The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily (Morning) Lesson
Part 2: Baal HaSulam. Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot.
Reader: We are studying from the Introduction to of Ten Sefirot, from the writings of Baal HaSulam, item 91. You can find the study material on kabbalahgroup.info and the Arvut system, where you can also send questions.
Reading: Again, introduction to the study of Ten Sefirot, item 91.
91) This answers what we asked above concerning one who attains the third measure of Providence, namely Providence of reward and punishment, when He who knows the mysteries already testifies that he will not return to folly. And yet, he is still considered incomplete righteous. Now we thoroughly understand that he still lacks one Mitzva, the Mitzva of love. Of course, he is incomplete, since he must necessarily complete the 613 Mitzvot, which is necessarily the first step on the threshold of wholeness.
M. Laitman: Read again and we'll ask.
Reading: Again.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:53) Now, we left the introduction a little bit, you can renew the definitions. What does it mean that he needs to complete the 613 Mitzvot?
M. Laitman: Corrections on his will to receive.
Student: So, he needs to correct all what we call the commandments or the Mitzvot inside him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And that's just the entry point, the first step to the threshold of wholeness, as he calls it?
M. Laitman: That's how it's called.
Student: How does a person, or how can he observe or complete, in this case, all 613, and what is this number? I'll ask it this way, there are 613 different kinds of corrections a person has to do with his will to receive?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And there's one commandment called love, which includes it all?
M. Laitman: As if.
Student: Because the essence of what we're reading here, is that if there's a certain commandment, some certain correction a person has to do, that it's above everything, and he includes everything together. So that differentiation, which is the whole gap between all these states here, how can you understand it? What's the difference between this one commandment, as far as the corrections, and all the other corrections a person does?
M. Laitman: There's a difference in the act of the Mitzvot themselves, because it depends what the will to receive include, and what is in them.
Student: I had another question, but I don't remember. Okay, thank you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:22) It is written here that the third discernment of Providence is reward and punishment, and he's not a complete righteous because he lacks the matter of love. By what does he reach this third degree? Because he's already in bestowal, he's completely in bestowal. What drives him, which thanks to that he attains it?
M. Laitman: In order to bring contentment to the Creator.
Student: Without wanting to love the Creator, it turns out that he doesn't even belong to that commandment of love, or he tries but didn't attain it yet.
M. Laitman: No, he still has no deficiency in loving the Creator.
Student: So why do I want to delight the Creator?
M. Laitman: It is born even before that state.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:51) It seems that all that we're engaging in here is just to come to the awareness of feeling that what we're missing is love.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So that's what he's saying?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And why because the Creator is the quality of love?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So why is it called a revelation even before that? Why is the degree of fear called a revelation? How can you even discover something that is love if not... Well concealment is clear, there's a double concealment, one concealment, but why is fear called revelation as the revelation should actually be called love?
M. Laitman: You're right. Let us read.
Reader: Tzadi Bet. Item 92.
Reading: With all that was said above, we understand what they asked, “How did the Torah obligate us to the Mitzva of love when this Mitzva is not even in our hands to engage in or even somewhat touch?” Now you see and understand that it is about this that our sages warned us, “I labored and did not find, do not believe,” and also, “Let one always engage in Torah and Mitzvot Lo Lishma since from Lo Lishma one comes to Lishma” (Pesachim 50). Also, the verse, “Those that seek Me shall find Me” (Proverbs 8), testifies to that.
Reading 93) These are the words of our sages (Megillah, p 6b): “Rabbi Yitzhak said, ‘If a person tells you, ‘I labored and did not find,’ do not believe; ‘I did not labor and found,’ do not believe; ‘I labored and found,’ believe.’” These matters concern words of Torah, but in negotiation, it is help from above. We asked above, in Item 40, about the words “I labored and found, believe.” The words seem self-contradictory, since labor relates to possession, and finding pertains to what comes without any labor, absentmindedly. He should have said, “I labored and bought.”
Yet, you should know that this term “finding,” mentioned here, relates to the verse, “Those who seek Me shall find Me.” It refers to finding the face of the Creator, as it is written in The Zohar that He is found only in the Torah, meaning that one is rewarded with finding the face of the Creator by laboring in the Torah. Hence, our sages were precise in their words, and said “I labored and found, believe,” for the labor is in the Torah, and the finding is in the revelation of the face of His Providence (see Item 47).
They deliberately refrained from saying, “I labored and won, believe,” or “I labored and bought.” This is because then there would be room for error in the matters, since winning or possessing relate only to possession of the Torah. Hence, they made the precision of the word “found,” indicating that it refers to something other than the acquisition of the Torah, namely the revelation of the face of His Providence.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:58) What is this writing, that labor comes on possession, and finding comes to something that he does completely, without any work, or absentmindedly? I'll repeat it. It's like the sentence, because labor has to do with, and rewarding is something that he gets without even absentmindedly doing so. It's like this gift you receive, it's like, don't even ask for anything. If it needs to come, it'll come, absentmindedly. Stop asking all the time. Meaning, this is not clear, if you could explain it, because it really amuses me. You come, you study, but stop asking, because, you know, this equivalence of form of the Creator, to resemble Him, if it falls upon you, it'll fall, it's absentmindedly. Stop asking, seemingly, all the time, that you want something, like a thief that's chasing after his, what he's stealing. How could you explain this, when you're absentmindedly, that it will fall, it'll fall?
M. Laitman: But before that, he wrote that if you labored and did not, if you did not labor and found, do not believe, that you need to labor.
Student: So, what does he write, that it has to be absentmindedly, labor, find, fight, effort, cry, and then you'll attain? No, here, it's like, yes, you know, here, I'll read it to you again, I don't understand this. Because, finding something it comes to him without toil at all, and absentmindedly. So, it's like, don't even ask for this thing. If it'll come, it'll come. You know, it's like, it's not clear why he wrote it this way.
M. Laitman: Anyone else asking? There was someone here, yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:02) He says, I labored and I found. I labored and what did I find?
M. Laitman: That He pleases the Creator.
Student: Being liked by the Creator, is that coming Lishma, with the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What labor is necessitated to reach Lishma?
M. Laitman: Labor against the will to receive.
Student: So is the person aiming himself to some kind of finding, or does he not know what he's going to find, he just has to labor in what he finds?
M. Laitman: But without that the labor is not labor. You always need to direct it. What are you laboring for?
Student: Does a person know what it is to be liked by the Creator, or what finding he's aiming towards?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is to the liking of the Creator?
M. Laitman: That is what he reaches.
Student: Now, as we're reading and learning, how do we aim ourselves to be to the liking of the Creator?
M. Laitman: We need to direct ourselves to be toward the Creator, in the will to receive, in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:55) Can we say that I need to labor? That's, it's like I have this river. On one hand, I labor, and to move to the other side, I find, but this transition from one side to the other, that comes to me absentmindedly. Because I don't know how to cross the river ever. This transition between the labor and the finding, that comes absentmindedly. Can you say it that way?
M. Laitman: For the time being, that's how you think it is.
Student: Because I have no choice, that's what I get from this whole excerpt.
M. Laitman: We'll continue and we'll see.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:50) Is Lishma the style of this labor?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And before that, there's Lo Lishma, and he can work in reward and punishment. And then he wants to work Lishma in such a way that it's Lishma. What changes that the motivation becomes Lishma suddenly where a person wants to work in such a way?
M. Laitman: He wants to resemble the Creator in every state.
Student: What does that mean, in every, in any case, before it doesn't happen that way?
M. Laitman: Without any conditions.
Student: Is it a decision, or is it the light that reforms him?
M. Laitman: A decision.
Student: And how can he know that he's in that decision, according to what?
M. Laitman: According to that in which there comes to him the upper light in a way that he inverts it to the face of the Creator.
Student: Is there a part in this decision that is rejecting the decision of reward and punishment?
M. Laitman: Yes. Certainly.
Student: And then if it's just a matter of decision, then that's it, everything becomes in that way. It's like, what else is missing for it to be realized?
M. Laitman: It's not missing anything, just the complete desire on the person's behalf.
Student: So what leads, what does this desire lead? How can you aim towards this desire from Lo Lishma?
M. Laitman: From Lo Lishma, I cannot immediately reach this desire. I need to perform a restriction. And then on that desire to make an act of bestowal. Then, there will be then there will be a will to receive in order to bestow.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:13) Rav, what is it to labor in the Torah?
M. Laitman: To labor in the Torah? That's what we learn from the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot.
Student: He says that to find the face of the Creator, I need to labor in Torah. What is the inner meaning of to labor in Torah? After all, Torah, we learn what the sages teach us, all of what needs to be done. By me nullifying towards what needs to be engaged in the Torah, is that laboring or is there other things?
M. Laitman: No. There is none, only the Torah.
Student: So why does he say on the way here that love or the disclosure of love between us is actually what covers everything? So, what's missing here? Is love covering everything in this labor?
M. Laitman: Yes, the Mitzvah of love covers everything.
Student: So, when I start to do a preparation here and I learn the way of labor here, so how do I need to approach this labor in Torah? To go and make an effort in love of friends or make an effort in all that what Baal HaSulam and Rabash tell us on the way, on the path, and in parallel also do make an effort towards love of friends. And then really here, in this way?
M. Laitman: It's the same.
Student: Same thing?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Meaning all that the Kabbalists tell us, and eventually I'll discover love of friends.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:09) It's written here that finding is the revelation of the face of the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is to reveal His Providence? In a Ten we work, we labor, and we want to advance correctly, to discover the positive direction of, step by step. What is it that we need to define or reveal on the next step in order to advance quickly? What is this Providence?
M. Laitman: What does the Creator want for you to have as an outcome of your labor now in terms of what you are now in?
Student: I don't know, maybe more of a deficiency to discover the next step?
M. Laitman: But what form of deficiency is it?
Student: From what we learned, it's a deficiency to bestow Him contentment.
M. Laitman: Okay, who can answer?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:36) I don't know if I can answer, but maybe a question they'll ask.
M. Laitman: No, not a question. You put your hand up for an answer, so please answer if you have an answer. If not, so you simply enter your question, you enter with your question among the questions that we're scrutinizing, which is not okay.
Student: Because it could be that through this question it will be scrutinized.
M. Laitman: Okay, so ask.
Student: I wanted to ask all together, we're talking about acquisition here, buying of something. So how do I buy, do I buy a deficiency to the Creator? Because then he talks, he differentiates the finding. So, the work is in order to acquire something, and then he differentiates it to the finding, which is the revelation of the face of the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, what am I buying, a deficiency?
M. Laitman: I don't know. We need to scrutinize it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:09) There's nothing new under the sun. In the end, we always come to the matter of faith. Meaning, if you're not in complete faith, straight and forward, then there's no point in engaging in labor, because in the labor comes the matter of faith. The moment you go with the matter of faith, you'll enter a state in which you will go straight ahead and receive the answer.
M. Laitman: Okay.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:56) Thank you. I once heard, if I'm not mistaken, that true labor begins when a person despairs from his own forces.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That's what the 613 Mitzvot are for?
M. Laitman: Why?
Student: So, my labor in them will observe these commandments, these Mitzvot?
M. Laitman: Labor is in order to observe the 613 Mitzvot, yes.
Student: And then I get despaired? I despair from all this labor?
M. Laitman: Why do you get despaired?
Student: Because I don't reach Lishma? Or through the 613 Mitzvot, I do reach Lishma?
M. Laitman: Through the 613 Mitzvot, you reach Lishma.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:17) To labor in faith is something we receive from the Creator. We have an answer here from Baal HaSulam, who is quoting King Solomon, the wisest of all men. One should always engage in the Torah and Mitzvot from Lo Lishma, because from Lo Lishma, one comes to Lishma. And this thing testifies in the writing, and those who seek me shall find me.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: King Solomon gave us some very important tips. We actually learned yesterday or the day before how G-d made us to be, so he would be feared. And also, this against that the Creator made, meaning we have the vessels in order to develop in the thought of creation. That's what they're suggesting.
M. Laitman: Yes
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:17) What is the labor exactly in the process that we're doing?
M. Laitman: It is a labor in the Torah.
Student: What does that mean?
M. Laitman: That we constantly want to reveal the light of the Torah, which brings us the strength of faith, the force of faith and then we can do more actions in order to bestow.
Student: It sounds like what we call engaging in the Torah, the work between us. It doesn't sound like labor. What's the laborious matter here?
M. Laitman: Labor is as you say, truly that it is not that I work. How should I put it? I don't know how to say it. I really don't have words right now.
Student: It's like work is like a regular thing. It's something that we can do. And labor is already some...
M. Laitman: It's beyond it.
Student: It's as he calls it, that last amount that he can put in there. In what way is that expressed? What is that last stage upon you could truly labor on our behalf?
M. Laitman: I labored and found. It is all around that, that if it is just labor then I do not say that I found. As he writes there, that I labored and bought, I labored and did.
Student: Is it on the appeal to the Creator that you need to do the work to come to a request to Him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, if in the work between us and the connection we want to reach this labor and find we need to come to a state of asking Him for the last bit there.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:06) I want to ask about the finding. There is after all an action and its result. The action is the labor and the result is the finding. How can you create that connection between the finding and the labor where I find something it is by chance that I found. How do I connect it to that labor that I did?
M. Laitman: Well, what do you think?
Student: The Creator kind of blurred it so that you would not know with certainty. Let's say that I found something right now. I can’t know with certainty that it connects to that labor that I made. It is like He created a certain situation where you never know that your labor was correct. That is how it appears.
M. Laitman: Well.
Student: Meaning, how do you check? I am operating in a certain direction, I want to make sure that I am working correctly, that I am operating correctly. According to what is written here I don’t know if I have been acting correctly or not? I have invested in a certain place and then suddenly I find $100 on the ground. I don’t know where it came from, why it came. Maybe I connect it to myself that I am lucky or something. I don't connect it to the labor I made. It is also the other way around. I receive a blow, I don’t connect it to the disregard that I had, where I had the possibility to labor. So, how do you work with this correctly? How do you work correctly with the find? You found something right now that is good for your advancement. How do you connect that to the Creator? Why do you connect it?
M. Laitman: Where do you seek this finding?
Student: Where do I search for the find?
M. Laitman: Yes, where it’s written.
Student: I seek it. The question is, do I need to seek it?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Do I need to search for the finding?
M. Laitman: Yes. Otherwise, how would you find it?
Student: And where.. So, I was in a field of labor and now I need to be in a state where I need to seek the result of that labor? Is that what you are saying?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: We need to search for the results for what I have done?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, so it is seemingly a little contradictory of finding. Finding is by chance, it is not something I have to search for.
M. Laitman: No. The act itself that brings you to an outcome is by chance. But that you are in the action, it is not by chance.
Student: Now let’s say we are in the Ten, I labor to a certain extent in a certain way, I do something above reason and then some action. Now I need to search for the find later? And to see how it influences? I don’t know how to connect it, if it is because of me. Could be that something happened, the Ten advanced but it is not because of me it is because of someone else? So, how do I..
M. Laitman: You, in any case, seek connection.
Student: A connection to my labor? I understood. In any case, we always need to search. Now, if I saw something opposite I found, I don't know if I received a find, I found something, not a gift but I received a slap, so I have to connect it also to the lack of labor, or to search for the lack of labor of mine?
M. Laitman: That sometimes happens, and it is very devastating.
Student: What's disappointing about it?
M. Laitman: That it is truly, why did I go in this way?
Student: Could it be it is sometimes it's a little dangerous, risky.
M. Laitman: Certainly.
Student: It's kind of like, in this stage that we're in, it seems like it's a kind of psychology, but it's the psychology of, if I understand you correctly, where I'm coming now and I'm searching. You said I have to search for what I'm finding. You have to look for good signs and connect them to the labor. The goal of this is to strengthen me, so that I will psychologically strengthen the labor as much as I can more? So, it's like, it's opposite. It's not, on the other side, not to disregard. Meaning, if something good happened, I connect it to the lack of labor.
M. Laitman: You can say that. I'd tell you that in that you want to connect this to that and that to this, but it's still not complete.
Student: So, what, well, yes, it's not whole yet. But nevertheless, how do we nevertheless work? If something good happened, let's say in the Ten, some advancement, that's where we're working in the Ten after all. So I'm, nevertheless you say, search to find and connect it to something good I did.
M. Laitman: Yes, you can say that.
Student: Let's say I use that. Okay, but on the other side of it, in the Ten, I have to actually look at it in my irresponsibility or something I missed or something.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:16) Is work before the will to receive, right? And because we know the will to receive, because that's what we are, it's actually what we want to find is the quality of bestowal, which is unknown to us. Is that the find?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And the moment we find it, we already know that it doesn't exist in us, it's something new in us and then we receive the faith.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Reader: Now we have a reading between the friends. We'll read the Zohar together.