The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
World Congress. “Growing Stronger In the Ten”. September 12, 2024.
Lesson 2. Rabash. “The Society is the Source of Energy.”
Reader: Dear and beloved friends, please take note. We are in the Global Kabbalah L’aam Convention on the subject of “Growing Stronger in the Ten.” We are now beginning our second lesson and the subject of the lesson is, “The Society is the Source of Power.”
M. Laitman: (00:38) Thank you for keeping quiet because for me it's very difficult to speak now. So, what are we going to do now? We have lesson number two, additional excerpts that we would like to go through and study them and receive from them some inspiration and we will continue in our process. So, please.
Reading Excerpt 1: (01:30) RABASH, Article No. 1 (1984), Part 1, "Purpose of Society – 1"
We gather here—to establish a society where each of us follows the spirit of bestowing upon the Creator. And to achieve bestowal upon the Creator, we must begin with bestowal upon man, which is called “love of others.” [...] Thus, on the one hand, each person should feel lowly, and on the other hand, be proud that the Creator has given us the chance to be in a society where each of us has but a single goal: for The Shechina [Divinity] to be among us.
Reader: (02:51) Reading again.
M. Laitman: If there are any questions please put up your hands. Everybody heard it? I don't see any responses.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:51) How do we connect the lowliness and the state of pride?
M. Laitman: These two states are given to us from above. If we realize that, then we can connect them together from one higher source, from the Creator, and down to our state, the lowliest state. That is all.
Student: Who are we prideful in front of?
M. Laitman: We are proud towards ourselves, not towards someone, we have no one before whom to be proud.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:12) The heart of stone and Shechina being in the dust, is that the beginning of the process of creation?
M. Laitman: It is the beginning.
Student: And our work is to connect them together through our perception of reality?
M. Laitman: No. No. We have a different process to connect and advance.
Student: Just to ask for the light of the soul to enter all the time?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (07:00) This morning you said that in this congress, we need to acquire new vessels.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And alongside that also to learn them, study them. How by acquiring new vessels from one another here, how do we learn that here in this congress, in this time? And also, how does it affect the construction of our foundations in the society?
M. Laitman: The fact that we want to connect between us, and we also read excerpts that Kabbalists have prepared for us, about that our friends have chosen for us for this congress. It all works on us, and by that we get closer and closer between us. And bit by bit we reach a connection.
Student: This connection that we're now making an effort to acquire in the congress. That allows us to learn the lacks of the friends other than just obtaining them? I obtained the lacks of the friends. What does it mean to learn them, study them? How does it work in this time of the congress?
M. Laitman: When you want to reach from the connection between you, with the friends, to connection with the Creator. So bit by bit you get from their illumination, and it brings you closer to others. And from this nearing, this connection, you certainly are rewarded, bit by bit, with a state of how to truly be more connected with the friends and with the Creator.
Student: One last question. This effort to learn and study those lacks, is that bestowing upon the Creator? Do I bestow upon the Creator by doing so?
M. Laitman: No, no.
Student: So us making an effort here to connect, how do we bestow contentment upon the Creator?
M. Laitman: When we will reach connection, then out of that we will reach the understanding of how to bestow upon the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:48) To the best of my understanding, you can only be proud of something you've earned, something you attained on your own. Right? You can be proud of that. If you received it from someone else there's not much to be proud of, just possessing it.
M. Laitman: Apparently it is so.
Student: Here it says that the Creator gave us the ability to connect the opportunity, so what is unique here that allows us to be proud? He gave it to us. We didn't earn it, so what should we be proud of?
M. Laitman: We need to be proud in that we were rewarded with a special relation from the Creator towards us
Student: But why? In what?
M. Laitman: This is something that we need to scrutinize. But it is absolutely true that we have gained it in some way. We were rewarded with it. Either it's through our forefathers who came together and created this system, or it is because later on, through our gathering, we will rise to the Creator and fulfill His task; His goal.
Student: To take it as credit, yes?
M. Laitman: It could be as credit or some part as already…
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:09) It's written that we have but one goal, which is to bestow upon the Creator, and that the Shechina will dwell amongst us, between us. What kind of goal is that?
M. Laitman: When we, between us, will connect in such a way that the upper light that comes from the Creator will be able to dwell in us. It is called that the Shechina will dwell between us.
Student: And what is the Shechina?
M. Laitman: The Shechina is a place where the upper light can dwell.
Student: Previously we read that the Creator includes everything. How can it be then that the Shechina is not between us?
M. Laitman: Maybe I can't explain it. But the fact that the Creator will dwell among us, will fill us, will fill every space between us, it's not the end yet. We have to reach a state where everyone is connected together as one man in one heart, and the upper light comes down to us and fills all the places between us.
Student: I would like to better understand. What do we do to find more success, or rather, what do we do that causes the Shechina to be driven away from us?
M. Laitman: Why? Why should the Shechina leave us? It's the opposite. We have to draw the Shechina. This is an upper illumination, it comes from above, from the Creator, and we want it to be between us.
Student: Yes, but supposedly we repel it in some way. We repel it from us, don't we?
M. Laitman: No, no. This is an incorrect understanding.
Student: We need to reach the intention to pull it towards us, draw it near.
M. Laitman: We need to draw her so that she will fill all the places between us.
Song: (15:51)
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:40) If we gather to walk in the direction of bestowal upon the Creator I understand that there need to be two states here, at a minimum. The first is where I go from what's mine is mine and yours is mine, and I reach what's yours is yours and what's mine is yours, and then the question arises. You keep telling us that we need to receive some kind of reward, some kind of compensation, as part of our calculation. So how can we unify these two different concepts?
M. Laitman: Repeat.
Student: Here in the article we have the subject of bestowing upon the Creator, and I see two states in this. The first is where we begin from what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine, and shift over to what’s yours is yours, and what’s mine is yours. But on the other hand in recent lessons you say that there needs to be some calculation where we receive some reward, some compensation. But I see that what’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is yours is faith above reason. So how to unify these two concepts?
M. Laitman: Mine is yours, and yours is yours, these are the highest relations between one person and another. Before that there is mine is mine and yours is mine, and mine is mine and yours is yours. And now, and then mine is mine and yours is mine, which is an egoistic expression already. So you were asking in relation to what, to our state?
Student: I say that the current state, ideally, should be bestowal. But on the other hand you say that you need to calculate in every instance, when receiving some pleasure, that we need to get some kind of reward because we're not corrected yet. So we need to receive some pleasure, some compensation. So how to connect these two lofty states, one where I'm in infinite bestowal, but also at the same time, I'm calculating?
Reader: He says that when you bestow, seemingly there are no calculations. It's above all calculations. But then we have all the calculations of what's mine is yours, and how to bridge all those things, how to connect them together.
M. Laitman: Mine is yours, and yours is yours is complete giving. Mine is mine and yours is mine is complete reception. And in between this and that, you have mine is yours, and yours is mine, and mine is mine, and yours is mine, which is the complete ego. So these are actually the questions. Now, what from all of this is it that you want to ask?
Student: How to connect within us two different states? Obviously, we aspire to that, but we cannot be above that point of bestowal. We have all the states other than the one highest state, but we aspire to that. So how to unite all these states within me and in the Ten?
M. Laitman: How can we unite them? Everything that I can give, I do give. Everything that I can receive for the sake of others, I also receive that. Because in such a case, my reception is like bestowal. So it turns out that I'm giving everything that I can, and everything that I receive is also equivalent to bestowal. So this is how we operate.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:39) Following that question of combining different qualities, there's a question from a friend. How can we be proud of ourselves and yet remain humble? How to combine these two?
M. Laitman: If all of our thoughts are only in order to bestow, then we are complete righteous. And if we operate for our own sake, for ourselves, then we are complete wicked, sinners. And now the question is in what? How can we divide our states, to states of wicked versus righteous? And here this dilemma appears. This is why Kabbalists advise us to divide ourselves into desires of bestowal and desires of reception. And those that work in bestowal will be called righteous. Whereas those who will receive will be called wicked.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:54) In the study, what is wrong at one moment?
M. Laitman: Repeat, please?
Student: In our study, what is wrong at one moment may become right later. Truth is constantly changing, and this change is valid for my friends as well. How can we all integrate this so that it contributes to the connection?
M. Laitman: We need to see before us a corrected world in which all the details, all the desires, are all connected and helping each other in order to bring the entire system to correction. And this depends on us, it was given to us; it is something that we can achieve. That's it.
Student: Can I continue?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course.
Student: When these feelings change, I resist against myself also, because at one point I thought one thing and now I think differently to that. Is there a simple transition from one feeling to the next? Because I get confused, but not just me, my friends as well.
M. Laitman: From one feeling to another? Of course there are transitions. I'm just not sure what she means.
Student: Is it possible to transition from one feeling to the next in a simple way where I flow with the changes? Because when truth keeps changing for you, you get confused. So how can we have it be simple, flowing, without so many confusions?
M. Laitman: Do you understand what she's saying?
Reader: Yes, she says that she identifies constant changes, ascents, descents from one feeling to the next, and she wants to just flow with that so it won't be disturbances and disruptions, but good, how to use that in a beneficial way?
M. Laitman: When I relate to what?
Student: My emotional changes on the path in the correct way. How to do that?
M. Laitman: I don't understand her. Ask again please.
Student: Maybe I'll give an example. Before, I always wanted all my friends to take part in the morning lessons. And I would push all the friends, pressure them. But now I'm more calm in that respect. I feel that they're doing what they're capable of, and I'm okay with that. And what's important is that I keep all my friends in my heart. So, in past years, my friends said I was a bit difficult because I would pressure them with some force. Now I feel different. I want to relate to my friends a different way. And because of these changes, everything I did before is still in the Reshimot, the records of the friends. But that change isn't really well accepted.
M. Laitman: Okay. Did you understand it?
Reader: She said previously she was in a state where she condemned the friends. She demanded that they come to the morning lesson and so on. Now she's different. She's willing to accept the friends as they are, to agree that one who comes, comes, those who come less, fine. But those impressions remained in the friends from the previous state. Not all of them transitioned to a new state. How should she relate to that now? What should she do?
M. Laitman: The most important is connection. Whatever brings connection, we leave such relations. Whatever doesn't bring connection, and it doesn't matter in what form it is, we remove it in the relations between us. Okay?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:57) Over ten years ago, I came to the wisdom of Kabbalah to understand what love is. And over these years, twelve, thirteen years, in very small steps, the Creator brought me to understand what love is, what it means to love. Sometimes, I find myself loving the friends within the friends. The question is: How to love the friends within me? Where is that transition after which it'll be more important for me to see the friend as strong and caring? Since I came here, I got hundreds of hugs, and I understand how complicated it is to love another. And I very much want to learn how to love. Do I need to ask the Creator to teach me how to yearn for that correctly?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Reading Excerpt 2 Twice: (36:50) RABASH, Article No. 14, "The Need for Love of Friends"
There is a special power in the adhesion of friends. Since the views and thoughts pass from one to the other through the adhesion between them, each is incorporated with the powers of the other, and by that, each one has the power of the whole society. Therefore, although each person is an individual, he has the power of the whole society.
M. Laitman: (38:08) What does he say here? That through incorporation, each one receives the power of the whole society. Imagine to yourselves that if each one of us now had such a power of bestowal, of reception, it doesn't matter which one, but the force of everyone. How great this would be.
Reading Excerpt 3 Twice: (38:50) RABASH, Article No. 17 (1987), "The Meaning of the Strict Prohibition to Teach Idol Worshippers the Torah"
It is impossible to receive the influence of the society if he is not attached to the society, meaning if he does not appreciate them. To the extent that he does, he can receive from them the influence without any work, simply by adhering to the society.
M. Laitman: Is this clear? It is clear. You see how good it is? Number four.
Reading Excerpt 4 Twice: (39:57) Rabbi Nachman of Breslev, Likutei Halachot [Assorted Rules]
The essence of love and unity is in the desire, when each one pleases his friend, there is no disparity of desire among them, and all are incorporated in one desire, by which they are incorporated in the upper desire, which is the purpose of the unity.
M. Laitman: Meaning, the most important is that we can unite in one desire. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:46) These three excerpts really penetrated deep into my heart. Almost choking with great fear. If we bestow upon each other here, it speaks of the positive, good side of that but I feel great fear and shame. If I allow even one negative thought or emotion to pass through me, with respect to the friends, we influence each other through that as well. Or are we protected against that? How to defend against that? Because in the morning we read about how I fall to a sea of pride if I have even one drop of pride. So, how can the Ten be protected against me?
M. Laitman: In no way. Only through good thoughts.
Student: So, I need to always awaken myself?
M. Laitman: Of course.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:15) We all share one desire, more or less, but it's important that we all ask for one thing. What should we ask for?
M. Laitman: Consult between you and decide.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:02) The Creator is everywhere, therefore our friends are the Creator, in fact. Now, what it says here is that we need to unite, to continue what the Creator gives us gradually, slowly. Is that correct? So that means that we have to come to be as one. Is that the process? If that's the process, then it means that our Ten is the Creator, who invites me to unite with the others and to come to reveal the Shechina. And in the end, when we reach that space, in that place we'll reach a single desire?
M. Laitman: Again.
Student: This morning, we came to the conclusion that the Creator is everywhere. The Creator is everywhere. Therefore, our Ten is, in fact, the Creator. Now, we're told that we have to reach annulment to become like Him, and that He should show us the corrections we need to make. So ultimately, the outcome of that connection is us reaching the place of the Shechina, all the light. Now when we reach that place we will reach one single desire. That’s what we will attain. Is that the work we should be doing?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:46) In this congress, we go through many states, many emotions. We read some words, suddenly, and it evokes such an emotion you didn’t even expect. We go through states of hatred, love, and gratitude. How from all of that, or above it do I… What is the single desire that I maintain above or alongside all the states that we go through together?
M. Laitman: A person should hold himself in connection with the friends and with the Creator. And all the rest, it doesn't matter what he is going through.
Student: Even if I feel sudden love towards the friends, then I say, wait a minute, I make a kind of Masach, a screen on that, and when I am connected to them I think about the Creator.
M. Laitman: With them, and with the Creator.
Student: Yes. So, that’s the one desire, and now another question, if possible. That one desire, holding the friends and the Creator at one point always. It comprises many different states that we go through, that we experience. Ultimately these desires comprise, compose, the one desire.
M. Laitman: We can say that, but it is not for now.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:26) In the text, it is said that by incorporating in the upper desire everyone receives forces from everyone else. What is that force - the force of everyone?
M. Laitman: The force of everyone is our common force with which we all come closer between us and the Creator.
Student: Let's say, a friend gets up and asks a question. I examine myself. Am I applying in practice what we are now learning? For example, rather, I want to receive the force of the person asking the question, or I want to receive the forces of all of the thousands of people here. How do I acquire that force?
M. Laitman: Just like with the friends, if you connect with them, if you feel their desires, their way, their goal, and you want to be together with them in that, then as a result of that, it happens to you.
Student: So, I yearn to feel each one who speaks. Anyone who speaks, well, actually everyone is saying the same thing. In the next excerpt something very radical is written it seems. It says that it’s not just, it talks of just about incorporation, but about adhesion.
M. Laitman: Well, that doesn't really matter.
Student: This hints at the fact that to the point that you appreciate them, to that point you can adhere to them. That's what it indicates. So the friend who will ask after me, how can I incorporate with him and then adhere to him?
M. Laitman: These are your actions. These are your states. This is your connection. This is how it works.
Student: Sometimes you give such examples. For example, in the past you said to just spread like oil in a pan or to melt like a cube of sugar in boiling water. So how to exit myself today and enter the friends?
M. Laitman: If you know your friends and you want to connect with them, what do you need for that?
Student: Yesterday I asked a question and you brought me to a dead end. You said to connect to the friends through the hearts. And here we read. I take these methods. I try to apply them. In a practical manner friends are asking questions. I try to feel the heart of the person asking.
M. Laitman: And? And what?
Student: What next? I try. I don't yet feel. I very much want to. I invested a lot of time, money, effort. Each one here invested a lot. And we're trying to feel together. So what, to just continue and continue and try more? What comes next?
M. Laitman: Continue until you will reach the connection between you. Until you have a feeling in your emotions, your feelings, your intentions that you are yearning for an inner connection between you, between the friends. This is the connection that only the Creator can give you. And He does give it to you.
Student: If I understand your answer, I should just continue to try to feel the heart of each and every friend?
M. Laitman: Again, please repeat.
Student: Did I understand correctly that we all make efforts to try and feel the hearts of the friends and we make an effort until we come there?
M. Laitman: Yes. But we're not just waiting or expecting this to happen. We truly ask from the Creator. We demand from Him, stubbornly.
Student: So I can do that all at once. To try to connect. And every time I exit or enter internally, I keep that request. Please connect our hearts.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:21) How to always find the need to feel the heart of the friend?
M. Laitman: Well, you need to be connected with them, with the others, and feel what influences them, and how they're walking under the influence of this force. Then try to be together with them. Help them.
Student: How can each member of the Ten influence the others so that everyone has the desire to bestow?
M. Laitman: Through an example. Through a personal example.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:17) It's so difficult that when I'm trying very hard that I can't connect to my friends. And when I'm doing and feeling and by music, by phone, it's happening.
M. Laitman: It could be, it could be. It depends on your past. Maybe without pressure, in a simpler way, it will be easier for you and you'll feel it more. Okay?
Rav Reading Excerpt 5: (58:39) RABASH, Article 6 (1984), "Love of Friends – 2"
By each joining the society and annulling oneself before it, they become one body. For example, if there are ten people in that body, then the body has ten times more power than a single person does. Please, read it again.
Reading Excerpt 5: (59:12) RABASH, Article 6 (1984), "Love of Friends – 2"
By each joining the society and annulling oneself before the society, they become one body. For example, if there are ten people in that body, it has ten times more power than a single person does.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:01) How do we reach one desire in the Ten in order to become incorporated in the Creator's desire? Because as their faces differ, so their views differ. So how do we reach one desire which will be like the Creator's desire?
M. Laitman: Under everyone's influence, the actions the Creator gives us, and under the influence of these actions, we try to be as one man in one heart, we reach a state... By each joining the society and annulling oneself before it, they become one body. For example, if there are ten people in that body, it has ten times more power than a single person does. Is that clear?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:03) Should I bring my Ten, the force of bestowal, by the fact that I discovered that gift within me, and I bring it to the Ten?
M. Laitman: When you incorporate with them, it’ll transfer and go between you all by default.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:27) I feel, especially in the last hour, that I am hindering myself in the congress. That is, I hear the friends, the men and the women, and now me, too. I'm asking a question that rises from within me. Maybe it's irrelevant to 90 percent of the people, maybe it is, I don't know. In the end, I'm just a vessel of a beast of a will to receive. I would have liked to be something else, but I'm not, so I'm asking my own question, and a friend next to me is asking her own question, and the other friend is asking their own question, and I'm wondering, does it bring us closer in the end? Do Kabbalists speak in the language of ‘I’?
M. Laitman: Friends, look, the questions are nice, good, but you need to understand that the answers we receive gradually over time, and so we continue.
Student: Is there a way where we can start having a conversation which is not based on I? Is there some way in which Kabbalists can explain to us or guide us?
M. Laitman: In what?
Student: How to speak, even between us in a congress, it won't be ‘I,’ I feel, so I feel something, so what if I feel it? What about it? To speak differently, even between us. I feel that this style of conversation is hindering us. I feel one thing, another friend feels something else. Now, I understand that if I was a Kabbalist, if I was developed, I would feel the same pain as her. I would, truly, but I'm not there. So, I'm wondering how much this conversation between us, how much we can, maybe we can do it a bit differently. I just don't know how.
M. Laitman: All right, we'll continue, and let's say tomorrow you'll continue talking about that, and we'll see what happens by tomorrow. All right?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:00) Seventeen years ago was the first congress I attended, since then, I try to be Rav's student. There are friends here who've been doing it for thirty years, forty years. I don't remember a congress with so many disruptions. I don't remember a lesson with so many disruptions. And I see you are still inside a single line, nothing seems to move you. For seventeen years, I've seen you like that and I'm sure it's been like that for much longer. I'm trying to understand, we talked about the fact that the Creator is talking to us. Seemingly, there is some conversation that we have to stay in it, all the time, in order to stay on this line. What is this conversation? What is being said now that I cannot hear?
M. Laitman: I don't know, we're going over the texts, most of which come to us from Rabash, yes?
Rav Reading Excerpt 5: (01:06:17) RABASH, Article 6 (1984), "Love of Friends – 2"
“By each joining the society and annulling oneself before it, they become one body. For example, if there are ten people in that body, it has ten times more power than a single person does.” So here we see how we grow by assembling ourselves into one society, one mechanism, one system. Excerpt six, yes? Read
Reading Excerpt 6: (01:07:06) RABASH, Article No. 21 (1986), "Concerning Above Reason" Twice
Through adhesion of friends, they can be obtained by adhesion of friends—new qualities by which they will be qualified to achieve Dvekut with the Creator. And all this can be said while he sees the merits of the friends. At that time, it is relevant to say that he should learn from their actions.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:28) It says here that we have to reach the privilege to connect with the Creator – or refinement – maybe, in order to connect with the Creator.
M. Laitman: Refinement is purity but we're opposite to the ego, not coarse, but pure, refined.
Student: The Ten should be rewarded with it, or an individual person?
M. Laitman: Each and every person should try to be so, and the Ten as well, all of it.
Student: Where are we equal here?
M. Laitman: Equal? We're similar to each other because we all want to adhere to the connection between us, and from that to the Creator.
Student: We're similar but we have different qualities, so according to which qualities do we rise?
M. Laitman: According to which qualities do we?
Reader: Yes, it says, we're similar to each other but we do have different qualities. So, according to what do we rise? According to which qualities, or?
M. Laitman: According to our desire to be similar to the others, each one's desire to be similar to the others. When I am in a society and I want to connect with them, then of course, that by advancing with them, through advancing with them, I want to be similar to them. I want to be accepted by them and we need to perform exercises together, through which we come to understand each other. To the point where, even if I don't hear them, for example, we won't need a translator. As, by going through different states, each one comes to resemble the other. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:25) How can I connect with a friend who doesn't love me? Can I nevertheless receive some power from this connection?
M. Laitman: You can receive powers from wanting to connect to the friend, even if you don't know him, even if you are distant from him. But through your desire to connect with him, you already begin to attain some connection with him.
Student: The power that we receive, is it the power that we receive from the Ten or from the Creator?
M. Laitman: From the Creator; only from the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:38) We have a friend who is very active in the Ten and he decided to cut off contact for two weeks, already, he even blocked us. The question is: How should we operate as a Ten besides praying?
M. Laitman: I don't know, try inviting him to some, some meeting, some gathering, something.
Student: He doesn't answer us, he blocked us.
M. Laitman: To that point, he doesn't answer but at least try to find why he cut off the connection to that extent.
Student: He's going through some personal state.
M. Laitman: Obviously he's going through some state but to the point of disregarding you to that extent.
Student: I can tell you the whole Ten has joined in the effort of helping as much as possible but apparently we weren't successful and he simply?
M. Laitman: So leave him alone. Wait, wait some time.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:07) In a great congress like this, we're receiving powers of love and connection from above. How can we, what kind of efforts can we do from below in order to activate the next degree? What kind of efforts or actions can we do from below so that we can push the next level that is upon us?
M. Laitman: Only connection between us, we read it in each and every excerpt.
Student: It's always a topic that is sometimes vague, our achieving connection. I have a lot of friends around and they're showing me a lot of love but I don't know sometimes how to give it back. Like right now, it was hot, there was a friend across from me who was sweating so I just fanned him. That's a small thing, how can you do something bigger?
M. Laitman: This is how you all relate to connection. Connection isn't just some, it's not the same as little children connecting together, playing in the grass. This is connection between people, which is hard, through difficulty. And it comes only after great exertion, I don't think it's that easy. You'll all see, it's still on the way, on the path. You'll want to be in some slight connection and you'll see how you cannot achieve even that. That's how it works.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:06) Yesterday you answered that we should try not to bestow for the benefit of others. But rather it's more important to receive bestowal from everyone with an open heart, it doesn't matter what kind of bestow, as if it is from the Creator, Himself. This agreement to receive the bestowal or the influence of everyone over me, unconditionally, without evaluating if it's good or bad. What does it give if we keep this condition?
M. Laitman: It allows you all to incorporate everything around you and it allows you, it gives you the option of incorporating with everyone, and then to try and change.
Student: How this state of reception of the influence or the bestowal of everyone helps me to open my heart towards the friends.
M. Laitman: It allows you to feel those around you better and to gradually change, to become more flexible.
Reading Excerpt 7: (01:20:04) RABASH, Article 30 (1988), "What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends" Twice
By reason, the friends are the ones who should love him, but he overcomes his reason, goes above reason, and says, “It is not worth living for myself.” [...] Thus, he already has something to reply to the body.
M. Laitman: (01:21:00) Meaning, that if a person annuls himself, as he feels that for himself it is not worth it to live. Then he has something to reply to the body, and he advances.
Reading Excerpt 8: (01:21:25) Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 47 - Twice.
Let me remind you the validity of love of friends in spite of everything at this time, for it is upon this that our right to exist depends, and upon this our near-to-come success is measured.
Hence, turn away from all the imaginary engagements and set your hearts on thinking thoughts and devising proper tactics to truly connect your hearts as one.
M. Laitman: Questions about this excerpt?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:12) It's not so much about this excerpt; it's more about when we prepared for this congress, I felt truly great alertness, a great deficiency in the prayer. In the noon lessons in recent days, when all the friends from all over the world came, it was really a feeling of a great Kli that is yearning with a fire. And I felt from you that you're giving us so much. Now I'm here in the congress and I don't manage to hear or feel or be impressed or pray. I'm in a sleepy state and I want to get out of it because you also told us that from this congress, a Ten should come out in a state of ascent. How can I free myself from this dormant state when I don't feel, I don't awaken?
M. Laitman: I don't know what to tell you, lady, I truly don't. That you feel that way, I understand, I accept that this is how you feel, but I have no answer. What do you think?
Student: That I need to slap myself.
M. Laitman: Could be.
Student: Meaning, to shake yourself up a bit.
M. Laitman: Yes, well, what to do?
Student: Not physically, apparently it's with respect to the friends, if I'll awaken the friends, it will awaken me. I don't know. Is this what I need to do?
M. Laitman: You don't know? As far as I'm concerned, you're advancing normally. Not the absolute best but, more or less, how to put it, in an acceptable way, reasonable, yes.
Student: Okay, can I ask a question by a friend?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: If we receive the power only from the Creator, then when do we say that we receive power from the Ten?
M. Laitman: So what do we say that?
Student: That we receive powers from the Ten.
M. Laitman: Powers from the Ten.
Student: She's asking, if we receive power only from the Creator, why do we say that we receive powers from the Ten?
M. Laitman: Because all these powers, all these forces, come from the Creator. From some higher source, more or less, and then they come to us.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:44) In relation to this excerpt, in truth, I wanted to ask this question a long time ago. I need to love the friends. Sometimes it seems to me that I shouldn't love the people themselves because when I try to love the people, it ends up as a failing attempt. I feel that I need to love the conditions, the circumstances. That I came specifically to this Ten, everything that appears between us. And that this is the only condition in order to reach connection. Is that correct?
M. Laitman: Let's say so.
Student: So, it turns out that in order to love these circumstances that the Creator sent me I need to use tactics about, which the excerpt speaks. And the only tactics that I can create, right now, is to constantly convince myself, in my mind, that it is the Creator. Because I don't have a complete feeling always that this is the Creator, so it turns out that I'm seemingly lying to myself. And I wanted to ask is this a correct outlook, a correct direction, in relation to the connection between us?
M. Laitman: I cannot answer, you're not clearly phrasing your question, or clearly defining your state. So let's wait a little bit, let's wait till tomorrow.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:16) Could I ask about the word, tricks and tactics, are they used to fool our ego? And what tricks can I use towards my friends to fool my ego?
M. Laitman: Anything you'd like, it'll be understood, it'll be accepted. And you'll advance that way, you'll advance with them.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:31:16) We know we have a strong connection, there’s great light from the upper one so we have problems. How can we feel respect for the effort that a friend makes?
M. Laitman: That is the biggest problem, that is the biggest problem. I want to ask each and every one of you to write this down: How do I respect each and every friend who makes an effort in the congress, in the society, in the connection, in the Ten. To appreciate each and every friend in whatever he gives, whatever he contributes and adds. This is very important, very good.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:33:00) I read and hear the words of Rabash and I’m convinced this is the way. How do I, or how can we, pass on this message to people who are not studying Kabbalah?
M. Laitman: Only through the connection between us can we reach a state where the upper light, the Creator, can be revealed within us. And then, we will succeed in all our goals. That’s it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:34:15) First question: What will happen on the day when the whole world becomes connected, physically? Second question: According to the perception of reality, the personal one, of each one of us, there is the word, connection. And I feel that one has their own connection to their own perception of reality. So what connection are we talking about? And the third question is: What is light? How will I know when it touches me or the Ten?
M. Laitman: Difficult questions. So we need to try to be closer to each other, so much so that each one will come to feel how he wants to be included in everyone else. And, in that way, we will advance towards the general connection, and in the general connection it will be clear to us what each and everyone of us contributes. What each and everyone of us needs to do for everyone else. And in that way, we will reach the end of correction, that’s it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:36:32) I’m usually indifferent towards the friends. Every friend is different, what should I pay attention to in the friend?
M. Laitman: In how you want to adhere to him, and in the same way, he wants to adhere to you. And if you have that common direction in your desires then you will connect together. And by that, you’ll create a shared model, shared lack, a shared desire.
Student: I don’t have the feeling of the friend. Do I need to enter some interaction with him?
M. Laitman: Yes, that interaction will gradually find you. And you will attach yourselves to it and through it to the friend. That’ll happen to you.
Student: This interaction begins with rejection? I need to see some disagreement?
M. Laitman: This interaction begins with you wanting to connect to all the friends, whereupon you begin to discover that you don’t have any special desire for that. You keep forgetting about it, you reject it, repel it and that’s why it doesn’t succeed.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:38:53) I heard, in the past, that you talked about it. There is a communication system between us which is verbal but it’s also on the level of forces or frequencies, sometimes we can feel it, sometimes we can’t. My difficulty is in how to connect the system of connection between us to the connection to the Creator because the connection of the Creator also feels far, as though these are two separate parts. So should we connect these two parts?
M. Laitman: We need to ask to receive an opportunity to connect together and connect to the Creator, together, and to feel that we are coming close to that, and that’s all.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:40:10) Is respect a form of bestowal?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: It’s not?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: Okay, so in this congress, we all felt so many states and it’s as if we were given a lot of opportunities to bestow. But yet, we described them as problems, and I find myself praying for the friends and for the entire Bnei Baruch, for the Creator to have mercy on us. Mercy because there was no sensitivity about the time that we are supposed to be here for the lesson, and I felt so bad that she was sitting there waiting for us. And we are grown up, and we should be here on time.
And I felt so bad about it, and the prayer was for mercy. Because it was like if we were invited to Buckingham Palace, England to see the king, surely we would not have behaved like that. And I felt that we need to pray to have sensitivity. That the Creator is here and how we treat the Rav is how we treat the Creator. So, there were so many opportunities for us to each, what it says there, growing stronger in the Ten. Because it starts with how we treat the Rav, the source, and ultimately, that’s how we treat the Creator. And I just pray for mercy.
M. Laitman: What else shall we do?
Reader: We finished reading the excerpts
M. Laitman: And now I’m being told the lesson ends at 4:00, in 4 minutes?
Reader: We can continue, if Rav wishes it. Rav, whatever way you decide.
M. Laitman: If I want, I can continue? Okay, let’s have it, at least until 5:00, right? You see who I have to contend with here.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:44:38) We wanted to ask, when we bring up questions as a group and we talk, there is a moment when we are very connected and we feel respect towards each other. And there is another moment when we don't, because emotions are something that come and go and they change. The question is: What do we do when we feel the lack of desire to feel or lack of respect? How do we rise above ourselves at that moment, and we do try to reach connection.
M. Laitman: I haven't seen anything more helpful which straightens the person out more than the Writings of Rabash, and that's what I recommend to you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:45:58) My Ten has a prayer that we wrote together, and we brought it here as a precious gift. Question: Is it possible that now all of us together would pray together with you?
M. Laitman: That depends on you.
Student: Can I read the prayer? For peace in the world, we ask You and for the love that unites between people. That the bad will disappear and something new will come to the world. That new light will come to the world and it will shine in the heart of the soul. That the souls will come together in a bouquet of love; that we will never do bad to each other. That we will embrace with each other in Arvut, mutual guarantee, and we will be as one, as one circle. Amen.
M. Laitman: There's nothing more to ask for, I think.
Student: That's all, we're grateful to you, dear, beloved Rav.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:48:58) I don't know if my question is exactly relevant. But there's something that preoccupies me, troubles me, and I promised myself that the day I meet you, I'll ask you this question.
M. Laitman: Go ahead and ask.
Student: We learned that the prayer is a prayer for the many. And a prayer for my own self is egoism, this prayer is not accepted.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I want to ask, how does this correspond to the book of Psalms, where King David asks for things for himself, constantly? I see a conflict here, so, from the moment I understood that I need to pray for the many, I try in my prayers to ask Him to help me change my intention from reception to bestowal. I attempt this constantly, but prayers for myself, prayers for my family, I understand that they're all revoked. I have to understand this point.
M. Laitman: I hope that we will see you in the future and you will tell us to what extent you were mistaken before. That's it. King David, the prayers of David, there are no prayers for himself, only for the collective. This is why he's called the King of Israel; that he is entirely directed towards the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:51:36) Sometimes we have questions and we get stuck. My question about the Tens, these Tens have been working together for many years, and it's a homogenous group. They stick together always, everyone knows everyone's opinions. What I want to ask is, is there a kind of network of Tens if we get stuck on something, if we stumble? Is there a way to contact other Tens or to try to work together because we know our own group, already. The question is can we fertilize each other or do we not want to come out of the boundaries of the Ten? Is there a place for networking between the Tens?
M. Laitman: There is.
Student: And there's mutual fertilization in terms of thought and ideas?
M. Laitman: Yes, there is.
Student: If I have different interpretations of Rabash and so on, or am I supposed to learn only what I'm being taught within the framework, within the programs I'm in?
M. Laitman: I don't know but in the meantime, this is how you should study. Okay, good luck.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:53:17) What is the common heart, the one common heart of the Ten? How to describe it?
M. Laitman: It is one heart that is felt by all the friends in the Ten. That it changes and this is how all the friends in the Ten change, that is all. We have to feel it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:54:14) In the text we read it says, to turn away from all imaginary engagements and set your heart on thinking thoughts and devising proper tactics to truly connect your hearts as one. So, what kind of inventions can the Ten invent to help a friend who has issues coming to the congress, inner difficulties, hardships?
M. Laitman: I don't know, ask her what is so difficult, or what are her disruptions. And in this way, you will learn.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:55:09) I tried to feel in practice what it means to enter the desires of the friends. Everyone asks, what is it like to feel the one desire we have between us, the one heart we share between us? And suddenly, it was revealed to me that if I shift my attention, my entire heart, to what the friend now says. To really taste her words, to even feel her pulse.
In Hebrew we say, to place your heart, that's how we say to pay attention, right? The word heart is in here, and I felt the more I pay attention, place my heart there, the more I enter into her desire. And if I lose that connection and I enter false engagements, imaginary engagements, I drift away. So, my question is: What's unique about that action, about attention? And is it my choice or is it the Creator guiding me to do so?
M. Laitman: It is the Creator who is directing you, and in many cases we speak about the fact that the heart feels, the heart does, the heart operates. So the heart has freedom of action. And when we feel that, we have to relate to it seriously.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:57:38) In the Arava Congress, you told one of the friends that in the morning, he needs to brush his teeth for the sake of the friends. Our question is: how to add intention to an act which is entirely related to myself.
M. Laitman: We need to try as much as possible and you will see that it is possible.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:58:17) Regarding the process, the end of correction is a place only for my corrections?
M. Laitman: No, no the end of correction is the correction of everybody, in a way that we are all incorporated, in everyone.
Student: What limit, what is the limits, what is the boundary between the complete connection in the Ten and myself that doesn’t allow me to bestow.
M. Laitman: What did she say?
Reader: She wants to work with her Ten but her ego doesn’t allow her to do so. So, what to do with that?
M. Laitman: What to do if the ego doesn’t let you work? Pray. It’s only to pray and it’s an excellent state.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:59:51) In our Ten, do we need to achieve such a connection where, ultimately, we receive some very clearly defined, palpable result through incorporation – one with the other?
M. Laitman: Yes, we can reach such states.
Student: A friend feels fearful, she’s not coming up with questions today and she wants to ask if it is good or bad.
M. Laitman: I don’t know, it depends on whatever she’s thinking.
Student: If we unite our qualities, will my negative qualities spoil the positive qualities of the friends?
M. Laitman: I don’t think so but it is worthwhile to ask each other about it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:01:38) In the lesson, we saw the infinite greatness of the Creator, of the friends, and yours. How to always be burning and maintain the fire we see always burning in you? And to always remain as young as you are?
M. Laitman: Again?
Reader: How to keep turning on the fire and remaining as young as you are? How to always be in passion, like you, burning.
M. Laitman: I guess you have to go through special treatments.
Student: I also wanted to continue to support all the friends currently in Mirror Congresses. For example, right now, Ukraine there is no electricity, they have no light, they couldn’t cook the meal but they’re overcoming all the disruptions. And we ask the World Kli to support all the Mirror Congresses we see on screens so that we may connect and see that we’re heading toward the goal together.
We have a spiritual goal, and we will attain it thanks to you Rav, and thanks to the great support, your great support. You remained with us one hour more, you changed our plans, our schedule, and we continue following you until we reach a connection with the Creator. Thank you Rav, and thank you everyone.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:03:45) In excerpt 5, we see that each one causing pleasure to the other doesn't mean there's inequivalence of form, disparity of form. And when they all incorporate in one desire, through that, they incorporate in the upper desire. It seems there is some very simple law here, a wonderful law.
But truly, the matter of pleasing the friends, it's not so clear. We try to respond to the friends, we try to delight the friends with all the states we go through but we don't manage to reach one single desire despite all the efforts. Is it only when we fulfill their desire to discover the Creator that we truly reach adhesion between the friends, if they don't feel that desire?
M. Laitman: I don't know what to say, I didn't understand the question.
Reader: It seems to me, she's asking, they want to understand how to connect properly because with all the efforts, ultimately, it's not clear what the actual action of connection is. And so she's asking, is connection only with respect to the desire to discover the Creator? And we don't really discover that desire in a very clear form, so what can we do to truly fulfill it?
M. Laitman: We need to try to connect between us with a true desire in everyone, to everyone. And then to reveal this desire and the Creator is in it, and all the friends in it, as the goal. Try to write it down in this way, to rewrite it, to explain it to each other. And then you will understand what it is that the Kabbalists want from us.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:07:22) Look, this is a great assembly, there are many meals and nice things, treats. I feel that some fall asleep, some chatter, and I feel that there are some friends in the world, Kli, who would do everything to jump through the monitors, through the screens, and sit here in a chair. And I remembered the meal with the cakes, where you need to perform a restriction and take the simpler cake. What do we need to restrict now, so as to be able to receive what this congress gives us correctly. And not to fall into tiredness and various complaints and claims?
M. Laitman: We need to remain connected between us with all possible force and hope that from this connection between us, we will discover our connection with the Creator. We will discover Him inside the connection between us, in the center of the connection between us. And I really have nothing more to add to it, it's simply connection.
Student: The focus on the connection is fleeting because it's not at every moment that we maintain the correct intention, so what's the restriction about? Something needs to be restricted so that the opportunity to remain in connection opens up for us.
M. Laitman: That the connection will open up. Let it open; let it open.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:09:55) Many friends arrive asking Rav for advice. Other people, myself included, don't have the answers that Rav has but we want to participate in helping those friends. How can each one of us participate in this assistance? Perhaps not by answering a question but how can we help with our answers with respect to the inner force that we carry? How to do that?
M. Laitman: I don't know, what do you recommend?
Student: I hear questions, I hear lacks and I don't know how to help because the questions are aimed at Rav. But I want to add into that some effort, some assistance from me, some charge. How can we help that lack and fulfill it, not intellectually because we don't have the answers, but?
M. Laitman: Do you understand what he's asking?
Reader: The friend wants all of us to internally, there are many friends here. They hear the friend's questions, they hear Rav's answers but they want to help the friend beyond just the question and answer. They want to give him something from within to help the friend asking a question. How can that be done?
M. Laitman: I think that we only have one thing that can help us, which is, according to the law of each one shall help his friend. That each one of us needs to explain to his friend, as much as possible, what he thinks will be the best state between us. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:12:48) How can we help ourselves become more mature? We work on it and sometimes it works, you saw we had that tiny, little power failure, and immediately we’re in kindergarten, here. Despite us being in the congress and you weren’t before us, and despite all that, we can't hold. How can we help each other remain on a higher level, to be mature?
M. Laitman: Only ask the Creator that He will hold us higher; that He will elevate us. Just pray to Him. We on our own can't do it, let Him do it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:14:04) Is it the act of light which we awaken when we truly connect in the heartfelt act towards the friend?
M. Laitman: When we connect with the friends, we awaken the source of the light so it will bestow through our connections to the whole world.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:15:10) What is unconditional love, so long as I am the will to receive? And I'll be happy to ask two more questions afterwards if you agree.
M. Laitman: Unconditional love; it is love without any conditions, yes?
Student: Without ego?
M. Laitman: That it doesn't come from the ego, yes.
Student: Why do we feel shame if we still see that There Is None Else Besides Him?
M. Laitman: We don't see that There Is None Else Besides Him. We don't feel it, we don't believe it. This is why we're not in those conditions.
Student: What is the difference between requesting and praying?
M. Laitman: You could say the following. To ask, is something personal that comes from within the person towards the Creator. And to pray, it comes from the Ten towards the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:17:07) In the excerpt we read, we heard that Rabash said, our refinement or our merit depends on the love of friends – our right to exist depends on the love of friends. I heard it a few times but this time it felt like it was the very first time. And in this congress, we feel that we only have, not only the privilege of loving each other but, also, not in order to exist just for ourselves but for the whole world, according to the Creator's desire. How is it possible to raise the importance of this thought because the ego wants us to forget it all the time? How not to forget that our right to exist depends on how much we are capable of loving our friends?
M. Laitman: Ask the Creator to give us this feeling and that He will not allow us to forget. Very simply, turn to Him more.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:19:28) I am truly inspired by the women's questions. We are going through the second lesson of the congress but there was never such a state. Always, in all the congresses, most of the questions were by the men but today, it's all completely the opposite. What happened, is it something about us, about the men, or is it about the women? Or is it some sort of a general change?
M. Laitman: I can tell you that I am very happy that such changes are happening. It is said thanks to women… How is it said?
Reader: It is said that “Thanks to the righteous women, Israel was redeemed from Egypt.”
M. Laitman: Yes, they all came out of Egypt. So I think that's the matter, we see in this congress, we see how the women precede the men. They are more clever, quicker, and I'm very proud of that. We need to push them forward, and we will be drawn after them.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:22:42) Before the congress, we experienced a strong shaking that almost broke our Ten apart. And we prayed to see the Creator in that state but it didn't help. Today, a miracle happened to us. How in the future will we be able to remember this moment as one and help each other stay on the boat?
M. Laitman: For that, you need to make an effort. I have no control over that, but I suppose you all do.
Student: We have another question in the Ten, may we?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I wanted to ask if, in this forum, with the intentions and the power we have here. If we can pray a prayer of the many for the end of the war and the returning of the captives?
M. Laitman: It's enough for us to think about that, we don't need to say any special words. We really do want all wars to end. And to everything end with peace, and sons will return to their boundaries.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:24:55) All of the activities that we are supposed to do in the Ten on a daily schedule. How relevant is the work of the Shatz and Gabbai, and also to be present in real time in the lessons?
M. Laitman: It's all important. Everything that we decide on together is important.
Student: How can we help friends who feel that it's irrelevant, all of this work of the Shatz and Gabbai, and also to attend lessons?
M. Laitman: Then there's nothing to do. You need to gradually tend to them with love.
Question (KabU 8): (02:26:31) Once we accept that we have a common goal in the Ten, to build a vessel of ourselves through efforts of bestowal towards one another, what do we sacrifice, cancel, or annul in order to order to come closer to being in the correct way to invite the light?
M. Laitman: We need to simply be in our collective, common heart, to be close to each other, and to enter into our hearts. That’s it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:28:43) I think everyone here has a common feeling, a feeling of love. It's a feeling that you talk about, about connection, and we don't really know what it is. There were many difficulties in the Ten. So then I realized that if I'll open my heart, and share my innermost feelings in my heart with my friends, that's how the magic happens.
It was a prayer for the intensification of our connection. The friends prayed for me, for the way that I did in order to get here. And the Ten are present here, I can feel all of them, I can feel the power of the Ten. I'm certain it's just a small part of the connection that we all want to reach. My question is: Is this the connection, is this the feeling of connection, or do we need to reach something that is even bigger, greater?
M. Laitman: We need to continue, and climb a few more steps, and then it will be clear to us what's yet ahead.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:31:20) We started the lesson with the fact that we should be proud, that we were rewarded with a special attitude of the Creator towards us. How can we justify the Creator's attitude towards us?
M. Laitman: To do what He wants of us to do, to fulfill His desire, what He wants from us. That's it.
Reader: (02:32:04) Announcements.