The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: January 4, 2026
Recorded lesson - Mar 1, 2002
Rabash. Article No. 9, 1988. What Does It Mean that the Righteous Suffers Afflictions?
Reader: Dear friends, today we are beginning a new series of the articles of Rabash with Rav from 2002. The first lesson is based on the article “What Does It Mean that the Righteous Suffers Afflictions?” We are going to read it together in the Tens. Each friend will read a piece, and we’ll take turns. Please everyone in the hall be considerate while reading and don't open the phone speakers. Tens that finish before everyone else are welcome to have a workshop on the article afterwards. We'll listen, we'll watch Rav's lesson based on the article. We have 35 minutes for reading the article until 3:25 Israel time, 4.25 including the recorded lesson. Rabash article,“What Does It Mean that the Righteous Suffers Afflictions?”
Reading: (01:30) What Does It Mean that the Righteous Suffers Afflictions?
Article 9, 1988
The Zohar (VaYeshev, Item 11) interprets the verse, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous”: “‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver him from them all.’ It is not written, ‘Many are the afflictions to the righteous,’ but rather ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous,’ indicating that one who suffers many afflictions is righteous because the Creator wants him. And because of it, the Creator wants that person and delivers him from them all.”
We should understand these words: 1) Why should the righteous suffer afflictions? 2) If afterward, “the Lord delivers him,” then what is the point in afflicting the righteous if the Creator must then save him? It seems like pointless work.
It is known that the order of the work for those who want to walk on the path of truth, called Lishma [for Her sake], meaning in order to bestow and not for themselves, is that they want to be righteous and not wicked, called “receiving in order to receive” in the work. That is, even the acts of bestowal that they do with their intention to receive are considered wicked in the words of The Zohar, as it says about the verse, “‘And the mercy of the nations is a sin,’ for all the good that they do, they do for themselves.” This means that all the good that they do, their intention is their own benefit, and this is their sin.
Conversely, those who want to serve the Creator must work only for the sake of the Creator and not for their own sake. Therefore, the nature of the creatures is only for their own sake, as it is known that the desire to do good to His creations created a lack for this purpose, meaning for the creatures to yearn to receive pleasures, for without yearning, a person cannot enjoy anything. Moreover, the extent of the pleasure depends on the measure of the yearning.
For this reason, when a person is told he must relinquish his own benefit and work for the sake of the Creator, for only by this can he achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, and this is man’s purpose and is considered repentance, since the quality of reception separates a person from the Creator due to disparity of form because the Creator is the giver and the creatures receive from Him what He gives them, for this reason when a person comes to a degree where all he wants is to bestow, this is called “equivalence of form.” This is regarded as the creature returning to its root, meaning unites with the Creator. At that time he reaches the degree of “righteous,” since he is no longer working for his own sake, but for the sake of the Creator.
Therefore, when a person does not want to work for the sake of the body, the body resists his work and does not let him do anything that is in order to bestow. When a person forgets the intention to bestow and begins to work in order to receive, he can once again continue the work. Yet according to the rule, from Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] we come to Lishma [for Her sake], an awakening from above comes to him that we must work in order to bestow. Then, he immediately encounters resistance from the body, which does not let him continue with the work of bestowal and he begins to feel the troubles that the body inflicts on him.
He repeatedly overcomes his body to some extent but then descends from his work once more and feels the bad in him. It follows that one who wants to be righteous constantly feels the afflictions that the body causes him. That is, each time he wants to do something to bestow, the wicked one comes and asks, “What is this work for you?” But when a person works for himself there is no place for the wicked to ask “What is this work for you?” because he is working for the sake of the wicked, called “will to receive for himself.” It follows that the wicked’s question comes specifically when he wants to work for the sake of the Creator.
Now we understand why specifically the righteous suffer many afflictions. It is because man’s inclination overcomes him every day. That is, when the evil inclination sees that a person has some light, called “day,” that he is on the right path, it immediately overcomes him and wants to fail him with its complaints, telling him, “What will you get from wanting to work to bestow?” And that same order happens each and every day.
This is as our sages said (Kidushin 40), “One should always see himself as if he is half guilty, half innocent. If he performs one Mitzva [commandment/good deed], happy is he, for he has sentenced himself to the side of merit.” Yet, if “One should always see himself as half guilty, half innocent. If he performs one Mitzva, happy is he, for he has sentenced himself to the side of merit,” then how can he say again, “half,” since he was already sentenced to the side of merit, so why do they say “always”?
As was said, “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day.” The minute the evil inclination sees that now it is “day” for him, it immediately overcomes him. It follows that according to the measure of good that he did, the evil promptly overcomes him, and then he is once more “half guilty, half innocent.”
This is the meaning of “overcomes him every day.” That is, each day there is new overcoming. We should interpret that “man’s inclination overcomes him every day” means that the bad in him is increasing, as in, “a growing stream of adding evil.” For this reason, it is “One opposite the other.” As soon as a person overcomes and does a good deed, the evil inclination overcomes him.
It follows that the righteous suffers many afflictions. That is, each day, the bad in him grows and according to his good deeds, so the evil becomes revealed in him. It is as our sages said, “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.”
We should understand what the words “than him” imply to us. According to what we explained, “than him,” meaning the fact that his inclination has grown, comes as a result of man’s growing, since he tried to be a man and not a beast. From this, the inclination grew, as well, as it is written, “One should always be half guilty, half innocent,” so as to be able to defeat the evil.
It is impossible to defeat the evil at once. Hence, the evil appears to a person slowly. Each time a person does something good, there is a place to reveal some more evil. This repeats itself until a person corrects all the evil within him. It follows that this is why the righteous suffers many afflictions.
We could ask, Why does all the evil not appear in a person at once? The answer is that a person would not be able to overcome all the evil within him. Only when the bad in him is not more than the good and the two are equal, a person can overcome through the power of Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds]. For this reason, the bad emerges in a person gradually, meaning to the extent that he has obtained the good, some bad is revealed to him from above, until over time, all the bad in a person will be corrected.
This extends from the order of scrutinies, as it is written, that it is permitted to sort only the 288 sparks, which are the upper nine that exist in each path of the 32 paths, but Malchut in each path is forbidden to scrutinize. This is called the “stony heart,” as in, “And I will remove the stony heart from your flesh,” since it is impossible to correct this evil during the six thousand years. After the six thousand years, when the 288 sparks have been sorted, all the evil will be sorted, as it is written in The Zohar, “The angel of death will become a holy angel,” and this is called “Death will be swallowed up forever.”
In this manner, when a person corrects the evil in him, meaning the vessels of reception, so they work in order to bestow, it is impossible to correct it at once. Rather, the vessel of reception in him, which is the source of evil that separates us from the Creator, divides into many parts. This is a correction from above. By dividing into many parts, each time we correct a part into Kedusha [holiness/sanctity], another part immediately comes—a bigger piece than what we needed to correct before. Because a person becomes accustomed to the work, he is given a bigger piece of the evil in him to correct each time.
It is like a person practicing weight-lifting. Each day he is given a heavier weight to lift. Likewise, in the work, each day we are given a bigger piece of evil to raise. This causes us to see as if we are not advancing in the work, but are regressing. That is, each day we see that the work is growing harder to overcome. But the reason is that each day we are given a bigger piece to correct.
“The Lord will deliver him from them all.” We asked, If the Lord should deliver us from the bad, why does He give us the bad, to suffer for no reason? That is, if man could overcome by himself, we could understand that it is given to man to correct. But if the Creator saves him, then what is the point of giving him many afflictions?
We already asked, Why can’t a person overcome by himself and only the Creator must save? And if we are given the choice to overcome, why are we not given the strength to be able to overcome? According to what Baal HaSulam said, this is so deliberately, so that a person will ask the Creator for help, and the help He gives is that He gives him a higher soul, in order for a person to need to receive a higher degree.
Since man must attain the NRNHY of his soul, and without a need, meaning without a Kli [vessel], it is impossible to receive filling, it was deliberately made so that man should begin the work. When he sees that he cannot overcome, he must not despair but rather pray to the Creator, as The Zohar says, “He who comes to purify is aided. And with what? With a holy soul.”
Accordingly, there are two things here: 1) A person must begin to work in bestowal so as to have a need for the Creator to help him, since if he could overcome by himself, he would not need the Creator’s help. This is considered that he does not have a Kli [vessel], and there is no light without a Kli. 2) Man was not given the ability to overcome by himself. It follows that this is why he must begin but cannot finish.
By this we understand what we asked, Why the righteous deserve to suffer many afflictions? It is because the suffering that the righteous suffer from the afflictions obstructs him from achieving Dvekut with the Creator, and this causes him to have a Kli. And the reason why there are so many afflictions until he cannot overcome them, but the Creator “delivers him from them all” and a person cannot defeat them by himself, is on purpose, since the Creator cannot give a person a higher degree if he has no need for it. For this reason, the Creator gives him the parts of his soul as deliverance, as it is written, “And the Lord delivers him from them all.”
For this reason, two things are required: 1) The righteous must have many afflictions, which are the Kli. 2) Then, He gives him the parts of the soul as deliverance.
However, normally, when people ask, they begin to ask the Creator to help them out of the evil and give them a soul over a piece that has already been recognized as evil. But why does the Creator want a person to reveal a certain measure of evil and then the Creator will help him?
This is how it seems to man. However, we should make two discernments here: 1) Indeed, the Creator helps a person by revealing to him the bad in him, so he will know the truth. 2) This is revealed only to those who are capable of walking on the path of bestowal. This is why they are shown the evil, so they will have the ability to correct it. But to people who have no connection to the work of bestowal, the evil is revealed only in general.
This is similar to what we do in this world. When a person suffers from an incurable disease, he is not told what is his illness. Instead, he is told that he has other illnesses, but the truth, that he has a terminal illness, is not shared with him. The reason for this is simple: What will happen if he is told of the bad in him if he cannot correct it? For this reason, in spirituality, a person is shown the evil very slowly, to the extent of his ability to work.
Accordingly, if a person does not have the revelation of evil to an extent that he has a Kli and a need that is fit to contain a soul, it is impossible to place a soul in half a Kli. It is like an embryo in its mother’s womb, as our sages said, “There are three partners in a person: The Creator, his father, and his mother. The father gives the white; the mother gives the red, and the Creator gives the soul.”
Clearly, everyone knows that if the father and the mother do their part, a half fetus might still be born. That is, if they do their part, the embryo might be born without a head, but only a body, or vice versa, it might be born with a head but no body. Do we want to ask the Creator to do His part, meaning to give a soul to half an embryo and this is how it will be born? Of course, no one is so foolish.
It is likewise in the work of the Creator. When a person begins the work, he first begins with the white. His father and mother are called the “parents.” They are the reason that a person will be born. The father is called “male,” meaning “wholeness,” and this is called “white,” where there are no lacks. That is, he is content with his lot and thanks the Creator for any contact he may have with the work of the Creator, for rewarding him and giving him a thought and desire to have some contact with the work of the Creator. It is as our sages said, “Walks but does not do, the reward for walking is in his hand.”
Afterward, he shifts to the left line, called “the mother’s red.” The mother is regarded as a female, a lack, criticizing his good deeds to see if they have the aim to bestow. At that time he sees the truth, that he is far from it. This gives him the need to pray that the Creator will bring him closer so he will be rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator. Then, a person expects, since he already has two lines and he already feels that he has a need and a Kli, so what else does he need? Only that the Creator will do His part, meaning give the soul.
However, if the father’s white and the mother’s red are still not worthy, since they have not been completed, and for example, they might produce only half a baby, the Creator certainly cannot do His part, which is to give the soul. For this reason, the Creator waits for the right and left lines to be completed, so it will be possible to create a complete thing. Then, the Creator gives the soul.
For this reason, a person cannot say that the Creator does not want to help. On the contrary, the Creator assembles each and every action until there is a complete measure, sufficient for the soul to shine in.
It is written about it in the book A Sage’s Fruit (Vol. 1, p 196): “It is written, ‘Take no rest, and give Him no rest until He establishes, and He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.’ So we rush our pleas above, knock by knock, tirelessly, ceaselessly, and do not weaken at all when He does not answer us. We believe He hears our prayer but waits for us, for a time when we have the Kelim [vessels] to receive the faithful bounty, and then we will receive a reply for each and every prayer at once, since ‘the hand of the Lord will not be short.’”
It follows that one should not say that he is praying every day but he is not receiving help from the Creator. Instead, he should believe that the Creator takes each prayer a person prays and adds it to the rest of the prayers that the person has prayed so far, and waits until the measure is full so it is fit to receive the soul from the Creator.
Also, we should make two discernments concerning the prayer in request for the Creator to help and give strength from above to overcome the evil: 1) A person asks the Creator to be able to admit the vessels of bestowal into Kedusha, meaning to have the ability to use them with the intention to bestow. 2) He asks that the Creator will give him the power to overcome the vessels of reception, too. This is considered that he can aim with the vessels of reception in order to bestow.
By this we should interpret what our sages said (presented in RASHI, VaYeshev), “We should also explain about it, ‘and [Jacob] sat,’ Jacob wanted to sit in peace; Joseph’s anger jumped on him. The righteous wish to sit in peace. The Creator said, ‘It is not enough for the righteous that they have what is set up for them in the next world; they also wish to sit in peace in this world.”
It is seemingly difficult to understand what they said, “The Creator said, ‘It is not enough for the righteous that they have what is set up for them in the next world; they also wish to sit in peace in this world.’” There is an explicit Mishnah (Avot, Chapter 6:4): “Such is the way of Torah: Toil in the Torah. If you do so, happy are you in this world and happy are you in the next world.” This means that there should be peace in this world, too.
We should interpret this in the work. It is known that Bina is called the “next world,” meaning a vessel of bestowal, since everything consists of two discernments: 1) what she receives, 2) what she gives. These are called “the quality of Malchut” and “the quality of Bina,” which are giving and receiving.
When a person begins the order of the work, he begins to sort out the best first. We begin to sort out and elicit the Kelim that are placed inside the vessels of reception, meaning that all the vessels—both of reception and of bestowal—fell during the breaking of the vessels into the Klipot [shells/peels], which are receivers, and in the terminology of Kabbalah, they are called Kelim de Panim [anterior vessels/vessels of the face] and Kelim de Achoraim [posterior vessels/vessels of the back].
For this reason, once the righteous have corrected for themselves the vessels of bestowal so as to have the intention to bestow, which is called “learning Torah Lishma [for Her sake],” this is regarded as “set up for them for the next world.” The righteous do not settle for this, but want to “sit in peace in this world,” namely that the vessels of reception, too, which are Kelim de Achoraim, called “Kelim of Malchut,” for Malchut is called “this world,” will also enter Kedusha, meaning that they will work in order to bestow.
This is the meaning of what he says, “Jacob wanted to sit in peace; Joseph’s anger jumped on him.” Joseph is called NHY, which are Kelim de Achoraim, the place of disclosure of Hochma, which are vessels of reception, regarded as “this world.” That is, the anger is that he still did not correct them so they will enter Kedusha. This is why he says, “It is not enough for the righteous,” etc.
Reader: Dear friends, we will now move to study together with Rav this article. Please.
M. Laitman: (30:57) We read the article “What Does It Mean that the Righteous Suffers Afflictions?” What does it mean that the righteous suffers many afflictions? Many. And those who are not righteous don't suffer? We see that the world is full of suffering, full of trouble. Suffering is revealed to a person only to the extent that he can correct them. Suffering is a feeling of a lack of light in vessels that are poised for correction. Each of us has a soul. We feel in the soul, out of this big Kli, big vessel, this infinite vessel that each of us has, we feel of it only the very finest, thinnest layer, top thinnest layer, only what we can with our minds and hearts and our mental capacities to correct. We're not revealed more than that. If we felt more, we would be helpless, we would be in despair, we wouldn't be able to move ourselves at all. So, our correction is from lighter to heavier, easier to heavier, and gradual. And every time I feel suffering, I feel suffering meaning lack of light, only in that thin layer of desires that are revealed, which is simply the feeling of what I am lacking, where I must correct myself. There is the feeling of suffering. If I were shown my entire soul, and I would simply see Malchut of Ein Sof, empty, I would not be able to tolerate that situation. Those who want to advance to the extent that he learns, gains strengths, can receive them from the society, from the group, from the study - to that extent he is shown more and more who he is, his desires, thicker and coarser layers, worse layers, lower within his desire, in his soul. And this is called the righteous suffering many afflictions. Those who want to be righteous, to come to the degree of justifying the Creator, and he can justify Him only to the extent that he understands, equalizes, reveals the Creator, becomes like Him. So instead of the Creator, he can participate in the guidance and providence, and instead of the Creator, do all the things in operating reality.
M. Laitman: (34:31) Such a person, in order to advance is deliberately sent disclosures, revelations of the desires. What other desires he still needs to correct, what is still not corrected in him? And that sensation of uncorrected desires, that sensation is felt in us as suffering. This is basically the article. Now, this is on one hand. On the other hand, after a person feels the suffering and begins to work on the reason why he is suffering, what is the meaning of our lives, that's where he begins. And he discovers that they are sent to him from above. A vessel to correct the suffering is the need to approach the Creator. Until a person realizes that he cannot do anything by himself, it is not considered that he finished the work. It is written, “It is not for you to finish the work,” meaning a person himself cannot make a correction, in truth. The correction is done by the light from above; the light comes and corrects the vessels. This is what we learn from the whole structure, that we learn in the Preface and the Study of the Ten Sefirot - the lights shake the vessels, correct the vessels, the lights provide the vessels with screens. We have no lights, we only have an ability to demand that the lights will come and correct us. Not simply that the correction will come, but which type of correction, which type of light. What do I want to achieve, what do I need to be? That's what I need to discover. I can't just cry that I feel bad like a baby. You know, when a baby cries, no one knows what hurts him, his tummy, his head, his hand, no one knows what's the matter with him. This is our cries today. The outcry that brings a light that corrects the vessel and fills it should be an outcry that is scrutinized. Meaning what exactly do I need? In what way do I want it to be, so it is called healthy, corrected? By what should it come to me? What will I do when I have strength and I'm well and corrected and complete?
All those things I need to scrutinize now and to have the right demand for the future state. Meaning the good future corrected state will be 100% depicted in me, that I will anticipate specifically it, that corrected state. This is called having a vessel for correction, an outcry, raising of MAN where the upper one comes and corrects me, and fills me. The correction is done by the Creator, but the demand for correction needs to be 100% accurate with every detail. That's on the created being to do. And how can I know which image I will have while I'm corrected, when I'm already at a different degree, a different state, if now I am suffering an illness and every negative thing? That too, meaning the vessel for correction, the deficiency for correction, the light does as well. But not a light that fills me or corrects me, but a light that reveals to me my deficiencies, my faults. Meaning to see the negativity, the darkness, I also need light. And that light comes through the study, through the work.
M. Laitman: (39:34) In other words, all the changes we expect, both those that are purportedly negative in our feelings, that they will give us things, because the more I learn, the more I discover all kinds of flaws in my character, in my desire, in my intentions, all kinds of things that are bad. You know, all their combinations, all their relations towards the society, the Creator, the friends. So, it's as if the light reveals the darkness, and I have to demand it. That's the first stage.
And then comes the second stage, when I can already see the result out of the negative image that's been revealed in me sufficiently, what purportedly should be the positive image, opposite that, and a desire for the positive image, a yearning for it, right? This is already raising MAN. What is that image, positive image? To what extent, in what way can I be similar to the Creator? Similarity is actually the measure of congruence with the Creator. When a person already asks for it, the strength to bestow, the powers to bestow, which is what we ask. This is called raising MAN, and receiving from above, the correction and the filling. In other words, all the changes come from above, even those who give us seemingly bad feelings. And how does a person know exactly what he should yearn for every moment? For a vessel to be revealed, to fill me, to bring me closer, or the opposite - to show me how distant I am from it? The direction should be nevertheless one, toward the Creator. And if, in a person's yearning toward the Creator, he discovers the opposite, how far he is, in the same light that operates now, for the time being, sorts in a person empty vessels. Afterwards, the same light that operates will give a person, into those empty vessels the powers to approach. In other words, the same light operates, the one that emerges from the Creator. There's no name to this light. It's abstract and simple. It builds the vessel, as we learn in the four phases of direct light. It comes to the deficiency, then the deficiency gives him the sensation of the host, and through the sensation of the host, the sensation of shame, and from the sensation of shame, the need to complement that feeling, a need for a correction of covering the shame. Each time, the same light that the Creator sends to a person, builds in a person contradictory forms, each time, different ones. And it seems to us that our states come from all kinds of different places, to the extent that there is a good Creator and a bad Creator, right? We have examples from the Greeks, right? They thought that there were many forces in nature, many gods. Everything that is in man, there's a different force, a different angel, so to speak. It's because it seems to a person that how can it be that from one force, one source, so many different contradictory operations emerge, that contradict each other and cancel each other, revoke each other.
But in the end, the one light operates, and the vessel that must reach correction and wholeness each time, the vessel must undergo contradictory stages. Recognition of evil, the forces of the good, from darkness to light, to darkness again, and to light again. That's why it seems to the vessel that something operates on it in different ways.
M. Laitman: (44:32) From the perspective of the light, there are no changes. From the perspective of the light, we are in both the good and the bad situations. We're always in the same situations, the state of the end of correction. But toward the vessel, these things are clarified each time according to its degree. Questions? That's it? I answered so well that there are no questions. Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:01) What are you actually supposed to do with all these conflicts that are revealed in one's character? I mean, if there's something in your nature that pulls you one way, and something else that pulls toward another state, right? So it's like, intellectually, you know where you should go. But because of your character, it doesn't let you, as if there's no strength to change.
M. Laitman: What should one do? First of all, when all kinds of different desires appear to him, different thoughts, all kinds of deviations, he's confused. At once, it seems to him like this, another time like that. You see, once he's happy, once he feels kind of screwed up, sad, confused, he doesn't know where he lives. He's like crazy. He becomes totally disoriented. And he may live like that for days or a week or two weeks, like a robot or a puppet, a marionette. We, who are marching on the correction of the soul, are going through very strange and odd states, because we are acquiring another nature, a higher nature. And on the way toward really acquiring that nature, you have to instill within yourself another created being from that world. It's not some alien that comes from some planet, that's somehow similar to us, but in a strange way. It is something that is completely, absolutely something we cannot even imagine. Give some movie maker, script writer, let him make a movie about the next world and how the soul dresses in the body. He'll still make something that is somewhat similar to our world. But we don't feel that world, because it is completely opposite. And we don't even feel that oppositeness. What does it mean, opposite? What is it, red instead of black? What is this oppositeness? We don't feel the oppositeness. So instilling into myself other qualities that are from a world to which I have no connection whatsoever is a very big problem. The process is very slow. A person begins to…just as you feel yourself now that I am alive with the past, present, and future, and everything I understand in the world, the way I perceive it, all those things, you have to receive another version of all those things, but from that world, and that will be called the soul. It is a very difficult, very hard labor, and it's also called labor, the birth of the soul. It's a very complicated process. So you're asking, how should a person deal with all kinds of different states, strange states he's going through, right? The advice is simple. It's written, many thoughts are in man's heart, and the counsel of the Lord will be established or will rise. In other words, we never have within us an answer. If we want to take a correct step from now, not in ten hours or in ten years to find the right solution, but now, then I need to remember that there is the Creator, that approaching Him must be only in His direction, there cannot be any other direction. And I have to attach myself to Him as much as I can in thought and action, and I have to pull myself to Him. That's it. In every place, this will be the right solution. He writes this in his letters, that Israel, the paths of the Torah, meaning the degrees of Torah, all the actions that a person does along the way - the Creator and our goal, our goal is one. And when you keep it as one, that's the right solution to when to take these steps.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:25) What happens when you know the direction, when you know where to go, but you have no strength to carry that out?
M. Laitman: When a person doesn't have the strength to do that, this is something that comes to a person in the initial stages. Usually a person comes to study, he's full of forces, he feels a little bitter because of what is the meaning of our lives. So he comes here, and then he sees that here there's something to acquire, finally he found it. Then he comes with all his might to delve into the study, to listen, he absorbs as much as possible. Yes? You can see that he's burning.
After some time, he falls. Why does he fall? He feels powerlessness, despair, something doesn't work out. There's no point, no flavor. He wanted to find the meaning of life, and saw that it was tasteless, our life is tasteless. And that's because the Torah exhausts a person's strength. Meaning, you thought you could achieve something with your own strength, and indeed you worked, but you worked… What does it mean with your own strength? With a desire you had before, the desire you had before also didn't come from, where did you get it? Bit by bit, a desire for the Creator's dressed in you, which He sent to you, and you, through that desire, reacted and started studying. Now that desire ran out. You realized it, right? You had a tank full of fuel in the car, you ran out of gas, the car stopped. What do you do next? What do you find? A filling station. So they tell you at the filling station, now you're told, find it yourself. If you constantly get the strength, the desire to advance from above, toward the Creator from above, then it's not you advancing, it's Him advancing.
So, how do you find the strength to advance? Baal HaSulam tells us that there are two forces to advance, either suffering, afflictions, that if I feel bad, I'll run to look, and the Creator always creates around a person many, many, many such opportunities, right, in order to prick him. And if a person interprets the suffering correctly, then he sees, as I said before, he sees that all those sufferings are a feeling in the desires, in the intentions that he must now correct. That top layer of desires is revealed through suffering, but we're not that smart at the beginning of the way. We don't really see the connection between suffering and what desires I need to correct and how. Afterwards, when a person advances he sees. He feels, for example, that he's beginning to hate the friends, he's beginning to hate the teacher, that he doesn't like the Creator, he doesn't care about the study. He begins to see very concretely, very clearly, where his flaws are. Now, in the initial stages, he only sees that he is feeling bad. So either he waits, and from above he'll be advanced through suffering or he'll gradually, well, what does mean gradually - after a long time if he doesn't make additional efforts, but he comes to study and listen, here and there, occasionally. He is in a group that studies and has the strength and experience, and is advancing, and he's kind of incorporated in it, even though he doesn't participate. Then he gets from them some sort of elation and continues. He can shorten the path and not wait for the suffering to push him forward.
M. Laitman: (55:15) If he wants to receive from the group elevation towards spirituality, so spirituality will seem to him, so the goal will seem to him as great, important, and it will really shine for him, that I want this. But this, we can be, we receive this impression from the environment. This is what Baal HaSulam writes in “The Freedom,” that the environment is the only thing that can advance a person beyond the path of suffering. Like there's an engine in reality that advances all of reality, all of humanity to the goal.
But you see, it's over millennia, or thousands of incarnations, you know, bit by bit, slowly, slowly, and through what afflictions, from generation to generation, the souls are corrected this way. Each generation, souls come down, they go through this friction here, and they leave, and they come down again, clothe in bodies and suffer again. So, to shorten the way is possible only through the environment. And searching for an environment like that each time, even the environment when you come here, search where I can hear more about the goal, from whom I can be more inspired, by absorbing from him his desires, to be brainwashed - by this I will be pulled forward. That's the idea, that's the principle, very simple things. The execution is not that simple, but the principle is very simple. Light and vessel, and how to use the light and the vessel correctly each time.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:12) You said that the light corrects the vessel. How exactly does it carry out the correction? What actually happens?
M. Laitman: How does light correct the vessel? We learn this in the four phases of direct light. The light, means it emerges from his self, and he's only got a black dot, existence from absence. By this he begins to build the deficiency, phase one. Then the light operates within that deficiency, fills it, phase one. And then it begins to give the full phase one, it lets it feel that there is Keter, the root phase, that created it and fills it. So from this, phase one wants to be like the root. So the will to receive within phase one wants to be like the giver, like the root phase.
As a result, it becomes phase two. Right? Once it becomes phase two, the light continues to operate in phase two from the root phase. The root phase wants to fill the desire, to do good to it. In phase two, there's no one to benefit, to do good to. It itself wants to do good, so it's not over. So it pushes phase two and lets it understand that the purpose of creation is to receive. So phase two fills another deficiency. Now you have another vessel, another desire for phase two to receive because the root phase wants me to receive. So phase three comes out. Phase three that wants to receive just a little bit, because phase two wants to bestow. So now it realizes that actually, according to its nature, it wants only to receive without any relation to bestowal. Then phase four emerges. All of these actions, we see that they are done by the light only, because there is existence from absence here, a desire. But all the operations within that desire, we don't know how it's done, existence from absence. This is really an act that is above us. But all the other operations we can study because we have already been created. Existence from absence is already us. After that, until existence from absence, we can come to it with our recognition. As Baal HaSulam writes, he writes what he attained. He never wrote through the intellect, that according to the intellect, it is possible that this is what it is probably like. But from within the degree, through attainment, look from where he begins to speak to you, right? So what am I trying to say?
We see that only operations other than existence from absence are done by the light. Both the desires to receive, the desires to bestow, and the powers to receive, and the powers to bestow, all the screens, shells, holiness, you name it, we will learn it afterwards, are all done by the light. What do we need? Only to reveal, to show willingness for the next degree, for the next state. Why do we need it? Because yearning for the next state, for the next deficiency, it doesn't just let us feel that state.
The problem is, that if the light comes first and builds the desire, then the desire will always enjoy in a very minimal way. Say for example, I don't have a desire for something, but you bring me something. I don't know what it is, I can't even imagine what it is. I have nothing that was similar to it. I can't even imagine what it is. And you tell me, it's tasty, taste it, try. For a general desire, I eat it and enjoy it, because I had a general desire, but I wasn't ready for that. So instead of really feeling some great impression, so I feel some fulfillment of a small deficiency, where the deficiency and the light come as one, right? That you gave that to me. When the light comes and builds the Kli, let's say you gave me this cracker and I had one. I want another one, and you say no. Now I have my own deficiency. If I now truly would require a deficiency for that cracker for myself, and after great yearning, I would only want the cracker, nothing other than that in my life. You tell me afterwards, do with that whatever you want, so much so, meaning an infinite desire. That is called the wholeness of the desire, that’s called spirituality. That I only want this thing, and other than that, not beyond and not outside of that, not in width, not afterwards, nothing. If I want it in such a way, and now it will come, so I will enjoy it, what is called at the level of NRNHY, meaning all the possible pleasures, I will take that from it.
M. Laitman: (01:02:54) What is the principle here? It's simple. If the light builds the Kli, so it's not my desire, the light builds the deficiency and fills it, and in that the vessel, the creation, doesn't feel anything. If the Kli precedes the light, that the light comes and makes the Kli, and then leaves the Kli, and now the Kli feels that it wants the deficiency prior to that, and then afterwards the fulfillment comes to it, so then the Kli feels a lot more pleasure. Therefore, we, in situations like he says, I don't know what to do in these states where there are such states, we precisely need to define the deficiency that needs to be. We need to know what we need to yearn for, what is that next state that needs to be. I need to precisely draw that next degree, and if I come truly to that full, correct, aggressive, strong, big desire, so that is called that I now am ready to receive fulfillment. And then the light comes and fills me, and I truly feel the fulfillment. It enters then with all of my form, you know, with all of my... I suck from that deficiency everything I possibly can, all the pleasures, because of that principle that the Kli needs to precede the light. So I can demand from the Creator, correct me in such a way, do me in such a way, fill me in such a way. I need precisely to be like that towards you, like you. I need to first attain, to understand, to check. That is the work in mind and heart together. And therefore, whoever goes on that path becomes wiser, becomes more understanding. Not fanatic, he doesn't just make an action, he needs to research the whole of reality. And that is why it's called attainment, those are degrees of attainment. Because the Kli needs, at the end of it all, needs to be exactly like the light that fills it. I need to be in all of my form like the Creator, otherwise I won't reach equivalence of form. And from that, if you will continue, so you can understand all the rest of the things in our work, from that one principle, that the Kli needs to precede the light.
Now, how do I build that Kli, right? Here, I need study, society, and why do we need all these things? You have to understand that, that through others I acquire discernments from them, I acquire their experience. There are more opportunities here to leap over all kinds of states through connection with others, just like we are. What if I would make clothing for myself, and food, and books? Is a person capable of doing all that himself? Same thing with our spiritual work. I can use the experience, and the forces, and the knowledge of the friends, through that in which I connect with them, in that I contribute to them, like in our world, where we also pay for what we acquire from others. Right?
But each one of us is an expert in something, that he gives something to the world, and the world gives him back accordingly. So in spirituality, that's how it is. So we have an opportunity to find friends who also want this exchange, that I give to them and they give to me. And through that, we can progress a lot faster. Otherwise, it's like a person who is there in some jungle, living. How much can he progress alone, and attain alone? And when he enters a certain society, then he develops a lot faster.
M. Laitman: (01:07:22) The main thing is development through the society, to absorb from it as much as possible. If a child would not receive education through kindergarten, through school, and university, how would it be possible? What, with his own powers? With his own powers, humanity reaches, even with its own powers, to something. That's how a person is in the group. Therefore, connection with people who have experience, that you wish to receive from them, to the extent that you equalize with them, seemingly, so you can receive from them. The more you value them as greater, you can receive from them. And then you save a lot of time.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:23) When I see all kinds of bad things in the world I get a feeling that I have no chance to correct myself.
M. Laitman: If we look at the world, which is full of troubles, and the more that I also I’m no better than them, and I see a certain path that I need to traverse. So you say, I have no feeling, in general, I have no confidence that it is possible to do so. That's right. If you... We'll also take into consideration that you don't see what exists, but only this edge of this difficulty on the path of your bad qualities and other things. The path is very long and hard and there's nothing to speak about there. If you would truly see it, then certainly you would enter into complete despair. So they allow us to become despaired only in our desires that we can despair in, but not in a final way, where it's possible to rise and continue.
So firstly, these feelings of despair, they pass. The extent to which you'll be in them, the amount of time, that depends on what you do. If you continue learning, like a donkey, where you come here to sit, I'm despaired, I have no taste from it in the study, but just like this raw material. But if you come and you carry out some actions, just like a log, then that will go faster. If you will sleep there in your bed until it'll pass, then it'll just go by slower. It is written, whatever is in your hands to do, do. They don't demand from you any more than that. They give you a state. All the states come from above. They gave you a state that you are despaired, weak, but what you're capable of doing in that state, if you do it, then that will be the most beneficial path in order for you to progress. Now, why is a person given such a state to begin with? To feel despair, and to feel hopelessness, and a lack of strength, forces, a lack of confidence, a lack of hope, a lack of taste. They want you gradually to develop this feeling and this understanding that you yourself are a vessel. It is the feeling of the beginning of the vessel. It is written. What is Malchut? What is Nukva? That she has nothing of herself, but what she gives to her husband. Meaning that feeling gradually accumulates more and more and more, but as it appears negative in the beginning, that I have nothing, because a normal person who has nothing in their life is very poor, meager.
But here, there is this knowledge, this awareness that you have nothing, but together with that, you also, with your awareness, have this image of the Creator who has everything, and you have connection with Him. So you gradually pass your confidence from yourself, and from yourself to Him, and in such a way, you make some sort of compensation, one to another. And then you become even calmer, quieter, and more confident, because what He has is much more secure and confident than what we have. In order to build a vessel, we need to understand that everything we go through is only in order to build a vessel, the correct deficiency for correction and fulfillment.
M. Laitman: (01:13:10) There is nothing else other than creating a Kli, a vessel that precedes the light. Precisely through that vessel, through the deficiency, we can build our vessels. And what depends on the light? The light constantly pressures you. It is constantly pressuring. And through that pressure, which is simple light without any spectrum there, you go through all kinds of states, all the states that you need to go through, right? You understand? The light just pressures, but from your nature, from your structure, this inner structure of yours of the soul, that's where you need to feel the despair. From that same pressure of the light, you need to feel happiness, and then you'll feel another discernment and another discernment.The light just pressures in this unique one way. It's called that the Creator is good and benevolent to the good and to the bad, and He has the feeling of the Good that Does Good, and He's Good that Does Good to the created beings, and He is nothing other than that. But to bring contentment to His created beings, we have this multidimensional within, we are very complex in our structure; so, just from His pressure, this singular pressure, with us, we go through all kinds of processes, different processes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:44) In the article he talks about a state where the more my good grows, the bad grows in parallel, because it's a one-to-one, and I'm given exactly what I'm capable of overcoming. Now we've said more than once that if I'm filled with true pleasure, it means that the pleasure fills me completely. That is, I don't even have the smallest thought left, because the pleasure fills me entirely. So the question is, can the evil in me, which wants to prevent my progress toward bestowal, create a state, an illusion of pleasure within me in such a way that it neutralizes me, so that I'm basically like someone addicted to drugs, who gets his dose and is now completely neutralized?
M. Laitman: I heard what you said. Neither good or bad come to a person in order to… in general, there is no state with us, in this state, this feeling that doesn't bring about progress. And now there is no state that comes to us, which is not closer to the goal. Whether we want it or not, we incarnate toward the goal and come to it. If not through a bad way, then through a good way. If not through I will hasten it, then through in its own time. If not through 30 years, then through a few thousand years. But in any case, we're always pushed forward. Therefore it's forbidden for a person, first and foremost, in a negative way, to relate to the state that he is in, to the state itself, that it comes to me. But if it comes, then it comes to me, it comes from Him, and then onwards. And there is no state ever, that comes to fail a person, that he will fail, that he will stop, that he will fall. There is no such state. He's good and benevolent to the good and to the bad. That means that toward you, it's completely measured and it's all complete, it's all perfect, His attitude towards you. And it's not just written, see that what's written, that what can we do, that it's not the basis and not the process that the basis goes through, meaning all the processes that we go through, but only the one who chooses a better environment, that is, we have no choice in all kinds of states that we need to go through. We have no choice in all kinds of forces that come to me from above. Your question comes from that in which it could be that I'm not in a good state, internal, external or internal state.
I haven't gotten this internal state, but then on the external way, it's not acting towards. You don't need to scrutinize or change anything other than one parameter, one force you can change. What will I hear, from what will I be impressed, what will influence me? That is all. The rest of the things are not given to you to change at all. If you will try to change your inner conditions, your character, your all kinds of good qualities or other qualities, other things, it's from our stupidity that we think that we can do something with them. You cannot do anything with them. As you were born, that's how you will remain, that is all. Also with the external forces, it's forbidden for you to change them. I am in some society, I am now going to change it. Nothing will help with that, you won't progress with that, you'll simply waste your powers. Just like, look at all the people, how much they're trying to change the world and nothing good comes out of it, but just seemingly, corruption comes. The corruption comes not because we're corrupting the world, because we're not doing our part. So then this force comes that needs to correct us even more so, with which is even more negative. We only have one thing that we can do with our fate - to choose what will influence us. Books, authors, in short society, the environment, as he writes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:07) It's a very fine line between a state of… If I look at this, everything advances me and I have the choice only in adhesion from what to be impressed?
M. Laitman: The person's problem is really to sort all these instances and things that seem to him that he can do something, and act only on the point that he is capable of doing. That is a wisdom that comes after many years. I do not hide that from people who come to study. To grasp the method is very hard. The method itself is very easy. That's what's written that whoever wants My Torah, the Torah is in his heart. Meaning, we have afterward no problem, it's an easy thing. But only to understand that it is against my nature, against my mind, against my will to receive, against my logic, that I cannot change anything in the world.
My next state, I can only advance it. I cannot determine it. It's already determined. All those states from here until G’mar Tikun are already determined. If I would see myself from the side, I would see myself in all the degrees, 125 degrees, how I stand there at the end of correction, and each time in what form I am. I'm already in that form. You understand? So what can I do? Only change my pace. The pace depends on agreement. The agreement depends on the extent to which I will understand it from wiser people, where it's worthwhile for me to yearn for that. That's all. The scrutiny of what not to engage in and what to engage in, that is the main thing for us. Because there are many people out there who go out there to attain things, and also in inner work, it's the same thing. Therefore, here, the teacher and the group can shorten a person's path from thousands of years to a few years.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:53) We learned that the path of our correction is known. We need to rise on some path that is 100% absolute. And the more we rise on it, the corrections become greater and greater. Meaning our desires, the bad in us, we see it as greater all the time. It's as if it's all according to the records.
M. Laitman: The more we rise in the degrees, in progress, the evil becomes greater, and the correction against that is also greater.
Student: Now, it's as if the descent of the soul, there's descent in the record. We say that the previous generations were more refined. So how come what remains in the records is supposed to be more refined upwards? How does it happen?
M. Laitman: We learned that the greatest desire is in Ein Sof, right? And afterward, it unfolds and comes down all the way to this world. And in this world, it is the smallest desire. And that's what we feel in ourselves. What do we really want? A bit of a pleasant existence, and that's it. Each one of us can be satisfied with a little pleasure according to what he demands, and we won't want anything more. If we don't renew in a person a desire from a higher degree… Let's say we'll take you and cut you off from spiritual advancement, what you want now is very easy to fulfill. What do you need there? A few animal pleasures, honor, money, a bit of knowledge here and there. That's it. You'll be satisfied, and thank God. Yes, that's it. Go to America, get that, and finish your life.
But since the Creator does not abandon the created being, he has a purpose for each and every one to bring him to the end of correction, so wherever you go, it won't help you. He will give you more deficiencies, and more, and you will suffer anyway, and will want to fill them. And that's it. Each time we discover a deficiency, it is a greater deficiency. This does not contradict the path by which the Reshimot descend from above downward, because the great, complete deficiency or vessel is found at the level of Adam HaRishon. When it begins to shatter, it breaks into more and more individual, smaller parts, smaller, more particular Reshimot. One of them, after all these shatterings, is me, and one of them, after all these shatterings, is you. When we begin to rise, we are, as it were, collecting all the Reshimot that we left at higher degrees.
Now, me is the realization of a Reshimot at a certain degree. What does it mean, me at the next degree? Me at the next degree is not at all the me of today. It's a new Reshimot, new desires, a completely new collection that I realize according to their nature as well. At each degree, the vessel is different and larger. Maybe you are confusing vessels with screens. Maybe you want to say something else. You might be saying that the more we rise, the more desire to receive we have, and also the more desire to bestow. A shell, Klipa, opposite, Kedisha, one against the other. That's where the confusion is.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:27:14) It's as if the previous generations were more refined, right? So, their actions were not as bad as today's. And this is what…
M. Laitman: In previous generations, people were more refined, purer. The desire to receive was small and weak. The Reshimot were not yet advanced. They were the lowest Reshimot. It was enough for people to fear the forces of nature in order to be good. That's it. Go to villages, for example. You'll see how they live. They don't even lock the door of their house. They go out, leave things, right? That's it. It was this purity, this innocence in everything. And it was enough for them to have this faith, like a kind of a Torah, like the one that was given to them. And it was sufficient for them to observe the entire Torah in practice with just one small piece of knowledge. That there's probably some upper power, and that's it. What did they receive? What did they know? What did they see? To what extent did they attain godliness? Even in their greatest attainments, they were at a level that was not high, like the level we can reach. They were great in practice, in action. Why? Because supplying them with the force of fear and faith, it was not difficult for them.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:06) When we say in the lesson that the soul descended from above downward 6,000 years ago, what was registered in it? So, we need to correct what was registered in it. Is that correct? What was registered in it in the generations when they were finer, they were not so bad. But the correction became greater the more we rise?
M. Laitman: You're saying that the correction in previous generations was great? There was no correction at all in previous generations. Just because they observed the Torah thousands of years ago, did they make great corrections? Absolutely not. We are the ones who make great corrections, and not them. I'll say it again. They were great in action, and we are great in intention. I remember my grandparents. My grandmother even passed away here in Israel. But I remember them back in Russia, how they were religious on my mother's side, how they observed everything in that kind of way. You know, we see such families here too, modest, simple, beautifully so. I watched them from the side for years that way. Did they need any Kabbalah, or any proofs, or anything like that? No, not at all. You see how within a single generation, there's such a leap from one desire to another. Were they great in something? They were great in action. And we can be great only in intention. In action, we disregard that.
Reader: We’ll move to the next part of the lesson, and before that we'll sing a song together.
Song: (01:31:00)