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

Daily Morning Lesson: September 19, 2025

Part 1: Recorded lesson – Dec 5, 2021

Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

Reader: Hello friends. We will now watch a recorded lesson from December 5th, 2021. This is Shamati 86, And They Built Arei Miskenot, Shamati 86, “And They Built Arei Miskenot”.

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Reader: Hello, we're reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam, from Shamati. We're in Article 86, “And They Built Arei Miskenot”, Store Cities. You can find the material in the Study Materials tab in the Arvut system. You can also send questions. Relevant questions may be aired. Shamati 86.

M. Laitman: (00:57) It's a very special article – with this article, we enter the study of the longer articles of Shamati. These articles need to bring us to connection with the text, with the author, meaning with Baal HaSulam, with Rabash and through him, with the Creator. As much as we can connect during the reading, it's very important to us to try and enter such long articles like serious study, entering our path. Because each article doesn't just shine a concentrated light, a small, concentrated light on a certain instance. Rather, it explains a part of our path – or perhaps our entire path. We should be following this light, this torch, and see the state through it.

“And They Built Arei Miskenot” is a very special article, I received it before I knew about the Shamati articles. Rabash gave it to me, sort of by chance almost, when I was very young. I didn't even ask so much, he gave me to read it and I read it;, I read it and I brought it back to him. I didn't have any serious, fateful discernments from this article about the world, about the people, about the person himself.

Well, that's what was back then, today, we'll try to enter this article more internally, more deeply and try to feel ourselves in it, inside this article. We'll read it, portion by portion, I recommend writing things down. It should always be near you – what do you want to ask? What's not clear; certain words, maybe translation, each and anything, write it down and we'll scrutinize it. This has to be clear, what we're going through on the level we're going through it and it has to be clear to everyone; and if not, ask questions, prepare your questions. Because this is indeed an article that speaks about us, about our path, our state and according to our height. The article keeps sending us to the Bible, meaning to the sources where all those places are written and those instances are written. We have to understand there's no history, here, there's no geography; there's nothing that speaks about the past. Rather, it speaks about the path of work of a person and how he advances from his current state—it can be Africa and South America or Asia, doesn't matter where he is – it's about how he advances. The time doesn't matter, here, it could be a thousand years ago or it could be now. It speaks of a person on the spiritual path and spiritual development because the laws of nature are the same laws for everyone and that's what we need to learn.

Reading: (05:37) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot – Store Cities

I heard from my father, Shevat 3, January 31, 1941

The writing says (Exodus 1): “And they built for Pharaoh Arei Miskenot,1 Pithom and Raamses.” We should ask, “Pithom and Raamses means that they are beautiful cities, while the words Arei Miskenot imply poverty and meagerness [see footnote],

M. Laitman: Meaning it’s one of the two—either we're building something grand, something beautiful, something good, full of glory. Or we do it out of blows and troubles and hunger and we feel that we are in the state of Miskenot, we're feeling poor and meager, one of the two.

Reading: (06:32) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

and they also imply danger!” And we must also understand what Abraham the Patriarch asked, “And he said … ‘How will I know that I will inherit it?’” (Genesis 15:8).

M. Laitman: Abraham asked the Creator: There was that instance, the Creator said, I will give you this special land, special place—we're talking about a spiritual level where a person

has to raise his entire group from the corporeal level in order to receive, to a spiritual level in order to bestow. And Abraham asked, how shall I know that I will be able to rise to that degree, that I will acquire it? What did the Creator tell him?

Reading: (07:35) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

What did the Creator reply? It is written, “And He said unto Abram: Know for certain that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.”

M. Laitman: Meaning, when you will rise to this new level – this spiritual level – you'll be as if you don't belong there, as if you're strangers. A stranger means that he comes to a place he does not belong to, he does not belong to that level. It says, your seed shall be a stranger, your children, meaning everyone you bring into spirituality, they will enter spirituality as if it does not belong to them, and it will be very difficult for them. For 400 years they'll feel themselves as slaves. Four hundred, you know, four is a complete degree from the Keter, the light expands, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, Malchut – four degrees. That's why when we say that we have to go through 400 years, it means that we have to rise from Malchut back through Malchut, Zeir Anpin, Bina Hochma and Keter is the last. The Creator told him, “You will bring them to spirituality, to Me, they will enter that state but as strangers, as if it is not theirs. Slowly, after 400 years of being there, they’ll be able to grow accustomed to it. They’ll be able to adapt themselves to the new state and they’ll become residents and belong to the new level.

Reading: (09:48) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

The literal meaning is hard to understand, since the question was that he wanted guarantees on the inheritance, and there is no apparent guarantee in the Creator’s answer, that your seed will be in exile,

M. Laitman: Abraham asked, how do you promise me that we shall reach a very high spiritual degree? A spiritual degree is called, the land of Israel. Land, Eretz, is Ratzon, desire and Israel is Yashar-El, straight to the Creator. Meaning we will all rise together, all my students, everyone who's with me. They'll all rise to a state where they're all aimed at you. The Creator said, because there will be an exile, putting together, such a state for you that, against your will, like it or not, you'll eventually come to a state that you'll be close to me.

Reading: (10:55) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

but it seems that this was a sufficient answer for him. Moreover, we see that when Abraham had an argument with the Creator regarding the people of Sodom, he had a long argument with the Creator, and he kept saying “perhaps.” Here, however, when the Creator said that his seed would be in exile, he immediately accepted it as a sufficient answer and did not argue or say, “perhaps?” Instead, he accepted it as a guarantee for the inheritance of the land.

M. Laitman: Meaning, Abraham understood that the state the Creator is preparing for them – the state of exile. When they would feel that they're not in the right place, the place doesn't fit them, they don't fit the place. That state is an intermediary state and it's a good state because specifically through it, they'll be able to adapt themselves to a new state, to a new degree, meaning to spirituality. Between this feeling and the feeling of the spiritual world, there has to be a transition. In this process, those who go through this transition feel that they are in exile both in exile from this world – they lose connection with this world, they're not like everyone, they're not interested in what's happening here. To that extent, and at the same time, they have no grasp in the spiritual, the upper world—in between, this is the exile.

Reading: (12:42) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

We must understand this answer, and we must also understand what The Zohar interprets about the verse “Pharaoh brought near.” It interprets that he drew them toward repentance. Can it be that wicked Pharaoh would want to draw them toward repentance?

M. Laitman: Pharaoh is a representative of the Creator from the side of the will to receive, the evil inclination. How can it be that the Pharaoh is actually helping those who are under his dominion to advance towards spirituality? Of course, the Pharaoh is also in the hands of the Creator, the evil inclination, right? The Creator created him but He acts through the Pharaoh to influence the will to receive in a person, so a person won't be able to stand still. He shakes a person up, He pressures him, He does all those actions. The Creator can't do it by himself, directly; rather He's doing it through His assistants, the Pharaoh.

Reading: (14:13) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

In order to understand all that, we must understand what our sages said (Sukkah 52a): “Rabbi Yehuda says, ‘At the end of days, the Creator brings the evil inclination and slaughters it before the righteous and before the wicked. To the righteous, it seems like a high mountain. To the wicked, it seems as a thread of a hairsbreadth. These cry and those cry. The righteous cry and say, ‘How could we conquer such a high mountain?’ and the wicked cry and say, ‘How could we not conquer this hairsbreadth?’’”

M. Laitman: This means that there are different kinds of people that reach the goal but in two directions: There are those who make it by trying and overcoming their will to receive and that's how they got to bestowal. And there are those who couldn't overcome and force the reception to reach bestowal. What's happening with those? Both of them are crying, meaning the righteous who overcame their will to receive cry, How could we actually make it and the wicked ones who didn't make it and say, But it doesn't seem so great, how come we couldn't conquer it? Meaning there are people who look at our ego and this disturbing force that's preventing us from reaching spirituality, the feeling of wholeness and eternity, to rise above this world. There are people who look at this in two different ways – one sees it as easy and another sees it as difficult. The one who works, it looks very difficult, the righteous. The one who didn't do any work and it seems to him he doesn't quite need it and it seems easy to him. But both of them cry; also, there's a question, why are they crying? At least those who were rewarded were rewarded with conquering the evil inclination and to rise above it. And from that height, they're now able to speak to the Creator. Baal HaSulam continues, please.

Reading: (17:16) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

This verse is perplexing through and through:

M. Laitman: You are writing your questions, taking your questions. We'll get to them. We see this is a long article. It's all perplexing.

Reading: (17:33) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

If the evil inclination has already been slaughtered, how are there still wicked?
Why do the righteous cry? Quite the contrary, they should have been happy!

M. Laitman: Because they reached the goal, they overcame the will to receive—why are they not happy? Why are they also crying?

Reading: (18:02) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

How can there be two opinions in reality when they have both arrived at the state of truth? This verse speaks of the end of days, which is certainly a state of truth, so how can there be such a difference in reality between a hairsbreadth and a high mountain?

M. Laitman: Here, we're talking about the end of correction, so how could we have people who are already in the end of correction, nonetheless, they are in such states? That, one group is happy and one group is crying but both of them are in the end of correction?

Reading: (18:51) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

He explains this with the words of our sages (there): “Rabbi Assi says, ‘In the beginning, the evil inclination seems like a spiderweb, and in the end, it seems like cart-ropes,’ as was said, ‘Woe unto them who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as though with a cart rope’” (Isaiah 5).

There is a great rule we must know. Our work, which was given to us to be based on faith above reason, is not because we are unworthy of a high degree. Hence, this was given to us so as to take it all in a Kli [vessel] of faith.

M. Laitman: It seems to us that we need to disconnect the feeling, the intellect, the feeling. Not follow our vessels of our mind and our heart directly, not to fight something. To enter spirituality with our vessels that we understand, we know, we develop them, and then we conquer the degree. No, we don't need to do it this way because with our vessels we can only be better on the level of this world. To rise to spirituality with totally different senses – it's like they're showing us some aliens who come from another planet, another galaxy. They have different senses, they can't connect to us, we don't understand them. Hence, here we need a higher degree, a different degree than who we are. Instead of our intellect, there has to be a different intellect, instead of our feeling, there has to be a different feeling. We are rising from a degree that is perceived in the will to receive to a degree that we can perceive in our will to bestow. That's a huge difference in perception and understanding and our attitude. The difference between the degrees is called, that we rise from the degree of Da’at, reason, to faith, Emuna, which is above reason. If we prefer faith in place of reason in this way we rise to a higher degree.

Reading: (21:38) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

It appears to us as ignominy and worthlessness, and we are anxious for the time we can rid ourselves of this burden called “faith above reason.”

M. Laitman: Because this is not absorbed in his normal intellect and feeling that he's used to. He's used to it according to our wisdom, our science that we have here on the earthly level – spirituality is above all of it. And therefore, he has no grasp in it and he cannot appreciate it as well.

Reading: (22:22) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

However, it is a great and very important degree, whose exaltedness is immeasurable.

The reason it appears to us as ignominy is because of the will to receive in us.

M. Laitman: Will to receive resists faith above reason with great force because it appears unreal, illogical, doesn't sound scientific. It cannot be that this is spirituality because you cannot measure it, you cannot feel it—not in my feelings, not in my intellect. I cannot weigh, I cannot do anything with it, with spirituality. They tell us you have to rise to new forms of measurement called, the measurement of faith, of bestowal. And the force of bestowal in place of the force of reception—you'll be able to feel, to rank spirituality.

Reading: (23:36) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

We must discern a Rosh [head] and a Guf [body] in the will to receive. The Rosh is called “knowing,” and the Guf is called “receiving.” Because of this, we consider anything that is against knowing as low and beastly.

Now we can interpret what Abraham the Patriarch asked of the Creator: “How will I know that I will inherit it?” For how will they be able to accept the burden of faith, since it is against reason, and who can go against reason? Thus, how will they come to be granted the light of faith, since perfection depends on this alone?

M. Laitman: How can we acquire the degree of bestowal, the degree of faith? We look differently at reality, we feel it differently, not as we do now. That's why it's concealed from us, this upper reality, because it all works according to a different set of qualities. The quality of bestowal, giving – we lack it completely according to the degree of connection between us. We always appreciate a state according to how much I can control the state, how much I can acquire, how much I am able to fill my vessels of reception, and here it's different. That's why we say, I've seen an upside-down world, where spirituality is opposite from this world, from what we feel. What we feel is called, this world and the upper world, and the spiritual world, is opposite to it. So how can we imagine this reality where we are in a state that is opposite to what we have right now? That is why the Creator has arranged for us such a place and such states through which we'll be able to gradually come to know it.

Reading: (26:06) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

The Creator answered him about this: “Know for certain, etc., that they will be in exile.”

M. Laitman: Meaning all of your desires, your deficiencies, everything you have, this is called Abraham's students, it doesn't matter. Let's even refer to it corporeally: You will all go through a state called the exile. You're leaving the feeling of this world gradually and, gradually, you are moving away from the feeling of this world and you're entering the feeling of the upper world, the spiritual world. What will help you do it, what does he say?

Reading: (27:00) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

This means that He prepared a Klipa [shell], which is the evil inclination, an evil person, Pharaoh king of Egypt. The letters of the word Pharaoh are like the letters of the word Oref [back of the neck], as the ARI wrote (Shaar HaKavanot for Pesach) that Pharaoh is considered the Oref, the narrow in the sea. He would suck out the abundance that comes to the lower ones with his question (Exodus 5:2), “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” By this very question, they are in the hands of the Klipot [shells], as the Maimonides says (Hilchot Deot) regarding not turning to idol gods, that with this approach alone, meaning with the very question, the prohibition on turning to them is broken.

M. Laitman: Meaning we have states we have to go through, and we feel ourselves not so much in corporeality but we're not yet in spirituality. And in this transition, we find ourselves in the worst possible state. There are people who exist in this world, they live, they enjoy, they suffer, it doesn't matter but they know where they are. There are people who are already in the upper world – in the spiritual world – and they also understand where they are to some extent. Like in this world, people have different degrees of presence in this world. But we are neither here nor there, we have to go through such a state. I did not completely leave this world and I did not enter the spiritual world, that is called, the next world relative to me, the world to come. It turns out this transition is especially unpleasant and dangerous.

Reading: (29:23) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

The evil inclination wishes to suck abundance from the Kedusha [holiness]. Thus, what does it do to suck abundance from the Kedusha? The writing tells us, “and Pharaoh brought near.” The Zohar interprets that he brought them near to repentance. It asked how can we say that Pharaoh brought them close to repentance if the conduct of the Klipot is to turn one away from the Creator.

We must understand this by what is written in The Zohar (“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” p 41 [in Hebrew]): “Transgression is concealed within you, like the serpent that strikes and hides its head inside its body.” Also, in the Sulam [“Ladder” commentary on The Zohar]: “Like, etc. Since that transgression is concealed, the force of the serpent that strikes the people of the world and brings death to the world is still in all its power and cannot be revoked. It is like a serpent that bites a person and immediately puts its head in its body, and then it is impossible to kill it.”

M. Laitman: It's not so simple for us in the transition between the feeling of this world and the feeling of the upper world. In addition to this world, we're not letting go of the feeling of this world. All these feelings along the way, they're all accumulated in this way together. Before we reach the next world, before we get to see the next world from Malchut to Bina, we are in this transition. And each time during this transition, it disorients us, confuses us and we find ourselves hanging between heaven and earth.

Reading: (31:39) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

There is yet another saying in The Zohar—that the serpent bows its head and strikes with its tail. This means that sometimes it lets one take upon himself the burden of faith, which is above reason, which is the bowing of the head,

M. Laitman: The serpent, itself plays with a person, the serpent is our will to receive, it's also in the hands of the Creator. There is no one, here, besides None Else Besides Him but the Creator educates us in this way – sometimes, He opens another time He closes. The faith above reason, the feeling of Bina, the feeling of the spiritual world, He brings it closer, then He conceals it, brings it closer, He conceals it so that we would build inside of us new feelings, new sensations, That we would learn about it, like with little kids, as we teach them how to relate to everything, how to accept everything. We develop in each and every one of them a storehouse of feelings, of understandings – the feeling and the intellect that a kid should have. What is this, what is that, how to relate to this? He accumulates all these impressions and discernments in his feeling and in his intellect and, accordingly, he becomes qualified for life. It's the same for us with spirituality, exactly the same—what do we do?

Reading: (33:32) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

[...] that sometimes it lets one take upon himself the burden of faith, which is above reason, which is the bowing of the head, but it strikes with its tail. The tail can be interpreted as “the end,” that it bowed its head so as to ultimately receive in order to receive. In other words, it first gave one permission to take upon himself faith so that afterward it would take everything into its own authority,

M. Laitman: We see it with ourselves, even now, that we sometimes have an opportunity to advance towards spirituality, towards connection, towards a certain spiritual feeling. To rise above our usual state and then we fall back again; this means that the serpent, the will to receive, pulled us back down. And what we had in spirituality, he received it all, it fell into him. But it's not too bad, we would later receive everything from him because we still don't know how to preserve the spiritual discernments so they would accumulate in us. We cannot work in order to bestow, so therefore, we'll see, shortly, what does it mean that he swallowed it and then hold and then vomit it out. Meaning our serpent, our will to receive, swallows various spiritual discernments, he holds them in, he preserves them. And later we'll receive the result of what we went through, here and there in all sorts of states. That's why it's called, help against, it helps the Creator but in this external, seemingly opposite way.

Reading: (35:43) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

for the Klipa [shell/peel] knows that there is no way to receive abundance except through Kedusha [holiness].

This is the meaning of Pharaoh bringing them near. It is explained that he deliberately brought Israel to repentance,

M. Laitman: Pharaoh, the egoistic will to receive the Creator created, that's the symbol of the will to receive; specifically, he is helping us here to advance a person towards the Creator.

Reading: (36:17) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

It is explained that he deliberately brought Israel to repentance, so as to afterward take everything from them into his own authority. This is why the ARI wrote that Pharaoh sucked all the abundance that came down to the lower ones. He sucked from the Oref and from the throat, which is considered the beginning of the body, meaning he would take everything in his vessels of reception.

This is the meaning of “And they built Arei Miskenot,” meaning that this was for Israel. In other words, all their work during the exile was taken into Pharaoh’s custody, and Israel remained poor, for Miskena means poor.

M. Laitman: Why was it so? Because the Pharaoh is in the transition between the Rosh and the Guf, the head and the body. That's why it's called, stiff-necked, like the throat – that area. It turns out that you need to know how to deal with it: In what is he good, in what is he bad and how to use it? Because we are under the dominion of the will to receive and, after all, all of us are the will to receive – we're all slaves to Pharaoh.

Reading: (38:04) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

We should also interpret Miskenot from the word Sakana [danger], meaning that they were in great danger of remaining in that state for the rest of their lives. However, to Pharaoh, the work of Israel was Pithom and Raamses, meaning very beautiful cities.

M. Laitman: Meaning, for the time being while trying to approach spirituality, and we are unable to do it, we draw some of the lights from above. And those lights, we bring them into the will to receive, then the will to receive derives pleasure from it. He grows and this is the meaning of the Pharaoh being satisfied with our work. We're unable to do anything with it. It is done in this way necessarily, so that by collecting these small lights under the control of the Pharaoh – a little more and a little more and a little more – that we keep in his storehouse, we would later be able to take everything and run away. But, for the time being, we accumulate little exertions, the small lights we are unable to do it. The Pharaoh does it. That's why he’s called, help against.

Reading: (39:40) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

Thus, the meaning of “And they built Arei Miskenot”—to Israel, and to Pharaoh—Pithom and Raamses. This is because all the work of Israel fell into the Klipot, and they saw no blessing in their work.

When they prevailed in their work in faith and bestowal, they did see fertility. And the moment they fell into knowing and receiving, they fell into the hands of the Klipa of Pharaoh.

M. Laitman: This is the difference between ascents and descents, and we are in both places. It works like a pump; we pass the upper light as much as we can; they pass it to us and then it goes to Pharaoh and then more to Pharaoh. That's why it's called, help against.

Reading: (40:47) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

Finally, they came to a determined resolution that the work must be in faith above reason and in bestowal.

However, they saw that they were unable to come out of Pharaoh’s power by themselves. This is why it is written, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work,” since they feared that they might stay in exile forever.

M. Laitman: We teach them, we try, we get something in our understanding, in our feeling. We advance, we acquire new states but, at the end of the day, we see the results are nowhere to be seen.

Reading: (41:36) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

Then, “their cry came up unto God,” and they were rewarded with emerging from the exile in Egypt.

M. Laitman: Well, they’ve come to a state where there's no choice, a person cries to the Creator. And his cry is what obligates the Creator to give the order and take him out of Egypt, out of in order to receive.

Reading: (42:06) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

It turns out that before they saw the situation—that they are in the hands of the Klipot,

M. Laitman: In a lost state where they had no chance of coming out and the control of a man's ego is complete.

Reading: (42:35) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

They're afraid they'll be there forever and they need the Creator's help from vessels of reception. This is all that obstructs them from adhering to the Creator.

and were hurting and afraid that they would remain there forever—they had no need for the Creator’s help from vessels of reception, if they do not feel the shortcoming and detriment caused by them, that this is all that obstructs them from adhering to the Creator. This is because otherwise one has a higher regard for work in the form of knowledge and reception, and faith is considered lowliness. They prefer knowledge and reception since this is what man’s exterior mind necessitates.

M. Laitman: This is clear, that's what we do: If we do the exact scrutiny of the states we're going through, then what we've read thus far, it's pretty clear this is what we're going through. There are certainly states that are clearer, some that are less clear but ultimately we can know ourselves through that. Hence,

Reading: (43:41) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

Hence, they were given the exile, to feel that they do not progress in nearing the Creator, and all their work sinks in the Klipa of Egypt. Finally, they saw that they had no other choice but to take upon themselves the work of lowliness, which is faith above reason, and yearn for bestowal. Otherwise, they feel that they are in the domain of the Sitra Achra [other side].

M. Laitman: Meaning, nevertheless, to understand that the state where a person works for his beast, and that's how it is. For a few dozen years he's in this world and, nevertheless, he has to care for something that will eventually die and decompose. And he has nothing left in him for the eternal point in him, which is where a person is actually different from the animate degree. It's called, the divine point from above, we have the feeling of eternity. It does not exist in animals, although we are like animals like beasts, but nevertheless, we have a feeling there is something eternal, all above time, and so on and so forth. And this is for all humans, that's why we need to use it, that connection with eternity. And we should not let our lives bury us in the corporeal level alone; since, in that, we liken ourselves to animals, to the animate degree.

Reading: (45:46) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

It turns out that the faith that they took upon themselves was because they saw that otherwise they would have no counsel, and hence agreed to a work of lowliness.

M. Laitman: If a person comes to a state where he feels that I have no chance of rising from the animate degree to a higher degree. To the speaking degree, where he finds their eternity, wholeness, contact with the Creator. Rather on the condition that I come to a new quality, which is the quality of bestowal. Then it's clear to him this is what's before him, and he has to shut his eyes and invest everything he's got in it.

Reading: (46:54) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

This is called “conditional work,” that they accepted this work so they would not fall into the net of the Klipot. This is why they had taken upon themselves this work.

However, if the reason is revoked, the love for this work is revoked, too. This means that if the evil inclination is canceled, and there is nothing that brings them thoughts of not turning to idol gods, then the love for the work in lowliness is canceled.

M. Laitman: Now, we see how our ego begins to work in an opposite way by stopping us, by not letting us advance towards spirituality. By that, it actually stimulates us, it teases us, it aims us towards spirituality but in an opposite way.

Reading: (47:39) Baal HaSulam. Shamati. # 86 And They Built Arei Miskenot

Now we can understand what our sages wrote: “In the beginning, the evil inclination seems like a spiderweb, and in the end, it seems like cart-ropes.” We know that there is a discernment of “coercive,” “mistaken,” and “deliberate.”

M. Laitman: Let's stop here for now. Is there something that's completely not understood? Not because someone wants to understand more – like I see with Hadera who wants to ask. But something that is actually not clear from the foundations, so that everyone could benefit from such a question. Hadera wants to ask, nevertheless, be careful, I don't want to be a wise guy like you.

Question (Hadera 1): (48:46) What actions can we do in the group to hasten the times and develop these measurements of faith above reason and bestow, so we don't stay stuck in the in-between state?

M. Laitman: That's what Rabash writes to us, he writes what we have to do. We have to connect between us as much as we can, and to make our connections similar to the connection of mutual bestowal. There's nothing that can be simpler or more clear, or more observable and the ability to improve it, than this.

Question (Rehovot): (49:33) According to the description of this article, it seems like we have to go through suffering, and there's no hastening time.

M. Laitman: Hastening, Achishena, is also suffering, torments: When a person wants something and he cannot realize it, it's also sufferings and torments. I don't know what you're calling torments but when I yearn for something and I make my calculations, and I see that I didn't get it yet. Then I suffer, there's the suffering of the torments of the evil inclination – when I want something and I don't have it. Then there are torments of the good inclination, where I wish to reach bestowal. But for the time being, I'm not there.

Question (PT 12): (50:29) What does it mean that the ego warms us up for spirituality, but in the opposite way?

M. Laitman: When it's pushing us to advance, on the one hand; on the other hand, it's showing us how we can't attain it with our egoistic nature, that's it – that's why it's called, help against.

Question (PT 31): (51:01) Abraham asks, how would I know that I'll inherit the degree? How do you ask such a question and it's not from the will to receive, expecting a reward?

M. Laitman: Like this, I don't know, he asks because he wants to reach in order to bestow, and he has Reshimo, a record. A person works according to this information that exists in him, that's why he asks.

Reader: (51:31) How is it possible to speed up the recognition that Pharaoh is actually the evil inclination; because it takes time until we recognize it as evil?

M. Laitman: Even more than that: How can we come to a state where the Pharaoh is not only the evil inclination, but it actually helps? In all of reality, in all the worlds, or the degrees, whatever you want to see, there's nothing that was created for nothing, without a need. Rather, everything comes to us from the final state, the state of wholeness, to our state that is unwhole, incomplete. So, understand that you have, let's say, a vehicle, a car, and all the systems are in it, and they fit one another ideally. And then, in order to put the car together, someone takes it apart and brings it to you, a pile of parts. And then gives you, hands you the manual and you have to do it. Meaning, we come from wholeness, that's why they tell us that the world was created, the Garden of Eden, Adam HaRishon, in connection with the Creator. And then we fall, and then we begin to collect the pieces and to assemble things from them, like with Lego, that we buy to our kids. And then we understand why it's built this way, why it exists in this way.

Student: How do you raise the sensitivity to the present state being broken and undesired?

M. Laitman: Because I need to build the desirable state above it and in order to go from the current state to the desirable state, I have to change my attitude. Where I collect that machine – that car, it doesn't matter – and I assemble it every time I add another part, and another part, and another part to the structure. By that, I raise myself to a new degree of the thought and the desire, they all work in order to bestow. I, seemingly, need to put together this machine in such a way that all the pieces would work in harmony between them. Where each part only in this way can the parts fit together, and in each part there is a desire to only work for itself. So, the connection has to be such that they assemble into the complete system where each one annuls himself, annuls his will to receive. And each one comes to a state where he works only for the system – this is our work, in effect. To try and understand it, to know it and to change our attitude from a state where we seemingly work for ourselves to one where we work for everyone. And I wish to ascribe myself to that, down to zero percent, until I have nothing left for myself. That's what Rabash writes in the example about the society – ones and zeroes, he explains it. So, to join a system where I discover the spirituality, the Creator, it's possible on the condition that I approach the connection between us in such a way where I wish to leave nothing for myself. So, what's left? What's left is zero but above the zero, and the will to bestow will begin to open up for you, where you will attain spirituality, you will attain the true connection, where you work only for the sake of the other, for everyone. This is the will to bestow, and it's true expression, and also towards the Creator, which you will call in order to bestow – that's it.

Question (Moscow 1): (56:41) When the serpent lowers its head so that we can't feel something?

M. Laitman: These are the states I don't want to go over, you'll see it from experience, and that's it. I don't want to get into it, I just want to show the path that he outlines, and everything inside this path you have to discover for yourself.

Question (PT 24): (57:20) We learned that Israel is in the place of Bina, between the Rosh and the Guf. Here, it's mentioned in the article that Aaron is in that place, so what is that place?

M. Laitman: Yes, this is a place of transition from the Rosh to the Guf, and from the Guf to the Rosh and that's where we need to be. Don't be smart, let's learn what is written! I said I'm not going to answer questions that are not related to a simple understanding of the article. Everything else you'll understand from actually implementing it.

Question (PT 9): (58:04) It seems here that Egypt and the land of Israel is the same. It's just that it seems like we are preparing in Egypt and then something happens, and we are in Israel.

M. Laitman: Yes, in the state where we begin our work is the kind of work we do when we don't know where we are, this is called Babylon. And we come out of it. We have a certain small ego that happens to us from above. They take us to what we call, the land of Israel, Yashar Kel, with those intentions. And those intentions in us grow, but we are unable to understand them, this is called, the stages of the forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Three upper spheres work in us in this way, they build in us the will to receive. With this will to receive, we enter into the recognition that we are egoistic, egoists. This is the meaning of physically entering Egypt; there we advance by developing our ego more and more. The egoistic will to receive in each and every person is a corporeal desire, a beastly desire. Egoistic desire that develops inside a person who enters what we call, Egypt, is a desire that goes against our spiritual development. And we have to turn it into being for our spiritual development. And that's how we prepare ourselves, and this period is the most tasteless period. We find ourselves in it for years until our will to receive grows and receives such qualities. And such measurements that it throws us by itself – from itself. Like a Pharaoh who eventually expels the children of Israel from within him, and that's how we advance.

Question (W PT 38 – W Moscow 8): (01:01:38) Our, Arei Miskenot, from the word, danger. What's the danger, why the transition between this world and the spiritual world is dangerous?

M. Laitman: It's dangerous because you can remain in order to receive – in the ego – and never leave Egypt to reach contact with the Creator. The land of Israel means a desire that's entirely taking you to the Creator and you can remain disconnected from it. You can remain in Egypt, that's why the state of Egypt, on the one hand, can be preparation for ascending towards the revelation of the Creator. And on the other hand, it can be a state that remains and you remain in it, and you never come out of it.

Question (W Turkiye 1): (01:02:39) What does it mean that Pharaoh sucked the abundance? How did Pharaoh take the abundance, even if he's not in equivalence of form with the Creator?

M. Laitman: True, but a person that is yearning for the Creator and, seemingly, connects with the group, and he, seemingly, connects with the Creator, who wants to connect with the group. This person is suddenly in desires of bestowal, he's ready for connection; then you can say that he's close to the spirituality. And he goes back again in order to receive into corporeality. So, these sorties into spirituality and then back to corporeality, even if it's not real, but nevertheless, he's in both. It's like he acts like a pump, like a piston that goes back and forth. And then where is he, where is that person himself? So, he enters a certain contact, a certain spiritual desire, and then he returns to corporeality; again, he goes into bestowal, then back to corporeality. So, we have to feel that these desires where we reenter spirituality, he's doing it for us. He's pulling us, he's giving us an awakening. And later, we return, we grasp certain things, we grab certain things in spirituality, and we return to corporeality.

Meaning by that, we're allowing the Pharaoh to grow, we let him become stronger, this is the meaning of Klipot, the shells that suck, that exploit spirituality. But there is benefit in that as well, because after we accumulate such sparks of the great light inside the Klipot, the shell. Nevertheless, there is what we call, they swallowed it whole, and then it will vomit it out. The will to receive, called Pharaoh, he's swallowing all those things but later he cannot hold on to them, and he will vomit them back out. We'll learn how this is happening, but there's a good, correct result in it, nevertheless.

Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:36) How will we be able to maintain the abundance and not give it to Pharaoh?

M. Laitman: Try to be together, we don't have anything else, we don't have a vessel, only the connection between us, corporeal connection. As much as we can connect between us, this is the place for looking out for, for preserving.

Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:02) What does it mean that it says, the Rosh is knowing and the Guf is receiving?

M. Laitman: That's how, so we call the structure or the egoistic Partzuf: Rosh of knowing, the Guf of reception; whereas in the spiritual Partzuf, the Rosh is of faith, and the Guf is of receiving.

Reader: We'll now continue to the next part of the lesson, studying with friends. Before that, we'll sing.

Song: (01:06:37) We have walked together for thousands of years. We have lived, we have died, changed bodies. But our soul is eternal.

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