a state of earth without foundation? 

M. Laitman: That's above reason. When he doesn't get any proof, any reinforcement except from the Creator. 

Student: Are these preparations he acquired at the beginning of the path, when he was in the preparation somehow, towards this state that enables him attainments to remain in a state of earth hanging on nothing?

M. Laitman: Again?

Student: I'm asking what enables a person to remain above reason, even when he discovers the Creator in everything? 

M. Laitman: Each time he sees, or he wants to see Him, in a degree that is increasingly higher.

Student: And what obligates him to do so? Where does he have the strength to do such an action?

M. Laitman: Because, by that, he approaches the Creator. 

Student: What in the previous stages of development qualified him to do so? 

M. Laitman: The fact that he went from the beginning toward the Creator.

Student: Then what, how can he rely on the past experience of above reason that he will do it now, too, when he's already attaining the Creator?

M. Laitman: So now, he has a different kind of work, because the Creator is seemingly revealed before him. And he now needs to be connected to the Creator with the same power, the same style the Creator relates to him.

Student: What's that style that the Creator relates to him? 

M. Laitman: The power of faith, alone.

Student: The Creator relates to a person through the force of faith? 

M. Laitman: I don't know how to say it, but yes, the force of faith. 

Student: How does a person identify that the Creator is relating to him, specifically, in the force of faith? 

M. Laitman: Because when he gets to faith above reason, a person reveals the Creator, then.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:29) What's being loose in the work?

M. Laitman: The weakening of the work, that he is leading, he's not using all the forces that are being pushed around. It's called the weakening of the work. 

Student: The advice he gives with idleness of the work is to strengthen the connections of love between them. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, how during the time of idleness of the work can we strengthen the connection? It sounds like the opposite.

M. Laitman: No, but that's the closest to a person, this action is at least understood by him. It doesn't need to go above reason, it doesn't need to do anything, unnatural. 

Student: So, when a person is idle in the work, with no forces, no desire, where does he even ignite such an opposite action of connecting to the friends with love? 

M. Laitman: He sees that he has no other choice. He must climb from his state to a higher state, more practical, that's what obligates him. 

Student: What's the initial, minimal, connection in the Ten that needs to be created? 

M. Laitman: The first connection that a person needs to come to, and then in it he feels some contact with the Creator, it's that connection that he must hold on to, constantly. It must connect to Him by himself through the connection so he would become a vessel in Him. In it, he will be able to receive the rest of the stages of the connection with the Creator.

Student: It sounds like from the side of a person, it should be like this drive of his own, altogether? So, from where at a time of idleness in the work, where does he have this, where does he even bring forth this pressure to work?

M. Laitman: Only from society, only from within the friends. Connection with the friends; he doesn't have any connection, he feels himself alone.

Student: And how does the connection become a Kli?

M. Laitman: The connection becomes a vessel when he begins to use the deficiency that's in the vessel toward the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:49) First of all, we also read this article, yesterday, and nothing was clear. And now it kind of started to, there's something in the lesson where we're all together that enables, somehow. Maybe that's also the question, he actually writes, here, that there are permitted ones. And there's announcements and arguments and the things that he grasps in his mind. Then he says, eh, we'll send it all for free, and what is the argument and all that, and the earth is hanging on nothing. What's that stage where you let go of everything that's known and acquainted with in the mind and look for something new? 

M. Laitman: When we rise to faith above reason, otherwise, how else would he feel the new state?

Student: What's the drive to do so, what's the push?

M. Laitman: To advance toward the purpose of creation. 

Student: It's like we're accustomed to grasp understanding upon understanding. 

M. Laitman: But it doesn't belong to the ladder; the ladder is only in rising in faith above reason. 

Student: Why should a person want to let go of everything he knows and go to something that he doesn't know? 

M. Laitman: Because by the root, the lack in the soul, he has to reveal the Creator. And this is impossible unless, except, through rising above reason.

Student: This above reason as it's pictured here it's like to leave everything he knows, everything he relies on. And what in place of it?

M. Laitman: What in place of it? In place of it he's doing it in exchange for rising toward the Creator. 

Student: Who's he giving it to, who needs what he's got in his hand? 

M. Laitman: His attitude, this is in order to bestow.

Student: Where, here, at this stage is the Giver, the Creator, the quality of bestowal revealed? 

M. Laitman: Throughout the process it's revealed that he's constantly looking for ways to advance. In that, he reveals the Creator, the stages of ascending to the Creator.

Student: Now, connecting this also to the questions of both friends: At the end he says it's also due to the idleness of the work and I feel like there's neglect between you and you're not investing in love of friends.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How is the effort in love of friends connected to letting go of all the things that I had, and the foundations? 

M. Laitman: Not to let go of it, the effort in love of friends strengthens the connections between them. And then they feel that they have the strength to do it, the forces because each one requires forces from the other, from the friend. And when each one becomes stronger by acquiring forces from more friends, it turns out that he rises with the help of the friends.

Student: That force that we receive from the friends needs to allow us to let go of our mind and go above it?

M. Laitman: He needs to go against his usual intellect, in order to connect even more to his friends, and this way he gets even closer to the Creator. 

Student: With the friends, it's kind of like the heart is working not the mind, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes, I understand you. 

Student: And, all the foundations and things that we rely on, is it something intellectual? Is it something that's grasped in the intellect? 

M. Laitman: That's what a person can portray for himself. 

Student: How is the opening of the heart to the friends connected to the ability to let go of this?

M. Laitman: To the extent the heart opens, a person is, naturally, under the influence of the heart; and to that extent he departs from the mind.

Student: Meaning, the confidence in love, that's the ability to let go and go to something that's unknown? 

M. Laitman: Yes, you can say that perhaps. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:24) We did a preparation for the lesson, Canada, North America. And a friend said at the end of the preparation that, here in a moment, there's going to be this moment where we all do a silent workshop. We're calling it that way, but there is a special moment, where each time anew, we enter this, probably this brave connection like he writes, here, where each feels some general closeness of the whole Kli. And I wanted to ask is this some kind of form where we're shown how the lesson needs to be managed, internally? With the effort of each and every one from the moment that the preparation ended, is there some work that each of us has to do from within so that the lesson will take place? 

M. Laitman: It's written, yes.

Student: Because he says, you don't understand me because you're not connected. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, after we do one connection, the preparation for the preparation, and the preparation where we each make an effort to come out of that comatose state that he was in. And we do this preparation for the lesson, the lesson preparation ends and the lesson begins. The lesson is already some work that we're doing all together?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So that state that we attained for a moment, now we will work on additional states that the Creator is sending to keep this internal state of ours?

M. Laitman: And the preparation, it's like a cooperation in one power, one Kli, one plea, one request. And during the lesson it takes place, it activates. 

Student: We read a lot of the agreements of the Kabbalistic groups, and we noticed that before all the conditions that they place for one another, they remind one another that we came to unify the Shechina with the Creator. What does it mean to unify the Shechina with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: It's a state where you hope to reveal the Creator inside the Shechina, in its vessel, which is the Shechina. You are, actually, building that vessel and that's what needs to happen. 

Student: And the Kabbalist says, I now see that you're kind of like, how does he say it? Left or something, so there are changes in this common Kli.

M. Laitman: Yes, the group is going through stages, states. 

Student: How does every friend not adhere to that, kind of neglected picture, that he feels in the Ten because it can exist, also the Kabbalists see this state? It seems that neglect is upon some state that the Creator sends. How to not surrender to that picture and to build anew, how do we do that?

M. Laitman: To try and see, in advance, where we are and what we are going through.

Student: The condition of the corrected Ten, is it some state that always exists, that we can always connect to in every state? 

M. Laitman: No, only if you build it, if you ask that you connect. This way is not high or exalted by himself. He's exalted as a result of the height of the connection between you. So, the group that wants to advance needs to only think about climbing in connection.

Student: And the new conditions is the matter upon which I need to create this connection? 

M. Laitman: Yes, when it's revealed.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:36) I want to continue the scrutiny about the weakening in the work: He's talking about a certain point, a very specific state where he warns not to be in idleness. What is that specific point where he says, really, you're not supposed to be in this idleness in your work? How do we get to that point where you're not allowed to let go or be idle, here, or let loose? 

M. Laitman: Well, we feel a little bit of that state. We grow tired, it's not attractive, even repulsive. It always changes in us.

Student: Specifically, in the state where we feel weakness, when we feel a descent, is that the point where we need to, specifically, give more faith, more strength? Is that the point he's talking about, maybe, that we're not allowed to let go?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Because many times, I feel like all our real work is, specifically, when we feel less strength, where we're feeling more powerless. That's where we have to give more prayer, more strength to one another.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Is that the point he's talking about?

M. Laitman: Perhaps.

Student: He's saying here that, since the permissions of the heart are the attainments of the body and there's no freedom, there. So, what does he mean here?

M. Laitman: We'll understand it, slowly.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:31) To continue this scrutiny with the friend that the Creator is relating to a person also with a force of faith, with a light of faith. So, this stems from Moshe, that from all our house there's none so loyal and will take us to that path, and that every man in Israel has to reach his degree? 

M. Laitman: Well, it's a very exalted goal. Not simple, but in principle, yes.

Student: That gives him to go above each and every desire and with the force of the Torah, too?

M. Laitman: Yes. Okay, good, what are we doing next, Moshe?

Reader: (32:31) We have Letter No. 32. 

M. Laitman: Okay.

Reader: So, we're going to move to Letter No. 32 in The Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 32. 

Reading: (32:32) Letter 32 2 Iyar Tav-Reish-Peh-Zayin, May 4, 1927, London

To the honorable students, may the Lord be upon them:

Yesterday I received the 200 copies of Pticha [Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah], and today your letter. You are all unanimous about my letters being short, while I myself wrote in detail, for it takes time because the nature of every great thing is that it takes much time to conceive.

What the Rav wrote... that he did not understand my letter because it is all initials, it seems as though he still does not know that he does not know, for in truth, it is the ends of the words and not their beginnings, for each day I wait for the Creator to finish for us, for we are not free to be rid of Him.

Concerning his comment about my writing, that it would be a wonder for them once they are rewarded with all that is written, and then they will need to receive His light through me, he wrote that he is not surprised about it whatsoever. It is because he did not understand my writings, as he himself admits. But how will he understand the wonder? However, I say that it is a wonder in my eyes, too, and may he be experienced and test my words.

And what he wrote concerning settling down in Israel, I agree. I, too, am in favor of enjoying ancestral merit because the covenant of the fathers has not ended and the work is plentiful.

And what... wrote as an interpretation to my letter, that Dror [freedom] in Gematria is Kodesh [sanctity], he should have said the opposite—that Kodesh in Gematria is Dror. Concerning his writing that he wants to know when I will return to my home, I want to know if he is already ready to receive me and benefit from me, and God willing, I will let him know on my part in due time.

I also received the letter from... and what he wrote except for Yakir [will recognize] and Yakir [will cherish], that he cannot properly support, he should know that it is the center of all my letters, and if he does not understand this he will not be able to fully understand the matters.

... It is said in RASHI, Chayei Sarah [The Life of Sarah]: “A hundred years old, as twenty years old for punishment (to sin),” (and in Baba Batra, 58a), “Everything before Eve is as a monkey before a man.” These are only intimations, but simply put, the Chaf is replaced with a Kof because they are from the same pronunciation, GICHAK. Hence, “Ephraim, my darling son,” can be interpreted as the son cherishing the father or the son recognizing [knowing] his father, for in fact, they are one utterance: The one who cherishes recognizes, and the one who recognizes cherishes, without any difference.

There is a clear sign given in the name of the Baal Shem Tov by which to know how much the Creator is playing with a person—to see in one’s own heart how much he is playing with the Creator. So are all the matters, as in “The Lord is your shade.” This is why one who still feels some difference between cherishing and knowing requires the unification of the heart, as from the perspective of the Creator they are both one.

This is a deep matter, that the Creator is truly in the heart of each one from Israel. But this is on His part, so what does man need? Only to know it—the knowing changes, and the knowing finishes. This is the meaning of “The Lord is your shade.”

And what he asked—which one is first, the disclosure of Elijah or the resurrection of the dead or do both come as one—it is not the same for all and there are several degrees in it. It requires much elaboration to explain this, and there is nothing more to add here.

Rav... did well... but it seems that you, too, did not read the pamphlets properly, for you cannot show them that all my words are present in Tree of Life, and I did not add a single word, other than writing explicitly that Malchut in every place is the will to receive. But this is already accepted from the writings of the ARI in general, without any need to reference it accurately. It is presented explicitly in The Zohar and in the Tikkunim, and besides this there is no change of wording.

His comparing my book to The King’s Valley, I saw it here for the first time, and last week I wrote from it. However, all the foundations of this book are renewed and arranged according to the Kabbalah of the Geonim, which begins with Tzimtzum Aleph [first restriction], followed by the world of Malchut, then Avir Kadmon, then Tehiru, and then Atzilut. However, he fills those matters with orders of the ARI ... which are truly not similar because the ARI spoke of nothing more than a line and Tzimtzum, and only then AK, Akudim, Nekudim, and Atzilut, as is presented in Eight Gates and in all the writings of the ARI.

The studies of the Atzilut that are attributed to the ARI are not at all from the ARI but from some abbreviation from the book The King’s Valley, itself. This is why Kabbalists who follow the ARI did not like this book.

I wrote you that first you should study the pamphlet until you can tell every single one and show their ignorance because you truly will be able to find everything in Tree of Life and in Eight Gates, especially if you examine closely Branch 3 and Branches 4 and 5 in Panim Meirot. Branch 3 explains the Ohr Hozer [reflected light], Branch 4—the four Behinot of Ohr Yashar [direct light], and Branches 5 and 6 explain the Hizdakchut [cleansing/purification/weakening] of the Masach by which the Histaklut [looking] of Ohr Hozer is done, and you will be able to prove to anyone who must listen to what he is saying. If you do so, you will certainly prove that you are right.

The book My Desire Is in Her, by Rav Chaim Vital was found among my books tied together to the Kabbalah book by Hacham Mas’ud, who gave it to me as a gift. I need it very much, so I ask that to have it sent to me as soon as possible.

Yehuda Leib

M. Laitman: Okay, I don't know what's there to ask exactly, but interesting.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:02) It's said, it’s known by the Baal Shem Tov, a clear thing how the Creator is delighting with him as he looks at his own heart and how he is delighted with the Creator. What is to delight with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: How much he enjoys the contact with the Creator, that's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:00) They didn't succeed to form this strong connection, his students, right, they didn't succeed? With his screen, Baal HaSulam was able to connect them. 

M. Laitman: Well, there's a difference between the time that Baal HaSulam was with them, even physically, and to the fact that he already departed.

Student: One of the letters, Rabash writes that they should keep their distance from them, long distance even. Why couldn't they make it while Baal HaSulam was with them? 

M. Laitman: There's a difference, you either succeed in the right connection in the life of the Kabbalist, to be besides him and that means, to attain. Or they don't attain and in his lifetime, try and attain, or don't attain later on.

Student: They weren't able to attain. Each one became his own Rav. 

M. Laitman: Okay, I'm not going to go and judge them, but yes.

Student: So, what was their mistake as long as Baal HaSulam was with them? 

M. Laitman: There was a lack of annulment towards the living Rav, and later it's, already something else. It's already dependent on the internal connection between the souls.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:12) What is the correct connection between friends? You said, the correct connection was as much as they were connected to the teacher. 

M. Laitman: The correct connection is to the extent in which a person receives guidance, drive to come to his place, to his adhesion with the Creator. And this is what this connection pushes him, this connection with the friends.

Student: So, what is the incorrect connection? How can you distinguish that? 

M. Laitman: The wrong connection is when he doesn't feel himself committed, obligated; he doesn't feel the deficiency that appears in him. 

Student: A deficiency for what, for revelation?

M. Laitman: A deficiency for advancement, for connection. 

Student: So, advancing means revealing the connection?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:32) We're talking a lot about the importance of annulment. I hear a lot about it but I don't feel like it's entering the heart, I feel it's extremely important.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How do you annul in the Ten, in the society, toward the Creator? How to take a step toward it, each day, and see progress in annulment?

M. Laitman: Pray and do it in practice.

Student: What exactly is annulment, just to come closer to it?

M. Laitman: Annulment is where I discover all my abilities, my forces and, in them, receive the deficiencies of the other, and do everything for him. 

Student: What does it mean to reveal my own capabilities and give room for the deficiencies of the other?

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: On top of me, see how much I care for myself, and then above that? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:26) Why, one who rises in four phases of reflected light can understand the four phases of direct light?

M. Laitman: Yes, because through that he establishes the Kli of the reflected light, that he can reveal the four phases of direct light. 

Student: Why in order to understand Kabbalists, I have to love them? 

M. Laitman: Because love is a sign for advancement, otherwise, you can't recognize it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:07) What is this Wise Book from Saud? 

M. Laitman: I have no idea, I didn't see him. That's it, alright, what's next?

Reader: (50:26) We can go to the next part of the lecture.

Song: (50:34)