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

Daily Morning Lesson: October 7, 2026

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Shamati. 1. There Is None Else Besides Him

Reader: Hello dear friends, today we mark the events of the 7th of October in Israel, such a complicated day. We chose to return to one of the most fundamental articles in our path which is "There's None Else Besides Him," to learn how to relate to reality even when it's very difficult and incomprehensible. So we will watch a recorded lesson from the 26th of April, 2011.

Reader: We are reading from the book of Shamati, Article 1, "There Is None Else Besides Him," page 15. You may ask questions on kab.tv. Selected questions related to the lesson will be aired. Book of Shamati, page 15, article number 1, "There Is None Else Besides Him."

M. Laitman: (00:56) We have a problem as to how to define our relation to the Creator. Of course, the entire attitude, relation, comes from us, the way we think, the way we feel. It could be, it could change, it could be variable, not according to the Creator about whom we don't know anything but according to ourselves. On the one hand, we're talking about nature which is our environment in which we develop. And then a person, you started discovering nature, starting rising from the living level to the speaking level in our world. You started examining the environment. Afterwards, you started examining the spiritual world as the desire for it formed in him. And according to the desire which grew, correspondingly, Adam got deeper into investigating nature. But man consists of two parts: of the feeling part and the understanding part. And these two parts are in a certain connection between themselves, influencing one another. And as a result of these two parts, the mind and the heart, the feelings and the intellect, a person researches what he feels, examines it. Whatever doesn't penetrate his receptacles, he doesn't know about it. Whatever it does, he feels it, and he examines that feeling, meaning, all in all, we're examining what we feel. What we don't feel, can't do anything about it, we're not talking about it at all. It's philosophy, imagination. That's why we can relate to the Creator or ascribe to the Creator, not what He is but what we feel toward Him. We never know Himself. We merely know that there is some upper force, an external force, that's felt as a kind of nature, environment, surrounding. If it's more limited, we call that nature this world. If it's more extended, that opens up due to a certain development within a person, it's called the upper nature. And the Creator Himself, who knows? That's why what we talk about in the wisdom of Kabbalah, it's all with respect to the receiver. It says, “There is none else besides Him.” That's how a person feels it. That's how it… this is the way it clears up to him or the way he depicts it out of his four walls. And the Kabbalists, they tell us about different impressions of the upper force. The Creator gets mad, He enjoys or He's the opposite to man. That's what man feels in the upper force. What is the upper force, per se? Unknown. It's very important for us to nonetheless define our attitude toward Him in order for us to know that the depiction, the form, the impression that we get from Him are all in all, either we feel Him or we feel ourselves, or we feel ourselves on His background, or we feel something mutual between us. I have to know, if I feel good, this feeling depends on me or comes from Him or comes as a result of a certain equivalence between us - some kind of a connection, some kind of instruction when I perform some deed, and speech, and thought, maybe physically - this comes to me from Him. Does He awaken it in me or, then, I don't know where else could it come from? From myself? But who am I, then, if I'm not the result, the fruit of His labor? So there are several fashions, kinds of our relation with the Creator. We have to define them otherwise we regularly get confused and it influences our attitude, our work, our connection. And it also projects and influences all our different connections within the family and a person towards himself. It's not something abstract. This is what I want to say. The definition of the state of the situation of our connection to the Creator influences all levels of our life, the most fundamental, basic things. So let's see how Baal HaSulam explains it. 

Reading: (07:35) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

I heard on Parashat Yitro, 12 Shevat, February 6, 1944

It is written, “There is none else besides Him.” This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him. And what one sees, that there are things in the world that deny the upper household, the reason is that this is His will.

This is deemed a correction called “the left rejects and the right pulls closer,” meaning that what the left rejects is considered a correction. 

M. Laitman: Meaning, we can divide a person's life into two. Either there is a time where he is certain that it comes from the Creator, from a single force, from nature, it doesn't matter whether it's from the Creator or from nature, or he is not certain, he forgets, he is wrong, he hesitates that it comes from the Creator, from that single force that sustains the whole of reality. Why are there such, why does a person have such thoughts, such impressions? As a, from his existence in the world, for him to complete his attitude toward the Creator, the Creator confuses him on purpose that, as if, there are other forces or that He disappears in order for a person to reach a state where he feels, where he is certain that he is under the rule of the Creator and only it.

Reading: (09:40) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

This means that there are things in the world that, to begin with, aim to divert a person from the right way, and by which he is rejected from Kedusha [holiness].

The benefit from the rejections is that through them a person receives a complete need and desire for the Creator to help him since he sees that otherwise he is lost; 

M. Laitman: Will help him by constantly thinking and feeling, all the time, the clearest of fashions that he is in connection and under the governance of the Creator.

Reading: (10:23) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

not only is he not progressing in the work, he even sees that he regresses.

M. Laitman: By not being able to constantly feel that he's with the Creator. 

Reading: (10:40) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

That is, he lacks the strength to observe Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] even Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], 

M. Laitman: Meaning, in all of his desires, in all of his thoughts, he cannot define that he is in contact with godliness, that it's clear to him, that it's evident, that it comes from the Creator, that that's what's before him. Meaning, in all of my 613 desires, I have different kinds of confusion, of blurriness because next to each desire there is a thought. And I'm in something confused, dark, unknown, and I have to try, from the worst possible states, meaning from the most concealed states, the most unscrutinized, unclear situations, I have to define only one thing: that I am in contact under the rule of the single force that exists in the world. And even though there are many confusions and I have many thoughts and many desires and many inclinations in every direction, I must bring them all down to one source, one reason. Why? Because this is what I feel and what I think. 

Reading: (12:18) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

for only by genuinely overcoming all the obstacles, above reason, can he observe the Torah and Mitzvot. But he does not always have the strength to overcome above reason; 

M. Laitman: To keep the Torah and Mitzvot, it means to ascribe my selfness, my entire entity to that force from which I get the feeling that I'm alive, that I exist, that I am who I am and what I am, that whatever I feel, the whole of reality, that's how it unfolds in me because that force, that desire wants me to feel that way. And my feelings entirely depend on Him.

Reading: (13:15) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

otherwise, he is forced to deviate, God forbid, from the way of the Creator, even from Lo Lishma.

M. Laitman: Meaning, the path of the Creator, it means that I constantly try to grab hold so that there's none else besides Him, that there is a single force that influences me and the whole of reality and that's all there is. I'm inside a single force. This is what humanity, it's not trying but is starting to experience, to sense, to discover that there is a global system, that it's integral and that it gradually brings it to that understanding that there is a single force in which we exist. Call it nature, call it the Creator, call it God, it doesn't matter, but it's a single force that can spread into many kinds of influence and forces, but we're inside it.

Reading: (14:28) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

And he, who always feels that the shattered is greater than the whole, 

M. Laitman: That's how his reality is, that he is in constant uncertainty, that he gets, that he deviates, that he gets blows, that he gets disturbances from that single force under the control of which he is. There are constant thoughts and desires of his own that awaken in a person which contradict the upper force. 

Reading: (15:06) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

meaning that there are many more descents than ascents, 

M. Laitman: Meaning that he is usually in a state where he forgets that he is supposed to be in it according to life; that's what he is used to according to his environment. He became accustomed to not operating as if you're under the single force. We’re now… this would unfold in the world, that there is a single force operating all of us and it would spread around the globe and everyone would have been impressed that that's how it is and that's how we are, then undoubtedly that our life would change. But because the world is under concealment, a person doesn't get any reinforcement from the rest of the world but, on the contrary, when he is under the influence of the vast environment, under the influence of the entire world, then they drag him to different goals, different desires because they're in concealment and they don't have the inclination to discover that upper force which means that they don't have a point in their heart and they don't have that feeling. Thus, such an environment, of course, fails a person who wants to discover that single force operating around us, the single force in which we are. And the problem is to the extent to which he considers his environment that he wants to discover that there is none else besides Him compared to the external environment. 

Reading: (17:04) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

and he does not see an end to these states, 

M. Laitman: Meaning, a person in his development reaches despair of discovering that there is none else besides Him, that he is inside that force. He sees that every time he tries and comes to something and even sees that he is inside “None else besides Him,” that there is a single force that operates, that it is the general force of nature, the upper force that created everything, sustains everything according to its desire, its power, intention, goal, only for a single moment can he depict it for himself, picture it for himself. And a moment later, that image disappears from him and not even that it disappears but after a certain period of time, he finds himself with his thoughts and desires in a different place. That's the influence of the environment over a person. And Baal HaSulam wants to say that it's not the influence of the environment. It's through the environment that the Creator confuses you, that there is none else besides Him. Why? In order for you to search how to grow stronger so that no disturbance will be a disturbance but through these disturbances you'll be able to grab hold of Him with all your 613 desires.

Reading: (18:45) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

and he will forever remain outside of holiness, for he sees that it is difficult for him to observe even in the slightest bit, unless by overcoming above reason. But he cannot always overcome, so what will be in the end?

Then he comes to the decision that no one can help but the Creator Himself. 

M. Laitman: After many, many, many, many such efforts where he awakens toward it and falls and awakens again and falls, he comes to a state where every time the upper light influenced him, brought him this feeling that the Creator is “None else besides Him,” only He can and will help you. He sent you all these disturbances in order for you to finally know how to ask Him to save you, where your savior is His revelation. Why? Because you want to live under His rule, under His dominion and in “None else besides Him.” You don't want to think or feel these confusions, other forces, even though those different forces come from Him. Nonetheless, you want to be under His force, the power of bestowal, the power of love of others. It doesn't matter what you call it. You want to discover Him. How come? Because it's the truth, and all the rest of your states are false. 

Reading: (20:43) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

This causes him to make a heartfelt demand that the Creator will open his eyes and heart and truly bring him closer to eternal Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Only then does this demand, does this cry unfold in him and, such that, really, that upper force that constantly influenced him, played with him in growing that inclination toward Him, it's called hardening. Then the Nega [infliction] turns into Oneg [pleasure], like we'll learn about all these states. This way a person reaches a prayer that unfolds the Creator to him, because it's not that he's looking for a way out of all his troubles and this is why he searches for it but he simply wants to come out from under the rule of his ego to none else besides Him. This means to come under the rule of Pharaoh to become the servant of the Creator.

Reading: (22:02) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

It therefore follows that all the rejections that he had were all from the Creator.

This means that it was not because he was at fault that he did not have the ability to overcome. Rather, for those people who truly want to draw near to the Creator, so they do not settle for little, meaning remain as senseless children, he is therefore given help from above so he will not be able to say, “Thank God, I have Torah and Mitzvot and good deeds, and what else do I need?”

Only if that person has a true desire 

M. Laitman: Meaning that, really, according to the root of the soul he has a need to discover the one unique and unified force operating reality and only for it. 

Reading: (23:09) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

will he receive help from above,

M. Laitman: Precisely that person is the one that is aided from above. 

Reading: (23:17) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

and he will always be shown that he is at fault in the present state.

M. Laitman: Meaning, the Creator regularly unfolds new desires in him that have different directions, different inclinations and then a person feels that none else besides Him disappears from him again. Once again he is confused, he doesn't feel Him. Once again he can't form any kind of image, any kind of form, any emotional depiction as to who and to what to ascribe to. And it's very hard for him, and all that is help from above. And such a person who has an inclination to discover “None else besides Him,” it is sent to him from above in the form of disturbances. 

Reading: (24:16) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

Namely, he is sent thoughts and views that are against the work. This is in order for him to see that he is not in wholeness with the Creator. As much as he overcomes, he always sees that he is farther from holiness than others, who feel that they are in wholeness with the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Meaning, it seems to him because a person feels that others probably can have this depiction that there is the Creator, that He's one, and it's always confused for him, it's always blurry for him. The world, they have no problem in saying, and probably they have no problem with it at all, but for him, it's always kind of a blurriness, it's all confused, mixed up. Is it him? Is it the Creator? Is it something in between? How he has to define his relationships with Him? He doesn't understand.

Reading: (25:28) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

But he, on the other hand, always has complaints and demands, and he cannot justify the Creator’s behavior, the way He behaves with him. 

M. Laitman: It also seems to him that it's unjust or he becomes confused, that he doesn't get help. The Creator that's good, that does good, that he utterly loves, how is it possible that this is how He ascribes to things, that He so cunningly twists these things from all directions to arrange such things for him in life, that he really doesn't know how to get out of it, where the cruelest of the cruel couldn't do it? Because all the cruelty in the world, where does it come from, if not from the upper force? All the worst possible things, the hardest things, things that we can't even imagine, where do they all come from, if not from “None else besides Him?” And atop that, a person has to define that all that comes from the good force that does good, that loves limitlessly and has only love and a good attitude. We can't. If we look at the world, we can't say that. According to the world, we can only see the extent to which we can be further confused about “None else besides Him” because the world is overfilled, the way we see it, with contradictions and problems, terrorism, rape, hate. Does that upper force invite that in us? Of course, there's none else besides Him. Are we the owners of our actions? We have still a lot by which to complete this picture before we can say that, before we can say, “None else besides Him,” good, that does good about all our 613 organs.

Reading: (27:52) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

This pains him: Why is he not wholly with the Creator? Finally, he comes to feel that he has no part in holiness at all.

Although he occasionally receives an awakening from above, which momentarily revives him, soon after, he falls into the place of baseness. Yet, this is what causes him to come to realize that only the Creator can help and really bring him closer.

M. Laitman: Meaning, the problems, the troubles, the confusions, different obstacles, the different forms and horrible depictions which he sees, where everything completely contradicts “None else besides Him,” “Good, that does good,” that he feels that never, ever, in whatever sophistications he uses, he will not be able to settle this query. And this, it isn't simply a philosophical query that you can somehow settle in thought but this query, it's in what he feels, in his attitude to life, his entire path, his entire essence, that it's the most important thing that he has. And then comes that point where, if the Creator does not reveal Himself for me to know and understand how it's all arranged, how does He do all these things, how do all these bad things come from Him, how the whole world, all the suffering, all those that we like to say about them, innocent, all that comes from Him and there's none else besides Him? How can I, along with it, define “good that does good?” I must or I need for Him to open Himself up to me otherwise I curse Him. I simply hate Him. I have no choice. That's what I feel and I can't do anything about the way I feel and it pains me that this is how I relate to Him. On the one hand, it's obvious that there's none else besides Him and that He's good that does good. On the other hand, I feel that thousands of different forces work in reality. They're all cunning and evil such that you really, you can't depict, you can't, there's nothing worse than that. And the truth is that I see that it's the evil force ruling, dominating the world and not the good force. And regardless of how much I try to hold myself in “None else besides Him,” “good that does good,” I'm still kind of like on this peak from which I'll fall in a second, like on this edge that I can fall from in a moment where all these inclinations and tendencies and all that I see, it seems to me very realistic. And I can’t close my eyes and say, okay, this is how I accept the Creator. He is, there's none else besides Him and that He's good that does good. But I must discover, I must reveal Him. And then comes this true demand that I can't keep on relating to Him as an evil force. In order to see Him as the good force, I need His help.

Reading: (32:01) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

One must always try and adhere to the Creator, namely that all his thoughts will be about Him. 

M. Laitman: Now he speaks about how to realise what was earlier said.

Reading: (32:17) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

That is to say, even if he is in the worst state, from which there cannot be a greater decline, 

M. Laitman: Where, this decline comes from the Creator too, of course.

Reading: (32:34) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

he should not leave His domain, namely that there is another authority that prevents him from entering the Kedusha [holiness], that can bring benefit or harm.

M. Laitman: Meaning, to understand that all this comes as “Good that does good,” “None else besides Him.” And thus, he received this decline, this horrible state. A decline, a descent, it can't simply be a kind of impression that, okay, things aren't going that great for me. But a decline could be into the worst possible states. As it says, even if a sharp sword hangs over your head, do not be despaired of mercy, literally. And the situations, they can be extremely hard and harsh, to the extent to which a person is ready for it, to how much he has prepared himself for it.

Reading: (33:45) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

That is, he must not think that there is a force of the Sitra Achra [other side] that does not let a person do good deeds and walk in the ways of the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Suppose Pharaoh, we talked about it a lot, that, as if, he is against the Creator. 

Reading: (34:02) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

Rather, all is done by the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Pharaoh, Bilam, Balak, Haman, Ahmadinejad, I don't know, anything and everything that could be evil in this world, where do all these forces come from? They're angels. As it says, the hearts of kings and ministers are in the hands of the Creator. There is only one force. Thus, in all our dissemination, in all of our education, we push only to one point: the world is global and the world is integral. In other words, there is one goal that operates everything. 

Reading: (34:50) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

The Baal Shem Tov said that he who says that there is another force in the world, namely Klipot [shells], that person is in a state of “serving other gods.” 

M. Laitman: What are other gods? If for a single moment I think that either a friend or someone on the street or even I myself am the initiator, in control of this thought or action, it means that I am in idolatry, meaning that I bow to some other authority, when there is no such thing in the world. It simply does not exist. 

Reading: (35:42) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

It is not necessarily the thought of heresy that is the transgression, but if he thinks that there is another authority and force apart from the Creator, he is committing a transgression.

Furthermore, one who says that man has his own authority, that is, he says that yesterday he himself did not want to follow the Creator’s ways, this, too, is considered committing the transgression of heresy,

M. Laitman: And so with every moment, not in advance about that moment but after it. 

Reading: (36:22) Baal HaSulam. Shamati,1. There Is None Else Besides Him

meaning he does not believe that only the Creator is the leader of the world.

M. Laitman: Yes, friend.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:38) How can we prevent, in the work, prevent from subjugating, from falling into the state that one says, I don't understand this, I'm not able to understand, it's probably something greater than me, the same turning our backs to the troubles? Let's say, on the national level, we have the Holocaust Memorial Day, for example, next week or, in comparison, to say a personal torment that you go through. How can you take these things, use them for work and not just shut your eyes and say, “Okay, there's a big force and I understand it, it's probably right?”

M. Laitman: (37:35) The opinion of Torah, of Kabbalah, is opposite to the opinion of the landlords. It says so. The landlord is he who is under the control of his ego, a different force than the Creator that comes as a result of the concealment. And thus, he's undergoing different problems, different obstacles, states of blurriness, darkness and then as a result, he defines. You really see that in a week's time, people will, again, it will be the memorial day of the Holocaust. I know it from up close even though I was born after the war in ‘46, but it was very felt in the area where I grew up, very felt, especially in that village where I grew up, really so. Meaning, it is a people that this is how they accept their life, from concealment. This upper force, it's hidden in the world and from the concealment, you can't define it any other way. The only thing that we can do is through dissemination, through our efforts, we can disseminate to ourselves and to the whole world that there is a single force in nature that's good and does good and that's why it provides a life, sustains them and the whole of reality. And this force of, that's good and does good and there's none else besides Him, controls life entirely, and that He performs these kinds of exercise with us. And it's hard to call it an exercise, like the Holocaust. In our so low, small state, on such a low level that even has no place in spirituality, we can't define anything from there, and the Kabbalists, they said that it could be worse. The prophets who wrote their prophecies, it's something horrible. Mothers, merciful women, cook their children and eat them. This is what they write, that, God forbid, this can happen. And it's pointing at our times, about the times before the redemption, before the full correction, and even, and even worse. And you can't point at these cases where you see how people are being slaughtered, that they do it themselves but it's that upper force that governs them, that rules, that's in control, that's really in everyone. Transparently, it has no boundaries of matter or place. It's simply passing, and everyone's inside it. And look at what everyone thinks, what they do? It's all as a result of them being in this single force. This is how the desire that He created unfolds and reaches its goal. See through what horrible states, and you must define these states to be “good that does good,” and “none else besides Him,” none else besides Him, okay, somehow, but that He is constantly good that does good, that's impossible. 

M. Laitman: (42:22) But specifically, that is our place of work. And if we do not reach this “good that does good” every moment, every existing moment, then the gap between what I feel and what I have to define, every moment as “good that does good,” it comes back at me in different forms in order to somehow oblige me to come to that but, nonetheless, to come to it, and it's a problem, in order to obligate me to come to that. And it won't help us reading this article. I remember I read this article. I was maybe for two months, even less, next to the Rabash, two months, even less, and he gave me this notebook, and he didn't give it to anyone. He wrote this in person with Baal HaSulam when he came to visit his father. Baal HaSulam used to talk and he wrote down these articles and he did not let anyone. Later, when I read, of course, immediately I copied it. And I didn't know, he didn't tell me not to show it to anyone and, then, when I was reading it before as a preparation for the lesson, one of the veterans that saw it, that also studied with Baal HaSulam and the Rabash, he didn't understand such articles. Where do you have them from? He went crazy, he really yelled at me, “Rabash said not to give it to anyone.” I said, I didn't know. You didn't tell me. What do I know? But I really got them a month and a half after I started studying and I remember that, yes, it gave a very strong feeling, this single direction, even though, before that, I used to read the Rambam, “One, unique and unified, None Else Besides Him.” It's something well-known that this is how you speak. But every time, you know, I think that we have to constantly hold this as a foundation out of which we build everything. Especially now that we're in a world that starts coming closer through the problems, of course, as a result of the lack of compatibility with the “Good that does good.” But you start discovering that the world is round, and they are in mutual interdependence, that they're under this one rule, and as a result of this they're in trouble, or you start feeling it. And many people without a point in the heart, out of their observation, out of looking, they see that that's how it is. And it's very important, of course, for a person take this principle for himself. When Rabash passed away, well, I didn't know what I should do? And I advertised these articles. And besides advertising them, I let all of the students copy them in order for them to not think that maybe I printed them incorrectly or something, for them to have no doubt. I didn't want anyone to think about me, to get out of any doubts or their thoughts about this. But these are the most fundamental articles in man's work toward the Creator. That's all the work that we have, only that. And thus, it doesn't matter how you call Him, God or nature, it's a single force. And if this is how we relate, this is how we refer to Him, or this is our attitude, it's easy for you to examine and scrutinize all the details in all the different languages and forms that are distant from religion, in a realistic, scientific way until we come to an emotional way, an emotional form. That's it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:46) There were two levels in which you spoke on this level. You talked about dissemination, that there is this one force, global, integral, and the influence of the environment over a person does not let him see it. And it connects to the article this way. And all that you said about the request, it wasn't with respect to dissemination. 

M. Laitman: The claim for the Creator, the demand of the Creator, that's only for us, with us, right. 

Student: So this request, is it somehow expressed towards people without a point in the heart?

M. Laitman: No, they have no one to ask from. Also here, this request comes as an inner demand. We need to understand, we're facing a force which is good and benevolent, and there is None Else besides Him. What will you ask from Him? He treats you 100% good. He does not change. What are you going to ask for? That He'll treat you with 101% goodness? What can you ask? But our request is the development of our vessels of perception. That then, according to my desire, which is constantly constructed within me in a truer and truer form, I reach a state that I must discover Him completely to its fullest extent. That is called prayer. And then I discover Him, I don't attract any action on behalf of the Creator. There is None Else besides Him. He is one, unique, and unified. You can say that He acts constantly, or you can say that He doesn't act at all. You're in Him. He does not change. Acting, means He acted like this beforehand and after that. You know how a person can imagine for himself? It's all how we depict these matters. So, prayer is called to be impressed, to pray that we judge ourselves, that we change. And through our changes, we feel this different reality, this new reality. That's why we always speak on behalf of the vessels. The upper light is always at complete rest. So, the request is actually to what extent I've put myself in these new vessels of perception, and I've reached, “ah, there is None Else besides Him, and He's good and benevolent.” And God forbid, to think that the Creator does certain action. Never. That's what the common people think. The whole, the entire difference between us and the common folk is that I say, it all depends on me, and they ask the Creator to change. I say, I only have to change; no one else, only me. Not the world, not the friends, not the group, nothing, no one. I am currently in a state of “There is none else besides Him,” and He's good and benevolent. And what I feel is according to my vessels. If I work with a group, what does it mean that I work with a group? It's I who is working, I change. So, it seems to me that there is a group that goes through different stages, and I get angry at them, and I work with them. It's me working with my shadow. And it's the same with the Creator. It seems that this, and that, and it's closer, it's further. It is me working with myself, on this absolute background of there is None Else besides Him, He's good and benevolent. Therefore, “he who flaws does it from his own flaws.” That's what I see outside, I see myself. Again, the difference between Kabbalah and religion, between a worker of the Creator to those who work according to their childhood education, or others, doesn't matter how. The whole world asks the Creator, “Creator, change, finally do something good for us. If You want, we're willing to do some actions for that. If You want, just tell us what to do. We'll fast, we'll cry out to You, we'll pray to You. Just tell us what You want, I'll do it. Only change for the better.” That's why they're not correcting their evil inclination. They're asking the Creator to be good. We say the opposite. There is None Else besides Him. The Creator is good and benevolent, and does good. He's the only general force in nature, and the only general force which exists. Besides Him, nothing exists. Besides Him, only this will to receive, which is as a point, existence from absence, only that exists. In this point, all these different actions, these different deeds, changes in the awareness, in the consciousness, which is in the upper light. This point suddenly feels that it's inflating to Malchut of Ein Sof, then the worlds come, changes, it's all that point feels it, nothing changes, only in her feeling. And then this point overgoes different changes, and only in the sensation, until it reaches the state which it says, I, this black point, am in there is None Else besides Him, and He is good and benevolent. This entire route that we take in the creation is only to find where this point actually is.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:35) I'm a bit confused. Can you sum up what does it mean None Else besides Him, and how do you attain Him for those who have a point in their heart, those that don't have a point in their heart, and the religious? Because you talked about several levels, and it all kind of mixed up for me.

M. Laitman: A person that finds himself in our world, say, in the middle of his life, he can treat all of reality like any other living being, that is, all of humanity. In addition to that, he could have an attitude to his existence that animals don’t have. He's been taught that there is an upper force. This upper force could be good, or it could be evil. If you will be good, He will treat you good. If you'll be bad, He'll treat you bad. He wants you to be good, hence, He gives you blows. He treats you good if you're good, so it's worthwhile for you to be good. What does it mean to be good in the eyes of the upper force? Here, there is a method, more than one, that people formed for themselves, different things. What does the upper force want? Maybe He wants us to eat our kids, God forbid, maybe He wants us to sacrifice them. Or maybe He wants us to kill someone, and then it's good in His eyes because they think otherwise for Him, all these kinds of religion-based wars, and many, many more. Or what I say to everyone: “if you bring me honor and money, then that's what's good for Him.” You'll get this and that as a reward for that. So, people find different kinds of relations with this force according to their ego.

And Baal HaSulam explains it in the article where he talks about religions, the different types of religions, the article of “The Peace,” and there are many things here, and they develop man. Abraham actually designed them, formed them with the right relation, that it advances, it progresses a person to godliness, when it comes down to it. These different layers of the will to receive which cannot reach Yashar El, by that they advance. And then, what do they think? They know only one thing. There is an upper force, and He and I are in a relationship: I'm good, He's good, I'm bad, He's bad, and then the only problem is what does He want? And then every religion thinks otherwise: one thinks we're right, another thinks we're right, this is what He wants, and the third thinks… and so on and so on. That's the entire difference - how can we bow down to Him, how can we fulfill His desire in order to be set in this world and in the next world? Meaning, we're working corresponding to this upper force, like a king, like a ruler, how we can make sure He's satisfied by us. So there are those who are completely secular, who are just like animals. There are those who try to find how to fulfill that upper force, how to bow down to Him, how to mitigate Him. And there are the Kabbalists, and they say, “This force does not even refer to you personally.” 

M. Laitman: (59:45) When you say there is None Else besides Him, and good and benevolent, that is a general force of nature, and it all depends on me. He has no personal attitude towards me, but it all depends on what extent I change. In this abstract, constant light which exists, I have not changed the HaVaYaH. He has given a law which does not change, and so on, and so on. So the Creator does not treat me personally, individually. I can speak like that through my vocabulary, from what I know, but there is no special attitude towards me. It is what I feel with the computer. Yesterday I worked on a computer. I got angry at it, I wanted to break it. This computer, this piece of metal and plastic, is that to blame? Tell me, what is there besides metal, plastic, and electricity? But I ascribe it to him, because that is my personality, and when I work with it, it is good, it is not good, look what it does to me. It is the same thing with a car. I can get angry at a car if something happens to it. What do we say to a child who got hit by a table? Hit the table back, it is a bad table. These are very, very basic things in our nature. It is not a laughing matter. That is what faith in the force of nature comes from, that does good or bad to me. Just like we say to a child, hit the table back; it caused you pain. So if it is not a table, if it is something greater and more surrounding, then already treat it well, and it will treat you well. And that is how faith begins. So, we do not yet understand, we do not yet comprehend how we are in a state that if I am seemingly not really in this point of truth, then I do not work with anything. I am working with a law, because a law is what is given and should not be changed. The Creator does not change. So, am I good, am I bad? It all works on me. It is all one way. I do not cause good or evil to Him. It does not touch Him. If I say that He is happy for me, or I cause Him sorrow, that is just me talking that way. It is only in my sensation. If that is the way it is, who forces me to change? My ego? That I am doing all this just in order to be better set, better off? I have nothing else which will oblige me to do so. Or maybe the environment, they can force me to change, and then I will change. Meaning, if this is how we treat the general, whole reality, I have nothing which forces me but only faith above reason. That I want to find from this shattered reality of mine, this false reality, I want to extract from that, from being in it, I want to build from it an independent attitude towards this good and benevolent force, that there is None Else besides Him. What does it mean, an independent attitude? That I treat Him in such a way without any benefit whatsoever. And He doesn't know or feel anything from me either. Then what do I depend my work on?

That is called the ten Sefirot of Blima, that I slowly, slowly reach such a perception of reality that I am with no calculation that I do today. I simply want to learn from this force His qualities, and I want to resemble them, and that is the reward: that He or I have nothing as a result except resembling Him. The reward of the Mitzva is to know the Commander. These are very subtle matters, you cannot explain them. A person who has no point in the heart can never be inspired by this, or who am I working with, with a wall, with air? If there is no one other than me that will receive my work and treat me otherwise from that, and I'm registered somewhere, since it's always written there, there's a writing hand, that's all written in the notebook, the storekeeper in his notepad, everything is written, good and evil, he determines himself, what are all these words in that case? They are all in order to, in the meantime, bring us closer to that knowledge which is called faith above reason. There you have no calculation that you can depict here. You have no one to turn to. This calculation can be only you with someone else who has a desire, who has force, who has a deed, but there is None Else besides Him, and good and benevolent, means that He's not acting on His behalf. If we talk about actions, which is the change of states, then He doesn't have that, and if He doesn't have that, it's like He's not there, it's as if He's still if He's unchanging, that's how we perceive it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:30) I hope that it's in place, in Shamati, in Article 13, it says, what is the extent of the fulfillment of the empty place to the extent to which one raises himself above reason. Meaning that you have to fulfill the emptiness with exaltedness and faith above reason and to ask of the Creator to give him that force, and that means that all the emptiness was created. Meaning, it comes to a person to feel thus that he is empty only in order to fill it with the exaltedness of the Creator. 

M. Laitman: We don't know what faith above reason is. It's complete detachment from all of our desires. I remember it was, I don't know, after four months, I remember, I remember here when we drove to Petah Tikva, to the sauna, to the spa, I remember under this bridge, under the Geha bridge, and right under the bridge I asked him, “What does it mean “above reason,” finally?” It was maybe three or four months after I came to him. I wrote here this sign that I shouldn't forget to think above reason, but I didn't know what it is, but I saw, but I wrote it so I wouldn't forget about it, that a person has to constantly be with that state. So I have my hand on the wheel, and I'm looking here at my hand, and I see, oh, above reason. So I finally asked him, how can you understand this? So he gave an example. He said, but a very, very limited example in our world: that if a friend borrowed from you a thousand shekel, and he pays you back later on, he gives you an envelope, and in this envelope, you find only one shekel. And he says to you, “That's it, I'm paying you back.” So, according to what I count, there's only one there. Where are the other 999? You go above reason, meaning you reach such a correction, a correction. It's not just that you forgive him. You have this correction that you've received a thousand instead of one, that he paid everything back. How can you complete that? We're talking about actual actions. So, how can you complete it? That is called the force of faith above reason. What is it? Only if it comes to a person from his inner efforts, it all depends on us, it's revealed in our vessel that we change. Only then can we see that we can complete this knowledge by faith; that faith is bestowal instead of reception. These things are still not clear until the person reaches it.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:06) We learned that the Creator created the will to receive. Along with it, in a certain point, we have the point of the heart that awakens, and we have the constant force called None Else besides Him, good that does good. Now, in general, there's a thought as if there's no individual here, but in the day-to-day life, we see that every person gets what he gets, and then he connects to the Creator from the …

M. Laitman: Please ask your question. That's not a question. We're all confused as it is, so don't confuse us more. Why am I insisting you ask a question without a story? We need only the question. Otherwise, you start drawing us to the state you're in. So, the question, that's it. We don't care about what you said. What's the question?

Student: So, how is it possible that He is in a constant state, and each one of us feels it differently?

M. Laitman: That's the question. Okay, without all the previous words of yours. We all feel Him in a different state, each one according to his soul, each one according to his qualities, to his desires. That's it. Because we can never feel Him. We feel ourselves in relation to something which I'm told is the upper light, the simple upper light, and I, in comparison to this upper light, in relation to it, I find myself. Where is me, the “I”? The entire world is me. “Do you feel it?” “Yes, I feel it.” “Are you with them” “Yes.”

So, this entire world is you. It's your vessel that you feel. It seems to you as outside of you. That's a mistake, an error. It's all inside. The entire world is inside. It's how you feel your reality. With respect to the upper light, you don't feel that either, but that it is outside of you. No, it's inside of you. Everything you can just imagine is inside you. Also the upper light, what is the upper light? If you talk about something, it's something that you have a certain impression from. Where? In your vessel. Everything is in man. That's how we are until we discover, we actually discover the upper force. Now let's move on to part one, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot.” That's a good continuation for it.