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

Daily Lesson (Morning) October 18, 2024.

Part 1: Rabash. Letter No. 36

Reader: Hello, we are reading in the writings of Rabash, Letter No. 36. You can find the study material on Arvut and in the site; you can ask questions there. Here in the hall, anyone who wants to ask a question should stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth, and speak loudly and clearly. The writings of Rabash, Letter No. 36.

Reading: (00:46) Letter No. 36. Eve of Sukkot, October 9, 1957, Manchester

To the friends in the Holy Land, may they live forever,

This week, I received two letters from… and regarding his question… I will answer privately.

In general, our sages said, “Anyone who is idle with the eulogy of a sage should be buried in his life” (Shabbat 105). We should ask, “Why does he deserve such a harsh punishment?” We should know that idleness always stems from absence of deficiency. Only there is there idleness. But where there is a deficiency, there are always movements in order to seek advice how to satisfy the lack. This is why specifically one who does not feel any lack in the departure of the sage, it is apparent in the eulogy of the sage—when he is idle in the eulogy of the sage.

The question is, “Why does he not feel the lack in the departure of the sage?” It must be said that during the sage’s life he also did not receive anything from the sage, so he does not feel any lack upon the sage’s departure.

This is why he should be buried in his life, meaning during the sage’s life. It is not necessarily now that he is not all right, as he is idle in his eulogy. Rather, back then he was already not all right. This is why “buried in his life” means during the life of the sage.

However, there is a cure to all this. Conversely, “One who degrades a wise disciple, there is no cure to his plight” (Shabbat 119). In other words, if he does not settle for being idle with the eulogy of a sage but says that he is standing on the same degree with the sage, in connection, there is no greater degradation to a wise disciple than this, and our sages said, “There is no cure to his plight.” Instead, he keeps falling lower and lower until he shows to everyone his true form, meaning that his Torah becomes to him a potion of death.

My general answer is that the festival of Sukkot explains all the questions, even the hardest and worst, for it is known that Sukkah is the “shadow of faith,” and with respect to the judgment, its shade must be bigger than its sun.

It is also known that the sun implies knowing, and the moon implies faith. It is as our sages said, “Israel count by the moon, and the nations of the world count by the sun.” That is, each time we see the sun, and that it is more than the shade, we must cover more so that the shade will be more than the sun.

And if one is rewarded and does not add shade on his own, there is mercy on him from above and the sun is covered for him. But then a person becomes angry because he understands otherwise. According to the person’s reason, if he has sun, he wishes to have more sun, but “My thoughts are not your thoughts,” and he is given more shade.

And if a person overcomes the shade, he is given “a sun,” and then he must add shade. If he does not add, he is given shade from above, and so forth until he is rewarded with eternal Dvekut (adhesion).

However, we must exert excessively to receive the shade and say it is a holy shade, that all this shade came from above and not from the Sitra Achra, that it was given so he would be able to assume faith. At that time, it is called “shadow of faith” and it is holy, as in, “The ways of the Lord are straight, the righteous walk in them and the wicked,” etc.

This is the meaning of making the thatch from the waste of barn and winery. Baal HaSulam explained that Goren (barn) comes from the words Ger Anochi (I am a foreigner), and Yekev (winery) from the words, Nokev Shem Hashem (mentioning the name of the Lord). To interpret the words of Baal HaSulam, the thatch is the shadow of faith, called “faith above reason.” This is opposite to reason, for reason brings him into waste, to barn, and to winery.

That is, from the perspective of reason, the way the corporeal eyes see it, there is room for waste of barn and winery. From this in itself he makes a shadow and sits under it. That is, he makes for himself a seat out of all those lowest and worst things, and through the waste observes the Mitzva (commandment) of Sukkah.

Most importantly, he derives joy from this Mitzva because faith above reason is called “joy of Mitzva.” It follows that all the quandaries and questions that exist in reality are corrected in the Sukkah, for without them it is impossible to make a thatch.

And one must be a good guest in this regard and say, “All that the landlord has done, he has done only for me.” That is, one must say with the mouth that everything that is happening in the world—that there are people who suffer and are mistreated—is only so that I can receive the good, meaning to keep faith. Even though I see the bad in people, it is in order to be able to assume the burden of the kingdom of heaven.

Moreover, it is to say that others will suffer pain only so I can receive. In truth, it is hard to say this. But if a person works specifically in order to bestow contentment upon his maker, then he himself is completely inconsequential. Instead, everything is only for the Creator. At that time, if the person does not stand in the middle, then everyone can say that when he says, “The landlord has troubled himself only for me,” meaning so that I could continue with the work of faith, is only for the Creator and not for himself.

When a person is concerned with pleasures, it is difficult to deceive oneself and say that the whole world was created only for him. But when a person is concerned with the sake of the Creator, it is not so difficult to believe, since the self is completely inconsequential.

It follows from all the above that the thatch, called “shade,” is made specifically from the waste of barn and winery. This is the meaning of what we say in the prayer inside the Sukkah, “And to take refuge from rain and torrent.” It means that faith saves a person from all the harm doers, since harm doers are alien thoughts and alien views, and faith is built, specifically on waste. Only in this way is there refuge from rain and torrent; otherwise, one follows the trends of the world.

The torrent is something that sustains the earth, since people who are still are nourished only by reason, and only reason sustains them. Where reason does not reach, they cannot hold out, and this reason keeps these people still.

But one who wishes to be as the vegetative must not accept this reason as support, since that torrent is unsuitable for one who wishes to walk on the path of truth. And if a person fails and takes support from that reason, he will immediately suffer a descent and a fall to the bottom of hell.

However, the still can keep them and do not suffer any falls. This is why they always seek reason, to support their work. In order not to fail in this reason, which is called “torrent,” there is power in the above-mentioned thatch, as we say, “to take refuge from rain and torrent.” This settles the questions, and may we be rewarded with the shadow of faith.

In order to understand the matter more clearly, I will copy for you an article from a letter of Baal HaSulam for you to delve in and nourish your souls. These are his words: “And by the way, I will clarify for you the meaning of the charity for the poor, which is so praised in The Zohar, the Tikkunim, and by our sages: There is an organ in man with which it is forbidden to work. Even if the smallest of the small desires to work with it still exists in man, that organ remains afflicted and stricken by the Creator. It is called ‘poor,’ for its entire sustenance and provision are by others working for it and pitying it.

“This is the meaning of the words, ‘Anyone who sustains a single soul from Israel, it is as though he sustains an entire world.’ Since the organ depends on others, it has no more than its own sustenance. And still, the Creator regards it as though he sustained an entire world, that this itself is the entire blessing of the world and everything in it, multiplied and completed solely by the force of that poor soul, which is sustained by the work of other organs.

“This is the meaning of ‘And He took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens...’ and he believed in the Lord and reckoned it to him as righteousness.’ That is, by taking it outside, there was some desire to work with this organ; this is why He forbade him the work. This is why it was said, ‘Now look toward the heavens.’ At the same time, he was given the promise of the blessing of the seed.

“These are tantamount to two opposites in the same subjects, since all his seed, which is to be blessed, necessarily comes from this organ. Thus, when he is not working, how will he find a seed?

“This is the meaning of ‘And he believed in the Lord,’ meaning that he accepted those two receptions as they were, both the complete prohibition on the work, and the promise of the blessing of the seed. And how did he receive them? This is why he concludes, ‘And [he] reckoned it to him as righteousness,’ meaning as the form of charity [Tzedakah means both “charity” and “righteousness”] for a poor [person] who is sustained by the work of others.

“This is the meaning of the two sayings of our sages: One [person] thought that the Creator would treat him with righteousness, meaning keep and sustain him without work, and one thought that Abraham would act with righteousness toward the Creator. Both are the words of the loving God, for prior to the correction, that organ is in heaven, and the charity is counted for the lower one. At the end of his correction, it is achievable, and then the Tzedakah is counted for the upper one. Know and sanctify for it is true.” Thus far his words.

I ask that each of you will write to me the meaning of the above words of Baal HaSulam, for it is a wonderful article.

And now let us arrange the work of the winter, which is the time of working during the long nights. Thus far I have been speaking from the perspective of the left, called “the left rejects.” This requires a lot of work and toil to overcome all the obstacles and all the alien views and thoughts. However, we should also engage in the right, as our sages said, “Make your Torah (teaching) permanent and your work temporary.” Torah is regarded as right, which is wholeness. A person should regard himself perfect with virtues and noble qualities. He should adapt the works in Torah and Mitzva as is suitable for a whole person as much as one can.

However, one must not regret it if one is unable to complete one’s will. That is, if a person wishes to do plentiful good deeds and study of Torah, but cannot, he should not regret it but be happy while working in the right. He should be content with whatever he can do, and praise and thank His name for being able to do a small service to the King. Even a minute a day or a minute in two days should be to him like finding a great treasure.

And even if it is a simple deed, meaning without vitality, he should still try to be happy and derive vitality from being allowed to serve the King. This is how he should be during the study, meaning whole. This is regarded as Torah, which is right, as it is written, “On His right was a fiery law.” For every opportunity, one must praise the Creator.

I heard from Baal HaSulam that with the praise and gratitude one gives to the Creator for nearing the Creator, one draws the light of His holiness below. A person should feel whole, and then he is regarded as blessed, and the blessed clings to the blessed. But when a person regards himself as cursed, the cursed does not cling to the cursed, as our sages said.

Therefore, you must regard yourselves as whole while performing Torah and Mitzvot (commandments). At that time, you must not find any flaw in you, as it is written, “Anyone in whom there is a flaw shall not approach.” This is called “Torah,” meaning wholeness.

But only Torah is also not good, as our sages said, “He who engages only in Torah, it is as though he has no God,” as it is said, “And many days to Israel without a true God” (Avoda Zara 17).

“Days” is regarded as wholeness, meaning Torah. “Many” means that he engages only in Torah, and then he is “without a true God.” It is so because in the left, specifically this work guides on the path of truth. This is the meaning of “It is good to study Torah together with conducts, for toiling in both mitigates iniquity,” and “Any Torah without work is eventually annulled and induces iniquity.”

You might ask, “Why does Torah alone not only not mitigate, but also induce iniquity?” The reason is that if we do not walk on the path of truth, we remain as, “If they are not rewarded, a potion of death.” And that work, discerned as the kingdom of heaven, only this discernment is regarded as work and labor. This is why our sages said that specifically toiling in both mitigates iniquity. But “Do little work and plentiful study; make your Torah permanent and your work temporary,” because most of the day, a person must walk on the right, and a little bit of the day in the work of purity in mind and heart.

I will end my letter with hope that we will be rewarded with eternal Dvekut with His name.

Baruch Shalom, Son of Baal HaSulam

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:16) He writes, “Rain is something that sustains the land, because people who are still are not nourished, except only from reason. And then he continues, those who want to be vegetative must not accept reason as support. And if a person fails and takes support from reason, he immediately gets a descent and a fall to the bottom of hell. There's a distinction here between the work of the still and the work of the vegetative. They must not settle for something on the level of still. What does it mean to take this reason as support?

M. Laitman: If you've reached the vegetative degree, meaning you have to rise to that degree and not remain in the inanimate degree.

Student: The difference between remaining as still or as vegetative means settle for reason. What does it mean that I settle for a reason – for some reason?

M. Laitman: When you rise from the previous reason and you rise to another degree.

Student: I have to think about it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:00) He talks about the prayer in the Sukkah, which is taking refuge from rain and torrent. What's special about this prayer in the Sukkah because, yesterday at the noon lesson, you told us that I have to keep within me all the waste and raise them for commandment. What is this act?

M. Laitman: The action in the Sukkah – the prayer in the Sukkah, it's like a prayer in the temple, one resembles the other. And that's how we need to relate to this prayer.

Student: We said the thatch is building the screen. What's so special about the prayer when you build the screen because you feel it, because in the end the Creator gives us the screen. But how by overcoming this waste, how does the prayer help us get stronger in the screen?

M. Laitman: Because we assemble together according to the commandments of the Creator, meaning the state He suggests we enter for a while, let's say for the time of prayer, for a few hours. This state resembles the general state of nature – the beginning of the Sukkot, let's say, the festival of Sukkot. And that is why we need to accept it with joy and with confidence that we're doing something right and do it.

Student: Is Sukkot a matter of time or a state, a state on the path?

M. Laitman: No, it's a matter of time.

Student: What's special about this time that I can receive there?

M. Laitman: I can't tell you what's special about it, that's what the Creator, the Creator decided. It's during these times, once a year, that we need to perform such and such actions.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:04) There's a whole description there of an organ that's called poor, that you can't work with it, only the other organs work for him, and thanks to it, his seed is blessed. What is this whole description, what is it about?

M. Laitman: That there is a certain action that we should not take because it's not, it's not qualified, yet. One who heeds this warning and doesn't work with it, receives a reward.

Student: Is this an act that's revealed at a certain stage to a person's state?

M. Laitman: Yes, specifically when he works on the correction. That the one that's written that we need to perform during the Sukkot.

Student: And what is all this look toward the Heaven? There's a whole description of how to work with that state.

M. Laitman: I don't know, yet, I didn't feel that this question, in this order, is rising in me and is required.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:48) He writes, “he should not regret if he cannot complete his desire, meaning if he has a desire to do many good deeds and study Torah, but he can't, he should not regret it, but be happy during the work of the right. And whatever he can do, he should be happy with this, share and thank his name for being able to do the smallest service to the king, even a minute a day or a minute in two days, it should be to him like finding a great treasure”.

M. Laitman: Yes, a description of the work on the right.

Student: Right, so if we go to our world, I want to be, I don't know, some big CEO or something, I have to do many great things in order to come to it. And here it tells you we want to achieve attainment, achieve something very, very great. And it tells you that it's enough to be content with very little actions, as if you've gained a great treasure. Why is it like that?

M. Laitman: Because you're already in a few of those small actions; when you're doing it you are working in wholeness, you're touching it, you're approaching it.

Student: Sometimes we feel on the path that we are able to do something we have opportunities, and also the ability. But in practice we don't do or we do little so that creates a feeling that you're missing out, you're not okay, you're not doing enough. Is that feeling incorrect according to what he writes, here?

M. Laitman: Yes, but here, we're saying that the Creator opens up the connection with him, with the person, and the person accordingly sees his state. In which degree he is in, which process, how near or far he is from carrying out the desire of the Creator in full.

Student: So, the approach of that person on the path should be that, if I can lift one gram, that's what I was given from above. I'll lift this gram because that's what I can do, right now.

M. Laitman: And additionally, you see how much you could be doing if the conditions were different.

Student: Exactly, now I want to take it to the Ten. Regarding relation to the friends, we often see friends look and say, wait a minute, he can do a lot more, he can come more to the lessons, he can do this, that. And then we are on the left line, we are critical of them. So, here too, we need to see, let's say I look at a friend and I think he can do more, he comes very little. So, should I look at every time he comes to something very great?

M. Laitman: Yes, you have to hope that each one is doing as much as they can.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:22) He says, twice, in the beginning of the article that all the questions in reality are corrected in the Sukkah. In the beginning, too, he said that the festival of Sukkot answers all the questions, even the hardest and worst. What is it about the Sukkah that all the questions and all the problems are answered in the Sukkah?

M. Laitman: Because you have all the tools and instruments which is the waste of the barnyard and winery. And also, all the opportunities to take care of these instruments in order to establish the Sukkah in wholeness.

Student: It's as if all the problems and issues a person can't understand within reason, you can accept them above reason, is this why it's everything? You either resolve something within reason or even, if not, go above reason. There you'll find the answers to the difficult questions?

M. Laitman: Let's say.

Student: There's also the matter of a Mitzvah with joy and faith that have to go together. From where does joy come, here, what's the great joy?

M. Laitman: It's written about the festival of Sukkot that you should be happy, in it's true great gladness.

Student: Joy from what?

M. Laitman: Joy from coming to adhesion with the Torah through our actions. We do them in concealment, in revelation, we are grateful to the Creator for giving us the festival of Sukkot where we can incorporate in certain actions and reach the complete adhesion.

Student: Are the actions to go with faith above reason?

M. Laitman: Not only, in whatever we need to do during this festival; you need to sit in the Sukkah, you need to eat, you need to drink, to make the blessings. All sorts of things.

Student: How do these activities help me?

M. Laitman: How, I don't know how they help but I'm certain they help because there's a commandment for us to keep them.

Student: And with this commandment we have to go above reason?

M. Laitman: To keep them, to observe them, yes! We need to be above reason.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:50) If I understand correctly, the Creator gives both the sun and the shade.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And a person's reaction, if the Creator gives the sun, meaning some illumination, awakening. The reaction of the person is to add shade to it. He says it's a must, otherwise it causes iniquities and stuff.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And the reaction, what should a person's reaction be if he gets shade?

M. Laitman: He uses what he received.

Student: Then he gets the waste of barn and winery?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Why, if I sit in a Sukkah, with a waste of barn and winery and alien thoughts and all those things under a screen for a week, why does it help my spiritual advancement?

M. Laitman: The answer should be that I don't know but it's a desire, the will of the Creator who arranged the forces of nature in such a way that a person can use them in such instances. Meaning in such time and motion and place he can connect with other people and with the Creator and see how much he's, to what extent he's connected with godliness and blessed with all his vessels for that.

Student: What I don't understand is why does sitting with foreign thoughts because he writes here that during the work on the right, the work of Torah, you have to constantly be happy with your share and be thankful for every nearing, even if nearing is seemingly negative from the Creator. It's the Creator calling him so he's constantly happy with the work. But here he describes in the Sukkah something I don't understand, sitting together with foreign thoughts under the thatch. Meaning under some resistance to these foreign thoughts and just be with them for a week, what is this work?

M. Laitman: This is the work of scrutiny; during this state where a person raises himself to the Sukkah, here too, he needs to perform the work of sorting and scrutinizing. And where he is in connection with it and continue his advancement towards the Creator.

Student: Is it a matter of recognition of evil, to understand where is far, where is near?

M. Laitman: He scrutinizes it on the way.

Student: Alright, happy holiday, everyone!

M. Laitman: Yes, it's a great holiday. We don't quite understand it, yet; but it's a great, great holiday, extremely special.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:10) First of all, about that, what is very special, very great, very joyful in this holiday?

M. Laitman: In this holiday, we discover the connection of all the people with the Creator, we bless Him and He accepts our blessing. And creates the right connection between us and elevates us to the degree of the end of correction.

Student: All people?

M. Laitman: All the people.

Student: Or only the Kabbalists?

M. Laitman: No, no, no, no, Kabbalists, simple Jews, and the nations of the world; to each and every one, there is a room or a place to thank the Creator for the ascent He gives them on the holiday of Sukkot.

Student: Even if a person is not aware of it?

M. Laitman: Well, he's not aware, it's the same as him not being aware on a different holiday.

Student: The Sukkot, is that an internal spiritual state a person goes through along the way? Or is this something that happens with the upper one?

M. Laitman: It's an internal state of a person that happens to him at a certain date in this world. Together with other people who are in the same attainment, feeling, yes.

Student: What is special during that time? How can we use it more? How can we use this time to approach the Creator even more?

M. Laitman: Only to learn, study materials that are connected to Sukkot.

Student: I want to ask about what he wrote here. He writes, a person should say with his mouth that everything that is happening in the world, that there are people who suffer and are mistreated, is only so that I can receive the good, meaning to keep faith.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Can you explain that?

M. Laitman: Maybe a little. There are many people who are suffering, even on the holiday of Sukkot. So, a person should say that that suffering, that people suffer. A little bit, this way, that way, all kinds. Opposite that, he was rewarded with receiving a force, strength, or a good. And he is willing to convey to them, to pass this goodness onto them so they will feel these things opposite the evil.

Student: And how do I pass the good to them? How, in what way do I pass the good to the people who suffer? With what? Using what?

M. Laitman: By what do I convey to them? I don't know, well, through connection, through incorporation, through prayer.

Student: I see people suffer.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What do I need to do now with their suffering from that point? How do I use the suffering of the people, the nation, the world correctly?

M. Laitman: Use so that through the suffering that they feel, that they will receive, they will learn the right actions by which they can neutralize the suffering and transform it into reception of pleasures.

Student: Is it their suffering or is it mine that I see it?

M. Laitman: No, it's theirs.

Student: So how does it bring a person to the quality of faith?

M. Laitman: Faith comes afterwards. Faith comes afterwards. It's a force that after a person arranges, equalizes himself with others, he finds there a place for faith as well. How to add faith.

Student: It said that a person must say with the mouth that everything that is happening in the world, that there are people who suffer and are mistreated, is only so that I can receive the good, meaning to keep the faith.

M. Laitman: Well, that's incidental. It's not a general law.

Student: Meaning they don't suffer so that I will reach faith.

M. Laitman: Perhaps some of them do.

Student: That's how the system works, a part is suffering?

M. Laitman: The system works out of its wholeness, which is that it is one. And then when you take each part individually, something happens in it that's suitable for that part at a certain time, at a certain state.

Student: So, when I see a part in the system that is suffering, when I see it, what does it say about me, about my part in the system?

M. Laitman: That you were incorporated with a part that suffers.

Student: Above?

M. Laitman: And then you have to correct it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:40) To overcome the foreign thoughts, does that mean to open the left line?

M. Laitman: Overcoming foreign thoughts means that I am walking on the right line.

Student: Right line?

M. Laitman: To be incorporated with the foreign thoughts might be left, but walking on it, meaning correcting them, that's already right.

Student: If I correct, it's the right, if I incorporate, it's the left.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:27) Throughout the entire letter, the Rabash says that you can build a thatch roof, the screen, only from the waste of a barnyard and winery, only from that waste. We talked about it yesterday, but I wanted to ask, what exactly is this waste that Rabash refers to in the letter?

M. Laitman: A barn and winery, that's clear to us. These are places from which we get food. And in making the food, we always also see that we have some waste left. So, from that waste of barn and winery, we also can get some profit, let's call it, let's put it this way, spiritual one. If I relate correctly to everything I do in this world, and therefore I justify the Creator for anything He does that is good, and also for all the things that seemingly turn out bad, seemingly, meaning for the one hundred percent of the work of the Creator in my eyes that He created for me, the waste in barn and winery, I can say that I am thankful to Him and I accept it one hundred percent, completely. And then the Creator is whole in my eyes, nature is whole, etc.

Student: The waste relates to my attitude to the Creator?

M. Laitman: Waste? Yes, of course. When I do this, I create it when I engage in processing the barn and winery.

Student: Meaning my attitude toward the Creator, the way I relate to the Creator is called waste, and the main work during the Sukkot?

M. Laitman: No, no, no, not my relationship.

Student: Excuse me, my attitude toward what the Creator reveals to me, is that correct?

M. Laitman: What I discover in my work in nearing the Creator, that work is the work of the Creator, but a part of it I discover as waste.

Student: And that specific portion I need to raise and turn it into a thatched roof?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does it mean to lift it and make it into a screen? What is this action?

M. Laitman: To turn it above reason into something holy. With a part of what I dealt with I can turn it into bread and wine, and a part that I couldn't turn into bread and wine, I turn it into a cover.

Student: Meaning, even though I cannot accept it using the same metaphor, I can't eat it all, I have to turn it into something important?

M. Laitman: I accept it anyhow, this way, right? I don't throw it out. In my eyes, it's not redundant, it's not a shell.

Student: And this is called the building of faith, that's what he's talking about?

M. Laitman: Yes. So what I do in the Sukkah, because I use the waste, right? From what I use to build the walls, it is all waste. But I elevate it into usefulness, and to use not that I need it, but the Creator told me to do this.

Student: If we try to connect it to the stage we are in, what is the parallel of the waste on the level of our work? What is the waste of our work today in the Ten?

M. Laitman: Things I cannot use for holiness, but in the case of Sukkot, there is hardly any waste. I use everything that comes to me from the field, and I elevate all of it on the roof above my head.

Student: Meaning, also in our work, there are all kinds of states where things lose importance in my eyes or I don’t know how to use them.

M. Laitman: Yes, usually, but if I do this special work, according to the command of the Creator it becomes holy work.

Student: For example, raising importance for things that were previously not important, the friends?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes. I built a Sukkah, you walk into the Sukkah, when you walk into the Sukkah, you walk outside, you kiss the thatch. That's the way it is.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:22) To continue, what kind of waste do you throw out and don't use, and which wastes do you raise above your head in importance?

M. Laitman: From this waste of barn and winery, you use everything, and what you can't use absolutely, this you throw away. And even if you throw it away, you bury it in some special place.

Student: How can a person make the distinction? Because initially, there are things that look like waste, total waste. He gives the example of the poor, but upon looking at him, his outstretched hand, he looks despicable. On the other hand, he sustains the world, so he can't make the distinction.

M. Laitman: You don't need to distinguish, you need to relate to it to begin with as something holy.

Student: How can you look at everything as holy? When you see a poor person with an outstretched hand, you disparage him. He looks like he lives at the expense of everyone. Why doesn't he get a job? You don't see anything holy about him.

M. Laitman: You need to correct yourself.

Student: So only after the correction will you be able to?

M. Laitman: You don't need to do it later. Now, before you approach the poor one, you have to already be corrected, and then you accept him correctly.

Student: What kind of preparation, action? Let's say I'm not corrected. How to approach the world in a more corrected way to use everything on my path in a more corrected way?

M. Laitman: By the poor one is doing you a favor. He's showing you a part of the work that you cannot do. The fact that you give him what belongs to the poor, it's to his merit.

Student: So I have to walk with the idea that I have to turn everything into a thatch, I have to use it?

M. Laitman: Yes. By this you cover something.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:16) He writes that the Torah on its own is also not good. As our sages said, he who engages in the Torah alone is like someone without a God. And they continue, they say that the study of Torah is good with the path of… What is the exertion of the Torah and the exertion of the path of the land?

M. Laitman: To put it simply, labor in the Torah is when you labor to solve all kinds of problems and questions. And in the way of the land, in the midway, so to speak, it's when you do it through the general connection between all the people.

Student: The labor in the Torah means our effort to solve things using the reforming light, right, the prayer?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, if you can explain what is the exertion through the desire? The desire of whom?

M. Laitman: Of a person. When a person participates in this.

Student: But his desire is actually opposite to the work of connection and work with others.

M. Laitman: So, he should begin to do it; he should begin to perform connection.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:00) I wanted to ask in general about Sukkot and the holidays. He told us about Rabash, who would relate to the Sukkah very seriously. He would take care of the details, he would be immersed in it like it's something really important. The question is, as we advance will our external attitude toward the holidays become deeper, more serious? The outer attitude, external?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes. Because each holiday explains to you manners of nature, manners of a person's spiritual work through man’s connection to nature. This is why these things are very important. And the more you advance, the more you will feel it.

Student: And this feeling, those Hebrew dates of the holidays, when we advance we will feel that there are opportunities in those dates, that there's a special power and we need to adapt ourselves to that power?

M. Laitman: Yes, of course.

Student: And Kabbalists, because of that power that existed during those dates, they did the maximum in order to reach it also in externality?

M. Laitman: Yes, they knew, they know now too which forces operate each and every day, and how you can use them in the most effective way for the correction of the world.

Student: So, when you reach attainment you begin to feel these powers of each day, each week, each period?

M. Laitman: This is called attainment.

Student: I got it. And then even a great Kabbalist who seemingly doesn't need to engage in externality, he feels that the externality helps his internality?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:48) He says, if a person is rewarded and doesn't hate shade by himself he is pitied from above and he covers the shade for him. It's like we understand something and you open something and then in the end they close it, they shut it down, everything is understood, and then he says, and if a person gets angry because he understands differently according to his mind, if he has the sun, he wants him to add the quality of the sun, but then this kills me, but my thoughts are not your thoughts. Meaning what you thought, listen, it's all upside down. So, who do I believe? You do a work and in the end he tells you even what you thought is opposite. If a person is in merit he doesn't add the shade, why?

M. Laitman: I don't know why. Let's say there's a situation. So, a person needs to, if he goes through it, let's say he needs to add shade and he didn't do it, so he doesn't have the conditions for the revelation, pity, shame.

Student: I did something. What does it mean to add shade? Let's say I've done something from the bottom of my heart, I went for it, then he says add more shade. That's a practical thing from life. I did something good and suddenly he adds shades to me. What does that mean? He increases my coarseness? It's like he's going to let me fall?

M. Laitman: He probably hides it.

Student: Is there an intention to make you fall from this?

M. Laitman: No, there's never an intention to drop someone.

Student: So, what is it?

M. Laitman: A person only thinks according to his own qualities, but the Creator is the opposite. He opens for a person a way to advance, to work in concealment.

Student: He says a person works according to his mind, but it says my thoughts are not your thoughts at all. You don't even have a clue about what I want and what you're doing. What is it done this way? It's as if the Creator thinks totally different. I think totally different.

M. Laitman: The Creator wants us to discover His way of thinking, His approach, how He wants to reveal to us all the secrets of nature until we discover everything.

Student: And then He comes and He tells us, do the work, connect. And now do the work, and then the thoughts of the Creator will be like our thoughts?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That's the equivalence of form with Him?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:14) Every effort we make in the Ten towards connection or the study of the Torah, awakens lights. All that you have to cover or attach, all the lights that we awaken?

M. Laitman: All the lights we awaken, we already awaken them with thatch. Yes.

Student: Both the surrounding lights and the lights of Hassadim, everything has to…

M. Laitman: That's later. It becomes revealed.

Student: And when He speaks of wholeness in the study of the Torah?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: We wish to draw the reforming light. We need to come with a certain deficiency. So, what is He talking about with respect to wholeness? What kind of wholeness do we need to have?

M. Laitman: I didn't understand.

Student: We come with the feeling that we need a remedy in the Torah.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But here it says it has to be with wholeness.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Engaged with the Torah. So, what is this wholeness that He speaks of?

M. Laitman: According to your degree. You cannot be at level number one and reach wholeness on level 80.

Student: The question is, we come to the lesson with a deficiency, and we wish to awaken greater deficiency and attack all kinds of actions that are incomplete, rather they are the result of a deficiency.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, what is the wholeness of the Torah that He speaks of if we need to be in a deficiency and in yearning?

M. Laitman: I don't really… Maybe again. Sorry. I'm not really…

Student: He says that when you engage in the Torah you have to be in wholeness, because the blessed adheres to the blessed.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But if I'm only in gratitude during the lesson on the right line and wholeness, I cannot draw the reforming light. I need to feel something, correct something. I need a deficiency, a yearning, an attack, all those things that come from the lack of wholeness.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, what does He mean when He says you have to be in wholeness?

M. Laitman: That for your part you prepare the vessel in order to reveal to Him the right vessel of reception, meaning a deficiency together with wholeness.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:24) I also wanted to ask, because He places a great deal of emphasis on being in wholeness during the study, being in wholeness Praise and gratitude. And also, what the friend asked. We always say that in order to draw the Reforming Light, we need to have a deficiency. And here, he writes that, I heard from Baal HaSulam that the praise and gratitude that you bring, you give to the Creator, for approaching Him, that's what used to draw His Holiness.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: The gratitude and praise that you're in, is what draws the Light. So, a person should feel whole, and then enter the study in wholeness. So, how does the Rav feel when you enter the lesson? Are we enough in wholeness, enough in praise and gratitude? Do we enter the study of the Torah correctly from this state?

M. Laitman: Not ready enough.

Student: Not ready. What is your recommendation? Can you give us some advice?

M. Laitman: Ah, yes. I don't know what you do before you come here, but let's say, five or ten minutes before the lesson you should already be in preparation, to prepare yourselves.

Student: Yes, in general, there are 20 minutes of preparation for the lesson, but I guess, if I understand from you, we don't prepare ourselves correctly.

M. Laitman: It may be too much, 20 minutes.

Student: It's possible that during the preparation we confuse ourselves, we work on the deficiency more than the wholeness?

M. Laitman: No, it's correct, it's good, but we have to be careful that you do want to continue in preparation for the lesson during these 20 minutes.

Student: Okay, how an individual person balances or establishes correctly the deficiency and the wholeness, how to arrange the deficiency so as not to blemish the wholeness of which he wants to enter the study?

M. Laitman: He has to start from wholeness. I have a connection with the Creator, I'm walking in His path, and nevertheless I walk from a state where I had no connection, and I gradually approach a connection with the Creator, and we are more and more in standing mutually, as the Creator and I, and He helps constantly adding more and more and more discernments for me. One's in the light, one's in the deficiency, one's in understanding, in such things. Within it, He also adds in my connection with my friends, and how I relate to all of humanity. So, I have here a selection of general things in my picture. That's it, that's how I feel.

Student: Now, if a person gets up in the morning on the right line, as you say, he wakes up like a lion towards the Creator, then it's clear he enters in wholeness, he arranges the deficiency, and so on. But oftentimes a person wakes up everything is black he can't understand anything, he's a beast, he barely has a deficiency for spirituality. If he enters the lesson in such a state, what can he do? It's not good to study in this way, as Rabash says.

M. Laitman: If he doesn't have a choice, he gets into it?

Student: Meaning, he enters in any state.

M. Laitman: Of course, of course. But, in any state where he finds himself, he can quickly turn around. Okay? Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:28) So, a bit more on the same topic that the friend started. He wrote, that's why you have to hold yourself, regard yourself in wholeness during the Torah and commandments and shouldn't find any flaw, because anyone in whom there is a flaw shall not approach. This is called Torah, meaning wholeness. But only Torah is also not good. As our sages said, he who engages only in Torah, it is as though he has no God, as it is said in many days to Israel without a true God. So, again, deficiency and wholeness, is this something that happens during the lesson intermittently, or is it a combination of these two things? Wholeness and deficiency during the study.

M. Laitman: Yes, that both need to be connected and leading to a phenomenon that pertains to that state.

Student: How are they both connected? Wholeness and deficiency.

M. Laitman: You can't have one without the other.

Student: But they are opposites.

M. Laitman: Yes, but because we are created beings and we are created out of absolute incompleteness and all of our attainment in wholeness is connected to some incompleteness.

Student: So, one can say that because we are in the natural state is lack of wholeness, then the effort is to adhere to wholeness?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:28) About the lesson preparation, as the friend started to ask, you said in any state a person catches himself in, he can quickly change it around.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How specifically in the preparation for the lesson, when a person wakes up is still a little dazed, how can he aim himself correctly to the lesson to get the maximum out of the lesson?

M. Laitman: It depends on the extent to which the person is drawn after the environment. After the environment that's a matter, and in the environment there's always these streams, currents, not hard, but there are a few currents. And he's drawn to what's close to him in his heart. And he goes with that.

Student: It's also when a person wakes up and he's all foggy and he's not like a lion that's ready to roar. He can incorporate in the Ten, in the environment?

M. Laitman: It's desirable. It's desirable and immediately.

Student: And how much time of preparation is necessarily needed?

M. Laitman: That depends on the person. On how he went to sleep and also within his sleep, in his dream.

Student: But it doesn't depend on a person how he will wake up?

M. Laitman: Well, how?

Student: What does it depend on how I'll wake up and what state I’ll be in, and what I read before I went to sleep?

M. Laitman: How you prepare yourself for sleep, that's how you will see that you'll have thoughts after the sleep.

Student: OK, as far as times in preparation, there's Tens that come at 2:30, half an hour before the beginning of the lesson. They read together, connect together and there's this common preparation of everyone together for 20 minutes, do you think that that is too long?

M. Laitman: Well, it’s respected.

Student: OK, how to make the most of that time, what's good to do in such a time?

M. Laitman: To read.

Student: Usually, we read a couple of excerpts, we do a workshop between us, we sing a song. Sometimes that awakens, sometimes not. Sometimes it passes by you and sometimes not. So, how to do something that's compressed, that obligates us, we don't have a lot of time.

M. Laitman: You need to scrutinize that? I mean, we got better. You need to scrutinize what you are more impressed from.

Student: There's a diversified society here. There's those who are impressed by this and by that.

M. Laitman: So, continue that way. But really pay attention to how people wake up.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:16) I wake up very early because I come from another city. I pick up another friend. I have a lot of time until I reach here.

M. Laitman: Yes, where are you from?

Student: It's an additional 20 minutes plus picking up my friend. So, half an hour of driving, waking up until I get here. There's time that the body wakes up. There's time to think. And there's friends that live really close. And maybe within ten minutes from the moment that they wrote, I'm alive, they're here. What's demanded from a personal work that a person does before he comes here, the general preparation when he sits with his friends? Is there something that is correct to bring his body, his soul to some state?

M. Laitman: Look, each one uses that time in a bit of a different way. Rabash, as I said, as I once told, he would go on the street and read the news. Sorry, not the news, the billboards. He would look at the billboards. He would read them. And that gave him some closeness to the world. In Bnei Brak on the street, which was called Hazonish. So, about half an hour before the lesson, he didn't really speak. Therefore, I walked with him maybe a few times. And also, because he told me that I could come. And then I saw that it's better if I don't really interfere with him in these minutes. I don't really have anything to add. I think about my attitude to the world, my attitude to the Psalms. That is very important. The Psalms, something with that, which are groundless, which are boundless. And accordingly, I come to the lesson.

Student: According to what I hear there's some attitude a person needs to develop towards the Creator prior to engaging in Torah.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And we also read that it needs to be on the right line, the work of a person. So I understand that Psalms, the person before the Creator, it can really bring him to that feeling of the right. But we, in our preparation, learned that we need to engage in connection between friends.

M. Laitman: That is very important. If there is such a possibility, there's nothing stronger than that kind of preparation.

Student: So, I see it demands great effort. But if you manage to work in this, it opens the heart and expands one's vessels. But it also demands great exertion that is left line. Because a person goes through the critique, and he has to come out of his state of sleep, the euphoria that he has before the Creator, and he has to work with external vessels to him, the evil inclination, that's work already, until he manages to connect. And here we're talking about the time of preparation being already the creation of certain strain from the left that we don't manage always to come to correctly and is already ripe to receive the lesson. So that's why I'm saying, why do I say it? Because I see friends that I feel like they're not entering the lesson correctly, they don't come to that correct state of, right, before the text. Also connection with the friends, that a way that he feels good with them and together with them enters the lesson and receives it somewhat in the form of the right. Hence I'm asking, maybe there's some way to improve the preparation, taking into consideration that I need to come ready and prepared to the lesson this way.

M. Laitman: I don't know, we need to awaken the heart and to become a bit excited, to get excited. There are those who sing, there are those who sing together, three, four, five. Something that you calibrate yourself with, like a musical instrument. That you tune yourself with, like a musical instrument.

Student: Each has his personal taste of how to do this preparation?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So anyway, we do a general preparation, we have this format that everyone does together. Does Rav think that within this general format, each can find his place?

M. Laitman: You need to feel what part of your heart you work with.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:49) A question about the merging of the state of wholeness and the state of deficiency. With what can I combine these two lines in my work?

M. Laitman: Thanks to the connection with the Upper degree. Because on one hand it's the Upper degree, on the other hand, you are the lower degree. And you make that connection between you and it as close as possible.

Student: Does this happen through prayer?

M. Laitman: Prayer, sensation. You don't even need words. Simply, it's a state where you want to draw to the Upper one.

Student: You mentioned psalms. I also love them. But I don't know if it's a state of the left line or the right line. What is psalms, actually?

M. Laitman: For us, it's the middle line. Even if there is a right or left there, in any case, for our degree, it is the middle line, which is above us.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:28:31) A short question. We begin the preparation every day at 2:25, which is 15 minutes before we read the study material. Would you recommend that we also add psalms?

M. Laitman: The main thing is that it will be from the heart and not according to what is written. Try to do what you think is better.

Student: We heard from Rav that it's something very special, psalms, that there is something in there that we don't…

M. Laitman: We see that the psalms are in every part of our study. It's okay.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:31) I didn't quite want to talk about this, but the friends here, when they met me outside, so I'll ask it. I'll ask you. You talked earlier about the desire of the heart, that the heart needs to be, and when we talked about the preparation here, I'm saying again, I didn't quite want to talk to you about this. Yesterday in the Holiday eve, we talked about our ache, our pain, about those girls that are in the tunnels right now, being hostages there, and not in the sukkah. And then I talked to you, and you raised your pain, and I felt here, we all felt this pinch in our heart, and everyone was on the verge of tears here. We all raised a prayer in our hearts, this inner kind of natural preparation, and everyone was like tearing a tear. I had a tear in my eyes, you had a tear, we all had tears. And then I wanted to ask you this, we sat yesterday with the girls, we're eating lunch, and all of a sudden we hear that Sinwar, we know what happened there, 50% of the problem. And when did it happen? At 4, I went and checked at what hour, what time exactly it happened. It happened exactly 4.26 in the morning, right when we were talking, right when we were talking, and you said that Rabash checks the announcements, he looks at the news, to find every five minutes if something's happening. So, I'm asking you, tell me, all that happened yesterday early in the morning, that was a great pain, everyone here, we were almost thrown on the ground, it was this real intention.

M. Laitman: Why pain?

Student: There's this ache, there's this pain, it hurt us.

M. Laitman: Because they killed Sinwar?

Student: They killed Sinwar exactly that same moment that we were talking about it.

M. Laitman: So, you cried because of that?

Student: No, we cried. No, there was a case, they killed him right when we were talking about it, we were praying for something to happen. 50% of the issues are solved. I'm asking you, is there a connection with these things, or are we just fantasizing?

M. Laitman: There's always a connection, and there's a great connection, we just don't know the formula. You know, like in mathematics, you have many coefficients and connections.

Student: It's like a computer network. Do you see a direct connection? Meaning, if we each time here perform a certain preparation or call it a prayer from the depth of the heart, can we move actually all kinds of things that are blocked in the world? It was amazing to see. And what's the thing, that tank that was shot, the girls that were with me in Jozefak, that same tank, the friend in that tank shot into, it's unclear to me how everything, you know, how everything was kind of, this deal was closed, I was in shock yesterday, because my daughter said, hey, it's my friend from the officers, of course, that shot into that building. How could those things be? I'm saying that, you're saying there's a connection. How is there a connection between things, and how can we see the connection between things? Because you can see it, but all together, it's amazing. So, wait, so if we do prayers and all kinds of block things, can we solve all kinds of problems in the world today? If we do it in a real way?

M. Laitman: Certainly. There's no doubt.

Student: It is truly like that? So, what are we missing in order to move things like you're saying?

M. Laitman: To believe that that is truly what we can do.

Student: Is that like you said, like the preparation for this, that we need to come ready to move things in the world?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Meaning that's the solution? I didn't want to ask, but we thought that way. Okay. Thank you.

M. Laitman: Okay. We've finished with this part.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:33:46) I want to continue this line of the friend about the people of Israel. Lately, there was several killings of these terrorist heads. Why does the Creator do this for Israel? Why is He helping us here?.

M. Laitman: It's unknown how much He's helping. In general, how He's helping, that's for certain. But with each and every one of these eliminations, where really soon they won't have any..

Student: enemies? Leaders?

M. Laitman: Yes, they won't have any leaders.

Student: Yes, but what good is He doing? Why is He giving a favor to us? It's like giving us a favor. You can see it.

M. Laitman: Yes. In the meantime, that's how it seems.

Student: Is this so that the world will see that there is providence over this land, over these people?

M. Laitman: You cannot say this way or that way. It is... It hits in all directions. You really cannot say.

Student: Does the world feel that there is God amongst Israel?

M. Laitman: That's the problem, that the world feels it more than we do.

Student: What do they feel?

M. Laitman: They feel that it's working out for us.

Student: Why does it work out for us?

M. Laitman: They don't know.

Student: Okay, and when will the people of Israel start to feel God within us?

M. Laitman: That's when it will subjugate itself. Israel needs to very quickly subjugate itself.

Student: Why should it subjugate? Things are working out for them.

M. Laitman: That's called that it's working out for itself? What, that they killed a few Arabs, a few Gentiles? What does it mean that it's working out? It works out if we can connect with the Creator. That we'll make some act in partnership with Him. Yes.

Student: And what do the people of Israel need the Creator? What do the people of Israel need the Creator? For what does Israel need the Creator today?

M. Laitman: In order to exist. In order to exist.

Student: And what is to subjugate ourselves before the Creator? What is a nation that subjugates itself before their God?

M. Laitman: We need to subjugate ourselves toward our Creator. It is an outcome of the entire study of the Torah.

Student: However, after all, enemies will continue to rise.

M. Laitman: The Creator won't let them rest. He will awaken them to rise more and more. If you see them in such anger toward us, so yes.

Student: And our power right now is with weaponry, with arsenal, with war?

M. Laitman: Our power is in the extent to which we can subjugate ourselves toward the Creator.

Student: What will cause us to subjugate ourselves?

M. Laitman: That's already intellect.

Student: And where will that intellect come from?

M. Laitman: From above. From above.

Student: So, until then what? We'll wait for inspiration?

M. Laitman: Until then we will get blows.

Student: And do you see a good future for Israel in the near future? These eliminations, do they point in a good way toward Israel in the near future?

M. Laitman: I'm not so certain. I'm not so certain. I would like to say yes, but to really have that confidence, I don't have that.

Student: The spiritual advancement of the people of Israel is always upon some physical difficulty, existential crisis. Will we always be in that strain?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: There's no other more comfortable way to advance? That's the form of our advancement of Israel?

M. Laitman: Yes, that's the form of development of Israel.

Student: And how can you relieve some of this state?

M. Laitman: Relieve? Only in that you go with an open heart toward the nations of the world.

Student: What does that mean, if you could expand on it?

M. Laitman: That then you wish to connect with all the Jews and through them with all the nations of the world.

Student: Last question, why do you say that you have no confidence about the good future of Israel?

M. Laitman: There is confidence, but not to the extent in which the people think, the nation thinks, where we think that we're already in some, in the heart of the Creator.

Student: What's our role here in B'nei Baruch?

M. Laitman: Our role is solely that we show everyone what is our God, who is our God, and how we need to serve Him. Thank you.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): () I want to stand on one point, because all the years I've studied here, I learned not to connect between our work and some results in the corporeal world.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And here we see a case where something happens, we do something, and all of a sudden something happens. What's the correct attitude to such things?

M. Laitman: We are coming closer to days in which the connections between spirituality and corporeality will be much closer, much more adjacent, connected. So, sometimes we can speak this way.

Student: So, I'll make it even more difficult. Yesterday, it was not so big in the news, but yesterday five of our elite soldiers died in Lebanon. So, was that also because of us, just like Sinuai was killed?

M. Laitman: Certainly.

Student: So, we shouldn't be so happy.

M. Laitman: Right.

Student: Altogether, do we have a possibility to connect between things today, to say, this is because of that, this is because of that, that it caused consequence?

M. Laitman: We still cannot. But somehow, there are so many situations where it seems to us that, yes, it is possible. Okay? Guys, I really don't want to speak about these things all the time. Okay. What are we studying next?

Reader: We have study material on the topic of Sukkot, from the excerpts from the sources. Where is that?

M. Laitman: Where is that?

Reader: Here in excerpt number 11, the heading is, Sukkot is a temporary residence. But there is a song first, so we can maybe do that through a song.

Song: (01:42:50)

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Das Kapitel Balak, das Stück 7

Das Kapitel Balak, das Stück 7

Das Kapitel Balak, das Stück 7

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