The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) May 16, 2024.
Part 1: Rabash. Article No. 2, (1987). The Importance of Recognition of Evil
Reader: (00:02) Hello, we are reading in the writings of Rabash volume 1, in the article, The Importance of Recognition of Evil. You can find the study material in our sites, and you can also send live questions through our sites. Whoever asks a question in the study hall is asked to stand up, hold the microphone close to one's mouth, and speak loud and clear. The article, The Importance of Recognition of Evil.
Reading Article: (00:39) The Importance of Recognition of Evil
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 see 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.”
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:40) If I can ask about the end of the article, also in the beginning he says that it speaks of the nations of the world and Israel within one man. In the end, he also says to examine oneself. I notice, I want to ask about this, whether a person examines himself or his Ten? Or does he examine his Ten, if he examines his Ten, is that called spies? There was a question from the Israeli Kli a few weeks ago, he says, my Ten, they're not observing times, there's lessons where they come or don't. If I had a strong Ten, like here in Petah Tikva, I would be able to fly forward. I see that there is such a question to people and I'm asking is there such a question or does a person need to examine himself, as far as being drawn after the collective within himself and the authority of the individual in himself? Where is this examination?
M. Laitman: Look, first of all, we have all kinds of rules: Each one judges according to his own flaws, and so on and so forth. Meaning, I can't say exactly, precisely about the other, what I determine after a certain examination because, specifically, in a state where we haven't reached the revelation of the Creator, adhesion in the Creator, in the completely.
Student: If it's within one person, what does it mean to put someone. Before you go to buy something, they bring like an examiner before you buy an apartment for him to value an appraiser, to look at the advantages or disadvantages. What does it mean to put an appraiser before buying something in the work?
M. Laitman: I don't go according to my own opinion, but according to the opinion of the collective.
Student: The opinion of the collective, meaning, the opinion of the individual, of the Ten? What is the collective here because he says the opposite in the article.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: The opinion of?
M. Laitman: That it's outside of me.
Student: That is, the meaning is that we want to be in a connection as one towards the one Creator. For us to be able to establish Him between us?
M. Laitman: Let's say.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:56) He says there are two ways to attain above reason. He says, one, that there's no way to attain the greatness and importance so he believes. Let's say it's understood, but let's say. The second is that he does have the ability to attain the greatness and importance of the Creator but because of His glory, and he doesn't want to blemish in seeking the investigation of the truth, then he does not. Can you explain that?
M. Laitman: Read what comes before that.
Student: Who precedes that? Maybe you can read this from where he doesn't feel the greatness and importance.
Reader: (01:07:11) 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.
Reader: Should I continue?
Student: No, I think it's enough, it continues, but what does it mean to not investigate the Creator due to this honor because we want to work above reason?
M. Laitman: It's clear, even simply speaking: How can I try to investigate the Creator, if he is the most important in the world? That means that I stopped placing Him higher than everyone else.
Student: I assume the person wants to attain that the Creator is great because it's a condition in the work, and without that you cannot continue.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Now he has a means to see this, I don't know how, he has a way to see the greatness. If I go to study this, it will make the Creator smaller in my eyes.
M. Laitman: Yes, it's clear.
Student: In theory, yes, but how, let's say in the Ten between us, how do we avoid connection with the Creator to not, I don't know. I have doubts in this, how do we do it?
M. Laitman: How to avoid connection with the Creator?
Student (reading): How to avoid, I'm going to read again: One who receives the fact that he's an important person, he has advice to feel his greatness and importance, but because of his honor for there not to be a blemish where he's going to investigate the truth, it's like a person who has asked someone for a loan and promises him that he will repay him in time, and the lender investigates if he is a trustworthy person.
(Question): Sometimes the borrower hears about it, and it follows that the borrower was also blemished by this. What can we learn from this example about our connection with the Creator?
M. Laitman: That we shouldn't go and investigate the Creator. On the contrary, we need to accept it in, above reason.
Student: It's not clear: If I have the possibility to see that the Creator is great, they look at the collective. And say, well, how wonderful, it was a miracle, they saved this one, they did this, they did that, how wonderful. There's a certain greatness of the Creator in this. Here they're saying, don't look for these proofs, engage in the greatness of the Creator without any proof, it's better. Why, what's this way of work?
M. Laitman: Because you are going to rely only on faith, not on the opinion of, well, the masses.
Student: If a person does go for proof, does that lower him?
M. Laitman: Of course, it’s not faith, it's no longer faith. He receives it within reason.
Student: We are not allowed to even hear all those words?
M. Laitman: We're not even going in that direction.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:42) I want to continue the friend’s question: He says that, in page 391, before a person works, he has to arrange the greatness of the Creator in his eyes.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How does that action not blemish the glory of the King? If He's great and he's willing to bestow Him. If He's not great, I'm not willing to bestow to Him.
M. Laitman: And what's the question, how to do it that the Creator will always be the greatest?
Student: How does this not blemish the glory of the King? I'm putting this condition to begin with, the greatness of the king needs to be above in my eyes. If not, I'm not willing to bestow.
M. Laitman: But this is for you only an indication that the Creator is not great in your eyes.
Student: In other words, I have to obtain his greatness?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: There is something here.
M. Laitman: So, you'll have enough to trust Him without any limitations.
Student: There’s another question: He says, when a person receives permission to bestow upon the Creator, to give Him, then He becomes the receiver. So, it's like he wants to give and then the receiver, who is very important in his eyes, allows him to, and that turns the giver into a receiver, so then what? Why does this reception not become in order to receive, what is a person's next action here?
M. Laitman: He, from being able to receive from the Creator; he turns the reception of that force to receiving in order to bestow.
Student: How?
M. Laitman: Because he has a connection with the Giver.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:38) What does it mean to annul before the Creator?
M. Laitman: To annul before the Creator in everything you can depict to yourself.
Student: I'm the quality of reception, I always receive. How do I annul myself before everything the Creator gives me? What is the action, what should my intention be, at that moment?
M. Laitman: Your intention to annul before the Creator, because only in this way you can determine the correct forms of relationships between you.
Student: This is clear what you're saying, but how do I do it in practice? To annul before the friends in the Ten, before the actions in society, I understand. But how do you make an effort in annulling before the Creator?
M. Laitman: That's from the examples, according to examples, when you see some kind of actions and you need to relate to them. That these actions are examples of the Creator's bestowing upon you, and to everybody in the whole world.
Student: Okay, so now I see these examples, I take them into me, I feel their flavors, and then what do I do so it doesn't fall into self-reception? How do I turn this into bestowing contentment upon Him?
M. Laitman: These actions are in you now, right?
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: So, you accept them as a giving from the Creator.
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: And that is what turns you also into a bestower.
Student: That's exactly the question: How do I not steal this work now? What's my next action? It's always like a dialogue, what should I give now so that He?
M. Laitman: You need to give exertion in order for everything that the Creator demands of you will be annulled in you, expressed in you, as if it's giving from Him.
Student: Basically, my next action will always be above my reason, always above reason with intention to Him.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:12) You said before that when you are going to rely only on faith and not on the view of the general public. What's the difference between how the general public exalt the Creator within reason, and how we exalt the Creator?
M. Laitman: The collective follows their own reason. And we define the Creator according to faith.
Student: What does it mean to exalt or to extol the Creator according to faith?
M. Laitman: The Creator is above all limitations. Above everything that can be depicted in man, let's say.
Student: Here, too, we advertise the Creator among us, we extol Him. We create something that draws us to advance, to galvanize us.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How is that different from the general public?
M. Laitman: The general public relies on proof, and we rely on the knowledge of the Kabbalists, the sages. By that, we organize ourselves in such a way that, how can I say it? That we don't follow our own reason, only the reason of the great ones.
Student: Prior to attainment, a person has to believe that the Creator is good and does good. After the attainment, he even hides the greatness of the Creator because the glory of the Creator is in hiding the matter. It turns out that a person is never really in greatness of the Creator, but in faith that there is greatness of the Creator. What is the greatness of the Creator actually felt?
M. Laitman: The greatness of the Creator is felt when we receive the greatness of the Creator as a fact. And according to that, we go; meaning, we never actually attain it.
Student: That's the question: Is there a state when it turns from potential into actual, when you really live it? Or is it like an imagination, something that he makes up in his thoughts, he believes that, he doesn't really live it?
M. Laitman: We attain it but only in our depiction, when we depict it, how the Creator fills the whole world.
Student: When he writes, as if he feels it in his organs, we live in this, as if. When does this, as if, become real? When is it not like a feeling in the organs, but it's really in the organs?
M. Laitman: I'm clogged today, but I'd say this, we will feel the Creator, how he fills all of reality in our organs, when we reach adhesion with Him.
Student: Adhesion with what because I'm depicting Him? In what am I adhering to Him, In the depiction?
M. Laitman: Yes, it's always like that, how else could you? You don't have any other opportunity.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:24) The whole beginning of the article talks about the difference between the work of the individual and the work of the public. In the general public, he says, they are taught to work in wholeness. Otherwise, they won't have a grip on Torah and commandments. The reason is that they're taught to go with wholeness, that a person cannot work if he doesn't feel advancement. For us, too, the work always begins from wholeness, from the right line. What's the difference between the wholeness of the general public, who have one line? And working in wholeness in the work of the individual?
M. Laitman: Working in wholeness, in the individual's work when he wants to attain the upper force, the Creator is the upper Force and in control of all of nature. And not in only some details in it.
Student: I'm trying to understand because here, too, when Rabash explains, he gives an example of the wholeness of the general public. It's about complaints that the body has. That the body tells him, you're insincere, why are you praying, you have to feel it? The advice in the general public is to say, no, no, no, my work is in wholeness, whatever hold I have on Torah and commandments, I'm content with it. That's the story of staying in Lo Lishma, not for her sake, and that's the wholeness of the general public. What's the difference from our work because when I have complaints, I always try to rise to wholeness, to above reason, what's the difference?
M. Laitman: You don't want to rise to wholeness; with these complaints, you want to obtain the wholeness.
Student: What does it mean, can you explain it?
M. Laitman: That we want to reach such states, inner states of mine, that I accept the Creator as the Good Who Does Good and fills everything. And I don't demand anything, anymore.
Student: Basically, you have to have complaints, otherwise you can't say that there is wholeness. Because on the other hand, he says in Shamati, all the time. That there's this work where a person has to say, that even if I have Lo Lishma of Lo Lishma, the preparation for clothing, I'm content with it, I'm happy. He says, appreciating the degree of Lo Lishma, not for her sake, is a great thing. As much as we can describe Lo Lishma is greater than Lishma, we can imagine. How do we appreciate the state we're in, which is Lo Lishma, not for her sake? And at the same time not respect the yearning for Lishma, for Her sake?
M. Laitman: I’d say this: That all of our work in reaching Lishma is by us not, we don’t want to be in some kind of knowledge, of knowing. But only to be in equivalence with the Bestower, that is actually what fills all of our deficiencies.
Question (Petah Tikvah Center): (01:29:03) In the beginning of the article, he writes that there are many measures in observing the Torah in the general public. What are the measures?
M. Laitman: All kinds of degrees.
Student: Then he says, a person must not be obligated to observe. I understand that the general public have to have some benefit from it, without benefit, you can't educate the general public, you have to see the benefit. What about the individual, can he work without benefit?
M. Laitman: The individuals, individuals; they can work according to a special benefit.
Student: What, revealing the upper force, attainment is not benefit?
M. Laitman: Yes, but the collective don't have that thing.
Student: You can't sell to the general public that revealing the upper force is the greatest pleasure? That will satisfy all their passions?
M. Laitman: No, they can't depict it in their vessels.
Student: The individual can?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Even though he's in egoistic vessels but he can imagine it?
M. Laitman: He can be drawn to it, yes.
Student: Because he writes that in The Last Generation, in each one, there is a point that you can awaken.
M. Laitman: He writes that in general.
Student: We're still not, what do we sell to the collective, to the general public?
M. Laitman: You're asking different things.
Student: What can they follow, what can they be drawn to because we want to work with the general public, what do we sell?
M. Laitman: What to sell to the general public? He writes there, that returning the soul, and all those things.
Student: National Pride, and all that, so this?
M. Laitman: Yes, supposedly, yes.
Question (New York 2): (01:31:42) When a person begins to receive wholeness from the general public. A person can no longer see the truth because for every deficiency that is above reason, he immediately comes out of himself and finds an excuse that justifies it. How can we stop justifying ourselves?
M. Laitman: That's only by the Creator doing exercises with us. He takes us out of these states, otherwise, a person will always turn things around so he will be right. If he's not right, at least not to blame himself, and so on.
Question (New York 2): (01:32:40) Why is our work defined in such a way that it's all or nothing? Either everything is directed toward the Creator or nothing. How do we come to a state where everything is indeed for Him without leaving anything for self-love?
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: Why is our work defined in a way that it's all or nothing? Either everything is directed toward the Creator or nothing. How do we come to a state where everything is indeed for Him without leaving anything for self-love?
M. Laitman: How to reach it? With the Creator's help, with a light that reforms. We ourselves can't raise ourselves above our nature.
Question (PT 22 in Belarus): (01:33:52) How do we always try to exit self-love, how do we come to the importance of the Creator with the help of the friends?
M. Laitman: With the friends, it's possible that each one is concerned about the others. How can he bring them some kind of ascent, and if everybody thinks about everybody in the group, it's possible.
Question (Women PT 11): (01:34:22) How not to fall into the tricks of the body that tells the person, don't worry, it's not so bad, and pulls him to the work of the general public?
M. Laitman: Yes, how not to fall, to constantly be connected to his group. Why do we have Ten against everyone, or Nine to every one? Because that is actually the force that we need in order to rise.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:35:42) He writes that all our work is through the work in commandments. To obtain the greatness and importance of the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Before that, he talked about how, when you're facing an important person everything becomes inverted, in that, when you give to him, you are regarded as receiving. When you receive from him, it's as if you're giving him contentment. All the work before someone important turns reception to bestowal and bestowal to reception. It turns out that in the work of the general public, the general public receives from the Creator, and the individual wants to bestow. After they develop the greatness and importance of the Creator, you also come to a state where you kind of need only to receive from the Creator. By this you give Him contentment.
M. Laitman: Intention, according to the intention, so?
Student: There are different times in the work before a person acquires importance, and afterwards. These are two different forms of work.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: How do we shift to a state where our goal will be to obtain the greatness and importance of the Creator? Not search to make all kinds of changes in us?
M. Laitman: If we are sure that in the greatness and importance of the Creator, there could be fuel to perform all the actions of bestowal, so that's the only thing we want.
Student: What does it mean in our regular work: We come, we study, we try to sharpen the intention, we connect in the Ten, we do actions, we have Congresses. How do I approach, for example, the work in the Ten in order to get from there the greatness and importance of the Creator. Not just connection, bonding, and having some fun together, or whatever?
M. Laitman: That depends on your intention, why are you approaching them?
Student: It's like the greatness and importance of the Creator has to always be before our eyes.
M. Laitman: Yes, that's what's demanded of us.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:38:55) What is the relation between revealing my own lowliness and revealing the greatness of the Creator? Is there a relation between them?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How do I look at my own lowliness, when my nature always says, why am I so great, I'm greater than all the friends?
M. Laitman: I don't understand you, now.
Student: Where do I find my own lowliness, especially, when what the friends do is they build a friend. They say, you are so great, what a song, what prayer, what emotion you give! Where do I find my lowliness when the friends constantly build my ego?
M. Laitman: You'd like to see it in an opposite way.
Student: I want the friends, to kind of, that they will help me descend. Come down, not quite come down, but that the ascent will come through lowliness.
M. Laitman: Yes, you don't need to wait for that.
Student: In the Ten, I heard a few days ago, that we should reveal our lowliness together in order to reveal, in order to raise a prayer so the Creator will rule over us. That, He will be Good and doing Good? How do we reveal the lowliness together, the common lowliness?
M. Laitman: The common lowliness?
Student: Yes, that we can be in lowliness with respect to the Creator, together, in our prayer?
M. Laitman: How to be, that is through our talking together. By each one depicting to himself how he's willing to be in lowliness towards others. And how everyone connecting, reaches the general lowliness.
Student: I heard in that lesson that Good and doing good is the basis for above reason, justifying the Creator. It is building kind of a new reason, where my imagination will be as my reason, but that view of holiness, is if I justify the greatness of the Creator. The article says that sometimes a person does not choose the greatness of the Creator so he can put it above reason instead of his own.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Justifying the Creator seems like, it's like, the greatness of the Creator builds the greatness of the Creator. How to skip above it so as to give contentment, to give maximum contentment with faith above reason? How do we choose above reason instead of the greatness of the Creator, I don't understand.
M. Laitman: Why should it be instead, above reason and the greatness of the Creator, it should be the same thing.
Student: In the article, doesn't he say that sometimes a person chooses above reason, faith above reason, instead of the greatness of the Creator?
M. Laitman: Can somebody explain what he wants?
Student:: (01:44:31) I think he's asking about what the friend asked before, that he has a way to feel his greatness and importance, He prefers to go above reason, to relate to the Creator this way, not within reason.
M. Laitman: That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:44:47) Justifying the Creator is the way to go above reason, to reaching it. Justifying the Creator is great, He's Good and does Good, and what He gives me is certainly the best for me. Then I choose the greatness of the Creator. Or is it not quite, it's only in my imagination, which is opposite for nature.
M. Laitman: I don't know, friend.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:45:24) When we begin to work, the Creator is hidden so His greatness is hidden. We have work with the friends and we work above reason, it's as if we depict the greatness of the Creator. He says, there's a point in the article where he says, that maybe he has a view of holiness, and he can even see the greatness of the Creator within reason, that he attained on the new degree. Nevertheless, he chooses to maintain the above reason, so it'll be to him kind of as a testimony, so he doesn't blemish the King's glory.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: There's like a confusion: If I begin above reason with the greatness of the Creator, there's a point where it's as if I already have contact with holiness, with the higher view, higher reason. Is there more work that a person has to do? That he has to go above the reason of holiness that he has attained? I begin to work, I have no greatness of the Creator within reason. I have to depict it through work with the friends and all that?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: There is a state where we attain the Creator because we want to attain Him.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: Is there a state when the view of holiness, there's more work where a person has to do, again, in choosing above this reason. To maintain this above reason? I think that it's all around that?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:47:11) If there's a way for a person to see the greatness of the Creator, then they will take this way, and the greatness of the Creator will disappear. It's not something you can rely on, that I have a way to see the greatness of the Creator. The question is how do we build the greatness of the Creator in a way that is not conditional? In what vessels is the greatness of the Creator built so that it's not dependent on anything, not contingent on anything?
M. Laitman: That is gradually attained by working on it.
Student: I feel that here the advice is.
M. Laitman: That he has no reason in his faith above reason.
Student: Yes, the faith above reason does not depend on anything that he will perceive within reason, the greatness of the Creator. I think the question is where is it built in a person, his ability to feel the greatness of the Creator, but it's not contingent on anything that is within his reason. That it will always remain in him truthfully?
M. Laitman: That's by building it without reason, he doesn't have reason. He wants the faith to bring him forces to be above his reason.
Student: Yes, I think there's something to scrutinize, here, also, I feel that practically it's somehow dependent on the connection that we have with each other as a group. It's as if the greatness of the Creator is maintained in some place that is not.
M. Laitman: No, it's kept above.
Student: Yes, where is it in the group, is it supposed to be built somehow and be felt as a force that exists within the group? It depends on my ability to feel the group and from there get this greatness?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:49:49) There's a matter of the individual having to work with self-criticism. That he's not working to work in the manner of the general public, and that criticism has to be very subtle. He says the criticism will take him out of the eternal world, if he takes it for himself. How do we work correctly with self-criticism, so it pulls us forward and doesn't pull us backward in the work?
M. Laitman: In the simplest way, when I leave my reason, and I work according to what the friends demand of me.
Student: If I work in that way, how can I criticize? If I let go of my reason, I can’t criticize.
M. Laitman: Correct.
Student: He still says how criticism is important in all the degrees, and only through that you reach prayer.
M. Laitman: First, do what I say, first, rise above yourself and help the friends.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:51:27) About the text, RASHI interprets that if a person suffers because he's told the truth, so you shouldn't tell him the truth. If he bought something bad, you don't tell him the truth that he bought something bad. How should we work with the Creator? How, whether telling the truth or not telling the truth works towards spirituality.
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: RASHI interprets that let's say a person bought something broken. You don't tell him that it was bad, you don't tell him the truth.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How does that work with spirituality towards the Creator? When do you tell the truth or not tell the truth?
M. Laitman: We always speak the truth in favor of the Creator, that He is Almighty, and that’s it. And our criticism, we try to criticize only ourselves. How else can we work?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:53:33) If you could, maybe, explain this paragraph that you always have to remember the explanation of above reason. That before a person will reach above reason, he has to depict what within reason is. Meaning, what does his reason tell him, that these are the reasons that are worthwhile working for the sake of the heavens. And a person has to depict in which way he would work in order to bestow.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Can you explain the inner exercise he's explaining to us to do?
M. Laitman: That he imagines conditions by which he could go above reason in order to bestow.
Student: He's checking his reason, how to attain the sake of the heavens. Then he searches for that inner border?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:54:36) It seems that what he's trying to say is that the goal here isn't the greatness of the Creator, that's a means. That we have to reach annulling his own authority, that there's only the authority of the Creator
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That's why you need the greatness of the Creator? Now, what is annulling your own authority? Who exists there and sees the greatness of the Creator if his authority is annulled?
M. Laitman: A person's self, that he revokes his own authority, his own self. And then he is left with the authority of the Creator.
Student: What is that self that remains if everything is the Creator, and if There's None Else Besides Him, completely? What is that self that comes and says, here's the Creator?
M. Laitman: That self that remains in him is, still, what remains after he has annulled, revoked, his authority.
Student: Who does that self belong to?
M. Laitman: Also, to the Creator.
Student: That's the state we have to reach?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: The greatness of the Creator that we're searching for, if there's an opportunity to get something in reason, the reason is always opposite from annulment?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That's why you always have to be above?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:56:32) What's the solution for the greatness of the Creator and faith above reason? It's not clear how they both connect.
M. Laitman: The solution? What is the problem?
Student: Man needs to go in faith above reason?
M. Laitman: Why?
Student: To have forces, he needs greatness and importance of the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: That he checks, he checks the greatness and importance of the Creator, so he checks it within reason?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: He needs to go above reason?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: He's supposedly wandering around that thing and I'm trying to find the solution to this point. Only the lowliness of man, himself, it's somehow some exit point that can solve this. I don't understand it, I'm searching for faith above reason, I need greatness of the Creator. I check the greatness of the Creator, I'm in reason. It's as if, how do you rise above it, how you rise above reason? You need importance for the Creator.
M. Laitman Yes.
Student: How do you come out of this loop?
M. Laitman: You want importance, you want to depict to yourself the Creator as great and important.
Student: I'm depicting that in reason.
M. Laitman: Okay and?
Student: Why do I need greatness and importance of the Creator in order to rise above it. It's as if I'm going back into the problem I was trying to get out of.
M. Laitman: No.
Student: Why not?
M. Laitman: Because the fact that you want to see the Creator as great and important, within reason, is more important than revealing Him in the same discernments above reason.
Student: Why going in reason? I don't understand again, sorry.
M. Laitman: We want to reveal the Creator in his importance and greatness, above reason.
Student: We need Him as a force to help us annul ourselves. How can I do anything, if I don't have greatness and importance of the Creator?
M. Laitman: In other words, you need the greatness and importance of the Creator. That this is what He has to give you.
Student: How do you connect this to walking above reason?
M. Laitman: You're constantly looking for it, greatness and importance of the Creator,
Student: I'm looking for it in reason, it's not outside of myself. It's not above reason.
M. Laitman: What can help you?
Student: Only the Creator can help. If you could explain that: How is my desire to get forces not from my own nature, not from my own nature. I don't want to feel this force in me, I want to feel it above reason.
M. Laitman: Does someone have anything else to say about this?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:01:33) I don't know, I think the Creator's greatness is concealed but He gave us work with friends.
M. Laitman: So?
Student: Rabash tells us that, specifically, the greatness of the friends within reason is better. If you don't have a choice, to go above reason but in reason it's better? Maybe through the greatness of the friends, the whole work is with the friends. It'll be a springboard to go above reason.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:02:14) What the friend depicted is an example, a right example. How a person, if he only works with himself and self-love, he's in a loop. If he tries, even though he doesn't have forces to go out of reason and works with the friends, and he knows he doesn't have it. Then the Upper force works, and something moves in the system?
M. Laitman: That's correct. Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:02:46) I think what solves that is the force in the group. The force of faith constantly renews itself, meaning, once a person checks the greatness in reason. The faith is renewed and right away, he starts this ascent. Faith above reason renews itself, constantly.
M. Laitman: Okay.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:03:16) I think that what should motivate us is the necessity for the connection with Him. Because above reason isn't a concept we can even grasp. There's always above, above reason, above reason until infinity?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: We can never hold on to above reason. We can only increase the necessity in that connection with Him.
M. Laitman: Correct.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:03:54) If everything goes back to above reason, at some point we have to feel the NRNHY. Where is that thing felt?
M. Laitman: It's felt in a person.
Student: In what vessel, in reason, or where?
M. Laitman: Yes, in his vessels.
Student: How does he go out from there again to above reason, if he feels it in reason?
M. Laitman: I don't understand you.
Student: Now, I feel it's hot in here, I feel it in reason. I have to believe it's cold, but I feel warm.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: Where do I feel that cold, above reason?
M. Laitman: You have to change your vessels.
Student: That's the question, in what vessel? You said I feel it in my vessel, in reason?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What additional vessel?
M. Laitman: Change them.
Student: Yes, to what vessel, what is that vessel that I exchange it? Where do I feel it in the vessel, which vessel is it in?
M. Laitman: In a new vessel, just as you felt, before, now you will feel otherwise, you will feel different.
Student: In a vessel that doesn't belong to my reason, it's a different vessel.
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Student: That's felt like it's within reason or?
M. Laitman: It's impossible to explain it. Let's move on to the next part. What do we have?
Reader:(02:05:52) We have Preparation for the Convention, excerpts Above Reason.
M. Laitman: Good.