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

Daily Lesson (Morning), June 14, 2024.

Part 2: Baal HaSulam. The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee) Item 27.

Reader: We are in The Writings of Baal HaSulam, The Arvut article, we are in item 27. You can send questions. Again, from Baal HaSulam, The Arvut Article, item 27.

Reading Item 27: (00:30) 

However, by all that we have explained from the beginning of the essay until now, we learn the true meanings of the words as their roles should be—to resemble a negotiation of offer and consent. This means that with these words, He really does offer them the whole form and content of the work in Torah and Mitzvot, and its worthwhile reward.

The work in Torah and Mitzvot is expressed in the words, “And you will be unto Me a kingdom of priests.” A kingdom of priests means that all of you, from the youngest to the oldest, will be as priests. Just as the priests have no land or any corporeal possessions since the Creator is their lot, so will the entire nation be organized so that the whole earth and everything in it will be dedicated to the Creator. And no person should have any other engagement in it but to observe the Mitzvot of the Creator and satisfy the needs of his fellow person so his friend will lack none of his wishes, so that no person will need to have any worry about himself.

In this way, even secular works such as harvesting, sowing, etc., are considered to be precisely like the work with the sacrifices that the priests performed in the Temple. How is it different if I observe the Mitzva of making sacrifices to the Creator, which is a Mitzva “to do,” or if I observe the Mitzva “to do,” “Love your friend as yourself”? It follows that he who harvests his field in order to feed his fellow person is the same as one who sacrifices to the Creator. Moreover, it makes sense that the Mitzva, “Love your friend as yourself,” is more important than one who makes the sacrifice, as we have shown above in Items 14, 15.

Indeed, this is not the end of the matter, for the whole of the Torah and the Mitzvot were given for the sole purpose of cleansing Israel, which is the cleansing of the body, as written in Item 12, after which he will be granted the true reward of Dvekut with Him, which is the purpose of creation, as written in Item 15. That reward is expressed in the words “a holy nation,” as through the Dvekut with Him we have become holy, as it is written, “You will be holy to the Lord your God, for I the Lord your God, who sanctifies you, am holy.”

And you see that the words “a kingdom of priests” express the complete form of the work on the axis of “Love your friend as yourself,” meaning a kingdom that is all priests, that the Creator is their possession, and they have no self-possession of all the mundane possessions. We must admit that this is the only definition through which we can understand the words, “a kingdom of priests,” for you cannot interpret it with regard to the sacrifices on the altar since this cannot be said about the whole nation, for who would be making the sacrifices?

Also, with regard to taking the gifts of the priesthood, who would be the givers? And also, to interpret the holiness of the priests, it has already been said “a holy nation.” Therefore, this must certainly mean that it is only that the Creator is their domain, that they lack any material possession for themselves, meaning the full measure of the words “Love your friend as yourself,” which encompasses the whole of the Torah. And the words “a holy nation” express the full form of the reward, which is the Dvekut.

M. Laitman: Go ahead, questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:37) It's written that all the Torah and the Mitzvot are given only to cleanse Israel, which is the cleansing of the body. Can we ask what the meaning is here? 

M. Laitman: The meaning is the purification of the body, the refinement of it.

Student: What does it mean to join, or to cleanse Israel, which is the cleansing of the body? 

M. Laitman: This purifying, it's like when the goldsmith cleanses, purifies the gold. Similarly, we need to cleanse the will to receive in a person and then it comes to a state where he's completely clean from the dirt, from this unnecessary, unwanted excess. That's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (07:38) Somewhere in the previous part, he explained that there's no difference between the commandments that a person does with his friend and the way he performs actions that the commandments with respect to the Creator, because it's like there's something that doesn't exist in reality, whatever's outside of him. So as I understand he's separating between the holy nation and the kingdom of priests. The kingdom of priests is the work and holy nation is the reward, which is adhesion, as mentioned. So is there a difference, or what is the difference between the work for the benefit of others, love your friend as yourself, or the adhesion, all the way to the adhesion in the Creator? 

M. Laitman: It was, Torah was given to a person to be a chosen nation, a nation of remedy and the reward is to be a holy nation, Goy Kadosh, and that comes to everyone. Anyone who honors, who keeps these conditions. 

Student: What's missing, in love your friend as yourself that is not in adhesion, in Dvekut? 

M. Laitman: I can't say. In love your friend, you find the entire goal that is before everyone, all of us and as a result, we come to adhesion with the Creator. 

Student: So we're missing the result, the consequence? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What is that love thy friend as thyself is the cause, and the Dvekut, adhesion is the result? 

M. Laitman: As you said it, first of all, love your friend as yourself. That should be the work of everyone and the adhesion between us and the Creator is the result.

Student: He says that love your friend as yourself is the work and Dvekut is the reward. Why is that the work and the adhesion is the reward? 

M. Laitman: That's what Kabbalists tell us. 

Student: Why isn't love your friend as yourself the reward? 

M. Laitman: It can also be in some way, it can be the reward as well. Nevertheless, there's work and there's a reward and a goal. 

Student: The labor is something that we don't enjoy, it's difficult. Maybe we get satisfaction, but it's nevertheless not the reward. I don't know, so what's the work here and what's the labor here? I'm trying to grasp what the definition of labor is compared to the reward, where is there a difference here? 

M. Laitman: The work is that we need to exert, to labor. Typically when we work, we look at the reward that comes to us in the end, but it's not the case here because this is the work of the Creator. It is, by itself it is holy, like the reward from it, which is the adhesion. That's how we treat it. 

Student: So if the work itself is already holy, then why do we need to add reward to it? 

M. Laitman: What is the reward? 

Student: Adhesion? 

M. Laitman: Adhesion. Can you come immediately to adhesion without work? 

Student: No, but why do we need the Dvekut, the adhesion? The work itself is holy, and by that it ends? 

M. Laitman: No.

Student: A great rule in the Torah, which includes it all? 

M. Laitman: No, the work cannot be the holy goal. 

Student: Love your friend as yourself is not holy work? 

M. Laitman: It's holy work, but it's not the goal.

Student: So what is added here? What is this reward that suddenly comes in the work, that it's all supposed to be in order to bestow?

M. Laitman: Adhesion. 

Student: And where is this reward received? 

M. Laitman: In those same vessels that you sanctify. 

Student: Which is love your friend as yourself? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:42) Maybe the question the friend is describing, we could say that through love your friend as yourself, we create a vessel and adhesion is the filling of that vessel, or not?

M. Laitman: Could be, you could say that. 

Student: Okay, that's one thing and there's another thing that Israel, the light, and the Creator are one.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: That's also in the general same direction through the Torah, we reach adhesion to the Creator, and we kind of feel as one.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:29) He writes, the Creator is their asset and there's no change there. How does this help a person reach such a state where the Creator is their asset and how do they move from that, how do they come to that state? 

M. Laitman: Through that in which they position before the person all kinds of exercises that the person does, via which he acquires the Creator's qualities in degrees, and he elevates himself to such a degree where he becomes equal to the Creator, similar to Him. 

Student: These exercises are actually opportunities he has along the way? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Now, these opportunities, what I saw from you throughout the years, is that there were certain opportunities and you gave all your might there, you gave it all. At first it didn't seem to us as an opportunity, at least to me it didn't, you saw it, we did it and after we did it, we understood what a great thing it was. 

M. Laitman: When did you reveal that? 

Student: I saw it in all kinds of actions in the past that we had, that you came and you gave great forces, you saw an opportunity at the time to do a certain action and beforehand there wasn't the opportunity, and you didn't talk about it, but the moment the opportunity was there, you gave a boom of all your force there, so I want to ask about that. How do we, because many times the opportunities that arrive don't appear sparkling and attractive, it's very easy to give up. They come to us with some idea, some offer as an idea to do something in dissemination and many times, no, it doesn't seem so, it's not like that. How do you know, or how do you develop the ability to identify opportunities? 

M. Laitman: It depends on the sensitivity of the soul, it depends on the sensitivity of the soul that a person gradually acquires.

Student: Do you see, can you describe an opportunity that there is? How does it appear? Is it not attractive? It is? How? 

M. Laitman: It opens in the person and then he feels it. 

Student: When these opportunities come, we need to develop these senses, this sensitivity of sorts, so we will be able to identify it? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:43) The work is defined as love your friend as yourself, and the reward is the adhesion?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Why isn't the reward, love your friend as yourself? If you're laboring in this, why is your reward not to receive such a quality, but the reward is seemingly something else? My question is whether at some point a person reaches, truly loving others and it's not labor for himself? 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand exactly.

Student: At some point, does the labor stop becoming labor and it becomes your quality, or does it always remain as the place to work that is difficult and is in contradiction to your nature? 

M. Laitman: It's not in opposition. 

Student: Would it always be in opposition to our nature?

M. Laitman: No, seemingly not. 

Student: Because the reward is adhesion. So what is adhesion relative to love thy friend as thyself?

M. Laitman: I think that the feeling of love is the reward. 

Student: Meaning adhesion is that feeling of love as well. Is that considered from love of the created beings to love of the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So the love of the Creator is the adhesion. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:41) Can we ask questions about the role of the people of Israel? If they relate to what he writes in the article about a chosen people, and you've kept My covenant, what is this covenant between the people of Israel and the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Covenant? 

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: It doesn't depend on the people of Israel, it depends on the Creator. 

Student: There are several times where it appears as, and you kept My covenant?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes. It's the connection between the people of Israel and the Holy Father in heaven.

Student: Yes, so how is it that there is such a special connection with this special group within the system? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, that was determined before creation, and I, we can understand something that takes place in our world, but. 

Student: Is there room to ask why the Creator needs a transitionary part without, why does He need this adapter between the nations and Him? 

M. Laitman: Seemingly it's because it's in the creation, that it itself demands for there to be such a thing. 

Student: If we look at our situation today, it appears like Israel are stiff-necked and don't do and it's like they're stubborn and there's like a bug in the system?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: According to the thought of creation, according to what's described here,  there should be a group here that's ready, willing, that others are not willing, and thanks to it, there's refinement to everyone. But here we can see that it's kind of like the thing that's the most stuck?

M. Laitman: I agree, because that's also how Baal HaSulam writes about it. And we need to open that incorrect connection and connect ourselves to the Creator in a correct connection. That is our work, the generality of our work. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:44) What connection can there be between Israel and the nations of the world? 

M. Laitman: We need to show them an example, that's how I understand it, that is all. And the Creator pushes us to that.

Student: If we talk according to the forms of nature, then one is the desire which an inclination towards bestowal awakened in it, and one is a desire that is disconnected from bestowal, it's all in reception. How can there be a connection between these two forms of existence of desires? 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand.

Student: If one has a tendency for bestowal, that intention, and one is fully in the will to receive, it's not even aware that there is a matter of intention? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How can there be a connection between the two? 

M. Laitman: The Creator creates this connection. He builds this connection so that we will progress in that gradually. 

Student: The final form in the desire to receive of the nations of the world, of the will to receive, are they also supposed to work in intention? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Are they themselves supposed to work in the intention when there is a matter of Lishma, of equivalence of form and above reason? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, yes. Maybe not by themselves, as you're saying, but they need to receive that intention from Israel, gradually. 

Student: So that's my question about them by themselves. Do they all become Israel, or do they nevertheless all..? 

M. Laitman: That's already a different question, it's already a different question. But it seems to me that, yes. 

Student: That yes, what? That everyone needs to be Israel? 

M. Laitman: That all people will reach a degree of Israel.

Student: But as a result of connection with Israel, or as a result of, just like in Israel, the awakening in that process of..?

M. Laitman: I don't know. What I know, and I also don't see that in the sources whether it's one way or another. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:51) If the very difficult state, corporeal state of Israel will open the hearts and ears of the people, how would you explain the work and its reward?

M. Laitman: Now, in the meantime it's not given. There's such a big gap between what the nation thinks and what is in the Creator's intention for the nation, there's a very big gap there. So I don't know how to bring those closer together.

Student: It's clear that you can talk to the people of Israel about the holy nation and a kingdom of priests, but you have to go out with words. So what can we say to the people of Israel? What's the work and what we'll receive as a result of that?

M. Laitman: That's not for now, I don't know, if you ask me, I don't know. Once it was a lot clearer to me than it is today, because now what's clear to me, is what's clearer to me, is that Israel likes arguing more than changing and that's a problem. I'm not going to go and change anything.  

Student: I'm sorry, but the people of Israel were always like that, no?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So what changed? Why will it suddenly want to change? It seems like the Creator created us like this on purpose?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes and what should we do about it? I do not see that it can change in the paths we have traversed. I have no special upshot of a thought or no map of ways that it could carry out nothing.

Student: What does the Creator want from the people of Israel? It's written my beloved son Ephraim? 

M. Laitman: It's written it's been written that way for thousands of years, but we want something for our days that speaks for the time now.

Student: If it's possible and we can put dissemination aside, what does the Creator want from the people of Israel? 

M. Laitman: In dissemination we understand that we need to disseminate to all the nations, the current state, why it is the way that it is, what do we get out of it? 

Student: The Creator for thousands of years is passing the people of Israel through this path of suffering.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What's the purpose? 

M. Laitman: That we will become more flexible. 

Student: But you're saying he didn't make us flexible, he made us stiff-necked? 

M. Laitman: Yes, but he knows that in any case that through that we will change.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:47) Do you think for the people who study Torah, there's better hope than not? If all the people of Israel were somehow engaged in the Torah, in some way, would that be a good common denominator? 

M. Laitman: (no translation)

Student: And if there was such, I don't know, in 50 years? Because demographically it's happening to a certain extent. Those who are not, it could be that many of them are leaving. As far as numbers are concerned, that side is growing, so let's just put aside the existent state. If this state was like that, would it serve the goal towards which we're talking?

M. Laitman: I don't know. I know that according to Kabbalists and also according to historians, we have been in better states, but he also writes about that. But it didn't work out for us. We haven't succeeded to come closer to redemption. 

Student: But that's a different thing. We have the coarseness of the last generation and it should have also joined into the correction?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And it doesn't mean that the path is not right, it's just that there's more coarseness that needs to be put in? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: I'm asking myself whether, I'll say it this way, if I have a business with a person who does have the connection with the Torah, then we nevertheless have something in common. And one who doesn't, there's nothing that compels him to enter the Arvut, there's nothing that pushes him to a certain extent to accept the fact that we're together. So I'm asking about this common denominator, because when I'm trying to look at how we come to a state where the people of Israel reach a certain Arvut in our state, there needs to be something that compels everyone. The only thing I can see that obligates all the people of Israel to something is what defined us as a nation, which is the Torah. In all the different forms that you can understand and serve the Creator through the Torah, but we have the Creator who is most exalted from all the forms in us, while one who is not, you cannot talk to him at all. The question is whether also those that you cannot, that there's no Creator above them seemingly, do they too get included in the Arvut that we're speaking of? 

M. Laitman: We will live and we will see, I don't know.

Student: I'm just asking whether this question is clear, because this point, I see it before my eyes that I cannot say to someone that doesn't have, meaning there's a difference between someone who put the Creator upon himself and one who has not, also the way that you can talk to him. 

M. Laitman: Yes. Okay, friends, that's clear to us, but the time is special, our state is unique and let us hope that it's for our benefit. Meaning that we will reach the goal, as we have studied about a lot on the path that we are already on.

Question (Women Chile): (35:14) What's the ideal state of the people of Israel physically and spiritually, so that the nations of the world will be able to join their way and the essence of unification with the Creator?

M. Laitman: I don't know. It's complicated, it's too complicated. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:39) Do you think the people of Israel can hear about the work of love your friend as yourself? Can you talk to them about it? 

M. Laitman: No, but there are two things here. What we now have in the nation, it's clear, as you say, it's very bad. On the other hand, if the Creator begins His act, then the whole nation is positioned in a certain way and it all changes, meaning it's all about who leads us to corrections. Certainly that is an upper force and He will do that. 

Student: I'm asking because it's written, because you can see that in the words nation of priests, all the forms of work are written in the form of love your friend as yourself, meaning this whole kingdom is all it has to do to reach love your friend as yourself.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Meaning if Israel doesn't understand this, we need to understand this first.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Do we understand that this is all we need to do? That's it? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. You should say.

Student: It doesn't seem like we are that way so much. 

M. Laitman: That's the problem. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:43) How can you depict what a group is that has no corporeal assets? 

M. Laitman: That they have no thought about themselves.

Student: What does that mean, that they have no thoughts about themselves? 

M. Laitman: That they get such a projection from above, or how do you put it, a force from above, that they cannot think about themselves. 

Student: And this force that arrives, what does it depend upon? 

M. Laitman: On the Creator alone. 

Student: The requests or actions on their behalf? 

M. Laitman: On our behalf, yes. As it is written that we need to connect between us, to be as one man with one heart and to demand from the Creator that we need to shift to such a state, to become as one man with one heart. 

Student: How do we come to such a demand? 

M. Laitman: Through gradual connection between us, where we move in the direction of unity.

Student: But you're saying that it's also from the illumination that will be on everyone? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: On one hand it's this gradual connection and on the other hand some love that will bring understanding to everyone? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So how to combine between these two? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, but that's what needs to be, that needs to be observed. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:34) It works out that love your friend as yourself, this action of acquiring external vessels to us is the actual closest action to us. The question is how to accept myself as an external vessel, a vessel that's not mine, it's the other. How to come close to this emotionally and to connect the friends to me, their desires, how to raise this to the Creator. What here is the action and how do we really perform this first step? 

M. Laitman: A cry. 

Student: An inner outcry? 

M. Laitman: An inner outcry which is very good and strong. 

Student: In the relations with every friend there's a different strain. With each friend, there's a friend that there's more strain, there's a friend where there's more identifying with the vessel, with the desire. How to collect all this equation, all this campaign to one big desire and to truly cry out from within because it sounds like what the Kabbalists are saying is the only solution, the first reach this outcry?

M. Laitman: I don’t know. You're asking me questions that I don't know how to respond to them at all. 

Student: Maybe what I'm asking is that we see that people from all over the country came, the Israeli Kli made an effort, despite all the situation. They came and can feel a very strong desire and in the world Kli can really feel, like on Friday that it's always a special day, that everyone's trying more, there's like a certain attempt here. How do we collect all the desires from all the groups in the world and the Israeli Kli, and maybe it's not really a question to you Rav, there's this desire to reach out and break out towards the Creator in this matter? 

M. Laitman: Yes, correct. Therefore you see how I participate with you.

Workshop: Friends, we're going to move to a lesson summary in the tens, in a workshop.

Reader: (51:18) Announcements.

Song: (52:18)