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

Daily Morning Lesson: May 11, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. Art. 17 (1987). The Meaning of the Strict Prohibition to Teach Idol Worshippers the Torah

Original lesson date: 02/12/2003

Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson, we'll learn a lesson with Rav from February 12, 2003, one of three lessons on the article of “The Meaning of the Strict Prohibition to Teach Idol Worshippers the Torah.” You can find it in the writings of Rabash, we will read the article from the beginning all the way to the words: “By that they are separated from the life of lives.” You have 30 minutes, Tens who finish reading before the time is up are invited to discuss principles from the article. 

Reading: (00:54) Rabash. The Meaning of the Strict Prohibition to Teach Idol Worshippers the Torah

Article 17, 1987

Our sages said (Hagigah 13), “Rav Ami said, ‘Words of Torah are not to be given to idol worshippers, as it is written, ‘He has not done so with any nation and did not did not make ordinances known to them.’ In the Sanhedrin (59), Rabbi Yohanan said, ‘An idol worshipper who engages in Torah must die, as it is written, ‘Moses commanded us a law, an inheritance.’ The inheritance is for us and not for them.’’”

The Gemara asks, “Rabbi Meir would say, ‘How so? After all, even an idol worshipper who engages in the Torah is as the high priest, as it is written, ‘If a man does them, he shall live by them.’ It did not say, ‘priests,’ ‘Levites,’ or ‘Israelis,’ but ‘man.’ This means that even an idol worshipper who engages in Torah is as the high priest.’”

We should understand it in the work, according to the rule that in the work we learn the whole Torah in one person. The Zohar says that each person is a small world in and of itself. This means that he consists of all seventy nations of the world. Thus, what is “Israel” and what are “idol worshippers” within the person himself?

Another question about the words of Rabbi Meir is that he brings evidence from the verse, “If a man does them, he shall live by them.” After all, Rabbi Shimon says, “a man refers to Israel,” and he brings as evidence the verse, “You are called ‘man,’ and not the nations of the world.” Thus, how does Rabbi Meir bring evidence from the word “man” as referring to idol worshippers? The Tosfot wishes to explain in the Sanhedrin that there is a difference between “man” and “the man.”

RASHI interprets that there should not be misunderstandings about Rabbi Shimon, who says, “Man means Israel.” It is simple, he does not differ from Rabbi Shimon—that a man means specifically Israel. Also, we should understand the great disparity between Rabbi Yohanan and Rabbi Meir, where Rabbi Yohanan says, “An idol worshipper who engages in Torah must die,” and to Rabbi Meir he seems not like an ordinary person from Israel, but as the high priest. Can it be that he will be greater than an ordinary person from Israel?

The Zohar says (Aharei, p 103, and in the Sulam Commentary, Item 289), “Rabbi Elazar asked Rabbi Shimon, his father. It is written, ‘He has not done so with any nation.’ However, we should ask that since it is written, ‘He declares His words unto Jacob,’ why does it say, ‘His statutes and His ordinances unto Israel’?”

This is a double meaning! And since the Torah is the hidden, high, and precious one, His very Name, the whole of Torah is therefore hidden and revealed, meaning that in it, there is hidden and literal in His Name.

Hence, Israel are in two degrees: concealed and revealed. We learned that three are the degrees that connect to one another: 1) the Creator, 2) the Torah, 3) Israel. This is why it is written, “He declares His words unto Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances unto Israel.” They are two degrees—one is revealed: the degree of Jacob, and one is concealed: the degree of Israel.

What does the text imply by that? He replies, “Anyone who is circumcised and inscribed in the holy name is given into the revealed things in the Torah.” This is the meaning of what is written, “He declares His words unto Jacob.”

However, “His statutes and His ordinances unto Israel” is at a higher degree. Hence, “His statutes and His ordinances unto Israel” are the secrets of the Torah. The laws of the Torah and the secrets of the Torah need not be disclosed except to those at a properly higher degree. And as Israel is so, meaning that they disclose the Torah only to one who is at a high degree, it is all the more so for idol-worshipping nations.

In Item 303, it is written, “Come and see that the first thing in the Torah that is given to infants is the alphabet. This is something that the people in the world cannot come to wish and conceive in their understanding.” To understand the above-said, we first need to know what Israel is, and what is an idol-worshipper in the work.

Our sages said about the verse (Shabbat 105b), “There shall not be a strange God within you, nor will you bow before a strange God.” What is the strange God in man’s body? It is the evil inclination. This means that an idol-worshipper is called “the evil inclination.” It follows that when speaking of a single body, then idol-worshipping, which is called “a foreign God” or “a strange God,” is entirely within man. Accordingly, we should discern the idol-worshipping in the person himself, which is the evil inclination, and the discernment of Israel, which is the good inclination.

However, we should understand why this inclination, which tempts one to delight himself and enjoy life, is called “evil.” After all, it tells a person, “If you listen to me, you will enjoy life.” Thus, why is it called “evil inclination” or “a strange God”? Also, what is the connection between idolatry and the evil inclination, and why is it called “Godliness” and praised and bowed to as one serves idolatry?

It is known that there are two kings in the world: 1) The King of All Kings, 2) an old and foolish king, meaning the evil inclination. It is also called “two authorities”: 1) the authority of the Creator, 2) the authority of man.

Our sages said that when a person is born, he is born immediately with the evil inclination, as it is written, “Sin crouches at the door.” In The Zohar, it means that as soon as one comes out of the womb, the evil inclination comes to him. In the work, we should interpret that immediately, from the day one is born, he works and serves the evil inclination within him with his heart and soul.

However, it is known that the evil inclination is only the will to receive within us, as explained in the “Introduction of The Book of Zohar.” And as soon as one is born, his only purpose is to serve the will to receive. This means that all his senses focus on how to serve the old and foolish king. Also, one bows before him, and bowing means that he subjugates his reason and his mind before him.

This means that sometimes he hears that one should serve the King of All Kings, and at times, the mind and heart resolve that the reason we are born is not to serve the will to receive. And yet, he subjugates that view and says, “Although my reason shows me that it is not worthwhile to toil and serve the will to receive my whole life, but that it is worthwhile to serve the Creator, I go above reason. In other words, the body tells me, ‘Drop everything you have received from books and from authors—that you must serve the Creator. Rather, as then, so now, do not defy the will to receive but serve it with your heart and soul.’”

It follows that one bows before the will to receive because subjugating the reason is called “bowing.” And this is considered that a person is serving a strange God who is a stranger to Kedusha [holiness]. He is also called “a foreign God,” for he is a foreigner to Kedusha.

At that time, the person who serves him is called a “foreigner” or an “idol-worshipper,” and this is the strange God in a man’s body. In other words, the strange God is not something on the outside—that he is serving something outside his own body. There is a thought that this is actually considered that he is committing idolatry. Rather, by serving and working for his body, which is called “the will to receive,” inside man’s body, it is regarded as committing idolatry, and that person is called a “foreigner” or an “idol-worshipper.”

This is so because he has no connection to Kedusha [holiness/sanctity], since Kadosh [holy] means the Creator, as it is written, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord am holy.” It means, “You shall abstain” (as said in Article No. 16, Tav-Shin-Mem-Zayin). Since the Creator is the giver, to have Dvekut [adhesion] with Him, called “equivalence of form,” a person should be a giver, too, and this is called Kedusha [holiness].

It therefore follows that one who serves and works for the will to receive creates an object, meaning that it is his God. He wishes to serve only it with his heart and soul, and in everything he does, even an act of bestowal, he does not even consider the act of bestowal, except according to the benefit that his will to receive will derive from it. He does not divert his focus from it but clings to his faith that this is all that must be served.

Even though his mind resolves that it is not worthwhile to serve it, he still does not have the power to betray his God, whom he has been serving since the day he was born. This is why it is called “faith,” since he is serving his will to receive above reason. And there is no reason in the world that can detach and separate him from the adhesion that he is attached to it from the day he was born. This is called “a gentile” or “a foreigner.”

Israel means the opposite of a strange God, meaning Yashar El [straight to God]. This means that his sole intention is for everything to be straight to the Creator. In other words, his only thought and desire is to come directly to Dvekut with the Creator, and he does not want to listen to the voice of the will to receive. He says that the name that was given to the will to receive, “evil inclination,” suits it because it only inflicts harm upon him.

In other words, the more he tries to satisfy its wish so it will not obstruct him in his work to be a servant of the Creator, it is to the contrary. That is, he constantly makes sure that he gives it what it demands of him, and he gives to it because he thinks that by so doing, it will stop disturbing him. But then we see the exact opposite—this receiver actually grows stronger by his satisfying its needs, meaning it becomes even more evil.

And now he sees how right our sages were when they said (Beresheet Rabbah 25:8), “Do not do good to a bad one,” meaning do not do good to a bad person. It is the same for us, who learn everything in one person. The meaning will be that it is forbidden to do good to the will to receive, which is the evil inclination, since out of any good that a person does to it, it later has more strength to harm him. And this is called “returning a favor with evil.” They are like two drops in a pond; that is, to the extent that he serves it, just so is its power to harm him.

However, one should always remember what is the evil that the receiver causes him. This is why one must always remember the purpose of creation—to do good to His creations—and believe that the Creator can impart endless delight and pleasure. It is written about it (Malachi 3:10), “‘And test Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.’”

The reason why a person does not feel the delight and pleasure that the Creator wishes to give is because of the disparity of form between the Creator, who is the giver, and the receiver. This causes shame upon reception of the delight and pleasure. To avoid the bread of shame, there was a correction called Tzimtzum [restriction]—to not receive unless it is in order to bestow contentment upon one’s Maker. This is called “equivalence of form,” as our sages said, “As He is merciful, so you are merciful.”

This means that as the Creator is the giver and there is no reception in Him whatsoever—since from whom would He receive?—man, too, should strive to reach that degree of not wanting to work for himself, but to keep all his thoughts and desires on pleasing his Maker. And then he receives suitable Kelim [vessels] for reception of the upper abundance, which is the general name for the delight and pleasure that the Creator wished to give to the creatures.

In general, the abundance divides into five discernments, called NRNHY. Sometimes they are called NRN. Also, the upper abundance can simply be called Neshama [soul], and the receiver of the Neshama is called Guf [body], but those are not fixed names, but depend on the context.

Thus, who is the obstructor to receiving the above-mentioned delight and pleasure? It is only the will to receive. It obstructs and does not let us out of its authority, called “reception in order to receive.” It is on this discernment that the Tzimtzum took place—to correct the vessels of reception so they will be in order to bestow, at which time he will be similar to the giver.

And there is equivalence of form here, called Dvekut [adhesion]. At that time, through Dvekut with the Creator, a person is considered alive, since he is attached to the Life of Lives. And through the receiver in him, he is separated from the Life of Lives. This is why our sages said, “The wicked—in their lives, are called ‘dead.’”

Thus, it is clear who is obstructing us from being given life: it is only the receiver in us, and we should determine that through the above-mentioned calculation. It turns out that it is the cause of all the troubles and afflictions we suffer. Clearly, the moniker, “evil inclination,” suits it, since it causes all our troubles.

Let us imagine a sick person who wants to live. There is only one cure that can save his life, by which he will be rewarded with life; otherwise, he will have to die. And there is one person who is stopping him from having this medicine. Clearly, this person is called “an evil man.” It is the same for us. When one learns that only through the desire to bestow is it possible to be rewarded with spiritual life, that there is where the real delight and pleasure are found, and that this will to receive detains us from receiving, how will we look at it? Of course we should see it as the angel of death. Meaning, it is causing us not to be granted life!

When a person comes to realize this—that our receiver is the evil in us—and wishes to be “Israel,” meaning he does not want to commit idolatry, which is the evil inclination in man’s body, and wishes to repent for having committed idolatry all that time, and wishes to be a servant of the Creator, in that state, when he wishes to exit the domination of the evil inclination, what should he do?

To that, there is the answer that our sages said (Kidushin 30b), “So says the Creator to Israel, ‘My sons, I have created the evil inclination, and I have created for it the spice of Torah. If you engage in Torah, you will not be given into its hand, as it is written, ‘If you do well.’ And if you do not engage in Torah, you will be given into its hand, as it is written, ‘Sin crouches at the door.’’” In other words, only engagement in Torah has the power to come out of the domination of the evil inclination and enter Kedusha.

It therefore follows that one who engages in Torah—when speaking of the work—the purpose of the study must be clear to a person, meaning the reason that causes him to engage in Torah. This is so because there are two opposites in the Torah, as our sages said (Yoma 72b), “Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi said, ‘Why is it written, ‘And this is the law that Moses put’? If he is rewarded, it becomes a potion of life to him. If he is not rewarded, it becomes a potion of death to him.’ For this reason, when a person engages in Torah, he should see that the Torah does not bring him into death.”

However, it is difficult to understand how there can be such a distance between being rewarded and not being rewarded, to the point that they say that if he is not rewarded by engagement in Torah, it becomes a potion of death to him. Would it not be enough that he was not rewarded? Why is he even worse than one who did not engage in Torah at all? That is, one who did not engage in Torah does not have the potion of death, and one who engaged in Torah obtained death in return for his work. Can such a thing be?

This question is presented in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” (p 20, Item 39): “However, their words require explanation to understand how and through what does the Holy Torah become a potion of death for him. Not only are his work and exertion in vain, and he receives no benefit from his labor and strain, but the Torah and the work themselves become a potion of death for him. This is indeed perplexing.”

In the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” (Item 101), “Since the Creator hides Himself in the Torah, since the matter of the torments and pains that one experiences during the concealment of the face are not similar between one who possesses few sins and has done little Torah and Mitzvot and one who has engaged in Torah and good deeds extensively. The first is quite qualified to judge his Maker favorably, to think that the suffering came to him because of his sins and scarceness of Torah. For the other, however, it is much harder to judge his Maker favorably.”

It is similar with us. When he places the goal before his eyes, meaning that the upper one wishes to delight His creatures, but to avoid the shame, we must have vessels of bestowal. And since we are born with the will to receive, which is considered a strange God, whom we serve even above reason and it enslaves us and we cannot come out of its power, we believe in our sages who said, “The Creator said, ‘I have created the evil inclination; I have created the spice of Torah.’”

This is the reason that makes one engage in Torah, and then the Torah brings him life. In other words, through the Torah he comes out of the domination of the evil inclination and becomes a servant of the Creator, meaning that his intention is only to bring contentment to his Maker. And he will be rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator, meaning that at that time, he will adhere to the Life of Lives. Indeed, only in that state, when a person studies with this goal, is the Torah regarded for him as a potion of life, since through the Torah he will be rewarded with life.

And yet, if he does not engage in Torah for this purpose, through the Torah that he is studying, the will to receive will grow stronger and acquire more strength to keep him under its control. This is because the receiver lets him understand that he is not like other people because, thank God, he is a man who has acquired good deeds and Torah, and certainly, the Creator should not treat him as He treats ordinary people. Rather, the Creator should recognize him for who he is.

And if he works in concealment, he is certain to have complaints against the Creator, since if he suffers from something, he tells the Creator, “Is this the reward for the Torah?” Thus, he always has grievances against the Creator, which is called “doubting the Shechina [Divinity],” referring to the Creator. By that, they are separated from the Life of Lives.

Reader: We'll go to the lesson from February 12, 2003. 

M. Laitman: (31:01) We heard the article, "The Meaning of the Strict Prohibition on Teaching Idol Worshippers the Torah," the writings of Baal HaSulam. The meaning of the strict prohibition on teaching idol worshippers the Torah. It's really not that clear. The Creator created the created beings. There are many kinds of created beings: smart, stupid, bad, according to character - good, according to their character - lazy, and those with a lot of vigor. He created everything. And is a person to blame for being created with some qualities, good or bad? It should be, it's all as one, with respect to the Creator. We could say that this one has a better mood, better character, better qualities, better temperament. By nature, or by the Creator, you could say he is smarter, you have all sorts. But with respect to the Creator, for Him there is no difference. How can there be a difference? He needs to give the same opportunity, the same ability for all to advance towards Him. There's no preference to one over another - the justice of the Creator, that He's just, and so on. How can we think otherwise? We see there are many kinds of created beings, yes. Also, it is prohibited to teach idol worshippers the Torah. You have Israel, and you have the idol worshippers. Israel, that's Yashar El, wanting always to reach the Creator and locking on to Him, not running from that. Always seeing the Creator as the goal, the most important, the greatest thing, Yashar El, Israel. And Akum, the idol worshippers, that's those idol worshippers, working for the stars and the signs, looking for forces, causes for things that happen in different places or things around him. And that, of course, is also not the fault of the person. It depends on the degree in which he is. So, why is it so severe, this state, the severity of the prohibition of teaching idol worshippers Torah? It's because the Torah can be the elixir of life or the elixir of death. Meaning, a person who takes that power and uses it in the wrong direction, he drifts further away from the goal. There's nothing here which he can cause - well, of course, he causes terrible things in this world by using this world not in the right way, right direction, not exactly on the lane by which one comes close to the Creator - but mostly, it is because he made a mistake. On the path, he takes the power and he's traveling in the opposite direction.

M. Laitman: (35:01) And the further away he gets, the more confused he gets, and then he stumbles into all sorts of failures. He has all sorts of obstructions, which are obstructions and failures meant to return him back, but he doesn't understand them because he traveled the opposite way. So, he's deviating greatly, and it's really just—it's salvation from above when he's returned and given again an awakening on occasion towards the right direction. And still, it is a path of great suffering until he catches himself and settles and again discovers that there is a goal that he must reach. But each time, when he fails to arrange his intention properly, specifically towards the Creator,  who is the Creator? To scrutinize that exactly. And also the purpose of creation, what is the purpose of creation? He should scrutinize that very carefully. If he didn't arrange that beforehand, he must not take the force of the Torah and continue and advance. It's really like a weapon, he sees before he aims the rifle in the right direction, which is to say, exactly towards the goal, he may cause harm instead of good. And each and every one is on the degree of Akum [idol worshipper], and he just needs to check himself. And until he checks himself and sees that, indeed, all of his thoughts and desires and intentions, his goals, are exactly, they exactly meet with the Creator, his future life, his future state, what he wants to know, and what he wants to attain, and how he wants to feel, and how he wants to see the entire environment and himself - it all meets at that one point, which is called the Creator. That point is called the Creator. And so, if he didn't direct and assemble his entire future from all of the data, let's say, everything that he expects, everything that he sees in the future, if he didn't yet gather them in one point, which is the Creator, he mustn't take the power called the Torah in advance. Rather, he must carefully scrutinize it, and scrutinize it as much as he can on his degree. And he should make that scrutiny and ask for the power to advance, for the surrounding light to come and take care of him, advance him, to give him more of the grace of holiness, the grace of sanctity, more of the feeling of divinity in his world, more of "there is none else besides Him." And of course, after he has that recognition, again, obstructions will come to him and further confusions, but they will be in range, how to say it? That's not range exactly, it's according to scale, they'll be more gentle. It's like more delicate. You can measure a distance with a meter in millimeters and in microns, right? Then he will start measuring his deviations, but through the disruptions. These disruptions are coming to him to show him how much more sensitive he's become and how he can now distinguish things in everything. Where previously he only saw big things that obstructed him, now he sees the smaller things, not that they're smaller, he sees them more accurately and he can distinguish more and more and further. And so we need to understand that although the disruptions come, those disruptions and failures, confusions keep repeating, repeating, repeating. We're sick of it already, we don't feel it, but it is so for us to constantly examine the disruptions. And we see the picture, we scrutinize the goal with a sharper eye, with more subtle qualities, with greater precision. 

M. Laitman: (40:01) And so we need to say that the idol worshipper that keeps rising within us, that's to our benefit. Thanks to him, we can aim towards the goal more and more accurately. And the truth is that there's no distance between us and the Creator. Usually, we describe it as a distance 6,000 degrees, 125 degrees. The distance is in the precision by which I can see these discernments - me and the Creator, what separates us and what is equal, meaning the distance between me and Him, that's the depth of my discernments. And then, when I relate to reality that way, it's more correct, because I don't need to run to any place. I just need to gather within myself and to see how the me, the I, understands better who the Creator is, who I am, what it means to become equal with Him in form, and get close to Him, and decipher all these discernments in their true form, the spiritual form, which Baal HaSulam defines to us in the meaning of the words, and then I'll always have the right discernments. Meaning, if I in the middle of the day, stumble into confusion, then it's worthwhile to look within and to take definitions from TES, the “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” really flip through the pages of the definitions of the words and find what is the Creator, what is the created being, what is equivalence, what is nearing, what is One, unique, unified, what does it mean that there's no one besides Him, all sorts of definitions like that, where if I scrutinize them, then by this, I'm aiming my firearm correctly towards the target. I used to be, for two months, in a certain division in the army, where they deal with cannons. I saw how they arrange everything; you have tables for all sorts of things: right wind, distance - all that, how you need to, how much gunpowder you need in those barrels and so on. So you don't see, you don't see the target, it's 30 kilometers away from you, 20 kilometers away, and you need to calculate as best as you can.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:41) There are times when I can't find the goal, a person has to remain on the path and find fuel, he knows that he's deviating, he knows he's not connected to the path, but at least some kind of vitality, and now we've read in the article that if you give vitality to the will to receive, He just makes it difficult for you. But how can you find the power to advance when you cannot hold to the goal, you're not, you know that you need to advance and you simply can't, you can't hold on.

M. Laitman: So you're saying that we have states sometimes when I'm tired, it's written, "and you're tired and beleaguered." Why are you tired? That's the question, and you don't see God, so what to do? So, what you're saying is I just turn the lights off and I go to give something to the body, right? Well, what then? 

Student: I tie other things to the goal. I try to tie things that are unrelated to the goal when I get some vitality, something, some power, some pleasure to be able to continue. 

M. Laitman: Look, so this is how it goes. What will give you power to advance then in such a case? If it's not, if the goal isn't attractive and you don't have the power to advance towards it, so what power other than the attraction towards the goal can give you, can provide for your proper advancement? What?

Student: So, let's say if I advance on the path, then things will work out. I can tie it to that. You tie it to corporeality even. You tie it to something on the level where you know it's not spirituality and that you're not headed that way, but at least you say that. 

M. Laitman: Of course, there are many levels to our advancements. The Rav also says, “He, who learns in order to argue, one who learns in order to teach, to be a great Rav, great teacher.” 

Student: His children, his family.

M. Laitman: Yes, to feel good in this world, to have it good in the world to come - all sorts of things of that nature. Can we in a controlled manner decide that now I can't see the Creator, I don't have the power to advance towards Him, so now I will learn to become more knowledgeable? If I'm more knowledgeable, then maybe I can teach that knowledge in some group, and then I'll receive awakening and inspiration from them, and then I'll have the awakening and inspiration, and they'll think about me that I'm a great teacher, great Rav, and also I'll have inspiration and upliftment because they're yearning for the Creator in truth, and I'm not. And then, as it is written, "I learn from all my students." I will be drawn after them. I won't tell them about that, so they don't know how weak I am, right? I'll act before them as a great hero, but in truth, I will receive fuel from them. Is that permitted to do or not? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:05) It's a potion of death. No, what they're talking about is the potion of death, what all the people are doing when they take the Torah and the commandments in the corporeal pleasures.

M. Laitman: So the question is, you say that it's wrong, but if I have no other choice, I'm going to completely disconnect from that and stay as a beast, right? Either I stay as a beast, of course, the goal isn't the Creator at the moment, but what? Completely detaching is better? 

Student: So what he writes, he says instead of this becoming a potion of death, for those who don't engage in Torah, they're not even a potion of death. They're simply not in Torah. They're not in that direction. On the other hand, if I go in that direction, I take this instrument, I will truly shoot in a direction that I know is wrong, so I will screw myself more, right? 

M. Laitman: What you're saying is if I go in that direction, I'll go and study and teach, I'll receive respect, and then who knows, respect will come, pleasures will come, and then I won't be able to abstain from that, escape it, and then I'll constantly serve that group for them to give me respect and honor, and so on and so forth, inflate me on and on. So what about the Creator? Will He save me afterwards in some form? But at least I have some connection to His idea, right? What to do? 

Student: I'm asking.

M. Laitman: I don't know. 

Student: I also don't know. 

M. Laitman: Well, let's think then. I won't give you an answer. I won't. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:44) Sometimes the picture seemingly doesn't get sharp. He adheres to the upper one. He feels like a fanatic, right? He doesn't know if he's truly adhered to the upper one or he's closing his eyes now. And that's how he continues all the time.

M. Laitman: Until the Creator is revealed, we'll always have doubts, and these doubts, if someone else solves them for you, then it's your loss. So each one should remain with his disturbances and obstructions. We just need to give each one possibilities, options for more efficient solutions, you know, to have more fuel, more motivation, but each one has to solve it by himself. These things are necessary for each and every one, that's the reason we are in the dark. I will answer all the questions right now? You know how many years I would come to the Rebbe, to Rabash and say, and ask him, is it truly so? You know, I would tell him things and he says: “Oh really? I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” I want to tear you apart, you know, I'm suffering next to you, this is your student, that's how you like me? "The salvation of the Lord is as the blink of an eye," that's what I hear. Truly, I heard it for years. "The salvation of the Lord is as the blink of an eye.” Each moment you should wait for it. It’ll come, just about. I remember the first time I received this illumination, I came to  Menachem Edelstein, he lived next to our old place, I said: “Nu, Menachem, what do we do now, how do we do?” He said: “Wait, everything is fine, everything is open before you.” A little bit later, everything closed down for a very long time, nothing happened. And I came to him and he said, “Well what did you think?” That's how it is. They were old, very harsh, nothing, they didn't help, you know. But there's no choice. These three old timers, Rabash, Menachem Edelstein and Hillel Gelbstein. Well, you can't compare them, but they also had something. No one gave you any answer. I remember the first two years, simply, you understand? Because there's nothing to do, a student has to go through all these discernments and acquire his own impression from them, his personal impression. Otherwise, if you tell him, he'll just go through his intellect and if it's in the intellect, it's here today - it's gone tomorrow, it's not spirituality. The intellect is a machine, it must go through his feelings and his feelings from within his deficiencies, he will have attainments and failures and despairs and revelations, everything from within his desires. You shouldn't introduce something mental in place of emotional, no.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:40) But how do you know if you're even in the game? If you're in the game and really the point of the heart awakened in you?

M. Laitman: Well, if you would have known, would it calm you down? What, if you would have known, you wouldn't have a vessel. Thank God. Why is it concealed? Concealment is attractive.

Student: The question is, is it pulling me in the right direction? The question, well, if you won't accidentally reach a place other than where you need to reach?

M. Laitman: That's also a question, there's nothing you can do, nothing. There's no possibility here, only the pace, I'm telling you. The solution is the pace. Meaning, if you come to me and you ask, give me some pepper, something that will make me spin faster, right? But other than that, there's nothing to receive, not from the Rav, not from the books, neither from the society, only more efficient fuel, one that will accelerate you. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:04) Give an example from artillery, right? If you aim correctly in the azimuth, it may be that you made a mistake. On the computer and the calculations, it looks the same, because 180 degrees, 320 parts of a thousand. Well, if you don't, how do you know that you're not going exactly the wrong way?

M. Laitman: That's not a problem. Very quickly, you'll hit a wall and you'll turn around. 

Student: Maybe it's good to, is it good to try to remain calm or to yearn to be calm?

M. Laitman: To yearn to be calm? 

Student: I want to be calm. 

M. Laitman: Our choice is the pacing, to add in how we advance. This world is spinning, right? And you have to reach the end of correction, let's say, naturally in, let's say, a hundred thousand years. I'm just saying, if you, well, let's say you went through all of your past lives or past incarnations, you went through something naturally. Now, supernaturally, you can finish the rest of the way with this world, not through 70,000 years, but through seven or ten years. That's the only thing you can do. So how is it not to accelerate the path? That's the only choice you can make - to step on the gas more or not. In truth, he thinks he's entering things, and he's this, and he's doing that. Do everything, except at a higher pace. This pace is called the inner effort in what I need to do, meaning to add your inner effort, to connect with a friend. I pressure myself a bit more to read, to study, I pressure myself a bit more, you understand? To do those things a bit more, to apply a bit more pressure there. Not that I'm like, you know, running from corner to corner. That just creates a lot of hot air. The pace, meaning that I will add my own effort in each and every detail where I have to check and make my work more precise. Just like now, you're sitting here two and a half hours in the lesson. Just apply greater effort to be concentrated in the lesson, and let's go, that's it, toward me. Not more than that. Don't deviate from this intention. The lesson, and let's go. Now, only this, not running away, not deviating. That means you're already on the right path and if you apply more pressure and you're afraid to let go of this thought, it means that you're accelerating the pace and not that you're reminded of this once every few days. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:51) I just want to check that he didn't make a mistake on the road, that he didn't stray from the path. 

M. Laitman: How to check that he didn't stray from the path? He tells us that it has to be according to the letter 64, right? “Me and the action that I take, and the Creator are all on a single line,” meaning what I do now, am I in the direction of the goal, which is to connect with the Creator, to be as close as possible to Him. I can already begin to interpret here, what does it mean to be close? Who is the Creator? Even if not, just don't forget that this is connected to the Creator and I wish to feel that I'm simply connected to Him and I want to feel that I'm connected. So it won't be a mental or intellectual effort, it will be a feeling. A feeling is a feeling. It's like if I feel, let's say, heat or cold, do I forget about it? I don't forget, I feel, I don't need memory here.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:14) How do I connect corporeality, the corporeal actions that I take, to the goal? 

M. Laitman: How to connect corporeal actions toward the goal?  It's very simple, actually. What actions? Which of my corporeal actions I cannot connect to the goal? I check. They are among my corporeal actions in life, such actions that I must do: to work, to sleep, to eat, wash myself, care for my beast, yes? I need a family. You know that, right? Okay. That's it. Wife and kids, they give them everything. Why? The Creator arranged it in such a way that I need to work in it. If He arranged it and I'm doing it, then this is called necessity, on the one hand. On the other hand, I accept it as necessity on His part. He obligates me. If I relate to those things because He obligated me and I'm doing them, then they become part of sanctity. Turns out that 20 hours a day I do what the Creator obligates me to do, 20 hours a day. How much do I dedicate to my spirituality, truly? Two and a half hours here, right? Maybe driving half an hour each way. It's three and a half hours, maybe another half hour during the day, in the evening, in the afternoon. That's it. 20 hours a day I'm doing actions that are seemingly not connected to spirituality. But if I know that I'm doing them because the Creator commanded that I, with these actions that I'm doing, I can feel that it comes from Him, He obligates me and I do it because of Him, because He commanded me, and in order to reach Him through something that I do because He commanded me to do it - then they become a means, all these actions, all these 20 hours. I go to bed, and I advance through that. I eat, and I advance. So each and every action becomes truly something that advances me, that brings me closer. How else?

Student: If it's there, if I'm conscious of it, but I don't feel it, not enough.

M. Laitman: You don't need to do more than to introduce into every action, whichever it is, "there's none else besides Him." Then there's a certain quality. Of course, on a certain level, but you're already in unity with Him until this unity will truly be revealed to you. And He will begin to be revealed more emotionally, meaning more consciously, until He will reveal to you in full, which is called the end of correction, the world of Ein Sof. That's the goal, after all. But how will it be revealed? Simply from these small actions. What am I doing now? And am I grateful? Am I ready to admit to myself that what I'm doing is either from disconnection or connection with the Creator? Even if you lie to yourself, you have to do it. I have to steal, for example. What can I do? If I don't steal, I will have nothing to eat. But when I have something to eat, I'm talking about nice things, right? I don't want to give bad examples, right? But if I won’t steal, I will not have the power, the motivation, the energy, I won't be able to provide all my needs. I won't be able to study. A person is able to make all sorts of justifications for his less than honest and good actions. But it's not important. In truth, it's not important. He is not capable of doing it otherwise. But even in this, he ties the Creator to it. So he has these things that he cannot abstain from them. But bring Him into it. Don't hide those things from yourself. As if I erase from my 20 hours a certain block of time where I'm there, where the Creator is not present, is absent. No, He should be there, even with my ugly actions.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:12) What does it mean to introduce? To think?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, yes, to think, think. And then you'll see how much you suddenly begin, even in those actions, to behave differently. Meaning, the Creator agrees instead of being concealed from you, that you will begin to find Him no matter where you are. Believe me, there's nothing worse than erasing Him from your field of vision. Invite Him to the worst possible thing, the most despicable, the most dishonest, it doesn't matter. 

Student: Even if it's retroactive, where for example whatever I did in the past three hours and I now relate to Him? 

M. Laitman: Also retroactively, yes. Rabash writes about it. Regret that he left sanctity, and now he regrets it, and now, from now on, he decides that he will never let go, never separate, right? Read Shamati, it's all written there.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:35) When there are obstructions, various disruptions, let's say, in corporeality to disruptions, to try and enter the …

M. Laitman: Disturbances or obstructions are called “help against.” They become beneficial if you attach them to the Creator, together with the source of the obstructions. If I receive any blows, it's terrible. If I receive blows and I can see who's hitting me, oh, I guess it is justified and I'll have a reward from it and I'm advancing, right? That's already different. No, it's not because all these blows become something sweet, rather it's the connection to the truth.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:27) How does one open himself up to the society?

M. Laitman: That's something else, just hang on. 

Student: These lies that I want to tie to the Creator, there's no limit to them.

M. Laitman: Why lies? 

Student: Well, you said that I go to steal, so that afterwards I'll have the power and then I'll satisfy the needs.

M. Laitman: No, no, no, listen, listen. The thing is that you will go and steal either way. So if you are going to steal, add the Creator to it. You're going to steal anyways. You're not saying, oh great, I just remembered about the Creator, now I'm going to go steal and this will be holiness. No, you're going to steal, you know you have no choice, but you know either you erase Him from yourself during the theft or you will steal together with Him, so it's better to do it with Him.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:20) Okay, but let's be more accurate with the disruptions. Let's say, I want to determine my next action according to, well, the Creator. Let's say, I have two things - one which is a bit more suitable to my will to receive and another which is a bit less. Now I can excuse what's better for my will to receive by saying if I don't do this, if I subdue the will to receive, Creator or no Creator, Rav or no Rav, I can't stay there for two days more even, so the question is, which is better?

M. Laitman: It's not for nothing that it's written, "I who dwell with them in their impurity." Dwell, right? I'm present, it doesn't matter. What's this about? That if He's truly inside your impurity, and you know that you are in impurity, and He's there together with you - you, Him - and your impurity becomes sanctified. You won't be able to over time, I mean these actions already become corrections, corrections. Even though you can't abstain from them yet, you're in them. It's not like you're calming down, no. Nevertheless, you know how to, I don't know how to say it, you nevertheless use them as an instrument of advancement.

Student: But this ruins my advancement, it shows me how I'm really not on the path, I don't have the greatness of the goal, I'm not willing to give up even…

M. Laitman: Who told you that seeing how much you're off the path is not part of advancing? You discover that as much as you agree to remain in something low together with the Creator, and how you get along with Him, you reveal those things: how you don't care about it, how you're able to connect every bit of sanctity with every shell and set this connection there and justify yourself. As if you enjoy the double - from the Creator that's together with you, and from the action itself.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:32) Bub you say that all my desires, all my thoughts, He did it anyway, also my impurity. So you can be okay with it and say, all right, it's from Him. That's dangerous.

M. Laitman: If He is nevertheless inside and you scrutinize that it's Him that's within, you have a connection, this connection will take you outwards, gradually. There's nothing worse, nothing worse than a person forgetting the Creator. That is the worst possible thing. And the fact that he cannot uplift himself from his shell, from his Klipa, that's the state, that's a consequence of the connection between the surrounding light and the record inside a person. That's the state. You cannot change that state. You cannot change. When you discover that this state is bad, evil, you're done with your vessel, you checked, then from that you start to exit it, to emerge from it. You can't stay in that and you can't relieve yourself from this evil. You cannot live with that evil. If you were to feel it, you would be rejected from it, naturally. All right, so you feel, but you'll feel gradually how you have no choice, if the Creator will not be, His presence won't be…Then you'll connect yourself to such things in some way for spiritual advancement. And to the contrary, you agree that you're eating yourself up here and agree to the fact that you won't be able to ever come out of this.

Student: But how do I get out of a state? They say find the society, get greatness of the goal, and now I see that I'm even worse. So it makes me want to run. Because if I had some way to measure, that's what we're talking about here, that we need greatness of the Creator to accelerate. But if I check my state, it's as if it's way worse compared to the group and the goal.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So it's way worse than I would want to run from everything, just shut it all off.

M. Laitman: Run away from what? No, no, if they don't supply you the greatness of the Creator, how will you run away from something great?

Student: But I'll see how opposite I am.

M. Laitman: That doesn't matter. The greatness does not disappear. That's what you don't understand. If I myself supply the greatness of the Creator to myself, and I from myself supply myself the recognition of my despicability, then I am the cause for these two points, Keter and Malchut, I'm their cause. And then I say, I'll delete these two things, and they depend on me. I'm the cause for it. I'll forget, erase, delete them. I'm done. And we don't have it. And my life is simple, good, thank God, and I don't care about anything. I came back to being a beast. But if the society supplies me the greatness of the Creator, and I from myself, upon this greatness, see how despicable I am, then those are two different sources for Keter and Malchut. Two separate sources, and then I cannot run away. They hold the recognition of the greatness of the Creator in me. They're the ones who hold this. I can't do anything from this, it turns out.

Student: I don't belong to that.

M. Laitman: No, no, no, I'm telling you, what belongs or doesn't belong to you, it's in you. It's like in a computer. You received an announcement; it's already in your computer. Although its source is outside, but it's inside you, with you. That's it. And then when you receive that from them, the awareness of the greatness of the Creator, you cannot delete it. They gave it to you, and not you. You can't erase it, I'm telling you. And then it turns out that one does not delete the other, does not erase the other. Try. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:45) One of the lessons you mentioned, that there are actions that you can advance with. All kinds of commandments “not to do.”

M. Laitman: There is no such thing in the world without which you can advance. There is no such thing. Do you understand? No such thing has been created. How can there be? Because it's part of our soul. So some form of action with Him is nevertheless advancement. It cannot be. Find me something that if I do something, I won't advance. I don't know. Nothing was just like that created. We don't see. We cannot say. I now perform some step in some direction. And that's to the goal. Like it or not, but on the other hand, I also stepped on an ant, I killed the poor thing. That's also for the sake of the goal. I don't know what, there's no such thing that you cannot connect to all of this Malchut of Ein Sof that includes within it all of creation.

Student: So, for example, if I eat pork and I think that somehow, it satisfies the...

M. Laitman: No. To eat pork and to think that by that you're advancing to the goal, as a Jew you cannot. It's against the branch and root; it's against the general law. So, you're not advancing to the goal, you're not advancing to the goal, you are doing what we call sins or transgressions by which you will advance later to the goal, but in a negative manner for the time being, for the time being in a negative manner.

Student: So, the regression it brings you, it's the path of suffering?

M. Laitman: Look, it is impossible to explain this picture, both in an inclusive way and also in an individual way, to a person that does not have a grip on the system. This is our known conundrum, which Baal HaSulam explains there in, I think, in page 25 in the letters, where before an action you need to say, "If it's not for myself, then who?" And after the action you need to say, "There's none else besides Him." And those two things, you cannot, you can't connect between them. What can you do? You can't connect between them for the time being. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:42) And if a person doesn't know the commandments that he's not supposed to do?

M. Laitman: Why don't you answer better to the question, there's one question here. "How is it possible to immediately see that a person is one who's causing bad and harming? How can we shorten the times than that? After all, there could be years in the mistake." Yes? That's clear? Again. He writes in Hebrew. He doesn't write who this is, but it doesn't matter. "How is it impossible to immediately see that what a person is doing is bad and damaging?" So, let's say I do something. Yes? How can you see if it's good or if it's bad? Is it harmful or not, or beneficial for me? How to shorten time to check and to see this, to recognize this? Yes? After all, you could be for years in this error, until I discover that it's a mistake and I turn back and go back to the correct path, the direct path and come, and who knows what, maybe again I enter some side road somewhere. Well, how can we do that?

Student: A person can go to friends that he sees them as great, subdue himself. 

M. Laitman: What will you ask the friends? I'll go to my friends and what will I tell them? I'm asking for advice. What? 

Student: No, first, the way I see the problem, to just say it, let's say, without emotions. Then when they start scrutinizing and thinking. So, to think about what they're saying, let's see, to hear more opinions. That changes a person, it directs them towards a goal. 

M. Laitman: Maybe it's the other way around. It confuses him. They give him a thousand and one advices, and poor thing, instead of being assisted by them, by the society, he simply finds himself confused, divided, simply, and where is it written that you must, or that it's worthwhile for you to do so? 

Student: We learned that only society changes a person, and we have no other choice. 

M. Laitman: We know that only the society changes a person, by what does it change a person? 

Student: That it shows them always where he is towards a goal. 

M. Laitman: How does the society tell a person where he is all the time?

Student: He shows them what he's doing wrong. 

M. Laitman: It shows them that he's all the time not okay, and maybe he is okay, and why does it constantly show him that he's not alright? But by what does it let a person do this introspection? By rumors, by knowledge, by information? By definition of the greatness of the Creator only. I receive a power, an undefined force, like fuel. They pour fuel instead of the 70 octane to 90 octane, yes? And I can now fly and see and do things much faster, yes? No more than that. The society doesn't give me its own discernments. It gives me the awareness of the greatness of the Creator. The discernments need to come from me, of what they need to be, from my desire to receive, from my failures and difficulties and disturbances. I'm not going to go and share with my friends my inner personal questions, not them to me and not me to them, God forbid. Rabash writes about this. I need to receive from them a global force of attraction to the goal, where instead of the goal appearing to me as it does right now, maybe it takes 10% of my field of vision, for now it's going to take 50, 70, 80, 100% of my field of vision. Like that. You know how children, you can confuse them in such a way that... So that's what I want the society to do to me. That's it. But besides that, how to later advance to this great thing, that I do. That is personal, individual, private work, and no one else should enter there. Even the teacher is not allowed to enter there. Otherwise you won't have the correct discernments for feeling the Creator later. Do you understand? That's why this needs to truly be protection over the individual, of each and every one, on one hand. Only in that do we protect the individual, and the rest of the things everyone can be disclosed, and opposite of that. My connection with the Creator, what am I now scrutinizing with Him? What refinements, what kind of relations are there between me and Him? That's mine and His. The society only supplies me the general energy, the big strength, and no more than that. Well, knowledge, let's say, when we study, that's like this, and that's like that, and this is how we have to find Him. Meaning, at the moment, I'm talking from one's heart's longings. How should we say? Let's say from within myself, from my heart, from my scrutinies. That's prohibited.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:34) If I can help a friend, if he's hiding his troubles from me, he's always acting happy. So, how can I connect to him and help him?

M. Laitman: How can I connect with a friend if it appears to me that he is a dummy that is always happy, and it seems to me it's really, maybe it's just lightheadedness or something, foolishness. And he inside, he's burning fire and everything, and on the outside, kind of like joking, and all kinds of things? Even more than that, it's not how can I be impressed by that? He, by that, lowers me from the degree of importance. I also all of a sudden become talking nonsense. Is this considered that this is how the society needs to truly bring me to some serious state? How do they write that? Really, Rabash also writes that on the outside, there needs to be even kind of like laughter, not to be loose in a certain way, but like that, talk about light things, and inside, everything still needs to be on fire. How? Well, what do you say? What do you think? These are very essential questions. 

Student: It doesn't matter what you say on the outside. A person can say whatever he wants outside. 

M. Laitman: But I'm impressed. Of course, the society can talk outwards about another thing, but I'm impressed by their externality, not from their internality. How do I know what's in their internality? So, if I'm impressed by their externality, then I also start to talk nonsense, and then I'm drawn after that, like it or not. After all, I'm a simple beast. So, what can I do?

Student: It's as if we agree on it, to begin with. You know he's speaking nonsense. 

M. Laitman: Well? 

Student: He writes that from the meals and from being together and even doing things that aren't related. And everyone does that. So sometimes there's like a feeling of... 

M. Laitman: Well, there is no solution. Wonderful. We'll think. 

Student: No, I have an answer for him. We know that the way to measure after the shattering is when you mix with the surrounding light and also the greatness of the Creator. The only choice society has is to increase the desire. 

M. Laitman: Of course, that's the answer to the question. Of course, to increase the pace. You're not paying attention to the words of Baal HaSulam. He said two words here and we're done. Don't look for additions or the opposite of that. The pace. That's it. We're done. You have no other possibility. Don't think that there's a choice to choose good, bad or anything like that. Good and bad is also pace. The pace in which you do it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:58) Let's say, a disturbance comes and I even automatically just attribute it to the Creator. Is that enough? Is that part of the work or do I need to...

M. Laitman: If disturbances come and I correlate them to the Creator, then that's not all the work, that's part of the work. Well, thank God I am trying. I don't forget. I try every moment in my life. I fall from this, that I have a connection with the Creator, that He exists, etc. And once more return to that same connection. Yes? So, each time I have entries and exits. Entries and exits. That's very good, but that's only part of the work. After I've entered the connection with the Creator again, what should I do next? So, this relationship between us begins to happen. So, I start to scrutinize these relations between us. How I receive Him? What He is for me? How I decipher Him? What are the forces in order to bestow? What is in order to receive? Then, returning to connection is truly an essential matter, where I am certainly returned from being a beast to being Israel. Yes? But now, next, in Him, what do I do?

Student: Is there a definition for a disturbance? Is it everything that bothers you?

M. Laitman: Anything that cuts me off from recognition of the Creator is called a disturbance. Anything that through the disturbance I return to Him is called a help against him. That's how all the things in the world are built. Only in order to bring us back to this.