The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: January 6, 2026
Part 1: Reading of the Article in the Ten
Rabash. Article No. 23, (1985). On My Bed at Night
Reader: Dear friends, in the first part, we'll learn or study a lesson from June 7, 2002, based on a Rabash article “On My Bed at Night.” You can find it in “Writings of Rabash”, volume 1. We'll read the article together in the Ten. Every friend will read an excerpt and go around until you read the entire article. If you complete the reading before the time is up, you can have a workshop on the main principles from the article “On My Bed at Night.”
Reading: (00:51) On My Bed at Night
Article 23, 1985
The Zohar (Tazria, item 1) asks about the verse, “On my bed”: “Rabbi Elazar started, ‘On my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loves.’ He asks, ‘It says, ‘On my bed.’ It should have said, ‘In my bed.’’ What is ‘On my bed’? He answers, ‘The assembly of Israel spoke before the Creator and asked Him about the exile, since she is seated among the rest of the nations with her children and lies in the dust. And because she is lying in another land, an impure one, she said, ‘I ask on my bed, for I am lying in exile,’ and exile is called ‘nights.’ Hence, ‘I sought him whom my soul loves,’ to deliver me from it.’”
It is known that the assembly of Israel is Malchut, who contains all the souls. It is also known that every man is considered a small world, as it is written in the holy Zohar, that man consists of the seventy nations of the world. This corresponds to the seven Sefirot, where each Sefira [singular of Sefirot] consists of ten, thus they are seventy discernments. They are the opposite of Kedusha [holiness], for there are seven Sefirot of Kedusha and the seventy nations of which man consists. This means that each nation has a special lust that pertains to it. Man consists of all seventy lusts that exist in general in the seventy nations.
Within man there is also Israel, which is his self. However, it is called a “point in the heart,” meaning a point of darkness. This means that the Israel in her does not illuminate and she is regarded as Achoraim [posterior]. The reason is that she is in exile under the rule of the seventy nations in a person.
They have the strength to rule over the Israel in her by questions that they ask Israel when he wants to do something for the Creator, which is called Yashar-El [straight to the Creator]. At that time they make one understand that it is not worthwhile to work (but) only for self-love. But concerning in order to bestow, they ask “What,” “What is this work for you,” which we learned is the question of the wicked. And if one wants to overcome his argument, then Pharaoh’s question comes, who said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?”
If these questions do not work on a person the first time, they repeat themselves all day, as it is written (Psalms, 42:11), “With the murder of my bones my adversaries revile me while they say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’” and one cannot come out of their rule. They degrade the Israel in man to the dust, as it is written (Psalms 44), “For our soul has bowed down to the dust; Our belly clings to the ground.”
We should interpret that our soul’s bowing down to the dust causes our belly to be attached to the ground.
The “belly” is one’s vessels of reception. This is the meaning of the point in the heart being in the dust, which causes our Kelim [vessels] to have Dvekut [adhesion] only with worldliness, which is self-love.
But if the kingdom of heaven were honored, then we would certainly be honored if we had the chance to serve the Creator with anything. We would regard even the smallest service as a fortune. For such an honor, it would be worthwhile to relinquish all the pleasures that come to us through self-love.
This is the meaning of what we say in the supplementary prayer of Shalosh Regalim [Three Pilgrimages], “Our Father, our King, show the glory of Your kingship upon us soon.” That is, we ask of the Creator that since the kingdom of heaven is degraded and in a state of Shechina [Divinity] in the dust, we want the Creator to show us the importance and glory of the kingdom of heaven, and then it will be our great honor to be awarded by it with exiting self-love and to be granted with love of the Creator.
This is the meaning of what The Zohar interprets, “Hence, ‘I sought him whom my soul loves,’ to deliver me from it.” It is known that man consists of three souls: 1) a soul of Kedusha; 2) a soul of Klipat [Klipa of] Noga; 3) a soul of the three impure Klipot [plural of Klipa]. The soul of Kedusha illuminates only as a point. Therefore, the soul of Klipat Noga should connect to the soul of Kedusha, as we explained in previous articles in the name of Baal HaSulam. But since the main operator is the soul of Klipat Noga—since the soul of the three impure Klipot cannot be corrected, and the soul of Kedusha does not need to be corrected because it is holy—then all the work is with the soul of Klipat Noga.
When (one) performs Mitzvot [good deeds/corrections], Klipat Noga joins the Kedusha. When he commits transgressions, the soul of Klipat Noga joins the soul of the three impure Klipot.
However, the soul of Kedusha is in Achoraim [posterior], meaning it does not illuminate, and is in lowliness. This is why we do not want to exert to do good deeds so that Klipat Noga will join the Kedusha.
Therefore, “On my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loves,” to bring him out of her, for the soul of Kedusha belongs to the assembly of Israel but is in another, impure land, asking from the one whom my soul loves to get me out of the impure land. That is, since the soul of Kedusha is in lowliness, the soul of Noga does things that the three impure Klipot want. It follows that at that time, when the soul of Kedusha must suffer the rule of the impure Klipot that govern at that time, the soul of Kedusha asks to be delivered from this exile, called “nights.”
It is written there in The Zohar (item 9 in the Sulam [commentary]): “Rabbi Aha says, ‘We learned that the Creator sentences whether a drop is male or female, and you say, ‘A woman who inseminates first, delivers a male.’ Thus, the Creator’s sentence is redundant.’ Rabbi Yosi said, ‘Indeed, the Creator decides between a drop of male and a drop of female. And because He has discerned it, He sentences whether it is to be a male or a female.’”
This explanation is unclear. Because “He has discerned it, He sentences whether it is to be a male.” Why does He need to sentence? It will obviously be either male or female? He interprets there in the Sulam: “There are three partners in a man: the Creator, his father, and his mother. His father gives the white in him; his mother—the red in him; and the Creator gives the soul. If the drop is a male, the Creator gives the soul of a male. If it is a female, the Creator gives the soul of a female. It turns out that when the woman inseminates first, the drop has not become a male yet, if the Creator had not sent within her a soul of a male. This discernment that the Creator discerns in a drop—that it is fit for a soul of a male or a female—is considered ‘the sentencing of the Creator.’ Had He not discerned it and did not send a soul of a male, the drop would not have become a male. Thus, the two statements do not contradict one another.”
To understand all the above in the work we should interpret that all three partners are in one person. “His father and mother” are the causes of the birth of a son. His “father” is the male, called “man,” and “wholeness” because male is regarded as wholeness. His father gives the white because “white” is called “wholeness,” where there is no dirt. His mother is called Nekeva [female] and “woman,” and she is called a “deficiency,” since Nekev [hole] means deficiency [lack] and is called “redness.” It is as we say that when there is red light, you cannot cross, which is called a “barrier,” when you cannot go forward. The Creator gives the soul, since man can do anything, but the spirit of life belongs to the Creator.
The order of the work is that man should divide the workday into day and night. “Day” means wholeness, and “night” means deficiency. In order for a son to be born and have a long life, that son needs to be born by his father and mother, since his father gives the whiteness, meaning the wholeness, regarded as “a male man,” and his mother gives him the lack, called a “female woman.” The wholeness and deficiency should be because a person needs to receive nourishment for sustenance, and then he can work. Likewise, here in the work of the Creator, a person must receive spiritual nourishment, and then he can see what needs to be corrected. Otherwise, without nourishment, he does not have the strength for work, and we receive nourishment only from wholeness.
Therefore, we can elicit wholeness while engaging in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], for then we do not examine how much we are exerting in keeping Torah and Mitzvot, to do them perfectly and flawlessly, meaning examining ourselves to see if we are fine or not. Rather, at that time we examine the Torah and Mitzvot themselves, meaning whose Torah and Mitzvot we are keeping. We must think about the giver of the Torah, as we bless, “Blessed are you the Lord, Giver of the Torah.” With the Mitzvot we say, “Who has sanctified us with His Mitzvot,” meaning to know that we are keeping the Mitzvot of the Creator.
Therefore, we need to consider the importance of the giver, and derive from this vitality and joy from meriting observing what He has commanded us, to some extent. At that time we should say that although the work is still not “actual observing,” in order to bestow in every way, we should still believe that there are people to whom it did not occur in mind or will to keep Torah and Mitzvot even in the slightest bit. But to us the Creator has given a desire and will to keep a little, meaning with little understanding, but after all we are doing something, while people do not even have that something. When we pay attention to this, we receive vitality and nourishment.
This is called “his father gives the white,” as we said that wholeness is called “whiteness,” where there is no dirt.
There is a twofold gain here: 1) In this way he receives elation from being adhered to the Whole, meaning to the Creator, and we must believe that what He gives is wholeness. Wholeness makes a man whole, making him feel whole, too. Naturally, he derives nourishment from this, so he can live and persist and then have strength to do the holy work.
2)According to the importance he acquires during the work of wholeness, he will later have room to feel the deficiency with regard to his work, which is not truly pure. That is, at that time he can depict to himself how much he is losing by his negligence in the work, for he can compare between the importance of the Creator and his own lowliness, and this will give him energy to work.
However, one should also correct oneself, or he will remain in the dark and will not see the true light that shines on the Kelim [vessels] that are suitable for it, called “vessels of bestowal.” The correction of the Kelim is called Nukva, deficiency, when he works on correcting his deficiencies. This is regarded as “His mother gives the red.” That is, at that time he sees the red light, which are the barriers on his way, which prevent him from reaching the goal.
Then comes the time of prayer, since the man sees the measures of the work that he has in matters of “mind and heart,” and how he has not progressed in the work of bestowal. He also sees how his body is weak, that he does not have great powers to be able to overcome his nature. For this reason, he sees that if the Creator does not help him, he is lost, as it is written (Psalms 127), “If the Lord does not build the house, they who build it labor in it in vain.”
From those two, meaning from wholeness and deficiency, which are the “father and mother,” it turns out that the Creator is the one who helps him, giving him a soul, which is the spirit of life. And then the newborn is born. This is why our sages said, “There are three partners in man.” The newborn that was born is regarded as a sustainable descendant, meaning that he has a long life. Otherwise, if it does not have the soul that the Creator gives it, that newborn is called a “stillborn,” meaning it is unsustainable and “falls from its degree.” We should know that the Creator wants to give, as explained in several places that “the upper light does not stop illuminating,” but we need Kelim that are fit to receive.
Therefore, there are two discernments we need to make in what depends on man’s preparation, since there are two forces in man: 1) forces of reception, 2) forces of bestowal. We need to correct these two forces so they work in order to bestow. The force of bestowal in a person is called “man,” and the force of reception in a person is called “woman,” “female.” Inseminating means that a person makes an effort in order to obtain something. For example, when a person needs wheat, he sows wheat. This means that his work will yield wheat. If he needs potatoes he will sow potatoes. That is, one exerts according to the kind that one wants, and this is what he gets.
It is similar in the work of the Creator. If one wants to correct the vessels of bestowal, called “male,” “man,” which is called “If the man inseminates first,” meaning that his initial thought is to correct the vessels of bestowal, then she “delivers a female,” as it is known that there is an inverse relation between Kelim and lights, since “female light” is called Katnut [smallness/infancy].
“If the woman inseminates first,” meaning that he wants to correct the vessels of reception so they work in order to bestow, then “she delivers a son,” meaning male light, which is the light of Gadlut [adulthood/greatness]. “And the Creator gives the soul.” The Creator distinguishes about the drop, meaning about man’s work, of which type was his “sowing,” meaning preparation. That is, if he wants his vessels of reception to work in order to bestow then the Creator gives him a soul of a male, called “Neshama [soul] of Gadlut.” If he is regarded as a “man,” meaning wants only his vessels of bestowal to work in order to bestow, he receives from the Creator the light of Katnut, called “female.”
Reader: Friends, we're going to get into a lesson with Rav from June 7, 2002. In the first part of the lesson, because of problems with the original tape, we'll hear mostly audio without video.
M. Laitman: (22:11) We read an article from “The Rungs of the Ladder,” volume 2, “On My Bed at Night” is the name of the article. There are three main states in a person that we call lying down, sitting, and standing. That's how it's called in spirituality. In spirituality, meaning in the soul. When we want to talk about what's going on with our soul, we don't have the language. The soul is straightforward desires, naked, exposed, with no manifestation in the body. The soul exists whether it's clothed in a body and whether it's not. The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about states where the soul is clothed in a body. And the states where the soul exists without a body, Kabbalists don't talk about it. Of course, they know it, they study it, they connect to it. There's a connection between the souls, those who rise above the barrier. To the extent that they rise above the barrier, that they have the Masach, a screen, to that extent, the body doesn't pose a disturbance for him. And then whether the person is in a body or not in a body, essentially, to the extent that his soul is above the barrier in the ladder of degrees, then his soul feels itself without the heaviness of the body, and it feels as if free. So much that when a person is alive in this world, while his soul is clothed in a body, he needs to reach a state where he corrects his desires so much that his body doesn't make any partition between him and the state of the souls that exist without a body. And that state is called the end of correction.
But, in any case, to discuss the soul, in whatever state it is, requires a special language. Now we take all our language from this world. Where will we take the words, the names, to discuss the souls? So the Kabbalists, since they feel what goes on in the soul, and they see that our body is built from a completely different material, but in that material there are the same parts, like the spiritual parts of the soul. Even though there's no direct connection between them, you can still call pieces and parts of the soul by the name of the pieces and parts of the body. And that's how they invented the language of the branches.
M. Laitman: (25:47) So it could have been in any other language, because they took the language from this world. We see how much they adapted Aramaic to it as well. But you can adapt any language, because you're taking the language from this world, from what you see and use here. However, the connection between what you see in this world and what you feel in the soul, meaning in the spiritual world, that connection existed only in those people who belonged to what we call the Israeli nation, the Hebrew nation, those who Hebrew was their language. That's why they made that connection between a language in this world and the actions and attributes of the soul. So whether we like it or not, we learn according to what they gave us, and that's the language. And so if we, what we read, even though we're reading words that have usage in this world, we still need to constantly not forget that if we want to read about the soul and not the body, then to aim to find the spiritual definition of the word and not the corporeal definition.
Let's say the word table. In spirituality, there is a table. Like in corporeality, I know what's a table. What's a table in spirituality? If I feel spirituality, I'll understand what that is. For now, I don't understand what that is, but I still have to have some question about what that is and not to imagine something of this world. Otherwise, I never leave this world, I'll never get out of it. Meaning, Kabbalists gave us this language specifically, and they mandated studying the books of Kabbalah so that during the study, we will long to understand what they wrote, what's under the words. Meaning, to translate from the human language to the spiritual language, just like you translate from one language to another. I have English text in front of me, and then instead of every word, I put a Hebrew word. Similarly, there's Hebrew text in front of me, but the words in it invite, summon human figures and figures of this world, and I have to somehow long to connect to the spiritual definition of the word. What is it behind the word? What attribute, what spiritual action it's pointing to? What state? What is it trying to indicate to me? And so, as it says in “On My Bed at Night,” that's the name of the article, I should try to translate these words to myself. What does it mean, “lying down”, “my bed”, “night?” What are these words in spirituality? So, in spirituality, like in corporeality, there are three states to the soul. The smallest state is called lying down.
In our case, a state where a person, as if, detaches from self-consciousness, from feeling the environment around him, this is called sleep, or lying down. It's a state where a person is not standing in his stature, he's not using all of his stature, all of his degree, so his body, his head and legs are all at the same degree. Then there is sitting, you also see this in babies, first they just sit, they lie down, then they can sit, then they start standing up and walking - stages of development, evolution. The same thing with the soul.
M. Laitman: (30:18) The soul is a small, if it's a small screen with smaller corrections, it can only lie down, it's the state of the soul, it's not that it's actually lying down, there's no such thing, but it's a smaller state called lying down, then greater is sitting, then greater than that is standing and walking. So the night, means that in the soul there's lack of light, but there's still surrounding light and environmental conditions, there's also surrounding light around the deficiency of the soul, and the environmental conditions are such that there's no strong illumination, and that's why it is called night.
It's the departure of the general Mochin, the general illumination, and also the inner ones in the soul. And so then what does a person have left to do in that state? The Zohar writes that in a state where a person is helpless, then he's like a baby. What does he do? He cries, he yells, he demands his upper one, like his parents in this world, to take care of him, to do something with him, so he grows. And that's actually a very blessed state for the soul, if a person begins to notice these states and what they're supposed to bring to him. Then bit by bit he develops the correct approach to the upper one called the Creator and turns to him. And other than prayer, as what's written in all the books, we have no other force to go through corrections and rise to a higher degree. Since every time a person is in some condition, then what he has in that condition, the Reshimot [records], views, forces, all of that exists in him and belongs to the state that he's in. And also the environmental conditions, what influences him, that determines the state, the degree that he's in. And if he waits for some conditions to change, then he could wait an infinite amount of time until suffering will come and force him to rise. What is suffering? It's new records from within. However, Israel is called those who hasten times above planets and fortunes, meaning it's up to a person to do some hastening of the time, some hastening of his development, meaning to take forces from outside, not what he's got, not what's on the degree where he's at. How? One way is by the books and the group.
He acquires awakening, he gathers the awakening from the friends, when he feels that they are higher than his degree, so in such a way he can get a lift from them, and it doesn't actually matter what degree they're at. He doesn't need to check their degree, he doesn't know. No one even knows what his own degree is anyway, so if he's just inspired by how much they're drawn to spirituality, that inspiration can serve him as fuel, as momentum towards spirituality. And it could be that that person himself is a great Kabbalist, and the people he's inspired from are quite beginners and have no accomplishments in Kabbalah, it doesn't matter.
M. Laitman: (35:33) The inspiration depends only on the relationship between him and them, it's how a person organizes himself, calibrates himself. If he already received inspiration from them, meaning he renewed his own records, his inner records, then this way he can turn upwards with these records, this is called raising MAN, a request that the upper one, a higher degree, will raise him higher. So there's a possibility here to not remain as all people in humanity and just develop in a natural pace by blows from state to state, rather there's a way to collect positive impressions from the environment, to absorb them within, like a deficiency of himself, and by that rise. And then a person rises, meaning he rises from lying down to sitting, and from that to standing, and this ultimately is expressed in prayer, meaning in a request for the upper one to lift him. We learn in Kabbalah that the upper Partzuf, its AHP, the lower part of the upper Partzuf, it resides in the lower Partzuf. So, it's like two parts, like two cones, one inside the other. And their common region is actually where all our consciousness is. When we feel good, bad, we have any relation to spirituality or not, all those things that are actually moving internally within us, they're moving because the upper one within us, partially within us, always changes us, gives us different changes to awaken us. If we ourselves begin to look for this upper one that exists within us and connect to Him and demand Him to raise us, it will happen. We just lack the desire, and the desire you get from the environment.
He also explains here that a person has two forces, two parts of his forces: the forces of bestowal and the forces of reception. It's not that precise, actually in Kabbalah, we use short terms, short definitions. We don't have forces of bestowal. We don't have vessels of bestowal. Rather, our vessels of reception, our will to receive, which is our entire essence on every level there is, that will to receive, when it takes on a certain correction and it can work in bestowing, in order to bestow in giving only that desire is what we call vessels of bestowal, and we work with them first. Meaning a person who starts to advance through the study and the group and go deeper and deeper into his inner actions, spiritual actions as they're called it’s still not actually spiritual actions. These are yet actions of preparation.
But still, he's mostly working with vessels of bestowal, where he slightly detaches from this world, as if, and receives the entire study as something kind of detached from reality. After he understands the spiritual reality, then will come the second part of his actions where he can also relate his corporeality: house, children, woman, work, his whole life, how he lives in relation to other people - all of that he'll be able to link to the spiritual path, and more than that, also pleasures that will come from above, and that will be called using the vessels of bestowal, of reception. But at first, we only study and use the vessels of bestowal, thinner, purer vessels that are relatively detached from our reality, because we're not yet using our entire life to advance spirituality. We just prefer spiritual advancement over a little bit of corporeal advancement. Maybe I haven't touched a few issues here, but if you want to ask, go ahead.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:30) He's talking about the spirit of Kedusha, the spirit of Shalom.
M. Laitman: The Creator wanted to create something that will be like Him. Not only that it will be like Him, but that it will want to be like Him. Meaning that the created being will know wholeness, greatness, eternity, as the loftiest, best possible thing, and with his own forces, he'll reveal that and reach that. So he has what we call vessels, like the Creator’s. The created being will have such vessels that are so corrected that at the end of the corrections, at the end of the work of the created being, he comes to the status of the Creator. This is called that Israel, by actions called Torah, comes to the Creator, and this is called one. One degree, one intensity, same qualities. Now, how to do that? We can attain anything only from its corresponding state.
So, the created being first has to be opposite from the Creator. If the created being reveals that he's actually opposite to the Creator, he will have no strength to advance, to progress towards correction. He'll just be helpless. So a system has to be built by which the created being, bit by bit, first reveals the smallest gap and corrects it, and then a greater gap and corrects that, until he comes to a state where from darkness he comes to light. So it turns out that the distance between our opposite state to the Creator - the perfect state, that path creates something in its opposite.
Meaning, if I am now, even though I'm in the completely opposite state, most broken state, I don't feel that. And the more we advance and get closer to the Creator, I also find how broken I am towards the Creator. So it's seemingly irrational, I become closer to you, so why do I feel worse than I was on each and every level? That's really how it appears to us. You still, well, some of you did, some of you didn't feel it. But really, a person who's making a step forward, the moment he enters the next state, he feels himself as worse than the previous state. Then he corrects it, then it passes through him somehow, and he feels better, closer, he understands more than he understood before.
But each and every time the state is built from, there shall be evening, and there shall be morning, and it's one day. So it starts from the night, and then comes the day. And these are things that are very difficult to agree with, especially for beginners. Because every time I think like I'm confused on the path, I'm not in the right place, I'm not in the right direction at all. And we simply need support, and strength, and books, and all kinds of things that will always kind of create a lean, a confidence, something to lean on.
M. Laitman: (46:30) And there are many forces working here all at once in different directions. If I rise, then the more I rise, meaning the closer I get to the Creator's qualities, so it's as if I correct my qualities more on the one hand, but on the other hand, the Kilpa, the shell opens itself more, meaning the shell means my uncorrected desires, they open up more. And then I feel more and more how foreign I am, opposite to the Creator. The more I rise, the more I am between opposite forces, left and right, the qualities of the Creator and the qualities of the created being. The qualities of the created being, we call it left line, uncorrected desires, and the qualities of the Creator - right line, where I feel who He is. And man is in the middle. That's in the sense of right and left. You can imagine it as the qualities of the Creator above, the qualities of the created being below. And the part that I can correct in each and every degree, the small part of the additional desire that now becomes revealed, that's called actually the shell of Noga, that I still don't know how to determine about that part, whether it's good or bad - nothing. It's all in my hands, if I glue that part to the qualities of the Creator, then I enter Kedusha, I correct it, if I correct that part. If I'm not successful in that, then the part where I have a choice to either rise by it to a higher degree or, God forbid, adhere to the Klipa, so then I adhere to the three shells themselves. So all these forces - both the qualities of the Creator, Kedusha, and the qualities of the created being, Klipa, and also Klipa Noga, that part that appears to me as neutral, where I can make corrections - all of that is inside of me. It's not in my environment somewhere or somewhere up in the skies or the qualities of the Creator, you know, or some place deep inside planet Earth, so there's some raging fire or I don't know, that's the qualities of the created beings that are not corrected. No. All of those things are within me only.
Everything is included in the ten Sefirot of the soul. There's nothing besides that. There is nothing else. And also, Malchut of Ein Sof, the way we study it, is a closed system structure of desires that we need to bring to resemble the quality of the Creator a hundred percent. That's it. That's all. We're dealing with a structure, as simple as that.
M. Laitman: (50:11) So don't imagine all kinds of things, even though it could be very poetic and beautiful and, you know, avoid getting into hell and don't miss the opening to heaven and all those things. In truth, all of those matters are emotional, emotional things within us. There's nothing outside the person. We also learn that outside the person, there's only upper light, abstract light filling up all of reality. What we perceive from the upper light through our five senses, the way we perceive it, that paints a picture of the world within us. If we had other qualities, we would perceive the upper light differently, so we would see a different world. But besides my awareness, my consciousness, my perception, I'm like a black box. There's only light, which is formless, and we call it His essence. And if I perceive Him in general, this is called the Creator, and if I perceive it in greater detail through screens, then I divide it according to my screens and my relationship with it, Hochma, Hassadim, greater, smaller, surrounding, inner, and so forth. So if you're asking, what is Kedusha, Klipa, Noga, three impure shells, it's my own inner structure. It's where I exist in. And I want to shift my uncorrected desires to corrected desires, each time another part, and another part, and another part. And the part that is at my disposal to correct, this is called the shell of Noga, and that's what I'm fighting for. Because there's no reason to fight for the Kedusha, I thankfully already corrected that, and that cannot be broken, but I still don't have the forces for the Klipa. So I'm afraid, moving away from these desires, I don't want to use them to not fall. So to not move away from Kedusha, to not fall from spirituality. So I'm moving away from using these desires. This means I'm escaping the shell. And the Noga refers to those desires that certainly in this state I can determine what I'm going to do with them.. So from the Noga, I raise the MAN, I ask for forces from above. How do I ask? After I have gathered from my environment, from my friends, their upliftment towards spirituality, then I raise these forces, this inspiration, this impression, I raise it higher as MAN, as a prayer, and then the upper one gives me force from Him downwards comes to me, the light of AB SAG, and that's what corrects me, what raises me. And then this Noga adheres to the Kedusha. And then this is called separation, it's like there's the separation of the Challa and all kinds of things. So it means that I took a part, another part of the Klipa, and shifted it from using for myself through Noga to Kedusha. Each time again, and it's actually very simple actions. The problem is as in all of Kabbalah, that only if a person stands on the right approach to see it correctly that it's happening in him, in his desires that it's only about the soul, a collection of desires, and if he's not getting confused then he very quickly finds how to put together this inner image within him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:23) You spoke early about vessels of reception and bestowal, and you spoke about the shell of Noga. During the stage of preparation, is there a way to do these actions and by that to change our work somehow, to relate to the group a little differently?
M. Laitman: During the stage of the preparation, we can't determine where we are, which desires, where is the reception, where is bestowal, what am I working on exactly? I have no clue about it. During the preparation, the key to the correct work is to relate everything to the upper one. Because I'll tell you, the smallest spiritual state a person enters, incorporates in after crossing the barrier - this state is called “an embryo.” A person cancels himself completely relative to the upper one and lets him do whatever he wants. This is called ascribing or relating everything to the upper one. He's great, He works, He does everything in me, around me, and in truth, this is how it is. That's why in one form or another, we have to do some exercises on it. We won't succeed, it will elude us and we'll have to go back to it, and we have to brainwash ourselves and convince ourselves this is so, but we're unable to do it. It's only for us to see this reality. Only when we see that reality, the Creator truly doing it, then we'll be convinced. Will to receive is very pragmatic: show me and that's it, let me taste it. Why do we say "taste and see, the Lord is good"? It's not enough to see. No, if I taste, it's like little kids. That's the surest sense: put it inside. You see it from babies. Until you taste the Creator like that, this inner light, it's not considered yours, clear knowledge of Him. So of course, we're not able to reach it before they open the barrier before us, the light enters the vessels. But that state, that first spiritual state that's nearest to me, I have to yearn for it. And if in all the opportunities that I'm given from above, I yearn, I exhaust all of my possibilities, then I truly enter this state, because I've done everything, I exerted. When does all of my exertion end? That depends on each and every soul. And what's the sign?
When the heavens open up, it's a sign I'm done. That's it. So what am I trying to say? It's in the article “There is None Else Besides Him” about the divinity in exile. That's the first article in Shamati. You find the entire Torah for beginners, and not just beginners. It's across many degrees and really until the end of correction. But there it's a different kind of work after the barrier. But that's essentially the assignment in each and every state: to reach a feeling of "There is none else beside Him," regardless of what's happening, what will happen. If you overcome and enter this feeling, but without disconnecting from reality, when you're in this world, the trick is not to fly somewhere high up there. It's to live reality, and through it all the disturbances and obstructions that influence us, so to identify with these obstructions, and through them to find "There's none besides Him." If a person completes this work, it means that he concludes this world, and he enters different types of disturbances, spiritual disturbances, and he approaches through them, and in order to realize that "There's none besides Him." What does it mean, "There's none besides Him"? Me and all my desires along the way have to bring me to myself and Him, and all the actions I grew up on, into one.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:43) There is a situation where there is a brother, a mother, and there is this thing that turns on the light, and then it burns and leaves the light of the child. And the question is, what is in the work of this machine of light, the light of the child? In the last lecture we said that there is a bar, there is a connection, but we did not say the name of the machine, who is the child? The machine? Who? Who?
M. Laitman: Male and female in the embryo are states, vessels of bestowal and vessels of reception, bestow in order to bestow, receive in order to bestow. If I work with the vessels of reception it is called female, deficiency. And the other way around, if these deficiencies are corrected, it is called male. Nekeva is from the word Nekev, a hole, an empty place that requires corrections. And male is the opposite, the one who bestows. Those are states in the same person, the same soul. According to whether or not they are corrected, they exist in every degree. Or if we speak about the soul relative to the Creator, then the soul is always female relative to the male, because the corrections come first. There is a raising of the MAN for correction, the correction of reality, the correction of the desires, and a raising of MAN for filling the desires. So in these two instances, the Creator appears as the male part, and the female, and the soul is the female counterpart that receives. In Kabbalah, it's described as ZON of Atzilut, ZA and Nukva of Atzilut, who are... ZA of Atzilut is called HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the bestower, the giver, the one who corrects, who fills. And Malchut of Atzilut is the assembly or the collection of all the souls. All the deficiencies are in it, and each one of us is a particular part of that.
Student: Still not clear on the situation where there's an embryo, and in the beginning of its creation, it's either male or female.
M. Laitman: We talk about our world, and yes, what's in spirituality? In spirituality, we go through many states. It's still vegetative, animate, speaking, as an angel, as one who resembles the Creator. In our world - and we are going through thousands and thousands of stages - in our world, corresponding to each and every state and stage, there's a corporeal projection, which exists in and of itself. Let's put it this way, in each and every soul that undergoes development, where she's female, then male, and female again, then male again, in our world, you see that this thing is clothed in permanent, fixed things, because our world is inanimate relative to spirituality. It does not change. So each and every stage in spirituality, every action, every quality, everything that exists there and changes, for us in this world, it requires an unchanging shape. And that's why it is so. There's also a difference between the souls themselves, depending on which part of Adam HaRishon, from which part this desire comes. A soul is an individual desire from the general soul called Adam HaRishon, and it depends on which part of the body of Adam HaRishon this desire comes from. In this body, we also distinguish the right side, left side, above Hazeh, below Hazeh. There are many discernments, like cells in our body. Every cell is unique, it behaves differently, it's connected to other cells, it has all kinds of other forms of connection. That's how it is in spirituality among the souls. For us, it's only a result, a projection of what's happening in spirituality, and from this, we can learn how each of us is different on the one hand and nevertheless, is tied to everyone else in one body.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:06) What is this concept of vessel of bestowal?
M. Laitman: A vessel of bestowal is something very peculiar, very strange. A vessel of bestowal, a will to receive or bestowal? Because we lack the strength to express spiritual states, we use various formulas - shortened, simplified. Otherwise, for every state, you know, instead of saying Katnut, smallness, or embryo, or Rosh, Toch... How will I use the word Rosh, the head? In order to say what is it in place of Rosh, what spiritual piece is after that, I have to write half a book, and even then it won't be enough. That's why we have the language. What is the idea of the language? I'm using an agreed-upon password to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, what I'm aiming for. And because you are at the same level of attainment, then based on this password, passcode, you can understand what I'm talking about. If I say Rosh, if I say someone Rosh, and he doesn't know what it means in Hebrew, he doesn't know what to do. So first of all, you know, you hear this word - Rosh, head, Rosh. Then if I would say Rosh to someone who never heard about it, it's some extraterrestrial, alien, so he also doesn't know. Meaning it's not enough to hear and to know what the word itself means in this world; you also have to know what I mean by using this name, this word. Let's say we have a coded language that we're using. You have to know this code. I'm sending you a letter. It's written about my grandmother, but you know that it's not about my grandmother, and each and every word carries a different meaning. You and I know. To read the books in Kabbalah, you have to know what they meant to say beneath those words. Otherwise, those words, you know, like one spy is writing to another spy - nobody knows what they're writing about. And that's what we're reading in the books of Kabbalah. So, why do we read it? He writes about it in item 155, "An Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot," that by yearning to know - but meaning yearning to know the inner content of the word - and you don't delude yourself that there's some image that you depict before you, God forbid, some, you know, hands and feet, and you know, the way they make those pretty pictures about the history, seemingly, they seemingly appear in the Torah. They sell those even in Bnei Brak, the religious town. I don't know how they do it, but they do it. And if you don't depict those things in this beastly way, but rather you want to know what is the true interpretation of the things, then out of that, you summon the surrounding light from the state they write about. But if you imagine pictures of this world, and already the story and the depiction is in this world, and you don't summon any illumination from above, you remain inanimate. You don't advance, you remain inanimate.
That's the difference in the method of Kabbalah and other methods of studying the Torah. That through the study, we wish to get the surrounding light. We wish to understand the inner meaning. This is the meaning of studying the internality of the Torah. What exactly is it talking about using this cipher, this coded language? And then gradually when you invite this surrounding light, time after time, we begin to advance toward it, and until you enter it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:14) We learned that in the work, the more I advance and I see the difference between me and the Creator, that there's none else besides Him, that even the result, as if depends on me, it only comes from Him, and I just feel it. And that leads me to complete helplessness. On the other hand, he says in item, in page 55 above, that one can compare between the importance of the Creator and His self-lowliness, that it will bring Him power to work. How feeling the gap between us can bring me force to work to do that at all?
M. Laitman: Meaning, I discover in my state, whatever the state is, that I don't possess the right knowledge and no forces. I have nothing that I can acquire, which is something that I'm reading about. I don't even belong to it at all.
Student: And basically, no force to do anything.
M. Laitman: Yes, no knowledge, no ability to do anything. I'm helpless. I cannot enter spirituality. That's the bottom line. Let's close shop and go home. Or what? How, from this state we can come to a state where I have plenty of forces, I'll be able to advance, because I have to do this work and nobody else can do it for me.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:38) As if on the face of it, how to do it? Yes, we say it's do whatever you have the ability to do, but how can I feel from that, what I'm going through ultimately?
M. Laitman: You don't have to do anything? I don't get it. So why are we sitting here? It's better to sleep those times.
Student: That's what I'm asking, is how in a state of helplessness you have force to work? How could it be?
M. Laitman: I don't have the power to work during a state of helplessness. How can I truly come to such a state? And am I capable? And do we really do it? There are two things that are totally separate, which you connect together. The first thing is that I'm a zero, a small animal. I possess no spiritual powers. I understand nothing about spirituality. Also, I understand nothing about this world. Do I know what's going to happen a moment from now, and the whole world, and how it's built, and how it spins? I know nothing. I understand nothing. The more I open my eyes, I'm a total fool. As Einstein said. I feel myself like a small child playing with rocks on the shores of a massive ocean.
That's a correct feeling for anyone who begins to grasp and to feel the forces in nature. That's our state. It's not bad. If you think that it's within your powers to swallow this whole matter, then certainly not. However, from that state specifically, you have a springboard toward the active state. Active how? You can demand. You can demand to have forces, to have corrections, and for you to actually do it. Meaning, the state comes to show you that in the current degree, you are truly so. How to come out of it? You forgot that those forces don't exist in you. Why the Creator did it? So we will get stuck in each and every step and see that we are nothing, zeros. And then from the state of helplessness, oh, I remember. Oh, but He's there. He's there. I turn to Him. He arranges everything so it'll be better. So I'll understand. I'll do. Why did He do it in this way? Because this entire process is simply a means by which I will connect to Him. So I will surrender. So I will connect. So I will feel that I need Him and by that,I acquire His qualities.
Ultimately, He wants us to be eternal and whole, like him. So each time he exposes another weakness and helplessness, lack, ignorance, and lack of grasp of reality, He shows an opposite point from which you will want to turn to Him and receive the opposite of what you felt. The opposite of what you felt means to receive a little bit of Him, of His qualities, His degree. Then from the thing and its opposite, you come to the perfect state. And each time, the more you enter the bad, corresponding to that you attain the good. All the degrees are built like this.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:27) But what he means here in the power to work, it's all from the comparison between me and the Creator that's in the prayer.
M. Laitman: Prayer means that you ask after a state of no choice, then you gradually remember. He also, He makes it so that he will gradually remember Him, because by yourself you will never think of Him. That's clear. Will to receive is closed within itself. It's a closed system. So introduces a little ray of light, barely noticeable. Then you remember, oh, He's there. Oh, you know, big boy, you remember that He's there. And now you remember Him, and you can turn to Him. And each time it's like that. And each time, it's only in order to connect to Him and strengthen the connection to Him. Because by that, you build your inner system, the spiritual system. By that, you acquire His qualities, you become like Him. But before that, to show you who is the one that is opposite from Him, who is you, you have to, He has to put you into those unpleasant states, the opposite of the state you're about to acquire.
Student: But the process itself is also a closed process.
M. Laitman: It's closed.
Student: It's closed. It's predetermined.
M. Laitman: The process will certainly happen this way. And you're going to get stuck in it every step. Those things are written. If you could see, you would see that, oh, one time I'm going to get a blow on the head, and then a blow on the side. And if you could see it, it would be clear. But without receiving these blows, you will not grow, you will not develop. He beats it and tells it to grow.
Student: Ultimately, I'm looking to… how does it settle?
M. Laitman: You want to run away from the blows? It's possible.
Student: It doesn't seem possible.
M. Laitman: The question is how to get through the blows. That's all our study. That's what it's about. Otherwise, it says that we have to go through those things, and these states are predetermined. So, why am I studying here? That's the point. I learn how to get through this consciously, with my awareness, my desire to truly get through it, even if it's not needed. Even if I will be given something else, I want to learn who am I, and how, to what extent I am opposite from Him. I want to do it with my own self-awareness. And when I do it, I don't feel the blows. I get through them with joy. I feel the disappointments. I feel those things. But together with that, I look at myself from the side, like a third party. I see myself like a body lying on the operation’s table, and they have to correct, I participate in this correction myself. It's a totally different feeling. Instead of getting through each and every blow over 50 years, you go through it in ten minutes.
Student: But in that moment, I see helplessness from corporeal things or from my connection to Him in terms of my feeling, like helplessness. Is that the darkness or other things?
M. Laitman: Look, people come to consult with me for treatment. A person came to me yesterday. I met him when he was 14. He's a professor, a cardiologist, a heart expert. He's also, he's already sick himself. He needs other professors to take care of him. I looked at him, and there's nothing left in life for him. I had to talk to him because I knew him for many years. I'll tell you, he went through a very difficult path. He also reached great, you know, he made some great achievements in his field. He's a known professor. He wrote books on heart diseases, some special things. I don't know them that well, but practical corrections besides the material things that he did for humanity, and how much he suffered by doing it, because the suffering also purifies the body. A person that is here, I'm telling you, you cannot compare. You were with us when we went kayaking. Anyone who was with us, he did there what he did throughout his entire life. We don't know how those things really get replaced, and you get through the entire result, to the same result. I'm saying, he told me about his life. I knew him as kids. We would run around in Russia when we were four kids. We were 14. But everything he went through until today, one trip like that, like we had it would have had the same spiritual effect as what he told me about his entire life and all his suffering. We don't know what it means to consciously go through the blows. Look what humanity is doing. How did we do it over dozens of incarnations? Now, in one lifetime, you can make a jump.
Reader: We will move to the next part of the lesson. Before that, we'll sing a song.
Song: (01:21:59)