The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) February 24, 2024.
Part 1: Selected Excerpts from the Sources: Great is Repentance for It Reaches Unto the Throne.
Reader: Hello everyone, we are reading selected excerpts from the sources about the topic “Great is Repentance for It Reaches Unto the Throne”. You can also find the study materials in the study materials tab on Sviva Tova. Please make sure your phones are silent, so you don't disturb the lesson. And we're asking each one to be responsible and behave quietly with minimum disruptions during the lesson. We're going to start a new topic today in our study, a topic talked about at the end of the Congress: “Great is Repentance for It Reaches Unto the Throne” (or the Throne of Honor). We'll read the first excerpt now in the document. We'll read it twice, talk about it in a workshop and prepare questions. Rabash writes in excerpt Number One.
Rabash Excerpt 1. Twice
Reading: (01:07) We should interpret the meaning of Greatest Repentance for It Reaches Unto the Throne. Ma'al HaZulam said that we should interpret kisseh, a chair or throne, in two ways.
One, from the word kisui, cover, that it covers. Two, from the word kisseh, chair, that is fit for the king to sit on. It follows that by a person achieving the recognition of evil, where he sees how far he is in both the mind and the heart, that everything is blocked and covered, that he sees no inlet making it possible to be rewarded with adhesion with the Creator.
This is called the covering throne. This degree is regarded as a vessel and a true need for the salvation of the Creator. On this throne, the help of the Creator is later revealed, as in, he who comes to purify is aided.
It follows that this throne that was in such lowliness, meaning that one felt a state of lowliness and degradation, has been rewarded with the glory of the king being on it. It follows that that same lowliness has become the throne.
Reader: We'll read it again.
Reader: So friends, we'll move on to an active workshop.
Workshop: What is the meaning of the throne, the throne of honor, in that first excerpt that we read? And what questions to Rav about this topic awaken in us? Again, what is the meaning of the throne in that first excerpt we read? And what questions to Rav about this topic awaken in us? Let's take ten minutes for the workshop, please.
Reader: (11:56) .We will read it again. We are reading selected excerpts from the sources on the topic of Great is Repentance that it reaches up to the throne. Rabash writes in excerpt Number One.
Reading: (12:12) We should interpret the meaning of “Great is repentance for it reaches unto the throne.” Baal HaSulam said that we should interpret Kisse, throne, in two ways.
One, from the word Kissui, cover, that it covers. Two, from the word Kisse, chair, that is fit for the king to sit on. It follows that by a person achieving the recognition of evil, where he sees how far he is, both in mind and in heart, that everything is blocked and covered, that he sees no inlet making it possible to be rewarded with adhesion with the Creator.
This is called the covering throne. This degree is regarded as a vessel and a true need for the salvation of the Lord. On this throne, the help of the Creator is later revealed as in He who comes to purify is aided.
It follows that this throne that was in such lowliness, meaning that he felt a state of lowliness and degradation, he has been rewarded with the glory of the king being on this throne. It follows that the same lowliness has become the throne.
M. Laitman: That's how we need to get accustomed to this definition: The Seat of Honor, The Throne of the Creator. That's how it's revealed to the one who, also, knows how to cover himself, a person also needs to do that. But one who ascends and is not afraid, and is not running away, and he wants to reveal the presence of the Creator in his life more and more. Then you can say about him that he is approaching the Seat of Honor, the Throne.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:18) What should we cover in ourselves and in the Ten; and what does it mean that the Creator sits on the throne in the Ten?
M. Laitman: We need to cover the Creator in the Ten so as not to hold Him, pull Him, even recognize Him, only to the extent that he is allowing it Himself. And the Creator does see our individual efforts and accordingly sees certain opportunities, perhaps, whereby a person begins to recognize the Creator through the various incidents the Creator is arranging for him and eventually, he comes to a state where the Creator is revealed.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:07) What conditions are there for receiving the salvation by the created being?
M. Laitman: The first condition is to feel. A person feels he is under the control of the Creator; he wants to be free of it. And here is the question: why be free of it, if it's just because it's incorrect? The person has to get to know the forces that are keeping him below the Creator. What does he need to acquire in order to rise above this limitation, how relieving himself from these limitations will help – will influence him, and his friends, and the group, and so on and so forth – and here begins the work of a person on himself. And in what way does he acquire new qualities from the Creator that he organizes anew.
Student: You said that we should understand what qualities hold a person under the Creator? What does that mean?
M. Laitman: It means that all egoistic qualities and their different manifestations don't let us release ourselves from the control of the Creator, move away from Him, and be free spiritually.
Student: It means that I should answer for myself, what do I need a Torah for?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:51) I heard before that the Creator is revealed to one who knows how to cover himself.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What does it mean to know how to cover yourself?
M. Laitman: It means that a person – unlike what he thinks in the beginning – which is that the main thing for him is to grab the Creator. But he knows that in order to reach the revelation of the Creator, he himself needs to be covered under a cover, which is called restriction, screen, reflected light. And this way he approaches the Creator until he reveals Him.
Student: This cover reveals to the person the glory of the Creator?
M. Laitman: Also.
Student: Why is that?
M. Laitman: Because he's covering the entirety of the Creator, and a person in our world, when he comes to a certain revelation of the Creator, he discovers himself through equivalence of form. He removes the exterior clothing from the Creator, this cover, and this way he begins to show himself, to reveal himself, relative to the Creator.
Student: Throne, it's also a place where you sit.
M. Laitman: That's a different interpretation, meaning.
Student: How should the person build himself so that the Creator will sit in him, so that he will become a throne, a chair for the Creator?
M. Laitman: To resemble Him, simply. Without resembling the Creator, even to a small extent, he will never know who he's dealing with. And to what extent he needs to be in it, comes to feeling of the Creator, he prays, he asks the Creator for help. And when the Creator is revealed, in these ways a person begins to equalize himself with the Creator; meaning more and more to come closer and closer to Him. That’s it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:27) What is the difference between the cover in which the Creator is covered, in general in reality, versus his cover in the Ten?
M. Laitman: The cover that the Creator is donning throughout reality is the kind of cover, where the Creator is concealed. And to the extent a person invests his energy, his strength, and he wants the Creator to see him. That he wants to approach the Creator, by that you get the coverage of the screen.
Student: And what is that cover in the Ten?
M. Laitman: The Ten, in general, plays a certain cover over its efforts towards the Creator. They want their efforts to succeed, on the one hand; but on the other hand, they need to understand that, first of all, they need to have equivalence of form between the Creator and the created beings, and that's how you advance. Time after time, the Creator is becoming a collaborator with a person by giving a person such states. What would be most helpful to the person in each and every state is if he becomes more like the Creator. In this way, they understand one another and they get to know one another.
Student: To the extent of connection between us in the Ten, do we create a cover or revelation of the Creator?
M. Laitman: We create a cover over our will to receive, a cover over the Creator's will to bestow. And from all of this, after the influence of the Upper Light on these efforts, we begin to reveal the Creator to himself.
Student: Covering our will to receive, that seems clear. Why do we need to cover the Creator's desire to bestow?
M. Laitman: A person, it's not like he doesn't want to receive anything from the Creator; rather, he wants to receive only that which will not harm his essence, himself. How to put it?
Reader: His greatness, maybe?
Student: Or his essence? Uniqueness?
M. Laitman: In short, his uniqueness, maybe his uniqueness. And if a person does not demand it, but on the contrary, he tries to maintain it the way it was before the revelation. Then the Creator reveals Himself.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:53) Rav, I heard you say that a person wants to become free of the feeling that he is under the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Why?
M. Laitman: A person doesn't want to break free as much as... First of all, it takes him time and effort to discover his network of connection with the Creator. And then in each and every action, he begins to introduce a quality similar to the Creator. And then the Creator is revealing Himself, and how a person is concealing the Creator – but also revealing himself – and by that, they become similar to one another, to some extent. In each one, there is a part that’s revealed and the part that’s concealed.
Student: So, what exactly should a person cover so that he will have adhesion with the Creator?
M. Laitman: In order to have adhesion with the Creator, a person needs to be in the same action that is similar to the Creator's action on him.
Student: But if you want to be similar through the action, you want to enter equivalence through the action. Where here is the act of covering, what should a person cover in himself so that he will perform an action that is similar to the Creator?
M. Laitman: At the beginning, a person doesn't know about it at all. But in effect, the action of covering is in that we demand nothing of the Creator, only that He will help us resemble Him.
Student: A person wants to be under the Creator's control?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: Why does he seek to break free of it?
M. Laitman: He wants to become independent.
Student: What does independence give him?
M. Laitman: Independence allows his actions to come closer to the Creator each time and to enter greater adhesion with Him.
Student: For a person, his first contact with the Creator, what does it depend on, that it will happen?
M. Laitman: It doesn't depend on the person at all, it depends on the root of his soul. There are many people who have this feeling that pretty soon, any minute, that they're going to begin to feel the Creator; there are those who imagine to themselves that they're already there; and there are those who have truly reached the revelation of the Creator.
Student: So, if it depends on the root of the soul, then what is the role of the person, here, in this process of reaching adhesion?
M. Laitman: A person's role is to discover the root of the soul that is yearning for the state of contact with the Creator, and to determine the line of his development in this way.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:23) The need for salvation from the Creator, the environment – the Ten, can amplify that in a person?
M. Laitman: The conditions for it, the conditions, it's not the need for it yet, it's the conditions for it. The society can provide a person, and if he pays attention to it and he begins to ask, to cry, to approach the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:30) I heard that one who rises and does not run away and is not afraid, he approaches the throne. So, what might we be afraid of and how do we overcome it?
M. Laitman: It says that the Creator is surrounded by a wall of fire, and you should beware when approaching Him. Even in the first lesson we read, the first song, it can be felt - this great caution, the great concern, trepidation. The spiritual fear that grips those who attain the Creator when they begin to approach Him, to near Him. Because it is similar to the way in which the fire will make the water boil. So, we listen to the words of the Kabbalists and in principle, we agree with what they are saying because it does not create any contradictions in us. We even find certain answers of our own for these different states. It is really about the fact that although we wish to reveal the Creator very much, it happens out of the original desires with which we were born - some more, some less, in different forms. But when we begin to truly approach the Creator, meaning we begin to truly work with Him directly, then we begin to feel His attitude toward us, we begin to feel in His attitude a certain polarized, a polar opposite quality. On the one hand, the way He is attracting us and at the same time, He is repelling us. Actually, we mostly feel neither but actually some mixture of the two, so we do not know exactly what to do. So in a scrutiny of our states, when it is not clear to us what we need to do, that is our obligation. I think that in the near time, somewhere around the beginning of the new year – Rosh Hashanah, we will try to reveal the Creator. But from then on, that's how I feel it, how I see it. We'll begin to attain Him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:54) I wanted to scrutinize how to be in greater lowliness to crown the Creator on the Seat of Honor, each and every moment.
M. Laitman: I don't think that we should always be in lowliness because if so, we won't have a vessel. A vessel, nevertheless, is some desire, some pride, and so, think about it. We are born with a vessel and later on we kind of spend it, waste it – if it goes away, let it go away, in such a way. I don't even know how to answer, in fact, it's quite a clear state. The Creator creates conditions within us, on top of which we need to give answers. All of these conditions that He gives us, distance us from the Creator, they make the way blurry for us. Our feelings are becoming foggy, etc., we simply have to demand from the Creator. We truly need to accustom this for ourselves as a daily routine: That I turn to Him, I speak to Him, I demand from Him - if You have created me with certain qualities, then please give me opportunities to realize them. That's what we need to work with.
Student: So, what are the correct discernment to work from within the point of adhesion with the Creator?
M. Laitman: The correct discernment in order to reach adhesion with the Creator is to constantly sort, arrange, from all of the sensations that come to me from above, from the sides, from wherever it is. That I need to know only one thing, I need to be aware of only one thing: Where is the upper force that constantly, non-stop, is managing me? That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:36) You spoke earlier about a state of fogginess, and with that state of fogginess, you said that I now have to look for this force that's managing me?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: In that state of fogginess, the sense of departure, like this forgetfulness, that you can't see the source. What is the role of this fogginess, of this forgetfulness?
M. Laitman: That you long to discover and to get close to the source.
Student: Nevertheless, it's like a kind of, it's like a dance, a tango, between the Creator and the created being.
M. Laitman: Maybe to a certain extent it resembles tango but the Creator awakens it in a person, in order to give the person a longing, so that he will be connected to the Creator, and will constantly follow Him until they reach their place of rendezvous.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:37) You described the situation very beautifully. When the Creator surrounds himself with this fire wall and there's a great fear before that state. On the other hand, there are all the qualities I was born with, that they are in the root of my soul, what I should do or what I should receive in order to get through this fire wall surrounding the Creator?
M. Laitman: Ask that my soul will not be harmed by this fire. And then, bit by bit, I will, nevertheless, be able to somehow get used to it. And I will begin to discover what is necessary for me to have in order to survive next to it.
Student: Intuitively, I feel fear, first and foremost, spiritual fear, not to harm, at least. And the other thing is to add in order to cleave to the Creator maximum with my qualities. And here, I need to come close to the friend because it seems like I can acquire it from the Creator by coming closer to the friend?
M. Laitman: Let's say so, but in which form?
Student: Because, otherwise, I'm constantly getting thrown out, and I'm coming back to the thoughts of myself, instead of being in someone else - in the Creator, in the friend.
M. Laitman: Nevertheless, nothing will help you until you begin to feel within yourself a force that will push you to the Creator, to appeal to Him. And in such a case, you will begin to scrutinize what is there between you that you can use in order to be drawn to the Creator, to bring Him closer. This is already serious work.
Student: How to ask that this force will push me toward the Creator, how to accept it?
M. Laitman: You need to create this force by yourself, you can't just receive it from the Creator. But if you want the Creator, if you want to discover Him: To know Him, His qualities, His actions. In such a case, you will be able to beg, to ask the Creator, that He will teach you. These actions are not so difficult, the most important is to be consistent with these actions. This means that you will be able to see, to discover, to understand within yourself how the Creator behaves with you. And how you would like Him to understand how you answer Him. These words, I'm directing them to everyone.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:40) I have a natural fear that when I started to learn Kabbalah, I didn't feel that fear, naturally. Should this fear accompany us in all our study, in all our spiritual life?
M. Laitman: Yes, but it depends on what kind of fear. There is fear that I don't feel the Creator and so, I don't know precisely which steps I should take forward. There is another kind of fear where I don't feel a response from the Creator and so, how will I approach Him? There are other kinds of fear, there is all kinds but the most important for me is that I'm on a straight line towards the Creator, is that with each step I take, I want to feel that I got closer to Him. Another step, and another step, and some more with another step. And in such a way, I calm down. Meaning, it is true that I still don't see Him and I don't yet reach Him, but I am walking on the path. This is how we get closer.
Student: So, this fear is helping us, it's like some kind of fuel?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, it's good to have fear.
M. Laitman: Of course, it is good, everything that we receive, we receive only from the Creator. And so, we should keep these things within us and think about each one of them, about each and every detail of what He is giving us.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:19) I heard your recommendations that we should scrutinize our states. I mean, it's not clear what to do, we have that confusion. So, where to start this scrutiny from, how to do it next?
M. Laitman: Start the scrutiny from the fact that I want to feel the Creator. I want to feel how He is operating on me, how I can bestow to Him, influence Him, how we can get closer to each other, and so on. In principle, when you start to break this big question to many smaller questions. It turns out, that in fact we have an entire system that can engage in it, and this is what we do.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:09) A question about the fire: How to work with it and what does this fire do? Does it cleanse us?
M. Laitman: It's like in our world when we want to use the fire, I mean, this is how we use it.
Student: Meaning, by entering the fire, we think that the fire will purify me, that's how the fire will also work?
M. Laitman: It doesn't depend just on your words, it also depends on your actions.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:18) On behalf of the Chile group – men and women, I would like to thank you for your patience, your devotion to us. The question is, you spoke about how there are two covers, one that is ours, and another one that is from the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: What preserves the Creator for us, if He is already covered, by Himself?
M. Laitman: He can replace this cover and appear before us in various forms. So, I need to think about what is it that I want? In what form do I wish to receive the appearance of the Creator within me in my entire heart and soul so that I can understand Him, and be impressed by Him, feel Him as much as possible in depth and breadth so that the Creator will fill my entire space, here, I have this space. And this is what I want.
Student: So, it's a kind of involvement of love between the Creator and the created being?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:02) I heard that you said to a friend that a person is born with a Kli, then he looses it. There is a feeling, though we constantly speak of the cleansing, purification of the desire. But its also a need to develop a desire in the friend. Meaning, should a person yearn to develop additional vessels, specifically, because in this way will be able to bestow more to the Creator?
M. Laitman: If specifically in such a way you think, you yearn to reveal your friend before the Creator, then do it. But in such a case, you have to operate, gradually, in a very gradual manner, and not to be afraid. And if it's not clear, ask the Creator. Speak with your friends. But it needs to be clear and revealed to everyone. The wisdom of Kabbalah is called the wisdom of the hidden. Not because we're afraid to talk about it between us, that's not at all what it's about. It is called the hidden wisdom because it's behind man's heart. The heart is hidden, concealed behind many seals, many locks. And we must gradually reveal all of them and enter closer and closer, as close as possible to the inner heart. This is what you should aspire for, long for, and this greatly depends on the connection between you. Everything, all that I'm afraid of is that you want to ruin it for each other. That you want to spoil but, rather help each other; that is what is most important.
Student: We all try to look after each other and to help!
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:27) On the one hand, we need to think of the Creator always and how He's controlling us, managing us. On the other hand, I feel that I'm thinking of the friends most of the time and I turn to the Creator only if I need help in the Ten. How to find the correct balance between thinking of the friends and thinking of the Creator?
M. Laitman: I think that you do need to have a balance between the two of them, you're right, even though we don't quite long to discover it every moment. We need to reveal the friends and oneself, the person himself, that's on the one hand. And reveal the Creator, and the upper force of the upper forces, on the other hand. We didn't engage in that sufficiently but after this Congress, we will already start to engage with this more.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:37) My Ten, every morning prepares the prayer for the rest of the day. Out of our impression from the lesson, that's what we, this is how we used to do it: Each one would bring his strongest impression from the lesson, and mechanically, we would assemble a prayer out of it, a single prayer – you said that it's incorrect, that it's not a prayer. And since then, we've been scrutinizing our personal deficiencies and trying to find the mutual deficiencies. It's a very interesting work, it's full of gratitude. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes, sometimes 10, sometimes 25 minutes, and it ends when everyone reaches agreement. You, also, said that we can renew the prayer during the day. Our most important meetings in the Ten are in the morning and in the evening. During the day we have a short meeting, and we don't have enough time to renew the prayer. On the other hand, throughout the day, when you listen to the lesson again, when you read something, or doing some internal scrutiny. Your personal deficiency is constantly being renewed throughout the day. How to better work with it throughout the day and to combine the prayer that came from the Ten but that is not renewed? And your personal deficiency, your personal prayer that is getting renewed? How to combine the two?
M. Laitman: In principle, it's a simple question, it is complex in its structure, but in and of itself, there's nothing complicated about it. I think it will work out for you. Write to me.
Student: And another additional precision. Your inner work, does it necessarily have to end with a written expression written toward the Creator? Because this expression is getting lost a bit when you're working with the heart?
M. Laitman: It's as though you close your notebook in the place where you were writing, and at that moment, that's it? You turn to the Creator, you discovered Him inside of you, you discovered yourself inside of Him. And you tuned yourself so that you will let the Creator know about yourself, and you tuned yourself to receive from the Creator a message into yourself. All of these appeals, in the end, they all have to come together to a single sensation.
Student: Meaning, the fact that the Creator is reading our hearts, this understanding, it's not enough. Nevertheless, we need to give it a certain form so the request will be composed, somehow?
M. Laitman: Yes, worded, somehow.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:34) I heard you say that you're afraid we would ruin it for each other, the drawing closer, and drawing closer and closer to the inner heart. What should we be cautious of so that we don't ruin that process of becoming closer to the inner heart?
M. Laitman: Do you think a lot about your friends?
Student: I do, I can think more of them, but I do think of my Ten often during the day.
M. Laitman: And what does it all bring you to, in principle? In general, what does it direct you to?
Student: It directs me to self-scrutiny, how I need to pray for my friends more. And redirect my intention when I think of myself – to aim it toward my friends – and how much I'm doing that, or how much I'm not doing that. And what should I, what should we guard against so we don't ruin this process of drawing closer to that inner heart that's behind the walls of the stony heart?
M. Laitman: Everyone needs to think, think about his or her personal problem: When will my deeds become like my forefathers' deeds? What do you think, Dudi, that it shouldn't be like that?
Reader: (01:16:54) I still don't understand the answer to the question the friend is asking? You said that you hope we won't ruin it for each other, and our yearning to the common connection, so what exactly should we be cautious of? What can I ruin for the friends?
M. Laitman: I only want to work on myself, right now, that's why it's important that I'll feel myself, where I incorporate in the others, in the friends. And that's what I want to correct.
Reader: That's towards me, that I want to correct. In what way might I harm the friends, damage them, destroy them?
M. Laitman: If you don't do anything about yourself and only want to see, in them, some kind of positive efforts, so you can't ruin them.
Reader: When the friend asked about what we should be cautious about to not harm each other, you asked her in return, do you think about the friends a lot?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What’s a connection between me thinking about the friends, and me possibly harming them.
M. Laitman: You think of your friends in order to discover what they are yearning for and to help them advance in such a way.
Student: If I don't think about the friends, am I destroying something for them? Am I ruining something for them?
M. Laitman: If you're not thinking of the friends, you're not doing anything.
Student: If I'm not doing anything, I'm not harming or corrupting something for the friends?
M. Laitman: You are but not because of yourself, but because there's an engine turning everything around.
Student: What's the meaning of thinking about the friends? Depict their image inside of me. What should I think about them?
M. Laitman: Think about them that they will enter a system that is interconnected internally and includes all the souls in it. That's what will be working in you, as your heart.
Reader: And what about me, what about my desire, my yearning that's in me?
M. Laitman: You're in there, you are in there.
Student: So, as long as I'm thinking of my friends and feeling them as one in this one unified system, that we're in one heart. Then there's less of a risk that I'll harm my friends in the search for the inner heart?
M. Laitman: I didn't understand.
Student: I'll reword my question: The more I think about the friends and hold everyone in one system, there's less of a chance that I might ruin a lot of things?
Reader: Yes. As long as I'm thinking about the friends and thinking of them as one – that we're all in one system – then there's less of a chance that I might harm the friends?
M. Laitman: Could be.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:48) What's the role of our repentance, what does it do for us?
M. Laitman: I didn't understand.
Reader: What's the role of our answer or repentance?
M. Laitman: That the Creator accepts it and relates to it, just as a parameter on the path, when we get a response from the Creator, that's how He gets a response from us.
Student: But is it just upon us or can we use this towards everyone?
M. Laitman: We can use it towards everyone, if we agree what we have to pass to everyone, to every heart and soul.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:18) In our Ten, we always do silent prayers, that's our common prayer, we pass our common prayer to our common heart. It happens in silence and we think that it's the most correct thing to do. I wanted to ask, how important is it to actually express it in words? Or is it okay for us to continue this way?
M. Laitman: It's not enough, it is not enough. Without words, what are you, singing?
Student: No, we don't sing, we simply concentrate and read something on our meetings. After we read, we simply, there's room for prayer, a special time for prayer. And each in silence prays for as long as we need until someone says, L’chaim, and it's over. We don't sing, we're simply in silence.
M. Laitman: And how long is that usually?
Student: It could be from 30 seconds to maybe a minute, a minute and a half, maybe, at the most.
M. Laitman: I wasn't in such gatherings.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:53) I started to feel panicked, on one hand, he says that we have to move forward, advance, develop certain qualities, give me the strength to pray. I wrote it all down and I'm planning from tomorrow to work in the Ten, to advance. But now I'm hearing that I might harm, that I might do something wrong. I'm really asking from you to guide me to the correct balance, so that on one hand, I won't shut down and close myself. But on the other hand, I will be able to pass along all that's important to the Ten?
M. Laitman: Gather with your friends and start depicting your states, briefly, in order to not lose the path that you are building together. After you succeed in this, find the right excerpts as close to your state as possible. About prayers, with all kinds of maybe little additions; on your own, maybe invent some writings, and bring them into your prayers. And you'll see that everything will be okay.
Student: Thank you. Yesterday I also had such a thought, and I thought it was wrong, but now, thank you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:27:36) I would like to refine what we talked about: The Creator’s fire. Is that the recognition of evil, of the ego that's burning? And then as we read, that we have to create a covering with love towards the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:28:10) If I need to feel how the Creator is interacting with me. And we know There's None else beside Him, there's none but me and the Creator. So if the friends turn to me, there's the Creator behind them, so I should pay attention that it's not the friends that are talking to me, but through them, the Creator is talking to me. A and saying to me to nullify, to be thankful, to reveal it, and continue on. Is it so?
M. Laitman: No, incorrect.
Student: So what is correct?
M. Laitman: Not instantly.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:28:59) I would like to go back to the question about the fire, I heard that everything depends on the extent that we would want to use this fire. My question: What does the Creator want? How to use Him for him to give us the opportunity to come closer to Him?
M. Laitman: Ask. Ask and afterwards search for the answer, He will be revealed between you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:58) I feel fear from getting to know the Creator, and this fear is increasing, lately. From this power and depth, when you start to understand how serious it is, and how it surrounds everything. How to deal with this fear when you feel that it's truly keeping me from moving?
M. Laitman: Rise above it!
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:30:43) If I don't understand what the Creator wants to tell me, the feeling is just constantly confusing. Should I ask for clarity at that moment? How to even work with it?
M. Laitman: That the Creator will explain to you where you are.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:31:23) I wanted to go back to the topic of not harming the Ten: The more we work in the Ten, we do more workshops between us, and that's how I feel more hatred towards the friends; and it's really more difficult to overcome. Is this causing harm to the Ten?
M. Laitman: We'll talk about it. Truth, it is true, but not entirely, it's something we still need to scrutinize.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:32:33) The power of prayer, it depends on the root of my soul in the place where we are? Or does it not depend on it?
M. Laitman: The force of prayer only depends on the inner root of a person, that is it. Everything in the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed in a much simpler way when it's revealed in a much more broad manner, full of volume. That's why the main thing is just not to let go of the studies. Keep studying, write questions, and turn to the source, turn to Him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:34:06) When we start to put together the prayer because the prayer truly comes from the depth in the Ten. So, I think that the opening of the prayer needs to be that we're seeking how to turn to Him. And the search is that He is good, that He is guiding, that He is caring, and all kinds of other descriptions. It's very hard to start from a state, to locate in what state we should turn to, and it's a very interesting search. Is this important, or does the Creator not care about that?
M. Laitman: It's not important to the Creator; He includes all your states inside Him.
Student: Nevertheless, is it always best to start with gratitude and then a request or is that not important, too?
M. Laitman: That's up to you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:35:37) Before judgments, there is evil in reality, but I can't see. Afterwards, the Creator gives me the possibility to reveal what's bad in the world, then, we can feel the judgments. For many people, we heard judgments – judgments of fear – but for me, it felt as if I’m certain in the power of the Creator. If there are judgments, everything is close. Yes, we can feel hope because the Creator, the force of the Creator is here. And He's giving us the possibility to see what is bad in the world.
M. Laitman: Yes, it watches over us.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:37:15) In the excerpt we read in the lesson, it's written, one who comes to be purified is aided. What's correct to ask in such a state? To completely suppress it or to rise to a greater heart?
M. Laitman: To rise to a greater, upper, unified state.
Student: Meaning, if I don't focus on that current state, completely, but go to the more advanced state, that would be the hope, the correction?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:38:14) In what can we, practically, harm one another? What is it, can we by our influence change one another's qualities?
M. Laitman: No. No, you can't.
Student: Then, what is the damage?
M. Laitman: That we might deviate aside, somewhere, without any need for a correction.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:39:24) I always hear about the root of the soul, that each of us has certain qualities. In the context of that root, how can we help one another so that each of us will discover what his unique quality that he can give to the world is? So he'll be able to discover his root of soul and be able to pass it along?
M. Laitman: Each one must discover their place in the general vessel of the whole world as precisely as possible. Afterwards, from what a person finds, reaches the general point of all of reality; and in this way, one can attain the root of the soul.
Student: Can I ask for each of my friends and each of the people, everyone who's here about that? Maybe we have to do this mutually as well?
M. Laitman: How will you ask? It's a problem to organize a few hundred people, even only a few hundred to a common prayer. But if you'll want to do it, so write me and I'll be with you!
Reader: So, before we move to the next part of the lesson, we'll do between us a summary, and then we'll continue the lesson.
M. Laitman: Okay, but what's the second part?
Student: The second part is the study between the friends. We, the friends, will study, we'll read something together.
M. Laitman: And the third part?
Reader: The third one is ready, we have a complete date together. We have an afternoon lesson and other activities. Okay.
M. Laitman: So, what are we doing now?
Reader: Let's move together to, maybe we'll do a song first. Let's sing together a song, and then we'll see what we do next. Song. Song.
Song: (01:42:58) Song.