The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson August 17, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet. Article No. 33, (1986).
Reader: Hello, in the first part of the lesson, we'll learn from a recorded lesson from the 29th of September, 2002, based on the article, "What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet?" We'll read the article together in the Ten. We have 33 minutes for that.
Reading: (00:40) What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet
Article No. 33, 1986
It is written in the portion, Ekev [Because]: “And it shall come to pass that because you listen … the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy that He has sworn to your fathers.” RASHI interprets “And it shall come to pass that because you listen”: “If you keep the light Mitzvot [commandments] that a person tramples with his feet. You will listen and the Lord will keep, etc., will keep His promise.”
We should understand the Creator’s stipulation: “If you keep the light Mitzvot, I will keep the promises I have given to the fathers. Otherwise, I cannot keep them.” Surely, the conditions that the Creator wants are not similar to a flesh and blood king, who presents stipulations in favor of the giver. Surely, here they are in favor of the creatures, meaning that otherwise they cannot receive what he has promised. Therefore, we should understand the condition of light Mitzvot.
To understand the condition we must first understand the promise that the Creator promised the fathers. Clearly, this does not pertain to corporeality, for the promise was certainly for the Creator to give the people of Israel that they will be rewarded with the purpose of creation, called “doing good to His creations,” which is that the souls will obtain the root of their souls, regarded as the five parts of the soul, called NRNHY.
In order for the souls to obtain what has been prepared for them to receive, and in order not to feel the bread of shame while receiving the delight and pleasure, we were given the work called “work of bestowal.” This means that first, one must accustom himself in this work. In order to have room for choice, meaning to be able to choose the intention with which he observes Torah and Mitzvot, there had to be a Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment, for then there is room for choice.
However, if the pleasure were revealed then he would have to observe Torah and Mitzvot in order to receive. He would do everything to satisfy his self-love because it cannot be said that he does everything in order to bestow, since when there is disclosure of light, the pleasure is greater than all the corporeal pleasures.
In corporeality we see a rule: The smaller the pleasure—in order to relinquish the pleasure—the less work there is. Also, it cannot be said that the pleasure he receives is with the intention only to bestow if he cannot relinquish it. That is, he must be certain that if he cannot aim to bestow he will be willing to give up the pleasure. Therefore, the smaller the pleasure the easier it is to give it up.
This is why we were given the concealment of the taste of Torah and Mitzvot and were given a taste for corporeal pleasures. We must believe in the words of the holy Zohar that every delight and pleasure that exists in corporeal things is only a thin light, meaning a very faint light compared to the light of the pleasure that is dressed in Torah and Mitzvot. For this reason, there is a reality where one exercises on corporeal pleasures and afterwards he can come out of the Tzimtzum and concealment to some extent, for he can already choose and say that he is receiving this delight and pleasure only because he wants to bestow.
Afterwards, if he passes the trial and receives the small discernment he has attained in the work of the Creator, he is given a bigger degree on which to aim to bestow. Thus he goes from degree to degree until he attains all his NRNHY from the root of his soul. And the NRNHY that a person attains is the 613 ways of the Torah, which are the 613 Mitzvot in the Torah and the seven Mitzvot of our great sages, which, in Gematria, are 620 names that one can attain.
It is written in the book, A Sage’s Fruit: Letters of Baal HaSulam (Letter no. 17): “It is written in Tree of Life, ‘The worlds were created only to disclose the names of the Creator.’ Thus, you see that since the soul came down to clothe this filthy substance, it could no longer cleave to its root, to its own world, as it was in its root before it came to this world. Rather, it must increase its stature 620 times more than how it previously was in the root. This is the meaning of the entire perfection, the entire NRNHY up to Yechida, for which Yechida is called Keter, implying the number 620.”
Now we can see what is the promise that the Creator has promised to the fathers, and how it is possible to attain such wholeness. That question is asked from two sides:
1) The need for this great wholeness. We know that there is no light without a Kli [vessel], meaning no filling without a lack. This brings up the question, “How can we have this feeling that we need to obtain the NRNHY?” According to what we explained, all the corporeal pleasures that the whole world is chasing are nothing more than a tiny spark compared to the pleasure in Kedusha [sanctity], and when one is rewarded with having even a tiny illumination of Kedusha he will feel great satisfaction with it. So who will tell him that he is still deficient to the point that he must obtain the light of Yechida, or he will feel that he has not yet achieved wholeness? Who will notify him?
2) How can one overcome such great pleasures and say that if he cannot aim the reception of these pleasures to the Creator then he gives up the pleasures? From where will he find such strength? After all, we see that even in corporeal pleasures, of which we said that they are but a thin light, sparks that have fallen into the Klipot, it is difficult to overcome them and say that we relinquish these pleasures if we cannot aim in order to bestow. And since concerning corporeal pleasures we see that they divide into great pleasures and small ones, it is all the more so in spirituality, where there are many degrees and discernments. So the question is from where will one take such great powers to overcome?
To understand the two above questions, 1) From where will he take the need for greatness, and 2) From where will he take the strength to give up the pleasures so he can be sure that the pleasures he is taking are only in order to bestow contentment upon his Maker, we should precede with the words of our sages (Kidushin, 30): “Rabbi Shimon Ben Levi said, ‘Man’s inclination overcomes him every day and seeks to put him to death,’ as it was said, ‘The wicked watches the righteous and seeks to put him to death, and if the Creator did not help him, he would not overcome it, as it is said, ‘The Lord will not leave him in his hand.’”
We said that there are two questions here:
1) If man has been given the evil inclination, why is he unable to overcome it, but the Creator helps him? After all, choice means that a person can overcome, but here it implies that one has no choice to overcome, but only with the Creator’s help. By himself, he cannot overcome it. This brings up the question, “Why did the Creator not give man the strength to overcome it?”
2) If man cannot overcome, why does it say that the Creator helps him? This means that a person must begin to overcome and see that he cannot overcome, and then the Creator helps him. Why does the Creator not help him as soon as the evil inclination comes to him? What does it add to us that a person begins the work, since he cannot prevail anyway?
Therefore, why does the Creator have to wait until a person begins the work and then the help arrives. What is the benefit from losing time by the Creator waiting for a person to begin the work? Who gains from this loss of time? After all, the Creator should have given the help as soon as the evil inclination comes to a person, before a person begins the work. Why should He wait for a person to start the work and then the Creator will help him?
The thing is, as we said in the previous articles, that the Tzimtzum and restrictions were in order to correct the world. Otherwise there would not be any possibility for man to be able to even begin the work of overcoming self-love, since by nature, the will to receive controls him, and this is the axis of Creation. What comes afterwards is only a correction, to correct the will to receive.
It turns out that the will to receive is the main thing, and the rest of the things that come later are only to correct it. It follows that the will to receive remains, but corrections are added to it. However, who is the one who undergoes all the corrections? It must be the will to receive.
It is known that even when we say that there is a degree that wants the desire to bestow, it still means that it does not use the will to receive that there is in the degree, but overcomes its desire and engages in the desire to bestow. It follows that the corrections that one should do are only on his vessels of reception, meaning to place on it the intention to bestow. And since the greater the pleasure, the more difficult it is to give it up and say that if he cannot aim to bestow he does not want to receive the pleasure, therefore two things must be corrected here:
1) Aviut [coarseness], meaning will to receive, so it is not too big, namely that the lower one cannot overcome. For this reason, he must be given smaller lust. Afterwards, when seeing that he can overcome a small pleasure, he is given a greater pleasure. If we see that he can overcome this pleasure, he is given a greater pleasure, etc., but how do we arrange it?
Therefore, man was given the work in faith above reason, which man slights, from the word “flippant” [in Hebrew]. This means that a person does not respect this work and considers the time he must serve with faith as a state of lowliness. That is, he understands that this work is for women and children, but not for intelligent and acute people.
Conversely, they must understand everything they see happening in the world, so it corresponds with their view and spirit. And when they need to do something but do not see that it is to their benefit, how can they agree to do things that are fit for fools, meaning people who do not scrutinize their thoughts or actions?
For this reason, they always try to avoid such matters. If they sometimes happen to work above reason because they have no choice, since reason is far away from them, they constantly wait for when they can be freed of such states. After all, it is unbecoming of us to live in the air, when the intellect does not understand everything he does as necessary for what he wants to achieve, and he wants to achieve a degree where he is among the prominent ones in the public.
When he looks at the public, how they engage in Torah and Mitzvot without any criticism, he says about them that they can observe everything enthusiastically and be meticulous with every detail because they have no sense of criticism. This is why they can be like that, with eyes closed. That is, if they had some brains they would be like me. That is, I observe Torah and Mitzvot but I see that this work is unworthy of me. However, I do not have a choice since otherwise I will have no connection with Judaism, and therefore for me everything will be forced and involuntary.
For this reason, as long as I forget that I am going above reason I can do everything like the rest of the people. But when I get the thoughts about the basis on which my Judaism is built, and I have to reply to my body that it is only as in, “The earth hangs on nothing,” I cannot overcome and say that the foundation of Judaism is based precisely on faith above reason. And specifically now I can keep the commandment of faith, since now I see that I have no basis. But usually, a person falls and lies under the weight of these questions.
Indeed, this is the question of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, who said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” For this reason a person says that the path of faith that the Creator has given us to work on, this way will never succeed. And if the Creator had only listened to me He would have let us work on the basis of knowledge, and not on faith. Certainly many people would join in keeping Torah and Mitzvot. But in this way of faith, there are many people who even though they began this work, they escaped from the campaign.
Baal HaSulam said that the Creator chose that we should walk in the path of faith not because man is of inferior degree, so he cannot be guided except by the path of faith. Rather, this is the most successful way. This is why the Creator has chosen this way, so they will take upon themselves the order of their work, by which they will be able to achieve the goal called “doing good to His creations,” so the creatures will receive delight and pleasure and will also be in complete Dvekut, meaning in equivalence with the Creator. And although the creatures do not understand it, this is the truth.
It therefore follows that although faith is a slight and lowly matter, and we interpret that slight comes from flippancy, meaning that it is not appreciated, it is still the way by which we can succeed in achieving the goal.
By this we will understand what RASHI interpreted, “If you observe the light Mitzvot [commandments] that a person tramples with his feet, You will listen; about this.” That is, he referred to faith, which a person tramples with his heels. You will listen about this and then you will have the Kelim [vessels/tools] to reach the goal.
This is what RASHI interpreted: “And keep; will keep his promise.” This means that the condition He has set is not for the sake of the Creator, as is the way of flesh and blood, who set conditions in favor of the giver. But with the Creator, the condition to observe the light Mitzvot aims for man’s sake, for precisely by this one can achieve wholeness and be rewarded with what has been prepared for him by the thought of creation.
Now we can explain what we asked:
1) Why does the Creator not help a person when the evil inclination overcomes him, but waits until a person begins the work to overcome, and then helps him, as our sages said, “if the Creator does not help him”? It is akin to a person carrying a heavy load that he does not have the strength to carry, so he asks for help and people come and help him. But when he does not ask for help, no one comes to help him. This can be said between man and man. But why should the Creator wait for a person to begin the work and cry out to the Creator to help him when the Creator knows that he cannot overcome the evil inclination by himself, since the Creator did not give him the strength for it?
2) What is the reason that the Creator did not give him the strength to overcome by himself, but seemingly told him, “I have given you the choice to overcome the evil inclination”? We should say that the Creator did give him the strength to overcome evil, and at the same time we say that without the Creator’s help a person cannot overcome it. It follows that these two matters contradict one another.
We will understand these two questions with the two questions we asked:
1) When a person is rewarded with the smallest degree in spirituality, he feels in it greater pleasure than all the corporeal pleasures, as in the words of the ARI, that all the great pleasures we find in corporeal pleasures—which we see that the whole world is chasing these pleasures and receive through them satisfaction in their lives—all the pleasure in them extends from Kedusha, where through the breaking of the vessels and the sin of Adam HaRishon with the tree of knowledge, holy sparks fell into the Klipot [shells/peels]. The holy Zohar calls this light, “thin light,” which descended in order to sustain the Klipot. All the corporeal pleasures extend from this, and the smallest degree in spirituality, which is Kedusha, where the essence of the light is found, he is certain to derive satisfaction from this and will have no need for Gadlut [greatness/adulthood]. Thus, who will tell him that he needs Gadlut?
2) From where will he take such great powers that he will be able to receive the great pleasures in order to bestow, or else he will be willing to relinquish them?
It follows that since there is no light without a Kli, meaning no filling without a deficiency, for this reason a person must begin the work. When he wants to overcome the evil inclination but cannot, he becomes deficient. When he sees that he cannot overcome it, he asks the Creator for help. At that time the Creator can give the filling because he already has a Kli to receive the filling.
The reason that the Creator did not give him the strength to overcome by himself is that when a person has some filling, he settles for what he has. Then a person has no need to be rewarded with NRNHY of the soul by the Creator helping him, as it is written in the holy Zohar, “He who comes to purify is aided. And he asks, ‘With what is he aided?’ He replies, ‘With a holy soul.’ When he is rewarded he is given Nefesh. When he is rewarded more he is given Ruach.”
It follows that receiving help from above causes him to need to extend his NRNHY. That is, each time he wants to overcome his evil but cannot, the Creator helps him with a holy soul. But if the person could overcome by himself, from where would he have a need to ask the Creator to give him a higher degree than the one he has?
But now that he is asking the Creator to help him, he is not asking for degrees. Rather, he is simply asking the Creator not to be under the control of evil. It turns out that the reason why a person wants the Creator to help him have the strength to aim in order to bestow and not be in the domain of the Sitra Achra [other side], but that he wants to be in the domain of Kedusha [holiness/sanctity], meaning that his only wish will be to bestow upon the Creator, and this is all he needs, and not any high degrees, but simply to serve the Creator and not himself, this is the force he asks of the Creator. When the Creator helps him, the holy Zohar says it with the help of a holy soul. Each help is through a soul that the Creator gives him. Therefore, by this he goes from degree to degree until he attains the completion of the soul, called NRNHY.
Now we understand what our sages said, “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day.” This brings up the question, “Why does he need to overcome the evil inclination every day if he has already received help from the Creator and has defeated it? Why does it need to come to a person once again? And for what purpose does it come each day?”
With the above we understand that since through the help he receives from the Creator, he receives a soul, then each overcoming, when a person wants to overcome and be purer, he thereby receives a soul. This is why these overcompensations cause man to be able to attain the NRNHY of his soul.
And the second question, “From where will he take strength to overcome?” It is not by his own strength. Rather, this is the help that the Creator gives so he can overcome it. It follows that through one thing there is correction of two things.
Reader: Moving on to the next part, a lesson from 2002.
M. Laitman: (33:38) We've read the article from the portion of Ekev, "What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet," with his heels, rather. Meaning that we have commandments, and the whole issue of the commandments, it seems to us unimportant in the will to receive, because a commandment is an action in order to bestow, where the entire intention is to benefit the Creator, to benefit the other, outside of what exists, what will be in the will to receive. And so, it doesn't matter if it's aimed for the Creator's benefit, the benefit of the society, the benefit of the friend, or someone else outside of me. For me, I don't feel it, and so it's called unimportant. What is not felt in the will to receive cannot be performed by a person, because the person is entirely the will to receive. And so, in a natural way, a person cannot perform a commandment, an action in order to bestow, unless he attains the force of Bina, the force of the intention to bestow, the light of Hassadim, grace or mercy, faith, the ability to act above reason. Never mind what exactly you call that ability, but to the extent that he has that ability — and it also depends on what level, what magnitude that correction is in him — he can then perform a commandment. And all the 613 commandments, they exist in all the 613, or 620, commandments; they exist in all the 620 degrees. The difference between them is over what general will to receive a person can perform an act of bestowal. And in order to be able to perform any kind of commandment, to observe any kind of commandment, a person first needs to make a restriction on himself, meaning that he receives nothing, that he doesn't aim anything towards himself. And here Rabash says, that all the pleasures that exist in this world, in total, in the entire region of this world, the plane of this world, different times and quantities in the souls, everything, if we gather all of them together, they are as a very, very thin candle compared to the smallest spiritual pleasure. So from here, we can understand what kind of protective force a person needs to receive from above against the will to receive, so as to perform any action which is not for the sake of the will to receive, in order to make a restriction over his will to receive. And of course, this is not within a person's ability; he can't even ask for these things. There is a calculation here. It's the same way you do with a baby who's crying: the baby's crying, and the parents, they owe to the baby, and so they provide for him, give him. So, a small overcoming is enough if it's in the right direction, and in return for that, we receive a reaction, we receive the forces and the ability to advance towards the goal.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:23) At what point does the restriction come?
M. Laitman: The restriction is the splitting of, the parting of the Red Sea. Meaning transitioning from the will to receive to the will to bestow without determining any degree, the degree of the will to bestow. That is called the restriction. Meaning it's the ability not to turn towards himself and perform inner calculations. We don't know how right now, but everything I do right now — look, any motion — this is from my will to receive, who decides that in this way, it'll express itself better, it'll determine itself better, it'll make itself better and control the situation better, and so on. So, in short, the will to receive decides everything. So the restriction is on each and every degree. It says to what depth of the will to receive am I here aware, conscious of myself, and I can control myself to this degree, and I don't take into account what I'm going to gain from the action I'm going to perform? Like in his definition, right? What is the restriction? Denying his will, even though he wants it very much, he yearns very much. We cannot uproot the desire; it remains, but I control it, or I stop it, I hinder it from usage. I deny its usage, meaning calculating in it. Let's put it otherwise, let's put it differently, in the Rosh, in the head. What exactly happens in the Rosh of the Partzuf? I perform a calculation in the will to receive, from the perspective of the will to receive for oneself, from the side of selfish enjoyment. And I see exactly how the will to receive is open to me, and to the extent that I'm interested in benefiting myself, and I restrict that. And over that I begin to turn the calculation towards the benefit of the Creator — that is the action. And on each and every degree, more of the will to receive is open to me, in depth, in quantity, quality, and then I see how my thoughts are all tangled up inside the will to receive, and how my calculations are. Previously I didn't see them as so entangled, right? So, to the extent to which every thought I have is about myself, and then it's the whole depth of it, it's the whole volume of the soul ultimately, which is opened up before me. And then on each degree, each degree is the intention from that general volume of the soul. It's the degree, the region of it that I can see where I think about myself, calculating only for myself, and this follows through to the four degrees of coarseness. Meaning it's also how — let's put it this way — how my organs in my body are also self-interested, how each cell thinks about itself, and so on, if to liken it to what we can understand, what we have. So, the matter of the restriction is, after I know how I yearn to fulfill all of my vessels, all of my wills, according to the will to receive, after that I perform an action where, despite this yearning, or above it, I yearn for the Creator to work with His lacks, His vessels.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:33) So, according to the article, first you do the work, then see that you're unable, then ask the Creator. Where in this sequence is the Tzimtzum, the restriction?
M. Laitman: The stage of the restriction, that's after a person recognizes the state of wholeness, perfection. In the story about the exodus from Egypt, this is what is told. The restriction is a force that one receives from above after a person, by his own power, comes to the recognition of evil. And so, seven years pass for him, as it's told there, seven years of starvation. After the seven years of satiation, where he thought that by reception he will fulfill himself and reach various achievements, and somehow see some profit from it — but later he sees that the spiritual advancement in his will to receive, it reaches a point where the entire will to receive empties out, actually. And we see that as weakness: we can't do anything anymore, we lose our will, we become pathetic to this world, and failures, so to speak, unsuccessful. But this is the intention. The intention is for a person to resist this and go against it; otherwise he'll just veer off the path. And then when we come to the state of Pharaoh, then we receive actual blows, actual punishments. It doesn't mean that we've grown despondent, we've despaired of the work. Rather, we enter into those punishments, those blows, because without these punishments, we would have agreed to die quietly, so to speak. These blows, these punishments happen to scrutinize within us the point of Moses opposite the point of Pharaoh, where both begin to flourish, let's say, from the state called seven years of hunger, starvation. But this is on the condition that the person over these seven years is building Pitom and Ramses, meaning he sweats, he truly does the work, despite feeling that he's in a bad way. That's it. And then, after this whole process that happens, Moses versus Pharaoh, we come to a state where we flee Pharaoh, so to speak. And that's the person going above reason to an extent. In the middle of the night, he agrees to go, to flee, to run from the will to receive, not to be in contact with it; to the extent that he knows it as the thing governing him, ruling over him. And this is still before the barrier, because he recognizes all the evil that it brings to him, that will to receive. And then he crosses, then he receives from above, as per "I have labored and found," he receives the force of restriction from above. And after the restriction, he's just getting the force of restriction. And you always need to examine on what degree he receives the force of restriction when he exits his Egypt, on the lowest degree. Because the will to receive, which grew in Egypt through the seven years of satiation — then he saw that it's to its detriment, to one's own detriment, it's actually seven years of starvation. So, for the will to receive, that's a very lowly state. So, let's say opposite this world, compared to this world, as he says, if we take all the lusts of this world, they're like a tiny, tiny candle, thin candle, in comparison to spiritual desires. And so, he lacks the degree to hold himself in spirituality. He's on the smallest degree. Yes, and this is the matter of crossing the Red Sea in the three days in the desert. But first of all comes the birth, right? The exodus from Egypt, that's the birth, the birth of the screen. So, what are you asking?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:33) I'm asking about the different stages in the work. There is the work, then a person sees that he's unable, after that he turns to the Creator, he asks for help. Where in this sequence comes in — or is it not a part of this sequence — comes in the Tzimtzum, the restriction?
M. Laitman: The restriction is always…
Student: What is the prerequisite for the Tzimtzum? What caused the person to ask for it? What caused the person to ask for the power of the Tzimtzum?
M. Laitman: The person asks for the force of restriction on condition that he sees a step forward, go backwards, reverse. Well, like in the computer, you have one window and you can go forward one window and back one window, so go one back. What do you need, what data, in order to reach the restriction? From above, you'll be given the forces, on condition that you prepare yourself, that you ask for these forces, discover them, need them. On what state, what previous state, do you need to be for this to happen to you? In a state where you'll be as Moses opposite Pharaoh. You'll discover that your entire will to receive is so evil, it brings you such troubles, such punishments, that you have no choice but to escape it. And to actually escape it, you can't do that. You might run, but this doesn't disconnect you from that intention. Pharoah isn’t the will to receive, it's the intention to receive, right? All the positive things, the negative things, those are intentions for the Creator's sake or for one's own sake, right? The will to receive, we don't talk about it, we only talk about its magnitude, right? Because over that, over certain degrees of the will to receive, you have the right line, the qualities of the Creator, the intention to bestow. And upon that same will to receive, on the left line, in order to receive, the left side. So that's it. These two lines have to be of the same magnitude of the entire will to receive in this world. And there needs to be this inner conflict, one opposite the other, in such a way where you're ready for anything so long as you get to exit the rule of the left line, as the right line is revealed. This is the matter of Moses come unto Pharaoh. Moses himself can't do anything. Pharaoh rules over the will to receive. He rules over Egypt in general. But the Creator comes along with Moses. He illuminates through that point, through Moses, to the whole of Egypt. And so you have the issue of the people of Israel as well. Meaning that there are other forces which together want to exit. So more and more discernments emerge which want to exit Egypt, and the restriction is made over them, the differentiation between them and Pharaoh and Egypt. The people of Israel leave Egypt, not the Egyptians, nothing really happens there. All the punishments and everything that happens, it's only in order to bring out the, let's say, Galgalta ve Eynaim, which are included in AHP.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:36) So the restriction comes only after the recognition of evil?
M. Laitman: The restriction comes after the stage of the recognition of evil, meaning to be in contact with the intention in order to receive means death. This is something that accumulates only after the ten plagues.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:04) How much time does a person need to cross that, a few years?
M. Laitman: There's no time in spirituality. How long does a person need in order to go through the seven years in Egypt, at least the seven good years, or not? Bad ones. First of all, you can't go through the seven bad years detached from the seven good years, that we're told that they come one after the other. It's true and also not exactly, because they also come as a preparation, each stage as one opposite the other. How long? It depends on the measure of the intensity in which a person works. How much does he invest on the path? How much is he aided by the experience and the force of the society and the study? You can extend it to 200 years, meaning a few good incarnations — and not just incarnations that you live for 200 years, but 200 years of advancement, meaning you study. And you could also do it in two, three years. Still, it's not a matter of months. This is what I want to say. Don't think that in a moment something will happen, on the one hand. On the other hand, at every moment you need to expect salvation, as it says. The salvation of the Creator comes in a blink.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:43) What exactly happens in the seven good years and the seven bad years?
M. Laitman: In the seven good and bad years, a person begins to see his relation to his will to receive, to his nature. The measure to which this will to receive controls him, how the control of the will to receive over me is to my detriment, how much I lose as a result. Maybe I'm gaining in this world, and I get along fine with the will to receive, but along with it, I lose spirituality. If I begin to define spirituality as bestowal, as coming closer to the force of bestowal, giving, then to the measure to which I will be more like the giver — here begins the measuring of the intention in order to receive, how detrimental it is for me if I want to reach wholeness and perfection. And then, gradually, it becomes clear to me that really the state that I want to reach is the complete opposite of what I am in right now. And I don't like it, this state called spirituality. I hate it. How can you not hate it? To give, not to think about yourself, to think about everyone sitting here, for example. How could that be? And the more a person performs self-scrutiny, the more he sees that this thing is simply unachievable. So, what do you do? Again, this is how a person is brought closer to the truth, that even in a single moment, that the truth is opened up to him even for a single moment. And then it eats him up for a few months, and he runs away from this thought. But somehow, it works in him. And the next time, he suffers a bit less as a result, meaning he's a bit less afraid of it. He agrees with it in one percent. And then much time goes by until it is being disclosed to him: what does it mean to bestow in order to bestow? And he's really shaken up by it, so much so — to give, not to think about myself. And again, he runs away from that thought, hides it behind different things: dissemination, books, writing, jumping, whatever. Gradually, different actions happen on the inside, and he grows accustomed to it in another percent, that maybe it's possible, something like that, that maybe the situation or the state will be better for me. Still, he deciphers it in a way that I'll give everything, but I'll gain from it. I'll feel good. Meaning, we'll learn from the troubles that the will to receive feels inside itself, and we're still not entering spirituality. We think that spirituality is good, because otherwise, we won't be able to run away from the blows. So, it's still totally corporeality. But one way or another, by this kind of work — and I can't find the words yet — we come closer to a state where I want to run away from my will to receive, from thinking about myself, because the tiniest thought about myself brings me great sorrow. Great sorrow. I'm afraid of thinking about myself, like a person that, you know — there's this illness that people like stealing. They're very rich people, they have everything, but they come to a shop, they need to, I don't know, steal some tiny thing. You know, indirectly, they'd give a million dollars for it, but to give a million dollars and receive that in return will give them no pleasure, but their pleasure is in that they steal.
M. Laitman: (58:37) I read about Ben-Gurion's wife, Paula, what was her name. There were a few of his people that followed her to make sure that, you know, no one will, that there won't be any problems. It's a real disease. And a person, he reaches a state where he's afraid of stealing. He knows that he can't hold himself back, until there comes such a fear where he simply needs to run away from the will to receive. Otherwise, he'll be caught. Otherwise, it's death. Meaning, it's still happening inside the will to receive. But the hate for the will to receive, nonetheless, pushes him, as if pushes him away from the will receive, and then, one way or another, it happens as a miracle, the miracle of the exodus from Egypt. It's at night, in the darkness, where a person doesn't see how it happens, and in general. This is how it is with each and every degree, every new transition. Every new state comes where a person completely doesn't understand, doesn't know, confused, and after all the confusion and the disorientation comes a new state. Until then, you look and expect, in that very will to receive, by the way, for there to come confusion, and disorientation, everything, but there will be a better, newer state. And still, you want it in the will to receive; and when you really come to the exodus from Egypt, that's called a miracle. There, it is a thing that a person himself, he can't bring about this situation in any way, because it's really the boundary between the will to receive and the will to bestow. There, it's really a cut down to endlessness, up to the point of existence from absence. That's why it's called the splitting of the Red Sea. The Red Sea, it's not our will to receive; it's a tiny will to receive that separates between us and the spiritual world. Yam Suf, meaning our entire vessel, in all of its Malchut, in its finite form — this cut goes through it all, and only then it is shown to a person what he went through. It's a complete miracle.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:40) So, seven years, the good ones and the negative ones — is there any connection to what I feel in corporeality that a person can feel?
M. Laitman: What you go through has nothing to do with corporeality. In the seven good years, you could be in trouble, God forbid, in your business, and in the seven bad years, you could be really on a roll. One has nothing to do with the other.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:16) What is the role of the point in the heart?
M. Laitman: The point in the heart needs to all the time grow as a result of a person's connection to the environment, where he is thinking how will I nonetheless work with the environment? And in the measure to which he can absorb the spiritual idea from the society, the point in the heart grows.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:47) Page 42, third paragraph, this line, he says, because of that, there is a possibility for a person to perform exercises regarding corporeal pleasures, and then he'll be able to emerge from the restriction and concealment to an extent. What does it mean? What are these exercises over corporeal pleasures here? What does it mean?
M. Laitman: That we talk about, we say that we need to think about the friend, the group, to bestow to the friend, meaning to live out his desires, to give him joy. It's not in order for us to have a good time here, but it's in order to examine accordingly how far I am, how far I really am from the will to bestow, how much I hate, really hate this idea, how much I'll try maybe to forcefully implement upon myself the execution of the "as if" in order to bestow, to live in desires that are outside of me, that are not mine. And you learn from these exercises. He says,
Reader: Yes, friends, let's summarize what we've heard thus far, the main points of the lesson.
Reader: Now, return and watch the lesson from the point where we stopped.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:37) The paragraph where it says, he says here that due to this, there is a possibility that a person will perform exercises on corporeal pleasures, and then he'll be able to exit the restriction and concealment to a certain extent. What does it mean? What are these exercises on corporeal pleasures? What does he mean?
M. Laitman: The fact that we're speaking about us needing to think about a friend, about the group, about bestowing to a friend, meaning to live his desires, to bring him joy. It's not so it will be fun for us here in Bnei Baruch.But rather, in order to check, according to this, how distant I am from the very desire to bestow, how hateful this idea is to me, the extent to which I will maybe try to forcefully perform this execution of "in order to bestow," seemingly; and the desires that are seemingly outside of me, not mine. From these exercises, we learn. He says that, and then he can exit the manner of the restriction and concealment to an extent, because he has the reality of choice, meaning to say, I receive this pleasure and delight only because I want to bestow. Meaning, to learn how much he is capable of doing this and to what extent not. To the extent of what? The meaning is that it's still a lesson, it's still learning, and he doesn't know where he is. We're not yet talking about it really happening to him. Certainly, a person can't begin and end such an action. No action does he start and finish. He has to start the action, to try to do it himself, and then the moment he constantly pushes to do and doesn't succeed, it's revealed to him that here the Creator must be a partner and the main operator.
Student: What does it mean, the Creator?
M. Laitman: What?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:23) The Creator helps him with the holy soul. What is that?
M. Laitman: Oh, the Creator helps him with the holy soul, meaning a person presses, and presses, and presses, and it's revealed to him that there must be an action that's above human force, above this world, something that… Actually, the thing that he's pressuring, the thing that he's touching, has nothing to do with our reality. It has to do with a reality that's beyond the barrier. Then the barrier is revealed to him of what it is, which is the inversion in thought and thinking. Altogether, it's truly… "I have seen an opposite world," it's called. And then it's revealed to him that the one that can do this action is the upper force, the Creator. In what way? With the holy soul, by truly giving him other forces, other thoughts, the ability and things that he didn't have before. That's called a soul, a new soul, a holy soul. In place of the nature that created him in order to receive, now He gives him a second nature in order to bestow. That's called the holy soul, Nishmata Kadisha. Now a person receives forces in order to bestow.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:53) And you can relate it to, I don't know, a Kabbalist that was alive before?
M. Laitman: No, here the business is only between a person and the Creator. There's no teacher here, there's no group here already, nothing. The teacher and the group are the means that bring a person to a connection with the Creator, and that's it. He must always lean on them, he must first be connected with them. But the thing is, the Kli of the soul of a person with the light of the Creator — there's no more than that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:30) So, the difference is, we can say that Rungs of the Ladder is by Rabash, and Baal HaSulam is The Study of the Ten Sefirot. Is there a difference? What's the difference?
M. Laitman: What's the difference between studying the Rabash articles and The Study of the Ten Sefirot? Every lesson needs to be divided to the part of the work, feeling, to aim our thoughts to what to search for, to balance ourselves somewhat, put ourselves before the problem, before the goal. So for that, we read first the writings of Rabash and what he wrote to the students, and then we move to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, as after I know what I want from life, let's say, from my awakening, from the article, so I approach the remedy, the medicine, to that which will help me reach what I want now. Meaning, the first part is discerning or scrutinizing the disease, and the second part is the healing. Meaning, when I'm in the article, I must be both in joy and sadness, in gratitude, in request, in all kinds of feelings, yes? And mostly, those feelings will actually be negative, for what I'm lacking, for what I don't have, for what I don't reach yet, to that which I want. Seemingly negative feelings, the revelation of the deficiency. And then, when I already have the deficiency, I come to the study as I search for the one who will heal this for me, the Healer of all flesh. Meaning, for the reforming light to come and reform me. And then my approach to the study is the correct approach. For then, I demand correction from the study. And besides correction, the study can't really give me anything. All these wisdoms that it gives us are completely external. Only in order to somewhat be as a beast to connect with the study itself, and… but inside, we need to just demand the correcting force.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:07) What's the difference between the authors?
M. Laitman: What's the difference between the authors? Baal HaSulam writes about this. There's a difference between the authors and what they wrote, externally and internally. There's a difference in the language and how they wrote. I'm talking about the Kabbalistic authors, yes? So, each in his degree, each in his characteristics, and the form of revelation and measure of revelation. Hence, we have to study only from one special soul, which is the soul of Rashbi, the ARI, Baal HaSulam, which is the soul that is revealed, has been revealed in this world three times, at three eras, and the same method in revealing the method of correction. All the rest of the Kabbalists… Baal HaSulam writes that it could be that they were much greater, just like Rabbi Akiva relative to Rabbi Shimon. He was much greater. And besides Rabbi Akiva, there were maybe greater ones, but they were not sent here in order to be our teachers. That's why we need to learn from their books. That's it. I don't know what else you're digging in there from your bright and big intellect, but what are you looking for? You're smart. You'll probably find in a few hundred years the path.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:13) How can I connect this thing? What I feel, if I know that Nukva rises to AVI when I read this.
M. Laitman: Wonderful, good question. How do I connect? I study, to the Nukva that rises to AVI and all kinds of actions like this, with what I'm lacking. In these actions, you are learning of what's happening to you within. Nukva, let's say, that rises to AVI is the part of the desire to receive that now is being corrected by forces in order to bestow of Bina, of the upper force, which gives to that desire to receive that's connecting, it gives it the intention in order to bestow. And that is how you need to see really each and every action. But we're not going to go in detail, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, which action is this will to receive here, and what does it do, what kind of desire to receive now goes and receives some kind of form of correction — that we're not capable. If you'll be in that degree, then you will feel it on yourself, you'll feel what's happening to you. Then certainly, when you study The Study of the Ten Sefirot in such a manner, that what you read will also be happening within, or according to what's happening within, you will find how it's written in TES. That's truly called, "man's soul will teach us," where you already in your soul feel all those actions. But for the time being, you read about these actions that go on inside your soul, but you're unconscious, and so you don't feel that they're happening in you. And then, from those actions that you don't feel but you want to reach their feeling, you yearn for them — you get from there a little illumination. It's called that the surrounding light comes to you. It doesn't come, nor go, or return, or descend, but rather your attraction to that state, to being in that action, gives you this illumination from there. You seemingly from afar grasp that state. It's called that the surrounding light comes to you. And then gradually, this surrounding light sanctifies you, purifies you, brings you somewhat closer, and like this, a little more, and a little more.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:55) It means that what I'm reading in the TES, I need to find it inside somehow?
M. Laitman: Each soul of ours is in adhesion with the Creator in the highest possible degree. And also, it is in all the rest of the states and degrees, from that final degree to the lowest degree that I'm in right now. So, if I take some book that talks about my soul, on some spiritual degree, and I read and want to live — how does he write there in the "Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot," item 155? That we study and don't understand, but long to know what we're learning. To know means to connect with what we learn. And "Adam knew Eve, his wife," meaning to connect and to have a coupling, connected with our feeling, with our senses. And from this, you're coming closer to this thing. You want it to happen. You want to be in him. And by this, from that desire, you draw to you somewhat from there upon you. That's the active action that a person can have. And the result of it is that you come closer to that state. But what is that state? That state is a state of your bestowal to others without any appeal to oneself. That's how it is with each and every spiritual state. So, before you think about this, you need to kind of spin yourself within a little bit, to aim towards it and not to win the lottery or do some good business during the day, something else. Meaning your direction needs to be towards the future spiritual state that will be revealed to you, and for you to want it, and for you to be able to somewhat draw it to you. That's why, before the study, we learn all kinds of articles that we read and try to scrutinize what is spirituality, what is the spiritual state. As the spiritual state is not that “I, who have now a few more zeros in the bank.” Do you understand? It's me who…. the opposite of that. There's a few zeros before me, ahead of me. You know, as he writes, Rabash writes in the article, where a person puts the zeros either after the one or before the one. So, I understand that I'm not capable of making myself smaller. I'm not capable of giving. I'm not capable of thinking about giving. But if I scrutinize what that degree precisely is and think about it during the study, but think about the correct definition of what it means to bestow — by that, I bring that state closer. Baal HaSulam writes in the "Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot" how we need to study. So, he writes that the definitions for words must truly be placed in the box, in your intellect, in your mind. Why? So that you don't imagine some quality, phenomena, essence of a word in a different manner than the way he explains. It should be clear to you that we're talking about bestowal, giving, about no return to oneself, etc. This thing is very, very clear. You're learning some spiritual action here. It should be clear to you that from the beginning to its end, something here is happening which is outside of me. That's why we need — he says that it's really important to read the definitions and truly learn them by heart. Why? Why, why by heart? So that they will truly be above my desire to receive and really be constantly ready for using them correctly. Because we're constantly replacing the meaning of the words, changing them.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:36) If the will to receive agrees to a certain work and does it, and he wants a reward, you know, but he already has the reward; otherwise he wouldn't agree. How can he replace that, exchange that reward, so that it will be a different kind? It's impossible. Every action, every work in a group, in the field of study, it doesn't matter what, the will to receive imagines a certain reward; otherwise he wouldn't agree to it.
M. Laitman: You're asking about what reward we can imagine? We can't choose the reward. The reward is already there. It depends on the Kli, on the state that I'm in. Rather, what is a reward in spirituality? We don't know. We can't depict. You could just say words: "in order to bestow" should be a reward for me. To do good for the Creator would be my reward. How could that be? How will I receive pleasure from that? How will I feel a Kli that's outside of me that's being filled, that feels? We don't have that. How do we enjoy adhesion? We cannot, with certainty, feel such qualities inside of us, not yet. How to want to replace the reward? Only out of blows. Only through blows. There is no other solution. Only, in order to go through them faster is possible if a person can tolerate it. And to suffer them, to tolerate them is possible if you invert them from beastly sufferings to soul suffering. Because animalistic, beastly sufferings spread and take a long time, and then you can suffer. But it takes a long time. If you want to shorten them, you can't do it on the same plane of the beastly sufferings. You can't remain on that. You must rise, you must raise the quality of the blows from beastly to spirituality. And then one blow considered, meaning that it's soul or spiritual, will be considered as a thousand beastly blows, and by that you shorten them. Meaning, qualitative blows, we should say, in place of quantitative blows.
Student: How do we raise them from a beastly blow to a spiritual blow?
M. Laitman: We raise them from a beastly blow to a spiritual blow only by beginning to scrutinize precisely how — how should we say this — we start scrutinizing how worthwhile it is in a love of others, let's say. As in a love of others, I should suffer from not having it. I don't have that love, so I begin to move the blows from the beastly level to the spiritual level. At least from this to that. And then there inside there's, meaning… what am I trying to say? The matter of compression, compression of time, is a matter of moving things from quantity to quality. Each time the blow needs to be more qualitative, as much as possible aimed to the goal, to the extent, as much as possible I scrutinize what spirituality is. The definition, its definition is the extent that it's not for me, and how it is against me, and by me not in being in that and feeling it as a blow — I say, and not feeling it as a blow, I save a lot of time and just beastly blows. Let's say my concentration, my attention, and my action is the process and the Creator. In this action there's everything, only the Creator. Who's the Creator? What is He giving out? Gifts, or a force to bestow, pure, net, no connection to himself whatsoever, disconnected from my desire to receive, from what I will have from it. That scrutiny moves me from quantity to quality. And if it weren't for that, there's no compression of time. There isn't. Years go by, it's like everything returns, repeats.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:31:05) Did I get you right that from this work, in corporeality the Creator doesn't give me blows, He actually stops the blows that I need to feel in this world.
M. Laitman: The Creator gives blows in accordance with a person's tolerance to suffer. Meaning, to the extent in which he's aimed to the truth, prepared himself to see the truth with the society, with his family, with the inner preparation. To the extent in which he prepared himself, it's opened up for him, and he's shown that he's not in this, under the condition that he doesn't run away. That's considered the willingness to suffer. And if a person doesn't yet feel that the evil has been opened up for him, that he's not yet ready to suffer, and then the Creator, like to a baby, gives him, yeah, still waits until a person will prepare himself to really come closer to the truth. We need to understand that our path is nevertheless a path to the opposite of what we want, within our original beastly desire. And there is nothing here that can be implied in us or express in us that's good within the will to receive. But gradually we discover this. Also, what I'm saying now does not appear to us as it's like that. Anyway, so I wake up at night to exert a little bit, to lose, but somewhere else I'm hoping I'll gain, I'll be rewarded with something, I'll benefit. We still have where to run to with our desire to receive in order to calm it down. That's not yet called a blow. A blow is where you can't justify, and you can't give any answer to the desire. So, well, let's study.
Reader: Moving to the next part of the lesson, and before that we'll sing a song.
Song: (01:38:53)