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

Daily Lesson (Morning) August 22, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Letter No. 49, 58.

Reader: Hello, we're reading in the Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter number 49. You can find it on Sviva Tova and the Arvut system, and you can also send live questions through our sites.

Whoever asks a question in the study hall is asked to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth, and talk loud and clear. The Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter number 49.

Reading: (00:35) Letter No. 49

9 Elul, Tav-Reish-Peh-Zayin, September 6, 1927, London

To the students, may the Lord be upon them:

While I trust you to keep your commitment to devotedly observe every utterance I utter right away, I order you to begin to love one another as yourselves with all your might, to ache with your friends’ pains, and rejoice in your friends’ joys as much as possible. I hope that you will keep these words of mine and execute this matter to the fullest.

I received the letters and everything in them, but at the moment, I cannot answer in person. Besides what I have already replied to each and every one in the previous letters, I promise to speak more elaborately.

Concerning the above-mentioned order, I mean specifically among the friends, because it is written, “your friend.” About people from the outside, it requires much scrutiny because there is more to lose than to gain due to their clinging to corporeality and self-importance, while among the friends this must never be accepted; be very careful.

Awaiting salvation for it is near…

Yehuda

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:48) He writes a warning about people who are outside the group, outside the students, because they are clinging to corporeality and self-importance. What's the difference between corporeality and self-importance?

M. Laitman: Corporeality is their will to receive that still controls them.

Student: It’s written with self importance.

M. Laitman: And self-importance, they appreciate each one of them on its own, that it's something, it's independent. He has no relation to friends and to the Creator. Rather, he himself can decide what he can do, and he stands independently instead of being.

Student: It truly sounds like corporeality. Because there is corporeality and self, are these like independent matters?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: He tells the students here to love one another like yourself, with all your might, to ache with a friend's pain and to rejoice with your friend's joys as much as possible. He's asking them to execute this matter to the fullest. Here it's not just about spirituality that he's talking about, to be sorry with their aches and their… That's also corporeality for them?

M. Laitman: Both corporeality and spirituality.

Student: Meaning that for Baal HaSulam the friends as far… there was no problem with mixing both corporeality and spirituality?

M. Laitman: No, corporeality is called in order to receive for oneself, and spirituality means to bestow. So, certainly a person on the path does not correct himself immediately rather a part is corrected and the part is still not corrected.

Student: It's like we receive this guidance at least in the beginning so it'll be very clear that we shouldn't mix their spirituality. We're engaging here in spirituality. Corporeality, if you don't have to work with it, learn that on the outside. It has nothing to do with our studies here. We're here in spirituality.

M. Laitman: Yes, but they influence one another. I can’t simply be a Kabbalist here and a transgressor over there. Nevertheless, it comes from one person.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:14) We don't tend to share each other with our troubles or with our joys, and Baal HaSulam here is truly being very meticulous. He's saying, be sorry with their friends aches and rejoice in their delights, meaning we have to be more attentive to that?

M. Laitman: We live in such a time when we can’t speak, we don't have time, but also it is not customary for us to open the heart toward the friends. Only what has to do with our connection with the Creator. What we learn is what we are talking about, and all the rest we barely speak about.

Student: If I want to be sorry with the sorrows of my friends, I need to know about that. I need to know what their troubles are. How would I participate otherwise?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But we don’t tend to do so. We talk in general about the greatness of the goal, so what is it talking about here?

M. Laitman: We need to pay more attention to it perhaps, but slowly. This will happen.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:01) He writes, I command you, I order you. There's another meaning to this. For one, he gives them forces. If he gives this order, he's giving forces to his friends. It's not just commanding them.

M. Laitman: Perhaps.

Student: That's the question also, when the Creator gives a commandment to us, there's forces within them?

M. Laitman: It's possible. You're saying that, that's your assumption.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:44) He writes that love in effort. What is to give all the forces with love and with this effort to love. What is this exertion to love? Where does love have to be exerted?

M. Laitman: Love is a very difficult action. It's not as simple as we tend to think about it like some sort of adventure. No, you have to be concentrated on who you love, what, why, what for, how? What can be his responses, reactions? What am I attaining? The entire Torah is in order to reach love the other.

Student: So, this effort is before love. Because when love comes, there's probably no effort already when there's already such a feeling. So what is love? If it's with effort then it's labor, it's not work it's not love.

M. Laitman: That doesn't extinguish the love, the efforts. They do not extinguish it. We need to reach both effort and love, and know how to keep it, maintain it, stay in it for the entire life. That should be the goal.

Student: He also writes that love for his friend, that each should love his friend like yourself. So the labor is in what? In coming closer, in seeing and overcoming. What is the effort in love here?

M. Laitman: What do you do when you love someone?

Student: I probably don't know what it is to love because in the concept of this world, love is kind of natural. There's nothing that I know any other way.

M. Laitman: How can you measure love?

Student: How much you want to give, how much you see that someone enjoys what you're giving, you're delighting in everything they do.

M. Laitman: So we're the same.

Student: Okay, but what is the effort in what, seeing it and doing it?

M. Laitman: To see and to do, yes. I have to, every once in a while, to scan all my friends and see who do I love more, who do I love less, why? Will the feelings of love reach a state where I will be included in them so that nothing will remain besides that?

Student: Now, we do this in order to come closer to the Creator. The goal itself is not this love. Behind that, there probably needs to be love for the Creator that comes. Is that also an effort there?

M. Laitman: Yes, certainly. Without effort, you can't do anything.

Student: Is the effort in…

M. Laitman: It's in aiming yourself at the Creator and wanting to approach Him, and feel Him, and love Him, and to see how good and benevolent He is. How He develops all kinds of senses in you to be adhered to the actions of the Creator.

Student: The effort is like supernatural because it's above the regular feelings that we feel due to their causality or to connect it to the Creator. Love suddenly takes on this concept, these different definitions than what we're used to, and how to be in that all the time?

M. Laitman: Think about it. Think about it. There's nothing more.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:49) Rav, there's the part where we exert effort, meaning the intention and the attitude that we want to have, which we're trying to have. There's the feeling which expands within the vessels. The question is, when a Kabbalist says, engage in love, is it this matter of our inclination, or our tendency, or the feeling itself that you should have? What actually is love? The attitude that I'm trying to sustain or the feeling that will be there?

M. Laitman: For you to feel the extent in which you love the friend and how much you're trying to love him, that you can decide on the attitude above this equivalence, that's what you can give, and to be entirely in it, and that you live in it.

Student: We have this matter of wanting to see the friend with loving eyes.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Can there be a state where a person feels hatred in his heart? That's the feeling, but in his daily effort trying to constantly see the friends with love. The very fact that he's doing that, does that say that he's in love? The fact that he's exerting to love?

M. Laitman: No, it's still not. It's along the way perhaps, but it's not yet. He has to pray to the Creator.

Student: It's clear that with the Creator, the feeling and the attitude, it's like his mouth and his heart are equal in this matter. But when he says, try to love one another. So, it sounds like the effort itself is already an attitude of love that increases the love. Only through effort, if I show the friend this effort, this labor, then it can already evoke this, in general, this love.

M. Laitman: Yes, if you can awaken yourself to it correctly, to a certain extent, then you're already in it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:34) What does it mean to be above equivalence of form?

M. Laitman: What does it mean?

Student: Above equivalence. You said that we need to love above equivalence. I thought that we need to constantly be in equivalence of form with the Creator. He is the maximum, the most highest, and now I'm hearing that we have to be above the equivalence.

M. Laitman: I don't remember how, but there was never such an intention. The Creator is our goal, but it's not that we wish to be above it. It's impossible.

Student: And another question, why is it important that in the work between us we need to constantly look at the friends and see who I love more and who I love less? Why is that very important in the work?

M. Laitman: Because we depend on one another and whatever a person discovers by his own strength, the force to resist reception, the force of giving, the force of love, the force of connection, the teaching, it all comes to him as a result of these general efforts by him and the group.

Student: What is spiritual love? We talk about love, love all the time. And whoever came here before he came to learn spirituality, the wisdom of Kabbalah, we were educated in corporeal love. What is actually spiritual love? What's unique about spiritual love and differentiates it from corporeal love?

M. Laitman: Spiritual love is visible in how much a person cares for the other, how much he understands the other, loves him. And something that is similar, akin to how much a mother cares for her child and to such an extent the person has to be aimed in his attitude to the friend.

Student: How important is it to truly be concerned with the friend where the spiritual advancement of the friends is more important than anything else? Is that love? Or is it part of the way to love the friends?

M. Laitman: It's a part of love. I care about the friend's spirituality and I want for him to succeed.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:36) When we attain a little of the love towards the friends, then naturally you start to enjoy that state. From that feeling, from the ability to love, or from the fact that you receive love from friends. It can be that the effort is to develop fear to not blemish this love, or not lose it. Is that the effort to develop fear?

M. Laitman: It accompanies the process, yes, it accompanies it. The person has to use them in order to maintain the correct state.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:30) I hear Rav a lot telling us, restriction, screen, and reflected light. It's like this order of actions, the internal order of actions.

M. Laitman: Those are corrections.

Student: Yes, it's something very exalted. Let's say, to continue what you asked, I feel love from the friends, that I love them, it gives me some joy and pleasure. What at this stage is the restriction, screen, and reflected light?

M. Laitman: You don't need to do it on that, no? Not on that. We are speaking of the Creator. A person relates to the Creator and he already has forces of connection and bestowal, and he needs to consider how he fills his vessels. So there he might need to use restriction, screen, and reflected light.

Student: So what we talked about so far about the love of friends in the Ten, that's not related to that?

M. Laitman: No, no, no.

Question (MAK 4): (22:06) Love is the fulfillment of the desire of your friend. What in the Ten is love? When we're working between us in the Ten, what is love?

M. Laitman: In the Ten, it's the degree of connection between friends in the Ten and their willingness to help one another to attain a spiritual goal.

Question (New York 2): (22:38) What is the corporeality and self-importance of the friend that Baal HaSulam is here prohibiting them from? He's warning us here about the corporeality of the friend.

M. Laitman: We don't have to touch that. We need to ensure that the power of bestowal from the Creator will be activated over each and every friend.

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (23:18) I feel the joy and the sorrow of the friend in my Kli. The question, to what extent is the feeling of the friend from my vessel brings me to the feeling of the friend? Meaning, to what extent what the friend feels, in what way does that impact my feeling?

M. Laitman: That each shall help his friend, as we say. That's how we help each other from incorporation, and also from external examples.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:08) There's something strange about this letter. He starts with telling his students that he gives trust in every utterance that comes out of my mouth. Meaning, before that, the friends, the students gathered and agreed to take every utterance that comes out of the teacher's mouth, which is a certain, a very high form of connection. And then he says, I order for you to begin to work in love of friends, as if you never talked to them about this. It's like, start something new, everything we talked about, now start to also engage in love of friends. It's not... It doesn't work out here, because there's this feeling like students are capable of hearing and doing almost everything the teacher says, only to hear about love of friends somehow doesn't enter the ear. What is that state where he's telling them, now start engaging in love of friends?

M. Laitman: He trusts the fact that they know about it because they spoke about it often, for a long time and then he reminds them. Start over and over with love of friends. And to the extent you realize this love you'll see, you'll discover new vessels in their relationship to the Creator.

Student: Why does the teacher need to specifically remind me of this? There's the order of the study to understand the structure of the world.

M. Laitman: But he talks about that, he simply says about that. I don't even know where from, but here he mentions that he reminds us about that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:10) A minute ago you said we need to be concerned only with the extent in which the force of bestowal from the Creator will be activated upon each and every friend.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How do we operate the force of bestowal upon all the friends?

M. Laitman: To the extent that I can feel the Creator influencing me, helping me, supporting me, and to be in it, and to have such an inclination toward friends as well.

Student: I myself.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Meaning that the force that's operating on a friend is my attitude.

M. Laitman: I learn from my actions toward the friends.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:15) Love between friends exists also in this world also for people that are not studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. We know about cases where one is willing to sacrifice his life for another, and all kinds of states. Now, what characterizes the love for us which leads to love of the Creator, from the love of friends to love of the Creator?

M. Laitman: It develops because they're incorporated into one another, and in the love of the Creator you also find love of friends, but you discover it in reverse. First love of friends we strive to reveal, and then we come to love of the Creator.

Student: So why in love there is between, let's say, regular people, let's say between guys and friends, why isn't there that degree? Why don't they move from there to that state?

M. Laitman: They lack a goal. The goal is just to connect with a friend, or to good children.

Student: But I'm not talking about children and family, I'm talking about two guys, two men who develop love that are willing to sacrifice their life for one another. Why, according to equivalence of form, does the love of the Creator not appear?

M. Laitman: Because there's no connection. There's a corporeal connection between them, which has nothing to do with the spiritual form of love. It's a totally different kind of love that doesn't come out of corporeal development.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:09) I want to continue the friend, because we learned that there's this quote where you can't destroy a forgotten city, where seemingly even the greatest criminals when they gather and connect, and even upon them, that they don't have a connection with the Creator, even upon them there's a certain upper illumination, and then you kind of can't destroy them. So, on the same measure, also the friend asked, why does such corporeal work between friends not evoke that same force?

M. Laitman: They don't have that goal.

Student: Also the criminals in this deserted town don't have that. Why doesn't it operate here?

M. Laitman: It doesn't work. It works when they are together, that's it. They're willing to correct their ego on the corporeal level. By nature each one would kill one another and they don't, they don't kill one another. They are willing to have a connection, a certain connection in order to sustain their lives. In this way, they are together, they are strong, and they can deal with external threats.

Student: Why did this question awaken? Because we also see in the people of Israel that maybe if they would want to connect seemingly without the goal to reveal the Creator. Nevertheless there is some kind of force that will operate upon them, and a change will happen somehow in the direction of the goal, or not.

M. Laitman: No, it depends on the intention.

Student: Meaning, without us bringing in this intention to the people, nothing will help. Even the best connections, and unifications?

M. Laitman: No.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:39) How to define precisely what intention that is in the act of connection leads to the love of the Creator? And, well, that's the question. What should the intention exactly be?

M. Laitman: The intention to reach love of the Creator, as you said.

Student: So, I should not say that people in the nation connect right now because they have common suffering, and they are trying to find a way to run away from that? That's not enough to discover the love of the Creator. So, when we work we need upon love of friends as he is ordering us to love one another, and delight in their joy, and ache in their pain, there needs to be an intention also to discover the Creator here between us?

M. Laitman: To bestow to the Creator.

Student: It's not easy to explain that, how a person tries to love in order to bestow the Creator. This is something that needs to develop in the perception of a person.

M. Laitman: It starts from simple corporeal degrees without any spiritual discernments in them.

Student: So, maybe that's the question of the friends. If we start from such a state, what develops and leads us even somewhat to there? Because that drop to bestow to the Creator, there's no feeling for that in the beginning whatsoever. So, how does that lead to such an awakening of such an intention? And how to push as much as possible, which begins to awaken?

M. Laitman: Only with the help of the Creator. That's the only thing we should hope for.

Student: So, in the state where we work on love of friends and hope and expect the salvation of the Creator, for Him to help. In what exactly?

M. Laitman: It needs to help the connection between us so we would build a place for the Creator to be revealed.

Student: So, when we work on love of friends, we want the love to be such that the Creator will be able to dwell in it.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:13) I need to learn from the Creator how to love the friends?

M. Laitman: Also.

Student: Is He our model for love, or how to love the friends?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How do you learn from the Creator?

M. Laitman: According to His actions. What He awakens between us. How He advances us, He brings us closer, ties us together, ties us to Him.

Student: But He's relating to me in a variety of states. Not just in a good way.

M. Laitman: Okay, but you're learning. After all, what you learn from it is the love of the Creator to you.

Student: And towards the friends, I need to take only the positive things that I feel from the way the Creator relates towards them?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:35) The commandment here emphasizes to love the friend, not someone else.

M. Laitman: Yes, sure, certainly.

Student: Is everyone who's written on paper that they're in a Ten, are they considered a friend?

M. Laitman: If you accept him, if you are responsible for him, if you feel him to be in connection with you, identify with you, in Arvut with you; then he's already a friend.

Student: I don't feel that towards every friend in the Ten, so they're not all my friends in the Ten?

M. Laitman: Strive to feel them or help them enter into the society. Maybe like a covenant between you.

Student: What's a covenant? It's like a big word, a covenant.

M. Laitman: It's a big word. The first article in Shamati. Not Shamati, Matan Torah.

Student: So truly each Ten needs to kind of like sign a covenant?

M. Laitman: Between them and with the Creator. What kind of connection do we need to reveal between us so it will be clear to us what is connection. Where I'll be able to demand in this connection the revelation of the Creator and the minimal degree of wholeness. Meaning, the kind of connection between us. Among all those actions, not actions, forms of connection, then we'll be in such a mutual guarantee between us, Arvut, that the Creator will be able to fill our connection.

Student: This means that sometimes we feel that there's now a connection with a friend. That it's clear that this connection is with the purpose to come closer to the Creator. And that's the correct connection. And then that friend is truly called a friend. And sometimes it could be that he's not a friend because there's the feeling sometimes that in the connection there's no Creator.

M. Laitman: Also possible.

Student: So this means that if the effort of each and every one, or between us, even between two or three, no matter how many, if there's an effort, a common effort to reach the Creator then we're already friends.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So now, I want to be a friend. I want to be a friend. What is recommended for me to be a friend? To enter this effort called a friend. It's an effort.

M. Laitman: It's an effort, it's a special occasion. To the extent you're ready, to the extent you understand and are willing to act, you can be in the correct connection with the friends.

Student: And how do I enter the Creator into this connection?

M. Laitman: You don’t succeed in any form of connection. Rather, you will always, should always try. You should always need to turn to the Creator and receive from Him direction and force.

Student: Meaning, it's always on that border that brings me to the inability until the request for help, and then it's the right connection?

M. Laitman: Only in this way.

Question (Kyiv 1): (40:13) You said that we need to examine in relation to every friend how much we love him. And there are those that we love more and those that we love less in the Ten. And what needs to be the correct connection between us? Do I need to love everyone in the same manner? Or is there a deeper connection with some of the friends?

M. Laitman: I wish to reach a connection with all my friends in the Ten. A single connection, equal connection among everyone. And from that connection that I'm in, I can pray to the Creator and ask Him to relate to us, to fulfill us.

Student: You also said that there should be a certain connection in the Ten, that from that connection I ask, as I want to feel that from this connection I can really obligate the Creator to answer us. What is that level of connection which can truly compel the Creator to answer us?

M. Laitman: In principle, we can always ask for it. It doesn't depend on our degree.

Question (Ashkelon 2): (42:09) What conditions need to take place in order to sign a covenant between friends?

M. Laitman: They understand that unless they attain the covenant, they can't attain the purpose of creation.

Student: How does the covenant help to attain, how does it contribute to their advancement?

M. Laitman: The covenant causes the formation of the vessel in which the Creator is revealed. That state where the Creator fills the vessel is called the end of correction.

Student: You also said that we need to sign a covenant between friends and the Creator. How to connect the Creator correctly to this when we sign a covenant?

M. Laitman: First, all the friends need to be connected in a state where they discover that the connection does exist between them without stopping. Then from that they all turn together to the Creator and they ask. They ask that He will take care of them, bring them closer to Him, and so on and so forth.

Question (ITA 1): (43:57) You're telling us that we don't know love. Is that a feeling that needs to develop in us, for us to develop it? Or is it a feeling that the Creator gives us? Or is it a feeling that we acquire through our work above reason?

M. Laitman: This is an emotion that we begin to acquire from above, from above reason.

Student: Is this love the Creator in the end? When we're in adhesion, are we also in love?

M. Laitman: No, it's our attitude. It's something by itself.

Question (Women Toronto 1): (45:09) I've heard you say that connection comes before love. How can we reach connection if we don't love each other equally?

M. Laitman: That's true, but we don't come to complete, absolute love, but only the beginning of it so we could begin to correct ourselves on the degree of love. Therefore, even though we're not so, we're not quite ready for it, but we enter, and then we are faced with the work.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:10) It's difficult for us to love. It's difficult for us to define what love is. And my question is, there are three forces that we learn, which is not to despair from asking for mercy, that can take us towards the Creator, that will give us the knowledge and the feeling. There's the prayer, as in the prayer there's actually the ability. And there's the force of faith. What from these components will we learn from the Torah, from what we are exerting and revealing that can bring us closer to attain this absolute love like the Creator loves? Like he loves us, and he won't despair with us.

M. Laitman: The nearing between friends as much as possible. That's what you want to achieve, to attain. And although it's a corporeal matter and it seems far from the Creator and spirituality, but specifically this can help us so that we will come closer to Him.

Student: Rav, in the creation that the Creator created when he took us out of Bina, the shattering that took place. Before that, there was love between Adam and Eve, no?

M. Laitman: I don't know.

Student: So what is Garden of Eden?

M. Laitman: I also don't know.

Student: How can I define love toward a friend as a move in the direction of the Garden of Eden connection?

M. Laitman: I don't know, you're giving me such conditions in your questions that I cannot answer you.

Student: I want you to help me discover the way to attain this love.

M. Laitman: Then the way to attain it is to forget about the Garden of Eden, and all kinds of things that are completely not related to you. That's it. In such cases, he immediately says, thank you very much. He doesn't want to hear.

Question (Haifa 1): (48:38) He writes about love, in the last part, concerning the above mentioned order specifically among the friends, because he is your friend. Help me see if I understood. Baal HaSulam really wants us to succeed, discover the Creator is Good Who does Good. The important thing is that we attain this incorporation, each one of us is part of the whole, and for us to be able to incorporate in one another we have to develop this feeling between us. I know it's difficult between me, we're stuck with the ego, the pride. That's why he says, I order you, so we understand that we must do it, we incorporate it in one another. Did I understand it correctly?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:42) They say from love of others to love of the Creator. But in order to love the friends, we need the help of the Creator. There's this loop, the help of the Creator. If the Creator hears me, means that He relates to me, so there's a degree of love from the Creator before He gives me love of others. So what is the correct order? Is there something in what I've said?

M. Laitman: There's a direct and an opposite direction order, but there is something in your connection with the Creator and with others. As to the extent in which you yearn for a connection with others, for love of others, you can turn to the Creator for help.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:57) It says, I order you to start with all your might to love one another as yourselves, with all your might, to ache with your friend's pains and rejoice in your friend's joy as much as possible. Now, let's say my friend lost his work, lost his job. What does it mean that I ache in his pain as much as possible?

M. Laitman: What we actually need in such cases is to help daily then find him work.

Student: Let's say my friend fell down, broke his arm, he needs a surgery, what does it mean to ache in his pain as much as possible?

M. Laitman: To see how you can help him, maybe work in his place or do something to complete him with work, at home maybe, in all kinds of other actions. To buy groceries for him if needed.

Student: What about the sorrow?

M. Laitman: The sorrow, it's clear. Sadly, you cannot order the sorrow.

Student: It says, I order you to ache in his pain. What does it mean?

M. Laitman: Okay, it means that each needs to depict himself that same sorrow that the group is losing from the fact that the friend cannot sustain himself correctly, and also the Creator is sorry, the Shechina is sorry. Meaning, and the whole Kli, the whole vessel, the whole group. Everyone is in sorrow.

Student: And what do we have to do relative to that?

M. Laitman: We need to arrange everything so it will be for the benefit of that friend, that person that was harmed, and we need to come to a state in which the Kli will actually not feel that lack.

Student: Something pains the friend, he feels sorrow. How do I feel his sorrow as much as possible?

M. Laitman: You need to incorporate with his sorrow to such an extent, if it's truly so, then he needs to feel less sorrow because of that.

Student: How do I justify the Creator in such instances?

M. Laitman: As it could be that he did this not because the friend is suffering, but rather so that you will suffer a little through him.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:33) He writes about people on the outside, they need great study, and they should never be accepted. And he also says to be very careful. What does that mean? What should we be careful about?

M. Laitman: In order to be precisely between the friends as it's in yourself. As it's written, on the people on the outside, we need to be very cautious. Why? Because there's a greater chance of loss than reward. Because they're clinging to, they're clinging to corporeality and self-importance, and there's nothing to add here. And between the friends, well, among the friends, this must never be accepted. Be very careful. Awaiting salvation. So what are you saying about this?

Student: What does that mean that we need great study? When the people from the outside doesn't caution us. Specifically with friends, it says that it needs to be accepted and well cautioned. So what should we be careful about?

M. Laitman: That you have to help them in the way that they're feeling the sorrow, and they can move it. It's the sorrow of the Shechina.

Student: So they won't be neglectful when they feel the sorrow?

M. Laitman: Yes, because the Creator is concealed. That's why they're not making room for Him to be revealed. That is what needs to be done for the Creator. Just like He performed the first restriction you need through all the restrictions, through all the actions to reveal the Kli for filling, the general Kli. The entire circle of Ein Sof.

Student: And he says that you have to be careful about it?

M. Laitman: And we need to adhered to that goal.

Student: And what is the great study that we need regarding people on the outside?

M. Laitman: The people on the outside don't have any, they don't touch this whatsoever.

Student: Meaning, we need to make great scrutiny about these people on the outside?

M. Laitman: We need to include them in our correction. And later also to see that there will be an opportunity to pass to them parts of what we attain, and they will continue.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:32) In love of friends in the Ten, it appears sometimes that specifically in the Ten is the place where it's most difficult to love the friends. Why is it arranged this way?

M. Laitman: Because you're connected in many ways in the Ten, and there are many commitments. People know one another well corporeally. And developing spiritual connections upon that is really not simple.

Student: If we share an example, sometimes it works out that in each friend there is something that's tough to digest. One behaves a certain way, one speaks a certain way. Each one has something that is hard to accept. So when it comes to love of friends, it's the same. He remains, and I love above him, or I begin to love the form itself. No disturbance. Or there is a disturbance, but I love above it on a higher level. A disturbance on the animal degree, corporeally. Let's say I don't like a certain quality corporeally, but at a higher degree above it, I feel love toward him. There's no such thing. So what happens, what's the deal with that disturbance? Where does it go?

M. Laitman: It's not apparent. You don't see it.

Student: I don't see it?

M. Laitman: That's called love will cover all crimes. To the extent in which you'll have crimes or transgressions, if you reach a connection with Him, then those crimes, you will no longer see them as big or unique.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:44) We have another letter by Baal HaSulam or continue to the Introduction to the Sulam Commentary.

Reader: We're going to the Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter number 58. Again, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 58.

Reading: (01:00:35) Baal HaSulam. Letter No. 58

8 Adar, Tav-Shin-Aleph, March 7, 1941, Jerusalem

To the holy rav whose light will shine forever...:

... The question was, “What does ‘Haman from the Torah, where from?’ imply,” from the verse, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” He said that the question was, “Where do we find in the Torah that the Creator summons a messenger to reform a person against his will, as was with Haman, and as it is written, ‘I will place over you a king such as Haman, and you will repent against your will’?”

This is what our sages showed about the verse, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you,” etc., for then the evil inclination—the angel of death—was created, forcing the man to engage in Torah, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” If one is not to engage in Torah, the evil inclination will put him to death.

It follows that the disclosure of the sin of the tree of knowledge that puts to death—explained in the words, “from the tree,” etc., is the messenger that compels a person to reform against his will. This is similar to “I will place over you a king such as Haman, and you will repent against your will.”

Had he not been trapped in the serpent’s net and had waited for Shabbat [Sabbath], and ate from the tree of life prior to eating from the tree of knowledge, he would have been granted the Tikkun [correction] of the evil inclination being a spice for the Torah. He would not need a forcing messenger such as Haman, as in “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” On the contrary, the evil inclination would have become a spice for the Torah, and now that he sinned, he needs a forcing messenger.

I added to it according to a higher source that there is in the sanctity of the Sabbath, that the evil inclination becoming a spice for the Torah is the meal on the Sabbath evening. This is what is implied in the songs of the ARI, “To enter the openings in the field of apples,” as in “This is the gate to the Lord,” and as is explained through the rest of those songs.

On Shabbat, at the meal of holy Atik, it is possible to receive from the highest place, where the Torah needs no spice, as in “The Torah and the Creator are one,” by ascending to the world of Atzilut, where it was said, “No harm shall come to you.” It therefore follows that if Adam HaRishon had waited with his Zivug for Shabbat, he would have been rewarded with the wonderful degree, “The Torah and the Creator are one,” for at the time of Adam HaRishon the worlds were very high, as stated in Rashbi’s essay, Kedoshim.

Indeed, even after the sin he could have risen to Atzilut, through the ascent of Shabbat, and not come down from there. This is the meaning of what is written, “lest he stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” There it was in the form of “The Torah and the Creator are one.” But the Creator drove him out from there, as it is written, “And He drove out the man.” We should ask, “Why should the Creator mind if he ate from the tree of life and lived forever?”

The answer is that all the wonderful Kedusha [holiness] of “the Torah and the Creator are one” that was revealed on Shabbat was only as a loan. Shabbat is an awakening from above, without any awakening from below. But the Torah is completed only through an awakening from below, by observing Torah and Mitzvot [commandments]. We should therefore wonder why he was rewarded wholeness on the part of the Creator if his Torah was still incomplete.

This is what our sages answered regarding what the Creator said, “They borrowed on My guarantee, and I collect.” That is, “I can lend you the complete Torah to the fullest, until it is enough for “The Torah and the Creator are one” because “I collect.” That is, I have no fear at all of “Lend to the wicked and he will not pay,” for I can place over you a king such as Haman, and you will repent against your will and observe the Torah from love.

“‘All that is destined to be collected is deemed collected.’ Therefore, I am lending you on Shabbat, as it is written, ‘and a righteous pardons and gives.’” This is why the Creator did not want him to “stretch out his hand and take from the tree of life,” since then Adam HaRishon would not pay and reveal the Torah as an awakening from below, and it would have remained as a loan.

This would make it groundless from the start because a Torah that is not completed does not merit being “The Torah and the Creator are one.” However, the Creator considers the loan as though it was already paid back, since He can force it, and “All that is destined to be collected is deemed collected.” Hence, He really did force him: “And He drove out the man,” to pay back the loan.

In truth, the suspension also extends from the eating of the tree of knowledge, and this is the meaning of what our sages said about the verse, “Libel is terrible to people,” the sin of the tree of knowledge, “You came unto him with libel.” With the above-said we understand that it is to force him to pay back his loan.

With these words we also understand his words when he said the intimation that it is Haman from the Torah, since the tree of knowledge is the discernment of “I place over you a king such as Haman,” etc. Just as Haman wished to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—women and children—in a single day, so is the tree of knowledge, “for in the day you eat from it you will surely die.”

And just as He forced them to repent from love through the fear of death through Haman’s decree, so the above-mentioned disclosure of the sin, explained in the verse, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you?”, etc., will compel man to repent from love, as in “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” It is so because if he does not engage in Torah, he will promptly die because of the serpent.

May the Creator help us pay for what we borrowed, and may we be granted complete redemption.

Yehuda Leib

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:34) The last line says, may the Creator help us pay for what we have borrowed. I don't understand from the article what exactly do we borrow and we have to pay back the Creator?

M. Laitman: And the Creator will help us pay back what we borrowed, and we will get great, granted complete redemption. Well, he'll help us complete. To pay is to complete our debt, which we have yet to correct, and it's not enough, and we didn't suffice to correct, which is how we will reach the complete redemption.

Student: If he writes in past tense, borrowed, means we got something and didn't pay it back, or the fact that we didn't make a correction means that we received something?

M. Laitman: We received. We received the evil inclination, we received the group, we received all that the Creator arranged for us up to entering the corrections, and by the corrections to enter the spiritual system, we received all of that. Now we need to continue onwards, okay?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:04) When the Creator gives a person forces of faith, is it always as a loan?

M. Laitman: Well, of course

Student: But a person exerted and sought, and why isn't that a reward?

M. Laitman: You receive it, but these forces can actually be, like you're saying as a reward, and they can be as a loan.

Student: So when are the forces given as a loan, and when is it a reward? How can a person also discern between those two?

M. Laitman: Actually, a person needs to see all the things he receives from the Creator as a loan, and that by receiving, he needs to activate himself and pay.

Student: Another question. Why is the evil inclination, doesn't it force a person to correct, but the MAN?

M. Laitman: The MAN is also part of the evil inclination.

Student: Haman?

M. Laitman: The evil inclination has many parts, many names.

Student: Haman are like decrees that hit our beast. That's what I understand. So, why is the evil inclination that I'm the opposite of the Creator, why doesn't that compel me to correct myself but the blows I get on my beast?

M. Laitman: Because by that a person feels and will not run away.

Student: And how can one understand where he's aimed towards. How can he make the connection between one another?

M. Laitman: How does a person understand?

Student: What Haman is directing me towards, how can you understand them?

M. Laitman: Haman is directing him towards in order to receive.

Student: Haman is blows. What's a king as Haman?

M. Laitman: The purpose of the blows.

Student: That's what I'm asking. How can you understand the purpose of the blows?

M. Laitman: It's clear to him.

Student: How?

M. Laitman: Because he's in them.

Student: If I look at the development, let's say, of the nation of Israel. They've been receiving blows for 2,000 years and don't understand. How is Haman not doing his work the right way?

M. Laitman: Yes, if the Creator didn't stand on our side, Haman would have already obliterated everything.

Student: How can we speed up the recognition, the awareness of the works of the Creator?

M. Laitman: Only through connection. Read all the material he gives us. And then by discussing among yourselves after the reading, by being incorporated by speaking, you will see what more you need to do.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:05) How can I give the loan back to the Creator every day? What does it mean to give the loan back?

M. Laitman: That you use His loan correctly. The strength you receive from him, you use it to correct yourself and come closer to the Creator. And by this, you take Him as a partner and give and repay the loan. The powers He gave you, you invest them in bestowal.

Student: So I got closer to the friends, they got closer to the love of friends. I'm giving it back, all the forces He's giving me. I give it back in my work before the friends, right?

M. Laitman: You can say so.

Student: So, I don't understand how I give the loan back. How do I reach a state that I will feel that supposedly I'm already, what the forces the Creator gave me, how do I give it back to the friends?

M. Laitman: You pray for them. You intend to come to connection together with them. And by this, bring contentment to the Creator.

Student: The fear before the Creator, the spiritual fear. Is that the force that every time He gives me this loan, this force, that's the fear where I have to feel that I'm obligated to be His partner like towards the friends?

M. Laitman: Have it this way. Afterwards, it will settle deeper into its place.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:23) First of all, I'm happy that I learned something new here. I never understood what the Torah as a spice is. So here he explains how the evil inclination gives taste to engage in the Torah. That's the reason a person is doing it. But in the last sentence, he says that the Creator will help us give back what we loaned. A few lessons ago, I asked you if we're allowed to relate to things that happened from above downward to something that, to ascribe it to ourselves. Here he says you can. He says we took the loan.

M. Laitman: If you take it as a loan, then probably, yes.

Student: What we learned that happened in the upper worlds.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: When we look at what happened to the created being, to the will to receive, we can look at it as our decision. That we took the loan. I'm allowed to look at what happened in the upper worlds as something that I wanted to do, that I took it upon myself.

M. Laitman: No. The created beings live only by raising MAN through their prayer. Not in another way.

Student: And the fact that our root is the will to receive that was shattered and everything he explains. So we can't see it as ourselves.

M. Laitman: No.

Student: So why does he use this language here? That we, that He'll help us pay what we took. As if we took the loan.

M. Laitman: We should probably respond to this as well, repay, to complete it.

Student: On what? What should we give back upon?

M. Laitman: For having lost that spiritual level that we were previously in, in our root.

Question (Women Rehovot): (01:22:11) What's the connection between each person's personal suffering and the loan that he has to repay?

M. Laitman: The spiritual root of every person is the root that is in the soul of Adam HaRishon. That's where the roots of all of us are. And how he should repay? He should rise. He should raise this whole structure of Adam HaRishon to the highest level.

Student: I wasn't clear. They asked about what the connection is of the personal suffering that each one goes through and the loan that he needs.

M. Laitman: The personal suffering of every person is in order to awaken him to correction. To give back the loan that is in him.

Question (Novosibirsk): (01:23:22) If a person doesn't feel that he owes the Creator. So how can he develop such a feeling?

M. Laitman: By this he is either similar to a person in this world who doesn't see that he has a debt until he gets some sort of a letter that tells him how much he owes and he should go to the bank to check it up. Or in general, or he has many other things. But we must discover our decline, our fall, all of it. And see by those means how to rise to the source from which our souls shine. That's it.

Song: (01:24:52)

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