The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) December 12, 2024.
Part 1: Baal HaSulam. The Meaning of Conception and Birth
Reader: Hello, we shall be reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam, the article, “The Meaning of Conception and Birth”. You can find all of our texts on kabbalahmedia.info as well as through the Arvut platform where you can send us questions. Anyone asking a question here in the study hall is requested to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth and to speak loudly and clearly. Baal HaSulam, “The Meaning of “Conception and Birth”. First, Title,
Rules:
The Meaning of Conception and Birth
General and Particular
1) Rules
Reading: (00:41) The scrutiny of the educated in creation, in the first concept, is defined as emulating the work of the Creator. The work of the Creator is called “Providence,” or the “nature of creation.”
They are not called “body,” but rather “simple matter of flesh and blood in its still [inanimate] form,” completely amorphous. It is so because anything that is called by the name “form” is regarded as a spiritual force and is not a body.
This gives us a law by which all bodies are equal. However, as Earth is a single body that cannot be divided into many—for we do not find any change of form in it from one part to another—the still cannot be divided into many elements.
Also, all the power of proliferation in the world is a wonderful, spiritual force. For this reason, anything that is general is suitable and praiseworthy, for it comes from the spiritual force, and anything that is particular is contemptible and lowly. This designates the difference between a selfish person and one who is dedicated to one’s nation.
There is no doubt that the merit of the collective is defined by its power of proliferation, for if we have decided that the power of proliferation is a spiritual and important matter, then if the proliferation is greater, he is more important.
It follows that one who is dedicated to one’s nation is more important than one who is dedicated to one’s town, and one who is dedicated to the world is more important than one who is dedicated to one’s nation. This is the first concept.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:18) In the first paragraph, it says, following the work of God, emulating the work of the Creator. What does that mean?
M. Laitman: That the created being will see before him, I don't know, all kinds of examples, from the created beings, are doing all sorts of actions in order to resemble the Creator
Student: I need to look for these examples?
M. Laitman: Then, from that they can understand ...it's written, from Your actions we shall know You, they will come to try and understand the Creator.
Student: What is the Creator's work in creation?
M. Laitman: The work of the Creator in creation, as he writes, it's called the nature of creation or providence.
Student: That I need to look to see His providence?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Where?
M. Laitman: Throughout creation, where you are, meaning, from the get-go, there is a commandment on you to reach providence.
Student: Then I need to emulate Him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How do I emulate Him, He's the Creator?
M. Laitman: There must be possibilities that we need to carry out.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (07:24) We have a meeting of two Tens today. Is that also an opportunity to ... we have two Tens where you can see that they're full of people who are very devoted and he writes here that the power of the collective is spiritual and so on. What is that? What should a person do when there are many friends in such a meeting, for example?
M. Laitman: I cannot say.
Student: Is that the force of proliferation we just read about?
M. Laitman: No.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:30) We get examples from each other in order to discover what the Creator shows us, gives us here. He talks about a spiritual force, what is the spiritual force we discover between us?
M. Laitman: It is a force that determines for us all the forms of development and the path of development. We need to try to be accurate, accordingly.
Student: You said that we're commanded to give that force to each other. What is that commandment? What are we supposed to do every day? What is that command?
M. Laitman: This commandment is that, in the relationship between us, we'll try to establish those same rules that exist in the attitude toward this force, the attitude of this force toward its created beings.
Student: It's the force that we build in the connection between us, every time, more and more?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Turkiye 8): (10:40) Is there a connection between spiritual proliferation and proliferation in this material world? That someone who does not proliferate in this world, can he not attain?
M. Laitman: There must be. We need to study it.
Student: It says here that the power of proliferation in the world is a spiritual force. He says that on the corporeal level there is just one force. There's no proliferation. He makes a distinction between the material and the spiritual proliferation. Can you elaborate on that?
M. Laitman: In the spiritual force there are many parts, many components, and they're all aimed at a single goal where eventually they come from absence of wholeness to wholeness.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:14) The message here about one who is more devoted to his nation and to his town, etc., doesn't that contradict the idea that the poor of your city come first?
M. Laitman: I don't know, maybe.
Student: What is the meaning of this here? That the wider circle of the inanimate is more important than the closer circle?
M. Laitman: The inanimate is the foundation of creation. As it grows and develops, then it produces forms that are further away from the source of creation.
Student: It's specifically the forms further away, the inanimate objects, the more corrected forms…you could say I'm more corrupt in terms of development.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Birth in Spirituality.
Reading: (13:51) Therefore, as there is birth of an individual, in relation to the construction of the bodies, there is birth of the collective. This is done by renewal of the spiritual force, meaning development of the concepts is birth for the collective, for in the spiritual, disparity of form divides the worlds from one another. This birth means arriving at the world of correction.
M. Laitman: That's all that he writes about spirituality. That is, through a renewal of the spiritual force, meaning development of the concepts, is birth for the collective. Birth in general is to come to the world of correction, arriving at the world of correction.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:24) What does he mean by birth?
M. Laitman: Birth means the emergence of something new.
Student: What is new here?
M. Laitman: That there is something that can be defined, can be named, can be measured, and it can be independent.
Student: What is being born? It's only a person's perception that changes, that is renewed, right? Is there another kind of birth in nature?
M. Laitman: He's saying that there's birth in spirituality.
Student: Right, so what is renewed in spirituality?
M. Laitman: He hasn't explained it yet, the Exodus from Egypt.
Student: Can I ask about the previous part?
M. Laitman: Sure.
Student: He writes that one who is devoted to his nation is more important than one who is devoted to his city and so on. What kind of devotion are we talking about?
M. Laitman: It's to the extent that he feels that he belongs, that it's a part of his nature, included.
Student: How can a person measure the degree of his devotion?
M. Laitman: According to how devoted he is.
Student: What is devotion? An affiliation? I feel affiliated with something?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How does it work, the degrees of development in this devotion? Right, I have a Ten now. I'm devoted to the Ten. I belong to the Ten and I also have the group, the Petah Tikva group, which I'm also devoted to. I want to be a part of that. There's also the World Kli and my people, my nation, the whole of humanity. How does it work, these levels of devotion? How do you elevate your degree of devotion from a smaller circle to a wider circle?
M. Laitman: Let's see what he writes. The Exodus from Egypt is called birth.
The Exodus from Egypt Is Called Birth
Reading: (19:08) If we are speaking of the proliferation in the spiritual essence, it is similar to the corporeal case of being born from the mother’s womb—which is a dark and spoiled world with all kinds of filth and unpleasantness—into a world lit up by perfection, the world of correction.
By this we understand the meaning of the preparation as defined in the kingdom of the priests, who have come to it by the prophecy of Moses, and for which they were rewarded with freedom from the angel of death and the reception of the Torah. At that time, they needed a new birth into the air of the enlightened world, called in the verse, A “Pleasant Land, Good and Broad.”
M. Laitman: Seemingly, coming out of the will to receive will be called birth. Next.
Stillborn
Reading: (20:57) That newborn was stillborn because after the pregnancy—which is the iron melting pot and the enslavement in Egypt—came the birth. But they were still unfit to breathe the spirit of life from the enlightened world, where they were given a promise they would come, until the count began, and the war with Amalek, and the trials with the water, etc., and they arrived at the Sinai desert. Sinai (as our sages said) means Sinaa [hatred], for they are pronounced the same, meaning the affliction entailed in every illness.
M. Laitman: Okay, we heard, and then?
The Birth to Father and Mother
Reading: (22:09) At that time they became worthy of breathing the spirit of life, and the prophecy “And you shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” came true in them—first, a kingdom of priests, to revoke their personal possessions, and subsequently, a holy nation which is to bestow contentment upon their Maker through “love your neighbor as yourself.”
In corporeality, the newborn falls into loving and loyal hands, who are the father and the mother, who guarantee its sustenance and health. Likewise, once each one has been prepared with 600,000 who care for one’s sustenance, they breathe the spirit of life, as it is written, “And Israel encamped there before the mount,” and RASHI interpreted, “as one man with one heart.”
Posterior and Anterior
Reading: (23:58) Man’s eyes are before him. This implies that he can look only to the future in a manner of growth from below upward. However, he cannot look behind him, in the manner of conception, from above downward (as it is written about Lot, “Look not behind you”).
Hence, man is denied any real knowledge because he is devoid of the beginning. He is like a book whose first half is missing, so its content cannot be understood at all. The whole advantage of those who attain is that they are rewarded with attaining the conception, too, meaning the progression from above downward.
Man includes everything, and this is evidently seen when he looks and contemplates something. Everyone knows that he is not looking outside his own body and ideas whatsoever, yet he attains the whole world, knows what people think, assesses how to be liked by them, and adapts himself to their wishes.
In order to know that, he only needs to look inside himself, and he already understands the thoughts of his contemporaries because everyone is equal, and a person contains all the people within. The restriction on one’s knowledge is that one does not know one’s own conception or remembers anything from that time so as to be able to say anything about it.
M. Laitman: How limited we are in our perception, this is what we see.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:56) Is there any equivalence here between the embryo and the people of Israel standing before the mount?
M. Laitman: We have to learn.
Student: That narrow part before the emergence, and the group that's facing this mountain or wall, is it similar, the transition from stage to stage?
M. Laitman: It might be. We'll see.
Student: Maybe the addition is, what is the difference between one's individual work in spiritual advancement and the work of a group in terms of skipping forward to a new level?
M. Laitman: A big difference because while advancing in the group, we need to take into consideration that all the individuals who transition from state to state, they connect, and their outcome of that could be way more significant than what one does by himself. It's like the difference between making a calculation in an individual and making it in many bodies. In many bodies, you'll have a general calculation, which is way more real, tangible, compared to the calculation of the individual. We'll see.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:09) What does it mean to adapt myself to the wishes of others?
M. Laitman: To adapt himself to the wishes of others means that I'm incorporated in them and I give them the control over myself.
Student: He says that conforming to the wishes of others, that's devotion. Is that the devotion we're talking about, where I emerge more and more from myself?
M. Laitman: We'll see how he speaks of the collective.
Reader: We're at the heading, the 50th gate. So, the 50th gate.
The Fiftieth Gate
Reading: (31:17) This is the meaning of the verse, “You will see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” Moses attained the meaning of conception, meaning all the discernments from above downward, in full. It is called “the posterior of the spiritual worlds,” and all he lacked was to look at the “face,” as well, meaning to see the future through the end of the correction. This is called “fifty gates of Bina,” since the level of Bina is one hundred gates, and Bina is named by Kabbalists, Ima [mother], as she is the mother of the whole world. One who is rewarded with attaining all one hundred gates in her is rewarded with the revelation of completeness.
Their fifty gates from behind are the conception, meaning the progression from above downward, and their fifty gates from before are the necessary path of development through the end of correction. At that time, “The whole earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,” and “They shall teach no more each man his neighbor and each man his brother saying ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.”
This is the meaning of Moses’ prayer, “Show me please Your glory,” meaning all fifty gates of Bina from before. And the Creator said to him, “You shall see My back”; it is enough that you see all fifty in My posterior, from above downward. “But My face shall not be seen,” since you will not see all the fifty from before, “For man shall not see Me and live,” meaning before it is due time, when the vessels have fully adapted and developed.
Prior to this, one must die by seeing this because the Kelim [vessels] will not be able to receive that great light and will be canceled. This is the meaning of what is written, “Fifty gates of Bina were created in the world, and all but one were given to Moses.”
But in spirituality there is no lack. Rather, it is all or nothing, as in “A slightly broken vow is a completely broken vow.” But in the end, when the measure of the Kelim grow and develop sufficiently, they will be fit for attaining the fiftieth gate. (You should also know that there are two kinds of attainment: prophecy and wisdom. With respect to wisdom, Moses attained what all the sages attained. But with respect to prophecy, he could not attain. It is about this that our sages said, “A sage is preferable to a prophet,” and they also said that Solomon attained the fiftieth gate.)
M. Laitman: He'll probably continue to elaborate on it and interpret it later on, okay? Next.
The Soul Begets the Body: Conception and Growth
Reading: (36:11) We find two progressions in sown wheat:
From the time it is placed in the ground, when it begins to strip itself of its form. This is regarded as begetting, until it becomes naught, meaning the substrate of negation of its progenitors’ form, and the actual becomes potential. Until then, it is regarded as conception, extending from the progression from above downward.
When it comes to the final point, the growth begins. This is the progression from below upward until it obtains the level of its progenitor.
M. Laitman: Next.
General and Particular Are the Same
Reading: (37:42) General and particular are as identical as two drops in a pond. It is so both externally, in the state of the planet in general, and internally, for even in the smallest atom we find a complete system of sun and planets circling it, just as in the universe. Likewise, man is the internality of the world, and you find within man all the images of the upper worlds, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. It is as Kabbalists said, “Atzilut is the Rosh [head], Beria is up to the Chazeh [chest], Yetzira is from there to Tabur [navel], and Assiya is from the Tabur down.”
For this reason, there is a progression from above downward in man’s conception, too, meaning a slow expansion from the progenitor, the mother, until one completely detaches from her as one emerges to the world, moving from operating to operated, from the authority of the progenitor to one’s own authority.
At that time begins the progression from below upward, the days of nursing, when still attached to the mother’s breasts, until the form is fully completed in the final level of the progenitors.
However, Adam HaRishon [the first man] was a creation of the Creator. He was certainly not born from a woman, but from the dust of the earth, as were the rest of the first creations, who were formed from that dust, as it is written, “All was from the dust.” And yet, that dust extends from the upper worlds that precede it.
It is so because above, too, there are light and Kli [sing. of Kelim]. The light is in the forms in the reception, and the Kli is the will to receive the forms that suit them. That Kli, which is the will to receive, is never constant, neither in terms of importance, nor in terms of an independent reality that stands on its own, but only with what it receives. Thus, it has no more merit than what is received.
For example, a poor man who wishes to acquire wealth is no more important than a poor man who is content with his lot and does not aspire for wealth. On the contrary, he is worse than him because the will to receive becomes one with the received matter, and they are only two halves of one thing. When each half is separated, it has no value in itself, which you can discuss with or negotiate.
M. Laitman: Any questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:19) He writes that the progression from below upwards is the days of nursing when he's adhered to his mother's breasts and Ibur is our connection to Bina. I'm not sure but what is nursing for us, or is it far from us still?
M. Laitman: I don't know.
Student: It's not written?
M. Laitman: No.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:53) I wanted to ask, first of all, was this article written by Baal HaSulam as a fully fleshed out article or was it arranged later?
M. Laitman: That's a question but I don't know. I don't know that someone arranged it.
Student: Because he writes it in a way which is very difficult to understand. On the one hand, he makes correlations to what we can see from nature and the way things develop and are born and also there are correlations between that and spiritual processes. Is it correct to understand it that way, to read it that way?
M. Laitman: It could be.
Student: What's unclear here is, on the one hand, development happens through the proliferation, right? The more things develop, the more they divide into more complex parts, which all connect together. On the other hand, he also says that the more whole a thing is, the better it is, the more worthy and refined it is, as in the role of the particular and the multitude. Then he says that until they reached a state of a people, a nation, there was no birth, right? When they came out of Egypt, first there was the stillborn. There was no life there because they did not receive the Torah yet but, after they received the Torah, they began to breathe because there were 600,000 souls which could serve as a father and mother and provide all the needs there. Seemingly, it turns out that until there is a connection between all these multiple parts, you cannot live in spirituality. Is that the meaning here?
M. Laitman: I don't think so. Let's see. Maybe he will add more.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:26) Creation, did creation give us the force to negate the egoistic form in which we exist?
M. Laitman: No, not the world of creation.
Student: No, the Creator, providence?
M. Laitman: He doesn't write it explicitly.
Student: I feel from what he writes that the act of negation, negating the previous form, that's what begets the new form. I'm asking, this negation, does it contain within it the force of birth, if a person wants to be birthed into a new form?
M. Laitman: No, I don't think so.
Student: Right, another question. The previous form, is it simulated? Because we have a very strong sensation of details and it's difficult for us to conceptualize a whole. The state in which things are separated, is that simulated? Is that imaginary?
M. Laitman: Seemingly, there is a place for it.
Student: Last question. The form in which we need to be birthed, in that form, are we a part which is a part of the whole or are we the whole in itself with no parts? The spiritual form he talks about, is it a part which is a part of a whole or is there no such thing as a part?
M. Laitman: It's a question.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:40) He wrote here that those who attain get to attain the secrets of the conception from above downwards. They can go back and understand the states that preceded the state they're in. He said, he repeats a principle here, the principle by which everything is within man, that man needs only to look within himself and by that the whole of reality can be revealed. It exists also in the Introduction to the Preface that all the worlds, the upper ones, the lower ones, are within man. What is that action by which one looks within himself? A person with no attainment, if he looks within, he won't find anything good there, he won't find any understanding either. What does it mean to look within oneself? Supposedly, it allows a person to see the reasons for his existence, for the world's existence, and so on.
M. Laitman: He has nowhere else to look, only into himself.
Student: It would seem that a person observes reality and we observe each other. We learn about each other. We get strength from each other. What is that action to look within yourself?
M. Laitman: It's a question. It’s a question.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:42) The truth is, I have the same question. He writes that man includes everything, that the particular and the general are the same, and that a person needs to look within himself. If so, why does he need to interact with others?
M. Laitman: If all these others are inside of him?
Student: He writes that man includes everything, he needs to look within himself, the general and the particular are identical. Why do you need the general? Work with the particular. Why do you need that interaction? What does it add if a person can find everything within himself, right? Or does he need to go out and speak to the people to get to know the whole world? No, I hear that it's all within himself.
M. Laitman: Okay, good question.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:45) I understand from the text that the process of birth is from above downwards, and he begins the process from below upwards, which starts with nursing. Is that correct?
M. Laitman: We'll see.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:18) He writes about Moshe, Moses, who attained all the degrees from above downwards, and then he died, and only when the vessels are prepared, he'll be able to attain, from below upwards. I have a note here where you said a few years ago that now is the time when the vessels are ready. And when we read this, I don't think we talk about it a lot. I don't think I've ever felt this text as being so close and so deep. When I feel it so closely, the only thing I actually reveal is the huge divide between what the Kabbalist talks about and where we are. And also, we are here in an environment where we have a strong desire to get closer to this. And this is the only way we can. And this is in comparison to the rest of reality, which can't. So, now the vessels are ready. Where do we connect? If the vessels are ready, where is the point of contact? The only thing that's being revealed now is the divide, the gap between me and this and the whole reality and this place where we need to feel that power of proliferation and attainment. How do we connect?
M. Laitman: Likely in the general solution, we will find that answer as well.
Question (Kyiv 1): (53:31) That's the attainment of Moshe. And in general, the attainment of a Kabbalist can be from below upwards or from above downwards, face or anterior and posterior, that a Kabbalist can see the future state. What is that attainment in which a Kabbalist sees the future state?
M. Laitman: I don't know. We have to think about it.
Question (Moscow 7): (54:14) I also had this, well, a similar question. That is his title, Baal HaSulam, the owner of the ladder. So he discovered the whole world and from end to end and the entirety of the degree of Bina, right, can we say that? So, it follows that he saw the future, and he was like a prophet. So the question is, from that point where he saw everything, from what place could he disseminate, if he understood the whole process of development. Or were his articles written to the degree of his understanding his development?
M. Laitman: No, I don't think so.
Student: He tried to save the people of Israel even though he seemingly saw the future outcome. So what motivated him if he understood what's going to happen?
M. Laitman: I don't think it's what's destined to happen. The point is how much as participants we can incorporate correctly in this action.
Question (Turkiye 2): (55:56) How can a person emerge if the will to receive, if the will to receive is the only substance created?
M. Laitman: That's a question. But there's another solution here.
Question (ITA 1): (56:42) We need to lose our form, like the seed that rots in the ground. We die, how do we die, only internally or only in relation to the external world?
M. Laitman: Okay, we shall see it.
The Law of Development According to the Wisdom of Kabbalah.
What Is a Soul?
Reading: (57:24) It is impossible to examine anything before you see it from its beginning to its end. And since one feels only what comes from within (just as ophthalmologists have found that the colors are not the same in both eyes, but there is rather an agreement here), therefore, first one must know oneself through and through, at least since the time of conception [impregnation] to the time of adulthood. And because this is not so, for one begins to know oneself only when becoming a complete human being, one is therefore devoid of the ability to self-scrutinize.
M. Laitman: Next.
No Person Knows Himself.
Reading: (58:42) The second reason is that to know something, you must primarily observe its negative qualities. And one cannot see one’s own faults (and to the same extent that one can borrow from what one sees in others, one looks in a mirror that does not illuminate), since anything bad that one must receive comes to one as pleasure, for otherwise he would not receive it. Also, it is a law that wherever there is pleasure, a person does not regard it as bad, except after many experiences that develop in them. However, this requires days and years, as well as memory, conclusions, and observations, of which not everyone is capable. For this reason, no person knows himself.
But Kabbalists have attainment and attain a matter in full. That is, they are rewarded with attaining all those degrees in reality that one can attain. This is considered that they have attained a matter in full, and that complete matter is called a “soul.”
M. Laitman: Questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:51) How can a person who doesn't know himself develop? What do you recommend he do?
M. Laitman: I don’t know. We’ll see it later.
Student: He says that if a person doesn't know something from beginning to end, then what I take from this is that any development he undergoes, as it appears to him let's say from the desire that awakens in him, maybe it's not in the right direction?
M. Laitman: Okay.
Student: What should he do? Just sit down and allow things to... Maybe it's better just not to move. Allow nature to develop him. Is that better? Is that the advice? Just not to move?
M. Laitman: And what was before, was that not nature?
Student: It's also nature. So what? It's unclear. A person goes through all sorts of things in his life, and suddenly a desire awakens in him. He runs to fulfill that desire. After a certain amount of time, he discovers that it wasn't in the right direction.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And he understands that maybe it would have been better to develop in a more inward direction, to be a more developed, loving, bestowing kind of person. And he starts advancing in that direction now. And then, suddenly, he's taken on another trip. Other desires are awakened again. He runs after them to fulfill those desires. So let's say a person is aware of this process. And also, he looks at the multitude, at humanity. And he sees the same movie being played out in that collective as well as in himself. The Creator suddenly awakens some desires in him, and he runs to fulfill those. Even though he already said about such desires that awakened in him in the past.
M. Laitman: He knows it already.
Student: Yes, he knows it already. So, my question is, what is the law of development according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, and how to work with it correctly? If it's a law, a rule, so how to keep it?
M. Laitman: We’ll see.
Student: He writes that it's impossible to understand anything before seeing it from beginning to end. So, a person doesn't see himself from beginning to end.
M. Laitman: But you're not required to do it. You assume that you have to see the entire path, and everything, everything, and accept it in such a way, there's no question about anything.
Student: How can he develop if he doesn't see from beginning to end?
M. Laitman: I guess there's a question mark here.
Student: He'll necessarily make a mistake.
M. Laitman: Depends on who, where does he point to this question mark at.
Student: What does that mean?
M. Laitman: What he thinks he's got left.
Student: What do you mean, what he thinks he has left?
M. Laitman: You think that a person develops only on the condition that he knows everything?
Student: That's what I understand. Otherwise, he doesn't actually know in which direction to develop. He develops through errors, by default, so I understand. Because he doesn't know the final outcome from the initial thought, and if he doesn't know all that, everything that develops within him, and all these desires that awaken within him which he fulfills, where will he get to with that? Just a dead end. He doesn't know where he's supposed to get to begin with. So what's the advice here? It's a dead end.
M. Laitman: What do you think? You don't know.
Student: I could say that if he has the ability to connect himself to the wise, to the sages, then maybe he can follow their reasoning, if his desires were not stronger than the greatness of the sages in his estimation.
M. Laitman: Let's say faith. Let's say faith.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:22) He says here in this item, in this setting, in the article in general, that a person can't understand anything unless he's drawn towards good, towards pleasure. And so he can't come to know himself, because to know himself, he has to know the evil in him. And apart from many trials, many attempts to attain that pleasure where he fails from that, he gets to know the evil. I think that's pretty clear. But here he skips. Towards the end here, he says that the Kabbalists who are of attainment, they attain a matter in full. They are rewarded with attaining all those degrees in reality that one can attain. Then it is said that they have attained a matter in full, and that complete matter is called a soul. So, what is that skip? A person can't even see, can't even understand anything on the condition that it's a pleasure, a pleasurable thing, and then he fails to attain it. Right, that's clear. But from there, he skips to a complete attainment. It's called a soul. It's a quantum leap.
M. Laitman: I understand. Okay, we'll wait.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:59) Us studying, a person engaging in the wisdom of Kabbalah, learning about the cascade from above downwards, is it considered then that he grows wiser in the understanding of the conception, everything that brought him to the state we're in? Does it develop within him an awareness of, how do we call it here, the part of the wisdom where he's supposed to know himself before the state of his birth, everything that happens from above downwards, does it contribute in any way to this knowledge he should acquire?
M. Laitman: It's a question.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:55) Maybe we can explain this paragraph here where Baal HaSulam says that a person needs to know all the will to receive in creation from above downwards. That's the process. And then in the end, he writes about attainment. Attainment is when one attains the will to receive in him. He's entered Egypt, the shell of Egypt, and then he demands redemption, and then, truly, he begins to become a person. Before that, he wasn't. He didn't know the process. We're talking about the attainment that we need to right, in that way we need to attain the whole of creation. Is that right?
M. Laitman: We'll see.
Question (Lithuania 1): (01:09:54) Do we need to expand the boundaries of our perception, or should we use our narrow perceptions to the max?
M. Laitman: To the extent that a person feels a deficiency for it.
Question (Turkiye 7): (01:10:22) What does it mean to be a complete entity?
M. Laitman: A complete entity. A person who attains his soul. He attains a complete entity.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:15) If you could explain. He wrote here that the law is that in anything where there is pleasure, a person doesn't consider it bad except if he goes through many attempts, which he fails in. And also it requires memory, and the ability to observe, and reach conclusions. Can you explain what all that means?
M. Laitman: A person has a certain inner view into creation, which allows him to combine everything and understand the connection between all things.
Student: Regarding this memory, is it worthwhile to try to reconstitute, because the ego confuses a person a lot, making him fail. Is it good to try to remember, to try to catch him, seeing that he is the one who...
M. Laitman: Try, but I don't think this is a sure path to success, no.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:56) He says that there is a difference in attainment between prophecy and wisdom. Can you explain, or maybe it's written somewhere, what the difference is between these two types of attainment?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:19) How does a person come to know the evil within him?
M. Laitman: From likely coming to a state where he can get to know himself. Where the evil develops in him. And then he comes to know where it developed from.
Student: He writes that everything comes to the person as pleasure, he doesn't see the evil. A person is considered close to himself, so what actions can a person perform to reach the recognition of evil?
M. Laitman: First of all, I agree with the fact that in its foundation he's bad, he's evil, and he doesn't think neither in his mind, nor his feelings, or his actions, or plans, in nothing does he think well about others, about the world, and then he begins to understand that he also, his actions on himself, he does them also badly.
Student: Are there things that we can do between us in the Ten to reach this recognition?
M. Laitman: If you want to go according to Baal HaSulam and to try to attain a soul, obviously by that we'll come out of the bad and reach the good.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:26) Why do we attain the refinement of the soul with sweat, blood, and tears?
M. Laitman: I don't know, those are the secrets of the Torah.
Student: Why is a wise man preferred than a prophet? There's no light of Hassadim without Hochma?
M. Laitman: Right.
Student: Why does one quality without an opposing quality has no right to exist in reality?
M. Laitman: Because you cannot attain or locate anything unless you have the discernment against it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:21) In the article he says that a person needs to go through a kind of a depicting after the creation. And there's many details here, but he says there's this cascading from above down, that a person identifies what's operating upon him, and at a certain stage, just like a seed that sprouts, he needs to start to do something on his behalf towards creation. When is that stage where a person can say he's no longer just discerning what's operating upon him but actually becomes a partner and starts to actually do something on his behalf?
M. Laitman: Probably from the state that he can understand himself, to bring himself to... In the end, all the solutions are in the end, in the complete providence.
Student: Meaning, just like the Creator comes from wholeness, also a person to come towards something has to come from wholeness?
M. Laitman: Yes that's for sure.
Student: That's why he says, here that the soul, that we have to start attaining the Neshama?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:55) He says that also above there is a lightened Kli, and the light is in the form of reception, and the Kli is the desire to receive them, and this Kli is the desire to receive that is completely in a certain direction and not in importance, and not from this independent essence. He stands with what is upon, and therefore, that is what is received. What does the Creator want to give us here where he says that, we always say that I've seen an opposite world. And what does he actually give here? Vessels to adapt ourselves to the Creator. How actually from there being light and Kli above, and we always see things from the opposite form, from an opposite we see what's more correct to suit the Creator. How does he build this? By us adapting ourselves to the upper world all the time, according to what he says here.
M. Laitman: I don't have the forces to explain that.
Reader: We're recommending moving to the next part of the lesson. So, we're going to move to the next part of the lesson, but we'll sing a song first.
Song: (01:21:37)