The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: August 12, 2025
Part 3: Ask and Demand First – Selected excerpts from the sources, #4.
Reader: Hello, we're in a lesson on the topic of “Ask and Demand First.” We're going to continue with our select excerpts from excerpt number four. Rabash writes:
Reading: (00:17) 4. RABASH, Article No. 27 (1990), "What Is, 'Every Blade of Grass Has an Appointee Above, Who Strikes It and Tells It, Grow!' in the Work?" We should interpret what the ARI says, that no degree ascends unless through the ascent of Mayin Nukvin [Aramaic: female water, MAN], for Nukvin [Aramaic: females] means lack. “Water” means Bina that received within her the quality of Malchut, where Malchut is called “a lack,” from the [Hebrew] word, “hole.” Hence, the upper one must give to the lower one what it needs.
Since “There is no new light in the world except from Ein Sof [infinity/no end], hence, the upper one ascends in degree in order to receive abundance for the lower one. In the work, we should interpret that upper and lower mean that the first state is called “upper” and the second state is called “lower.” This means that if in the state one is in, he does not feel any lack and he is satisfied; clearly, he has no need to advance in the work, since he sees no deficiency that will push him to go forward. For this reason, if a person is successful, he elicits a lack in the state he is in.
Reader: (02:05) Who is a successful person?
M. Laitman: Successful is that he wishes to succeed in his work, in his connection with the Creator.
Reader: What makes him successful as far as his work with his deficiency?
M. Laitman: First, he needs to have such a deficiency to attain the Creator and to bestow upon the Creator with his deficiency, and that deficiency needs to be connection.
Reader: He writes that if a state a person's in, he feels no lack of deficiency, but as satisfaction, there's no chance of advancing?
M. Laitman: Not at all, not even to live – if the person has no deficiency, then he exists only in order to fill himself.
Reader: So, how can a person receive a deficiency from the upper one from this?
M. Laitman: That is through study, through that in which he yearns to understand the upper one, to come close to the upper one, to connect with the upper one. And that, that will change the entire nature of the lower one, which is why he is called the lower one, that he identifies the upper one and wishes to adhere to Him.
Reader: Is it only through study a person receives a deficiency?
M. Laitman: No, but the main part is in study.
Reader: And in a state where a person feels satiated from the study, he's satisfied.
M. Laitman: Satisfied means that he has no deficiency.
Reader: So, he comes to the study and does not receive a deficiency.
M. Laitman: So, first of all he needs to reveal his own deficiency. And then he comes to the study, how it gets arranged for him that there are such sources, knowledge and feeling of the upper one. And he connects to them, and accordingly, progresses.
Reader: How do we make our study one that increases deficiency and not study for the sake of learning?
M. Laitman: A person needs to be concerned about having the correct deficiency. Because only the correct deficiency will draw him to the purpose of creation, to the Creator, to understand, to feel, to bestow, to receive. That is all only in that you progress to the Creator. Otherwise, no.
Reader: Understood. Let's move to the questions of the friends, please. We can start with Petah Tikva, please.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:48) He writes, if a person is successful, he finds a deficiency in the state he's in. Prior to that he wrote to us that, water means Bina that received within her the quality of Malchut. How does Bina receive Malchut because she is all opposite Malchut, rejects Malchut; how to receive Malchut in Bina?
M. Laitman: Bina is the desire to bestow and Malchut is the desire to receive. If the desire to receive connects with Bina, so it can demand, request that Bina will supply it its own desire to bestow – bestowal, fulfillment, and then it will feel the upper one.
Student: What desire do we associate with the desire to bestow? What deficiency should we attribute or associate with the desire to bestow?
M. Laitman: If you say a deficiency to bestow, so you're saying everything. There is a deficiency to bestow and if it is in the lower one, the lower one then turns to the upper one in a request to receive a desire to bestow. And afterward, it executes that deficiency that it received from the upper one. If it’s not connected to the upper one, it has no desire to bestow.
Student: Can we say that the desire to bestow, if it awakens in a creature – created being – it's already Malchut that entered Bina?
M. Laitman: The desire to bestow is Bina, the desire to receive is Malchut. The correct combination between Bina and Malchut constructs the vessel.
Question (Turkiye 1): (08:45) How can a person feel yearning to the Creator? What is that deficiency that needs to awaken in a person?
M. Laitman: We are born of a deficiency that is in the Creator, that, that deficiency is to bestow to the created beings. To bring the created beings to a degree, to a level, to a state so that they will have a deficiency to bestow to the Creator. And therefore, a person starts to feel that he awakens with a deficiency for the upper one, for godliness, for the Creator. And accordingly, he comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah, until through study and connection with others, all in all, he organizes his deficiency so that it will be suitable for the revelation of the upper one to him. That is what is happening with us, learn that the main thing is the deficiency that awakens in us. And we want it, as quickly as possible to turn into a deficiency for godliness. And then it depends on us, how we will receive and when we will receive the correct deficiency.
Question (Women Turkiye 8): (11:00) How does the lower one connect with the upper one?
M. Laitman: Through its deficiency, it turns to the upper one from that in which it wants to receive from the upper one, fulfillment. And deficiency is called, the lower one, and fulfillment can only come from the upper one to the lower one, and not the other way around. Therefore, that is how we learn, how it plays out, our entire work is to organize our deficiency to be directed at the upper one. That then we will, in our desire, cause it an opening, and it brings us what there is in the upper one.
Question (Women Latin 24): (12:25) How can you unite in order to feel that lack in the Ten that leads to the Creator?
M. Laitman: If we work on our desire to receive so that it will not separate between us, so then we can connect with one another. These are desires we all have – the desires to receive fulfillment – and then we can be both together between us, and also together with the Creator. There is nothing unordinary, here.
Question (Women ITA): (13:37) Does dissemination give us the correct deficiency, if so, how?
M. Laitman: Yes, if we want to bestow to our friends so that I will also pay attention to the same goal that we want to come closer to. So, from that in which we connect to it and wish to do something to come close to the Creator; so, then we receive in return from the intellect, and emotion for the upper one, and accordingly, we come closer.
Question (Women Moscow 6): (14:42) How not to miss the deficiency that awakens in us and strengthen it?
M. Laitman: That’s through participation with the friends together, each shall help his friend, we learned about that rule. Where the person has no choice, but if he wishes to reach the Creator, he first most of all connect with the Creator and connect with the created beings. And then, together with them, to develop a deficiency, which is a common deficiency, which will be enough to awaken the Creator to bestow to them.
Question (Kyiv 1): (15:32) We read that a successful person in every state can awaken a deficiency in the upper. And you also said that a person needs, through the work, and the group, and the study, to awaken a deficiency in the upper one. How do I, every moment with the friends, awaken a deficiency in the upper one, in every situation?
M. Laitman: Our deficiency comes from above, from the Creator, and if we gather these small deficiencies that we receive from the upper one. So, then it turns out for us something, a deficiency that we can work with. That is how we, through the connection between us, awaken a deficiency for the upper one.
Question (Moscow): (16:55) Should I ask for a deficiency to bestow? Is it possible to get that desire without intention?
M. Laitman: We need to understand that the wisdom of the Kabbalah, why it is called so, the wisdom of how to receive. It is built in a way that by bestowing to the upper one as much as I can, where I can, by this, I reveal a connection with Him. And then He, in turning to me, gives me what I desire, gives me what I need, which I myself don't know what it is, and this is how we advance.
Question (Haifa 1): (18:19) The connection between Bina and Malchut. When Malchut connects to Bina, that's the souls, and because of that the souls can ascend in the world, is that right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Almaty): (18:59) You've answered the friends that we need to gather our deficiencies into one big deficiency. How to gather all my small deficiencies into one big one?
M. Laitman: How to do it, how to become closer to each other? Become closer to each other – understand each other as much as possible. Connect each one with the other. And then we will receive a common deficiency for something, of course, not in everything. We will receive a common deficiency in which we will be able to rise to the Creator and demand the filling for it from Him.
Student: Can I ask about the correct deficiency: To the extent that I'm advancing, I discover that my previous deficiency wasn't so right. The more I advance in the work, how do I understand what the right deficiency is so I won't be disappointed?
M. Laitman: The fact that you are disappointed is good! It means you have to change the deficiency into a higher one. So, don't worry about it.
Reading: (20:45) 5. RABASH, Article No. 7 (1986), "The Importance of a Prayer of Many" Raising MAN, meaning causing a deficiency above. But we should understand how we can say that the lower ones cause a deficiency above. And we should also know the meaning of “deficiency.” It is known that a Kli is called “a deficiency,” meaning that if there is a deficiency, there is room to place the filling there and fill the deficiency.
There are no delays in bestowing on the part of the Emanator, for His wish is to do good. The reason why we see that there is concealment of the light is because the lower ones have no Kelim to receive the abundance. Hence, when the lower one awakens to purify himself but lacks the strength, he asks the Creator to help him. Then this deficiency rises, so now the upper one has a Kli for giving him abundance, and this is called raising MAN.
Question (Women Europe): (22:23) What is the connection between the deficiency and faith in the Creator?
M. Laitman: Faith in the Creator is the force by which we can approach the Creator and bestow upon Him. And it all stems from the deficiency that the created being is a deficiency. And we through our learning, through the connection between us, we direct our deficiencies so they are directed correctly toward the Creator.
Question (Women Europe): (23:27) From despair to cry out to the Creator, it's already painful to cry out.
M. Laitman: It's good but we should use it correctly, rationally; meaning, it's impossible to advance on one leg but only on two legs. There should be balance between the desire for the Creator and the willpower, the power of the desire. So, many want, but they are unable to complement; they are unable to complement; they have a desire for the Creator, on the one hand. And on the other hand, it's only a raw desire, as with a baby. But in order to attain the Creator, it requires besides the desire, in addition to it, meaning, to know what exactly I want, what for, etc. And then you have a purposeful desire, and this is the desire which the Creator answers.
Question (Hungarian-Polish): (25:01) How to constantly find a Hissaron to bestow to the Creator, to bestow to Him.
M. Laitman: We have to walk with it all the time – in everything you do in life – whatever it is. It should be only in order to come to the right deficiency, to the Creator. And then we will turn to Him and get an answer.
Student: Is it possible to find a Hissaron in everything, one thing after another?
M. Laitman: No, we are talking about a deficiency that you want to turn to the Creator; turn it to the Creator.
Reader: He's asking if he can find a deficiency in anything. Can anything lead me to find a deficiency?
M. Laitman: No. It depends on the extent to which a person is directed toward the Creator and wants to organize within him a deficiency for the Creator.
Question (Azerbaijan): (26:40) You told Women Europe that we need to acquire the right deficiency and understand what the conditions are towards the Creator in that deficiency. Where should that scrutiny stop so it won't affect the desire, won't harm it?
M. Laitman: I don't know how to answer you. You have to constantly feel with which desire you are turning to the Creator. And then it will be clear to you where the point is where you stopped turning to the Creator out of the need of your friends or of the whole world Kli. And you started turning to Him so He would fill you, personally.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:54) He says that you need to interpret in the work the matter of the upper one and the lower one. The first state is called the upper one and the second state is called the lower one. Then he keeps explaining how you always have to be in motion and not satisfied. How should we understand this, correctly; that the first state is the upper one and the second state is the lower one?
M. Laitman: The most important thing for us should be a deficiency that we can awaken in the upper one. And then the upper one will work with that deficiency, will turn to us, correct our state for us, and will fill it. In other words, the most important is to turn to the upper one. And then, as much as I want to be incorporated in that deficiency that can elevate me to the upper one from below upwards.
Student: He calls these two states: State one is the upper, state two is the lower. What is that, states of a Ten, states of a person?
M. Laitman: Two states, upper and lower, two states. And the lower one awakens the upper one, and the upper one comes down with its forces to the lower one and begins to turn to it.
Student: How are those two states connected to one another?
M. Laitman: In both states, there is upper one and lower one, and the connection between them.
Student: So, there is one state that a person is in relation to the Creator; and there is a second state that a person is in relation to the Creator?
M. Laitman: No. One state is when a person is within himself, the other state is that he is incorporated in the upper one, wants to be incorporated in the upper one. And then between these two states, these two levels, a person wants to rise.
Student: What is he trying? To try and constantly see the perception of reality as a connection between the two states?
M. Laitman: Try to perceive the difference that there is between you and the upper one. And with that difference that there is between you and the upper one, work on reception of the power to be like the upper one.
Student: Then if a person has a moment of satisfaction, so he lost that connection?
M. Laitman: That's already not good, yes; it may be not that he lost it. Maybe the other one is doing all kinds of exercises on it, which it needs.
Student: Also, a lack of connection is an action from the upper one to make the lower one ask for the connection?
M. Laitman: Correct.
Question (Women PT 23): (31:40) How, on one hand, to awaken a deficiency, and on the other hand, to justify the Creator in every state?
M. Laitman: I think it's a rule in our connection to the upper one that we want to be connected to Him in whatever state. And this is why when we ask Him for deficiency, that deficiency should be out of our situation with respect to the upper one. And so, we don't drop it, this is how we'll rise to the upper one.
Question (Women PT 27): (33:18) Question about the common deficiency: When a Ten reaches a common deficiency, when they create a vessel to be filled. How is that expressed in an ability to bestow? What does it mean that the whole Ten is bestowing to the upper one. Or getting a common fulfillment from the upper one? What is the state from a common deficiency to the connection with the upper one?
M. Laitman: The common deficiency is inside the group, and the connection to the upper one is already a different deficiency. To raise – to elevate the group – for example, to reach to the giver, the state of the giver.
Student: There's an ability to do a group action and reach one sort of bestowal towards the upper one?
M. Laitman: If the group connects within itself, it can also connect to the upper one and even to the one above the upper one. It all depends on how they organize themselves; but the most important is to bestow upon the upper one. That goal, we must never let go of.
Student: When we're talking lately about building a common deficiency, so this deficiency has to constantly get this yearning to bestow through the friends to the Creator outside of myself?
M. Laitman: Together, together, very simple –together. Bestow upon the upper one. A person alone cannot bestow; there has to be a connection among several.
Question (Women Rehovot 1): (35:43) In the article he writes that on behalf of the upper one, there is no prevention to bestow. When we raise a prayer, whether it's from Psalms or from reading Shamati, what are we missing out in the prayer so the Creator won't be able to refuse our deficiency?
M. Laitman: The Creator is designed, intended, to raise us to a higher level from where we are. And therefore, we have to prepare that deficiency for each one, to feel how much that deficiency can be connected to the deficiencies of the friends, and then turn to the Creator.
Student: What can we add into our prayer so the Creator won't be able to refuse us? What are we lacking?
M. Laitman: We're lacking connection between us. To the extent that we connect among us, we can reach the Creator, and He will hear our deficiency.
Student: I heard you saying that by the studies, a person should understand the upper one, come closer to Him, and connect to Him. What does it mean to come closer to the upper one, or to understand Him? How can a person understand the upper one while he's still on the wall to receive?
M. Laitman: With the deficiency that there is in a person, he has to work with his friends, alone it's very difficult; only a chosen few can sometimes do this. What we need is to connect to our friends and together with them, find the common deficiency. And raise that common deficiency to the Creator, then we reach that force of the deficiency, and that power, that form that should be. And then the Creator will be able to give us in that deficiency His answer.
Question (Women Moscow 6): (38:45) You said that in the Ten we can connect to the upper one and the upper, upper one. How to connect?
M. Laitman: We can be connected to the upper one and with the one above it, that possibility exists if we ask for it. For this, we need to have enough deficiencies, desires to connect to the upper one, and to the upper, upper one. So, let's start engaging in it and then you'll see how it works.
Question (Hadera 1): (39:43) We have a lot of desires but not all of them become deficiencies. We turn our deficiencies into lust or hunger, but how can we turn a spiritual desire into such a deficiency like, hunger won't let me think of anything else – same thing with spirituality.
M. Laitman: Only together, if you – say, after the lesson get together and decide that, for us, this is what's important, and we talk about that deficiency, and want to be in it, to be incorporated, and that deficiency you establish out of your deficiencies together, and you raise it to the Creator, then it becomes one strong deficiency to which the Creator can no longer refuse.
Student: Only the importance from the friends?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Turkiye 7): (41:06) How can a person make sure that there won't be any intention for himself in his heart when he turns to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Through exercises, only through exercises; we have to be connected, and the goal has to be clear to us. And so, we will feel how much in our more and more powerful connection. Accordingly, we can rise to a higher and higher level toward the Creator – closer.
Reading: (41:59) 6. RABASH, Article No. 183, “Work Is the Most Important” Man’s work is To do good deeds, meaning Torah and prayer to the Creator that the Creator will help us raise the Shechina from the dust, which is called an “awakening from below,” meaning that the lower ones evoke a lack, which is what we say, “May it please You,” meaning that there will be a desire above to satisfy our lacks. This is the meaning of “Let them take Me a donation,” which The Zohar interprets, to exalt the Creator, which is Tatum-Hey [“raise the Creator” or Truman (donation)], meaning Malchut that is lowered to the dust, to raise her from her lowliness. However, this requires that the Creator will raise her, as it is written, “The Merciful one will raise for us the fallen hut of David.” Meaning, Malchut, that is lowered to the dust, to raise her from her lowliness. However, this requires that the Creator will raise her, as it is written, the merciful one will raise for us the fallen hut of David.
M. Laitman: Yes, this is what we should basically expect to happen. That the Creator, who is higher than everyone, and knows how to do these operations, will perform that operation on us. Where Malchut, the Kingdom of heaven will be the greatest above us, and we will raise her from the dust to the highest level.
Question (Florida): (43:59) These exercises that the Creator puts a person through in order to correct the intention in raising the deficiency. Do we have to be corrected to a certain extent before we can raise the proper deficiency?
M. Laitman: No, we need to be connected between us as much as we can according to our degree. That common deficiency – to raise that to the Creator every time.
Question (MAK 11): (45:08) Is there a deficiency, a final, ultimate desire to which the Ten should aspire? And if such a deficiency exists, can the Ten demand it right from the beginning or should it aspire for it?
M. Laitman: You don't have to do these special actions, just simply try and be closer to my friends. To the extent that I'll feel a saw is one whole, and you want to raise that whole one to the Creator, and then the Creator can do it.
Question (CzechSlovak 2): (46:04) Which qualities in the Creator should I envy in order to fill my deficiency?
M. Laitman: In what qualities should I envy? I need to incorporate? Oh, envy, okay. In order to fill my deficiencies – to fill my deficiencies? I think the most correct way to incorporate in the Creator with my deficiency to adhere to Him. And then I do everything I need; and I can also obligate Him if you could say that.
Question (Women Heb 1): (47:26) Is a person dependent on the reaction from his Ten or does everything depend on him?
M. Laitman: A person is dependent on a deficiency from the Ten, and the rest depends on him.
Student: Should a person wait for there to be cooperation in the Ten with his deficiency?
M. Laitman: That's something you have to agree on together.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:07) What should be the balance between an awakening from below and an awakening from above? And is it even possible to come to a state where there's an awakening from below – I awaken the dawn before the dawn awakens me? To put an emphasis on it and that will be the leading thing?
M. Laitman: Yes, I think that is something important. That's what's written, make your desire as His desire. That if our desires equalize, my desire and the Creator's desire, so they connect into one desire and then it works above the degree I was in before.
Question (Women Turkiye 8): (49:20) When we succeed in connecting with the true deficiency toward the Creator, does a sign appear of it, or a common feeling in the Ten?
M. Laitman: No. In your prayer – a prayer of a person – that's where he feels whether he goes into contact with the upper one or not, that's how it works.
Reading: (50:09) 7. RABASH, Article No. 27 (1989), “What Is the Meaning of Suffering in the Work” What our sages said (Shabbat 152), “What I did not lose, I seek.” That is, an old man walking bent, always looking at the ground as though searching for something. He says, “I have lost nothing, yet I search.” We should interpret “Old is he who has acquired wisdom.” That is, he is “Wise, who sees the future.” Since he can come to a descent in order acquire empty Kelim, so the Creator may fill them or he will remain in a state of lowliness because he will not feel deficient. Then, when he loses the state of ascent, he begins to seek advice how to ascent in spirituality once again.
Therefore, one who is old, meaning, wise and sees the future, begins to search how to ascend in spirituality even before he loses the state of ascent. He begins to follow all the counsels about the ways to ascend on the spiritual degrees, and this is done by seeking deficiencies in the state he is in. In that case, there is no need to throw him down in importance so he will find and see deficiencies in himself, since he himself will be looking for deficiencies so as to have empty Kelim that the Creator may fill.
Question (Women Spa): (52:52) If we are discovering a deficiency in the Ten, what brings us closer to the Creator: Scrutinizing that desire internally or revealing the source of the desire, of the deficiency?
M. Laitman: I didn't understand, what were you saying?
Student: What should we do, what brings us closer to the Creator? Scrutinizing the deficiency internally? Or discovering where that deficiency came from, the origin of the deficiency?
M. Laitman: I don't think that we can really divide it, here, but the strongest. What we need to reveal the deficiency is that between us and the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:18) It's written, a person must raise the Shechina from the dust; how do we raise the Shechina from the dust?
M. Laitman: The Shechina is the general force of Bina, and what we need to raise from the dust is from the will to receive to oneself – there is such desires and qualities that are still in order to receive. That's why it's called that; they dwell on the dust. And that's why we, first of all, need to feel that dust, to see in it what we need to raise to in order to bestow. And then to ask for it – to ask for salvation – that the Creator will save them, those desires, that He will raise them, and then we'll be able to work with them in order to bestow, that's it.
Student: How do we feel the dust?
M. Laitman: We feel the dust when our desires are all directed downward to ourselves, not to spirituality, not towards the heavens. According to that, we feel our desires in a deficiency called, dust.
Reader: (56:20) What does it mean to see the future? He writes, the wise see the future.
M. Laitman: The wise sees the future, meaning that from the state he's in, he can observe his next state after the ascent. And as much as by that, he bestows to the Creator.
Reader: So, if I already see the future and I know that a descent will come in order to reveal a deficiency, then why search during the ascent?
M. Laitman: So, you're not searching to fall, that's clear, but you are, you are searching for a way how can you bestow more? That also causes ascents and descents.
Student: Maybe toward the end of the lesson, last question: How do we reveal a common deficiency?
M. Laitman: In order to reveal a common deficiency, you on one hand are directed towards one goal. And from that one goal, each one searches how to be directed to that goal with his deficiency. And how he can change his deficiency to be directed towards the general goal, that’s it.
Reader: With this, we conclude the lesson. We also finished the topic. We'll begin a new topic tomorrow. Thank you, Rav. And now, together, before we read the Zohar, we will summarize the lesson we received from Rav.