Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Daily Lesson (Afternoon), March 7, 2024
Part One: Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 74. “World, Year, Soul.”
Reader: Hello, we're studying the articles of Shamati of Baal HaSulam. Today, we're studying Shamati 74. “World Year of the Soul.” Study materials can be found online in Sviva Tova, in the Arvut Systems. Shamati 74, “World Year of the Soul.” Rav, please.
M. Laitman: Let us first read the article and then we will talk.
Reading Article: (00:36) Shamati 74, World Year of the Soul, It is known that there is no reality without someone who senses the reality. Hence, when we say Nefesh de Atzilut, it means that we are sensing a certain measure of attainment in the upper abundance, and we call this measure Nefesh.
And “world” refers to the collective within that attainment, meaning that all the souls have the same form so anyone who attains that degree attains that name, Nefesh. This means that it is not necessarily that a specific individual attains that name and in that form, but that anyone who achieves that degree—which is certainly through the preparation of Kedusha [holiness] and purity—the abundance appears to him in that form called Nefesh.
We can understand that from a corporeal example applied in this world. For example, when one person says to another “Now I am going to Jerusalem,” when he says the name of the city, everyone knows and recognizes that city. They are all certain of the place he is speaking of, since those who have been to that city know what this is about.
M. Laitman: (02:42) Meaning that in this way, we need to know about the spiritual world, and if we are speaking about discernments in it of the world, your soul, then we do know what it is speaking about. If we are speaking to someone, then he also knows according to our words, what we mean. In this way, we have a certain true connection, a correct one in all of reality that we are in.
Question (Women MAK 98): (03:23) The question, Nefesh, is this the second degree after the body, and only after we attain it… Do you hear me, is my mic working?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, we hear you.
Student: Nefesh is the second degree after the body and when we attain it, we can call it a Neshama. Is that the hardest degree?
M. Laitman: No, Neshama is the general name of the spiritual part of a person, as a soul.
Student: Then why do we need a body if we are already advancing in degrees?
M. Laitman: If it could be so that we fall from those degrees, and we need to rise once again.
Student: (04:36)It is written, “according to the preparation of Kedusha and purity, the abundance appears to him.” What is the preparation of Kedusha and purity?
M. Laitman: That a person guards himself in thought, speech, and action, that he does not come out of the authority of Kedusha. He tries for his thoughts to all be in order to bestow, towards connection directed to the Creator. And by that, he wants to always remain in that.
Question (Women MAK): (05:27) Hello, dear teacher. Question: Each one is in the work with his desires and the light brings them to correction, and this is personal attainment. What does it mean to add to this picture the desires of the friends? How do we open them up and to come closer to those desires, in order to come to a mutual attainment?
M. Laitman: This is basically not simple work, we need to be in it in every degree, engaged in it in every degree. Which is why we need to carefully follow where are our thoughts, what are we talking about and reading about. Such that we won't come out of the spiritual frameworks.
Student: In the work in the Ten, there is this external understanding and feeling of the friends but unfortunately there is no internal one. What is the correct work here, to dress in their desires, or to come out of the desire?
M. Laitman: No, simply to unite in the mutual desires of your friends.
Student: The realization, actualization of desire. What is it in? I understand it is in the correction that our work is there, but what is the point, and what point is it?
M. Laitman: We need to try to agree to connect with our friends, such that it will be like it is called, as one man in one body. That there won't be any differences between us and that we will always think about one common goal, and only aspire to it.
Student: Last question, will we come to a state that we in this collective intellect have a relation to the Creator and ask for a correction? Will we be able to attain that in the Ten?
M. Laitman: Of course, without a doubt.
Question (Turkiye 2): (08:12) What is the authority of Kedusha?
M. Laitman: The authority of Kedusha is that form in which the authority of the Kedusha is that desire of ours for connection, our thoughts towards connection, and our actions towards connection. That we want to reach the general form of love that will connect us as one. All of that needs to be directed only to the Creator.
Student: Our spiritual desires sometimes disappear in front of the corporeal desires. How can we increase this spiritual desire and overcome this corporeal desire?
M. Laitman: We can try, try. Through the connection with the friends, through reading something, through all sorts of efforts that we can do in the connection between us. In the advancement from us and further towards the Creator.
Question (Women Lithuania): (10:33) To want the Creator to correct my egoistic qualities I need to form new connections with the friends and to attain their vessels, and to fulfill them. By that we attain the Creator and his greatness.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Woman MAK 5): (11:10) How in the Ten does it happen? Let's say someone attains a certain high degree and everyone else is there, already? Since we unite and take the friends' hearts, we always strive for the light to come to the Ten. Or is everyone still in their own degree?
M. Laitman: Well, imagine to yourself that now your whole Ten is at our lesson. Meaning, we are all trying to connect, and the whole Ten is aspiring to be like one person. All of the desires, and goals, and intentions, they are coming together in it, dressing in it. We want to reach such a state, and we will reach it; when will we reach it? We will depict a singular object that is trying to attain the Creator. But the forces in it will be out of Ten, the intention out of Ten. By that, it will be as a big person, and accordingly, we will move forward.
Question (Tbilisi): (12:48) Good day, dear Rav, world Kli. Overcoming the shortcomings in us determines which state we are in. If we also add gratitude, that we are constantly being grateful to the Creator and the friends, how does that influence the degree?
M. Laitman: It strengthens, it strengthens that degree. It does not make us rise but it strengthens it.
Student: So, to rise a degree, we need to overcome and overcome.
M. Laitman: Well, yes, each time we need to overcome certain obstacles.
Question (English 1): (13:45) I didn't realize what a gift I had received when I was given the recognition that I have this cast-iron heart. But to be able to strive beyond that cast-iron heart, to want of the friends, whatever that is, that's all I can channel and conduct my energies towards. But I don't know what it is I'm doing, so I'm just going to keep pressing on. Do you think that's not right?
M. Laitman: To continue to connect with everyone in the group and to push the group that you're in forward.
Question (Women ITA): (14:53) So, at this point, should our desire be that the authority of Kedusha always govern us?
M. Laitman: We do need to yearn for that, but only the authority of Kedusha will draw us and lead us to the end of correction.
Student: It should be a common desire, not a personal desire.
M. Laitman: That is desirable, yes, but even each and every one should try for it to be felt this way in him.
Question (Women Turkiye 7): (16:00) Sometimes I get stuck between my desire for the material world and my desire for the spiritual study. Even if I choose the spiritual desire, I spend a whole lesson telling myself to think about the goal and think about the goal. What can help me at this point?
M. Laitman: Only a strong group, nothing besides that, nothing else. All the time to aim oneself to the connection with the friends. To aim the friends to the goal to be together in one heart. Then you will start to feel how from day to day you are coming closer in a clear way towards the goal.
Question (Women Brazil): (17:21) The degree of Nefesh depends on our ability to build a screen above our egoistic desires?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course.
Student: The screen, it's a force that we attain? Can it be lost or does it remain forever?
M. Laitman: No, it can be lost just like it was in the shattering of the vessels, but we need to continue. We need to feel ourselves that we want to connect together. In this way, to connect the screen to everyone, the screen is managed by our common strength.
Question (Kyiv): (18:45) This example here that a foreign person who is in the city is recalling Jerusalem, everyone understands it. The question in that attainment that we all come to one attainment, then we grow?
M. Laitman: We grow together, complementing one another.
Student: It doesn't necessarily mean that we all reach one understanding.
M. Laitman: This is something the Creator will already direct.
Question (Women MAK 36): (19:32) You said in the beginning of the lesson that we need to not come out of the spiritual framework. As I understand, this is, first of all, a prayer. It could be that it's something true and then you feel it, or it could be something without any feelings. I wanted to ask about the prayer that's not true. Is it an indicator that I'm still in the spiritual framework, or I fell out?
M. Laitman: No, no, you are in it.
Student: So, it's okay?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Hadera 1): (20:20) In our world, in corporeality, there is also these concepts that are suitable. There is a time-space, but in spirituality, there is no time or space. What world, your soul, are we talking about in spirituality?
M. Laitman: In spirituality, we are talking about those concepts, but we are referring to a spiritual concept on them, when we speak about them. World, year, soul, connection, distancing. All of these things speak about spirituality, meaning closeness according to the equivalence of desires and spiritual actions or distancing, etc.
Student: According to the example of Jerusalem, probably there is also the concept of world, what is a world in spirituality?
M. Laitman: A world in spirituality, we are talking about a collection of parts of a theme that are connected together. And then their common attainment arranges for them the feeling of the world.
Question (Women Heb 2): (22:00) Regarding that example of Jerusalem, sometimes there is a feeling that also on our path before, we reached this degree of what the Kabbalists are talking about. There truly is a feeling that we are in one world. As if we are looking through the eyes of someone a few years on the path and there is a common feeling. What is this matter, this feeling before attainment?
M. Laitman: It is not a spiritual feeling; it is out of us feeling this person in this external way of ours. In this way, we also feel him more, and it is not more. Out of this, you start to connect the spiritual discernment in order to bestow between you and the Creator and so forth.
Question (Women Turkey 8): (23:13) Our reality constantly changing, are the upper worlds also constantly changing? What is constant?
M. Laitman: There is nothing constant because it is all talking about the attaining person.
Question (Woman Latin): (23:43) Can you explain to me, I feel what you are saying that everyone is in the world in the same soul. Question: Can it be that we will not meet or see each other in the spiritual world if we are not ready?
M. Laitman: Do not worry, we are connected together even if one rises faster and the second one slower. But nonetheless, we are on the same path, in the same direction, on the same route. And we are not separating from one another.
Student: Can I ask another question? What does it mean, in each article of Shamati, he says, “I heard this in a certain month, in a certain time.” Why is it important that he writes where he was when he heard it?
M. Laitman: He heard, he was at that time, in Baal HaSulam's place, he would go to him and they would speak. Accordingly, according to what they spoke about, he would write it down and an article would come out of it, that is how it happened. When I was with Rabash, he gave me this notebook that he wrote in when he came to Baal HaSulam's place. Then I copied, I photocopied a bunch of these articles. From that came out the book of Shamati and this is what he wrote on the book cover of the notebook, Shamati, I heard.
Student: But the importance of him writing that he is in different places, or it is happening on different dates, is there a certain importance to that?
M. Laitman: No, no, no, that completely, no. Read the article and try to feel it as it is. Do not start to play with it dates as if you will find something in that, nothing.
Question (Women MAK 113): (27:18) Hello, world Kli, hello dear teacher. I heard that Jerusalem is a place where everyone gathers with a clean heart. That is where we need to reach, and we want to attain it. It can be realized after the common correction. Is it so,
M. Laitman: It is so.
Student: So, it will be real if we will correct ourselves?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Spain): (28:06) The question is as follows: When you say that everything changes, you mean the correction? Does everything change except the Creator? He is talking about the creation, that everything changes besides the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes, besides the Creator, everything changes.
Question (Turkey 2): (28:47) Does advancement happen thanks to a person's will? If advancement happens due to a person's efforts and desire, then where is the Creator in all this?
M. Laitman: The Creator is a force that from it comes a certain beam of light to a person and opens up in a person's desires and thoughts in such a way that it is all new. Without this force, a person does not live for even a single moment.
Question (Women Turkey 7): (29:45) Today for the first time, I'm concerned about the fact that our survival and spiritual progress in the work depends on the strength of the Ten, the connection between us. I'm afraid of not being able to strengthen this connection right now. What can I do about this concern?
M. Laitman: It is a must; you must see yourself that you are in the Ten and that you are concerned that the whole Ten will come closer more and more to the Creator. All in all, what we are learning in the wisdom of Kabbalah are those degrees, stages, that we need to pass in our desire until the end of correction. We by that, correct all of our desires for them all to be aimed to the Creator.
Question (Women Ukraine 2): (31:10) What is form in spirituality?
M. Laitman: Form in spirituality, this is the combination of the screen and the desire that they are constantly changing.
Student: How do we change one form for another?
M. Laitman: We aspire with greater strength, with a greater revelation of the Creator, and with more strength of connection between us, and in that way we change.
Question (Tbilisi): (32:06) Now there was a question from a friend that is praying for us to reach the state that the Creator is operating us. Sorry for being so open but what is this nature, what's happening in me that I cannot see Him as the first? What is this nature of mine?
M. Laitman: This is what the Creator did in you, so calm down.
Student: But there is a great shame in me.
M. Laitman: It is okay, it is not so bad, no one sees it, does not know it.
Student: But you're teaching us to see this.
M. Laitman: We need to see this just in order to rise above it.
Student: Where do I rise with this, it's into a prayer?
M. Laitman: To the Creator, the Creator.
Student: For Him to give it to us.
M. Laitman: Yes, and there are plenty of such degrees ahead of us.
Question (Women MAK 41): (33:31) How do we connect our desires such that we'll all be ready to be the last in the correction? Can we ask for this from the Creator?
M. Laitman: We do not need to be last, we simply ask the Creator altogether for Him to bring us closer and closer to Him, to the quality of bestowal and love.
Question (Women MAK 113): (34:18) If I still can't feel the desire of the friend but I know their desire is to correct the ego and come closer to the Creator, is that enough for me in order to unite? Or must I feel those desires?
M. Laitman: It is enough for now, and later on the desires will be clear, and we'll be able to feel them and ask for each desire.
Question (Hadera 1): (35:00) Can we say that the difference between the nature of our world in comparison to spirituality, that it's discrete, there are quantum’s and etc.?
M. Laitman: So, what?
Student: That's simply the question, is it correct?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Because the science of today is coming to that. What is this mechanism where here it's discrete and there it's analog?
M. Laitman: No, there is a connection between this and that, and the transition is not such a problem. It is just for us, just towards our senses.
Question (Women MAK 41): (35:56) We have another two questions, Rav, if we can: Can friends share spiritual desires with each other?
M. Laitman: They can.
Student: Second question: We learn that someone wants to swallow up the whole world, and then there's a certain fear of being swallowed up. What is this fear here? Where is this trepidation towards the Creator of love?
M. Laitman: Love conquers all the fears and all the problems.
Question (Women MAK 36): (36:40) Question about being dependent on the Ten. There's this feeling that all of the ascents depend on the common work in the Ten. If, out of my own efforts, I can tell the Creator to raise this and adhere to the Ten. But how can I turn to the Creator if I don't have a true desire and that importance of the goal, the true one that we're always talking about?
M. Laitman: You ask, nonetheless.
Student: Just ask, and that's it.?
M. Laitman: Yes, just ask, nonetheless.
Question (Women Rus 10): (37:23) What does it mean to be in spiritual frameworks?
M. Laitman: It means to always be in the connection with the Creator.
Student: It's when all of our thoughts are aimed towards benefiting the other?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women ITA): (37:54) Rav, is this level of Nefesh a perception of togetherness, of abundance? Or is it a suitable form to feel how the Creator works on us?
M. Laitman: Both this and that, both this and that.
Student: We feel, at first, the Creator, He works with the Ten, with our Tens; and at the end with ourselves?
M. Laitman: I am sorry, we did not understand the question. Did someone understand it? If you can repeat it.
Student: I need to feel that the Ten on the one hand is working with the Ten; and the other hand, is working personally with me?
M. Laitman: Together, that I am connected to the Ten, and by that, I am connected to the Creator. By that, we are working on it together.
Question (Women Ukraine 2): (39:54) Lately, I felt this huge responsibility when I feel hatred, I feel a certain fear, that by that, I'm causing harm. The correct work in this state, is it a true prayer out of that state, can I pray for all the friends that are feeling it? And for the Creator to help us to rise above this, or what is the true prayer, in any case, that needs to be there?
M. Laitman: The most correct and simplest prayer is that you ask the Creator to get revealed to everyone in this world. Then everyone will understand what they are living for, and how they need to live.
Question (Women Kyiv 7): (40:53) Thank you, dear Rav. We've never been in Jerusalem. How will we understand, what will be this elevator that will raise us, because we will go crazy from not understanding these things?
M. Laitman: You do not need to go crazy; you simply need to be aimed between you and towards the Creator, that is, there is nothing else.
Question (Women MAK 26): (41:29) Dear Rav, when we're uniting in the Ten, in that unity, we come to one form of the soul?
M. Laitman: Yes, well, let us say, yes, it is one form of the soul.
Student: We, nonetheless, everyone feels something of one's own and in one's own measure.
M. Laitman: This will all get clarified later on, but now we just need to aspire towards connection between us and the Creator.
Question (Women Moscow 20): (42:18) Yes, dear Rav, hello, question from the Ten: When we read a certain article, and after reading it, each one takes something out of it according to one's own sensation. How do we synchronize and reach, like it's written in this article, “that Jerusalem will be one Jerusalem for everyone to come to a singular understanding and feeling.”
M. Laitman: It all depends on the Creator, He still cannot give you, at the same time, all of you, a common impression from certain spiritual objects. You still don't have the vessel for that.
Student: Meaning, regardless of all of us working in the Ten, and maximally trying to invest into it. But, nonetheless, the feeling up until a certain point will be different for each one?
Question (German): (43:28) Is reality change according to how we attain it?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Student: Do we need to perceive reality and attain it in one perception, in one attainment?
M. Laitman: Well, it is desirable, but it does not happen right away, gradually we will come closer to that.
Student: The last question, is the solution that the Ten needs to reach one common perception, one common attainment?
M. Laitman: Yes, it's desirable to reach one perception, one common attainment to the whole Ten, then surely you are already rising to the next degree.
Question (Women, MAK 97): (44:54) Dear teacher, the article is called, “World, Year, Soul”. The world and the soul is clear, but what is the year? Is it a certain time we are all in the same degree?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Siberia): (45:18) I wanted to clarify. Sometimes a person, a certain materialistic intellect, tries to build some understanding, which is far from us. Before the lesson, we read the article, and we try to form questions. Are there certain questions that lead to its connection, and certain questions that don't?
M. Laitman: No, I would not say it so, no.
Student: Meaning, we accept any of the friend's aspirations, we try to answer every question that comes up.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women MAK 56): (46:05) Good day, teacher. We have one spiritual desire for everyone, which is my serving with love, and by that, we serve the Creator. But what do we do with the desires of the corporeal world, which are constantly growing?
M. Laitman: As much as possible, we need to fill them if they are not at the expense of the friends and the connection in the group.
Student: So, we don't need to restrict them and just focus on the spiritual?
M. Laitman: No, no, you do not need to.
Student: Well, they are also coming, right, from the Creator, and we need to realize them in a certain way and invert them for His sake?
M. Laitman: We do not need to be directed especially towards that. We need to try; we need to try to connect between us so the Creator will be revealed between us.
Question (Women MAK 25): (47:23) Thank you, Rav. When we reveal a certain difference in perceptions between us, how do we work with this correctly? Do we leave it as is, or do we accept it as this multitude of feelings? Should we argue or prove things to each other, what do we do?
M. Laitman: Only look at the love between you. Is it such that the Creator will get revealed there? We need to acquire such a quality that will be similar to the Creator, and then He will get revealed there. The quality that needs to be between us is mutual love. Let us try to connect such between us that the Creator will be able to get revealed.
Question (Women Azerbaijan): (48:25) I'll try to correctly formulate my question regarding year: In a wider sense, in the common system of Adam HaRishon, there's like this development. There's this common attainment, which is called year and whoever is in it, there's these changes in development. Is it tied to the holidays throughout the year?
M. Laitman: It is not tied to any holidays; it is not connected.
Student: Here, we're not looking from that point of view, just from our personal development. There's this change in our Kli?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women MAK 41): How do we come to Jerusalem? I simply wanted to ask, is it better to ask the Creator about the unity between us, or for the love between us?
M. Laitman: It is better to ask about the unity.
Question (Women English 1): (49:57) Good morning. When you start, the friend, you can hear what the friend said, like something happened this morning. The friend needed something and was in difficulty. You start, without even being there physically with the friend, you can feel the friend inside you. You can hear the voice of the friend and then things just click. It's as if you begin to communicate to the friend without language. The language is now between the hearts. Does that mean we're coming closer when we start feeling that way?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, Shiela.
Question (Women MAK 5): (51:05) Did I understand correctly that no one in the Ten can attain the next degree until everybody attains the previous one?
M. Laitman: Well, it is not totally true, it's not totally correct. A person can, by himself or independently, to rise and connect in different Tens. This is all ahead of us. The main thing is to aspire to realize these things.
Question (English 1): (51:51) Hello, Rav. Is it possible for a Ten to gather together in a focused attack, no matter what state each is coming from, with an intense focused preparation to reach a common perception together?
M. Laitman: Yes, it can, yes.
Question (Women German): (52:24) What is my force of connection that the Ten depends on? Does it depend on the desire, the effort that I'm making? Or is there a certain strength that the Ten gives me?
M. Laitman: It is more than the general force that is in the Ten, more than that general force.
Question (Women Ukraine 2): (53:22) I don't know how to ask it, but there's this feeling of those that are going to Jerusalem, those are the righteous, is it so?
M. Laitman: Yes, correct.
Student: They help us to rise, and we need to form a common screen with them, and this way we will rise?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women French): (54:03) It is not always clear, do we need to reach the understanding of a spiritual matter before we attain it? Or because each one of us attains it in the common way, then there is an understanding, this common understanding?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Maybe I'll repeat the question. She's asking, how do we reach a state that everyone has the same attainment? Is it because each one understands it in a personal way, and then we reach this inclusive understanding?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Question (Women Beer Sheva 1): (54:50) I wanted to ask, as if I understand from the lessons for a long time, that there is no time. Everything happens simultaneously. The question is, first of all, is that correct? If you're in connection with all the states from beginning to end?
M. Laitman: You are about to get really, really confused. It is not important but the story you are entering into does not give you the possibility to advance. So stop yourself and return to studying in a simple way. You read an article a few times and then ask if you have a question, and that is it.
Question (Women MAK 38): (56:03) I love all my friends. I can connect with one of them easily, but all together, I can't, although individually, I love each one. But to connect all together?
M. Laitman: Why can't you do it all together?
Sudent: Well, they're all, as if, individually, individuals.
M. Laitman: That is clear. So, well, try to do it together, as one, as one whole.
Question (Women Turkey 8): (56:48) How do we get rid of all sorts of illusions and the relations between us, and come to the real connection?
M. Laitman: This will happen to us along the way, we will reach state after state after state. Gradually you will feel yourself clean from all of the nonsense and disturbances. Then we will reach the correct form, that is it. So goodbye to everyone and until tomorrow.
Reader: (57:36) A few announcements before the end.
Song: (58:16)