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

Daily Morning Lesson: April 28, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. Peace After a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes At All - Part 3 Article No. 23, (1987).

Original lesson date: 05/05/2003

Reader: Hello friends, in the first part of the lesson we're going to learn from a lesson, Rav's lesson from May 5th, 2003, the last lesson in the series based on the article, "Peace After a Dispute Is More Important Than Having No Disputes at All." You can find the article in the writings of Rabash. We will read together, continuing from "Now we will understand why our sages said to anger it," until the end of the article. You have 35 minutes, those who finish ahead of time are invited to start a workshop on the main principles from the article.

Reading: (00:54) Rabash. Peace After a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes At All

Now we will understand why our sages said to anger it. It does not mean that we must anger it if it causes us no trouble or harm. However, we need to advance in man’s work, which is the intention, to aim to bestow upon the Creator. If a person wants to know if he really wants to work henceforth only for the Creator, the sign is if the evil inclination becomes angry. This is the indication that the person wants to walk on the path of construction of Kedusha. This is why the evil inclination becomes angry.

In other words, the anger is a result of a person wanting to work for the Creator. But if a person says that he wants to work for the Creator only as lip-service, this does not anger the evil inclination because why should it care if a person speaks and does not even know what he is saying? In other words, the person does not even know the meaning of “for the sake of the Creator.”

It therefore turns out that the meaning of what RASHI said, to anger, means to make war with it. We should understand why RASHI adds by interpreting that he should make war with it. The answer is that “angering” means making war with it. In other words, he should not serve it but rebel against it and tell it, “Thus far I have been serving you with all my might. Now I will no longer give you anything. On the contrary, I want to enslave you, so you will work for the Creator.”

By this he will see that the evil inclination becomes angry with the good inclination. If you make war and do not see that the evil inclination is angry with you, it is a sign that you do not even know what “for the sake of the Creator” means. Rather, you only heard that it is written in the books that we should do everything for the sake of the Creator. You say that you want this, too, but in truth, you have no idea what this is about.

It follows that the bad is actually within us, but we do not see it. Only through the dispute does it appear. Hence, if a person is at peace with it, he is hopeless because he will never be able to achieve the purpose of creation, since he will not have vessels of bestowal, but only vessels of reception, and these Kelim cannot receive the upper abundance because of the oppositeness of form.

A person does not know the power of the evil—that he should escape it—before he feels what the evil causes him. For this reason, specifically through the wars he makes with it, he has ascents and descents each and every time, and according to the sensation of pain from the descents, this makes him hate the evil.

This is the meaning of “You who love the Lord, hate evil. He keeps the souls of His followers, delivers them from the hands of the wicked.” One who wishes to love the Creator, meaning that his only aim in life is to have but one desire—to be able to bring contentment to the Creator—must first hate the evil. It is impossible to work for the Creator unless one is not working for his own benefit. And since the receiver, called “evil inclination,” disrupts him from working for the sake of the Creator, this causes man to hate his evil, called “self-benefit.”

For this reason, specifically when a person tries to work for the sake of the Creator and sees that this is the obstructor, it causes him each time a measure of hatred for his evil, for one who does something bad to another once is not as one who harms him each and every day. It follows that the hatred is measured by the amount of bad that he suffers from it. This is why it was said, “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day and seeks to put him to death. If the Creator did not help him, he would not be able to overcome it, as it was said, ‘The Lord will not leave him in its hand’” (Kidushin 30).

According to the above, we can understand why it is necessary for man’s inclination to grow each day and then the Creator will help him, and why the Creator does not help him once and for all. Why do I need this work, each day the same thing? The person understands that each day he needs to advance, since the order is that in whenever a person wants to acquire something, each day he advances, at times less and at times more. But here a person sees the complete opposite: Not only is he not advancing, but he sees that he is constantly regressing.

However, the truth is that as Baal HaSulam said, each and every day, a person who wants to walk on the path of truth advances closer to the truth each day. That is, each day a person sees more of the truth—that the will to receive for oneself is bad. That is, by the receiver causing him troubles by removing him from working to benefit the Creator, each day when a person suffers new troubles and afflictions in that the Creator does not let him work for the sake of the Creator, it follows that the afflictions a person receives from the evil inclination cause a person to hate the evil inclination.

This is the meaning of what is written, “You who love the Lord, hate evil.” That is, those who love the Creator must first come to hate the evil. This comes to him by the evil afflicting him. This is the reason why he hates it. At that time a person falls into great fear that he will remain under the control of self-love and will never be freed from it.

This is when the promise that the Creator will help him comes, as it is written, “The Lord will not leave him in its hand,” of the bad. But if a person has not come to fear that he might stay in the hands of the wicked forever, since he sees that he is not afraid that he will remain in the hand of the receiver because it still does not pain him, causing him to feel troubles and afflictions over being unable to do anything for the Creator, it means that he still does not have the need. Thus, how can the Creator help him? If something is not necessary, a person does not value it. Therefore, if the Creator helps him, he will promptly lose it, since the help of the Creator is as it is written in The Zohar, which writes about what our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided. He asks, ‘With what?’ and he replies, ‘With a holy soul.’”

When he obtains this but he has no need, it is impossible to value the upper abundance. He will lose it and the Klipot will take it away from him because he will not understand the importance of Kedusha—that it must be kept from the outer ones, from those outside of Kedusha.

However, a question arises here: When can one feel the bad, meaning that the will to receive is called “bad”? During the descent, when a person falls into the corporeal world, he does not even think about the work because he is completely immersed in the lusts of this world. In that state he is a slave to the receiving master and loves him wholeheartedly. Thus, how can he feel that the receiver is called “bad”? If he could feel that receiving for himself is called “bad,” he would not serve it wholeheartedly, so when is the time of evil, meaning when is the time when one feels that receiving for himself is called “bad”?

Baal HaSulam said that the sin among those who are working, who want to walk on the path of truth, is actually during the ascent. This is the time when one can make scrutinies concerning the work of the Creator. During the descent, there is no one to speak of because then he is not a man but a beast, since his only concerns are beastly concerns. For this reason, during the ascent, if a person does not guarantee that his work is in the right order, he is thrown out and he falls into the netherworld, since he did not conduct himself during the ascent the way he should have and did not pay attention to this.

For this reason, during the ascent, a person must calculate what he has lost during the descent and what he must obtain and raise up the rungs of Kedusha, and why he is not ascending now to a state of greater wholeness than where he is now. He should also see if indeed he is currently at the highest level and there is no higher degree than the situation he is in now. He should also calculate the value and importance that he feels when he senses that he is in a state of ascent, and what he should do henceforth: If he has been rewarded with the secrets of Torah, does he even hope to be rewarded with it? and so forth. He can think about all this only during the ascent.

It therefore follows that only during the ascent, when he calculates what he gains and what he loses by being enslaved to the will to receive, that he cannot gain and only loses, that calculation that he does can make him feel how his inclination is harming him.

In each and every ascent, he must calculate what he lost from the descent. By this he sees that the inclination is causing him many harms. In order to set in his heart the need for the help of the Creator, many troubles come to him and he suffers from it, as in the words of The Zohar, which explained about the verse, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous,” that the righteous suffers many troubles from the inclination.

According to what we explained, we should interpret the verse, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” That is, after the righteous has suffered many afflictions, since “righteous” is named after the future, meaning one who wants to be righteous, who wants to work for the Creator, he suffers many afflictions until many afflictions are accumulated. This is why it is written, “from all of them,” meaning that when he has many afflictions, the Creator will save him, since then he has a real need for the Creator’s help and he will know how to appreciate the Creator’s salvation, since there is no light without a Kli.

Now we will explain the question that we asked, Why does it say, “The Creator did not find a Kli [vessel/receptacle] that holds a blessing for Israel but peace”? It seems as though peace is specifically for Israel, whereas for the nations of the world, peace is not good. Can this be? For whom is peace not good? That is, it implies that for the wicked, dispute is better than peace; how can such a thing be?

According to what we explained above, “wicked” means the bad in a person’s body. These wicked need to undergo correction, as we learned that the will to receive must be corrected so as to serve the Kedusha. This is the meaning of “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with both your inclinations.” But how can the inclination undergo such a correction? This can happen specifically through the dispute with the good inclination, as was said above, that the good inclination should anger it, meaning make war with it.

Through these wars, the evil in him appears. That is, he feels the troubles that the evil inclination causes him, and then a person determines that the receiver for himself is called the “evil inclination.” If the receiver for himself does not cause him harm, a person works for it wholeheartedly and all his concerns and thoughts are only for the sake of the receiver.

This receiver, which does many things against Kedusha, is named in plural form, meaning “wicked.” For these wicked ones, peace is not good, but rather dispute, for through the dispute they will be corrected, as it is written (Isaiah 57), “‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’”

Now we can interpret the meaning of sins becoming to him as merits and how such a thing can make sense. That is, if the evil inclination causes him constant descents that compel him to descend once more into the netherworld, where he becomes completely separated from Kedusha, can such matters and actions ever be merits?

According to the above, through many evils that the righteous suffers from the wicked, where the inclination keeps harming him, this gives him a need for the Creator’s help, or he is doomed. “From all of them” means when many evils accumulate, it comes to a point where a person makes a heartfelt prayer, and then the Creator helps him.

It is as it is written (Psalms 85), “I will hear what the Lord God will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people and unto His followers, and let them not turn back to folly.” Thus, who caused it that “the Lord God will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people … and let them not turn back to folly,” meaning that he will not sin again? It was specifically these evils and troubles that the wicked in him caused his sins, and he has already come to the lowest possible lowliness, as it is written, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”

It is also written in The Zohar that when the righteous suffers many afflictions, the afflictions he suffers remove him from the evil inclination. For this reason, the Creator desires that person and saves him from all of them. In other words, by suffering afflictions he realizes that the inclination, namely the receiver for himself, is evil.

It follows that the suffering he receives from the inclination removes him so as not to want to work for it, and then he has a need to cry out to the Creator to help him out of its control. Thus, why does the Creator desire specifically that person? It is because that person has a need and a Kli that the Creator will help him, as it is said, “There is no light without a Kli.”

It follows that specifically the sins that the evil inclination has given to that person caused him the Kli. The Creator can impart the peace into that Kli, and this is called “sins becoming as merits to him,” since all the peace he had been rewarded with hearing from the Creator was thanks to these sins. This is why they became merits.

Now we can understand what we asked about what our sages said, “The Creator did not find a Kli that holds a blessing for Israel but peace.” We asked, What is the blessing and what is peace? We should understand according to the rule that there is no light without a Kli, that nothing in reality exists without a reason. If there is no reason for it, the matter must be canceled. This is why our sages said that the Kli that holds a blessing is only the peace. Otherwise, the blessing must depart. In other words, the blessing is the light and peace is the Kli, as it is written, “A Kli that holds a blessing for Israel.”

However, we should understand what is the merit in peace by which the blessing can be specifically through peace, and otherwise it must depart. It is known that the light is called “blessing.” When a person is rewarded with His light, he no longer lacks anything. Instead, he is in utter wholeness because it is impossible to say that that person is whole if he is lacking something.

This is as it is written, “The Lord blessed Abraham with everything.” What is “with everything”? We should say that “everything” means that he did not lack anything. Otherwise it is not regarded as a blessing if there is some lack. For this light to stay in a person and not depart from him, it needs a Kli where it can be without becoming spoiled. Otherwise, if we see that, for example, a drink stays in a Kli, it must become spoiled, so we take the drink out of the Kli.

The lesson is that in spirituality, since the light is the giver, in order for the abundance to be in the Kli, the Kli, too, needs to have an aim to bestow. Otherwise, the light will become spoiled.

This means that since the outer ones, meaning Klipot, want to enjoy the light, it is regarded as the wine being spoiled. Thus, that wine is no longer fit for human consumption, as in, “You are called ‘man,’ and the nations of the world are not.” For this reason, before the Kli spoils the wine, the wine is taken out.

Likewise, before the Kli blemishes the abundance, the abundance is taken out and the light departs. It is as our sages said, “A person does not transgress unless a spirit of folly has entered him (Sotah 3). People ask about this: Therefore, why does the spirit of wisdom depart from a person? If it did not depart, the person would not sin.

Baal HaSulam explained that it is known that “The eye sees and the heart covets.” This means that when a person sees something, seeing it causes him to covet. A person cannot do anything about seeing, since this is not up to him. Also, it does not necessarily require seeing with the eyes to bring one to covet, but even by imagining. That is, a thought might come to him, and that thought will cause him to covet.

Therefore, if a person does not want to covet, for coveting is already a sin, he should repent on the seeing, and then he will not covet. Otherwise, he will have to covet, and coveting is already a sin.

For this reason, a correction was made that in order for a person not to blemish the Kedusha, if he does not repent immediately after seeing, the light of Hochma departs from him, and a spirit of folly enters in its stead. Then, the flaw is not so grave. This is why the spirit of Hochma [wisdom] departs from him, where our sages have told us what correction is done from above on man’s behalf—that the spirit of wisdom departs from him.

Now we can understand why we need a Kli that can hold the blessing that he is given from above, and so it will not need to be taken away from him again. It is that the spirit of wisdom is taken away from him so he will not blemish the Kedusha. Likewise, if a person has been rewarded with a blessing from above to receive abundance from above, if the person is improper, meaning that the Kli in which the abundance is clothed is inappropriate and can spoil the abundance, like the wine, then there is correction from above that the blessing is taken back.

Rabbi Shimon Ben Halafta comes and says about this: “The Creator did not find a Kli that holds a blessing for Israel but peace.” He advises us how the blessing can continue and never stop, namely peace. Yet, what is “peace”? We should interpret it according to the verse, “I will hear what the Lord God will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people … and let them not turn back to folly.”

We explained above that there should be a dispute within man, as it is written, “One should always anger the good inclination over the evil inclination.” RASHI interprets that he should make war with it. Specifically through the war, the evil in him will appear. Each time evil appears, it is regarded as the appearance of a wicked. Through many appearances, it is revealed that there are many wicked within man, as in the words of The Zohar, “Many are the ills of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all.”

When these wicked appear in a person, they create the need called “a Kli for the Creator’s help,” as it is written, “He who comes to purify is aided. With what?” The Zohar says, “with a holy soul.” In other words, he is rewarded with the upper light, called a “soul,” and this reforms him.

Now we will understand the meaning of peace, of which it is written, “for He will speak peace unto His people … and let them not turn back to folly.” When the Creator helps him by giving him a soul as assistance to defeat the evil, this is called “peace.” In other words, it is when the evil surrenders under the good and now serves the Kedusha, as it was said, “And you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with both your inclinations.” That is, the evil inclination, too, has become a lover of the Creator, meaning that now it can work in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator.

This peace, which was made in man so he will not turn back to folly, this Kli keeps the light from stopping. When we said that the Kli can blemish the abundance, this can be if the will to receive for himself awakens in the Kli. At that time the abundance can be extended to the Klipot. For this reason, the abundance must depart. But when the Creator tells him, “Peace, so he will not turn back to folly,” this is the Kli that holds the blessing.

By this we will understand what we asked, “If the Creator says, ‘Peace to those who are far,’ He certainly says, ‘Peace to those who are near.’” Thus, what does it mean to us when it says, “Peace to those who are near”? When does the Creator say, “Peace” [in Hebrew: also “hello” or “goodbye”]? It is when there is someone who is far, when the evil is revealed through the dispute, and it is apparent that the receiver for himself removes him from the Creator. This is called “far.”

Certainly, this matter applies specifically if someone wants to be close to the Creator. He makes war with Him, and he is called “near.” Specifically through both of them, meaning when one can make peace with the far and with the near together, then the Creator says, “Peace” [or “hello”]. This is why it is written, “Peace, peace, to the far and to the near.”

Reader: We'll go to a lesson from May 5th, 2003.

M. Laitman: (38:01) We heard the third part from the article, from the first volume of the “Rungs of the Ladder,” pertaining to Talmud Uktzin, "Peace After a Dispute Is Better Than Peace Before a Dispute." This is the third part of the article, and certainly Rabash explains to us here how much this whole dispute, and specifically when it says that one should always anger the good inclination over the evil inclination, as long as one has these two inclinations. Before one has both inclinations, when there is only the evil inclination of this world, then one is a baby, a beast. He operates only according to the inclinations, and he doesn't understand that it is possible to operate in any other way, he cannot distinguish between good and bad, there is nothing with respect to which to distinguish, there is no point in the heart, there is no, from the spiritual perspective, there is no point that we can use for comparison, for measuring where one is. So, when they turn to a person and ask him, "Well, do you have an evil inclination?" He says, "What?" He feels himself as an angel. He says, "Oh, I'm a little bit of an egoist. That's how it is, like everyone." Once someone has a point in the heart, and he starts to develop it, then he already begins to have two points from two worlds: the point from this world is from his ego, the desires of this world, and a point from the next world. It is truly a point from the next world, meaning from Bina, which still exists certainly inside of the world to receive, but it's already different qualities, and out of that he can already determine what is the good inclination, what is the evil inclination, to determine it somehow, to see the difference. At least the difference in terms of what he should yearn for. It is in order to receive, but he already yearns for two different sources of pleasure. And then it says that we need to anger or to vex the good inclination over the bad inclination. 

If a person doesn't do it, the Creator helps him. If it's not on the path of Torah, it's on the path of suffering, but whichever way it happens, in this struggle between the good inclination and the evil inclination, a person should see the necessity to correct the evil inclination, by which one can truly come closer. By it, the good inclination grows. The good inclination grows only by us correcting the evil inclination and adding it to the good inclination. The good inclination in itself has nothing besides vessels of bestowal, they have no actions in and of themselves. But only when the evil inclination and the AHP join them, then the good inclination has the ability to perform actions in order to bestow. 

M. Laitman: (41:19) This dispute is constant until a person completes the path, until the end of correction. This is why it says, “one should always anger.” And this dispute is the topic of all of the states and articles and explanations and our actions. Whatever there is we are always actually in dispute. Only in the topmost state and the bottom most state we are outside of it. In order to advance, a person should quickly, as much as possible, one should always monitor this dispute, actualize it, meaning to see it not to run away from it so that you will have the force of persistence, and you will have the Gevura- the might, not to, how shall I say it, not to blur out the dispute. And one should not be afraid that after the good times, times that are seemingly bad might come, but rather use them as things that are beneficial to increase the next ascent so it will be even greater, even higher, not to despair from mercy, since ultimately there is no bad in the world, but only states that should bring good. This is why peace, how does he say it? Peace after a dispute is far greater, better, higher than peace before a dispute.

It is a much greater wholeness, because the dispute, to the extent that one uses it, corrects it, it elevates the height of the wholeness that he achieves. Each and every degree is not different from the previous one in its vessels of bestowal, but rather in its vessels of reception. That is, we have degree x and then x plus 1. Why is it x plus 1? Because it has its own additional AHP. But the Galgalta ve Eynaim, they spread in width. They are being used according to the AHP. They have no concrete coarseness of their own. And so, all of the ascents are only through the evil inclination, through dispute, by correcting the vessels of reception. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:21) What action a man has to do with his hands, and feet, and the thoughts, so he will need it in every action, this force called “the Creator.” There are many actions we do that we don't need the Creator.

M. Laitman: A person you are saying, performs many actions. He’s seemingly in dispute, in struggles, in scrutinies, or even just in a work which he approaches not because he has the need to scrutinize something, but it's a constant, it's a physical or constant physical work that he needs to do according to the order of time, to the schedule, to do in the work, in the study. So, the question is, which actions can certainly bring one to request correction, right? Let's go back. When I already ask for correction, I must be certain that I must have it, that without it, I'm better off dead than alive. It needs to be a complete request, otherwise we don't get an answer from above. I need to know to whom I'm turning. It's important to know to whom I'm turning because what will I receive? What is the correction that I will receive? This is called, to whom am I turning? I'm turning to the next degree, to the form of the Creator, which is the form that I want. This is why, for me, it is called Boreh, Creator, an example, the force to which I am turning. Do you understand? If I turn to some other quality than the one that I want, it will never work out. How can it be? I need to turn to that quality that I yearn for. 

M. Laitman: (46:33) This is why, well, the Creator has many qualities with respect to us: mighty, great, terrible, merciful, and so on. I need to be certain that the one that I'm turning to has goodwill. After He has this quality that I want, following beyond this quality, He also has a general goodwill, He's entirely aimed to my benefit. 

It doesn't help if I turn to the Creator, if I come to Him as to my enemy, one who hates me, and I turn to Him out of pleading for mercy: “Have mercy on me.” Let's say, if I'm in a fight with someone, and I see that, that's it, I can't fight anymore with him, and I throw down my sword, my weapon of war, and I say, "I can't do it." This indicates my weakness, that if I had the strength, I would kill you, right? But I don't have the strength, and I'm asking for, begging for mercy. Something like that cannot work in spirituality, because I'm not turning to Him out of my desire. I'm turning to Him out of the fact that I'm weak, not because I want something. 

We see such examples in corporeality, but in spirituality, this is incorrect. It's not considered wholeness in our appeal. This is why they say that you need to be in joy when you turn to Him, with a broken heart, yet happy. And this is actually everything - that is, the deficiency and the intention for yourself, and the deficiency and the intention in the giver, they, all in all, are the elements that should be ready, in order to establish the correct MAN, from a person to the Creator. Now, with which actions? You can sit here and shine the shoes for all of us? And from that, also, you will reach such a thought, it doesn't matter which actions. What does it have to do with the shoes, or the kitchen, or something else? By serving the society, you demand power from the society. It doesn't matter by which kind of service. You're saying, “which work with my hands and legs?” It doesn't matter which one. 

How do I… I turn to the society, I demand forces from it that will help me to turn to the Creator, so that I will truly need Him. My prayer will be a complete prayer, according to the desire for Him, the necessity, and also according to the confidence in Him. That's enough. All of the other specific things that altogether build this appeal, they become scrutinized only out of the intentions while we perform actions. We perform many actions. Usually, each and every one who is in the society performs a sufficient number of physical actions with his body towards the society. But the intention is lacking.

M. Laitman: (50:43) Yesterday, someone came to see me. He's my accountant. He's my student. I brought him in the recent years when Rabash was still with us. And just when he moved to Bnei Brak, Rabash passed away. Well, until I was able to drag him to Bnei Brak. Good guy. When I talked to him, I don't know, they have nothing like that now. They are now studying in some basement there in Sokolov Street. I don't know which street. Some small basement there. They gather and they study. They were thrown out from Ashlag. What am I trying to say? He's a good guy, pure, refined. He remained just as he was 12 years ago. He says, "Whatever is written in the book, we need to do precisely that." So I ask him, "But do you know what's written in the book? You are the one reading what is written in the book. It's through your vessels, through your mind, your awareness. Who is reading? Who is understanding? You. So, your mechanism is involved in it." "We need to do precisely what is written in the book." Like that. He doesn't read anything more deeply. And they study a lot. And intellectually they know things well. Just the materials in general, general knowledge. But there is no mutual work, no society, no sharing. They just come, study, and go away. And they don't advance just because of that. It's not that they don't have anyone to explain it to them. Even without that, if they would perform social actions, they would advance. They would get from above, in some form, guidance and advancement. And as it is, there is none. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:27) So, what is this action? 

M. Laitman: What Baal HaSulam writes, from three to five years, you begin to count on a person that begins to work with intention. Why is it that time stretches so much? It could be up to 20 years, because there is negligence in the exertion, in the quality of the exertion. The quality of the exertion is the intention. What do I demand from every breath in life, let alone from every action, let alone in the group, or in the study, or dissemination or in general? 

The action where you continue the work of the Kabbalists, the work of the Creator, the desire of Baal HaSulam. You can demand everything here, understand? Meaning, are you adding your heart to this, precisely by this action you wish for your heart to be corrected. If not, then you're doing it unconsciously. 

Unconsciously, means that you devote yourself to this action, you participate in it like inanimate, and certainly it helps and it sustains the person, keeps him in such a certain way. Something exists in him, a certain movement, but in such form, just like you are traveling unconsciously on a train or you are leading it yourself. These are different attainments, different feelings. The scrutiny is immediately a scrutiny. How do you go through disagreement, as he said here, a dispute? Like in the article, "Peace After a Dispute and before the dispute.” Do you go through the dispute clearly with a clear recognition that you're going to descend in it, and you're going to wage war? And they give you the ability now to take advantage of it, to clearly take all these evil forces seemingly to add them to holiness and through them to see the Creator—not to let go of Him, and ask of Him not to be under the rule of the dispute, to surrender to all these disturbances, pleasant or unpleasant. Pleasant is even worse, actually. If they are unpleasant, they hold you in place. But what about pleasant obstructions? That's a much greater problem. If there are blows, then they're not considered obstructions that much because the pain itself, the feeling works against the desire. But if the feeling is good, is pleasant, the desire is attracted to it, and it's really difficult for a person. And from this desire, he needs to overcome the feeling, and then to come to the dispute. Otherwise, he has no subject for the dispute. The subject for this dispute is only ideologically and not emotionally. And it's completely different compared to when troubles come. When troubles come, it's easy for me to hold on when I'm going through bad states, because I distanced myself from the Creator, or because He sent it to me so I will overcome the troubles on both sides. It doesn't matter consciously or unconsciously. Why did it come? Where did the trouble come? Then it's relatively easy to grab hold of the state. But if pleasure comes and all these forms that immediately make you surrender and lose your head or forget to come back from that, who's going to bring you back? Because the matter itself, the feeling cannot bring you back. It's not against nature. What will you do? Here, it's only the society, the books, only some alarm clock, something that can bring you back to the thought, what am I? This is far worse. A shell works through pleasures. Through suffering, it's not exactly a Klipa[shell]. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:24) This question of what am I doing it for, it's a more emotional question. I mean, what would awaken me? So every two minutes I will ask. Here, it's also clear. If you ask the friends here, it's clear what we're doing it for. 

M. Laitman: You say, ask anyone in our group why is he doing what he's doing. It's clear to him what he's doing. I don't think it's clear to anyone. You think it's clear. It's not clear, because that's precisely what we need to scrutinize. If we didn't need to scrutinize it, these confusions would not have come to us. The dispute wouldn't come. The dispute is in order to scrutinize, why am I doing what I'm doing, not more than that. 

The obstruction blurs out the Creator for me and His action as the Good Who Does Good it blurs out this good providence. So, I will scrutinize where am I? What exactly am I doing? What am I scrutinizing? What do I wish to be scrutinized? It's not clear. If you ask a person - go to a person, ask him any moment, it doesn't matter which moment, or each and every friend here in the group - you won't find anyone who will tell you that now he knows what state he's in, relative to the dispute, the Creator, what he's doing, and what is he here for. There's no such thing. Each one here, immediately, and in the heart. If he's in it, he's in the feeling that it's not clear to him. So the feeling has to be, that it's not clear, and he's constantly searching, chasing an answer. 

Except, only one who does not belong to these two points, Bina and Malchut, right? A heart, and the point of the heart, for him, it's all clear. If there's only a heart, he is certainly at the end of correction, and everything is clear. All the other states, the rest of the states, when he's in complete awareness of the state, nothing is clear, except in those extreme points. The top of the point, right? At the very peak of the sinusoid, and the great ascent, right? The top of the ascent, or the bottom of the descent? There, one of the points disappear, and then one of them is felt, but in the rest of the movement through the sinusoid, the ascent and descent, two points work together, one more, one less, and then they depict to us this picture of ascents and descents. One is pulling us down, one pulling us up, and across - the axis of time. How does the instrument work that paints this picture for us?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:00) It's not clear to me how can it be a state where it's like something new, something which is also the opposite of my nature, of the things I do each and every day. Let's say, I now go and study driving. There is a physical action that I do which motivates me to… I mean, until I study for a certain period of time, and it becomes routine, only then I have it. It's like the way I drive today on the road. I don't now think about how do I drive. I just shift gears, whatever. Thoughts, I just think things, I look at the road. How long does it take on this path? Also it would be clear to me that every day, for a very long period of time, I constantly do things which are not in my nature. I get up in these weird hours. I work with people externally, physically.

M. Laitman: What's the question Mr.? 

Student: How long does it take? How long does it take for one who studies Kabbalah that you can get into it until it becomes some sort of a routine, and the body gets used to it?

M. Laitman: There is no routine on our path. Routine can be only in the actions of the body, where it belongs to the inanimate degree. In all other things, we also use the word habit, but it's habit each time in a different degree, a different state. The habit is that I'm experienced enough to understand that these states, although they are great, nevertheless, there's a certain cyclical quality to them, and the repetition, certain signs, a recurrence. 

In the beginning, when a person is on the path, oh, what ascent, what descent? He doesn't know what is an ascent. That's a descent. He doesn't know that after, he can't see that after a good state, a bad state can come, and after a bad state, a very good state can come. He's either entirely in either black or entirely white, or entirely red or pink. Then he begins to acquire some experience, begins to have such vessels where no matter the ascents or descents, nevertheless, something remains from one to the other by which he can analyze and critically review the state. It's like Rabbi Shimon from the market. He knows he's now as Shimon from the market, but he knows this. That's why he understands it. From such a great descent, he will get the greatest ascent, meaning he went to the bottom of his degree. Nevertheless, he didn't lose his “I”. It's not like I'm giving you a game. I play it externally, it's not real for me. It's very real. But this is called the permanent state, let's say. 

You can imagine it like in the world of Atzilut. As we say, there's a permanent state, and there are ascents and descents. This you acquire later, slowly, even before the barrier. A person becomes more of the landlord over his own states. The master of his own states. Although these are very advanced states, really ahead of the crossing, but you are already controlling the state. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:48) Until we acquire this control, it's like how can we bring in this matter of intention? How is it possible not to draw my attention each and every day? All of these descents and ascents, all the things I do even externally, where is this space, this point where I can put my hand into it? 

M. Laitman: I don't understand. You're asking, where you can add the intention? 

Student: Obviously, I can bring an intuition to everything. But I simply notice that so long as I'm distracted, my view, my mind is distracted. Because I went through, I don't know, today I had a bad descent. I felt bad, or I felt very good - I'm constantly aware that I have no control over all of these things. To talk about it, I can see how in every state I'm being dragged. How did I do it before? I don't have this action, this habit yet.

M. Laitman: By making all these efforts to work in such a way that you constantly have a certain feeling of the Creator, such that you would want to forcefully come out of the double concealment to single concealment at the very least, right? With a single concealment, there are also states where you feel bad, and the Creator seemingly makes you feel bad, or then you feel good, and the Creator is the one who brings you this good, makes you feel good. And there, in the single concealment, you're trying to turn the evil into good and constantly be with the feeling of the Creator and a good feeling, because you wish to relate to Him in a good way. You already have an inclination towards it, right? Those are advanced stages, quite advanced, meaning these things come with time. You cannot arrange them, establish them forcefully right now. Only the accumulated efforts build it. I don't have anything else to say. If you look back, you'll see later that the actions are all directed and only in cause and consequence, when one degree builds the following degree. That's how you advance. At the times, you missed it, or you didn't miss it. This is already after the action. What is within the power of your hand to do, you should do.

 This speaks more about time, about hastening time, shortening it, and not about searching for certain actions. The actions is telling you whatever you can do, you should do. What you see before you, that's it, enough. Don't look for something more beneficial, wiser. Until you search for it, you'll get to a state where his wisdom is greater than his actions. So, leave it. Whatever you can do here, the thing that's closest to you, but do it. You understand? Don't be smart. Just do what comes to you.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:35) When does a person reach recognition of evil, and what is recognition of evil? 

M. Laitman: A person comes to recognition of evil after he feels bad. Let's say, you did something to me, or I feel bad. Later I understand, well first of all I understand that it's bad for me. Maybe I don't always understand, maybe these things are good. You gave me a piece of candy. I suck on it. I enjoy it so much, and I love you so much for giving it to me, and you're my friend. Later I find out that this piece of candy is a form of drug. Now I'm addicted to these drugs, and you pulled me away from the real life into a life of lies, into something that I cannot come out of. So, gradually I begin to recognize your beautiful gifts, that they are bad for me, how bad your intention was toward me. Or maybe you had a good intention, but you lied to me, you twisted me, you were dishonest. Or maybe you couldn't do it otherwise in order to give me pleasure. How can I tell? In short, all these scrutinies, if in the end I'm scrutinizing my state as truth or false compared to bitter and sweet, and true and false relative to the source from which I get bitter or sweet - all these scrutinies they bring me to the recognition of evil, that I determine precisely what is evil. That's it. 

Evil means to determine through true and false over the feeling of bitter and sweet. What of them is evil? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:43) We have an emotional scrutiny of bitter and sweet, and we have an intellectual scrutiny of truth and false. So, what does it mean, intellectual? 

M. Laitman: By the intellectual scrutiny, I need to monitor the emotional scrutiny, and then I determine if the scrutiny is correct. I determine what is evil. Why do I determine what is evil? I should determine what is good? No. I need to determine what's evil in order to refrain from it, to move away from it, to hate it. That's first, to basically restrict it, and then move away from evil and do good, then yearn to good. I can't, without pushing the evil away from myself, I can't yearn to good without that. So, this first action is called recognition of evil. That's what's important. The first relation to any state that I'm in.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:46) He's speaking about a person knowing it only when he starts the work, the work of bestowal. Then he starts recognizing it. So, what is that transition point? What is the right intention when a person starts… 

M. Laitman: The point from which I begin the recognition of evil is when I take my head, my inner force, and I can separate, if I can say that. Separate from the feeling itself, not be completely under it, and begin to inspect it, monitor it, with this truth and false. When does that happen? When I take the point in the heart, opposite the heart, and I begin to monitor the heart. 

Student: Are there true states that… 

M. Laitman: True states is what I examine from my understanding and attainment of what I have in spirituality. Whatever you have it doesn't matter. You don't demand a child to be able to do some smart things. He's doing something silly there, but it's already something new in his life. You know, we say, "Look, look how smart he is. He's smart." No, he's ignorant. But to his age, to what he's capable of, look what he did.

Student: And what's that evil that you feel inside the self-reception? 

M. Laitman: That evil is that you feel what prevents you from advancing towards truth. This is called evil. Meaning, the feeling, doesn't matter if it's good or bad, that prevents you from advancing to the truth is called evil.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:57) How do I define that demand, that I'm lacking something inside but I can't control it? I can say words but it's not really…

M. Laitman: Look, we're talking about psychology here. You're hearing what's happening here? It's psychology, it's not a spiritual matter, go to a psychologist, he'll explain to you the same thing I'm telling you now. Or you go to some educator, and he says, "Guys, we have to overcome our feelings, we have to take truth into our hands, where is our banner, let's go forward," right? So what does that… you know, overcoming, this is a concept that exists in this world as well, overcoming what? Overcoming the good feeling or the bad feeling, doesn't matter, but you go above the feelings with some ideal, with some direction that is what determines, not your beast determines, but what you have in your mind. That is called scrutiny, you do this in this world as well. You want to lie down, sleep and just feel good? Lay down and see how good you'll feel, then they come to you with blows and say, "Go work, go do, go study," so…

Student: But, how do I define the demand in my action and not just do something external, well not external, but that I really reach a deficiency? 

M. Laitman: Only by the society; only by the society. Trust me that you are the last one in this society. You are the last one in terms of attainment, and feeling, and ability, and everything, all the last one. You understand? You trust me? Start working from that point, don't blur it, I told you correctly. Don’t calm yourself down.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:24) What to do in society in order to amplify that feeling? 

M. Laitman: Write it down. Write down what you're going through. We'll read it afterwards. What were you saying? 

Student: You're saying that by society, I can increase my demands. What to do in society in order to focus it, to make it better in quality, this demand?

M. Laitman: Oh, there's many things you can do in society. First of all, what is said, envy, lust and honor. These are human forces within us, human forces. Meaning, it's not beastly, right, like food, sex and family, the rest, right? 

Rather, we're talking about human forces above the beast, which build the human out of me. That's called taking the human out of this world, out of this world into spirituality. If I use correctly these human qualities, right? So, I have to aim them towards society, envy, lust and honor, for spiritual progress. So, I am already taking these qualities for this purpose only, not for the external world. The external world, that's not important to me. I don't compete with them on in anything. I need to use the group here.

Student: Can we do actions to shorten the time? 

M. Laitman: It is written, all is clarified in thought. We have no scrutinies if not through thought. The external actions can only awaken you towards that. So, the more external actions are against the desire, the body doesn't rest with that, and if it asks, Why are you doing that? What are you doing with that? These actions will cause you to do scrutinize.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:58) So, actually what happens is that the will to receive draws us to other places except for this moment, for here and now. That if I do look at the here and now, so, it's clear that I'm the lowest and the worst. It comes naturally, this observation.

M. Laitman: It's unnatural. No one ever can truly, not encourage, admit to themselves that they are the least of everyone, and they have no point that makes them more. Nothing- no such thing. The will to receive doesn't allow us to do that, because by that it annuls itself. It's just incapable. Meaning the “I” has to somewhat exist, you know, what I have, the “I” in me, is that what is I is not you. I have some uniqueness that doesn't exist in you. It always remains. And so, to reach a state where the “I” is truly the least of everyone, that is the true horrible feeling that appears for a moment, and that's it. But without it, if you don't awaken it correctly, also purposely, otherwise you'll just go falling to despair. But if you don't awaken it, then you'll have no use of envy, or lust, or honor. After that, what will pain you is, why don't I have the Creator, things like that. Where is the honor of the Creator, the envy towards Him? Why am I not falling in love with Him? 

Student: So, the best way to run from this is by talking about love, the future, some other place. How do we look towards that point? 

M. Laitman: Search.  

Student: If there's a bad action, and I feel it, let's say, while I do it I feel it's bad, but I still do it.

M. Laitman: We have to bring a psychologist into here, what can I tell you?  

Student: It's written here that a person doesn't want to come to lust, coveting. That it's a sin, and the advice is to repent. So, what is repenting? 

M. Laitman: He says that when some pleasure comes to a person, that pleasure comes in two stages. 

First stage, a person is approaching the pleasure, still not putting it inside. He has a state where he can decide does he unite with that pleasure or not. 

Second stage, when the pleasure is already in him, and rules the person, and there's no more anything to do. So, that space between the recognition that this is a pleasure before me, and already entering that pleasure—that space is a place of repentance, and here, a person should build himself. 

There's a method that builds the person here by telling him, "No, no, no, you're going to fail, you're going to have pleasure, and you're gonna commit transgressions in that, and oh boy, in this world, then in the next world, and so on." This is the method of ethics. Completely totally not good for us, because there's no coercion in spirituality, and we don't need to be afraid of anything.

This is how you build the masses to be afraid. They exist by fear. We need another force, a different force to cope with and not enter the pleasure, and that is the greatness of the Creator. So each time, you're going to need the Creator to be greater in your eyes, to not fail, and advance onwards. And they don't need it. They just need to be more and more afraid. 

This is essentially both the problem and the solution. Today, this is really psychology. I'm not a psychologist. I also don't know how they explain these things. I'm not sensitive to psychology also.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:34) In spirituality, surrendering or request isn't from losing a battle, it's not from weakness. What's a request that comes from strength? Why should I even ask if I'm strong? 

M. Laitman: How is it that in spirituality, we come to a request? This is called a broken heart. And a request means I beg, I make a plea, I cry. How could it be that this thing happens with heroism? The heroism needs to be in holding myself and turning to the Creator. 

The overcoming is that I, this Kli, nevertheless turns to the Creator. This is called overcoming. I can't turn to the Creator and cry to Him and say, "Have mercy on me." That's not our plea. Our plea is towards correction. So, I have to hold, like in my fist, all that I have, and I turn not from the emotion, essentially, I need to turn from my intellectual scrutiny, if we can call it intellectual. 

Student: He broke me. 

M. Laitman: Or He broke me so that I understand all the circumstances, all the pieces, the ingredients of the scrutiny here. The breaking is just in order to see more depth what I'm built from. 

Student: Maybe he had to.  

M. Laitman: He doesn't submit me. He submits my will to receive. “Me” isn't my will to receive. When I turn upwards, I identify with Him. So, what does it mean, turn upwards? It's not up and down, like I can go up if I don't have this point that's up. I have that point from Him, and I want to cling to that point. That's it.

Student: But you don't work emotionally. 

M. Laitman: It's emotion, and mind, and force together. 

Student: But, He broke them. I can understand it in my mind. Because of the greatness of the goal, He exerted or something. It's not emotion that can grasp it.

M. Laitman: Bina is called the upper Gevura, and Malchut is called lower Gevura, and Hochma and Zeir Anpin are the mechanism that provides force. I don't know how to say it for you. MAN is a very, very difficult thing. It isn't some kind of Hasidism, you know, like people think about it in this world. What's Hasidism that they don't understand? In its foundation, Hasidism is Kabbalah. Who knows that today? But it isn't crying. It is certainly—I don't know how to put it.

It's very difficult work. It's a lot of nerves, and stress, and force, intellectual force, and force that is above the emotion. Everything is above the emotion. 

Student: But the plea comes from the emotion.

M. Laitman: If your emotion is not sorted, organized, and bounded, depicted within a force, you know, it's like you think of a sculpture that is held by its border, contour, that gives its shape. If your emotion is not held in this way, with all its details, by the mind, by the scrutiny, meaning by the truth, then it will have no shape. It's simply, it's something you can't work with in spirituality. You can't raise that. Raising MAN, what does it mean raising? That you adhere to the upper one with a deficiency of the lower one. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:30:58) It has to be in the emotion and not in the intellect; otherwise, it's taken away from me.

M. Laitman: Well, why should we philosophize? Don't worry, a person will discern that. A person will discern that. I was weaker than you, and it's not that bad. You too have hope. Not big, but you have. Guys, we're not studying. Okay, four minutes. 

Student: You said a few times today that actions should bring scrutiny. So, how can it be that, according to what you said, that we're working in intention? How could there be an intention if the deeds are what determine the quality of the intention? Maybe we didn't fulfill our cup yet.

M. Laitman: Baal HaSulam says that the problem is, especially in labor, in the quality of labor, not the quantity. What is the quality of labor? That they were negligent during the study with this main part of bringing faith into man's heart. What is faith in man's heart? 

Faith is a force to hold myself above the will to receive. That this force comes through revelation of the Creator to the created being, meaning to search for the Creator, to search for the force that will help me get closer to Him, resemble Him in order to bestow. Call it however you want. Just take it from Introduction to TES, item 17 and 18.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:33:09) Why are we lacking the intention? 

M. Laitman: Why we lack the intention? Because a person doesn't want to be inside the intention, because it is a difficult thing. He's willing to sit down and cry. But to stand against the feeling, inspect it with the mind, and overcome it with the mind, he can't do that. He can't. He doesn't want to. Rejects it.

Student: What gives the forces to ever be able to do it? 

M. Laitman: Force can be received from the society. Especially the society. Scrutiny is from the society. There is nothing else. 

Student: Not from actions? 

M. Laitman: We have many, many states where we see how much a person is incapable of going above them with the intention. You have 15 people who say, who aren't working, and they know they need to work, so you know, they don't talk about the paycheck. They just need to be organized in their work. What do they do? They go, follow their emotion, well, why do I need this? I can just kind of somehow make ends meet, something like that, you know? And you're saying above the feelings, well, okay, where are we?

Reader: Let's share impressions from the lesson. What from it are we taking to implement in the Ten?

Reader: We'll move to the next part of the lesson, and before that we'll sing a song.

Song: (01:45:04)