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

Daily Lesson (Morning), April 1, 2024.

Part 2: Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Book of Zohar. Item 57.

We are reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam, we're reading the introduction to the book of Zohar. We are in item 57, Introduction to the book of Zohar, item 57.

Reading Item 57: (00:20) Now you can understand the aridity and the darkness that have befallen us in this generation, such as we have never seen in all the generations preceding us. It is so because even the servants of the Creator have abandoned the engagement in the secrets of the Torah.

Maimonides has already given a true allegory about that. He said that if a line of a thousand blind people walks along the way and there is at least one leader amongst them who can see, they are guaranteed to walk on the right path and not fall in pits and obstacles since they follow the sighted one who leads them. But if that person is missing, they are certain to stumble over every hurdle on the way and will all fall into the pit.

So is the matter before us. If the servants of the Creator had, at least, engaged in the internality of the Torah and extended a complete light from Ein Sof, the whole generation would have followed them, and everyone would be certain of their way, that they would not fall. But if even the servants of the Creator have distanced themselves from this wisdom, it is no wonder the whole generation is failing because of them. And because of my great sorrow, I cannot elaborate on that!

M. Laitman: It's clear, right?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:35) Those who did not engage in it, they too were supposed to follow someone who would lead them.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What happened there? Why did the one who let them fail?

M. Laitman: Because they have no leader, they cannot walk alone.

Student: The complaint is against those who stopped working, but the complaint should have been towards the one who was supposed to lead them. Where is the true flaw, the failure in that, in people who stop engaging in the internality of the Torah?

M. Laitman: They are not drawn to the Creator.

Student: Meaning, it's each and everyone's responsibility.

M. Laitman: Actually, you can say that each and every one gets some kind of drop of deficiency and does not want to develop it.

Student: Meaning, the thousand blind men, they still have some responsibility to be drawn to the Creator, based on the deficiency they've received.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:56) What does it mean to draw complete light of Ein Sof?

M. Laitman: Meaning in order to fill the entire desire to receive that the Creator created, we need the light of Ein Sof, infinity, to draw it, and that it will fill the entire deficiency, all the desire.

Student: Baal HaSulam says that they could have done it, but they haven't.

M. Laitman: Supposedly, yes.

Student: What about us, are we able to do that, can we help you do that?

M. Laitman: For now, we are in that same sentence.

Student: What are we missing as a group to help you draw the light of Ein Sof?

M. Laitman: Me?

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: I, myself, am also discovering a lack of forces, a lack of responsibility to perform such an action.

Student: How can we advance even a little bit towards that?

M. Laitman: Man will help his friend. You cannot demand that of one person, even if he is like Moshe, Moses. That is hard to say, here, but if we were all drawn to connect between us. And from that connection, from the connection between us, we would be drawn to the Creator. We would somewhat succeed in bringing the Shechina back to her place.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:11) Ultimately, they have to follow the one who sees.

M. Laitman: If they have a deficiency.

Student: If they have a deficiency, but we say it's very difficult. Time is moving forward, and people, less and less, trust others, rely on others. Everyone feels that he's the boss, the king. Even if he suffers blows, ultimately, it's even difficult to say, like the faith in the sages, as we say. That's the main obstacle in order to advance anywhere.

M. Laitman: I did not see that there were less wise ones, and then people would be drawn more to great people, that they had more forces. Well, let us say, so?

Student: I'm saying there were times when people followed leaders. Today, even that doesn't seem to exist.

M. Laitman: Correct.

Student: Everyone, people are getting closed in, closing themselves in smaller and smaller groups. How will we really follow the teacher, the leader? How will people make such a move?

M. Laitman: Today, nobody bows down.

Student: Exactly.

M. Laitman: Towards anybody else, the contrary. They are constantly searching for how to be higher, or at least no less than the other. Somebody writes that the condition is to find the one who sees.

Student: He writes that the condition is to find the one who sees. Let's say I'm blind, there's one who sees, and I'll follow him. Even if I don't see him but I can find a few others and they already follow him.

M. Laitman: How will you know that he is great?

Student: Right, so we ultimately say, the heart feels.

M. Laitman: The heart.

Student: I ask, how will ultimately people, you see that even with the blows, it's not, we say a bit of blows and a person will get closer but even that?

M. Laitman: So, he says that, also the Creator's workers left this wisdom, no wonder that the whole generation fails because of them. And I cannot elaborate on that. Because of my great sorrow, I cannot elaborate on that.

Student: He basically says that the chance, if there is such, it's the servants of the Creator who decided to make a move out of the generation, let's say us, people who somewhat have awakened. Ultimately, we need to be those who awaken the others.

M. Laitman: Also awaken, also ourselves and the others. And somehow come closer to the Creator and are with them in some kind of connection. Let us say a direct connection, even. Well, see what he writes onward.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:36) To further specify what makes us feel bad? Ultimately, nothing happens without the Creator's will.

M. Laitman: No, do not tell me things that there are no answers about.

Student: No, I want to say the next thing. I think the difficulty is only in our awareness and our feelings. There's nothing bad in reality, it's just our interpretation of reality.

M. Laitman: Do not say that either. You understand that you are bringing us supposed proof that erases all our questions that will help us advance.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:29) The main deficiency, you said that each one was given a little bit of deficiency to adhere to the Creator, and they didn't develop it. Now, let's say, if I understand correctly, that's the question: If each one really wants to always increase one's deficiency to the Creator, then all the rest, just attribute to it all the time. What the Creator gave us, the rabbi, the friends, all of that, just to adhere to him, to develop this deficiency, to make it really great. Is that correct?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Then, all of us will simply connect our deficiencies that will come to a sufficient deficiency to invite the light to correct?

M. Laitman: Yes. We don't know how to do it.

Question (PT 30): (11:29) It seems like Baal HaSulam writes criticism and blames the created being. He writes they distance themselves from this wisdom. He's blaming the created beings not, also, blaming the Creator?

M. Laitman: I do not know; he's speaking about the first generations. It is hard for us to turn to them and talk about those things.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:58) How does he write that he has great sorrow, and in other places, he writes one shouldn't be in sorrow?

M. Laitman: Both are in man, in each and every person, and he's also a person.

Student: When I curse the Creator, and this stinking creation He created, you tell me everything's okay, and None Else Besides Him, it's all golden. Can you say that?

M. Laitman: You can say whatever you want but what will that help? By this, are you changing reality or at least towards yourself? Are you opening some kind of picture of the world?

Student: I'm trying to understand the world I live in. He can do things that I can't. Why?

M. Laitman: No, no, everyone is equal. Towards the Creator, everyone is equal.

Student: Okay, but you tell me it's forbidden to be sad, many times. And here he has sorrow, why?

M. Laitman: He really is writing from the magnitude of that sorrow that he cannot keep going and so on. Because, I guess, he understands, also again, it is on us, it is not on him, supposedly. As much as we are losing by not revealing the Creator, correctly.

Student: I'll tell you, teacher, for me, professions and titles and degrees, don't leave an impression on me. I look at a person's actions. Then you tell me, None Else Besides Him, and then this is written. It's like, how do you want me to justify it?

M. Laitman: There cannot be the same key for every lock. By this, you cannot erase or release yourself from all responsibility, no. Because according to the way the world was created, each and every one is responsible for everyone, for everyone. You see, it is just to try and understand that I am responsible for everyone. Now someone can come to me and ask about everyone, about all people in the world, about all the souls, and I must answer about it.

Student: Okay, you said it, but I still don't feel sorrow.

M. Laitman: That is even worse.

Student: I can try, but I don't feel that I'm responsible for everyone that someone cares about me on the outside. How do I influence everyone?

M. Laitman: That is why if the Creator is organizing creation, He needs to try and bring created beings to the recognition of evil. And they will feel, the created beings, that this evil depends on them, that they caused it, they caused it. And after that, you can judge, where can you run to from such a sentence?

Student: It's okay to ask for corporeal corrections, should one do so?

M. Laitman: No because it is not that important, that is not my issue, my problem.

Student: But here, it's a sorrow for him.

M. Laitman: That is because you don't feel it, yet. And also, it's hard to, by looking at you, it is hard to accept this. That you're so sorry that you are lacking something.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:30) I also wanted to ask about this point, but a little differently. Rav Akiva was happy when he saw that the Temple was ruined, because...

M. Laitman: No, no, no, forget about these stories now.

Student: Abraham was happy when he saw...

M. Laitman: No, no, no, that, too. Forget about it now.

Student: Now, when Baal HaSulam is sorry, here, what does it mean we've deviated from the path of correction? Why does he say, from the sorrow, I can't elaborate?

M. Laitman: Because there is probably something in our hands that we are able to use to turn our life upside down to something wondrous and we are not doing it. That is where the great sorrow he has comes from.

Reading Item 58: (17:25) However, I do know the reason: It is mainly because 1) faith has diminished in general, 2) faith in the holy ones, the sages of the generations in particular, and 3) the books of Kabbalah and The Zohar are full of corporeal parables. Hence, people are afraid, lest they will lose more than they will gain since they could easily fail with materializing. This is what prompted me to compose a sufficient interpretation on the writings of the ARI, and now on The Zohar. And I have completely removed that concern, for I have evidently explained and proven the spiritual meaning of everything, that it is abstract and devoid of any corporeal image, above space and above time, as the readers will see, to allow the whole of Israel to study The Book of Zohar and be warmed by its sacred light.

I have named that commentary The Sulam (Ladder) to show that the purpose of my commentary is as the role of any ladder: If you have an attic filled abundantly, all you need is a ladder to climb. And then, all the bounty in the world is in your hands. But the ladder is not a purpose in and of itself, for if you pause on the rungs of the ladder and do not enter the attic, your goal will not be achieved.

So it is with my commentary on The Zohar, for the way to fully clarify these most profound of words has not yet been created. Nonetheless, with my commentary, I have constructed a path and an entrance for any person by which to rise and delve and scrutinize The Book of Zohar itself, for only then will my aim with this commentary be completed.

M. Laitman: (20:34) Questions?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:38) He writes as if the Commentary on the Ladder is clear to every person. But when you read it, it seems...

M. Laitman: Where does he write that it's clear?

Student: He says it's approachable for every person.

M. Laitman: It is suitable for every person to use The Ladder Commentary to correct himself, to correct his soul.

Student: Even though he doesn't understand what's written in The Commentary itself?

M. Laitman: Who, some person, you mean?

Student: Me. When I read the Commentary of the Ladder, I didn't understand what was written in there.

M. Laitman: So, you should invest more in that?

Student: We should try and understand, or just draw the light?

M. Laitman: I do not know what exactly. Both, both is in that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:37) It seems that in this item, Baal HaSulam takes responsibility for the generation. He says I opened it in some way. Then he says that he's preparing it for the ones coming after him. To take what he did and to keep opening it. What does it mean to take responsibility for a generation, how do you do it?

M. Laitman: We have to understand that basically The Ladder Commentary is what Baal HaSulam gave us. And what he told his students, that they will take The Ladder Commentary, and it was not a book, it was a bunch of books, like that. And they would tie together these 21 volumes, everyone would take a volume and put it in his hands and in his lap. And then hold other volumes in his hands. And so, they took those sets of books, each one had like four sets, and they would go to a bunch of places to try and sell them. And he was very worried, concerned, that they would all go and sell them. That is it.

Student: What about us?

M. Laitman: And when I took books, such sets of books from our study place. And I brought them to all kinds of places in the center of the country, no one wanted to receive them. Even if I would give them for free. I would come back and say, I only sold two sets, and I have not sold anything. I just paid for it myself. And that was what happened with The Zohar. What can I tell you? Baal HaSulam put his soul into it. To him, this was, well, sacred, but the world treated it that way.

Student: What about now, what should we do now?

M. Laitman: Now, I do not know. Now it is a different time, different people. Difficult for them to detach from their television or newspapers or all kinds of things and invest themselves in The Commentary of the Ladder. That is, where are we and where is that? What to do? Keep going, keep going nevertheless, and prepare ourselves for such times, such incidents, that will come to the generation. That they will, nevertheless, want to use The Ladder Commentary and bring themselves to a higher degree.

Student: It doesn't depend on us to take responsibility for the generation.

M. Laitman: We do not even know how to advance towards that. If you go out to the street, today, to sell The Ladder Commentary on the Book of Zohar, you will see that people do not understand what this is for? How many kilograms do you need to have in those books? It's just paper, just like that. I am telling you, I took a bunch of sets of books to Ramlan, Rehovot and Lod and all those areas where I used to live. I lived in Rehovot. I did not feel any response from anyone. There were a few people who took them to do me a favor, that is it, for free. Of course, they did not pay for it. When a mother of one of the students passed away, there were four students whose mothers passed away.

That was about the 1950s, something along these lines. So, they asked Rabash what to do to honor their mother. And he said, instead of whatever you would think of doing, the Memorial Day and her grave and whatever else, no. Just buy a hundred sets of The Zohar with The Ladder Commentary and try to spread it across the country. They tried and it did not work out. I understood that they could not even do it, maybe. It was very difficult, we already understood it was not going to work. So, I started taking every day a set or two sets. 21 volumes is quite a lot. Barely, I could not even sell it. I just gave it. People did not want it. Because you cannot burn it. You cannot do anything about that. Now, if you have a room in your home where you can put them, okay. No one wanted to take them. That is how it is.

Student: Maybe there's something that we're lacking between us that we're not doing between us?

M. Laitman: No, no, this is still, it is still the general atmosphere around the Zohar and those books. And this Commentary is difficult, you have to dive into it. And you have to open it up, you have to read it as something that tells you about yourself. And how many such people exist in the world? I do not think so. I gave those sets to great Rabbis and smaller ones and Synagogues and any hole I can put them in. Those who took them did it to respect me, to honor me. I was also quite known in that area, of Rehovot and around it. That is it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:09) It was clear why they didn't want to take it. Like you said, how can a person even study this, how can you open it? You need someone who understands, someone who can lead.

M. Laitman: No.

Student: What, a person can open it on his own and feel that he can come close to it?

M. Laitman: He reads it as a remedy, he reads it as a remedy, Segula. Against anything bad that might happen, God forbid.

Student: He needs to believe in the forces.

M. Laitman: Yes. So that means against illnesses, fires, whatever.

Student: I feel that the generation, the previous one and this one, don't know the essence of these books, yet. Obviously don't know how to use them, and there aren't any study groups, enough study groups, that you can support such a study. So just to give it to someone, he'll say, I have nothing to do with this. Even if there's someone who, theoretically, knows that in the Zohar there are remedies. I don't see how he could have taken it and started doing it in such a way. If he could, he'd do it to begin with, in other ways, maybe. But what we're lacking, I guess, are groups that know how to go deeper into this book somehow. Or to open it and read it. I don't know any, except for our group, that know how to take such a commentary and read it or engage in it in any kind of way.

M. Laitman: Yes, that is true, that is correct.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:12) Today, we don’t walk around with books under our arms. But every evening at 7:30, we read the Zohar for half an hour with two or three clips of yours that you explain how to make the intention or something. It’s beautiful moments, it’s magical moments at the end of the day to listen to it, no matter if you understand or not, it's just a gift from above. It's great for the ones that are doing it, and I wish we knew how to disseminate that. Today, nobody walks around with books, we have media.

M. Laitman: Okay, we will try, we will try.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:06) You said that a person who reads The Book of Zohar with a Commentary of the Ladder, as a remedy, it can save them against everything, diseases, and fires.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What is that, what do you mean? Can you explain how it works?

M. Laitman: No, it is a higher force that guards that person who relates to the Zohar that way.

Student: Can we tell a person that if he reads the book of Zohar, he will prevent disasters and trouble from himself, from his life?

M. Laitman: Well, you cannot promise that to a person that way, but basically, yes.

Student: He starts item 48, he gives a reason, or three reasons, why the Creator’s workers have moved themselves away from the internality of the Torah. They say that they have lost faith, and of the book of Zohar that is full of allegories. So that's why he wrote the commentary. But the fact that there's lacking faith, what about that?

M. Laitman: Look, what can you do, there is nothing to do, that is how the world is built. That the evil that is revealed is revealed to the same extent that it can be corrected. And the Creator further and further limits and increases the evil. And reveals it, reveals that extent in the world.

Student: And what will bring people to study?

M. Laitman: Only troubles, if you ask me, only troubles.

Student: When will people start valuing Kabbalists as spiritual leaders of a generation?

M. Laitman: When spirituality will begin to be appreciated. There's nothing to do here.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:36) Today the state is a bit different. The Book of Zohar is in many places that people study, and they read it. They study, I guess, as a remedy. Also, between the groups that are trying to study according to Baal HaSulam, so we're still not connected. What I can say that, at least where I live, people in the community know that I'm studying, I don't hide it. Also, the head of the community once asked me years ago for sets of Rabash, and I gave it to him. He bought them with money, he paid for it. Beyond that, I remember that at least a year ago, one of them asked me about a paragraph from The Peace article. I was in shock, I was like frozen, I didn't have the words to explain, because there's no basis to explain it on. They, the religious people, didn't know what recognition of evil and what the work we do. There aren't any words to explain it. The question is, if we as a group, I asked you this many years ago, and I understood that the answer was no, back then. Is it right for us to connect to other groups that study and somewhat, maybe it's the right time, now, because at least what Baal HaSulam says that the people who are searching for the path to the Creator, that's the connection.

M. Laitman: Where do you see such people?

Student: There are more groups that study Baal HaSulam.

M. Laitman: Baal HaSulam, sure, but other than that.

Student: I'm speaking about that first. I'm not going to the whole world. I'm speaking there and what's close to us.

M. Laitman: Try to connect, please. Just make sure it does not cause separation among you. But to me, there is no, I have no desire to prevent you, no. If you find such people who want the same goal, following the same books as ours. And they have a spirit of connection, why not? I do not object to it, it is a question of whether this is, this will truly work for the better. As far as I know, there were such people in the times of Rabash, and it did not go well. And therefore, when I was with him, there were seven, nine other people, men who would study. In holidays, there were, of course, more because then all of the landlords come, that is it. So, why not, go ahead, I will be delighted. I am just very concerned, afraid, that you might ruin yourselves by that. So pay attention to that, meaning, there has to be some directorate here, let's say. And everything should be done only with this directorate's confirmation. But the fact that at some point it will change, that is obvious to me. And that it will get to a point where others can come or we can connect with others, that too.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:39) Last week, I met a manager of a website that sells courses to many people, and we showed him our courses. He said, it's very nice, but who are these people who give these lessons? They're not an authority. So we showed him you, and he said, oh, that's interesting.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So my question is, it seems that after all these years, at least in Israel, at least from what I know, the only authority for studying Kabbalah is you, only. The question is how will the future look towards this state?

M. Laitman: This I do not know. Whatever happens after me, I do not know.

Student: I’ll say why I'm asking: I, suddenly, see that these great friends here that that are an authority, for me at least, I'd say, wow, it's an authority. But suddenly I saw the external eyes of that person, he says, who are these people?

M. Laitman: Therefore, I went to do my PhD, to also have that in the name, and that is it. I do not know what else to do. But that is the only reason I did that. I do not know but I think there will come a time you do not need to chase all kinds of titles and names. But there will come a time when it will be clearer, when it will be received.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:05) I know a few people in all kinds of frameworks and children, and I don't want to confuse too much, but I know that Baal HaSulam's wisdom is expanding in many places. All kinds of Yeshivot and places that study, and they're raising a new generation according to him. The question is, I see it's not coming through us, but through other groups. Or all kinds of individuals that discover it and advance with it, and they find more people who want to try and do it together. Meaning groups grow on their own, people discover it on their own or from other groups, and not through us. So the question is what does that mean that it's not through us, and that there are more that are leading Baal HaSulam's path ahead?

M. Laitman: Let it be so.

Student: How should we work with that, beside it, with it, in a certain way? Maybe not today, but in 10, 20, 30 years? How do we deal with it, that there are more, Baal HaSulam has arms in many areas.

M. Laitman: Yes. I do not know.

Student: This dynamics towards those bodies, I don't engage in there, I see it growing from the side and getting stronger. I know that my daughter is somewhere that they quote Baal HaSulam in their study places. It's a wisdom that is starting to be clarified as something good and relevant to our generation, through people's education mainly, they use it. Not those religious, older places, but still, it's the newer schools. I'm asking myself, how do we need to see it, and work beside it, if at all? Maybe, later on to talk about it, but I just want to put that question on the table. That just so you know that it's happening around us.

M. Laitman: I am familiar with that, I know, and to some extent I respect it. But in truth, I'm not so connected to that. And, also Rabash did not want to be connected to that. I do not have what to add. I really do not.

Student: There's people that study with other Rabash students, that they take the wisdom from them.

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, I know.

Student: I see it also brings them closer, suddenly ultra-orthodox people understand that there's Baal HaSulam, and they're drawn, and they devote themselves to it, and they start researching it.

M. Laitman: Okay, yes, I understand, I know. I am happy about that, that it is spreading. And it does not matter to me that it does not come through us. And may there be more and more such groups. But I have nothing to add. You have to understand that I already finished my life and I do not have much left. And as much as I still can I will try, and good luck to you. That is it.

Song: (48:48)

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