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

Daily Morning Lesson: September 18, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. One Does Not Regard Oneself as Wicked. Article No. 31, 1985.

Reader: Hello everyone! In the first part of the lesson we will learn from a recorded lesson from the 20th of July 2002 based on the article, One Does Not Regard Oneself as Wicked, from the writings of Rabash. We will read the article together in the Tens, we have twenty-one minutes for that.

Reading: (00:52) One Does Not Regard Oneself as Wicked

Article No. 31, 1985

Concerning “One does not regard oneself as wicked,” it is written in The Zohar (Balak, item 193): “King David regarded himself in four ways. He regarded himself with the poor, regarded himself with the Hassidim [pious/devout followers]. Regarded himself with the Hassidim, as it is written, ‘Preserve my soul, for I am pious,’ for one must not regard oneself as wicked. And should you say, ‘If so then he will never confess his sins,’ it is not so. Rather, when he confesses his sins, then he will be a Hassid, for he has come to receive repentance and takes himself out of the evil side, in whose filth he was thus far. But now he has clung to the upper right, which is Hesed that is stretched out to welcome him. And because he has clung to Hesed, he is called Hassid [pious/devout follower]. Do not say that the Creator does not accept him until he details all his sins since the day he came to the world, or even those that were hidden from him. This is not so. Rather, he only needs to detail the sins that he remembers. If he sets his mind on them to regret during the confession, all the other sins follow them,” thus far its words.

We should understand the following:

1) How can one say about himself that he is a Hassid? This is already a degree of importance, so how does he praise himself by himself?

2) He says that one should not regard oneself as wicked. On the other hand, he says that one should detail one’s sins, but says that he does not need to detail all his sins since the day he came to the world, but should detail only the sins that he remembers. Thus, when he details the sins he has committed, he is already wicked. So why does he say that one must not regard oneself as wicked? Is there a difference between saying he did bad deeds and not saying about himself that he is wicked? If he says that he did bad deeds then he is saying about himself that he is wicked anyhow. It is as we find in the words of our sages (Sanhedrin 9b): “Rav Yosef said, ‘A person came to force him; he and another conjoined to kill him. By his will, he is wicked. The Torah said, ‘Do not make a wicked a witness.’ Raba said, ‘A person is close to himself, and one does not regard oneself as wicked.’”

Thus, this means that if he says that he has sinned, he cannot be trusted because he is wicked. But here, when he confesses his sins, we must say that by this saying alone he is called “wicked,” since you are saying, “One does not regard oneself as wicked.” Thus, the question remains, how can he detail his sins during confession?

We should know why they said, that “One does not regard oneself as wicked.” It is so because “a person is close to himself.” By this we should say that since “Love covers all transgressions,” we cannot see any faults in the ones we love, since a fault is something bad, and one cannot harm oneself, for he is partial due to self-love. For this reason, “One does not regard oneself as wicked” and is not trustworthy to testify anything bad about himself, like a relative, who is disqualified.

We should know that when one comes to ask of the Creator to repent, and asks for the Creator’s help so he can repent, the question arises, “If he wants to repent, who is stopping him?” He can choose to repent, so why does he need to ask the Creator to help him repent? In the Eighteen Prayer we pray, “Bring us back, our Father, to Your law, and bring us close, our King, to Your work, and return us in complete repentance before You.” This means that without His help, one cannot repent. We should understand why this is so, that one cannot repent by himself.

In previous articles we explained that because the Creator created in us a nature of desire to receive, and that desire initially emerged in order to receive, only afterwards, we learn, there was a correction not to receive in order to receive, but in order to bestow. This is called the “correction of the Tzimtzum [restriction].” This means that before the lower one is fit for the aim to bestow, that place will be vacant from light. What extends from this correction down to the creatures is that before one emerges from self-love, one cannot feel the light of the Creator. For this reason, first we must exit self-love, or the Tzimtzum is on us.

However, a person cannot exit the nature that the Creator created because the Creator created that nature. Therefore, there is no other way but to ask of the Creator to give him a second nature, which is the desire to bestow. Thus, the choice we attribute to man is only in the prayer, to ask the Creator to help him and give him that second nature. For this reason, when one wants to repent, he must ask the Creator to help him exit from self-love to love of others. This is why we ask of the Creator and say and pray, “Bring us back, our Father.”

But when does one truly ask the Creator to bring him back with repentance? This can be only when he feels that he must repent. Before he comes to the decision that he is wicked, there is no place for prayer to be reformed. After all, he is not so wicked so as to need the Creator’s mercy. The meaning of the prayers that should be granted is precisely that the person needs mercy, as we say in the Eighteen Prayer, “For You hear the prayer of every mouth (so it is implied, but when?) of Your people, Israel.”

Accordingly, when does the Creator hear the prayer of every mouth? If a person feels that he needs mercy. This pertains specifically to when he feels he is in great distress and no one can help him. Then it can be said that he comes to the Creator to ask for mercy. But previously, when he came to the Creator to ask for luxuries, meaning when the state he was in was not so bad, that there were people whose state he saw as worse than his, then his prayer to the Creator was not because he needed heaven’s mercy, but because he wanted to be in a better state, superior to others. This is regarded as asking the Creator to give him a life of luxuries, meaning that he wanted to be happier than others.

Therefore, when one wants the Creator to grant his prayer, he first needs to see that he needs to be given life more than others, meaning that he sees that everyone is living in the world, but he has no life because he feels himself as wicked and sees that he is more immersed in self-love than others. At that time he sees that he needs heaven’s mercy not because he wants to live a life of luxury, but because he has no life of Kedusha [holiness].

It follows that at that time he is really asking for mercy, something to revive his soul. He cries out to the Creator: “Since ‘You give bread to the hungry; the Lord sets the prisoners free.’” That is, he sees that he simply needs faith, called “bread,” and he sees that he is sitting in jail, called “self-love,” and cannot come out of there, for only the Creator can help him. This is regarded as praying a real prayer.

We should know that prayer pertains to a deficiency. A deficiency does not mean not having. Rather, a deficiency is a need. Therefore, a great deficiency means he has a great need for the thing that he is asking. If he does not have a great need it means that he does not have a great deficiency, and so his prayer is not so great, because he is not as needy of the thing he asks. This is why the request is also not as big.

It follows from all the above that one cannot see a bad thing in himself. Accordingly, we should ask, “If a person knows that he is sick, and being sick is certainly bad, he goes to the doctor to cure his illness. If the doctor tells him that he sees nothing wrong with his body, he will not trust him. He will go to an expert, who will tell him that he has found something wrong with his body, and he needs to undergo surgery. That person will certainly be happy that he has found what was bad in him, and he pays him a large sum for having found his illness and for knowing how to cure his body so he can live and enjoy life.

We see that if we find the bad, it is a good thing, as with the illness. At that time it cannot be said that a person does not see bad in himself, since at that time he wants to correct the bad, so the bad is regarded as a good thing. It follows that at that time a person can find bad in himself.

Accordingly, we can understand the words of The Zohar when we asked how on the one hand he says “He does not regard himself as wicked,” and then says that he must detail his sins? After all, when he details the sins he had committed he sees himself as wicked by saying that he did this and that transgression. We can answer this differently: When he comes to ask of the Creator, He brings him closer because he is immersed in evil, meaning in self-love. If he wants his prayer to be granted, he knows that he must pray to the Creator from the bottom of the heart, meaning that he needs more mercy than the rest of the people because he feels himself as worse than them.

At that time he must see for himself the bad that he has more than the rest of the people. Otherwise it is regarded as telling a lie that he is worse than them, and it is written, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him in truth.” Therefore, if he finds evil in himself, then he can see about himself that he has a great need that the Creator will help him, it is regarded for him as a good thing. Therefore, when he details his sins, it is not regarded as “regarding oneself as wicked.” On the contrary, now he can make an honest prayer for the Creator to bring him closer to Him.

It follows that by finding bad in himself he becomes very needy of the Creator, and a need is called “deficiency.” Also, the prayer he prays must be from the bottom of the heart, since “from the bottom” means that the prayer he is praying on his deficiency is not superficial. Rather, that deficiency touches the point in his heart, meaning that all the organs feel his deficiency, and only then it is called a “prayer.”

By this we will understand the question we asked, “How he says about himself that he is a Hassid, since a Hassid is already a degree, for not everyone is called Hassid, so how could he say about himself that he is Hassid? According to what I heard from Baal HaSulam, he said, “‘He will give wisdom to the wise.’ But it should have said, ‘He will give wisdom to the fools.’” He said about this: “A ‘wise’ is named after the future. That is, one who wishes to be wise is already regarded as wise.”

Therefore, when he said “I am pious [Hassid],” it means that he wants to be pious, which is called “love of others.” First he said a prayer for the poor, meaning that he was in self-love, and “I want to be a Hassid.” This is why the holy Zohar ends there: “At that time he is a Hassid, for he has come to receive repentance, and he takes himself out of the evil side, in whose filth he was thus far. But now he has clung to the upper right that is Hesed that is stretched out to welcome him. And because he has clung to Hesed, he is called Hassid [pious/devout follower]. That is, now he has come to cling to Hesed, so he is called Hassid, after the future.

By this we will also understand what the holy Zohar says, “Do not say that the Creator does not accept him until he details all his sins since the day he came to the world.” This is not so. “If he sets his mind on regretting them during the confession, all the other sins follow them.” We should say that if he prays for the public and for the root, from which all the sins come, namely the will to receive, naturally all the sins follow them, meaning follow self-love.

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Reader: We will now continue to the recorded lesson from the 28th of July, 2002.

M.Laitman: (21:42) What is written here? It's written simply that until a person reaches a deficiency for them to correct him from above, they don't correct him. He can shout, he can cry, but until his external cry reaches the inner cry or his external weeping reaches inner weeping, nothing is done. He needs, each time, to delve more and more deeply into the discernment that appears to him as bad. At first, he saw that he felt bad, afterward, apparently, he sees that because of it he loses in the eyes of others, In money, honor, knowledge, whatever it might be, it doesn't matter, Until he begins to attribute it to the Creator, that this disturbance interferes with his reaching spirituality, with acquiring the next world. Afterward, he begins to relate it somehow to bestowal, perhaps to the Creator; until he reaches a state where he already knows that the discernment he has which is called bad is bad because it is opposite to the Creator. How does he know and how does he see this? Once the Creator is revealed and then he truly determines that this is so but he must receive the need for this beforehand. And until he receives it, until he gathers all his efforts into one great need, then no matter how much he cries, no matter how much he shouts, nothing helps him because all of it is as though he is crying and shouting into empty space. And this is not so, rather, these things accumulate and operate as cause and effect, revealing this discernment more and more deeply each time.

And this is how a person advances; that is, indeed, until he reaches correction he goes through very, very unpleasant discernments, the end of which he cannot see. And these unpleasant states are, each time, a little good, a little bad, a little good, a little bad, so that he'll constantly see this discernment, one opposite the other, good versus bad. And therefore, the path appears to us to be very prolonged and, indeed, what can be done, here, is only to accelerate the development. That is, overall, to become more sensitive to the recognition of evil, to the bad things, so that when we see the phenomenon, we can immediately attribute it to bad or to good. Immediately opposite it, we will see the quality of the Creator because what we have is the opposite. There is light in me and this determination of the state should be as deep and as true as possible.

But from the outset, this is nature, a person does not regard himself as wicked, it's impossible to do so. The will to receive, through a thousand and one different possibilities, always finds itself justified, it always knows how to show a person that he is not to blame for what he feels, for what happens, for what is done. Until he reaches a state where he truly appears as Pharaoh opposite the Creator. Where he blames only the Creator, there is no one else to blame, and then he truly proceeds to correction. Until a person passes through the entire exile in Egypt and reaches the confrontation with Pharaoh, he doesn't reach the exodus from Egypt.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:24) Can a person put himself in the prayer?

M. Laitman: Put himself in the prayer? I don't know what that means, what does it mean to put himself into it? If you're talking about the prayer that is written in the prayer book, the Siddur, then according to the clock on the wall, you need to pray, that is, to read what is written. If you're asking how a person can put himself closer to a deficiency that is called prayer, yes. And prayer is not only a deficiency, prayer means that he judges himself, and sees how resistant he is to the goal and to good discernments. So, how can a person do this without special means? The body, our desire, will never let us see something bad about ourselves, so that we'll seek a solution for it. Let's say I'm a thief, then naturally, I pray only for how to steal without getting caught, I'll never pray for myself to stop stealing. I will always want to use my quality, only in a more beneficial way. What can be done next, either I receive some kind of brainwashing from the outside – that this quality is no good, that it's not right to be this way, that I lose because of it. Because society looks down on me and does all kinds of bad things to me. They have to tell me this, then I say, alright, stealing, that's no good, and somehow I begin to think about how to get rid of it. But if I don't get some kind of education from the outside, an impression from people who are important to me, or if they do not make use of various other qualities of mine, so that I'll feel that it's not worthwhile, then I'm just going to keep trying to steal. I'll go and steal, simply, until I get blows as a result of the stealing. That is, they're going to catch me again and again, until I see that it's not worthwhile for me. So, either through blows, how many times does it take, have you ever seen a person who was in prison and did not go back again? There are almost none like that because I don't learn, we hardly learn from blows, it's a very, very slow form of learning because I don't connect the blow with the fact that I'm not okay, you understand? And, indeed, there is no connection, whatsoever: why should it be that if I stole, I have to sit somewhere and not be allowed to leave? It’s some kind of foolishness to do that, it's not a measure for a measure.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:53) How can we accelerate things so the society will be more influential?

M. Laitman: Certainly, in externality, meaning society means the environment, it doesn't matter, books as well, it doesn't matter what. Something external has to influence me and show me that this thing is no good. Because through blows, I'll want to get rid of the blows, I'll want to kill the person who's giving me those blows. I'll want to run away from them somehow, I'll even become more cunning but I'm not going to abandon this quality, you understand? Because the blow isn't connected to the bad action, it's not opposite to the bad. Opposite to a bad action, there can only be the light, only the quality that is opposite to it. And the blow, it's just a blow, what can you do? Either they give you a fine or they put you in prison or they actually beat you up or they hang you or kill you or whatever. So, I don't understand what that has to do with it? Because they made some agreement in society that it's forbidden? Tomorrow this law could be abolished and it would be permitted, you understand?

The blow, if the blow were really connected to the action itself, when we see the Creator, then we see that this quality disturbs me from connecting with Him, and by correcting it, by turning it into in order to bestow, then in this very quality, in this quality of in order to bestow, in this vessel, I connect with Him and, there, I receive the light, you understand? That is, it's all directly connected together at that very point but blows, this is why we've been suffering blows for thousands of years. Until we reach some kind of development and even then it's not correction, it's never correction. Humanity doesn't correct, itself; it constantly becomes more corrupt, what does it mean that it becomes more corrupt all the time? It means that it always searches for how to become sharper in the mind, more cunning, and how to use all of that together with the evil, that's all. What are all the people who want to get into the parliament or to the government, what are they trying to do? They want to make the law such that they'll be able to use their will to receive in whatever way they think is worthwhile.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:42) How can I make the society, the environment, influence me more intensively, so I can advance?

M. Laitman: You need to seek a society that will constantly show you what you are losing because you have this quality, losing, you understand? Then at least it would work that way, society cannot take the place of the Creator either but if it were to show you that you are losing honor, some kind of other appreciation. It will also be playing on your will to receive, but you would see that it's truly connected to this – we don't have that.

The problem is with the criminals who are poor. If you were to put one of them with psychologists and they examined the person and saw how they could influence them in order to truly cause him inner pain. Then, for example, they humiliated him in front of everyone, if he's a sensitive person. True, he stole diamonds or something like that or something from a bank, but he has some sensitive point concerning his relatives or something. Then, at least, you would be doing something, but as it is now, there's no harm done to him, they caught him. I wasn't sophisticated enough so they caught me; he doesn't feel, it doesn't hurt him. We need to build a society where we'll truly see a bad result from using the ego. But when the Creator becomes revealed, then you see how much the ego distances you from Him and, on the contrary, if you correct it to precisely the same extent, how specifically within it, eternity, perfection, spirituality, the upper world become revealed to you.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:03) It means that the will to receive doesn't see itself as guilty. If I had free will to choose and I had some choice to make, okay, but you're in a certain given state, right?

M. Laitman: Guilt also isn't really guilt, guilt's another way of referring to a calculation of what's worthwhile, what is guilt? So we have an inclination to steal, so what, in this society, it's been agreed that it's forbidden, that's not called being guilty. Yes, I'm guilty in the sense that I acted against, let's say, the conventions of society, so what? The will to receive sees just one thing: am I harmed or do I gain, what do I get out of it? After all these things like shame and maybe something else, I don't know, all kinds of things: money, honor, knowledge. I don't know, they throw him out of society in some way, it doesn't matter; afterward, the calculation is still simple, do I gain, or do I lose within the desire? It's the same with the Creator, everything is measured in the will to receive, the will to bestow, it doesn't matter but it's in that same desire, there's no other calculation.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:47) The society told me that I stand to lose by this but it's still in the same will to receive.

M. Laitman: Society shows you, you need society, you want the society, you want to connect with it in some way. You have some connection with it and everything and, then, since you have a connection with them, they can influence you, first of all, with their discernments, their laws. And, also, accordingly, with what is accepted among them and who you are; any society as well, it doesn't matter, ours too.

Student: You can't correct anything here, then?

M. Laitman: No, you can't, it's impossible to correct but it's possible to recognize the evil in relation to the society.

Student: In relation to my will to receive?

M. Laitman: In relation to your will to receive, but if I enter a society of criminals, then, I correct myself according to what's accepted in that society. I entered a place where it's allowed to steal from people, they're, now, teaching me that it's also allowed to kill. It depends what kind of society it is, therefore, he writes simply. Listen to the words: One who chooses a better society each time advances through this. Through that, they progress and blows, that's really, you see how they write. They write that at the end of the day, through blows, you will not advance, you, nevertheless, need to build an environment.

Student: You say that opposite that, the light should come?

M. Laitman: But the environment needs to bring you to this awareness, that without the light, without the revelation of the Creator, without knowing, without connecting to Him, without His greatness, you will not get out of it. Only the society can do that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:01) The more a person develops spiritually, I find, myself, with time? Well, the person emerges from his self-love more and more, the will to receive?

M. Laitman: A person, in a direct way, from now onward, if you think that when he begins studying Kabbalah, he directly, little by little, comes out of his will to receive, no, he becomes even worse. What does it mean that he becomes even worse? He sees himself increasingly more cunning in his will to receive, in how he uses it. How he is prepared to do everything only for himself, until he reaches a state where he sees that there is nothing left anywhere in him. Not in the mind, not in the heart, not in his thoughts, not in his desires, nothing that can be attributed to some beautiful inclination. Nothing for the sake of others, for the sake of society, for the sake of something else but everything, completely, is exploitation of everyone. And exploitation, you understand, without taking anyone into consideration. If I do take something into consideration, it is so that I will not suffer, so that my honor will not be harmed. Or so that I will not lose some other benefit, it doesn't matter in what form. This is called maybe appearing a little nice externally because I'm somehow compelled to be connected with people and so on. The calculations are completely egoistic, we are all like this but we don't recognize it. Until a person recognizes that in all of his qualities, in all of his desires, in all of his inclinations, in all of his calculations, truly down to the smallest details, everything is solely for his self-benefit. And even that's not so terrible, one can also agree with it. Alright, nature, it's nature, what can you do, He made it this way so this is how I am. But here, if he studies in a correct way and awakens the surrounding light upon himself, he begins to see these things. Besides correctly identifying them as egoistic, right, besides learning this intellectually as it were, otherwise, he would study it in the same way a scientist studies nature. Fine, there's this and that, beautiful formulas, yes, and this is how I am, and, here, I am cunning to such an extent and there are even more. Wow, look at how cunning I am in my ego, and he studies it with a cold intellect.

But if it becomes revealed in contrast to the surrounding light, then you also feel its value in comparison with the light, and then you determine that it is bad, that it's evil. Otherwise, your ego is not called bad or evil, it's called good, why not? I want to be successful, to earn, to prosper, is that not good in life? Such people are respected in society, everyone says so – look at this person, a great musician, a great painter, even a great thief – these are people who are, nevertheless, something. Until I begin to compare this ego with the true purpose, and then, only in relation to the true purpose, I determine that, of course, using the ego in all these different forms, the way I naturally use it, is bad, why is it bad? It's because I see that by doing so I don't attain the goal but, on the contrary, I move further away from it. So again, the determination of the state is in relation to the light; therefore a person in this world, through blows, will never reach the recognition of evil. He will reach the realization that he's not cunning enough, you understand, but not that it's evil, evil as it's defined in relation to the goal. If he studies and attracts the light together with his other friends, thereby truly increasing this light, then in contrast to it he starts seeing that the things he previously considered the best are, in relation to the goal, these are bad things. Their use is bad, not the things themselves, the will to receive itself is neither good nor bad, only its uses. The will to receive is my machine, it depends on where I drive it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:24) Along the way this is actually my vessel for advancement, this is all that I am.

M. Laitman: Correct, so as you begin to advance with it in the right direction, that's, yes, with the same will to receive, I reach its correction and then its fulfillment, the goal. Of course, in it I receive everything, that's why it's written, Know the Lord your God and serve Him. From that, I know the image of the Creator, what qualities He has, discernment, who He is, what He is opposite my image. Well, then, I can work, then I know what to correct, how to correct, how to use, what to ask for, who to ask it of, and so on. All these things can only be if there's someone in front of me and that is called the surrounding light – for the time being, for now, for us, as we are below the barrier and the lights are above the barrier, so however they shine upon us, well, it's called shining through the surrounding lights, surrounding from without, from afar. Afterwards, it'll be inner, it'll be a more tangible kind of recognition – what do I mean by tangible, palpable? We will perceive them not as surrounding but as inner, in our senses, that's what the ten Sefirot is called, spiritual senses.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:05) Why, actually, during the study and the attraction of the surrounding light, can't we reveal the evil more actively? Why do we have to wait for it to reveal itself?

M. Laitman: Interactive or more active?

Student: No, more actively, to search for it while I'm reading and attracting the light. It's clear, as it were, that the light needs to come and correct but why are we so passive in waiting for the evil to become revealed?

M. Laitman: Why are we so passive about discovering the evil? Because it's not in our benefit, why should I discover that I'm evil, what's worse than discovering such a thing? I burn inside, I hate myself, I want to run away from that feeling so much; if you felt it, then you understand me, otherwise, you won't. Why would I want that state? If I discover that, whether I want to or not, I immediately try to turn off, to quench that state, I want it to stop.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:04) If that's the case, how do we eventually reach, why am I asking this question?

M. Laitman: So you're asking: how can I feel the evil to such an extent, and the shame to such an extent, that it will prod me, make me advance? So, gradually, it comes to the person on the condition that he affiliates himself with the good. Just feeling the evil, it immediately works in your subconscious such that you want to exit that feeling, everything but to feel it. But if you begin to affiliate with the point in the heart which is on the other side already – the other field, that's where it acts – and you affiliate with that and you observe your ego from within it, observe your body with all its qualities. Then, you can remain in that point and to determine the evil, to see it, to begin to work with it as if with something foreign. But if you don't look at it as a foreign object, but rather see it as being yourself, your own, then you can't be with it, in it, more than a single instant. You immediately need to turn it off, you begin to turn it off.

And so, all these discernments, it's mainly or it’s good through the society. That's how you acquire these things from one another, very easily, instantly. Whereas, if a person tries alone to reach that, it takes him years. Also when he reaches that alone, it's not alone, he builds next to himself the image of the society. In truth, it never actually happens, well, maybe a chosen few, you understand, some revelation comes from above and he begins to be really, you know, really an enlightened or a man of light. But if he advances, it's also through blows and, ultimately, he needs to build next to him a system of aids, like the society, the environment. He affiliates himself with that, he's impressed by that, he leans on it. So, then, he can relate to himself as a third body; you need something to replace the environment, even artificially, to make something like that for oneself.

And also the environment, the actual environment that's around me, the environment that's around me, it's not this group, let's say. It's my image of the group that I build within me and that's what I relate to. It's not your face, his face, or his, these faces are in me, within, it's an inner impression. And from them I have this concept of the society, the environment which influences me, which acts on me. And so the person builds that gradually, slowly, for himself, even if he doesn't have people around him. But from various qualities that he perceives to be good, beneficial, this and that. He needs an environment, either way; but if it's made of actual friends, it saves a lot, a lot of time and blows, they build it for him. He doesn't need to invest an effort from both directions to build an artificial society inside of him, so to speak. He just needs to connect to someone and that someone begins to influence him. To throw to him all these things instead of searching and building – I don't know how to say it, that's it.

Again, this is, a person does not see himself as wicked, that's our nature in life; or, rather, it can never be that a person agrees with that feeling, that he's wicked. And so, in order to remain in that, in that feeling that I'm wicked, opposite that, I have to build another point that I can transition to. And, then, with my current self, yes, the previous one, I say that I'm wicked. Nature won't allow me to do this.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:45) Before that, it's possible to develop a true prayer purely out of longing for the good, not necessarily because one has had enough of the evil. But because this thing called the Creator is so lacking that a person simply searches for Him. So maybe the question is, what is the real fuel for prayer?

M. Laitman: Look, a person does not see himself as wicked, you can develop from that, you can say, you know what, a whole system of education was developed from that. Ah, a person does not see himself as wicked, so we will tell him – us, from outside, we will tell each one – you're wrong, you're doing this and that, you shouldn't do this and that. That's right, the book of laws, what's forbidden, what's permitted, and look at what he does. And if he doesn't act right, then we will, and so on, it doesn't help, none of that helps. From the outside, you can only provide an example, a good example. And, more so, Baal HaSulam writes that this is a limitation, you kill the person by that, if you tell him, don't use this, you mustn't do that, and so on. No, because he hasn't come to the recognition of evil, of the qualities that you forbid him to use. He didn't get there, so you're stealing from him the opportunity to advance, you take from him the ability to advance. I need with each and every quality of mine to be fully evil until I come to a state where I see that evil and don't want it, where I'm willing to pay any price just to get rid of it. If I don't correct it in that way, then I didn't correct it, so what, then, happens with my internality; then, I won't reach the goal for correction. That's why there should be no such limitations. Education needs to be through example and that's why I say one needs to act in front of the other that he's better to. Usually, it's not through words, it's better that way, and to just say, no, no, no. I'm talking about spiritual matters, with corporeal things, it's different.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:26) Before that, is it possible?

M. Laitman: So as a result of that, you will already have a prayer; as a result of you wanting to get rid of something, and you know you can't get rid of it and it's only by the force from above which created this evil. That force can turn it good, you need to meet the conditions here and the prayer is, what is the prayer? If you don't know the Creator, you cannot pray. So it's the prayer of the kibbutznikim in the Negev, in the desert, asking for rain.

Student: But you can pray to something abstract that you feel is missing, and you call it the Creator.

M. Laitman: Something abstract that you lack – fine, shout, cry, I'm not saying you shouldn't, I'm not saying it's not a prayer, right? That's called a prayer, you know, the common conception of it, as people think. But we don't call that prayer, for us, a prayer is where I feel the AHP of the Upper One. From the AHP of the Upper One, I receive the surrounding light, I see my qualities as evil compared to His qualities which are good, one opposite the other. And I ask of Him, I have, from that sensation of that AHP, I have this confidence that it's Him and He knows what to do and He does everything to me that needs to be done. And then I adhere to that AHP and I insert into it my MAN, meaning exactly the desire regarding the discernments that I know and I know what I want to happen with them. It's not just where I shout, well, correct me, fix me, I need to know the exact image. He writes in this article, until I reach the scrutiny, clarification regarding what I want to happen with this quality I have, it's not received above, it's not corrected. So, it's not possible to make any correction if I don't know the upper one, and my upper one is called, each time, the Creator. Whatever degree I might be on, the higher degree is called the Creator for me.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:50) We also learn that a person reaches a state where he's lacking something so much that it no longer lets him sleep so what is that, he doesn't know what he's lacking.

M. Laitman: If I just lack something and I shout, well, help me, this is also called prayer but it's not the prayer that we talk about in the wisdom of Kabbalah. In Kabbalah, we speak of a prayer and the prayer is called intention. It's the intention, it's not meditation, you know, it's the intention, what does it mean, intention? That I know exactly, from my lack for the upper one, how it all works, what is the intention? That I, and He, and my request and the connection between us will be as one, how can I tell if it's as one? For that I need to know Him, to feel Him. What, just to intend, ah, there's some Creator somewhere far off, there's some goal; and I'm here and I yearn for Him, and then I shout, I act, what is that? Where is He, and what is the goal, and through what path do I reach Him, and who am I, I don't even know who I am.

The advantage of light out of darkness, it's only by comparing two things, two discernments that we can determine anything. And so, again I say, without the revelation of the Creator, you can forget about doing anything in truth. Within the framework of this world, yes, you know, they put the notes in the Wailing Wall, the Western Wall, for Maccabi Tel Aviv to win, that's it. I'm not saying it doesn't work, it's not a prayer, though.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:51) But how can a person who doesn't know what a desire to bestow is want such a thing?

M. Laitman: A person who doesn't know what the will to bestow is, of course, he cannot want the will to bestow is, how could he? And so we say, the expansion of the light and its departure makes the vessel worthy of its role. To want to be corrected, to want to be filled, the expansion and the departure of the light has to come first. That's why it's written, Know the Lord your God and serve Him. Otherwise, how is it possible, it's as if you want something without knowing what that thing is. It's stupid.

Student: But when we work during the period of preparation?

M. Laitman: Don't say that in the period of preparation there are different laws. In the preparatory period, there are no other laws, none, it's a law that doesn't change. You tell me, we don't feel the Creator, so what can we do? So you need to do what you're told to do! But you don't have the ability instead of the Creator and instead of the light to have something else. No, so instead of the light, you have the surrounding light. Use that, that's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:19) The more you come to know a more perfect image of some ideal, something as though it's stronger than you in every way. You want to control it, seemingly; you want it, ultimately, you want it to serve you because you want to use it for yourself. And on the other hand, you're still, it's as though some desire still subdues you and you need to want it to change you. How do you know that in the end you're not going to give in and say, No, I don't want you? How can you demand these two things together? On one hand, I don't want to change. I want Him now as though for myself and on the other hand, I need to want Him to change me?

M. Laitman: From what you say, suppose you're right, I don't know. You don't believe that from your situation there is some solution? Go look.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:25) All these people, they're called the environment, they're within me. I have some attitudes toward each one, now how do I choose a new environment each time, does it depend on my investment?

M. Laitman: How do you choose a better environment each time? You want to build an image of the society in you. That you built it, you were impressed by something external, and you want that impression to be stronger, more effective, more beneficial. That's what you're concerned about, in truth, I don't care about what's happening with the society externally. I need to take only the good things from it, to put them inside me, and then to be impressed by them as much as possible. We see that they can do whatever you want, sometimes I don't see anything at all, and sometimes, Oh no, look what he's doing! And then how Meaning, my impression depends on me, and not what they're doing. So I need, within myself, to build the image of the society in such a way where – and in each person it's different – it's in the way that inspires me, specifically. It's each one according to character: one is inspired by how subtle and gentle they are, or how happy they are, how generous they are; and the other is impressed by how strong, how ruthless they are, and so on. This is called choosing a better environment, that I need to worry about. Simply put, it's how to be inspired by the society.

Student: With the blows, you see that they're not so good, so you want to clarify them?

M. Laitman: Things which aren't so good that I see, well, there are a few solutions here, first of all. Let's say that I see a person who is incapable of anything or something, maybe he's in a fall. I'm in a fall, poor person – or you can't say poor, I guess, it's one of our states, right? So it's natural, what should I be inspired by? I can be inspired by him still being here in such states, carrying himself here and not lying in bed, you understand? He's still, he's doing something, I try to justify him, to derive some benefit from everything, to benefit me.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:23) Simply an approach like, what will I get out of it now? Look and see that my friend is in such a state, that he's in such a bad state?

M. Laitman: If I see that my friend is in a bad state, and I justify him, what do I gain? If I see that he's in a bad state and I want to help him, I gain; and if I see that he's in a bad state, and as a result, this is going to turn my whole path bad, the Creator and everything, so what do I gain? Should I sit next to him and cry like him? It's not good for me, not good for him. Simple matters, what can you do?

Reader: Let's share impressions from the lessons, and what from it do we take into implementation in the Ten? Then, let's move to the next part of the lesson, but first sing a song!

Song: (01:13:33)

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