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

Daily Morning Lesson: January 9, 2026

Reading of the Article in the Ten

Rabash. Article No. 18, 1986. Who Causes the Prayer

Recorded lesson – Dec 31, 2002

Reader: Hello, my friends, in the first part we're going to watch a lesson that Rav gave on December 31, 2002 which is based on the article, Who Causes the Prayer from the writings of Rabash, Volume 1, in Hebrew. We're going to read this article in a round in the Ten. You're welcome to continue discussing the matters of the article after you finish reading the article in the Ten. First we'll read the article by Rabash, Who Causes the Prayer in the Ten. Who Causes the Prayer. 

Reading: (00:45) Rabash. Article No. 18, 1986. Who Causes the Prayer

Article No. 18, 1986

Our sages wrote (Mesechet Berachot 32), “One should always praise the Creator and then pray.” This shows us that one should believe that when a person comes to a state where he feels his fault in the work of the Creator—when he feels that his faith is not as it should be, that is, able to believe that the Creator is benevolent, and this feeling, when he sees that he cannot thank the Creator and say wholeheartedly, “Blessed is He who said, ‘Let there be the world,’” meaning that he so enjoys the world that he thanks the Creator for having created the world so he has what to enjoy—if he doesn’t feel the delight and pleasure that can be received, it is hard for him to be thankful for it. And this pains him that he cannot praise the Creator for the world He has created and say wholeheartedly, “Blessed is He who said, ‘Let there be the world.’”

And that deficiency pains him, meaning he says that this feeling must have come to him because he is remote from the Creator, meaning immersed in self-love. This causes him to part from the Creator, meaning that he doesn’t feel the greatness of the Creator because the Creator is hidden from him.

And therefore, he cannot see the truth, as it is written, “For it is your life and the length of your days.” And also, he cannot feel the importance of the Torah, as it is written, “For this is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations, who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’”

When a person introspects and thinks, “Where is this excitement that the nations are saying about us, ‘Surely this... is a wise and understanding people,’ because of the Torah, because we keep what is written, ‘Observe and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations.’ So why don’t I feel the importance of Torah and Mitzvot?”

In that state of reflection, when he feels how remote he is from any reverence for the work of the Creator, he begins to awaken and think, “Something must be done. I cannot stay in that state of lowliness for the rest of my life.” Certainly, this is the time when a person begins to pray to the Creator to bring him closer to Him and to help him from above, as our sages said, “He who comes to be purified is aided.”

In other words, He should lift the concealment of the greatness and importance of Kedusha [holiness/sanctity] from him, so he can overcome all the ignoble thoughts and desires that come from self-love, and that all his concerns will be only about how he can do something for the Kedusha, called “in order to bestow contentment upon his Maker.” And certainly, this can only be to the extent that he believes in the greatness and importance of the Creator.

Thus, he asks the Creator to open his eyes so he will see and feel the greatness and importance of the Creator, as it is written (Psalm 88), “Lord, why do You reject my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?” And then it is a prayer from the bottom of the heart. That is, at that time, a person wants the Creator to heal his heart, as it is written (Psalm 147), “Who heals the brokenhearted and binds up their sadness.”

And then one probably thinks that the awakening for the prayer that the Creator will bring him closer to Him came from himself, and he awaits the Creator’s salvation, that He will help him by granting his prayer. That is, that He will bring him closer to Him, as he is praying now because now he feels His lack, which he didn’t feel before.

Therefore, when a person doesn’t receive from the Creator what he thinks the Creator should give him, he becomes angry that the Creator is not granting his prayer. As for other people, he believes that He is not bringing them closer because they have no desire for spirituality. But he is not like other people, who have no affinity to the Creator, so the Creator doesn’t need to bring them closer anyway.

But this man, who prayed for the Creator to help him come closer to Him, the Creator Himself can see that he is not like other people. Rather, he is higher than the populace; he understands the world and its purpose, and he contemplates the purpose for which he was created and what he must achieve. But when he looks at other people, he sees their lowliness—that all their thoughts and actions are for their own benefit—and he feels that he understands differently because his mind and qualities are more virtuous and worthy than those of other people.

Moreover, sometimes he sees that he is even more virtuous than the people in his group. He sees that they occasionally think of spirituality, but he—his every thought and all his desires are only about spirituality. He always wants to exit self-love, and all his requests of the Creator are only for Him to deliver him from this lowliness. And he doesn’t see that his friends are equally serious, thinking only about spirituality.

For this reason, he is upset with the Creator for not granting his prayer, leaving him in his current state like the rest of the friends, and is not considerate of him, meaning with his prayer, which is truly prayed from the bottom of the heart. Thus, regarding the granting of the prayer, he finds a fault above.

And he asks himself, “But it is written, ‘For You hear the prayer of every mouth,’ and ‘every mouth’ means that the whole mouth should ask the prayer, meaning that his whole body demands that the Creator will help him. But as for the rest of the people, their prayers are not answered because it is not with ‘every mouth.’”

Baal HaSulam said about it, “It is written, ‘And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear.’” He interpreted that when a person feels his fault and prays for the Creator to help him, it is not because a person feels his fault, and this gives him reason to pray. Rather, the reason is that he is favored by the Creator, and the Creator wishes to bring him near.

At that time, the Creator sends him the sensation of his own fault and calls upon him to join Him. In other words, it is the Creator who brings him near by giving him a desire to turn to the Creator and to speak to the Creator. It follows that he already had the granting of the prayer even before he prayed. That is, the Creator brought him closer by enabling him to speak to the Creator. This is called, “Before they call, I will answer.” That is, the Creator brought that person near Him before the thought appeared in the man’s mind that he should pray to the Creator.

But why did the Creator choose him and give him the call to come to Him and pray? To this, we have no answer. Instead, we must believe above reason that this is so. This is what we call, “Guidance of Private Providence.” One must not say, “I’m waiting for the Creator to give me an awakening from above, and then I will be able to work in the work of holiness.” Baal HaSulam said that in regard to the future, a person must believe in reward and punishment, meaning he must say (Avot, Chapter 1), “If I am not for me who is for me, and when I am for me, what am I, and if not now, then when?”

Thus, one mustn’t wait another moment. Instead, he should say, “If not now, then when?” And he must not wait for a better time, so “Then I will get up and do the work of holiness.” Rather, it is as our sages said (Avot, Chapter 2), “Do not say, ‘I will study when I have time,’ lest you will not have time.”

But after the fact, said Baal HaSulam, one must believe in private Providence—that it was not the person who called upon the Creator, but the Creator who called upon the person and told him, “I want you to speak to Me.” It follows that the reason for the nearing did not come from the individual but from the Creator. For this reason, one mustn’t think that the Creator did not hear the prayer. Rather, He brought him near even before he turned to the Creator to bring him near Him.

This is called, “Before they call, I will answer.” It follows from the above that if a person has awakened to sense his ignoble state, it did not come from the individual. Rather, the Creator sent him this feeling so he would ask to be brought closer. Therefore, as soon as one has a thought that he is remote from the Creator and wishes to pray to the Creator to bring him closer, he mustn’t pray until he first thanks the Creator for having called upon him to bring him closer.

The Creator wants man to pray to Him. And when a person does self-analysis into why he suddenly remembered that there is spirituality and that he should try to obtain something in spirituality, if he immediately says that the Creator sent him this thought, then he can pray.

This is the meaning of what our sages said, “One should always praise the Creator.” In other words, as soon as one begins to contemplate his situation concerning spirituality, he should promptly praise and thank the Creator for having given him the thought and desire for spirituality. Afterwards, when he knows that the Creator is calling him, he immediately begins to thank and praise the King for having brought him closer. This is when he can pray for his situation, since he sees that he is lacking Torah and doesn’t know any distinction between true and false, and he prays for the Creator to show him the path of truth.

Now we can understand what our sages said (Midrash Rabbah, Toldot, 63, Mark 5), “‘And the Lord answered him.’ Rabbi Levi said, ‘There is an allegory about a prince who was striving to take a pound of gold from his father. He was striving from within and he was striving from without, since in Arabic, ‘striving’ means ‘asking.’’ He interprets there the gifts of priesthood, that ‘taking a pound means that his father, too, wished to give it, and was striving opposite him to hurry his taking.’”

From what we have explained, the reason that a person wants to draw near comes from the Creator. The Creator does not wait for a person to wake up, but awakens the person. Afterwards, one prays that the Creator will bring him closer. We can understand it with the allegory that he gives about the verse, “And... answered him,” which means that Isaac prayed to the Creator.

And he gave an allegory about that, meaning that his father, that is, the Creator, conspires from within, meaning that his father gave him a thought and desire to pray to Him, and afterwards the prince conspires from without. In other words, the people of Israel are princes, and they are standing outside the King’s palace and wish to draw near the Creator, meaning enter the King’s palace. This means that his father in heaven started first.

Reader: Dear friends, we will now enter the lesson with Rav about the article, Who Causes the Prayer This is a recorded lesson from December 31st, 2002.

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M. Laitman: The question is, who is the cause of prayer – the Creator or the created being? On one hand, we say There Is None Else Besides Him. Meaning that he alone acts and initiates every action, every process, and every phenomenon that exists. On the other hand, we say, if I am not for myself, who is for me? Apparently a person also has something of their own. Perhaps, not in exactly the same action as there is none else besides Him but in something else. Still, if I am not for myself, who is for me? It does belong to the human being in some discernment in which they do have free choice and free action. Either a person needs to be prepared to make themselves ready so that the Creator, through them, will act and bring them to prayer. In what way should a person help this; other than helping, a person themselves is included in this work. And really has a partnership with the Creator in the act that brings one to that state. But prayer is the raising of MAN, meaning, after, from above downward, all the preparations have been made: the descent of all the degrees, the worlds, and the breaking of the soul, the breaking of the Adam, of the human being, then only the correction remains. Correction can only be according to prayer, only according to the deficiency for correction. In fact, if there were no prayer, there would be no need for correction. Why take a perfect vessel that exists in an infinite corrected state, shatter it, and bring it into a mixture with the—down to the deepest depths of the fall and then return and restore the good state? 

The result of this is that the return from the shattered state to the corrected state must necessarily come through prayer on behalf of the vessel – this prayer is free choice. It is the participation of the lower one in the whole of creation where the lower one, after recognizing its evil and after recognizing its state, after becoming aware of the greatness of the Creator's degree relative to its own degree, without any calculation for itself, begins to want to be like the Creator. Which means in qualities of bestowal without any self-aimed intention; that desire to be so is called MAN, the raising of a prayer. Without such a desire, there will never be correction. This is because, as we said, correcting the vessel, why should we break it if it needs to be corrected again? However, to gather the prayers for every shattering and these prayers become the new vessel that the Creator being built, through that they build themselves, from these MANs that they raise, over every detail in which they feel the difference between themselves and the Creator. 

Therefore, what is most important is prayer. Immediately, the moment we attain a correct prayer, the raising of MAN, which enters as the cause for action in the upper Partzuf relative to us. So the upper Partzuf immediately acts upon us and performs the correction. In other words, the act has already happened but the need for this act needs to come from the lower one. This need, on behalf of the lower one, is truly and absolutely from the lower one. Indeed, in the lower one, nothing can suddenly be felt without a prior cause, and certainly, the Creator awakens the person to prayer. And certainly, through the scrutiny of the prayer, which is called the scrutinies of prayer, that's when a person sees good and evil, light and darkness, all the discernments, who they want, why they want to ask it and so on. Those are called, the scrutinies of prayer. It's not what's learned in the Yeshivot, as the scrutinies of prayer, of how to say each and every word properly – but our desires, as they appear to us each time in the upper light in a way which is either closer or further away from what's desired. When a person scrutinizes that, here is where all of one's exertion is. Certainly, the entire path of scrutiny has already been paved, it depends on our vessel that was shattered. It means that we need to bring ourselves to the corrected state and the entire path has already been paved, so it's certain that we will progress from one scrutiny to another, to a request, to prayer, to gratitude, and to all these things that are there. This is from one state to the next and these states are actually sealed and predefined in the beginning because they depend on the breaking of the vessels. However, our efforts, our self-participation, our voluntary participation to accelerate this matter, that is our participation. 

In other words, to find ourselves interested in this happening quickly—that is our prayer. Therefore, anyone who delays and does not accelerate it, who doesn't feel pressured or directed at prayer and thinks that this thing can be carried out in another moment, in a few hours, or in a few years. Simply not doing the one necessary thing that they need to do in the entire process of reality, in the entire process of the correction of the souls. Therefore, our entire measurement of the extent in which we are progressing is actually the measurement of the force of our desire to accelerate the redemption, as it is called, to accelerate the redemption, to hasten it. The cause of this is certainly the Creator, as we also learned from The Study of the Ten Sefirot, that the NHY of Atik, the teats of the beast awaken and there are many other causes and systems that awaken the souls in every state to rise to higher degrees to rise to higher degrees. Baal HaSulam explains this very beautifully in the article, The Answering of Prayer, and the Ascent of Prayer, in the Book of Zohar. However the cause may be, the cause is certainly the Creator, the Receiver of the prayer is certainly the Creator. Every desire that exists in a person whether toward both correct or incorrect things including confusions and failures as well as successes and certain victories along the way. All of these things, certainly, they already exist on the path, and only in relation to the person do they appear as something sudden. 

However, what depends on us is pressure toward speed – toward how quickly this will happen to us: I want the true desire to come to me and I ask the Creator to give me the ability to pray for the right thing to pray for. And with all of my might, all of the strength that is required, to receive that MAD back from above, the answering of the prayer. And that this thing demanded to be immediate and not delayed—that is of utmost importance; that's what I'm crying out now for and asking for. I think also yesterday we read about it. There are a few articles where he says a person who cries, a person who weeps, he doesn't cry about—he cries mainly about what he needs now, in the present. If it's about something ten years from now, we say that this person's foolish if they pull their problems or deficiencies from the future. If it's in the future, why should I suffer from it now? I'll wait for the future and who knows what's going to happen then. However, if I bring these things into the present and I want to execute them, to correct them now, then that is the correct approach. 

Therefore, it's worthwhile to concentrate all deficiencies from the past, present, and future into the present in order to raise them into that force, that power of prayer. And to do it so that I do not suffer for the next moment. I want a solution for them now, in this moment, a solution for what? For the fact that I have no strength to bestow. Usually, when people pray for the Messiah and for all kinds of things, they pray that things will work out well for them – save me from sorrows, troubles – as if there's some evil Creator who brought all kinds of troubles upon us and we pray to You, God of Israel, that You will do good only to us, just give us good, that's it. I don't want to say that that's idolatry but it is against the principle of One, Unique and Unified. Therefore, the concentration of all of a person's discernments into the current point where they must now have a solution for their correction, that is prayer. Therefore, prayer is of utmost importance, it is the summary, the conclusion of all the efforts, discernments, which we have gone through on the path. The raising of MAN, as we learn, is essentially what needs to emerge from the lower one and everything else is done by the upper one. And even that raising of MAN, which is caused by the lower one, the lower one organizes all the paths for the upper one in order to build MAN correctly. Only to hasten oneself in every state so that it'll be built quickly and that it'll be executed now, that depends on the person. In other words, Israel, as it's called, sanctify the times, meaning that at every moment, they elevate upward so that it will happen now, so that it'll enter spirituality, they will enter spirituality. If a person does so, they end up cancelling time. And then they truly begin to feel that time does not exist. They live within the discernments and immediately demand the realization of each and every discernment. Is there anything else to ask in relation to the article? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:43) When you talk about prayer, what is prayer? Do I need to say it in my heart?

M. Laitman: I don't understand what you're asking, what is prayer? He already told you what prayer is: Prayer is a request to the Creator for correction. Who is the Creator? The Creator is the force of bestowal, a force of giving with no intention for itself whatsoever. What should I pray for? I can pray to that force only with such a request, that I, too, want to be like it, a bestowing force with no self-aimed intention. If I have such necessity and I am certain that the Creator wants to help me, that He helps only with that and this is truly what I want, and other than that I have no other requests and I want it to happen, I need it to happen now, in this very moment, not even one second later—that is called MAN, that is called prayer. If you shout or cry together with that or sing together with that, I don't know what you'd do – it doesn't matter to me, what does it matter? The Creator looks at the desire in the heart, the innermost point of all your desires, as the summary of all desires. If, in your body, you can perform all kinds of actions within the body as well; if you are without a body, before you were born or after the body dies, then without a body you do such things, what's the problem? We're talking about desire; desire doesn't belong to the body. Even when you die, you'll still have the same actions, the same operations as when you're in a body, on a different degree with a slightly different scrutiny but we're talking about the soul, about the eternal part. What does the study of the Ten Sefirot discuss, your body? 

So what are you asking about, about what you need to do? You need to do what is written. The teacher doesn't understand your body, right, he doesn't look at the body. Your body is like this additional burden on your soul, in order to give it in a part of the process it undergoes, some extra load, that's all. That's what's called, the body as if the soul goes through a certain path from the worst possible state to the best possible state and in certain segments of this path it needs to undergo an additional journey as if a donkey, this material, is sitting on it. That material is all there is, it appears to you that way now, that it's the body. On the side, it doesn't appear like a body. It appears like an additional journey. What are you asking? You always need to speak from the soul, not from the body – then you won't have such foolishness. 

First, when you begin to scrutinize something in Kabbalah, Kabbalah speaks of a relationship from the soul to the Creator, not the body to the Creator, there is nothing to discuss between the body and the Creator, that's it. So, ask from the soul. What is the soul? My uncorrected desires which I need to bring to a corrected state. What's a corrected state? That they will be similar in form to the Creator, all of my desires are like the Creator's, like the desires of the Creator. Because, through His light, He created my desires, what's the difference between them? Very simple, my desires are with an intention opposite to His. Maybe it seems to you that I'm speaking very crudely about the Creator. How could He have desires like mine? Believe me, in the proper dressing, that is, in the dressing of the reflected light with a correct intention, the worst, most vile, and, seemingly, most disgusting desires will take on a truly beautiful form. They will become light. So ask again.

Student: You speak about this or that type of prayer.

M. Laitman: Everybody talking about one type of prayer or another I don't understand, there can only be one prayer.

Student: I need to pray I need to ask I'm also told exactly what to ask for?

M. Laitman: In prayer, they tell you exactly what you need to say, of course. There are these scrutinies of prayer. There are these very big prayer books that Kabbalists wrote, either in words or that they're written according to the letters or this organization of letters as in the prayer book of the Roshash where there's only letters and symbols and you need to perform these unifications, these spiritual actions, and we're not talking about that. Certainly, Siddurim, the prayer books, are written for you in advance. Even our prayer book, the one that we pray from, written by the men of the Great Assembly, these were people who were all at very high spiritual degrees before the ruin of the temple, right, before the ruin of the Holy Temple? They knew that Israel would go into exile and they needed to give them instructions also for the future, for our days so they wrote this Sidur, our prayer book and sealed it, as it were, in the form that we have it. Certainly, if we look at the Sidur, the prayer book, in the correct way, we will see that every word, every verse, and their entire organization, their entire aura, as degrees, as steps, by which a person must progress toward their complete and full correction. 

Now you ask, and now they'll tell me what I need to ask for? Certainly, they'll tell you what you need to ask for because you know what your soul is. It is known what a corruption it received. The paths are known: Ibur—conception, Yenika—nurturing, Mochin—maturity. In everything, you have nine months for these stages that we learn in the study of the Ten Sefirot, they know exactly what you'll go through. Why wouldn't it be known? It's like a small baby, you look at it and you don't know what will happen to it, how it's going to develop? There are no secrets in this, there's no innovation. Exactly as the soul descended, among the same paths, it ascends, there's nothing new. The innovation is your participation in it, that you will want it to happen to you, that you have a desire for it to happen, then it happens. If you don't want it to happen, you're given blows until you want it and that's called, the path of suffering. If you try to formulate this desire for correction by yourself, then it's called, the path of Torah. That's all, so in both cases, you'll pray, the question is whether you're given blows so that you want to pray or through the importance of the matter, you accumulate these forces, these desires to pray. That's all – your participation in this; Baal HaSulam writes about it. Either way, you're going to work either out of sorrow, or out of all good, or out of abundance. He writes about that in his letters, all these nice things. So what are you asking? We have no innovation in anything, except one thing, that I want what needs to happen, in my correction. That it happened and quickly, how can I mobilize all of my forces so that it becomes urgent, that's all. 

What pace do we need? The pace is actually quite simple, as it's written in the books, let it be that a person would pray all day. If only a person would pray all day long. Isn't that how it's written? If you think about it, what does it mean? That I should stand in a synagogue and pray all day, what is that? And really, there are people who live near the western wall, or near the synagogue, or in a synagogue, there are such people. Now it's clear what does it mean, if only a person would pray all day long. It means that for each and every discernment that becomes scrutinized for you at every single moment, you immediately gather such forces that you want to come to correction immediately. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:14) That requires a desire?

M. Laitman: It requires desire, desire for this is called, your participation. From above, they give you discernments every single moment. New discernments are sent to you at every moment. There's no problem, from above, everything is sent, the moment you finish the previous thing, it immediately brings to you the next state by itself. Galgalta Eynaim, AHP, or a record within a record, a Reshimo within a Reshimo. In this way, it comes in a chain. There's no problem, from above, they send you this package, and then after a month, another package. And it seems to you that it comes to you this way because you're asleep. But the moment you execute it, it's that same moment you finish carrying it out, so then new discernments immediately come to you, that's it. How is it written? There is no prevention from above. It's only because we are negligent in completing the discernments that exist within us and bringing them to a complete prayer. 

We are not on degrees where we can truly identify with what is written in the Siddur, in the prayer book, in a real way, right? Because what is written in the Siddur is written for the spiritual degrees that a person walks through. But in relation to us, it's written in such a language, the language of branches, that we can somehow participate in it even with an animal-like feeling, an animalistic feeling, as well. Yes, like, save me, and thank you, and all these things. We speak like a beast, like an animal, like an animal that feels good or bad, bad, or good; and so we give thanks or ask within our ego, within our egoism. But if a person begins to participate in this with the intention to truly rise above their body, to live within the intention toward the Creator, so that it will be for that. So, within the prayers they start to feel other things, until after the Machsom, after the barrier, they clearly feel that behind all these words, they see the other side of the words. Meaning that when they look at the text, they no longer see the branches, they see the roots, they are in the roots. Then for them, these words are already discernments corresponding to every single word; they have a desire, a screen, an action, and so on. You understand? Meaning they already have a spiritual action, a spiritual discernment. When we read the nice poems that speak about human emotions, that's called the language of branches. Now in these Siddurim, these prayer books, like the prayer book of the Rashash, and Baal HaSulam also wanted to write such a prayer book – but he was afraid that it wouldn't be accepted – he wrote about that in the Gateway of Intentions at the end of the book, the Gatehouse of Intentions. 

So, in such prayer books like that of the Rashash, and there are others also written by other Kabbalists, but this is the most well-known, so there are already symbols. They're no longer in the language of branches; it is the language of Kabbalists. Symbols that point directly to spiritual vessels and that's not the language of branches. And other than that, there are the prayers of the Ramchal. I once gave a gift to the Rebbe, this book, I think it's available in stores. Where there, everything is aimed at One Unique and Unified, that's how each and every prayer begins; and then he scrutinizes through those prayers, what kinds of unifications exist from all different vessels and all different angles that could possibly be. There's a very special praise, but to us they seem almost the same, as if it's the same, as if it's some kinds of praises. But that's interesting – maybe not yet, before I'm still not speaking about it, but the time will come when we also read those things. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:34) What does it mean that we need to draw all the problems from the future?

M. Laitman: Not to draw the problems from the future, and drawing all the problems from the future – that's a person who's annoyed or nervous or afraid. He sees his future life already with great concern, he's already anxious, yes, worried. Not about what he has now, but about the future, no, it's not about that. What we're talking about is: If we have a vessel that feels the past, present, and future in its uncorrected form, and wanting to be corrected with respect to all these discernments of the past, present, and future. That should give him, he should collect it, gather it now, and this will give him impetus for prayer, that's what I'm talking about. It doesn't matter if it's before or after the barrier, I'm talking about the feeling. Either the feeling is clarified through desires, screens, and records that exist after the barrier. Or it could be our normal human feelings which come before the barrier. We need to work with what we got; certainly, we are like babies, little children, who want to emulate the adults. Nothing more is required of us but the desire to be like that, otherwise, how will we ever be big? In children, there is a natural desire for that, a natural motivation, but in us? However, we spin these matters, as advancement is only according to example, there's nothing else.

Take actors, for example, you need to show him an example, and he needs to copy it exactly. The less an actor works with his intellect, but rather has the ability to accurately copy how he needs to act, that's a great actor. You need the intellect in order to execute it more, correctly, this is in every area of expertise, every profession, every field. And we see that this is from the upper one to the lower one. We talked about how the upper one lowers his NHY to the lower one, so that the lower one sees those as an example of what he needs to do to resemble the upper one. For that, we have Galgalta Eynaim, by seeing who he is, how he is, what he does, that is what I want to resemble. Otherwise what correction will I ask for? What will I just shout, help? That doesn't work in spirituality, just help, just help, I feel bad, right, that's clear. But MAN, that's exact discernments, you see, all those shouts, how beneficial they are – they aren't. And the scrutiny is only through our participation, with our participation. The problem with spirituality is that you have operations, actions. And above those, you have our measure of participation in these operations, and these are two things that go in parallel, two lines that are parallel. And we don't understand how our participation influences the actual operation. But without it, the operation doesn't come about. And through our participation, that action or operation turns from bad to good in how we feel it. The same things that seem bad to me right now, had I participated in them, if I wanted this correction on my own, if I pushed towards it on my own, these things would seem infinitely good to me. Nothing changes: I, the Lord, do not change.

Every single discernment in me floats up, is scrutinized, clarified in my feelings, right? If I act first, it seems good; if I'm not acting first, it would seem bad. That's how we turn the path of Torah to the path of suffering, God forbid – or the other way around, from the path of suffering to the path of Torah.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:01)Can you explain again everything there is in the world, if I choose it for myself? 

M. Laitman: Our intention, yes? If it precedes what happens to us, it turns our path from the path of suffering to the path of Torah. And then, instead of bad, we feel good. 

Student: What's the intention? 

M. Laitman: Our intention is that I want whatever happens to me to be corrected, to be a correction, to be closer to the Creator, to share what He feels in how I feel Him. 

Student: About the future states that are supposed to be revealed? 

M. Laitman: The current state or the future state, the next moment that I'm expecting. Again and again, we return to the same demand: We need to live in our intentions. The actions will happen this way or that, there's nothing to them. There's just one situation replaced by another, replaced by another, and that's how it runs. This is simply how it becomes clear in us. This is how it's shown to us, that there are situations, and they keep changing, and we're flowing, moving through some process. We're not flowing,  we're not moving – it's according to the magnitude of our intention, according to our participation. That way, we open up more and more an aperture to see where we are, what's happening, and how we're moving. And it's all through the force of intention, the desire to participate, prayer, ultimately, that's what you call prayer.

Student: What's the intention that we don't move? 

M. Laitman: The point where we don't move, it's simply us being lazy in conducting these scrutinies. And when we're being lazy at that point, I need to see that now I'm being offered an opportunity. If I feel that, I may be completely disconnected from this whole thing. But if I feel that I don't feel like it I'm just sitting here, I don't want anything, and maybe I could do something else instead – maybe I could fill my time up with other things. And my desires are such that when I'm being given that understanding, being allowed to understand that. I'm given a chance to participate in a way that's beneficial, that promotes development. And for that, I need the power of the society, because by myself, I need to see, and we see ultimately that we can annul ourselves completely. Or rather, we can be lazy for an infinite amount of time and stay lazy; but I can also prepare the environment ahead of time so that it influences me. This space that opens up to me right now, it's fine, I won't advance, I'll do this, and I'll be as I am, right?

This preparation, or rather this void, here I need to find the power from the society to fill that void. I need to take power from the society to fill that void with the greatness of the goal. Otherwise, I will always remain in such voids, I won't be able to advance. You feel that, I think, on many occasions, where it's fine, there's no pressure, and I don't stress it – I'll just do something pleasant, something convenient. But by this, you're being shown that you don't feel pressured, if you don't act right after being given that thought to create pressure, then you didn't do the one single thing that you actually need to be doing. From where does the society get this sleepy feeling that it's fine, it's not so bad, we advance anyway, we don't need to do anything more. And if we do, okay, we can advance more, maybe, but we're in a society which is also the same as one single individual who is in that state where, oh, it's not so bad, we can advance. Now, if we're in a society as this one man who is now in that state where things are not so bad, yes, I could do with more, but for the time being, you know. From where will that person in that state receive power? He needs to receive the power from the society; from where will the society which is in the state of that person receive that inner force, that inner power? From the Creator. But in the society, additionally, you can't just receive from the Creator just like that. In the society, there's also this ability – and it exists also in the individual – the ability to artificially begin to awaken himself towards the goal, artificially. 

Very simply, start shouting, start crying, start singing, dancing, talk to someone about the importance of it, start performing various actions. At the very least, you'll descend lower into the abyss, and then you'll feel more suffering, and it'll rattle you, and you'll start wanting to escape that situation. Or you will rise above that state, and then you'll have a positive feeling that will propel you forward. So, the same way as you want to, through the friends, you'll bestow upon them, you'll influence them artificially, they will influence you artificially, but you will be impressed by that in a true way, in a real way. And so, you'll advance towards the Creator, towards correction, you need to do that –  don't wait for the friends, you do that! And from this, you will also see how to work with the society. 

We say that we need to be great in relation to the society, to bestow greatness and great things upon them. And at another time, we need to be towards the society to receive from them the great things that they can give me, that they can give me, to benefit me. So, you can see how we do that in our life – towards a child, I teach him morals and all those things. And then how do I behave towards someone great in my life, how I want to listen and understand and absorb what he says. We have these examples around us everywhere. For every internal matter, we have an external thing that we can learn about it from. Alright, let's pray.

Rav answers questions emailed from Student: There is a prayer, there is a voiced prayer that all my bones will testify, it is said, that all of a person's desires participate in one desire, one cry, one demand for one correction. This is called, A Prayer with One's Whole Mouth – his full voice, his full power.

Student: What are corrupt desires, impure desires? 

M. Laitman: These are all the things which are deliberately awakened within me to show me where I still didn't correct my prayer in order to reach this complete request. So, we need to understand that there's no evil in the world; rather, those desires and urges which go against our advancement, against the Creator. The Creator is sending those to us so that we can feel that in those discernments, we oppose Him and we relate to them accordingly, then. If the Creator never scrutinized for us from above these desires in which we are going against Him, we would never know what else we need to correct ourselves in. So, all these evil thoughts, these lowly thoughts, base thoughts, all these urges. All the disruptions are simply an indication – how to say, indication, scale? No, scale is measurement, indications, yes – signs for where I'm still wrong. He raises my sensitivity towards these things, and then I see that it's a disruption, otherwise a moment prior I didn't feel them as disruptions, but now I do. So from above, really, my sensitivity was raised, increased, and now I can see them. It's actual salvation, assistance from above. So God forbid, we shouldn't relate to those things themselves as bad, rather, we need to receive them and accept them for the sake of correction. What do we call, A hero among heroes? One who makes his enemy his friend, the one who hates him, he makes him love him, what does it mean? That we finished some scrutiny, some situation, concluding it, that means that we brought it to the raising of MAN, a true prayer, and from there on, correction will come. 

Student: How does a person feel the answering of the prayer? How is it felt in us? I pray, I shout, I cry. How do I feel that my prayer was accepted and that I received a reply, a response? 

M. Laitman: If I feel, if I definitely want corrections, then, in my next state, I feel—if I scrutinize it correctly—I will feel in that state my corrected vessels, and upon them I will feel my new uncorrected discernments. That's certain, but it's as front and back, it's not simple—anterior and posterior. The answering of the prayer, it's in accordance with the prayer, the prayer has many elements. It's impossible to say that I pray for correction and immediately I receive the sensation of correction and the measure of adhesion to the Creator. And then, in a very clear way, I receive a descent, and again I scrutinize. It doesn't follow such paths as we learn in—the paths that we learn about in TES, The Study of the Ten Sephirot. The Study of the Ten Sephirot also doesn't scrutinize all these things – it doesn't want to. For us, it's in a much more complex way, that's how it works. We're also—we incorporate all the other souls, we absorb from them; also, what we scrutinize, we scrutinize a much more complex vessel, much more intermingled with all of the discernments that come after the shattering. And so, in general, we see that after a bad time, a good time comes, it seems like that. But if we measure it according to the vessels of bestowal or the vessels of reception, according to our states – before the Machsom, the barrier, these things are not scrutinized. The raising of prayer, the answering of the prayer, there are such things to this, we can't exactly see when we truly ascend and when we receive the answer to the prayer, that's called, concealment. 

Student: How to gather all the experience, the bitter experience, my bitter experience, in order to relate it all to a prayer. For that, do I have to remember my whole previous life with all—everything I went through? What can you recommend to a person practically, what to relate to the prayer – what should we connect to the prayer? 

M. Laitman: So, as we say, that prayer is a plea to the Creator and a feeling of correction, advancement, equivalence of form, adhesion. So everything that could aid to that, we need to add it to there. If I descend to my previous life and see what bitter process I've been through, if I just remain in that, so I slander the Creator. I have to see the good things that I advanced by that. That now I have experience that what I went through I had to go through, otherwise I wouldn't come here. And everything I went through, I went through with love and not by suffering. But that now I need to give gratitude for the whole path I went through, if I really want to reach in order to bestow to The Good That Does Good by turning to the Creator and mitigating the past, there's nothing better. I'm not even asking for myself. I have no plea for myself. I just want one thing, to resemble Him, to acquire the forces to bestow. If along with that, I'm suffering and feel sorry on my suffering, so there's no greater separation than wanting to turn to Him for correction and bestowal. But with the feeling of suffering I went through before, it can't be in one vessel. Meaning, the plea to the Creator, with the right prayer, it should actually bring me to a state that my whole previous life, and present life, and future life, it's all a base that from here I can turn to Him. I restrict that, I don't take this life as a springboard, but only towards one thing: To acquire the intention in order to bestow. Meaning, I'm not relating to suffering or anything I went through in a way that it happened to me, it wasn't happening to me. 

And it turns out that it's my plea, but it's not about myself. He writes there in the article for the completion of the Zohar, same as the Creator, whether He thinks of Himself as He exists or not, that if a person thinks that, there's no greater separation between Him and the Creator. Meaning, the plea has to be, if we're speaking about true MAN, so it supposedly has to be that I've reached the first restriction. And above it, I'm already asking for the force to bestow. MAN can't be for anything else except for a plea to bestow. 

Reader: MAN can't be for anything else besides the request to bestow. Now we will summarize this part in the Tens in a workshop, please. 

Reader: Let's go to the next part, but sing a song first. 

Song (01:23:01)