https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/kN56mvl8

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

Daily Lesson (Afternoon) December 3, 2024

Part 1: Rabash. The Way of the Land Preceded the Torah Record 370.

The Way of the Land Preceded the Torah

Reading: (00:45) “What is light? Rav Huna said, ‘light,’ and Rav Yehuda said ‘night’” (Rish Pesachim).

“Jacob went out from Beer Sheba and went to Haran and arrived at the place.” “Jacob went out,” The Zohar says, from Beer Sheba, from the land of Israel. “Went to Haran,” abroad. Our sages said that Abraham and Isaac established the morning and afternoon prayers, which are mandatory, and Jacob established the evening prayer, which is optional (Berachot 26b).

We should understand why the prayer of Jacob—who is the senior among the patriarchs, and who is called “Jacob, a complete man,” eliciting twelve tribes—is not mandatory like the prayers of Abraham and Isaac.

Normally, one who feels that his friend is doing him a favor feels a moral debt to bless him for the favor that he did for him and will return him favors henceforth.

But one who does not feel that his friend did him a favor, but thinks that perhaps he did him favors, he does not feel he should be grateful and that he should seek something from him. Rather, he has an option. In other words, the body does not feel indebted to ask of the other one, but this is an option, and he has the choice whether or not to do so. But if he feels that his friend has given to him, the body feels a debt to his friend.

Jacob, the complete man, wanted to correct the wholeness of the generations and the times and states. This is the difference between day and evening, since “day” is when he feels good and his heart is glad. That state is called “day.” If it is to the contrary, he says, “the world has grown dark on me.”

“Jacob went out from Beer Sheba,” which is the land of Israel, a Be’er [well] from which water is pumped, when a person feels satiated and that he does not lack a thing, “and went to Haran,” to a place where there is no satiation and there is Haron Af [anger/wrath]. This is called “evening.” At that time, the body is not obliged to thank his friend and ask something of his friend. On the contrary, he has grievances against his friend.

“And he came to the place.” This is a correction, for even in a place that is the evening prayer, when prayer is optional, meaning a choice, he should overcome and pray. But the body does not feel any obligation while it is dark for it.

Hence, Jacob, the senior among the patriarchs, established wholeness for the general public, so they can pray the evening prayer, at which time it is optional.

A person should make a choice so that the body will want to pray, since at that time it does not feel any obligation, as it is evening and not day. When it feels the state of “day,” the body feels obliged. Through the optional prayer, which is evening, we come to a “day,” and then it is a mandatory prayer.

Likewise, the blessing [grace] for the food is mandatory at a meal where there is satiation, as it is written, “And you shall eat, and be satisfied, and bless,” to imply the above-mentioned, that when the body feels the state of “Beer Sheba,” when it is Save’a [satiated], the body feels obliged to pray. But when he feels the state of “evening,” the prayer is optional to the body and he needs the work of choice so he can pray.

By this we can interpret the dispute over the interpretation of “light to the fourteenth” [the night before the 14th of the month] when we examine the leaven. The Gemara asks, “What is light?” Rav Huna says, “light is light,” and Rav Yehuda says, “Light is night.” We should understand how come they are disputed. From the perspective of the Kli [vessel], being rewarded with the light requires that we first feel the darkness. Hence, light is mainly “night.” When we speak from the perspective of the abundance, not from the perspective of the Kli, the abundance is called “light,” which is day.

This is the meaning of “The voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hands are the hands of Esau.” The body is regarded as the quality of Esau, since as soon as one is born, the evil inclination comes to him. Hence, it is regarded as Esau: It is complete and knows what is good and what is bad.

When the good inclination comes to him and tells him that there is a different good than what he knows to be considered good, he does not want to listen. The good inclination tells him, “The wicked in their lives are called ‘dead.’” But he does not understand what it is telling him; he thinks that it is the complete opposite.

It was said about this, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hands are the hands of Esau,” meaning that through the voice of Jacob, which is the evening prayer, the Kelim [vessels] of Esau can receive correction, and the darkness will be turned to day, as it is written, “And it came to pass that when evening falls, it will become day.”

M. Laitman: (16:46) Can we relate to the prayer, to the Mincha prayer, a stone of obligatory prayer.

Question (MAK 11): (17:24) Regarding the Psalms of David, how does one read them?

M. Laitman: We read them in the group. We try to scrutinize what he meant, and often we understand that we're incapable of that.

Student: We can simply read without scrutiny? How do we do that?

M. Laitman: Usually, that's how it's read, without scrutiny and explanations, simply reading it, because within them there is a huge, huge potential of sanctity. So, you can continue reading it.

Question (Women Moscow 5): (18:15) Very often in the sources we hear that Rabbi so-and-so says this and that, and Rabbi so-and-so said something opposite. So, what do these opposite opinions in the sources lead to? What do they lead us towards?

M. Laitman: They lead, basically, to reaching the conclusion that all of these great Kabbalists are saying the same thing. One is not different from the other.

Student: So, our method is based on the fact that we have to scrutinize all of the time and speak about it and come to one opinion, and exactly this is considered our advancement.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Petah Tikva 8): (19:18) I heard prior that a person in the state of the evening is grateful towards the Creator for the thread of mercy that is being handed to him. How do you differentiate this thread of mercy? How can you see it?

M. Laitman: That even towards the night, when it comes to a person, he nonetheless can discern in that state the light of day. That's still the light of day.

Student: What is this light of day that awakens in the morning?

M. Laitman: Let's reach this state and pray, and we'll see.

Student: When a person is in some confusion in the darkness, can he ask the Creator for help? What can he ask from the Creator in such a state?

M. Laitman: Of course, it's permitted for a person to ask the Creator to help him, for it to shine to him

Student: How do I ask for this so it's not just a simple egoistical plea as the whole world is asking?

M. Laitman: Why is it so bad to be like everyone else?

Student: We study Kabbalah. My nature tells me, Creator, help me. I don't feel comfortable, I don't feel good, I don't understand. The whole world asks the Creator in this manner, and if we want to advance like this towards Him, we want to develop above ego.

M. Laitman: So, ask in a prayer.

Student: What? To simply develop?

M. Laitman: To develop, to be close to the Creator, to hold on to Him, to understand Him, to feel Him.

Student: Is this something that He is expecting from us in such states?

M. Laitman: Yes, why not?

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (21:56) First of all, in the beginning we didn't have translation, and we didn't really understand what you and the moderator were discussing. Maybe you could repeat what's the importance of this evening prayer? What the person is asking for?

M. Laitman: Basically, it's written that a person is obligated to pray in the morning and in the afternoon twice a day. And a third prayer is added, the evening prayer. And this is according to a person's desire. It's the place of permission. If he can, he prays, if he cannot, he does not. This is how we accept the three prayers. The morning and the afternoon. That's a must. The evening prayer, that's the place of permission. It's not a must.

Student: What is he praying for? Is he raising his gratitude towards the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does it mean in general that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are establishing anything with these names? How do I perceive that?

M. Laitman: To perceive that there were such sages who were called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who related this way to the prayer, that the morning prayer is a must, and Abraham led that. The afternoon prayer is also a must, and Isaac led that. And the night prayer is the place of permission, meaning, it's optional to pray or to not pray, and Jacob instilled that. That's what we need to know about this. The rest will come to us out of working with these prayers.

Student: But in general, it is said that it is advisable for a person to pray all day, all night. Why do forefathers establish something additional here?

M. Laitman: Answer not translated.

Student: There's an emptying of the Kli and fulfillment of the Kli. On the second part. Can we constantly be in the light?

M. Laitman: No, it's impossible. There is this transition between day and night, light and darkness, and so forth.

Re-Reading Article: (26:25) The Way of the Land Preceded the Torah

“What is light? Rav Huna said, ‘light,’ and Rav Yehuda said ‘night’” (Rish Pesachim).

“Jacob went out from Beer Sheba and went to Haran and arrived at the place.” “Jacob went out,” The Zohar says, from Beer Sheba, from the land of Israel. “Went to Haran,” abroad. Our sages said that Abraham and Isaac established the morning and afternoon prayers, which are mandatory, and Jacob established the evening prayer, which is optional (Berachot 26b).

We should understand why the prayer of Jacob—who is the senior among the patriarchs, and who is called “Jacob, a complete man,” eliciting twelve tribes—is not mandatory like the prayers of Abraham and Isaac.

M. Laitman: Is it clear?

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (28:04) What exactly is the prayer that has to be in a spiritual work?

M. Laitman: In spiritual work, the obligatory prayer is not a prayer that is written in some book or prayer book. Rather, a prayer that a person needs to reach a state that he feels that he must pray in the morning, in the afternoon, and maybe in the evening. And this way, daily.

Student: In the article it is said that Jacob's evening prayer is not mandatory and is by choice. What determines my choice? How can I know that I should make that choice?

M. Laitman: That's for every person. Every person needs to pray twice in the morning. For them to pray twice in the morning and afternoon, that's a must. It's obligatory. Whereas the evening prayer is optional. That's according to his feeling. But normally one who feels that his friend is doing him a favor feels a moral debt to bless him for the favor that he did for him and will return him favors henceforth. But one who does not feel that his friend did him a favor but thinks that perhaps he did him favors he does not feel he should be grateful and that he should seek something from him. Rather, he has an option.

Continues Re-reading Article: (31:36) The Way of the Land Preceded the Torah

Normally, one who feels that his friend is doing him a favor feels a moral debt to bless him for the favor that he did for him and will return him favors henceforth.

But one who does not feel that his friend did him a favor, but thinks that perhaps he did him favors, he does not feel he should be grateful and that he should seek something from him. Rather, he has an option. In other words, the body does not feel indebted to ask of the other one, but this is an option, and he has the choice whether or not to do so. But if he feels that his friend has given to him, the body feels a debt to his friend.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:59) This notion that the person is feeling something, that the Creator does good to him for sure, and then he feels debt to be in gratitude. This concept is clear. The feeling of good from the Creator's side is clear to me and I feel myself indebted to be grateful. What about maybe he did it to me or he did not, when it's the state of the evening where everything is mixed and it's unclear. How in this state, when a person does not feel for sure that the Creator did good to him, advance to the perception of reality the way it truly is, that he is good and always good?

M. Laitman: He nonetheless needs to believe even if he doesn't feel it with certainty, he needs to believe that the Creator is all the time doing only good things to him. That's how I understand it.

Student: What force helps him believe? What does it mean that he has to believe?

M. Laitman: The fact that the Creator created him and arranged forces for him. He also cared for a person, that a person will think this way and that the Creator is the good that does good to the good and to the bad and thinks only good things about him. Okay.

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (35:50) Can we relate to the morning and the afternoon prayers? Is the morning and the afternoon lessons, or is this a different action?

M. Laitman: It's a different, separate action. Absolutely separate.

Continues Re-reading Article: (36:37) The Way of the Land Preceded the Torah

Normally, one who feels that his friend is doing him a favor feels a moral debt to bless him for the favor that he did for him and will return him favors henceforth.

But one who does not feel that his friend did him a favor, but thinks that perhaps he did him favors, he does not feel he should be grateful and that he should seek something from him. Rather, he has an option. In other words, the body does not feel indebted to ask of the other one, but this is an option, and he has the choice whether or not to do so. But if he feels that his friend has given to him, the body feels a debt to his friend.

Question (Women MAK): (37:41) How do I accept the pleasure of this world and love to the Creator and give contentment to Him constantly? Because I'm losing the taste of the corporeal world and I don't receive pleasure from anything, only from morning lessons, from unity. What does this state lead to?

M. Laitman: It leads to your understanding of what the Creator has given to you because in reality you are receiving everything. You are just lacking revelation on your end.

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (38:52) You replied to the friend, I do according to what you teach us, to love thy neighbor as thyself, and I try to do good to everyone and the opposite. In corporeality when I do something good I receive the opposite. Whatever good I do, everything turns to bad. I'm desperate from this. Can I bestow at all? I want to bestow and when I do something I receive the opposite; I receive bad. It makes me feel bad.

M. Laitman: Maybe you're not supposed to. Maybe you're supposed to wait to get something good.

Student: It’s not that I'm waiting. I'm being done bad and that's the problem. I don't know what to do, something or not or just sit silently. How do I perform good deeds? How can I express it to the world to everyone who I'm working with?

M. Laitman: I understand you very well. I really understand you, and still I propose you continue and perform good towards everyone.

Student: Despite the fact that I receive bad?

M. Laitman: It doesn't matter. I hear what you're saying.

Question (Women MAK): (40:51) How do I receive the sensitivity towards the desire of the friends so that prayer is not a habit but a work in the heart that brings correction?

M. Laitman: Gradually it will be like this.

Student: What is the true overcoming that ends in a prayer?

M. Laitman: That's what will happen. It will end with a prayer and the feeling that the Creator does good to you.

Question (Women MAK): (41:44) The article is called “The Way of the Land Preceded the Torah”. Does it mean that when we rise above our ego in the Ten, the middle line, the third line comes, and we feel gratitude and correct prayer to the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women MAK): (42:18) What's the difference between the perception of the light of the day or the light of the evening? How do we work with the darkness?

M. Laitman: We will be studying this.

Question (Women MAK): (42:37) Why does the perception of a service as being done voluntarily and not mandatory affect our feeling of gratitude?

M. Laitman: It affects us because this is how the Creator affects us, and this way we perceive it.

Student: This is how we change if we do it correctly?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Italy): (43:18) With prayer we experience that the intention of praying comes from Him, and we put with Him the desire to get closer to Him. Do we arrange the good that works in us, or do we need action first?

M. Laitman: No. That is something you need to feel yourselves one way or another, how it comes from the Creator and in accordance to the thoughts and desires and your prayers, but in general it is not that important.

Question (Women MAK 43): (44:26) In the text it is written that I say that the light is proportional to the darkness which a person goes through?

M. Laitman: Yes, you can say that. But a person does not have to wait for the darkness so that he would have more light later. No, it is not right.

Student: Another question. Jacob connects himself to the darkness because that state is more necessary for a person's work, and specifically in the darkness a person can find this free choice and overcome the ego or is it not so?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (45:24) Why does the Creator throw a person into this pit like He did with Jacob? What is His good intention in that?

M. Laitman: To raise him later, way higher from the position that he used to be at before.

Student: So, without feeling that a person is in the dark pit he will not be able to rise?

M. Laitman: No.

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (45:59) There is this analogy that Israel came out of the land, and then He went out of the borders meaning below the Tabur, and whether He feels it or not in His relations to the friends, that my desire to receive is connected to the giver or not and out of that I have this possibility to give thanks. Is that so?

M. Laitman: Let's say.

Student: Yesterday we learned that we need to climb down on the ladder through mercy, and through mercy I descend on this ladder, but how does the ascent happen?

M. Laitman: Ascent happens the same way.

Student: Through gratitude can we say? When I feel this mutual action with a friend, and I feel that the Creator is interacting with me through Him, and I need to thank the Creator in this state? And this is my correction then? This is the ascent from under the Tabur?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (47:39) I understood from the text that once we want to correct ourselves, the evening prayer of Jacob is very important for us then, because it corrects the vessels of Sarah, so we cannot ignore it just seemingly according to our desire, but the opposite. We need to pay more attention to it.

M. Laitman: It is said that the morning and afternoon prayer are mandatory, and the evening prayer is optional. It's at a person's discretion.

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (48:27) What is that analogy?

M. Laitman: It speaks about morning, afternoon and evening.

Question (Women MAK): (49:10) This work in the heart, this prayer, this true plea from the depth of the heart. Will I feel that I have corrected myself in the time of the plea or after, or do I have to believe?

M. Laitman: You will feel.

Question (Women MAK): (49:43) The prayer of the women’s world Kli is happening during the evening. We want to receive your blessing for these prayers to also occur during the daytime lessons, and we have these prayers in the evening and then we participate in the morning lessons also. We would love for these prayers to also occur in the day.

M. Laitman: To organize it to be in the day? Discuss it between yourselves.

Question (Women MAK 113): (50:27) in our group we have such an experience that during the afternoon and during the day every friend is praying from her personal state, and in the evening when we gather, we gather these prayers them into one, and we pray everyone separately when we get this common prayer. So, it occurs that we get to know friends better and their states and it's as if the revelation of the states occurs. Do we perform this correctly?

M. Laitman: Do it that way.

Question (MAK 11): (51:17) I heard more than once that we have to strive towards constant prayer, and here some separation is happening from morning and afternoon and the evening prayers and between them.

M. Laitman: Between them, pray on your own.

Student: So, with whom do I pray these three prayers?

M. Laitman: Those three prayers were founded by our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Question (Kyiv): (52:06) How do we pray these two prayers, the morning and the afternoon one? I just read them with the Siddur?

M. Laitman: Yes, just as it's written, the Siddur, the prayer book; Just read it that way.

Student: So, this morning prayer is clear. Everyone is reading it in our organization in the morning, but in the afternoon what do I do, in the Ten or how?

M. Laitman: It’s best if you can do it as a Ten.

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (53:00) Can I accept the fact that morning is the right line, afternoon is the left, and evening is the mix in between them?

M. Laitman: Don't invent things.

Student: But why in this article that he, at first, is speaking about the afternoon and then the interaction between the friends and it's everything all together.

M. Laitman: When you understand it then we'll talk.

Student: Another question. Can we say that climbing the ladder is coming from the thinner Aviut? I enter into corporeal reality and interacting with the people.

M. Laitman: No.

Question (Women Spain): (54:13) We look at gratitude as the spiritual necessity between the friends?

M. Laitman: No.

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (54:52) If the state of darkness is not personal, but it's a state that the Ten experiences, it's the whole Ten. It's as if the Creator is just interfering with our connection, and I understand that it cannot happen, but that's the feeling that I have. What kind of prayer has to be here?

M. Laitman: A prayer that we're asking Him that we will be able to connect.

Student: We have to be grateful to Him for the state or simply ask to unite.

M. Laitman: If the state isn't good, why should you give gratitude? We want to ask for a good state.

Student: Ask for the state so that we all will feel that we're connected?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (56:19) Regarding connection with the friends in the Ten. Is it possible to ask the Creator to reach the state when exactly from a bad state to build it as a primary so that later, the morning prayer and afternoon would be to support the state?

M. Laitman: Don't invent anything on your own. Just do what's written.

Question (Women Azerbaijan): (57:08) Is the prayer of Jacob is not mandatory, but it's the only prayer when we have choice to pray or not to pray, and when the choice is given then it's a true check of a person. How can he even, in a state like this, raise the prayer to the Creator? So this non-mandatory nature of the prayer serves as a check? How can you address the Creator so by its essence, it's very important actually, maybe even more important or I don't get it correctly?

M. Laitman: You'll understand all of this in time. You have to read what's written not to add or invent anything.

Student: I mean when a prayer prays from darkness, he feels the lack of light and therefore the force of this prayer. Just by its force, it's very powerful. That's what I meant by the evening prayer.

M. Laitman: Yes, you're right.

Question (Women MAK 97): (58:25) Is this right to say that morning and afternoon prayer are mandatory? Because we're asking about the small state, about the connection with the Creator, and the evening prayer we're asking about Gadlut, about the big state, and this is not mandatory. Just being connected with the Creator is enough?

M. Laitman: It's similar.

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (58:57) What's the importance of the prayer of the morning and do you advise us to engage in it?

M. Laitman: The morning prayer is very important and I recommend, obviously, to read it.

Question (Women Moscow): (59:48) In the last paragraph it is said the voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hands are the hands of Esau, meaning that through the voice of Jacob which is the evening prayer the Kelim of Esau can receive correction, and the darkness will be turned to day. Can you please explain this a little bit?

M. Laitman: No, but we'll learn it later. We will. That's it.

All the best to everyone.

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Part 3 Building a Spiritual Society

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