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

Daily Morning Lesson: February 4, 2026

Part 1: A lesson based on the articles of Rabash

Rabash. Article No. 29, (1987). What Is “According to the Sorrow, So Is the Reward”?

Original lesson date: 04/10/2003

Reader: Hello dear friends, in the first part we’ll learn a lesson from Rav from April 10, 2003 based on “What Is ‘According to the Sorrow, So Is the Reward’?”. You can find it in Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, we’ll read the article together in the Ten. Tens that finish reading it before the time is out are invited to start discussing the main ideas from the article.

Reading: (00:51) What Is “According to the Sorrow, So Is the Reward”?

Article No. 29, 1987

Our sages wrote (Avot, Chapter 5), “Ben Ha Ha says, ‘According to the sorrow, so is the reward.’” We should understand this condition. What can we understand from “The work is according to the reward”?

It is written (in the song, “All who Sanctify”), “His reward is plentiful, according to his work.” Therefore, we should understand what is “According to the sorrow, so is the reward.” Instead, it should have said, “According to his work, so is his reward,” so what is “According to the sorrow is the reward”?

This is similar to what we find in The Zohar (Ki Tetze, Item 54): “Likewise will be the redemption. If they are rewarded, they will come out with mercy, as it is written, ‘Before her pain came, she gave birth to a male,’ and they came out with mercy. If He does not precede mercy, they will come out with pain. It is better to precede sorrow and judgment in order to extend mercy. For this reason, the authors of the Mishnah established, ‘According to the sorrow, so is the reward.’”

The words of The Zohar require clarification: 1) Why does it require preceding sorrow and judgment in order to extend mercy, as it is written, “It is better to precede sorrow and judgment in order to extend the mercy”? 2) They said, “According to the sorrow, so is the reward,” meaning “according to the sorrow, so is the reward.” But our sages said (Avot, Chapter 1), “He would say, ‘Be not as slaves serving the great one in order to receive reward.’” Thus, why is it permitted to work for a reward, since they said, “According to the sorrow, so is the reward”? Are we not forbidden to work for a reward?

To understand this, we first need to know what they call “sorrow,” “labor,” and “judgment.” Which reward are they referring to in “According to the sorrow, so is the reward”? It is known that there is no light without a Kli [vessel]. That is, we cannot fill a lack where there is none. Rather, where there is a lack, it can be said that it requires filling. For this reason, the Creator created a lack called “desire and yearning for pleasure.”

This is called Malchut de Ein Sof, which is called “creation.” It is known that this is called “creator of darkness,” in order to give her light and pleasure. We learned that it is called Ein Sof because this discernment, called “will to receive” in order to satisfy the lack in the yearning for pleasure, did not put a stop. That is, she did not say, “I do not want to use this Kli.” Instead, she received the delight and pleasure.

Afterward, this Kli, which took the abundance, said, “I do not want to be a receiver. Rather, I want to be like the Creator, meaning a giver, too.” But how can this be? That is, if we are speaking of spirituality, and she is craving Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, how can she say, “I don’t want to receive,” which contradicts the intention of the Creator, since His will is to do good to His creations? How could Malchut say, “I don’t want the intention of the Creator to be carried out”? since the Creator’s will cannot come true unless the lower one receives what He wants to give. If the lower one does not receive, the Creator’s intention will never come true.

The answer is that Malchut said, “I do want to receive; I don’t want to go against the will of the Creator, who wants to give, as it is written, ‘His desire to do good to His creations.’ However, I don’t want to receive in order to calm my yearning. Although I feel a great deficiency and I want to satisfy my desire with upper abundance, yet, I do not want to receive for this reason. Instead, with this intention He will receive, meaning because of the will to receive in me. I want to relinquish this, meaning to leave a vacant space without abundance, and because the Emanator wants the lower one to receive delight and pleasure, for this reason I will receive. In other words, I will receive because the Creator wants to give, for His pleasure is that He gives. For this reason I will receive.” This is called “receiving with the intention to bestow,” since by this I am bestowing upon the Creator, whose will, which is called “His desire to do good,” is carried out.

In the words of Kabbalah, this is regarded as placing a Masach [screen] on the upper abundance and not receiving it until she calculates this abundance to see what percentage she can receive in order to bestow. This she receives. If she receives the rest, it will be in order to receive, and this will remain vacant, without abundance.

According to the rule, “A desire in the upper one becomes a mandatory law in the lower one,” it follows that Malchut saying, “I don’t want to receive in order to receive,” which is called Tzimtzum [restriction], caused a prohibition on receiving in order to receive from her and below. If we do want to receive, we become separated from the Creator, since He is the bestower, and the receiver is in oppositeness of form, and “disparity of form causes separation in spirituality.” From here, the place for the Klipot [shells/peels] was made, who are separated from “The Life of Lives,” and are called “dead.”

Afterward, two systems emerged from this: Kedusha [sanctity/holiness] and Klipa [singular of Klipot]. It is written about it (“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 10), “And in order to mend that separation, which lays on the Kli of the souls, He created all the worlds and separated them into two systems, which are the four worlds ABYA of Kedusha, and opposite them the four worlds ABYA of Tuma’a. He imprinted the desire to bestow in the system of ABYA of Kedusha, removed from them the will to receive for themselves, and placed it in the system of the worlds ABYA of Tuma’a. The worlds cascaded onto the reality of this corporeal world, to a place where there is a body and a soul and a time of corruption and correction. For the body, which is the will to receive for oneself, extends from its root in the thought of creation through the system of the worlds of Tuma’a, and remains enslaved thirteen years, and this is the time of corruption. By engaging in Mitzvot from thirteen years onward, he begins to purify the will to receive for himself, imprinted in him, and slowly turns it into working in order to bestow. By this he extends a holy soul from its root in the thought of creation. It passes through the system of the worlds of Kedusha and dresses in the body. This is the time of correction.”

The above order, where he says that for thirteen years a man is under the control of the Klipot, is when one satisfies all his needs completely. There is no one who does not walk on this path of the time of corruption, since this way is natural. That is, everything he does, does not blemish the will to receive for himself.

But after thirteen years, when a person begins to work in Torah and Mitzvot with the aim to emerge from the governance of Tuma’a, and wants to work to the contrary, meaning that by the force of Torah and Mitzvot that he observes, he will have the strength to revoke the will to receive, which extends from the system of Tuma’a, the work becomes heavy, since it is against nature. [And I, Michael Laitman, heard from my teacher, the RABASH, that Baal HaSulam mentioned the number thirteen in order to obscure the matter.]

Man is born inside the will to receive for himself. Suddenly, he comes to the body and says, “Listen, until now you worked in thought, speech, and action for your own sake. From now on, I want you to work only for the sake of the Creator, meaning that everything you do will be with the intention to bestow contentment upon your Maker.”

When the body hears these words, it resists with all its might, both in mind and in heart. According to one’s prevailing, to that extent he reveals its resistance through all kinds of arguments, such as the arguments of the spies, who spoke about the land of Israel, as The Zohar interprets (Shlach, Item 59). It writes, “And they went up the Negev.” It means that people ascend in her in Negev [desert/dryness], meaning with an idle heart, as though one is working for nothing, with dryness, and thinks that there is no reward in it. He sees that the wealth of the world is lost for her, and thinks that everything is lost.

It is also written there (Item 63), “‘And they returned from touring the land.’ That is, they returned to the bad side and reverted from the path of truth saying, ‘What will we get out of it? To this day, we have not seen good in the world. We have toiled in Torah but the house is empty. We sat among the lowliest in the nation, and who will be rewarded with that world? Who will come into it? It would have been better had we not toiled so. That upper world is good, but who can be rewarded with it?’”

According to the above, we see that the complaint of the spies came only after the exertion, when they already began to work in order to bestow, as it is written in The Zohar, that they said, “To this day, we have not seen good in the world. We have toiled in Torah.” They also said, “It would have been better had we not toiled so.” That is, they had made great efforts to come to work in order to bestow, which is called “the land of Israel,” for Eretz [land] is called Ratzon [desire], and Yisrael [Israel] is called Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], meaning that they want everything to be straight to God, directly to the Creator, and not to the Klipot, whose control is in the will to receive for oneself.

Yet, the spies said, “That world is good, but who can be rewarded with it?” We see that the bad in a person interferes with entering the path of truth, which is to work only in order to bestow. It does not appear at once, but rather everything goes by way of “one opposite the other”: To the extent of overcoming in order to bestow, the “in order to receive” increases.

For this reason, a person thinks that he is regressing and not progressing. But in truth, he is progressing, and he can see this by the fact that the more he exerts to work in bestowal, the more attraction he receives toward the will to receive.

That is, before he exerted to walk on the path of bestowal, he did not have such an attraction for self-love. But once he has commenced in the work of bestowal, he sees that where the desire to bestow should have been stronger in him and the will to receive weaker, he is asking, “What have I gained from my work for “in order to bestow”? The will to receive has strengthened, meaning ascended in degree and became more important, while the desire to bestow grew weaker. In other words, it is at a lower degree in him after he has begun this work of acquiring vessels of bestowal.

It follows that only when he begins to work in bestowal comes the argument of the spies. Before he began to work in bestowal and his work was like the general public, he knew that he was learning Torah and engaging in Mitzvot, and he had no sorrow while engaging in his work in Torah and Mitzvot. But once he has begun the work of bestowal, he feels sorrow and suffering even during the work.

Indeed, concerning the argument of the spies that comes into his mind at that time, he sees that they are right in everything they say. This causes him to doubt the beginning. That is, he is angry with the one who admitted him into this work of bestowal. He lived in a world that was all good and felt that he was “happy in this world and happy in the next world.” But now he is hearing the argument of the spies coming from his body: “We labored in vain, and who will be rewarded with the upper world?”

It follows that he feels destitute because now he sees the truth—that the evil controls him and he has no permission to disobey it and go against the will and view of the will to receive for himself. He actually feels that he is completely separated from Kedusha and is in the group of the dead, as in, “The wicked, in their lives, are called ‘dead,’” since they are separated from The Life of Lives. Now he can actually feel this.

Conversely, before he began the work of bestowal, he would tell himself that he belongs to the group of servants of the Creator, and all the energy he put into the work brought him pain and sorrow when he saw that there are people who are not walking on the path of the Creator. But concerning himself, he was more or less certain that he was already considered a “servant of the Creator.”

But now he sees what has happened to him because of the advice to walk in the above-mentioned way: only sorrow and pain for not having this world. That is, in this world, he sees that he is not fine with the Creator, meaning he feels that he would like to work for the sake of the Creator and does not find satisfaction in his own benefit. Although he cannot exit self-gratification, he also cannot find satisfaction in it.

Now, in the next world, how can he hope and tell himself that he will be rewarded in the next world, so now he sees the truth—that he has no intention to work for the sake of the Creator, to be able to say, “I deserve reward for working for the Creator.”

Accordingly, we see that precisely when a person begins to walk on the path of bestowal, he comes to a state of pain and sorrow, and feels the labor that exists in serving the Creator. That is, the labor begins to work when one wants to work for the sake of the Creator. Only then do the arguments of the spies come to him. It is very difficult to overcome them, and many people escape the campaign and surrender to the argument of the spies.

But those who do not want to move, but rather say, “We have nowhere to go,” suffer from not being able to always overcome them. They are in a state of ascending and descending, and every time they overcome, they see that they are farther from the goal that they want to be rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator, which is equivalence of form.

The measure of sorrow that they must tolerate is because in truth, a person cannot emerge from the control of self-reception by himself, as it is the nature in which the Creator created man, which only the Creator Himself can change. In other words, as He has given the created beings the desire to receive, He can later give them the desire to bestow.

However, according to the rule, “There is no light without a Kli, no filling without a lack,” first one needs to obtain a deficiency. That is, he must feel that he is deficient of this Kli called “desire to bestow.” And concerning feeling, it is impossible to feel any lack if one does not know what he is losing by not having the Kli, called “desire to bestow.” For this reason, man must introspect on what causes him not to have the desire to bestow.

To the extent of the loss, he feels sorrow and suffering. When he has the real lack, meaning when he can pray to the Creator from the bottom of the heart for not having the strength to be able to work for the sake of the Creator, then, when he has the Kli, meaning the real lack, this is the time when his prayer is answered and he receives assistance from above. It is as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.”

By this we will understand what we asked, “What is the meaning of ‘According to the sorrow, so is the reward’?” It means that according to his lack, meaning to the extent that he feels sorrow at not being able to emerge from the control of the bad, and bad means that he feels that it is something bad, meaning he sees what bad that the vessels of reception cause him, then he feels actual sorrow. This gives him the need that the Creator will help him, and he receives the reward, meaning the reward for the sorrow he had had. This is the meaning of the words, “According to the sorrow,” to the full extent of the sorrow, meaning the understanding of the lack, is the reward. Then comes the time when the reward comes, for “there is no light without a Kli.”

Now we can understand what we asked according to what our sages said, “Be not as slaves serving the great one in order to receive reward.” In other words, it is forbidden to work in order to receive reward because receiving the reward separates us from the Creator, who is the giver, while man wants to receive.

The answer is that the reward he is asking for his labor is to be able to overcome the vessels of reception and be able to work in order to bestow. Such a reward will bring him Dvekut with The Life of Lives. That is, the reward he expects is to be given the strength to work without reward that comes to the vessels of reception, by which he becomes separated. Rather, the reward comes to the vessels of bestowal, by which he becomes close to the Creator.

By this we will also understand what we asked about what we sing in the songs of Shabbat [Sabbath], “His reward is plentiful, according to his work.” We should understand the following: 1) Is it permitted to work for a reward? If so why does he say, “His reward is plentiful”? 2) “His reward is plentiful, according to his work.” What is the novelty? In everything, if he works more he receives more reward. So, what is “his reward is plentiful”? I would understand it if he said, “His reward is plentiful although he did not make such great efforts, yet he received a great reward.”

According to the above, we should interpret that “work” does not pertain to corporeal work, where one is rewarded according to the output that a person produces. The output is positive, relating to what the worker did, and to the extent of the output so is his reward.

But here, “according to his work” means according to his labor and exertion without seeing anything positive in the work. On the contrary, each time, he sees more negativity in his work. That is, each time he sees that he does not want to work for the sake of the Creator. Thus, how can he ask for a reward, so as to say, “His reward is plentiful, according to his work,” although he sees no progress? On the contrary, he is regressing every time, yet he does not escape the campaign or grow idle in the work. Instead, he works as though he is advancing. It follows that “according to his work” means to the extent that he overcomes each time, and according to the sorrow and exertion that he puts into this work, it causes him to be able to obtain a real Kli and need for the Creator’s help.

It follows that unlike corporeality, where we are rewarded according to the output, meaning that one looks at the work he did. Here, it is the opposite.

Also, why is it permitted to receive reward here? It is because the reward he is asking is not a reward that will separate him from adhering to Him. Rather, he hopes that all of the reward he hopes to be given is the ability to bestow upon the Creator, and through this reward he will adhere to Him.

This is the meaning of what is written, “It is good to precede sorrow and judgment in order to extend mercy.” We asked, why the need for sorrow and judgment if we want mercy? The reason is that the sorrow is the Kli and the need, for there is no light without a Kli. And what is the “light”? It is mercy, as our sages said, “As He is merciful, so you are merciful.” This is what he should be given.

Reader: We will now go into a lesson with Rav from April 10, 2003.

M. Laitman: (32:43) We heard the article, “What Is ‘According to the Sorrow, So Is the Reward”? from The Rungs of the Ladder. Everywhere, we certainly understand that according to the sorrow, according to the work, the payment. Even not according to the work because it can give more or less work, usually, we talk about the produce, the product of the work. Meaning we look at something, how much it's worth in my eyes and, accordingly, I'm willing to give, to pay, to make a payment. In the work, the landlord, the boss says to the worker, do such and such, and receive such and such. He doesn't tell him he needs to sweat, he says, he needs the product of the work. There are places where we wait, not exactly according to the produce because you cannot see it—where you cannot see the product, something complete. Instead, we evaluate it according to the hours. The hours are also a certain measure of the exertion, it's not a product. It's the exertion but the exertion depends on the person, that's why we don't like it so much. With each one, you know, one can put in more effort and one can put in less effort for the same product. Here, they tell us that the payment comes not according to the product, not according to the labor, but according to the sorrow. This is another very, very interesting measurement: according to sorrow. What's that about? It's not so clear.

Why do I need to feel sorry about? What do I need sorry about so that, accordingly, I will receive payment? We see it happening in our world sometimes as well. If I love someone – love is the condition – and then his sorrow becomes important to me. The more sorrow he feels, for me it’s a sign, it's an obligatory force that makes me do something for him, to help him to erase his sorrow. That's why if we speak of the attitude between the landlord and the worker, if we speak about, according to the sorrow is the reward, it's a sign that the landlord, here, does not look at the produce, meaning the product that's being outputted. He doesn't care about the product itself, he also doesn't care about the labor, he doesn't look at how much his worker put in the effort. That's very important for us—specifically to feel that we don't need the labor – as it says, He who fears Me, all of the Torah is very easy and all of the Torah is in his heart. Meaning, labor, exertion—we say the opposite. The purpose of creation is rest, not labor. We certainly don't need labor.

M. Laitman: (37:23) Rather, we say that we have to exert for such and such a number of years. But, no, the truth is that the equivalent of the labor, the more correct, the more truthful, the more internal equivalent is the sorrow. The sorrow can become a measurement scale if there is a relationship between two people where one feels the other. Meaning, if the Creator tells the created being that He demands from him the feeling of sorrow then, first of all, it says that He wants to feel me. If, to feel me, and He's the good who does good then, certainly, we're not speaking of sorrow the way we think about it in our egoistic vessels. Rather, the sorrow has to be purposeful, then a person has to think: What is the essence of the sorrow? He will not feel sorry about feeling bad because, then, he is in separation. The more he torments himself, the more he distances himself from the landlord, from the Creator. And he will not reap any good fruit from this sorrow, he will not see the payment, the payment will not come to this sorrow. That's not what the Creator is looking for – to cause sorrow to a person – rather, the sorrow should come exactly to be a purposeful or goal-oriented sorrow, relative to that vessel, that state—a person has to come to. To the extent he develops the vessel for it, the lack, the sorrow then, certainly, he deserves payment. Meaning, from the side of the Creator, the payment is ready; from the point of view of a person, there has to be a sorrow precisely for that payment that the Creator is holding on to and is waiting for him to bring a demand for the sorrow to come.

So when we feel sorry, when we have all sorts of feelings, maybe unpleasant feelings, we have to check their nature—not their depth, their nature. Typically, we measure, we check sorrow, how big it is, greater or not so great, tolerable or not so much. If it's intolerable, then we begin to try to come out of it. Even if we find a bit of sweetness in the sorrow, which is an actual shell, but we don't pay much attention to the nature of the sorrow, the character of the sorrow, what we feel sorrow about. Here's the key for understanding this condition: According to the sorrow is the reward; the sorrow has to be precisely toward that same payment, the same reward, the same gift. That same fulfillment that the Creator is holding and to check our sorrow: Are we truly sorry because we don't have what He has and don't have what He wants to give us? If the way we feel sorry will also ensure that the sorrow will be in the right way, then we'll certainly reach a state where according to the sorrow is the reward. Meaning, we're not talking about a quantitative matter: The more I feel sorrow, the reward is greater. Rather, we talk about the equivalence or compatibility between my sorrow and His reward. That the vessel and the light will be compatible. It's clear that the vessel has to be in order to bestow so it can receive the reward that the Creator is holding onto and is waiting, waiting to give. Question?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:54) He writes in Item 380, Those who don't want to move. What does he want to say, here?

M. Laitman: Page 380 in the Hebrew edition: Those who do not want to move but, rather, say, we have nowhere to go. They suffer from not being able to always overcome them. They are in a state of ascending and descending and every time they overcome, they see that they are farther from the goal. They want to be rewarded with adhesion with the Creator which is equivalence of form. And?

Student: What is he trying to say, here?

M. Laitman: Oh, you just don't understand the words; anyone who doesn't understand the words has to read it a few times, to read also before that paragraph and after, more.

Student: In terms of qualitatively transforming the sorrow, how do you do that? How do you know?

M. Laitman: No, no, because, look, the quantity—the problem is more quality than quantity, what does it mean? You cry because, you understand, you cry because you want, I don't know what, a special toy and mommy wants to give you, I don't know, some food, not toys. So she hears only one thing, she doesn't hear this thing, for example, right? What good will it help you to cry over this toy or that toy or the size of the toy? It's not in the same direction, it's not the same MAN, seemingly, it's not called MAN. It's simply not a deficiency that is absorbed in the upper one. First of all, we have to pay attention to the quality of the sorrow. The whole world is crying, is yelling, is angry – I don't know – It's not felt up above. Above, it's felt like a desolate land, complete silence. There, up there, the ear listens to only one kind of sorrow. You want to bestow, you wait for it, you expect these forces? Go ahead. No, no, it's as if I didn't receive anything and I didn't hear anything. We need to understand because with us, during the preparation time, we spent a lot of time on just any kind of sorrow. We think that just by sitting and feeling sorry, I advance. It feels like an act of heroism that I'm being in sorrow, and this is the evil inclination, it's a shell. It's a very hard shell that truly tempts a person, lies to a person that there's some reward in feeling sorrow.

The sorrow we're speaking of is the sorrow of love: I wish to love you and I can't. I have nothing to hold on to, I have nowhere to bestow, I have no pipes, no connection. It's a different kind of sorrow. This is called the torments of love, sufferings of love, and all the rest of the suffering that we feel, the troubles, are simply unrelated. They're called beastly because they're all in order to receive. Only this sorrow, this very fine peck of sorrow which is the correct sorrow and then it's felt in the Creator, is the sorrow of bestowal. It's the sorrow of the vessel that I have nothing, I don't have it to bestow, I have nowhere to give, I have nowhere to love. This is what I am aiming for – exactly that thing enters into it. There's a tiny puncture there, a hole that this intention or this intention is received. According to the sorrow is the reward—I'm telling you it's incorrect to think about the size of the sorrow; rather than all the thousands of kinds of troubles and torments, we need to have the right scrutiny about the correct sorrow, the correct vessel. What do we want from it, what do we expect? Then, the sorrow will be exactly according to the payment and the reward. It's holding onto, you know.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:21) How do you do this work, how do you direct it?

M. Laitman: This work is the work of scrutiny that's done only in the thought, only in the thought. The feeling of the sorrow is in the heart and the criticism, the analysis and the correction of the sorrow is in the brain.

Student: Why should I relate to the mind as something that can even show me it's not just one big illusion? Do the whole work in the mind. How can I do this in the mind? How can I know that the mind can bring me to something?

M. Laitman: I don't get you. If I feel sorrow—I'm very sensitive to sorrow, yes? As a feeling creature, a desire to receive. That's how I was born, I was created, I'm sensitive to sorrow. Now, if I feel sorry, my nature—because I'm in order to receive, it constantly blurs this matter for me. Or I'm thrown into this state where I say that sorrow is good, I'll receive a reward for it, and there is no reward for just for any old sorrow. We see it, rather the shell is confusing us, or perhaps because of the sorrow there's this confusion, or lack of attention, I'm not able to – lack of focus. I'm not able to criticize it, to check it, to somehow hold on to it, and take care of it, and this is the exertion. This is the exertion, we have a scrutiny, we have the work, we have the scrutiny, we have the labor, and everything is around the sorrow. The sorrow is the correct vessel and it needs to be about this vessel, and bringing this vessel to a state where certainly its sorrow will be compatible with the reward the Creator holds.

It turns out that the correct sorrow is the vessel we have to come to, so our entire scrutiny is to reach that vessel. And to reach that vessel then there's work in degrees, for my sorrow to be more and more. Meaning I'll be able to receive more and more of my desires, and process them into a greater sorrow. But the correct one, it will be aimed on the same ray of light that comes from the Creator to me. So, According to the sorrow is the reward, it will be also then according to the sides of the sorrow. But there, too is actually not the size, right, it's the difference in degrees; it's not a quantitative difference, it's a qualitative difference, it's a ladder of qualities, I would say, qualities. We're talking about values not quantities, because each degree is different than its neighboring degree – not in quantity, but in quality, in depth, the level, the intensity. But intensity that stems from the perception, from understanding, from scrutiny, from deconstructing all the forces that make us, right? The reasons, the causes, that's why, According to the sorrow is the reward, it's a qualitative matter.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:25) What is the advice to reach this, why is the sorrow?

M. Laitman: Our problem again, I'm saying, we don't look at the character of the sorrow, we look at the quantity of it, look how much he's suffering, he suffers, so what? Suffers for what? He suffers that he doesn't have a nice-looking Cadillac, he's crying all the time, right? Is this sorrow, is this torment? So, compared to the correct torment, the right, the correct sorrow, our torment and everything that might be, sounds this way.

Student: I speak about investment, why exertion, something that happens, it's hard to grasp the place where you have to apply force.

M. Laitman: There are possibly some examples in our world – I'm not sure how to explain this – it is impossible in our state to ever grab hold of the right direction to the Creator. Let's say you're working with a camera. Well, today everything's automatic, so it's not that. But let's say you have to focus more, and more, and more, and more, and then for a moment you got an ideal focused shot, and it escapes you again. And you aim it, and calibrate it, and it keeps escaping you. So, for a moment, if you go beyond the ideal state where you truly grasp the picture very clearly, but just for a moment. And even if you pause there, it escapes you; meaning you can't for more than a second, where you don't even clearly see it, but you have some feeling that, oh, I got it, I got the picture! You go through it, though, so quickly, you recognize the state, but you can't stop and stay there for even a second. It's just that feeling that you've passed it, and once again, you're not exactly there, and that's what you get. This is essentially some kind of a depiction of our work towards the Creator, that we cannot direct ourselves to Him.

So, this sorrow that you want to find exactly what thought, what manner will give you that point of contact, which will disappear. But even for a second, that search, this sorrow from it, is what's perceived, what's absorbed as raising MAN. And this is what's called, I've slept in the night, and you know how it's written in the Song of Songs. On my bed. Well, we can probably find some more examples. When I'm, I just looked at the camera, so that came up.

Student: Labor is the search?

M. Laitman: Yes, labor is the search; it also, it writes, I've searched for the love of my soul. Yes, you understand? He writes it beautifully in the Song of Songs.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:35) What is the matter of slowly?

M. Laitman: Slowly, what is that, bit by bit? Read it in the Study of the Ten Sefirot. Bit by bit means according to the order of degrees.

Student: Why?

M. Laitman: Why according to the order of degrees? Because we have to scrutinize our vessels and build them from the point in the heart we were given to the point that this vessel grows to an infinite dimensions. And we can't jump from zero to Ein Sof, we have to reach Ein Sof to discover the infinite vessel that exists in us by way of cause and consequence. The Ibur, Yenika, Mochin, in each and every degree, let's say in 125 degrees; in each Ibur, Yenika, Mochin, there is work of NRNHY in each one, and this is called, bit by bit. There is no time, there is, however, an order of cause and consequence. What separates between the degrees? Ein Sof. He writes that. How the Malchut of the upper one becomes Keter for the lower one. And there is an infinite cessation there. There is a change between the Creator and the created being, what does it mean? That each Partzuf, every point that you scrutinize, will have Ten Sefirot that you have to sort out and absorb. That means you're completing this scrutiny in Ein Sof. Afterwards, they all come together, but they all come from Ein Sof. And so, it doesn't matter that you're in some degree, let's say Netzach of Malchut of Assiya. You scrutinize it, you sort it out and you jump to a higher degree, same Tifferet of Malchut of Assiya. So, that jump is through a cessation between them, between these two degrees there is an infinite gap. Meaning if there was no assistance, that the moment you conclude the degree of Netzach, you feel the back side, the posterior of the degree of Tifferet, you would have no way to ascend. Rather, the upper one himself, through the restriction, drops his AHP into you, and then you can be assisted by it. Otherwise, there's no connection between the degrees. Look, Galgalta is completely cut off from AB, her records, everything she now takes down from AB, it's like she has nothing. She receives records and she fulfills the actions, she herself is just a kind of adapter that gives birth to what's next. But what happens in AB, in general, it's a whole different nature, it's all different from Galgalta. You could say that Galgalta as if turns to Ein Sof to take the record from there – this is called, From the treasury of the souls, and then it gives birth to the next Partzuf.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:16) What does it mean to finish the degree? What is the end of the ending of the degree?

M. Laitman: The ending of the degree means where the Masach ends, I don't understand?

Student: You said now, the end of the degree, the ending of it.

M. Laitman: Maximum realization in my state, in the record that's in me in order to bestow. Where I reach the complete realization of it based on all the data in me. This is called, the conclusion of the degree.

Student: You don't feel it?

M. Laitman: Why, why not feel it? How do I not feel it? I feel. Sium, ending, means that I make the ending, that thus far I can work in order to bestow in various possibilities. Let's say Galgalta, she says, so far is my action of bestowal, below that, no. Theoretically, below the Sium of Galgalta, there are Klipot, shells, desires with which you cannot work in order to bestow. That's what Baal HaSulam writes, and Rabash adds that he writes it for the sake of the future. Because you can't say that once Galgalta emerges, below its ending, there are shells, they're destined to get to that place. In terms of the values, they're supposed to be there; but Baal HaSulam writes it without adding that. He writes that there, below the Sium of Galgalta, there's a desire to receive in order to receive. But it's not there yet. You could say it's already there, in En Sof, everything already exists. In unity, but exists.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:48) Baal HaSulam writes that, You can cross the barrier between three and five years. What is that condition, what is that thing?

M. Laitman: Baal HaSulam writes that a person can cross the barrier in three to five years, investing three to five years. It means the following: I believe in the same place, in the Introduction to the Study of TES, he gives an answer there, that a person needs to grow accustomed to the light in it, to work on the light, with the light, and this habit takes time. And therefore, it just takes time; now, time also means a number of actions we need to perform – but however you look at it, it does take years. You see, here I wrote because I didn't want to say anything for myself, on the one hand. On the other hand, because it confuses people, the term 13 years, so I added it, here. 13 years, he truly just put it there for no reason, meaning there are many things that he would put into his writings so that a person who is somewhat understanding it and is doing the work will understand that this is to deliberately to blur things out. And it was worthwhile for him to do that.

But, like he said about 50 years, that's why I asked Rabash, and when he said in the 50s that in 50 years everyone will study Kabbalah, and so forth, The Book of Zohar. So, Rabash answered that he also asked him, well, what is 50 years? You mean just a Jubilee, or what is this number you're throwing? He said, no, that will happen like that at the end of the 20th century, it will begin to be revealed. So, 50 years was not just a number, and from three to five years, also no. On the one hand, it's not just a number, but on the other hand, it is still something that is not realistic, not sustainable. That a person who truly wants to enter the spiritual world, in his vessels – to prepare these vessels – for now, he needs more time, probably double, almost double. Even though this duration begins to shorten. Before, people would need 30 years and more recently, it was around 20 years. Today, we see that people who begin to come, they're already much wiser than those who came five years ago, so they already perceive and grasp things differently, so, time is shortening. However, the habit is something that must form. Not just habit, all the actions we need to be making. So, in spirituality, of course, when a person already enters spirituality, he has a different kind of work. But while he's still in corporeality, whatever happens, times here are very influential on him. Alright?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:16) There's a special root?

M. Laitman: A question, what's the question, don't explain to me.

Student: About Him and His name as one. As if there's a root?

M. Laitman: A question, if there's no question, then let it go. This, I ask you, write it down. And then ask your question.

Student: Besides the sorrow, which is a shell of a person that feels sorry and proud, can you see in this thing?

M. Laitman: Any sorrow that is not as a vessel of raising MAN, a vessel that is certainly worthy of answer from the Creator, is sorrow from the shells, the Klipot. And we have to sort out and see that it truly doesn't belong to the true sorrow. The sorrow of Kedusha, the sorrow for vessels of bestowal, of love, of fear, of connection with the Creator. So, we have to sort out what percentage of that do we have, and what percentage is the otherwise. Because Lo Lishma includes both a part that is for me and a part that is for the Creator. Lo Lishma is comprised of two, he writes about it in Introduction to TES. So, we have to examine that and leave each time just the part that's aimed at the Creator. This means that in a second, in one moment, I go beyond the focus, as I told you. That's what I want to clarify from this whole blur, just grab hold of that: I couldn't, once again, it's blurry, and my sorrow is for all kinds of other things, and I rearrange it so that it's only sorrow towards Him. That means I'm looking for the focus, the focal point, the exact angle, this ray of light that reaches Him, exactly. And that's the script. So, according to the perception of this sorrow is the reward.

Student: So, the scrutiny is the final point? What's after that scrutiny?

M. Laitman: After the scrutiny is one point. Israel, the Torah and the Creator are one, so you have a connection. You already have a feeling, the scrutiny itself scrutinizes, clarifies your vessel in which you receive the reward – the greatness of the Creator. What is the purpose of creation? To be revealed to the created beings. By this, you scrutinize your soul, exactly; you take the point in the heart, which if you look at the Creator through it, you're looking at Him precisely in focus. So you scrutinize it, you sort it out from the rest of your heart. So by scrutinizing it, by sorting it, you increase the point in the heart until it becomes a vessel. So you can have a thousand depictions here.

Student: I'm seeing that my sorrow is not in that direction.

M. Laitman: No, regretting having the wrong sorrow is also a Klipa, of course not. Rather, you have to look, you have to gladly look for the right sorrow with elation, with a good feeling because it has to ride on love. And as much as – even in the corporeal life – no one would relinquish the sorrow of love, let's say, at adolescence, right? When you love someone, so what? He suffers, ah what a shame. Would you erase these years or not? Or do they give a special flavor to life? Look at all the music, all the movies, all the pictures, anything, all the literature, look at what humanity did. Besides anything but the Creator, what does it deal with? Love, beastly love, that's what it's all about. If not love for the Creator, animate love – corporeal love.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:22) The question of the friend about focus, how do we not remain on that point, and how do you hold on to it? Is it from a desire to want to do better?

M. Laitman: That's what I wanted to say: Constantly looking for the focus is our work, not that we got it, and then we move closer and closer. In other words, it's not the size of the vessel that determines here but the resolution of the focus, do you understand? What range you get it in. Oh, great. Now it's in focus, great I got it; now, it's out of focus. That means you're rising to a different level of clarity of it, and there too, you look for the focus, again. And then you come out of the situation again, but you rise to an even higher level. And once again, you search for the focus,or actually, you keep getting closer to it, getting it, capturing it in a brighter, closer picture. The nearing is qualitative, you have these instruments, right? When you move to a different range, right? Times ten, times 100, times a million, etc.

Student: Is that the way of Torah?

M. Laitman: That's the path of Torah, of course. If there is sorrow from love, it's the path of Torah, of course, it's called, pains of love, yes? This is why we were given it, we were given to feel it in this world at adolescence, a little bit of that feeling, animate feeling. So we would have afterwards with what to deal with toward the real goal. As much as we engage in it, of course not.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:28) Is the work in mind and heart on this special scrutiny of the intention, is it just an action, or does it necessitate an action?

M. Laitman: It's all true. Where is work? In the heart. On the right vessel, on the right sorrow, yes? So, I told you, the sorrow you're suffering, now you need to scrutinize what exactly is the sorrow about? Where is he, Where is None Else Besides Him, here, in the Rungs of the Ladder. Divinity in Exile, let’s say this – he writes about it everywhere – in Kabbalah for the Student, beginning with But….

But when he commits some transgression, and he must certainly regret and be sorry for committing the transgression, here too, he should arrange the order of the sorrow and the pain.

Sorrow, right, what the sorrow is about, right?

Because according to the sorrow is the reward. On what point he attributes the cause of the transgression, on which point he should regret. And that person should regret then, and say, “I committed the transgression because the Creator threw me out of holiness. He blurred this focus for me. To the place he threw me, a filth, to the toilet, where I saw all kinds of horrible pictures instead of the Creator, which is a place of filth, meaning the Creator gave him a desire and craving to entertain himself and breathe air in a place of stench…”

In other words, now that he feels that he's in a state of ascent, in other words, you should always see my sorrow or my joy, it's the same, it doesn't matter. Even doctors say that with respect to the body, it's actually in the model, it's not important. This or that, meaning both: Do I attribute it to the Creator? And when you attribute correctly, that sorrow becomes a vessel.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:13) If we were to sharpen it more?

M. Laitman: So, all the scrutinies that he writes, a person should arrange that sorrow on the right order, that's the work in the mind.

Student: If it's qualitative enough to do this internal scrutiny, or should we express it in a way of action? Because you can't feel it in thought, so is it worthwhile to express it in a more practical way?

M. Laitman: No, no, that's an internal scrutiny that we don't think about it with respect to a friend or to know. When it's only an internal scrutiny that a person directs his heart from the point in the heart to the Creator.

Reader: Alright, to move to a workshop in the tens and share impressions from the lesson. What from the lesson we're taking to implement in the Ten?

Reader: We'll move to the next part of the lesson, and before that, we'll sing a song together!

Song: (01:24:37)

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The Alternative to Drugs: The Potion of Life

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