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

Daily Lesson (Morning), August 18, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Letter 56

Reader: Hello, we are reading from The Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 56. You can find the study material in the Arvut system, in the study materials tab. You can also send questions live. Anyone who asks a question in the study hall, make sure you have a microphone and stand up and ask loudly and clearly. Letter 56 from Baal HaSulam. 

Reading: (00:39) Letter 56 23 Kislev, Tav-Reish-Tzadi-Bet, December 3, 1931

To ... may his candle burn:

I received your letter today and I understood it. And yet, I believe that you should also know my view regarding your words, although in my estimate, you still do not perceive them. For this reason, the words will not delight you, nor will they be pleasant in your eyes, and for that, the truth will show its way.

Many say, “Who will show me good?” And yet, very few find it. We should therefore understand where is that great and relentless obstacle that mercilessly fails so many.

I have already pointed out to you several times the famous law in the holy books, that nothing is given unless by merit, meaning through labor, which everyone calls “awakening from below.” Without it, no bestowal from above, called “awakening from above,” will ever happen.

These words and laws are known to all, but their extent is not known, or they do not want to know it. For this reason, there is a big edifice of the Sitra Achra [other side], which stands and makes allowances in the matter—that it is not necessary to exert beyond human capability. In dire times, one has an entire lore from authors and books showing the kindness and mercy of His guidance with a person who is not so meticulous. He has a thousand pre-prepared proofs for it, instantaneously, as it is written, “The Creator does not criticize His creations.”

Our sages said about the such, that the Torah is called SAM, for if he is not rewarded, the Torah itself becomes to him a potion [SAM] of death, for they are learning Torah from wicked SAM, and from him they understand. His words of Torah are immediately accepted by the heart, and are always kept in the memory, for they contemplated them day and night, God save us from him and from his followers.

What shall we do for those, and how can we reach out to them, or slightly move them from their places when they are not at all ready for an awakening from below? I wish to say that even if we succeed, with the Creator’s help, to draw upon them the greatest awakening of the body, to crave and covet Him, they will still not want, or will not be able to—with that power of theirs—to give the measure of awakening from below that is needed for an awakening from above. This is something about which the Creator has never made allowances, since days of old until this day and always, for “He has given an unbreakable law.”

It is said about it, “In full measure, when You send her away, You contend with her.” The Creator measures a person one portion at a time. It is also written, “For the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full,” referring also to our topic. The iniquity of the Amorite is the Klipa [shell/peel] that keeps and surrounds the fruit, called “awakening from above,” or “the land of Israel.” That Klipa will not move from its place even as a hairsbreadth before Israel complement entirely the necessary measure of awakening from below, called “merit,” meaning the labor and exertion beyond human capability.

Anything that one can do is merely called “work”; it is still not considered “labor.” When Israel reach that point, they complement their amount, and then it is called “The iniquity of the Amorite is full.” In other words, it is evident that the land of Israel and the glory of the Creator, being the Shechina [Divinity], do not belong to them.

Then they break that Klipa called “Amorite,” and raise the Shechina from the dust, and not a moment sooner, as in the verse. This is the meaning of the explicit number, four hundred years, which shows the great precision in that matter, that there are no concessions here at all. As our sages said, the matter of skipping over the end, which was mandatory and obligatory for Israel, that skipping caused all the exiles to this day.

It is also known that the general and particular are equal. That is, in each one from Israel, concerning his soul, there is the matter of coming to the land, and all that is said concerning the whole of Israel, and that in his awakening from below there is that same number, 400 years, which is 400 of death, and 400 of life. Our sages said that the meaning of 400 years of enslavement refers to the place in which he is permitted to pay back the measure of his labor precisely, for in that there are no concessions even as a hairsbreadth.

This is why our sages said, “I did not labor and found, do not believe,” and also, “The Torah exists only in one who puts himself to death over it,” as well as “He who wishes to live shall put himself to death,” and many others likewise.

In contrast, they said, “I labored and did not find? Do not believe,” for they knew that that wicked SAM, whose lore is in his hand to show that it is possible to find the Creator’s salvation without labor beyond human capability, by which one is made to release one’s grip on the awakening from below and is repelled each day into a great abyss.

Afterward, when he returns and recognizes his falsehood and finds his faith in the words of our sages—that the lack of labor and awakening from below had lowered him to the netherworld, he therefore wishes to strengthen himself and dedicate himself to serving the Creator—he promptly returns to him with new heresy, that labor, too, does not help at all because He, God forbid, does not hear the prayer of every mouth. That is, he has pre-prepared proofs to show that there are those who exert but do not find at all. This is why they warned, “I labored and did not find, do not believe.”

Thus, I have shown you the web in which the robbed souls that have no comfort are judged, meaning that mistake in interpreting the word, “labor.” However, truthful is the verse, “They who seek Me shall find Me.”

I still see much evil in the world, where those caught in the web of the Sitra Achra labor needlessly, which is only a depiction of punishment. That is, it does not join the count of 400 years whatsoever, and for this my heart aches more than anything.

About the such, a person should brace himself with prayer, “May He grant, etc., that we will not labor in vain,” for it requires great success in that matter.

You should also know that the labor and exertion that appear in one’s heart during the prayer is the most reliable and most guaranteed to reach its goal than any other matter in reality.

Yehuda Leib

M. Laitman: Well, who wants to ask? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:05) Many questions arise about labor, to not labor in vain, like he writes, so what's the place of labor and, also, this matter of above human capability. Then until you reach that point, it's not really counted.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, these two things are not so clear.

M. Laitman: Exertion, we must exert, regardless of what state a person is in, regardless, he has to exert. So as to rise above his inclinations, his qualities, characteristics and to better connect with others, and to see that he's advancing towards the Creator.

Student: How do I know I'm not laboring in vain, like he writes? 

M. Laitman: According to the extent of your closeness to the Creator through the group. Essentially, those are the signs. 

Student: And what is above human capability?

M. Laitman: Above human capability, it's not the way a person, customarily, calculates I did enough, I can rest a little bit, I can take a break. Rather, the calculation is always above these disruptions.

Student: In the words, those who seek Me shall find Me, what does that mean?

M. Laitman: One who runs after the Creator, to catch up with Him, attain Him. Join with Him in many different situations, he finds Him.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:44) He writes about the privilege that, I mentioned to you many times about the Law and the Holy Books, that nothing is given without merit, meaning by labor. I'll start with a simple question, what is this merit? 

M. Laitman: Merit, from the word, purification, Z'chut in Hebrew, from the word Zikuch, refinement. 

Student: What I heard or feel is that things start from the Creator, not from your labor, He awakens. He shows you something else even if He gives it, afterwards, like say, a person who has a hard time coming to a lesson. And he comes, for some reason he receives more than a person who just comes, his effort opens up some channel. So, between the merit and the labor, we don't always know what is the right labor. Maybe the right labor is the desire to adhere to the friends and the Creator?

M. Laitman: That's clear, so.

Student: So, aim there.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: It's really the matter we hear many times, that you could be 15 or 20 years on the path but who counts that time, something else is being counted. But here, Baal HaSulam signs off the article, the letter, in a very special way. He says that the labor that appears in man's prayer, during his prayer, this is the more loyal, and successful and most guaranteed. Can you explain that, what is the labor during the prayer, which is the indication that we're on the path, basically? 

M. Laitman: You, through your exertion, want to achieve contact with the Creator. To pour out to Him all the words, all the matters that you wish to sort out with Him, that's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:12) How do we, when we every day try to do this prayer anew. To pray, to turn to the Creator together in the Ten to nullify and rise together? How do we check ourselves that we really advanced even by a millimeter? 

M. Laitman: Discuss it amongst yourselves and find; the question is proper, it should always be in front of us. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:55) We see that even the labor, itself, needs to be above reason, it's always above reason. So, what I want to ask is, he talks about a certain time here, 400 years, which is a very certain time in a person's journey that the Creator allows him to redeem all of his labor. What is that period he's talking about, also, he says afterwards that it's about one who wants to put himself to death over the Torah. What is that?

M. Laitman: It's a kind of sign, it's not the matter of the 400 years. It's a sign.

Student: So, what is this 400 years, what is that certain state he talks about? That it doesn't matter what state you're in, you feel like you're in the bottom and you only want to ask the Creator to be close to you in every state, what is that state? 

M. Laitman: 400 years is the degree to which a person comes in a state where he has given everything. 

Student: So maybe, if I can describe it: It's like when you feel you have no strength anymore, nothing, and you just feel like zero. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, what is special here about how the Creator, why does He even let you reach such a state where you feel like zero? 

M. Laitman: Because without such a state, you can never begin your ascent. 

Student: You know, many times, I think it's not just me but I had many times a situation of being in the table, on your own, until the friends come. And in those moments, you feel how much you're really worthless, how much without the friends. So, these points the Creator brings us where He lets us see that our force is really the common force and alone you can't do anything. Is that the point where you need to really understand and feel that the force of the group you're in is really the Creator's force?

M. Laitman:  Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:53) What exactly is the labor that one should give?

M. Laitman: One should check what it is that he wants, what it is that he needs to attain so as to be the way the Creator wants him to be. 

Student: I notice more and more that that's how I hear you, that the main labor needs to be towards my friends in the Ten.

M. Laitman: Correct but the goal, you asked is about.

Student: Yes, now the focus of the labor needs to be towards my friends in my Ten, yes? 

M. Laitman: Through my Ten.

Student: Through my Ten, okay. To better understand the system: When did it happen that all of the work is only through my Ten? When did the laws become so strict that it's not just through a group or any friend with a point in the heart that comes. But only specifically through my Ten? 

M. Laitman: I think that it's clear, it's evident from what he writes, Baal HaSulam and Rabash. That we have to think that our work is, entirely, within the Ten. 

Student: Okay, but still, this idea of a group as if dissolved, disappeared, the focus is the Ten. Beyond that, I'm scattering my efforts?

M. Laitman: No, the group is a kind of field around the Ten. 

Student: What is my work with that field? 

M. Laitman: Your work in the field, in essence, is to show them how we should all be organized. 

Student: And my concern and attention is towards the friends in the Ten. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: If I have concern and attention to other friends in the field? 

M. Laitman: You should have that, as well, but not to the same extent. 

Student: Okay.

M. Laitman: The person is limited, 

Student: Meaning I can't put my focus in various places, that's dispersion.

M. Laitman: Yes.

M. Laitman: Okay, now another thing, there were times in our development in the group where we had stages of random Tens. Meaning, there was no problem to sit with other friends and incorporate with them. Now, I see gradually that the laws became stricter or we grew to something clearer to us that only the regular Ten is my, that's my core. So random Ten is what, it's a fiction, there's no such thing?

M. Laitman: We can always set up a random Ten for whatever purpose but, it is truly random. It's not your permanent place.

Student: Different question about the text: What is this sin of the Amorite that he writes about, the iniquity of the Amorite. 

M. Laitman: I don't know. I heard about it once but I cannot recall. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:00) He writes here that there's no concession on the labor even as a hair's breadth. What is considered labor in everything a person does? What is considered that labor that is counted?

M. Laitman: Efforts against the will to receive and efforts to reach the will to bestow, well, around that.

Student: Now, this effort, does it change where a person is doing it or the emphasis is that it's against the will to receive? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: For example, it needs to be labor that I do in my Ten or any kind of labor that is against the will to receive. Will that be counted as well? 

M. Laitman: Also, that, yes, also your exertion without the Ten. 

Student: So, that, too, is counted. 

M. Laitman: Correct.

Student: Why is there no concession on labor, why is there such a strictness?

M. Laitman: Because you must reach a state where all the will to receive which exists in the root of your soul, you invert into in order to bestow.

Student: And it only passes through exertion?

M. Laitman: It passes only through exertion, where you face the entire world and gradually you become willing to invest all of your energy in moving the world to the side of bestowal. 

Student: Clear, so how does it really manifest that you shift the world to a line of bestowal? 

M. Laitman: You pray, you facilitate the organization into Tens for the whole of humanity if possible. And through studying Torah and everything that you do in the group. 

Student: Understood, so, what a person receives, is it after he completed the labor, the quota of labor? Or he's given even before that because, like he says, there's no concession on even a hair's breadth. So, is there a certain amount of labor that you have to make to be allowed into bestowal? Or it's given to you in slices, in portions, bit by bit?

M. Laitman: I think that it's constant. Always from above, you're receiving an opportunity to exert through slices, from the easy to the hard. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:29) An athlete who wants to advance knows that, say yesterday I did 20 push-ups, now I do 21. Yesterday, I ran a distance in three minutes, today I want to do it in less. So, he has a very clear measurement, what is our measurement that we're truly putting in the labor and not just another day went by?

M. Laitman: We cannot do that because we do not know our will to receive ahead of time; it grows from time to time, from degree to degree. And we don't know what it is that the Creator can prepare for us and assist us with. So, we're always in search for closeness and the exertion that we need to perform this advancement.

Student: How can a person know if he's putting in the labor or not?

M. Laitman: How can a person know? It's according to what he aims to attain.

Student: That's in general but, specifically, how can you understand that you didn't cut yourself some slack or did things in the right place?

M. Laitman: He cannot see that. You want him to see the entirety of creation and see what he does there and then in what he did? What percentage of that is for the benefit of the goal, to attain the goal and whatnot and so on?

Student: Not that way, he says there's this clip of the Amorite that tells him, come down, it brings him all the excuses why he can let go. You know, there's all kinds of explanations, the quotes that say in favor, it's not too bad, do it later. How do you not fall into that? 

M. Laitman: I think that a person who is studying as you do, here, and in our whole world Kli, that person is in the correct process. We try to follow the way of Rabash and that's how we advance.

Student: I'll give an example: I see here also among the friends there is, let's say, an event, something that needs to be done for dissemination. But there's a Ten meeting and people are debating, do I go to the Ten or dissemination? Now, logic says you have to do dissemination, no one else will do it for you. Meaning if you don't come to the Ten, someone else will come and so on. But we know that the labor needs to happen in the Ten, specifically, there. So, there are many times where we see these people debating, clearly. How do we know the labor is in the right place?

M. Laitman: I cannot tell you, I cannot tell you at all, we aim towards doing something and for that thing to always be the best, the grandest that we can do. Try to reach the highest peak possible, that's all. 

Student: So, the labor is something that a person needs to make the calculation every time anew, there's no guideline for that?

M. Laitman: Right, that's it, right?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:09) About labor, we heard that labor goes against man's will to receive. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But we, to have fuel, we always make the importance and greatness of the goal higher to the point that sometimes it becomes part of man's will to receive; the importance and greatness of the goal. So, a person labors for something that's important to him. Not always there's this direct resistance. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So then, where is the labor in that place? 

M. Laitman: The labor here is concealed because it's not working, exactly, opposite the will to receive. To that extent, seemingly, he's working with the will to bestow.

Student: Meaning that the work of raising the greatness of the goal. That’s the delta that goes ahead of the person in some way?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Now, we heard that there's like some amount of a will to receive that one has to take and, as if, pass it through some machine called labor,

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And he doesn't have to succeed?

M. Laitman: Well, to the best of his ability.

Student: Because there's always questions about how to measure and so forth. A person doesn't know if he succeeded or not but the effort itself is already going through the machine?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And it changes qualitatively and quantitatively?

M. Laitman: The Creator counts the efforts. 

Student: Quantity of efforts? 

M. Laitman: Quantitative and qualitative.

Student: How do you transform quantity to quality?

M. Laitman: I don't know, these calculations take place within the soul. 

Student: Does it even matter?

M. Laitman: A person should calculate, see what's in front of him, and do as much work as he can.

Student: A person has some total of the will to receive that he has to put through this machine called labor. It doesn't matter whether it's quantity or quality? 

M. Laitman: No, no, this is awakened within him.

Student: And also, the calculations of the person where he thinks this is quality, this is quantity, it's not necessarily the case, yes? It's his calculations.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:12) Is the path of Rabash less strict than that of Baal HaSulam? Baal HaSulam writes, the labor above human capability. And here we see that, nevertheless, there is what's called, penny joins another penny until there is a great sum total. 

M. Laitman: So, what is the question? 

Student: The question is whether, well the impression is that Baal HaSulam in this letter is very strict. And the only one who has the ability to labor above human capability, he’s doing the work and otherwise it's nothing. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And the question is whether the Rabash is less strict than Baal HaSulam?

M. Laitman: No, no, of course not.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:44) I understood there's no way to measure our labor and if we did it in the right place, yes?

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So, what does it mean, I labored and I found, what is I labored and I found?

M. Laitman: You labored and you gave a certain measure of labor and quality of labor which maybe appears to you as sufficient for attaining the goal you set for yourself and you didn't actually achieve it. Or maybe you did achieve it, so that's why they say that. If you offer the correct exertion in the right place and with the right quantity then you reach the goal.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:54) I hope I'm asking correctly, I had a friend who was very wise and exerted greatly but he decided he's quitting, why, just because, that's it. So, I told him, no, this is the time you need to exert beyond human capability. He says, I can't, the Creator doesn't want me, I can't pray. And to this day, he's waiting.

M. Laitman: He could still be waiting for a few thousand years.

Student: I thought about it more than once and I was trying to figure out how to pray for him. He wasn't capable of praying, seemingly. And he says here that exertion is in prayer. 

M. Laitman: That's true, in asking, yes.

Student: Right, so what does it mean, above human capability, the desire is true? 

M. Laitman: That a person asks for something that he himself cannot do. 

Student: And if he can't ask, he says, I can't, the Creator doesn't want me.

M. Laitman: No, there's no such thing. 

Student: Can we help one another with this?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: If friends have a true prayer in their hearts for that friend then he will have the power. Will the Creator give it to him?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:46) The paragraph before last, he sees those who are caught in the web of the Sitra Achra labor needlessly as it is only a depiction of punishment meaning that he does not join the count of 400 years. Now, we said that exertion means to go against the will to receive. What does it mean to exert needlessly?

M. Laitman: That he does some things, some actions that don't contribute to him or to the public or to the Ten. Just, you know, as if he did a lot of work but there's no benefit out of it.

Student: What indicator do we have so as to know if we're laboring needlessly? Maybe the Ten is the indicator? 

M. Laitman: The Ten is not an indicator, however, you can measure by the Ten to what extent your direction is correct.

Student: There is a way to identify through the work in the Ten if a person is exerting in the right direction, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How exactly?

M. Laitman: If he already has that question, then he has to make all kinds of actions to scrutinize these questions, and bring them to a state of scrutiny. 

Student: If possible, same context, here, there's a different paragraph also where it says: The Torah can be the elixir of life or elixir of death. He says that they can feel if they study Torah from the evil SAM, they understand it, if the Torah is accepted on the heart, the heart immediately, and also they toil in it day and night. Meaning, a person can feel good working in the Torah, which is actually an elixir of death. So, I can feel great working with the Ten, thinking I'm exerting and working in the right direction. But it's all going elsewhere, right? 

M. Laitman: Right. 

Student: So, I don't understand, what could indicate to me in my effort with the friends if I'm going in the wrong direction?

M. Laitman: If you are together with your search, you're in adhesion with your Ten, then you won't go wrong. If you take the desires of the friends and you're working with them to advance towards the goal. 

Student: If I try to, I'm trying to understand what you're saying: If I'm working with my own personal will to receive or if I'm working with the desire of the Ten, that's what I want to do?

M. Laitman: Let's say so. 

Question (Darom 1): (47:37) Can we say that the work of justifying the Creator is the exertion?

M. Laitman: Work of what? 

Student: Work in justifying the Creator in every situation. 

M. Laitman: To work on justifying the Creator? Of course, it's a very important work but it is still, it isn't everything. Beyond that, there are other actions that need to be done.

Student: These other actions that we need to take and what can help me with those actions is the accompaniment of the Ten, the connection in the Ten, right? Because when I exert in a certain situation to justify the Creator, then I can make a connection in the Ten, and receive these powers, right? So, there's a combination of things, if I understand correctly. 

M. Laitman: Yes, keep going.

Student: Justifying the Creator, we do that not only in the Ten but really in every situation throughout the day, even in our personal issues and situations. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, from here it follows that most of the work is done throughout the day when I'm less with the Ten.

M. Laitman: Correct?

Student: So, the exertion is concentrated actually throughout the day as I justify the Creator. So, there is an indication to show me and that's if I manage to justify the Creator? And it can if in a state where I was supposed to feel bad, I justify the Creator, it's an indicator, right? 

M. Laitman: Possibly.

Question (Women Unity): (50:22) In what way do we check the direction of our efforts, our exertion? 

M. Laitman: The direction of our efforts; to the extent that my direction enters the connection with the group. 

Student: Can we examine our intentions the same way?

M. Laitman: Yes, you can try but don't believe in that. You still have to see what needs to be the right response. 

Question (Belarus): (51:23) Yesterday, in the workshop we talked about how if we exert ourselves praying for the health of our friends, sometimes the opposite happens. The friend is afraid of us starting to pray for him, ask for him. There are all sorts of opposite examples, how to work with that correctly?

M. Laitman: Well, in principle, it happens in such a way that the friend doesn't know about it. We gather and ask, or not even gather but everyone does it from his own spot.

Student: I also wanted to share that our group exerted greatly: The Moscow group prepared the ARAVA Congress prior to the actual Congress, and in that Gruzia, and Baltia, and Siberia, we all joined together! It’s been a while, it was difficult for us to get together but we made great efforts. So, some of the Tens were here, some virtual but, nevertheless, we felt this closeness, we felt this connection. So, we have great gratitude to the Rav, to the friends for this gift we received!

M. Laitman: I’m happy.

Question (Hadera 1): (53:05) The work in exertion, is that when you work coerced, coerced to work? 

M. Laitman: Probably, I don't know. When we work, what?

Student: Under coercion, where a person coerces himself to work.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Then he works coercively and he gets the power to break through the shell of the Amorite?

M. Laitman: Say it again? 

Student: When a person works under coercion, he doesn't have the power to do it but he wants the power to advance, nevertheless. Then he gets the power to break through the shell of the Amorite?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:21) There were long periods on the path when I would go to sleep exhausted, tired, spiritually and corporeally. Now, everything is better, easier. Then I used to feel the exertion, now I feel it less.

M. Laitman: Why? Because you're not as stressed. 

Student: Yes, less burden. 

M. Laitman: That prevents you from feeling the labor.

Student: Back then I was certain I'm laboring, I'm not sure what the result was but I felt the effort.

M. Laitman: Yes. So, according to your efforts, you measure your labor. So, as if without efforts, there's no labor. 

Student: The effort is more convenient, even though most of it is internal and I can feel the work of connection and I need to pass some hurdles, in that respect.

M. Laitman: Yes, because this is what's right in front of you and you need to jump above that. And then it's clear to you where you were, where you will be, and what's the effort you need to make, and what's the result. I understand you. 

Student: I'll take that in the direction of physical actions, I think. Because the work has become more internal. How to relate to that, maybe I should perform more physical acts.

M. Laitman: Why?

Student: I don't know, I'm afraid that maybe I strayed from the path. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, how to check? 

M. Laitman: Most of our work is internal, inside our senses, our qualities. It's what a person feels and not what he does with his hands and legs. 

Student: So, what's the advice, how to check every once in a while that I'm working correctly? 

M. Laitman: The most correct thing is how close you get to the friends. How much you together are caring for one great vessel.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:23) Following up on the friends question: The last paragraph, it was already asked about today, but it says, you should also know that the labor and exertion that appear in one's heart during the prayer is the most reliable and most guaranteed to reach its goal than any other matter in reality. What is that exertion and labor in the heart of a person throughout the prayer? 

M. Laitman: He wants that what he now utters out of his mouth will happen in practice in the connection between him and the friends.

Student: Prayer is with the mouth or prayer is him wanting something for the Ten? 

M. Laitman: The labor and effort that appears in man's heart during his prayer, yes? So, during his prayer, when he discovers that when he labors and scrutinizes, and reaches the work, the effort. Meaning to move towards the desired state, he is more secure and guaranteed to reach the goal, yes.

Student: He says that exertion is an effort which is beyond human capability?

M. Laitman: Yes? 

Student: What is that thing which is above human capability which appears in a man's heart during the prayer?

M. Laitman: What a person prays for, if he prays correctly, then that's always above his reason. And therefore, all of the labor is above.

Student: He's really directing us telling us this is the best exertion, the most correct?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What about it makes it the best? That it's always above reason? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:02) When a person starts searching within himself to see if he's exerting himself correctly. Is that the state where he begins to scrutinize the true point of it, to see if he's exerting correctly? Because if the question exists in a person, then it's a good state, he's asking who he's working for. So, is it true that this constantly grows, this question in one's heart as he advances? Another question I had regarding the obstacle Baal HaSulam mentions: He says that there's an obstacle where people can make efforts but many fail. It's not clear what's the use of such an obstacle, we know that everything has a good reason for it. What is the use of having such obstacles? 

M. Laitman: There's not one but several kinds of obstacles and we, at least in some of them, each and every one of us, we leave a lot of strength, there.

Student: What can bring a person out from that obstacle?

M. Laitman: The upper force.

Student: It seems that only one who reaches a state where he's not at that obstacle that person can offer gratitude for not being there. Otherwise, it's not clear what the obstacle is for. It doesn't seem to be in man's power. 

M. Laitman: No, it’s above human capability; he can also do clear actions, clear tasks.

Student: He writes here, in a way where it's not certain that I understand why Baal HaSulam writes it in this way. He says that the Creator does not give up on that exertion. But we know that there was a decision not to receive in the first restriction and the person has to exert because he wants to achieve equivalence of form. So, I think that this should have been attributed to the created being, and not that the Creator is not willing to pass up on that exertion. Because the Creator wasn't important for him to begin with, so why does Baal HaSulam relate it to the Creator, not to something else?

M. Laitman: Because only He's doing that, all the actions are done by the Creator. At least, as long as we have the system of Adam HaRishon.

Student: A person cannot ascribe the first restriction to himself in his work. To say, I chose this because this is in my benefit, and now I need to work to succeed. You can't say that, right? So, what would happen if we received our reward, our better form?

M. Laitman: We wouldn't reach the quota.

Student: hat would have happened if we received it before that? We feel shame, and so on.

M. Laitman: Of course, because it's without the labor that belongs to the same goal.

Student: I'm asking because it seems over time that the reward in the work doesn't match the exertion at all. A person exerts in such ways that when he receives the reward, it's never something that he could have made himself, built.

M. Laitman: Correct. 

Student: So, what does a person really attain through his exertion that he could not have been given before?

M. Laitman: He attains that he is going to complete his labor, and so does everyone. This is the main thing, that there won't be any bread of shame.

Student: Yes, but when he gets the result, the outcome, it doesn't match his work, the payment isn't even similar. So, he should feel the bread of shame even afterwards, right? Because the reward he receives is something he could never really receive through his exertion. 

M. Laitman: But he worked in the system the Creator created and he didn't break the laws.

Student: What do you mean that he doesn't break the laws, the rules?

M. Laitman: He didn't go against the law that everything is achieved through labor.

Student: It seems that there is a kind of contract where if you make enough effort in a certain place, I'll give you something. But there doesn't seem to be a connection between the effort that a person makes and what he actually ends up receiving?

M. Laitman: For example? 

Student: We make an effort in the vessels of reception and we receive vessels of bestowal. We don't have them, we try to do something from within the will to receive, and then we get something completely different. We've never even performed such an action, all the efforts we made were never efforts in the vessels that we're going to then receive. It's an effort that takes place in a different place, so, how does that effort give a person the right to receive those vessels so as not to feel the bread of shame and so on? What is the connection between these two things?

M. Laitman: Because you separate from your will to receive and then you become worthy of using the will to bestow. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:15) He says in the article that the exertion is quantitative. And Baal HaSulam warns many times that quality exertion is more important, so how to settle these two things? 

M. Laitman: We always have the ability to shift what we talk about from quantity to quality, and vice versa. I don't know how to explain this but, in spirituality it's not the main thing. The connection between quality. We'll discuss that later on.

Question (Turkiye 2): (01:08:36) How can one come to the awareness of whether the effort is sufficient or insufficient, how can he tell?

M. Laitman: Good question, in truth, now we don't yet have the vessels to measure the consciousness. I can measure the labor and that’s essentially the question. So, I can measure the labor but the awareness, that's not within our reach, I can't attain that.

Question (Haifa 1): (01:09:44) What does it mean, those who seek Me shall find Me? 

M. Laitman: You don't know Hebrew?

Student: I know, I'm asking, as we say, I awaken the dawn and the dawn does not awaken me. Is that the direction? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Latin 26): (01:10:26) How to work correctly when less than half of the members of my Ten are connected to the lesson?

M. Laitman: Yes? 

Student: How to connect properly together if less than half of the Ten are in the lesson, in the live lesson.

M. Laitman:  Try, try to bring everyone, this is an important work. I don't have an advice, I don't. 

Question (Kyiv 1): (01:11:29) Baal HaSulam writes the salvation from the Creator comes only through efforts which are above human capabilities. We, constantly, make efforts in the Ten talking, Zoom meetings and so on. What is exertion above human power?

M. Laitman: It's such efforts that one cannot do, yet, he invests all of this effort so that the Creator will add to his labor what is needed. As it says, the Creator shall finish the work for me. 

Student: What are these exertions that I cannot make in the Ten? What, is it another meeting, another prayer that we should hold, what exactly should we do?

M. Laitman: It's mostly prayer because basically, physically, we're doing everything but the result doesn't come. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:51) Corporeal exertion usually tires a person out. In spiritual exertion, does a person feel that he's getting tired from that or does he receive even more energy from that exertion?

M. Laitman: No, both spiritual and corporeal labor is labor, it's labor but the question is the quality. What do you wish to attain, to achieve? That determines whether it's spiritual or corporeal. 

Student: Alright, and proper spiritual exertion, does it tire a person out, exhaust him, squeeze out all his energy? Or perhaps to the contrary, giving him more energy? 

M. Laitman: It doesn't squeeze the strength out of him, no, no.

Student: But I can't tell if I'm exerting correctly or incorrectly according to how much energy I have afterwards. Or rather, can I?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And if I feel all exhausted, then it means I haven't exerted in the right place? 

M. Laitman: Yes, that's what he tells you: “You haven't called upon me, Jacob”.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:29) When a person wants something, he turns to the Creator and asks, prays for Him to fill his lack. But I heard you saying to the friend a few minutes ago that the correct prayer is above reason. What is prayer above reason? 

M. Laitman: When do we say about an action that it's an action above reason? 

Student: When it's against, I don't know, I can't succeed right now.

M. Laitman: Who can tell us, what is an action above reason?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:32) It seems like the prayer to pray for a friend or fill his lack is something that I find most difficult, throughout the day, not here in the lesson. Between one persistence to another, there's this dead chapter that the exertion is to pray for the friends.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:02) An act above reason is to justify the upper Providence that all that's happening comes from Him. There's None Else Besides Him, and He's Good That Does Good. 

M. Laitman: Yes? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:19) Above reason is not that a person can give excuses of his own but, rather he needs to receive it from the Creator, and he becomes needy of the Creator and the exaltedness of the Creator.

M. Laitman: Okay.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:45) It's an action where there's a hidden part from the Creator.

M. Laitman: Okay. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:04) It's an action where in the vessels of reception, you cannot justify. You don't see the reward that you would see in your vessels of reception.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:19) It's an action against our nature and we need the help of the upper force in order to do it.

M. Laitman: That's it?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:38) Maybe, when a person tried, it's something that he really wants and he tried several times and with his own force he did not succeed. But he doesn't despair and he says, okay, this is the place to really ask for help. Of course, it's in relation to the Ten and the friends but this attitude where he tried everything he could but didn't succeed. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:11) Why is that above reason? I tried, I didn't succeed, now I still want to do something. What's a prayer above reason?

M. Laitman: Okay, that's starting to become an argument. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:31) It's actually None Else Besides Him. You are truly in complete faith that there's no more than your force. You understand that with your forces, you can't do anything and you're really asking from None Else Besides Him, from the first and last force, which is the good that does good. And only He can give you the answer but, also, it will come without getting a result. You're coming and praying without expecting a consequence. You're asking for Him for it to come to you. 

M. Laitman: So, what are you asking for?

Student: From every state that you're in, the very fact that you are connected with the Creator, it already raises you above the state that you're in. Actually, in every state of what the friend said, here, that he's asking for some specific descent or some effort that he wants to put forth. The very fact that he's asking for that, he will already get the answer and receive more forces. Like you said earlier, the very fact that we are constantly, worn down and feel like we need more energy, more strength, He gives us more strength.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:48) It's an action that connects between two completely contradicted things, that there's no logic that they will connect together. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:02) It also needs to be an action where a person asks to bestow, that that's what he needs the forces from the Creator for.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:23) You start with an action, an action is that you know you have no strength but you know the moment the power will, and there's something that will help you, and you discover it. Prayer is a different movie, it's when a person is willing to give his soul. Let's say a person that gets a heart attack and dies, from this moment, his life is under the authority of the Creator. There's no records, there's nothing, there's just a desire to incorporate with that force of Good That Does Good that guides him for the benefit of others, that's it.

M. Laitman: Nice depiction, except, I'm not certain about it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:26) There's a certain cyclical advancement in advancement, here. Is this a standard recurrence in every friend, is there a difference in the kind of exertion or effort for each friend?

M. Laitman: Of course.

Student: Or some stage that friends are in? 

M. Laitman: No, each one could be in a different stage but, also, the kind of work, the type of help, the kind of result, everything is different.

Student: One person can apply different efforts depending on where he is in this cycle?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How does he precisely know what efforts to use? In my degree? 

M. Laitman: It's a question of how much he understands where he is? With which forces, relative to which problems? It all depends on the person himself.

Student: I want every day to reach a complete prayer, and for the friends, something that's outside of me. But it always begins from the same place, from the prayer before prayer? Or do I need to try and put my emotions towards the Creator first, and then I don't find the feeling or the correct direction to put my feeling and then, I come to the prayer before prayer, yes? Is this necessary each time to have a prayer before prayer, or sometimes the Creator gives me the feeling, a complete feeling that I can use towards my desire? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, ask. Ask.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:22) If we can go back to the friend’s question, I had the same question: How is it that the prayer is above reason, what does that mean? Let's say in the three conditions for prayer, we have to believe that there's a Creator and He can give us what we want, et cetera. And He wants to give it to us, so where here is the above reason? 

M. Laitman: You relate to such things as if they actually exist, and you turn to them, you want to work with them. 

Student: But where here, usually above reason is something that's more emotional than intellectual, it's against the desire to receive. That's the meaning, at least that I think of when I think of above reason. In prayer, it doesn't feel like it's against the will to receive. 

M. Laitman: So, what do you want to know? 

Student: What did you mean earlier when you said that prayer is above reason?

M. Laitman: If I want to reach a state that's above my reason, then I pray for it. I pray to the Creator to help me rise to that degree from which I could start working with that same principle. 

Student: So, the prayer, itself, is not against the will to receive?

M. Laitman: No. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:06) Can we say that faith and prayer above reason is where I pray where my nature doesn't agree to be in it? 

M. Laitman: It could be. 

Student: It's like, can I pray to go to that place? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:36) It's simple, it's for the benefit of the Creator, a prayer for the benefit of the Creator. Like he writes here, but actually nicer,  that the measure of awakening from below, which is considered for the awakening from above. Meaning there needs to be an adaptation between our awakening and His awakening. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:27:02) About faith above reason, can it also be a deficiency that you raise and receive the answer through the friends, through the Kli? And you feel that this is your connection with the upper one, not just that it's a feeling, but it's a connection with the Creator through the Kli. 

M. Laitman: Yes, that is true.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:27:35) He wrote here: I shall see more evil in the world that the network of the Sitra Achra come for a lack of need for more punishments that joins in 400 years. So, my question has to do with the exertion and these punishments, is this what we miss, is this what he's explaining here, actually? I tried to understand the verse of what he's explaining here.

M. Laitman: The depiction of people, but this depiction has to help a person understand that he's in a state of falsehood, and that's a punishment instead of the state he had to reach and that teaches a person. 

Student: The meaning is that the picture of these punishments, the depiction of the punishments is what prevents him? If I make the exertion that I'm afraid of the punishment, is that what he means? Is the wrong exertion?

M. Laitman: I don't think it's driven by, motivated by fear of punishment. You made a mistake, you weren't aimed at the right thing.

Question (PT 6): (01:29:06) The discovery of the intention in order to receive, when the exertion lowers like that way. How can I come down from bestowal and give the right attitude towards the act of bestowal?

M. Laitman: Again?

Student: The revelation of the intention in order to receive stops in despair of the action and then the exertion lowers. So, the question is how not to be impressed by this lowly intention and give the correct attitudes towards the act of bestowal? 

M. Laitman: Well, that depends on the environment. The knowledge of the group and how does the group relate to it. There is nothing you can do, there, we must understand the pace with which we can advance toward one another. So, in that the vessel will be built where we can perform those actions as you mentioned.

Question (Women MAK 56): (01:30:34) Why is it sometimes so difficult to nullify before the Creator and believe in His good providence. The ego doesn't let go, it takes all your power. Why does this happen?

M. Laitman: What does it happen for? 

Student: Why does it happen that it's sometimes so difficult to believe in this good Providence? 

M. Laitman: So, you'll know just how not simple it is. That we get more help from above when we are able to annul ourselves; and that goes against our egos. 

Question (Women Hebrew 1): (01:31:25) If a person doesn't manage to come close to love to the Ten, does it mean that he's in a punishment, already? 

M. Laitman: That's also a form of punishment. 

Student: How do you cancel this punishment? 

M. Laitman: By persisting with that same exertion. 

Question (ITA 1): (01:32:17) I want to ask for advice for you: We have very important friends in the group that we don't see anymore in the lesson. They're not connecting to the morning lesson so I don't know who I should listen to. Sometimes, they're saying that you're losing in dissemination and I wanted advice from you on how to behave. We prayed, we connected, that's the situation, so I need your help to understand what to do. How to help, how to go forward, it's like there's two groups, those who connect and those who don't connect.

M. Laitman: So, what is he asking about, how to combine, to connect these two groups? How to behave with them? 

Student: Yes, that's what I think he's asking. 

M. Laitman: Two groups, one says let's connect, the other says, don't connect? 

Student: No, they're not saying that. They're saying there's one group, there's a few friends that are not connecting to the lesson. And there's a group that is connecting and some of the people that are not connecting and usually connect. Let's say they have certain roles in dissemination, so they're saying we need to disseminate this way and that way. And he is asking should we listen to them or not? 

M. Laitman: I can't say here, it's written the study of the Torah is weighted against everything. There's nothing that can actually substitute it. 

Okay, what are we doing next?

Reader: (01:34:37) We have the introduction from the mouth of a sage. 

M. Laitman: We didn't finish it yet? 

Reader: No. We have to select excerpts for the 15th of the Day of Love.

M. Laitman: Let's go to the 15th of Av.

Reader: So, we'll sing a song and then move to that. 

Song: (01:35:03)