Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.

Daily Lesson (Afternoon) March 6, 2024

Part 1 Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 88. All the Work Is Only Where There Are Two Ways – 1

Reader: Hello, we are learning the articles of Shamati of Baal HaSulam. Today we will learn Shamati 88. All the work is only where there are two ways. Study materials can be found online in Sviva Tova and the Arvut systems. 

M. Laitman: (00:30) It's clear that if there is work you should have to walk in a specific way. When there is work to fall from one part to another it is impossible to walk on two parts at the same time. The only way the Torah recommends us to do and what Baal HaSulam says about this all the work is only where there are two ways, please. 

Reading Article: (01:12) "All the work is only where there are two…”

M. Laitman: (01:52) This means that even if this wasn't under these three conditions, idolatry, bloodshed, and incest, they had to die but not transgress.

Reading Continues: (02:08) “And we should know that all…"

M. Laitman: (02:55) Let’s read again and then we will take questions.

Rereading Article: (3:00) Shamati, 88. “All the work is only…”

Student: (04:36) What do we need to learn from this article? 

M. Laitman: We need to learn how to follow all of the Torah. That we need to follow the conditions that our teachers set for us, so write them down. Thousands of years, and we have to follow the Torah. The Torah talks about these three things: idolatry, bloodshed, and incest. Only we cannot breach them, and everything else is another matter. The Torah specifically takes care of this. 

Student: What is idolatry? 

M. Laitman: Idolatry is what a person worships, not the Creator, but other forces of nature. This is called idolatry.

Student: What does it mean? 

M. Laitman: This means what I told you. 

Student: What are these other forces? 

M. Laitman: When there are many forces, if he doesn't connect them with the Creator, he breaches this condition. He worships as if he is not the Creator. Bloodshed is when a person kills a man and incest is when he comes to a connection with someone else's wife.

Student: The first one is idolatry. 

M. Laitman: That he worships a force that is not the Creator, but all kinds of forces of nature, and he believes in them. He connects with them. There is a lot in this, and we have to read. There are a lot of things written about this.

Student: In our practice, in our work, what do we need to be careful of in order not to be working in idolatry? I am not bound to some force of nature. What do we need to be careful of? 

M. Laitman: We need to try to be connected only with the upper force, the Creator, and only strengthen the connection with Him.

Question (Tbilisi): (08:54) I want to say from the heart that there is such a feeling. Without the Ten, without you, and without the Creator, there is no me, and I am not called anything. The only effort I can make is to hold on to the Ten, to you, to the Creator. To what extent is that prayer and the true state? 

M. Laitman: This is good. It is enough to walk on the right way, to the goal of creation. 

Student: My job is just to adhere to you, and then turn to the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Not to me, but to the Creator.

Question (Women Mak 98): (09:50) How should we observe the Torah in our Ten? What is this work?

M. Laitman: We have to try to observe these three conditions. Idolatry is foreign work. So, you wouldn't look at any forces beyond the Creator, that it seems to a person that they exist. Bloodshed and incest. 

Student: I wanted to ask about this idolatry. You said that idolatry is faith in other forces. But everything is coming from the Creator. How is it so? 

M. Laitman: If you think that everything happens only from one Creator, then you don't have any problems. Here it says that in past centuries, a thousand, two thousand years ago, people used to believe in other forces that exist, in trees, in water, in a river, in the sea. In such a way they used to worship different objects in nature. Today this is almost obsolete. 

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (11:45) How do we reach one social teaching? 

M. Laitman: When we come to a connection with the Creator, that we want to adhere to Him, a person fully with heart and soul, he begins to feel in his soul, he begins to feel the Creator. Then he goes after the Creator, even when he doesn't understand how. But he strives for the Creator and yearns for the Creator. This is called, “One’s soul shall teach him.” Or to put it differently, to what extent the person's soul adheres to the Creator, and he walks after the soul, his soul. This is called, he goes after the Creator, straight after the Creator.

Question (Women Kyiv 7): (13:38) Dear Rav, you said that bloodshed is killing a person. Is it killing a person inside of oneself? 

M. Laitman: Bloodshed is killing a man. 

Student: How do we kill a person? What are these actions? 

M. Laitman: Is that clear? We cannot kill another person.

Student: In the physical world?

M. Laitman: In the physical world. 

Student: What about in the spiritual Ten?

M. Laitman: In the Ten we don't speak of these things. In the Ten we begin by trying to achieve love towards each other.

Question (Women MAK 51): (14:29) When the Torah helps a person, he carries out the commandments easily as I understand. How do we examine if the Torah is helping a person, or if he's doing actions of bestowal for the sake of reception? 

M. Laitman: You need to walk further, and then you'll gradually see it.

Question (Women Beer Sheva 1): (15:02) How to increase the honor of the name of the Creator in us and in the public? 

M. Laitman: Ask again, please.

Student: How do you advise in this direction regarding these three terrible things, how do we strengthen the greatness of the Creator within ourselves and spread it to many, so that many will be honored?

M. Laitman: We have to do this carefully, in small steps, and see how people perceive it.

Student: Another question if possible. She's asking, there are things when you try to do a certain action, and you receive a lot of disturbances, and there are other states where the path just opens up to you easily. Is that a sign that this was supposed to happen, or it wasn't supposed to happen? How do we relate to that? 

M. Laitman: To relate with love to any of the friend's actions.

Question (Women Spain): (16:58) Can science and astrology be called idolatry? How do we relate to matters of this world since we are in this world? 

M. Laitman: If I don't connect everything I study in astronomy with the Creator's actions, then astronomy is part of physics that I study. Then there is no prohibition. 

Question (Women Latin): (17:52) How does the person who has been forgiven by the Creator know if he has transgressed any of these commandments? How does a person know if the Creator forgave him in the case if he went against one of these commandments?

M. Laitman: A person has to continue to protect himself as much as possible, even if he breaches something. Hope that the Creator will forgive him and will erase his transgression. 

Question (Women Mak 25): (18:40) Tell us, please, is it idolatry to raise certain images in religion?

M. Laitman: If we raise some people above others, we should be careful not to worship another god or some idols. 

Question (Women MAK 5): (19:29) What does it mean to live with the laws of the Creator and not die by them? 

M. Laitman: Everything we see from the Torah is only so that it helps us to live better.

Student: Why does it say you should not die by them? Does it happen this way?

M. Laitman: Do not die for this, yes.

Question (Women MAK 97): (20:04) It is written, “Man's soul shall teach him.” Can we feel the soul in only one heart, or can it be in an individual state as well?

M. Laitman: Individually as well.

Question (Women MAK): (20:29) What does it mean to relate to every desire of a friend in attendance to one's own desire? 

M. Laitman: Well, if a person has children, he begins to feel that he needs this, he needs to get this and give it to the child. The same thing can be with our friends.

Student:  How do we work correctly with the desires of each other in order to generate and to pass all of the light that will correct and fill it up? 

M. Laitman: Accept the friend's desires as our own. 

Student: The desire of the friends, even if these are materialistic desires, I also need to ask for fulfillment. 

M. Laitman: The same as your own.

Question (Women Azerbaijan): (21:45) We wanted to clarify a few of these states. You said that bloodshed is killing a person, at the same time you said it's killing a person physically. But we're also always talking about some spiritual root of these matters, so bloodshed is killing a person inside of oneself as well? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Incest, not to take another man's wife, here the wife is another one's desire?

M. Laitman: The desire and the body itself.

Student: Okay, what does that mean, not to use another's desire, how is it so? 

M. Laitman: It has to do with envy, don't try to envy another.

Student: The question on the path, we feel on the one hand joy, on the other hand, it's heaviness. These states periodically exchange one another, the ego grows, and we make more efforts. Can we reach such a state when the Torah will always guard a person on the path, and that you will always be in joy, in upliftment, or will always be in alternating? 

M. Laitman: We can't attain a perfect state because this is already Gmar Tikkun, but we can get to this gradually. 

Question (Turkiye 2): (23:47) Shalom. It feels that the Torah is killing the person, and at the same time bestowing life to the person. Because the Torah is killing the me inside me, which is detached from the Creator, and then placing inside me a soul, which can exist inside the Creator. Yes, correct? 

M. Laitman: You are correct. 

Student: Is it so? 

M. Laitman: Yes. That's right, that's correct. 

Student: I want to add to this. What is the difference between the two? One is similar to the Creator because you have a soul. The other, you are different from Him. So, this Torah is a tool for the Creator to make what He created similar to Himself. To make what He created similar to Himself.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: If we think that, okay, I asked this question, why does He want to make us similar to Himself? Why? What is the purpose? And I understand that what I feel is that the Creator loves Himself a lot. We know that the Creator is full of bestowal. There is no reception, but He loves Himself a lot. And even He loves Himself a lot, that He created Adam. He just wanted to create something like Himself, so that He could see His own qualities, His own forces, and He can love Adam as Himself. All creation is actually coming out of His ego.

M. Laitman: I can only say so because we have no understanding of how we can live without the desire to receive, without our ego. That's why you are saying this. Let's continue our study, and we'll see what you will say. A desire doesn't have a desire to receive. That's why He doesn't have any thoughts about Himself. 

Student: I just want to add that I want to know that the Creator can only know what His essence is, according to the feeling of the created beings. Can we say so? 

M. Laitman: Yes, He is fully directed at you. 

Question (Women MAK 26): (26:57) What does it mean not to die from the Torah? Does that mean not to fall into the ego? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Okay, why then should we die and not breach Him? Meaning, to disconnect from the Creator and not just to breach it? There are things over which you can die, to fall into the ego, and to disconnect from the Creator, is it so?

M. Laitman: A person must die in three cases, idolatry, bloodshed, and incest. Idolatry arises when he worships idols when he is forced to worship some idols. Incest is when he is forced to lie with another's wife, for example, and bloodshed, when he kills someone, he is forced to kill someone. In these three cases, he has to not follow these conditions, even if he gets killed.

Student: So, he shouldn't disconnect himself, but he is forced?

M. Laitman: Disconnect himself, but even if he is forced, he must not follow this.

Student: In these cases, we can disconnect from the Creator?

M. Laitman: No, not from the Creator, that's exactly what these conditions are about. In no case should he disconnect from the Creator, even under these motives. 

Student: Yes, Rav, this is very important, because for me, as I understand it, it is very important to disconnect from the Creator. These things are disconnecting from the Creator, spiritual death. It turns out that we cannot do so under any circumstances, and it is very important. Yes.

M. Laitman: Next, well, let's go to men for a little bit.

Question (MAK 25): (29:45) To the question of idolatry, there are questions about idolatry. There is always this image in my head that there is no idolatry like there was thousands of years ago. But we all came out of the USSR, all these different regimes, where they were forced to make idols. Can we compare that to this modern idolatry? We should not violate, not to breach in such matters. 

M. Laitman: This means that when you take something that relates to this world, and you glorify it as if it is the Creator, a part of the Creator.

Student: Yes, but if let’s say, they force you, before there were party meetings, you had to swear allegiance. 

M. Laitman: Well, it's all nonsense, it's all a game. This is all a game. 

Question (Siberia): (30:54) Is it idolatry if a person doesn’t make efforts himself?

M. Laitman: You cannot be responsible over your friend in such a way. If he decides something, you need to look at yourself.

Student: What does it mean in the Ten that we have to check these three conditions? 

M. Laitman: In these three commandments, a person is responsible only for himself and towards the Creator.

Question (Women Bulgaria 1): (31:32) We have a disaster that united us in the prayer. We understand that the Creator is pushing us together. One friend is in a difficult state. She invested a lot in the dissemination, the Bulgarian Academy, and works with the students. We really feel her effort. Correct me if I'm wrong.

M. Laitman: So just one thing, simply with your words, ask the Creator for her. It's okay. 

Student: Okay, and also, I want to ask, right now we're in the pinnacle of prayer. What do we have to add to ask the Creator to strengthen us and return the friend, to strengthen the unity? 

M. Laitman: We don't need anything else. And less words, not just with me, but also with the Creator. 

Question (Women Turkiye 8): (32:45) There was a time when a person is rewarded, he didn't have any burdening. How do we make the Torah protect us?

M. Laitman: I'll be worthy of the Torah guarding us. Try all the time to be in thoughts, in connection with the Ten and the study, and then the Torah will guard us.

Question (Women Tbilisi): (33:30) One question from a friend. We see what's happening as bloodshed because we don't have the importance of a correction.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women MAK 30): (33:50) In the article it says a person's soul will teach him. Does this mean that his soul in the Torah, but we don't learn the Torah itself, is it enough for us to feel? 

M. Laitman: It's enough what we're learning. If you learn it properly and not just dig around with your mind everything will turn out correctly.

Question (Women MAK 113): (34:31) We have a lot of pain. How to continue living with the Creator's laws if, on the physical level, there is such when someone wants to kill you on the physical level, day, and night when sirens are on all the time, what do we do? 

M. Laitman: You need to try a certain way to learn to live in such a way, either in that place or to move to another place. But there's nothing you can do. We live in such times. 

Question (Women Karmiel): (34:35) Thank you for this opportunity to ask. I remember that Rambam spoke of three lines and the middle line was very important. In his treatise, in his writings. There are writings of Rambam, Baal HaSulam, and Rabash that speak of two parts and three parts. Is there any meaning? 

M. Laitman: There is a meaning, but I can't explain it right now. 

Question (Women Almaty): (36:18) When I was preparing for the lesson, I read on your blog that the prohibition of incest is the breach of family connections within the family, prohibited connections within the family. Is this connected to what you say about not wanting someone else's wife?

M. Laitman: Yeah, we need to clarify these things. But why do we need that? We just need to distance ourselves from such matters.

Student: So, this doesn't have anything to do with the article, mixing blood? 

M. Laitman: No, no.

Question (Women French): (37:09) I'm connected to all the women in our World Kli. We see there are thousands of women that study the wisdom of Kabbalah with you. What's the reason for such an explosion? 

M. Laitman: Since we're coming closer to the final correction, then more and more women are entering the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah and into connection with us. And I'm very happy that it's happening.

Student: Without this, is it impossible to come to the final correction? 

M. Laitman: Impossible.

Question (Women Spain): (38:21) The question is, what's the difference? What's the difference between idolatry and cults?

M. Laitman: It's not answered. It's very complex. In our days, there's no such matter of these rituals and idolatry. There are simply actions that are forbidden for us to do, and then there are those that are permitted to do. And that's it.

Question (Women Mak 25): (39:10) If we feel heaviness in the work, this principle of living by them and not die by them, can this, should a person change his life, maybe weaken his, break in the work, so he comes back with a new force? 

M. Laitman: A bit is possible. 

Student: Yes, and bloodshed, in terms of bloodshed. If an enemy comes to kill you, you have to kill him first.

M. Laitman: That is something else.

Question (Women PT 39): (39:54) Rav sometimes it seems to me that other people influence my life. For example, a boss at work, or some guy, and I forget that the Creator speaks to me directly. How do I not forget? This is idolatry, isn't it? 

M. Laitman: Yes, so don't forget that everything is going through the Creator, and it's not like the Creator is giving this okay for all of the desires that are coming down to you. Clear? 

Student: Roughly. Thank you, dear Rav.

Question (Asia): (40:43) I feel that it's just a desire that came down to me. What does it mean to hide under a Chuppah with a friend?

M. Laitman: To be with him.

Student: Love him, respect him?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, yes.

Question (MAK 24): (41:46) In the article it says that the person's soul will teach him, and you told a friend to sense this help from the soul, this hint from the soul. You have to feel the Creator, and you will feel your soul. So, the question is, can you meet the soul, get to know the soul, feel the soul, and then come to feel the Creator? 

M. Laitman: I don't think so. Maybe it's possible, but I'm recommending to come closer to the people in the group, and through that to feel the Creator.

Student: One of the translations of the Torah is the Torah is a method of how to go above the ego, above the reason, and this, that the Torah can kill, does this have to do with our ego? 

M. Laitman: Just ego.

Question (Hadera 1): (42:49) In idolatry and incest, this is clear, that a person cannot justify this if he performs such acts in a bloodshed, and there is one who wants to kill you, kill him first. But there are examples from the animal world when a person can know that he's not breaking this commandment.

M. Laitman: You should pray. It could be that the Creator will give him this knowledge about him. 

Question (Women Heb 2): (43:44) I want to speak from the Ten and work in the Ten that has to do with incest to not breach this commandment. Does this mean not to want another woman, a desire to receive, and if the desire to receive, the desire of my friend, does this mean that I shouldn't in our relationships, and strengthening our connection to walk behind her desire to receive, even though this can bring to some tension inside the Ten? So, we shouldn't go after that desire, and try to say everything is just in only of being one goal in bestowal, to ask only about this.

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, yes, yes, thank you. I cannot give you more time.

Question (Women Rus 10): (45:35) Rav, it says the Torah protects a person. Can we say that the Creator protects him? 

M. Laitman: Of course.

Student: We have greatness of the friends, and when we get closer, will we feel that the Creator protects us more? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Siberia): (46:04) Are these different things?

M. Laitman: Yes, of course, they are different, but basically not that or the other. In our days, it doesn't have that same meaning that it has in those, that it's talking about in old books. 

Question (Women MAK 113): (46:34) If I truly go after my soul, what do I have to feel? 

M. Laitman: If you what? 

Student: If I follow my own soul? 

M. Laitman: Then you need to feel that you're drawn towards bestowal, towards the love of others.

Question (Women MAK 26): (47:09) It's a question from a friend, should I feel guilty for breaking a commandment and ask the Creator for forgiveness or effort in the work will be a better way to apologize? 

M. Laitman: Again? 

Student: Should I feel guilty for breaking a commandment? Or efforts in the work will be a better way to apologize?

M. Laitman: Basically, both this and that are good. It's not obligated to say these things, but just to feel them, it's good. The Creator understands everything. 

Student: Should I feel guilty? 

M. Laitman: There should be a feeling of shame or guilt. There should be a feeling of shame, but not such that will stop you from developing.

Question (Women Moscow 7): (48:21) We should see the Creator as the source of everything, and we see it differently. Then it's idolatry, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How does this differ from idolatry, when I have to do something in relation to the friends and the group? 

M. Laitman: Because you're carrying out what it says in the Torah. Not just things that you're reading in some other sources, foreign sources.

Student: Many people are afraid of some responsibility. We can say, it comes from the Creator, and I cancel myself. 

M. Laitman: No, then we can justify all our thoughts, all of our desires.

Question (Women ITA): (49:47) Does the Torah protect us? Do we receive the right instruction from the Torah every time? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Tbilisi): (50:13) I would like to clarify about bloodshed when it doesn't have to do with when someone wants to kill you, kill him first. What should we be cautious of? Someone may be drafted, there are wars, someone may be drafted. What should we be careful about? 

M. Laitman: That depends on us, we need to try not to cause harm to whoever it may be. 

Student: It says, even if someone intends to kill you, kill him first. So here we have to follow this.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Latin): (51:20) This topic of commandments is something new for me, I have to understand it, I didn't feel it yet. Do I have to perform some commandments, but there is a spiritual meaning to these commandments? How do I approach this?

M. Laitman:  In the meantime, don't approach anything, just be like you are, this is how you live, and gradually it will get clarified. Don't run after it.

Question (ITA): (52:19) Dear Rav, it is written, that the soul will teach us when we have to choose. How can we recognize the voice of the soul? Thank you. 

M. Laitman: You will hear it, whatever you need to hear, you will hear. What you need through thoughts, through voices, through all sorts of things, even through foreign people, but you will receive that knowledge. 

Question (PT 22): (53:14) How to relate to people from our world, external people, when someone offends us? Should we just distance ourselves or respond appropriately? 

M. Laitman: Cancel it, as if you didn't hear it. 

Question (Lithuania 1): (53:43) No question.

M. Laitman: No question? Okay. So, by this, we finished all of the questions, and we heard all the friends. Therefore, I wish you all the best, until tomorrow.

Rereading Article: (55:26) Shamati 88. “All the work is only where…”