Conversations With Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman - Guarantee to one another in thought

January 29, 2025

Reading Article: Delving in Prayer

Concerning the prayer “Deliver me from hash judgment,” since one does not move without an awakening in his mind, meaning that the place is narrow for him, etc. This is called “judgment” or “sentence.” That judgment is revealed in the movements of his organs. If a person moves his organs without judgment, but by imitating another person, this is an act of a monkey, and has no dignity. This is the meaning of private Providence in all its flavors, that he is given from above some judgment or sentence in his mind, by which to move from place to place in a sensible manner. 

However, there is a person who is burned by [something] lukewarm, and there is a person who is burned only by the hottest. For this reason, the judgments and sentences are not the same for all, since it depends on a person’s character. This is the meaning of the prayer, “Deliver me from a harsh judgment,” meaning improve my character so as to be burned by lukewarm, or give me more knowledge and understanding, to easily understand and move where You want. 

However, there is also one who is not burned even by the very hottest, and does not want to move himself from his place. This is by falling into the net of a malicious person, who is the force of impurity, who denies the household of above. Although according to the judgment in his mind, he must work, but the force of folly of the malicious person operates on him. There is no cure for this except through great observation in the Torah and prayer. This is the meaning of “who makes all the reasons and causes all the causes.” One is operated only in the reasons, and one is operated with great force in the Torah of above. This is the meaning of (Shabbat 127) “delving in prayer,” since he is fighting against a malicious person, and through great unification with the cause of all causes, he is saved from him.  

Student: What is a malicious person?

M. Laitman: I don’t know. That he has no connection to the roots. So it seems to me.

Student: What is the reason for all reasons?

M. Laitman: That’s the root of roots. So I think.

Student: Every moment a person gets another thought. The Creator awakens him in different ways. What should the correct response be? How does he work with it correctly?

M. Laitman: To connect it to the reason, the Creator.

Student: That he connects it with the reason or at least he knows that if it comes from the Creator. that’s it?

M. Laitman: I don’t know, but thoughts.

Student: Any thought that comes to a person’s mind. There are thoughts that he needn’t deal with or a person should take every thought and work with it, since the Creator is sending the thought and he needs to respond to it somehow.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, the response needs to be according to the thought or not matter what the thought is, the response should be constant.

M. Laitman: It depends on what the Creator wants from him.

Student: How does a person know what the Creator wants from him? Precisely, with his thoughts does He give instructions? Every thought that comes to person. How does he know how to work correctly with this thought?

M. Laitman: He attributes it to the Creator.

Student: If a person feels that he’s moving away from the Creator, does that also advance him toward the Creator? Everything that the Creator does brings a person closer, but not in a direct way, on a straight path. So the thing is that the more I come closer to the Creator I feel that.

M. Laitman:

Reading Excerpt: Baal HaSulam, The Meaning of Names

Come and learn the real wisdom, the reason for this whole entanglement. In the Creator Himself, there is no thought or perception whatsoever, and the reason is simple: All the thoughts that come into one’s mind are the very operations of the Creator. That is, it is not as one senses, that he extends them from some place or that they are born within him on the spot. This is a lie, the number one lie.

Rather, every thought, even the most slender, the Creator sends it to a person’s mind, and this is the power of movement of man, beast, and every living thing. That is, when the Creator wishes to move the living being, He acts in it by sending a single thought, and that thought moves it according to its measure. It is as one who sends rain upon the ground but the ground cannot feel who sent it the rain. Likewise, man is utterly unable to feel who has sent him the thought, for he will not feel it before it comes into the domain of his imagining mind. And once it is in his domain, it seems to him as part of his self. By this you will understand that there is no thought or perception of Him, for the simple reason that the Creator did not wish to send us such a thought that will be capable of attaining Him. 

However, He has arranged for us an procession of thoughts whereby this entire procession, one must ultimately attain Him to the real extent. 

Student: So, a kabbalist does feel that the Creator is sending him the thought, because here it says an ordinary person doesn’t feel that the Creator is sending the thought? Thus, he thinks it’s his own possession. Does a kabbalist feel it?

M. Laitman: No, I don’t know what to tell you about a kabbalist, but eventually a person feels.

Student: He gets some thought and really feels it is the Creator who sent it.

M. Laitman: For sure.

Student: What does it give me? Suppose I feel it. Does it give me pleasure or what?

M. Laitman: It gives you room to work.

Student: What kind of work?

M. Laitman: That you should be drawn back to the Creator.

Student: It’s about connection. If I keep asking why did you send it to me, what for, things like that. It’s like a person who gives you a present and you see that he gave it to you, so you already have some connection with him. Why did he give it? Maybe I’ll give him something, as opposed to a person who gets a present and he doesn’t know where it came from.

M. Laitman: Right.

Student: There are also undesired presents, different thoughts that come to a person that he’d be happy not to get. What do you do about such thoughts such thoughts that the Creator gives?

 M. Laitman: What to do with thoughts that a person is not happy to discover? 

Student: Yes, thoughts that I don’t want. I feel that these are my thoughts that I’m thinking. I understand that it’s incorrect to think that it’s my thought, but that the Creator sent them.

M. Laitman: The Creator sent that too in order for you to respond to it.

Student: What’s the response to a thought that He gave me that is undesired by me, because it pushes me away from the path?

M. Laitman: You need to bless for the bad as for the good.

(10:18) Student: The problem with these thoughts is if they might come true. If I ______ with this thought, you can flow with it. I can’t stop. He sent it. If I bless it’s justifying that He gave it to mem that it’s good and correct and becomes allowed and I don’t want it to be allowed. How do I correctly resist a thought the Creator gives me that pushes me away from the path?

M. Laitman: Try to push it away from your mind. That’s it.

Student: Do our thoughts pass from one to another or each has his own assembly line of thought? 

M. Laitman: They influence each other. Thoughts influence.

Student: So, I also need to be responsible for my thoughts. If I feel that if I have malicious thoughts, criticism, if I catch myself, then I need somehow to get rid of them. If I don’t catch myself, then I can’t do anything about it. Suppose another student’s thoughts. If they’re malicious, critical, like you just said. Does that influence the friends in the ten?

M. Laitman: That too.

Student: Even though it’s subconscious? What am I to blame? I’m unaware of it. It’s also not me. It’s the Creator. If I catch myself, that I’m criticizing and I’m not doing anything about it, then probably I’m to blame, but if not?

M. Laitman: If not, then not. 

Student: How can a the Ten help a friend direct his thoughts correctly?

M. Laitman: The power of the Ten works on everyone and helps a person focus his thoughts correctly. 

Student: Where is the power of the Ten? Where does a person suckle on it?

M. Laitman: The power of the Ten is the general force.

Student: In three weeks, we have a Congress, Connecting to Lishma. Friends from the entire world Kli will come, the Israeli Kli, everyone gathering around this very special event. People are preparing ourselves. The friends are feeling that something important is up ahead. Now we’re finishing the Arvut article. We have three weeks left. What’s the best thing for us to focus on now to prepare ourselves for the Congress called Connecting to Lishma. There are many directions in which we can go and it’s all correct, all true, all sources. What should we focus on in these lessons of ours in order to come to this Congress even more ready?

M. Laitman: I think that before the Congress the most important thing is that each will think how he can push society upwards toward the Creator. 

Student: What is the act to push?

M. Laitman: It’s that a person’s thoughts awaken the friend not to stay on the spot, not to stay in place.

Student: We just read that Baal HaSulam writes that a person doesn’t generate thoughts. He gets thoughts. So how do I awaken a thought in me that will push the friends to the Creator?

M. Laitman: If I know that by my thought I influence the friends, then certainly I need to make sure that this thought will have the right intensity and direction.

Student: How will I get this thought to care for the friends and push them to the Creator? Do I determine my thoughts?

M. Laitman: If you receive them?

Student: Yes, if I receive them. How do I merit this kind of thought?

M. Laitman: From that have friends that also think in that direction. 

Student: How does the Creator send thoughts? It’s not that there’s some kind of system in which there is some kind of storage from which things come every moment. Maybe it’s more correct to depict it as records, like the DNA in a person that in each and every moment gives a person’s body development. The same thing with the records, that it stems from the person himself. Does it come from the person or does the Creator send it? Who agreed to these records? The Creator did. I just want to understand the mechanism. 

M. Laitman: We can’t understand it. It won’t give you anything. 

Student: Is it more correct to look at is a Reshimot developing each time?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: So, it means that a person gets thoughts according to the inclination of his heart? Meaning something exists. Maybe he invites that thought that the Creator sends him, and the thought is an offshoot of the desire, right? First of all, there’s an egoistic desire to exploit everyone and accordingly also have thoughts about how to execute it. If I have a different desire about how to serve everyone, then I don’t have these thoughts, right? I don’t control my desire, the Creator does. So, certainly I don’t control my thoughts either. So, what do I control?

M. Laitman: You control the Creator. 

Student: Do I ask Him to change my desire or not? And that depends on the environment. 

M. Laitman: It’s complicated.

Student: It’s beautiful. What does it mean that we control the Creator?

M. Laitman: There’s such a thing that the Creator says, I’ve sold you, or something like that. Or I’ve been sold with it or… I’ll look for it.

Student: Does that also mean that my sons have defeated me?  

M. Laitman: Yes, also the same kind.

Student: The Creator said to Israel, I have sold to you my Torah. It is as though I’ve been sold with it as was said and let them take for me a contribution. Is this what you meant? Is the action of the Arvut actually what pushes others toward spirituality? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Besides realizing the Arvut, is there something else that needs to be done? 

M. Laitman: The action of the Arvut is a commitment of each toward his environment. 

Student: Arvut is like complete commitment. You really invest yourself entirely for their spirituality. How do we disconnect the need of our spirituality from the act of the Arvut? 

M. Laitman: You don’t need to disconnect it. You are simply entirely in it and that’s it. It’s how we want to be in it, immerse in it.

Student: What do I do about this need for myself, that it exists?

M. Laitman: If it exists, it’s not good. 

Student: The Arvut obliges you to be entirely in spirituality toward them. How do we cut off anything that’s for me?

M. Laitman: Simply to be tied only to the thoughts outwards.

Student: In our lives we now have two concepts that stand out—Arvut and Lishma. For us a society, as a world Kli, what’s closer?

M. Laitman: Arvut.

Student: Is Arvut the condition for Lishma? The topic of the upcoming Congress is Connecting to Lishma. Is it the right topic for us to be engaged in and ask about?

M. Laitman: Of course.

Student: So, is Arvut only a spiritual concept, that I’m responsible for my friend’s thoughts, that he’ll be connected to the goal, or also in corporeality. 

M. Laitman: In corporeality you have no such concept.

Student: Meaning Arvut which Baal HaSulam writes about has nothing to do with corporeality. 

M. Laitman: Right.

Student: So, if we’re a Ten and we’ve committed to keep the framework, Maaser, lessons, etc., and one of us doesn’t keep it, it’s no problem because it’s not Arvut. It doesn’t hurt the Arvut, right?

M. Laitman: Right,

Student: If he’s not concerned with spirituality or thinks about it connected to the goal, does that do harm? If a friend of ours in the Ten has some kind of financial problem or a medical problem, and we don’t take care of it, it’s still not Arvut. You’re saying that corporeal Arvut is unrelated.

M. Laitman: That too. The measure in which we can support each other, we are in Arvut.

Student: How do we realize the Arvut between us in practice, because it’s really felt that that’s the condition. Until there’s Arvut, there will be nothing else. How in practice can a Ten oblige the Creator to bring upon it the form of Arvut?

M. Laitman: Arvut is a great thing. With the help of Arvut, you can raise the entire society to the goal. 

Student: When we say that the friend’s corporeality is my spirituality, what is that about? How could it be that I’m responsible for him in spirituality, think about him, but in practice he doesn’t come to the lesson every day. Can such a thing be? We’re not talking about a person who can’t, he simply can’t. He’s coerced, so he can’t. How could be that I’m responsible for him, for his thoughts for this, for that, but my heart supports him 100%?  In corporeality, not so much. You said that it’s okay that something like that can be. I don’t understand this.

M. Laitman: That’s not up to him.

Student: So, Arvut does belong to corporeality. What does it mean that the friend’s corporeality is my spirituality? It means that if I care for a brother in everything that I can in corporeality this is how I take care of my spirituality. We can probably twist it in any which way.

Yesterday someone asked me a question that I don’t know how to answer. A Jewish man, my nationality, passed away into the next incarnation, will he also be a Jew or not necessarily?

M. Laitman: He will. 

Student: Meaning this group extends. He’ll always be a Jew, and someone who belongs to the nations of the world will always belong to the nations of the world?

M. Laitman: A person can’t rise from being a nation to being a Jew. 

Student: Suppose 200 years ago he was part of the nations of the world in nationality, but now he became a Jew. The next incarnation he’ll be a Jew too, and a Jew can’t become a nation. Even if he’s Jewish according to his passport, he doesn’t belong to it, he doesn’t yearn for it?

M. Laitman: Right.

Student: We need to explore the system more. It’s unclear what a Jew is, because today it’s a half, a third, a quarter. All of humanity is mixed. He’s Russian and gets married to a Romanian Jew and together they have… It’s all so mixed. How can the Creator know who’s Jewish, who’s not? It’s complicated. I’m concerned that he won’t get confused. If the answer I give is that a Jew in the next incarnation will also be a Jew, is it correct?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: In this gathering, can we perform an act of Arvut that will elevate everyone? 

26:55 M. Laitman: _________

Student: Previously you said that Arvut is a great thing and by it we elevate the entire society if we keep the Arvut. If we have gathered here as a Ten, can we now perform an act of Arvut the will elevate the entire society?

M. Laitman: To elevate the entire society? How can…

Student: That’s what you previously said, that Arvut is a great thing, and once you keep the Arvut, by that action you elevate the entire society. What does it mean that now here we’re keeping the Arvut and elevating the entire society?

M. Laitman: If the society agrees that this is as a direction to develop towards this goal.

Student: Does a person need to want to develop spiritually, or can he develop spiritually even if he doesn’t want it?

M. Laitman: I don’t think so.

Student: Meaning he needs to want it. The moment the person has a desire for it. then by our Arvut, we develop. Let’s say that society wants to develop spiritually now. What does it mean that we are now keeping or performing an act of Arvut that elevates and develops the entire society?

M. Laitman: Only on the condition that you can pull many other friends to it.

Student: What are we pulling them toward?

M. Laitman: I’m pulling them, first and foremost, toward the Arvut.

Student: Suppose now in the morning lesson, we have friends who are renovating the study hall, fixing everything in that they are in Arvut toward the entire society?

M. Laitman: No, I don’t think that belongs to Arvut toward the entire society, but that’s a good investment.

Student: So, what is considered an action is considered?

M. Laitman: Mutual support, mutual thought, that you feel in the heart. Am I connected, or not?

Student: In the lesson you mentioned that we need to enter the friend’s heart and to feel that we’re pushing his heart into the rest of the hearts. It’s like the Arvut has received a very emotional form now that we’re talking about it. What changed that it is dressed in this way now?

M. Laitman: I don’t know. Simply that our framework is becoming smaller. We’re tighter together.

Student: Is it good?

M. Laitman: It’s good.

Student: Does the Arvut need to be felt only in the Ten or in our society, or it’s enough only in the Ten? Were you in Arvut toward Rabash or Rabash in Arvut toward you?

M. Laitman: No, you can’t talk about people like him.

Student: Arvut isn’t love yet, right? It’s before love. It’s something you feel that’s part of you, and you take care of it in order to reach the goal. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Still, I don’t get it. If you’re saying that Arvut is a common thought, a shared thought, that Arvut is in thought and my heart supports the friend. How could it be that it has no expression in corporeality. There needs to be. I say that I’m responsible, that I’m in Arvut, it can’t be that we don’t equally participate in terms of money, of chores, whatever. It’s like, I love my kid, but sometimes I give him food, sometimes I don’t. How is that possible? You said that Arvut has nothing to do with corporeality. 

Maybe it’s to the contrary, that in corporeality there is Arvut, or I’m doing it because that’s customary in our society. It’s like there are criminals who are responsible for one another even though they have a different goal. How could it be that I’m in Arvut in my heart, or at least close to it, and in corporeality I’m not. That’s not clear. 

M. Laitman: Soon we’ll understand. In the meantime, we have questions without answers. Good questions.

Student: So, it follows that everything we do in corporeality eventually is in order to make it so that there will be a change on the level of thoughts and my inclination of my heart toward the friends, and that is considered an action. Everything I do in corporeality is in preparation toward the inner act of Arvut that I’m going to perform. That’s how the mechanism works?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: This week I heard you say that you need to live in the friend’s heart. What is there in the friend’s heart that doesn’t exist in my heart?

M. Laitman: Desires, the direction of development.

Student: Why does it exist in the friend’s heart and not in mine? Each has a heart.

M. Laitman: There’s the influence of the hearts, connection of hearts.

Student: What does it mean to live in the friend’s heart? To identify what does he want, need for spiritual development?

M. Laitman: That means to be in the friend’s heart, to live in it, to constantly pay attention to it.