The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) April 15, 2024.
Part 1: Rabash. What is, “The Children of Esau and Ishmael Did Not Want to Receive the Torah,” in the Work? 36. (1990)
Reader: Shalom, hello, we are reading in the writings of Rabash, the article, “What is the Children of Esau and Ishmael Did Not Want to Receive the Torah” in the Work? The study material is on Sviva Tova and the Arvut. You can send questions live through the sites. Anyone asking a question here in the study hall should stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth, and speak loudly and clearly.
Reading: (00:35) What is, “The Children of Esau and Ishmael Did Not Want to Receive the Torah,” in the Work?
It is written in The Zohar (Balak, Item 138), “When the Creator wanted to give the Torah to Israel, He went and invited the children of Esau, and they did not accept it, as it is written, ‘The Lord came from Sinai, and dawned on them from Seir,’ meaning that they did not want to receive it. He went to the children of Ishmael, and they did not want to receive it, as it is written, ‘appeared from Mount Paran.’ Since they did not want, He returned to Israel.”
It is said in The Zohar (Balak, Item 140), “Rabbi Shimon said to him: ‘This question is settled. The Lord came from Sinai, and from Sinai He came and was revealed to them. ‘And dawned on them from Seir’ means that from what the dwellers of Seir said, that they did not want to receive, from this it shown for Israel and added to them much light and love. Likewise, He appeared and shown to Israel from Mount Paran, from what the dwellers of Paran said, that they did not want to receive, from this, extra love and illumination were added to Israel, as it should be.’”
We should understand why it says that because the children of Esau and Ishmael declined to receive the Torah, it added extra love and illumination to Israel. It seems as though no one wanted to receive the Torah, and only Israel saved the day, and this is why He shown for Israel and added more light to them. It seems that otherwise, the additional love and illumination would be missing from Israel.
In the corporeal world, we can say that sometimes a person wants to give to someone something nice, but there is no one who wants to receive, and this pains the person. Therefore, someone feels sorry for him and accepts it, and then the person loves the person who did him a favor by accepting that thing. But how can such a thing be said with regard to the Creator, that the extra love and illumination that the Creator gives to Israel is because the children of Esau and Ishmael did not want to receive the Torah, while Israel did receive it?
To understand this in the work, we must remember that in the work, man himself is a small world, as it is written in The Zohar, that “Man consists of all seventy nations and contains the quality of Esau, the quality of Ishmael, as well as the quality of Israel.” As we learn, the quality of Israel is in exile under the governance of the seventy nations of the world, which are generally called “will to receive for oneself,” while Israel are called “desire to bestow upon the Creator.”
It is known that there are two discernments:
The purpose of creation, which is to do good to His creations, namely for the creatures to receive delight and pleasure. The Creator’s desire to bestow created in the creatures a desire to receive delight and pleasure, meaning that wherever the created being sees that there is something to enjoy, it immediately yearns to receive the pleasure. This is called “the Kli [vessel] that the Creator created,” as it is written, “Which God has created.”
The correction of creation. However, there is the matter of the correction of creation, meaning that in order to prevent the shame, a correction took place, where it is impossible to receive with the Kli that the Creator created, and which is called “will to receive for oneself.” Rather, man must make a new Kli, called “desire to bestow,” like the Creator, whose desire is to bestow upon His creations. Likewise, the creatures must make this Kli, or the delight and pleasure that the Creator wants to impart upon His creations lie under concealment and hiding. This is the meaning of the words, “which God has created,” meaning the will to receive, “to do,” meaning what the creatures must do, which is the desire to bestow, which is absent in the creatures and they must make it, so they will have a desire to bestow.
We should ask, How is it possible to do the opposite of what the Creator created, which is the will to receive for oneself? How is it possible to revoke the work of the Creator, called “will to receive,” and do the opposite? It seems as though a person is acting against the Creator?
The answer is that man cannot revoke the will to receive that the Creator created. Thus, why is it required of us to do everything for the sake of the Creator, since it is against our nature?
However, there is the matter of light and Kli. A Kli is called “desire,” and desire is called “a lack,” and “light” is the filling of the lack. The rule is, “There is no light without a Kli.” Hence, the creatures must provide for themselves a Kli, meaning a lack, for there is a rule that any lack pertains specifically to the creatures, and not to the Creator.
It follows that the creatures must perform actions and seek ways to find in themselves a lack, which is that they want all their actions to be for the sake of the Creator, but they cannot, so the creatures see and feel this lack of a desire to bestow, which they cannot obtain by themselves.
However, in order for it to be clear that they cannot obtain the desire to bestow, the creatures must first exert on their own. Otherwise, how will they know that they cannot obtain that lack by themselves? However, we should ask, Who needs this awareness that man is incapable of obtaining the desire to bestow by himself?
The answer is that man himself needs this awareness. Otherwise, he will not ask the Creator to help him, since he will think that he has time to do everything in order to bestow, since it is within his power to do everything in order to bestow whenever he wants.
For this reason, man must first work by himself to obtain the desire to bestow, and only then can he make an earnest, heartfelt prayer, meaning have a real need for the salvation of the Creator, that He will give him this desire to do everything for the sake of the Creator.
By this we can interpret what is written (Psalms 119), “Happy are those who treasure His testimonies, who demand of Him with all their heart.” We must understand the connection between his saying, “Happy are those who treasure His testimonies,” meaning that they observe the Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] of the Torah, and “who demand of Him with all their heart.” As said above, we must obtain a need to feel that we are lacking the desire to bestow. Before we obtain this, meaning before we obtain the desire to bestow, we are unfit to receive the delight and pleasure, that the Creator wants to give to the created beings.
However, how can one obtain that lack? We are told that observing the Mitzvot of the Torah, this can bring one this awareness that he must obtain the desire to bestow. That is, by observing Torah and Mitzvot, when a person aims—by observing the Torah and Mitzvot—to come closer to the Creator, meaning to achieve Dvekut [adhesion], called “equivalence of form,” this can bring him to feel the lack of the desire to bestow. It is written, “Happy are those who treasure His testimonies,” meaning that this will give him a lack, after which he will be able to ask the Creator to give him this lack.
This is the meaning of the words, “who demand of Him with all their heart,” meaning that afterward, he can demand of the Creator to give him wholeheartedly, meaning to give him the desire to bestow, so that everything he does for the Creator will be with all his heart. It follows that then, by observing Torah and Mitzvot, he will come to a state where he can demand of the Creator to give him the quality of “with all his heart,” meaning that it will be for the Creator. In other words, he demands that the Creator will give him the desire to bestow, called “with all his heart,” since this is the only reward he demands in return for observing Torah and Mitzvot.
It follows that man’s work is to obtain a lack and a need that the Creator will give him a desire to bestow instead of the desire to receive that He has given him upon creation, for by this he will be rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator. Hence, although he asks for a different desire than the one that the Creator gave him, the Creator wants this. Baal HaSulam said about this that the Creator said, “My sons defeated Me,” in that they want a different desire than the one that the Creator gave them, meaning that they demand of the Creator to give them a different desire from the one He originally gave them.
Yet, the will to receive that the Creator gave, which is called “existence from absence,” is the axis of the whole of creation. However, the will to receive must undergo correction, which is called “the correction of creation.” That is, creation is called “will to receive for oneself,” and on it, an intention to bestow is placed. It follows that in the end, the will to receive remains, but has acquired a correction of the aim to bestow.
It follows that we should ask, According to the above, when a person begins to ask of the Creator to give him the desire to bestow, meaning to be able to do all his deeds for the sake of the Creator, why does the Creator not give him the desire to bestow as the person demands and asks? In the order of the work, we see that when a person wants to walk on the path toward obtaining the desire to bestow, he sees that he is going backward instead of forward. That is, the evil appears in him more intensely than it was disclosed in him while he was working in order to receive reward.
The thing is that we must know that the desire to bestow is only the correction of creation and not the purpose of creation, for the purpose of creation is that His desire is to do good to His creations, meaning for the creatures to receive delight and pleasure. Hence, if He gave them what they want right away, meaning the desire to bestow, they would be satisfied with the work in that they are bestowing upon the Creator and have Dvekut with the Creator, so what else do they need? For themselves, they need nothing, which is called “desiring mercy,” and they have no need to receive anything from the Creator, so the matter of the purpose of creation, which is His desire to give to them, would remain untouched.
But the purpose of creation, which is the objective, as it is known that everything is calculated according to the goal and not according to the means, for the desire to bestow is only a means by which to achieve the goal, so if he were to receive the desire to bestow, he would be satisfied with it and the goal would remain as an unturned stone, since no one would need it because they would already be satisfied in the work.
This is as it is written in the book A Sage’s Fruit (Vol. 1, p 118): “From all the above, you find that the soul is destined to acquire all 620 holy names, its entire stature, which is 620 times more than it had before it came. Its stature appears in the 620 Mitzvot where the light of the Torah is clothed, and the Creator in the collective light of the Torah. Thus you see that ‘the Torah, the Creator, and Israel’ are one.”
This means that this is the purpose of creation—that a person must achieve his completion and be rewarded with the Torah in the manner of the names of the Creator. It is not enough that He wants to bestow upon the Creator. Although this is a great thing, it is not the goal. Rather, man must achieve 620 times the amount that his soul had had before it clothed in a body. However, if he were to receive the desire to bestow immediately after a few prayers and litanies, he would have no need to obtain the goal for which he was created. This is the reason why a person does not receive the desire to bestow, and moreover, sees that he is receiving an even more excessive desire to receive than he had before he began the work on bestowal.
However, we should understand why after a person makes efforts to come closer to the Creator, which means equivalence of form, called Dvekut, as it is written, “And to cleave on to Him,” and they explained, “Cleave unto His attributes, as He is merciful, so you are merciful,” it was enough that a person did not receive what he asked for, meaning the desire to bestow. But why is he now getting an excessive amount of the will to receive, each time more than he had before he prayed to be given the desire to bestow? It seems as though it is a mistake from above, as though it is thought above that he is asking for a desire to receive, and is therefore given a greater will to receive. But he asked for a desire to bestow, so why is he given from above a greater will to receive?
The answer is that in order for him to need to receive the purpose of creation, to be rewarded with the Torah, called “the names of the Creator,” he is given a bigger will to receive each time. That is, to the extent that he does things in order to achieve the desire to bestow, he receives from above a desire to receive. And since when he asks for help from above, since he sees that he cannot emerge from its control, what is the help? It is as it is said in The Zohar about the words, “He who comes to purify is aided.” He asks, “How is he aided?” He replies, “with a holy soul. If he is rewarded more, he is given Ruach.” That is, through the help he receives from above, he is rewarded with assistance until he obtains his NRNHY. It follows that each time, he sees that he has more bad, and must ask for greater help each time.
This is as I heard from Baal HaSulam, who said about what is written regarding Abraham (Genesis 15), “And He said unto him, ‘I am the Lord, to give you this land to inherit it.’ And he said, ‘How will I know that I will inherit it?’ And He said unto Abraham, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved and tormented four hundred years, and afterward, they will come out with many possessions.’”
He asked about the answer that the Creator gave him, “How will I know,” that the people of Israel will be in exile in Egypt. That is, this is the guarantee by which Abraham could know that after this act of being in a land that is not theirs, from this Abraham knew for certain that they would inherit the land. He asked, What is the answer? meaning that Abraham understood that this was the right answer. As we see, Abraham could argue with the Creator in Sodom, where Abraham kept asking, “Perhaps?” But here it is implied that he understood that this was the right answer and asked no further.
He said that the answer was to the question that Abraham had asked. This is perplexing. There is a question about Abraham, of whom it is written, “And he believed in the Lord,” so why did he suddenly ask such a question as “How will I know that I will inherit it?” He said that Abraham saw what inheritance the Creator wanted to give him, namely the inheritance of the land, and the whole purpose of creation is included in this land. But since there is a rule that there is no light without a Kli, meaning no filling without a lack, he therefore asked how it was possible that they would inherit the land when they have no need for it. As soon as they would receive some spiritual illumination they will be satisfied and serve the Creator with gladness and will not worry about anything, since they do not need more. Thus, they will have no need to inherit this land, which is the purpose of creation. Therefore, the question was that he did not see that they would have any need, and without a need, nothing is given, especially something as serious as the inheritance of the land.
To this the Creator replied, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs.” Eretz [Land] means Ratzon [desire]. That is, they will be under the rule of the will to receive, which does not belong to the people of Israel but to Egypt, and this is called “a land that is not theirs.” And they will be tormented four hundred years.
“Four” is a complete degree, which the four Behinot [discernments/qualities] of HaVaYaH, which are from Bina, who is regarded as vessels of bestowal. It follows that “tormented” means that the Egyptians did not let them work with vessels of bestowal. “They will be enslaved and tormented,” in what? in “four hundred years,” meaning in the Sefirot of Bina.
It is known from the book of Sefirot that Malchut is called “units,” ZA is tens, and Bina is hundreds. This is the meaning of “four hundred,” that they were not permitted to work. When they prevailed and worked in the quality of Bina, which are vessels of bestowal, they had a big war with the Egyptians. It follows that Egypt enslaved Israel when the people of Israel worked in a manner of bestowal, and then they felt that they were in exile. But when we do not work with vessels of bestowal, we do not know that the Egyptians resist this work.
This is the meaning of what he says (Exodus 2:23), “And the children of Israel sighed from the work, and they cried out, and their cry went up to God from the work.” That is, by asking for help, they had to be given new lights each time, as he says in The Zohar, that the help that is given from above is regarded as a “holy soul,” and by this, the people of Israel will need the great lights because otherwise, they cannot emerge from the control of the Egyptians.
It follows that the Creator’s reply was that He would give them the need to ask for help, which is that each time, He will show them more bad, so they will constantly need to ask for bigger help. By this, the light of the purpose of creation will be revealed to them. This is called “this land to inherit it.” It follows that had they received from above the desire to bestow when they asked for it, they would have been content and would have no need to inherit the land. But since He gave them the will to receive and not the will to bestow, they received a need for the Creator’s help, by which it became certain that they would not be satisfied, but would receive the inheritance of the land.
It follows that specifically by being in a lowly state, it caused them to receive the great lights. This explains why when they wanted a desire to bestow, they were given a desire to receive, meaning that the will to receive grows where the lower ones should have received the desire to bestow when they asked for it. Hence, a person cannot say that he sees that his prayer is not heard above, and the evidence of this is that he is not given the desire to bestow. Instead, he must know that his prayer is being considered, and the evidence of this is that he is given an answer from above by being given what is good for him now, since now he will have a need for wholeness.
According to the above, we should interpret what we asked, Why does The Zohar say, “and dawned on them from Seir,” meaning that because the dwellers of Seir said that they did not want to receive, it illuminated to Israel and added to them much light and love? Likewise, “He appeared and shown to Israel from Mount Paran,” from the dwellers of Paran saying that they did not want to receive, this added extra love and illumination to Israel, as it should be.
We asked, Can such a thing pertain to the Creator, meaning that in truth, the children of Israel did not deserve to be given much light and love? Because they did not want to receive the Torah, for this reason He gave to Israel, meaning added to them. Otherwise, He would not be able to add to Israel much light and love.
When we speak of the work, we speak of one person. That is, if the children of Esau in a person and the children of Ishmael in a person did not resist the Torah but would agree to take upon themselves the desire to bestow, the quality of Israel in a person would be content and would not need the purpose of creation, as mentioned in the Creator’s reply to Abraham, saying, “Know for certain that [your descendants will be] strangers.” Specifically by being enslaved under the governance of Egypt, they will have a need to ask to be given help. And through the help, it will be possible to reveal to them the purpose of creation. It follows that precisely when there is resistance in the body, when we do not want to receive the Torah, it enables the Creator to add to them much light and love.
M. Laitman: Questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:11) He writes in the end that through the help there would be room for the purpose of creation to be revealed to them. It turns out from this whole process of asking in Egypt, by asking for help, in the end, it leads to the purpose of creation.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I can't understand how. I understand it helps them get out of Egypt because the Creator helps them. How is this connected to the purpose of creation?
M. Laitman: What does it say?
Student: That through the help, there would be room for the purpose of creation to be revealed to them.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How does exiting the will to receive lead to eventually inheriting the land? How does it remain until the final correction, until the purpose of creation?
M. Laitman: They have to acquire the will to receive in a correct way. And then, they'll discover in it the purpose of creation.
Student: Is the purpose of creation to ask for the Creator's help every time, for every revelation?
M. Laitman: No, that's a means, it's not a goal.
Student: Without asking each time they can't receive it?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: In other words, exiting Egypt is the first time?
M. Laitman: Adhesion with the Creator is the goal, that's why they have to ask.
Student: The exodus from Egypt is the first time they ask for help from the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:11) We have to go through a state of Sinai, right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What prayers lead to this, prayers for what?
M. Laitman: That, a person feels that he is incapable, he exists in a will to receive. And he doesn't even have the force to decide that the will to receive is evil, all the more so to leave it, to escape it. He's incapable, so what does he have left?
Student: That's exactly the confusion because one minute you feel like you have to ask for the vessel of bestowal. Then the next minute, you feel like you have to ask for the light of the purpose of creation. It's not clear what to focus on.
M. Laitman: What does a person discover?
Student: He discovers he's got no chance of exiting the ego, no chance of bestowing.
M. Laitman: And that's the exile.
Student: What's the help of emerging from this nature?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:38) The will to receive, in its correct form, why does it belong to Israel? Because the Creator in Israel and the Torah are one?
M. Laitman: The will to receive in its correct form is in order to bestow.
Student: What is Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one?
M. Laitman: That is already the final form of the correction.
Student: If there is no satisfaction with bestowal then only this can be the way out for a person to reach the goal.
M. Laitman: I didn't understand.
Student: If a person finds no satisfaction from bestowal, he's not given satisfaction from bestowal. From what I understand, a person's way out is to reach Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.
M. Laitman: It means that a person will always be yearning, longing, feeling deficiency.
Student: How is that related to the goal?
M. Laitman: The goal, in that he comes to deficiencies that Israel, the light, and the Creator are one. So that the solution to Israel, to the Creator, and to being one will appear in him.
Student: By this, he advances toward the will to receive in its corrected form?
M. Laitman: He attains it, yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:25) He writes that the will to bestow is a means, it's only a means for the goal.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Should we aim for the desire to bestow, meaning to the purpose of creation, or to the correction of creation? What should we aim, to the end, or only to the means, right now?
M. Laitman: We actually need to connect them together, both the will to receive and the will to bestow. That, the will to receive, the will to bestow will be the intention and the will to receive will be in action. And then, by the connection of the two, we come to a will to receive in order to bestow.
Student: Do we first come to a desire to bestow?
M. Laitman: First, we come to the intention to bestow.
Student: This is only a means?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: This means right now is the goal before us? What about the bigger goal, should we aim for the final goal, the purpose of creation, or only afterward?
M. Laitman: Afterwards, you begin to work on the will to receive.
Student: Should the request for the Creator's help, is it a realization in some way of the purpose of creation?
M. Laitman: Yes, but we have to be according to what we see from our life. That, we work in the form of Katnut, infancy. And as much as we can, we work above the will to receive.
Student: When a person needs the Creator, does he have a connection with the Creator?
M. Laitman: Only when he needs it.
Student: At the moment of needing, is it a kind of adhesion?
M. Laitman: The purification?
Student: When a person needs the Creator really. Is it a moment of adhesion with the Creator?
M. Laitman: No, still not adhesion, on the contrary. By that, they are far from each other.
Student: Why, what is the connection between them at that moment?
M. Laitman: That one wants something the other one doesn't. It's impossible that if one longs for connection, that the other one that doesn't long for connection, cannot get close to it.
Student: Why, if I need the Creator, I'm opposite from Him?
M. Laitman: Opposite, yes, because you need it. You need Him and He, perhaps, doesn't need you.
Student: What does the Creator want from me? In what way does he need me?
M. Laitman: The Creator wants you to attain, in what way, you come to adhesion with Him.
Student: What is adhesion with the Creator?
M. Laitman: Adhesion with Him, meaning, that in all your thoughts and desires, you become like Him. We, I don't know, maybe read again? Or not, however, you want. Here, too, I don't have that many.
Question (Kyiv): (47:45) The request from the Creator for help, is it a request for Him to give us the right intention?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How do I ask of Him to help me? To have different thoughts, can He even give such a kind of help?
M. Laitman: This is a result of the upper light, of the Creator's light. If He wants to advance you, He'll advance you, by giving you other thoughts, desires, plans, and so forth.
Question (Tel Aviv 3): (48:38) He writes that the assistance to Israel is with the Holy Soul. What is the connection between the Holy Soul and the excessive will to receive?
M. Laitman: The holy soul includes that will to receive. The soul includes all the desires created by the Creator with the intention in order to bestow. And by this, she becomes in adhesion with the Creator.
Student: This is, the people of Israel were in a land that is not theirs, enslaved under the will to receive. Doesn't Israel have a will to receive?
M. Laitman: Israel has only an intention to bestow.
Student: Why does he write that they were tormented with the Sefirot of Bina? It should have been purportedly that they were tormented with the Sefirot of Hochma. Why were they tortured or tormented with the Sefirot of Bina, if the purpose was to receive the light of Hochma? What does it mean that they were tormented in the Sefirot of Bina?
M. Laitman: They tormented them in the Sefirot of Bina, meaning showing them how they are not in Bina. That they're not Israel yet, not aimed at Bina.
Student: He says the resistance of the body allows, makes it possible, to add to Israel much light and love. From the much light and love, will this satisfy the Egyptians, as well?
M. Laitman: The Egyptians, to begin with, can't, they're incapable of it. But after they correct themselves, it's not written about it. But perhaps we'll see this in the future, how everyone is joining Israel.
Question (ITA 4): (50:49) What is the connection between a person making efforts, and obtaining the deficiency for bestowal?
M. Laitman: A person who yearns to reach the purpose of creation, and perhaps he doesn't know. But like we say, he has a point in the heart, he yearns for something internal. So he comes to a state where it opens up to him more and more.
Question (CzechoSlovakia 4): (51:49) What does it mean with all your heart? Is it include what we receive from friends or through the whole Ten to achieve connection?
M. Laitman: Yes indeed, the best possible state is that we're all in the Ten. Each one in his Ten comes to a state where he includes all of the desires of the friends in the Ten and raises them to the Creator. Or that they all connect together and raise their common deficiency to the Creator. This certainly brings them to the general correction.
Question (Turkiye 2): (52:52) How can I know that I'm in the land that the Creator gave us, how do I check it?
M. Laitman: I don't understand.
Reader: How do I check that I'm in the land that the Creator gave us?
M. Laitman: That your heart is filled with a desire that you wish to attain what the Creator wants from you. And how you attain that desire, how do you realize it, fulfill it. How do you use it to reach the final eternal adhesion?
Question (Holland): (53:52) What does this light and love of the Creator do to us when we have, let's say, this enormous resistance in us? That we don't want to receive, let's say, this Torah? What does this extra light do?
M. Laitman: By the will to receive, we can yearn for, let's say, part of the purpose of creation. But in fact, we attain the purpose of creation in a yearning that we produce from ourselves, out of ourselves.
Student: Will the resistance in us become even more, then, because of the light?
M. Laitman: Yes, to great resistance, yes, yes. To great resistance to bring us more matter on which we can better correct ourselves and adhere to the Creator, as it's written 620 times more, and so forth.
Question (MAK 4): (55:50) When a person yearns for a bestowal, his will to receive, he's given more of it and it's all within a person. This is really how it feels, the process, but with respect to the friends, they can see in you, as a receiver. Instead of a desire to connect, it awakens repulsion from each other. How do I act as if I'm bestowing in a state where the Creator adds more will to receive?
M. Laitman: Try to use this increased desire to receive connection. One who's greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than himself. And certainly, in a society where everyone yearns for the purpose of creation, they have all kinds of desires and inclinations that are opposite to each other. And there's, also, a lot of stories on that, many incidents. But, bit by bit, we understand that it's coming from the exaggerated will to receive and they have to restrain it. But it's impossible without this.
Student: It turns out that in order to work within such a system, you have to hear Rabash.
M. Laitman: Certainly, without a correct Ten that understands the path, there's nothing you can do.
Question (Turkey 4): (57:50) How can a person be certain that he is on the right path toward correction?
M. Laitman: It's that, one tries to always answer correctly the questions, the states that the Creator sends him.
Student: How can I know what is from the Creator, and what is from the will to receive?
M. Laitman: That, too, becomes revealed. On the way, everything becomes revealed. You're asking correctly but I don't have an answer. The answer comes from a person seeking, praying, that’s how it comes.
Student: I have great fear. Great fear of, I don't know how I can, yes, I have great fear from this situation.
M. Laitman: There's no problem, if you hold on to the friends, to your Ten and they hold on to you. By that, you can clarify all the various states, and everything will fall into place.
Question (Haifa 3): (59:35) It is written what he is given from above now is good for him. How will a person feel that what the Creator gives him is good for him? How does he feel that every giving from the Creator is for his own benefit?
M. Laitman: A person should always feel that the Creator is always taking care of him by raising, more and more, his questions, his passions, his desires, efficiencies. And then, on top of that, He corrects them in a way that he longs more and more and more towards the general connection in the Ten.
Question (Unity 3): (01:00:48) If we feel that we want to be even more giving, does that mean we obtain the desirable state for the Creator?
M. Laitman: If we already come to a greater and greater will to receive, each time, it's only a question of whether we correct on the way of that form of the same will to receive so that it's in order to bestow. That's the correction, the correction is to add to the will to receive that grows the intention in order to bestow.
Student: Well, that's what I'm saying, we want to be givers. The desire itself to be givers.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Is it somehow connected to the time that we feel in our world?
M. Laitman: I don't know, I don't think so, I don't think so.
Question (ITA 1): (01:02:05) How can we unite with the children of Esau and Ishmael within us? Meaning our angels, our forces, which do not want to bestow? Do we rise above them, do we starve them, what do we do?
M. Laitman: I don't know, but maybe I didn't really understand the question, I didn't hear well. But we decide, and if we have it, then there's no problem. What we decide, we take a decision, and we advance. The next moment, today, tomorrow, once again we discuss, and we advance. And so on, from one time to another, if I understood correctly.
Reader: If I understood correctly, he asks, how do we resist the children of Esau and Ishmael within us? They are angels within us that don't want to bestow. Do we feed them or starve them, what do we do with them, with the Ishmael and Esau within us?
M. Laitman: What to do on the way, well, we have to see. As much as we can erase them, put them aside, not use them, freeze them, and so forth. There's a whole teaching to this.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:55) Concerning the exile, the whole exile is in being able to receive enslavement in Egypt and we suffer from it. This is the exile, the suffering. The governance of Egypt exists anyway, the question is, are we suffering or not?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: The question is normally the will to receive suffers from not receiving fillings, not receiving what is asked for. How do we suffer from being controlled by the will to receive? How does the will to receive suffer from being controlled by the will to receive.
M. Laitman: This depends on the environment.
Student: What does that mean?
M. Laitman: The environment, the extent to which a person begins to feel in relationship to his environment, that he is in a lack of correction, lack of connection, and so forth.
Student: A group of people in the world that begins to suffer from not being able to bestow upon the Creator and they suffer from this. Does it mean that it got rid of all the deficiencies of the will to receive? Meaning the will to receive no longer governs it?
M. Laitman: No, no, in the meantime, it's still possible, but it's not that this is the entire correction process.
Student: They suffer like all of humanity from the same problems?
M. Laitman: I don't want to say this is so, but it's still not the final correction.
Student: Of course, it's not the end of correction but I want to ask about the leap between unconsciousness, lack of awareness, and the beginning of the exile when we suffer from the will to receive.
M. Laitman: The feeling of exile is already the beginning of the end.
Student: How do we suffer from the will to receive governing us because this is the whole governance?
M. Laitman: That's right.
Student: The suffering is from not being able to satisfy it, from this we're suffering. Humanity is suffering, everyone.
M. Laitman: I wouldn't say that's the suffering, but yes, we'll see. We'll see that we still need to reach that.
Question (Women Toronto 1): (01:06:24) When the evil, when we become more aware of the evil within us, should we give any time or space to shame? Or should we just be grateful we're walking on the path of truth and we're becoming, we're being humbled? How should we relate to shame?
M. Laitman: Whatever we feel, with that, we have to continue, I don't have an answer for this. Because you're asking about a state that is very broad.
Question (Women Turkiye 10): (01:07:28) How do we come to feel that we need or lacking the will to bestow when we are in the will to receive, and we never actually felt what bestowal is?
M. Laitman: Correct, this is truly an illumination from above that the Creator shines on us, and that's how we begin to feel.
Question (Women Latin 10): (01:07:59) I never felt that everything works only in one direction. That the will to receive leads us directly to the will to bestow. How do we hang on to the belief that this direction leads us to the end of correction?
M. Laitman: Only to yearn to continue moving forward, and then it works itself out.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:55) He says something here, which you read several times. That, by observing Torah and Mitzvot, he will come to be able to demand of the Creator to give him, to make him be with all his heart to the Creator. What does it mean to demand of the Creator, what is a demand?
M. Laitman: Well, a demand is a demand. There are a few more words but it's when you demand. By carrying out Torah and Mitzvot, which you understand what that is, within that framework, you wish to receive some answers that will help you better understand, better feel, better rise and connect, and so forth.
Student: What kind of relation is it to the Creator, to demand of Him? When we relate to the Creator, it should be something more like surrender. What does it mean to demand of Him?
M. Laitman: No, within our whole situation, there is our will to receive. That by working with it, we want to demand something.
Student: How do you demand from someone who is greater than you, who is ruling, who is strong, who is infinite? How do you demand from Him?
M. Laitman: By me fulfilling His will.
Student: I'm doing His will, anyway, no?
M. Laitman: No, that's completely, completely different. Meaning, I perform what He wants, but to begin with, I wish to receive a response to this, which I'm interested in.
Student: Why do I deserve to get an answer from Him?
M. Laitman: Because that's how the Creator created it. That, we can invest and work and change in the direction that He wants. But for that, we are required to, we require help, and reward.
Student: He leads the person, He leads the Ten, He is between us. What's to demand, He does everything on us.
M. Laitman: I do what He wishes, and still, I have to have some deficiency to receive changes from Him.
Student: Why?
M. Laitman: Because He's the Creator, He created this circumstance.
Student: Now, why be in a deficiency for Him, why demand of Him? Why not simply, whatever He does is fine, I surrender before Him?
M. Laitman: We don't surrender, surrender is with no action. But you want to use your actions to awaken His actions.
Student: What is the condition for creating such a demand?
M. Laitman: The condition is that you know and feel and understand that what He did was in order to give you an opportunity to respond.
Student: Meaning, we have to understand and agree that He wants us to demand.
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Student: Basically, we're doing His will, even though it's a demand on our part, we have to also understand that it's His desire.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:09) Why is everything upside down? I want the will to bestow, and I get more excessive will to receive. I object to it, don't want it, I get help from above.
M. Laitman: The will to receive, you're built from it. The will to bestow, you'll never feel or receive it. The will to bestow will be in you in a form of how you work with your will to receive.
Student: What if I'm beginning the work, I'm beginning a certain yearning that I want to change my nature. Why do I need to get a bigger desire, why don't I get some help toward equivalence of form? Why is it always to the other side?
M. Laitman: Don't turn it around, the direction of equivalence of form, you have no interest in that, none. Bit by bit, through your work, you receive some indications of what it means to bestow, in order to bestow on your part.
Student: I'll try to ask differently: He writes in the article that every time He shows them more evil so they can ask for a greater help. By that, the light of the purpose of creation is revealed, called, you will inherit this land. We have to inherit the land, meaning that in that, the purpose of creation is also there. What is that action that we have to reach?
M. Laitman: We need to come to the desire to receive that will guide us, truly, towards the purpose of creation. To the form in which the Creator wants to do good to His creations.
Student: If I want to reach that state and feel that the Creator is doing good to the created beings. Again, I'm falling into a state of burdening of the will to receive that is excessive, I want it suddenly. How do I keep the purity in it?
M. Laitman: That's through the intention, the desire to receive constantly grows. But you, by the intention, can muzzle it, can guide it.
Student: That's what the friend was asking, so the deficiency, in my mind, in my feeling, that the deficiency brings adhesion. As long as I have the deficiency and I yearn for the work, I have adhesion with the Creator.
M. Laitman: It doesn't have to be, I don't know what the kind of deficiency is.
Student: To attain what we were talking about, not a chocolate. Sorry, I'm trying to understand what the adhesion that I have to yearn for, is.
M. Laitman: The adhesion is in that you want to reach equivalence with the Creator, that's called, Dvekut, adhesion. Your will like His will.
Student: It's not a deficiency you have to constantly raise?
M. Laitman: Where will you take that deficiency from?
Student: Study, the environment?
M. Laitman: That's something you need to work on.
Question (Women Latin 14): (01:18:01) Bestowing isn't the goal, it's the means?
M. Laitman: It is the means; the goal is adhesion.
Student: In the article he writes about the goal, adhesion, to be rewarded with the commandments, the names of the Creator. What is actually the difference between the goal to bestow, which is a means?
M. Laitman: What's the difference between the goal and the means? The goal is the means, and the goal is the goal. What's more important, the goal is more important. The means is just a means to it.
Student: That's clear, that's the definition, but bestowing is you on the Ten? Restrictions, screen, reflected light, everything we're doing. Is that not adhesion, that's not the commandments, that's not inheriting the land? It seems as if it's the same thing, the goal and the means.
M. Laitman: So, what's the question?
Student: What is the difference?
M. Laitman: The goal is the precious thing. The means is always the means in order to attain the goal. I have nothing else to say here, it’ll just be philosophization of it.
Question (Women PT 10) (01:19:35) A person must work on his own in order to attain the quality of bestowal. Then he can pray from the bottom of his heart with a true deficiency. If it's clear that the work won't work and only prayer will work so why should he work before?
M. Laitman: Because he doesn't have the deficiency to give forth a prayer.
Student: What is the work that a person must do?
M. Laitman: Yearn for the goal and discover that one's not capable.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:22) He writes, in order for there to be a need for the purpose of creation, which is to be rewarded with the Torah, called the names of the Creator, every time he's given a greater will to receive. On the one hand, we learn that we're talking about a process. It's good that you don't give a person what he wants right away but he's prepared and told that the desire will be big and strong. That's on one hand, on the other hand, they tell a person that he must reach the cry, that the sons of Israel sigh from the work. It's like, on one hand, there's a lack of patience because why does a person reach a cry? He reaches the cry because he wants it now, here and now, that's the cry. How, on one hand, the person needs to reach the cry. On the other hand, they tell him that this process he's going through is for his benefit.
M. Laitman: Meaning, he can stop at any given moment and say, okay, enough. I'm in the process so I developed this far, that's enough. That's what you're thinking?
Student: I think that when a person cries out, he doesn't agree with his state. He doesn't agree with the process, with the time it takes.
M. Laitman: Well, yes, so what's the question?
Student: How, on one hand, we still need or are taught to see that this is a process. It's like we used to give an example about an apple. That it takes time until it becomes ripe, until it's sweet, and on the way, it's sour. I'm imagining like the farmer, who doesn't have patience. He wants the apple to be sweet, already. But no, he knows there's a process. He won't scream at the apple when it will be ready? How do we combine these things? Why does the Kabbalist cry, that's what I'll ask. A Kabbalist sees like the farmer, he understands there's a process. Why is there anything to cry about?
M. Laitman: Because he understands that through the outcry, through the increased desire to receive that he has to advance with and correct. And by that, he comes faster to the purpose of creation.
Student: The cry isn't because I want it now. What's the reason the cry comes?
M. Laitman: The cry that I want to hasten our spiritual development.
Student: I don't agree with the pace of development I was given, I want to speed it up.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It's not like I don't agree with the one giving me the process.
M. Laitman: No, the Creator enjoys it.
Student: That means that we need to reach a lack of patience constantly, and not everything's okay, right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Belarus): (01:24:27) I heard in the article that bestowal is a means, and the final goal is adhesion. What about giving joy to the Creator, loving the Creator, that too?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (New York 2): (01:24:51) Is it possible that we may have the right lack and prayer, but the Creator does not answer it because the rest of the world isn't ready yet? How much does the success of our prayer depend on the development of the world?
M. Laitman: Yes, this could truly be the state that we're in.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:48) It's written they were tortured for 400 years because four is a complete degree. We, also, know that Baal HaSulam says that the reason for all the exiles after Egypt is because they didn't complete that exile. What's the difference between a complete degree and an incomplete degree? Is that also quality or quantity?
M. Laitman: We don't know how to calculate the end of the exile. But from what we read from our teachers; we learn that this exile is the final exile. And therefore, it is so long and heavy upon us.
Student: Abraham was concerned that they won't have a beginning deficiency. That they won't want anything else. How can they come out without a complete degree because that was the main part of the exile, that they'll receive the whole desire?
M. Laitman: No, exile is not the whole path, it's just part of the development. Later, they exit and come to other states and in them correct themselves until they come to the land of Israel.
Student: Yes, but the vessel, the complete deficiency they acquired while in Egypt?
M. Laitman: But it's not revealed immediately, it's revealed throughout the entire exodus.
Student: There are people that what they have is sufficient for them, and we aren't. Is it the fact that they are satisfied is because they completed their part, and we're part of a desire that hasn't finished accumulating this exile?
M. Laitman: No, well, I understand it this way, I think like that because their desire to receive does not compel them to exit that state.
Student: Why does ours?
M. Laitman: We're impatient, we're in a state that we can't tolerate the exile anymore.
Student: We have more pressure on us compared to others, personally, I'm talking. Is the Creator giving us more pressure than other people?
M. Laitman: Of course, it's also known about all the people of Israel. That, they're kind of like, they're rushing here and there, and we're more demanding.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:27) He writes that a person thinks he has time to do everything in order to bestow because it's in his hands. And when he wants, I'll do everything in order to bestow. Why is there this illusion of time because we see there isn't really time? Life is short, it ends, and a person has to give the keys back at some point, it's going to happen. Why does he have an illusion that he has time to do everything in order to bestow?
M. Laitman: We have many such conclusions. So, what to do?
Student: The question is it's against the mind, this is this illusion, you see there's no time. You don't know what's going to be in another moment. How can we in the most important thing in our life give such an illusion, let it work on us?
M. Laitman: That's how it's arranged from above and we can't control that.
Student: How do we break the illusion?
M. Laitman: You can't be above time, you can't direct the times. Rather simply continue, just as time controls us.
Student: We in society, we can break it and create a state that time is precious. How to do it in society?
M. Laitman: Through the connection between us, it's written about that, Israel sanctified the times.
Student: In the society through the connection, deficiency can be formulated. That time is precious at every moment, is precious?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Why in corporeality, this time does its thing? You know a person works another day, another day, gets experience, becomes smarter, he knows more. In spirituality, time doesn't do its thing. If you postpone time, a gap is created and then you get a blow to close the gap. Why is it opposite?
M. Laitman: That's how it works, also, for us in this world is a matter of accumulation of time.
Student: Not like in spirituality that it's blurred out, your debt?
M. Laitman: That depends on how the Creator works upon us.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:32:34) You answered the friend that without the right time that understands the path, there's nothing you can do
M. Laitman: Let's say it's correct. I said that way or not, that's not important.
Student: What is the right time, that depends on me to add to that understanding?
M. Laitman: The correct is that all the Ten friends understand that in their mutual adhesion, that building the Ten where it, already, has this special force to bestow to the Creator and through them to the end of correction.
Student: How in that incorporation do we force the Creator to change me, to correct me?
M. Laitman: Where you want to be included in them, incorporated in them, and in such a way, as fast as possible reach the purpose of creation. As the purpose of creation is to discover in the connection of your Ten, the Creator and His world.
Student: It turns out, the Creator is the means and the goal?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:34:06) What does it mean to be incorporated in the Ten?
M. Laitman: Incorporation from all the friends, in the desires, the intentions.
Student: To take also my desire into account to be one of them all. It's not me for the nine Sefirot but with the Malchut all of us together?
M. Laitman: All of us together.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:34:35) To continue all the questions about the cry and incorporation. Can we say that once there's like a calmness, security, that's from the will to receive? Once there's an awakening in the Ten something burns, something cries out, that comes from the Creator, He's asking us to advance quicker?
M. Laitman: Could be.
Student: Because there's like a dissonance, on one hand, to receive everything as if it comes from the Creator. On the other hand, keep demanding, be one step ahead.
M. Laitman: We need to advance our deficiency and then we're worthy of receiving.
Student: The nature of laziness is when something comes to speed up, you just say, no, not that, I don't want that.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It seems that it's a blessing, the fact that there's an awakening. It's a gift from the Creator because otherwise, we'd fall asleep, and that's it.
M. Laitman: Right.
Student: There's still a lot to see about this.
M. Laitman: Look, the fact that we are in a certain dormancy, most of the time, that's correct?
Student: Yesterday, there was an amazing meal. You recommended that we and the friends prepared a meal in the evening. It was very enlightening, it was strong. And today, there's a morning lesson, and?
M. Laitman: That's usual.
Student: Why usually, there has to be more of an awakening?
M. Laitman: You need to know how to hold on to that awakening.
Student: Why to get this dormancy in the beginning of the lesson?
M. Laitman: Because I don't need effort. By these efforts, look how difficult they are. But the whole body needs to be in labor and thought. And all the organs and all the systems, it's not simple. Energy, energy, we're wasting it, and the body is very worried about that.
Student: I'm worried, we didn't come here to serve?
M. Laitman: Yes, so if it's so, then please, awaken the body.
Question (Women Turkiye 7): (01:37:49) I heard the Ten needs to turn the friend's desire into the Ten's desire. The question is if the friends feel my desire from within the ego, how should the Ten work with this desire?
M. Laitman: The Ten needs to feel your desire and to help with the mutual effort between them to join it to the general desire of the Ten. And you build their common desire, and the Creator then operates upon that common desire.
Question (Women Ukraine 2): (01:38:43)The question from a friend, we learn that the sons of Israel sighed from the work, and only then they were able to escape Egypt. Are we escaping the suffering, or if we're running towards the Creator? Are we running towards someone or from someone?
M. Laitman: It's once this way, and once that way. At first, we run away from hard work. And after that we are drawn to our beloved, like I said, to our Arvut.
Student: If we run towards someone, and the prayer determines everything, why are we scrutinizing for such a long time what we have to ask for? Instead of scrutinizing who we're turning to?
M. Laitman: It's very difficult for us to connect our prayers into one common prayer. For that, we truly need to be as one man in one heart.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:40:11) I understood that Esau's sons and Ishmael's sons, we have to see how we can erase them, put them on the side and not use them, freeze them. When Rabash writes that the Creator shows more evil every time, does he mean evil because they want to enjoy bestowal in order to receive?
M. Laitman: I didn't understand.
Student: When Rabash writes that the Creator constantly reveals more evil, does he mean evil from wanting to enjoy bestowing in order to receive?
M. Laitman: Yes, that, too.
Student: Then he writes that every time he sees he has more evil, he has to ask for greater help. Is that greater help, does that mean to bestow more?
M. Laitman: This could be.
M. Laitman: All right, let's move to the next part.
Reader: We'll sing a song first.
Song: (01:41:34)