Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.

Daily Lesson (Morning) March 16, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #16

Reader: Introduction to The Book of Zohar. Item 16: (00:49) “Therefore, one might wonder…”

M. Laitman: (04:17) Questions? Yes. 

Student: (04:24) Baal HaSulam writes about the two possibilities, the two options: One is choosing the path of Torah and Mitzvot the second is the path of suffering. I don't manage to understand how come every day I decide with myself that I'm going to take the path of the Torah and Mitzvot with taking full responsibility and at the end of the day I discover that actually I don't understand but I chose the path of suffering. How did it happen? How nevertheless do I manage to really persist in my choice of doing it by the path of Torah and Mitzvot? 

M. Laitman: No, there's more in the middle between the path of suffering and the path of Torah and Mitzvot. There is something he talks about. A person is guided by being pushed forward so that he doesn't fall asleep midway so to speak, yes. However, all in all what's important for us on our path from minute to minute, hour to hour, we have to check ourselves. How do we continue to exist? Do we want something to come out of us? Do we demand these changes to happen or whatever happens, happens.

Student: No, no, no way. Whatever happens, happens. We had a workshop before and we talked about it that we have a way and we have a method and we're certain. I mean, I see in the friends such a true, sincere desire but in practice when we look back and check what did we do on the path, we see it was completely different from what we were talking back then. 

M. Laitman: Why? 

Student: I don't know. All kinds of things take over. All kinds of desires that obstruct us. We don't even pay attention when it happens. We fall into it just like that. 

M. Laitman: How do we realize the choice? Let's say we chose. We're going by the path of Torah and Mitzvot, so to say, to get closer to the Creator, to discover Him, so as to bring Him contentment. Right? So then what's next? How do we realize this choice, this plan in practice? 

Student: Well, first of all, the desire exists. We talk about it, we determine, I mean, we agree, and we also perform actions, internal ones as well as external ones in order to advance this desire forward, to support it but then we discover that we fail in true pride and all kinds of things, like in a kindergarten. 

M. Laitman: So that's work. It's not a shame to fail. We keep going and we fail and we keep going and we fail like little kids they get up, make a few steps and fall and then a few more and then a few more, until they begin to walk without falling but most importantly that we decide every day several times a day that we wish to go forward in order to bestow contentment to the Creator and for that we are in a single group of thousands or even more and we wish to get closer to the Creator every day. 

Student: (08:56) You always said in your explanations that we don't get there by suffering, it's not really a way to invert the will to receive, to soften it, yes but in the end a person will have to shift to the path of Torah because this is the path which is by choice, through his awareness. He doesn't mention that. He seems to say that you do have that choice, you can choose the path of suffering and according to the text you'll get there. 

M. Laitman: No, he refers to the path of suffering when a person doesn't even take into account that he wants to advance towards the Creator by a path of light, meaning he just lives the way he lives and what we learn, for us, each one nevertheless thinks, where am I, what am I doing, did I advance today and so forth?

Student: Yes, for us it's intermittently but I don't know, I'm asking how to relate because here he writes that you have the path of suffering and the whole of humanity can advance in this way and reach the goal. 

M. Laitman: All of humanity advances by the path of suffering. Yes. 

Student: They don't need a path of Torah, they can through the path of suffering they can reach the correction? 

M. Laitman: No, that's not the purpose and that's a very long and unpleasant path. We see how humanity keeps asking and wandering around and twisting and turning trying to choose some clear plan that's easy and pleasant and things don't work out.

Student: Yes, this is why it's odd, he writes that in the end we will turn the will to receive to the will to bestow and adhere to the Creator through suffering. Can this happen? 

M. Laitman: Yes, that ultimately the path of suffering also pushes everyone closer to a solution. Yes, so that takes years, thousands of years and various systems that appear to them in their society through wars and eruptions of various kinds and so forth, all of that teaches the human each and every human that that path is wrong. In the meantime, humanity is as if the opposite, it wants to get to the peak of development technologically and in general in our corporeal life and in that they see the good future for humanity. That's it. 

Student: Can we say that the whole of humanity, as he writes, can reach through the path of suffering and adhere to Him, let's say following thousands of years but as an individual I can't say, well, I'll quit the path of Torah and I'll just follow the path of suffering. 

M. Laitman: No, usually it doesn't happen to anyone that a person on his own chooses and moves himself from this path to that path. Rather, that already happens according to one's fate and the root of his soul. 

Student: (13:24) The moment a person started to learn consistently as much as he can the wisdom of Kabbalah, does that mean he shifted from the path of suffering to the path of Torah and Mitzvot? 

M. Laitman: Well, yes.

Student: And now this is his destiny, he's already on the path of Torah and Mitzvot? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: When he writes all of us, choice is only through the path of suffering and Torah and Mitzvot, so the choice has been made already, in fact? 

M. Laitman: Well each and every day that you further and further adhere to the actions and laws on the path of Torah and Mitzvot, that means you're doing it, you're developing in it.

Student: What is the choice of a person from the moment he entered the path of Torah and Mitzvot? 

M. Laitman: To continue in that, to keep that each and every moment to build himself as walking on the path. 

Student: Is there some choice that he needs to make here? 

M. Laitman: Yes, certainly here there is a choice. 

Student: What is the choice? 

M. Laitman: The choice is that the person wants to adhere to this path of Torah and Mitzvot  which means actions of bestowal.

Student: If he doesn't carry out these actions of bestowal he might fall back into the path of suffering, be kicked out? 

M. Laitman: Possibly, possibly. 

Student: What does it mean to adhere to acts of bestowal? 

M. Laitman: That he enters a society that is completely focused on each friend and all the friends developing to the quality of in order to bestow. 

Student: Every person has his own fate, his own destiny, whether he'll be in the path of suffering or the path of Torah? Every person has his choice right, his choice that he's taken into? 

M. Laitman: Those who come to study these things of course it's already their choice that has been made, also because of what they had to begin with from birth, such urges and that this is how they come and choose. 

Student: Is it their choice? Is it by the power of their development?

M. Laitman: No, it's the power of development. 

Student: So let's say when we perform acts of dissemination, what is it that we want to do? Change someone's fate so that he will take another path?

M. Laitman: No, we live in a time where each and everyone has a part of this new development of humanity and everyone ultimately has to reach spiritual development and  therefore we see that our amount is growing and growing. 

Student: Can you shift people from the path of suffering to the path of Torah? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How if they don't have the readiness for it? 

M. Laitman: No, the willingness is there because the point in the heart is there. You're taking people who are hearing, who want to advance, who are ready for that to some extent. That's the kind of people that come to us and we organize them in tens. That's how it is, men, women in our time, it's both. 

Student: (17:49) What does it mean, to choose, what is this action of choosing? 

M. Laitman: The choice is: by what do I advance and how. 

Student: Let's say I'm a will to receive. Naturally, I just want to enjoy every moment, all of my actions with all of my intentions and goals, so this is the path of suffering. Ultimately, this is where it takes me and to choose means to go against my desire? That's how it turns out, right? If I go against my desire to enjoy, does that mean that I choose the path of Torah? 

M. Laitman: It's not called like that yet, it's still insufficient. 

Student: So what is this action of choosing? 

M. Laitman: Choice means that I choose for myself a certain future that I wish to achieve, by which I will be in adhesion through these actions that I now take upon myself to the upper force. 

Student: (19:12) We learn in many articles about this issue that there is some angel there called Laila, night and he takes the drop and he says, he doesn't say if it's a righteous or wicked, he says everything except that. What does it mean, the root of the soul if for every drop we can decide if it’s going to be righteous or wicked, what does it mean the choice? 

M. Laitman: There's a matter of the Reshimot that exists within each and every person and according to that root, according to the Reshimot, we still can't but when we actually enter a certain degree in spirituality and onwards then we'll be able to say about each and every such person that his Reshimot already directs him towards correction, towards the final correction. 

Student: So he doesn't have a choice, so there are people in this world who have no choice.

M. Laitman: Choice of what? 

Student: To be righteous, they cannot be righteous. 

M. Laitman: Yes, there are those and there are others but most are in a state where they don't know where they are and that's what the wisdom of Kabbalah is working on. 

Student: Okay, so this means that there is a fate, a destiny, and this drop that we're talking about is just a part of the drops, not all of the drops let's say.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: (20:51) I wanted to ask about the path of suffering because he writes that the path of suffering also necessarily brings people to correction. 

M. Laitman: Yes, it's just longer and unpleasant.

Student: What is this correction through the path of suffering? 

M. Laitman: That in each and every moment, each and every stage where a new will to receive appears in the person, so forces influence that will to receive and then a person feels bad, he feels uncomfortable, ultimately he wants to escape and he can't and there is this kind of struggle. Ultimately, he changes, changes his mind, his actions and thus he goes through changes each time.

Student: When he writes if you reform, good, and if not I will place upon you a king such as Haman and you will necessarily be reformed, it will force you to repent. What does it mean that you will be forced to reform? Seems like you're always on a track where you're being reformed, either you do it or it's done on you. 

M. Laitman: Well, that's a difference. Either I myself know I need to make changes, go through changes and I put myself, even push myself into that track where forces will influence me and shape me or I don't want it and I escape it as much as I can but here and there I get blows from every direction until I reach a state where I have no choice. But still, I get to a point where I have no choice, and then from that horrible state, I get to a point where I agree with that state and gradually I agree with the purpose of that state but I grow wiser and I begin to see that ultimately some end of development is ready for each and every person on his path. 

Student: Both paths advance a person towards correction or is it the path of suffering that gets you back into the path of Torah and then you reach correction? How does it work? 

M. Laitman: Basically like that. The path of suffering brings the person back to the path of Torah but it depends on how long you're on the path of suffering and well, there are many, many aspects here. It's a whole, it's an entire life. 

Student: Is it considered as correction, whatever a person goes through on the path of suffering is that also regarded as correction? 

M. Laitman: Each and everything a person is in whatever state under more or less pleasant influences of the forces of development, all of that becomes included in him and that's what needs to happen. 

Student: (24:40) What the friend was reading, if you repent good and if not it will place upon you a king such as Haman, who is this king such as Haman today in our time? 

M. Laitman: First we have to reach such a state where we feel that our life is becoming unbearable on the one hand and on the other hand we still cannot escape it and so it's life that is worse than death, and for our generation being relatively spoiled versus previous generations this could be really horrible. 

Student: For us let's say we're beginning to feel it already and the public, they don't feel it in this time, let's say. What's required in order for them to reach this feeling that we're under pressure, there is a force here, which is called Haman? 

M. Laitman: I don't identify that, I don't see it. I can imagine it but I don't identify it. We aren't in concentration camps, in some kinds of fears that really surround us from every direction, life and death. We're not seeing, God forbid, that our kids and our relatives are about to die. There are such things that…and besides that, we're talking about just suffering that we can imagine to ourselves. What if we can't? Things can happen like an eruption of a volcano or some flood and you couldn't even imagine what it could be. The Creator has many possibilities, regardless of diseases and all kinds of incidents. 

Student: Seemingly it's something that's still far away from us. 

M. Laitman: It's not far, we don't summon this and we are trying to advance still, each and every day we're trying to get closer in, let's call it like in the middle line let's say. However, this might happen.

Student: (28:13) Baal HaSulam continues and writes here, but one way or the other the end of correction, the third state is mandatory because of the first state. So it brings me back to the Torah whether I want to or not, the end of correction. I mean I skip over the path of suffering? It's a little confusing.

M. Laitman: No, even though there's a path that is not so good, not so pleasant, ultimately you move to a comfortable path and you advance there until the final correction.

Student: In the end of the matter, I must go through the entire path in order to come back to the path of Torah. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: (29:07) If we're one humanity, how come one part advances quickly and another part goes through suffering? 

M. Laitman: That doesn't concern me, I don't know and I leave that. I'm under many kinds, many types of influence of forces, they all work on me and what's important for me is to discover the forces by which I can be aimed at the Creator. 

Student: Do we have responsibility over humanity, those who have already awakened? 

M. Laitman: I still don't discover that in practice.  It's written in the books, that it's upon us and it pressures us, no.

Student: How should we relate to the fact that there is suffering out there and we receive the privilege to enjoy the path where there is a purpose to life? 

M. Laitman: We are in the meantime, in a state where we clarify by what forces and actions we can get closer to the Creator and influence the connection between us. 

Student: We shouldn't engage in anything beyond that, right?

M. Laitman: No, we still do all kinds of actions in terms of disseminating the method of connection to everyone because it's the Creator's will, but to a certain extent.

Student: I'm not asking about corporeal dissemination because we can see the reach of our corporeal dissemination. Maybe we don't see it, but we're sure each one is doing the maximum he can. I'm talking about the internal dissemination. What kind of relation should we have when we are here on the path and we really receive this huge gift, there's no doubt about that and we see that there are those who did not receive this gift?

M. Laitman: The fact that I didn't receive is not my responsibility because I didn't distribute it to who's going to get it and who won't. I have a goal, I clarify my role in that goal and I try to do it as best as I can.

Student: (31:59) I don't understand yet the choice here when he asks, therefore, we should not ask why was choice taken away from us, etc.. Then he explains something which sounds very beastly, it’s either this or that. If you don't choose right, you'll get blows here, you'll be beaten up, then you'll go to the other way, so where is the choice here? 

M. Laitman: In that it's hidden. If it wasn't hidden then we wouldn't have a choice, then there would be no choice but because this path is hidden and the will to receive confuses us so that we go for what's better, to resting and having a good time and that's it and so we're confused. We're being taught more and more that we have to be in bestowal.

Student: The fact that a person realizes each time, and he understands out of the blows that he has to choose another path and then he gets confused inside and again he gets blows and then he repents and again he gets blows, etc.? 

M. Laitman: Each time on a different level. 

Student: What here separates between a person who chooses to go back to the path and one who chooses to keep getting confused? Is there such a choice even? Is it about the threshold of suffering, of how much you can suffer or the root of your soul, what causes it? 

M. Laitman: It comes to him from the root of his soul, that each time he either comes back or he disappears, that's in the root of his soul. 

Student: That's even more frustrating because clearly this is even less of a choice if it's the root of the soul. 

M. Laitman: But that doesn't prevent us, that doesn't prevent me first from advancing in my choice. I still have to try to be the worker of the Creator and advance towards connection with everyone and so forth. 

Student: What actually separates you between a person who now is able to choose and he succeeds in adhering to the path and one who flies away, and maybe he'll come back in this life or in the next life? What determines how you realize your choice? 

M. Laitman: The inner feeling, how much a person sees that he has no other path, that he has to choose the Creator as the goal. 

Student: Between one person who did that and another person who did not do it, what is really where we can say the person did it, it wasn't the Creator, the root of his soul?

M. Laitman: Well of course it's the Creator but ultimately we attribute everything to the Creator but it happens through the person. 

Student: Whatever depends on me, what else can I do so that we can say that I actually did something here? 

M. Laitman: The main thing is the environment, the environment that a person is in and all of it is thinking about how to advance by way of Torah, otherwise there's nothing to be done. 

Student: (35:54) It brings up questions which the friends also brought up because it's written that whether one will be righteous or wicked, that is not being said in advance, meaning a person has the way to justify the path and the Creator or not to justify them. 

M. Laitman: Right? 

Student: Nevertheless, we all in all want to increase the importance and give confidence to the friends and reinforce them, it's very clear. We're not going to find some checklist so we'll know exactly what to do but something on the way. How can we know, like the friend was trying to scrutinize, where to search for the point where we can truly scrutinize what is our responsibility? What is our focused choice, our focused responsibility? 

M. Laitman: In always moving away from your egoistic nature. This is the path and anything but leave. 

Student: (37:06) If you want to, in the introduction to TES there's a beautiful line where he says the Creator brought you here and your only choice is to get stronger. 

M. Laitman: Yes, correct.

Student: (37:19) Good morning, so from both of these ways the will to receive suffers. 

M. Laitman: Suffers. 

Student: In the way of phase three because the vessel is the labor that the Creator prepares for us, so actually it's only about the goal, to constantly have the importance of the goal or to be in gratitude for this force because the will to receive suffers both ways. It's just that on the second way, in hastening, we say thank you. Thank you like Rabash used to say, let it suffer, right?  

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: (38:15) Is there a connection between the external state that we receive like you said, I don't know, earthquakes and whatever and the path of light or path of suffering? 

M. Laitman: Again? 

Student: Let's say a person goes through some unpleasant, bad, external situation but he can relate it to the Creator, he sees that it advances him. Is this the path of suffering or the path of Torah? 

M. Laitman: The path of Torah.

Student: So... 

M. Laitman: If it influences his choice on the way, then it is the path of Torah. 

Student: He also described many stories of Kabbalists who were in suffering in a horrible way. The question is whether a person in the path of Torah, the states that will come to him won't necessarily be just internally unpleasant, they could be externally unpleasant.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: But he just can relate it to the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes, right.

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (39:30) We are also having difficulty doing spiritual work and that eventually creates a prayer. What's the difference between choosing the spiritual path and the path of pain?

M. Laitman: One exists inside of the other: choosing, suffering, yes, no, how to get out, all of these things. They all are included in the track of the spiritual work.

Question (Women Turkiye 9): (40:03) What is the difference between the suffering of one who came to the spiritual path and one who didn't?

M. Laitman: One who reaches the spiritual path, so he already knows where he is and what he needs to choose and one who is not in it yet, they just keep going, they keep going. There are many people, even here in different frameworks we have who still are confused. They still don't quite know what is operating on them and how they need to choose their states and what to long for in every state and so on. These are scrutinies that take a lot of time. 

Question (Women Latin 24): (40:57) Why do we always have to suffer to reach correction, does it always have to be that way? 

M. Laitman: Between the good and the bad we exist actually and our whole life we're drawn to good in different forms and we run away from the bad and so this path also, as well as the goal, they clothe for us in good or bad, this is our existence. 

Question (New York 2): (41:49) He writes that the suffering itself cleanses the body. How does that happen? 

M. Laitman: Because the body is the will to receive and the suffering that works on it, they change it.

Question (Women New York 3): (42:10) I see that suffering causes a person to be bitter, angry, desperate, even pushing people to commit suicide including younger people. How does that correct a person? 

M. Laitman: Well, this is for some of the people and other people actually advance  specifically through suffering and they discover new things and they learn and they work and attain something. So suffering is necessary, the feeling of a lack. What is it that we have next to the feeling of the lack, this is what matters. Do I have a vessel so that through the feeling of the lack I can extract from this situation something which is eternal and important and exalted and great? It's not that I just bow my head down and I just keep walking like a beast. 

Question (Women Heb 1): (43:31) We who study the wisdom of Kabbalah and don't put enough effort and maybe even are lazy in the work, does it shift us to a path of suffering or it’s a scrutiny we have to go through to see our weak spot and reach a prayer to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: I didn't quite understand.

Student: Ask again? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: We who study the wisdom of Kabbalah and we don't pay enough attention and put enough effort in the work, does it shift us to the path of suffering or it’s part of the scrutiny we have to go through, to see our weakness, and reach a prayer to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: We are still in a scrutiny, still scrutinizing.

Question (Women PT6): (44:26) Does it mean that the choice is only for those that, according to the root of their soul are supposed to reach the goal in this life cycle and not leave the path midway? 

M. Laitman: Yes, the choice is mostly clarified in them. 

Question (Belarus): (44:49) How is the suffering of Israel different from the suffering of the nations of the world? 

M. Laitman: Well, it's a more external vessel versus a more internal vessel so it's according to how each and every one is, but in our framework we see that from all over the world, from all the nations, men and women come to us and they all begin to come into place with respect to the purpose of creation and with respect to the upper force and this is how we advance on the path. 

Student: (45:39) It implies that my choice is in my attitude to reality, how do I relate to reality? Do I agree with the Creator or not, that's eventually my choice? 

M. Laitman: Let's say so. 

Student: (46:02) There is still, well Baal HaSulam writes that there is a path of hastening time which is instead of the path of suffering or in due time. What is the definition for us for how to focus on and be in hastening time as much as possible?

M. Laitman: We, if want to be in hastening, it’s if we want to reach a state where our force of bestowal will cover the whole world, that the force of bestowal will govern all of people's actions.

Student: We do all kinds of actions here internally that are regular actions. How do we make our work there more qualitatively towards hastening time? 

M. Laitman: As much as we can each and every day. We connect more, we have Congresses, according to our situation and the state of the world we try to be connected. Whatever we can. 

Student: (48:00) What is the connection between this and the two systems we discussed before, the Kedusha and Tumaa? 

M. Laitman: Purity and impurity, it's that on the path of impurity we have to perform actions, also on the path of holiness, in order to discover where we are and invite or draw forces to correct the impurity and also how to work with Kedusha, with holiness and on the path of holiness we reach more quickly the result. 

Student: Meaning in both systems there are these two possibilities to choose? 

M. Laitman: No, no. 

Student: Maybe I'll be more specific. The question is whether a path of light and a path of suffering lead you to one of the systems or within both systems there is a path of light and a path of suffering? 

M. Laitman: The path of Torah versus the path of suffering that exists before every person  and by choosing, we scrutinize in which way we will advance onward. That is all, which step we're going to take forward.

Student: This is what leads us to one of the systems?

M. Laitman: Yes, this is what leads us to the system. It's not that there are really two systems, I mean it's written in such a way but really it's all one system.

Student: (50:09) Thank you Rav, sorry for making it maybe more difficult but I don't really understand the choice because who’s going to choose the path of suffering, who’s going to choose such a path, where is then the choice? What I try to see, what I also understand from the whole lesson is there's a state a person receives and now he has to change direction and it will always be some suffering on the will to receive and I want to work against it now. So, I'm going to receive some suffering somewhere. 

M. Laitman: But the question is, how do you accept them? If you accept them in order to advance on the right path then you are grateful for this suffering and you accept them almost with love.

Student: That leads me to the friend’s first question in the lesson, that you start the day saying I'm going for the path of Torah and Mitzvot and ultimately you discover that you're on the path of suffering. That somewhere the will to receive has stolen all your work and you've fallen into that suffering. What kind of criticism a person should have in order to always choose the right path? 

M. Laitman: Individual criticism or monitoring.

Student: Can you expand?

M. Laitman: I need to monitor myself, meaning what is my operation which I'm now going to perform, what is it going to give me, towards what am I advancing, to what do I cling, what is it that I want to achieve, to discover? 

Student: I'll make it more difficult because it sounds like an intention I'm supposed to do before the action and not some inspection afterwards. 

M. Laitman: I don't understand what you're asking. 

Student: I'm trying to understand the self-inspection one should have and say, did I go on the path of suffering or the path of Torah and then choose, like Rav explains, the path of Torah and Mitzvot again. How do I make this inspection? 

M. Laitman: I inspect it according to what I'm scrutinizing right now. What did I want to scrutinize, where I am? 

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: So what did I end up with? 

Student: Suffering. 

M. Laitman: Let's say it was suffering, so what should I do? 

Student: Now I have to work on my intentions again and go to the friends and do the actions all over again. 

M. Laitman: Okay. 

Student: I'm trying to understand. I'm answering from... 

M. Laitman: Okay but practically I don't understand you. 

Student: I'll try last time, sorry. I'm trying to understand the difference between self-inspection of the person, about what he did and what he went through and the intention when he started the action. When I start the action I'm supposed to make an intention that it won't be for myself, that it will be to bestow contentment to the Creator. Ultimately, at the end of the day, I discover that I wasn't really in Torah and Mitzvot, I wasn't really doing the work, I fell into some bad feelings, suffering. Now I'm supposed to self-inspect, right? What's the difference between that and the intention that I work on? How do I, how can I restrict the gap? 

M. Laitman: You didn't even realize or actualize your intention.

Student: Exactly, so how do I do the right self-inspection to not fall? 

M. Laitman: So now you inspect what you wanted to do versus what you actually did and now you plan your next action accordingly while correcting the mistake that you made.

Student: (54:42) Can we say that if a person, well basically everything is predetermined but if a person can relate his life to adhesion with the Creator like the example, if at the end of the day I say I was in order to receive, I couldn't do it but the Creator revealed it to me and I cling to that, it's like I chose the path of Torah and if I eat myself up it's a path of suffering. Can we look at it like that? 

M. Laitman: Where here is the above reason? 

Student: Above reason is that in practice I see within reason that I'm on a path of suffering, that's within reason but above reason I relate it to the fact that the Creator revealed it to me and I'm going to advance from here on. 

M. Laitman: That's not above reason, so you've reached a new reason, let's say. 

Student: (55:53) We touched on the concept of the root of the soul. A person who has a clear feeling about the root of the soul or something at least in terms of realizing the root of the soul and he feels a great gap between that root of his soul, it’s something that pushes him and actually realizing it. What's the advice to realize one's root of the soul? 

M. Laitman: Adhere to the friends. A person doesn't have a soul, he receives it by connection with the friends.

Student: The friends can help him in that? 

M. Laitman: Not only to help him, to establish his soul. 

Student: A person has, he feels that he needs and he should be on the next stage, he already feels it and he sees the conditions that seemingly prevent him from reaching that stage. What is, what should be his attitude to that which prevents him from realizing himself? 

M. Laitman: Well of course he should relate to these things in a negative way, that he wants to destroy them, to skip over them. 

Student: He doesn't use them? 

M. Laitman: Well maybe he does but this is in very rare cases. 

Student: The request to cancel the disturbances is correct? 

M. Laitman: It is correct, yes. Why not? 

Student: (58:09) To clarify the matter of choice, in our progress does a new layer open up? A person discovers what's his choice each time, from one degree to the next? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: (58:35) It says, “They were awarded, I will hasten it.” It sounds like a passive action, like buying a lottery ticket and I see that I won a million. I thought you have to be active? 

M. Laitman: Also, even the lottery, to actually buy the ticket and prepare yourself it's also an action, it's also exertion.

Student: It sounds like we could do more. We’re sitting here waiting to see if we were awarded or not, there's more to do proactively.

M. Laitman: There's plenty for you to do, you haven't even started yet. 

Student: So why does it write, they were awarded, why not make an effort and I will hasten it? 

M. Laitman: Because it doesn't depend on a person seemingly, there is an intervention of the Creator here. If you do what’s necessary, according to the root of your soul then you get progress. 

Student: (59:48) What’s the connection between faith above reason and the path of Torah? 

M. Laitman: Simple relation, only by faith above reason can you advance step by step on the path of Torah. 

Student: What is it exactly in the Ten or in every moment in life to be in faith above reason? 

M. Laitman: That you are going forward according to the spiritual laws.  

Student: (01:00:30) You told a friend that there is a lot more to do and we haven't started, what's more to do that we haven't done? 

M. Laitman: What haven't we done yet? We have a connection to each other? Do we have between us, all in all in our society, do we have clear Tens that are connected in such a way that they feel the influence of the Creator over them? 

Student: Well there are definitely efforts towards that.

M. Laitman: Efforts, yes. 

Student: So what kind of efforts more we need to make that we haven't made before? 

M. Laitman: This is also something that you need to discover. 

Student: You told him we haven't begun, what haven't we begun to do? 

M. Laitman: Internal connection, internal connection between you. 

Student: Which is what?

M. Laitman: That each one should feel that there should be a place in his heart for all of the friends.

Student: And what does he need to do for that? 

M. Laitman: He needs to open his heart and invite them there. 

Student: How does he open the heart? 

M. Laitman: Through a desire and a prayer. 

Student: The desire is definitely there, all the friends are here for this so what needs to be strengthened or refined here for it to happen? 

M. Laitman: That the heart will hear it. 

Student: How do you make it hear? 

M. Laitman: For that we need prayers that the Creator will open the heart, and He will let the person feel how much his friends are truly entering his heart. 

Student: (01:03:05) A question from a friend: What's the difference between a person who was born to this path and grows to choose the path of Torah and a person who develops in the path of suffering until the point in the heart develops? 

M. Laitman: Again? 

Student: Again, what's the difference between a person who was born in our community, let's say, into this path and a person who develops on the path of suffering until his point in the heart develops and he comes here? 

M. Laitman: We can't compare them and scrutinize these things because these are things that are related to the whole of reality, each one has his own way.

Student: Is there an advantage to one who was born here on this path? 

M. Laitman: I would say that yes, he has a greater chance to know and understand and feel what the wisdom of Kabbalah offers a person, but actually each one should realize that he is equal to everyone. 

Student: One who came on his own has more choice than one who was born here or both didn't choose? 

M. Laitman: Of course both of them didn't choose but it's more correct to say that a person does come by himself.

Student: One who is born here immediately enters this path of Torah or he also has to move from a path of suffering to a path of Torah?

M. Laitman: No, for him it's a particular, unique way. 

Student: My question is whether a person who came on his own has a greater deficiency. One who went through life before he came here and absorbed a big deficiency before even coming to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, he comes with a different deficiency, he carries a different kind of load? 

M. Laitman: Yes, it's different.  

Student: (01:05:50) Good morning Rav, thank you. What should a person feel when all the Ten is in his heart? Is it like the Rabash article where he describes the change from feeling the friends as far away until he melts into them? 

M. Laitman: Yes. Okay, enough. Where are we now? 

Reader: (01:06:22) We are before the second part of the lesson. So, we will tell the friends before we move to the next part? We read item 16. We can move to the next part, which is Rabash article, or we have questions from the world but we can also transition.

M. Laitman: We'll move to the next part.