The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) July 18, 2024.
Part 2: Rabash. Letter No. 62
Reader: (00:04) We are reading from the writings of Rabash, letter 62. The writings of Rabash, volume 2, letter 62.
Reading: (00:23) Letter No. 62
June 26, 1962, Antwerp
Hello and all the best to my friend,
I received your letter, and regarding your question concerning Lishma (for Her sake) and Lo Lishma (not for Her sake), I will give you a simple rule: Lishma means that the intention while performing a Mitzva (good deed/correction) is that we must intend to bestow contentment upon the Maker. The Creator has let us do things so we will be able to give something to Him through these actions, namely by wanting to please Him.
And why do we want to give Him contentment? It is because it is a great privilege for us that we are serving the King. That is, all of our pleasure is that we are serving the Rav [great one], and this is our reward. This means that it comes to show if we want a reward for the service or the service itself is the reward.
Sometimes we see that a wealthy person will walk some place with a great and wise person, and the wealthy man carries the package of the wise one and does not let anyone else carry the package but says that he deserves the privilege of carrying the sage’s package, and none other.
Sometimes, if the package is difficult to carry due to the weight of the load, and another wealthy person accompanies the sage, as well, he wants to swap with him, meaning he wants to carry the package, too, but he does not agree because it is a great privilege for the wealthy man to serve the sage.
Also, the pleasure of the wealthy mean depends on the wisdom of the Rav, since the wiser the Rav, compared to his contemporaries, the more the wealthy man enjoys serving him.
In order to pay the porter, the sum that the Rav should have given, say two dollars, when he departs from the wealthy man, the Rav gives the wealthy man three dollars and tells him: “Here, this is for your effort.”
He also tells him: “I would have given a simple porter only two dollars, but because you are rich and distinguished, I am adding to it and giving you three dollars.” What an insult this would be to the rich man if he were to reward him for the service? The greatness of his reward is only that he served the Rav, not the reward for the service.
It is likewise in spirituality. Man’s intention should be only the service, since by that he shows his value and importance of serving the King. But when he is asking for reward for the service, he shows that he has no importance for the King, but his aim is only the reward.
But most importantly, it matters not whom he serves, but how much he will receive for the service, like a porter, whose only focus is the reward and does not care whose package he is carrying. His focus is only on how much he will gain. This is the whole difference between serving the King for a reward or serving him not in order to receive reward.
But in order to have strength to work, for a person to be able to engage in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], one must examine the greatness and sublimity of the Creator. It is so because to the exact extent of the greatness of the King it is easier for him to serve the King, since he feels that He is the King of Kings. At that time, the joy and pleasure should be boundless.
By that we should depict that he can say that the King let only him stand and serve him, since He did not give that strength to others. And what do they do? Their intention is not to serve the king but to serve some master, for the master to pay for the Master’s packages, which they carry all day long.
They do not mind who is the master. What is important for them is who pays a higher salary; this is the master they are serving and for whom they work.
By that you will understand what you asked, that when one feels vitality in Torah and work, namely that the Creator is bringing him closer and letting him serve him, and a person feels delight, then it should be said who is obligating the Torah and work—it must be the Creator because He is the one who is giving him the pleasure in Torah and work, and not that his intention is that through engagement in Torah and work he will obtain corporeal rewards, meaning honor or money. Still, this is considered Lo Lishma. Why?
The reason is that pleasure is what compels him to engage in Torah and work. And since man contains the desire to receive pleasure, when he feels pleasure in Torah and work, the will to receive pleasure commits a person engage in Torah and work. Thus, who is the obligator? That is, what is the reason he engages in it? It must be the pleasure, which is called “reward.”
This is regarded as serving the King in order to receive reward—where the intention is on the reward, which is the pleasure. At that time, it does not matter who is giving him the pleasure. Rather, what matters is that the pleasure is so great that a person surrenders before it.
This is as our sages said about the rule, “This is different because his inclination overpowers him.” It follows that he is coerced (Ketubot 51:53-54). This means that she no longer has a choice because when the pleasure comes in greater measures than one is used to receiving, a person (no) longer has the strength to overcome. This is regarded as having no choice.
It follows that we should always divide between Lishma and Lo Lishma. That is, if the pleasure comes by receiving a great pleasure while engaging in Torah and work then his reason is the pleasure, and it does not matter to him who is giving the pleasure. But if the pleasure comes from serving the King, this is called Lishma because here it depends whom he is serving. According to the greatness of the King, so is the measure of pleasure.
It follows that his reason is the King, and the pleasure is only the result of serving the King. If he is serving a small King, he has little pleasure. If he is serving a great King, he is great pleasure.
Therefore, if the king is what determines and the cause for the work, it is called Lishma, although he is enjoying serving the King, and although he is annulled by the King’s greatness and has no room for choice, but everything is for the King. It follows that this is called Lishma, when the intention is to serve the King, and not the reward. That is if he feels pleasure while serving the King, but the pleasure is not the cause, but rather the greatness of the King is the cause.
But if he craves the pleasure that comes to him by engagement in Torah and work, it means that the pleasure is the reason and the cause. This is called Lo Lishma, but for the purpose of pleasure.
It follows that man’s primary work is to examine the greatness of the Creator. That is, one should delve in books that speak of the greatness of the Creator, and while delving, one should depict to oneself to what extent our sages, the Tanaaim and Amoraim, felt the greatness of the Creator.
One should pray to the Creator to shine so he may feel His greatness, so he can subdue his heart and annul before the Creator, and not follow the currents of the world, which is pursuing only the satisfaction of beastly lusts, but that the Creator will open his eyes so he may engage all his life in Torah and work, and “In all your ways, know Him.” That is, even when engaging in corporeal matters, it will be for the purpose of Kedusha [holiness], as well.
But from Lo Lishma, we come to Lishma. That is, Lishma is already a high degree, and one must begin from Lo Lishma. In other words, one should be fully aware that pleasure is found primarily in Torah and work, and not in corporeality.
Although at the moment he feels more pleasure in corporeal things, more than he feels in spiritual things, it is because he lacks the qualification in Torah and work, which also depends on faith in the Creator. At that time, through Torah and faith in the Creator, one feels the light in the Torah, and that light reforms him.
May the Creator open our eyes and delight our hearts, and we will be rewarded with raising the importance of Torah.
Your friend, Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag,
Son of Baal HaSulam
*60-65 no text here article deleted ok
*70-75 Starting Task 2
M. Laitman: Yes, that's the letter. Clear? Well?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:20) Why, love of the article, brings one to love the author of the article, and brings one to the one who dictates the article, the Creator, who bestows, why?
M. Laitman: Because that's how it's connected.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:54) It says, when learning, we should depict the degree to which our sages, the Tanaaim, the Amorim, would feel the greatness of the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What does that mean?
M. Laitman: That during the lesson, we want to discover the Giver of the Torah, that's what we're learning. And it doesn't really matter what we're actually learning, the main thing is through the Torah to discover the Creator, to find Him. And to feel how we receive from Him, how we can get even more closer to Him.
Student: To depict to himself to what extent our sages, the Tanaaim, the Amorim, would feel His greatness, of the Creator.
M. Laitman: To what extent?
Student: It says here that when learning we should depict to ourselves to what extent would our sages, the Tanaaim, the Amorim, would feel the greatness of the Creator. And pray to the Creator to feel the greatness and exaltedness of the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes, look, to what extent were they near the Creator and discover Him and feel Him, that I can't even imagine. I'm doing what I can; meaning, I depict all those great ones; how they were an inspiration and closeness to the Creator throughout all their forces. And me, that I'm following them, I also want to discover something, to reach something and that's the prayer that should be in our hearts, that this is what I yearn for.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:17) What does it mean to serve?
M. Laitman: To serve means that I do everything that the upper one wants.
Student: Out of the understanding that He needs my service?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:40) If we say that a person serves another person, it's as if he becomes devoted to taking care of him, caring for all his needs, for his sustenance. In that, too, there is a certain measure of annulment.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: What can we receive from serving the King as opposed to someone who's learning from the King? Or our reading, or having one's own desire, the annulment?
M. Laitman: Serving is the highest degree. That I annul myself and instead of my own desire. I want to receive the desires of my teachers and to serve them by that.
Student: For every word, everyone serves something. I go to work, I serve someone, I get my paycheck. What does it mean to serve; without a benefit, without reward for yourself?
M. Laitman: That means that I annul my desires before someone else's desires, the one who I want to serve.
Student: I’m asking a question I’m not sure you‘ ll want to answer it. Rabash had many students, he taught for many years. And you always say that you accompanied him in his final years, and you served him. What does a student whose attitude toward the teacher is to serve him? As opposed to a student who comes, and learns, and writes, takes notes, understands or doesn't. What's the benefit you get from serving?
M. Laitman: Whoever wants to serve a great person, he annuls his own desire before the desires of that great person.
Student: What is the addition you get from serving, as opposed to learning?
M. Laitman: That's the addition you get, that you annul your own desires towards the desires of the great one, that's it, what can I tell you? Meaning, one has to annul himself, your desire towards his desire; I have nothing else to add.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:41) The example in the letter was incomplete because he doesn't enjoy his service but he enjoys being able to serve the teacher. And he still enjoys doing it, so, what's the addition that should be that it'll be a real bestowal?
M. Laitman: To annul his enjoyment in that and then he’ll see whether he wants to serve in that way or not.
Student: So, he needs to be in a state where his will to receive does not enjoy it?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:28) What's the difference between connecting to the Creator because of His greatness or because of love for Him?
M. Laitman: Or because of?
Student: Love.
M. Laitman: Love. On behalf of the greatness, you can bow down to anybody who's great, and you don't do that from love, but it could be from fear. To bow down towards a person that you love, that you serve him; by that, so that's something else already.
Student: It's just that they keep emphasizing.
M. Laitman: I can't hear you.
Student: They keep emphasizing the greatness of the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: When a person wants to maintain the connection, should he be thinking about the greatness of the Creator or of his love for the Creator?
M. Laitman: That depends on which state he's in, usually, the greatness of the Creator.
Student: Why not about love, why don't they write about the love of the Creator? That they should be holding the connection because greatness comes and goes. And then the connection?
M. Laitman: So, we have to take care of it, to be concerned about it. That the Creator will always be great in his eyes.
Student: And love?
M. Laitman: Love is a result of that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:09) To continue the friend, he writes, man's work is mainly to observe, to examine the greatness of the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What does it mean during, while studying to observe the greatness of the Creator?
M. Laitman: That the Creator is greater than everything and everyone.
Student: And what pleasure is it correct to receive from the study?
M. Laitman: For a person?
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: That he's studying the actions of the Creator, and it's helping him come closer to the Creator and subduing himself towards him.
Student: He writes that if he yearns the pleasure that comes by engaging in Torah and work, it follows that the pleasure is the reason.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Is it possible to get pleasure both from the greatness of the Creator and from engaging in the Torah?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:18) How do we not fall into pleasure?
M. Laitman: How to not fall into?
Student: Pleasure.
M. Laitman: Pleasure. That the greatness of the Creator will be more than any other thing.
Student: But when you attain this thing, there's still pleasure. He says if you feel pleasure, you'll always fall to it. In the end, you'll take pleasure in it.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So, how do I maintain the greatness, as opposed to the pleasure I get from the greatness of the Creator?
M. Laitman: I want to be adhered to the Creator, that He is the great one, and I am adhering myself to Him. In that way, I want to exist.
Student: What do I do with the pleasure I feel?
M. Laitman: But that pleasure shouldn't break my efforts to adhere to the Creator.
Student: Yes, that's clear, but I feel that there is some pleasure.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: And the minute I feel the pleasure, I'm in gratitude.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: But at the moment of gratitude, the connection with the Creator disconnects.
M. Laitman: No, no, no, it's still far. That's still far.
Student: So, what's the next step after this feeling?
M. Laitman: After the feeling of pleasure?
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: Adhesion to the Creator, more and more.
Student: And then it's pleasure, again?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:25) Should this adhesion be after he feels pleasure from serving, from engaging in Torah and work? Or should the greatness of the Creator reject the pleasure, or on top of the pleasure?
M. Laitman: On top of the pleasure.
Student: So, first he should get the money from the Rav, who pays him for the suitcase, and then he says, on top of that, I'm doing this for the Rav. It's like bribery, no?
M. Laitman: Yes and no, it all depends on the intention.
Student: So, should the intention reject the pleasure, so I won't agree to even come closer, to even approach it?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And once I know I have succeeded, I can overcome the pleasure. I still go for the pleasure?
M. Laitman: It could be, it depends on your intention.
Student: But it'll already be pleasure for Lishma, for Her sake?
M. Laitman: If you receive pleasure after you reject it, so yes, it will be Lishma, for Her sake.
Student: So, the order is: Work, rejection and then having to receive, not only possible but we have to receive the pleasure.
M. Laitman: Yes, that's the work, you exchange the previous pleasure for the true pleasure.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:04) I want to try to understand our approach in Ten from where we get the assertion and the strength to work? Because we try to connect between us, to get to ‘love of friends’, a vessel of equivalence of form. Now, I see there is an approach within me that says, okay, we succeeded, or we didn't succeed, the work is a reward.
M. Laitman: No, but how do you know you did the work?
Student: You may not know if you did a good job or not but the fact that we're making efforts. We come to the lesson, the fact that we were making a prayer, we don't need to expect some pleasure, or reward, or revelation. The very fact that we're continuing on the path, this is our reward.
M. Laitman: Well?
Student: I know it's incorrect or incomplete, so I'm looking for the validation because, on the one hand, we say a person needs while in this life to achieve attainment.
M. Laitman: Well, it's not, it doesn't have to be; if you're just directed towards it, so it's in order to receive.
Student: Right, exactly. When we talked about envy, we discovered that we don't really believe we can attain something, and maybe that's why we don't envy each other so much.
M. Laitman: Well, whatever you feel.
Student: Hence my question: From where do you get our strength to come every day anew with a demand and expectation to get something?
M. Laitman: That every day you get into that same vehicle, with the whole group, and you're driving towards the purpose of life.
Student: That should not be some reward, that's exactly the contradiction.
M. Laitman: Why without a reward? Let there be a reward.
Student: Because in the end, the purpose of our life is to serve the King.
M. Laitman: So, serving the King is a reward.
Student: It feels like we're losing this drive, this strength. It's as if we're sitting together in a car and the fact that we're together in the car, that's our reward.
M. Laitman: No, sitting together in the car, that's a reward?
Student: I often hear that our effort, our prayer, to the Creator is to bring Him contentment.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That He awaits our requests.
M. Laitman: Right.
Student: We don't need anything to happen from it, the fact that we're sitting, trying to connect, praying; by this we're serving the King. Should there be a result in the end?
M. Laitman: Of course, who works with no result?
Student: But the result is a reward, so you're expecting a reward.
M. Laitman: If the result is to give contentment to the Creator, so let that be the reward.
Student: Okay, but it doesn't have to be revealed, we're sitting here, we're praying, we want to connect, we raise it to the Creator. Does that complete the circle?
M. Laitman: No, of course not, you pray to the Creator and what do you want?
Student: We talk about connection between us, love our friends.
M. Laitman: What does that have to do with the Creator?
Student: The greatness of the Creator.
M. Laitman: You have to scrutinize it, it's not clear.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:17) He writes that spiritual pleasures are much greater than corporeal pleasures, although we don't feel it.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, expecting this is like expecting some egoistic reward. So, what's the right way to use I, because he writes about it, in many articles, that there are very great spiritual pleasures and the first degree. All the corporeal pleasures are nothing compared to it. So, how do we use it correctly?
M. Laitman: The same pleasures?
Student: No. How do we expect it correctly, so it doesn't become like a reward for us?
M. Laitman: You want to do everything in order to bestow, that the Creator will enjoy it.
Student: In dissemination, should we use it, that in spirituality there are great pleasures, like giving them an egoistic reward?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, what's the difference between our waiting for it? And explaining to them in an egoistic way?
M. Laitman: You're also waiting for it in an egoistic way, there's no difference.
Student: So, we should use it for the ego? To give it some excuse, incentive?
M. Laitman: If you ask me, so that's incorrect. We need to pray to the Creator to give us an ability to receive spiritual pleasures in order to receive, that's it.
Student: To expect the right intention?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:02) It says that if the King determines and He's the reason for the work, this is called Lishma, for her sake. And although he gets pleasure from serving the King, and although he is annulling before the greatness of the King and he has no room for choice, it is all for the King. Can you explain a little bit, what does it mean that in Lishma, for her sake, there has to be pleasure?
M. Laitman: Otherwise, how will you feel that it's Lishma?
Student: So, there are two things that contradict each other. Like they are asking, I want to work not in order to receive a reward.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: I want to work for Her sake, but I have to have pleasure, so it is to know that it's for Her sake.
M. Laitman: Yes. Without you discovering that you get pleasure from it, and how you relate to that pleasure. So, without that you can't determine anything whether it's Lishma or not.
Student: So, what's the point of scrutiny when I say I have pleasure in the learning, but there's a bigger element than that?
M. Laitman: Yes, what you're doing it for?
Student: How do we identify the difference between the pleasure? And pleasure from the greatness of the Creator?
M. Laitman: What are you enjoying?
Student: How do I detect it?
M. Laitman: So, that's what I'm asking, what are you enjoying?
Student: I don't know. I can't detect it, that's why I'm asking.
M. Laitman: Are you enjoying that you have a connection with the Creator? Or are you enjoying having an ability to do something in order to show Him pleasure?
Student: I want to serve.
M. Laitman: To serve, what is that called? That you're thinking of Him or yourself?
Student: I want to come to think about Him but I'm not there, yet.
M. Laitman: Okay, let's keep going, you'll understand it soon.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:41) The whole system of creation, the thought of creation, aims at the final result being correction. We have to reach, achieve correction. And correction means receiving the quality of bestowal, receiving in order to bestow.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: I begin to work, every day I work. I know that in the end I get my paycheck. While I work, I'm not thinking about the paycheck I should get, I work. I give myself to do my specific job, I want to do it well. So, everyone will get from me, according to my knowledge, my abilities, I give all of myself. But in my mind, I don't think about receiving the paycheck while I work.
M. Laitman: So, what?
Student: Well, that's the thing, I don't keep it in my mind or heart every second, that every second I'm working and in the end I'll get my paycheck. I get my salary, I don't even see the money, I see a piece of paper with some number written on it.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: Here, in learning, when we're sitting in a lesson, when we're doing some chore. When we speak to the friends, not even the in Ten, this whole thing, should I be focused on being, should I keep in mind that I'm in a system of correction?
M. Laitman: You need to keep it in mind.
Student: And if I don't feel it, I have to ask the Creator?
M. Laitman: It's as if you're working for nothing, you don't get anything from it.
Student: Full gas n neutral.
M. Laitman: You can say that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:53) A person in the Ten or alone, when he feels he's encountering problems, or when the Ten has problems. There's a feeling that there is work and perhaps progress. But if there is a status quo, for a long time everyone's pretty much, you know, everyone knows everyone and this is who we are, that's our limit, everyone knows his limit, and this is how we conduct ourselves.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What do you do in such a state?
M. Laitman: You have no intentions. You're just letting the day go by.
Student: And if I remember that I have intentions and still?
M. Laitman: If you remember, you have to organize yourself with those intentions and you need to make sure they don't disappear.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:53) He writes that the work is to come to observe, to examine the exaltedness of the Creator, sublimity of the Creator. As long as he hasn't reached the exaltedness of the Creator, he's in Lo Lishma, not for her sake. When it comes to the exaltedness of the Creator, he is already in equivalence of form.
M. Laitman: In?
Student: In equivalence of form.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And until then, what does it mean to observe the exaltedness of the Creator if he's still not in equivalence?
M. Laitman: So, he is in a tendency towards it.
Student: So that tendency, does that give him strength to work, already?
M. Laitman: Could be no, so, he needs to search where to take the forces from, I guess from the friends.
Student: What does he mean by this recommendation? That the work is mainly to observe the exaltedness of the Creator if it doesn't help him?
M. Laitman: He needs to search for help, he needs to search for help.
Student: I understand, but what is this recommendation? Your main work is to examine the exaltedness of the Creator, that's already a result.
M. Laitman: No, it's not a result, it's the means.
Student: A means that gives strength?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: In what way?
M. Laitman: That he feels he has forces because he's dealing with the Great Creator.
Student: So, there's a feeling in it even before the equivalence of form?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:47) I want to ask about the time of learning: Every friend has his basis, that's his Ten, he never gets out of it and we have the time of learning. Now, during the learning, there is a very powerful force but I don't feel that I'm using it, effectively, what I'm receiving here. Do you have any advice on how to use it?
M. Laitman: Yes, ask your friends and learn from them.
Student: In the Ten?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Concerning faith above reason and looking at the greatness and importance of the Creator. That's the above reason, there's the annulment of the friend in the Ten and there's the annulment of the Ten, when we turn to Him for greatness. Now, can a friend assemble this annulment and the importance of the Creator for the whole Ten? Or does it have to be like a general thing? Is it a clear question?
M. Laitman: The question is clear, I don't think you can do that, yet.
Student: It's still ahead of us.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:19) What's the difference between, for the Creator and for the Torah?
M. Laitman: Let's say, nothing, let's say there's no difference. It's not worth getting confused.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:43) After the discussion that developed here I wanted to ask, on the way to relate to the pleasure. Is the pleasure really filling us, or just a means to scrutinize our intention towards the Giver of the pleasure and why we're even willing to receive a pleasure?
M. Laitman: I don't understand why you're so worried about it. But pleasure is a scrutiny in itself.
Student: So, is it the goal or is it a means?
M. Laitman: A means.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:31) So, what reward are we talking about in this article? The reward for the will to receive that we don't have to ask but we should ask for a reward for the will to bestow?
M. Laitman: What's the reward for the will to bestow?
Student: Closeness to the Creator, the quality of bestowal, love of friends.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That's the reward we're asking for?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:07) In the end of Correction, we're supposed to be one, to see that everything's one. So, from that, the question is who are we really working for: For ourselves or for the Creator if everything's one?
M. Laitman: At the end of correction?
Student: In the end of correction, everything's one.
M. Laitman: There's no difference, we're all adhered together and with the Creator.
Student: So, why on the path it's not enough to work for ourselves to reach that One? If everything is one in the end, what's the difference in the work if it's from me or for the Creator?
M. Laitman: Because we can't work in order to bestow. Our forces of being in order to bestow are very, very weak. This is why we have to take small steps in our whole progress.
Student: But the reward comes from Him in the end.
M. Laitman: So, what? The effort, the prayer, comes from us.
Student: Yes, but for us to adhere to Him and become one. So, somehow in the end, it's for the whole system and not only for Him but for one.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And that's the reward to reach it, that feeling.
M. Laitman: Yes, correct.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:33) Entering Lishma is through Lo Lishma and there we have to get used to working without pleasure. Receive the posterior as if it was the face and so on. So, what's the pleasure, what's the fuel there?
M. Laitman: The fuel there is the connection between us.
Student: The connection between us gives pleasure, it's fuel.
M. Laitman: But it's not the same pleasure that we reach in the end.
Student: But why is the pleasure? He says even engaging in the pleasure and Torah and the work, he gets pleasure or connection so, that's Lo Lishma.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So, what do you do?
M. Laitman: You yearn only for adhesion with the Creator.
Student: What causes the pleasure to become Lishma? How does a person find pleasure in the Creator? What allows them to do that?
M. Laitman: That I'm doing this for the Creator.
Student: I can say that but it's a lie.
M. Laitman: When can you say that it's true?
Student: When I maybe am really able to feel the pleasure not in me but in the others.
M. Laitman: Nice, so?
Student: So, but that?
M. Laitman: That what?
Student: It's hard to find that discernment, maybe in Congresses sometimes you feel like you're incorporated in a great big pleasure like an uplift of all of us towards the purpose of creation. But day to day, practically, what can you do to work on that story of, disconnecting the pleasure from a person himself and aiming it to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Impossible, impossible.
Student: You asked, what do you want when you asked? So, if our request is, we're getting into the train, into the car and driving to the purpose of creation. So, that sometimes makes you passive towards the process because you're already going. And you say, yes, we're going, we get a reward from going on. So, how to be constantly active in this?
M. Laitman: On what does the traveling, itself, the journey itself, on what does it depend?
Student: Importance.
M. Laitman: Importance. So, after you scrutinize the right direction, you only need to reveal the importance. And according to this, you are already traveling, journeying.
Student: But you answer that there should be a result from the work, from our prayers, from our requests. But if they are all only to have more forces to work for their friends, more forces to overcome, more forces to pray. You get forces for that and that's how you get the pleasure, and you're still in Lo Lishma.
M. Laitman: No, why? I want to enjoy bestowal, I'm doing this not in order to bestow. But I am bestowing, and I enjoy, this is not forbidden.
Student: I'm bestowing, me?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: And I'm enjoying the bestowal, what's enjoying bestowal?
M. Laitman: What were we saying? That if you create bestowal and people enjoy it, you, too, can enjoy it; it is not regarded as doing it for the sake of bestowal. Or is it?
Student: That is not a Klipa?
M. Laitman: Am I working for this?
Student: That's the question?
M. Laitman: A Klipa, a shell, is when I swap the Creator for something else.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:17) So, it constantly has to be those three components: Israel, the light, and the Creator. Because otherwise, you do it and what helps you advance is reality itself, it obligates. Because as long as we're dealing in connection, the circumstances force you to connect. Blows, trouble, pain, so you connect to try to get out of the state.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, the question is what is speeding up the times? Continuing that scrutiny, well, what's speeding up the time? In order to not wait for something to push you from behind?
M. Laitman: Forward. It's only connection with the group.
Student: Connection with the group.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:21) I wanted to ask about serving, we said that in the end, the purpose is to serve the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And I saw what the writings we’re studying and asked myself, what did Kabbalists write all this for? So, the answer I found was that they wrote it to serve the Creator. That was their reason to write all these writings.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, the next question is me as a student studying these writings, that their purpose is to serve the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: By studying, do we serve, let's say, Rabash right now? Is this study serving Rabash that's serving the Creator or are we serving the Creator?
M. Laitman: Serving the Creator.
Student: How can a person constantly remember that what he's doing now, with these studies, is in order to serve the Creator through his teacher, Rabash?
M. Laitman: It doesn't matter through who or through what, as long as he wants to serve the Creator.
Student: When I read these writings that we're studying together, how can I grasp this concept of serving the Creator?
M. Laitman: This is an intention that should be before the study, before the learning.
Student: I'm asking because there are all kinds of writings, like we had the letter in the beginning and this letter. The letter in the beginning of the lesson was something completely blocked that we're reading without understanding. But we're doing it in order to draw the light that reforms.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And this is supposedly, there's more to hold on to, more to deal with?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Is there something different in serving the Creator in both of them? Or is it the light that reforms, and that's enough?
M. Laitman: For now, it's enough, for now, I have to awaken the reforming light. And it already knows what to do with me.
Student: To receive the light that reforms, also something egoistic. How do I do this action in order to serve the Creator? Not in order to receive something for myself.
M. Laitman: Receiving something for yourself, you always need to, and you'll do it, anyway, so, there's no question about that. The question is what do you want as a result of it? It's like you understand that you have to breathe, I need air, I need to breathe. What for? You want to advance toward the Creator, to yearn, to cry out, to ask, to scrutinize, yes. Well, so, why do you need air? It's the same here.
Student: If the student is successful in doing the work in order to serve the Creator, everything we're doing. If he can remember that, is that enough, or is it something else? Because for me this lesson opened up a place that it sounds like the most important thing there is?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, how to be able to hold that intention without it just disappearing? Here, in half an hour we're getting out of here, and I don't know what's going to happen. How to hold on to that? It sounds like a foundation that is very essential; we don't really talk about this ‘serving’. We always say a bit in different words.
M. Laitman: We spoke many times about how to serve the friends, and that from this, we can come to serve the Creator? It just went by our ears along with many other things.
Student: But is it right to say that, to serve the friends, to serve the Rav, to serve the Creator, that's our purpose as students, and not anything else?
M. Laitman: Yes. In the end, this is our goal, to serve the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:32) Can I go back to the allegory about the rich person and his Rabbi?
M. Laitman: Well, well, yes?
Student: So, the rich person had the greatness of his Rav.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Now he's paying him those three dollars. He's disregarding the greatness of the Rav who's giving him the three dollars.
M. Laitman: So?
Student: So, is the emphasis that he has to work in order to bestow, in that payment with those three dollars? Because he took him among all the other workers specifically, to get three dollars?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, he already has the greatness, he wants to bestow to him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But he can't receive from him, he's disregarding the fact that the Rav is giving those three dollars. Is that receiving in order to bestow?
M. Laitman: Is he receiving them or not?
Student: He's disregarding it.
M. Laitman: What does it mean that he is disregarding it?
M. Laitman: Well, he feels that it's insulting him> That he's instead of the greatness of the Rav, he's giving him just three dollars, he's raising him above the simple workers only.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So, he has to give the emphasis that the Creator is giving him a gift, a payment. And out of the greatness of the Creator, he is not having greatness of the Creator for giving him three dollars, he has no interest in it.
M. Laitman: Okay, so?
Student: So, how's the attitude towards it, how does he work with those three dollars? Because if he looks at it, he doesn't appreciate the Creator giving him three dollars.
M. Laitman: There's nothing he can do, it ends the story ends.
Student: What does that mean?
M. Laitman: The story ends, he doesn't tell us what to do. That's it, we've reached this far, and that's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:02) It's written to feel the greatness of the Creator, how do you feel that?
M. Laitman: Through the greatness of the friends, we come to the greatness of the Creator.
Student: Because we learned that “from your deeds, we will know You”, yes?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, what should we discern?
M. Laitman: When you connect with everyone, with all the friends, and you want to help everyone; when you are incorporated within them, there you discover the Creator.
Student: What is the greatness that I discover more than yesterday or than before?
M. Laitman: I don't know what you had, yesterday; yesterday you weren't adhered to the friends.
Student: I discover the Creator more that is working on them? What do I discover that's greater?
M. Laitman: You discover the Creator.
Student: But it's written that I discover His greatness more and more. Not only the Creator?
M. Laitman: It depends on your vessel: When you reveal the friends, what is the size of that vessel you have? As much as you appreciate it as greater, then you reveal more of the Creator in it.
Student: What is the feeling that He's greater?
M. Laitman: A feeling I cannot describe.
Student: More of His deeds. What do I see more?
M. Laitman: Yes. Deeds, too, everything. According to the vessel you built.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:48) What's the difference between serving the Creator or bestowing contentment to the Creator upon pleasure as opposed to upon suffering?
M. Laitman: It’s, however, a person positions, himself, above what he wants to be: Above the suffering or above the pleasures?
Student: But when he receives suffering, it's like a necessary that he works for the Creator, but he doesn't receive in order to bestow. There's not a pleasure that he's asking whether he's bestowing to the Creator or not?
M. Laitman: Perhaps yes, it doesn't mean anything.
Student: That what? That there's pleasure in the suffering?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What pleasure could there be in suffering?
M. Laitman: There is, sometimes you get blows from someone but because of it you develop a good attitude, a good relation towards him. Yes, but this is not for now. We're confused enough.