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

Daily Lesson (Morning) January 1, 2025.

Part 1: Arvut on the Way to Lishma - Selected Excerpts from the Sources. Item #4.

Reader: Hello friends. We are studying in this part of the lesson selected excerpts from the Kabbalists on the topic of Arvut On The Way To Lishma. We've reached Excerpt Number Four. You can find all the study materials in Sviva Tova, also in the Arvut system.

4. Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]", No. 22 Twice

Reading: (0:31) The impression that comes to a person when engaging in Mitzvot between man and the Creator is completely the same as the impression he gets when engaging in Mitzvot between man and man, since one is obliged to perform all the Mitzvot Lishma [for Her sake], without any hope for self-love, meaning that no light or hope returns to him through his trouble in the form of reward or honor, etc. Here, at this exalted point, the love of the Creator and the love of his friend unite and actually become one.

Reader: (04:10) Maybe if it's possible to explain the first sentence: What is the impression that comes to a person when engaging in Mitzvot between man and the Creator?

M. Laitman: That a person who relates to the Creator, so he has a certain inspiration. And so he can see, he can measure, he can keep this impression that exists between him and the Creator according to how much he has it towards the friends. Meaning, can he give additional forces to the friends and direct his effort towards the friends. According to that, he should see how much his attitude towards the friends brings him to change his attitude towards the Creator. That is, these are like two degrees, from the love of people to the love of the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:09) On the one hand, he says that there is no reward, a person works without a reward. On the other hand, he says there is an impression. So, what's the difference between any kind of reward and this feeling of impression?

M. Laitman: It's the condition that he wants to relate to the Creator as a place from which he expects nothing but only for him to know and to be able to keep his attitude towards Him in full.

Student: And knowing that he can carry out this attitude towards the Creator in full? Or towards the friend or is it the same thing?

M. Laitman: Yes. The way to reach giving to the Creator – what brings him to giving to the Creator – is the way that he builds through his attitude towards his friends.

Student: So, that impression is it already giving or is it before giving?

M. Laitman: That feeling of inspiration, he gets it from above but, later on, he also develops it.

Student: Why isn't that inspiration or impression considered a reward? Of course, it's not about honor or some other kind of desire, but it is a kind of inspiration?

M. Laitman: Yes, but this is what the Creator gives the created being because without Me, so He says, the person can't do it, can't rise above his will to receive. He needs to feel his relation with the Creator, how special it is, and how much it opens up for him, the relation to the Creator.

Student: The person asks for that impression instead of all the other kinds of rewards?

M. Laitman: Yes. Yes, he doesn't want anything besides that.

Student: So, it's a kind of spiritual necessity, it's necessary?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:29) What exactly creates this inspiration for the person?

M. Laitman: From the fact that he receives from the Creator some ray of light. And the person awakens as a result of that.

Student: That's from the Creator, this inspiration?

M. Laitman: Yes, but the feeling itself, is done in the person, appears in the person.

Student: How does the person awaken this inspiration that comes from the Creator or from man?

M. Laitman: It comes from the Creator to the person. And the person should try to feel it, to get hold of it, capture it. And from that, starts his own inspiration of the Creator.

Student: The inspiration that he receives from the Creator. He has to work back towards the Creator that is equal to the inspiration towards the friends?

M. Laitman: No. It is unrelated, one is not related to the other. Rather, the person should already translate it; he needs to keep it only out of the fact that he directs it towards the Creator.

Student: So, a person receives the inspiration from the Creator, this ray of light, and he needs to work in return back towards Him. So, where the friends are? What are the friends needed for?

M. Laitman: Without the friends, he won't know how to direct himself towards this upper light that comes to him.

Student: So, what does it mean, when he says the inspiration that comes to a person when engaging in Mitzvot between man and the Creator is completely equal to the impression he gets when he is engaged in Mitzvot between man and man?

M. Laitman: He should see, that they are related. That, if he wouldn't receive an awakening from above, he wouldn't be able to respond to it with an awakening from below.

Student: When he writes that a person works without any hope for self-love, any reward, anything for himself. What is that state?

M. Laitman: That this inspiration, he wants to direct it truly towards the Creator. He doesn't want to expect anything besides the fact that this inspiration itself will appear.

Student: If I look at myself then I'm a reactive mechanism. I have a response to whatever happens.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does it mean not to hope, not to expect? Something has to work in me in return, in response?

M. Laitman: Here, a person, seemingly, has the possibility to pray on his own and not to extend it to others or to the Creator. So, here, one has to work with this inspiration such that it will appear in the right way. Meaning, that he will feel that he's receiving it from the Creator and that it is directed towards him, directly. And that he wants to give back that impression, that inspiration he received back to the Creator.

Student: But what happens to the expectation?

M. Laitman: The expectation must exist because he has to direct himself towards the fact that he's doing it in order to look at the Creator and hope that he will receive something from Him.

Student: What does it mean, what you said before, that it's the condition that he wants to relate to the Creator as to a place from which he doesn't expect anything? He just wants to know, to relate to Him, completely?

M. Laitman: There is, what he should hope for.

Student: He has hope, some expectation here, and it fulfills him?

M. Laitman: Well, relatively, he didn't receive anything yet. But, rather, he's just performing the prayer.

Student: One has to completely nullify this expectation that he's doing something, that he's working?

M. Laitman: He should organize himself with his friends in such a way that they're all directed towards the Creator. And they expect that their awakening will bring them to connection and love, and that this they will want to pass on to the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:30) Is giving back the inspiration to the Creator. Does it have to happen through the friends, or is it only in prayer and gratitude?

M. Laitman: Prayer and gratitude, yes, that's mostly what we can activate in return towards the Creator.

Student: I want to get to what he talks about. That love of friends and love of the Creator is the same point. Ultimately, we measure our attitude to the Creator, and vice versa, through the friends.

M. Laitman: It's not exactly the same thing. But rather one clothes in the other. That my vessel is my attitude towards the friends, and I clothe it or extend it into such an attitude towards the Creator. But without my friends, I wouldn't be able to depict it or do anything like it.

Student: What is this vessel called “the friends”? The friends is a very, very special vessel?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What is that vessel the Creator gave us? We say many times, that the environment is the most fundamental thing we need to reach the Creator. What is this special vessel called “the friends”?

M. Laitman: He tells us how much we can feel and understand. That a person who raises his prayer upward. He feels that, by that, he takes all of his friends and reaches the Creator together with them. To the extent that he is incorporated in them and leaves nothing for himself. Then, he is also incorporated in the Creator and he sees that there is nothing in the world except for his friends.

Student: This is basically the true reality we're talking about? That there's no other reality but the friends?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:45) The equation that Baal HaSulam forms that bestowing to the Creator and bestowing to the friend, is equal. He says this equals that.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Because both actions are done Lishma. Can you explain this equation? How is it possible that two actions are equal? Every action has its parameters, what it influences, everything is different. He says, here this is equal., he creates some equality here, if I understand his explanation. This is because both actions are Lishma. So, if you can explain the reasoning also. This is for the Creator and that's for the Creator, meaning Lishma. So, if both things are for the Creator, there's no such thing as love of friends. There's really only love of the Creator. Because what am I doing it for? Who am I doing it for, if you could clarify that.

M. Laitman: It seems to me that you already answered it, but maybe I'll just try to repeat it. If I try to do everything for the friends and on that I seemingly have control, it is more within my feeling. So, from that, I can later on shift to the love of the Creator, who is the place, the source, from which all of the influences come out to me. And so, it turns out, that I have no one else to direct myself to. But only this source of all of the influences, the bestowal towards me from above. They actually reach me and build me, they change me such that from my ego, which is directed to myself. It becomes inverted within me to a special attitude towards my friends.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:04) When a person starts working, he works opposite the others. So, does he have an opportunity to give to others even if he doesn't have such an inspiration from it? Is this still called giving?

M. Laitman: This is what it means that from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma.

Student: What is good and clean action towards others? A person can't improve himself towards the Creator.

M. Laitman: This is why we have the other in the middle. And this other is actually the address towards which I need to direct myself. And as much as I try not to remember myself but only the other. By this I succeed more in the general correction.

Student: We have many opportunities to bestow to others, more than to the Creator. Now, the question is how to make these actions in a cleaner way, better way, more rich with discernments? Because when the Creator shines, then it's already okay, but most of our field of work is with the others. How do we improve in that?

M. Laitman: We need to think about the other, that he changes each time in order to awaken within us a certain relation within us until it becomes whole, it becomes whole in our eyes. And there, the other and the Creator become one.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:51) At the point where a person examines his attitude to others, he sees he needs strength and he turns to the Creator. He asks the Creator, let me relate to the others, correctly. What is it that equalizes the relation to the others and the relation to the Creator?

M. Laitman: That a person wants to bestow to both of them and not to be dependent on others or on the Creator. And by that, he builds himself. He starts his corrections in that he doesn't have the others or the Creator until he begins to receive a special relation to both of them. And in this special relation, he constantly compares them so that all his friends become the image of the Creator which he wants to reach. So, it turns out that when he wants to reach adhesion with all the friends, with all people, with all of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. By that he arranges his attitude towards the Creator; the Creator becomes for him the all-inclusive, the sum-total of the whole of creation.

Student: It turns out that you just have to pay attention to this deficiency? That your attitude to others is still not corrected and that's it, no more is needed?

M. Laitman: No, no.

Student: What are these stages of development, as you described it?

M. Laitman: The stages of this development, a person receives them from above; it's characteristic of every person.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:54) You said many special things from the beginning of the lesson today about the transition between relating to the friend and relating to the Creator, and it's very awakening. I find during the day a lot of blurriness in that. Meaning, I can't make this transition happen. That, the attitude to the friend will always be on top of the attitude to the Creator. So, can I understand what I'm lacking daily to always make that transition?

M. Laitman: Only the work, meaning, each and every time I try to direct myself to an attitude towards the Creator That His glory fills the world, and There Is None Else Besides Him, etc. In such a way, if I, bit by bit, close, complete, all of these conditions that we study then I'm indeed directed towards the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:39) When we work towards the friends, there are some flavors in that, because you're doing it for the friends, you're many years with them, and you love them, and all kinds of calculations a person has within. And we always finish our work with bringing Him contentment. It became like a kind of a reflex, that's how we think about it. But at those points where a person really self-scrutinizes and during the action he really says - okay, now I do it for the Creator. There's this phenomenon that exactly when you reach that point the whole flavor of that work just goes away. Questions arise and so on, because, basically, you disappear. And I want to ask about the prayer at that point, it's a point that keeps reoccurring again and again. The question is what is the request a person should have at that point? Give me flavor, give me the flavor just to continue the action? When you feel that loss of flavor, what do you need to do?

M. Laitman: That he's left with adhesion.

Student: What is the prayer: Let me feel adhesion? Because at least in my mind it sounds like a reward?

M. Laitman: Well, here adhesion is not a reward. Here, adhesion is a feeling that I relate to the whole of reality - the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking - through the Creator.

Student: Yes, the desire to be in what you just said is there. But I'm saying as soon as you start aiming there internally, everything hides, the flavor goes away. And I'm asking what prayer to raise at that point, that's what I don't get. Ask the Creator, let me feel adhesion, let me be in adhesion? Not sure what to ask there, in short?

M. Laitman: This is how a person reaches that point of unity. And, in that, in attaining this point of unification, he attains all the flavors.

Student: Yes, you're painting the goal, I understand that. I'm saying I'm at a point where there is no such flavor you just described, it's just not there. So, at that specific point, what am I supposed to do? I continue the work with the friends, okay, I don't stop that. But what is then my attitude to the Creator? The flavor is gone, I don't even understand why but.

M. Laitman: What happens to you is that by that, you begin to feel the Creator. Not with a flavor, taste, or smell, or anything but the Creator Himself. That, He fills you without a taste or smell, or touch. But rather, you open up a new sense.

Student: So, if I understood your advice, just to keep trying that until the new sense will open up?

M. Laitman: It will open up, it will open up.

Student: And opening up this sense depends on some prayer, or something specific a person needs to do?

M. Laitman: Only on how much you push more on that point of contact he has with the Creator.

Question (Zichron 1): (36:07) In this connection between two points, when he writes engaging in Mitzvot between man and the Creator and Mitzvot between man and man. There is a point, it's a very high point, where he says there's no hope for anything in return. What is that point? What does the heart feel when meeting that point?

M. Laitman: We will reach that, and then we will detect it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:45) What is it in the prayer that begets new relation, new attitude, in me?

M. Laitman: The prayer, is created, before, seemingly, a man was created. Because it reaches us from the Creator. It is the Creator who wants it. He establishes it, He takes care of the prayer. Therefore, what is special about the prayer is that, by it, we adhere precisely to the Creator's will towards us.

Student: The adhesion with the Creator is actually the adhesion with the friend where there is no more gap between us, if I understand that through our work? I want to ask specifically in our work, when I see any flaw, of course, it's in me. One judges through his own flaws, as we know. What happens when I identify good qualities in the friends? Is that not a quality that exists in me, as well? How do I work with that, with a good quality?

M. Laitman: First of all, clearly, each and every one has the qualities that exist in everyone. The only question is to what extent did they develop? To what extent does a person feel lack in them? Or, maybe it's the opposite, he actually performs actions in them. And so, we need to continue, in short. What the mind, the intellect, does not do, time does.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:43) Is the Arvut how we relate to the friends, and Lishma is how we relate to the Creator?

M. Laitman: Let’s say so.

Question (Women Germany): (40:00) What should we aspire first: inspiration from the Creator or inspiration from the friends?

M. Laitman: Basically, from the friends, first.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:33) The illumination from above is felt as help. As a force that comes in order to help me work with the friends. The question is how from that state in order to give something back to the Creator From that state, I don't see the friends just as a means, how do I transition from seeing them as a means? I mean, how does the love towards the friends connect into the love towards the Creator? Or are they felt only as a means, so that I can give back something?

M. Laitman: That to us, for now, still seems like a sphere that's built from many, many, many threads. And we have to find the beginning and end of each and every part of that sphere. Therefore, for now, we'll continue until it can develop before us more.

Student: So, here, we should have certain discernments from this state of working on it in a Ten? Where will it come from? From the work?

M. Laitman: From the work in the Ten, yes.

Student: Is there anything that a person can do with it, right now, in that state?

M. Laitman: To try to do as much as one can, actions in the Ten, yes.

Student: And, I imagine that it happens through prayer but the heart doesn't feel anything, so?

M. Laitman: Through prayer, through effort. Through the effort in both mind and heart.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:04) When I clothe in the friend, I see through his eyes – I feel through his heart – and a friend, suddenly, looks at me, and I feel everything that he feels when he looks at me. When I go back to working as myself in my vessel, how can I serve him and keep him, and guard him, in the best possible way?

M. Laitman: You work with his character in you, and that's how you advance.

Student: How can I serve him in the best possible way? From the moment that I felt him and what he feels, what should I do for him? Why did he approach me and he let me see, he did it for a certain beneficial reason. I'm supposed to serve him in a very effective way, so how do I find the answer to the question of what is my role in him?

M. Laitman: To help.

Student: I didn't hear you?

M. Laitman: To help.

Student: That's exactly my question: How can I help him besides the fact that he will always be with the one who is precious to him? Is that what I have to be all the time to make sure he's with the one who is precious for him?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:09) With the permission of my teachers, my presence in Bnei Baruch accelerates the peace. As it says, Israel hastens the time, I'm a holy Israel. This is what I was told from a very young age. Amen for everyone and for all of us as a nation, thank you very much.

M. Laitman: Okay.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:43) About that feeling of inspiration: Is the correct vessel for receiving it, is it enough to just want the greatness, the glory of the Creator, as we heard before? Or should we also have a desire not to receive any other reward, as he writes here, not a reward or any other reward, any other, not honor or any other return?

M. Laitman: The more you try… (Microphone issue)

4. Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]", No. 22

Re-reading: (47:01) The impression that comes to a person when engaging in Mitzvot between man and the Creator is completely the same as the impression he gets when engaging in Mitzvot between man and man, since one is obliged to perform all the Mitzvot Lishma [for Her sake], without any hope for self-love, meaning that no light or hope returns to him through his trouble in the form of reward or honor, etc. Here, at this exalted point, the love of the Creator and the love of his friend unite and actually become one.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:02) My question was in order to receive this feeling of inspiration correctly as a preparation to receive it. Is it enough to only want the greatness and the glory of the Creator? Or should we also be afraid of, or not be in a state where we want any other reward, like honor, etc., as he says here?

M. Laitman: Right. These are conditions that, thanks to them, we receive the influence of the Creator in a complete way.

Student: So, we need both.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:39) I heard before that without the friends, a person won't know how to direct himself towards this light that comes to him. Why is that?

M. Laitman: Because this light passes through all the friends. And if he doesn't connect with them, then he also won't have any contact with the light.

5. Noam Elimelech, Likutei Shoshana

Reading: (49:25) One must always pray for his friend, as one cannot do much for himself, for “One does not deliver oneself from imprisonment.” But when asking for his friend, he is answered quickly. Therefore, each one should pray for his friend, and thus each works on the other’s desire until all of them are answered. […] Arevim [responsible/sweet] for one another means pleasant, from the word sweetness, as they sweeten for each other by the prayers they pray for one another, and by this they are answered.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:44) The person prays but what is in the Creator that He wants the prayer so much? Does He want the request, does He want the relation? Does He want to feel the created being is coming closer to Him? Does He want the created being to feel that He is the Creator? What is in the prayer, that the Creator wants specifically, this?

M. Laitman: That man will cling to the Creator and hang all of his future on Him.

Student: So, the person can be in that relation without the prayer and that means that he's always in the best state? Or does it mean to always be in prayer?

M. Laitman: To always be in prayer.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:42) What does it mean to complete the friend?

M. Laitman: Complete with what he thinks is missing in the complete appearance of the friend.

Student: I see that there are things that the friend can’t do right now on his spiritual path. How can I complete it for him?

M. Laitman: You connect, you get closer to him, you both connect. And in connection, you complete each other.

Student: This means that when we connect, he receives everything he needs in order to complete himself?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:42) To pray for a friend, we did such an exercise not too long ago, where every day we were thinking about one of the friends in the Ten. And you catch yourself, even if you write down that right now I have to think of a friend, pray for the friend, it doesn't hold on. You can't hold on to it. It's really difficult. What is the condition really that makes it possible for one to pray for his friend? What does it mean to pray? It's not just to think or say words. We need to truly feel him deeply, I guess?

M. Laitman: That, when a person really wants to cling to the Creator, then he begins to feel how much more qualities he's lacking. And he's hoping to receive these qualities from the friends.

Student: If I'm interested in a friend, I want to know how he's living, what pains him, feel his qualities in corporeality.

M. Laitman: Why?

Student: Does it let me pray for him?

M. Laitman: I asked, why?

Student: Because I want to feel him. I want to have some impression, some inspiration. I want to feel his lack?

M. Laitman: Because that's what's written?

Student: Because, otherwise, if I don't feel him, how can I pray for him? I can say that I see that he's lacking a spiritual desire, let's say, and pray only for that; but there many questions appear. Also, should I pray for every friend in Ten or specifically for him? Or that there would be a strong desire in the Ten? This is something that's not clarified and I guess this is the main thing that we need to do?

M. Laitman: Yes, try. What's important is to get closer, that's clear.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:17) When a person is between the friends and we make efforts towards Arvut, you can feel that sweetness. And you can also extend it and draw it throughout the day in the thoughts and in connections we have. We also say often, that if we think about There Is None Else Besides Him, it softens the feeling, it gives us sweetness in things we go through. If it's during the day, these are bitter states where you can't do it, you only see the results. You forget about the causes of kinds of events that don't let you feel that sweetness. So, what is the thing that can bring the feeling of sweetness from There Is None Else Besides Him in there as much as possible, as we feel it between the friends?

M. Laitman: I didn't understand the question?

Student: When we are between the friends, we feel sweetness and confidence. During the day, when we're on the outside, and we meet and encounter all kinds of states, and we can't justify There Is None Else Besides Him, that “He's good and does good”. We don't even have There Is None Else Besides Him in most of these states. How do we close the gap so, in this external world, we will feel the same sweetness that we feel between the friends?

M. Laitman: Only by connections between us.

Student: Between us, we feel it. What is this between us that exists on the outside, if we can say so?

M. Laitman: We want to be connected between us to such an extent that the governance of the Creator on us will be revealed, as much as possible.

Student: This between us, is between us, between the friends. We want it to spread over the whole of reality, actually?

M. Laitman: Among the friends.

Student: Between the friends, it will cover everything?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:52) If I feel something bitter and then some nice elation comes to me. And I let go of this bitterness and I adhere to the good thing. Does the bitterness go away, that bitter thing?

M. Laitman: Did you correct it?

Student: No, I simply took something sweet.

M. Laitman: So, nothing happens then.

Student: Where does this bitter thing go? Is it in standby, waiting for me?

M. Laitman: Yes, more will be revealed to you.

Song: (58:50)