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

Daily Morning Lesson: October 22, 2025

Part 1: Recorded lesson – Dec 17, 2021

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 172. The Matter of Preventions and Delays

Reader: Hello friends, in the first part of the lesson we will learn from a lesson from December 17th, 2021, the writings of Baal HaSulam, the articles of Shamati, Number 172, The Matter of Preventions and Delays.

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Reader: Hello, we're reading in the articles of Shamati, Shamati 172, The Matter of Preventions and Delays. You can find the study material on our site and in the Arvut system up on top on the study material button. You can send questions; pertinent questions will be aired during the lesson.

M. Laitman: Yes, you see that we have gathered here in a special way today in one of the places, in Petah Tikva, in our center, our world center. And hopefully, when you change your place, you change your luck – and when you change your luck, you change your place – and by such movements and gatherings we can still achieve changes that will shake up our Kli and advance it further and further towards correction, I, truly, hope that. That's why we said that we will make some change at least, just here in our center, and even though we have to keep all the restrictions. And also, I was told to stay in my place, and in the meantime not to join any group who's gathered here – one floor below me, below where I am – and to do it like that. Hopefully, we will learn from this something and see what happens; we are very cautious from the negative influences that might happen. I don't think it will happen but still we should also look at the world through this condition as it says, The doctor has the right to heal. And accordingly, we should advance in terms of our external connection as well, even though our inner connection, the more we can work on it, we will, and all the rest is in the hands of the Creator. What's also interesting and joyful is that after the lesson we also have a meal as we used to have, the hummus meal on Fridays. We're going to do that as well and we'll see if it will be a one-time thing or we will do it once a week or once in a while, we'll see. We'll also, we'll try, because the more we awaken on our end, the more we hope to affect change in our whole Kli and thus we will advance. It says, You change your place, you change your luck, so let's see what the change will be—how that will influence us.

Reader: We're reading from the articles of Shamati 172, The Matter of Preventions and Delays.

Reading: (04:26) Shamati 172. The Matter of Preventions and Delays

I heard on Passover 7, April 20, 1949, Tel Aviv

All the preventions and delays that appear before our eyes are but a form of nearing—the Creator wants to bring us closer, and all these preventions bring us only nearing, since without them we would have no possibility of approaching Him. This is so because, by nature, there is no greater distance, as we are made of pure matter while the Creator is higher than high. Only when one begins to approach does he begin to feel the distance between us. And any prevention one overcomes brings the way closer for that person.

(This is so because one grows accustomed to moving on a line of growing farther. Hence, whenever one feels that he is distant, it does not induce any change in the process, since he knew in advance that he is moving on a line of growing farther, since this is the truth, that there are not enough words to describe the distance between us and the Creator. Hence, every time he feels that distance to a greater extent than he thought, it causes him no contention.)

M. Laitman (Source Text/ Commentary): (06:15) Yes, that's how it is. I'm going to read as well: This is Shamati 172, The Matter of Preventions and Delays.

All of the preventions and delays that appear before our eyes,

Where we feel that we thought every day is going to be easier, we're going to feel more attracted, to reveal something new, we see it's actually the opposite. There's more difficulty, all kinds of disturbances. So, Baal HaSulam says

It's but a form of nearing even though it seems to us like we're moving away and it’s preventions and delays. Why is it nearing, that he says

It's but a form of nearing? The Creator wants to bring us closer and, therefore, He gives us this feeling that we are moving further away.

Every day we have more difficulty, quantitatively and qualitatively and all of these preventions bring us only nearing, why? Because first of all, we need to identify that these things come directly from the Creator, There's None Else Besides Him, and these things come to us only to give us a place for labor to come closer to Him; since without them we would have no possibility of approaching the Creator if He wouldn't reject us. He's not actually rejecting us. He's revealing to us that we are further away and when that feeling comes to the person, it gives the person the opportunity to show that he does want to come closer to the Creator.

This is because by nature there's no greater distance as we are made of pure matter, while the Creator is higher than high. Only when one begins to approach does he begin to feel the distance between us—that's both between the friends and the Creator. And any prevention one overcomes, each such prevention brings the way closer for that person.

Meaning, and this too is a question, because if he sometimes feels that when he overcomes he comes closer to the Creator, he better understands, better feels what's going on but then, of course, he has another prevention, another distance. But it's not a prevention, it's just that the Creator is tweaking our range, our sensitivity to a higher precision, showing us where we are as opposed to where He is.

M. Laitman (Source Text/ Commentary): (09:54) That means where we are in relation to each other. Because towards the Creator we can't measure, we can never measure it; we can only measure the distances that exist between us, between the friends and that same distance exists between us and the Creator.

This is so because one grows accustomed to moving on a line of growing further, that the Creator shows him

That he's farther each time and a person tries to bridge this gap to somehow make it shorter.

Hence, whenever one feels that he's distant, it does not induce any change in the process,

Meaning he still craves and yearns to achieve adhesion with the Creator, to come closer to the Creator,

And that means that he nevertheless activates himself in giving, bestowing, connecting.

Since he knew that in advance, that everything appears this way, that every day he feels that he is growing farther. Despite that, he has to try to overcome that and bring himself to a state where it doesn't cool him off. It doesn't push him away, but actually he is moving on a line of growing further or farther since this is the truth. The Creator shows him better and better where he is, that there are not enough words to describe the distance between us and the Creator, we can't say what that distance is. It's just disparity of form and we can't even measure the extent of the oppositeness of form.

Every time he feels that distance, to a greater extent than he thought, it causes him no contention,

He knows that it's getting closer – that if the Creator raises the sensitivity he has for this so-called, growing distance. The person understands it's not that the distance is changing but he now came to a point where he can be shown the accuracy of that distance between him and the Creator more sensitively, at a higher sensitivity. That's a sign that he's getting closer, so our feeling that we are getting farther every day, that we have to start anew, that we have to overcome ourselves. Once again I have to make an effort to connect to the friends and so on—this feeling does not awaken disappointment in me or fatigue. These are signs that if I feel that, once again, I lost what I had before, once again, I'm indifferent, apathetic, doesn't feel anything, and that's a sign that I've got into a new distance between me and the friends, me and the Creator, and I'm actually closer to them. That's what we have to understand, it's actually opposite to our emotion, opposite to our mind. That's how we have to see the states that I'm in, to depict them in the right way; and as a result, I'll have an opportunity to get closer.

Question (Kyiv 1): (14:30) How do we, nevertheless, how will we adapt this gap, this delta between us?

M. Laitman: This is by overcoming the sensation of the distance and you want to get closer on top of that, even though that's what it seems to you. You have to understand that's just how you feel it; it's how you're being shown through your individual, personal perception. And even though your accuracy, your sensitivity between you and the Creator is, now, greater so, now you feel it's like you've measured, before, the distance in meters and now you measure it in centimeters. So, of course it looks bigger to you, you see the distance as greater but it's incorrect: The distance is actually now shorter but the feeling that you're further away is now greater because you're working with a higher level of precision and that's what you need to understand. Why does that happen to us like that? So that we try to establish ourselves in a way that we don't work for the distance, we'd rather yearn for equivalence of form. It's a totally different discernment – if I first yearned for shortening the distance between us, now, it doesn't matter to me. I don't pay attention to the distance that separates us, I only pay attention to the connection between us and this parameter is completely different. It's not on the same ruler; it's not the same unit as physical distance.

That's how we feel it in our will to receive, in our will to receive, I might feel that I'm growing farther. But if I activate myself in bestowal, it's already a different kind of distance, a different kind of line, of contact with the Creator. I might feel greater and greater distances between us. As it says, One who's greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than himself. The more a person comes closer to the friends and the Creator, he thinks he hates them and doesn't want them and rejects them and so on like Kabbalists write to us. We have to understand this feeling, it’s true, it's correct but it comes to us in such a way so that we will transition ourselves to a different line of connection between us where we don't care in what discernments and feelings we have being similar or not similar. But how much we are above them in the form of bestowal and if we want to be in mutual bestowal, then the more opposite we are, the more distant we are. The more we have an opportunity to bestow, to aim to get closer above the disturbances, above the distances between us. That's what we need to do, so let's exercise it like this and advance.

Reader: (19:04) It's not clear if connection between us doesn't shorten the feeling of distance between us, what does it do?

M. Laitman: It depends on how you measure the feeling, that's what he says.

The matter of preventions and delays, where does he start? All the preventions and delays that appear before our eyes are but a form of nearing.

What's nearing if I feel that I'm farther – that I'm being pushed away from the path, from connection, from everything, right? He says,

The Creator wants to bring us closer

And that's why He gives us the feeling of being farther and all these preventions bring us only nearing, how could it be? He adds even more since without them, without feeling farther, we would have no possibility of approaching the Creator, how could this be? How do we use the fact that we feel farther, also between us, the friends, and between us and the Creator? We feel left alone, detached, empty. He says

This is because by nature there's no greater distance as we are made of pure matter meaning just will to receive, opposite to the Creator, while the Creator is higher than high

Meaning a desire of complete bestowal and love.

Only when one begins to approach does he begin to feel the distance between us,

Between us and the Creator, how that distance is actually becoming greater and greater and greater. It's a true feeling because he is given to see, to feel where he is and where the Creator is. This feeling and this understanding of the distance is in man’s vessels.

Any prevention one overcomes when he feels how far he is, as if he's thrown backwards, any prevention one overcomes brings the way closer for that person

Brings him closer to the Creator, meaning the farther we feel, the closer we actually get to the truth until we get to discover the Creator in a Kli that shows us, on the one hand, infinite distance between us and the Creator, a disparity of form, disparity of desire, of qualities, on the one hand. And on the other hand, we begin to see and feel through that that we are getting closer, that we are already in some equivalence with Him. Where does that come from? Because

He grows accustomed to moving on a line of growing farther

Meaning it doesn't reject him, this growing farther. If he feels how far he is each time, it doesn't cause any change in his process. He goes above that and keeps going, moving to get closer even though the Creator stays farther. Fine, okay but I have an opportunity to make another step forward. Meaning, he knows this thing in advance, he knows that the path is going to seem farther and farther each time. And that's a sign that he's successful, that he's moving on a line of growing farther,

Since this is the truth, that there are not enough words to describe the distance between us and the Creator,

How opposite we are.

Hence, every time he feels that distance to a greater extent than he thought, it causes him no contention,

No rejection, it actually does the opposite. He discovers it as truth and that's a sign that we're getting closer, even though in our feeling we're getting or growing farther but in truth we're getting closer.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:30) The delays and preventions in the Ten cause us to come closer after we resolve them and go through them. But what I feel is that what throws me all the time from spirituality is the disturbances in corporeality – the constant explosions that you get from corporeality that, instead of bringing me closer, it distances me because what it causes me is it causes me, instead of being concentrated on the Ten and our work. I instead get the disturbance from corporeality and engage in it instead of it being engaged in the real thing that I need to engage in, which is in spirituality.

M. Laitman: I think it's from lack of connection with the friends; even like that, you can solve the problem if you are more connected to them, then the corporeal disturbances won't detach you from the Ten and from the Ten – and through the Ten – from the Creator.

Student: I'm trying to be as connected to them as much as possible and, nevertheless, the corporeal disturbances don't stop. It's like the Creator is telling you, it's like He's testing me constantly, giving me hardships and it just increases. Because in spirituality, I feel that I have my Ten that's protecting me. And the moment I have corporeal problems; I also pray that my friends will be okay. I pray for my friends but the corporeal disturbances continue to come without stopping.

M. Laitman: Well, you're going to see afterwards that the Creator scrutinizes your life and your spiritual progress. And the corporeal disturbances are actually very specific to each and every one; then comes this one virus and changes life in various levels and aspects. And each one is really also found in a change of our personal lives, a meaningful change. Therefore, we decided that we're even connecting, coming here to connect in our lesson, and more than 400 people came! After that, we'll also have a meal – a hummus meal – and we'll try to somehow awaken the situation, to move it from its state where it can't move, maybe something will come out of it. I really hope that we will lead the healing process and not wait for it to passively go away because we see that if we just sit and wait, despite our spiritual work, we see it's not going away. We'll try to speed it up, we’ll try together with you!

Question (Turkey 2): (28:20) How can we perceive these obstacles so these obstacles will strengthen the closeness between us?

M. Laitman: Well, we feel the disturbances themselves, the fact that a few hours ago, I wanted to hear, to see, to feel how to get closer to the friends, to the Creator. To study about the system of the worlds, the work of the person, how to enter and see these worlds and feel them and discover them, and now, I'm indifferent, I don't care, I can't move myself, I'm willing to just do my work and disconnect from spirituality. I can just—can't move myself, can't lift myself from the couch, from the TV and so on. Meaning, we see that these things become more and more heavy, and where does it come from? Of course, it all comes from None Else Besides Him. Only the Creator orchestrates this for us. He dresses into all kinds of disturbances that He pushes us to and rejects us from all kinds of things that belong to spiritual development, and that's how we advance. That by overcoming these disturbances and this is where one shall help his friend and we can do all kinds of actions, maybe instead of twice a day, three times a day, even for fifteen minutes each time. Because we don't understand, but the more I think in my mind that at some time I need to connect with the friends and I don't feel like it and it disturbs me and I don't want it and what will I do—that this is what's happening to me? If I still think about it, even think about it as a disturbance, then I'm connected, not face-to-face but at least face-to-back, back on my part but I'm still connected to spirituality. And it's worthwhile even if it's as a disturbance; here, we have to understand that the whole world advances to correction through disturbances. This whole pandemic and all our problems in general like He says, all the preventions and delays that appear both to us and to humanity—of course it's on a different level – but all of it is only a sign of nearing. The Creator is attracting us, pulling us closer to Him. That's how we should accept it but even if I don't accept it for now and I don't want it but I still come to the group and to the activity of the group or something. I still do more and more actions towards getting closer; and even though it becomes more and more difficult for me each time, it is because I advance, it's because I advance.

Question (Volga): (32:43) In the article, it speaks about the moment a person discovers that distance, this gap between him and the quality of bestowal. A person doesn't argue with it; but in certain other articles it's written that he is willing to remain in that distancing permanently. I don't understand if there needs to be a certain new flavor that I'm willing to remain?

M. Laitman: It’s very simple – comes a force of the heaviness of the heart, the burdening of the heart as we call it, and I just want to stay where I am now, to fall asleep. Rabash would say that if there is such a pill, a sleeping pill, that I can just swallow and fall asleep and never wake up, until when? No end. I'd like that pill, that's it, that's how it is.

Question (W MAK 36): (34:08) How can it be that the more a person feels distant from the Creator, he's actually closer?

M. Laitman: Because when he feels that he is farther, it's what he feels. It's a sign that he understands that the distance between him and the Creator is real. And it becomes more and more bigger and the bigger it becomes, the more he's shown the truth. Which means that in his vessels he has advanced to seeing the distance in a truer and truer fashion.

Question (W Russia 6): (34:54) Is the Creator something that constantly distances from the horizon where you can never reach Him? You come closer and He distances from you? And are all the disturbances just to remember that that's the path and that's how we have to march towards it that way?

M. Laitman: I'll tell you; we still don't understand it; we still haven't entered the measurements of the distances. But we have to understand that the more we think the Creator is farther, it's because we are in opposite tendencies, opposite qualities. And so, the farther the Creator looks, the closer He actually is, and it will continue to be like that until we begin to perceive the Creator through qualities of bestowal.

Question (W Almaty 1): (36:03) What is it to be in connection to the Creator during the period of distancing, specifically?

M. Laitman: That we feel the distance from the Creator – this exercise on the Creator's part – is called, My beloved is like a deer. Maybe they can find the article for us now: My Beloved is like a Deer or like a Gazelle. We have to understand that as the Creator shows us that He is farther, that He is running away from us, it's only a game. We also have that between human beings, between people. You see it's also between us and children. We sometimes play hide-and-seek with them or we show them that we are sad, that we are angry, that we are physically moving away from them. By that, we awaken various emotions in the child, in favor and against and we build all kinds of forms of understanding, connections between humans and places and objects and so on.

It also happens like a flirt between a man and a woman, where there's sometimes closer, sometimes farther. Or spices that we add to our food to make something saltier, spicier in order to awaken the appetite. So, there can't be closeness without a feeling of remoteness: The light excels from darkness and that's how it is in everything. The fact we feel that the Creator is far from us, it's only in order to shake us up to get closer to Him. When we get a little bit closer to Him, He shows us that He is farther than before, so that we get even closer. Each time, at first, I felt like the distance between us is two meters; then, if I got closer to Him, now I feel this distance even more. Meaning the more I chase the Creator, the farther He gets from me. In the meantime, in this game with Him, I change my attitude to the closeness, that I don't want to approach Him in order to grab hold of Him, in order to be fulfilled by Him but in order to fulfill myself with my attitude to Him. I don't want to obtain Him in order to acquire Him but in order to possess Him but in order to bestow to Him. And for that, I don't need to shorten the gap, I just need to broaden my heart in bestowal. And so, I move from measurements of reception to measurements of bestowal. And that's how I get closer and closer to the Creator, and that's it. In this attitude, in this interplay between the Creator and us, there's all kinds of changes of values and states, and that's how we advance.

Question (W Almaty 1): (40:13) What exactly is considered a connection with the Creator at every given moment? What does it mean to be connected to the Creator?

M. Laitman: Connected to the Creator, means that I feel myself that I'm always running to bestow to Him. And I don't leave this tendency in day or night, doesn't matter what states; in all those states, I want to reach a state where I give Him, where I bestow to Him. And it doesn't matter to me what the states are but only my relation with Him, and then I come to equivalence of form with Him.

Question (W PT 6): (41:07) Can a person control the feeling of nearing and distancing of the Creator, and if so, then how?

M. Laitman: Yes, a person can control it if he is above the restriction: If the main thing for him is to get closer to bestowal – not on a line of reception, it doesn't matter to him how much he feels and doesn't feel – what's important to him is to bestow, so then, to that extent, he can get closer and reach adhesion.

Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (41:53) It's written that the sensation of distancing doesn't cause any anger. Is there any room in feeling sorrow for the distancing so there'll be a desire to come closer?

M. Laitman: That all depends on a person, if he understands that the feeling of distancing gives him more of a tendency to come closer to the Creator. That specifically the fact that the Creator distances Himself seemingly, the truth is that the distance doesn't change. That's a person who increases his sensitivity, or more correctly, the Creator raises the sensitivity of the distance. More correctly, not the distance but to a disparity of form between Him and a person. The Creator shows us how much more further we are according to the difference, according to our qualities, our goals. And then a person should be rejoiceful since he sees himself closer and higher. Because the Creator opened up his more sensitive manner of seeing. Just like in a baby, that everything is all the same, or a little more in the form of maturing, and in a more mature way, and in a wiser way.

And this is how we come to an adulthood and become, what does it mean to be old in Kabbalah? It's considered one that has acquired wisdom; and then we understand that everyone is in distance to one another, and nothing changes in anyone except for the fact that you can be above our nature and to forgive the other, to come closer to the other. We learn this a little from our corporeal life, that we can't change no one. We can only learn and give an example to everyone, to others, of how to teach, of how we rise above our nature in order to be connected mutually. And our mutuality, our connection is all aimed towards the Creator; and then we will be able to rise above our nature to one another and to reach a connection between us and in the connection with the upper force. This would lead to the end of correction, that's it, all together, so, don't try to bend towards one another, to correct the friends. But rather only try to help one another. To rise each above his nature.

Question (W PT 6): (45:05) How to lock on to this game with the Creator that you're explaining to us now?

M. Laitman: How?

Student: How to lock onto it, how to always maintain it?

M. Laitman: Well, first of all, out of us talking about this, we need to continue to talk about it, to continue to see that we cannot do a thing other than pray. And to receive from the Creator ideas or wisdom that can help us connect above our nature. That we need to try to accept each and every friend as he is, and I'm not going to go and change him or to bend him or her. But rather – and I also don't relate directly to Him, but rather – each and every friend is the form of the Creator that's adjoining me, that's turning towards me. That's what it means that, Behind every friend stands the Creator, this is how the Creator shows us in His billions of forms, this is how I can see billions of people in this world, which is how He can show me His form relative to me. But it's enough for me, instead of seeing all those billions, to just see my Ten. And then if I work with them, I don't want to change any of them, I just need to give them an example of how I relate to the Creator. Because the Creator or the friend needs to be the same thing – it's even more important how you relate to a friend.

Student: Should we expect the sensation of love of friends to appear between us as a result of actions of bestowal?

M. Laitman: Of course, that has to happen because if I say that, Behind every friend stands the Creator, then I need to relate to each of my friends, let's say if we're talking about our ladies, each of my friends like to the Creator, yes? And they even say that with even more sensitivity, I need to relate to my friends then I relate to the Creator. With the Creator, each of us is willing to get along with, what we do, it's the upper force. With the friends, it seems to us that we can somehow change them, bend them the way we want. Therefore, if I change the attitude towards my friends like I would relate to them as to the Creator, then that is already a serious change in me. And this is how we will be able to advance more and more. But this needs to be also within, and also on the outside, in some measure, both in this and in that.

Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (48:41) How is it possible that we feel distance and lack of love? Do we need to see nearing, how we are nearing the Creator through that?

M. Laitman: All these are only awakening us towards closeness, to know this nearing, even if the Creator is delaying, or just like in that article where, My beloved is like a Gazelle, that this is how we advance. Always our advancement is through the distancing. And again, it's not distancing, just psychologically it appears to us like we're distancing. We're seemingly shown numbers: We're coming closer to some place, just like you're traveling with a train, and we're told we have another ten kilometers to go. In another few minutes, we're told we have 8,000 meters – so, is it ten or 8,000? Here's what difference is, 8,000, but it's less than ten kilometers even though it's 8,000, a big number, but it's in meters. Meaning it's in more precision than before, which is what confuses us as we go through this. If we continue with our eyes shut on the path of bestowal, then we go through all these things in a direct and short manner.

Question (W Sochi): (50:27) If the Creator gives you a problem that extends for a long time, does that mean that a person didn't complete the work and to achieve the right prayer for it?

M. Laitman: Well, of course we don't finish the work until we reach the end of correction. The forms of work, those are the things that change, that's what we have.

Question (W Moscow 8): (50:53) How can we change the qualities so that we can feel the Creator through qualities of bestowal?

M. Laitman: How to change our qualities, we already talked, that's completely different. That's the work between us in the Ten in prayer to the Creator to help us to be connected to one another.

Question (W PT 38): (51:17) What happens if you feel that the distance is infinite if that's what it feels like?

M. Laitman: So, what? I need to go in the line of bestowal, and if I go in the line of bestowal, then to the extent in which I feel myself more distant, my bestowal to the Creator is more powerful. That's called, It's from the distance that it should bring forth its bread. We will learn about those discernments.

Reader: We have the quote from Rabash's article. He writes to us the following:

Reading: (52:02) Rabash. What Is an Optional War, in the Work – 2?

[....] This is as it is written in the book A Sage’s Fruit (Vol. 1, p 139), “About the verse, ‘My beloved is like a gazelle,’ our sages said, ‘As the gazelle looks back when he runs, when the Creator leaves Israel, He turns back His face.’ Then the face returns to being in the Achoraim, meaning craving and longing to cling to Israel once more. This begets in Israel longing and craving to cling to the Creator, too, and the measure of the longing and craving is actually the face itself.”

We should interpret that he means that when a person is in a state of lowliness, it is considered that the Creator has moved away from him, and he has no desire or yearning for the work, this is regarded as the Creator giving a person a shape of tastelessness about spirituality. Moreover, a person wants to escape and forget about the work altogether. This is regarded as the Creator showing him the Achoraim.

The Panim [face/anterior] of the Creator is His desire to do good to His creations, and the Achoraim is the complete opposite. Why does the Creator show a person the Achoraim? It is on purpose, for by this a person gets a thrust toward Dvekut with the Creator, for he cannot remain in a state of lowliness. It follows that here, within the Achoraim is the discernment of Panim.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:21) We read in the article that it says that he knew this in advance. My question is, what helps a person who is now far, that he knew it in advance? And that's how I feel, that if we are far and we know it in advance, it doesn't really help us?

M. Laitman: Right, it doesn't help, because then we're operated by the feeling and not by the intellect. The intellect can bring you all kinds of smart things and you'll be wise, but nothing will help you in life with that. But what will help you is to change the feeling, and the feeling we change by the efforts between us and our appeal to the Creator; and then we receive the reforming light, which changes us, only in that way.

Student: But towards the Creator, in the prayer, in connection with the Ten, that's how I add, I achieve the emotion?

M. Laitman: You attain that feeling to the extent in which the Creator changes your vessels, your senses, to that extent, you change.

Question (Turkey 3): (55:54) Does the Creator give us these obstacles so that we can feel the evil inclination precisely in our perception?

M. Laitman: Yes, He's disclosing to us what distance there is between Him and us in our feelings, in our understandings, so that we will be able to try and come closer. And to discover where the obstacle is, and then we will pray together to the Creator, we pray together to the Creator for Him to lower the obstacle, and then we come closer – that's how it works.

Question (Zafon 2): (56:50) Is the goal of the Creator to play with us in making us feel distant because that brings us closer?

M. Laitman: Yes, only that brings us closer, it all comes from a lack of connection, darkness, misunderstanding, the great distancing between us and between us and the Creator. It all comes to us from the deficiency, and then as we all awaken from this lack, then from that we get true closeness, nearing. And from the Creator, we don't get the awakening; from the Creator we actually get the feeling of distancing upon which we then awaken. It's written about this really nicely in the Zohar, that, I awaken the dawn and not the dawn awakens me, and that the Creator says, My sons have defeated me, because I'm sending them states of darkness and they invert it to light by wanting to even remain in the darkness, just to perform nearing to Me, even from the darkness, and so on.

Question (Turkey 4): (58:14) It says in the article, yearning and craving is the face, itself; what does it mean?

M. Laitman: That the Creator, as He distances from us, it seems to us like He's distancing, He's concealed. But we feel that He has distanced and that He is concealed. I feel, so that's already a salvation, that's already a vessel, a deficiency, a lack in me, by the Creator being concealed, hiding, distanced. Where am I, what about me, all kinds of such calculations of a person. So, is it nearing or distancing? What did the Creator do to me? He gave me the possibility to come closer to Him once more.

Student: As much as I understand from what you say, revelation is within the concealment, within the lackness inside the concealment. That is what we have to find, right?

M. Laitman: There is no revelation unless it's from concealment, there's no light unless it's from darkness. Exactly, that's the rule, that's the main rule.

Question (KabU 3): (01:00:09) Can we say that the distance is there in order for us to be able to pray?

M. Laitman: Certainly, the whole revelation that the Creator does is awakening in us a stimulation, a stimulus. Meaning, He says, My beloved is similar to a gazelle, where the gazelle that runs is running away from a person, He nevertheless veers His head backwards and looks at a person, as if by that He wants a person to be drawn after Him, to follow. Even though He's distancing but wants a person to also run after Him, and that's what happens, that's how the Kabbalists describe the way the Creator distances from us. It's like a certain flirt: He's distancing, but on the other hand, He's kind of inviting us to follow Him, to run after Him. Because by distancing, there's a lack that He evokes in us, and the lack that He evokes in us, there's a point of connection that is greater and greater. Where He turns back His head towards us as He's running from us, and then it turns out that both in the posterior and in the anterior. And He writes about that in the article, about My beloved similar to a gazelle, in concealment and in revelation, we come to a connection with the Creator. Do you have that article, Michael? So, read from the beginning, it's written there about that.

Reader: We have this in a letter from Baal HaSulam. He says,

Reading: (01:02:14) My beloved is like a gazelle, as our sages said, as the gazelle looks back when he runs, when the Creator leaves Israel, He turns back His face.

M. Laitman: That we already read and heard today, I told you that from the beginning, what's written there? In concealment and revelation – that specifically through concealment and revelation, we discover the Creator. Where, there needs to be there both revelation and concealment together. From the concealment, we have the coarseness, and from the revelation, we have the restriction, the screen, and the reflected light, which is how we reach Him. And they go hand in hand, there's no one without the other. It seems to me that that same letter begins with concealment and revelation. Okay, we will not wait, we will probably reach that in another opportunity.

Question (Almaty 2): (01:03:48) To the extent that the Creator grows farther from us, it awakens a question: What are those vessels and how to understand that we're actually advancing in the right way towards adhesion with the Creator?

M. Laitman: We need to try and depict the relations between us and the Creator as relations between us and the group. And to try inside the group to play all those states, just like a person and the Creator. And then you will see how this works out as all of a sudden, a certain kind of a theater. Like a complete play filled with all its details, through which you can sort your life, and understanding, and everything. It's truly like in a very deep acting, and where you have like there's 64 or on all the, just like in a chessboard, all the possibilities that you have there on that chessboard. Here you also have the same thing as well: With the Ten to scrutinize the endless details between you and the Creator.

Student: How do you know that I'm on the right track?

M. Laitman: Only if you're trying to do it in the Ten in a live way. Try, start doing all these relations between you in the form of, as you're acting at this, you're playing this. And then you'll see how that will evoke in you even more questions and discernments, but it will be before you like a demonstration, the correct demonstration. In which, let's say, you're reading something in some book, just like you read a book that talks about a chess game, and you take the chessboard and start to play on it. And then you start to understand what's happening there, what's happening here, between all the different forms. And then from that you start to understand more and more what's happening, but here you have a game with people, with friends, and behind every friend the Creator stands. As you deepen the relations between everyone in the Ten, you start to see there, the whole world – the whole of reality – without any exceptions, you don't need anything except for that. When you enter the Ten and scrutinize all the forms of relations that could happen between everyone, out of that you learn the nature of the Creator. Altogether, you need to come to a state of come and see in your relations with the friends. We need to repeat this rule many times, and our obligation, our commitment to do this between us in order for us to truly agree, understand that this is how it works. Therefore, from the principle of creation, the Creator created the Kli, the vessel, and shattered it, and gave it to us. And all together we need to constantly be drawn towards connecting all these vessels, together. Not physically, but rather in a purposeful way, in a way that is aimed towards the goal.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:43) How to behave with the disturbances? Do you fight them, or do you submit, succumb to them, and just lower your head under the wave?

M. Laitman: There are different ways. If you can assist others and with them work, go for it. But if not, then you should at least work in a way that you are on their hands in which you're nullified, this is also a form of participation.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:21) It turns out that I want preventions to happen because that's how the Creator wants me to advance. My question is, do you, should you pray for preventions?

M. Laitman: I don't understand the question whatsoever; you're being told that there are no preventions, that the Creator wants to advance us. If you receive His help like a prevention, then you're in the preventions and not in advancement, in progress.

Student: Yes, but in our life we always get prevention.

M. Laitman: I don't understand that what do you mean the life receives the preventions? Is the life something, or are you something?

Student: Both in corporeality and in spirituality, we receive these preventions, so?

M. Laitman: So, you're being told these are not preventions, these are invitations so that you will come nearer, so that you increase the pace.

Student: Do I need to pray to the Creator to give me preventions, and that's how I will?

M. Laitman: What a foolish thing, oh boy, this is a person that's studying with us for years! We need to ask the Creator for preventions or for help? Where did you read about preventions that you're asking like that all of a sudden? We need to ask only for advancement, connection, embrace, that's what we need to ask for. What are you asking for preventions? You'll receive preventions because that's your future advancement that you need to do? It will now always stand before you like a prevention, so that you will change your attitude, your opinion, your reason towards what's before you, and somewhat move from in order to receive to in order to bestow. From reason to above reason, which is considered that you're overcoming the prevention, and then you make a step forward in your attitude, in the changing of your attitude towards what is before you. As you receive it, not as a disturbance but as a place to transcend to the next degree, that's it. To uplift oneself, to raise oneself, to receive that prevention that appears to you that way as a prevention, which is not a prevention but for you to receive it so that you'll be able to overcome it. If you received it that way, it's a sign that you made a step forward.

Question (MAK 23): (01:12:15) Is through the obstacles the Creator wants to show me how not corrected I am?

M. Laitman: The Creator doesn't just want to show me that I'm not corrected, it's clear to me that I'm completely not corrected, and it's also clear that He did it to start with. The Creator wants us to overcome; for us to overcome the obstacles that He places before us, and for us to overcome it above reason. So that I will be able to overcome each degree that's ahead of me by developing the force of bestowal, the force of connection. And then, in this manner, we advance, this is what we need to see. There are no more preventions other than in discovering the distance between us, and then it appears to us like the distance becomes greater, that we are more contradicted to one another. That suddenly I see the friend worse than I did before, more distanced than I am, that I have no patience to tolerate him. These are all things that we discover along the way more and more, and that's actually a sign of advancement.

Question (Siberia): (01:13:43) How to tell the difference between moving farther because of lack of making efforts; and growing farther in a way that it's actually nearing?

M. Laitman: That's not so important, eventually, it's the same thing. We always have such questions: Is it me that has distanced, or is it the Creator that distanced me? Did I fall, or is it the Creator that caused this to me? And so on. This is not a problem, the problem is how I, the moment that I am, in the moment that I'm in now, how do I perform that action? That's it, I perform the correct action.

Question (Bulgaria 1): (01:14:32) How can the group take advantage of the distance that a friend feels in order to advance forward?

M. Laitman: But altogether, the group is a collection of friends and each and every one understands that the correct advancement can be only out of coming closer to others. And by that, each and every one really comes closer to others. This is what brings them the feeling that they become some – one body.

Reader: Let's summarize the words we heard in the lesson in a workshop. First, we feel great gratitude that we've been given the privilege of hearing such words of the

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Globální kurz Akademie kabaly Bnei Baruch 2023/24

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