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

Daily Morning Lesson: May 4, 2026

Part 1:Rabash. Art. 25 (1987). What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?

Original lesson date: 01/09/2003

Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson, we will watch a recorded lesson from the 9th of January, 2003, based on the article, "What is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?" from the writings of Rabash. We will read the article together, we have 31 minutes allotted for that, and Tens who are done before the 31 minutes have elapsed are invited to hold a workshop summarizing the principles of the article.

Reading: (00:39) Rabash. What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?

Article No. 25, 1987

Our sages said (Berachot 30b), “One does not pray unless with heaviness of the head.”

RASHI interprets that heaviness of the head means subduing. Our sages also said there, “One does not pray out of sadness, and not out of lightheadedness.” RASHI interprets that lightheadedness means the opposite of heaviness of the head.

We should understand that when he says, “only out of heaviness of the head,” it means that if he does not have heaviness of the head he should not pray. But afterwards it is written, “One does not pray, and not out of lightheadedness.” This means that if there is no lightheadedness then one can pray, and there is no need [to wait] for heaviness of the head.

Rather, this implies that if he does not have lightheadedness then he has heaviness of the head. And also to the contrary, if he does not have heaviness of the head then he is already lightheaded. That is, there is nothing in the middle between heaviness of the head and lightheadedness. Because of it, there is no contradiction between the phrases. However, we should understand how it is possible that there is nothing between heaviness of the head and lightheadedness.

And mainly, we should understand what is the prayer, of which they said, “One does not pray unless,” according to the conditions that our sages said. In other words, what is a prayer? There must be these conditions there; otherwise, it is impossible to pray.

Our sages said (Taanit 2), “To love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart.” Which is work that is in the heart? It is prayer.

We should understand why a prayer is called “work in the heart,” more than the rest of the Mitzvot [commandments] in the Torah. Is the study of Torah not as great a work as prayer?

We should also ask why is it that specifically prayer is called “work in the heart.” We cannot say that only a prayer belongs to the heart and not the Torah, since the Torah belongs to the heart, as well. It is as Rabbi Eben Ezra says (presented in the introduction to the book Panim Masbirot), “Know that the Torah was given only to men of heart.”

Thus, we should understand 1) why a “prayer” is regarded as work more than the rest of the Mitzvot, 2) why specifically a prayer is called “the work in the heart,” and not “the work in the mind.” Concerning prayer, which is work in the heart, our sages told us, “One does not pray unless out of heaviness of the head.” This means that precisely through this his prayer will be in order. Thus, we should understand what is “heaviness of the head.”

To understand the above, we first need to reiterate what is known concerning the purpose of creation. Although it is clear, we should reiterate in order to remember the goal, which is a guarantee that they will not miss the goal. Concerning the purpose of creation, we should speak of only two topics: a) the Creator, who is the Giver, b) the creatures—the receivers of the abundance.

The purpose of creation, which is “His desire to do good to His creations,” has created creatures to receive what He wishes to give them, meaning to receive the delight He wishes to impart upon them. This is the meaning of doing good, since it cannot be said that one is receiving something good without enjoyment. In other words, if he does not enjoy it, why is it regarded as good?

Yet, we see that a person enjoys only what he craves. For this reason, He has created in the creatures a desire to crave to receive pleasures. This is called “will to receive for one’s own sake.” In the upper worlds, the will to receive for one’s own sake is called Malchut, and also Aviut [thickness], once the will to receive for oneself has been disqualified and it is forbidden to use this Kli [vessel] without corrections.

However, a correction was placed here on the will to receive, not to use it as it emerged upon its creation, meaning in the first root when it was born, due to the disparity of form between it and the Creator, since the Creator is the giver and the creatures will be receiving.

In order to have equivalence of form, meaning that the receiver, too, will be regarded as a giver, or else there will not be equivalence of form, causing the creatures to feel unpleasantness upon reception of the delight and pleasure, called “shame.” In order to spare the creatures this shame, a correction was made called “receiving in order to bestow.” This means that although he is receiving with his Kli, called “craving,” meaning that it is impossible to enjoy the benefit unless he craves to receive it, but the correction is that he should place an intention over the act. That is, he must see that although the desire to receive it is in full power, if he cannot aim to bestow contentment upon his Maker, he relinquishes the pleasure despite his yearning.

The reason he relinquishes it should be only because he wants Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, called “equivalence of form,” as our sages said, “As He is merciful, you are merciful.” From that correction extends to us a Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment. That is, before the lower ones have this aim and can relinquish even the greatest pleasures if they cannot aim to bestow upon the Creator, there is darkness in the world.

In other words, the Creator is hidden from the creatures; they do not feel Him. Yet, we must believe above reason that He has connection with the creatures and He has created them in order to impart upon them delight and pleasure. This is not so with what appears to our eyes. Before we can aim to bestow, we are placed under the governance of the darkness and nothing spiritual illuminates. At that time the purpose of creation, to do good to His creations, is not disclosed because at that time they see only suffering and pain in the world, and do not see the guidance of The Good Who Does Good. Yet, we must believe that the purpose of creation, to do good to His creations, is the absolute truth, and the reason we do not see this is because of a correction for us, which is called “Tzimtzum and concealment of the face.”

This is as he says (in “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 10), “Thus, you find that this soul, which is the light of life that is dressed in the body, extends existence from absence. As it traverses the four worlds ABYA, it becomes increasingly removed from the light of His face until it comes into its designated Kli, called Guf [body]. And even if the light in it has so diminished that its origin becomes undetectable…”

This causes us to have work on faith because it is no longer apparent in our soul that it comes from the Creator. Instead, we need special work to believe in the Creator, that He is the one leading all the creatures. It therefore follows that all the heaviness we feel in the work of bestowal is not because it is hard for us to work without reward because of our nature, called “will to receive.” Rather, there is a completely different matter here, since according to the rule that Baal HaSulam said, there is a trait in our nature that every lower one wants to annul before the upper one, who is the most important to him. A common person derives pleasure from serving an important person, as our sages said (Kidushin 7), “With an important person, she gives, and he says, ‘You are hereby sanctified,’” for his reception, which is in order to delight the one who gives him, is regarded as complete bestowal and giving to her.

The reason for this is that by nature, a person enjoys giving and bestowing upon an important person. This brings up the question, Why is it difficult for us to observe Torah and Mitzvot in order to bestow? The answer is that because of the correction of the bread of shame, a correction was made called “Tzimtzum, concealment, and darkness,” whereby as long as the creatures are under the control of the receiver for himself, they are so removed from their root that their origin becomes undetectable.

Instead, we were given the work above reason, where although we do not see or feel any spiritual matter, we must do everything above reason. This causes us the heaviness in the work of bestowal. It therefore follows that when we want to walk on the path of truth in the work, we must ask the Creator to give us the power of faith.

It is written (in the prayer of Rabbi Elimelech, “A Prayer before a Prayer”), “Set Your faith in our hearts forever, ceaselessly.” This means that the Creator will give us the power of faith so we will feel that we are serving the King of Kings, and our body will certainly annul “as a candle before a torch.”

However, since we are born with an inherent mind and reason, which is our leader, our guide, who tells us what is good and what is bad for us, for this reason, anything that we do not understand with our reason, it tells us it is not good for us.

Therefore, when we are given the work of faith above reason, our reason comes and makes us think that we should not walk on this path. Instead, it argues, “Did the Creator give us a mind for no reason? He certainly created everything for our sake,” meaning so we will enjoy it. And it brings as evidence the verse, “One should praise according to one’s intellect.”

All of a sudden, the person comes to the body and says, “It’s true that until now you have been my guide, and I never did anything against reason, meaning I followed your command. But henceforth, know that anything you tell me to do, I will not listen to you, but only according to what I heard from books and authors. I take upon me the burden of the kingdom of heaven above reason, and I want to serve the Creator as befits a great king. From now on, I do not want to be concerned with it at all, but that my thoughts will be only for Your sake, the Creator.”

It therefore follows that in order to be able to get to the truth, all that a person lacks is faith above reason. The body resists this with all its might, and from this extends our lack of progress in the work of the Creator. This is called “heaviness of the head,” for “head” means man’s reason. If a person follows what the reason tells him, it is called “lightheadedness,” meaning it is something that is easy for the reason to tolerate, for one to do things that the reason dictates to him.

But if a person wants to go above reason, this is called “heaviness of the head,” meaning it is difficult for the reason, called “head,” to tolerate when a person wants to go against reason, and regards it as a burden and a load. This is called “heaviness of the head.”

By this we should interpret what is written, “One does not pray unless with heaviness of the head.” In other words, our sages advise us how one should pray. They tell us, “only with heaviness of the head.” This means that one should see what he needs before he prays, and on this lack he prays that the Creator will satisfy his lack.

Therefore, one should first check oneself to see if he can take upon himself to walk in faith above reason, called “heaviness of the head,” and only then will pray that the Creator will establish the faith in his heart, for if there is faith above reason, then he has everything, as was said, that the small one annuls before the great one.

This is the meaning of what RASHI interpreted, that heaviness of the head means subduing. What is subduing? It is when a person subdues before the great one and heeds the view of the great one. This means that if a little child tells something to a grownup, and the grownup sees that what the child is saying makes sense, the grownup will certainly listen to him. Yet, this does not mean that the grown one subdued before the little one.

Rather, what is subduing? If a person seeks the advice of the great one about what he should do, and the great one tells him, “Do this and that,” and the person sees that it makes no sense at all, and if he asked someone if he should listen to what the great one said, he would certainly tell him that it makes no sense and he must not listen to him, yet if that person subdues himself, meaning subjugates his reason and the reason of the public, which are against the reason of the great one, and listens to him, this is called “subduing,” when he listens to the great one above reason.

This is very difficult to do, and it is called “The matter is heavy to do.” It is also called “I am of heavy mouth and heavy tongue,” said about Moses. Mosses is called “the faithful shepherd,” since Moses is called “faith,” and with faith there is no mouth or tongue, for mouth and tongue mean that he explains the matters with mind and reason, while Moses is faith above reason.

From this we can understand what RASHI interprets about lightheadedness being the opposite of heaviness of the head, and why he does not interpret directly but says that it is the opposite of heaviness of the head. It is so because he wants to interpret to us more clearly what is heaviness of the head, that it is about faith above reason. This is why he tells us that lightheadedness is the opposite of faith above reason.

In other words, he explains to us that there is nothing in between them, but either faith above reason, called “heaviness of the head,” or within reason, called “lightheadedness,” since something that is clothed in mind and reason is easy for the head to agree for a person to do these actions, which are built on a foundation that the outer intellect understands.

But if a person is told to do things that contradict the mind and reason, it is heaviness of the head. That is, it is a heavy burden for the intellect to tolerate. Therefore, when one is told to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load,” he objects.

According to the above, we can understand why the Mishnah says, “One does not pray unless with heaviness of the head.” It means that if he has no heaviness of the head, he must not pray. The Gemara says, “One does not pray out of lightheadedness.”

We were wondering, for here it means that if he has no lightheadedness, even though he has no heaviness of the head, he can already pray. This means that there is no in between here. And according to the above, there really is no in between. Rather, either he has faith above reason, called “heaviness of the head,” or faith within reason, called “lightheadedness,” since it is easy for the mind to understand and agree if the intellect mandates that he should do these actions.

But in between, there is nothing. Therefore, one who wants to pray to the Creator certainly has faith, or he would not come to pray. However, a) either he prays on a basis of faith within reason, called “lightheadedness,” as RASHI interpreted, that he has no subduing, b) or he prays with heaviness of the head, when he has subduing. That is, he subdues his reason and does not look at it, as though it is worthless, and his entire basis is built on faith above reason.

Now we can understand the question we asked, Why is prayer called “work”? Moreover, it is called “work in the heart”! It is known that “work” means that a person needs to do something that the body does not enjoy doing. This is called “work.” For this reason, a person cannot work without reward. But if a person enjoys the work, it is not regarded as exertion.

This means that the same act that a person does, to one who does not enjoy doing it, it is regarded as “labor,” and to another, who enjoys what he is doing, it is not regarded as labor or work. Hence, naturally, he does not need to receive any reward in return for it. Because a person cannot do anything without pleasure, when he does something he does not enjoy, why does he do it?

The answer is that he is expecting to benefit from the work he is doing now at a later time, meaning that he will receive reward for the work and will enjoy. It follows that when one does something without pleasure, from where does he derive strength to work? We must say that he is looking at the reward, and this gives him fuel for the work.

For example, assume that the ADMOR of Lubavitch lands at the airport and he has a suitcase. He gives it to the porter, whose job is to take the suitcase to the taxi. Afterward, he will demand his payment for his work. This is so because he does not recognize the importance of the rabbi. Yet, if the rabbi were to give the suitcase to one of his followers, and the rabbi would want to pay him for his work, the follower will not want to receive, since he already received pleasure while working, for he considers it a fortune to serve the rabbi.

It is as we explained, a prayer should be with heaviness of the head, meaning when a person feels that he does not have faith above reason, meaning that the reason does not mandate him to work in order to bestow, yet the person understands the primary goal should be to be rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. Since the reason objects to this, he must go against reason, and this is very hard work.

Since he is asking the Creator to give him something to which all of his organs object, it follows that each and every prayer he makes to the Creator has its special work. This is why a prayer is called “work in the heart,” meaning that he wants to go against the intellect and the mind, which tell him the complete opposite.

This is why it is not called “the work of the brain,” since the work of the brain means that a person exerts to understand something with his mind and reason. But here he does not want to understand with his reason that we should serve the Creator in a state of knowing. Rather, he wants to serve the Creator specifically with faith above reason. This is why a prayer is called “work in the heart.”

Accordingly, we should interpret “One does not pray,” for a prayer is a lack. When a person lacks something and cannot obtain his wish by himself, he asks others to help him. Therefore, when one comes to pray to the Creator to help him, he first needs to see what he really needs, meaning that if he were given what he asks, he will be a complete person who lacks nothing.

This pertains specifically to faith, for when a person is rewarded with permanent faith above reason, he is rewarded with everything. This is why they said, “One does not pray unless with a lack of heaviness of the head,” meaning for the Creator to give him the light of faith.

Reader: We will now go to the lesson from January 9, 2003.

M. Laitman: (31:46) Heaviness of the head in the work, what is it? Because we are opposite to the Creator, to the light in everything, so much so that we cannot imagine anything similar, close to it. Therefore, slowly, gradually, these qualities are revealed to us, which are in us, so that we don't stand opposite such a mountain that we can't even imagine how we'd look at it. This oppositeness is terrible, from here all the way to infinity. So we are shown slowly, gradually, how opposite we are. Opposite, meaning our entire form, you can imagine it as corporeal form, maybe, but our entire form, all of our qualities, are the complete opposite of the Creator. If we had one quality that is opposite, then we could measure that quality in comparison with the other qualities, which means that we would have a correct outlook from the other qualities, we'd be able to look at that one quality which is not right, which is opposite, then we'd be able to see it. But because our eyes, our hands, our sense of smell and hearing, all of our qualities are opposite, then we have no ability to see anything that isn't opposite, and so everything seems right. However, when this opposite form is revealed in the person, it needs to be a real revelation from above, because there is no preparation in us, there's no beginning for us to see a contradiction, something that contradicts what exists. For that, there needs to be a very developed point in the heart, one quality which is external to this world. I need to have that quality in me, then I will be able to check and critique through it, perhaps, all the rest of my qualities and my form. And so, it's only according to how much light we get from above and how much this quality gets cultivated, that point in the heart, then we can see how opposite we are. Before that, it's impossible. It's like, as we say, we have matter and antimatter, something which is the complete opposite. But who knows that it's opposite? There needs to be some median point in the middle, something opposite. When a person begins to receive this opposite point, meaning the quality of the Creator within his qualities, from that point - which is the point in the heart, the point of the Creator - when he looks at all his other qualities, his general form, from that point and sees how in him everything is opposite, then he truly gets that feeling called “heaviness of the head.” But it's not exactly heaviness of the head, he sees that still is not sufficient. So, fine, so I'm opposite. You could say: “Go to the craftsman who made me,” meaning that from this state you can also emerge without doing anything, but just be frivolous, lightheaded - not to receive it. Well, it's fine, it's all right, that's how I continue. But the heaviness of the head, gravity and seriousness, this is, after a person sees from the point in the heart his entire form as being opposite to divinity, to the extent that he's allowed to see it, it's still a very small form, it's not even the conception. And after that feeling, he needs to come to submission, surrender. What does it mean? Surrender is not that I submit my qualities, subdue them before the qualities of the Creator. The submission is that I receive counsel, the counsel to work above reason with my qualities. And the acceptance of the work above reason, that is called work with heaviness of the head, meaning it's not sufficient just to see the qualities, you also need to relate to them correctly.

M. Laitman: (37:31) And then, of course, from this point, only one outcome can follow, which is prayer. Because after the person sees how opposite he is, he's given that to see, that he has no ability to invert himself to the opposite form, to assume the opposite form, without assistance from above. And then he turns to the Creator with heaviness of the head, in a serious manner, and then he understands that this opposite form, and the true form that he will receive if the Creator should help him, this was all given to him deliberately. These two forms were given to him deliberately, to feel - in one to feel bad, and in the other to feel good. He wasn't given to feel these two states for no reason as being good or bad, but so that through that distinction, he will want to adhere to the Creator Himself, and these two forms, which appear to him as being opposites, that's how he perceives them in his sensations, they are only means by which to adhere to the Creator. The truth is above these two forms, and the opposite, from the status, the position of the Creator, who is above these two forms. If a person rejects his attitude towards his state according to lightheadedness or with heaviness of the head, then he disappears, vanishes completely from any relation to spirituality, so to speak. There is no intermediary state between lightheadedness and heaviness of the head. That state doesn't exist. It's like a person living, walking in the street, a regular person like all those people around us, a person who has no relation to the qualities, to his qualities in comparison with the Creator's qualities; in spirituality that discernment does not exist. And so it follows that our main work is to come to prayer, as prayer is called work in the heart, for it to be with heaviness of the head. And heaviness of the head, again, it's not because I see my qualities as being opposite to the Creator and then wanting to correct them, but rather it's a stage beyond that, that because I see that and I want to correct them, I submit in order to receive this counsel from the Creator to go and fix them, correct them above reason. That's really a bit about the article. You can discuss it at length. Any questions?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:41) 58, third paragraph from the bottom. Our sages advise us what should a person pray for. They say you should pray out of heaviness of the head, meaning a person needs to see before he prays what he is lacking and pray for that deficiency. How can he tell what is lacking?

M. Laitman: It's written that a person should pray from a lack, where he knows what he lacks. How to know what I'm lacking? I'm lacking just one thing, to see that my form is opposite to that of the Creator, which I see within reason. I see it. I see, I feel, I perceive it, absorb it within me, right? There's nothing special here. It is special that the Creator made a miracle for me. He gave me this feeling which is the opposite of what I usually feel. He gave me an additional vessel from the opposite world, different world, spiritual one. And then I have these two forms of vessels: one - spark in order to bestow, which is called the grace of holiness, which is called the point in the heart, a spark from this shattered vessel which remained, this small candle; and the opposite - my egoistic qualities, my usual self. And then I can critique, examine, discuss and decide that my form, to the extent that I can see it from the point in the heart, my form is opposite to that, opposite. This knowledge is still only the beginning of my relationship with spirituality, it's not yet entrance into spirituality. Many people feel it. When people turn to us, they come here, they reach that feeling and immediately they run away, go home and never return. Why? Because from here there is another step. Out of feeling my oppositeness to the Creator, I now need to reach the proper solution. What do I derive from this data? I need to relate to it correctly. To relate to it correctly, that's not me, by myself, going and searching for some means by which to improve myself, how to extract myself by my own power, bring myself to the degree of the Creator. If I look at it in that way, then I see that I can't, and then I break, and I leave. I say, this work isn't for me, it's not even for people. The Creator is in His heavens, I'm on the earth, and, you know, just let me live. It's better to shut my eyes rather than see everything being in this one nature. Not in the middle, it's awful, between spirituality and corporeality, to constantly feel that you're the opposite, that you're inferior, that you're opposite. It's terrible, just a terrible sensation, despair. What for? Meaning, the feeling of the distance, the gap between spirituality and corporeality must immediately come with the right act corresponding to that feeling, otherwise a person simply falls into despair, into the feeling of helplessness, and what does he gain by it, yes? So, the recognition of evil must serve as a springboard to jump immediately, well, as quickly as possible at least, towards the work above reason, which I cannot do, but the Creator can do. And He does want to do it, and it is part of His plan to do it, to the extent that I now demand it of Him. Why should I demand it of Him? In that I need to value Him, I need to submit, I receive His counsel, by that I adhere to Him - ultimately it's adhesion, that's what you gain. So, if we process these data correctly, a person needs a society to give him these forces of the right attitude by which to relate to the state, and then a person very quickly transitions to the next step, and that is called ‘work with heaviness of the head,’ which is prayer already, actual prayer.

M. Laitman: (47:12) A prayer to the Creator cannot be above reason — it cannot be, sorry, not above reason, that is clear. Because what is a prayer? My lack needs to be absorbed in the Upper One But I am not in the Upper One. I can be heard by the Upper One, if I rise to Him, if I elevate my lack to Him. Elevating my lack to Him, that means performing an action above reason, I take my own lack from my degree and I raise it to the degree of the Upper One. How is that done? In contradiction to anything that you can imagine, that you can do, meaning, although the situation looks critical to you, you need to see from within it only one outcome, that the Creator can help. Here it is a point which there is no logic to it, our mind cannot transition us from this world to spirituality, there is some barrier in the middle, and only by accepting a screen over our states, a spiritual vessel, the intention to bestow, this connection from all of my senses and mind, which say that, this is something that is impossible to explain, and only in that way is it possible for my desire to be absorbed in the Upper One as prayer.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:25) So this means that at any point where you see despair and the person tells himself the Creator can help, this is actually raising the lack? That he reaches complete despair and then he says the Creator can help — at this point is that the raising of the lack?

M. Laitman: I cannot tell you, you say the minute I can't, and the Creator can, I raise a deficiency, a lack? What does it mean that a person says it? Okay, a person says it. The things are not delivered according to the words. What can you do?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:11) How from seeing the bad qualities that I feel towards my friends, in my friends, how do I… I can hate them, these qualities, in this hatred, how can I ultimately see in it my recognition of evil?

M. Laitman: We have two ways for seeing our state — us relative to the Creator and us relative to the society, to these strangers around us. Either the Creator or the friend, the society or the friend, it doesn't matter. We have nothing else toward which I can check myself. So instead of the Creator they give us a society, from the society we can later come to the attitude toward the Creator, but eventually we must reach a state where either the Creator or the society will be for us as a single form of measurement. Eventually, relative to my egoistic vessels, it doesn't matter who's on the outside. If it matters, then it's in order to receive - I make all kinds of calculations here, who I should do it with more, and who I should have a better relationship with, or less than good relationship and so on, so forth. But by that I'm simply lying to myself. To measure correctly my effort as a corrected vessel, or correct vessel, then first of all the Creator or the society, they have to be the same for me. Then I reset my will to receive to zero, and from that point I can begin to measure. Then I don't have the deviation, I don't have the deviation, that inner, internal deviation. You understand? My instrument looks correctly from myself, then out to the outside, outwardly. When I look from within me outwardly in the correct way, I need to see now, I can see now, then what, then where is my attitude indeed. I can see it, and from that I begin to work. Meaning, it can't be that this lie, that something from the outside relative to the will to receive, is different relative to the will to receive. It can be that this lie will simply cover my eyes, otherwise I'm not in the correct reality at all. Now, it doesn't mean that I need to now go and bestow to everyone and force myself to be courteous to everyone and serve everyone. People think that this is how it should be, also they demand it: "Oh, you're a Kabbalist. How do you treat me now that you've heard about some problem of mine? You should run off and take care of it right away." There are people who say it to me. I need to relate to each and every one outside of me in order to reset my instruments. I'm not coming to serve the world or serve the friend relative to his egoistic form. Is that enough? You want me to keep going?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:11) I see within the feeling, not the mind. In the qualities, in the friends, I see the qualities. I see their bad attitude. I recognize their evil. How to see it within me? It's my fault, after all.

M. Laitman: No.

Student: I see the recognition of evil in him, not in myself.

M. Laitman: When you look at the friend, you recognize the evil in him. How can you see the evil in you? Right? So, again, this is the problem that can make us make a mistake. You cannot say now: “No, all the evil that I see in the other, it's evil because my vessels are uncorrected, and my friend is actually an angel, the Creator.” You can't say it. Not that you cannot say it because of your stature, but because this state is also incorrect. It's not the real state. Rather, we're all corrupt and we're all opposite from the Creator. However, if I am trying to measure my vessels, my internal vessels relative to others, then I see my egoistic attitude toward the others. Then these others, either the Creator or the created beings or the friends, it's the same thing. I am me and the egoist - it's the same thing. Those are outside of me. But those outside of me, they are either the friends, the created beings - they're also egoists; or the Creator, meaning the altruistic quality, eternal, absolute. There is a difference between them. There's a great difference. If I speak like you, that my attitude to others is bad because I am bad and they are good, I'll have no one to work with. This attitude is incorrect. Then I will not measure them according to how they are, I will measure them according to how they should be in the end of correction. It's not good, meaning I need to see correctly myself and them. And then I can connect with them together to reach correction. I need to see the friends not as corrected; I need to see them as who they are. So, I have a society, I have someone with whom I go out to attack together. I see that we cannot arrange this view, this outlook. How should I put it? Maybe a few more questions. I'm still not grasping where is the difficulty in connecting this attitude.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:36) There is a problem where if we read about these things, and then let's say, various things happen in reality, in life, which are difficult, inconvenient, unpleasant. And we read about this here, and then maybe we actually do try to feel it in the work above reason, through faith, and you tell yourself: “Wait, so what's happening to me it's not bad, it's actually good because it's concealment, annulment.”

M. Laitman: It's incorrect. Like he said, if what's happening to you, you say it's a good thing and not a bad thing, although you feel bad - it's simply a lie. It's a lie, it's a Hassidism. The common people say it like that. And that's the difference between the reason of landlords and the reason of Torah, between religion and the wisdom of Kabbalah. You're simply lying to yourself. No, no, what the Creator did, it's all for the good. And the beating that I get, it is also good. And those blows are good things; I simply can't feel them as good. So are you feeling good or not? No. So why are you moving? Why are you lying to yourself? Who are you lying to? Your heart is exactly in the upper Partzuf, as we learned in the Ima Il’a, she's in the posterior now relative to Abba. He doesn't receive your prayer because your prayer is not real, it's false. So if you lie even more to yourself, then you'll be even further from the truth. If I receive a blow and I say, this is good, that it's good and I pray, and I'm grateful for it, then it's a lie. How can it be? How can I reach the recognition of evil and “above reason”? That's what he's saying, right? So you don't grasp reality, you don't perceive it correctly. First of all, “the judge has only what his eyes can see.” After feeling yourself as bad, and you need to relate to this, “if I'm not for myself, then who is for me?”

Student: If it doesn't help?

M. Laitman: Your problem is that you don't wish to live in this clash of opinions, this inner clash. You don't want to be there. You know, it's easier to say, thank God, everything in the hands of the Creator, everything is good, there's no one besides Him, and I live like that, and that's it, and what do I care? That's one way. Or the other, meaning to live like the entire religious population, that in everything they seemingly, they trust, seemingly trust, put their trust in the heavens, because there's seemingly no criticism. They don't live this life, they simply erase this life and wish to adhere to “oh, the Creator, it is fine”, and that's it. Even now, see it right before the war, in Bnei Brack - I don't need to wear a gas mask during the war. Anything - war, not war, there's nothing. They don't accept life, they don't live life from which they need to rise, seemingly, right? Rise from reality to the end of correction by their own efforts. So why do they do it? They don't do it because they don't connect these two points. They seemingly adhere themselves to the heavens and that's it, we're done. Or they live like the seculars, where the heaven is completely non-existent, we live here in the land, and what we have is what we have, and we're done. Humanity exists in these two points. If you're in one point or the other, you get along quite well, somehow you shut your eyes about, you know, the other point, either secular or religious and there's no problem, it's this ideology. You got it in life and that's it, this philosophy, and that's how you want to relate to it, right? My friend is an angel, right, he is like the Creator. I have freedom like that, or the other way around.

M. Laitman: (01:03:17) No, you need to do that to see, what does it mean to get it to see? Because for the sake of my connection with the friends, I need to see, I need to know that through them I can truly feel where am I relative to the Creator, which is what I relate to, seemingly as my future point of Keter. For the sake of connecting with them, in order to reach the Creator, I need these deficiencies of mine and of theirs and to connect them together and see them as little ones and live specifically from these clashing viewpoints. There's nothing you can do. Otherwise, if you will not have the gap, if you won't have this gap, this gap, ultimately, it's a gap between the lower one and the Upper One. It's the gap between “within reason” and “above reason.” It's the gap from which you will desire the help of the Creator. And naturally we can tolerate everything except to be in this, the clash between the light and the vessel, let's say. This is the Bitush, the clash, the striking, where there's seemingly no way out of it, only above reason. And this point cannot be felt in us as good, as convenient, because it lacks foundation in nature. It's not a problem to cleave, to adhere oneself to the Creator, it's not a problem. Many people who do it, Gentiles, Jews, you know, it's like getting drunk. Or the other way around, to be inside of reality, or disconnected from reality. Humanity is doing only that. Either drugs or the real reality, it's not a problem. It can be in both states. The middle point between them is a point that cannot exist in a person unless he perceives himself above reason. Otherwise, he cannot be in it. He immediately, naturally, immediately runs off, either to one or the other. It doesn't exist in and of itself. Why? Because imagine, we need to rise to the Upper One, be in the upper degree with our deficiency of the lower one. How is that possible? How can the lack of the lower one be incorporated entirely in the Upper One? That's the point. You can’t reconcile it in your intellect, in your mind. It's also how we learn in Kabbalah. The lack of the lower one is in the Upper One. It's unreal. In the upper degree - upper qualities, in the lower degree - qualities of the lower one. How can the lower one ascend to the Upper One? If he ascends to the Upper One, it becomes like Him, that's okay. But he remains with his lack, with his deficiency in the Upper One, against the Upper One, in contradiction and conflict with the Upper One, nevertheless, on the degree of the Upper One. You find there the lack of the lower one. This is unreal. And of course, we are running away from this. You can't exist in it, even for a second, unless there's a special force here, called “above reason.”

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:45) So, when acting badly, or if a person feels bad, for example, and he feels bad, then why is it revealed? He's asking not to feel bad? He's asking for himself. What is he doing by that?

M. Laitman: We discussed this a lot already. A person always prays to feel good. The question is, what is good? So, it depends on how he arranges his ladder of values. Good for me, or to egotistically belong to this world, or egotistically belong to the next world, or in a way, where I have a tiny attitude to the Creator, which is seemingly not egoistic. This is called Lo Lishma. From that, there's an inversion. You're constantly searching, and this is beautiful, you're searching for a way to enter spirituality from corporeality, from in order to receive, to in order to bestow. How can we arrange this doorway, so there will not be a contradiction here, but rather it will be a certain passageway, a bridge, or a tunnel, right, that goes directly. There's nothing like that - until the Red Sea parts there is no passage. It's very simple. And that's why a person is running away. There are those that miraculously, really a miracle from the heavens, miraculously they're able to hold on. You see a hundred people here that sit in front of me and a few hundred more in the external circle, but the rest are unable to do it. Either they're not ripe, or they tried a lot, a few thousand people who passed through this place and left, because to hold on to this point, to be dependent on it, to connect it to it, to try to live in it, it's constantly this inner split, where you are a complete zero in your opinion, in your intellect, your experience, everything.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:35) Annulment before the Upper One, is there coercion?

M. Laitman: It is written that there is no coercion in spirituality. Annulment before the Upper One, is that not coercion from the perspective of the Upper One toward us? Right? In other words, according to the story, the Creator really does give Pharaoh the evil inclination and then comes to him to strike him. And poor Pharaoh doesn't know where to run, because he cannot run. He has completely, 100% opposite qualities, so where would he run? So, it's really, there's no form that is poorer, more pathetic, more terrible than the way that the Creator relates to Pharaoh, right? Is it suitable for the Creator to do this with a created being, with all of his qualities? Is that what you're asking?

Student: No, not on behalf of the Creator. On behalf of the created being, is choosing the Upper One's reason through coercion on myself?

M. Laitman: If there's choice on the part of the Upper One?

Student: If I have to annul my mind towards the Upper One's mind, so it's against my body and my own brain, do I do it through internal coercion? Do I force myself with the bit of force I get from society, so I force myself to go against myself?

M. Laitman: Oh, you're asking this. You're saying all my decisions with respect to the Creator, well, it's the same, I think. No, I don't understand.

Student: You're saying on behalf of the Creator.

M. Laitman: So, okay, that's from the perspective of the person. It's an abstraction in general; I'm speaking from the perspective of the person; there's nothing to do. Pharaoh too, what can he do? Pharaoh is all our inclination, all our nature. Can I do anything with it? If this is my nature, 100%, what can I do? Now you're asking, you're saying, my choice, quote-unquote, my choice, and the Creator is not the choice, because there's no choice. So if I suffer blows and they tell me in some way, I see that if I move to another state, another nature, I don't know what it is, let's say. But by this, I get rid of the blows. So this is called choosing, it's the same will to receive, chooses that it's better to die just in order not to feel the blows. The blows are that bad, they are worse than death. It's better if I don't feel myself, as if I don't exist, as long as I don't feel this suffering. In other words, the feeling of death was created, the feeling of losing, the feeling that it's better not to feel, not to exist in my senses, is easier than the blows. Well, and this is called choosing by myself to belong to the Creator, to spirituality, to eternity, right? Yes? Who told you that in this is your free choice, and in this you have a free act and not coercion? It's not in this. On the contrary, He strikes him and tells him: “Grow,” strikes him until he says, “I want.” You have many such sayings about the blows and about the will to receive wanting to get rid of itself only through blows, there's no question about that, except there is no free choice here.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:50) So when we say that a person has to annul and subdue himself as an ox to the load...

M. Laitman: This is what we said here, as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load, the free choice is what we said here. It's not to see myself as worse than the Creator and not wanting to leave my nature and take the Creator's nature. This I decide egoistically, that it's worthwhile for me. But to want to receive advice how to do it above reason...

Student: What's that?

M. Laitman: On this you don't know, I agree with this. In this we, seemingly, have free choice, only about this. It is written there, “strengthen yourself on the path,” as he says in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” the Creator places one's hand on the good fate, good fortune, and says: “Take this.” He doesn't say: “Change bad for good,” there's nothing to say about that. A person chooses this without... that's not called choice. Any created being, still, vegetative, animate and speaking, chooses the good instead of the bad. That's not choosing, this is nature compelling me. Even before I think, before I speak, I do it. It's automatic, there's no decision here, no decision. When our chemist, where is he? He's always late. When he examines some material, which chemical substance connects with the other, and what comes out of this reaction, what equivalents, how do we say it in chemistry? How they connect in there, what they do there, it's all egoistic actions. How one substance controls another substance, with the qualities and everything, and in the end a third material comes out. There's no free choice here. He examines laws within matter, the same laws apply to our matter, and in the matter of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking within us, in other words, in our thoughts and desires, and qualities, and feelings, and anything that you attribute to our humanity - it is all according to the same laws. Why even talk about it? It's sealed.

Student: But I have to work with it.

M. Laitman: You don't work with this at all. In this you feel, there's nothing to work here. This works without asking you. Now, you see how you're sitting? Now you decide, I'll sit differently. Who decides based on what? What information is received? It's all included inside, in you. What is it, that is your doing? What do you have, that is your doing? The biological body constantly does or chooses internally what it needs to do between all the materials, and elements, and things. And also externally, the general law that operates how materials connect, and thoughts, and desires, and how the data is processed. It's all called desire to enjoy. It's this whole structure called desire to enjoy. The person. It can be a beast. It doesn't matter who or what. So we're not asking about this nature. Enough relating to it. It should be already clear to us that it's all us, and we don't ask about that. These are clear laws that the Creator created, to begin with. Don't ask about them. It's simply, you want to get into it, get into it. You have science on all kinds of levels. You have psychology as well, and medicine, and chemistry. Nature is studied on all levels. On all levels, we study the will to receive, and through science, we can research it correctly and exactly. But what would that give us? Because by this, we don't do anything. By this, we only see how the Creator created the will to receive. Created. Well, and then what? By this, we don't emerge from the will to receive, and we cannot improve it. We can't do anything. We're only testing how it operates with all its qualities, with all its possibilities. That's it. You heat it up with its chemistry, so it operates a little differently. We cool it, we apply pressures, the same applies, the same happens with us in our thoughts or in our desires. Forget about this nature, that's the will to receive. In it, you cannot change anything, only study the laws.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:05) So, the advice to go above reason?

M. Laitman: So, our work is above reason, above reason. It's not within the will to receive at all. Therefore, Kabbalah, although it's called the wisdom of Kabbalah, of reception, it is still the wisdom of the hidden, not from within the will to receive itself. Because within the will to receive, what do we get from all of our science? Physics, chemistry, electronics, psychology even, which is not a science, we don't even know how to research. But what do we get out of it? We see that as much as we research, we're still the same. We get no benefit from it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:58) So, I don't understand. What does it mean to strengthen myself towards breaking into above reason?

M. Laitman: Above reason, means to accept, accept the advice of the Creator, to be incorporated in Him. Now, to be incorporated in Him, not from within the will to receive. If I, from within the will to receive, imagine some other state, which say, in me, it's called the will to bestow. It's the same will to receive, except I imagine it to be like that. Right?

Student: Yes, but what do you do?

M. Laitman: Right. What do you do? In other words, I need to receive from the Creator something that is not within the will to receive. Can I ask for such a thing if I'm inside the will to receive? I also cannot. I cannot. So, what can I do? So, I'm told that what I can do is the preparation, it's called strengthening, that I need to work with other people outside of me. Egoistically, I begin to discover that the way I relate to them, yes, and the way I relate to myself, there's a gap between them. And from that gap, I begin to learn who I am. I have a laboratory in this world. Listen, listen, don't reject it. You don't want to accept it, I understand. But it is, in this world, you have a laboratory within your will to receive, within that nature, you have truly a rare possibility. Only because the soul was divided, so, you have a possibility to see within your will to receive some kind of a compatibility, a projection, how there is a gap between corporeality and spirituality. He said, as there is a gap between corporeality and spirituality, contradiction, oppositeness. So, there is a gap between your relation to yourself and your relation to others. And the beauty is that within your egoism, you can see it and study it. But if you study it simply within the egoism, then you end up with psychology. If I'm nice or not nice, I should be courteous and kind, etc. You get all kinds of nonsense that humanity likes to take pride in, like nice people. But if you study that these things are in order to somehow imagine my relation to spirituality, to the Creator, then you get, as a branch and root, some sort of a feeling which is truly called, how should I put it? It is truly called the point through which you begin, from this recognition of evil, you begin to yearn to adhere to the Creator, as he describes in the letters, just like someone who is lovesick. But this comes only through the recognition of your relation toward the friend.

Student: What strengthens against that?

M. Laitman: What strengthens is, “I am the Creator, I am godliness.” It's not in concealment. I have the face of the friend in front of me, but if I accept him, that I'm working with him in order to find that point, my relation to godliness. Otherwise, I have no place where I can work with it. It's truly, it's a desk, like a laboratory desk. I don't have that foundation. Today, I don't really have the words. I'm in something else.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:03) So, how to bestow to a friend?

M. Laitman: Guys, we are already running to other things.

Question (Moscow): (01:26:26) Heaviness of the head is called faith above reason; lightness of the head is called faith within reason. In fact, below reason is called headlessness.

Question (Internet): (01:26:47) If this is so, it turns out that a person who is sacred-still is a person without a head?

M. Laitman: True. He is a headless person, but a person who has no relation whatsoever to godliness, he doesn't exist. Without a head and not existing, these are two different things.

Question (Moscow ): (01:27:28) A real prayer to the Creator for correcting myself is a result or an implementation of the recognition of evil?

M. Laitman: Correct.

Question (Internet): (01:28:02) How to come to a state where the prayer is not a false prayer?

M. Laitman: All our prayers are like that, except we say, Israel's prayers have concluded, have ended. When a person comes to a state where he can no longer raise the prayer, then he comes to a state where it's the real prayer. Before that, all the prayers are prayers that are still not genuine, but we need to. We say we have to pray; I wish you prayed all day, and prayers with heaviness of the heart, of the head, but when they all end, then it's the real prayer. Okay. The bottom line is we have to understand that what we understand does not do anything, right? That's it. Our intellect remains with its filling. Just imagine if now you came out of this conversation full, understanding, satisfied with understanding, with filling yourself. Everything is clear. Well, and now you're coming out the opposite. Everything is screwed up, I don't understand anything. This Laitman, he probably also doesn't know what he's talking about. And in general, this whole path, I don't know how to continue and what step to take. And what's the difference between them, besides the inner false feeling?

Student: It's false.

M. Laitman: Well, yes. But it’s false, because you don't know why you were given this feeling.

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Denní lekce4.5.2026(Morning)Part 3 Studying with friends

Part 3 Studying with friends

Studying with friends

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Denní lekce4.5.2026(Morning)
Part 3 Studying with friends

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Copyright © 2003-2026 Bnei Baruch – Kabbalah L’Am Association, All rights reserved