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

Daily Lesson (Morning) November 27, 2024.

Part 2: On the Verge of Lishma - Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #12.

Reader: We've already selected excerpts from the sources, and we are now in excerpt Number 12 from Rabash’s article. 

12. RABASH, Article No. 269, "One Does Not Toil Over a Meal and Misses It"

Reading: (00:07) Item 12, RABASH, Article No. 269, "One Does Not Toil Over a Meal and Misses It"

The advice is that if a person sees that he still cannot work Lishma, he should increase his actions in Lo Lishma, since when he sees that he has done many actions in Lo Lishma, he will have no other choice but to repent and work Lishma, or his entire work will be in vain.

The rule is that a person does not toil over a meal and misses it. Hence, if one has done many actions in Lo Lishma, he will not want to lose all his trouble, so he will need to correct all his work so it enters the Kedusha.

But one who works Lo Lishma and did not do many works, meaning he did not dedicate much time to the Torah and work in Lo Lishma, he will not have such a need to repent, since he will not have that many actions to lose. For this reason, we must try to do many good deeds even in Lo Lishma because this is the reason he will have a need to repent and work Lishma.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:15) He recommends to increase actions in Lo Lishma. What are these actions in Lo Lishma? 

M. Laitman: To perform Mitzvot, acts of bestowal even though one is not really in that. But he does them because he understands that they can bring him to Lishma.

Student: Is there a difference between an act in Lo Lishma and an act that is not even that? 

M. Laitman: I don't understand? We say that a person who chooses for himself a certain line in life. That he needs to do it as closely as possible to Lishma, right? And then from that bestowal in how he is Lishma, so then he can reach true Lishma.

Student: In practice, what? Dissemination, to care for the friends or is that what it is?

M. Laitman: I don't know, he should check what he does and try to do those actions really in Lishma.

Student: I'm asking the following: Maybe a person performs, has taken upon himself, I don't know, he's responsible for organizing the Zoom meeting for the Ten. And this action is Lo Lishma. Is there a difference between an act of Lo Lishma and just any act? Is there a difference? 

M. Laitman: Certainly, there is, there are those and there are others.

Student: How can I check that I'm performing an act in Lo Lishma? 

M. Laitman: Check your heart, how much it is in that or not. 

Student: The heart is not in that, obviously, it's not in that; it's not in bestowal.

M. Laitman: So, you're not in Lishma and you're not in Lo Lishma?

Student: If I simply perform acts that society likes and it needs, then for sure it's a good deed. It's Lo Lishma but it's a good act. Can we say that?

M. Laitman: It could be, I don't know. You went to your friends you asked them, and afterward you chose some action? 

Student: Let's say, yes? 

M. Laitman: Well? 

Student: So, it's good, 100%, it's an act of Lo Lishma that will bring me to Lishma?

M. Laitman: Not so sure.

Student: So, that's it, so how do I check?

M. Laitman: I don't know, you think that this action will bring you to Lishma.

Student: He recommends to increase in actions in Lo Lishma. A person, anyway, performs actions all the time. So how do I distinguish between an act in Lo Lishma, such that it's good and beneficial versus an act that is not like that? 

M. Laitman: That you need to deepen in the intention and see what you want through the act itself, what do you want to do? How much that action brings you closer or pushes you away from Lishma? 

Student: What is the test if it brings me closer or pushes me away?

M. Laitman: Scrutinize that, what happens to you when you conduct some action and through that action, what do you want? To come closer to the friends, to incorporate with them, or with the Creator, etc.?

Student: And if I discover I don't want to get closer, I don't want anything, I just do it because it's written that I need to, then what? 

M. Laitman: That's also good, that through the intention you can develop the intention.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (07:13) On behalf of the deeds that we're doing with our hands and feet. Is there a difference between an act of Lishma and an act of Lo Lishma?

M. Laitman: From the point of the action, it can be any action without a difference.

Student: So, the difference is the intention?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does it mean to do many acts of Lo Lishma? 

M. Laitman: The meaning to do multiple actions is that they have to work on their intention. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (07:49) Why does a person eventually lose all these years of exertion if he doesn't reach Lishma?

M. Laitman: What does he have to do?

Student: Sometimes, we say that every spiritual exertion is eternal, that it's the only thing of this world that remains forever. So, I exert my whole life and the end doesn't reach Lishma. So, where did all that exertion go? Sometimes we say it's eternal, so what does a person lose? It's how to get into this dramatic state that I must do otherwise I'm losing tens of years of work.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So, is the exertion eternal or do you lose it? 

M. Laitman: You lose.

Student: What do you lose because it was for nothing?

M. Laitman: You worked for a long time but now you discovered that you didn't succeed.

Student: What can you do? 

M. Laitman: That's the condition, that if the intention is correct, only then you can join the intention to the action.

Student: It seems like strong motive-power but you don't see it before your eyes. How to see it? 

M. Laitman: You can't see, that's why it's called the concealed Torah.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:42) Let's say a person wants to do an act of bestowal, to invite their friends for a meal. He prepares the meal, he thinks of the friends, he thinks of the Creator and the meal comes. So, what does a person in that same meal, where does he feel whether it's Lishma or not for Lishma?

M. Laitman: It's according to his preparation, probably.

Student: So, he did a preparation, he prepared everything that was needed. He thought of the friends, he thought of the connection.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: That it will also bring contentment to the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Then the meal came. In the meal, what should he do there, or discover, or work? 

M. Laitman: What does he need to discover there? Clothing of the upper forces in his intention, that's what he needs to discover.

Student: What is that thought that now he's with friends and he's eating with them, reading excerpts with them?

M. Laitman: That, they are now at least in a corporeal connection; that's also not nothing. 

Student: But where does he discover the matter of Lishma or not for Lishma? Where exactly does he check or measure himself whether he did the right action or not? 

M. Laitman: The device to discover the quality of the action you did, whether Lishma or not, is that group within which you performed the action. If by your action the group grew, then it's a sign that you did it – that you revealed the correct Klipa. 

Student: So, that's already in the next action from the group?

M. Laitman: Let's say.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:34) You're here to perform corrections and the correction is to stop thinking of your own benefit. That, what motivates him is the benefit of the others. A person isn't really in that but that's a thought that escorts him. That's what Rabash means when he says the work of Lo Lishma, that you're still not in this but it's in the background that he wants to be in this And what if what motivates him is being in control, and he knows, and it's desires that are completely corporeal, without reaching Lishma or anything. He contributes, he does maybe important things but he doesn't have this thought that he is now towards the correction or anything. He needs to do it, so he does it, and that's it. How does it one against the other?

M. Laitman: I didn't understand the question?

Student: With his intention, he performs things that are completely egoistic. Now, this egoistic intention is combined with the needs of society, it doesn't go against the society, but he doesn't have any thoughts of correction. He needs to do something, he's the right guy for the job and he does it. Is he in corrections, that person, is it even a work of Lo Lishma? Is he on the path?

M. Laitman: That is in accordance to the extent in which the society supplies him with the intention. Yes, to the extent in which the society wants it and needs it and demands it from him and asks; and he performs. 

Student: So, it's an action with no intention on his behalf, it's still part of the correction.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:44) What does it mean that society supplies him with an intention? A person's intention depends on the society's need around him? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Can you explain that?

M. Laitman: Well, let's say our society needs to build a certain table. So, it turns to the expert to make the table. 

Student: Okay, they need a table, what does that have to do with the intention of that expert?

M. Laitman: I didn't understand?

Student: You said the society supplies intention for a person. So, I'm asking how?

M. Laitman: Now to the extent in which this person – this company – the society asked him to build this table. As much as he receives this invitation and he does it, here the question is what does he do? Does he want to fulfill their intention or his own intention by building this table? This is where their work is. 

Student: Whose work is it, who supplies the intention? Society or the person builds that intention? 

M. Laitman: The society.

Student: The society builds the intention in a person?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That table, you can ask for somebody, a carpenter, to build it for me?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, what intention? That guy won't have any intention, he'll do it because he wants to make money. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How is the intention built in a person, how does society build an intention in a person?

M. Laitman: From importance. What's important for him, for them to pay him, for him to make a nice table? Or that he's doing it in order to bestow the name of the Creator to the world? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:05) He wrote, there's a rule that a person doesn't exert for a meal and lose it. What is that? 

M. Laitman: How do you understand this? 

Student: If a person invested in the meal and he's in the middle, so he won't want to stop, that he's going to go over the way. That I already started toiling, so why should I miss out? But if a person is in Lo Lishma, he won't want to lose all the exertion he gave all these years, so he's going all the way in order to not lose it, it's just toil. So that's the question: The path to Lishma is built in such a way that the Creator closes on you in such a way that you'll invest and invest until you say it's not worth leaving, that's why I'm going to keep going.

M. Laitman: No, that every moment during the performing of the action, he builds his connection with the Creator. And his action, in his doing with himself and the society in a new way, as he does it for the benefit of the society. 

Student: A person that exerts and stops, he toiled but he's not going to the meal to Lishma. So, what happens then, where did his exertion go? Meaning, he lets go, he leaves the path so what happens with that? 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand?

Student: “The rule is that a person does not toil over a meal and misses it. Hence if one has done many actions in Lo Lishma, he will not want to lose all his trouble, so he will need to correct all his work so it enters the holiness, Kedusha.” So, it sounds like the Creator brings a person to toil until it's already not worthwhile to leave because he exerted so much; on the other hand, we see that there are people who leave. So, what about the exertion they gave, where did that go, the exertion a person gives?

M. Laitman: In the air. 

Student: Just like that, loses everything he did? Why is it so extreme – either a person exerts or that's it, he just loses it.

M. Laitman: Because everything is according to the intention of a person. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:19) We learn in a different excerpt that Baal HaSulam says that many fell but their reward is great. Now, I heard you say that there's no reward at all, it just evaporates in the air. So, is there a reward if a person works in Lo Lishma but doesn't attain Lishma in his life? Or is it just gone for nothing?

M. Laitman: No one has nothing for nothing. There's no such thing that in this world, in this nature, that there's something that disappears. From man's work, from his efforts, always something remains. It could be that not according to his intention, not according to his actions but does it remain? Yes.

Reading: (21:35) 13. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 79, "Atzilut and BYA"

Our sages said, “From Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], we come to Lishma [for Her sake].” This means that we begin the engagement in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] in order to “Give us the wealth of this world,” and afterward, “Give us the wealth of the next world.”

When learning in this way, one should come to learn Lishma, for the sake of the Torah, meaning that the Torah will teach him the ways of the Creator. And then he should first make the sweetening of Malchut in Bina, which means that he elevates Malchut, called “will to receive,” to Bina, which is considered bestowal. That is, that all his work will be only in order to bestow.

And then it becomes dark for him. He feels that the world has grown dark on him since the body gives strength to work only in the form of reception, and not in the form of bestowal. In that state, he has but one choice: to pray to the Creator to open his eyes so he can work in the manner of bestowal. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:22) What is Lo Lishma?  

M. Laitman: Lo Lishma is called not for the sake of the Creator, not to bestow.

Student: But anything, even corporeal, isn't for the Creator; what's the difference? 

M. Laitman: You don't know, don't murmur, there. 

Student: What's the difference between a regular corporeal desire with just an intention to receive, to the intention of Lo Lishma? What is that intention? 

M. Laitman: The intention, Lo Lishma, is that it's not for the sake of the Creator.

Student: I don't understand what the difference is between any desire I have for a person on the outside, to Lo Lishma.

M. Laitman: Do you try to perform actions that don't have your own benefit? 

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: So, what do you feel? 

Student: Resistance, efforts to annul, failure, a request.

M. Laitman: And if you were to feel that you have benefit, you have reward. Then you would feel the action as an act that is truly coming to you from above. 

Student: I don't know if I would feel a benefit. The question, if I'm doing it for the benefit or is that just an outcome? 

M. Laitman: Also correct?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:58) I feel that, at least on my behalf, there is no other deed I can really do beyond what I did now. Let's say like a checklist, I do this, I do this, I reach that. The Creator gives blows and the main thing is not to leave, it's listening to the advice of the Kabbalists. But I understand that I'm a pure will to receive and there aren't any deeds I can do or each thought of myself that are in order to bestow towards Lishma. And also, here, Baal HaSulam brings us to an understanding that in the end, it's only to reach prayer. And this is where it gets frustrating, you reach a state that you understand that you can't do anything to truly bestow. But you also don't reach any pure cry out. So, what are we lacking to reach this prayer that will come from the heart? 

M. Laitman: Probably the feeling of the truth – that he doesn't see the true goal, that he cannot reach this.

Student: I see, I see I can't reach it. 

M. Laitman: He sees that he can't, well?

Student: I see, I understand. 

M. Laitman: So, inside that he has frustration and an outcry. 

Student: Yes, but it’s still Lo Lishma

M. Laitman: Yes, it’s still Lo Lishma.

Student: So, just more persistence?

M. Laitman: No, he sees that there are no more forces.

Student: There are no forces. 

M. Laitman: Okay, so that is called that he's about to die. 

Student: So, how to take advantage of that?

M. Laitman: How to come out of this state? Only through the society and prayer.

Student: Still, I see myself seeing everybody to the side of the flaw. I can't determine to the side of merit. 

M. Laitman: Only by the society and the prayer to connect to them, to be truly under them. And this way to also participate in the action.

Student: How not to waste time and just concentrate all the efforts in one direction?

M. Laitman: I don't hear what you're saying.

Student: How to take advantage of this time in order to not just waste our time?

M. Laitman: Make the most of it.

Student: And what more deeds?

M. Laitman: In all that's possible. 

Student: So, you feel that you're doing everything you can, Rav gives you tasks. And you say, that's it, I can already do it.

M. Laitman: That's it. That means you're folding up. 

Student: Despair.

M. Laitman: That's not good.

Student: So, what is good, what to take out of this that's good?

M. Laitman: What do we do? Awaken the audience around you, the people around you, so that together you can awaken. And to cry out and ask for the Creator to help, to raise you all up.

Student: We have an opportunity, now, that a few friends, almost the whole Ten. We're going to go close ourselves in this house for 24 hours. So, what can we do there in that place we're going to be together in order to truly reach that common cry?

M. Laitman: I don't know, you need to choose what you will do. That's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:42) Well, when a person does an action Lo Lishma, does he know that it's a Lo Lishma after the did? Or only after, or to begin with, only after the act? 

M. Laitman: He needs to know before if it's Lo Lishma or Lishma. 

Student: Meaning, doing the action itself, I feel that it's in order to receive but I still keep doing it?

M. Laitman: What benefit will you have? 

Student: What?

M. Laitman: What benefit will you have?

Student: I understand that in the end, my fuel is there's a corruption, there, that's why it's supposedly Lo Lishma. Or when I do the action I do it as pure as I can but I feel that it's in order to bestow. And then I discover that it was, there was dirt in there, and that's called Lo Lishma. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Asia): (32:05) Is the work in Lo Lishma what corrects the vessels in a person? 

M. Laitman: No.

Student: They're asking if a person's efforts, do they remain in the society between the friends when he comes back? If a person leaves when he comes back, is it something he keeps going from?

M. Laitman: What, he left the society?

Student: He made efforts, he leaves, he came back, does he start from the same point?

M. Laitman: I don't know, usually it doesn't happen that way because there's an impression from each thing that he went through. Therefore, I can't say.

Question (KabU 3): (32:57) How does a transition happen from Lo Lishma to Lishma on a person's spiritual journey?

M. Laitman: I can't say, I can't say. 

Question (Women Narnia): (33:21) It's written in the end of the article only to pray for the Creator to open his eyes, that he'll be able to work and bestow. What does it mean to open his eyes? 

M. Laitman: For it to be clear to him what's before him. 

Question (Women Heb 2): (33:40) How can a person check if his intention is pure and right? What's a way to measure? 

M. Laitman: Only in his adhesion to the society.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:07) Lishma is for the sake of the Creator. How can a person, how can he depict this thing that for him is doing the action – the Creator? What should he depict that I'm working for the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Well, that you need to arrange your forces that way, your intentions. That what you're doing operates for the sake of the Creator.

Student: How to succeed that it won't be imagination but really to reach. What is this force that a person needs to depict that here now he's working for that force?

M. Laitman: That can only be scrutinized in the society.

Student: We have a Ten and they can help me depict that force that for it, for this I'm working. 

M. Laitman: How can the Ten do this?

Student: I can ask them, and as I'm working with them, I can understand what I'm working towards. How in an effective way I can use the Ten to know what Lishma is for the sake of the Creator.

M. Laitman: And even if they try to do this as correct as possible, as pure as possible, will the results come out correct? 

Student: This is the question: That I'll really know I did it for the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Know that they can bring you a result that is real. 

Student: I'm going to know from the Ten that they will give me, like an approval, that I did it for the Creator, they can show it for me? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, I'm asking. 

Student: Maybe, if the Ten is satisfied from a friend in the Ten. The Ten shows a friend, we're satisfied by the way you work. So, is that like an approval, a direction? 

M. Laitman: It could be that they are taking into account altogether His qualities and actions that don't invite upon us the upper force.

Student: So, the Ten mistakes them.

M. Laitman: Yes, that, too, happens. 

Student: So, how do I take help from the Ten? It's a very precise tool.

M. Laitman: We need to learn, we need to learn. We will go back to this. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:59) He writes, and then it became darkness to him. He feels that the world has grown dark on him, since the body gives strength to work only in the form of reception, and not in the form of bestowal. And then he has no choice but to pray to the Creator, to open his eyes so he can work in the manner of bestowal. So, he chooses bestowal because he has no other advice because it became dark to him.

M. Laitman: And before that? 

Student: What does that mean, before that? 

M. Laitman: How did he reach that state? 

Student: He writes that he made many deeds, many actions, in order to bestow, and then it becomes dark for him. He tried to do it in bestowal but it became dark to him. And then he chooses bestowal only because compared to the darkness, it's better. So, that means that bestowal isn't really important, it's just simply dark. So, why is that called in order to bestow, it's in order to receive. 

M. Laitman: Could it be, I don't know. Could it be it's a right sign that the darkness shines upon him that it's not through here? 

Student: So, that means that he chooses bestowal not because of the importance of bestowal but because of the deficiency of darkness.

M. Laitman: It could be. 

Student: That's not bestowal.

M. Laitman: That could be too. 

Student: Where is Lishma?

M. Laitman: I don't know. 

Student: Meaning that the first stage must be not because of the importance of bestowal but because of the lack from the darkness.

M. Laitman: Oh, let's say.

Student: And then, if we go back to the example of the carpenter. That needs to make a calculation of what's important for him, whether they're paying him for the table? Or whether the importance of the expansion of the knowledge of the Creator in the world. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, how can a person who’s being paid increase the importance of bestowal upon the payment, or upon honor or upon some pleasure in his intellect, or in all kinds of feelings? If the first stage in the choice of bestowal has to be upon darkness, how does a person like that who receives fillings can choose bestowal due to bestowal if the first stage is upon the darkness?

M. Laitman: I'm with you, I don't know; what should we do in such a case? 

Student: I would understand if he had a filling, a fulfillment, and he had the force to prefer bestowal even more. Not to receive the fulfillment but to bestow; the Creator is filling me with all the good in this world, I'm not missing anything. And nevertheless, I choose, no, I don't want to receive that, I want to bestow. 

M. Laitman: Well, and?

Student: There is no such reality. He says darkness, and that's why he chooses bestowal. So, what kind of importance is this, what kind of bestowal is this?

M. Laitman: Running from the darkness.

Student: Is that called bestowal?

M. Laitman: No, that's what it sounds like.

Student: That's why I'm asking – please arrange this picture for me.

M. Laitman: I can't, it's truly like that. We'll check.

Question (Petah Tikva Center):  (42:17) All lesson long, I simply compel myself to incorporate with the friends and the questions. Trying to ask something and it doesn't come out. And I feel how the times that we're in are very special with all that's happening in the world, with our state as a group. Baal HaSulam wrote, and also in other sources it is written, that what is that every grass blade there's an appointee from above that makes it do so. So, if we, everything that's moving us, if we don't have that angel above us that's moving us, we won't have the forces. What causes that force to bestow upon us?

M. Laitman: By working on our will to receive and then with the will to receive, we aim, whoever is under it. We aim for the direction of bestowal. The direction of bestowal can be that it brings forces and happiness to a person or it could be the opposite. Then a person has to check for what or for who he's studying, advancing, who's directing him. Well, what can I tell you, there are a few possibilities here but now we can't already go deep into this. But it's good to think about it.

Student: I feel, and you also answered the previous friend when they asked you whether the Ten can pray for another Ten. You said that that is actually the foundation for peace in the world.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And I think that we all feel the power between us and to what extent no Ten can bring itself anywhere unless it truly prays for the benefit of the whole Kli. Could it be that that's our breakthrough? 

M. Laitman: Not yet but it's on the way.

Question (Petah Tikva Center):  45:05() He writes that Malchut that rises to Bina, it's written that she feels darkness. Malchut that rises to Bina always feels darkness?

M. Laitman: What can Bina give Malchut?

Student: The desire to bestow; bestowal, the force to bestow. 

M. Laitman: Malchut wants that? 

Student: No, it contradicts her.

M. Laitman: So, what are you asking? 

Student: Okay, so if the situation is such that she always feels darkness, how to relate if we say that to bestow is to the friends? How to relate to the fact that now in the state of darkness, he writes that the next state is that he has to pray, he has no other advice but to pray to the Creator to open his eyes so he can work in the manner of bestowal. Meaning, if I understand correctly, the advice is not to leave this darkness or run from it, but to be in a state where now he wants to advance onwards to the Creator. He wants to ask the Creator a higher up degree than Bina. How to catch that higher degree than Bina because, I don't know how to ask this, but it's as if the degree of Bina is bestowal to the friends. To what do I turn to when I want the force to bestow, which is above the Ten, actually? To what, to whom, we don't have such an image, we don't have such a form.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What do we do? Meaning the prayer is?

M. Laitman: There's like nothing to turn to. 

Student: It's like in the air but there is a desire. You can feel all the questions of the friends. We really want from this connection of the Ten to break through upwards but where, from what, I don't know how to express it.

M. Laitman: Yes, who can answer him?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:36) I have a question. 

M. Laitman: I was expecting an answer.

Student: Maybe it's also an answer. We'll be reading Psalms and a common reading at the end of the lesson. Can we put the force in there?

M. Laitman: I don't know. Well?

Student: Meaning, what can we enter into there? 

M. Laitman: Because we're all here in this, in the end of the lesson. The end of the lesson isn't the end. From the lesson, you have to extract questions and those questions, organize them in a way that the Creator can accept them. And then raise them together.

Student: How do we do that together?

M. Laitman: We were also talking about that many times. I don't know what to say but for sure, that has to be.

Student:  Because in the prayer, there's also gratitude, there's requests.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: Do we need to relate to that, too?

M. Laitman: Ask from one mouth then for sure, it will succeed. 

Student: Meaning, there needs to be a certain yearning, desire.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Reader: We will continue to the next part of the lesson, study between the friends.