The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: October 26, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. The Importance of Recognition of Evil. Article No. 2, 1987
Reader: Hello. In the first part of the lesson, we will study a lesson by Rav from October 21, 2003. It is based on Rabash's article, "The Importance of Recognition of Evil." You can find it in “The Writings of Rabash,” first volume, page 385 in Hebrew. We will read the article together in the Ten. We have 59 minutes for that.
Reader: Let's start. “Writings of Rabash,” Volume 1, "The Importance of Recognition of Evil."
Reading: (00:46) The Importance of Recognition of Evil
Article 2, 1987
It is written in The Zohar, Beresheet Bet (Items 218-219 in the Sulam [Ladder] commentary): “‘Let the water under the heavens gather unto one place, and let the dry land be seen.’ ‘Let the water ... gather’ is the Torah, which is called ‘water.’ ‘Unto one place’ means Israel. It is also written, ‘Let the water … gather unto one place,’ where water means Torah, and ‘one place’ means Israel, the recipients of the Torah. Conversely, the nations of the world did not wish to receive the Torah, hence the land remained desolate and dry. The Torah is the settling of the world, and in it, it exists. The nations of the world, who did not receive it, remained desolate and dry.”
We should understand the words of The Zohar, which interprets about the whole, meaning about Israel and the nations of the world. But how does it interpret the individuals, meaning Israel and the nations of the world in one body? It is known that The Zohar says that “each person is a small world in and of itself,” and includes within it all seventy nations, as well as Israel.
It is written in Pirkei Avot (Chapter 4, Mishnah 21): “Rabbi Yaakov says, ‘This world is like a corridor to the next world. Prepare yourself in the corridor so you may enter the living room.’” It is clear that you cannot correct something in which you find no flaw. Since when instructing in the work of the Creator, they are educated by way of wholeness, meaning that since there are many individuals in the collective, and each one is different from the others, as our sages said (Midrash Rabbah 21, Sanhedrin 38), “As their faces are not the same, so their views are not the same.”
Therefore, the collective must be guided in a manner that the education is suitable for everyone, meaning that every person will have a grip on Torah and Mitzvot [commandments]. It is as our sages said (Minchot 99), “Rabbi Ami said, ‘We learn from the words of Rabbi Yosi that even if one has learned only one chapter of the morning prayer and one chapter of the evening prayer, he has kept the Mitzva [commandment], ‘This book of Torah shall not move from your lips.’ Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, ‘Even if a person reads only the Shema reading morning and evening, he has kept, ‘This book shall not move.’ This must not be said to uneducated people.’ And Raba said, ‘It is a Mitzva to say it to uneducated people.’”
We see from this that there are many measures to keeping Torah with respect to the public. This is so deliberately, since no person is like another. Therefore, one must not be forced to keep, “This book of Torah shall not move from your lips,” but rather each according to his ability. And since the whole collective is regarded as one body, it follows that in general, each one joins into the collective. It follows that there is much Torah in the whole public together, meaning that much Torah is learned in general. Thus, he is keeping by reading the Shema reading morning and evening, and in the eyes of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai he has done his duty of “And you shall contemplate Him day and night.”
This is an innovation that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, of whom it was said (Berachot 35), “Many have done as Rabbi Ishmael and succeeded, and many have done as Rashbi but did not succeed. Rabbi Ishmael says, ‘since it is written, ‘And you shall gather your grain,’ what do we learn from this? Since it was said, ‘This book of Torah shall not move from your lips,’ the words can be understood literally. ‘And you shall gather your grain,’ deal with them as is customary,’ the words of Rabbi Ishmael. Rashbi says, ‘It is possible for one to plow at the time of plowing, sow at the time of sowing, and harvest at the time of harvesting, thresh at the time of threshing, and spread at the time of the wind. The Torah, what shall become of it?’”
We should understand why Rabbi Yohanan says in the name of Rashbi (Masechet Makkot 99): “Even if a person reads only the Shema reading morning and evening, he has kept, ‘This book of Torah shall not move from your lips.’” However, we should explain that the general public, says Rashbi, may keep the verse, “shall not move,” by reading morning and evening, but to the individuals he says, “It is possible for one to plow at the time of plowing … The Torah, what shall become of it?”
For this reason we must always distinguish between the general public and the individuals. We can also interpret that the general public is called “landlords,” and individuals, meaning people who belong to the individuals, are regarded as having the view of Torah.
The meaning of “view of landlords” is that normally, one who buys a house, it is said that that house belongs to this or that person, meaning that this house belongs to none other than specifically that person. Even if he buys a small object, it is the same, meaning that when we ask one another, “To whom does this object belong?” It belongs to so and so, who has acquired it through the labor he has given for the object, so the object will be his, and the person’s name is given to the object.
It is likewise in the work of the Creator. When a person makes an effort and wants reward for his labor, it follows that the reward he wants to receive is named after him, and he wants to acquire the reward of this world and the reward of the next world. It follows that everything comes into his own authority, that he is the landlord of all those things that he acquires through his labor.
These people are called “the view of landlords” because the reason that they understand is not to do anything except for their own good, meaning that they will be the owners of the things they can obtain through labor. If they do not see that they can obtain some benefit for themselves, they have no strength to work and exert, unless they see that there is room to gain something for their own authority, which is called “self-love.” This is called ”general public,” who are regarded as landlords.
But the individuals are called “the view of Torah.” This means that all those people who belong to the individuals have the view of Torah, since they want to cancel their own selves so they will have no existence in and of themselves because they do not want to merit a name. That is, they do not want to own anything because they want to exit self-love and not care for their own selves in any way, but only annul before the Creator. This is all they want—to cancel their own authority. They want there to be only one domain, the domain of the Creator. That is, they do not want there to be two domains, but only the domain of the Singular One.
When they read the Shema reading, they aim, when they say, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One,” that there will be only one authority in the world, and want to cancel their own authority, and there will be only one Creator. This is called “the view of Torah.” It is as our sages said (Berachot 63), “Words of Torah come true only in one who puts himself to death over it.” This means that he puts his self to death, meaning his self-love.
This means that the individuals and the view of Torah are the same thing. That is, it is about achieving Dvekut, called “equivalence of form,” and cancellation of self-love, and his only aim is to annul before Him. As long as one feels that he is still immersed in self-love although he keeps Torah and Mitzvot in every detail, he cannot see himself as whole in his work, saying that it is complete work, since he sees that in everything he does he still wants everything to go into his own authority, called “the view of landlords,” and he does not care that he has two authorities. But he takes to heart that he has two authorities. At that time he can pray a true prayer, from the bottom of his heart, that the Creator will deliver him from his own authority and admit him into the authority of the Creator. That is, he will feel that there is only one authority in the world and everything is annulled before Him. Because of it there is specific education to the general public and specific education to the individuals.
However, we should understand why the general public is educated through wholeness, meaning that there is wholeness in everything they do, as was said that even Rashbi, who is more meticulous than Rabbi Ishmael, asks, “It is possible for one to plow at the time of plowing... The Torah, what shall become of it?” Still, he says, “Even if a person reads only the Shema reading morning and evening, he has kept, ‘This book of Torah shall not move from your lips’” meaning as though he has kept the verse, “And you shall contemplate Him day and night.”
However, since the general public must have a grip on Torah and Mitzvot, and we see that there is a law in nature that one cannot do anything unless he sees progress in his work, and since the general public has the view of landlords, if they are told that there is the view of Torah they will not even understand what is being said to them.
It is as though someone speaks only Hebrew, and if he is spoken to in English he will certainly not understand a single word. Likewise, the view of landlords, who understand only the language of self-love, will certainly not understand another language, meaning the language of bestowal.
Therefore, in order to have a grip on Torah and Mitzvot, which is necessary for the benefit of the general public, as it was said that there is wholeness in the public through the quantity, if they are told that there is no wholeness in their work they will stop keeping Torah and Mitzvot. But it is not a lie that they are not told the truth, since any grip on Torah and Mitzvot is a great thing because penny by penny joins into a great amount, for Israel are responsible for one another. Thus, any work that anyone gives joins into the work of each and every one in the public.
It is as Baal HaSulam said, that there are two who are strong—strong in quantity and strong in quality. The strong in quality is a lion, and the strong in quantity is locust, and both have power that is hard to overcome. Therefore, we need the general public, who are strong in quality [quantity]. For this reason, we say that when we pray, even if we do not know the meaning of the words, it is still very important because the holy words have great power that shines as surrounding for a person although he does not feel it internally.
However, if a person sees the words that he is saying and knows a little bit about the meaning of the words, and sees that the body does not agree to what he is saying, then he is not told, “This has nothing to do with you; do not take into consideration the alien thoughts that the body is telling you, and you do not agree with what the body argues.” Rather, in the end, all will be well. That is, “only when you say the words that our sages have arranged, that we need to say the full order of prayers and litanies, you need not mind all that, meaning you should not consider what the body is saying—that you are telling lies. That is, what you are uttering is all lies, meaning you are asking for something, but in truth, you yourself have no regard for the request you are making.”
For example, you are saying, “Return us, our Father, to Your law.” However, you are not even thinking about what you are asking because your lack, which you feel you need, is for respect and money and so forth. Thus, it is making true arguments. At that time he is told, “You need not mind the arguments of the body. Rather, it is not making its argument so that you will ask for repentance, but in order to fail you, so you will not pray. This is why it comes to you and makes the argument of a righteous. However, these are alien thoughts that you must not take into consideration whatsoever.”
The reason he is taught to advance in a manner that everything he does is in wholeness is that a person cannot work in something in which he sees no progress. It is similar to arrangements made in corporeal matters. For example, when a person begins to study carpentry and sees that he is not progressing in his profession, he is told, “carpentry is not for you; go learn another trade.” If he does not succeed in the next profession, he is told, “You cannot continue this because you are not making any progress in these studies.” Rather, he cannot be a professional worker but only a simple one.
It is likewise here in the work of the Creator. When we want him to continue in the work because in spirituality, everything we do is regarded as wholeness from the perspective of the general public, we must not mention any flaw in his work. Rather, he is told, “Everything you do is perfect because penny by penny joins into a great amount and no act in spirituality is lost. Rather, at the time of the end of correction, all the acts will be corrected.”
It follows that he is not lied to, but that for him this is sufficient work because he cannot work in the way of individuals, where one is taught to walk on the path of criticism, meaning can he really keep what he is asking, meaning are his mouth and heart the same in what he asks of the Creator, or that he sees that the body disagrees with what he is asking, and he must always see his true state.
We find the reason for the two conducts in our sages (Ketubot 17), in the dispute between the house of Shammai and the house of Hillel regarding “How to dance before the bride.” The house of Shammai say, “The bride as she is,” meaning to say the truth whatever it is. The house of Hillel say, “a handsome and virtuous bride.” The house of Shammai said to the house of Hillel, “If she is lame or blind, is she told, “a handsome and virtuous bride”? (RASHI interpreted that virtuous means that a thread of grace is stretched over her.) But the Torah said, “stay far from false words.” The house of Hillel said to the house of Shammai, “According to you, one who has made a bad bargain in the market, will he praise him or condemn him in his eyes? He will praise him in his eyes.” From here our sages said, “One’s view should always be mingled with the people.” RASHI interpreted that one’s view should be mingled with the people, to do according to each man’s wish.
This requires clarification: If a person who is not so proficient, for example, in real-estate or diamonds, takes with him a professional in these matters, and if that taker wants to buy an apartment or a diamond that he likes, and the person he took with him as a professional sees that they are not good, is it better if he does not tell him the truth, that this is a bad deal? Can we say this? According to RASHI’s interpretation, who interprets, “One’s view should always be mingled with the people, to do according to each man’s wish,” meaning if he wants a bad deal he should tell him, “Yes, it is a good deal”?
Instead, we should say that there is a difference because before a person has made a bad deal, and he can still fix it, meaning not to close the bad deal, of course he should be told the truth. But if he has already closed the deal and cannot fix it, it is forbidden to tell him the truth because what will he gain by knowing the truth? He will only suffer pointlessly.
At that time it can be said, as RASHI interpreted, “to do according to each man’s wish.” This means that the desire of each person is to feel pleasure. Therefore, if he suffers because he is told the truth, he must not be told the truth, for this is not his wish, as man’s wish is to enjoy life, for this was the purpose of creation. For this reason, if he is told the truth, he will suffer. But if he has still not made the purchase he should be told the truth because he will be happy since now that he knows the truth he will not make the bad deal but will make a good deal, as he advises him, and will pay the required price for the good deal.
The same applies here, concerning the work of the Creator. People who belong to the general public, who won’t, or cannot understand any other language but the language of self-love, if they are told that their work is incomplete, which is similar to what our sage said, “one who makes a bad deal,” meaning that he cannot fix it, he must not be told it is a bad deal. Rather, “He should praise it in his eye.” This is so because as RASHI explained about what our sages said, “Therefore, one’s view should always be mingled with the people,” meaning to do according to each man’s wish. This means that if a person desires only self-love he should be told, “This work, that you are working Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], is good and virtuous work. But how can two opposite things be said at the same time, meaning that your work is Lo Lishma but it is still good and perfect work?
However, he begins to understand by himself that he cannot work Lishma [for Her sake], but like the general public, who work only Lo Lishma. For this reason, he says, “I am no worse than the general public.” And regarding what is written in all the places—that a person must work Lishma—this work was given only to a chosen few in the generation and not to the general public, since the work Lishma is hard work. Hence, it follows that he is guided according to his wish.
However, people who belong to the individuals, who have an inner drive and are dissatisfied with the work of the general public because they have a penchant for the truth and cannot understand contrasts, but rather tell themselves, “Either I am serving the Creator or I am serving myself.” That is, he is uncompromising and says, “Either I am entirely for the benefit of the Creator and not for my own benefit, or I am for my own benefit and not for the benefit of the Creator. It is as our sages said (Sukkah 45), “All who combine work for the Creator and another thing are uprooted from the world.” This means that if he wants to work to benefit the Creator, but also a little for his own benefit, he is uprooted from the eternal world.
Therefore, when one’s desire is to see the truth, he is guided to criticize his actions, meaning if his mouth and heart are the same in what he says. If they are not then he should exert to be able to aim for the Creator. At that time it is to the contrary, meaning that the body makes him understand that he should know that he is above ordinary people and not equal to the rest of the people, who belong to the general public, while he belongs to the chosen few in the generation who ascend on degrees.
If the Creator does not help him with his request as soon as he asks, he immediately becomes angry and says, “Other people, who are from the type that belongs to the general public, when they ask You to satisfy their wishes, that You will grant them corporeal needs, meaning desires of self-love, I can understand it if they are not worthy of You granting their wishes. But when I ask You only spiritual wishes, meaning for Your benefit, because what do I want? To work for You, to serve only You, and I am not asking anything for myself, so why are You not answering me right away, especially since I have been asking You for a long time that I want to work for You except my body does not allow me to work and I am asking for Your help, so why aren’t You helping me?”
It follows that he comes with real complaints. We should understand why he is not answered. The reason is simple: he is arguing that he is right. The question is, in what is he right? He will say that normally, when someone wants to do something good to another, the beneficiary listens to the giver. For this reason, here, in the work of the Creator, when he wants to work for the Creator, it follows that the Creator is the recipient of the benefit, and the person is the giver. This is why he is angry with the Creator for not listening to him.
However, in the work of the Creator, it is the opposite of what the person thinks, since it is similar to what our sages said about matrimony funds (Kidushin, p 7a), that the rule about one who marries a woman, the writing says, “And he placed it in her hand,” meaning that the husband must give the matrimony funds. However, if he is an important person, if she gives the matrimony funds and he sanctifies [weds] her, then she is sanctified [wedded]. The reason is that with an important person, his pleasure of receiving from her is regarded as actual giving.
It therefore follows that when a person wants to give everything to the Creator, he is regarded as a receiver. That is, if the Creator accepts his work it will be regarded that the person is the receiver, and not that the person is the giver, as the person thinks.
Therefore, when a person wants to give something to the Creator, it is considered that the Creator is giving to the person. At that time it is seen above if that person is worthy of being given the pleasure, meaning that the Creator will receive from him. This is why his prayer is not granted immediately, as the person thinks, that he is the giver. As for the giver of the gifts, no conditions are required of the giver. On the contrary, the receiver might have to meet the conditions that the giver requires.
For this reason, as with an important person, the giver is regarded as a receiver, and the important person can set conditions to the giver, or he will not receive from him. Likewise, in the work of the Creator, the Creator requires that the person will give Him certain things in his work in order to bestow, or else the Creator will not want to receive from the person what the person wants to give Him. For this reason, a person must make many requests of the Creator, so He will want to receive from the person.
Only once the Creator sees that a person is fit and worthy of the Creator’s receiving from him what he wants to give Him, the Creator gives him the help so he can do everything in order to bestow. Prior to this he does not receive help in a way that a person can see directly that the Creator is helping him. Rather, the help a person receives until he is fit to do everything in order to bestow, and until then, although without the Creator’s help there is nothing, but a person is unable to see this directly.
For this reason, a person who wants the Creator to help him be able to observe, as our sages said (Avot 2:12), “All your works will be for the Creator,” must first feel the importance of the Creator so as to understand His giving, as was said about an important person. At that time he will know that what he wants to give, he should think that now he is going to receive from the Creator because with an important person, “By the pleasure he receives from him, the giving is considered receiving.”
Therefore, a person must first appreciate the importance of the Creator and seek advice how to obtain the greatness of the Creator. This means that all the Mitzvot he performs will be with the aim to thereby obtain the greatness and importance of the Creator.
It is similar to what is written in The Zohar about the verse, “Her husband is known at the gates.” The Zohar says, “Each according to what he assumes in his heart,” for only then, according to the importance and greatness of the Creator that he assumes in his heart, he begins to feel that he wants to give all his works only to benefit the Creator. It is so because he wants to receive pleasure from the Creator’s reception from him what he wants to give Him, as was said about an important person.
And since the quality of reception of pleasure is imprinted in man, when one feels the importance and greatness of the Creator, since there is pleasure in an important person receiving from him, the desire naturally awakens in a person to want to do everything to benefit the Creator. That is, he wants to give everything he has to the Creator because of the pleasure he feels while giving to the Creator.
However, this is not regarded as “bestowing in order to receive.” Rather, bestowing in order to receive means that it is like commerce, where the taker gives money to the seller. It follows that the taker is giving to the seller so that the seller will give him some reward in return for his giving.
It follows that there are two things here: 1) the money that the customer gives, 2) the seller who gives him some object in return. Conversely, with the work of the Creator the smaller one gives the greater one some object and does not want anything in return. Rather, there is a single act here. Therefore, we should distinguish two intentions in the same act here, meaning the object that the person gives to the important person.
We should discern two opposite intentions here: 1) the giver, and the giver intends to receive pleasure from the giving, 2) the receiver of the object, who is an important person, and whose intention is to bestow pleasure upon the giver. It follows that the giver is called “receiver,” and the receiver is called “giver.”
As was said above, this pleasure that a person enjoys bestowing upon the Creator, is because of the importance. The thing is that since we were given the matter of correction, called “equivalence of form,” called Dvekut, as our sages said about the verse, “and to cleave unto Him,” we should say that it means, “as He is merciful” and enjoys giving to the creatures, “so you are merciful,” meaning enjoying giving to the Creator. It turns out that when he bestows upon the Creator and does not enjoy, there is a flaw in the equivalence of form.
Rather, precisely if he enjoys giving to the Creator it can be said that there is equivalence of form here. However, how can one come to such a degree where he enjoys giving to the Creator? This can happen only when he feels the greatness and importance of the Creator. At that time there is natural joy, as with an important person. By this one can receive pleasure from bestowal because this bestowal gives him pleasure, and in a place of reception a person can work.
However, this brings up the question, “How does one come to feel the greatness of the Creator?” Baal HaSulam said about this that there is a matter of faith above reason. That is, he gave a depiction that sometimes a person feels that this man is above all others and has the most valuable qualities in the world. As for wisdom, he is the wisest man on Earth. This is the first discernment.
The second discernment is that he does not feel his greatness and importance, but believes in him above reason—that he has all the qualities in the world. If his faith is one hundred percent, it is as though he has achieved it by knowing.
There are two discernments to make concerning faith above reason:
He has no way of obtaining his importance and greatness, and therefore believes that he is the most important person in the world.
He does have a way to attain and feel his importance and greatness, but because of his honor, so there will not be a flaw in his investigating the truth. It is like a person who asks someone for a loan and promises that he will repay him in time, and the lender investigates if he is a trustworthy person. Sometimes the borrower hears about it. It follows that the borrower was also blemished by this, as he is the most important person in the world. It follows that because of the honor, he believes above reason, even though he has another way.
Accordingly, it follows that if one wants specifically “Because of God’s honor, conceal the matter,” he wants to believe in the Creator even though he has a way by which to attain and know the importance of the Creator. Still, he waives the sparks in his body that tell him: “Why do you need to go above reason where you can attain everything within reason?” This degree applies to those who have already been rewarded with some spirituality, who have a way by which to attain the greatness of the Creator, and still want to go above reason.
However, the same applies in the work that is the preparation to enter true spirituality. That is, when he takes upon himself to believe in the importance of the Creator above reason, he must take upon himself that he wants to go specifically with faith above reason. Even though he was given the reason to see the greatness of the Creator within reason, he prefers faith above reason due to “because of the honor of the Creator, conceal the matter.”
This is regarded as wanting to go above reason. Precisely then he becomes a Kli [vessel] that is fit to receive spirituality, since he has no concern at all for himself, but all his intentions are only to bestow upon the Creator. For this reason there is no longer fear that should he be given some illumination it will go into the vessels of reception, since he is always trying to exit self-love.
Baal HaSulam said that as the will to receive wants only to receive and not bestow, even where it is told to work above reason it is only regarded as bestowing and not receiving because a person suffers where he has to go above reason. The evidence of this is that since the body is always concerned with receiving delight and pleasure in everything it does, and since if a person must work above reason, the body is dissatisfied with it, therefore, when a person is taught to go above reason he begins the work of bestowal. It therefore follows that when one prefers to go by way of above reason it is safeguarding that he will walk on the right path, which is the route for achieving Dvekut with the Creator.
According to the above, we should always remember the meaning of “above reason,” that one should first know that he is going to take upon himself the discernment of above reason, to depict what is within reason, meaning what his reason tells him, for which it is worthwhile to work for the Creator. Also, one should depict in which way, under this or that condition, he would agree to work in order to bestow.
And we see in nature that when the small one serves the great one, he has delight and pleasure, for we see that there are people who pay in order to be able to serve the great one. And when one knows and feels the greatness of an important person he does not need to strain himself for the body to want to serve him, because of it the Creator has placed in nature the existence of pleasure in serving a great one, and he annuls before him as a candle before a torch. However, this is so specifically when the body feels his greatness and importance. For this reason we must always think how to obtain the greatness and importance of the Creator.
Now we come to explain the words of The Zohar when it interprets the verse, “Let the water … gather unto one place, and let the dry land be seen.” According to what we explained above regarding the general public and individuals, the general public has the “view of landlords,” called “self-love,” meaning that they want to receive everything into their own authority. This means that although they believe in the Creator, that He is the Landlord of the world and everything is called by His name, still, when they engage in Torah and Mitzvot they want to draw out into their own authority reward from the Creator in return for the labor in Torah and Mitzvot. This is called “taking from authority to authority,” meaning taking out from the singular authority to the public authority. It is considered that they want there to be two authorities—the authority of men and the authority of the Creator.
But the individuals belong to the “view of Torah,” which is cancellation of the authority, as our sages said (Berachot 63b), “Words of Torah come true only in one who puts himself to death over it,” as it was said, “This is the law, should a man die in a tent.” The meaning is that one cancels one’s self, meaning self-love, and wants to do everything only for the Creator, meaning that there will be only one authority in the world, the authority of the Singular One.
At that time he can be rewarded with the Torah because then he is in a state of equivalence of form, called Dvekut with the Creator. And then he is named “Israel,” meaning that he is rewarded with all his thoughts, words, and actions being directly Yashar-El [straight to the Creator] because all their aspirations are only to achieve bestowal, called “equivalence of form,” since he annuls himself before the Creator, which is called “the singular authority” and not two authorities—that they also have a desire for self-love.
However, since there is a rule that they are many, since the view of the majority has a great power to rule over the individual, and since the general public feel themselves as whole concerning the work of the Creator, the view of the majority also reaches the individual. And although the individual does not want to assume the method of the general public, they still weaken the individual so he will not feel its absence so much, and the individual is weakened in his work.
That is, the body says to him, “It’s true that you are not complete in the work for the Creator, but it’s not so terrible that you should regret it and make a heartfelt prayer for it. That is, that you must say that if you are not rewarded with the degree of bestowing contentment upon the Creator you say about it, ‘My death is preferable to me than my life.’ You are not obligated to do this. After all, you see that the general public takes the path of landlords. True, it would be better if you could do everything in order to bestow, but you must ask the Creator to help you. And if you still did not receive help from the Creator you are so worried that you say, ‘My death is preferable for me than my life.’ But this is not so terrible; look at the general public.”
By this the individual surrenders to the general public. That is, it weakens him from doing things he can do until he obtains help from the Creator, who will give him that strength so he can do everything in order to bestow, as the individual demands.
And when a person begins to receive wholeness from the general public, a person can no longer see the truth because for every deficiency he elicits by himself he immediately finds for himself an excuse that justifies him to an extent that he no longer feels that now he is controlled by the general public.
Therefore, in order to be in a state where the work is revealed before him, and to not be drawn after the control of the collective, The Zohar comes and advises us to focus everything we do in Torah and Mitzvot in one place. That is, we must come to have only one place, meaning one authority, and not two authorities.
At that time he can say, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” It is as was written above, the “view of Torah.” Otherwise, meaning in the view of landlords, there must be two authorities: 1) the authority of the Creator, 2) man’s authority. When a person examines his work he sees that he has no connection to Dvekut with the Creator, called “equivalence of form,” so naturally, he is separated from the Life of Lives and is similar to the nations of the world, who would not receive the Torah. The Torah should be interpreted as the “view of the Torah.” Rather, they want the view of landlords, and from that there cannot be existence to the world. By seeing and examining himself he can see his true state in the ways of the Creator and will not be taken after the wholeness of the general public, who want to ordain the view of landlords.
It is as The Zohar says, “Let the water … gather unto one place.” Water, which is the Torah, will gather unto one place, meaning that the two authorities that there are in the world will be one authority, which is called “the view of Torah.” As The Zohar ends, “The Torah is the settling of the world, and in it, it exists. And the nations of the world, who did not receive it, remained desolate and dry.”
Reader: Now we will move to a lesson from October 21st, 2003.
M. Laitman: (58:47) We heard together a part of the article from “The Rungs of the Ladder,” Part one, from the part that belongs to portion “Bereshit,” “The Matter of Recognition of Evil.”
There is really, it's hard to even praise what Rabash did in his articles, how to create this kind of bridge between what Kabbalists write in their articles in a much more difficult way, and how he tries to bring and bridge how the Torah explains it, how the Mishnah, the Gemara, explains the work of the Creator and the work of the individual, the work of the public, and he is trying to explain to us what is being clarified there. The topic is, our general topic, that the goal of our work is that we need to reach the revelation of the Creator inside our vessel. The revelation of the Creator in our vessel is called the revelation of the singular One, the One, the "He and His Name are One," the revelation that "there is none else besides Him," the revelation of the single authority. And we begin this revelation from the opposite state, because the vessel for this revelation is something we have to build, we have to resemble the Creator by ourselves, by our choice, by our labor. It follows that the path a person begins is a path that begins from a state where a person is truly unconscious with respect to his reality in the Creator, in the thought of creation, in the desire to do good to His created beings, that there is first light, and then, in this light, the Kli is formed, and in such stages, a person should reveal where he is.
At first, he doesn't ask himself about it at all, it's like still, vegetative and even animate. And when he begins to ask himself, where am I, this question is interpreted for us as what is the point in life, because this question is a question about the source, who gives me life? From whom do I receive? Who do I owe? What is the point in my life, meaning what is the source of life? Where do I need to reach? What is my purpose? That's when the light begins to somewhat show itself to the vessel. Just like in phase one, the light begins to show itself, that it comes from phase root; that it isn't just pleasure that's in the vessel, but the giver of the pleasure, the source. The upper one shows itself to the will to receive, and then the will to receive begins asking, “Besides the pleasure, what is the cause for pleasure?” Meaning, the truth is, when we ask what is the point in our life, the question is no longer about the taste: why do I have it, or why do I not have it? The question is then above the taste, it's about the source, the source from which come either suffering or pleasure.
M. Laitman: (01:03:43) And then, with that question, a person begins to research his reality. Naturally, whether he likes it or not, he begins to go through all kinds of events in life where this question awakens in him, and then he begins asking, and he begins to see that certainly he wants to enjoy, to attain, to understand. And still the world certainly disrupts him, but in this world, he doesn't reveal the singular force. However, when he advances to the method of Kabbalah, and then he begins, through deliberate actions, to invite surrounding light upon himself, then he begins to see that there is a force that awakens him, and it awakens his life. And then he feels himself opposite that force, begins to have a demand for that force. Why don't I have what I want from You, what I deserve according to my labor, according to my desire? And then, in that, he feels his single authority, that the "I" rules. This is already a little bit of the degree of Pharaoh, who said, "Who is the Lord, that I shall listen to His voice?"
Afterwards, bit by bit, as a result of the influence of the surrounding lights, when a person follows actions that Kabbalists advise him to do, then he begins thinking that this is not his authority, but our authority, so to speak, me and Him, me and the Creator. And after that, he then begins to move to a desire where he wants to be like the Creator, meaning even though there's me and Him, I already want to be like Him. And if I will be Him, meaning if in my vessels, it will be revealed that only the Creator is the ruler, that will be the end of my correction, meaning from man's own authority to the partnered authority, and then the authority of the Creator, that's the path.
And on the way, there are many discernments, of course, and many states. And Rabash says that this work needs to be revealed also as the work of the individual and the work of the collective, the public. Why? Baal HaSulam explains to us in the article, "The Last Generation," that even though the collective soul called “Adam,” Adam HaRishon, although it is a uniform system where every element is important, but when it divided to many pieces, it follows that there are souls that are more important and less important in terms of the order of the correction, the importance of their integration, incorporation, like in a body.
M. Laitman: (01:08:15) Certainly, the body cannot be whole without the last correction of the last soul, and without it joining the collective body, but in the structure of the soul, there is importance, like in a pyramid. There is the public that exists in great quantity at the bottom of the pyramid, and there is the individual that is at the top. And there is seemingly a different Torah for the individuals and for the collective. As it's called, the view of Torah is opposite to the view of landlords. And that certainly is true only throughout the correction, throughout development, not at the end of correction.
Therefore, both the individual authority that needs to be attained, by definition, it should be attained first in the individual and then in the public. And also the guidance that needs to be received is different for the individual and for the public, even though it is forbidden to leave the public and to not give any guidance in coming closer to the purpose of creation. So it's not that we only take with us the individuals, the special souls, and we leave all the rest. We have to disseminate as broadly as possible as well, even though what we learn, what we teach the public, and what we teach the individual, are different things.
Like Rabash says, let's say prayer for the collective and prayer for the individual. The prayer for the collective, he simply prays to have it, as I prepare for the individuals, prays to have it good. He's not told what is good or what's bad in a real manner, where good is equivalence of form, inner correction, rather good is still like Rambam says, “to children, women, and little ones, we reveal gradually, slowly, slowly, what is considered good, what spirituality is. That it's bestowal, that it's the annulment of the existence, of the distance from the nature of the created being and nearing the nature of the Creator to bestowal. So they explain it differently. And that's how it is also for each and every one of us, where also for us there's the collective and the individual, and also in the advancement, the soul ascends from the collective to the individual. And in "The Last Generation," Baal HaSulam even says that even in the last generation, still remains the structure of the pyramid. And there're also those that just agree to belong, to be associated with the last generation, and that's enough, they're received, because they're not capable any other way, that's their structure. Like sex or gender, to distinguish between animals and beasts and vegetation, like those varieties also, they join, they've joined. And there are those who certainly participate and work individually, completely independently, and this vessel is already a collective that is built according to the pyramid, in which it's already perfect, as there's work according to the surrounding light towards the collective, and the work towards the inner light, where they long for this inner light in understanding and feeling that it's lacking for the Kli that is in the individual work. Hence, there are two kinds of guidance, one for the audience, for the collective and for guidance for the individual, and these are different, even opposite, as I've said, and it's written, "The reason of Torah is opposite to that of the landlords."
M. Laitman: (01:12:52) What does this mean? So, he gives an example, that we always need to tell a person what he wants to hear. If a person wants to advance to the purpose of creation, if his goal is, by any price, to acquire spirituality, then it's explained to him more and more correctly what spirituality is, and he's helped to critique his personal state, and he's happy from this scrutiny that is brought to him, he's happy from the revelation of evil that's being revealed to him, because it helps him with the work of the individual to continue onwards, forward, and to see deficiencies and somewhat complete them. Whereas towards the collective, nothing bad is revealed to them that's in them, but rather it's always joy without any criticism, without any judgment or criticism. On the contrary, being wholeness, meaning you not feel the deficiency of the Kli, but rather that the Kli is as if corrected, because the collective are not capable of engaging in corrections, they don't have deficiencies for this, and if there's no deficiencies, it's prohibited from the outside to show or reveal a deficiency to someone who's not capable of understanding it, and moreover, not able to correct it. And Rabash gives an example to this, where a person who is before buying an object, so you can tell him it's worthwhile or not to buy it. But after he bought it - no, we must tell him that it's good. Meaning, to bring a critique, it needs to be brought in a very cautious manner, and only to people that are capable of correcting, that is, didn't yet buy, is going to buy, and he wants to buy something good, and is capable of buying, then we tell him. But someone who's not capable to buy or already bought it, meaning, don't fail his life, don't put obstacles in his life. As it's written in “The Scroll of Esther,” "as the desire of each person," meaning, according to the desire: if he wants to desire or to advance, or if he wants to just remain that way, for it to just be good. Meaning, if he wants to follow truth and false to the truth, and to disregard the feeling of good and evil, or he doesn't care really about the truth and the false, he just wants to remain in a good feeling. And we should relate accordingly.
This is what our approach should be actually, but nevertheless, in our general education, we must do dissemination both to the collective and to the individual. Only to the collective, give the general knowledge without emphasizing the individual deficiencies, but certainly emphasize the deficiencies of the people, of the nation, the reasons they suffer, why we all suffer, all of us, because the sorrow of many is half a comfort to a person, so they won't receive it personally. But critique upon a person, an individual, only bring to people that are in a group, and also, not as a critique, but rather as by us building such an environment where a person will feel, from being in our environment, what he's certainly missing in his personal correction. The recognition of evil is nevertheless, it's his to do it, it's his.
M. Laitman: (01:17:22) And as I said in the beginning, this entire way, this path that we're about to reveal, in the end we're about to reveal the authority of the individual, to the extent in which we want and are capable to incorporate in the individual force, but with all our ability of being a partner to Him, a real, true partner in every possible way, with all the bad that awakens in us. Meaning, the path is a path in which a person takes himself in his hands, and because he has two reins, and the authority of the individual is ahead of him, as an example, and he uses his desire to receive on the left side, and with the force of correction on the right side, in such a way, in order to incorporate in the maximal, most efficient way, in the authority of the individual, with all his forces, with all of his “I”, in the most active way, as a partner to it. This is considered that he wants to come to the sharing of Malchut and Zeir Anpin of Atzilut, until they will be in one equal level, in a never-ending coupling. Meaning, the goal is to reveal the authority of the individual first, second - reveal how much I'm incapable of being there, how much I want to be in it, the extent to which I am capable of participating in this. And slowly, slowly, degree by degree, incorporate in this as an active partner. And the degrees of incorporation a person has with all his desire, with all his ability, gradually incorporating in the individual. The individual moving to the authority of the many, meaning that he and the Creator, then to the authority of the one, where it is just the Creator, he gets tight with it, he's incorporated, adheres to that authority with all his desires and thoughts and deeds. This gradual work is the ladder of degrees a person advances on and is incorporated in the Creator with.
And it begins from a person receiving that first drop of unification called, "There's none else besides Him." And all the work we do in the group, in internality, each a part in the work of the individual and the work of the collective, both within us and collective and individual, is the work only for our incorporation within the authority of the individual, but it's not that we annul ourselves there, it's not that we disappear there, are swallowed there, but rather we join to it with forces, with our own forces, with our own abilities, in our awareness or consciousness. And that's why each time we discover the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the goal, a willingness for incorporation, and this brings us joy and uplifted spirits, an ascent as we call it.
If later times come to us that it's more difficult for us, we need to understand that desires that are not yet included in this unification are added, which we didn't yet join into our incorporation within this idea of "none else besides Him." And now that they awaken, these disturbances, it makes us need to non-stop immediately also work on them so that with them too we will reach that state like it was before, only with our new desires, not to erase them, but rather understand that it's with them together. And that will already be the next degree, meaning all the time be drawn to unification despite the obstacles and disturbances. And this work is considered the work above reason, where these disturbances are our current reason, and faith is the incorporation and the quality of in order to bestow despite every disturbance. Are there questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:34) How is it expressed in us between the plea of the individual or that we turn to the individual or turn to the collective? It seems like we're giving everything, and our lessons, it's for everybody. So where does our turn to the collective, where is that expressed?
M. Laitman: With us, what's the difference between our attitude to the collective or the individual and the public? Collective and individual with us is the difference between the inner group where I am with the friends, where I invest in them and they invest in me, and we are truly on one chariot, on one commando team, so to speak, where we're truly drawn to our goal. To the collective, where we spread the knowledge about the correction of the world, about the purpose of creation, the purpose of life, about man's obligation, and about the reasons, knowledge about the causes of all of our troubles, of the general law in creation that draws us to correction, and if it's in our knowledge, in our desire, we feel our lives as good, and if it's not with our knowledge, not in our awareness, then we feel that it is bestowed upon us as bad. These are general things that we need to explain to the public. This is simply the knowledge of life, the knowledge of the world. There are no secrets here, there is no personal criticism. It doesn't obligate a person, he simply gets to know better that he lives in a world that is being conducted by one force, one law, is drawn to one goal. Like it or not, he is part of the creation, he's in it. Also, his life and his death do not disconnect him from this process, but rather, all the time he's in this, this is an eternal matter. And the process that goes through him is without his knowledge, but that does not rid him from sufferings. And it could be that now, it'll be in his awareness, it's in his knowledge, but at least he'll know what the sources of the sufferings are, and why this all happens. If he truly has sufferings on a level that it's worthwhile to get interested in why he's suffering, then he does, and if not, then he doesn't.
And we can see in this too, that there's always the structure of a pyramid. There're people who suffer terribly, really, but they nevertheless are not willing to hear. And there're people who are suffering just a little, and they have everything in life: they get along, everything's arranged, organized, but that little bit of lack of wholeness, lack of that feeling of essence for existence, is already such that they say, "My death is better than my life." What's so bad for you, why die? Meaning, here too, we see the matter of the individual and the collective, the approach. And then we need, accordingly, to relate to the public.
M. Laitman: (01:27:46) But certainly not to bring them critique, but the general knowledge. What we explain to the public is how reality is built, in a scientific way, like a third party. You come and explain to them like a scientist: this and that is the reality, this is the world, this is us, this general force operates upon us. What does it demand from us? Like it or not, if we want it or not, we must be in this process, and we're in this process, and forces operate upon us that obligate us, as much as we obey them, we feel good, as much as we're not capable, or we cannot be capable, meaning we don't want, don't prepare ourselves, then we feel bad. And this general force that advances us, in accordance with what it prepares for us, our inclinations, our preparations, accordingly demands of us to participate in this process.
Meaning, the attitude of the general force towards our work, towards our participation, is according to our development. Hence, let's say us, the people of Israel, as the most developed nation, with a mission accordingly, that's the most special, we're suffering more than everyone. And the nations, the more they're developed, will suffer always more than those that are less developed. And this suffering doesn't necessarily be in hunger, but rather suffering in the clarity of the question, “what is the meaning of our lives?” So if you explain this to people, they can understand that each in their field, on their level, in their attitude towards life, where to each the importance is different. So this is the education of the collective. And then, between the education of the collective and the individual education, as he writes, according to development, the more they develop the women, the small ones, and the servants, then they're revealed this secret gradually. Meaning, to the extent to which, from the collective, people emerge from the bottom of the pyramid to the apex, as much as they rise up and ascend from the collective to the individual, according to their development, we need to explain to them more and more.
The truth is that the material itself is built in such a way that each grasps it, understands it according to the preparation of his vessel. That's why books are open before everyone, but each understands as much as he's capable of seeing. But here I'm talking about the grasping or the perceiving of the material, but our explanation nevertheless needs to be gradual. And this is very important. Then they'll understand us correctly. If you start explaining in first grade what you explained in sixth or seventh grade, they'll think that you're crazy, that you don't understand, that it's not correct, that it doesn't exist. Start explaining... well, today it's hard to say, because in first grade they already know that there's radio waves and that you can perceive them and all that. But if you were, let's say, if you were to explain just like that to a child that's... well, in short, it depends on the degree of development. Otherwise, a person is not capable of grasping, receiving, and cannot continue on the path with you. Hence, "Don't put an obstacle before a blind man" is truly the very correct approach to education.
M. Laitman: (01:32:04) And the educational problem is a collective problem in the whole world, and we need to know how to present to the world this method so it will truly be good for every age and every level of development. There're people who at age 40 or 50 are like children. And though they're smart, but according to their emotional development, they're children. And there are those who, their development is very mature, but they're not wise. The approach to them is not through the mind, but through the heart, through feeling and not through the understanding, through observing. There's this and there's that.
We can really see, even in the big group, to see how people can perceive only according to their feeling, and there are those that if you don't join the intellect to it, it doesn't get grasped, it doesn't get received. It must be in the collaboration of mind and heart. And there are also times for those souls that go through different periods, they kind of go through periods of where the development is more in their mind or more in their heart. Let's say, during the ARI or the time of Baal Shem Tov, the way Baal HaSulam writes, that was the period of heart and that was the period of mind. During the time of the ARI, it was the time of mind, and during the Baal Shem Tov, it was the period of the heart. And with us, I would say both this and that, but the audience itself, a person himself, is in all kinds of different states.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:34:34) What do I have to tell the whole world? What do I care about then?
M. Laitman: Why do I care about the whole world? Why do I need to tell them about this? What will I do if I'm incorporated from everyone? What will I do if I'm dependent on everyone? What will I do if I belong to those who received the knowledge and feeling of the correct reality? I'm obligated to tell and explain and to pass this along to others. Then he's obliged. He must, according to the structure of the general Kli, where each is in Arvut towards the other, a guarantor. Whether he wants it or not, it's not important.
Altogether, we are in a system that is built, in a process that was designed. And its advancement is defined in advance. And here, we can only, with our desire, go with it, or that our desire, seemingly our desire, will not go together with the developments. But all the laws are absolute, meaning they don't change through my desire to participate with them or not. But rather, I will feel different with them if I participate or not.
I'm on the train, and the train is traveling from point A to point B. And I'm on the train, and I want to remain in point A. And the train travels to point B. The closer I come to stage two, I feel more of an attraction to the first stage. And then I suffer. To the extent to which I distance myself from the first, I suffer more. But the train is moving, and this suffering that I feel, the extent to which I'm distancing, where I see how much I've distanced, this suffering is felt in me, this distancing is felt in me as suffering. And as long as I'm in my inner development to this, and also the agreement for this, this gap is felt in me as suffering. And I have no choice.
M. Laitman: (01:37:10) So eventually, I don't want, I don't want, I don't want. I don't want to pay attention. I don't want to participate in this. But the suffering is because I'm made of, built out of matter that feels good or bad, the pleasures and pain. And it will convince me. It will help me. I will nevertheless have to change. So the train will travel further and further, a little more, a little more. So it'll be a little bit more suffering until this suffering will be so great that to exit it will be for me as a goal that will give me sufficient fuel. And then I'll do rounds in the air. I'll be coming at 3 a.m. and participate in all the actions just to exit the suffering. So we can go in this kind of way, but that's the path of suffering.
We're being recommended through the Torah, instead of staying all day in this train and suffer until this suffering will be… And you see, I mean, also the Holocaust and also the daily blows, and no matter what happens, you can see how when the suffering goes, it's not enough. And if a person feels a moment in his day where he's happy, that's already… That's how we just, we go through life just to suffer a little less, you know, that's our whole trend. Look at what a despicable life we have.
So in place of that, the Kabbalists say, if you were to know where you are, from where and to where this train is traveling, you’ll understand that you're nevertheless leaving the first station and you have to reach the second station, there are means where you'll start to accept upon yourself this process, and you'll discover in this process good and endless pleasures, and this is a part of the process. We have to invest in this, we have to convince ourselves. Then for this too, there means: the group and the books and the guide and everything. Well, that is something we need to bring to the whole world, and to ourselves as well. Now the train is traveling with us all. The audience's reason and opinion convinces me as well. I need to work that way and convince the audience, otherwise I won't be convinced.
In short, there's a certain, there's a certain kind of Arvut here, collaboration, a general system where everything is given. And I can say, “What do I care about the whole world?”, but it won't help if I will suddenly discover after a few decades that I can't reach the good if the whole world is in bad.
That's why our dissemination needs to be very broad. There are people who it's easy for them to do this, where they really feel that they're building themselves by this, receiving forces from this, they have talents for it. There's also a matter of pride and control, a lot of things are being revealed through this. And there're people where it's difficult for them, they're not built for it, they have a certain tendency to fill themselves not by others, not by the audience, not by convincing, to be proud with a different kind of action towards oneself. They need to see himself as not in control of others. So each with the way they are inclined.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:42:25) In the group, there's the matter of the pyramid. Why, when we tried a few months ago, this whole matter of the pyramid, after this is right there by the right roots, why didn't it work?
M. Laitman: Why can't a pyramid work in our group? It's there, it's just not that we ourselves can, we can't like make this selection or separation, I don't know, we can't sort it out because we don't really know according to what. But any structure, spiritual structure, is built according to different degrees of importance, towards truth and false, bitter and sweet, also types of character and approach, many things. Obviously, we're not all equal, and the differences is what builds the wholeness and the perfection, but in the group we relate to each other equally, and the right attitude and education, supposedly it's unified for all of us, but each one hears what he can, what he's able.
Student: Can we use this for the benefit of our advancement?
M. Laitman: No, for now we can't use it for advancement. If we ever have a society, very exalted, that will reveal itself as one vessel, so then, let's say, we'll be like Rabbi Shimon's society, that each one of the ten students, just ten friends, was as a quality as a main quality in spirituality, as one of the ten Sefirot. But for now, it's not that important. We have to believe that we have not just gathered here by coincidence, these people. And those who can't be with us, so they just leave us in all kinds of ways.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:45:10) You always tell us that our correct way is the advertisement of the greatness of the Creator and of the goal.
M. Laitman: The fact that we have to advertise His greatness and the goal, I don't say it, but Baal HaSulam says it. We need to open schools and disseminate the wisdom, right?
Student: On one hand, if we weren't ready, you wouldn't tell us this. On the other hand, it's something's missing.
M. Laitman: We are ready because the great sages determined that we're in a generation that we're ready. We're in the generation of the Messiah, the last generation. We're in a generation that must reveal the general force to everybody, and the whole world already has to discover spirituality and live on a degree that, according to its inner preparations, he must be on.
It's not like we're pulling it into something that this world is not ready for. The extent of the suffering that is revealed in the world now testifies that the world must be on a different degree, because the degree of suffering is us being late. This is the gap between where we are to where we're supposed to be. Let's say, I'm on degree number five, and I have to be on degree number ten. But I'm not on degree number ten, so the gap between these five degrees that I'm behind, that's what presses on me as suffering, as a lack, as that surrounding light that is coming now as suffering, because a part of it already has to enter in my inner light to my corrected vessel. So according to the increasing suffering in the world, we already have to be in a completely different state.
If you close the gaps between the lower degree and the upper degree according to the records awakening in you, you will always be in happiness. You will always be in uplifting. You will always be in the good. Every time that the evil is revealed in you, you see it as something beneficial, the individual and the collective. That's how the whole world has to go in its own way.
And if we can't, if the whole world is in endless suffering and only dreaming how to get rid of this life by drugs, so it just shows how we're behind. And if so, you have no other way but to bring the method of correction to the world. It's to correct the world from its state. It's not correct your soul, something abstract, it's correct your life. What does it mean? Fill your life with pleasures of what you can bring to the world.
The method is simple. The goal is simple. So why isn't the world ready for this? On behalf of suffering, it is. On behalf of recognition, so is not. And that's something we have to help with. That's why he says that we have to open the schools and disseminate the wisdom in the nation, in the world. We're already way behind.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:48:53) I'm asking in relation to our inner dissemination, why within us we can't advertise this greatness? If we weren't ready, you wouldn't tell that to us. But if we're ready, probably because you're telling us, and we're missing something. What should we do?
M. Laitman: In our inner dissemination, as a group? As a group, I'd say that we're pretty successful. Meaning, obviously, we're lacking more here and there. Also disseminating to the nation and also inside us about our unity between the friends that will bring more reforming light, meaning inside us we have to work more on unity. The quality of the unity, to unite more. So that's inside in society, and on the outside we have to disseminate in the nation, and in that we're really negligent, I'd say. As much as we're trying, I don't think we're trying enough, not in all ways, and we must do beyond our possibilities. That's it.
But all in all, I cannot say that a group within itself is in a bad state, but specifically contradicting what he asked, “why do I care about the whole world,” I'd say that the group won't advance more in relation to the world. This relation, not that the whole world has to be like us and then we'll advance. Obviously there'll be a gap and a big one, but the gap has a certain relation, I don't know, one to a thousand, I can't say it. But the advancement of the nation is what sustains us on a lower degree than what we could have been. Just as the general group in the whole world, our group, holds us on a lower degree of what we could have advanced. And also an individual person in our group, in the general group, in the nation of Israel, and in the world, it's all one system.
Now at the end of the 20th century, it's not individuals anymore, but all of humanity has to rise, and it's according to that pyramid. Obviously there's a difference in what you will rise or some Indian there that didn't reach a development that he can enter this. Not that we disregard anybody, but the pyramid is there, it's part of reality. But in this pyramid, there's still a connection between everybody. And it can't be that there'll be like a distortion in the development, but the whole structure of Adam HaRishon entirely needs to gradually advance in its development, but all of it. Then they'll ask of us even more than before, and then according to that, as much as we will do what we need to do, we'll help everybody advance, and that will advance us too.
M. Laitman: (01:53:05) That's why I'm saying that I see lately that the lack of our advancement, it's not because of us supposedly, personally, that we are supposedly not ready, but because we still have to advance with the whole world group and the whole world. Otherwise, there's no need for us, there's no benefit in us. The calculation is on the whole world.
You see, suddenly in Malaysia, they say that all the Jews and their thoughts are controlling the world. You see, they're wise. They reach the truth. He says something true. I agree with him a hundred percent. I agree a hundred percent. He's right. We and our thoughts are controlling the whole world. I'm with him. Look how the Creator is working through some Goy, it's an angel from the Creator that is bringing this knowledge to the world. That's it. That's a revelation. In my eyes, it's a revelation. It's not just blaming the Jews for trouble, it's a very important problem. It's for the correction. I don't see in him an enemy of me. My enemy is inside, in me, and I don't see that in him. On the contrary, I'd say, the Creator through him is revealing very important things that it's really like that. I have nothing against the guy.
If I'll be against him, will I correct anything? He's saying something true. That's really how it's rooted in the world. So if I don't agree with what he said, so it's against the law that the Creator created, will that help me? And everybody's crying, “How can he say that? No, no, no.” By saying no, what will that help? So you're putting your head in the sand, will that help you? That's why we truly have to go to the whole world.
When we want to disseminate the knowledge of Kabbalah, don't we use, we even use the same words. Don't we say the same thing? So if I was a great person like him, towards all the nations, and I'd say that, so they'd relate to me in that way too. He says what's written in the Gemara, in the Torah. That calamity only comes to the world because of the sons of Israel. It's written in the Torah. What do you say? The same thing. And here with us, nobody agrees.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:56:31) Now, after the Congress we had, how should the direction of our work need to change? The pace and the direction. What should we concentrate upon?
M. Laitman: Towards the world group, we must, along with them, to organize our work in a way that we take care of the whole world, and in that way, we'll unify between us. We can't work between us and just disregard the whole world. That won't help. Because according to what I just explained, the pyramid is a given state. You can't separate your work without relating to the others. That's what Kabbalists used to do in the past, because it was a completely different role they had. And we, from the 20th century and onward, from the middle of the 20th century, nobody could reach spirituality, and nobody will be able, unless performing the general role to pull the whole world behind them. That's how we have to see ourselves.
The period of the descent of the sparks has ended. The period of the mixing of the sparks in the vessels has ended. The period where this method was brought to the lowest degrees has ended, and it's revealed as Baal HaSulam wrote, the book of Zohar is revealed to us. Not the commentary of the latter that he revealed. The Zohar, meaning the light, the essence, that intensity has been revealed. And now we have to discover it, but it all came from above, downward, to the lowest degree. And now we have to start rising. We are the first to do it. And here, in the ascent from below upward, this is the general correction of this entire soul that needs, in general, to start being corrected.
That's why it won't help us to be individuals, and by that, succeed. If you are going towards bestowal, that you are now going to acquire the qualities of bestowal, so for that you have to relate to the Creator. To relate to the Creator, meaning relate to His vessel that He built. That in this vessel, you discover your attitude towards Him. That's where you meet Him, filling this vessel. And that vessel is this entire pyramid, the whole world, all the souls together. And it turns out that you today, without relating to the whole world, you can't relate to your duty and the Creator. I'm not just saying that, that Malaysia is jumping up and then Peru or, I don't know, all kinds of other countries that you never even heard of, who they are and what they are. Because the world has become one. It's to bring this to your work. And we'll see in our eyes, as much as we, when we bestow and do, we're changing the whole world in general. We'll see if we do another congress what they say.