The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning), October 27, 2024.
Part 1: Baal HaSulam. The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 100
Reader: Hello, we should be reading from the Writings of Baal HaSulam, the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, starting with Item 100. You can find all of our texts on kabbalahmedia.info as well as through the Arvut platform, where you can also send us questions live. Anyone asking a question in the study hall is requested to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth and speak loudly and clearly.
Reading: (00:42) The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 100
From the above explained you can thoroughly understand that this concealment that the Creator hides Himself so as to be sought is the concealment of the face, which He conducts with His creations in two manners: one concealment, and concealment within concealment.
The Zohar tells us that we should not even consider that the Creator wishes to remain in a guidance of concealed face from His creations. Rather, it is like a person who deliberately hides himself, so his friend will seek and find him.
Similarly, the Creator behaves in concealment of face with His creations only because He wants people to seek the disclosure of His face and find Him. In other words, there would be no way or inlet for people to attain the light of the King’s face had He not first behaved with them in concealment of the face. Thus, the whole concealment is but a preparation for the disclosure of the face.
M. Laitman: No questions, right? No questions, right? Let's keep going.
Reader: Item 101.
Reading: (03:03) It is written that the Creator hides Himself in the Torah. Regarding the torments and pains, one experiences during the concealment of the face, one who possesses transgressions and has done little in Torah and Mitzvot is unlike one who has engaged in Torah and good deeds extensively. The first is quite qualified to sentence his Maker to the side of merit, to think that the suffering came to him because of his sins and scarceness of Torah.
For the other, however, it is much harder to sentence his Maker to the side of merit since in his mind, he does not deserve such harsh punishments. Moreover, he sees that his friends, who are worse than him, do not suffer so, as it is written, “The wicked and the tranquil in the world gained riches,” and also, “in vain have I cleansed my heart.”
Thus, as long as one is not rewarded with a guidance of revelation of the face, the abundance of Torah and Mitzvot he has performed make his concealment of the face much heavier. This is the meaning of “The Creator hides Himself in the Torah.”
Indeed, all that heaviness he feels through the Torah is but proclamations by which the Torah itself calls him, awakening him to hurry up and give the required measure of labor to promptly endow him with the revelation of the face, as God wills it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:50) From this item, from these items – 100 and 101 – a thought comes to me how not to fall into a state of a martyr, a victim? I justify the Creator, There's No One Else Besides Him, and so on, but I blame Him, but I feel good about being a sacrifice, a martyr of this procedure that he creates here, that he describes, which Baal HaSulam describes here.
M. Laitman: Yes, I understand; well, that's how it appears to a person. Sometimes when you read and think and understand that this is how it should be. And this is the correct attitude from the Creator to the person and from the person to the Creator. But to the extent that pressures and torments multiply, a person can't justify the Creator everywhere and he disagrees with Providence.
Student: Where’s the rescue meal, where's the float? How can you be saved from it, it's doom.
M. Laitman: No, that depends on the extent to which a person delves deeper, and understands the way Baal HaSulam explains it, that on the one hand, a person feels this way. On the other hand, the Creator wants to lead him in this way, that he can see the correct providence on the path. I have labored and I have found.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:57) He writes here that one must rush to give the sum of exertion demanded of him. What is the sum of exertion, how does a person know what that sum is?
M. Laitman: A person doesn't know but he learns from what Kabbalists say that in the end, we need to reach the sum total of exertion, the total sum of exertion. And then we will be rewarded with the revelation of the face.
Student: A person under concealment, can he feel that the Creator wants to be revealed to him?
M. Laitman: A person who is in concealment and advances, correctly, he feels that he nevertheless walks towards revelation.
Student: When the Creator hides from him, at least that's what he feels, what does the Creator show him? What signs does the Creator show him in that game where He hides?
M. Laitman: The Creator is concealed because he wants a person to ask him to be revealed completely, in a complete form.
Student: Where does the Creator hide?
M. Laitman: The Creator hides in all of life, in everything there is.
Student: And where does the person discover Him?
M. Laitman: A person reveals Him, especially in the Torah.
Student: He discovers Him in the Torah?
M. Laitman: He is drawn toward the upper force and he wants Him to manage him. And he approaches the Creator and he reveals Him.
Student: What does it mean that he discovers Him, reveals Him in the Torah? What does it mean that He is revealed in the Torah?
M. Laitman: The Creator is concealed in the Torah so that in the Torah a person will reveal Him. And in this way we need to believe and work toward that, so that in the end, that's what we need – the revelation of the Creator in the Torah.
Student: If He hides in the Torah, the Creator hides more and more in the Torah, what does it mean that I discover Him more and more? What changes between revelation and concealment in the Torah?
M. Laitman: The Creator is concealed and He wants us to find Him; and we are looking for ways to find Him. By which actions, which prayers, which connections of ours? Until we see that our efforts don't bring us the results, that the Creator is concealed. And then we begin to understand that this concealment that He's doing with us is His game, that He's doing it, intentionally. And then we come to a state where we demand from it – all of us together in our connection in the group, in this collective appeal – we demand of Him to reveal Himself and then we reach revelation.
Student: If the Creator hides in all of our lives, why can't we discover Him, there?
M. Laitman: No, He barely conceals Himself in our lives, only in the Torah. There, He is concealed, there He acts, there It is found. Now, the other states, all the other states of this world, we cannot reveal Him, only through the Torah.
Student: What is the Torah?
M. Laitman: The Torah is when we learn about the behavior of the Creator with the created beings and how the created beings should behave with the Creator. And specifically in this way, when we arrange our relationships with Him, through the exertion, I to my beloved, my beloved to me, we eventually reveal Him.
Student: What brings the Creator out from hiding into revelation?
M. Laitman: When I search throughout His behavior with the created beings, I search for His place of hiding and by what He can be revealed.
Student: He writes here that the matter of suffering and torment that a person receives during the concealment of the face is not the same when, a person has many transgressions, and when one has many good deeds. So, what changes in one's attitude towards the friends, between one person who doesn't attain the Torah and one who does?
M. Laitman: What does that have to do with the friends?
Student: He continues on to write that one sees his friends as worse than him and he's more qualified to judge the Creator to the side of merit because he sees he has many transgressions against the Creator and so on. So, the attitude towards others changes according to how many good deeds he has and how much Torah.
M. Laitman: Yes, meaning, I connect with the friends because through the connection between us, this mutual connection, I wish to come closer to the revelation of the Creator.
Student: What changes in a person's attitude towards his friends, towards his Ten, the more he discovers the Creator in the Torah? The more he brings the Creator out from concealment to revelation, what changes in his attitude towards his friends?
M. Laitman: He begins to discover that only his connection to the friends is what brings him to his connection with the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:59) I heard you say that the Creator is hidden only in the Torah.
M. Laitman: That's what it says.
Student: Where is the concealment, in the entirety of reality, there is no concealment towards the person?
M. Laitman: No, because concealment means that it's a place where I can reveal the Creator.
Student: In everything not called Torah, the Creator is not there?
M. Laitman: It's possible that yes, but not in such a way that we can actually reveal it.
Student: Clear, so the concealment is only with respect to where it's possible to discover the Creator, right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What exactly is the concealment of the Creator in the Torah? Why is He concealed there, specifically?
M. Laitman: The Creator is concealed in the Torah because it's the medium between Him and the created beings.
Student: If that's the means, what does it mean that He's revealed in the Torah?
M. Laitman: Concealed, then revealed, that's how we reveal Him. He's concealed, we come to the Torah. We do all kinds of actions of connection, of prayer until the Creator begins to be revealed.
Student: The revelation of the Creator is always through the Torah, that's the mechanism?
M. Laitman: There is no other mechanism.
Student: What is the Torah in practice, what is this mechanism called Torah?
M. Laitman: That's exactly, precisely that system that reveals the Creator to a person.
Student: What are the conditions for it not to be hidden from the person so that the person can begin to work with it, with that system?
M. Laitman: It both conceals and reveals the Creator to a person.
Student: That much I understood, I'm asking, how can a person start working through the Torah? Because from what I understand from your words, so long as a person isn't working through the Torah, then the Creator isn't part of anything, it's not within reality. So, how do you begin to work with the Torah?
M. Laitman: We learn how to connect and how to connect from within us to the Creator. How to obligate Him to show Himself, to reveal Himself to us, this is called the revelation of the Creator to the created being.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:59) If I understand correctly, revelation of the Creator, it's all about how He relates to us, right? The revelation of the Creator through equivalence of form, that's how He relates to us.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Is there anything else we discover as the Creator other than this attitude of bestowal and love?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So, if I relate to something the same way the Creator relates to it, this is revelation?
M. Laitman: Let's say.
Student: What is the Torah, what is the path of the Torah? What does it mean?
M. Laitman: Torah, in general, are the laws, rules, that the created beings must be connected; they must connect so that in that connection, the Creator will be revealed.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:37) The exertion is during concealment and the finding is during revelation?
M. Laitman: The exertion is during the concealment, and the finding?
Student: Revelation is the finding, it's the find, I mean, one depends on the other? The more there's concealment and exertion in Torah and commandments during the concealment, then the finding will be accordingly, according to that?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I labored and I found. So, to what extent can a person engage in Torah and good deeds, what does it depend on?
M. Laitman: It depends on how much desire he has for it, how much preparation from the side of nature.
Student: By nature. And the environment helps him in that? Can the environment change what one has by nature?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: He can add using the environment to what he was given by nature?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: (26:14) He says that the heaviness we feel on the path through the Torah, it's all proclamations, signs, that the holy Torah calls to him, hurrying him to give the proper sum of exertion required of him so that he will promptly receive the revelation of the face as the Creator wishes. So, two questions: How should I relate to heaviness on the path when I feel that I'm distant to the Creator? And this feels like heaviness. And also, we talked about joy despite the heaviness that I feel. Due to being far from the Creator's qualities, I still need to make efforts to come close to Him. How can I bring about joy in those states?
M. Laitman: When you feel resistance, resistance to advancing, that's also a sign you're on the right path. Hence here, you need to make a decision that you are advancing. Not necessarily, because you feel a certain awakening, uplifting, rather, the important thing is that the Creator is your purpose.
Student: Joy is supposed to be an outcome of actions we take on the path. We perform some actions, we exert, and each time we come to peaks of joy. We feel some kind of closeness to each other. We feel that we're better connected, there's more of a yearning, more of a hug. So, the true joy is in those peaks or should joy follow along with all of our exertion? Should we feel that the exertion to come closer to the Creator, there you find true joy? Because it doesn't happen really that you feel joy in the exertion. It's only in those peaks where you feel more closeness, more yearning you feel joy but it doesn't follow along the entire path. We, however, want to feel joy in the effort itself. Because, as you said, we need to build up a special attitude towards the Creator, and within that to see the joy in the effort that we make for His sake. So, how to change that and get that joy?
M. Laitman: That is a result of the work of a person: When it's important to him to show the Creator that he's actually drawn to Him and not to any other outcomes of the process of approaching the Creator. He wants nothing besides adhesion.
Student: In our actions to connect in the Ten, we don't need to think about the outcome but about the very fact that we want to adhere to Him?
M. Laitman: That's the result.
Student: Being adhered, that's the result.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:12) When we say Torah, we are talking about this force, right? The reforming light.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: To engage in Torah means to make use of all of Rabash's advice about how to relate to the reforming light.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, connecting with the friends, I can say, that that means to engage in the Torah, to read the source excerpts, that's engaging in Torah.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (PT 31): (30:47) He writes that this heaviness he feels from the Torah is proclamations, and sometimes these proclamations just pass by our ears, we don't hear them. How to relate to each one as something you need to really pay attention to?
M. Laitman: To be aimed at it as much as possible in advance; and when you identify this herald, you begin to work.
Student: He continues on to ask, his connection to his friends, that's the only thing that can bring him to a connection with the Creator. So, what do you need to focus on in the connection with the friends to reach a connection with the Creator?
M. Laitman: Connection with the friends should reveal to a person vessels in which he begins to feel his connection with the Creator.
Question (PT 29): (32:06) It's written that so long as a person isn't awarded with the revelation of the face – the Torah and good deeds, he's gained make the concealment worse for him, which is the meaning of the Creator hiding in the Torah. What does it mean that the good deeds in the Torah and commandments, they make the concealment heavier?
M. Laitman: To the extent that a person studies, the more he studies, the more he understands that he deserves greater revelation. And here, this part of the path, he doesn't see that he deserves a certain revelation. On the contrary, the Creator, seemingly, conceals himself more as much as a person continues to reveal Him. And that is why it's called, You are as a hiding God.
Question (Women MAK 8): (33:44) The revelation of the Creator in the Torah, is that work in Lishma or not yet?
M. Laitman: The revelation of the Creator to a person is the work that, in general, brings about Lishma.
Question (Women PT 6): (34:09) What does it mean to discover the Creator, what is discovered?
M. Laitman: What's discovered, what's revealed, the system, my place in it and how
I influence the upper force through all kinds of means, and I receive from Him a reaction for what I'm doing.
Question (Haifa 1): (34:54) What is the role of the suffering and the torment that's felt following engagement in Torah and commandments?
M. Laitman: Yes, the role of the suffering and the torments is for a person to reveal how much he wants, how much he's obligated to advance toward bestowal in spite of the disturbances.
Student: He continues on to ask: How do they act as a calling by the Torah to increase one's exertion to reveal the face?
M. Laitman: This is our work in truth. Again, what is the question?
Student: The question was what is the role of the suffering and heaviness felt in the performing, observing the commandments, and so on. How does it contribute to adding more to the exertion with respect to the revelation of the face?
M. Laitman: The more we approach the revelation of the Creator, the more – I'm not sure how to say, the more we conceal our work.
Question (Haifa 1): (37:38) How can a person who works much in Torah and performs commandments, how come he's not rewarded with seeing the face, revealing the face despite the concealment?
M. Laitman: A person on the path, and he's performing Mitzvot, commandments, actions that should bring him closer to the Creator. And he feels that the result is the opposite, in fact he has no other choice, either to sentence the Creator to a scale of merit or sentence him to a scale of judgment, one of the two. So, if he sentences Him to a scale of merit, it turns out that whatever he feels is incorrect, it's not good. And it turns out that the qualities that he has to rise above are in him. That's why he has no other choice but he has to reach a state where he unites with the Creator, in spite of his feeling.
Question (Women PT 6): (39:48) How to identify responses from the Creator?
M. Laitman: That's what happens with a person during his life, during his lifetime, with the friends, with himself, that's how it is.
Student: How should one relate to it? How should a person react to those situations?
M. Laitman: A person needs to try and see before him the upper force that cares for him, and whose nature is Good Who Does Good. And He wants with all of His Providence over a person to bring him to adhesion.
Reader: (41:10) I wrote just before, he needs to show the Creator that he's drawn to Him and not to other outcomes. How do you show the Creator that you're drawn to Him and not to other outcomes?
M. Laitman: To see Him up ahead before me, I need to yearn for Him, to connect to Him, to approach Him, to draw Him towards me as a result of what I'm going to do.
Student: What does it mean to show Him that you're drawn to him specifically?
M. Laitman: To show Him that I aim for the result from my actions.
Student: What does it mean, what to expect? What should a person expect from all of his engagement in the Torah and working with the friends?
Student: That the Creator will accept him the way he shows Him.
Student: He shows Him or?
M. Laitman: The way a person shows himself to the Creator.
Student: Meaning how he responds to the Creator, how he reacts?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Maybe reacting is more clear. What does it mean to initiate, to show Him?
M. Laitman: When a person, from the total makeup of possibilities before him, specifically, those where he wants to disclose his attitude to the Creator.
Student: With a person, you can bring him a gift, right? Maybe he has some interest in something, you can show him that you're also interested in that. But what can you show the Creator or bring Him?
M. Laitman: Your attitude, your attitude. Relative to us, He's in a state where he is extremely needful of, extremely desirous of our attitude toward Him.
Student: So, attention, just attending Him always, never forgetting Him.
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, yes, yes, that's all of creation. Our attitude to the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:00) You said, previously, that there is some set of actions which everyone takes when trying to come closer, as we said, to equivalence of form; and then comes the main factor, which is the outcry. A person reaches some conclusion or feeling from a state of powerlessness. Meaning whatever he does the concealment only grows, and then some cry needs to come about, right? Is that the path?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And under the concealment, as we just mentioned, which grows the more a person advances, it becomes stronger, right, the concealment?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: How can an outcry come, and not despair? I tried for 10, 20 years, the concealment has only grown, it can bring one to despair or to this outcry?
M. Laitman: It depends on how you feel it. Who's on the other end?
Student: What does that depend on?
M. Laitman: That depends on how you open up your relationships with the Creator.
Student: In the Ten, there are Ten people, one enters a state of despair, one is always happy, overjoyed with life. They're both in the same Ten, both of them have a different outcome. Does it depend on the root of the soul or what? Because they both have the same environment.
M. Laitman: It's like you have the Ten Sefirot, each Sefira behaves according to its own nature.
Student: What is the indication for a person that he's just before that outcry or for the Ten?
M. Laitman: Tension, dissatisfaction.
Student: So, we read that you have to be in joy, so there's no tension, I'm happy, I'm glad, I'm with the Ten, I eat, I study. I observe the Torah, I'm on the path. Why should an outcry come to me, I'm on the path.
M. Laitman: If you're on the path, then continue.
Student: So, where will the cry come from?
M. Laitman: I guess it's not there, yet.
Student: It's not there yet, so why will it come when I'm happy?
M. Laitman: It will come when you are nevertheless on the path, and you're not seeing the end.
Student: It is kind of despair, I don't see the end, there's no hope, and then the cry will come?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So long as I'm happy, there's no chance of reaching that state.
M. Laitman: Okay, what are we doing next?
Reader: We can continue to the next Item, Number 102 or excerpts on the subject of, On The Verge Of Lishma?
M. Laitman: Selected excerpts on Lishma?
Student: On The Verge of Lishma.
M. Laitman: On the verge of Lishma. Well, 102.
Reading: (47:40) 102) “This is why it is written that all who learn Torah Lo Lishma…” Twice
This is why it is written that all who learn Torah Lo Lishma, their Torah becomes for them a potion of death. Not only do they not emerge from concealment of the face to disclosure of the face, since they did not set their minds to labor and attain it, the Torah that they accumulate greatly increases their concealment of the face. Finally, they fall into concealment within concealment, which is considered death, being completely detached from one’s root. Thus, their Torah becomes for them a potion of death.
M. Laitman: Is that clear? We'll read it again. Again, 102.
Reader:
Reading: (48:39) Item 102
M. Laitman: Yes, is that clear?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:52) Now, the more we read about these states, ultimately, there's one out of a thousand who reaches, who attains. And also, they write about one who wants to – it's one who wants to run but has nowhere to run to. So, how is that determined, who will succeed and who won't? Who will have a place to run and who won't? We're told that in our generation, everyone has a chance of attaining it. But if you look inwards, it depends on the situation of the person. Some initial data, the root of the soul, it's not clear if the person has any control over it.
M. Laitman: All correct questions, you're right and these questions come up for everyone. But we have nothing to do, we need to, we need to try and open them up, solve them according to what's revealed in us. Because as long as I did not open before me this entire area of creation, I don't know. I can't be certain exactly what I depend on and what's happening to me; we simply have to keep going.
Student: I can only say that from the way Kabbalists write about this, it seems that they mean to say that everyone is capable of it, everyone can succeed. They write in such a way where it's, as though, just read it and make an effort and you'll succeed.
M. Laitman: Right?
Student: Maybe I should hold on to that. It's written of the Creator that He wants everyone – and the Kabbalists also write in such a way – implying that it's possible for everyone. So that's what I feel that you need to work, and not ask these questions, and just try to succeed.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:54) Concealment within concealment is a different discernment to a person who is completely disconnected. You have this discernment.
M. Laitman: Yes, of course, but, nevertheless, it is concealment within concealment, where even the root of that first concealment, you don't reveal that.
Student: How is it different to complete disconnection?
M. Laitman: Because you're in a process.
Student: What is my action in such a state?
M. Laitman: That you want to approach the Creator, you want to approach the friend, and so on and so forth.
Student: What I gather from what's written is that, Lo Lishma, if I don't aim to reach Lishma from Lo Lishma then that's death, that's concealment within concealment. It's as though Lo Lishma forces me to aim towards Lishma.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: But if I'm aiming for Lishma, am I not, already, above Lo Lishma?
M. Laitman: Yes, I don't know how you imagine that state to yourself?
Student: Where I need to receive something in order to receive but by drawing the light – by the efforts in the Ten – I have to come out of that state of Lo Lishma to reach that point?
M. Laitman: Well, you could say.
Student: What is Lo Lishma?
M. Laitman: Well, that the question, what is lo Lishma – not for her sake. It's written somewhere, right, anyone remembers?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:23) The goal is to reach Lishma but, because we are within our will to receive, we cannot reach Lishma because to get there we need to be in bestowal. So, to begin with, the Creator allows us to engage in Torah and commandments, while the will to receive is still part of the business. Then, on the next degree, we understand that we can engage in pure bestowal; we can get rid completely of the intention to receive. So, it's a degree we have to pass, we can't reach Lishma immediately.
M. Laitman: Okay.
Student: It's written that concealment within concealment is considered to be death. The question is in this process can we somehow avoid this state or do we have to go through it to reach Lishma?
M. Laitman: We don't need to enter death. We just need to identify it, to see that it can be before us, and to avoid it.
Student: Logically, it seems to me that we have to reach that state of concealment within concealment, that it's unavoidable. So, that's the question.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:59) As for your question regarding a definition for Lo Lishma from the sources. Baal HaSulam writes in TES here, he writes, “Engagement in Torah and commandments, Lo Lishma means that one believes in the Creator and the Torah and rewarded punishment and engages in the Torah because the Creator commanded him to engage in it. But he involves joy from reception for oneself, for himself, with the observance of the commandments.”
When does the preparation end and you begin to actually engage in Torah?
M. Laitman: It's when the Creator decides relative to each and every one, it's according to His decision.
Student: The preparation is Lo Lishma, and engagement in Torah is Lishma already?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:16) When is the Creator closer to the person – Under concealment or concealment within concealment?
M. Laitman: In concealment or concealment within concealment?
Student: Yes?
M. Laitman: He's closer in one concealment.
Student: Because he says that concealment is a kind of calling, proclamation. You could think about it logically, saying the Creator invests more in order to call to you more if the concealment is a kind of proclamation. So, I thought that concealment within concealment, the more it is hidden, that calling is stronger or is it not so?
M. Laitman: No.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:31) What are the transgressions? A person eats something, he performs whatever action and doesn't describe it to the Creator.
M. Laitman: Sin means that I perform an action that is not good in the eyes of the Creator.
Student: I want to better locate those actions: Let's say a person eats, drinks, he performs various actions, just lives his life. And he doesn't describe anything to the Creator, is that called a transgression?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: What determines if it's a sin, a transgression? What turns it into one?
M. Laitman: An action that borders on sinning means that a person is doing it, from the get-go, in order to harm, betray, harm the Creator. He knows what he's doing is not liked by the Creator but he does it, nevertheless.
Student: So, on the path, we have just mistakes, right, we don't have many such states of absolute opposition, right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:22) It's written here that other than not coming out of the concealment of the face to the revelation of the face because he didn't aim his mind to be awarded with Him. Can it be that a person is fooling himself? He thinks he aimed to discover the Creator but in his heart he didn't really do that?
M. Laitman: Maybe?
Student: How to avoid that?
M. Laitman: How to avoid it?
Student: Yes, what to do because a person doesn't really know his intention, ultimately.
M. Laitman: To try, if he doesn't know, he has to know. But now he knows that he's missing this discernment.
Student: (01:02:37) Baal HaSulam mentions the fact, here, that any person who studies the Torah not Lishma, his Torah becomes the potion of death, which is a part of the process. So, if he follows the path, correctly, ultimately his Torah, the study of Torah Lo Lishma will become the potion of death. That's what he writes here.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Why does he write, God forbid, here, if it's a necessary part of the process?
M. Laitman: I can't say about, God forbid.
Student: After he reaches a state where he's completely disconnected from the light, what can save him?
M. Laitman: The Creator always saves him; in the end, the Creator is always the One who takes him through all those obstacles and a person is then rewarded with revelation.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:56) Now, within that concealment within concealment which he calls death, is there choice?
M. Laitman: No, that's already a final action.
Student: How can it be that a sin, malice, is possible there? There is some kind of attitude towards the Creator. A person is angry at him and so on, and the person says, “I’ll do this, deliberately. How can it be malice if he's disconnected?
M. Laitman: What do you mean disconnected?
Student: He has no Creator in his life, in his reality, the dead are free, so?
M. Laitman: There is no such thing, no, such an instance does not exist. Nevertheless, in the end, a person – when it's all said and done – because the Creator is the Good Who does Good, and we all reach the right results.
Student: The Creator is always present in a person's life, even within that concealment within concealment?
M. Laitman: Yes
Student: Just in that manner called sin or malice.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:56) How to enter Lo Lishma?
M. Laitman: What does it mean, Lo Lishma?
Student: To observe the commandments but in order to receive for oneself.
M. Laitman: So, what's the problem?
Student: If a person asks the Creator?
M. Laitman: They are all around you, not only here but all over the world. There are many people around you who are studying, learning Torah, they pray, they keep, they observe the commandments, and this is called Lo Lishma. And there are those, I don't know how many, that make, perform, keep the commandments, Lishma.
Student: Every day I ask for the power to observe the commandments.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: And every day, instead of that I commit transgressions. And so, I awaken death. I want to awaken life. I want to give something to the Creator even if it's just on the way to bestowing to Him. Even if it's in order to receive for myself this bestowal. But I don't observe any commandments. I want it but I fail every day, again and again, every day I ask but I don't have the strength to even make a proper effort.
M. Laitman: I think that your problem is that you're not connected enough to your Ten.
Student: That's the commandment; those are the commandments I want to perform with respect to connection in my Ten.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: Every day I fail, where can I find the strength to perform actions towards the connection in my Ten in order to enter Lo Lishma, even?
M. Laitman: Anyone have any advice to share with our friend? What can he do to perform these acts, correctly?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:50) Friends always require, always need uplifted spirits. So, if you know what gives friends the importance of the goal, greatness, in your own personal examples that you give or some other kind of act of overcoming, even externally, that's what you need to do.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:19) The friend here exactly reminded me that one who awakens others is himself awakened. So, awaken the friends, give them – one who gives them power and greatness, and joy, he awakens from his action because his environment awakens; also, he's working towards what's outside of him. And also, the friend writes songs, he writes such beautiful songs from the heart – they're so joyous and truly! Friend, maybe come to me, we'll write some new song together for the society and we'll bestow! Also, throughout the entire lesson, we're talking about how the Creator gives opportunities to a person who feels distant. And when I hear the friend say, “I want but I can't, the Creator doesn't allow it; isn't giving it to me. You really hear the Creator calling to you, to every friend, it's the Creator's calling. It's an opportunity from the state of darkness to invest more in the friends, to work harder. So, truly beautiful states ahead – L'chaim!
M. Laitman: We envy you, they envy you! Beautiful.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:54) I think that the friend can also ask the Creator, why aren't You giving it to me? He can ask Him, not just say, why aren't You giving? Not just, say, complain but, also to ask why he's not being given what he wants. Maybe a new connection can be formed that way.
M. Laitman: That's correct. So, what are we doing next?
Reader: We can continue to the next part of the lesson speaking about being on the Verge of Lishma, Selected Excerpts, if you want.
M. Laitman: Where is that?
Reader: It's in the study materials, the next part.
M. Laitman: On The Verge Of Lishma, Selected Excerpts from the Sources. From the first?
Reader: Yes.
M. Laitman: Go ahead.
Song: (01:12:49)