The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: February 9, 2026
Part 1: A lesson based on the articles of Rabash
Rabash. Article No. 15, 1990. What Does It Mean that Before the Egyptian Minister Fell, Their Outcry Was Not Answered, in the Work?
Original lesson date: 19.04.2002
Reader: In the first part of the lesson, we're going to learn a lesson from April 19, 2002, based on the article, "What Does It Mean That Before the Egyptian Minister Fell, Their Outcry Was Not Answered, in the Work?" You can find it in the writings of Rabash, volume 2. We'll read it together in the Tens, Tens that finish reading before the time is up are invited to workshop the main ideas from the article.
Reading: (01:01) What Does It Mean that Before the Egyptian Minister Fell, Their Outcry Was Not Answered, in the Work?
Article No. 15, 1990
The Zohar (Shemot [Exodus], Item 341) says, “As long as their minister had dominion over Israel, Israel’s outcry was not heard. When their minister fell, it is written, ‘The king of Egypt died.’ And promptly, ‘And the children of Israel sighed from the work, and they cried, and their outcry went up unto God.’ But until that time, their outcry was not answered.”
We should understand this: If he says that before their minister fell, their outcry was not answered, who caused their minister to fall so that afterward it will be possible to hear their outcry? We should also understand why, if their minister had dominion, it is impossible for their outcry to be answered. Does their minister have the power to detain the prayers of Israel? We should also understand what is written (Exodus 5:22), “Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Why did You ever send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not saved Your people at all.’ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a mighty hand he will send them.’”
We should understand Moses’ argument when he said, “Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not saved Your people at all.” It appears as though Moses’ complaint was true, since it implies from the Creator’s reply that what Moses said was true. But the Creator said, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh.” In other words, he would see what the Creator would do to Pharaoh. It seems as though it should have said, “You will see,” meaning that Moses will see, meaning Atah [you] with an Aleph [which changes the meaning from “now” to “you”]. Why is it written Atah with an Ayin [which means “now”], which implies that now he will see? It means that when he came to Pharaoh previously, and he harmed this people, there could not be an exodus from Egypt. But now there will be a place for with a mighty hand he will send them and drive them out.
We should understand why specifically now is the place of the exodus from Egypt. There are two things to understand here: 1) why when he came as the Creator’s messenger, the situation of the people of Israel grew worse. 2) why specifically now, after the situation has deteriorated, there can be an exodus from Egypt.
We should interpret this in the work. The ARI says that the exile in Egypt was that the view of Kedusha [holiness] was in exile. This means that the Klipa of Egypt ruled over the people of Israel. We should interpret that the people of Israel means that the whole nation wanted to work for the sake of the Creator and not for their own sake, as it is known that “Israel” means Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], meaning everything for the Creator.
The governance of Pharaoh is the opposite: to work only for one’s own sake. For this reason, the view of Kedusha means that we must work for the sake of the Creator, meaning to bestow. This discernment was in exile under the rule of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, where Mitzrayim [Egypt] has the letters of Metzar-Yam [narrow sea], and it is known that “narrow” means scarce in Hassadim [mercies].
It is like the [Hebrew] expression, “narrow eyed” [jealous], meaning that he can only receive and not give anything. “Wide” means expansive, meaning giving much, and “narrow” is the opposite, not giving, which means that the Klipa [shell/peel] of Egypt was that each one could work only in order to receive in return. But without return, meaning only to bestow, he does not permit any action. This is considered that Egypt was narrowing [constraining] the quality of Israel.
By this we can interpret what our sages said, “Anyone who constrains Israel becomes a Rosh [head].” That is, who can control the quality of Israel? Only he who is the Rosh, he governs. Then he constrains the quality of Israel, not letting one work for the sake of the Creator, which is called to engage in Hesed [mercy], but only in reception for oneself. This is called “the Klipa of Egypt.”
Therefore, the order of the work is as our sages said, “One should always engage in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], and from Lo Lishma, we come to Lishma [for Her sake], since the light in it reforms him.” This is so because man was born with a desire to receive for himself. Hence, if we want him to do something, to emerge from the state where he is used to working for his sustenance, meaning a person is told, “Until now you knew that all your pleasures, by which you sustain the body so it can exist, came only from corporeal things. You found pleasure only in corporeal things, and this is called ‘the sustenance of the body.’ Engage in Torah and Mitzvot, where greater pleasure is clothed, so it is better for you to engage in Torah and Mitzvot because by this you will have more pleasure.”
It is like a person being told, “Stop working where you are used to work; there is a company where you can earn ten times more.” If he believes what he is told, he will certainly leave the job he was used to doing all the time and go work at the new place, since he will receive a higher return.
This is called Lo Lishma. However, from Lo Lishma he will come to Lishma. Therefore, it is worthwhile to begin even in Lo Lishma, since in the end, he will come to Lishma. It is as Maimonides says, “Therefore, when teaching little ones, women, and uneducated people, it is in order to receive reward, until they gain knowledge.”
All this is because the body understands only the mother tongue. That is, if the first language that the mother speaks to it is the language of reception, meaning to work only for the will to receive for oneself, meaning to act only for its own benefit, and the language of bestowal is something new to it and it does not understand it, it is very difficult to learn this language. That is, understanding this language requires help from above, so as to be able to grasp this language of the desire to bestow.
It was said about this, “He who comes to purify is aided,” to understand this language. This is called “the generation of Babylon,” as it is written (Genesis 7:11), “They will not hear one another’s language.” In other words, when they were given work of bestowal, for each to work for one’s friend, the package soon fell apart.
That is, it is as it is written, “and they stopped building the city,” since when they were told that each one should work for his friend, they did not know this language, and no one wanted to work for another. Hence, they immediately “stopped building the city,” as they had no motivation to work for the sake of others.
For this reason, when the people of Israel were in exile in Egypt and were under the governance of Pharaoh, King of Metzar-Yam [Narrow Sea/Egypt], and wanted to emerge from his governance, they could not. It was still unclear to them what it means to work in order to bestow and not for one’s own sake. Although they wanted to work for the sake of the Creator, they saw that they could not. Yet, they always had excuses as to why they cannot aim in order to bestow, and they did not feel that they were so far from the Creator.
However, when Moses came to the people of Israel and spoke to the quality of Pharaoh in each and every one, meaning to the will to receive in their hearts, and told them that he wanted that the quality of Pharaoh in them would not dominate the quality of Israel in them, but that it would allow working for the sake of the Creator and not for the sake of the body, when the Pharaoh in the nation heard what Moses had told them—to work only for the sake of the Creator—they understood what it means to bestow and not receive and were promptly weakened in the work, since the body resisted with all its might so they would not perform any act of Kedusha.
In other words, even the Lo Lishma now became difficult for them to do. Before Moses came, they had strength to work because they still did not know what “for the sake of the Creator” meant. But when Moses came and explained to them what it means to bestow and not receive anything, the Pharaoh of each one started asking questions: 1) As it is written, Pharaoh asked, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” 2) Then came the wicked one’s question, who asked, “What is this work for you?”
It follows that once the people of Israel heard from Moses that they must work for the sake of the Creator, the real resistance of the evil in man began. This is the meaning of the words, “Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people.’” In other words, the body, which is called Pharaoh, began to resist the work.
It follows that Moses’ question was in order. That is, intellectually, we understand that if we observe the Torah and Mitzvot that the Creator commanded, the order should be that if we engage on the path of truth, the work should certainly be stronger, since we are marching on the path of truth, whereas Lo Lishma is not on the path of truth.
Hence, when Moses came to speak in the name of the Creator, the work should have been stronger, meaning to overcome the evil with the quality of truth. Yet, what did Moses see? It is written, “Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people,” meaning the work to overcome the evil has become harder. In other words, not only did they not become better, meaning had more power to overcome the evil, but on the contrary, the evil gained more power.
Yet, the truth is that before we know what it means to do everything in order to bestow, the evil in man does not show its resistance all that much, since it is given a holding place while engaging in Torah and Mitzvot. Yet, when the body hears what it means to bestow upon the Creator and not receive anything for one’s own sake, meaning wanting to completely uproot the evil and not give it any grip on one’s Torah and Mitzvot, of course it resists with all its might and does not allow being cancelled.
It therefore follows that it is not that something new occurred in the evil. That is, it is not that now he received the evil, but that the evil that was in him had nothing to do and was virtually idle within him. But when a person wants to give all his actions to the Creator and not give anything to his body, called “will to receive for oneself,” it begins to show its strength and resists being overthrown from governance over the body.
It is written in The Zohar that the evil inclination in a man is called “a foolish old king.” It says, Why is it called “king”? Because it controls the body. And why is it called “old”? Because as soon as one is born, it is present in a person, whereas the good inclination comes to a person after thirteen years.
It therefore follows that as long as the evil is not revealed, there is still no one to cancel. But once its might has been exposed in full, it is possible to revoke it, since then, when he revokes it, he revokes it entirely. When the evil is not revealed, only a part of it can be cancelled, and this is not wholeness, since from above, when a person is given something, he is given a complete thing.
Otherwise, if one were to be given the power to be able to work for the sake of the Creator, if a bad part that has not been revealed remains in a person, it follows that a part that is bad and is still not revealed remains within a person and works with the intention for the sake of the Creator, and this is not considered wholeness. This is as our sages said (Sukkah 48), “Anyone who associates ‘for the sake of the Creator’ with another thing is uprooted from the world.”
We should interpret this in the work. This means that if a person observes Torah and Mitzvot for the sake of the Creator, but does part of the work also for the sake of the body, meaning that it will yield benefit to the body, too, he is uprooted from the world, meaning from the spiritual world, since everything must be for the sake of the Creator, and not at all for one’s own sake.
It follows that before the evil reveals its true form, it is impossible to give the person the power to uproot it, since he still does not have the measure of the bad that will give him the power to overcome, as it is known that there is no light without a Kli [vessel], meaning no filling without a lack.
According to the above, we can understand the Creator’s answer when He told him, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh.” We asked, it should have said Atah with an Aleph [meaning “you”], meaning that Moses would see that the Creator will do to Pharaoh. Why does it say Atah with an Ayin [meaning “now”]?
According to what we explained, it is impossible to give half a thing. Rather, first, the full evil must be disclosed, and then comes the help from above over a complete thing. Therefore, after Moses said, “Why have You brought harm to this people and did not save at all,” but rather the bad manifested in all its might, now is the time when the salvation will come from above. This is why He said, “now,” meaning that now you will see that I will give them the necessary help, as it is written, “For with a mighty hand he will send them, and with a mighty hand he will drive them out from his land.” For only now is it the time, since all the bad has been revealed in them.
Now we can understand why when Moses came as the Creator’s emissary, their situation grew worse. The reason is that this is not regarded that they grew worse, but that when Moses let them see what it means that they must work for the sake of the Creator, as it is written, “Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name,” meaning that we must work for the sake of the Creator and the quality of Pharaoh must descend from its throne, there was room for the revelation of the evil.
It follows that by Moses explaining to them the meaning of working in order to bestow, they advanced in the work and achieved the degree of truth, to know how the bad controls them. Before Moses came to them as an emissary of the Creator, they did not know the truth—how far they were from the Creator. It follows that although in action, they grew worse, in truth, they advanced, for only now do they have Kelim [vessels] that the Creator can fill with His help, as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.”
Now we can also understand the second question: Why specifically after they grew worse, the time came when the Creator gave the help. This was so because only now do they have Kelim that are ready to receive a complete thing. This is why it is written, “Now you will see” with an Ayin.
Concerning what we asked about what The Zohar says, that before their minister fell, the outcry of Israel was not heard, as it is written, “And the king of Egypt died,” and promptly, “And their cry went up unto God.” But until that time their outcry was not answered. We asked, 1) Who caused their minister to fall? 2) Why does their minister have the strength to detain their prayer?
We can understand this the way Baal HaSulam said, as is presented in the book A Sage’s Fruit (Part 1, p 103): “The thing is that to the extent that the children of Israel thought that Egypt were enslaving them and impeding them from worshipping the Creator, they truly were in the exile in Egypt. Hence, the redeemer’s only work was to reveal to them that there was no other force involved here, that ‘I and not a messenger,’ for there is no other force but Him. This was indeed the light of redemption.”
It follows that the exile is primarily that we think that there is a minister of Egypt, meaning that their minister is given authority and he governs Israel. When a person thinks so, their minister rules. When the people of Israel want to emerge from the governance of the minister of Egypt and see that they are asking the Creator to deliver them from his dominion but the Creator does not deliver them from exile and they are under his governance, then they say that the Creator does not hear their prayer.
The evidence of this is that He does not hear their outcry, since they see that they keep regressing instead of progressing. In other words, each time, they see that they are farther from the work of bestowal, since it makes sense that according to the work and toil that a person gives and prays to the Creator, He would deliver him from Pharaoh’s governance.
Yet, each day he sees the opposite. That is, each day, he sees that Pharaoh is ruling over him with more power, meaning he sees that he is more connected to the will to receive, and also more remote from the desire to bestow. For this reason, a person says that the Creator does not hear a prayer.
This is the meaning of what The Zohar says, that as long as their minister was given dominion over Israel, Israel’s outcry was not heard. This is considered that their minister detains the prayers of Israel. That is, the people of Israel say so; otherwise, why does the Creator not hear their outcry?
And what happens in the end, meaning after the full form of the evil has been revealed to them and they did not escape the campaign in the middle of the work? At that time they are rewarded with seeing the truth, that there is no minister of theirs here, who was detaining their prayers, but the Creator Himself did everything, as it is written, “for I have hardened his heart.” That is, the Creator made them see each time how far they were from Kedusha, meaning that the Creator revealed to them the bad “that I may set these signs of Mine.” Thus, specifically by revealing all the bad, the Creator can give them the help for a complete thing.
Accordingly, it means that when they were rewarded with seeing, “And the king of Egypt died,” which The Zohar calls “the fall of their minister,” this awareness, that they thought that there was a minister to Egypt and that he had authority and was detaining their outcry so it would not be heard above, that view has fallen from the people of Israel.
Instead, now they were rewarded with seeing that there was no minister to Egypt who detained the prayers of Israel from being accepted. Rather, the Creator did hear their prayer and the Creator hardened their hearts. That is, the Creator wanted the real form of evil, called “will to receive for oneself,” to be revealed.
It follows that He did hear their outcry. Were it not for the awakening from below of the people of Israel, who want to emerge from Egypt’s governance, meaning when they saw that all their work was in favor of the will to receive for themselves, called “Pharaoh king of Egypt,” without this awakening, the Creator would not reveal to them the form of the bad.
The Creator shows the form of the bad only to those who want to emerge from the governance of the bad. They think that they are growing worse each time, when in truth, it is common sense that everything in which we exert, we advance more or less, but we do not regress. The answer is that we are not regressing. Rather, we are advancing to the form of the truth of how much the bad can work within them. Then, when they have a complete Kli of evil, the Creator gives them the help, and then everyone sees that the Creator did hear the prayer the whole time.
According to the above, it is clear what they thought, that there is a minister of Egypt who detains the prayers. We asked, Why does this minister have the power to control the prayers of Israel? The answer is that this is what they thought.
The second question, Who caused their minister to fall from his authority? It is that they worked all the time and did not escape the campaign until there was room to reveal all the bad. Then, they were rewarded with the truth. Until then, there was also no minister here of theirs, but they thought so. It follows that two things came at once, which our sages call, “His divorce and his hand come as one.”
According to the above, we need great strengthening and not to escape the campaign, but to believe that “The Lord hears the prayer of every mouth,” and there is no other force in the world but only one force—that of the Creator, and He always hears everything that is turned to Him.
Reader: We are going to enter into a lesson now with the Rav from April 19th, 2002.
M. Laitman: (36:35) The article, "What Does It Mean That Before the Egyptian Minister Fell, the Outcry Was Not Answered, in the Work?" What does it mean that before the Egyptian minister fell, the outcry was not answered in the work? Maybe it should be the other way around, that they heard their outcry and then he fell? The thing is that His desire to benefit His creatures, which is the purpose of creation and to bring him to the highest degree of eternity, wholeness, to attain all of reality—this is possible only when this creature, created being, will feel inside himself, feel wholeness, eternity, the greatness of the Creator, and need a vessel, a desire to be in exactly the quantity, the size, and the quantity and quality that corresponds to the Creator's. And that this desire would be a desire from the created being, that the created being will feel that he receives, that he attains, that it is his. Because before creation is—the Creator is alone by Himself and you have a problem to create the will to receive that will feel his independence, that he wants it, that it is his desire. That's why we need so many stages in this entire process that the created being is going through, only in order to reach the desire that will be independent from the point of view of the created being in quantity and quality precisely in order to feel the Creator, and to be outside of this, to be equal in quality to the Creator. This program, in its entirety, is called the thought of creation, to do good to His creatures meaning, not merely to create a desire but for this desire to be independent and not only to fill it but for this desire to fill itself. It would feel that he's the receiver, he's the one who derives pleasure. And not to feel that he's the receiver and he's the one who enjoys it, rather, that he gives and he gives pleasure to the Creator.
M. Laitman: (40:01) Then he attains the degree of the Creator in full. That's why the will to receive cascades down, as we learn in four phases of direct light, from the tip of the Yod to the point of existence, out of existence, and he's still under the rule of the light, under the control of the Creator until it comes to sufficient distance where you can break it, meaning separate it into two parts, not according to the desires but according to the intention. We add the intention to the desire. Then, we bring it down to the place that's most remote called this world and you give it, here, in the point that's most distant from godliness, such remoteness that he cannot feel the root of his origin—where is he from? Is he coming from somewhere? Is there someone who created him? Is there someone who notices, who sustains him? Then, you give this desire opposite things, against his desire, called suffering, torments—that from these torments, next to the will to receive, there begins to develop a brain, a mind in which the will to receive attains the source of intellect, the causality, on such a level that it begins to ask what is the meaning or purpose of life? Then, it begins to advance and to get to know where these torments come from and, still, these torments, these sufferings are beastly sufferings—sufferings of one's existence, a lack of pleasure, human pleasure as we call it, the kind of pleasure you can feel during the concealment of the Creator, beastly pleasures, meaning what the body demands and the portion, the human portion which demands money, honor, knowledge, until you come to a state where the desire begins to split in two. It begins to discover in this desire its source. This desire was a desire and it remains a desire, but it begins to reveal in this desire its origin. One time he discovers the picture of the world that conceals the source, the Creator, and another picture where he can seemingly see the Creator from within this picture. The one who conceals the Creator is called pharaoh, and the one who reveals Him is the Creator Himself. And then his desire is divided into good inclination and bad inclination. The time from which he begins to scrutinize this desire is called 13 years, and from that point on and from this split and the clash between these two factors: pharaoh and the Creator in him, he comes to a place, comes to a state where he feels the exile. What is exile? There's some sort of a disturbance, an obstruction that obstructs the source of reality, the source of causality of all that happens. Meaning, from here, what is redemption? Redemption is to see clearly, with all of one's senses that the Creator is the source of all of reality. He does everything, with all of man's awareness. It's revealed. It's called redemption: the exodus from Egypt.
M. Laitman: (45:16) This is called the minister of Egypt fell. As the Rabash writes, then we see that they didn't even have any king: the minister of Egypt. Rather, the Creator played this relative to a person through pharaoh, time after time, in revealing Himself out of the clash of these two things in order to bring the desire of the person, his mind, his awareness, his perception, the discernment in the person to a state where he could truly use each and every detail in the Creator, in reality, to reveal it and to connect to it. Otherwise, if such clashes did not occur in the person throughout the time called the exile in Egypt, he would not have the proper discernment to see the godliness, to see the Creator in everything that is there. Rather, he would only see what we call one simple light that fills all of reality. In this way, the pharaoh gives him blows, and the Creator obligates him to go to pharaoh - each time, he's in the struggle. Then, new vessels, discernments, sensitivity, is born in him—a different quantity and quality where, ultimately, when he attains all those parts, the cells inside this feeling of the Creator then the Creator is revealed. There's a problem on the path to build a desire so it would be suitable, equal in size and opposite from the Creator and equal in giving to the Creator because we need to create Him with a negative feeling each time, that he lacks, and he lacks, and he lacks, and he lacks until this lack will be the size of the Creator. It turns out that the more we advance, the more we feel negation, darkness. This is what we call darkness, Egyptian darkness, the night of the exodus from Egypt. This is the darkest state at midnight and, here, the problem is that a person has to build an environment for himself in order to reach that state. That's why in the article "The Freedom" Baal HaSulam writes that man's only choice is to build such an environment that will constantly support and protect and help him go through this path or the feeling, the feeling of the negation of godliness, this confusion that he has from the disturbances the Creator sends him, that all of that would not send him out of the campaign because our problem is to catch up to the pace of development that's necessarily obligated to us from above. I have to evolve, the whole world—all of humanity and me in it, each one of us has to evolve and develop according to the plan of creation to bring every created being to the degree of the Creator. Like it or not, this engine is working and everything is getting swapped toward the goal. However, if, with the help of the environment, I build for myself this mechanism by which I can advance faster than what nature necessitates, all of creation to advance, each one of us, then I, seemingly, advance through my own free will and I feel in every action, every step, a sense of pleasantness. It's like I'm going toward the object of my desire. If I do not catch up with the pace of general development of reality, I lag behind, then this force that obligates all of reality to advance toward the purpose of creation, this force works on me viciously and it obligates me to develop nonetheless but to do it through sufferings and many blows and by stretching out time.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:44) Stretching time?
M. Laitman: Yes, time expands, dilates, and instead of attaining a desire - one desire from another, and each time, each time we attain a desire until we eventually reach the desire the size of the Creator - it turns out that in attaining the next degree of the desire, by that I can be immersed in suffering for several hundred years, over several incarnations instead of doing it using the help of the society, the group, the books. It's all called environment: books, Rav, friends, group—this is called an environment. With the help of the environment, I can do it in a matter of hours, days, weeks. Whereas, if I do it differently—the force that I receive from the group, the force that obligates me to advance by absorbing from the friends where they are, through envy for them, through all kinds of maybe not so nice qualities, when I receive their desire from them, it can work. Meaning, I can receive it from them within a few hours. So instead of spending decades and hundreds of years and going through all kinds of problems and torments until I understand and will eventually reach the study and society and such progress, as Rabash writes not to escape the campaign, you have, simply, an obligation of a person to ensure that he doesn't run away from the campaign, that he will build for himself that environment that would advance him faster than this general force that obligates everyone to advance.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:02) How can it be that envy can advance me to the goal, if it lowers me?
M. Laitman: Not only envy advances me to the goal. There's nothing good in me, nothing good nor bad. I determine the good or the bad, right?—that was created for nothing, not for the sake of attaining the goal. We feel ourselves the way we feel but according to what we study, we came here from a higher degree and everything that exists in us now are those qualities, as we learn, that these qualities, through the screens—they will become the best qualities there are. Meaning, there's nothing in me that's in-and-of-itself evil; the form of how I use it for the time being is evil but not that the thing in-and-of-itself is evil, the quality itself. Therefore, we don't need to correct any quality of a person. We need only to yearn to the goal. Then, according to how much we yearn, all those qualities in us, our characteristics, everything, later we'll see that they're called Sefirot. All the parts in the desire, let's put it this way: they will assist us. That's why I do not need to conceal or to suppress any quality in me or any desire in me. Kabbalah does not work on these things. It says the opposite. If a person suppresses something inside him, he kills a part of the created being in him. Rather, we need to go only according to the law, the light in it reforms. As through the study, through engaging in all sorts of actions I perform in the society, it's mostly during the study where I think about me wanting to correct myself, and then the surrounding light comes to me, corrects me and attracts me, draws me forward. The reforming light is actually the force of correction. There's no other force for correction, and one should not ever imagine that he's capable of even saying about himself that some qualities in him are good and bad and these demand such correction and those that kind of correction and start to selectively choose what to correct in him and what not. There's no greater nonsense than determining such a thing, that I don't understand. Therefore, I just need to work where there's a point of free choice, meaning build an environment that will influence me. I, nevertheless, receive a force from the outside that draws me forward and from the outside, it's either the environment or the Creator. The Creator, sadly, I can't yet bestow to Him in such a way that He can help me. I don't yet have a sufficient desire for Him to answer because He answers only a complete desire; and the environment builds in me the desire with which I can later turn to Him, and then the light in it reforms.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:20) On the one hand, we say that we constantly need to build a greater and greater deficiency, and the exodus from Egypt, seemingly, crossing the barrier in the middle of the night with the biggest darkness. On the other hand, Baal HaSulam writes that, until a person comes to agreement with concealment, in the sense that concealment is seemingly the best possible thing for him, he cannot reach revelation. How can a person arrange in him, on the one hand, the building of the deficiency, that it drives him crazy, yearns for it, he cannot sleep? On the other hand, he says, okay, I agree, this is what has to be.
M. Laitman: That's a very good question, how we build a deficiency on one hand and an agreement that we're in Him, on the other hand. This is because we have within us two systems called Mocha and Liba, mind and heart. Liba is the heart, the desire which only feels and you can't tell it, “you feel good,” when it feels bad or vice versa. And Mocha, the mind, is called the awareness of a person. Let's say it in a simpler way, kind of like that: one's awareness, one's consciousness where, even if I feel like a toothache now and I don't know what to do, I can nevertheless—although I don't want according to my beast, my mind, or according to my heart, but according to my mind, I go to the doctor and he gives me even more pain. He puts a syringe in there and starts to do a nerve-ending thing on there. I'm saying it because all of us who have been through this, we know, and I'm going through this also. Then, I even say that I have this pain and it's an example where we all go through it. I pay him, I thank him, because, in the end of the day, I understand, don't feel but understand that from this it will feel better later. So if we don't develop these two mechanisms: the mind and heart, the Mocha and Liba, we will just be a beast that feels only within its nature what to do. Adam, a person, because he has the mechanism of the Mocha, of the mind, he can bring closer the future and do for the future what, according to the present, is completely, completely not worthwhile. And to the extent in which he can see the future more distant and take it into account as the present, he's a greater person. You can see there are people who work for 20, 30 years in order to achieve something, but they truly achieve, if they achieve, they attain something great. And there's a person who cannot work, but only in the grocery store. He gave, he took, he gave, he took. The reward's on the spot. These are pennies. But on the spot, it's good for him. That's safe. What's safe is certain, you know? His mind is small, and he's not capable to do anything more than that. We demand from ourselves a very big development of the mind. I am willing, and I need to be willing to work for the process of correction. And I seemingly agree with it. And it's not just like that. It's not just that the Creator says, "Come onto pharaoh." I myself am not capable of doing such a thing. I wouldn't even want to be able to want such a thing. Rather, I know that it's worthwhile to go with Him and correct myself for the sake of a very distant goal. Maybe after 5, 7, 10 years, maybe, I'll even reach godliness and truth. But it's worthwhile for me to do this, because I don't see, actually, here in this life, any other filling that is worthwhile to live for. If a person constantly scrutinizes this point, he does not escape the campaign.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:33) A person can truly hold on to the greatest darkness, where he is not able to sleep, because he feels he can hold on to such a knowledge? Can a person do it?
M. Laitman: What does that mean? You're asking like this. Is a person capable of advancing in every state?
Student: No, I'm asking in this darkness. In this terrible feeling of descent unlike any other? Am I really able to hold on in my head the knowledge that this darkness is truly filling everything?
M. Laitman: Not in each and every one of the states am I capable of holding on myself in a feeling of the presence of the Creator, the feeling of the goal. It's not that I'm not in all the states. We could say not in any state, because we learn out of our failures. Out of negation, we learn the positive. That is, I need to each time try and fail, try and fail. But it's not that I'm going to fail. I'm going to succeed. And then the failure is not a failure. A failure is simply showing me another empty desire that I later realize. That's why you see each time the path we go on is one that includes two kinds of states and two kinds of feelings, and they contradict one another each time, and a person is constantly pressured between the two. You can only hold on with the help of the environment. I can't imagine a person who truly advances and holds on alone. Meaning, he could be someone who studies. Yesterday, an Israeli guy called from Oslo. He lives there for already 17 years. He says, I'm going to the website, I'm reading, I'm also on the Hebrew forum as well, not only the English one. He's not advancing. He's not advancing. He doesn't feel that he's lacking forces. He's studying, thank God, you understand, we have lots of materials, he's very grateful. But he doesn't feel a deficiency of falling and not being able to come out of it. Then it's a sign that he's not advancing. The state, in truth, where the sign of advancement is, is where a person necessitates the need, he has a need for the external force. And Baal HaSulam writes about this in hundreds of places.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:32) A person who dwells in a state, when does he advance to the next stage in his feeling?
M. Laitman: When does a person move from one stage to another? Meaning, when has the state reached its realization, and he already leaves it and moves onwards? When he feels in this current state all the bitterness and distancing from the Creator. Then that state begets the next state on its own. Each time we're in a certain state, after all, just like we descended from above down until this world and also within it, we're in the lowest possible degree, now we're beginning on the way back to simply go through all those stages. The only changes that could be is what pace and in what way I will go through those stages. That is where my actual choice is. All the details, all the conditions are already in the soul, meaning all the degrees are already there. My path back has been defined in advance. What was not defined is how I will relate to this, how I will build this, either willingly or being coerced; in the way of Torah, or the path of suffering, as it's called. Not that there's two ways up, but the paths are called my relationship to the ascent, that's it. That is, the moment I feel the entire degree and the extent in which I am distant from the Creator and how opposite I am to Him, how negative this thing is and wants to be made into positive, by this the degree ends. Then I rise to the next degree to feel even more bitterness and how opposite I am, and distant, and so on. You understand how much intense mental forces we have to hold on to these deficiencies all the time. But if I understand the goal and receive support from the group who constantly helps me in my mind to hold on to the goal as worthwhile and great, then these sufferings become sweet, because through them, I see the Creator, yes? And by bringing Him into the picture, I mitigate this picture, I sweeten it, and make it… I switch it, just like we can't eat without salt. We need to have a certain, in every flavor we have, there needs to be an inner breaking, an inner shattering, otherwise I won't feel it. Because I won't feel good or bad, I will feel this compared to that. If I am very hungry, then on the boundary between the deficiency, between the hunger and the pleasure there is in the food, and the entrance of the food, that is where I feel the taste, the flavor. When I enter that first piece, then in the border between them, I feel that flavor. That's how our entire feeling system works. Therefore, I need to have the power each time to discover the deficiency on the border of the pleasure. And it's each time a very sharp feeling, not a pleasant one. And here, we need the environment.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:30) I understood that you highlight the work with the brain that will pull the heart. And I notice this constant dialogue between them. Ultimately, I need the heart and the brain to be equal. So, how does that settle? Can the heart also influence the brain?
M. Laitman: I don't want to get into too many details on this. Because what I'm explaining about mind and heart, I'm simplifying them very much. On purpose I'm making of them… well, it's a mechanism of… In the end, we have a vessel of the will to receive and the intention that is built above it: or in order to receive, or in order to bestow. And then these two things are expressed in us, mind and heart, in a corporeal manner, kind of a reflection of that, a copy of it. We will learn about this. It's hard for me to explain so that it will be understood and interesting for everyone right now.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:44) He talks about a mother, and women, and there's also a matter of a mother and women. So, what does that mean in spirituality?
M. Laitman: I don't know. Give me the excerpt, and I'll tell you what he's talking about there.
Student: In the article, when he talks about the factory and receiving ten times more salary, he talks about the sustenance of the body. We talk about it a lot, about the Lo Lishma, that Lo Lishma is the signal from spirituality. So, my question is, if the Lo Lishma becomes Lishma, is it some understanding in crossing the barrier, or does it accompany me until the end of correction? Is Lo Lishma what the shells represent, it's still work Lo Lishma, or is it all above the barrier? Meaning, where is there the change in a person when it comes from Lo Lishma to Lishma? Because right now, my fuel is different. So the question is, when I cross the barrier, does my fuel change?
M. Laitman: After the barrier, the fuel changes. A person goes from the double concealment to regular concealment, before the barrier, then to revelation. Again, like I said, what is redemption and what is exile? It's a feeling whether the Creator is present and conducting all of reality. That is the difference. If you don't feel it, it's called exile, like now. You can think here, but actually, you don't feel it. That's why it doesn't determine your life. When you start feeling it, in all your senses, that there's only one force working, and not pharaoh, and not the landlord, and not Arafat, and not Peres, or I don't know, and not your wife, nobody. He determines and conducts everything. Your entire state, and also what's happening inside. All states, health, everything, from inside and outside. And that only point of yours has to recognize all these changes, and that it will grow from it. It's the beginning of the soul, the point in the heart. So, when you discover that it's Him doing it from inside and outside, and everything around you, like it's written, that those two lights, inner and outer, rub the vessel like water. And by that, a vessel is made.
Student: Let me note that in feeling the Creator, there are shells as well.
M. Laitman: Also the shells, it's forces that... they don't deny the presence of the Creator. Whether you conceive yourself, or the forces, or in some way, in order to receive. Like the first man before the sin, Adam before the sin. It's hard to explain what the Klipot [shells] are. Meaning that you think that you can go and gain something, supposedly in a holy manner. But actually, it's the shell. The shell can't say, hey, receive and that's it. If you're in spirituality, so it's clear that those aren't the failures. That's not what a person gets confused from.
Student: That's my question. The fuel until the barrier is actually pretty clear to me, to a person whose nature is to receive. In order to receive, it's a Lo Lishma. Meaning, what do I get out of spirituality? Why do I go there? My question is, if after the barrier and feeling the Creator, will my fuel still be somewhere in the next degree?
M. Laitman: My fuel is always, what will I get? But what will I get before the barrier is what will be for me. It's a fear of not earning something. A fear of dying, or suffering, and not gaining anything. But after the barrier, it's also what will I have? But in a different way? How can I bestow to Him? It's also, what will I have, but it's a different form.
Student: Is this already called Lishma?
M. Laitman: That's Lishma. But we always feel through the will to receive and measure. We don't have any other way to measure. In which way to do anything? If I won't enjoy, I won't give. I'm actually giving Him my pleasure. What I'm enjoying, that is what He needs to feel and enjoy.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:07) When we talk about the Lo Lishma, we'll come to Lishma, it's in the crossing of the barrier.
M. Laitman: The difference between Lo Lishma and Lishma, whether I enjoy or not, or I'm enjoying, but I can't think or calculate towards Him in anything. That's the whole difference. Do I connect it to my pleasure or not? It's simple, but it changes the whole world around us. We can't depict as much as the connection with the Creator through my pleasures, through my desires, changes all of the fulfillment in my vessels, and then I feel a different world. Eternality, wholeness, everything - just that connection determines my world.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:25) What's the meaning of the title of the article? I didn't understand.
M. Laitman: How it's called? He writes, Lo Lishma, this is Lo Lishma, and from Lo Lishma he will come to Lishma. That's why, in order to even start Lo Lishma, because eventually he will get to Lishma, so it's worth it, that's how you start. And as Rambam said, how to start in Lo Lishma? When you teach children, women, and the people of the nation that they will receive a reward until their awareness will grow. Meaning, we have all kinds of discernments inside called children, women, the people of the nation, that if I start studying a method to advance to the Creator, even if I only have those discernments and know more, those forces, those qualities, so I can also through them advance and reach a state where I will correct them and reach the goal. And that's how everybody starts. Nobody is born as a great Kabbalist. Nobody. Each one has different preparations according to what he went through in the previous incarnations, but nobody is born with qualities that are ready to feel godliness and to live in the upper world. Everybody... otherwise, how can it be? The desires to feel spirituality, you need to create them from within the suffering, one by one, in yourself, you. Otherwise, you won't feel these deficiencies and you won't feel the fulfillments in them. There's no choice. It has to go one, by one, by one. It's not something I can buy on the outside, but each one must go through the whole path, and you're only given an opportunity either to go through it in happiness and make it short, shorten the path, or to do it, to stretch it out and suffer. Now, what's stretching the time and suffering? How does that help you? You still go through the same stages just every time until you get a mind in every stage. So, you suffer, you get blows that still bring you back to the same state as it was before. Let's say, I stand before a question - I had enough, I'm sick of it, I don't want it. The goal is far, could be that they're right, and I've already heard everything they're saying for a few months. Anyway, I don't feel that I can even stay here, so I'm going home. Now, a few years, my life again came back to the regular track - receiving blows, suffering. For now, you don't connect them to some reason. Everybody's suffering in the world. Then you just walk away this way. You can just finish your life, be born again, until you still come back to that same thought that you must somehow be saved from life with that same question: “What is the meaning of life?? You'll reach the wisdom of Kabbalah again, and again you'll be in a state that you must attain support from the society, from the environment. So if in the previous state you would turn to the environment and you would receive support, desires, inspiration, impressions, you would feel the greatness of the goal a bit, to hear it from someone, so you would advance. Instead of that, you go for a few decades and then come back to the exact same place. Just now you're more prepared to hear about the environment. That's the only thing that changes. So, this whole study is in order to save that exit for a few decades in every stage, in every step, and move ahead without running to the sides. That's it. That's our choice. That's it.
M. Laitman: (01:21:50) Also, today's state of the nation, all these things, we could have gone through in a nice way. Look what we have to go through. How many blows we needed to get until the whole nation will understand that there's some force from above, that there's a plan, that we have some kind of obligation to do something, we have some kind of task, we need, I guess, something to do in the world, that we're demanded to do something. It's not for one reason that everybody hates us. Until a person starts asking, look how much you have to go through, and it's all discernments and discernments. You could have done it simple. It's written, look. No, we're not able to. That's the difference between suffering and Torah. And I don't want to… we'll see. You'll see as much as you go into the path of suffering all the time. Baal HaSulam writes in a simple way. Studying Kabbalah will be most important compared to all other businesses a person deals with. By this, you draw the upper light, and everybody enters peace and quiet, and everyone feels good. It's just written how to draw light from above. And you can draw that surrounding light only by studying Kabbalah. If we engage in it, we'll do it. If not, so no. It's not the nations; it's the Jews have to do it. If the Jews don't do it, so the nations want to destroy them, and they hate them. Because really, there's no need for Jews in this world unless they do this. Once we start engaging in Kabbalah, and through you all the lights will be drawn to the world, it will be clear. It's subconscious. It'll be clear that you are the most essential force in the world. That's it. It's so simple. But in order to learn about it, we'll see how many blows we need to go through.