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

Daily Lesson (Morning) February 18, 2025

Part 1: Opening the Heart In the Congress as Preparation For the World Congress.

Reader: Hello, we are reading selected excerpts from the sources on the topic of “Opening the Heart” in the Congress as preparation for the World Kabbalah Convention taking place in two days. We are going to start from excerpt number four, and before that, a few important announcements, please, pay attention.

Anyone listening to translation is asked to put in both earbuds in your ear and keep the volume down so as not to disturb your surroundings. Before entering and exiting the hall, please look at the screens, and make sure you are not interfering with the camera's frame, and keep your phone on silent. About questions, if you want to ask a question, please raise your hand so the offshores can see you, and keep your hand up until Rav is giving you the right to speak.

Please ask shortly, and on the lessons topic, out of responsibility for thousands of participants. So, again, selected excerpts from the sources on the topic of preparation for “Opening the Heart” in the Congress as preparation for the World Kabbalah Convention taking place two days from now. We are going to start from excerpt number four.

You can find the study material on kabbalahgroup.info and in the Arvut system, and you can also send questions live to those websites.

Excerpt 4

Reading: (01:32) You must always stand guard, all day and all night, when you feel a state of day, or you feel a state of night.

We say to the Creator, Yours is the day, and Yours is also the night. Thus, the night, too, the darkness of the night, comes from the Creator to man's favor. True, as it is writTen, day to day utters speech, and night to night expresses knowledge.

It follows that you must awaken the heart of the friends until the flame rises by itself. As our sages said about it, by that you will be rewarded with awakening the love of the Creator upon us.

M. Laitman: We'll read it again.

Reader: You must always stand guard, all day and all night, when you feel a state of day, or you feel a state of night. We say to the Creator, Yours is the day, and Yours is also the night. Thus, the night, too, the darkness of the night, comes from the Creator to man's favor. True, as it is written, day to day utters speech, and night to night expresses knowledge. It follows that you must awaken the heart of the friends until the flame rises by itself. As our sages said about it, by that you will be rewarded with awakening the love of the Creator upon us.

M. Laitman: This means that we need to feel and count our states that are called day and our states that are called night. Both these and those, we should join them to our goal, and in this way, we will work and accumulate everything we need during the Congress in order to reach our goal, that through adhesion between us, we will discover the Creator who exists in our adhesion with each other, all of us together, and thus we will succeed in the Congress.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:55) He writes that we should always stay on guard, day and night, regardless of the state you're going through, you have to act. How, specifically in the states of night, when it's dark for a person, how can he then awaken the heart of the friends?

M. Laitman: Certainly, it's not the same as the day, during the day when he's full of force, and he's alert, and he can vividly imagine to himself the states that he's going through. But, nevertheless we must try in all the states that we go through to accumulate from them states of day and states of night. And join them, these and those together, because you can't have one without the other, and in this way we reach a state where we will reach the day which is all good. All in all, we reach a state which is all day.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:37) I assume day and night are definitions a person keeps defining differently each time.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What are day and night for a Kabbalist?

M. Laitman: Day is when it shines to him in the relations between him and others, and from that, in the relations between him and the Creator so that everything is in light, in the light of the Torah, and so it turns out that he is in a day. Very simple. And night is a bit different. But in the night, when the night comes to us from above, we learn how we can behave in a way that... All our thoughts, our desires, our actions will be only in order to subjugate ourselves towards the lack of light, and bring ourselves to connection so that we will also be able to reveal the deficiencies that we still have.

Student: Do you learn much more from the night than from the day?

M. Laitman: It's not that it's more, I can't say that. It's both this and that. We need both of them to combine in order to have one day.

Student: Which is what? One day?

M. Laitman: One day is when darkness shines as light, and in all the states that we are going through, we will have only attainment and adhesion.

Student: Meaning there are two levels, there is day and night that pass over a person, and one day which is above everything?

M. Laitman: Yes, you can say that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:21) He is saying that we need to awaken each other all the time, until the flame rises by itself. What is the state that the flame rises by itself?

M. Laitman: That we want to help and connect in the attainment of adhesion and godliness, so much so, that it opens up for us the entire relation of the Creator towards us. That's it, and we advance in such a way.

Student: This is something I may not understand properly. If the flame rises by itself and we have our collective desire, why do we have to awaken this constantly?

M. Laitman: Because we have to add to it our own deficiency so that only according to our request, our demand, our prayer, our deficiencies, we can discover inside of this deficiency that we awaken. And inside of it, we can discover a true connection with the Creator.

Student: Meaning, the Creator is awakening us constantly through the darkness?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How do we come to a state where we truly bless over the darkness as we do over the light?

M. Laitman: Because we need to attain, both in the darkness and in the light, the Creator's relation to us, and what exactly is it that He wants from us, and thus that we all get closer to everyone until we reach a gathering.

Student: This upcoming gathering, we should see it as we discussed lately, as a special awakening that the Creator has given us?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:54) How can a person stand guard, both during the day and during the night? What does it mean to stand guard?

M. Laitman: That during the day and also during the night, in states that appear to us wide open like the day or shut like the night. We nevertheless, join all of these states to each other, until, in all of them, together, we reveal our connection with the Creator. And this is what we yearn for.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:53) How do we help the Ten unite the night and the day?

M. Laitman: This is what we need to learn, to connect between us in the Ten, in our desires, in our thoughts, in our expectations, so that we will all unite in them together and become as one man in one heart. And then we will attain a special quality that exists in the connection of the day and the night, so that they all reach being as one day. That's it.

Student: When he says “stay on guard”, does he mean stand guard for the Ten rather than for ourselves?

M. Laitman: Yes, that we need to be in our connection and think about the whole Ten, so that no one disappears or falls, and it's only the entire Ten. And the Ten can be a few thousand people that we're all here or a part of them also.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:05) It says, one needs to stand guard all day and all night. The question is about the day. Why should we stand guard during the day? What should we pay attention to?

M. Laitman: I didn't hear.

Reader: What should we stand guard during the day?

M. Laitman: Yes?

Reader: What should we pay attention to during the day? It says, you have to stand guard all day and all night. All night. And she's asking about the day. What does it mean to stand guard during the day? What do you have to stand guard on during the daytime?

M. Laitman: During the day is what she feels, what a person feels in general, when he has connection, a wide open connection with the Creator. And everything is revealed out of knowledge of the person's inclination to get closer to the Creator. This is the work of the day. And the work of the night is different. It's when the Creator is hidden. It's difficult to attain Him. It's difficult to discover Him, to feel Him, to turn to Him. And therefore, it's a different kind of work, the work of the night. So, both during the day as well as during the night, it doesn't matter what conditions we're in, we need to yearn towards the same upper force and try to connect to it all of our hearts, our desires, our actions, our thoughts, our prayers, everything that we have, so that we, all of us, connect together between us and draw to the center of our connection, the Creator. That's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:58) What does it mean to light the fire and how can we draw the love of the Creator to the group using that?

M. Laitman: We light up candles. We have meals and all kinds of connection games in order to awaken ourselves towards nearing between us. This is the operation. And then through coming closer in our thoughts, our desires, our hearts, we are all drawn to the Creator, to the upper force. We feel Him more, in the inclination towards Him, we bring Him closer to us. And in such a way, we will reach a state where the Creator is revealed within us, He will dwell within us. This is actually the purpose of our actions. We need to connect ourselves so much so that we will begin to discover that He exists in the connection between us.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:17) The light relative to a friend is received as a connection, but if I delve deeper, I feel darkness. And when I try to connect, to open up my heart, I feel that the connection itself is what's drawing the light. So, I can understand how to work with one friend, go through a long emotional process. Now, in the Congress, where I have many friends before me, and generally speaking, it's easy for me, it feels pleasant. So, do I need to delve deeper in order to feel the more general deficiency?

M. Laitman: Now, during the Congress, thousands of people come here, and together with us, also all over the world, thousands of viewers are connected to us. And so there's a different atmosphere here, where many desires connect at the same time, in order to feel together, hear together, and carry out something together. And so, this work brings us closer, and this is why during the Congress we begin to feel differently. All of these verses, the articles that we learned over time, but during such a gathering, we feel it in a way that is more conspicuous, more internal. And so, we need to pay attention to how much during the Congress I can think, I can enter into the friends and be together with them, so that I forget about myself and I'm with them to such an extent that it doesn't matter to me who I am, where I am, what will be, what will happen to me, so long as I belong to that big group that is now gathered before me.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:53) Is love an indicator, or is it the flame in the heart?

M. Laitman: The indicator of what?

Student: Of bestowal, of giving, of love and connection with the Creator.

M. Laitman: The indicator is the connection with the Creator. To call it love to begin with, that is not yet precise. But after not too many such efforts, we will begin to feel what, in fact, we will get if we yearn correctly for connection, of how will our connection look like then? And gradually, in such a way, we will begin to connect ourselves with others and establish ourselves towards others in the form of a mutual complementation of one supporting the other, etc. Then such a desire that will emerge that will bind us, and we will receive an answer from it about who we are, what we are, what is it that we are attaining.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:36) You spoke about disappearing in the friends, but as of right now, that feels repulsive to our ego. So, how do we come to exalt bestowal as we see it now, without the Creator revealing His greatness?

M. Laitman: You can awaken that as well already, because you are already in this process, and everything depends on the intention. How much do you think that through connection with the friends, you can reach a single vessel that we are all included in? According to that, you will discover in that vessel a common desire. And this is how, actually, this is simply our work, until we discover in our connection the state of the end of correction.

Student: Is this the nature of faith above reason?

M. Laitman: That too.That too.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:55) What happens if the state of day is only the feeling of the desire to receive for myself? What do we do in order to not fall in that state?

M. Laitman: Always be connected with the friends, not to disconnect from them. All the time to develop feelings towards them more and more, to be in actions together with them, mutual actions, you might say, in this way we reach a nearing in our brain and in our heart, one to the other and the other to the first, and then we can check what we achieve inside of this mutual connection between us. Does this connection pull us forward? Does it show us a more spiritual state each time? And this is how we advance.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:00) We're entering a congress whose topic is Lishma, what kind of yearning do we need to enter the Congress with?

M. Laitman: Only connection, only connection - connection in our brain, connection in the heart, connection in actions, actions of this world - only connection. And we need to get to know ourselves, more and more, how much all of the actions of connection will be as one action, so that we will be connected between us as one man in one heart, with one intention, with one request, and towards one goal.

Student: Is there a particular degree we need to reach as we enter the Congress?

M. Laitman: I don't think we should now speak about the degree. What degree we're in now, what degree we will be at the end of the day, or tomorrow, or at the end of the Congress? This will come, and we will feel it, and we will be able to compare one with the other, and then we will talk about it, because our whole calculation is only about how do we relate, what is our form of relation to all kinds of different states that we go through. These are better states, these are not so good states, but in truth, it will come. This is not what is most important.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:23) Thinking about the darkness and the day, are those individual states a person is growing relative to the society, or general states between us?

M. Laitman: Both.

Student: How do we use the general force that exists, this collective force, in order to traverse those states between us? Meaning, one might feel he's in a state of night, one in a state of day, and this mutual sharing, how can that strengthen our mutual connection?

M. Laitman: That we all understand the goal, which is adhesion between us, and we want to achieve this adhesion in actuality, meaning in feeling. And then, from the attainment of this mutual feeling, the mutual connection between us, we will be able to share this attainment between all of us, so that each one will feel it in a way that it is connected to everyone.

Student: How can that state now, a friend may experience a state of darkness, how can we use that collective force to specifically increase the connection, grow the mutual connection? Because there's an opportunity for each and every friend to extract the maximum through everyone. How do we use it, every opportunity we have, day, night, in order to increase that connection you just mentioned?

M. Laitman: You need to do exercises together, so that each one appears before the others and he gives them, he shows them an example of how he relates to this gathering, and according to that, you will also be able to enjoy what shines in such a gathering.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:31) I heard many times that you have to be involved in the needs of the friends and feel them, and it's important to reach them. But now I feel a trepidation, something I didn't feel before. What to do with this anxiety so I can actually benefit the friends?

M. Laitman: It's good when we feel such anxiety, not to the point where it blocks everything for us and it doesn't allow us to move, but nevertheless, in the feeling of wholeness in each and every state there is also some percentage of anxiety. And so we will develop together, we will connect and open ourselves more. We still have some time before the Congress, and in such a way we will establish ourselves correctly. I think that's how it's going to be.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:53) I heard, you say before, you gave us some advice to pull the Creator to the center of our connection in the Congress. What is this action of pulling, drawing the Creator to the center of our connection?

M. Laitman: When we connect, the connection is constructing a round, circular shape out of us, and we then want to pull, to attract toward us. If there is such a form, we want to attract toward that form a certain group, a person, certain activities, actions, and that's what we need to try and do.

Student: How do we, truly, create this state in the Congress of drawing the Creator? What actions should we focus on?

M. Laitman: We'll talk about it, many actions, many actions. But generally speaking, those are the actions of connection. But connection is revealed to us in many ways. Hence, we'll talk about it, we'll collect, assemble them, awaken them in us. We'll set examples for each other, from different groups, different people until we reach a state where all of us understand what we're talking about, and all of us feel what we get in the end as a result of our efforts, and we'll advance accordingly.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:03) When a person sees the greatness of the friends, they're yearning towards godliness. And opposite that, he's on nothingness. What to do?

M. Laitman: To pray. There's nothing more to do. Pray. Be grateful. Give thanks that the Creator is showing him his state, and advance accordingly.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:06) We can feel that as we get closer to the Congress, the more you are making things precise for us, you're calibrating us. Every sentence you say becomes a very clear directive of what we need to do right now. How can we be more sensitive, truly, to what is required of us to do, the specific work of the heart that is required of us in the next moment?

M. Laitman: I think that what's required of us in a nutshell, is connection.There's nothing more. Certainly, you can add many other similar words, but connection, that’s what we need.

Student: Yes, but in this connection, there are a million discernments.

M. Laitman: That's what I meant, without talking about a million discernments, but really one discernment. What is the difference between the connection that we aim for and all the other states?

Student: This means that we shouldn't search deeper and deeper in?

M. Laitman: Yes, but if you know or don’t know what inner connection means and how it is revealed it helps not playing with the word.

Student: What to do with all kinds of obstructions, all kinds of thoughts that come to a person? Precisely before the Congress, and I hear it from other friends also, many obstructions, many thoughts that a person has actually deflect him, where he feels maybe he's not worthy, in relation to the path, in relation to life, many things. What do we do with it? Why does it come right now?

M. Laitman: It comes, so a person would concentrate himself even more, in order to not leave the thoughts, the intentions that he needs to have. That's my recommendation. Don't be afraid. Rather, certainly, all the disturbances, all the obstacles, are on the way to the goal.

Student: When the Creator tells a person, shows the person that he's not worthy of this path, what does he do about it?

M. Laitman: How can that be?

Student: Such thoughts that appear in the person's brain.

M. Laitman: I don't think that a person can tell himself. That's what the Creator brings him. The Creator is showing him those and those qualities that are found inside a person, for the time being, a person cannot be in a good spiritual state with those qualities for the time being, a good, a pure state, in bestowal, but it doesn't mean that a person, in general, is unqualified, unworthy, it's not such a thing.

Student: Clearly, it's related, but not to higher things, but things around the person.

M. Laitman: I didn’t get it.

Student: When a person feels that, it’s not that he is not worthy, but just like everyone, obviously, the Creator is taking care of everyone, but there are those who are more, there are those that He will take care of them and lead them, and you - no, maybe later in some other life. So, how do we grow stronger in such states? How do we answer ourselves?

M. Laitman: Answer himself that there is a time for ascent and a time for descent, and these times come with changes between them, and therefore it's not for a person to decide, to determine, what he thinks about these states that come to him from above. Rather he needs to focus on what he needs to do, on the answer he needs to give from below in return, from each state. That's the main thing.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:52) As we get closer to the Congress, we feel that the heart is an unachievable concept. The heart is a stone, and the only love he can think of is that he loves fish.

M. Laitman: What do you do with it, with that feeling?

Student: Yes?

M. Laitman: So?

Student: Besides myself, I don't love anyone, we say, what we call “love for fish”.

M. Laitman: Tell me, is there anyone here who has love of others?

Student: According to Kabbalists in my eyes, I should see everyone as corrected.

M. Laitman: But we came here uncorrected in order to correct ourselves. Certainly, each one of us is a small egoist, doesn't even know how small he is, and there's nothing to do. Nothing to do. Only patience is a special kind of work that the Creator is running, managing, and He divides it between each and everyone, and between all of us together. Hence, both men and women, each and everyone unto himself, should understand that if the Creator is pulling him in to such an assembly, as we are in today, then indeed a person is worthy of a spiritual ascent, spiritual scrutiny. These preparations are already taking place in his soul, and I am certain that during this Congress we will feel just how much we begin to discern, each and every one, these discernments toward correction, connections, everything Kabbalists write for us.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:39) We know that the greatest pleasure comes from spirituality. The force of the desire to come to the Congress and enjoy this Congress was so powerful, but along with that, there is a very big hope that here in this Congress, through our hearts, we will also give birth to other points in the heart in other people. And I constantly think, so am I egoistic or am I altruistic? Do I want to enjoy? Or nevertheless, maybe I'm a little bit altruistic.

M. Laitman: You've got it. You've got it. And you came here in order to scrutinize this point, your altruistic root, and to grow it, to highlight it, and to rise, to climb together with it. And that's how it shall be. We'll hear it from you.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:22) If everything depends on the relations between us on the mutual connection between all the friends, even if one of us is far away it may fail all of us. It's like a kind of mutual responsibility. How do we overcome this state? How do we create a state where we all advance correctly?

M. Laitman: We are together in a very special Congress. There's never been such an assembly as we have now and as will be. We connect to the need to scrutinize each and everyone's vessels in the states in different states, difficult states, just as we have found out lately, really over the last 2-3 months we found out how our development is confusing, and it doesn't pull us forward. That is why the Congress comes at the right point in time in our development timeline, in order to give us the possibility to see to what extent we can correct ourselves and continue directly, clearly, strongly toward this correction. On the other hand, you see that we have gone through many states. We are not novices. Yes, we can be proud that the first part, we can say, the first part of the wisdom of Kabbalah has been absorbed in us, to some extent.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:23) In one of your books, in what we call the Black Series, you talked about the appearance of the Shechina as follows: “Now, here, when we have all gathered here together, there is a feeling that the Shechina is here between us. This is the most holy place.” How can all of us discover it? How can we reach the first feeling of the appearance of the Shechina, all of us, together?

M. Laitman: You wish to jump from the very first point on our path to the very last point. When It is practically impossible. But you should ask for it, and we should think about it. Ask, pray for it. I think we will succeed.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:01) How not to miss out on the opportunity that the Creator is giving us here and now in this special Congress?

M. Laitman: We talked about it. What’s your question? How to appreciate every moment? I need to think about it in advance before going to the gathering with the friends. There we will connect in the hearts, in the connection of the hearts. I'll be able to find my place. It wouldn't be an egoistic desire, rather a desire that will advance everyone. That's how we should act.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:30) Many times I can't do it. It's like a dream. When you dream, you are stuck, you can't move. Something bad is happening to you. I wanted to know from you how to work in this state. If this state exists, or is it just my invention? The Creator is sending me such sensations and thoughts when I become paralyzed. I can't move towards the friends, the Ten. He sends me such thoughts, and I don't know what to do. It's like a state where you're completely paralyzed, and you can't move. Many times you told Nikola that he needs to throw himself into the society, but he's truly in a state of paralysis where he cannot move. And the question is, is he making up that state? If he's not making it up, what do you do in such states?

M. Laitman: It will work out. Everything will eventually connect to all the other states, and in general it will build our path.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:06) I feel an atmosphere in which we are more mature and penetrated, as if more rational than emotional. How can we free this mind and let the heart flow, a more sensitive heart, without being afraid? There's a feeling that in this atmosphere we're more mature and also more cerebral rather than sensitive. How can we let go of our brain and let our sensitive heart flow more and have a better balance between our intellect and the feeling of the heart?

M. Laitman: That's the wisdom of the heart and the wisdom of the brain, and we need to combine them. This will come later. For the time being, let it be separate. It should be clear that I'm opening the state before me using my brain or using my heart.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:11) What can help us in the prayer to transform a part of myself?

M. Laitman: It depends on the extent to which the prayer will come out of my own heart.

Student: How will we then receive this spirit of life from the prayer?

M. Laitman: That's how you will receive it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:00) How do we yearn for the connection correctly?

M. Laitman: To yearn for connection correctly? I think that when I'm forgetting about myself and I only wish to be a connector between thoughts, desires and actions of the friends that is the meaning of participating in connection the right way.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:33) I'm very excited I want to tell you Before I left last night I finished the translation of the book of Shamti. Of course You know how many things I asked about these translations? You might say that I engaged in it for 25 years. I engaged in it. The computers broke down. I started anew. Then I discovered that there was some existing translation. I started to compare it with my work. I started to check it through the source. I get the impression that it cannot be translated to any language. You can maybe make some impression, some initial impression of what it says there. Is that how it is?

M. Laitman: Yes, this will be a variant.

Student: I'm very excited. Like they said here, you feel yourself so small, so lowly that you can't even give this gift. But on the other hand, if I was given the possibility to do it, at least I need to do something. If you allow me, I would like to give it to you. This is how I made your books, your first books with such a wrapping, and I would like to give it to you now.

M. Laitman: Thank you. I will gladly accept. I will keep it in my cabinet in the worthiest of places.

Student: Okay, I can bring it to you. Thank you. And if I can also ask questions about Shamati, this action where after the lesson a Kabbalist goes and writes down the impressions, the discernments he received. Is this a tradition in our school, or did only Rabash operate in this way? Typically that was the tradition.

M. Laitman: It depends on a person's attitude. There are those who cannot write anything, teachers who cannot write anything. Rather their oral teachings, they live on that and that's what they disseminated to space. And there are those who are the opposite. It's very difficult to say. Articles like in the book of Shamati, it's a very special form that these articles have. I think we are bringing humanity closer to a state where it will be able to see the value of this book.

Student: When you translate, you start to realize that there is such depth there. To what extent, I mean, many times you recommended for us to write down after the lesson, how much does that help us in spirituality, to write down the impressions we received in the lesson? We need to put it this way, Rabbash did it as well. So many kabbalists had such books of Shamati, of things that they heard in the lessons?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And in your notebooks, the ones you wrote down, you also had such things?

M. Laitman: In principle, there is such a style. I'm very grateful for the work you've done. It's a result of many years.

Student: And now I would very much like to also translate the Preface with explanations you gave in the green book.

M. Laitman: I don't know. Maybe we'll sing a song.

Song: (01:13:07)

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