The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) October 30, 2024.
Part 2: On the Verge of Lishma – Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #4
Reader: We are reading select excerpts from the Kabbalists on the topic of “The Verge of Lishma”, and we are in excerpt number four from letters, from the written notes from Rabash.
Reading: (00:22) 4. RABASH, Article No. 587, "The Upper One Scrutinizes for the Purpose of the Lower One" - Twice.
One must receive the power to work Lishma from the upper one, since the lower one is powerless to begin the work, but only in the form of Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], called “will to receive,” for only the Lo Lishma gives the first moving force of the lower one, for when a person does not find sufficient flavor in corporeal pleasures, he begins to search for spiritual pleasures.
It follows that the root of the work of the lower one is the will to receive, and the prayer, called MAN, rises up, and then the upper one corrects this MAN and places on it the power of the Masach, which is a desire to delay the abundance before the lower one knows about himself that his aim is to bestow.
That is, the upper one bestows upon the lower one good taste and pleasure in the desire to bestow.
Reader: Again, excerpt four.
Reading: (01:54) 4. RABASH, Article No. 587, "The Upper One Scrutinizes for the Purpose of the Lower One"
M. Laitman: Is that clear?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:31) He actually explains here the transition from the desire to receive to the desire to bestow, yes?
M. Laitman: Okay. Yes.
Student: Meaning, a person asks if we go by the text, a person sees that he has no corporeal pleasures any longer. He's not satisfied, and he wants, he's seeking spiritual pleasures.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And then he's given the flavor from the desire to bestow. What is that flavor? What taste?
M. Laitman: Flavors, tastes when he feels that he is attaining something from above that has a lot of pleasures.
Student: Also, before that he wanted pleasures. He just said, “I have no more pleasures in corporeality. I want spiritual pleasures?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Now, He's not telling him that he's giving him spiritual pleasures but the taste and the desire to bestow.
M. Laitman: In general.
Student: Meaning, he suddenly feels that bestowing is good?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And it's better than receiving?
M. Laitman: He gets better by… he feels pleasure by bestowing.
Student: And this is something completely new he didn't have before?
M. Laitman: Not from such an action, no.
Student: So actually, what, why does the lower one need to ask first? He could have received it anyway.
M. Laitman: No. Without the feeling of the deficiency, the lower one can't receive.
Student: That's it. He didn't feel a deficiency to bestow. He felt a deficiency for a different pleasure. And he suddenly received the deficiency to bestow?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So where does this sit, where does this settle, this vessel that he prepared? What is, where is this vessel that he prepared for this thing?
M. Laitman: From his previous actions.
Student: In the previous action, he felt that he no longer has pleasures from corporeality.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: No longer satisfies it. And then he's looking for a greater pleasure.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And then he starts seeking a desire to bestow.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What prepared him for that? What, what's his part in all this?
M. Laitman: That according to the root of his soul, he wants to attain the desire to bestow, to resemble the Creator.
Student: So, it's like by the root of the soul.
Reader: Excerpt number five.
Reading: (06:53) 5. RABASH, Article No. 223, "Entry into the Work"
Only after he achieves this degree called Lo Lishma, he is rewarded with other phenomena, when he comes to a higher state. That is, at that time he has no consideration of himself, and all his calculations and thoughts are the truth.
In other words, his aim is only to annul himself before the true reality, where he feels that he must only serve the King because he feels the exaltedness and greatness and importance of the King. At that time, he forgets, meaning he has no need to worry about himself, as his own self is annulled as a candle before a torch before the existence of the Creator that he feels. Then he is in a state of Lishma [for Her sake], meaning contentment to the Creator, and his concerns and yearnings are only about how he can delight the Creator, while his own existence, meaning the will to receive, does not merit a name whatsoever. Then he is regarded as “bestowing in order to bestow.”
M. Laitman: Okay, well. Read again what we just read.
Student Reading: (09:20) 5. RABASH, Article No. 223, "Entry into the Work"
M. Laitman: What do you want? I don't understand.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:51) The greatness of the Creator is according to what a person depicts to himself, or is that something the upper also opens before him?
M. Laitman: No, only according to the person,
Student: According to what a person…
M. Laitman: Whatever he depicts for himself.
Student: So, a person lacks the… he's missing the connection to the Creator, and that's what he asks, to have more relation from the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Now, the Creator gives him pleasure and bestowal, but it doesn't mean that he gives him a relation to the Creator, which is something the upper can't give, or can he?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: Meaning, where does this relation come from?
M. Laitman: The relation to the Creator?
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: A person needs to develop it by seeing as much as the Creator is taking care of him, and drawing him, and wanting him.
Student: Meaning upon anything, whether it's reception, bestowal, we have to always improve the relations?
M. Laitman: Constantly has to be a blessing.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:18) He writes that then he's in a state of bestowing in order to bestow.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What does he bestow exactly?
M. Laitman: Contentment. His relation.
Student: By what?
M. Laitman: He just annuls himself, after all. That is great work already, annulling himself towards the Creator.
Student: But what does it mean that he annuls himself, and this is regarded that he bestows in order to bestow?
M. Laitman: Bestowing contentment to the Creator.
Student: Because he's trying to distance himself from the desire to receive?
M. Laitman: Also, of course.
Student: And he doesn't receive forces from this? Is that in a state of reception?
M. Laitman: He receives forces from the Creator in order to be the bestower, in order to bestow.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:26) About the work with the screen. When there's a mixed desire, he still wants to receive for himself, then he prepares his MAN, and the Creator gives him a screen that detains the upper light.
M. Laitman: I didn't hear part of the question.
Student: About the work with the screen. In the degree of Lo Lishma, when he's still in the desire to receive that's mixed there, and he prays to correct it, then the Creator sends him the screen, the detaining force. And then when he goes through, then he feels the reality of the Creator, then he feels like a candle before a torch. So, the question is, does he no longer need a screen, and does it get refined at that point?
M. Laitman: No, he still needs a screen anyway.
Student: So, in bestowing in order to bestow, there's still a screen?
M. Laitman: Of course.
Student: And in absolute love, meaning the last degree of love, does the screen get canceled?
M. Laitman: Never.
Student: The screen exists always?
M. Laitman: The will to receive is our nature.
Student: It'll jump right away. Even in the end of correction there's a screen?
M. Laitman: I don't know. Let's get there and then we'll know. Okay.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:58) Maybe the friend wanted to attain, to ask that when we attain the screen, how do we work with the will to receive correctly?
M. Laitman: Maybe. I don't know. Ask Him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:21) It's also about the screen. The screen and the Ten. When you're in a Ten, you get a screen whether from the world Kli, from you. Even before you took one step, you have a screen. So, the screen is given by the Creator. How can we in the Ten, or can we increase the screen, or be concerned, can we build something, can we help the process, or is it only from what's created between us?
M. Laitman: We need to try and work with the screens between us so that all the actions between us will be in order to bestow to one another. And in the connection between us try to connect such that we will have the demand for the common screen, which we will aim towards the Creator.
Student: So, it's a mutual action. One is what the Creator gives, the other is what we aim after we receive all the instructions from the Rabash, the greatness of the friends, the greatness of the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:52) The greatness of the Creator, is that a result of annulment, or is the ability of annulment a result of the greatness of the Creator?
M. Laitman: The greatness of the Creator is the cause for everything, for all the actions that follow.
Student: But he's saying that we have to feel it.
M. Laitman: Well, without feeling the greatness of the Creator, you can't do anything in spirituality.
Student: The question is, or speaking about it, we increase the Creator between us, but it's not always something that's alive.
M. Laitman: So, when it's alive, you can reach something.
Student: So, when you reach a state in the work where the greatness of the Creator is always there, shining upon you, and that's why you can annul and do everything, or is it something that we always have to awaken between us?
M. Laitman: You need to constantly awaken the greatness of the Creator, every moment.
Student: Also, after you attain the screen?
M. Laitman: No spiritual action that you attain resolves you from being able to let go of it, and then go as one who receives some… How can we say it? Well, like a retirement fund or something, a pension. No, no such thing.
Student: So, the Kabbalists always work on the greatness of the Creator as that greatest fuel, the most refined fuel, that.
M. Laitman: It's the only thing by which we can do even the smallest action until the greatest action in spirituality, in bestowal. Where do you take the force of bestowal from? From the Creator, who illuminates to everyone, and then according to His greatness, the recognition of His greatness, you can receive from Him this force and to be somewhat like Him.
Student: The question is if it's something psychological that we supposedly convince each other that there's a Creator, He is great, it's worth doing the work, it's worth coming to the lesson. To annul, it's like going out to battle: you warm yourself up and go for it. But you don't really know; it's not something that you really... that it's, you understand, it's like going to a show. You see a magician; he does some magic, and you don't know how the magic happens, or if he really did it, or if it's just the trick of the eyes. So here, you reach a point where you can really connect to the greatness of the Creator where you can really say that he's the greatest thing in reality, or is it always a kind of just igniting each other on this topic, creating the spirits, and that's what we have to work with? Like a game we play between us, and we all really want it to be true.
M. Laitman: That's how it is.
Student: A game?
M. Laitman: Yes, it's written that the Creator plays with the created beings.
Student: So, in every state in life whether it's the best or the worst, we always have to come back to this game between us. There's a Creator, and…
M. Laitman: We just need to constantly scrutinize more correctly what this game is called.
Student: Because it's like when you talk to people that don't study with us—eventually, you reach this point: on what account are you doing all this game? Because the Kabbalists told you that there's a Creator, but you don't have a... you can only say here, come to feel this game we're doing, how beautiful it is, how great it is, how much life it gives you. And that's the reason for our work. You don't have something you can really give that person and tell them.
M. Laitman: No, that's called the point in the heart, where a person has a certain connection with the Creator.
Student: But we're talking about attainment, eventually, no? Opening of the eyes?
M. Laitman: If a person develops it, then he already has a Kli, and in this Kli, he attains.
Student: So, the condition is that a person has to reach—and us too—a point where he feels there must be something great, and he starts playing in it. He agrees, he agrees for his reality to all be affected by this greatness of the Creator, that he doesn't have attainment in it, but eventually he reaches a point where you really attain it?
M. Laitman: Of course. Did everyone understand what he said? In truth, we all talked about this many times, yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:42) What does it mean to respect the quality of bestowal?
M. Laitman: The quality of bestowal in our eyes appears very lowly, like love, all those things that come to us from the right side, and therefore we need to strengthen them, that's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:35) Lo Lishma is actually raising a degree on the will to receive?
M. Laitman: It's a state and not in a sense, so I don't understand how you're saying it.
Student: I'll try and explain. He says that a person doesn't enjoy any corporeal forms, and he's searching for joy in spirituality. So that's going into Lo Lishma, meaning that the will to receive isn't focused on corporeality anymore, but my will to receive wants to receive spiritual pleasures. That's called Lo Lishma?
M. Laitman: Lo Lishma.
Student: It's like a degree too,
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Is it like the Exodus,?
M. Laitman:. No, no, no, don't put me and bring me into all these definitions of yours.
Student: Okay.2
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:58) A bit about the greatness of the Creator. I actually have to glue it to my current moment, my present moment. We spoke about something I felt was important, that point of zero that you talked about, that reset. I have to neutralize myself from my present moment and concentrate on what the Creator is bestowing upon me. This neutralization, in any thought, everything comes from me, it kind of hides that greatness. Can you expand on that point a bit? I felt that was important, that if I want to charge myself in the greatness of the Creator in my current moment, what should I do?
M. Laitman: Just to incorporate in the group, and to be humble, lowly before them. And then you'll start coming closer to the greatness of the Creator, the feeling of the greatness of the Creator, the attainment of the greatness of the Creator, only in such a way. You have no other choice, chance to touch the greatness of the Creator.
Student: How do we stop that stream? How do you stop that stream and do that parking?
M. Laitman: That's if he wants to attain his point of connection from the internality of the heart to the Creator. Then as he searches for it and finds it, for him that's always the point of connection.
Question (Petah Tikva Center):(27:14) I heard you saying that we have to work between us in the Ten with screens, and then reach a state where together we ask for a mutual screen to work before the Creator with?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What does it mean that we're working in screens between us? What does that mean?
M. Laitman: Just like between a person and another, but we have to eventually reach such a connection that all those people that want to be together, they want to overcome their personal reality and enter the general reality.
Student: Is it right to say that the stage where we're all working between us in screens is that each one annuls himself before his friends? Is that what it means?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Now, when we each one annuls towards his friends. So, in the past, we talked about something called the center of the Ten, that something is revealed between us. That's that common screen we were talking about, or was it another degree that we need to do?
M. Laitman: The common screen is, it's a common screen which shares all our desires together. So, the fact that he altogether includes our desires and includes them together and works with that one point, that's already just like in an ascent from one degree to the next where the sum of the forces operating on the lower degree become one force in a higher degree.
Student: And when the friends work, as we said, towards one another in annulment?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What makes it become the common screen? What's the action, or what's the stage that it suddenly becomes, or maybe not suddenly becomes? How do we go from here to there?
M. Laitman: Through connection, annulment, there's nothing more.
Student: And then it'll suddenly happen.
M. Laitman: If I want to nullify before all the friends in the Ten and not feel anything other than how much I'm inside them, this actually leads me to the internality of the Ten. And then I, in this way, come to incorporate in a higher degree, which is really the Malchut of the higher degree. And this is how I proceed and continue, only through annulment.
Student: I feel that we're ready for the stage that you're explaining about now, that's what I feel.
M. Laitman: Well, then incorporate together and reach the degree that it's Abba Ve Ima.
Student: Do you have some kind of advice beyond connect or annul, that that's our permanent work we're doing in the Ten? Is there something in this present state that we're in today, that we can tell ourselves we're a Ten, we're going for what the Rav just depicted? Is there maybe an action we can do, or an exercise, something that will bring us closer even one more step beyond what we're doing, and we're doing a lot. I'm not speaking about our daily routine. I'm asking if there's something extra.
M. Laitman: In the grand scheme of things, there isn't, there isn't.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:12) To continue, let's say there's a Ten meeting, the friends meet on Zoom, they read some source, what should we annul there? I'm sitting with the friends, reading something. How from this do I reach that point of annulment towards each friend, like you said?
M. Laitman: I want to nullify all my individuality, my private being, all my goals, states, desires of mine. And I want to connect, to emerge from myself, just like Rabash wrote. And then there's just the friends, there's no reality but the friends.
Student: There's no reality but the friends?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, and that's what I want to attain, because it's there with certainty that I go out of myself, and I'm incorporated in spirituality.
Student: When I sit and read with the friends, do I have to think of how to come out of what all you just depicted, or is the focus on wanting to be in the text with the writer, with the friends?
M. Laitman: Again.
Student: Exiting myself is by wanting to be with the friends in the text with the writer, or from the desire to just take off of myself all those self-concerns?
M. Laitman: I don't know. When we each want to show the others some states in our personal desires, I don't know if..
Student: Is that point of connection in the aspiration towards that center, or aspiring to shed off of myself all that weight of personal concerns?
M. Laitman: Both this and that. Also, in lowering the desire to receive and clothing in the desire to connect and bestow. Okay friends, it is precisely five o'clock. Questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:11) Between the desire to annul, and the Ten, and getting the forces to actually do it, what prayer should we have here?
M. Laitman: What comes to you from within your heart? That's always the correct prayer. Your correct prayer, the real prayer. What are we doing next?
Reader: We're going to go to our social part. We're going to read from TES.
M. Laitman: The Study of the Ten Sefirot? Yes, we'll go to the next part of the lesson.