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

Daily Morning Lesson: March  26, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. What Is the Meaning of “Reply unto Your Heart”?. 14 (1989)

Original lesson date: 04/21/2002

Reader: Dear friends, in the first part, we will study a lesson by the Rav from the 21st of April, 2002. It is based on the article, "What is the Meaning of “Reply Unto Your Heart”?" In Hebrew, it's in the writings of Rabash, page 845. We will read it together in the Ten. We have 20 minutes. Tens that finish ahead of time are welcome to start the workshop on the main points in the article.

Reading: (00:37) Rabash. What Is the Meaning of “Reply unto Your Heart”?

Article No. 14, 1989

It is written in The Zohar (VaEra, Item 89): “Rabbi Elazar started and said, ‘Know this day and reply unto your heart that the Lord, He is God.’ He asks, ‘It should have said, ‘Know this day that the Lord, He is God,’ and in the end, ‘And reply unto your heart,’ since knowing that the Lord is God qualifies him to reply so to the heart. And if he has responded to his heart, he certainly has knowledge. Also, it should have said, ‘Reply unto Libcha’ [your heart with one Bet] instead of Levavcha’ [‘your heart’ with a double Bet].”

He replies that Moses said that if you want to insist on this and know that “The Lord, He is God,” then “reply unto your heart.” Know this: Your heart [with a double Bet] means that the good inclination and the evil inclination that dwell in the heart were mingled with one another and they are one, meaning in both your inclinations, turning the bad qualities of the evil inclination into good. At that time, there is no longer a difference between the good inclination and the evil inclination, and then you will find that “the Lord, He is God.”

We should understand what is it about knowing this, that if we know that “The Lord, He is God,” we come into “Reply unto your heart,” which is Rabbi Elazar’s question. We should also understand the answer he gives when he says it is impossible to come to know that “The Lord, He is God,” before we are rewarded with “Reply unto your heart.” What is the connection that one depends on the other, meaning that specifically when he serves the Creator with the evil inclination, too, we can come to know this?

To understand this, we must first present the matter of the purpose of creation and the matter of the correction of creation. It is known that the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations. This means that the Creator wants all creations to receive delight and pleasure. Before they receive this, the perfection in the purpose of creation is not apparent, since there are still discernments in the world that did not attain the delight and pleasure.

For this reason, the perfection of the purpose of creation is apparent specifically when everyone attains the delight and pleasure. This is called, as the ARI says, that “Before the world was created, He and His name were one,” as it is written in The Study of the Ten Sefirot. This means that the delight and pleasure that He wished to impart upon His creations, there was a Kli [vessel] there, called Malchut de Ein Sof [Malchut of Infinity], which received the light. The light, called “He,” and the Kli, called “His name,” were one, meaning there was no disparity of form. This is the purpose of creation.

Afterward came the matter of the correction of creation, as the ARI says, that “To bring to light the perfection of His deeds, He restricted Himself.” He interprets there, in Ohr Pnimi [Baal HaSulam’s commentary on the ARI], that in order to avoid the shame, since disparity of form causes separation between the receiver and the Giver, and likewise, all things that are not present in the root, cause unpleasantness in the branches, hence, through the Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment that were made, the lower ones were given a place to correct their vessels of reception so they work in order to bestow.

At that time, there will be equivalence of form between the receiver and the Giver, and then all the light that He wished to bestow upon His creations will be revealed among the lower ones, and it will once again be “The Lord is One and His name is One.” This means that the delight and pleasure that were revealed in the world of Ein Sof in vessels of reception, that light will be revealed in vessels of reception that are corrected into working in order to bestow.

Two things extend from this: 1) The will to receive, which extends from the purpose of creation, since His desire is to do good to His creations. Hence, He created in the creatures a desire and yearning to receive delight and pleasure. The bad, called “evil inclination,” whose quality is only to receive for its own sake, derives from this discernment. 2) The desire to bestow, which extends from the Tzimtzum and the concealment that were made in order to achieve the correction of creation. It is called the “good inclination,” since through the desire to bestow we achieve equivalence of form, which is Dvekut [adhesion], by which we receive the delight and pleasure that He wishes to give to His creations, and then the purpose of creation will be achieved in full.

Thus, when a person wants to begin the holy work, to work and toil in order to receive reward, that his reward will be Dvekut with the Creator, meaning that all his works will be for the sake of the Creator, at that time the body, which was born—because of the purpose of creation—with a desire to receive for itself, resists with all its might. It yells, “But the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations, and the Creator does not need the lower ones to give Him anything!

“Therefore,” he asks, “Why should I exert to make everything for the sake of the Creator without any reward? After all, this is the purpose of creation! If it were true that we must work for the sake of the Creator and not for our own sake, then why did He create within us a desire to receive for ourselves? Instead, He should have created in us a desire to bestow, then all the creatures would work for the sake of the Creator.

“Instead, you are trying to say that since He desires to do good to His creations, He created in us the will to receive, and then He wants us to work for the sake of the Creator. It is great suffering if we want to annul self-reception and revoke our entire selves, leaving nothing within us for our own benefit.”

As our sages said (Sukkah 45), “Anyone who mingles for the sake of the Creator with another thing is uprooted from the world.” This means that if one does everything for the sake of the Creator but mixes into it some for himself, this is called “another thing,” and he is uprooted from the world, meaning from the next world. In other words, he cannot be rewarded with the reward one receives for man’s work in Torah and Mitzvot.

It therefore follows that we cannot understand that His desire to do good to His creations has given us suffering in working for Him. Why does He need us to suffer when we must relinquish our will to receive? Therefore, when we work coercively and exert to overcome the will to receive in us, and we say to our bodies, we do not need to be smart.

Instead, we must believe in the sages who teach us that we must observe the Torah and Mitzvot without anything in return, but as they said (Avot, Chapter 1:3), “He would say, ‘Be not as slaves serving the rav [great teacher] in order to receive reward, but be as slaves serving the rav not in order to receive reward.’”

This means that we must believe that the Creator is not deficient or needs us to work for Him. Rather, we must believe that the fact that we must work for Him is for our sake. That is, by this we will achieve the purpose of creation—that the lower ones will receive delight and pleasure. However, this work is for the purpose of correction of creation.

Yet, since it is against reason, a person does not agree to it, and must constantly overcome, since every overcoming works only for a time, and each time he must overcome anew. This state is called “judgment,” meaning that a person is still under the control of the Tzimtzum and judgment that took place so as not to reveal the light of His face, so all would feel how the Creator leads the world with a guidance of delight and pleasure.

Instead, each one sees how the quality of judgment is present in the world, since each one feels lacks both in corporeality and in spirituality. At that time, a person says that the world is conducted by the name Elokim [God], which is the quality of judgment. And yet, a person must believe that in truth, everything is mercy, but for the time being, he must feel this way, since everything follows the path of correction, where specifically by this it will be possible to achieve the purpose of creation, which is delight and pleasure.

Now we can understand what we asked about the connection between “Reply unto your heart” and the awareness that “The Lord, He is God.” Before a person achieves the degree where all his works are for the sake of the Creator, called “in order to bestow,” a person cannot see that everything that happens in the world is the Creator behaving with the world as the good who does good.

Instead, he must believe that this is so and say as it is written, “They have eyes and see not.” Instead, he sees that the governance of the world is through the quality of judgment, called Elokim. But afterward, when he is rewarded with vessels of bestowal, which correct his vessels of reception to work in order to bestow, this means that he can work for the Creator with the evil inclination, too, since the evil inclination is called “the will to receive for one’s own sake,” from which derives all the evil that we see in the world. This also applies between man and man, as all the wars, thefts, and murders in the world stem from the will to receive for one’s own sake.

When he corrects the desire to receive pleasure so as to work in order to bestow, he receives equivalence of form. He receives Dvekut with the Creator, and the Tzimtzum and concealment that are present in the world depart from him. At that time he sees only good, and that everything he felt prior to being rewarded with Dvekut were only corrections, which brought him to equivalence of form. It follows that what he thought, that the governance of the world is with the quality of judgment, called Elokim, he sees that it is mercy, called HaVaYaH [the Lord].

By this we should interpret the connection of “Reply unto your heart” to “The Lord, He is God.” Before we are rewarded with replying to the heart, when it was in disparity of form and remoteness of place, since a receiver for himself is in disparity of form from the Giver, which is called “remoteness,” it follows that equivalence of form is regarded as returning the receiver to the Giver. This is called “Reply unto your heart” [in Hebrew, Hashivota means both “return” and “reply”].

At that time he sees that everything he thought, that the world was conducted by judgment, which is Elokim, now he sees that HaVaYaH [the Lord] is Elokim [God]. That is, it becomes revealed that to begin with, everything was with the quality of mercy, as it is written, “For the Lord, He is God.” However, before one is rewarded with returning the heart, called “equivalence of form,” we think that everything is the quality of judgment, called Elokim.

Accordingly, we should interpret what they ask, Why if the Creator wanted to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt, He sent Moses to ask and beg him to permit the people of Israel to come out of Egypt? We see that He had made miracles there to our fathers in Egypt, meaning that all the plagues that struck Egypt, the people of Israel suffered none of the plagues. So why did the Creator not bring out the people of Israel against Pharaoh’s will?

In the literal, there are many answers, but we will interpret this in the work. It is known that every person is a small world, comprising seventy nations and the people of Israel, namely the quality of Israel in him, which is regarded as Yashar-El [straight to the Creator]. This means that everything he does is all for His sake. This quality is in exile among the Klipot [shells/peels], which are the seventy nations. Mitzrayim [Egypt] means that they Meitzerim [afflict/make narrow] the Israel in him, and Pharaoh King of Egypt is the quality that rules and controls the people of Israel. The Creator wants man’s body to make a choice, meaning that the evil within man will surrender, that the general will to receive in him will make room to emerge from the governance… (the rest is missing).

Reader: We're going to go into a lesson with the Rav from April 21, 2002. 

M. Laitman: (21:45) We read an article from the “Rungs of the Ladder,” second volume, page 50. What is it that it says, “Reply unto Your Heart?” These are fine words, "reply unto your heart," or "return unto your heart." A person needs to return something to his heart, to reply by himself. The heart means a desire. Our desire, to begin with, is only a will to receive. And what we feel in it is the complete opposite of what can take place in spirituality, but on the lowest degree. This means that if we take the lowest degree in spirituality, as much as there everything is positive, it is good, in the feeling of Ein Sof, the feeling of wholeness, perfection, confidence, tranquility — all of these things are beyond the barrier. They belong to Galgalta ve Eynaim, to the lowest spiritual degree that is near the Machsom, the barrier, near our world. And we feel its posterior, the opposite, because our vessels are vessels that are opposite to it. This means that we feel a lack, the lack of all of these things, because to begin with, we receive a heart which is the opposite of spirituality. "Reply to your heart," or "return to your heart," this means that we correct the heart, that we need to return the heart again to the corrected state. This means to rise above the barrier. And then all of our responses to the light that were revealed in a negative manner will be revealed in a positive manner. So, nothing needs to change here besides our heart. And this is what we need to work on. So here, everything depends only on our effort. The work on the heart is called the correction of the vessels. What is a correction of the vessels? What is a correction of a desire? What can you correct in a desire? I want a cup of coffee. What can I correct? Can I want it more or less? Desire itself was created back in Ein Sof — existence from absence. I received it from the Creator; I can't change it. It is a given — existence from absence. We learned that this desire reached an infinite measure, which is exactly suitable for that light, for that pleasure that the Creator wishes to give. And then a restriction was done on it. The restriction, means that until I have an intention to use the desire only for the sake of the Creator, this desire will be hidden from me, right? This is the matter of the first restriction. The light departed because the desire was restricted. And instead of this desire, which was infinite, eventually, today, I have a very small desire called my heart, in which I want all kinds of tiny pleasures that exist here in this reality, called this world. In this small desire, upon which the first restriction does not apply, in which I feel all kinds of phenomena from the light that can penetrate through the prohibition of the first restriction into my desire, this light that I feel inside my desire begets to me this image of the world. And it begets in me all of these suppliers of pleasure to which I long,  beastly pleasures, honor, money, knowledge. Besides this desire, I would not have any more desire until I will acquire an intention to bestow. 

M. Laitman: (27:27) When I already acquire an intention to bestow, to the extent I have an intention to bestow, then my desire, which is truly infinite in me, but it was closed down to the measure of the point of this world — then this desire begins to open up. And then, in addition to the desires that I have today, to the extent that I acquire an intention to bestow, I begin to feel more and more desires. Those desires are considered spiritual desires. They could be felt with an opposite intention to in order to bestow —  this is called a Klipa, a shell, or with the correct intention of in order to bestow —  this is called Kedushah, sanctity. But these are already desires that can be revealed in me beyond the barrier. If I do not acquire a screen, then I'm always with this tiny candle, tiny illumination inside a very small desire, and that is my life. And all the rest that I have, this infinite desire will remain buried, and I will never feel it. This means that we don't need to work on the desire. The desire exists. It exists inside of us, in each and every one of us, in an infinite measure. We just have to work on the intention. And according to the intention, the desire will open up for us more and more. This is called, at first, we go to the right line, acquire an intention, then we go to the left line, we get a desire, and again, we come back to adopt this desire with an intention so that it will become the middle line. It turns out from that that my desires are not under my control and I should never pay attention to them, but rather all of the improvement, all of the addition is only in the intention. Therefore, whatever I do, whatever thought I'm thinking, whatever calculation I make, meaning in my brain, in my emotion or in externality, in action, with my hands, my legs, my mouth — before that I need to be concerned about with which intention? Meaning, for what purpose I am performing this action, an inner emotional, intellectual action or physically? And then bit by bit, if I will accustom myself that all of my actions will be purposeful, then bit by bit I will be able to advance and reach a state where I will have a screen and with it I will already continue with the new desires that will develop, that will surface out of me, and then I will feel in them the spiritual reality. This is why it says a Mitzvah [commandment] without an intention is like a body without a soul. And about the commandment it says you do not need to add, but rather the addition should be with the intentions. That each time that a person performs some action, before that he needs to install his intention. This is called "reply unto your heart." Our heart right now is very small and it needs to be with an infinite size, and the measure of its development, of its openness, to the extent to which I will be allowed to work with my heart, depends only on the intention. How much intention will I acquire? From where do I acquire an intention? If the Creator created the will to receive, He did not create intention, right? And the point of the will to receive emerged as existence from absence. This is called the phase of the root of the four phases of direct light, and from that onward the desire develops.

M. Laitman: (32:33) On that point of the root where the Creator creates this existence from absence, immediately phase one emerges — the will to receive. This is what the Creator wants, and He fills it with His light, and in that we already get the first cell of reality, a will to receive with the divine light. So what else is needed? Now we need to bring the created being, the ability to do something from the side of the created being, because there is no created being yet. The will to receive is not the created being. The will to receive was created by the Creator, it's His. So, the encounter of the will to receive with the light, with the Creator, begets in the will to receive a secondary feeling. The will to receive begins out of itself to want to be similar to the Creator. Phase one at its end wants to resemble the root phase because it feels the quality of the root within it. This is called the intensification of the created being, or the created being overcoming itself towards the Creator. The created being wants within it, by itself, to create something that wasn't there before — resemble the Creator. This means that the intention can only be on the account of the created being, not the desire. I do not determine my desires, even in this world. They come to me in a way that I cannot monitor them, I cannot elevate them, diminish them, or increase them. I can't do it, meaning the way they come. Later on, through all kinds of actions maybe I can use them or not use them. Again, not by working with the desire itself, but rather against the desire, I need to build some system. Or even if I'm afraid of using some desire, let's say to steal, so I don't steal, but the desire remains. I can suppress it, but it remains. This means that with the desires, we can never do anything, they are just given within us. But with the intention, we can see that from phase two of the four phases of direct light, when the intention begins, we say this is from below upward, from the created being towards the Creator. This means that this is the only thing that the created being can do.

M. Laitman: (35:36) Therefore, one who does not develop an intention, an attitude towards the Creator, he’s not a created being, he’s an inseparable part of the Creator, only the existence from absence, exists within the Creator, inside of Himself. And therefore, there are seemingly two kinds of Torah that we were given, an inner Torah and an external Torah. The inner Torah is about how to develop the intention, and the external Torah is about how to work with the desire. And actually, this is what a person should be concerned with, that he will have the inner part, the intention, which should be the first, the one that determines, and accordingly, there would be the external part, the desire that then performs the action. When we speak of spirituality, we divide the entire path of the person from this world until the end of correction into 620 actions, Ohrchin de Oraita, manners of the light, as Baal HaSulam writes in the “Sages' Fruit”, in the letters. This means that if I reach a certain degree, number one, then I acquired an intention, and according to this intention, I perform an action. And the action together with the intention, the deed with the intention, this is considered performing a Mitzva, a commandment. So, I made one commandment. I cannot keep all of the actions at once, I can't. If I acquire the greater intention, then I get another desire, an addition of a greater desire, and I perform an action of receiving in order to bestow, so I perform the second Mitzva, and so on. Meaning the Mitzvot, the commandments, are actions, degrees, where in performing each and every one, I rise until the end of correction. Then I can already correct, do, aim with every will to receive, I can perform all of these actions with all the desires that exist within me. So what is this number 620? The number 620 indicates the number of desires that exist within me, within a person, so that upon each and every one of them, he needs to make an intention. So, the correct approach should be that we are concerned about the intention in order to bestow, and according to the intention in order to bestow, we will be allowed to perform actions, which are the ones that we actually call performing the Mitzvot [commandments]. In the meantime, in this world also, we have to make preparations according to spirituality, so that the study about the intention and the study about the action will be in such a way that first we study about the intention, then we study about the action. And we try to do it in such a way that also with the deeds that we do, the intention and the deed will be equal, like in spirituality. Even if my intention for the time being is in order to receive, when I approach a certain thing and I do it, I think that I do it because I want to reach the goal. Otherwise, the deed itself has no power, it has no weight. As it is written that a commandment without an intention is like a body without a soul. The will to receive itself, if it doesn't have an intention to bestow, it's called dead, the point of dust; because if it has an intention to bestow, even the smallest one, then it is already above the barrier, it's alive already. If it doesn't have an intention in order to bestow, then it is completely small like dust, which is below the barrier, in this world. Therefore, a commandment without an intention — desires without an intention to bestow are below the barrier. This is called a body without a soul; there's no soul yet. When we cross the barrier, then the soul begins to be born. Down below in this world, meaning one who has not yet acquired any intention, it doesn't yet have any volume within the desire, so it would be possible for the light to be there. It doesn't have a soul yet.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:58) What exactly are 620 desires? Can you program them? Let's say the desire to eat, to drink, is there a…? 

M. Laitman: These 620 desires, how can we catalogue them? Well, they're all written in the Torah, right, 620 desires. It's 613 and the other seven are sages of Rabanan, that's one. Secondly, these desires, they're not the actual desires, meaning that we can take the desire itself and divide it into 620 parts, but rather we divide the whole general desire into degrees of coarseness, let's say, into five degrees of coarseness, and then every degree is further divided into five, and each degree into another five, and so on. Altogether, we have 620 degrees of coarseness in the desire, and with each degree, I can work with some special effort in order to bestow with certain intention. We relate to the realization of these desires from the intention, not to the desire itself. I don't talk about the desire in such a way that the third degree is that I can drink in order to bestow, and the fourth degree is that I can eat salad in order to bestow, and on the fifth one, I can even eat fish in order to bestow. No, we can't do that, because we’ll get confused, because every degree incorporates all of them. But rather, if we take, let's say, the “Gate of Intentions” or the Siddur, the order of the intentions, then we will understand what is the work in each and every degree, or even in the “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” when we learn about the degrees, that when ZON rise to their place, in all kinds of different states they have, or when they rise to Abba and Ima, or when they even rise to Arich Anpin, according to the surrounding conditions, the days of Shabbat or the weekdays, as we call them in spirituality, the way it's done accordingly — meaning, what do we have to do in order to rise and do these things? Which intentions do I need to make? Then we can understand what these degrees mean. A degree is measured according to the depth, according to the greatness, the measure of the intention. The desire is always there at your disposal. You're allowed to receive from it to the extent that you have an intention without any limitation, with no limitation. It says we learn, let's say, about Galgalta — any desire she has, any desire of Ein Sof, infinite desire, please go ahead and do whatever you want. If you can use it according to your intention in order to bestow only 20%, then you should use 20%. For us, from below upwards, we advance in the opposite manner. First, we have to acquire the intention to bestow, and accordingly, we take from the desire. But the desire, it's existence from absence, as much as you want. We just need to be concerned about the intention. And we acquire the intention through the reforming light. So through all kinds of efforts, we need to awaken upon ourselves an upper light that will give us some feeling of the Creator. Just like phase one of the four phases of direct light feels within the pleasure — oh, someone is giving me a pleasure. There is something else besides the pleasure. There is someone out there. It's as we say, that the fish begin to think that somebody is replacing the water in the aquarium for us, right? Thinking about what kind of gap can exist, can be here. It's a completely different degree of existence. So this is, likewise, we have to reach the point that there is someone who is orchestrating everything for me, within me and around me, and then I truly feel Him. And who am I? I'm only the one who discovers it. And then a person sees that besides the intention, in return, there is nothing else for him to do. The intention is the action. As it is written that everything becomes clarified through the intention. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:22) You're saying that actually we have nothing to do besides the intention, right? That I personally, I can't change my intention. How can I change it? If I look at it, it's always the same intention. I want to receive for myself as much as possible. So what can I do about it? 

M. Laitman: You say that your intention, for the time being, is to receive for yourself as much as possible, that's correct. But there's a difference between a small baby, how much it wants to receive for itself, a pacifier or something, and a small child and a young person, right? What does it need? A small person, what does it need? A TV, football, beer, cigarettes, that's it. Or a greater person — a greater person wants to swallow the whole world. Even greater, he doesn't just want this world, he wants the next world. So it's true that your desire is to feel good. But what is good? That is the problem. For the time being, work on the fact that you don't need to bestow, don't bestow to anyone, don't look to bestow, to your need this is a dead end, it's not going to work. What should you do? Clarify the goal. What is truly worthwhile living for? When we reach the barrier, we reach the barrier with a great will to receive, not with a will to bestow. The exodus from Egypt means the inversion from a will to receive to a will to bestow. And before that, we certainly cannot bestow anything. What can we do? We can scrutinize that the goal is to enter spirituality, to connect with the Creator, to be next to Him, with Him, so on and so forth. Let's attain it not through blows where there's no other choice and we run away from it, rather that because the goal is great, that it's worthwhile to work for it — but not so all these nobodies will respect me, suddenly begin to work for them, only as long as they honor me. Honor from whom? Or maybe, money. What would that give me? Who will I control, these beasts? Scrutinize something that's truly worthwhile living for, that you'll have the great will to receive from this whole world, but only for spirituality. With this will to receive, this is called Lo Lishma, to enter spirituality. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:15) If during the work, whether it's in the reading, the study, or working in the group, or dissemination, or anything else, tons of completely corporeal desires appear in me, and they throw me away, and I don't remember anything. Even from within the work I want to grasp everything in a corporeal manner. How can I transform it? How can I truly make it into wanting the goal itself? 

M. Laitman: The more a person studies, the more they give you more kinds of obstructions to scrutinize. What is an obstruction? A disturbance. They give you all kinds of desires, thoughts, impulses by which you need to scrutinize how everything that they give me now, whatever it is they give me now - spirituality is still more valuable than that. That's it. And then, when you will be stronger in spirituality, they'll give you greater disturbances until you scrutinize everything. 

Student: So, there is an end to it? 

M. Laitman: Yes. You yearn for the ending too quickly, but there is an ending. Each one according to the root of his soul, each one has to scrutinize. All in all, those are all similar things for everyone, but nevertheless, each one scrutinizes them in his own unique way in stages that are characteristic of him. That depends on the inner structure of the soul, which part of Adam HaRishon are you from. But ultimately, there is an end to the obstructions, because after you scrutinize them, everything they give you now, it's not worth it compared to spirituality. Sometimes you fail, sometimes you have to walk and truly fail, and do the act, and regret, and return again. We don't have control over that, but ultimately you have to scrutinize it. And after you scrutinize all these different forms, it doesn't matter if it's good or even bad, you scrutinize everything, you're done. If spirituality is more important than this world, then take it. They give you the thought, they give you the intention, they give you the desire, and they let you enter. Only if you want those things alone. They don't ask you to jump over your own head. No one demands it. They demand only one thing: that this will be the most important thing, the main thing. Now, if not through blows, can you be impressed that this is the main thing? If this is closed off, if this is locked, sealed off, if this is concealed — only the society, only from the society. So I constantly need to hear from all those people that this is the only important thing. Nothing other than that. That's why I wrote online a few weeks ago in a response to someone how a person has to take care of himself. So I wrote, not to connect with anyone from the outside, only connect inside a group. So they started to tell me, you're building a cult, what does it mean for a person to be closed off? He has to be involved. And people don't understand that you need a very special support from society in order to acquire the desire for spirituality. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:16) With the intention, I mean, I have these two things that are not clear to me in my head. Seemingly, they don't overlap. On the one hand, there is the simple desire, which we call to bestow. Something that we learn how to do. On the other hand, somewhere else, it seemingly speaks about all kinds of Sefirot, moving from one place to another, or transitioning, or performing actions. And it's not clear to me what is the connection between them and the desire to bestow, which is on the other side. 

M. Laitman: Are you asking what is a Sefira? 

Student: Maybe that too, but no. The question that I'm trying to clarify to myself — what is an intention? I perform an action, I perform a corporeal action, and now I need to attach to it a spiritual intention. And they tell me that on the one hand, the intention, it is the desire to bestow…

M. Laitman: No, no, no, no. This is incorrect understanding. Corporeal action has nothing to do with a spiritual action and a spiritual intention. Forget about the corporeal actions you can move your hands, and legs, and all your extremities. You can do whatever you want. It doesn't have any influence on spirituality. You should leave this movement completely. A spiritual action is called that you've taken a desire. A desire, understand? You know what is a desire? You don't know. I promise you, you don't know what a desire is. When you take the desire, because this is spirituality. Desire is spirituality. You can replace in a person all the parts, but not the desire. He will never touch his desire. All the parts you can replace in one body, one part, all of them, it doesn't matter, but the desire. The desire is something spiritual. Spiritual action, or any action that we speak of in Kabbalah, is a desire with an intention on top of it. It's two spiritual categories. There's nothing corporeal in it. You say, I move something. Forget about it. What are you moving? What are you moving? A piece of protein. A body — that doesn't mean that you move anything. A body does not exist in the spiritual realm. It simply doesn't exist there as something tangible. Spirituality, means that which is beyond the body - desires and intentions. Now, what are you asking about that? 

Student: What's not clear to me is that I have a desire and I clothe the intention on top of it. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Now, on the one hand, there is, let's say, the “Gate of Intentions”, that once in a while... 

M. Laitman: Let's not talk about it. It's too early. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:24) I'm trying to clarify their place. On the other hand, we say that there needs to be a very simple intention, an intention to bestow. So what's the connection between this book of the “Gate of Intentions” and the intention to bestow? 

M. Laitman: There are people who've gone through the entire path in correcting their desires. Meaning they've attached the intention to bestow to each and every one of their desires. And they reached all the way to the end, the end of the correction of the desire, using the correct intention. And they tell us from their height, the height of the end of correction, they look at all of Adam HaRishon, all the souls that emanated from him, right? They look at it, and they tell us that those who want to start rising, ascending from below and reach all the degrees that they have reached, they say: “Look, guys, we have some advice for you. What? On the path that you're on, that we've already went through, there are rules. If you learn them, you'll advance better, more correctly, you'll go through this path safely.” And then they give us instructions on what do I have to do in each and every state. Again, the action, the doing, is in the intention. That is why the deeds that I have to perform in each and every state is to find, to come up with, to create, to compose in me the correct intentions in each and every state. So, they say, if you're in state number 26, then you should be making such and such intentions. And you'll reach state 27, then you will apply such and such intentions, and then you'll reach state 28, and so on and so forth. That's what they're saying. And anyone who ascends up the degrees behind them, according to this advice, he goes through it beautifully, easily. Like the Rabash says, you went to Rome, you have plans, maps of the city, and a book — and take another book, you know, when you travel abroad, they take a book, and a plan, and you know where you are, and you know what it's talking about. The one who visited that place before you composed this instruction book for you. That's it. This is called the Gate of Intentions. The Siddur, the order of the prayer, it doesn't matter how you call it.  What is Siddur, the prayer book? Each and every state, which is from the morning, or noon, midday or evening, or certain illuminations from above called Shabbat, weekday, festival, according to the external conditions in spirituality and my internal conditions, where I am, this is for me morning or evening, and so on and so forth. Accordingly, I have to activate a certain special intention and correct the state. And then I keep climbing again and again. I say it, it sounds extremely dry because we don't understand what we begin to reveal, to receive through the intention — the level of intents of eternity and infinite knowledge, the kind of pleasure, attainment. But after all, when it's all said and done, this is the action.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:47) You're saying that with every desire we should try and feel an intention. Let's say, after the meal, I have a desire, I'm dying to light up a cigarette. Which intention can I have? I mean, I have a great pleasure after the meal on Shabbat to light up a cigarette, and it's forbidden for me to do it. So, I have this desire, and it chases me for hours. 

M. Laitman: You're asking about forbidden desires, how you can apply the correct intentions on them? There's no such thing. There are desires — what we call them, commandments that you should not do — and you have the intentions, meaning desires that you can do, but with the intention to bestow. I cannot kill someone with the intention to bestow, and defile the Sabbath with the intention to bestow, or eat pork with a blessing, right? Because it's not going to do any good. There are such desires that until the end of correction, I cannot work with them in order to bestow. In this world, these are the "thou shalt not do" type of commandments. Also in the spiritual world, until I go to the end of correction, I should not realize these desires. They belong to the stony heart. There's no screen over them; there's no intention in order to bestow on those desires until the end of correction. When is the end of correction? When all the souls will rise to the degree of the end of correction and be corrected, then will come the Rav Pealim Mekabtziel and will correct the general stony heart. And then all those desires, even those that were forbidden to use — like those from the Torah, right? — all those desires that you should not use, they too will acquire a screen in order to bestow. And those desires, you will be able to use them. How could you use them with the intention to bestow — to eat pork, for example? I can understand that, as it’s written, in the end, it will be a holy animal. How can you kill in order to bestow? This, I don't know. You understand? There are such forms in our world that we cannot even imagine how you can do these things with the intention to bestow. The wife of another man, all those forbidden things. I don't know. But all those forbidden desires, they're forbidden because in spirituality, it's a Sof, the end of the Partzuf. You cannot acquire a screen over them. The not doing of those desires — this is called action. Because the desire is there. The intention in order to bestow is not to do something in order to bestow, to carry out the action and the desire. But because I work in order to bestow, I don't use it. This is the maximum way to use it. That's why to light up a cigarette on the Sabbath, and smoke, and say a blessing on the cigarette, and the smell, and the pleasure you receive — for now, it's impossible. Wait until the end of correction, and then you'll do it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:28) About this question, similarly, seemingly the desire to smoke after food is unrelated to Shabbat. How is it related? What does it matter if it's Shabbat or not Shabbat? 

M. Laitman: How, how, how — what was I rewarded with it? You started asking, what happened? 

Student: I mean, Shabbat is some additional condition. How is it related to the desire? What exactly is the “stony heart” there? 

M. Laitman: You're asking about how can the stony heart be in Shabbat? 

Student: No, I'm saying the desire to smoke after food. He wants to smoke after food. It's a natural desire. What does it matter if it's on Shabbat or not on Shabbat? He ate, now he wants to smoke, but now on Shabbat it's prohibited. So what is the stony heart? What is this desire which is forbidden? 

M. Laitman: Oh, well, you can't smoke on the Sabbath. It's very simple. It's called work, work on the desire. On the Sabbath, Shabbat, it means that the soul ascends above the Parsa into Atzilut. And there, you should not work with the will to receive. If you work with the will to receive, there you fall back into BYA and below Chazeh de BYA, which is called defiling the Sabbath. So they tell you, if you wish to remain in Shabbat, this is called keeping the Shabbat, or observing the Shabbat, if you wish to remain in the Shabbat, meaning to remain in Atzilut, not to fall to BYA, if the ascension of the worlds comes and your soul rises to Atzilut, then you have actions that you need to do in order to remain in Atzilut. And actions you have to observe in order to not fall from Atzilut. Those are all the commandments of the Sabbath. We learn all of this. Work during the weekdays is called the work in the worlds of BYA. And work on the Sabbath means ascending to the world of Atzilut. That's why there are all kinds of additions and changes. That's why it's not allowed to work. A person has to rest, a person has to sleep, has to eat more. All kinds of signs in this world that correspond to spirituality. You need to eat double the amount, because you receive an additional portion there. And that's it. You receive twofold because this corresponds to what's happening in spirituality. Those are the customs of this world. In our world, those are customs. What are the commandments? If I will do something on the Sabbath, I will do something in the worlds? In the worlds, I can do something - if I have a screen, or if I don't have a Masach; I have an intention, or I don't have an intention. That's it. But it's very precise, like a carbon copy, very precise. Because each and every world is made of the same items, except it's a different substance. So, in our world, we have the same world as in spirituality, but made of a different substance, but actually the same parts. Man is also made out of a different substance compared to the spiritual man. And the actions are also a carbon copy of the same actions, except in a different form. And that's why they appear in this way, which is not spiritual. And we always have the question, what is the connection? The connection is between the root and the branch, and not more than that. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:08) What exactly pertains to the stony heart? Is it the desire or the way we use the desire? 

M. Laitman: Using the desire belongs to the stony heart, not the desire by itself. We don't understand what is the desire before correction and the desire after the correction. Like the example I gave.  You say the following, I cannot transfer this form, how you should not steal now, and later, in the end of correction, have the intention to bestow, you'll be able to use this desire and steal. We don't have these corrected forms; we don't know what is correction, truly. Therefore, there are things we can imagine, how they appear corrected, and there are things we cannot imagine. But in truth, it's all a lie, both of those things. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:10) You said that the degrees of coarseness is a desire that's divided into five degrees of coarseness, within five degrees of coarseness, within five degrees of coarseness. I'm trying to understand how a small degree of coarseness is incorporated with those above it. 

M. Laitman: Well, every degree includes all of them, because in spirituality, spirituality develops from above down. In general, all of reality develops from above down. It turns out that we have this incorporation, incorporation of the Sefirot, one inside the other, through direct light and reflected light. So, it turns out that each Sefira includes in it all the Sefirot, every Partzuf includes in it all the Partzufim, plural of Partzuf, and in each coupling of striking, you have 25 Partzufim. In short, there isn't even a tiny detail — eventually after the shattering of the vessels, there's an additional intermingling of the parts until you get to a point where there isn't a single detail that doesn't include all the parts in all of creation. It has a quality of Ein Sof. We say about it simply that everything is made up of ten Sefirot, not 9, not 11, but 10 — meaning neither more nor less, but it has to be the structure, like all of reality - ten Sefirot. This is the case for each and every detail has ten Sefirot. What does it mean both in this and in that? No, meaning that the structure is mutual, and when you rise to even the smallest degree, you must — I didn't want to say it, but you must keep, observe all the commandments in it, but to the extent of the smallest screen. And then again, more, and more, and more. On the other hand, we can count these degrees according to 620 commandments from below up. As if you're observing the 620 degrees on level one, means that you've kept one commandment from the 620, because you have the particular, and the collective, because every Sefira divides into ten. If you observed ten details, you've observed that one.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:45) How can a society, a group, make one want to bestow if I don't know what is to bestow? 

M. Laitman: We don't speak of the group that will give me the power or the desire to bestow. I don't think about it now. I don't speak about it. Those are extremely advanced things. I'm speaking of the group and the environment that I wish to have around me and to make me, create in me a desire to receive spirituality. I want them to speak about it, as if this is important — more than fashion, more than football, more than acquiring all kinds of corporeal things, more than being an actor or scientist — that only this is important. With everything else, I'll be fine. But more than this, there's nothing more than this in life. That's what I want the environment to help me get. Why? Because according to my intellect, I understand that there's nothing more important. I understand it with my mind, but as far as being impressed by it, my feeling, my desire — I don't have a desire for it. You can convince me, you can show me that in spirituality, it's truly worthwhile to work for it. Why should I work for all those things here? After all, I'll finish my life here, and everything is worthless. But it's all words. If it's not rooted in the desire. If you don't have it in the desire, it's all correct, I agree with you - it's gone. Many people come here, you see, and they leave. Why? They did not receive from the society, they were not able to receive, the society was not able to provide them with the desire. They came with a certain desire that was ignited for them from above, but they never developed it further by themselves, and then they leave. I don't need to acquire anything from the society but the desire. What does it mean desire? A desire to develop my desire, to open up my desire. 

Student: Why do we study about the quality of bestowal? 

M. Laitman: To bestow is the next degree. To bestow is the next stage. After I know that spirituality is important to me, and I yearn for it, and I begin to work in order to obtain it, I truly begin to feel it from afar. I also begin to be inspired by it, to receive this certain inspiration called Chen de Kedusha, this grace of sanctity. And then I begin to have a certain understanding that it's worthwhile to resemble it. And we have to learn about this process from what's happening in the four phases of direct light. First of all, you are filled with the light. Then these lights bring you the feeling of the giver. And from that, I get a desire to bestow to Him, to resemble Him, the Giver. And to speak of bestowal like that right now, it's a lie. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:24) Desires after crossing the Machsom, are they only toward the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Are the desires after the barrier only toward the Creator? Well, before the barrier, we are in a double concealment and a regular concealment. What is concealment? Who's concealed? The Creator is concealed. That is why we can’t see who He is, but we only see small pleasures that you can see. And He's concealed behind these pleasures, also behind the suffering, the torments. This is called concealment. After He's revealed and we can feel Him and what comes from Him to us, this is called the revelation of the Creator. This is called the spiritual world. The feeling of the Creator is called the spiritual world. World means Olama from the word Olam. The measure of His concealment and the measure of His revelation gives me a degree, a certain degree of the spiritual world. So, who can be revealed aside from that? Meaning, just like now it's a concealment of the Creator, then there's a revelation of the Creator. Now I don't know where the pleasure and the suffering come from. Later I see where they come from. That's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:54) It's actually a desire for a greater revelation? It's as if each time it's a degree with a greater desire to reveal?

M. Laitman: When I approach…what does it mean that I approach spirituality? That my desire for spirituality today is greater than what I had yesterday. This means that I'm approaching it. I'm nearing it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:20) I sat with myself. I took all my corporeal desires, divided them into three. There are those I see with clear intention that leads me to the goal. Those that if I invert them one way or the other, I see it leads me to the goal. There are those that I don't see any connection between them and the goal. Is this my work — to come and study and want to invert my desire? Because we say I can't restrict my desires. And I don't know that I can't use certain desires. So, is my only way to come now and study and hope for the reforming light to turn the desires toward the goal? 

M. Laitman: Beautiful. You asked, and you gave the answer. No, no. It's really like that. We shouldn't think by which desire I can come quicker and with which I don't. And here 60% of this, and 30% of that, and then I can make it. There's no such thing. We don't understand it. We don't know all of our impulses and what's in us. We're not going to get into this psychology. It's a dead end. Science also doesn't understand anything about it, right? Any psychologist — what does he actually understand? He's confused. He himself is also confused. But this is, as much as possible, this thing is actually concealed from people. That's why it's written simply. So you say I come to study, and what do I do? When I come here, then I do. Then it says whatever is within your hand and your power to do, you should do. This you should do, meaning they give it to you. Then apply pressure there. Do it. And all the things that you will do toward the goal, that you think that it's toward the goal according to your understanding, according to what you hear — this is what will bring you. And the important thing is not to consider anything else. They can give you all kinds of advice from the outside, a thousand and one things. Just listen in the depth of your heart and do only that, only that.