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

Daily Morning Lesson August 31, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. What Is, “The Torah Speaks Only Against the Evil Inclination,” in the Work? Article No. 39, 1989.

Reader: Hello, in the first part of the lesson, we will go into a lesson with Rav from October 2002. It's based on the article from Rabash, "What Is, 'The Torah Speaks Only Against the Evil Inclination,' in the Work?" We will read the article together in the Ten; we have 27 minutes for that.

Reading: (00:41) What Is, “The Torah Speaks Only Against the Evil Inclination,” in the Work?

Article No. 39, 1989

It is written, “If you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you take her for yourself as a wife.” RASHI interprets, “The Torah speaks only against the evil inclination, that if the Creator does not permit her, he will marry her under prohibition.”

We should understand this. Would it not be better if the Creator had not empowered the evil inclination to incite him into transgression? Then, it would not be needed to permit her because he would not marry her under prohibition. We should also understand what RASHI’s interpretation means in the work, concerning the verse “If you go out to war,” that it speaks of “optional war.” What is “optional war” in the work?

Also, we should understand what our sages said (Kidushin 30), “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice.” It seems as though I have created the Torah for the evil inclination. That is, were it not for the evil inclination, there would be no need for the Torah. Here, too, we should ask, But He had another way, namely not to create the evil inclination, and then there would be no need for the Torah.

It is known that only thanks to the Torah, the world exists, as our sages said, “Were it not for My covenant day and night, I would not establish the ordinances of heaven and earth.” But here it implies that He created the Torah because of the evil inclination. We should understand this in the work.

We must know who is the evil inclination, for whom the Torah had to be created, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice.” We should also understand why the Torah is called a “spice.” We see that when we cook some dish for a meal, in order for the dish to be tasty, we put a spice in the dish. This means that the main thing is the dish, and the spice is only an addition that gives flavor. But according to what is said, the Torah is only a spice. It follows that the main thing is the evil inclination, and the Torah only gives flavor to the evil inclination. How can we understand this, since the Torah is the main thing, as it is written, “For they are our lives and the length of our days”?

According to what is explained in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” we understand that the evil inclination is the will to receive delight and pleasure, which is called “evil inclination.” This is the “heart of creation.” That is, the thing of which we can say that a new thing was made in the world, which did not exist before He created it, is only the desire to receive pleasure. This desire, the yearning to receive delight and pleasure, did not exist prior to the creation of the world, since in the Creator, there are no lacks or desires that He needs to receive.

He says there, Why did He create this desire? It is for the purpose of creation, since the creation of the world was because He desires to do good, and we see in our nature that the Creator created that there are delight and pleasure only from things the body craves. Moreover, the measure of delight and pleasure depends on the yearning. For this reason, He created in us a desire to receive delight and pleasure, and this is the heart of creation. In other words, if this will to receive did not exist in the world, there would be no one to receive the delight and pleasure that He wishes to give to the creatures.

It follows that the heart of creation is the will to receive delight and pleasure, and without it, it is impossible to speak of creation. However, we should understand why the will to receive is called “evil inclination,” and if it is truly evil, why did He create it?

The thing is that since the Creator wanted them not to feel unpleasantness when they receive the delight and pleasure, and it is also in the nature that the Creator created, that every branch wants to resemble its root, and since our root, meaning the Creator, is the Giver, and the created beings, who must receive from Him, are opposite from the Creator, they feel shame about this. For this reason, a Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment were placed, where the delight and pleasure do not shine for the Kelim [vessels] of the will to receive for oneself, but only where they want to receive the delight and pleasure because the Creator wants to give, as this was the purpose of creation, for His desire is to do good to His creations, and the creature wants to obey the King’s commandment and therefore receives.

This is a correction called “receiving in order to bestow.” For this reason, two systems were made: systems of Kedusha [holiness], and systems of Tuma’a [impurity] and Klipot [shells/peels]. It is as it is written in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” (Item 10), “He imprinted the desire to bestow in the system of ABYA of Kedusha, removed the will to receive for themselves from them, and placed it in the system of the worlds ABYA of Tuma’a. Because of this, they have become separated from the Creator and from all the worlds of Kedusha.”

It follows that this will to receive is called the “evil inclination” because it causes all the evil in the world. Because of it, the creatures cannot receive delight and pleasure, and because of it they remain without vitality of Kedusha, since the light and abundance cannot shine in a place where using it was prohibited. This happened to us because of the cascading of the worlds, where from this will to receive emerged the Klipot into the world, and govern man, and he is utterly incapable of emerging from their governance, unless by the power of Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds], where there is the light of Torah, and “the light in it reforms him,” meaning sets him free from the governance of the will to receive for himself.

Now we can understand what we asked, why RASHI interpreted the verse, “and you take her for yourself as a wife,” by bringing the explanation of our sages (Kidushin 21), “The Torah speaks only against the evil inclination. Let him eat the flesh of slaughtered carcasses, but not the flesh of carcasses that were not slaughtered.” Some ask, Why did the Creator give the evil inclination the power to incite him into transgression? Would it not be better if the Creator had not empowered the inciter and there would be no need to permit him the forbidden? Our sages said about this, “The Torah speaks only against the evil inclination.”

The answer is that in the work, the evil inclination is called “the will to receive for oneself.” Without the will to receive, there would not be creation whatsoever. Wherever the will to receive sees some pleasure, it wants to satisfy its want, and by wanting to satisfy its want, it is possible to enjoy the thing for which it yearns. Since the Creator created this nature, it does not suffer changes. However, there is a place for corrections, which is not to cancel them but to add to them something by which this thing is corrected. However, this does not change nature, since the Creator created nature and the will to receive is something that the Creator created. Hence, man is powerless to cancel it.

The general correction is the intention to bestow. This is called “mitigation of the judgments.” That is, the judgment that was done, where it is forbidden to use the will to receive and enjoy for one’s own benefit, is because by this we come into disparity of form from the Creator. However, when receiving because the Creator wants us to receive, and for ourselves, we would rather not receive, by this the judgment of prohibition on reception is mitigated.

However, we must know that this quality of receiving in order to bestow is a real correction. That is, the purpose of creation, which is to do good to His creations, cannot come true unless in this manner, when he does use the desire to receive pleasure, yet remains in Dvekut [adhesion], which is equivalence of form. That is, if he receives but does not enjoy, this reception is not regarded as “doing good,” since we do not speak of what he receives, but of what he enjoys. In other words, the upper one wants the lower one to enjoy, and if a person does not enjoy, then he has received nothing from the upper one. This is called “mitigation of the judgments.”

This is the heart of the wholeness. However, there are things that can be sorted from the perspective of the upper roots, so they work in order to bestow, and there are things that are forbidden to use, even in order to bestow. In other words, a person cannot say that he wants to do something that is forbidden, yet aim to bestow. If the thing is forbidden, it is because with respect to branch and root, there are things that the Torah prohibited and there are things that the Torah permitted.

In general, we should make three discernments in the Torah: 1) Mitzva [commandment/good deed], 2) permission, 3) prohibition.

We must be careful with Mitzva and with transgression, even with an act without an aim, for there is a matter of Mitzva in practice even when he has no intention. Likewise, with prohibition, there is a transgression in the action, even without any intention. But the main work on the intention is in what is permitted, when there is no Mitzva in doing it, yet no transgression if he does not do it. Then, when he does what is permitted, meaning when he aims for the sake of the Creator while performing the permitted thing, that permitted thing enters the Kedusha.

Then it is called a Mitzva. In other words, it emerges from being “permission” and enters the realm of Mitzva. And precisely here is the heart of the war against the inclination, since the body tells him that there is no prohibition, so why deny yourself from doing it? But when a person must answer it, he can tell it, “I must perform a Mitzva. Therefore, when I perform a Mitzva, I have done something. When I do not commit a transgression, I also have a Mitzva, as our sages said, ‘If he sat and did not commit a transgression, it is as though he performed a Mitzva.’

“However, when you tell me to do something that is permitted, even though I cannot aim for the sake of the Creator, this is not a Mitzva. Therefore, I have done nothing. And I do not want to be an idle worker, meaning to do things that are a waste.” It follows that with the work of Mitzvot and transgressions, the work is mandatory. But with what is permitted, where there are no imperatives pertaining to this act, specifically then the intention makes it a reality, admitting it into Kedusha.

According to the above, we should interpret what RASHI interpreted about the verse “If you go out to war,” that it speaks of “optional war.” In the work, we should interpret “permission” as having to aim in order to bestow. There is the main work on the inclination. Since there is no prohibition on the act, the inclination sees that the person wants to uproot it from the world. That is, with regard to Mitzvot and transgressions that a person does in action, the inclination does not show much resistance, since the person does not say that he wants to work only for the sake of the Creator. But when he begins to work on the aim to bestow and not for the sake of the body, the real work with the evil inclination begins.

Since the Torah and Mitzvot were given in order to cleanse Israel, as it is written (in the essay, Matan Torah [“The Giving of the Torah”]), “These are the words of our sages when they asked, ‘Why should the Creator mind if one slaughters at the throat or at the back of the neck? After all, the Mitzvot were only given to cleanse people,’ and that cleansing means the cleansing of the turbid body, which is the purpose that emerges from the observation of all the Torah and Mitzvot.”

It follows that only when speaking with the body concerning the intention for the sake of the Creator, when we want to annul self-benefit, then is the real dispute with the body. This is evident precisely when there is a war against the inclination on permitted matters. At that time, the war is not over the act, since there is no prohibition on the action. The war can be only on the aim, where a person wants it to be only for the sake of the Creator and not for the sake of the body. Rather, he wants to kill the body, as our sages said, “The Torah exists only in one who puts himself to death over it.”

Now we can interpret what we asked, Why did the Torah permit the beautiful woman, since the Torah speaks only against the evil inclination? After all, the Creator had an easier way, where He would not need to permit a beautiful woman, meaning He would not give the evil inclination the power to incite him and He would not need to change and permit something forbidden.

What is the answer? “The Torah speaks only against the evil inclination.” Literally, it is very difficult to understand the matter of the prohibition of a beautiful woman. It is just as there are those who ask, Why did the Torah not permit other prohibitions when he has a great lust for the prohibited thing? Indeed, we should answer about this that we have no idea about Torah and Mitzvot, that it is inconceivable to the human intellect. Instead, this is a spiritual matter that the Creator sentenced, as our sages said (Safra, RASHI, Kedoshim), “One should not say, ‘Pork flesh is impossible,’ but rather, ‘It is possible, but what can I do if my Father in heaven so decreed upon me?’” In other words, the whole of the Torah and Mitzvot are decrees of the Creator, and man’s intellect does not reach there. Naturally, we cannot ask, Why the Torah permitted a beautiful woman? (See in Ohr Chaim, Ki Tetze).

We should interpret what we asked, What is the meaning of “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice”? This implies that the evil inclination is the heart of the matter, and the Torah is not the main item, but is like an addition to the dish. According to what is explained in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” the heart of creation is the will to receive delight and pleasure. The reason why the Creator created the will to receive is that He wishes to do good to His creations. But due to disparity of form between the Giver and the receiver, it was given to us to correct it into working in order to bestow, by which the disparity of form in the will to receive will be corrected.

It therefore follows that what receives delight is mainly the will to receive. However, if it receives for its own sake, it is called “evil inclination” because the disparity of form in it causes it to separate from the Creator, and the delight and pleasure do not reach the separated Kelim because of the correction of the Tzimtzum. Hence, in order for the will to receive to be able to receive the delight and pleasure, the evil inclination must be given a spice, by which there will be a flavor in the will to receive, meaning that there will be delight and pleasure in the will to receive.

If it is not given the spice, which is the desire to bestow, there will be no flavor in the will to receive because it will have nothing, since the delight and pleasure does not reach there.

However, there are four discernments to make here: 1) The Kli, which receives the pleasure. 2) The pleasure that the Kli receives must have a pleasant taste. That is, it must not have shame in it, but they must feel a good taste. 3) The good taste is the will to bestow. This is called that the desire to bestow spices up the dish so it is tasty. 4) It is possible to receive this flavor, called “desire to bestow,” specifically through the Torah, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice.” This means that the Torah, meaning the light in it, gives the desire to bestow, and the desire to bestow gives a flavor that removes the shame from the dish, for the shame spoils all the flavor that can be found in the dish, and why the Giver cannot give any of the real pleasures, since when it reaches the Kelim of the lower ones, everything will be spoiled. This is all of our work—to obtain Kelim that are suitable for the abundance.

Now we can interpret, “The Torah speaks only against the evil inclination.” Everything that is forbidden or permitted is according to what the Creator decreed. That is, there are things that can be corrected and admitted into Kedusha even before the end of correction, and this is why we were given 613 Mitzvot. This is the reason why the Torah permitted the beautiful woman through the corrections presented in the Torah. This is above our intellect to attain what the Creator permits and what the Creator prohibits. Hence, we have no clue that we can ask, Why did the Torah permit? since the whole matter of Torah and Mitzvot is “to cleanse Israel with them.” Hence, the permission that the Torah permitted a beautiful woman through the corrections is also with the intention to cleanse people. 

Reader: And now we'll move on to the lesson. 

M. Laitman: (27:41) We heard the article from "Rungs of the Ladder," Volume 3, Book of Devarim, portion Ki Tetze, "What Is, 'The Torah Speaks Only Against the Evil Inclination,' in the Work?" Also yesterday, we talked about the article in the Book of Devarim, portion of Ki Tetze. There it was, the article about the work with the beloved and the hated in the work. And also here we talked about how, what does it mean that the Torah speaks only against the evil inclination, that there is an inclination that the Creator created, the will to receive, which doesn't change. He simply created it. It's the desire to enjoy. And this desire to enjoy, in the form in which it was created, has only the ability to exist, to feel its life, vitality, in a very reduced, restricted manner. And this is also called good, in a sense. Let's say like the first phase from the four phases of direct light. But how is it possible to enjoy something without a yearning? And so, from phase one, there is this yearning to become similar to something. There needs to be a desire within. And then, a bigger desire begins to form through the second phase, and in phase four it is greater than in phase one because the desire was added to it to enjoy the pleasure of bestowing upon the Creator, not only receiving from the Creator, but also to enjoy bestowal upon the Creator. And then we see that in the will to receive in Ein Sof, infinity, well, it feels that it's opposite to the Creator. It has the feeling of shame. But it does not yet understand the extent of this disparity, how opposite it is. And it doesn't know what to do with this oppositeness. And then to truly determine that it's evil, because this disparity is not yet evil. The restriction, we say, is a holy act. And Malchut exists even in the world of restriction in adhesion with the Creator, very high stature. Meaning, though he feels that he's opposite, that still does not disconnect him from the Creator, disconnecting him from holiness. Because there is no intention yet, whether to receive or to bestow. He only felt himself to be the receiver and the Creator to be the bestower. And in order to provide the created being with more discernments, then Bina, the Creator, corrupts Himself. He enters Malchut, allows Malchut to restrict it by the Creator, I mean Bina. And then there's an association between them, the shattering of the qualities of Bina, the shattering of the screen in Malchut. And so Malchut begins to receive the intention, the intention to enjoy all actions that are possible, with the intention to receive. And then we can say that we have the good inclination and the evil inclination. Before that, there was only the inclination, the want, the desire to receive. And although it was restricted, we still don't call it the created being. The restriction is only on the act of reception itself. And then, when the ability to add intention to the action was added, then the act can also be kosher, because the desire to receive, if it remained without the addition of intention, it could never be used.

M. Laitman: (32:52) It's the will to receive, the Creator's the will to bestow, and we're done. The first restriction was made, and it's impossible to do anything further. But now, because other than the will to receive, there exists also the possibility of making some intention, intending something by reception, by the action. Then the intention can change the nature of the action; then it's possible to aim in order to bestow and to receive, and this reception will be pure, pure bestowal. Meaning the inclination remains the same inclination, the desire to receive, the desire to enjoy, and the intention can be either to delight oneself or to delight the Creator. And that changes everything. Meaning, after the first restriction, this ability comes, which, although the first restriction is there, it remains, the first restriction remains, but despite that, it's now possible to work with the will to receive and not violate the restriction. The restriction remains, because the will to receive, even though it's being worked with, does not receive anything for itself. The intention changes the type of pleasure to that extent. Also, when Bina enters Malchut, it's not only that she gives Malchut the ability to make intentions, to receive in order to receive or in order to bestow. When Bina enters Malchut it adds volume, power, power to Bina. Instead of just being delighted in the form of Nefesh, it can now reach delight on the level of NRNHY. Because Malchut, it either receives in order to receive or it receives in order to bestow, meaning it works with the intention already, and so its pleasure depends on the greatness of the Creator. Either the greatness of the Creator in a negative sense, where I should enjoy His entire degree, or the greatness of the Creator in such a positive sense, where I bestow to His entire degree. And then it follows that the intention is actually what gives us everything. It magnifies our vessel from this one black point of Malchut to the entire degree, the entire level of the Creator. And the intention also brings the person, brings the soul to full compatibility with the Creator, adhesion with the Creator. And the pleasure that is then received and the pleasure which is bestowed, ultimately these two lights, the direct light and the reflected light, which fill the inner Partzuf, they bring the inner Partzuf the stature of the Creator. And so it follows, as Rabash writes, that there's no prohibition on the act. The will to receive, receiving, there's no prohibition there. Do it, receive. Receive according to the action, but everything depends on the intention. So what is the problem? Why are they prohibiting some things, and our commandments, where they determine that we can and should receive and act? The issue is, it's only about adding, well, refining the will to receive, correcting it. For the time being, we have actions that we can perform. We can perform them with the intention to bestow, and there are those which we still can't. 

M. Laitman: (37:36) But as we advance and add more screens, then of course, everything that exists within the will to receive, and which was within the will to receive, exists and will be, that doesn't change. Everything is permitted to the extent that you add the intention to it. And in the end of correction, all the desires in the will to receive will have the intention in order to bestow, and there won't be any more prohibitions on the act. But meanwhile, there is a prohibition on the act for each one according to the screen he has or doesn't have over that act, so he can work with it in order to bestow. We can't say yet, how can it be that, will I kill in order to bestow, sleep with someone else's wife in order to bestow? The beautiful woman, as he says there, in order to bestow, all these things. We don't know what it means in the corrected form, what these discernments are and actions are in spirituality in order to bestow. But again, the desires do not change. The intention changes. The desire, the will to receive, takes a completely different form. We work with it, and it's actually by the very worst desires that we come to attain the degrees of perfection. Meaning, we need to be concerned only about scrutinizing our intentions.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:30) Yes, I don't understand. How is it possible to start working with intentions?

M. Laitman: You understand how it's possible to start working with intentions. Working with intentions means that you need to constantly be thinking, me or the other, someone outside of me. Outside of me, it can be the friend, the group, the Creator. So who? For who? You know, if let's say, something happens in politics, right? Something happens, or the police, let's say someone killed someone, then there's the question, who did this benefit? And then from that point, you begin to check what happened. And according to the same, well, the same thing here, you begin your act with who you want to act for, and who is it worth acting for. 

Student: Let's say I do something to a friend, and I don't find my point there.

M. Laitman: Now, there are actions which, even though it seems to you that you want to perform them in order to bestow, right? But you're told in advance that these acts are prohibited. It's impossible to do them in order to bestow until the end of correction. And if you think that you can do it, it's simply a delusion, you're mistaken. You can't see that, well, this, it's truly concealed from you that you can't. Let's say to eat pork in order to bestow, you can't. This is just an example, right? It's not exactly. Why? Because at the end of correction, yes. You understand? Now no, now no. So, you're given this law that there are things, for example, stealing in order to bestow, you can't. Someone else's wife in order to bestow, you can't. And all these things, where it were better to be put to death than to violate that commandment. You can't. And all these commandments of "thou shalt not do" in the Torah, in spirituality we're told about, these are all, all these commandments of what you shouldn't do. Those are the vessels from Tabur through to Sium Raglin of the Partzuf, the RAMACH organs and SHASA tendons. So you have SHASA commandments of "thou shalt not do." These are 365 prohibitions. It means that through to the end of correction, you can't work with them, to correct these desires in order to bestow. Whether you think you can or not, this was given to you as a precise, precise, this is determined, that you shouldn't think that you can do this, that's it. So you don't fail. You need to build a screen for that. And I shouldn't touch it, I shouldn't do it. Doing it in order to bestow, that will be possible later. After making all the corrections on these desires, the RAMACH desires, where it's possible to use them in practice, with these, these desires, with the intention to bestow, that's Galgalta ve Eynaim, right? And then you join the AHP to Galgalta ve Eynaim, and then the AHP itself with the SHASA desires, 365 desires. You can't work with them directly. You just acquire a screen. You don't work with them. You abstain from them. And then you reach the end of correction where it's possible to use them. And then there's the correction of the AHP, of descent, the heart of stone, and then you work with all the desires, with the SHASA, 365 desires, in order to bestow. And this is in the desires that we have to begin with in the soul. Meaning there's no desire that existed, that was created and remains, that you can never work with in order to bestow. All the corrections are the corrections of, well, installing intentions over every, every desire.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:05) I'm asking if I can do something for a friend, let's say? 

M. Laitman: Now, the act that we're talking about, it's not an act where I give someone something directly from hand to hand. My act, my intention, it means my desire, the work in my desire, from my desire to his desire.

Student: How do I check where there's no self-benefit in my action?

M. Laitman: How do you check if your action will be in order to bestow to Him and not to yourself? It's not a simple check. First of all, you need to, in some way, make a restriction, to be Hafetz Hesed, seeking grace, and then act. That's how we learned, yes? It's impossible to perform an act of bestowal. This is called Gadlut, adulthood or greatness, yes? It's called receiving in order to bestow. And it's impossible to do anything in order to bestow if you don't first discover the will and you discover that it's all entirely with the intention to receive, and then you make a restriction over it, and you begin to grow a screen over it. Where first you make Katnut, or smallness, infancy, and then Gadlut, greatness. It's impossible all at once.

Student: So how do I…? 

M. Laitman: Well, if you talk about a spiritual action…If you're talking about a corporeal action, then these actions, well, they're important. It's important to do good to the friend. But of course, all these actions are, they're not yet with the intention. It's not the true act also, in its spiritual sense. But it brings me from Lo Lishma to Lishma. You're asking, how can I practice. Check in your current state, right? I simply observe, I look, will this thing give him uplifted spirits, a better mood? Very simple. Will he feel good about it or not? Simple examination, only according to the mood. That's it. And in that, we're similar. It cannot be that he will feel joy, confidence, comfort, and feel good from, well other things than you, ultimately no. Also, you know him, more or less.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:06) Now about working in parallel, as if to the Creator, let's say we make the practical commandments, like Tefillin and things like that. Can we aim to do it for the Creator there too? Because we wouldn't do anything otherwise.

M. Laitman: The Creator, he writes here, that there’s no prohibition over any action, but everything needs to be directed towards the Creator. And when everything is directed towards the Creator, then the Creator considers only your intentions. He doesn't look at your body and what you do with it. Intention, that's what He receives. So what is the intention? That you feel joy, you have enjoyment. And this enjoyment is from bestowing upon Him, yes? The same way as you have intention and reflected light, and after the reflected light, you perform a coupling by striking, and then you receive, and this reception, it turns out, in order to bestow. It's not that you first receive and then think, I want this to be in order to bestow. That can never be. First of all, you need to activate the reflected light in the Rosh, in the head, the intention, to check what you're going to do, to feel the Creator, how you can bestow contentment upon Him. Is it truly so? Is He truly enjoying it? And so, therefore in the Rosh, in the head, you have Ein Sof, infinity. There you're in actual contact with the Creator prior to the action. In the Rosh, you have both direct light and reflected light together, meaning you have the feeling of the Creator there, seemingly. His desire is revealed to you there, that He wants to bestow upon you. And in that desire, the desire to bestow upon you, you want to bestow upon Him in the same desire. You understand? You feel the desire of the mother, who wants to do good by you, and that same desire, where she wants to give you everything good, you bestow to that. Her desire and your desire are together then. That happens in the Rosh of the Partzuf. And then, after having performed all these preparations, done all those preparations, and it's known to you that this is how it's going to happen, that you're together in intention, first in planning. Then you perform the action, and you receive from Peh and below, in order to bestow. And if you still don't have the feeling of the Creator, and it cannot be that you will before having a screen, they’re bound together.  Otherwise you will immediately begin to receive for yourself and you’ll do damage by that. But if you don’t have the feeling of the Creator then you don’t truly have the ability to bestow upon Him in truth. But to somehow plan these things out and imagine them, that is worthwhile. Do it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:58) Now, if the state is that I don't want to do it at all, I don't want to do it at all, and I still do it, is there some spiritual root to it?

M. Laitman: In what? So, you're asking, in which thoughts and desires, urges that I have, is there some spiritual beginning? I would say that in those that you determine belong to your relationship with the Creator, you determine it. Because if you don't distinguish that, then there's nothing to talk about. Because from the Creator's perspective, you're corrected; we're not talking about the perspective of the Creator, only from your side, whatever you determine.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:03) There is something here that I completely failed to understand. In page 186, he talks about the commandment, the prohibition, and what is permitted, one, two, three. After that, he writes that if there's a commandment, in commandments and transgressions, we need to be careful, even in actions without intention, meaning even if we don't have an intention, whatever the Torah said in practice, well, what I understand is it's a physical action, and we still need to perform that. Even though we can't make any intention, it doesn't have anything to do with it, that's what I understand at least. But in page 187, he talks about what's permitted rather. And then he says, since there's no prohibition over the action, meaning it's permitted, and so on. 

M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (51:57) As you understand, that's what you should do. He says this, and we see that generally we should discern three discernments in the Torah, on page 186. One, the matter of commandment, two, permission, three, prohibition. He writes "discernments in the Torah," so I don't know what he means by the Torah here, what level is he talking about, towards whom. He's talking about discernments of the Torah, it's a bit of a problem. But what is he saying? With regards to permission or transgression, commandment or transgression, we should be watchful, even in terms of action without intention, because there is a commandment in action, even without an intention. Likewise, with prohibition, there's a transgression, even in terms of action, even with no intention. Meaning, there are things that are nevertheless permitted or prohibited in action, yes? So there isn't, there's nothing that you can simply do, or is there? So he's talking with regards to actions now, yes? So with regards to actions, there is commandment, there is transgression, and there is permission. So, transgression and commandment, even without an intention, it is permitted and prohibited. Likewise, with a prohibition, there is a transgression in terms of action, even with no intention. And the main work in terms of intention is about the permission, meaning that there is no commandment of doing, and no transgression to not do it. And then, when he does the matter of permission, when he aims while doing the permission for the sake of heaven, that enters the Kedusha, and then it is called Mitzva, commandment. And before that, it is not called commandments? So commandments are only called the matters of option, of permission, when I do them with an intention in order to bestow. So what does it mean that I do first without an intention, where I'm not  doing without an intention? Is that not a commandment? How to relate to that?

Student: It's not called a commandment, but you still need to do it. 

M. Laitman: It's not called a commandment, but you need to carry it out.

Student: For what reason? It's in contrast to everything we learn here.

M. Laitman: Why in contrast? You were told that everything is permitted to do. 

Student: I'm told a simple thing. I come here only to take care of my intentions, without any connection to external actions that's unrelated to my work. Suddenly I'm told here about physical things that have to do with my work. How does this work together? If I'm supposed to take care of the intention, then it's intentions. If it's actions with my hands, then those actions. It needs to be clear. We should know where we stand.

M. Laitman: You understand, he tells you that our inner work can happen only in a place of permission. In the rest of the matters, a place of commandment or a place of transgression, that you should do without any permission. The intention can only happen with permission, with matters of permission. And the intention in order to bestow with permission is called commandment. And this is what Kabbalah deals with. This is what it wants to bring you to. And everything else is not in the space of Kabbalah. The wisdom of Kabbalah tells you how to develop the correct intention in the place of permission. And you're asking me about things that are unrelated to Kabbalah, so I can't tell you. If you're talking about the action, then also, what do you call an action? Either an action is to receive pleasure, and so without a body also I can receive pleasure. Without any bodily action. Or an action means that I do it with my body, my biological body. So I don't know what level you're talking about. He says that even in an action without a body, there is commandment, transgression, and permission. And in permission, in intention to bestow, that's what you call a commandment. I'm not trying to laugh at you. I'm saying this seriously. Bit by bit. See? Well here the friend will help us scrutinize things. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:15) However much we try, we cannot escape this will to receive. I'll give an example. I hear that you yearn for something, some book. I buy you this book. Then you express sorrow. You said, no, no, my friend, you shouldn't have brought me this. But you took the book. You received the book. And then you also wanted to reciprocate, to give me something in return. You heard, I yearn for something. You bring it to me, and I say, no, you shouldn't have. Yes, I also express sorrow, but we both enjoy these things. It's still the will to receive. What is this game? 

M. Laitman: He gives a very great example. He says, you give me a gift. By that, you express your love, your desire to give to me. By giving this to me, even without me receiving, you already fulfill me with pleasure. I'm saying, no, no, no, I don't want to receive the gift. It's very big, very expensive. And when I reject the gift, even if I don't actually receive it, I already got pleasure from it. And I gave you in return perhaps, that pleasure by knowing that I've received that pleasure you wanted to give me. Meaning, the object that comes from you to me and back, when I give that back to you, that is not the issue. If I don't receive that gift, that box you gave me, but you already caused me pleasure by wanting to give that to me, and I give you pleasure by thanking you, and this feeling that you wanted to give me is already perceived in me, and I already enjoy it, so you enjoy it. Meaning, the action already happened. The object itself could be nothing, could be one little point, you understand? And over that point we can develop infinite love. Just like Malchut, it's a black dot. Everything depends on the first nine Sefirot if the Creator is great. What does it matter, the size of the Malchut? So what are you asking about this? That we in our life also basically transmit emotions, meaning pleasures or lack of pleasures, suffering. 

Student: Also in the will to receive. 

M. Laitman: And this is possible because we are all a will to receive, a will to enjoy.

Student: So, how can we nevertheless, this will to receive, I need to abstain from this will to receive- so how can I?

M. Laitman: In my will to receive, I don't need to avoid the will to receive. If I prevent myself from using the will to receive, that means I'm eliminating myself, I'm deleting myself; I'm forbidden to do that. I shouldn't try to refrain from anything. I'm only permitted to examine all the pleasures that I want now, according to my level of development, what I want right now, and to examine them, whether I can receive pleasure in order to bestow or not. Those with whom I can receive in order to bestow, great, use them, the more the better. Those you can't, correct them. But there's no such thing as to delete the will to receive. You can restrict it until you correct it, but you restrict it and then correct it. We mustn't hate the will to receive, hate our body, hate our life, our urges. We mustn't hate them. We should only take care of them so that the use of them is correct. Otherwise, you're saying the Creator created something that's unnecessary. You understand, it's not… we don't understand how it was possible to create such things as a desire to kill, to rape, to humiliate, all kinds of things like that. But it's being used. But how could the Creator do that? He didn't. Those things were formed within us as a result of the shattering. In the will to receive itself, these things don't exist. They were formed as a result of the shattering within us. And we just don't know; meaning they exist in us in a way that we don't know their true form. When we reveal the true form of, like, the opposite of rape, and murder, and killing, we will see that these are actually the best possible things. It still hasn't been revealed because we haven't emerged from the shattering, so we can't see the true picture of this. And the Creator didn't create that. It only became revealed in the shattering of the vessels. It comes from the connection of Bina and Malchut together, where there's no screen. Then the will to receive took on such a form. But in the will to receive itself, such things don't exist.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:34) Again, regarding the inclination or the desire and the intention, let's say a person has a certain desire. Now, he knows that he doesn't have the intention. He knows, to begin with, in our state we don't have the right intention. So what should he do with his desire? To simply avoid using it? There's some issue here. It's unclear.

M. Laitman: No, we are in a state… we as beginning students are in a state where all our desires, all our intentions are not in spiritual use. They're in corporeal use. Corporeal means in order to receive. That's what we call corporeality. It's not that corporeality means that I'm using my hands, legs, and senses of the body. The senses of the body, it's nothing; it's just that through the skin, or through the tongue, or through the nose, I feel pleasures. But the pleasures are pleasures; it's a spiritual matter. The fact that it comes to me through some pleasant scent, that's just, it's just a clothing over a pleasure. That in that form I receive it, in that form it passes to me, and then afterwards it all becomes abstract and perceived in the brain in a different way. It goes through many different clothings; from these molecules, to some response at the edge of my nerves of, let's say, the smell, and then some impulses of electricity, and then some other chemical ways in the brain, and so forth, until it's completely separate from any clothings and is just felt in me as a sense of pleasure. Just a sense of pleasure that's beyond all that electricity and so forth. And that's something that is completely and totally not corporeal; it's spiritual. And on the way, these are just transitions, clothings, and to me that's life; that's what I feel. I feel those clothings; I don't feel the essence of the pleasure at the end, actually. And the pleasure at the end is already a spiritual pleasure. So, either we relate to all these transitions, all these clothings over the pleasure until it's perceived in us as pleasure through molecules and electric impulses and, let's say, all kinds of scents and how it comes to me and so on, or relating to the issue itself. In our life, it's hard for us to distinguish between this and that. It's hard because I am tied to the clothings—not to the inner fulfillment. I don't discern it; I can't work with it directly. And then we have a problem because we, according to our external clothings, we essentially relate to the action. I don't relate to the pleasure itself. Is it in order to receive or in order to bestow? I look at the external form. Is the external form pretty or not? Does it go through the body in an acceptable way with respect to the bodies or not? And I'm not looking at how it passes internally, where spirituality is. You understand? That's the difference. I don't have that many words to explain this, but it's a little bit, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:40) Even with people like us, beginners who are trying to scrutinize the intention, right? We're not like the people out on the street who truly give themselves over to these pleasures completely. Here, we're still trying to diagnose the intention. So, there's this ability, well, again, I'm trying to scrutinize. There's this state where you can't understand that your intention is wrong, but you don't know what it is. You don't have that. You can't grasp what the good intention is. For that, you need the Creator's help. So, you're performing some action right now, and you know that it's with the wrong intention. What do you need to do then, to stop the action? Again, it turns out that you're missing out on everything, from every direction.

M. Laitman: Again, there are bodily actions, and there are spiritual actions for us. What does it mean for me, in the meantime—a spiritual action and a bodily action, right? The bodily action is, let's say, I'm sitting now and eating meat, and if that meat is the meat of pork, then I'm making a bodily transgression. If I eat this meat with an intention to enjoy it, so that's a spiritual transgression, right? You have a corporeal transgression and a spiritual transgression. Now, it's possible that I'm sitting at the end of correction. Let's say all of us are at the end of correction, where everything is already permitted because there is a screen over everything. So I'm eating that same pork with my body, and I'm making a commandment, and my intention is in order to bestow. That too is a commandment. So I'm doing two actions, which are both considered commandments. Now the question is: the intention in order to bestow or in order to receive could be correct with respect to the spiritual action, that's where it works. But with respect to the body, what changes in the body if I ate pork today or during the correction? The pork is the same pork, the body is the same body, right? Therefore, Rabash writes here in page 186 that there is a commandment, a prohibition, and permission. With regards to commandment and transgression, we have to be watchful even in an action without an intention. There is a matter of commandment in action even without an intention, and likewise with prohibition, there is a transgression in terms of action with no intention. Meaning I relate to my bodily action without any intention. If I'm permitted now, I'm permitted; if it's forbidden, it's forbidden. And I don't take into account that for this body, what, for the body, the pork is healthy or unhealthy, you can't relate to it that way. Rather, there is prohibition, and there is what's permitted. Why? That's something we don't ask of it, because the body—what's forbidden for the body is only what damages it in this world, and no commandment here is relevant to health. It's not… no commandment belongs to the description of this flesh and blood body. You remember how that person in Canada was amazed by what I said about the bone of the Luz. He said, how could it be that the body doesn't corrupt, the body of the righteous cannot be rotten. And I said, if one body is not rotten, then if it doesn't rot, it's not good; how will it be revived? You understand? So just imagine some righteous person whose bone of Luz was transplanted from someone else, and now he goes into some surgery.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:58) If a person does a deed and sees that his intention is egoistic, so what's the next stage in the scrutiny? It's not a problem to scrutinize it. After a month of somebody starting, you can already start the scrutiny.

M. Laitman: So if I sit in front of Kosher meat, I might eat it really good, a good steak, kind of, you know, juicy, you know, a few inches thick, kind of, yes? With a beer and a few friends, well, together, well, what's bad about that? You're saying, but it's in order to receive. Yes? Well, what to do? Well, what? 

Student: Clear, you have to eat that.

M. Laitman: That you need to eat. Why? Because it's with the friends?

Student: No, everything that helps us exist, so we can't change it.

M. Laitman: Wait, what is our existence, our sustenance? The necessities, if you can eat salt and bread and water, lay on the ground, that's allowed. Beyond that, it's prohibited? No? What, I have a note from the doctor, how much I'm allowed? 

Student: Everybody determines how much he should eat, but…

M. Laitman: There's no such thing, buddy. There's things that are like this and there's things like that. What do you mean there's things that are changing and your decisions change? What do you mean there's things and there's things? 

Student: In my relationships with the friends here…

M. Laitman: With the friends, everything is just allowed, you think?

Student: That's what I'm asking; it's more interesting, because I enjoy food, but I'm not going to starve.

M. Laitman: Yes, because it's written that you should live in them and not die in them, right?

Student: But in our relationship with the friends here, we see that it's an area that we have to scrutinize.

M. Laitman: Meaning, we shouldn't relate to anything that is in our life that is just flowing as it did before. It's about that. The world continues to work according to its ways; continue living in it like always. And the study, the intention during the study, the light that will come upon you will arrange for you all the inner order that needs to be there. Don't start getting confused between all these things. From that, you will build a thousand new Torahs, and nothing good will come out of it. Nothing will come out of it. You start searching for a place for scrutiny where you have no vessels for such a thing. Nothing good will ever come from that. 

Student: Just to determine the state… 

M. Laitman: What does it mean to determine the state? You need to emphasize, to feel how the Creator is working on you. It's called, from Your actions, we know You. And that's it. And whoever starts digging within himself gets confused. Okay, guys, we're lately studying very little in this. 

Reader: Let's move to the next part of the lesson, but first we'll sing a song.

Song: (01:21:33)