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

Daily Lesson (Morning) January 3, 2025.

Part 1: Arvut on the Way to Lishma - Selected Excerpts from the Sources.

Reader: Hello friends. Today, we will read excerpts on the subject of “Arvut on the Way to Lishmah”. We start with Excerpt Number Six. You can find all of our texts on kabbalahmedia.info, as well as through the Arvut platform, where you can also send us questions live. Anyone asking a question here in the study hall is requested to hold his hand up first, of course, then to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth, and to speak loudly and clearly as well as succinctly. Now, please listen to all the orders of the ushers.

6. RABASH, Article No. 31 (1987), What Is Making a Covenant in the Work?

Reading: (0:48) Making a covenant means that when a person takes upon himself the work, even if in Lo Lishma, he must make a covenant with the Creator to serve Him whether he wants to or not.

Yet, we should understand on what the enthusiasm depends. It depends only on the reward. That is, when there is a big reward, the desire for the work does not stop. But when the reward is doubtful, the desire for the work vanishes and he shifts to rest. That is, at that time he feels more pleasantness in rest.

It is so much so that he says, “I relinquish the work, and anyone who wants can do this work because it is not for me.” But making a covenant is when he begins to work even in Lo Lishma. And since now he wants the work, for who would force him to come into the work of the Creator, now he must make the covenant and say, “Even if there comes a time of descent,” meaning that he will have no desire for the work, “I still take upon myself not to consider my desire but work as though I have a desire.” This is called “making a covenant.”

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:05) What does it mean to be a servant of the Lord?

M. Laitman: To be a servant of the Creator means to help the Creator be revealed to all of the created beings.

Student: We held a scrutiny as we prepared for the lesson and, how to check every day that we're truly doing our work properly. That we're really…we always say how we want to create a mutual intention towards the Creator. But how can we measure that every day, with the connection between us, that we're doing the Lord's work, correctly?

M. Laitman: We check ourselves, to what extent each one feels that this is the goal he has before him. And to what extent he's in an environment where each one supports the others because, on your own, for sure, it's impossible. This is how one focuses himself in this direction.

Student: We keep telling ourselves about the importance of the goal, connection. In our work, do we need to see that every day, as every day anew, that everything we do and say is for the Creator's sake? Should that be our goal?

M. Laitman: Yes, and it's also written this way, it should be as new in your eyes. That each day we have to awake and discover that our appeal to the Creator will be new, at least to some extent. And then they should be as new in your eyes, each and every day.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:23) He writes that, in any event he accepts not to work at his desire but, rather, work as though he had a desire. This is called making a covenant. So, with what power can he work as though he had a desire?

M. Laitman: Well, as if he had a desire, he can somehow depict that and play with himself. So, this is how we should relate to the group, to the gathering, to a Congress, to whatever you are doing together. And the place that you want to prepare for the Creator and to this place you intend. This is how we build the relation, the attitude, between the group and the Creator.

Student: To act with himself, meaning what, to see his future state, to look at his previous state, where he had an ascent?

M. Laitman: That's also possible, I'm not saying it's not. But the most important is to depict to himself what is his present state, that he is still in the will to receive for himself and he still has no contact with the Creator. And this is what now he needs to discover and to add to.

Student: The work, when not having the desire for it, does that promote the person?

M. Laitman: It helps him realize what he’s lacking. That, if now he will work on having a desire and get closer to the Creator, from that feeling, then he will succeed.

Student: So, he continues the work and he prays for the friends, for others, without any desire for it, completely opposing it even, but when he does this as he works, he receives the reward but he can't see it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:19) Making a covenant with the Creator – what he writes about here. Is that the same as my covenant with my friends in the bonds of Avrut?

M. Laitman: It could be close to each other, but we need to scrutinize it, we need to scrutinize it. Your making a covenant with the friends is based on the fact that you are together. We agreed to study together, to perform all kinds of actions together, etc. And all of this is in order to attain the Creator, this is our goal. It's the reason and also the goal, this actually is what is important. There's not much to speak of here because the Creator is before us. We’ve scrutinized enough who He is and what is it that we need to prepare in order to enter a connection with Him. And so, all of our friends, we see them here on the screens and we are truly ready already that, as much as we will direct ourselves, we will truly advance towards Him.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:32) It said here that you need to make a covenant with the Creator and serve Him whether, if you feel like it or not. How do I make a covenant with the Creator?

M. Laitman: You turn to Him and, in that, you have an opportunity to enter into contact with the Creator. Because you are a created being and, in creating you, He intended for you to be what you are. And so, you ask of Him that He will advance you into contact with Him so that you will be as two who are connected to each other. So that you will be able to adhere to Him, you will be able to see that you are saying something important to the Creator. And the Creator listens, He has no problem with that. That He is one and there are billions living on the face of the earth, there is no difficulty with that. And so, it turns out that this is the only thing that we should ask for.

Student: Making a covenant with Him, to serve Him, also when I don't have the desire to?

M. Laitman: You want it to be like that, and in these words with which you turn to Him, you insert all of your expectations. That He will help you, He will pull you, keep you in such a state. Obviously, you are weak and you have many disruptions – corporeal, all the way from corporeal ones to spiritual ones. But, nevertheless, you believe that the Creator has a place for you as well; there is a time and a power. And there is the end state, where you need to reach Him and you will be together with Him in complete adhesion.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:14) What is the fuel when making the covenant?

M. Laitman: The fuel while making a covenant is that a person is inspired that he has contact with the Creator, even though the two of them are as far away from each other as the East is from the West. And he is certain that if the Creator placed in his heart the desire to return to contact with the Creator, then a person is able to achieve it, it is within man's possibilities.

Student: When making the covenant, should there be fear there, that they'll separate and not manage to come together, again?

M. Laitman: This could be but with respect to certain discrete actions when a person is afraid that, maybe in that I won't reach my goal in that or in this. But, actually, if a person wants, and he insists on that, he stands in it in all kinds of external states that the Creator also arranges for him. And a person gathers all of these conditions - his internal conditions and external conditions of the world – the relations between him and the Creator, the relations between him and the society -- it all becomes one complex. In this way, he imagines to himself the correct state between him and the Creator.

Student: What is left from the time of making the covenant to the time when he needs the covenant? What is there that remains, that's stable, that's unchanging?

M. Laitman: From the time that a person begins to see ahead of him the way to ascend and reach contact with the Creator. And until he reaches that, what is interesting is that it happens only with respect to that person. This means that it's as if we have an entire world with respect to each one of us. And we, accordingly, need to relate to the Creator, that He is operating only with respect to us, only towards me, towards him, towards him. Truly, the Creator is one for everyone, that's on the one hand. On the other hand, clearly, He appears before each and every one to his extent. Therefore, this is how we should divide our relations with Him into the general and the particular individual.

Student: As one relates to the Creator, individually, he's making covenant, maybe in Lo Lishma, as he says here, that he can make a covenant. And then his states change, and now he's in a situation where he needs the Covenant, he needs the Creator's assistance. What remains from that first state up to that last state?

M. Laitman: In the beginning of one's way, he thinks that there is him and the Creator and there is some connection between them. And, in the final state, he discovers that there is him and the Creator and there is some connection between them. But this connection starts in the person and ends in the person, entirely.

Student: The connection with the Creator, itself, is what remains, if I understand.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And the way in which the connection is expressed, that's less important? But that's what he should have as a stable thing in his life?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:52) Who gives the person the desire?

M. Laitman: The Creator.

Student: If so, then making a covenant, he's making a covenant with respect to that desire, to always have the desire to serve the Lord?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Zihron 1): (21:15) Rabash emphasizes the importance of making a covenant in the beginning of the work. Why is it important to do so in the beginning of the work, specifically?

M. Laitman: So it will be clear what are the person's plans. Why does he even begin the work? What is his purpose, his goal? Ao, of course, even before beginning the work, he should arrange before him a ladder on which he wishes to climb. He wants to climb on top of it and, in this way, reach adhesion with the Creator.

Student: The friend continues: How can this covenant be maintained in the Ten when we are in a state of descent?

M. Laitman: We need to reach a state where it doesn't matter to me if I'm in an ascent or in a descent. I keep my connection with the spiritual system in whatever state it is.

Question (Women Latin 26): (23:00) If the desires change how can we develop a constant and stable desire to serve the Creator?

M. Laitman: We can reach a state where I have a constant relation to the Creator and to our spiritual state, and it will be like that and it will not change.

Question (Turkey 7): (23:27) How can we feel more obligated to the covenant?

M. Laitman: Only by that, each and every day we write down before us, what is the form of the world and how do I reach adhesion in the world that is unfolding and showing more details?

Question (Rehovot 1): (24:37) How can a person remain loyal to the covenants with the Creator?

M. Laitman: He should constantly add to his request from the Creator for the connection and its correctness, more and more, from himself; more details and, from himself, also desires and intentions etc.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:42) One thing I fail to understand. I heard the friends all of it, how can I make a covenant with something I don't know, through what means, I don't know. I know there are rules and so on, but what kind of covenant is this, with who, with what, what are the means?

M. Laitman: A person begins to study in a group that has a certain goal. He listens, he agrees with the group that there is something here that also draws him, and this is how he reaches it and comes closer to it.

Student: I have a question for you: The Ten, when we sit together, is that not the vessel that connects me with that Arvut to the Creator? Because you don't know Him. You don't have any knowledge, any inkling of who the Creator is. Do the friends serve as a bridge, so as to do the—you can call it Arvut—a covenant between the friends and the Creator? The way I behave with my friends, that's what we're told, right? First of all, it's the friends who come first and then you reach the place, the Creator. So, is the connection with the friends, is that the covenant that should later take place with the Creator?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: No? So, what are the friends in the Ten for, if not for that?

M. Laitman: Yes, but this all changes.

Student: What do you mean?

M. Laitman: You change, the friends change, the connection between you changes and then, accordingly, also the goal changes.

Student: If so, I want to continue a little. So, let's say I want to keep the Arvut, the covenant, as you say. What happens when I violate it, when I break it? Is any damage done to me?

M. Laitman: Yes, of course.

Student: What kind of damage and why should I be damaged?

M. Laitman: That whatever you obtained before getting closer to this concept of Arvut, it may disappear.

Student: I lose it?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Then if so, if you enter the path you need to be very careful not to break the agreement, the covenant.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: I'll give you an example. I didn't sleep tonight, I came here on all fours. Really, I didn't sleep for like 48 hours now. I had a feeling that if I don't come here, something might happen to me. I've had such things happen. A fear, like someone said, a fear that you're breaking some rule. Is it right to feel that fear or should I rise above it?

M. Laitman: The fact that a person feels fears, it is indeed correct, that's one thing. Second thing is, that this fear might disappear.

Student: What you're telling me actually is: you need to do everything but everything, come on all fours, on eights. You promised you'd come to the lesson, come. Otherwise, it'll be bad. That's what you're saying, I must?

M. Laitman: Let's say so.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:23) A while back, you told us that each should write the Ten Commandments down for himself. Is that the covenant between us and the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:45) The covenant and the Arvut, they depend on the connection with the Creator. The Creator keeps the person in the covenant, in the Arvut. But both the covenant and the Arvut, a person must keep renewing because new broken intentions are always added and the work begins, anew. And the work is just to turn to the Creator, for Him to help because I don't have the power to overcome these states. Now, my question is from what moment can I say that I have entered the covenant or the Arvut? Is it the moment I turn to the Creator or when I receive this power from the Creator?

M. Laitman: From the moment that you started to feel that you have a connection with the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:58) This point when a person finds that he needs the covenant and he does have the covenant in place, he made the covenant. What does he receive at that point?

M. Laitman: Contact.

Student: Knowledge of the situation or also forces?

M. Laitman: It's hard to distinguish but let's say, the knowledge.

Student: This excerpt we read is taken from an article called, “What is Making a Covenant in the Work”? I shared recordings of it, I read it many times, I divided it into parts. It's important to understand how to make the covenant because that's what the whole work depends on but I don't understand it. He says that you need to do it and why you need it but the action, itself, it should be for the future, for the next situation, the next state. How do you do something towards the next state?

M. Laitman: We prepare ourselves.

Student: A person is in a state where he receives more and more weight, right? More of a burden, and now the forces that he has now, with which to be in contact, will not suffice for the next state.

M. Laitman: That’s possible.

Student: Now you say, that if he makes the covenant, he receives knowledge of the situation and then he needs to make efforts to return to that contact again. Is that right? Do I understand?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And then if he discovers that he, yes, he does receive this knowledge but he has no power to perform any action, what does it mean, that he doesn't have the covenant or that the Creator is keeping the covenant while the person isn't?

M. Laitman: The Creator is keeping the covenant but the person still needs to invest an additional effort now in order to discover it.

Student: He's now referring to this given situation, or when he made the covenant?

M. Laitman: Now means that state.

Student: All right, so exactly in that state, can it be that he receives the knowledge and then he says, all right, fine, and he runs away? Or maybe he gets the knowledge, he makes efforts, he fails. Or maybe he does manage to return back to the contact. So, what governs this gap?

M. Laitman: What determines it? It's the effort of the person.

Student: But, in that moment, he has a certain level of ability to make effort, like a battery, right, power. He can do, about that, so that level of ability, what happens with that?

M. Laitman: It's as much as a person is able to add forces of his own.

Student: Of his own? And what gives him this ability to add forces of his own?

M. Laitman: The surrounding light.

Student: Which should come from the environment?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, here, he needs the Arvut from the friends?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: I see that every day, when we come to the morning lesson, we receive some awakening, we receive some kind of contact. Then, we pledge to each other to hold each other to that throughout the day and, yes, we do receive these reminders. We can also have it done, artificially, a reminder, an alarm or something. I see that in the beginning, you have the power to maintain it. But, gradually the burden increases and it becomes harder and harder to make these efforts. What does it mean? What work should be done in the lesson, maybe, so that we will be able to maintain it? As you said, you said that we need to gather all this coarseness, all these states we were given and use them for the sake of connection.

M. Laitman: Well, this depends on you.

Student: That's clear but what do we need to do?

M. Laitman: Connect between you and bestow from one to the other or among everyone to give an awakening.

Student: That's also clear, that's clear but in general. Each time you need to make a certain addition but the power to make that addition declines. And then what should a person do, what can a person do?

M. Laitman: It declines relative to the force that you had before because, earlier, you were also given that force to advance from above, from the heavens. And now they're lowering it so that you need to attain this force by yourself with which to advance.

Student: How do you gain it?

M. Laitman: You pray, you ask.

Student: When it comes to that point, then?

M. Laitman: Fine, so here, you have a problem. Whom do I turn to, how do I ask? When will I get it, what will it give me, etc.? But the point itself is clear.

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: That you need to raise your prayer and get an additional force that you did not have before from the Creator.

Student: Is it private work, personal work?

M. Laitman: It's individual work, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:40) Like the friend, I'm very much afraid of the covenant with the Creator. First of all, it's kind of like making a covenant with my imagination, as he said. But, also, if I don't keep the covenant, it'll be like a curse.

M. Laitman: A curse?

Student: A curse towards the Creator.

M. Laitman: Well, yes?

Student: I want to ask, is the covenant a request or a promise?

M. Laitman: The covenant is a condition, a condition. That if you will agree with the friends – like in a bank. Let's say, that you're going to put $1,000 in your account, and they promise, they pledge, that in the end of the year you'll get $2,000.

Student: Yes, but at the moment we're talking about the covenant between myself and the Creator not between myself and the friend. The conditions between the friends, that's different because I can see if someone is doing something where, something that they promised, and they can see if I'm doing what I promised. But the Creator, it's, our entire path depends on above reason. How do I feel any power in this covenant if I have no power? If my face is on the floor and I need power to serve the Creator, to rise, to come to the lesson. Or even something that requires more strength than just to drive a few minutes?

M. Laitman: They tell you that the fact that you now discover that you have no powers, you are discovering that the Creator did not give you powers – He did not give it to you, right? You were born in such a way that you have no mind, no emotion, you don't have the knowledge about what is happening around you. You can't see the past and present and future. Who are you? Just something that exists thanks to some upper force that is holding you. So, what is left for you in such a state? In such a state, what is left for you is only to scrutinize what is it that you can get from above and what can you ask for?

Student: What are the components of the covenant? Because I also need to give something, I also need to make a concession? Or rather to promise to the Creator that I'll give something, but if I have nothing to give. What can I promise to the Creator?

M. Laitman: You want to say the following: If I will have such and such and such forces, then, for a certain, I will also give them to others but whatever I don't have, I don't have it.

Student: I say that every day, many times. And when I feel that I received something, even something little, I try to give to the society, in this way or another. But, most of the times, I have nothing, I'm just sitting and waiting and asking, give me, give me something to give. Give me the power to elevate the friends. Give me the power to create a connection between the friends. There are many, many things that I ask for; however, I still stay sitting and waiting. So, I don't know what to do other than sit with my fear that, ultimately, I may be able to give nothing because I'm not asking correctly. I'm not allowing the Creator to sign the covenant with me. It's not done right, the covenant, it's not in the right form. What is the right way to sign the covenant, where I give it to the Creator and He signs it and I sign it and, together, everyone is happy forever?

M. Laitman: We will do such a thing until the end of the week. Until the end of the week everyone must write down an appeal to the Creator: What is it that you want? Who are you and what do you demand from Him, that you want to receive from Him, in what form? That's it. In the meantime, it should be like that.

Student: That is a very excellent exercise, very appropriate. I'd also like to ask that: In the covenant, there is sometimes the feeling that I need to mention the Creator, as though to remind the Creator of the promise of the covenant between the Creator and Abraham, Avraham. It's as though I'm a person with the corruptions, all the way through. But, also, I come from Abraham, the Patriarch, and the Creator promised Abraham that there will be a Segula, a special power, for generations to come with him. And how to use that promise that the Creator gave to benefit the whole society and the world and the Creator, ultimately?

M. Laitman: This is the prayer. This is the prayer that you are asking of the Creator that he will keep your covenant with Abraham, with the group of Abraham, and with Him, Himself, the Creator And that you do not want to separate from that but, rather, remain in it forever, that's it.

Student: Even though I'm not as pure as Abraham, he gave everything. I'm just, what am I? I'm nonsense.

M. Laitman: That does not matter. That does not matter. As much as a person is equal, his worth, that will remain until he will discover it in the end. And that justifies all of one's prayers.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:44) There's an example of a person making a covenant with the Creator in Bereshit. Jacob tells the Creator, Jacob made a vow, saying, “If the Creator remains with me and protects me on this path that I walk. And gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and I return peacefully, unharmed, to the house of my father. And the Lord would be my God and the stone that I placed in Testament will be the house of the Lord and everything I receive, I will share a tenth for Thee. What is that covenant?

M. Laitman: That if he receives this attitude from the Creator, he will receive it, accept it as great help. And, well, there are a few secrets here that I can't – I don't know how to speak of. In such a way, he can rise from where he is now, and ascend to the Creator.

Student: Jacob is asking the Creator to protect him on his way.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: Then he says, and if you protect me from everything you give me, I will give a tenth to you.

M. Laitman: This means that he says that only the Creator can keep him, protect him. And he doesn't make any calculations with whatever the Creator is doing before him. But, rather, he agrees to all of the conditions that will exist for him because he receives it directly from the Creator. And he has nothing else to add., everything is in the hands of the Creator. He only wants one thing - not to forget about this connection that he had with the Creator That now he has this connection, not to forget about it, ever.

Student: From the moment Jacob makes that covenant with the Creator, every time he receives something and gives a tenth of it back to the Creator, the tithe. By that, does he renew the covenant?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does he demand? He gives the tithe, a tenth, and what does he ask for in return? What does he ask the Creator for?

M. Laitman: What does it say there?

Student: That if you will protect me on the path and be with me and bring me back home safe. So, rather, Jacob gives the Creator a list of conditions.

M. Laitman: Conditions?

Student: Yes, if you give me all this, all this protection and escort and guidance and peace. Then I will give you a tenth, everything you give me, I will give you back a tenth of it. So, from then on, Jacob continues living; he receives something and he gives a tenth back to the Creator. I'm asking about that action, when Jacob gives a tenth to the Creator, the tenth share, what does he say every time? It's not written. What does he say every single time he gives the tenth back to the Creator? What does he demand?

M. Laitman: That, whatever I will receive from you throughout my life, it all belongs to You. Because 10% is what a person needs for his life and 90% is what a person should give back to the Creator.

Student: What does that build in Jacob, that attitude towards life? What he receives, what he gives?

M. Laitman: He enters the Creator's family, to be in the Creator's family.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:35) This state that I'm hearing about, is a state where some negotiation takes place between myself and the Creator. I ask the Creator to sustain me, right, to give me everything I need in order to be able to act for Him, right, to give Him back? Now, if I have the feeling that I don't get what I asked for, did the Creator detach from me or did I ask for something that perhaps I don't need?

M. Laitman: No, it's not that He detaches from you, it's just that you're asking for things that are not really for you.

Student: I need to ask to be with the understanding and knowledge that the Creator gives me everything that I need?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:40) There are friends in the Fathers and Sons Convention. The friend is there and he's asking is the covenant personal between the person and the Creator? Or if a person makes a covenant with the friends, does that count as a covenant with the Creator as well?

M. Laitman: No. Again?

Student: Is the covenant individual, personal, between the Creator and the perso Or if a person makes a covenant with the friends, that counts as a covenant with the Creator?

M. Laitman: No, that's not certain but the covenant is that we feel that we are connected between us. And, all of us, all of us can draw a certain boundary for the connection between us. And, within this boundary, we want to keep what the Creator has decided on, has determined.

Student: So, the covenant with the friends is a kind of framework that helps us achieve a covenant with the Creator. It's not the same thing but one thing helps the other, right?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:12) I understand that there is a bilateral kind of commitment in the covenant. Now, how can I commit to anything? If I take Jacob's story, perhaps I can commit to the tenth, and even there I know that tomorrow I might change my opinion in one second. So, what can I commit to? It doesn't feel that I can commit to anything? It's not that I'm absolving myself of this, but?

M. Laitman: When you enter the covenant, you ask the Creator to help you keep the conditions of the covenant and this is how you continue.

Student: Even when I'm in the abyss, right? Because this covenant was given when I was in an ascent, right? It can't be otherwise.

M. Laitman: That, too.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:27) Can you define the connection with the Creator as having a taste for rest?

M. Laitman: Again?

Student: Having a taste for rest, enjoying rest, as he writes, here. Maybe it'll be a measure of equivalence?

M. Laitman: In the connection, there are always relations from both sides. And so, I am too small to talk about such high things, high states. But I don't think that it's only like that.

Student: How does the covenant with the Creator manifest? Does it exist ahead of time?

M. Laitman: You are already asking about things that I said about them, that I don't know. What I can speak of is from myself. But whatever is between a person and the Creator – each one of us, or all of us together – don't ask about that.

Student: A different question: You make the covenant once or in every situation, is there also an opportunity?

M. Laitman: Usually, it's one time.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:10) What characterizes the stage that comes prior to the making of a covenant?

M. Laitman: That a person begins to see that there is some deficiency, here, in his connection with the Creator.

Student: Lack of putting energy into the work?

M. Laitman: It doesn't matter, in whatever way it begins to be revealed.

Student: The stage of making a covenant, does it must happen for a person in his work?

M. Laitman: In a certain state, yes.

Student: Is it a very advanced state, if he reaches that?

M. Laitman: It depends on whom.

Student: Why?

M. Laitman: It depends on which way the person is going, that he’s headed according to his destiny.

Student: If I reach a state where I make a covenant, it means that the Creator is revealed to me, relatively speaking.

M. Laitman: I don't know, you need to discover it.

Question (Kiev 1): (01:00:55) What does it mean that I made a covenant? Will I feel some kind of response from the Creator? That He accepts the covenant, that He supports it?

M. Laitman: Yes, he has written and made a covenant with Him. And from that moment on, they have a covenant towards each other.

Student: How to feel it? If now I am in a state of ascent and I want to make a covenant for all eternity?

M. Laitman: You see, that you want it to be from now to eternity. Immediately, we can see, that it's not serious.

Student: So how?

M. Laitman: Gradually, bit by bit, we will get there. We don't have to break through and run forward.

Question (Hadera 1): (01:01:57) Let's say, we have in the Ten a situation where some new friends joined. But before that there was an agreement between the friends that they agreed to commit to those conditions, morning lesson, etc. And now there is a situation where some are committed and some aren't. And the Ten decided that it wants to renew the agreement.

M. Laitman: Well, do something.

Student: Will that be the same as making a covenant?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How to make it so that the Creator is also a part of this covenant within it?

M. Laitman: Ask Him.

Student: A person who is powerless, and he acts, like we read, he acts as though he has the power. And he tries to perform the actions, actions which were predetermined. Is that a practical commandment?

M. Laitman: It could be.

Student: What does it depend on?

M. Laitman: I don't know.

Question (ITA 4): (01:03:31) In order to do the work Lishma in the Ten, let's say. What is the proper prayer to the Creator? I want to receive vitality in my own state, corporeally and also spiritually. How do I give contentment to the Creator in order to keep the covenant?

M. Laitman: You will have to divide your engagements into two purposes: To succeed in this world and to succeed in the spiritual world.

Question (Moscow 1): (01:04:23) What to do if a person reaches Arvut, covenant, and then all sorts of disruptions come in his corporeal life. And he sees that the friends aren't helping him with his corporeal needs, and then he falls, and it's difficult for him to get back up?

M. Laitman: He should correct himself in that state of descent.

Student: But he feels that the friends are the ones who should supply him with the necessities.

M. Laitman: No, none of the friends should provide him anything.

Student: But there's the rule that the judge has only what his eyes can see. So how can you reach a covenant?

M. Laitman: Friends, you need to learn about it, speak about it. And then we can have a gathering and it will be clear to you.

Student: That same desire we discover between us and the Creator. Does it become the source of all the changes that happen in the future? Is it some kind of preliminary desire that we discover?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (MAK 11): (01:06:01) Making a covenant, who initiates it? Do I initiate the covenant or does the Creator give me this opportunity? Who initiates, who comes first?

M. Laitman: Of course, it all stems from the Creator. Everything starts with Him.

Student: A friend is asking: When making a covenant, Jacob sets conditions before the Creator and we learn that we can't expect any kind of reward. So how come there are conditions?

M. Laitman: A condition doesn't necessarily mean a reward. If we want to reach a covenant, then already there are certain demands there on both sides. And it's necessary to keep them, this is what we need to take a certain stance with respect to Jacob, in this question.

Reader: 7. RABASH, Letter No. 24

Reading: (01:07:33) You must always stand guard, all day and all night, when you feel a state of day or feel a state of night. […] It follows that you must awaken the heart of the friends until the flame rises by itself.

M. Laitman: This is indeed a difficult problem and we have to work accordingly. Is it clear? Number 8.

8. Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee],” Item 17

Reading: (01:08:18) With this collective responsibility, each member of the nation was liberated from worrying about the needs of his own body and could observe the Mitzva, “Love your friend as yourself” in the fullest measure and give all that he had to any needy person since he no longer cared for the existence of his own body, as he knew for certain that he was surrounded by six hundred thousand loyal lovers standing ready to provide for him.

M. Laitman: Well, this is clear. This is clear.

Song: (01:09:28)