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

Daily Morning Lesson: July 14, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. What It Means that “Law and Ordinance” Is the Name of the Creator in the Work. Article 30, (1990).

Reader: Dear friends, in the first part we're going to learn a lesson from 2002 with Rav, based on the article "What It Means that “Law and Ordinance” Is the Name of the Creator in the Work." You can find it in the Writings of Rabash, Volume 2. We'll read the article together in the Ten. We’ll have 32 minutes. Please.

Reading: (00:40) What It Means that “Law and Ordinance” Is the Name of the Creator in the Work

Article No. 30, 1990

The Zohar says (BeHukotai, Items 16-18), “Malchut is called ‘law.’ The decrees of the Torah are included in her. ‘My ordinances shall you keep.’ An ordinance, which is ZA, to which that statute, which is Malchut, grips. Thus, upper and lower conjoin, meaning the statutes in Malchut are in the ordinances in ZA. And this is the rule of the holy name, since ‘law and ordinance’ is the name of the Creator. ‘And do them.’ He asks, ‘Since he already said ‘walk’ and ‘keep,’ why the ‘do,’ as well?’ He answers that one who performs the Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] of the Torah and walks in His ways, it is as though he made Him above. The Creator said, ‘as if he made Me.’ And they determined it. Hence, ‘And do them,’ as a law and ordinance, which are ZA and Malchut.”

We should understand what it means when he says, “One who performs the Mitzvot of the Torah and walks in His ways, it is as though he made Him.” We should also understand the difference between saying, “one who performs the Mitzvot of the Torah” and what he adds, “and walks in His ways,” for it seems like they are two things. That is, it seems as though although he observes the Mitzvot of the Torah, if he does not walk in His ways, it is not said that he made the Creator. Thus, what is the meaning of “and walks in His ways”?

We should also understand what is written (Item 19), “Similarly, Rabbi Shimon said, ‘And David made Him a name.’ But did David make it for Him? He replies, ‘Rather, because David went in the ways of Torah and kept the Mitzvot of the Torah, it is as though he actually made a name there.’ For this reason, it was said, ‘And do them.’ That is, if you try to do them, to correct the holy name as it should be, all those blessings above will be properly corrected in you.”

We should also ask, What does it mean that David made a name for the Creator? With respect to whom did he make the name? Does the Creator need someone to make for Him a good name among the created beings, so that by the Creator having a good name, they will respect Him? This would befit the creatures, where one person can respect another person like him, but how can we say that the Creator needs to have a good name among the creatures? Also, we should understand how is it that when a person walks in the ways of Torah and performs the commandments of the Torah, the Creator gets a good name.

To understand all this, we must first present the whole matter of creation, meaning for what purpose did the Creator create creation. The answer is, it is known that His desire is to do good to His creations. It follows that the Creator received the name of “a Giver,” who gives delight and pleasure to creation, where creation is called “receiver,” and the receiver must be deficient; otherwise, it is impossible to receive. For this reason, the will to receive delight and pleasure is called “lacking.”

There is no lack in the Creator, for the Creator is perfectly complete. Hence, creation is called “existence from absence,” after this lack when something was created, which did not exist before He created it. And since there is no lack in the Creator, when a person feels lacking, he is already in disparity of form from the Creator. When he satisfies the lack, although he has some measure of equivalence, for now he is not deficient, but by being the receiver while the Creator is the giver, it follows that there is no equivalence of form, since by this disparity of form he becomes separated from the Creator.

In order to correct this, meaning where a person is called “created being,” who is deficient, in order to have equivalence, he must be in wholeness, meaning receive from the Creator abundance. When he receives from the Creator, he is once again in disparity of form, and then this correction called “receiving in order to bestow” is done. That is, although by nature, he has a desire and yearning to receive from something that he can enjoy, he overcomes and does not want to receive the pleasure, unless because he wants to bestow contentment upon his Maker.

Any pleasure that he can say that the Creator enjoys, meaning by observing His thought and will, which is to do good to His creations, meaning that all the pleasures we can say that the Creator enjoys when we receive from Him, only in this manner do we receive. Hence, when a person achieves this degree, which is to bring contentment to his Maker, he can delight Him by receiving from Him delight and pleasure.

Thus, now we have equivalence of form from two sides: 1) There is no longer a lack in the lower one, since he receives delight and pleasure from the Creator. 2) Now he bestows like the Creator. That is, the fact that he receives pleasure now is not for his own benefit, but only for the sake of the Creator. But for his own sake, he is willing to relinquish any pleasure. It follows that now there are two things together—the correction of creation and the purpose of creation.

This is called Zivug de Hakaa [coupling by striking], where by the Hakaa [striking], a unification occurs. In spirituality, Hakaa means two conflicting things, where everything that one rejects, the other wants. In other words, the Creator wants the lower one to receive delight and pleasure, meaning to bestow upon the lower one, and the lower one wants equivalence of form, meaning to bestow upon the upper one.

It follows that they are in conflict. Yet, by this they come to unification. In other words, each one takes the view of the other, meaning that the upper one wants the lower one to receive. The lower one receives only to the extent that he knows that everything that he receives is only because the upper one wants. It follows that now he receives like the upper one wants, and he gives as he wants, and there is no separation here. Rather, now, both are of the same view.

By the creature having vessels of bestowal, he receives in them delight and pleasure, and then it is evident to all that the name of the Creator is The Good Who Does Good. Before the delight and pleasure were revealed, He was called “Shechina [Divinity] in the dust,” meaning that everyone suffers in the world because there are no Kelim [vessels] suitable to receive the delight and pleasure.

Hence, the lower ones must believe that the Creator leads the world as The Good Who Does Good, which is why the name of the Creator, The Good Who Does Good, is not revealed. But when the lower ones receive the vessels of bestowal, the name of the Creator, The Good Who Does Good, can be revealed.

But here comes the toughest question: How can a person receive these Kelim? By nature, he is completely opposite, for man is born only with vessels of reception, meaning that a person cannot do anything unless it yields benefit to himself. So how can he do something that is against nature, meaning to bestow and not receive anything for his own benefit?

Our sages said about this, that the Creator said, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.” There are two things to note about observing Torah and Mitzvot: 1) the practice of Torah and Mitzvot, 2) the intention, meaning what he wants for observing Torah and Mitzvot.

The reward that one should ask of the Creator is to walk in His ways, meaning in the ways of the Creator. And what is the way of the Creator? We should say that His way is to bestow upon the creatures delight and pleasure. Also, all of one’s concerns should be about bestowal upon the Creator, that He will enjoy, and not to be concerned with his own benefit, but only with the benefit of the Creator, like the Creator, whose wish is to do good to His creations.

Since man was born with a nature of receiving for himself, it is known that by the Creator wanting to delight His creatures, the receiver must have a desire and yearning for the matter. Otherwise, it is impossible to enjoy. Hence, the Creator created the creatures with a yearning to satisfy their lack. But how can the creatures walk in His ways, so that the creatures will bestow like the Creator, which is called “cling to His attributes”?

To correct this, the Creator said, “I have created the evil inclination,” meaning the will to receive only for oneself, “I have created the Torah as a spice.” That is, through the merit of the Torah, we will receive the power to overcome the bad, and we will be able to work only in order to bestow pleasure upon the Creator.

It therefore follows that it is not enough to observe Torah and Mitzvot. Rather, one must also direct the aim, why is he observing Torah and Mitzvot. That is, what is the reward he wants the Creator to pay him for observing Torah and Mitzvot? There are many intentions in this regard. It is written in The Zohar about it, that some want, in return for observing Torah and Mitzvot, reward in this world, and some want reward in the next world. But the main thing a person needs is to receive a reason to compel him to observe Torah and Mitzvot, which is “because He is great and ruling.” That is, he engages in Torah and Mitzvot because he has great pleasure in that he is serving a great King.

This implies that the reason why a person observes Torah and Mitzvot is in order for the Creator to give him the power to bestow, which he does not have by nature. The Torah and Mitzvot are a Segula [remedy/virtue/quality] to obtain this, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination.” Thus, what is the advice so we can go against nature? The answer is that for this, we were given the Torah as a spice. That is, through the Torah we will obtain the power of bestowal. It follows that a person should aim while engaging in Torah and Mitzvot for only one thing: to walk in His ways. That is, as the Creator’s way is to bestow, likewise, in return for his work, man wants the Creator to give him this force.

By this we should interpret what we asked about the words of The Zohar, “One who performs the Mitzvot of the Torah and walks in His ways.” We asked, What does it add to us that it says, “walks in His ways,” since a person is already observing the commandments of the Torah? According to the above, it means that it is not enough to observe the Mitzvot of the Torah; he must also aim that he wants reward in return for observing the Mitzvot of the Torah. And what type of reward does he want? to be able to walk in the way of the Creator. Just as the way of the Creator is to bestow upon the creatures so the creatures will enjoy, likewise, man wants to have a desire and yearning to bestow contentment upon his Maker and to ask the Creator to reward him for his work. This should be as in corporeality, where a person works and looks, during the work, at when he will receive his salary. Likewise, in the work of the Creator in observing Torah and Mitzvot, one should look forward to the time when he receives the salary for his labor, meaning when he is rewarded with vessels of bestowal.

According to the above, we can interpret what we asked about what The Zohar says about the verse, “And David made Him a name.” It says that because David went in the ways of the Torah, it is as though he actually worked there. This is why it was said, “And do them,” to properly correct the holy name. We asked, Does the Creator need to make for Himself a name with the created beings? This is appropriate for a person. With respect to a person, you can say that he wants to have a good name, but not when it comes to the Creator with regard to the creatures. Can it be said that a person who walks into a henhouse wants to have a good name among the roosters, so they will respect him because of his importance? It is even more so with regard to the Creator and the creatures. What value do the creatures have compared to the Creator, that we can say that the Creator wants to have a good name so they will respect Him? Thus, what is the meaning of “And David made Him a name” by walking in the ways of Torah, meaning that man should make a good name for the Creator?

But since the Creator wants to give delight and pleasure to the creatures, so they will enjoy, if the creatures enjoy the Creator giving them abundance, then the creatures give Him a good name, meaning they say that the Creator is good and does good. This means that the name that the Creator will receive from the creatures, that He is good and does good, He does not need this name so they will respect Him by this. Rather, He wants them to feel this name, meaning that this name is not for the Creator, since He needs this name, but rather for the creatures. That is, the Creator wants the creatures to perceive Him in this way. In other words, it is a sign that they are enjoying their lives, and the evidence of this is that they are saying that the Creator is called The Good Who Does Good.

Therefore, there is a difference between man and the rest of the created beings. Man wants to have a name in order to be rewarded for it. His reward is that 1) The created beings respect him for doing good to others, 2) Sometimes a person does good to others in return for a reward in the next world.

But the name that the Creator wants to be given, The Good Who Does Good, is for the sake of the creatures. That is, when the creatures call Him The Good Who Does Good, the creatures are enjoying Him. Otherwise, they would not call Him The Good Who Does Good.

However, from the perspective of the correction of creation, in order for the creatures to have Dvekut [adhesion] when they receive the delight and pleasure, a person must receive everything in order to bestow. But since man is born by nature with a desire only to receive, we were given the Torah and Mitzvot by which we can emerge from the control of the will to receive for ourselves and do everything in order to bestow.

This is the meaning of what he says, “Because David walked in the ways of the Torah,” meaning that through the Torah, he corrected himself and was rewarded with vessels of bestowal. In these vessels, the abundance is poured from above and a person is rewarded with The Good Who Does Good, meaning that then he attains the real name of the Creator—The Good Who Does Good—because he received the good by correcting himself through the ways of the Torah. This is the meaning of “And David made Him a name,” meaning that David was rewarded with attaining the name of the Creator, called The Good Who Does Good.

However, concerning what it says, “Law is Malchut, ordinance is ZA,” this is the rule of the holy name, since “law and ordinance” is the name of the Creator. This is the meaning of “And do them.” We should understand this, since he says that law is regarded as Malchut, and ordinance is regarded as ZA. Therefore, they are two separate names, so how does he say that law and ordinance is the name of the Creator? They are two names! ZA is called “The Creator,” and Malchut is called Shechina [Divinity]. Thus, what does it mean that he says, “Law and order is the name of the Creator”?

It is known that there is no light without a Kli [vessel]. That is, the purpose of creation, to do good to His creations, created in the creatures a desire to receive delight. This desire is called Malchut, as he writes in The Study of the Ten Sefirot (Part 2, Answer 39), “She is called Malchut because from her extend a guidance of assertiveness and utter control,” like the fear of the kingship. It follows that the abundance that the Creator wants to give to the created beings is called Malchut, and the Sefira Malchut is the Kli that receives the light in each and every degree.

Baal HaSulam said that in general, the light is called “the Creator,” and the Kli that receives the light is called Malchut, or Shechina. This Kli is called Shechina because the light dwells inside the Kli. He said that this is the meaning of what The Zohar says, “He is Shochen [dweller]; she is Shechina [dwelling place],” meaning that they are one thing: light and Kli.

However, there is disparity of form between the light and the Kli, between the giver and the receiver, and disparity of form is called “separation.” Since all the creatures extend from Malchut, and Malchut is called “the assembly of Israel,” which is the collection of all the souls, in order for Malchut to be able to receive abundance for the creatures, Malchut must be united so as to be in equivalence of form with the light.

Because of this, we were given Torah and Mitzvot by which we can achieve equivalence of form with the Creator. That is, all those who engage in Torah and Mitzvot and intend to thereby receive desire and yearning to do everything with the intention to bestow contentment upon the Maker, meaning that as the Creator bestows upon the creatures, the creatures want to bestow upon the Creator, and by this each one corrects the root of his soul, which is Malchut, to work in order to bestow, which is called “unification,” meaning uniting the light and the Kli to be in equivalence of form, at that time the abundance pours out to the creatures, namely the delight and pleasure.

According to the above, we should interpret what we asked, Why does The Zohar say that law and ordinance is the name of the Creator? After all, they are two names, ZA and Malchut, which is “law” and “ordinance.” But as said above, ZA, who is called “ordinance,” is the light that is revealed. This is the abundance. Malchut is the receiver who should receive everything in order to bestow. This is called “law,” meaning that although man sees that he was born with a desire to receive for himself, and was born with mind and reason, and a person should weigh everything he wants to do with his reason, but here, in the work of the Creator, he is told that he should not look at what his mind tells him. Rather, he must accept this as a law, above reason.

Thus, although he was created by nature with a desire to receive, he should nonetheless believe in the words of our sages, who said that man should cling to the attributes of the Creator, as it is written, “As He is merciful, so you are merciful.” It follows that by accepting the Torah and Mitzvot as a law, although it is above reason, meaning that the body does not understand it, through faith above reason, a person can achieve equivalence of form.

That is, each person who engages in Torah and Mitzvot with the aim to bestow, by doing so, he unites ZA, who is called “ordinance,” meaning the light and abundance, with Malchut, who is the Kli that must receive the light, so its intention will also be to bestow, like the light. This is called “the unification of the Creator and His Shechina.” At that time, the name “One” is made, meaning that the two names, ZA, called “ordinance,” meaning HaVaYaH, and His Name, called Malchut, become one.

According to this, we should interpret what is written, “One who performs the Mitzvot of the Torah and walks in His ways, it is as though he made Him above. The Creator said, ‘as if he made Me.’ And they determined it. Hence, ‘And do them,’ as a law and ordinance, which are ZA and Malchut.” This means that by performing the Mitzvot of the Torah and walking in His ways, a person causes at the root of his soul that Malchut above will work in order to bestow, like ZA. This is called “unification.” It follows that the meaning of “and do them,” is the intention to make this unification of ZA and Malchut, called “law” and “ordinance.” And that, too, is called “the unification of the Creator and His Shechina.” This is the work that the created beings should do.

It follows that the meaning is that since they are two names, the creatures must make the unification, so it becomes one. When all creations achieve their wholeness, meaning when all are corrected at the root of their souls, the verse “On that day will be the Lord is one and His name, One,” will come true. This is the work of which it is written, “And do them.”

Reader: We will now move to a lesson from June 25, 2002. There are some moments where there is bad quality and it would be impossible to hear what the Rav says, so in those parts we will have subtitles on the screen. So let's start.

M. Laitman: (33:31) We read an article from the Rungs of the Ladder, second volume, the portion of Bechukotai, ‘In My Laws,’ "What It Means that “Law and Ordinance” Is the Name of the Creator in the Work." What is this issue about Law and Ordinance? These two things are actually — they emerge from the judgment, that the will to receive, in order to be in the eternal state, worthy of its role, must take upon itself corrections. Corrections are limitations and changes. This is called Law and Ordinance.

In truth, all the things where we think that we are operating against ourselves, against our desire, it turns out it is the opposite. We say, man must attain the names of the Creator, that He is Good, that He is doing Good, that He is merciful, graceful. These words, they're not precise. When a person attains the Holy Names, it works in a different way. He can attain it only according to equivalence of form.

Therefore, the attainment of the Holy Names, meaning to take upon himself these corrections, which are called the Holy Names. If a person “attains” what does it mean, merciful? What is the quality of the Creator to be merciful? He, to the same extent, becomes merciful. Or in order to attain what is graceful, let's say, he himself must already be graceful. We attain everything according to equivalence of form. This means that attaining the Name of the Lord means that the person already becomes- having the name of the Creator. This is called, "And the Name of the Creator will be upon you." And then it says that the shells will fear you.

This means that a person who attains, he himself receives these qualities. This means that what the Torah tells us to attain the holy names, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." So, taste and see- meaning that it turns the person, transforms the person to be good, to be as the Creator.

Ultimately, because the Creator is a whole general light that is clothed in the 613 corrections that a person performs on his 613 desires. All in all, these actions are called the 613 commandments. In every commandment a special light is deposited, which corresponds to this correction. And when a person completes all of the corrections, the general light, the NRNHY that is clothes in him, is called the Creator.

This is what Baal HaSulam writes in the letter on page 64. So, what do we do for that? Zeir Anpin, which is called law, and Malchut, that is called ordinance. So the Ordinance should be as the law. The law should be as ordinance, she needs to take upon herself the same qualities that exist in Zeir Anpin in above reason. This means on a degree above it, above her degree, which is called above her reason.

Because the reason- the Daat, determines the essence of the degree. And therefore, we must make it that the Ordinance will be as the law. What does it mean the Ordinance will be as the law? Those qualities that are in Zeir Anpin will be as the Law. They'll become as the Law, meaning as the qualities of Malchut. This is what he tells us here. What is law and ordinance?

What is it that law and ordinance is the name of the Creator? That all together, this unification between the law and ordinance, between Zeir Anpin and Malchut, reveals all of the names, meaning all of the qualities of the Creator in the created being.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:33) You said earlier that a person attains the name of the Creator according to the degree of his correction of good and does good.

M. Laitman: I usually give this example that in order to capture a radio wave in the radio receiver itself, you have to create a wave that resembles. Meaning according to the same frequency as the external wave has — you know, it's called a resonance effect. Otherwise, you won't be able to perceive, to capture anything on the outside.

Outside of the radio receiver, there are millions of waves of all kinds of frequencies. How can you perceive a specific thing? So every receiver is seemingly like a transmitter. It generates, it doesn't just receive. First, it has to generate a wave- that wave that you want to receive on the outside, that same specific frequency.

And then whatever is on the outside, you can perceive it, you can capture it according to the equivalence of form, equivalent of frequencies, and then whatever exists in that wave on the outside that has all of these other small signals on it, you can perceive them as a sound. But you must have equivalence of form in you with whatever you want to feel.

My eyes, my ears, they're all built so that I will perceive a certain range of external influence, because inside I have a mechanism that can seemingly generate those same frequencies, those same waves that exist on the outside. All in all, these are nerves, that at the end of these nerves there are special sensors for each and every frequency. Hot and cold and pressure — these are all frequencies which I perceive according to the equivalence of form between my vessel and whatever exists on the outside.

So, how can I say that He is graceful or merciful if I do not first equip myself with that quality by which I come to know what is graceful, what is merciful? This means that first I have to make a correction on myself, and accordingly I will feel that He is like that. It happens sometimes that we say about a person, he has no heart, like that, right? He has no heart, meaning his emotions are not developed, so that when he sees someone who is crying or is in sorrow, he does not regret it, he does not understand it, right?

Let's say a baby and someone could cry, he does not understand what it means, he does not yet have such an emotional development that he can understand that this is something that is happening to a grown-up, and he is truly in such an excitement. Later on, when he'll grow, and he will also have developed vessels accordingly so that he will also feel what is sorrow let's say, or what is joy, then when he will look at it from the outside, he will be able to absorb what is happening truly on the outside. And this is how it is with all things we can perceive, only according to equivalence of form.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:51) How do we truly develop this sensor?

M. Laitman: How do we develop the sensor so that we can perceive spiritual influence? The Creator is bestowing upon us, imparting, throwing all good on us, endlessly. We are under a heap of His nice influences, right? But we don't feel anything, because this emotion is not yet developed in us. We're like babies. Whatever He's passing on to us, we don't understand it, we don't really feel it. This is called concealment. This means that the concealment is in us, inside of the sixth sense, which is not yet developed.

To develop the sixth sense is called the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of how to receive what He’s giving. But we don't know how to receive. How? Only through the light- the reforming light, as it is called.

This means that during the study we awaken the surrounding lights and they refine the person. What does it mean they refine? They make this emotion refined, sensitive, gentle, and then we truly begin to feel accordingly to how the surrounding light refines me. It constantly gives me influences, seemingly teaches me a little bit of this discernment, a little bit of that discernment, another drop here, another drop there like we teach a baby. Just that because I want to do it quickly, I don't want to wait. It takes a baby 20 years, and sometimes a person takes thousands of years until he becomes perfected. So I want to do it quickly so I awaken the surrounding light so it will do it quickly for me, not according to the pace that it takes in history, thousands of years.

I want to do it in five or ten years, right? I want to do it even faster, but it doesn't work, it's too hard. So, all in all I want to accelerate the development of this sixth sense. So, the maximum that I need as much as I can, is to draw the reforming light upon me. That is all my work.

And according to how it will teach me faster, meaning with a fast pace, that each time all kinds of phenomena will change within me — accordingly I'll go very, very quickly through the study, right? The expansion of the light and its departure makes the vessel suitable for its role, right? So, I need to have maximum changes from one state to another, one change to another, ups and downs, and all kinds of things right from the book and the group and the books and everything. And then I can reach state faster where I have within me sufficient discernments. And then I begin to feel and grasp correspondingly things from the outside.

When I'm still before the barrier I start to discern it. It's also the same for us from one day to the next, right? We can distinguish more and more things. Things that some time ago we were completely indifferent towards, or simply we couldn't grasp them in this sixth sense.

Now, as the sixth sense develops in each and every one, even if it hasn't yet reached the threshold which truly opens up for spirituality, nevertheless we do feel within it all kinds of changes. It swells, and in it are all kinds of discernments. This is called Neshama- soul, that we truly develop it through our activity. And only in that, in developing his soul man is in free choice, and he has to do it by himself.

It's not that light will come to you from above, unless you deliberately want it to come and correct your soul. Meaning that it will give discernments, it will give it a sensitivity to feel the spiritual world. This light will give you suffering, so that you will feel that you lack that, and you lack more and more.

But it will never correct you without you raising MAN. As we learn, without you asking that you want to feel it, that you want to be close to it, let's say and later on, in equivalence of form to it, in adhesion to it the soul cannot develop without man's work. What is the work?

In request, in prayer, as we call it, raising MAN. And the surrounding light then already corrects the soul, and according to how it corrects it, according to the qualities that you begin to feel in your soul, correspondingly you grasp the qualities of the Creator. This means that if you have corrected a certain quality from the 620 qualities of the soul, then in that corrected quality you feel the Creator. This means that the commandment that you make, meaning an action in the corrected quality- by that you unite with the Creator. You say that He fills this quality. The light fills the vessel, that corrected part. It's the same words. We're constantly circling around it. There's more than that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:28) What will help it so a deficiency, just any deficiency will become a request? What's the difference between deficiency and request? Rather, not every deficiency advances a demand for correction.

M. Laitman: We're asking all the time. So there is a deficiency, let there be a deficiency, let there be a deficiency, let there be a deficiency. We're asking all kinds of things. It depends. Whatever a person wants is called the prayer.

What I want in my heart, this is called a prayer, because my heart is connected with the Creator without anything being in the middle. So whatever I feel right now- I now feel a desire to rest, to eat, to steal, to fall in love with something all of these desires are immediately felt in the Creator.

Accordingly, I receive in response a correction, a correction of the direction of the desires through all kinds of inner means, what it does to me within my heart, or external ones. But all in all, through this system, both the internal one and also the external one. The surrounding one He gradually teaches me which desire is correct. Where is my work. My work is that I myself also search for what are the correct desires, exactly for what, and then when I reach these desires, when they already exist in my heart it is considered that I'm praying. I pray what I feel, what I want, without being able to supervise it.

The desire was created before me. What does that mean? Before I feel it, before I'm aware, before I study it, before I can even discern it and give it some name, it already exists within me. Creation is a desire, a will to receive, and so I cannot change it. I can only discern in it what is this desire and how correct is it according to the purpose of creation.

And then accordingly to perform all kinds of external tactics- which is the society, the books so that this desire, which doesn't seem to me so directed towards the purpose of creation will be replaced. But it's only through external tactics, not by me getting into my heart with some key, and I turn it with some screwdriver. I can't do that. I'm not the master of the desire itself.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:39) What about these schemes in our desires?

M. Laitman: The tactics? It's very simple. I look at something and I fall in love. So now, in order to replace my desire I start to hear music now. So the music also brings me some desire, maybe a more subtle desire, but not exactly towards the goal. So I open a book. From the books that I open, the books of Kabbalah now also I take some book that can influence me, bring me a more subtle desire, more refined, more directed and so on.

This is how, through these surrounding means, I cause a change in my desire. But it's not that I can change my desire by myself.

Student: And when does the desire, the deficiency, become my demand, my request?

M. Laitman: That same desire that exists in my heart that is the request. It doesn't need some other kind of means in order to be pleased, to become a request. I don't take this desire from my heart, I put it in an envelope, then I send it by post. That same desire that exists in my heart is what is received immediately by the Creator, because in my heart I and He exist together. He is in my heart, whether I want to or not.

Student: Every request of mine is MAN?

M. Laitman: Whatever I feel in my heart is called MAN. Like the Kibbutzniks in the Negev, in the desert — they feel that they lack rain. They need rain. That's called a prayer.

Student: But what we're talking about, the surrounding light that comes and passes its qualities?

M. Laitman: Through the surrounding light I, in a directed way through my free choice I go and correct my desire so it will be always more and more directed, more sharp, more correct towards the purpose of creation, towards the purpose of life.

And not that it will be directed to all kinds of false goals in which I don't want to waste my life. The surrounding light helps me to direct my desire to what is needed towards it.

Seemingly, the surrounding light is the source of special waves that I want my heart to capture like a radar. I want my heart to capture only this power supply, the supplier of these waves, and not anything else.

There are millions of other waves around me that could operate on me, but I want only this wave. So how do I do it? Through that same surrounding light. I want it to build within me the deficiency for it, for it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:42) By wanting Him and by wanting to correct it, is that the same?

M. Laitman: The fact that I want it- I want it for correction. It's not exactly the same thing, but it's on the way. In the beginning I just want to enjoy. Later on, I already distinguish what is the kind of pleasure that I want, and until the correction becomes the pleasure for me. And afterwards, until the result of the correction will be the pleasure for me. What does it mean the result? That the result- the influence of the correction- the result of the correction- is bestowal to the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:22) If the desires exist before me, let's say during the day, I walk around and I feel those desires, because it constantly turns to the environment that I built in order to receive a desire for Him, a greater one. And then I come to the study, to the book. Why do we always say that I have to feel, I have to hold on to the demand during the day? My heart is connected to Him. Everything I created already exists in me. What is it about increasing the demand during the study?

M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (54:53) The problem is that we have a single means to draw the surrounding light that will change us. This is the books and the intention while we study. What is intention? That same deficiency in the heart, right? This deficiency is an artificial deficiency. What does that mean? I see it during the study, and I think that I want the surrounding light to correct me. If I already had a desire for it I wouldn't have to exert. I wouldn't need to put in labor.

But they say, no, you have to invest labor. What is this labor? If I have it already, if I want it already do I need to exert for it? This means that the exertion is to make it so that during the study, the desire to be corrected to absorb surrounding light, to be changed by it. It will determine everything. This means the fact that I study, the fact that I think about what I study, these are means. This is in order for me to know what exactly is written there, which numbers, what is happening there, Galgalta, AB, SAG — this is all just in order to tie me to the matter. In order to already be in this movie, and inside this movie I would choose exactly what I want from it. Do you understand?

I open the book, I begin to study, and here they tell me about all kinds of things that are seemingly taking place in the spiritual world or seemingly within me, I don't know. But all in all, what do I want out of it? To what do I want to get from it? This I already need to be ready for it and demand as correctly as possible so the exertion is both before the study and also during the study.

You see if we will open up the "Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot," item 17, so he writes, "Hence, the student pledges prior to the study to strengthen himself in faith in the Creator and His guidance in reward and punishment. As our sages said, your employer is liable to pay you the reward for your work.”

This means that for the fact that you are laboring, you want Him to bring you the correction.

"One should aim one's labor to be for the commandments of the Torah, and in this way he will be rewarded with enjoying the light in it" — the reforming light, the surrounding light — "and his faith," meaning the desire to bestow, "will strengthen and grow through the power in this light, as it is written," you know, etc. "And from Lo Lishma he will come to Lishma," etc.

This is before the study, that we truly need the preparation. But beforehand, right? He says that’s our whole problem, this is in item 18.

Next afterwards he says that the problem is not only before the study to grow stronger in faith and in the preparation, but you see what he writes here, I'm reading here in the middle:

He has been negligent in giving the necessary labor and exertion in the practice of the Torah," right, or it is possible that they put in the necessary amount, but they were negligent in the quality. This means that while practicing Torah, they did not set their minds and heart to draw the light in the Torah, which brings faith to one's heart."

This is called light of Hassadim, or Bina. So you have work before the study, and also during the study, while engaging in the Torah. This is the main thing. Besides that, you have nothing; everything else is all things that are all on the outside.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:29) If I say now that my desire — my desire is my vessel. I can only feel what's going on with me. I have no control over it, because it comes from Him. So He answers my deficiencies, meaning my desires. So, by bringing myself into this artificial demand in the middle of the lesson, then they will influence my desires at all? What's the connection here? If He works with my desire without any connection to me, right? He gives me desires. It's not like I will come to tell Him and I will say, I don't know what — I want a million dollars, I guess I will not receive it. Why? Because it's not exactly what I need. It's not inside my vessel. So why should I come and demand this thing? It connects me to my vessel. It gives me... Why is it?

M. Laitman: You're asking, what does it mean to aim his heart, as it says here? What does it mean that I'll just say it with my life. I'll say it literally. I'll say it with my mouth that I want it, but my heart doesn't yet want it. So what can I do?

The thing is that saying it with your mouth, it doesn't mean you open up your mouth and you say it. But to say with your mouth means that you perform all kinds of external actions that help you change your heart. You go here to be impressed by the friends, and the Creator created man in an environment so that the environment influences us. So I choose a better environment, more directed towards the goal.

And when I'm in some environment I have to pressure it and to make it be more directed to the goal each time, because this is actually the only source that can influence me and change the desires in my heart. This is called that I say the prayer in my mouth. The mouth is the place of the screen- that here I can seemingly determine something for myself. But is it that I just open up my mouth? What is that? What is that?

You know, everybody lies, everybody speaks. What is that? A person doesn't even know what is his heart, what is his mouth. He doesn't even know what is the difference between them. We all believe we have only one action by which we can change the desire in the heart. This is to hear in a directed manner some influence from the outside.

So I have to shut my mouth and shut my ear, right? And open it only in the right place, only for the right things. And I have to be blocked towards other things.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:30) That's before the study. Now, during the study what does it help that I hold on to a thought?

M. Laitman: This was before the study. Now, during the study- during this study can I hold my heart, not just a thought. It says "their mind and their heart," right, to be rewarded with the reforming light in the Torah.

What does that mean? It means that during the study I have to constantly be with the deficiency that the light will come and correct me- to be in order to bestow. You know, after the first word I already forget about it. When I read and I'm completely inside whatever I'm reading about, and there I work with my intellect, and where is that? In short, how will I tie it?

If I want something out of life how can I tie it to whatever I'm studying? So here, bit by bit, I also need to hear from the society, and again to hear from the society. See, I can also understand, I can tell it to myself- this kind of brainwash also works, but mostly when it comes from the environment. That what is written in the book, it speaks about me.

These actions that are there, my soul is truly going through them- whatever is written there. The Ten Sefirot, as we learn from the Study of the Ten Sefirot- are the structure of the soul.

Whatever I learn about them is what is happening inside the soul, and when I study it I'm studying exactly about what is happening within me. It's just that now I don't feel it. So I want to feel it, I want to understand it, because if I connect to it I enter the eternal life, because this is the life of the soul- it's eternal life. So I constantly have to accustom myself to think this way, to here and here and here.

Then also during the study, my deficiency won't be precisely for knowledge, but to know what here is written about me. I already relate the book to myself, and I'm not studying some world which is a thousand miles away from me. It's not a thousand miles away from me. There are no worlds outside of me. They all exist within me. All of them. Inside my 620 desires, right?

There are desires that belong to one world, to the second world, to the third world. This is how it's all divided. This is what it's all about. All of my 620 desires are 620 degrees from me until the end of correction. All of these 620 degrees, these 620 desires, are divided into five groups, and every group is concealed in a certain way. It's revealed for a certain action. It's revealed a specific light, a feeling. This is why it's called Olam, world. That is all. All of these things are within. Outside, only His self exists.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:39) When a person goes out to, let's say, the reserve service, the army, then he wears uniform for a month, he's influenced by the army. He thinks about the army, he's a property of the army. The properties are there, they tell him, you're going to leave yourself for that, right?

M. Laitman: Yes, I remember.

Student: When a person travels abroad, and he travels for a month, he doesn't speak Hebrew or nothing. Why is it so important? Let's take a month off of work. We'll read every day. We'll close ourselves off in some place, or in nature, I don't know. We'll read every day 10 hours of TES, 6 hours of Zohar. We'll talk about item 17 and the importance you have to extract from the books, and we'll reach some critical action. We'll make a change, instead of drawing the light day after day and work so slowly.

M. Laitman: Why not do this kind of tactic, like running away from this world for some short time, right? Not entirely.

Student: Clearly, not entirely.

M. Laitman: Why not? I don't understand. That's also some kind of lack of perfection. If it's a good thing, if it causes spiritual ascent, you must go for it. That's it. Why are you making these compromises here?

Student: We'll bring it later to our world to apply it?

M. Laitman: Ah, okay. So we're going out in order to acquire some forces, to capture the right direction, grow stronger in it, and then we will add this world to that state that we have attained?

Student: We're going out to cross the barrier together.

M. Laitman: Okay, so let's now go and cross the barrier, and then we'll come back to this world and start also to draw it, to pass it through, right? What can I tell you? Let's try.

First of all the thing is that this question stems from short-sightedness. Everything where we exist, we exist in a degree called this world. It's one of the degrees. It's simply the lowest one, the least important one, the most forgotten. How can I say? It's in…

Student: The darkest.

M. Laitman: (01:07:56) Yes, the darkest one. This is what it is called. It has a special name, this world. But it's just one degree out of all of the degrees. How can I get out of it if I don't work with whatever is in it? This means that here I was given surrounding conditions, which are actually my qualities, however, projected from within me outwardly. I see the world according to how I am organized within.

If I will organize my qualities within in a different way then instead of this world I will see spirituality. Spirituality will also push down the image of this world just like the lower degree from the vision of what I will have above it.

So how can I get rid of the degree that I'm in if everything that exists in it right now are my uncorrected qualities, and if I do not correct them I will not rise to a higher degree. So how can I run away from it? I can perform certain actions where seemingly I become separated in order to grow a bit stronger, but then I have to come back to this degree in order to connect to it- in order to take from it more coarseness, and then again to come and study with this additional coarseness, and further to want to refine it.

And again to go to work, and again to go to the family, and be with the children and with the wife and with the problems, with all the other surrounding things; and again to come back and study for a few hours and correct whatever I absorbed from there. But if I do not absorb these things, my coarseness won’t bring it to correction.

Then what do I come to the correction for? What do I come to study for? What should the surrounding light influence? What would it go and correct? If I'll be refined then the surrounding light in general, what will it hold on to? What will it capture?

This means that we have no choice, but always intermittently we have to go and dip ourselves in this world, bring it to correction, and again dip ourselves in this world, and again bring it to correction. So our whole activity includes, all in all, three major, three main states.

It's this world with all the brainwashing that it does to me. Then I come and I want to wash my brain from my society, not the external society, so that it will help me. And if whatever coarseness the external world gives me, my society gives me a desire to get rid of this coarseness, right, to refine it, and so I come to study.

We have three states, three means, let's say. This is how we build our daily schedule. So this is, consider that you run away for a few hours to the cave and you study the Torah there. This is now when you're sitting. I don't think if you run away for a week or a month it will help you, because you will very quickly need — you'll need these disturbances from this world as well. You have yet to absorb their disturbances from him enough. How can we check this?

Go to an external place, to some village, let's say, isolate yourself so start engaging in our wisdom there- Kabbalah, study with friends and everything. You'll see that after a day, maximum two days you'll reach boredom, and you have nothing to do. It'll happen for sure.

Student: We don't provide material to one another?

M. Laitman: We do not supply matter to one another.

Student: Envy, lust, honor?

M. Laitman: You won't even have a need to engage in one another. I must constantly receive obstacles from this world so that I'll have a need to connect with the friends, to be saved from these disturbances to reach spirituality then I won't need a society. Moreover the study. If you think that the study is good because by this you'll be isolated from this world, no, it won't be better, it won't be more effective, it just won't be.

Altogether, it will be completely theoretical, kind of very fine without any demand for Him. We have no possibility but to live connected this way, in this whole life. That's it. And I too did not go with the Rabash for long. Sometimes it was for three days, sometimes... Okay? Well, during the day I was also connected for many hours, but nevertheless I was connected with the regular life.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:00) How does it happen that in a Passover there's a week?

M. Laitman: We make a special state for ourselves in Pesach, and also in Pesach itself there's a special state from above, and we make a great effort, and then during Passover we enjoy the labor that we put forth before Pesach and in Pesach. Do you understand?

Pesach is a different thing, because it's something else, you see that it's only Pesach. No holiday demands such a labor both in money and in effort. For like a month before that there is so much in it, and how much we're spending also, like 300,000 shekels for Pesach.

Where has such a thing been heard? That's why we are rewarded with such a thing. That's why it's worthwhile. I don't... Well, you know how much I pressure. I put pressure on everything, but with Passover everything should be. It's something that you can't acquire otherwise.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:11) Why do we say that we need to pressure the society to be more aimed at the goal? Not like to attract, but what does it mean to push? Meaning that the society to begin with is resisting it?

M. Laitman: No, but the society is people like you. You also need… it's like your free choice is theirs as well- is yours there too.

Meaning, besides you there you want to be under their influence, like a shower so that they influence you that way- wash you. So it's like that. You need to examine whether they're influencing you, whether they're bestowing upon you. Maybe you're being too light with your mind on these things. Maybe it's a seat of fools, or maybe you need to demand for the society to improve.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:02) He writes here in the article that there is the engagement in the Torah, there's the commandments of the Torah. He writes that in the commandments of the Torah, we have to aim to have a desire in order to bestow. How is that? What's it for? Like in our society, what do you refer to as the commandments of Torah?

M. Laitman: The Mitzvah of the Torah- the commandments of the Torah is considered why I'm studying. What do I want from this? Do I just want to know what's written there? There's people who study- I remember, I gave my son to study, I put my kids to study in a seminary with Yitzhak Zilberman in Jerusalem, a Kabbalist, a great Rabbi and everything. So he studied according to the method of Ramchal. My son was seven years old back then. I took him from the seminary in Rehovot, and I brought him to Jerusalem. He would live in his house there, and for a few months he studied there. So, it was all to learn by heart. You learn the Pentateuch by heart, the whole Bible by heart, repeating it- going over it again and again a thousand times.

After it's in the heart and the mind then they start talking about it. Oh, you see, it's written here like this, and it's written like that, and it's already placed there in the box in your head. Then we start- there is such a study. So, what's demanded of the study is that I need to know it, to remember it. Okay?

We don't study for that. I don't care how much I remember. Until I see and feel- for me what I remember is not worth a thing. Why does Baal HaSulam write that I nevertheless have to go back again a thousand times over the definitions and know them by heart, as if they're placed in the head in the box?

This is so that we will start to work with these definitions and not make some kind of pictures out of them, but rather enter them and demand the spiritual explanation. Instead of drawing the circles, and straightness, and it ascends and descends, demand the internal feeling of what this precisely symbolizes for us, every such geometrical form.

Meaning, what's important is what I demand from the study. You see, everyone can open the Zohar. People don't read the Zohar? The Eastern sects used to read it for thousands of years, but they were taught it, and they were great Kabbalists. But the general folk were told, just you open and read it, it's a virtue. Because really, for the general public there's nothing else to give, at least that way. But, those who feel from the point- in- the heart they have what's to do here- how to engage in it, they demand more. So it's all a matter of what to demand.

Student: Now, what to demand — he writes first, there's a Mitzvah, and there's what we want out of the Mitzvah.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: He writes here, there's a commandment of the Torah, and what we want from the commandment of the Torah. So the question is, what is that commandment of the Torah? What does it mean?

M. Laitman: The Mitzvah, or the commandment of the Torah is to take out of the Torah the concept of the Torah of life, to reach life. He writes about that there in the Study of the Ten Sefirot.

Student: So, this is the study; what action exactly?

M. Laitman: He means not the study but the result of the study.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:58) If a person, let's say, is cleaning the floor in the kitchen or something like that, does that mean he studies the Torah if he wants out of that?

M. Laitman: If I work in our kitchen, and I intend by working there that I want to attain something from my life, then that desire that I grasp there, times those good things I cause for the society, meaning multiplied by the general desire of the society that wants to reach spirituality becomes my desire. By this, I acquire the others' desires, I'm incorporated from them, and by serving them, I'm incorporated in them. And then those desires impact me, aim my desire more correctly, and during the study I intend to take out of the Torah, from what I study, the light that is in the Torah, which reforms. And not to be a great Rav, or something else.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:17) A small question that bugs me is, we learn all the time that "I created the evil inclination, I created the Torah as a spice." And it suddenly bothers me that we say that there is what's called creating darkness and creating light. So, to the same extent, "I created the evil inclination, I created the Torah as a spice," it's like...

M. Laitman: You're asking, the Creator created the evil inclination, and also He created the Torah. What is it considered, to create the Torah?

Student: That the creation needs to be like the Creator.

M. Laitman: On one hand, it's written, oh He creates light and — I'm sorry — "creates light and makes darkness." Where creation is called outside of the degree we're talking about darkness.

And if the Creator is darkness, then why and how can you use this word, "I created the Torah as a spice"? It's written for the Torah. Because "I have created the Torah as a spice," it's really not the Torah itself but rather the spice, meaning it's the correction that's within this desire to receive. It's a good question.

There's light, and there's the action that the light does within the desire to receive. So, I have created the Torah as a spice- means that within the desire to receive, the light operates. And it changes the desire to receive to be in order to bestow. And the consequence of the action to receive in order to bestow is the result of being similar to the light.

Meaning, both the light creates the desire to receive, and also the light creates in the desire to receive correction in order to bestow. This is all within the desire to receive, and that's why it's called, "I have created the Torah as a spice."

Upon the Torah, which is the light, you can say, "I have created." So, we're talking not about the Torah but about the action it has within the desire to receive. That's a correct question. That's why it's written, "I have created the Torah as a spice- meaning that we add it to the desire to receive. This is an action that was made within the desire to receive, which is why it's called creation, which is a new thing. Why is it a new thing? We learned that it's a new thing — and how is it a new thing?

The light creates the desire to receive, and then, from it being the light of pleasure, it creates the desire to receive pleasure. Then, since He is the desire to bestow, He awakens in the desire to receive the feeling of shame. The Creator once gives me nourishment, and on the second time, completely, completely disconnected from the first time, He shows me that He is the one who's doing this to me, that He's doing it for my benefit, and awakens in me all kinds of connections in relation to this shame, and responses to the matter. And it's also a creation.

I said this many times, that shame is a creation in and of its own, because this action from the light which is called, "I have created the Torah as a spice," since this desire to receive goes through a correction called a spice.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:44) In addition to our discussion that the engagement in the Torah should be that a person wants to reach the desire to bestow to the Creator. Now, when does — or is it the same thing — when does from Lo Lishma to Lishma happen?

M. Laitman: It is written, they did not recognize the engagement in Torah in a state of Lo Lishma. Meaning when a person is an egoist, why does he need to engage in Torah? You're a beast, live like a beast. However, if a person uses the Torah, the light in the Torah, to be corrected and reform himself, then for that he certainly can engage in Torah. And one who does not engage in it in such a way- for that goal, so for him it's the opposite: his eyes are blinded, and light becomes like darkness for him, and darkness is light. What are you asking about this?

Student: I'm asking if a person aims that all desires will be in order to bestow.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, that's already Lishma, or is it Lo Lishma? When does he come to Lishma?

M. Laitman: You don't have a question. There's no clear question.

Student: I have a question, I'll ask. So, what does it mean, from Lo Lishma one comes to Lishma?

M. Laitman: Open the "Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot," read it a little bit. I read it maybe 200 times. So, read it 20 times.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:30) He writes that Lishma is only for the sake of the Creator, Lishma. And Lo Lishma is also a bit for oneself. So, if a person only wants for the Creator, this is called Lishma?

M. Laitman: I don't know what you're asking. If a person wants just for the Creator. What is "for the Creator"? I want, or don't want. What does it mean, to the Creator? What do I want from this? What do you want from Him?

Student: To bestow to Him.

M. Laitman: If a person wants to bestow to the Creator, it's called Lishma. Lishma, that's it.

Student: So I already studied Lishma?

M. Laitman: If you really want to reach the Creator, or to bestow to Him.

Student: That's exactly the question. How do I know exactly?

M. Laitman: So, you don't know whether you know or not. I will tell you: in accordance with opening your eyes in the Torah. If the Creator opens up, and as a result of your desire, you're in adhesion with Him. If He, in the same desire you want to bestow to Him fills you with His presence, with light, that's considered that in truth your desire is in order to bestow to Him, in accordance with the equivalence of form. And if not, then you're just telling us that you want to bestow to the Creator. You're lying as usual, as you're used to. The world behaves as it does.

Reader: Let's share impressions from the lesson, and what are we taking to implement in the Ten.

Reader: We'll move to the next part of the lesson, and first we'll sing a song.

Song: (01:34:28)