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

Daily Morning Lesson August 18, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work? Article No. 27, 1987.

Reader: Hello, in the first part of the lesson, we get to learn a lesson from October 2002, based on the article "What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work?" You can find it in the writings of Rabash, Volume 1. We will read the article together in the Ten, we have, 25 minutes.

Reading: (00:34) What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work?

Article No. 27, 1987

It is written, “Behold, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, that you hear the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, and the curse, if you do not hear the commandments.”

Here, we need to understand the following: 1) Why does he begin with singular form [in Hebrew], “Behold,” and then speaks in plural form [in Hebrew], “before you”? 2) Why is it written, “today”? 3) “A blessing and a curse.” It is written, “The bad and the good do not come from the mouth of the upper one” (Lamentations 3). Hence, why is it written, “I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse”? 4) We see that in the corporeal world there is a place where the blessing is present, and a place where the blessing is absent, but there is also no curse there, and there is a place where the curse is present. It follows that there is a middle between a blessing and a curse. But here it says, “I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse,” meaning that there is nothing between them but either a blessing or a curse.

The interpreters of the Torah ask these questions. To understand all the above, we must reiterate what we have said thus far. We should examine what it is we have to know in order to know what we must do while we are in this world.

It is known that we should be cognizant of two purposes: 1) the purpose of the Creator, which we learn is to bestow upon His creations, 2) the purpose of the creatures, which is to do good to the Creator.

We should know that the purpose of the Creator is just fine. We must believe that He leads the world in benevolence, but our purpose—to do good to the Creator—is far away from us. Since our goal is the complete opposite of the Creator’s goal, and since the purpose of the Creator must be fulfilled, namely that the creatures will receive delight and pleasure as the Creator wants it, His installing in us a desire and yearning to receive pleasure is fixed and cannot be revoked. This means that a person cannot exist in the world if he cannot enjoy life. It makes no difference what he enjoys, but without pleasure, it is impossible to live.

Therefore, when we begin to work on our goal, which is to do good to the Creator, and not use our will to receive, which is what the Creator gave us by nature, we have no strength to go against nature. For this reason, when we begin to work in bestowal, we think that we can revoke nature, but in the end we realize that we cannot.

He has no other counsel but prayer. It is as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” Only through help from above can he achieve the goal of the created beings to equalize in form with the Creator. That is, as the Creator wants to do good to His creations, the creatures should want to bestow upon the Creator, which is called “doing good to the Creator.”

The order of the work should be that we must believe above reason in the importance and greatness of the Creator. When we feel the greatness of the King, by nature, we annul before the King. We do not need to exert on this, since we see that by nature, the Creator has given the small one the power to annul before the greater one, since when the smaller one serves the greater one, it feels pleasure in this. It follows that the pleasure it feels while serving the great one does not contradict the nature of the creature, called “will to receive pleasure,” since it receives pleasure while working for the great one.

It is known from the allegory that a famous ADMOR [distinguished rabbi] comes and many people greet him at the airport. He gives his suitcase to someone to take it to the taxi. If the rabbi were to give the suitcase to a porter, who does not recognize the greatness of the rabbi, the rabbi would have to pay the porter. Sometimes the porter would even argue over the wages and would want more money than the rabbi gave him. However, if the rabbi were to give his suitcase to one of his followers and would want to pay him, he would not accept it, since there is a rule that one cannot do anything unless he feels pleasure in it. While doing it, work without pleasure is called “labor.” That is, the person would not do this if he did not know he would be paid for the effort.

It turns out that if he is serving the great one, and it is inherent in nature that there is pleasure when serving the great one, it follows that he does not need a reward because this is his reward. That is, he is receiving reward, called “pleasure,” while serving. It follows that all we need in order to be able to work in order to bestow is the recognition of His greatness, and then the body will naturally annul before Him.

However, since there was a concealment on His light for the purpose of correction, so that the will to receive will work in order to bestow, for this purpose we were given the work of faith, to believe in the greatness of the Creator and depict His greatness every time so we will be able to work in order to bestow and receive nothing in return.

It follows that the person asks the Creator to remove the concealment from himself. This brings up the question, How can one pray to the Creator to remove the concealment from himself, since it was given for our benefit, so that the shame would be corrected? Thus, how can we pray that the concealment will be taken away from us?

The answer is that the concealment was placed because man is born with a desire to receive for his own sake, and there is no greater pleasure than being in the King’s palace. Yet, when receiving pleasure, it will be for our own sake, and this is called “disparity of form.”

For this reason, there was a concealment, meaning that before a person is rewarded with vessels of bestowal, so he can receive in order to bestow, a person feels only Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment of the face. For this reason, although man has not been rewarded with vessels of bestowal, and all his work is currently in order to be able to bestow in order to bestow, and he does not want to receive anything for his own sake, he cannot do so because the body is enslaved to self-love.

For this reason, he asks the Creator to remove the concealment from himself, not in order to enable him to enjoy His light. On the contrary, he wants the Creator to remove from him the concealment of the face so he will be able to bestow upon the Creator. It follows that the intention that he wants the Creator to give him is the ability only to bestow.

His intention is not that the Creator will open his eyes and give him the revelation of the face in order to derive pleasure for his own benefit. This is called “disparity of form.” Rather, he wants the opposite from the Creator—to have equivalence of form, meaning to have the power to bestow upon the Creator, called “equivalence of form.”

Once a person has been rewarded with vessels of bestowal. and can act in order to bestow upon the Creator, comes the work with vessels of reception. That is, he says to the Creator, “Now I want to receive delight because Your will is to do good to His creations. For this reason, I want to do Your will, which You want to give to us.”

It is as we interpreted Midrash Rabbah, Beresheet, concerning the Creator’s reply to the angels who complained about the creation of man. He said, “What is this like? It is like a king who has a tower filled abundantly but no guests.” For this reason, a person wants to receive the delight and pleasure from the Creator, so as to delight the King, as said above (Article No. 26, Tav-Shin-Mem-Zayin).

By this we can explain the third question, about the verse, “I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse.” It is written, “The bad and the good do not come from the mouth of the upper one.” But according to what we learned, the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations. Thus, there is no good and bad in this purpose; it is all good! Hence, from where do those two discernments of good and bad come?

This extends from the point of Tzimtzum, which is the root of the judgment. Malchut de Ein Sof, which received the light in the vessel of reception, desired equivalence of form, as there is in the light. For this reason, she performed the Tzimtzum, not wanting to receive any longer with this Kli [vessel]. It follows that Malchut has made all the boundaries between light and darkness, and this is why we attribute the Tzimtzum to the lower one.

It is written (in the commentary Panim Masbirot) that “No force from the Emanator is revealed as a boundary. This light that comes to them is called Ohr Pnimi [Inner Light], yet it is a restricted illumination because of the point itself.”

In other words, the boundary on receiving only in order to bestow is the point itself, which is regarded as Malchut, called “a vessel to receive for herself.” She made the good, meaning to receive in order to bestow, as well as the bad, not to receive in order to receive. And because that which is a will in the upper one becomes a binding law in the lower one, for this reason, one who wants to receive in order to receive has a sensation of bad and separation from the Life of Lives.

It follows that the reason for the good and bad was made by the lower one. That is, the lower one made a reality of good and gad. It is as was said above, that by Malchut desiring equivalence of form, from here extends good and bad in the world.

This means that if the lower ones follow the path of the Tzimtzum and want only to work in order to bestow, they will have delight and pleasure. But if they do not follow this line, examining everything so it is precisely in order to bestow, they will have darkness and not light.

It follows that from the upper one, meaning the abundance that emerged from the upper one, it was all good. There was no place for bad there, as it is written (beginning of the book Tree of Life), “Before the Tzimtzum, there was He is one and His name One.” That is, there was still no issue of distance between the light, called “He,” and the Kli, called “His name.” Only after the Tzimtzum did the will to receive become different in form.

By this we will also understand the fourth question, where it is written “blessing and curse,” which means that there is no middle between them. In corporeality, we see that there is a place where there is a blessing, or a place where there is a curse. But there is also a place where there are neither blessing nor curse. For the most part, a person who trades or goes to live in some city does not insist that it will be specifically a place of blessing, since normally, if it is not a place of curse, that place is regarded as a place where he can live. Here, however, the verse, “I set before you a blessing and a curse” implies that there is nothing in between.

The answer is that the good who does good, who is called “Life,” if we give vessels of bestowal, it is possible to adhere to the “Life of Lives.” It follows that only in this way can one be rewarded with the delight and pleasure called “blessing.” But if a person has only vessels of reception, he must be separated from the Life of Lives and he has no Kelim in which to receive the delight and pleasure. It follows that he is in the dark and has no light or spiritual life, and no curse is worse than this.

But in the corporeal world, we see that there is a middle between blessing and curse, since the order of the work is that when a person wants to commence in the work of the Creator, to work for the sake of the Creator, he must begin with an in between. That is, he wants to exit the curse and enter the blessing.

But since by nature, he is in a state of “curse,” meaning that there was a Tzimtzum and concealment on the will to receive with which man was born, so the light of life will not shine there, he wants to come out of there. For this reason, there must be something in between, called Lo Lishma [not for Her sake]. This means that the things he does are acts of bestowal—both between man and God, and between man and man. However, he still does not have the intention to bestow.

Since from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma [for Her sake], this is called “middle,” between a curse and a blessing. Since all that is missing in order to be rewarded with the blessing is the aim to bestow, and since this world is called the “world of action,” meaning the “place of work,” hence, according to the order of the work there is a middle.

But from the perspective of the goal, there are no two things but only one thing. This means that either he is rewarded with the goal, called “blessing,” or he is not rewarded with the goal. It follows that he remains inside the curse, which is death, as it is written, “The wicked, in their lives, are called ‘dead.’” Therefore, there is no middle here, but either a curse or a blessing in that he is rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator.

According to the above we can understand the first question we asked, Why does it begin with singular form, “behold,” and then says “before you,” in plural form? It is because there is a matter of a giver here, who is the Creator, and a receiver, who are the people of Israel, and it is known that from the perspective of the Creator there are no degrees, as it is written, “I the Lord do not change,” but all the changes are only in the receivers.

Therefore, when speaking from the perspective of the giver, He says, “I am placing before you one thing,” since from the perspective of the giver, the light of doing good to His creations is called by the name, “one simple light,” He therefore speaks to the entire collective and says, “I am placing one thing before you.” But when speaking from the perspective of the receiver, there are many degrees in the receivers, as our sages said, “As their faces differ, their views differ” (Berachot 58).

For this reason, when speaking to the receivers, He said, “Behold,” in singular form, since each individual has his unique vision. This is the reason for the singular form, “Behold,” which means that each one should see for himself and should not rely on the vision of one’s friend. It is as the ARI wrote, that one cannot correct that which one’s friend corrects, but each one has his own correction.

Therefore, the word “Behold” refers to the receivers, who each receive a unique vision. And when speaking from the perspective of the giver, He gives the same thing to everyone. This is why the words, “I am setting before you,” speak to the entire collective.

Now we will understand what we asked, What does it imply to us when it says, “Which I am setting before you today”? It means that this matter of blessing and curse applies each and every day, that each and every day there are special corrections, as the ARI says (the writings of the ARI, book, Gate of Intentions, in the beginning of “Intentions for Shabbat”), “Moreover, in the weekdays themselves there is a big difference between the prayer on one day from the prayer on the next day. There is not one prayer, since the day when the world was created to the end of the world, that will be similar to another in any way.” This is why he says the word “today,” as it applies to each and every day.

Reader: We will move to the lesson from October 2002.

M. Laitman: (25:46) You read the article, I didn’t hear. Article 3 from Rungs of the Ladder, portion Re'eh, What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work? What is a curse and what is a blessing?

Student: In order to bestow and in order to receive.

M. Laitman: In order to bestow is a blessing, in order to receive is a curse, if we understand it as such.

Student: He says that in this world there is an intermediate state, which is not this nor that.

M. Laitman: Which is?

Student: It says Lo Lishma.

M. Laitman: Meaning, this world has a middle state between a curse and a blessing. This world is called in order to receive. The next world is called in order to bestow. There is no transition between these two things. The transition is in a man who can be one time seemingly in this, one time seemingly in that. Seemingly, meaning it is not real yet, rather it’s below holiness and the shell. Up to the barrier we have, from above down two lines: holiness or sanctity, and the shell, Klipa, right? Curse, a true curse and a blessing. Below the barrier there is no true curse and blessing, rather what we call exercises. This world was given to us so we would prepare ourselves a little bit, put in some exertion, enter the real work. So we have here neither sanctity nor holiness in order to bestow, and in truth not even the shell in order to receive. No curse, neither this nor that. Therefore, what we are doing here, we’re allowed to do it. We are not doing anything bad, we are not doing anything good. It is like children, babies, right? Everything is permitted, because they learn from it. A person who wants to start getting closer to real actions that he determines, he does like an adult in this world compared to a baby. He has to get through the stages of the study, preparation, understanding, a bit of awareness, called "from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma." This is the state we have to come to before the barrier. That whatever it may be, a person needs to look for elation, awakening, to have a desire to do something for the Creator, the upper force.

Although he's in concealment, double concealment or regular concealment, this desire he can receive only from the environment. There's nowhere else from which to receive it, because he can't see the Creator. But by working with the environment, on annulling himself and recognizing the importance of the Creator — since it's worthwhile for him to annul himself toward the environment, to get to know the importance of the Creator — he shows, demonstrates, how important this matter is, necessary, and is willing to sacrifice himself for it.

M. Laitman: (30:16) And indeed, he can do it. It is within his ability to constantly try and find and do and be impressed by the society, so that his investment in the society, in order to receive from it the recognition of the Creator, will be as a sign for how important it is for him to reach the Creator, to reach spirituality. In this work, with one action toward the society and annulls himself, in order to acquire the Creator. In a single action you have all the actions, against the desire, his own desire, and toward the Creator, and against the society, all in one action. If he acquires the importance of the Creator — how did he say, how do you acquire it? A great Rabbi comes, and there's a great crowd, and the person has the motivation to run and carry his luggage. And if it's a regular person who comes off the plane, no one has a silly idea in his head to go and help him carry his luggage. So importance, you have nothing else to work on. And by that, we go from curse to blessing.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:20) He writes on page 82 that the work where there is no pleasure during the work is called labor. And then he says that a person wouldn't do this deed if he didn't know he would receive reward for the labor. The question is, if he knows that there will be a reward, then why is there no pleasure in that?

M. Laitman: Let's say I need to do something. I always ask, what will I get out of it? Rest, money, honor, something that I require. You see how many types of amateurs we have in the world, but nothing obligates them to do anything. Only the pleasure. One feels pleasure from just going out fishing. And another one by owning an aquarium. And the third, I don't know, he collects leaves of the trees. I don't know. All sorts of things that seem pointless. And for him, it means something. Each and everyone, right? Some people collect things that we can understand, right? They collect money, impressions, honor, knowledge, all sorts of things. Meaning, a pleasure can clothe in all kinds of different forms, but it has to be there. Meaning, unless I can see the pleasure, I can't perform an action. Seeing the pleasure, even if I receive something in a month, or at the end of my life, or in the afterlife.

There are many people who work hard all their lives in order to get such a funeral that they will be remembered, right? They're willing to work all their lives. We see how human pleasures are above time even. Now, this feeling that I will receive pleasure in the end, this feeling is already in the present. And the feeling of feeling the future pleasure now gives me the motivation, the energy, the fuel to do the action. I look at what I stand to have, I bring this pleasure closer to me. I seemingly fill my tank with fuel and I can work with it. If I won't see the pleasure, if I completely can't see the pleasure, I have no energy, I have no fuel to do anything. The machine will stop and that's it. We sometimes feel ourselves — you can kill me, but I can't move. One who starts spiritual work is given such feelings.

Another question: which goal will be important to me? And that depends on the society, where I grew up and what I have done, what kind of education I got, how I was raised. That gives me appreciation for each and everything, and accordingly, according to my nature, certainly more or less, I pick for myself all kinds of goals. What are goals? Types of pleasures from which I wish to derive pleasure in the future, and also now, that I wish to be connected to them already. What is he saying, what is he saying on page 82 at the end? There's a rule that a person cannot perform any action unless he feels pleasure in it, right? The fuel, as you said. And where he has no pleasure during the work, where a person cannot do it, this work is called labor or exertion.

Meaning, if I wanted to do something but I was unable to do it because I have no reward that I can get for it — this is called exertion or labor. For everything you can imagine a reward, except for one thing which goes against our nature: in order to bestow. If it's in order to receive, whatever it is in order to receive, I can always find some benefit in it. I can hear something, I can somehow flip it in such a way that I will feel that it's somehow worthwhile, I can convince myself. But if the action is truly in order to bestow, I don't have any pleasure corresponding to that in my vessels, it's not felt in my vessels, and then I can't do anything. Try to do such an action whereby you are spreading, you're giving away everything you have, everything, everything.

M. Laitman: (38:26) If you're doing it correctly, truly, you cannot feel any pleasure from it. You can feel some pleasure, right? You know, I'll get some honor and be respected, all kinds of things. But if this is done correctly, meaning only from one action, we can position ourselves in a state where there's no fuel. This is called exertion or labor. It's trying to perform an act of bestowal and discovering that I'm incapable. This state is called exertion.

Student: And does he do it or not?

M. Laitman: You can’t do it. What do you mean, doing it? You're not able to do it, but the fact that you're unable to do it, but you reach the state where you can determine that this is what it is, this is called exertion, labor. You get it? Meaning, a person wouldn't do this deed unless he knew that he would receive a reward for the work. So what to do? We need to increase the importance of in order to bestow. How? For what? A person runs into a state where he has nothing else to do. Now, if together with this weakness that he discovers — certainly neither through forces nor through nature or recognition or anything, awareness, he has no contact with in order to bestow in anything — but together with that he picks, he collects all kinds of impressions, those hearsay, that this is the most important thing. Even if I don't feel any taste in it and the ability to do it, but there's nothing more than that. Then he has the two ends, he's holding the two ends, from which comes a prayer. And then he's given. These two things are interconnected, interrelated. If I’m working on feeling importance and bestowal, they shows me just how, to what extent I don't have it. Meaning the work has to be such — not about, well, let me see when I'm unable to do it. You can't work in the form of negation, it's a lie, you cannot work this way. You must be able to attain spiritual action, to do a spiritual action. And then, relative to that, "I'll show you you're unable to do it." Meaning, always work on the positive.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:35) So any action we do here, even if it seems to us against the desire, the fact is that we did it.

M. Laitman: Whichever action we took, anything I do, eventually it's a sign that I found some justification for it inside my will to receive. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to do it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:02) To see the last point at the end before the barrier, as if. You said that it's failed from the end.

M. Laitman: I said that if we're doing a corporeal action — corporeal meaning inside the will to receive, this is the meaning of corporeal, material. Not corporeal meaning that it's tied to the matter, to what enters our five senses. Corporeal or material meaning that I see it, I can touch it, I can feel it. Corporeal means that inside my will to receive, I can feel it, inside my will to receive. So I can add, I can attach to every such action, corporeal action, a reward, a bonus, something. And then I can do it. If I'm facing a true spiritual action, I can’t do it. “And the children of Israel, sighed from the work.” Meaning I cannot resist it, I cannot do anything with it. Because this is nature that's opposite from me. So what can I do? Together with the fact that I can’t do any action within my nature, an action of bestowal, I need to use all the means, mostly from the environment, in order to hear that there is nothing more important. The environment, the books, the authors, everything he’s saying, that nothing is more important than reaching such action. And in return for that, I'll have a connection with the upper force. If I have these two opposing points — one, that I'm incapable, and the other one is that it's truly important — the result of the tension between me is this inner cry. Why don't I have it? And if this cry is true, I do receive an opportunity to carry out such an action. Through this action, I feel that I'm connecting to the Creator, through the action itself.

Without the action, I have nowhere in which to feel, no vessel in which to feel the Creator. Spirituality comes inside the vessel that I built, inside the action that I did in order to bestow. Inside this action, I reveal spirituality. So for that, look how much importance of spirituality I need to have. And this is something I can't find anywhere — a bit from the books and more from the society. From the books, we see how much we're reading over these past few years. It doesn't help us that much, we're almost done with it, right? We're not that impressed by the books, but we're constantly impressed by the society, like it or not. So we need to create such an environment, right? At work, at home, here, so that ultimately I will be impressed only from the importance of spirituality.

Meaning, at work certainly you don't speak about spirituality, so I need to shut my ears to a certain extent. Meaning, talk to them only about matters of work and not about politics or fashion or all kinds of things that you feel like talking about. And at home, only things that belong to the home, so there'll be no problems and no nonsense. And here, it's the only place where I can hear about the importance of godliness.

Here, I need to open up my ears, but demand from the society to hear only necessary things here. That's it. If I'll have it, then corresponding to this — meaning corresponding to hearing that spirituality is important — I'll be able to seemingly want to do something in spirituality, and I'll see that I can't do it. Because otherwise, we can't see, we don't know what is the meaning of labor, of hitting an action that you cannot do. We don't know, because we have no impulse for it. It's not important to think about such an action, you understand? But without reaching such a state, simply we don't go from a curse to a blessing. We're in the curse, we don't even know it's a curse.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:26) There's enough people in the world you can be inspired by, and there's another side here, that I blame myself if I'm not inspired. How should a person prepare himself

M. Laitman: To be inspired by the society, to be impressed about what has to do with the greatness of the Creator, yes? It's possible only on the condition that the society is great in my eyes, and I'll be small relative to it. But what they're doing, and how they work, and what they do in life, for me it will be a great example, these people who sacrifice themselves for spirituality. So I'll be impressed by the greatness of spirituality for them, and what I hear, I'll hear from them, I'll be impressed by it. I'll look at what they're talking about and what they're thinking about, and I'll make a calculation how great they are compared to people who are outside of this framework. And what truly fills the life of a person outside of my group compared to people in my group. Meaning, to appreciate them, to make myself small, meaning humiliate oneself, open up his ears and hear or see how they behave, what they do. And then I need to demand from them that they will perform before me specifically good deeds in public, not in concealment. And they will speak also about the importance of society and the importance of the Creator, so that I will hear it, and not that each one here will become a concealed righteous.

Student: I'm not willing to even speak. The problem is in me, where is the point in me that I need to work with?

M. Laitman: You are able to be impressed by society only on the condition that you lower yourself toward it.

Student: But it's against nature. It's impossible. It's damage.

M. Laitman: I don't think it's impossible. Start thinking about it. It's not going against nature. Think about it. Look at each one, how he comes here at three in the morning against all his disturbances, and how much this thing burns for him compared to anyone else on the outside. How special he is, that the Creator chose him, to bring him here to be an example for you, to be like an angel toward you, to bring you the message of the importance of spirituality. He can bestow to you the importance of the Creator. Meaning, he came, he literally landed from the heavens, to tell you about how important the Creator is. He's a messenger.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:38) In what way can I influence the society, so that gradually I'll feel that I'm distancing from it and disconnecting from it? I feel that my common denominator with the society is where I'm gradually…

M. Laitman: If you feel that you have no common denominator between you and society, then check yourself. Perhaps the goal of the society is incorrect or your goal is incorrect. Maybe you can make some calibration, some correction. Maybe you should come to society and say, "Guys, I think you're all wrong." You need to make the society, buy yourself a friend. You have to give the strength and efforts and position them in such a way to influence you. You need to awaken this thing in the society yourself. Perhaps they're not doing correct things, or perhaps each one of them is doing it in privacy, not in public. It doesn't awaken you. It's not sufficient for you to be impressed. Or maybe you don't even want to be impressed by these things. You need to be impressed by other things. I know that if I want to lose weight, I go to a Weight Watchers circle. There's such a thing, right? Or, for instance, all kinds of other circles like that. So I go there, and there's lectures and movies and talks and whatever, and I'm bombarded with different types of media just to have a sense of importance of their message. We should be doing the same thing. If you don't do that — well, in any other society outside ours, this is clear. Go to any factory, any business. What stands at the top? How to tell the world that what we're creating is the most necessary thing. This is the most important thing. This is what any factory thinks about. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I make crackers. So what do I want? I want the whole world to only eat my cracker — not fish, not meat, nothing else, just crackers. And I want no one to think that they need anything more. That's at the head of the factory manager, right? So that should be the same thing for us, right? This is called outward dissemination, and also inner dissemination in the group.

Student: In a society that's not so spiritual, it becomes immediately surrounding.

M. Laitman: Throughout the day, I'm in all kinds of societies, so I need to position myself towards these societies at an angle or, say, such a measure of perception that I won't be hurt in terms of my main goal, and perhaps it'll even help me. So if I come to a state of, well, like, you know, the seat of the scornful, as it says, just people talking about nonsense, about all kinds of things, and I don't have a choice, I'm around them. So I can also learn from that how much my other society is more important, and how these matters these people are engaged in are lowly. Not that I'm dissing them, but it can help me to go out to the market, so to speak, and see how important is what I have. Because anything can be only weighed against another thing.

So when I'm at work and at home and other places, it can actually help me elevate the society that I have here. To the extent that the exalted things — to see how the exalted matters are important to the people that are here. But if just during the day I go into all kinds of places…

Student: Can you pass it on to, I’m talking about the environment, good people.

M. Laitman: What good people? Where you are?

Student: It's spiritual.

M. Laitman: If I'm among people that are good — what, they're not thieves, they're not murderers, they have good human traits. Okay, what do I get from their human traits? They're just, well, you know, colored well, they've got good education, they know how to hide the unpleasant things from others and highlight the pretty things towards others. Okay, so everyone knows how to play well, and what do I get from that? What, to learn the same things on myself and then be in a twofold lie? Meaning to be in false and also think that this is truth and it needs to be that way. So why do I need such a society?

Student: Well, people you know for years, people who are…

M. Laitman: Knowing them for years obligates me to sacrifice my life for them? I have nothing more important in my life than my life, what I get with my life, right? So by being with them, I kind of serve them, I need to respect them and appreciate this whole game, and what for? If you care about this, then please, but if not, you have to make up your mind, your life is yours, not mine.

Therefore, the whole question of what's the point in life should be a question that always awakens in the person towards every moment, every discernment that he perceives in life. He asks what's the point in life. Meaning, how do I relate to this? Is this goal-oriented? Is it purposeful? So you want to stop at that society? Please. Free choice is in your hands.

Student: I want to ask…

M. Laitman: I don't know, I visit all kinds of societies in Canada when I go to my relatives and you know it's all like a puppet show. You know like everyone's button was pressed and now they go- they throw a party or do some nice pretty events for their evening. So what- can I really participate in that? I have to. So, for a night or two I sit and I talk to them. But I don't understand I need to serve these societies, I need to bow towards their ideal? So, so what?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:06) What if I bow down and I don't even feel I serve them?

M. Laitman: Okay, if you don't even feel that you bow your reason towards theirs, then that's bad.

Student: It sounds from what you're saying that…

M. Laitman: What, you don't see them as like little children?

Student: They seem like…

M. Laitman: What, they're not developed, right? So you want to be like them, so stay with them. I don't understand, it's just indecision. I don't understand, but I want to stay in kindergarten. So about such people, we say they are falling behind, they're lagging behind. If they need to be at school, if you need to be at school and you want to stay in kindergarten, you're lagging behind. Any child, if he's healthy, wants to grow up, wants to be bigger. You remember how you were as a kid? You wanted to be bigger, and now you want to be small. So it says, what can you do with children who grew old? It's written that, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:12) I wanted to ask, there's a thin line between the curse and the blessing. Either you're here, or you're…

M. Laitman: No, not that you're in a blessing or a curse. Both blessing and a curse, when we rise above the barrier, we see that we are both here and there. One time in blessing, one time in a curse. So, after the shattering of the vessels, we have an opportunity to be in the curse, meaning to take vessels of reception from there, correct them, and move to a blessing. And thus, each time, move from one place to another, from one authority to another authority. From the authority of the many to the authority of the One. You know, the single authority is Shabbat. You're familiar with these laws, right? The mixture and all those things. The authority of the many is what you can use on weekdays. You go down to the vessels of reception that are not corrected. The authority of the many means that I think that I also control something. I also do something. There's no singularity of the Creator in those desires.

Now, so what's in the middle? What is the lever that helps me move from the left line to the right, from curse to blessing? So that lever, he says, exists here, which is the Lo Lishma. From Lo Lishma, we come to Lishma.

Student: Nevertheless, you feel a little bit…

M. Laitman: Still, in Lo Lishma, you have your own will to receive. Meaning you want to do as if for the Creator, as if in order to bestow, and it's clear to you that you're still doing this in order to receive.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:11) How can I work without a reward? They say that I have to work without a reward.

M. Laitman: No, in Lo Lishma, you are working with a reward. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the "Introduction to TES." That if it's clear to you that you're not going to receive a reward in your vessels of reception, you can't make the action. That's why it's called Lo Lishma. But it's clear to you, exactly. You already decide on that, and you stand there where I would truly want to do something in order to bestow, which is very important. This is an impression I got from the society. I don't see the Creator. If I saw the Creator, we're done. I could have worked in order to bestow in truth. That vision would have given me the strength to do in order to bestow. The light comes and corrects the vessel, and that's it. This is called seeing the Creator. But when I don't see, when I'm in darkness, then I can only receive such an impression from the environment. So, as much as I inflated myself with this importance, it's still not a correction. It's not the light that corrects the Kli, but it's a correction in the sense that it's like brainwash, let's say. But that brainwash then helps me do what? That is, if I want to make an action of bestowal in order to bestow, but if I don't actually get something out of it also, I can't do it. So, these things are seemingly very loose. There's no light that comes and corrects the Kli. Rather, the person himself shaped such a situation, such a circumstance, that as if instead of the Creator, he got strength from society, and as if this force from society is sufficient for him to work in order to bestow. It's all "as if." But "as if" is a situation that I've built. I've made it. And if a person does that, then the Creator comes and does it for him in truth, not as a game like the person did it. You understand? So Lo Lishma is a game. I would like it to be so, like when children build something. But when I've already tried and did all that I could, as though it is already spiritual, then the Creator comes and makes it truly spiritual.

Student: It turns out, anytime I get something out of it, to bestow, if I understand your intention.

M. Laitman: In Lo Lishma, you cannot do anything in order to bestow. Nothing. You want, you want to, but you can't. And even wanting to is because — not the Creator gave you a desire by the light that reforms, you're still below the barrier — but rather by the rumor, by the impressions from the authors and the books, you've reached a point where you would like to do it in order to bestow. You would like to, but you don't. Just imagine that state a bit. Make it more tangible.

Student: Even though I'm trying?

M. Laitman: You're trying hard, but you can't, because you're all in all in a nature that is below the barrier. The light hasn't yet come to correct you. We are a function of the light. If it comes and corrects — in order to bestow. If it doesn't come, it doesn't correct, we're still in the nature of in order to receive.

Student: How do I feel the reward?

M. Laitman: So, what's up to the person is really just to build the simulation, the game, that circumstance, where, as if, with whatever I can, I receive the maximum strength to be in order to bestow, to collect it from the society, from anywhere, to take strength for that. I want that. But more than that, we can't do, and as a result of that, light will come from above and correct it. And there's many deep aspects here, truly profound, that we could explain. To what extent a person has to dive into such a state? Where does it end? Why do we specifically, through such a seemingly childish situation, where we build a simulation that's not real — why is that sufficient for us to make a correction? Is it nevertheless a correction? If the light comes for that and corrects me, does it mean that I've made a correction? So, there's a lot here.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:37) When I read a text, I feel a bit like a thief, meaning I enjoy something I have no right to enjoy. Is my degree Lo Lishma?

M. Laitman: You know what is Lo Lishma? Lo Lishma is a moment that you reach, and after that, you reach Lishma. Before that moment, it's also not considered Lo Lishma. Lo Lishma is the final state, that you've done 100% of what you could, and you couldn't do more. And that is what the answer comes for. When you get close to that state, you're also working to reach Lo Lishma. It comes after many stages of work. But if you want to say what's Lo Lishma — it is that sharp, defined state, that at 100% you would like to bestow to the Creator, as if, as I said, according to, based on your impressions. And you know you're incapable of that, and you know that deep down in that Lo Lishma, you know there is self-benefit there without which you couldn't even think about this whole thing. And you would like to get rid of that individual benefit, but you can't. Otherwise, it'll be just — you'd have no thought if you can't think of getting something out of it. So I'm just not there; I can't be that I'll think of something without getting something in return. When you recognize this whole situation, and you want to break through, that is called Lo Lishma. It's a very lofty state.

Meaning, it is the highest possible state a person can reach in this world. After that, he already enters spirituality, and that's no longer this world; it's the spiritual world.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:16) What's the correct work with a friend that you feel like is disrespecting you, or others? How do you make him bigger, or the society, for the goal?

M. Laitman: With respect to society, our teachers wrote many things. Also, the previous Kabbalists wrote. I don't think there was a Kabbalist who didn't write about society. But, you know, they wrote concise things. You should do this so-and-so, and that's it. Because either it was obvious to them, or there were perhaps other writings in society, and also they didn't write much. You know, it used to be very expensive to write. Where do you get paper? Where would you get paper? It was something very… even just obtaining paper. Rabash told me that there was a big problem. We think it's just, oh, we all have that abundantly, you know. They didn't used to write. But this matter, we see that indeed each and every one of them would touch on that. And when you take that as something that without it we cannot move closer to spirituality, that this raises a lot of questions. I don't know, how do you relate to this and that, a thousand different aspects. I don't think that you can give a prescription for each state. But all in all, from what they wrote, from their rules, it should be clear to us how we should relate to all kinds of phenomena. A friend who disrespects, you say. If it's a friend who used to be with me all the time, and suddenly I see that he disrespects and disregards — perhaps he's in a crisis, and then I have to help him.

On the contrary, I should take a few other friends and take care of him, like a person who fell from the 10th floor to the ground, and now he's spiritually unconscious. He's ill, and he's just not conscious, and I have to help him somehow continue in this state until he regains consciousness, until he becomes healthy. But if it's something permanent for him, and he prefers all kinds of other societies, which is totally not our spirit, and comes here with all kinds of other views, and wants to insert, to hear things that are not in our holy books, which is mostly the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash —

Student: I mean that he's not increasing you, but lowering you. There's like a mutual relation between the group and a person, and a person invests — we talked about inner work — he wants to increase the friend.

M. Laitman: Let's say the whole group is in some state that doesn't give me any awakening, any upliftment. So, in that way, you need to take a few people in the group and work only with them, and with them together, show the example to all the others. But without words, just show an example. If they want to hear, also you can tell them, "We were fed up from being in a seat of the scornful, so we decided that we want to exit that state somewhat. If you want to join — no, don't, but we can't continue this way." And that's it. That's how a person can do it alone, and that's how he can take a few friends that are close to him according to the spirit with which it's easy to do, or easier to do it with them. You don't need to organize into groups, this way it can be free, where each can join. That's it. But in some manner, we need to look to see how to break this state. And I think it's not even good to give advices here, but rather search for the advice, and the search itself is the work that will bring a blessing.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:53) How can I hear about the greatness of the goal, or speak about the greatness of the goal?

M. Laitman: How can I hear from the society about the greatness of the goal if I don’t hear, or if they are not talking about it? First of all, we need to talk about this, and each must say a few words about it, just here and there. But the main thing is the example.

For example, you need to try so that your actions will show that the goal is important to you, that this is what's driving you to perform actions. Let's say we have the dissemination factory. In this factory, we need to do all kinds of things. Take the, let's say, the video department. They gave me a plan for the coming month; they have a plan. No other department gave me such a thing. Even the kitchen — they gave me a plan in what they want to fill us, yes? The video department did. They gave me a clear plan. This is what we're doing, and this, and that, and why these dates we need. This is for Moscow, and this is for America, this is for Lithuania, and we need to prepare people for this, truly to give them a package for each who's going there.

We can see how, to what extent, people are involved in the general dissemination. This gives me great importance towards this department. I understand that they have a recognition of the importance of the goal, and it's really something. But besides them performing such good things, and even with the plan and everything, they need to show why they're doing it. They're doing it because godliness is the upper thing that they want to have in them. They want to acquire it. They want to ascend. They need to show this to me. So in each and every action that a person does, he needs to enter this intention of his towards others. And then it will return to him severalfold.

Student: And if friends just sit and don't talk?

M. Laitman: Then people are not talking about it, and in that you don't see that it's important to them. First of all, did you want to see it? If you wanted to see it, then you'll see. Let's say they would build a Sukkah — go up and think: what compels them to build a Sukkah? Something that obligates? Correct. The Creator gave them a desire for spirituality, for something, a little, and they're here, and that's why they're coming and building a Sukkah.

Meaning, this desire is not theirs. It's not that they have attained it, or that fully, in full consciousness, what's important, and that they're doing it. But the Creator gave it to them, meaning, He gave this to them; that is, they have something that He gave them. And since this is operating in them, you have the importance of the person of what he has in him. So, it depends on you whether you see it or not. Even just a person who comes here, and sits, and laughs, it doesn't matter. But he comes here — like your neighbor, look at him, yeah?

But he came here, meaning either he himself already found the fuel to come here, or the Creator gave him that fuel, but eventually, he has something spiritual that he's dragging from home, from his bed, to here. There's a godly part from above in him, and that's what you appreciate, that part, not his body.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:25) I understand this, but I want something different: how to overcome and look at people and get inspired by what they're doing.

M. Laitman: It's impossible to talk about this all the time. The problem is that you don't want to work on yourself, to see this with your eyes, even in different states, and in people that don't quite show it. You think that you want to constantly hear. After five minutes, you'll be fed up with it. You need to raise your sensitivity of seeing these things in others. It was not customary to even talk about these things, but a little. The main thing is, we have to show an example, like in the articles that Rabash writes, to talk about the importance of the Creator. Yes. Okay? Well, let's hope that we will move from a curse to a blessing.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:33) If a person comes and reaches a state that he's able to bestow, and in his life, let's say he has to work…

The question isn't clear, I can't hear it.

M. Laitman: You're asking, if you already were rewarded with being in an action, in actions to bestow in order to receive, or to receive in order to bestow, meaning you corrected your vessels of reception, and you're already working with them in order to bestow, and you work somewhere, so whether in your work, do you work to receive in order to receive? I don't understand. What does it matter what action you do?

We're speaking, what does it mean to bestow in order to bestow, to receive in order to bestow, to receive in order to receive, to bestow in order to receive? These are intentions; this is not the action, the deed itself. I can receive from someone, and by that I will be a bestower. I can give to someone, and by that I will be the receiver. Why does it matter which mechanical action I do?

The correction is the correction of the intention, not the correction of the action. The actual physical action with my hands does not change. The world continues as its way, it operates according to its ways. What does this mean? Everything is the same; it's just what's changed? The intention. But because the intention changes, the upper light dwells in this world, and fills us, and abundance, and calm, and eternality, and wholeness for the next world to come. But nature itself — the cup will remain a cup, the book will remain a book; only the intentions in a person will change. And as a result of this, this positive energy, let's say, will come to the whole world, also to still, vegetative, and animate.

Even after the Messiah comes, meaning where everyone in this world will correct their intention to in order to bestow. They will work in kindergartens, in schools, and everything will happen just like now. Of course, we will need less systems, less prisons, hospitals, and all kinds of such things, which now we seemingly must have them in order to somewhat correct the flaw, the left. But only intention of each and everyone.

M. Laitman: (01:22:56) Go to the street — also the same people, buses, taxis, cars, everything is the same. The intention changes. You'll enter the supermarket, a grocery store, you'll buy, and pay, everything will be the same. The intention will change. The intention will change reality.

Because of the intention, a completely different inner state will be in people. People will live through this corporeal state; they will live spirituality to the highest degree and not feel a lack in it. To the contrary: through the objects and actions that are the most distant, seemingly, from the intention, through them we will feel the other side, the most exalted one, and the whole level will be one level. And you're asking me whether the intention changed in me from in order to receive to in order to bestow, and I come to my work today in the morning — what, how do you relate to your boss? How do you relate to work? Of course, you relate to it differently; your intention has changed. But the actions that you must do at work, you do the same actions.

If there are actions that are permitted to do, there are prohibited actions that both now and later are prohibited from doing. But now, if you don't do them, whether it's because of the fear of a punishment or the reward that you'd lose in the next world then you'll do it out of the recognition of evil, since I'm not capable of doing it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:18) Let's say a person reaches a certain state…

It's hard to understand what they're asking, sorry.

M. Laitman: You're afraid that if you do good actions, then the society will laugh at you?

Student: That, too, a person can be in a certain state…

M. Laitman: But I don't exactly know what you're talking about. I lived with a man who was very high above the barrier, and I couldn't see, according to his actions, especially strange things. There were those that I was truly impressed by. Let's say I want to enter one store and to ask how much it costs, and the other store, and the third store, and to choose where it's cheap and where it's more expensive, and like that. Yes? There were cases when he wouldn't allow me to do that. Why? It's like stealing one's reason. You enter a store, you ask, and he thinks that you came to buy, and you just came to receive from him without giving him a reward, to receive information from him, yes? About this, and about that, and about that. And there were such cases where he did let me.

There were cases where yes, and there were cases that no. If it's customary, not customary, all kinds of things like that. He used to be very meticulously precise with such things. But besides such things that are still not for us, for example, he used to care. I also gave that example once. There was a period of taxes on the car. You had to pay for two years. You invested a certain sum of money. I don't remember exactly. It was some new tax that they put on there. I wanted to buy a new car. I don't know exactly what it was. It's like you're lending money to the government for a couple years or something.

I remember that suddenly it was like 14,000 shekels that the car was going to cost me more. So I told him, look what's happening. The state is taking 14,000 more shekels, besides the fact that half of the car is already taxes for them. He said, well, so what? Like that, as if it's the state that's taking it. It's as if I don't know. There was a very strange approach sometimes to how he related to things. But these are usually things that a person on the outside doesn't see or feel. And the intentions of me entering the store this way, or to ask her that way, or I pay for the car or don't — these are all internal things. On the outside, you wouldn't see a thing. I don't understand. And there was nothing to laugh at and nothing to rejoice about, or cry from his actions. He was an old man, as usual.

Really, a really regular person. So, I don't understand. Where do you see in your work, or the place that you are, that you're in order to receive or in order to bestow? What? All this work is internal work. The most internal work that there is in a person. And I don't think that you in the place that you are, are truly opening yourself and really taking outwards all that you have. It won't be permitted for you to do this even if you want. No one cares about this. In short, that is not a problem.

Reader: Let's share impressions from the lesson. What are we taking to implement in the Ten?

Reader: Let's go to the next part and sing a song first.

Song: (01:36:07)

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