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

Daily Lesson (Morning) Sept. 10, 2024.

Part 1: Rabash. Letter 40.

Reader: Hello, we shall be reading letter number 40 by Rabash. You can find all of our texts on kabbalahmedia.info as well as on the Arvut platform, where you can send us questions live. Anyone asking a question here in the study hall is requested to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth and to speak loudly and clearly.

Reading: (00:42) Letter No. 40.

31st day of the Omer Count, May 6, 1958, Manchester

To the students, may they live,

I received a telegram from ... that we won. Let us hope that we will win the war on the inclination, too—that here, too, we will succeed and achieve the goal of bringing contentment to the Maker.

It is about time that we started moving forward toward our sacred goal like mighty strong men. It is known that the paved road that leads to the goal is love of friends, by which one shifts to love of the Creator. And in the matter of love, it is through “Buy yourself a friend.” In other words, through actions, one buys one’s friend’s heart. And even if he sees that his friend’s heart is like a stone, it is no excuse. If he feels that he is suitable for being his friend in the work, then he must buy him through deeds.

Each gift (and a gift is determined as such when he knows that his friend will enjoy it, whether in words, in thought, or in action. However, each gift must be out in the open, so that his friend will know about it, and with thoughts, one does not know that his friend was thinking of him. Hence, words are required, too, meaning he should tell him that he is thinking of him and cares about him. And that, too, should be about what his friend loves, meaning what his friend likes. One who doesn’t like sweets, but pickles, cannot treat his friend to pickles, but specifically to sweets, since this is what his friend likes. And from that, we should understand that something could be unimportant to one, but more important than anything to another.) that he gives to his friend is like a bullet that makes a hollow in the stone. And although the first bullet only scratches the stone, when the second bullet hits the same place, it already makes a notch, and the third one makes a hole.

And through the bullets that he shoots repeatedly, the hole becomes a hollow in his friend’s heart of stone, where all the presents gather. And each gift becomes a spark of love until all the sparks of love accumulate in the hollow of the stony heart and become a flame.

The difference between a spark and a flame is that where there is love, there is open disclosure, meaning a disclosure to all the peoples that the fire of love is burning in him. And the fire of love burns all the transgressions one meets along the way.

And should you ask, “What can one do if he feels that he has a heart of stone toward his friend?” Forgive me for writing, “Each and every one feels that he has a heart of stone,” I mean except for the friends who feel and know that they have no objection that their friend will love them and will give them presents (not necessarily in action, but at least in good words and special attention only to him). I am referring only to those who feel that they have very cold hearts in regard to loving their friends, or those who had a heart of flesh but the coldness from the friends affected them, as well, and their hearts have frozen still.

The advice is very simple: The nature of fire is that when rubbing stones against each other, a fire starts. This is a great rule, since “From Lo Lishma [not for Her name] one comes to Lishma [for Her name].” And this is so particularly when the act is Lishma, meaning imparting a gift to one’s friend, and the aim is Lo Lishma.

This is so because one gives a gift only to one that we know and recognize as someone we love. It follows that the aim of the gift is like gratitude for the love that his friend gives him. However, if one gives a gift to a stranger, meaning he doesn’t feel that his friend is close to his heart, then he has nothing to be grateful for. It follows that the aim is Lo Lishma, meaning ... the intention that should be.

Ostensibly, it could be said that this is called “charity,” since he pities his friend when he sees that there is no one who is speaking to him and greets him, and this is why he does that to him. Indeed, there is a prayer for it—that the Creator will help him by making him feel the love of his friend and make his friend close to his heart. Thus, through the deeds, he is rewarded with the aim, as well.

But while at the time of doing the giver of the gift intended that the gift to his friends would only be as charity (even if he is giving his time for his friend, since it is sometimes more important to a person than his money, as it is said, “One cares for his lack of money but not for his lack of time.” However, regarding time, each has his own value, since there are people who make one pound an hour, and there is more or less. And likewise with their spirituality—how much spirituality they make in an hour, etc.), then one is testifying about himself that he isn’t aiming for love of friends, meaning that through the action, the love between them will increase.

And only when both of them intend for a gift and not for charity, through the friction of the hearts, even of the strongest ones, each will bring out warmth from the walls of his heart, and the warmth will ignite the sparks of love until a clothing of love will form. Then, both of them will be covered under one blanket, meaning a single love will surround and envelop the two of them, as it is known that Dvekut [adhesion] unites two into one.

And when one begins to feel the love of his friend, joy and pleasure immediately begin to awaken in him, for the rule is that a novelty entertains. His friend’s love for him is a new thing for him because he always knew that he was the only one who cared for his own well being. But the minute he discovers that his friend cares for him, it evokes within him immeasurable joy, and he can no longer care for himself, since man can toil only where he feels pleasure. And since he is beginning to feel pleasure in caring for his friend, he naturally cannot think of himself.

We see that in nature, there is love until the yearning becomes unbearable. And if you wish to ask, “How can it be that through love, a person will develop a desire to revoke his own existence?” there is only one answer to that: “Love spoils the line,” meaning it is irrational, not in line with commonsense. This is called “spoiling the line.”

Only then, when there is such a love, each and every one walks in a world that is all good and feels that the Creator has blessed his share. Then the “blessed adheres to the Blessed” and he is rewarded with Dvekut with Him forever.

And through the love, one is willing to annul his entire reality. It is known that as a whole, man divides into two parts: reality and the existence of reality. Reality means that a person feels himself as a deficiency, a desire to receive pleasure. The existence of reality is the delight and pleasure that he receives, by which the body is nourished and can persist. Otherwise, he will have to destroy himself and become absent from the world. This is the meaning of, “Which God has created,” meaning the reality, “To do,” referring to the existence of reality.

The existence of reality divides into three parts:

1) Necessity, without which reality will be cancelled. In other words, he must eat at least a piece of dry bread and a cup of water a day, and sleep for a few hours on a bench, with his clothes on, and not even at home, but outside, on the street or in a field. During the rains, to avoid getting wet and cold, he should go inside some cave to sleep. His clothes, too, can be rags, and this is enough for him because he wants only the existence of reality and nothing more.

2) Being ordinary, important bourgeois—having a home and furniture, household appliances, respectable clothes, etc.

3) Having a desire to be like the well-to-do who have many houses and servants, fine-looking furniture, and fine-looking paraphernalia. And although he cannot obtain what he wants, his eyes and heart aspire to it and his only hope is to lead a life of luxury, and he toils and labors only to achieve the level of the well-to-do.

And there is a fourth discernment within all those three above-mentioned discernments: If he has already made enough for the day, then he no longer cares about tomorrow. Rather, he regards each day as all the years of his life, like seventy years. And as man’s nature is to care for his necessities for all his seventy years, but not for the time past his demise, each day is regarded by him as his whole life and he thinks that he will not live longer than that.

And if he is revived the next day, it is as if he has been reincarnated and must mend what he corrupted in the first incarnation. That is, if he borrowed money from someone, he has become indebted. So tomorrow—in the next life—he pays him, and it is considered a merit. In the next life, he primarily mends all the debts that he caused others or that others have caused him. And the day after tomorrow is considered a third incarnation, and so on.

And now we will explain the above-mentioned matter, that through love, man is willing to make concessions. Sometimes, when a person has love for the Creator, he is willing to relinquish the third discernment, meaning the life of luxuries, since he wants to dedicate time and energy to give some gifts to the Creator by which to buy the love of the Creator (as mentioned above regarding love of friends). In other words, although he still doesn’t have love for the Creator, it shines for him as surrounding light that it is worthwhile to acquire the love of the Creator.

Sometimes a person feels that to buy the love of the Creator, he is willing, if necessary, to concede the second discernment, too, meaning the life of important bourgeois, and to live on necessity alone.

Sometimes one feels the greatness of the love of the Creator to an extent that if need be, he would agree to relinquish even the first part—the basic needs of life—even though by that, his own existence would be cancelled if he did not give the body the nourishment it needs.

And sometimes a person is willing to give up his very existence; he wants to give his body so that through it, the name of the Creator will be sanctified in the masses, if he had a chance to carry it out. It is as Baal HaSulam said, “One should follow the quality of Rabbi Akiva who said, ‘My whole life, I regretted this verse, ‘With all your soul.’ When would I come to keep it?’”

Now we can understand the words of our sages, “‘And you shall love ... with all your heart,’ with both your inclinations. And, ‘With all your soul’ means ‘even if He takes your soul.’ ‘And with all your might’ means ‘with all your possessions.’” As we said above, the first degree of love is the existence of reality, meaning the nourishment of the body by property and possessions, means relinquishing the three above-mentioned discernments in the existence of reality. The second degree is, “With all your soul,” meaning conceding one’s very existence.

And we can keep that through the good inclination, meaning by coercion, when one lets the body understand that there is more delight and pleasure in delighting and giving to the Creator than in delighting and giving to oneself. However, without delight and pleasure, one cannot do anything. When one afflicts himself, we must say that in return he receives some kind of pleasure, or that he feels or hopes to feel the pleasure during the act, since suffering cleanses, so afterwards he will be rewarded with a wonderful pleasure in return for the suffering. In other words, either he will obtain pleasure in this world or he will take pleasure in believing that he will receive pleasure in the next world. Put differently, either he has pleasure in the form of inner light or in the form of surrounding light—from the future.

However, one should not think that one can do anything without pleasure. In fact, (one should know that) there are many discernments in Lishma, meaning in bestowal: “bestowing in order to bestow” means receiving pleasure from giving to the Creator. “Bestowing in order to receive” means that he gives to the Creator and by that will receive something else, whatever it may be—this world, the next world, attainments or high degrees.

However, one should be bestowing in order to bestow, meaning derive wondrous pleasure from giving to the Creator, as it truly is for those who are rewarded with it. One should plead to the Creator from the bottom of his heart to give him this feeling of loving the Creator because of His greatness.

And if he is still not rewarded, he should believe and compel his body that this is a wonderful pleasure and of great importance, and to love the Creator because of His greatness and sublimity. But one should know one thing: without pleasure, one cannot do anything to the fullest.

Let us return to the above-mentioned, “‘With all your heart,’ with both your inclinations,” meaning that one should be complete in the love for the Creator; that is, that the evil inclination, too, will agree to bestow upon Him.

I will be brief due to the approaching Shabbat. I think that ... will be able to get answers to two letters that I received from him, and which I truly enjoyed. I am surprised that ... who was used to writing me letters, it’s been a while since I received a letter from him. Please let me know if he is well and healthy. Also, many thanks to ... for his letters, which I receive from time to time from him, and to ... for the telegram. I suppose ... doesn’t have my address.

Your friend,

Baruch Shalom, son of Baal HaSulam, the Rav Ashlag

M. Laitman: (27:10) Yes, this is the letter. Certainly, there are many things here that we don't understand because we are not living in the same times, we are not involved in what is happening. But most importantly, it's that a person should try to bring himself to a state where eventually he measures himself only with respect to the Creator. How necessary is the connection with the Creator for him? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:06) You told us more than once that Rabash, everything he earned on a certain day, he would spend everything as if there's no tomorrow. So, I ask, were those different times? It's different times, right? But we take these things, everything Rabash tells us, we take that as important as the Ten Commandments. It's important to follow. 

M. Laitman: No, Rabash didn't tell us to do so, but he himself did so. There was a time when he was truly meticulous like that, to start every day anew. Today, we're living in completely different times. Back then, a person would go out of his house in the morning and he wouldn't know where he's going to work. He would go to the market and there he looked for some work. He did that work in the city, or in a field, or in one thing or another. And at the end of the day, he would receive whatever payment he deserved.

This is how it was one day after the other. There were hardly any people who worked in some permanent work. So they could work anew where they were going to make a living. It's not the way it is today. For us the situation is completely different, and therefore the whole calculation is more a calculation within a person, when a person determines for himself the boundaries and degrees in his life and advances in such a way.

Student: So, following your words, I want to ask about our times today. We're truly about to enter a new era in the connection between us and the connection between us and the Creator, there's no doubt. So, I want to ask: How to create, recreate this connection between us and the Creator every day anew? How do I build that special connection within me on every new day?

M. Laitman: I don't know what to tell you. Imagine to yourself that every day you're studying anew and see how you will change accordingly.

Student: So, I really should come to every day saying, what was yesterday was yesterday, and today I do everything possible today to..?

M. Laitman: Yes, for sure. With respect to spirituality, it's 100% correct.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:44) He says that a person advances, and as he advances, he needs pleasure because without pleasure he can't achieve anything. And he suggests that we replace corporeal pleasures with spiritual pleasures. Is it okay to always want bigger pleasure than anything we've known before?

M. Laitman: Yes, because one can advance only in such a way.

Student: And how can we remember that during those occasions when we replace the pleasure from reception to pleasure from bestowal? Because he writes that what we need to do is reach bestowal in order to bestow without pleasure. So, how to remember that this pleasure is good, it's fine, because we tend to forget?

M. Laitman: I didn't understand. We must not forget about the pleasure because otherwise we don't know where we are, with respect to Whom we are working, with respect to what. The fact that we will not receive this pleasure ourselves, but nevertheless the whole work, each and everything is measured, weighed only by the pleasure that one feels. 

Student: So he must always imagine to himself that there is pleasure, but it shouldn't come to him but to his friends, before his friends, and through the connection with the Creator. That's the only pleasure he wants to earn.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:40) What is that state where even though one does not have love for the Creator, but it shines for him by way of surrounding light, that  it's worthwhile to acquire love for the Creator? What is that state?

M. Laitman: That in general, he understands it: What is the love of the Creator. He read about it, he talked about it, he heard about it, he heard a lot of things. But on his own, he doesn't feel it. He doesn't yet have a yardstick, ways to measure it so that he can say that he's in it to a certain extent, like this much or that much. And that grieves him.

Student: What does it mean? What does it mean that it's through the influence of the surrounding light?

M. Laitman: Under the influence of the surrounding light means that he feels that there is such a thing in the world, but he's not truly in it.

Student: He writes that he hopes to be awarded because the suffering cleanses, purifies.

M. Laitman: The suffering because he hasn't yet reached the love of the Creator, and he very much wants to reach it. And so, in between what is desirable and what is present, there is still a large gap. And out of that, he feels suffering. And these sufferings actually promote him towards a state where he will begin to feel a more heartfelt relation towards the Creator.

Student: And in the end, he writes that we return to the matter of “with all your heart, with both inclinations,” meaning that one should love the Creator such that even with this evil inclination, even the evil inclination agrees to bestow upon the Creator. So, from this entire letter, I don't understand how to reach that state of “with all your heart, with both your inclinations.” 

M. Laitman: Well, this is a very high thing, very high. If you perform some restriction, then you can understand that. But if you turn even the evil inclination into a good inclination, that's the other half of the heart, then you receive out of that a very large new vessel where with the evil inclination, it also now inverts into giving, bestowing. These are already great corrections.

Student: Now all these corrections and these attainments, they can't exist without love of friends. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, ultimately, none of this can happen without the reforming light. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, what is that package that we sustain to reach that?

M. Laitman: That I see at least the Ten, at least my Ten, that these are people that I have to love. I have to love them as much as I love myself. So, the hatred that I feel towards some of them will invert to being love. And this is how I reach a state where I truly have the Ten, the vessel in which I can reach the love of the Creator. When all of my friends who are in the Ten, they'll become as the components of this vessel. The parts of my heart which is entirely drawn to the Creator.

Student: As my father said, Baal HaSulam, that a person needs to follow the quality of Rabbi Akiva, who said, “All my days I regretted this verse, with all your soul. When will I get to observe it, to keep it?” It sounds like something extremely high, reaching that with your entire, with all your soul. You need assistance that's beyond this world to achieve that.

M. Laitman: The fact that we need assistance which is out of this world, that's obvious, because we want to reach something that does not exist at all in this world. So we realize that it has to come from the Creator, only from Him. That's it. When we direct ourselves to the Creator and we hope, we intend that we will receive from Him what we want, what we need, and this feeling in the heart is called a prayer. And then, when we don't let go of this request and we're constantly running after the Creator, in such a way, we ultimately reach it, we receive it from the Creator. 

Student: I have to come with this approach, with this thought to the congress as well?

M. Laitman: Yes, we come into the congress with the thought, with the desire, with the passion, that we're among all of the other people who also want pretty much the same thing, and by that we will awaken the Creator to help us, and we will receive the impression, the excitement, we will receive this feeling, and this is how it will happen to us.

Student: The most difficult is not to see the faults of friends who you think aren't with you, not to condemn them. How not to condemn them? How not to start thinking thoughts like, where are my friends? 

M. Laitman: If I bring the friend down to a state where he's less than me, then this is already indeed a big problem. Indeed, it's a big problem. But rather, I have to see all the friends that they're at least one degree higher than me, and I want to reach all of them. Let's say that I see here some people who are either new, or they still don't have the desire that is required for spiritual work, then I need to depict to myself that maybe this is their true state, that I haven't reached it yet, or more correctly, that I, through my egoistic yet-to-be-corrected qualities in them, I measure them, and that they're still not worthy, they're still not in it, so I cannot measure them correctly. 

Student: What should we do? Soften the heart?

M. Laitman: Soften the heart, and see oneself as lower than everyone. And in this way, you will be able to absorb from everyone whatever they have. And specifically, we should understand that in a person who is not conspicuous, he's similarly, seemingly he's simple, you hardly notice him, you hardly notice his presence, you can learn a lot from him. How to enter the heart of each one? Our work is not in speaking but rather in the inner act of a person when he annuls himself before the collective.

Student: How to relate to friends who sting you, telling you your heart is not open, that you don't see properly? 

M. Laitman: They're right, they're right.

Student: That's for sure. 

M. Laitman: And the fact that it hurts you, well, it's true, it's good.

Student: To be honest, it amuses me a little bit because I see how it's coming from the Creator, how it's Him poking at me. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:43) He speaks here about the fact that one should not think that he can do something without pleasure. He's cautioning us, he's telling us here a few times in the article. Why does he say that? Is there anyone who thinks that you can do something without pleasure? Is there such a thought? 

M. Laitman: I suppose so, I suppose so. People don't understand that the will to receive and the corresponding pleasure are the main forces of creation. 

Student: Okay, so he says here that there are a few kinds of pleasure, which apparently is greater than all of your possessions, later on pleasures that are even greater than your own existence, and later such great pleasure that apparently is greater than all of your ability to work opposite the good inclination or evil inclination. It’s greater even than that. So we have to depict such pleasures within me.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, it sounds like exchanging a cow for a donkey. What are we saying? There's even a greater pleasure, so give up on this because that pleasure is even more worthwhile. Or maybe he only explains it in such a way so people will be drawn to it.

M. Laitman: Try it on yourself, and then you'll understand why it's built the way it is.

Student: So, from here comes the question, okay, this is what he explains rationally, let's say, but here comes a question where he says, love spoils the line, meaning it's not according to, it's irrational. What does it mean that love spoils the line? 

M. Laitman: Love spoils the line. It means that you're not advancing exactly according to love and hate, pleasure and suffering. Rather you stray a bit. If you love something, it seems good, nice, pretty to you, more than other things, but not according to the true weight of the thing, right? You add to it through your own work, with your own ability. 

Student: Let's say we are always building, we want to build love in the Ten, we make every possible effort for it. What does it mean that here it spoils the line?

M. Laitman: There are people in the Ten, a few friends, that you relate to with greater love than others. Why? If you examine yourself properly, maybe it's not right, maybe it's not the truth. So it's not true. So we need to, as much as possible, to bring ourselves to the true measure. 

Student: The true measurement is that we love each and every one to the same extent? 

M. Laitman: Yes. And afterwards, of course, there are changes, but I zero myself out in such a way where I relate to everyone equally.

Student: And this feeling is called spoiling the line? This is love? 

M. Laitman: And then I don't want to spoil the line by love or hatred. I love this one, I don't love that one, like this, like that, no. I went through many things in life which established in me different ways to relate to different things, different phenomena, which I see in people. And now I see them in my society. So it shouldn't be a result of something pre-prepared. 

Student: I understand. Meaning, spoiling the line is in the natural, ordinary love, but we do want to bring it to the line.

M. Laitman: Whether through hatred or rejection, yes, all of our emotions, which stem from our ego. 

Student: But we need to bring it to the line, to the line being proper, it's good.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:59) You said that our work is not in speaking, but in the inner act of a person to enter the heart of each and every friend. How to enter the heart of every friend? How do we go in?

M. Laitman: We try to be close to him. The heart of a man is his general will, which that's how he feels it to be. The most inner part of the man, that's the heart. So, you need to incorporate with him, to feel where his heart leans. 

Student: What do we search for in him, in the heart of the friend? 

M. Laitman: You search for qualities, inclinations, desires with which you can participate and so to connect to him. 

Student: And when I feel coldness towards the friend, what is my work? 

M. Laitman: Yes. So, you shouldn't cool off in that. You need to advance and continue more and more, more and more. You need to reach love. You don't need to look at him and see how he comes to you.

Student: But I feel coldness towards him. 

M. Laitman: Yours? 

Student: Yes, my coldness towards him. So, what to do in such a state? 

M. Laitman: Try to warm yourself up.

Student: By what to warm myself up? What moves me to go deeper into his heart? 

M. Laitman: A person has all the data. Don't ask. Ask yourself.

Student: And if I have more warmth in general towards my friends in the Ten, more coldness towards the other friends in the group? 

M. Laitman: That could be. It can be. It's also natural.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:02) I was very excited. There was this part in the article that speaks about the fact that if I don't correct something in this life, this incarnation, I'll have to wait until I will correct it in the future incarnations. What is it about exactly? 

M. Laitman: What a person doesn't manage to do now doesn't transfer over to his next life. He has to complete it now, but he is brought to higher degrees or lower degrees, to all sorts of states, conditions, different conditions. But he has to do it now.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:22) When I was on the way here, I prepared one month in advance, and I was thinking, what gift should I bring each and everyone, of course I have limitations, and my heart was truly broken. How can I bring all the gifts from Kazakhstan to Israel? What spiritual gift can I give each and everyone from the World Kli in order to give pleasure to everyone?

M. Laitman: Will, desire from the heart, is such that you truly want to fulfill all the hearts of all the friends in the world with the Upper Light, which includes everything. You don't need to bring a thousand presents and sweets and other things. It's sufficient if you bring only the source of the Upper Light, and by that you can fill everyone. 

Student: What gift can we give the Creator in the congress? 

M. Laitman: The biggest gift we can give to the Creator is to receive from Him what He wants to give. Make your will as His will. 

Student: To be rewarded with the love of friends. When we don't see it in practice, in actuality, do we have a spiritual depth in this? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:30) How can we be whole in the love of the Creator?

M. Laitman: I didn’t hear.

Student: How can I feel whole in the love of the Creator? 

M. Laitman: How to be whole in the love of the Creator? Maybe at the end of correction.

Student: How can you be whole, complete in that? 

M. Laitman: You'll always be lacking something. But we also have to understand that this lack is a proper lack. It's a lack that helps us advance forward towards the purpose of creation. So it's preferable that we retain this lack and feel it.

Student: He speaks about the love of the Creator and sparks of love between us. He speaks here about the love of friends, usually in the group or in a Ten. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: He's asking about the love of friends in every group.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So how can I add all the parts of my soul? 

M. Laitman: It's in the friends. We are built in such a way where through the shattering of the vessels, we learn that in the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, in TES, that creation begins with the making of the vessel. And this vessel later undergoes the shattering. And the shattering is actually a positive thing. The Upper Light comes from the Creator, enters into the egoistic vessel and shatters it.

And as a result, the vessel shatters and in each broken part of the vessel, some light remains, which arrived into the vessel at the time of the shattering, and these parts, the shattered lights and vessels, they now fill the whole of reality. And we, too, are included in all those vessels and the lights within them. The lights are called the Reshimot, records. And the broken vessels, and we need to correct them, to connect them together. And through that connection, we reach a completed vessel. And that's our work. That's what we need to do amongst ourselves now. 

Student: Every friend will work in his individual Ten. But in the article, he says that all the parts are my soul. I know that all the friends are parts of my soul. So, how can I collect all the parts?

M. Laitman: That's actually the entirety of our work. As if we connect between all the friends, in the corporeal work of connecting together, as in a congress, where we grow closer to each other, get to know each other. That's how we grow closer to each other, externally as well as internally. So, especially during a congress, we have great work to do, to connect, because here we can feel ourselves closer, being closer to those people who arrive, and also closer to the people everywhere in the world. We connect to them. And so we bring closer all of our friends in every which place. That's how we reach them.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:22) If I feel correctly, I need to connect the friends to myself in order to assemble my soul. So, should I relate to it that those that I have to connect to myself in order to completely assemble my soul, they are inside my individual Ten, or the parts of my soul exist in the entire, great group? Where should I relate that these are the ones that I have to connect to myself in order to fully assemble my soul? Is it all enclosed within my individual Ten or in the whole world group? 

M. Laitman: I work with whoever is next to me, because for the time being I cannot feel the spiritual space. But those who are right next to me, with whom I can connect, who I can feel, even physically touch them, that's enough for me. That's why we come to a congress, to such places at such times where we can be physically close to each other. And from that corporeal connection we hope to be able to awaken within us the spiritual connection where the Creator, the Upper Light, will connect us together, bring us closer. And that will have its effect, it will help us, it will assist us in being close to each other, being as one man in one heart. That's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:46) It says here that there is the first degree of love towards the existence of reality, meaning nourishing the body through possessions, that it is possible to concede the other three forms. There is a second degree, which is conceding the actual reality. So that second degree, what gift does he talk about here towards the friends if I concede myself? How do I buy the Creator by that? 

M. Laitman: If you stop participating in that, as a conduit through which everything can pass from the Creator through you to your friend.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:07) If I understood Rabash correctly, if I buy love towards the friends, I can buy love towards the Creator. You gave an example that it's like conceding luxuries, time, energy. What kind of gifts can I give to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: When you do not draw the reforming light upon yourself through the ego, but only want to transfer that light to the friends. 

Student: Meaning, as the Creator loves the created beings, I should also try to love them? The answer you gave before to the friend, the more a person is limited in his resources, in his ability to give gifts, he can open up the source of the Upper Light. What does that mean? How can I give that? How can I pass that on? 

M. Laitman: It's when on the one side you're connected to the Creator and on the other side you're connected to your friend, one or many or all of them, and convey through you the light from the Creator to them. 

Student: It happens through prayer or some other means?

M. Laitman: Whichever actions. It can be prayer through your will, without words, through actions, and all the means we have in our worlds. 

Student: How can I be certain, or maybe there's no need to be certain whether I was able to pass it on to him or not? 

M. Laitman: You need to feel it. You need to feel it. Ask the Creator to give you the ability to feel if you're working correctly. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:30) When I have a heart of flesh, how could a friend freeze it? Or did this come from me? 

M. Laitman: Repeat, please.

Student: So when I have a heart of flesh, we're reading in the article that a friend can freeze it. How can a friend freeze it? Or did this come from me, rather than a friend froze it?

Reader: The sentence here, he says, I refer only to those who feel about themselves a very cold heart towards the love of their friend, or maybe they had a heart of flesh, but the coldness from the side of the friends also worked on them, and their heart also became frozen. The friend is asking, how can there be such a state where they hear the heart of flesh, but the coldness from the side of the friends froze their heart? 

M. Laitman: That can be understood. If they didn't use that bestowal through the heart, you enter a deep freeze, kind of. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:41) I would like to focus on this matter of the broken vessel. The light that remained before, as a result of the shattering, remained between the broken parts. It gives us a certain reality. To feel you said that the Reshimot, records in our work, we have to connect these records. What exactly does it mean to connect these records?

M. Laitman: It's not for now. It's not for now. We study. It's not simple. 

Student: So, you have these records. You talked about, this is actually the record of the entire Ten, where each one becomes incorporated in these records, and it has to take these records and.. 

M. Laitman: We're not studying that now.

Question (Romania 1): (01:11:39) How can we love the Creator through the evil inclination as well? 

M. Laitman: Loving the Creator through the evil inclination. When we transcend the evil inclination, rise above it, and with the Upper Light, with the good inclination, connect to the evil inclination in small portions, and so we can bend it so as to participate in bestowal. Yes, that happens to us at the end of the Partzuf, in the vessels of reception, when we correct them in order to bestow.

Question (Revadim): (01:12:36) If I don't manage to add, in love of friends, Rabash writes that one has to plead to the Creator. What does it mean to plead to the Creator, to pour out his heart? 

M. Laitman: To speak to Him, and preferably with an open heart, meaning that I want to reveal my heart, open my heart to the Creator, and have Him see it and correct it, to show that it truly needs correction. 

Question (Women Rehovot 1): (01:13:17) You said I need to see all the friends that they stand on a higher spiritual degree than myself. What actual actions, practical actions can help us see the friends on a higher spiritual degree? 

M. Laitman: It's when we make an effort to see each and every friend as though he received a correction right now and became higher than everyone else. It all depends on us. 

Question (Women MAK 85): (01:14:01) How to begin every day anew?

M. Laitman: It all depends on how we go to sleep. When I go to sleep at night, I need to say, as I do the Hear O Israel prayer on the bed, in bed, that I truly deliver my soul to the Creator and that I intend to wake up with a new soul, with a new heart, and to begin a new correction, on a new degree.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:01) He writes here, we see that in nature there is love to the depth of the soul. I understand to the depth of the soul, but what is love?

M. Laitman: That cannot be explained.

Student: But it keeps touching that point of love, love of friends, love of the Creator.

M. Laitman: I'm telling you, this cannot be explained.

Student: Sorry for insisting, but there is a…

M. Laitman: But I told you that this is something I cannot explain.

Student: In what vessel is it felt?

M. Laitman: In the desire to receive.

Student: The pure, the complete, the full?

M. Laitman: Try and open it up.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:10) It's written here that the gift is given only to someone you know and love. It turns out that a present is like thanking a friend. But when you give a gift to a stranger or to someone that you don't love, it's more like charity or a donation, and I feel more egoistic. So it turns out that I am giving a gift in order to learn to love. But here it's written that I give the gift to those that I already love, otherwise I wouldn't give. So what comes before what? Because I'm supposed to give.

M. Laitman: You give gifts in order to love. You invest in the friend with your forces, your desires, and this way, afterwards, you start to love him because you invested in him. 

Student: But it's written that even the thought, when I think about him, I have to talk about it to reveal it. 

M. Laitman: Well, it depends how and when.

Student: It's written that I'm supposed to show him that I'm giving you a gift, something you like. Specifically, I put effort into it, and I seemingly put him in an uncomfortable state. He's got nothing with which to compensate for the gift.

M. Laitman: You're telling him about what you feel in your heart. That's why you're presenting him this gift. And now it all depends on him and how he responds.

Student: But the friend sees that it's fake.

M. Laitman: Why fake?

Student: Why fake? I'm not some actor who…

M. Laitman: In order to what?

Student: So are we acting out? 

M. Laitman: No, no, no. Then it will be clarified as a lie.You need to give him a gift in order to demonstrate your attitude towards him. 

Student: I also heard from you that Rabash, there were those who treated him in a cool way. He actually gave them special signs of honor, gave them gifts. How can we learn from that so that my cool relationship will direct a gift to them. 

M. Laitman: It's because you're not taking into account that your friend who relates to you this way, what is he actually trying to achieve by this? What's the goal that he wants to achieve in this? Maybe he's doing something that he doesn't want to do whatsoever, and he's doing it against his will in order to correct himself.

Student: We don't have that many actions to admit love, to talk about it, some emotions we can express. I don't really understand how we can do this through words, through gifts, to give a gift to a friend through words. 

M. Laitman: You can express everything through words. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:56) How to relate to the ideas of good and bad if they don't exist in spirituality? What do they come to show us, these ideas of good and bad? And what's the point of delving into them if in the end we have to unite everything?

M. Laitman: We unify everything by working with the good and the bad. And then we connect between them, and from this we come to the understanding of what is the true good and bad. Understood?

Reader: Next, we have the Ten as an Environment for Spiritual Development.

M. Laitman: Yes, where is it? 

Reader: So, we have selected excerpts from the sources, and we'll move to the next part of the lesson, and before that we'll sing a song together. 

Song: (01:22:39)