The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) November 26, 2024.
Part 2: Rabash. On the Verge of Lishma
Reader: We are reading selected excerpts from our sources “On the Verge of Lishma”. Continuing from number 11 “On the Verge of Lishmah” by The Rabash.
11. RABASH, Article No. 279, "Why Israel Are Compared to an Olive Tree"
Reading: (00:19) When he sees that he will not obtain vitality through acts of reception, he begins to perform acts of bestowal so that the acts of bestowal will give him pleasure.
It follows that the suffering reforms him, meaning the suffering he feels when he has nothing from which to derive pleasure makes him become reformed, meaning perform acts of bestowal, since “being reformed” means bestowal, as it is written, “My heart overflows with a good thing, I say, ‘My work is for the King,’” meaning to bestow.
It follows that through the suffering he suffers from having no vitality, he chooses for himself a new way and begins to engage in bestowal.
Although this, too, is with the aim to receive, it is called Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] that is close to Lishma [for Her sake]. This is the meaning of “From Lo Lishma we come to Lishma,” since “the light in it reforms him.” Since he acts in order to bestow, by this he begins to feel light in the acts of bestowal, and that light can then make him bestow.
M. Laitman: Yes, any questions about that?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:49) It is written that since he performs actions to bestow, by that he starts feeling light in the actions of bestowal. Where do you get light to do actions to bestow?
M. Laitman: From beginning to perform actions to bestow, with these actions comes the light. It helps him perform the actions.
Student: He starts performing actions, and the light comes and helps him.
M. Laitman: No more questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:46) How does Lo Lishma become an action to come before a Lishma and won't take a long time?
M. Laitman: What are you talking about?
Student: Usually we hear Lo Lishma, it sounds like it's something long, and maybe in the end I'll reach Lishma. But here, it feels that he's saying that there's Lo Lishma in here, instantly you reach Lishma, like two steps.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How to do that, it'll really be two steps and not take a long time?
M. Laitman: It depends what is the action that you do.
Student: What's Lo Lishma that opens the Lishma?
M. Laitman: If I perform an act in Lo Lishma, I still don't have strength beyond that, but I really want to achieve Lishma. So I pray within this action of Lo Lishma. And then by this, I come to Lishma.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:16) Is there a clear rule that if I try and do an action to bestow to the friends, and I do see some kind of reward or future light I'll get from it, so that moment I have to stop the action or to still try and extend it even though I know that it's opposite of what should be because it has the will to receive in there.
M. Laitman: But why did you begin with it?
Student: I want to bestow to the friends, to have the vessel.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So this Kli is only from actions of bestowal or also intentions that won't be for self-benefit but only for the Creator.
M. Laitman: I don't know. You said it.
Student: I'm trying to understand what Kabbalists are saying. I'm asking you.The vessel of love of friends. That we want to give contentment to the Creator without self-benefit.
M. Laitman: Without self-benefit?
Student: Without, yes.
M. Laitman: For the sake of the Creator?
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: Of course it’s a corrected vessel.
Student: Exactly. So, in order to reach it, what I understand here is that we need to keep doing deeds even though there's pleasure in the end of them.
M. Laitman: Yes, pleasure does not interrupt.
Student: So, that doesn't interrupt. I'm trying to do an action of bestowal to the friends. I recognize that I could get pleasure or maybe I even have it. I keep doing the action of bestowal. I don't stop it.
M. Laitman: No.
Student: Doesn't it become bestowing in order to receive? Or it is, but it's okay because it's on that way.
M. Laitman: If you want to make sure about it, then please raise it to a level where you don't want to receive any pleasure from the action.
Student: So if I could...
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, in the action, even though it feels that there is pleasure, there's already a request to the Creator that he won't get pleasure, that it'll erase the pleasure, or...
M. Laitman: Why does it interfere?
Student: Because he can't be in adhesion with the Creator if he has self-benefit. That's what's written.
M. Laitman: So, I need to understand that being in adhesion with the Creator, for this, I have to suffer.
Student: No, that his pleasure is from the actions of bestowal. He has pleasure, but from bestowal?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But we say that... Well, okay, I don't know how to keep going.
M. Laitman: Let's say that the Creator gives me a desire to bestow upon the friends, and I do it. I bestow abundance, and I enjoy. Is that okay?
Student: The friends say yes, but I'm not sure.
M. Laitman: Fine.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:12) In every attempt to do an action of bestowal, a person discovered that there was a part there for himself to receive. It will always be like this?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: To what limit? The limit is Lishma?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:38) I just want to add that Rabash writes that a person can't without pleasure. Just a question is in what clothing the pleasure comes. So if I recognize that I really want the clothing of the world to receive, I have to try and receive from bestowing. And I wanted to add, if there's an opportunity to bestow to the Ten, we have to use it. Otherwise, you're missing out on something. It's very important not to stop myself. And together with the action, together with the pleasure, there's also responsibility on the Ten. That's also important. Meaning, we just have to keep working and not stop ourselves.
M. Laitman: Okay.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:26) He writes that when he feels that by actions of bestowal he won't get vitality, he starts doing actions of bestowal. Why does he start bestowing if he doesn't find vitality in reception?
M. Laitman: He has to have vitality. He has to enjoy. He has to feel that he's alive.
Student: He wants to fill himself. He wants to receive. All the possibilities are done. So that's the way of nature that if I don't have anything to enjoy, I start bestowing suddenly? So why not to keep searching for more ways to receive? Suddenly, this inversion that…
M. Laitman: In our world, we all search how to enjoy.
Student: Right. And when a person doesn't find fulfillment, why would he want to bestow suddenly? Why suddenly is it inverted? He turns to actions of bestowal.
M. Laitman: That's the question. Why does a person die with half his desires in his hand?
Student: Why should there be an inversion to bestowal? And it's late somehow, but why would he want to bestow suddenly?
M. Laitman: This is what everyone does.
Student: Why does it say that when he sees that by of reception, he won't get vitality, so he starts doing actions of bestowal?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What causes him to start do actions of bestowal? Where is that in nature that a person can find reception, he goes to bestow?
M. Laitman: It's above nature.
Student: It's not clear why a person should do that?
M. Laitman: Why is it not clear that a person will do it? Because he doesn't have a choice, he has to enjoy.
Student: From bestowal, he understands it's from bestowal, he wants reception. He just wants to receive.
M. Laitman: He wants pleasure. So?
Student: Either he switches for a different pleasure, or a bigger pleasure, or no, he jumps from somewhere. Why should he want actions of bestowal?
M. Laitman: I think that after thousands of years of people chasing after pleasures from life, in every possible way, they come to a state of despair. What do they do next?
Student: A lot of people are completely despaired and it doesn't push them to bestow. Also after thousands of years of learning from what's happening, it doesn't move them to bestow.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Where is this transition that a person gets pushed by, that's it? He had enough of reception and he wants to go to bestow.
M. Laitman: There isn't. There is no such thing. We see that a person never gets tired from searching for pleasures.
Student: When he sees that he will not obtain vitality through acts of reception, he begins to perform acts of bestowal. What does that mean?
M. Laitman: It happens to a person that he was searching for vitality in all kinds of actions in this world and completely gave up. And then he switches to acts of bestowal and begins to receive reward, pleasure from giving to others.
Student: Why does a person feel that coming from reception to bestowal gives him more pleasure?
M. Laitman: He may not feel it in advance, and in our world it's impossible to discover that there's another source of pleasure from bestowal, because it's the opposite from this world. But he is shown it, that if you perform such actions, you will get pleasure.
Student: What motivates him from inside, to become from reception to go to bestowal?
M. Laitman: He wants pleasure. He wants pleasure,
Student: And this state, he wants pleasure for himself from the actions of bestowal. That's called lo Lishma?
M. Laitman: The state where he switches to bestowal for his own benefit,
Student: To get pleasure from self?
M. Laitman: Well, as you say, it's Lo Lishma, not for her sake.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:50) Rabash uses the term deeds of bestowal. How to define it? What are deeds of bestowal?
M. Laitman: He does deeds. Anything you do for someone, he tells you, thank you very much, you did me a favor.
Student: We're speaking about friends on the path?
R. Not necessarily, not even.
S. Let's say I'm speaking about friends on the path. So, he does actions that he knows are egoistic, but what defines them as actions of bestowal? What's special about them?
M. Laitman: What's special about them? He does them for the sake of others.
Student: So, actions for the friends. Let's say friends in the group, in the Ten. So, a person performs deeds, he knows they're egoistic, but he wants them to lead him to the goal. And then, Rabash says suffering comes because he didn't get a reward, and the sufferings draw the light, that gap.
M. Laitman: Let's say it is.
Student: It's not correct?
M. Laitman: No, it's fine.
Student: I'm trying to understand if there are specific deeds that are considered more bestowal, and other deeds that are less actions of bestowal. So, understand that it's in relation to the friends.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Now, in all that, studying, meetings, we do a lot of actions. Those are called deeds of bestowal?
M. Laitman:Yes.
Student: That are egoistic?
M. Laitman: They're egoistic, but we do them in order to bestow upon others.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:08) I wanted to ask, in continuation to the questions from the friends, how does suffering that stem from absence of vitality and pleasure serve as a motivation, as an engine, to shift into acts of bestowal?
M. Laitman: I don't know. I don't know.
Student: And what is the process of shifting from Lo Lishma, not for her sake, to for her sake, Lishma?
M. Laitman: Through the influence of the upper system that works on us, and then we begin to yearn for pleasure in the vessels of the bestowal.
Student: Maybe to continue to an answer that you gave to the friend in the beginning of the lesson, that we go through ascents and descents.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:27) When we read the source excerpts, mainly from Rabash, we begin at some point. But if we read the whole excerpt, it would seem very different. So, he explains before that what is suffering, that Israel are like an olive. And a few words before the excerpt, it says, to the extent that he feels suffering in life, meaning that he has nothing from which to receive vitality, he is necessarily annulled to working in bestowal. Meaning, when, and then begins our excerpt. So, there are many answers, because these excerpts from notes, the assorted notes by Rabash, I think we should read the whole excerpt, because it gives a fuller picture.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:38) Can we say that love is a state where every next action becomes the action that happened before?
M. Laitman: I don't know, there's no such law.
Student: Well, it's not a law, but there's a feeling that the state of complete love for myself is a state of Sodom.
M. Laitman: Okay.
Student: And the beginning of the excerpt is a feeling as if they are still in Sodom. So, there's a feeling of physical despair.
Student: Don't confuse us with your definitions, okay?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:36) We always say that we can… actions we can divide into thought, speech, and action. So, if someone makes a meal for his friends, so there's a certain scrutiny here. He gets respect, he gets appreciation, he has to make his calculations, and they have to make their calculations. So, that's number one. If he speaks of the greatness of the goal, greatness, etc., that too is something that is appreciated in society. How do we measure thoughts about friends? What keeps us there? Because there you don't have the feedback, the corporeal feedback.
M. Laitman: What are you talking about?
Student: Let's say a person is thinking about friends now, about their benefit, about their success.
M. Laitman: Does he get pleasure from it or not?
Student: If he really manages to think about them, he gets pleasure from it.
M. Laitman: So, that's what holds him on.
Student: But how do we do it more? Because he can often not succeed in this.
M. Laitman: Could be. So, it doesn't hold.
Student: Shouldn't it be said that this is our main work?
M. Laitman: Our main work is to hold on to the friends. Even if we don't get pleasure from that.
Student: Yes, but most of the time we're not next to each other to do things or speak to each other. So, the majority of time we should be in internal concern for the friends. So, the question is, because the will to receive wants something for itself, what keeps us in this? If a person is in bestowal, I don't know, I guess he's constantly thinking about the friends. He doesn't have any worry. But before that, what keeps him worried about the friends, concerned for the friends?
M. Laitman: Nothing. He wants to engage in a reception. And he thinks that there is a way here to enjoy that reception.
Student: This is in Lo Lishma, not for her sake. So, he says here that if a person begins to reveal, he feels suffering in this. It's not pleasure. So, the natural tendency is to run away from it, as opposed to actions where at least he gets some appreciation, respect. He says, okay, I did something. He gets some reward. What keeps him when it's in thought?
M. Laitman: That's exactly what we need to learn today. This number 11, look. When it starts, when he sees that he will not obtain vitality through acts of reception, he begins to perform acts of bestowal so that the acts of bestowal will give him pleasure. It follows that suffering, that the suffering reforms him. Meaning that suffering he feels when he has nothing from which to derive pleasure makes him become reformed. Meaning to perform acts of bestowal, since being reformed means bestowal. As it is writTen, my heart overflows with a good thing. I say my work is for the king, meaning to bestow. It follows that through the suffering, he suffers from having no vitality. He chooses for himself a new way and begins to engage in bestowal. Although this too is with the aim to receive, it is called lo Lishma. That is close to Lishma. This is the meaning of, from Lo Lishmawe come to Lishma, since the light in it reforms him. Since he acts in order to bestow, by this he begins to feel light in the acts of bestowal. And that light can then make him bestow. And that light can then transform him, so that he can act in order to bestow. That is how it works.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:26) It’s interesting that Rabash speaks here about the reforming light in relations between the friends, actions between the friends. Meaning, he doesn't mention the source here. So there's something in his suffering, in a person's lack of reward in performing acts of bestowal even though he doesn't get reward that it draws light?
M. Laitman: Yes, he still tries and presses and knocks on that same door.
Student: Like, knock after knock on the same point.
M. Laitman: It works. Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:19) If we delve into this excerpt, we see that it's truly the path of suffering, that the suffering purifies. Now, if I were to choose this path, I understand it would lead a person very quickly to success. We can work for 20 years. Can a person choose this path? Let's say I'm told, that's the way if you want to succeed in this, if you want to succeed in achieving spirituality, choose this path. Can a person choose this path?
M. Laitman: Because it’s against his will?
Student: If he looks inside and says, I don't want what this means, I don't want the suffering, that's not why I came. So, it means that a person is still in the will to receive. The will to receive is more important for him than spirituality.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, in our state, should a person be able to choose if this is the path, I'm willing to do this as well.
M. Laitman: It's hard to say.
Student: I see that if a person disagrees with this, it means he's still in the will to receive and can't get out of it. But when he's facing such a decision, when he sees that the Creator is insistent and he won't be able to work with his will to receive, he can't work on the system that positions him in a place where he will run away. That's why it's an accumulative process of 20 years, and it has to work this way, otherwise a person won't agree to it.
M. Laitman: Yep. We can say that in the state that we're advancing, the Creator does actions in concealment. And then we're advancing in concealment.