The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: November 2, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. What Is, “And Abraham Was Old, of Many Days,” in the Work? Article 8, 1991
Reader: Hello dear friends, in the first part, we will study a lesson from March 4th, 2002, which is based on the lesson, "What Is 'And Abraham Was Old of Many Days' in the Work?" Article 8, 1991. Let's read the article together in our Tens. We have 33 minutes.
Reading: (00:54) What Is, “And Abraham Was Old, of Many Days,” in the Work?
Article 8, 1991
It is written in The Zohar (VaYeshev, Item 3), “‘A poor and wise child is better than an old and foolish king.’ ‘A wise child is better’ is the good inclination, which is a child from few days with man, since he is with man from thirteen years of age onward. ‘An old and foolish king’ is the evil inclination, called ‘King and man’s ruler in the world over people.’ He is certainly ‘old and foolish,’ since he has been with man from the day he is born into the world. Therefore, he is ‘an old and foolish king.’ But ‘a wise child is better’ is as it is written, ‘I was a youth and I grew old.’ This is a youth who is a poor child with nothing of his own. Why is he called ‘a youth’? It is because he has the resumption [renewal] of the moon, which is always resumed, and he is always a child.”
It appears from the words of The Zohar that “old” indicates the evil inclination, whereas the good inclination is called “a child.” If this is so, what is the meaning of “And Abraham was old, of many days”? What does it come to tell us when it says, “Abraham was old”? What merit is there to Abraham being old and of many days, for it seems as though the text is praising Abraham.
It is written in the “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” (Item 140) about the verse, “Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” It says there, “Prior to the end of correction, before we qualified our vessels of reception to receive only in order to give contentment to our Maker and not to our own benefit, Malchut is called ‘the tree of good and evil,’” since Malchut is the guidance of the world by people’s actions.
“Hence, we must receive the guidance of good and evil from the Malchut, as this guidance qualifies us to ultimately correct our vessels of reception. Often, the guidance of good and evil causes us ascents and descents, and each ascent is regarded as a separate day because due to the great descent that he had, while he doubted the beginning, during the ascent he is as a newly born child. Thus, in each ascent, it is as though he begins to serve the Creator anew. This is why each ascent is considered a specific day, and similarly, each descent is considered a specific night.”
Now we can interpret what we asked, Why does it say, “And Abraham was old, of many days”? What is the merit in Abraham being old? The answer is “many days.” That is, there is one who is old, which is one state that extends over a long period of time, and the prolonging turns this state into an old one. It is written about it in The Zohar, “Why is the evil inclination called ‘old’?” It says that it is because of the prolonged time, “since he is with man from the day one is born into the world.” In other words, there is no change in his situation and he has been the same since he was born. This is called “An old and foolish king.”
We should ask, But he is an angel, as it is written, “For He will command His angels over you, to keep you in all your ways.” The Zohar interprets that this pertains to the good inclination and the evil inclination. So how can we say that it is a fool?
The answer is that every angel is named after its task. Hence, since the evil inclination installs a spirit of folly in a person, as our sages said, “One does not sin unless a spirit of folly has entered him,” for this reason the evil inclination is named “fool,” accordingly. However, he always plays the same role—installing the spirit of folly in people. This is why he is called “An old and foolish king.”
However, in Kedusha [holiness], when a person begins to work on the path toward achieving Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, meaning that all his actions will be for the sake of the Creator, the person should first come to the recognition of evil, meaning to know the measure of the evil within him. It is as our sages said, “To the wicked, the evil seems like hairsbreadth, but to the righteous, it seems like a high mountain.” This is so because one is not shown more evil that exists within him than he has good, since the good and the bad must be balanced, for only then can we speak of choice, as our sages said, “One should always see oneself as half guilty, half innocent.” Hence, those who want to achieve the work of bestowal undergo ascents and descents, as said in The Zohar, which interprets “Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.”
It follows that the quality of “old” in one who works in order to bestow is not in the sense that one state has taken a long time. Rather, he is “old” because he has had many days and many nights. This is why it says, “Abraham was old, of many days.” To interpret “many days,” “And the Lord blessed Abraham with all,” what is “with all”? Since he had many days, he must have had many nights in between, for if there are no nights in between, there cannot be many days. “The Lord blessed Abraham with all” means that the nights were also blessed with him. This is the meaning of “And the Lord blessed Abraham with all.”
According to the above, we should interpret the words “A wise child is better,” as it is written, “I was a youth and I grew old.” In other words, although “I” grew old, “I” remain a youth. This is so because the order of the work is that when a person should take upon himself faith above reason, since the body objects to this, this work is daily. In other words, each day a person must take upon himself faith, and it is not enough that yesterday he took it upon himself, as it is written (Deuteronomy 26:16), “This day the Lord your God commands you to do.” RASHI interprets, “Each day, they will be as new in your eyes, as if on that day you were commanded them.”
It follows that each day is its own discernment, since each day he is a youth and must begin anew the acceptance of the kingdom of heaven. This is as the ARI says (Shaar HaKavanot, p 61), “In each and every prayer, the Mochin enter, and after the prayer they depart. You should know that the matter is not as it seems, meaning that the Mochin that come are the ones that depart, and they are the ones that return with each prayer. The thing is that with each prayer new Mochin come.”
This means that although a person begins anew each day, it does not mean that he begins from the same place he began. Rather, “of many days” means that he has many new days. It follows that “I was a youth and I grew old.” That is, the old age is not from one state, because that state was prolonged. Rather, “old” in Kedusha means that he has had a long time of many resumptions, meaning that growing old came from being many days in a state of “youth,” meaning a child. Thus, the meaning of “I was a youth and I grew old” pertains only to the times of “youth”; from this he became old.
This is the meaning of the words, “This is a youth who is a poor child with nothing of his own.” In other words, all the work, which is only to bestow upon the Creator and not for his own sake, this work is against the body, where he wants to work specifically for his own sake and not for the sake of the Creator. At that time, a person sees that after each ascent, he immediately has a descent, and from this he gets the matter of “nights and days.”
This continues until a person decides that he is powerless to do anything, since he sees that everything he does in order to advance, he sees the opposite, that each time, he has more evil. At that time, he decides and says, “Unless the Lord builds a house, they who built it labored in vain.” For this reason, when a person is rewarded with the Creator giving him the desire to bestow, meaning that he has been rewarded with being able to do all his actions for the sake of the Creator, he sees that he is a “child.” That is, he has no more power than that of a child, meaning he has nothing of his own. In other words, he has achieved nothing by himself, but rather the Creator gave him everything.
At that time, he sees that the Creator gave him the descents, as well, and for himself, he has nothing. This is the meaning of “Why is he called ‘a youth’? It is because he has the resumption [renewal] of the moon.” In other words, as the moon has no light of itself except what it receives from the sun, likewise, when man is rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator, he sees that he has gained nothing by his own strength, but the Creator gave him everything, while he is always a “child.” In other words, in every situation, he is as a child, doing nothing, and having only what a child is given, while he himself cannot do anything. This is why one should always ask the Creator to give him the power to prevail in the work, and the person himself is completely powerless.
According to the above, we should interpret what is written (Genesis 15:6), “And he believed in the Lord and He regarded it to him as righteousness.” This seems perplexing. What is Abraham’s praise in that he believed in the Creator? After all, any person who had the revelation of Godliness and the Creator would speak to him would believe in the Creator. We should interpret that once Abraham saw that he had no power of his own to be rewarded with anything in Kedusha, since the will to receive is the ruler, as it is written, “an old and foolish king,” and he was powerless to emerge from its governance and be rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator, this is why it is written in general, “And he believed in the Lord and He regarded it to him as righteousness.”
In other words, the fact that Abraham could be rewarded with faith is only charity from the Creator; the Creator gave him charity and delivered him from the governance of the old and foolish king, who objects to faith above reason. Av-Ram [high father] means that he wanted to go specifically above reason, which is regarded as “the herdsmen of Abraham’s cattle” (as written in Article No. 1, Tav-Shin-Nun-Aleph).
But the whole body resists it. Hence, when the Creator gave him the power of faith above reason, Abraham regarded it as having been rewarded with faith, as it is written, “And he believed in the Lord,” meaning what he could believe in the Lord, to Him, to the Creator. “As charity,” that the Creator gave him charity by giving Abraham the power of faith.
However, in the order of the work, we see that there are ascents and descents. During an ascent, when one feels the importance, when he feels that he is close to the Creator and has some feeling of the importance and greatness of the Creator, and wants to annul before Him because he feels a little bit of love of the Creator and wants to annul before Him as a candle before a torch, in that state he does not remember that he ever suffered a state of descent. Moreover, he does not want to remember that there is such a thing called “a state of descent,” and he yearns for his state of ascent to be permanent.
But in the end, he suffers a descent. Sometimes, he falls into such a lowly state that he says that there is no way he will ever be able to do something for the sake of the Creator. When it occurs to him that we must work and observe Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] for the sake of the Creator, so why do I not want to do this, he gives himself a true answer, in his opinion, that there is nothing to reply to this, since man, meaning the will to receive within man, is the ruler during the descent, and it says that it is willing to do everything for the sake of the Creator, but on condition that I will know what my will to receive will gain from this.
In other words, he is willing to work for the sake of the Creator but on condition that his self-benefit will profit from this. It follows that during the ascent, if he looks at the descents that he receives each time, he is impressed with how such a thing can be—that there will be such a difference between ascents and descents, as the gap between heaven and earth. In other words, during the ascent, he thinks that he is already in heaven, that he no longer has any connection to corporeality, and that from this day forth, his only engagement in the world will be that which concerns spirituality. He even becomes upset with the Creator for giving him corporeality, to engage in worldly matters and that he must dedicate time and effort to these things, to obtaining corporeality.
At that time, a person does not understand for what purpose the Creator created this. The whole corporeal world seems to him redundant. But along with all the good calculations, he suddenly suffers a descent and falls to the ground. Sometimes, during the descent, he loses consciousness altogether and completely forgets about spirituality. Sometimes, he does remember that there is such a thing as spirituality in the world, but sees that this is not for him.
However, we should understand why the Creator gives us these descents. That is, first, one must believe that the Creator gives us these descents, and then a person asks for what purpose the Creator gave me these descents. In other words, when one believes that the Creator is sending this to him, the descents come to a person after he had a state of ascent and he asked the Creator to bring him closer to Him, and he believes that the Creator hears a prayer.
But what did he receive in return for his prayer? He thought that after the prayer he would receive an ascent to a higher degree than the state he was in during the prayer. But in the end, he sees that the Creator has given him a worse state than he was in before he prayed to the Creator. The answer is as Baal HaSulam said, that there is the matter of “as the advantage of the light from within the darkness.” He said that a person cannot appreciate the importance of the light, and to know how to keep it, unless from within the darkness. At that time, a person can discern the distance between the light and the darkness.
We should interpret his words with an allegory. When one gives a present to a friend, which is worth 100 shekels in the eyes of the receiver, the receiver is happy with the fact that his friend appreciates him and sends him a gift, and he accepts it with great joy. However, if the recipient finds out afterward that the gift is worth 10,000 shekels, we can understand how the recipient would be happy now, and how his love for the giver of the gift would be established in his heart, and how he would keep the gift from being stolen
The lesson is that when a person receives an awakening from above, when the Creator brings him closer to Him, the person feels some importance in feeling that he is speaking with the Creator, but a person cannot accept the real joy from this nearing, since he still cannot appreciate the greatness and importance of the Creator so as to receive the delight and pleasure from the Creator speaking to him.
The reason is as said above, “as the advantage of the light from within the darkness.” Since a person does not suffer because he is far from the Creator, he cannot appreciate the greatness and importance of a situation where he is close to the Creator, and he also cannot appreciate the suffering of being away from the Creator, if he never felt what it means to be close to the Creator. For this reason, the order of the work walks on two legs—right and left, as our sages said (Sotah 47), “The left should always reject, and the right pull nearer.”
“Right” means wholeness. During the ascent, when a person feels that now he is close to the Creator, he has vitality and joy, and he lives in a world that is all good. Afterward, it is desired above that he will feel the importance of the Creator bringing him closer to Him, so he can enjoy and be happy, not as one appreciates it as in the allegory, as worth 100 shekels. Therefore, when he suffers a descent and feels suffering from being in a descent, although during the descent he does not always feel that he is in a descent, meaning if he has descended from his level and does not suffer because he fell, it is not considered a descent, for who knows that he has fallen if the person does not feel it?
Rather, this is like a person who was injured in a road accident and does not feel that he has fallen under the car, since he is unconscious. Who does know that he has fallen under the truck? only people on the outside. But what does he feel from other people seeing that he is unconscious?
It is the same in spirituality when he suffers a descent. It is known above, but once a person recovers, he realizes that he is in a state of descent, and then begins a new procession and he is given from above another ascent, and then another descent. From this, a person acquires the distinction between light and darkness. Also, from this, a person acquires letters by which to appreciate it when the Creator brings him closer, and by this he will know how to keep himself from dropping anything into the Klipot [shells/peels], meaning into his vessels of reception, since he knows what he is losing because “as the advantage of the light from within the darkness.” This is the meaning of descents and ascents that a person has to go through these state.
One who is clever and wants to save time does not wait until he suffers a descent from above. Rather, while he is in an ascent and wants to acquire the importance of the state of closeness to the Creator, he begins to depict to himself what is a state of descent, meaning how he suffered from being far from the Creator compared to how he feels now that he is close to the Creator. It follows that even during the ascent he learns from the discernments as though he were in a state of descent. At that time, he can calculate and discern between an ascent and a descent.
At that time he will get a picture of the advantage of light over darkness, since he can create a depiction of how he was back in the state of descent, and thought that the whole matter of the work of bestowal does not pertain to him, and how he suffered from these states when he wanted to escape the campaign, and only from one place he could get some relief, meaning only from one hope, that he thought, “When will I be able to go to sleep?” for then he would escape from all the states of impatience, when he felt that the world has grown dark on him.
Now, during the ascent, he sees everything differently. At that time, he wants to work only for the sake of the Creator, and he has no concern for his own benefit. From all those calculations that he will do during the ascent, it follows that now he has a place where he can discern between light and darkness, and he does not need to wait until he is given from above a state of descent.
According to the above, we should interpret what our sages said (Shabbat 152), “I search for what I did not lose.” RASHI interprets, “I search for what I did not lose out of old age, I walk bent, swaying, and I seem as though I seek something that I lost.” We should understand this in the work, what it comes to teach us. An old man is considered wise, meaning he wants to be a wise disciple.
As Baal HaSulam said, the Creator is called “wise,” and His manner is bestowal. When a person wants to learn from His ways, meaning to also be a bestower, that person is called “a student of the Wise.” That person does not wait until he suffers a descent and then comes to ask to be elevated again, meaning that he lost his state of ascent and he asks to be lifted up once more. Instead, before he loses the state of ascent, he searches as though he has already lost it. By this he saves time. It follows that as far as descents are concerned, there is room for man to rise and receive a place to discern the advantage between light and darkness.
Reader: Moving on to the lesson.
M. Laitman: (33:40) We listened to the article, "What Is 'Abraham Is Old and Is Coming of Age' in the Work?", that all our work is by hastening our development, because the plan is found, and its beginning, its end, also the stages are clear and constant. They were determined during the descent of reality from infinity, Ein Sof, to this world. We must hasten the time of development from below to above; this time is called “stages.” Time is called “stages.” How do we hasten the stages? We know how it is in computers. There is the program that we can put inside the computer and it works there at like, let's say, 100,000 megahertz or 200,000 megahertz. There's frequency. It's exactly like that. In what frequency a person goes back to the thought: what about me, what of the purpose, what of the Creator, where am I in my direction towards Him. And these things, mainly, they are doable during the ascent, because during the descent, the person is a Golem, a beast, he cannot do anything, he cannot find strength, and it's very hard to awaken him by the group, by the friends. You can also hasten the time of descent, but to truly demand advancement, it's impossible. And truly, during the descent, whatever he does, it is not considered to be an offense, because he's given failures from above, hardships from above, the descent from above. You need to feel this state. But during the ascent, that he received force from above, now he has scrutiny and criticism from above: what does he do when he receives the force from above, when the reforming light can bring him back to good? He can, this is the meaning: you receive the force from above, now use it towards correction. And if a person uses this strength for enjoyment, he enjoys this state of ascent, then he immediately starts to descend. This means that most of our efforts is not to go down, but to rise, and rise, and rise. Theoretically, if a person ideally receives an ascent, he constantly has to progress in it and not descend. This truly has to be his actions as much as he can hold it. There's more calculation from above what to do with him, but he has to be in this specifically, and he shouldn't be afraid not to fall, and not to fall, not from the feeling that I'll feel bad in a moment, and I'll suffer till my bones, but ascent and descent should be checked according to me turning to the Creator, my attitude towards Him, and this is mainly in the effort. Whoever is able to do all kinds of symbols that will remind him of the work, to remember the purpose of creation, the Creator, and the attitude towards Him, to direct himself, and everything he does, meaning all his actions that he does with the Creator, that they will be together, by friends, by books, by all kinds of symbols, whoever is successful with this, he hastens the time of development.
Question (Internet): (38:51) What should I do, what intentions the person needs to operate now, while he is preparing for Passover, Pesach?
M. Laitman: Pesach is called the “exodus,” exodus from Egypt. This means exiting from this world to this, to the world of spirituality. What is the spiritual degree? It means where a person is together with the Creator, that they have connection, they have an understanding, they have some kind of union, an adjustment. So to yearn to a state, to be in an adjustment with the Creator, to be similar to Him as with a friend that if you agree with him, you should hold only the part where you agree, and the part that you don't agree, you should leave it. The correction will come afterwards. So, to yearn towards this and truly try to feel, feel this state, that could be by the action that I do now. It's a mechanical action, beastly action in this world where I prepare, where we prepare our place for Passover; the food, equipment, all kinds of things. Yes, this is the main point: that each and every action is for me and the Creator to live together, feel that we are in the thought, the desire, in some kind of internal touch. This is the main intention. This is truly the whole point of Pesach, exiting from Egypt, exiting from exile, from the disconnection from the Creator towards redemption, Geula. What is redemption? It's connection with the Creator, that's all. We should depict these things as simple as we can, not theoretically and far from us, with these examples that we can't understand, these states that it's only written but I have no relation to it, but as closer to the feeling of the person. That's all.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:52) He says that in a state of ascent, a person can remember his state of descent in order to get fuel out of it. But he's limited, he's a single person. How do you do it in a society where you see that a friend is in descent? Can that remind us, or beyond helping him to come out in every possible way, can it also give a person fuel in order to stay?
M. Laitman: No, if I see that a friend is in a descent, I don't need to think about myself that I'm in a better state. I need to at least elevate him to my level. I don’t need to think that I'm in a better state than him, because otherwise, if he is in a descent, it means that our general vessel at least, has deteriorated to his level. When a person is in a descent, it's forbidden for me to think about my state at all. I need to save him. And not that his state of descent reminds me that, alas, I can find myself in his situation and start thinking about how not to descend. When I see that he is, that he has descended, it means that I've already descended, that I'm on his level. That's how the general vessel is. The general vessel cannot be higher than the level of the lowest friend. The lowest friend determines who or where the group is, and not someone who's in a good state. It's a false state; it can't be that one's well off and the other is in this poor situation. Impossible. So what's the question?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:53) A person in relation to himself, you know, he's either in ascent or descent. A group, it's a general vessel. So, someone could be in ascent, someone can be in descent. So what's the difference inside the vessel itself when you help a friend ascend?
M. Laitman: The only thing you can do is help the friend ascend. That's it. It's like you add the time of descent to the time of ascent. It's like, he says that in the time of descent, you find for yourself different thoughts, and so you and the friend, it's one and the same, it doesn't matter.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:56) Why is it separate, that one is on the axis of time and one is on the axis of separation between the bodies? It's the same vessel only in different bodies, but opposed to one person has this state and the other time is in another state? What is this separation on the axis of time and on the axis of different bodies? What is the difference between these separations?
M. Laitman: That our vessel, because of the falling of the shells, feels itself not special according to its parts, but that it is divided into many particular souls and that each and every particular soul has times of ascent and descent. It's a result of the shattering, that on the one hand, it's a must to divide the vessel during the shattering into the tiniest possible parts that you can divide into, and this can only be done by the shattering. All in all, what was done is that a big screen was taken, and it was broken into pieces, and more pieces, and more pieces, down to the most elementary parts that there is nothing smaller. That is already the desire in this world. So, each and every desire feels itself separate from the others, and besides, each and every desire needs to reach its particular correction, and afterwards it needs to reach connection with the rest of the parts and the general correction. In spirituality, the particular and the general correction are the same correction. Meaning that if a person really thinks about advancing upwards, he needs to think about connecting in width with all the rest of the souls. One depends on the other. We can't rise a centimeter upwards unless we connect with the entire world, with all the rest of the souls; those, and 10 grams more power of desire, of care, concern. That's how it works. So, one depends on the other. Whoever begins to feel the connection between the two, it means that he really started to feel spiritual processes. And in general, we see it on ourselves that the more a person advances, the more concern he has over his environment, for his environment, so much so that a person that really enters spirituality altogether, he stops feeling his own existence; he neutralizes himself and begins to work in bestowal. Meaning that he has no personal calculations; he's not thinking does he or does he not exist, does he or does he not have some kind of reward from it, etc. Therefore, during the time of preparation, in that state of preparation that we want to go into, we build a society that each of us will have the ability to try as much as you can to think about the others. And you can't, then a person, he'll get the recognition of evil as a result. These are exactly those discernments that are opposite to spirituality. During the time of preparation, you can put pressure on the person to keep these discernments forcefully under pressure. By that, his time is being hastened, and this we do on purpose in order to hasten our development, in order to see the disparity of form we already have with the spiritual framework. Meaning, here in this society we need to create a spiritual framework, spiritual laws, spiritual relationships between people forcefully, and to see how much our inner desire doesn't want to work by this force, but to the contrary, as if, and then everyone will have discernments as to where they are in relation to spirituality, as if spirituality, but still… and then everyone will have fuel and will always have demand against his own state where the evil is revealed. If a person really wants to take upon himself the so-called burden of heavens, or the burden of the group, it doesn't matter, but if he's there and he doesn't want to take it, he takes it partially, and to that measure is his advancement.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:01) Can we say that a person works within a group so that both his ups and downs are for the group? Is it actually not for him at all?
M. Laitman: No. During the time of preparation, we say that a person that's advancing, he's nonetheless advancing himself. Only afterwards is it revealed to him, when he crosses into spirituality, that all the work that he did, he wasn't serving himself at all but he was serving the collective. And in the meantime, we can't say that to ourselves because we'll have no fuel to work. It's hidden from us. You can say whatever you want, but you won't be allowed to really be in it, because it is not according to your degree to reveal your true state, that even now you're working for the benefit of the collective. All in all, we are receiving the revelation of the perfect state that we're in, and it's revealed to us in the measure to which we can bear it. To the measure to which we can use the revelation correctly, it's revealed to us. So, we're all the time in preparation as to how much can we bear. Not bear our own suffering, but what we suffer about is actually the measure in which we're incapable of bearing spirituality that's already supposed to be in our state. I'm supposed to be on level number 10 in spirituality now, and I'm only on level 3. There is a gap of 7 degrees. These 7 degrees are suffering. From that, I feel suffering, my measure of suffering: pain, blows, wars, you name it. This is what I feel now, between what I'm supposed to be and where I am. And this measure of suffering says, you can interpret what it says. Either it says about the measure to which I am falling behind in my spiritual development, or it tells me about the measure of how much I'm incapable of standing the spiritual degree that I was already supposed to be on, and it's actually the same.
Student: It's not a private calculation, because this group is taking me to a higher degree.
M. Laitman: No, no, I don't want to get confused with you, together. What's a group? What does it have to do with anything? There's a lot of means, but how do you connect this to the group?
Student: Because it's the degree of the group.
M. Laitman: I don't know, I don't want to get deeper into this.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:19) If a person works on the group and he feels that he really enjoys it, he's working inside the group, and he's enjoying it, should he be concerned about where he is, or is that a Klipa?
M. Laitman: If a person is found in the work of the group and he enjoys it, it's very good. We're now found in receiving in order to receive, in Lo Lishma, also in corporeality, towards the pleasures of this world, and in spirituality. And we must still reach the highest Lo Lishma. So, I don't need to tell myself: if I'm not in order to bestow, I don't want to touch anything, I'm not going to work, I'll do the least as I can, and it will be better. So I, instead of developing, I slowly make myself as a still. I will not eat, I will not drink, I'll sit in place without moving, I'll hold my thought in some mantra without thinking, and I'll turn into some kind of a Yogi, this beautiful Yogi. With this, I can feel some kind of spirituality because I've oppressed all my will to receive. I can feel something by this exercise, but this feeling is without development, but the opposite of it. I cannot flower from it, I cannot bloom from it. So, this is what you recommend us to do? So we need to work with society in all the means that society, as much as it gives us. And even though I feel good, and it's good that I feel while I work with the society, it's inside my vessels of reception, and I enjoy it, I need to work in this, I need to use this. There is no choice; I have to receive respect, honor, and thank you very much, I should hear it, and my self-respect, I should see it, and good outcomes that I do. First of all, the action, because intention, it's in order to receive. So, as much as you can put in the effort, it works.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:02) Where does the recognition of evil come from?
M. Laitman: The recognition of evil does not come from your work. The recognition of evil comes as an outcome of you doing all kinds of efforts, there comes a light from above, and then you recognize your evil, this distance between you and the light, this light. The recognition of evil cannot be in the presence of this world. With what good thing can you compare yourself that you will know your evil inside of you? It's only towards the light that comes from above, and it, by the intention, arrives. And as much effort you gave - more intentions, less intentions - of course it influences, as much as you give. You remember, you used to work hard, and after that you received a hit, you walked here like a poor Golem, you didn't know where it came from. This is how it is, it's payment, spiritual payment for the effort; it's good. When you feel it for the first time, it's terrible. The person does not know what happened to him, he never felt like this.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:13) The state where we need to feel the Creator as a friend, what does it mean?
M. Laitman: I didn't say Creator as a friend; I said, not the Creator will be as a friend, but the Creator should be… We should try and feel Him as much as you can feel the Creator, not feel the Creator as a friend. There are some kinds of states also, but not that we need to yearn to this, but as much as we feel the friend that he is not a part of me, and as much as I can see that I should be with him, and I should connect with him, and that it gives me the force of advancement, it gives me a chance to be with my thoughts in spirituality, I can hold in my thoughts, in my soul, to be a bit more connected to the Creator if I'm connected with the friends through them, with their help. So this is, I also need in this matter to warm me, to try and feel the Creator. That's it, the connection with the friends, it will give me an example how I can bring the Creator closer to me. That's it. Truly, with the same emotions where you feel the friends, the same internal places in your soul where you can feel them, how you connect with them, how you're good with them, how you're together, there you should also place the Creator, let Him enter, because these are true feelings, correct feelings to feel the Creator. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:15) How can you measure states of ascent and descent during the time of preparation?
M. Laitman: At the time of preparation, the states of ascent and descent you can measure only by as much as a person can be abstract from his personal gain. This is the only base that we can stand upon it with two legs.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:00) Why is the general state of the general vessel of the group measured by the weakest friend?
M. Laitman: I don't know why. Why is there such a question? The state of the society is determined by the lowest friend. Why? We now run 10 kilometers; we need to reach a goal. By what do we reach a goal? By the last friend that comes to it. So the vessel is all beyond the finish. Yes. And we don’t receive the payment until the last one arrives. The vessel is not complete. He will receive no payment in spirituality. Spirituality has to be the full measure. That's all. This is why we determine it by the weakest. That's it. What can you do? You're going towards a mission. It will not be completed until the last one will do it. You can benefit him; please, work for him, help him, like you take someone on the gurney. He reaches the goal although he is on the gurney.
Student: Is it possible to do this through inner work?
M. Laitman: What do you mean? This is how you do it. You can't do it without it, of course. I don't understand what is physical. Internal work, it's the Lord, this is the name itself, the internal work. It's not physical, it's internal. But now, when we are in the preparation for Pesach, then when a person works physically with his body, he needs to try to add his thought. So much so, he needs to place his desire: I want to do it, I want to do it. Afterwards, in every desire, he should place what he should enter, what does he want by this desire, you understand? Desire is aimed towards what? To feel the Creator, to be with Him together. I want Him to move my hand; it's called the horse and the rider will go together, as in “Achor ve Kedem Tzartani”.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:59) It's written here, "Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge." From what I understand, day is ascent, night is descent. What does it mean, pours forth speech and reveals knowledge?
M. Laitman: It's hard for us to discern what do we receive from ascents and what do we receive from descents, because states are apart, and the time of payment is separate. Meaning, what do I receive during the ascent? It could be that the descent is the payment, and what is the payment from the descent? Well, payment from descent, you can say that it's more like acceptable upon reason, but it's not. The payment from the descent is, it means that we, in total, we receive profit, gain in two of our vessels; in our mind and our heart, meaning, in the feeling and in understanding. By us, when we are found, when we are found in the descent and in the time of descent, it doesn't mean that I'm going to sleep. It means that in this state, in this time, I am fighting to be in Kedusha, to be connected with the Creator, to reveal Him, although He is hidden; descent is hidden. So by that, I receive discernments, understandings for all kinds of states. And from all these kinds of states upon my desires and on my internality, on my internal structure, the attitude between me and the Creator. But afterwards, when I am in the time of descent, in the darkness, I've discerned all these connections, all these points of frictions, all these points of connections, supposedly between us during the descent. The darkness, specifically, allows me to do this, it does not dumb me. I realize these things as much as I understood. After that, during the ascent, I fulfill all the connections, and all the points of frictions, and connection, and everything with love, with emotion, with what's called “Liba.”
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:13) How can a person avoid states where he feels that he is fighting from the side of the evil inclination against the Creator, and where he joins the Creator to fight against the evil inclination, to move to a state where he is joining the Creator and fighting together with the Creator against the evil inclination?
M. Laitman: We sometimes don't give gratitude to a state that we're in the will to receive. And from within it, we judge ourselves, and the Creator, and the state. And suddenly, there's like a jump, a revelation that, oh, I have to think from a different angle. This thing comes from the outside. Either it can come from maybe hearing from a friend saying it, and he's on a higher degree, so his state compared to mine is light compared to darkness, because whoever's in a higher state is like light compared to a vessel in a lower state. Or it can come from above. So what are you asking, that suddenly, like a little something turns around in the head or the heart?
Student: A person finds himself a lot of times as if he is fighting something. And how can we avoid it, that at the end of things, he is fighting?
M. Laitman: You can't avoid anything if you don't get the forces to go against that state. You're asking, how can I, in every state pull myself from my hairs outside? You have to have someone external.
Student: I'm asking, how can a person, instead of fighting the Creator will fight the evil inclination with the Creator?
M. Laitman: I don't know. If I am with the evil inclination before the Creator, so now I'm Pharaoh. Or suddenly, I go from the side of Pharaoh to the side of Moses.
Student: So it's also, I'm the Pharaoh that passes to the side of Moses or truly goes to the side of Moses.
M. Laitman: No, it's in this world, that's how we call it.
Student: It's like Pharaoh is sophisticated enough that he can go to the side of Moses.
M. Laitman: No, no, why do you need this for? You're not in the state, you already want to see the states outside of creation. How the will to receive get such impressions that it's supposedly the will to bestow? What for? It just makes things complicated and doesn't give you the right discernments to work with.
Student: What, so I'd rather hold on to Moses even though…
M. Laitman: Why is that important? If I'm entering spirituality, and I'm entirely in the will to receive with all my calculations that are egoistic, so put it on the side. So what if it's egoistic? Now my state is to advance as much as possible. In the ego, so in the ego, what state will be… They say that in the end, there'll be the state of the biggest Lo Lishma; that you're going to yearn to Him in a way that it won't let you sleep. What could be more egoistic? So, what does it matter that it's egoistic? It's something desired, I have to develop myself, so I'm going to do it. Why should I even think? It's like he asked: so I'm going to sit in a yoga stance, neutralize my will to receive, not to breathe, not to eat, not to think, nothing, and even if they bury me for two weeks in the ground, I'll stay alive.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:36) I thought that maybe in these states, the only thing that a person can receive, it truly comes from the outside. Meaning that he's given these states in order to see how much he needs. As much as he knows what he needs to receive, he can receive it only from the outside of him. It means only from the friends, or it doesn't matter, these forces that influence him supposedly from outside, or is it not?
M. Laitman: I don't understand these so much. I think that the direction isn't desired in these types of questions, because it prevents a person to go from the good. There are a lot of thoughts in a person's heart. What does it mean? Like he says in his letters: there's a time to combine what I'm doing and what I feel and the Creator in one feeling, whether to receive or to bestow, it doesn't matter, whatever state they give me. The main thing is to tie the three together. And if I go a bit deeper than that, so I lose that point. This is like a pureness in the work. Even though a person can't always, he's not always responsible for the thoughts that awaken in him, but above all those thoughts, you have to hold on to that point of connection. That's also the main thing in our preparation, that we work a lot. And before Passover, we really need to try to hold these three points together. Our work is called the “Orhim de Oraita”, or the light, me is Israel, and there's the Creator. He's the one I want to discover and connect to by my work. From here, if someone gets something true to do, so try and do it with your hands and with your heart.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:18) I want to ask this, let's say, maybe like this: there's this feeling of, it happens, and the feeling of singular, that I feel this one friend, or I feel the entire world, and from that I feel what I feel of the friends in itself, and then I feel in myself, and then I feel the Creator. Where is this force to check something that I feel these both, both ends?
M. Laitman: Look, all in all it's very simple. There's a created being and a Creator. The created being has to try in every state that is given to him to contact the Creator, to find that contact. Look how much he wrote about it, and how every moment goes by in your head, and how much you're still going to feel, and in each and every one in different manners. There are things that… it's also, you don't really need to talk about them, just, you just need to do it. That's it. And the fact that a person asked today, maybe he’ll get an answer in a year or two. The truth is that it's small. There are a lot of topics that it's not worth talking about. Each one has to discover it on his own. There's not a real verbal scrutiny that you can express in words. It also doesn't help. As much as you talk, you know, all these talking, when the state comes, all your wisdoms you have, what you read, what you knew, it's all… nothing works.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:44) If we as a group, we go through the barrier, and if so, how does it happen if everyone is in different state, in a different state?
M. Laitman: Each and every one that is in a different state in the group, and in the meantime he's found in a different state, and the group goes through the barrier together but each and every person in his measure, everyone in his vessel, but basically, they go through it together. This way it's a group, it needs to be a group and incorporation. What does it mean to go through the barrier, to break the barrier? It means that in your desires, in your thoughts, your intentions, there's been, there became the ability to be connected with the others, and the measure of coarseness of Shoresh. This is called to break the barrier. I have a lot of desires, and my desires reach a state where they have the screen of coarseness of Shoresh, source. This is called that I've broken the barrier. This is all.
What is called coarseness of Shoresh? That I can annul myself and to be connected with the others with all of reality, with all the world. In this way, I annul myself, and I think of them like an embryo. I cannot give them anything, anything, but to be present passively, only because of them, only for them. They can use me as much as they want, I'm passive. This is called an embryo. This means I'm in the group. I have no thought about myself. I cannot do anything for them in order to bestow truly, but I give my own, that they can use the forces, my body, my soul, whatever they want. This is called to be in the coarseness of root, to be an embryo towards the group or towards the friend, it's the same thing, or towards the Creator. This is called to break the barrier. That's it. Now, it could be that I can merit this alone, and all the group is still in this world, and I can be in this degree that I have annulled myself in the height of the first degree, first spiritual degree. Can there be such a thing? No. But each and every one, in some measure, in some measure, I cannot extend here, we must be also in this. You will see, whoever is in the group, it doesn't matter when he arrives, because it doesn't matter how many parts you studied in the TES, it doesn't matter. You can study part one, or second part, quarter of it, it doesn't matter this amount of knowledge. But you will see in the group that the small and big, or veteran, or young, they will be equal in the end, in a very short time, and they will speak one language, and they will understand each other, and incorporate, and there will be no difference. The difference can be in the mind, as much as you need time in this world to fulfill yourself with all kinds of things that are written, but this will never determine your spiritual degree. This is why a group, eventually, it will be somewhat in the same unity. Also, in the structure of the soul, each and every one has the difference, there is the still, there is the vegetative, more living, more talkative, more or less. But these, the spiritual ones, they will be the same, one will be more active, the second is less active, but all of them towards spirituality, there will be in spirituality.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:42) But the eye opening is as a group, to the extent that…
M. Laitman: Yes, in a different measure, the opening of the eyes is in a group. It cannot be different., It's one body, it's one mechanism. In this world, you arrange yourself, you have a suit, you have a shirt, you have shoes, you paid money for this, you received from someone as much as it is worth. This is why you are alive, this is why you exist, this is why you are able to exist. In the spiritual world, you also receive from others all these clothings, all these things, by paying them in spiritual effort, and you take from them spiritual vessels. We spoke of this: the revelation of spirituality is not in the soul itself but in what the soul acquires from the other souls. The point of me, the point in the heart acquires from all the other souls, it connects to the other souls, because all the parts of your soul is found in each and every one.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:28) If you take a weak friend and start investing in him, or to adhere to a stronger friend and adhere to him?
M. Laitman: No, the group needs to work not on adhering to someone in a stronger manner and work towards him, but how to lift the weak ones.
Student: So should we choose weaker friends for the group?
M. Laitman: No, no, you need to work with a group that you're in, and pay attention on the general advancement of all the friends, how to bestow them more uplifting.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:14) If I start investing in a certain friend…
M. Laitman: Not in some friend; you shouldn't invest in one friend. You need to invest in everyone.
Student: But you said that we have to invest in the weaker friends in order to lift the general level of the group. So if I see someone one that's weak according to my opinion. I approach him, I start paying attention, so he'll think that he's weak.
M. Laitman: Well, it's a matter of attitude.
Student: So how should we do it? What to do? You said that...
M. Laitman: You should start. You think that I have solutions now for each and every detail that you speak of? With Rabash, it was different. The group, the friends that came, they were not able to reach a state that we have here now. There wasn't this work in this form still. The time was not right. The Hasidic environment also caused this, and there was the environment of the relatives.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:29) So, how did he write this article?
M. Laitman: He wrote these articles not to... He wrote them to the friends, to the groups supposedly, but this is entirely not according to the level of the groups that we had then. That is for sure. There wasn't this work, we did not speak of this work. It was very superficial. A lot of friends we gather, and it's nice. In detail, what we speak of here, it was not discerned back then. We did not reach it then. So, there's nothing to learn from these groups back then. We can go and learn what state they are in. Well, now, after the teacher has deceased, then there's always descent for the students afterwards. There's somehow... Well, it's been 12 years, they balance, 11 years, but it wasn't like that. Of course not. The articles, these articles, they were written while the group was there, but he wrote it for generations. It's a method, practically. But first of all, supposedly the Kabbalists just passed it on by word to the students, based on the need that the student had, so he would receive discernment, direction from the teacher. And what he didn't arrive yet, they didn't speak of. So he, because he was truly the last one from all the generations of the Kabbalists, and he wrote it in such a way so that all the rest of the generations would receive it as the written Torah. And by the need, by the level that everyone can see from these articles, from all, from each and every article, it doesn't matter what we should read, what exactly to read, but there's points of advancement, the explanation for himself about his state. Whoever did not go through it, what can he see?
We will hope that we will reach a state where we can, by the interpretation of the ladder, we can see the work in three lines and go according to it. Not just say right, left, middle. Understand, truly see in detail what goes on there in the parts of the soul, three lines. Truly, there's what to talk about. But there are internal discernments. So there, it's even more advanced from these articles. These articles, it's like a stepping stone during the preparation. And after the barrier, also shouldn't disregard these articles of Rabash that only for now, but after the barrier where a person is found, he enters spiritual actions with intention that there is already the interpretation of the ladder. He can already also, “The Study of Ten Sefirot,” and then we can see what Baal HaSulam wrote. But what Rabash concentrated for the, of the articles, for our times, for our states, before the barrier, they helped. But for the group, we still were not able. I brought them at 83, let's say. At those times, seven years back then, it's like today, two years or one year, I don't know. They did not reach to the realization of these things. Even from his part, there was no impulse for this to pressure truly on this, but superficial study as a preparation for the future, a preparation for the future. Maybe at the start, there was some kind of a hope that we can do something with the new students. But I think it was very clear from the start that it is not simple, that the time is still… there is this matter of permission. This is what I think. I'm not going to punish the people that were raw matter like us. It seems that, well, it's best to say less.