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

Daily Lesson (Morning) May 28, 2024.

Part 1: Rabash. Letter 10

Reader: (00:08) Hello, we are reading from the writings of Rabash, “Letter Number 10.” You can ask questions in the Arvut system. Anyone asking a question here in the study hall is asked to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth, and speak loud and clear. So, reading from Rabash, “Letter Number 10.”

Reading Letter: (00:30) Rabash Letter 10. 

August 24, 1955

To the friends, may they live long,

I am very surprised that I have not received a word from anyone. I thought I would receive the work of each and every one, meaning that each one would elaborate on his deeds, as in, “For I will see Your heavens, the works of Your fingers.” “Your heavens” means works for the Creator. They are recognized by the “works of Your fingers,” meaning by each one trying to work to raise the Shechina (Divinity) from the dust, to keep, “Each one pointed with his finger and said, ‘Behold, This is our God,’” etc.

We should know that work is in the right, which is as it is written, “Be whole with the Lord your God.” That is, a person needs to walk in wholeness, meaning believe that the Creator is whole and deficient. This can be felt only by “The right [side] of the Lord is exalted,” namely in greatness of the Creator—that we must always picture the greatness of the Creator.

As for man, in everything he does, he is serving the king. And every Mitzva (commandment) that one does gives contentment to the Creator. When one prays, the Creator hears the prayers and praises that the person sings and praises the Creator.

We should also picture that there are several people in the world to whom the Creator did not give the opportunity to serve Him and please Him, but rather pushed them away. And even when they perform some Mitzva, they do not remember or believe that the Creator sees and hears, accepts and regards the works of the lower ones. The Creator pushes them away by not giving them an opportunity to think, do, or believe.

To those whom the Creator wishes to bring near, He gives good thoughts, meaning to remember while performing the Mitzva that he is doing it for the Creator, or simply that when blessing, “That all was made by His word,” he is speaking out of habit, and during the act pays no attention to the fact that he is speaking to the Creator. Or even more, he is not given an opportunity even to bless out of habit.

And if one imagines that the Creator has given him an opportunity to do a Mitzva in order to bring contentment to his maker even once a month, and to serve the king even once a month, they should be satisfied. Abayeh said, “Therefore, it should be said while standing.” “Standing” means the full level. That is, a person needs to speak upright and be happy if he is given an opportunity to serve the king, while others are not. At that time the Creator is whole, meaning that we must say that the name of the Creator, meaning the name, “Good and Does Good,” appears and shines to a person in utter wholeness, as well as that the person is whole, meaning that he has another merit in Torah and Mitzvot (commandments) and good deeds.

This is so because as much as one does in order to be serving the king, he still does not deserve it. One should (know) that there are many people in the world to whom the Creator did not allow to do anything for His name.

However, we should also walk on the left line, meaning criticize if this is true, if one’s faith is whole, if the things he does are in utter purity and holiness without any ulterior motives, if the name, “Good and Does Good,” is swallowed in the organs, etc.

At that time the left line is disputed with the right line because he sees that if he calculates sincerely, it is all to the contrary. Then there is a dispute between the lines—between right and left. And if one does not work in the middle line, the left revokes the right and he becomes one whose “knowledge is greater than deeds,” meaning that he criticizes more than the good deeds that he does.

It follows that he falls to Hell, which extends from the left line. And there is Hell of the fire of lust, or snow that is chilled by work and he desires only to be in a state of rest, and idleness, and sleep, etc. This requires overcoming and prayer for the Creator’s mercy from above so he may extend the middle line, meaning subdue the left line under the right. That is, he says that although the criticism mandates otherwise, he goes above reason.

By that the middle line improves the right line, for before he extended the left line and was walking on the right, he thought that reason, too, mandates the labor in the work of the Creator. But now that he has extended the left line, when he subdues toward the right, it is evident that he has chosen the right even though he has another view, from the left.

This is why we should remember as we walk to extend the work of the left—to keep the intention only to show that even though there is left, he nevertheless chooses the right. This is why we should divide the times of work and not mix one with the other.

I wrote the Achoraim (posterior side) of the three lines, and when we are rewarded, we extend the three lines in Panim (anterior side).

May you be granted good writing and signing,

From me, your friend, Baruch Shalom

Son of my father, Yehuda HaLevi Ashlag

M. Laitman: (12:08) Anyone wants to ask anything? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:25) It seems that awakening the left in a specific time on a regular basis and in the right measure after a correct preparation is something that is necessary?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And the question is, can we do it in the Ten in some form that will obligate a person instead of missing out on it?

M. Laitman: If you work on it, then the Creator awakens such questions in order to answer them. The entire Ten is exerting effort.

Student: Maybe I didn't understand correctly from the article but he says that most of the time you need to be on the right, and in a separate, distinguished time for that, we need to awaken the left. And clearly, we only awaken it in order to add to the right, not to fall into it?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Is this individual work by the person?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, it doesn't pertain to the work in the Ten? Or is it the work where the Ten says, now let's take half an hour a day and together let's awaken or allow to enable? I don't know.

M. Laitman: What's most correct for us is for each one, every once in a while, not necessarily a specific time, each one will return to examine, to criticize, to pray until his right grows stronger out of the work in the left.

Student: What is the criterion to do it if it's not in a fixed time and if it's not with the friends?

M. Laitman: When he longs to come closer to the Creator, in different opportunities, and by that he increases his criticism, his analysis, and this way he advances.

Student: Maybe the person should look for opportunities that are suitable for this?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:34) He says that from the left, idleness, and sleep, etc.,  extend from the left. How, when someone goes into the left under control can also emerge from it safely?

M. Laitman: It's when the left is not managing him but he is managing the left. How, how much, in what way, he determines.

Student: Exactly, so how do we do it in the Ten in such a way that the Ten determines when you go out. It's not managed by the left.

M. Laitman: In the Ten, I don't think it's recommended, at least not now, for the time being, but each and every one who is going on the left should take stock, measure himself, scrutinize, criticize himself, and determine how much does he want to stay on the left and is there an opportunity of climbing from the left to the right and then to the middle line. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:13) Why not mix? He says not to mix in the work between the right and the left. Why not to mix? And if a person works on the right, then he discovers criticism over his work, so it's natural. What does it mean not to mix them?

M. Laitman: He needs to know precisely what is he doing. Why is he in this state? And he should become accustomed to working in such a way that the moment he has the opportunity to cross to the opposite line relative to his state, that he will use it.

Student: This means that if he's working on the right and criticism awakens, then he should use it, he should work with it?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: He says also that it requires overcoming and prayer that the Creator will have mercy on him from above so that he can draw the middle line. Meaning that he subdues the left line under the right, that if he says, even though according to the criticism, his reason mandates otherwise, he goes above reason. Why should we subdue the left under the right? Why is this called the middle line?

M. Laitman: And that's what he comes to. He was in criticism on the left, on the left line, and now he subdues that line under the right line, and he comes out of feeling of criticism to go above it.

Student: What is the middle line? When he writes the middle line, what does he mean?

M. Laitman: The middle line, which exists between the right and the left, where he still does not have a clear opinion that he is on the left and also on the right. Rather, whatever he wants in his work, he trusts that it is found on the left. Therefore, when he rises above it, this is a good outcome from his work.

Student: What does it mean, a good summary in the work between the two lines? What result should he aspire to?

M. Laitman: A person should aspire to a state where he is not being critical of his state, but rather he justifies the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:59) He writes here, the middle line improves the right line, for before he extended the left line and was walking on the right, he thought that reason too mandates the labor in the work of the Creator. But now that he has extended the left line, when he subdues towards the right side, it is evident that he has chosen the right even though he has another view on the left. This is why we should remember, as we walk to draw the work on the left, that the intention is only to show that even though there is left, he nevertheless chooses the right. It appears as though for us also, sometimes we have a good congress, a good connection, and we are seemingly on the right, and it gives us like some calmness as if the reason of the person agrees that we are in a good society. Sometimes it puts you to sleep a little bit. It seems like a Kabbalist always wants from within to need the Creator, and to nevertheless be in some inner effort. So I wanted to understand, how does he awaken once he has wholeness, does he also feel that he has a problem seemingly to remain in that? That if he will remain in that a bit too long, it might spoil things?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, this initiative that he takes upon himself to awaken the left, it is with the understanding that he has to rise to something higher in the work?

M. Laitman: Yes. It is like you have a dish before you, and you have to add salt and pepper, and so on and so forth, so you have to ensure that it is in the right amount, and not more. Otherwise, instead of correction, it becomes a corruption.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:29) To continue what was just read. It continues, and it says, this is why we need to divide the times of work, and not mix one with the other. In fact, entering the left requires preparation. What is the preparation so that we work correctly?

M. Laitman: A person should have strength, the power, even though he has undergone criticism, to rise above criticism, and relate himself to the work the way it is revealed to him.

Student: Okay, so he should be in a good state, really in a good state, when he enters the left, in a balanced state?

M. Laitman: You could say that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:30) A person who studies Kabbalah but is not in attainment yet, does he have right and left?

M. Laitman: Relative; it's a relative thing.

Student: The criticism, I want to understand what this criticism is. Let's say, today, in the morning I had all kinds of criticisms over the friends. He's not like this, he's not like that. So, what exactly is this criticism?

M. Laitman: Criticism is when you check them relative to you, what is your attitude to them like? And here you must be cautious that you feel them, you accept them, you perceive them according to your vessels.

Student: So, criticism is not necessarily against something?

M. Laitman: Against, of course. Criticism has to be against certain conditions. And these are self-imposed conditions, what appears to a person.

Student: The moment I reveal criticism towards a friend and in my eyes he's not doing something correctly, here comes a prayer?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: This is the work, this is relatively what we call right and left?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:11) He writes, he finds himself falling into hell, and he only wants to be in a state of rest, and idleness, and sleep. How can a person who falls into such a feeling justify the Creator?

M. Laitman: Why not?

Student: Why, yes?

M. Laitman: You fall into slumber, total disconnection from all your worries. You think of nothing except for how not to rise to anything that may create problems for you.

Student: He accepts the situation, he now surrenders, and just accepts the situation that he drowns into.

M. Laitman: For example.

Student: How to justify the Creator in such a state? How to find a point where he justifies the Creator for what he's taking him through?

M. Laitman: This is when he's certain that each and every state is more advanced compared to the previous state, and that he should awaken it more and more to rise above it toward the next state.

Student: He writes that this requires overcoming and prayer for the Creator's mercy from above so he may extend the middle line, subdue the left line. What is this heaven's mercy, the Creator's mercy? What is that?

M. Laitman: From a higher degree compared to where a person is at.

Student: When does the Creator decide to have mercy on the person?

M. Laitman: This is an open-ended question.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:28) I wanted to ask that there are people to whom the Creator does not give an opportunity and He pushes them away, and there are those to whom He does give an opportunity, and He brings them closer. So, on what does it depend that the Creator determines whether to bring the person closer or push him away?

M. Laitman: I can't say precisely, but I'm sure it depends on the person's work in the previous state.

Student: So, what should you pay attention to in your present state so that in your next state, the Creator will determine you as bringing you closer instead of pushing you away?

M. Laitman: That's a result of a process a person undergoes, a process he undergoes. Either he requires an ascent, or a descent, or neither, but by himself he needs to put in a prayer for the Creator to take care of him.

Student: What depends on a person, if in the end everything is determined by whether the Creator will want to bring you closer or push you away?

M. Laitman: What depends on a person is to connect to friends and to try through the connection with them to reach a more advanced state. Let's say that he wants to adhere to the friends and from the state he can attain by himself to help them rise. He's serving, he's using his strength in order to raise them, to bring them up.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:14) I know two states of the left. One is like what is described in the article, that a person by his own initiative goes there in order to check his faith, actually, then he has an intention also of why he went in there. But there's another state where suddenly a person finds himself in criticism. He didn't intend for it, he didn't plan it or invite it. He doesn't have this intention, but now he's in that state. So, the question is about a second state. Does it mean that a person was given an opportunity by his own initiative to enter this state and he missed out on that opportunity and that the Creator threw him into it? 

M. Laitman: It could be.

Student: Then what is the person's work?

M. Laitman: If he can even be aware of it, if he is aware of it, it's something else. Then he can correct the way he disregarded the opportunity, that he didn't use it correctly. And had it not been this way, he would have continued as usual.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:44) He writes that on the one hand, if you go on the left, it revokes the right. And if you want to go on the right, you have to subdue the left. So, you should always have these two states, both states. How can you have two states, how can you hold on to it?

M. Laitman: There can't be two states, there cannot be. They don't connect into a third state. So they revoke one another, cancel one another.

Student: So, the right cancels the left also?

M. Laitman: The right cancels the left, and the left cancels the right. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:47) Criticism, when he says criticism I feel that the definition is all over the place. Some people say criticism means to criticize their friends, to criticize the Creator. Here he says that criticism is only when a person criticizes his own work, whether it is in purity or if it's correct. So first of all, is this the right definition of criticism with respect to the left line? When criticism awakens towards the friends or the Creator, this is something else, it's not considered the left line?

M. Laitman: Why not?

Student: He writes here that criticism is when a person checks whether his own work is correct and true, if his faith is true.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Criticism of the Creator is like something else, which is not that?

M. Laitman: Also a form of criticism.

Student: Okay, something else. Why do we have to always decide or shift to the right line? I'll explain my question. It seems like criticism is a much stronger and more beneficial tool. For example, a person, when he becomes an expert in something, he does a lot more criticism before every little action. Let's say in chess, when you play chess, you criticize for a long time. Is this correct? Is this correct? Is this correct? In the end, you do a move. So why in the work do we have to always decide to the right?

M. Laitman: You criticize not what the Creator does to you but how do you accept His action? 

Question (Women PT 10): (35:55) How does the right grow stronger through the work on the left? What is this work in the left?

M. Laitman: Left is a limitation. Left is an egoistic decision. Left is the will to receive that is growing stronger.

Question (Belarus): (36:38) What is in the left line which makes it be called hell?

M. Laitman: That there's no balance with the right. It's out of balance. And that's how it works. He cannot come out of it.

Question (Women PT 38): (37:20) Why in the point of the revelation of the left, a person should go above reason and not demand that he will already reach the true intention forever.

M. Laitman: From the state he's in on the left, he cannot come to the middle line. When the left demands, he would enter the left even more.

Question (PT 23): (37:58) Why is the work on the left line, why does it increase the work in faith above reason? Is it not possible to simply continue to work on the right line?

M. Laitman: Again.

Student: Why does the work on the left line increase the work in faith above reason? Is it impossible to simply continue faith on the right line?

M. Laitman: No, how? Based on what? Specifically, when you have even more criticism, even more resistance, then he has to weaken the left a bit more. 

Question (Turkiye 1): (39:10) Can you please explain what it says that there is the hell of the fire of lust or snow when one is chilled by the work? What does it mean? He writes that there are two kinds of hell. One is the fire of lust and the other one is snow that chills a person. And the friend is asking, can you explain it?

M. Laitman: These are forces that appear in a person and determine his path of development either from the right or from the left. And a person should try and keep himself from entering neither this nor that.

Question (Holland): (40:16) What does it mean to the Achoraim side of the three lines?

M. Laitman: Those are vessels of reception of the next state, such that a person has an opportunity to fill them.

Student: Rav?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How can we work, let's say, with the three lines in a state of Achoraim?

M. Laitman: This you have to learn.

Student: Can I have another question, Rav?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Student: Let's say, what is the work in the middle line exactly? Let's say if we don't work, it says in the article, if we don't work in the middle line, the left revokes the right line. So what does it mean to work in the middle line?

M. Laitman: The work in the middle line, that we would always want to feel the left line and to see how we can rise above it in order to actually use it.

Question (Turkiye 2): (43:08) What is the source of the left line and the right line if there's only one Creator who's Good And Does Good. How come there are two lines? 

M. Laitman: One stands out more than the other because there's a difference for us between using our will to receive or the will to bestow; the Creator's will to bestow. Therefore, we have seemingly, we are connected to the Bestower among us, then we can be closer to Him or closer to our nature. Here lies our choice. What do we choose? How do we build ourselves?

Question (Haifa 1): (44:21) Rabash is telling us how to work on the right line, and he writes, we need to know that the work is on the right, which is as it's written, you should be whole with the Lord your God. When a person has to go in wholeness and believe that the Creator is whole and not deficient. I’m asking about this wholeness that appears in many places. Blessed be those who are whole, the Torah of the Lord is whole. This quality of wholeness, also translated in Hebrew as naivety of sorts or purity. It's something that you don't see a lot in the corporeal world, and we're also part of the corporeal world. We're people, I also have a feeling that I know, and I understand, and I've done enough. How do we achieve this quality of wholeness on the path?

M. Laitman: Wholeness, also naivety in Hebrew, means above reason. This requires many exercises until the Creator gives us this spirit so that we rise to wholeness.

Student: May we succeed.

Question (Kyiv 1): (46:06) You said that you should try to be neither on the right nor on the left. So, how to act properly, correctly, when you discover criticism inside, on the other hand, the greatness of the goal. How to work correctly?

M. Laitman: We have to raise the right over the left.

Student: Also not to be on the right line at the same time?

M. Laitman: To raise the right over the left but not to block the left.

Student: How? One line negates the other line. So, how can you raise the right over the left without blocking the left?

M. Laitman: We will learn that.

Question (Women Heb 1): (47:12) If I understood correctly, turning to the Creator on the left is self-criticism of my work. How, together with that, to open the heart truly before the Creator. How can a person learn to open his heart this way?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How does it get incorporated? On the one hand to limit myself, to speak only of my own left, what am I not doing wrong, and on the other hand, to speak candidly with the Creator. It contradicts, seemingly.

M. Laitman: Why? You receive the left from the Creator, for sure.

Student: Yes, but sometimes in a person's heart there are all kinds of things that are not simply criticism of himself, and then he just strikes them in, seemingly?

M. Laitman: But at least he feels, to some extent, that it is negative, it's his.

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: So?

Student: The opening of the heart before the Creator is always within these limitations, out of cautiously working?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, how do you come out of the left? How do you end that?

M. Laitman: To come out of the left, it's only by us going above reason, in the right.

Student: For example, I was on the left for ten minutes, how do I now come out of it? What do I do? 

M. Laitman: It all comes from above, and you want to rise above it and only use the force of bestowal.

Student: I'm not asking for correction for anything I brought up?

M. Laitman: This is the correction.

Question (Netanya): (49:21) Rabash writes in the beginning that we have to portray as if there are some people in the world that the Creator, He does not let them serve Him and give Him contentment, and He pushes them away. And then he continues, and the Creator pushes them away by not giving them an opportunity to think, to do, or believe. Do we speak of someone who is not on the path, or is it a state that…?

M. Laitman: It's only about those who are on the path, but we go through different states.

Student: That is, that left state that we're talking about?

M. Laitman: Yes and no.

Student: How to come out of this state? Meaning, if I feel, if a friend feels like he's not there?

M. Laitman: Only by giving an example.

Question (H 10): (50:26) I'm trying to define the work on the left. What kind of question can a person ask himself while working on the left?

M. Laitman: What question? How can I say this just like that? How can he rise even higher above his state? So that he checks his states, and he extracts from them the state that seems to him as a state that is not revealed in his will to receive, and he wants to see in it a higher state.

Question (Hadera 1): (51:33) Is there a danger of falling into the shells, the Klipot on the right side, in the work on the right?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That's why we have to work on the left as well so as not to fall into the Klipot, the shells on the right?

M. Laitman: Well, the shell on the right is usually a hard shell.

Student: Can I ask more?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: The right line, is it wholeness from the point of view of a deficiency, and the left line is wholeness from the point of view of incorporation?

M. Laitman: You can say that. Yes.

Question (Women PT 33):(52:28) When a person is already on the left, how to be careful not to drag the whole Ten down?

M. Laitman: Most correct is that one should think about how to elevate the Ten, then for sure he will not perform the opposite action and bring them down. This is what I can recommend.

Question (Women Toronto 1): (53:06) Is the hard shell on the right line lack of intention?

M. Laitman: Perhaps, it's possible.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:03) Rabash writes this letter to the friends. He also says that each and everyone should try to work, and each and everyone is pointing his finger, and each and everyone should do this or that. And then he says that we should feel how the Creator is whole, in wholeness. And to feel that we're doing the Mitzvot, the commandments, for the sake of the Creator. We can say that man is a small world, all the states are in one man, but it's easier for us to see it in the Ten. It's possible that in the Ten some friends will be on the right line, on the left line. And above it, we need to see that something whole is happening here?

M. Laitman: Yes, certainly. The Ten comes from the state of wholeness.

Student: What does it mean that we have in the Ten such a type of work where they work for the sake of the Creator?

M. Laitman: The Ten can aim for the sake of the Creator. 

Student: What does that mean?

M. Laitman: It means to actualize ten complete Sefirot. To at least demand that.

Student: What is the atmosphere that has to be in the Ten? Because there's a friend on the right, a friend on the left. We see sometimes a friend dealing with great difficulties. It's hard for him to maintain the framework. Another friend has some special upliftment of the spirit. Is there some sort of an average that exists in the Ten where something there has to take place to be connected to the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How do we connect all those different things to one thing that has the spirit that is aimed at the Creator?

M. Laitman: I didn't understand.

Student: Even in the Ten, you have friends who at any given time are going through different states.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How about that we maintain a general spirit, something that exists between the friends on top of all the states that we're going through. Where in that thing, the spirit will be such that their action will be for the sake of the Creator. Maybe there's love there, a connection, I'm not sure. But something that's not aimed at their own benefit, not into the Ten, but outside of it. What should be in the Ten that combines, connects different ones into one?

M. Laitman: That they annul each other, each one annuls himself. Okay. You should think about it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:37) I actually want to go to the right and ask if a person wants to raise gratitude or a blessing to the Creator, he feels the Creator denies him that. Why does it happen? 

M. Laitman: Because the person perhaps demands too much.

Student: The gratitude to the Creator is a demand?

M. Laitman: No, but what do you say later?

Student: I bless Him, I thank Him for what he gave.

M. Laitman: Yes, and?

Student: And sometimes you want to do this action, and you see that He deliberately failed you.

M. Laitman: Yes, and?

Student: Why does He do this? Why is this action of gratitude, it can fail you in that as well?

M. Laitman: In order to advance you. In order to show the person, both from the left and also from the right, all of the possibilities and opportunities so that the person can choose them.

Student: He writes that if once a month he lets a person give Him contentment, then he should be grateful?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But you feel this pain that you are not able to, you know that you want it, that you are ready for it, but it doesn't work. Something, it's like a wall came before you, or maybe you forget it? 

M. Laitman: The Creator gives you all of this feeling also, and the various obstructions so that the person will rise above them. These are all kinds of exercises.

Student: There are exercises in gratitude as well, in addition to the left?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:53) It's felt how Rav is advancing us in both lines, sometimes right, sometimes left. A student in the beginning feels like there are things that are contradicting each other until he hears from a friend that that's how we advance. One time it's right, one time it's left; it complements. I want to ask about that insight of a student of Ten. What is that middle line over there? And that when you understand that you have to lower your head and follow the Rav, even when I don't agree, this is called the middle line.

M. Laitman: Yes. Yes. If from the very end we will look at ourselves, we will see how opposite we are. Each one from his path, from the root of his soul, from everything. And nevertheless, this is the truth. 

Reader: (01:01:10) We can go to the next part, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary.”

M. Laitman: Yes.

Reader: We'll go to the next part and we'll sing a song. 

Song: (01:01:22)