The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: August 3, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. What Is the Meaning of the Purification of a Cow’s Ashes, in the Work? Article No. 23, (1991)
Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson, we will learn from a recorded lesson from the 26th of July, 2002, based on the article, “What Is the Meaning of the Purification of a Cow’s Ashes, in the Work?” “What Is the Meaning of the Purification of a Cow’s Ashes, in the Work?” We will read the article together in the Ten. We have 33 minutes for that.
Reading: (00:40) What Is the Meaning of the Purification of a Cow’s Ashes, in the Work?
Article No. 23, 1991
RASHI interprets, “This is the statute of the law”: “Because Satan and the nations of the world taunt Israel, to say, ‘What is this Mitzva [commandment/good deed] and what is its reason,’ therefore, it is written about it, ‘It is a statute, a decree before Me; you have no permission to doubt it.’ ‘And have them take for you’: It will always be named after you. ‘A red cow’: This can be compared to the son of a maidservant who soiled the king’s palace. They said, ‘Let his mother come and clean up the feces.’ Similarly, let the cow come and atone for the calf.”
We should understand what the matter of the burning of the cow, whose ashes purify, implies to us in the work. Also, we should understand the matter of answering those who ask questions about the point of this red cow. Normally, when someone asks a question he receives an answer that the asking person can accept. Yet, here he asks, what is the point of the cow, and the answer is “statute,” “decree.” Is this answer acceptable? And we should also understand why he says that it is a statute and then gives the allegory about the cow, “Let his mother come and clean up her son,” which implies that there is already a reason for it, which is that the mother will clean up her son.
We should understand all this in the work. It is known that the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations, and this is why the Creator created in the creatures a desire and yearning to receive pleasure. However, in order for the creatures not to feel shame while receiving delight and pleasure, since if they are ashamed, the pleasure will be incomplete, there was a correction that a person does not receive the delight and pleasure for man’s own pleasure, meaning in order to enjoy the King’s gift. Rather, it is to the contrary—it is for the Creator to enjoy His will being done by their receiving pleasure from Him. In other words, since the Creator wants to do good to His creations, he observes the commandment of the Creator. Otherwise, for himself, he would relinquish the pleasure. It follows that there is no matter of shame here since everything he does is for the sake of the Creator and not for his own benefit.
However, Baal HaSulam gave another explanation concerning why we must do everything in order to bestow, since by nature, when a person is in high spirits and enjoys life, he has no need to make efforts and obtain more than he has, if the property that he has gives him complete satisfaction. Hence, since spiritual pleasures satisfy a person, and even the smallest degree in spirituality provides more satisfaction than any corporeal pleasure, a person would be content with little and would have no need to obtain the NRNHY in his soul.
But when a person works in order to bestow, when all his work is only in order to bring contentment to his Maker, it follows that when one obtains some spiritual degree and takes that pleasure because the Creator will enjoy it, he cannot say, “Master of the world, I do not want a higher degree than I have, since all the pleasures I am receiving are only because I want to please You, and I have given you plenty of pleasures already, and I do not want You to enjoy too much; I have given You enough, and I do not want to give You any more.”
We should know that when one receives in order to bestow, he receives a continually greater taste in bestowing contentment upon his Maker. As a result, a person cannot say, “I do not want to receive any more pleasures because I am settling for little.” It turns out that working for the sake of the Creator causes one to have to receive a higher degree each time, since he cannot say to the Creator, “I have already given You plenty of pleasures and I cannot give You any more.” This is why we must work in order to bestow.
There is another explanation why we must work in order to bestow: It is because of disparity of form. In spirituality, equivalence of form is called “unification,” Dvekut [adhesion], and disparity of form causes “distance” and “separation.” And since the main thing that one should strive for in life is to cling unto Him, since man should depict to himself that there is nothing more important in the world than to be in the King’s palace, through equivalence of form, as our sages said about “cling onto His attributes,” “As He is merciful, so you are merciful,” by this a person enters the King’s palace and is rewarded each time with speaking with the King.
It follows that on the whole, there are three reasons why we need to work for the sake of the Creator and not for our own sake. It is written about it, “Blessed is our God, who has created us for His glory.” We should understand why we thank the Creator for creating us for His glory and not for ours, since it makes sense that if He had created us for our glory, all creations would have blessed Him. Yet, the verse says that we must thank Him for creating us for His glory. What is our benefit in this?
The answer is that we must know that the Creator does not need us to give Him anything; the whole purpose of creation is only for the sake of the created beings, as it is written, “His desire to do good to His creations.” In order for the creatures to be able to receive the abundance for the three above reasons, for they can prevent the purpose of creation from being fully achieved, 1) because of shame, 2) in order for man not to settle for little, but each one should obtain the NRNHY in his soul, 3) because of Dvekut, which is equivalence of form, one should work in order to bestow, like the Creator.
It follows that the Creator created us and gave us the Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] by which we can come to do everything in order to have the glory of the Creator. It follows that when we bless Him for creating us for His glory, it means that He has guided us and gave us the means by which to be able to work for His glory. By this we can achieve the purpose of creation, called “His desire to do good to His creations.” This is as our sages said, “The Creator said, ‘I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.’” These are the means by which we can come to do everything for His glory. This is why we thank Him for it and say, “Blessed is our God, who created us for His glory.”
In order for one to be able to work in order to bestow, meaning to do things not for his own benefit, we were given work in mind and in heart. “In mind” means that one should go above what the mind and reason obligate him to do. This is called “above reason,” meaning that he believes although his intellect and reason disagree with what he wants to do. That is, we were given the Mitzva [sing. of Mitzvot] of faith above reason, which says that what reason tells us to do, we do not obey, and the faith, where we are commanded to believe what the Torah says, this is what we do, and we say that faith is of the utmost importance, and what reason and intellect obligate us to do are of inferior importance. Certainly, we should follow the one who is more important, and this is called “faith above reason.”
But in faith, too, we should make three discernments:
1) For example, if a person gives to his friend $1,000, and the person accepts it, and he is completely sure and believes, since this man is my friend, and a meticulous person, so if he gives the money, there must be $1,000 there, and there is no need to count. This is called “faith below reason.” In other words, he believes him because his reason does not object to what he believes, meaning there is no contradiction between believing him and the reason. It follows that to him, faith is below reason, and the reason is more important. That is, he believes him because reason does not object. However, if this is in contrast to reason, he will probably not believe. This is still not regarded as faith above reason.
2) He tells him, “Here is $1,000.” The receiver counts it three times and sees that there is the stated amount there and says to the giver, “I believe you that there is that amount here, as you say.” Certainly, this does not count as faith.
3) He counts the $1,000 three times and sees that one dollar is missing, but he says to the giver, “I believe you that there is $1,000 here. Even though the reason and the intellect say that there is less here, he says that he believes. This is called true “above reason.” However, maintaining faith above reason, meaning saying, “I annul my reason, and the fact that I counted three times does not matter, but I believe with faith above reason,” meaning that the faith is more important than the reason, this is hard work.
By this we will understand that the faith that one should have in the Creator where he annuls his reason and what it tells him, by saying, “My reason will be as annulled as the dust of the earth,” this is considered that he annuls his view from before the view of Torah. This called “the work of the mind.”
Also, there is the work of the heart. The heart is called “desire.” Since man was created with a nature of desire to receive for one’s own sake, meaning to enjoy life, when he is told that he should work for the sake of the Creator, it is against nature, so why is this needed? A person needs to do everything for the sake of the Creator for the three above reasons, and this is why it is special work, for by this a person knows that the fact that he wants to do everything for his own sake, since man was born with a nature of will to receive for himself, he must divide his work in two manners: 1) in the mind, which is that one should pay attention to the state of his faith. Yet, in faith, a person can work in order to receive reward, meaning to observe Torah and Mitzvot because it will later reward him, meaning that he will have benefit for himself from this, and he will therefore remain separated.
Hence, there is another special work called “heart,” which is “love of others.” If he works only on love of others, he will still remain outside of Kedusha [holiness], since love of others is not the purpose of creation, for the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations, meaning for the creatures to receive from the Creator the delight and pleasure. But if they have no faith, how can they receive anything from the Creator when they have no faith in the Creator? Hence, the work must be in two ways.
However, Baal HaSulam said that the fact that we must go with faith, and the Creator does not let us serve Him by the way of knowing, is also in order for the work not to be for one’s own sake, since if He were revealed to the creatures and they would not need faith, it would be impossible to do anything for the sake of the Creator. We can see how difficult it is to receive corporeal pleasures only in order to bestow, and it is much more so with spiritual pleasures, for in a spiritual pleasure, even a small bit has more pleasures than corporeal pleasures, so he will certainly not be able to receive in order to bestow. Hence, there is work in two ways: 1) in mind, 2) in heart.
Accordingly, we should interpret what we asked, What is the meaning of the purification of a cow’s ashes, in the work? Our sages said, “Because Satan and the nations of the world taunt Israel, to say, ‘What is this Mitzva?’” the answer is that this is why he wrote about it, “It is a statute.” We asked, What is the answer that can be accepted, since they are asking why this is so, and it makes sense that we must answer so that the one who is asking will understand why. But what is the answer? “It is a statute, a decree before Me; you have no permission to doubt it.”
The thing is that since the order of the work is that we must begin the work in the mind, meaning take upon ourselves faith above reason, therefore, if the nations of the world do not ask, What is this Mitzva? but only that he takes upon himself faith, that he believes above reason, this is regarded as faith of the first kind, which we said above was like a person who gave him $1,000 and he believes him that the sum is as stated and does not count them.
But when they come and ask, What is this Mitzva and what is its reason, it is similar to faith of the third kind, of which we said that it is when he does count them, and his counting falls short, yet he believes him above reason, meaning he cancels his reason and intellect before the giver. This is called “faith above reason.” Hence, precisely when the nations of the world in one’s body ask what is this Mitzva and what is its reason, since the body feels no taste in that which is above the intellect and reason, hence, the true and correct answer is to reply to the body that he believes that these questions were sent to him from above so that now he will be able to observe the Mitzva of faith above reason. Hence, the correct answer is specifically because it is a statute and decree. At that time, it is forbidden to give the body reasonable answers about why he wants to work for the benefit of the King.
It follows that precisely through the reply of statue and decree, he can advance in the work of the Creator. Although he sees that he cannot overcome the arguments of the nations of the world, he should believe above reason about that, too, that the fact that he cannot overcome is not because he has a weak character and this is why he cannot overcome, but rather that this is what is desired above—that he will not be able to overcome.
And the reason is specifically that by being unable to overcome, he now receives an opportunity to pray that the Creator will help him overcome. The benefit of this is that specifically through the help from above, it is possible to be rewarded with the NRNHY in his soul, since each time he receives help, it is by receiving an illumination from above. It follows that now he has an opportunity to be rewarded with the Gadlut [greatness/adulthood] of the soul because he has a need for the Creator to help him. It is known that The Zohar says, that His help is in giving him from above a soul.
Therefore, one should be careful when the body comes and asks, “Why must you exert in Torah and Mitzvot if you see that you feel no taste in them?” A person should not think of ways to answer intellectually, but rather tell the body, “I am thankful to you for approaching me with these arguments, since I am saying that reasonably speaking, you are correct, meaning that from the perspective of common sense, I should be sitting still. Yet, I am working above reason, and although you are not letting me overcome, I do want to overcome as much as I can. Therefore, I am asking for the help of the Creator so I can prevail over you. This must be the best opportunity, for by this I can be awarded entry into Kedusha and to do everything in order to bestow. It follows that the reply, “It is a statute, a decree before Me,” is the real answer in order for a person to advance in the work and achieve permanent faith, for the Creator to help him be rewarded with mind and heart.
According to the above, we can interpret what we asked, that on one hand, he says that a cow is a statute without any reason, but then our sages give a reason through the allegory about “the son of a maidservant who soiled the king’s palace. They said, ‘Let his mother come and clean up the feces.’ Similarly, let the cow come and atone for the calf.” Thus, they do give a reason for the red cow, and the answer is that the mother will come and clean up her son. This is the answer to the red cow being a statute without reason. It means that the sin of the calf was as it is written in The Zohar (“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Item 14), “Those who sinned with the calf said about, ‘These [ELEH] are your gods, O Israel,’ since they blemished that clothing and the abundance went out to other gods.” This means that they wanted to receive the light of Hochma without a clothing of Hassadim, which is regarded as not wanting to accept the clothing of Hassadim, called “faith above reason.”
Hence, it is about this that the commandment of red cow comes, which is all statute and decree, entirely above reason, for this cow is called “mother,” and if he corrects the sin of not wanting to go with faith above reason, by this the sin will be corrected. It follows that there is no reason for the red cow itself. On the contrary, since the matter of the red cow is entirely above reason, this will correct what they wanted with the sin of the calf, that it will all be within reason, when they said, “These are your gods, Israel.” It follows that the matter of the red cow is completely above reason, which indicates the matter of faith, which purifies the impure, since Tuma’a [impurity] comes from the will to receive for one’s own benefit, and the correction of exiting the will to receive is by accepting the work of faith above reason, for then one asks for the help of the Creator and by this, he emerges from the rule of the will to receive. This is called “the exodus from Egypt,” for only the Creator Himself delivered them from Egypt, as it is written, “I and not a messenger.”
It follows that the meaning of a red cow, whose ashes purify, ash indicates something that was cancelled, such as after the burning of the cow, when only ashes remain, implying the annulment, once a person has annulled his reason and his will before the will of the Creator. At that time, a person is rewarded with the will of the Creator, which is to bestow. When a person has the desire to bestow, he is called “a pure man,” for he does not do anything unless it brings contentment to his Maker.
According to the above, we should interpret what is written (in Yotzer, for the portion, “Cow”), “to purify the impure, to defile the pure with saying, ‘holy.’” We should understand how there can be two opposites in the same subject. In the work, we should interpret that when one begins to prepare oneself to take upon himself faith above reason, he is immediately defiled. That is, before he began this work, when he worked in order to receive reward, he felt that he was righteous. That is, he saw that he was observing Torah and Mitzvot and did not find within him any flaw. Hence, he knew that he was pure and did not have any Tuma’a. He was only concerned about others—that they are not walking in the path of the Creator, and he wanted to give the faith, but they would not listen. But concerning himself, he knew that he had enough faith to dispense to several people, if they only wanted to receive.
But when he begins the work of bestowal and to believe in the Creator above reason, he sees the truth, that he is immersed in self-love and is devoid of faith. It follows that now he has become impure. This is called “to defile the pure.” But afterward, he is rewarded with “to purify the impure.”
Reader: We will now move on to the lesson from July 26, 2002.
M. Laitman: (32:58) We heard what he said in the lesson from July 2002. We heard the article from Volume 3, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “What Is the Meaning of the Purification of a Cow’s Ashes, in the Work?” from “Bamidbar,” “Hukat” [statutes]. The purpose of creation is to do good to His created beings. Doing good to the creations, that cannot be any less than the degree of the Creator. The Creator cannot perform an action which is below His level, His degree. And so, it can only be one action. If He is to make something that's outside of Himself, this action must be of the same level, the same quality as Him. And so, when He created the created being, He created him exactly in adhesion, perfection, eternality, which is equal to the Creator's own degree. And for the created being to reach that feeling, who he is, what he is, where he is, who he belongs to, who he's equal to, then the created being needs to recognize this state, to know it in full. And he needs to come to know it from within his nature, meaning from the opposite, from something from nothing, existence from absence. Otherwise, he will not have this full recognition of his state. Therefore, he must go through all the stages, which are the opposite of eternality, perfection, adhesion, and to go through them in action, in action as well as in consciousness, awareness, thought, to see them acting on His substance, and to also know them from the side of existence from absence, and then from the side of existence from existence, and then in the difference between his feeling in existence from existence and existence from absence, meaning from the side of the Creator and from the side of the created being. He receives discernment, he comes to the recognition of evil, what exactly the evil is, it's not that he feels bad, but that it's bad to be in a state that's inferior to the Creator. And then he will see that perfection can only exist in a state where something from nothing returns to something from something. What does it mean? That within the will to receive, there cannot be any perfection, because the will to receive is enclosed within itself. It feels what's within it, it attains what's within it, and therefore it is limited in quality as well as quantity. And what the Rav writes here, settling for little, it means that each time he attains something, what he attains suffices for him, and he doesn't want to expand on it, because expanding the border, that means that he now needs to suffer, suffer from a lack, and after he suffers from lacking something, then he goes to get it, to attain it. If you now tell a person, “now we will fulfill all your desires, you don't need anything more, it's enough, it's good,” he will agree, we can see that on ourselves.
M. Laitman: (37:08) And so every lack that we gain is through pressure from above, through the society, through the books, through the upper providence, we receive every time more of the will to receive, an addition of the will to receive, but on our own we would never emerge from the decree of the beast, because it hurts. Why do it? What for? If we could stay sated, whatever state that may be exactly, with beastly things, food, sex, warmth, calmness, rest, even minimally so, we would still remain in that, and we would have no power at all to go against our nature, to emerge from it, to suffer, because the will to receive will not allow us to go out and suffer, it would remain always in that state, he would freeze that state. But because the upper providence pushes us towards the purpose of creation, to become great and perfect, then more and more of the will to receive rolls down to us, on us, and we then have to fulfill it, and so we keep chasing new goals. Therefore, reaching a state of true, infinite perfection, that is impossible within the will to receive. It's only if a person emerges from it, exits it, is outside of it, which is to say that we must emerge from our shell, and to live not in order to receive, but in order to bestow the intention towards what's outside of us, and then in that way we will never be limited, not in the size of the vessel, or the reception of the abundance. And love of others - he writes in this article as well, the Rav - that is not the goal, it's a means by which to achieve the goal. Through this we learn how opposite we are to this rule, this emergence from the will to receive. And the best learning is through those who are around us, our environment. And so the exercises we were given to do here in this world towards others, they accelerate our advancement, our development. And so we get to understand better in mind and heart how limited we are, so that we can come to a state where we demand advancement with the right desire, meaning to feel the existence that is outside of us, to live in what's outside of us, for our desires and intentions to exist outside of us. Meaning, never to live within ourselves, so that the feeling of self will be only like that point, the foundation that a person rises from, feeling what's outside of it. Only in that way he begins to depart from this central point of his self, expanding the distance of his perceptions, the range of his perceptions, until he reaches the magnitude of Ein Sof [infinity]. There are many, many details in this article. Perhaps, it kind of encompasses a lot. And faith above, below, and within reason - this we also see in our world. The whole world lives in faith within reason. Why is it called faith then? Faith is the force that compels me to act, meaning whatever I feel, whatever I understand, what I accept as fact, that is called reason. And if I act according to that, if only that gives me the power to act, it is called faith within reason. That's how we act.
M. Laitman: (42:15) And it doesn't matter that my reason can be based on someone else's nonsense, or I'm told things which are completely untrue, but if I accept them within my reason, they're absorbed within my reason, then for me it's a fact, and I work according to it. There are many stigmas in the world, where the world acts accordingly, accepts them as truth - it is true, it's a fact. And there's faith below reason as well, where I don't know anything about what I'm being told, no facts on the ground. Rather, I take upon myself this condition—usually it's through education—that I'm not going to check. Whatever I'm told, I don't criticize it at all. Instead, I act below the point of criticism. I'm told - below any criticism, right? If I accept this completely, I'm not activating my senses, my reason, anything, so anything that I decide to accept below reason, it enters me as a fact, that way it is absorbed in me, and I act accordingly. Usually we call that fanaticism, right? Things which are accepted with no critique. This can be things which are impossible to actually check, and it can also be such things where we decide to - whatever it may be, we accept in a certain way, specific way, and it can be related to the society's views, but however it may be. Many of humanity's decisions are reached in that way also. I'm not talking only about religious circles, extreme orthodox or other religions, right? Not that alone. Even in the public, the general public, there are things which are just accepted below criticism, and they live with it. So, below reason and within reason, these two, also in a certain mixture between them, some are like this, some are like that, but ultimately, humanity uses these two approaches to life. Whatever information I receive from outside and how I act according to that information, it's either below reason or within reason. And there's no person who doesn't have both in him, and it depends on the relation between these two discernments, how he acts, the proportion. And we also say that there's something called above reason, which is something that is indeed unclear, not understood. It's a thing which is above our nature, above our intellect. Meaning, if I stand in the bank, and I ask, like he says there, right, for $1,000, and it's counted for me, and I see that he's counting $999. Yes? What should I do? I can shut my eyes and not look, not see how much he's counting, and to just take it and go. That is called below reason. No criticism. I can look at it and see, wait, this is $999. Yes? And to act according to what I see. “The judge has only what his eyes can see.” Yes? And then I can disagree, I can agree, but I know that I'm in this, that I'm receiving $999. And it may be that I see that I've received $999, and it's not that I decide, okay, fine, it's almost $1,000. So, I forgive, I complete the lack in some way. Instead, I receive the $999 as though it is $1,000, 100%, because I submit my reason. I submit it before the reason of the one giving to me, the cashier. Yes? And that is great work. I need to emerge, to exit myself, to concede, relinquish my reason, and to accept his reason.
M. Laitman: (47:29) It's not simple. It's not some inner trick you can just perform, just like that. And this is called going above reason. It might sound easy, but it's completely impossible to do. For that, we need to know the mind of the giver, the giver himself. We need to adhere to him, for me to have faith in him more than I have faith in my own reason. For that, I need many, many systems which assist me to come to the knowledge and do the work and exertion before I can reach that decision, where I can go above reason. And that's if we're talking about $1 difference between his reason and mine. If we're talking about the opposite, where he gives me $1 and says, well, you got 1,000, but what's missing is $999. Or maybe, even it's all of it missing, and I behave as though I receive $1,000. But it's not that I agree externally, I just act. But rather, I need to complement this within my mind to make up for this lack, which are facts in mind and heart - that I received the $1,000. So meaning, I need some fulfillment to satisfy me. It's not imagination. I need some fulfillment to satisfy me instead of the facts, instead of the beastly feeling. And these things are impossible to achieve unless a person truly reaches spiritual attainment and feeling. And those fill him, giving him that. It's not some kind of decision, where from now on, I decide to behave a certain way, or that from now on, I will somehow play some game with myself. It's not, it's impossible to concede. It's impossible to concede. It's impossible to do. And so these actions are actions which gradually, slowly, we begin to understand that until we come to actually perform them, it takes time. One who thinks he can perform an action above reason, well, slowly we come to see that these things depend on exiting one's body, exiting our reason, our consciousness. Well, when we talk about it next time, how it's the ash of the red cow, how it purifies, it's the same thing that he describes. It's also this purifying, defiling.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:43) What is the connection where he talks about inner work in mind and heart with regards to above reason?
M. Laitman: Let's put it this way. I don't know if I can explain it right now, it's rather deep. There is work in the correction of the vessels and work in the absorption, the reception of the lights, which are called the work in mind and the work in the heart. Both need to be above reason. Very limited in coming into that. It's a very, very subtle and broad subject. Maybe more simple questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:56) We say that above reason is only when a person has spiritual attainment. This means that in the time of preparation, we basically don't have the ability to work above reason. So, what does it mean that we can be within reason and below reason, what I call faith, where I am in the time of preparation? Let's say, I work actually below reason?
M. Laitman: We, in our world, are in such a form where, first of all, I see, and feel and sense. Then I decide and act. It might be good things or bad things; it could come through punishments and blows or through candy. It doesn't matter what. However it may be, I decide, I use my reason. It never happens that I take the reason of someone else without deciding that this will be instead of my own reason. It's impossible to explain what happens in spirituality. In spirituality, you cannot attain a degree, the reason of a degree that's higher than your own, before you concede your own reason. Because if you're absorbing, receiving something that is above you, then it's not above you anymore. The difference between spiritual degrees is that you replace what's in your heart, the vessels in the heart and the vessels in the mind. So, how with your current mind and heart, how can you acquire a degree which is above, which you simply cannot grasp, cannot comprehend? Each degree above my own, even the smallest, in me it's felt as infinite, because I cannot grasp it, I cannot catch it. If it's a little bit above my vessel, that's it, it's felt as infinity. So, what can I do? It's only if I receive some force from above, which helps me, instead of my mind and heart, to acquire, to receive a mind and heart from the next degree. And after that, I can work on attaining the fulfillment in them.
Student: So the healthier thing is to only work within reason in time preparation?
M. Laitman: (54:41) So during the period of preparation we only learn how limited we are working with the vessels, within the vessels that we have within reason, and how we can't get rid of this method of always being within reason. And how to truly work above reason we begin to want it as we approach the barrier, but in truth, “the sons of Israel groaned from their labors.” That's just before he emerges from this world, before spiritual attainment. And then we do certainly want only that, meaning to go above reason. That becomes for the person, it becomes his only goal, his only real goal, because he sees that otherwise he's limited within himself. He always settles for what he has, he can be filled and shut off, satisfied. He'll never reach a goal that is truly, truly above just settling for some fulfillment of whatever kind. Meaning, it's impossible to grow and for the vessel to keep growing without acquiring this method of faith above reason. It means that each time you will want to acquire a lack that's outside of you. You understand? We don't feel it. If now I can add what's in him, and him, and him, and each and everyone here, how much richer I would be. Well, I don't believe that they're that great, so it doesn't… I don't mind it so much, it doesn't hurt me, it doesn't pain me. But if I saw that each of them received, and that what I feel right now, how I live, my feeling of life, vitality, knowledge, attainment, all of it, if I felt how much more I can gain, then I truly would want to achieve adhesion with the others. Yes? That's why he writes that love of others is a means. Through it, gradually we come to feel how the attainment of the vessel, which is outside of us, is necessary for the attainment of perfection and eternality. What is Ein Sof [infinity]? It doesn't mean that you attain some quality which is called infinity. Infinity, means that you come to the ability to absorb infinitely, to receive infinitely, and then you receive infinite fulfillment. It's a problem to express these things. You're not limiting, you're not limited, let's say, in vessels or in fulfillments, and it keeps growing without any limits, without any criticism even. Because transcending your reason, going above reason, the screen which is in order to bestow, it becomes unlimited the more vessels are gathered, assembled. And so it follows that you seemingly invert your point, turn it to the opposite. Your vessel, you bring it out, it becomes the anti-vessel, opposite to itself. That's the meaning of the heart of stone inverting to become in order to bestow. Because it was built initially by the light as in order to receive, and when it inverts to become like the light, it becomes the exact same nature.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:01) So above reason is not just corporeal against spiritual?
M. Laitman: No, above reason, it's not corporeal versus spiritual. Above reason is the law of the spiritual vessel. I'm talking only about spirituality, not corporeality. We don't have, in any of our corporeal desires, our five senses, we cannot act above reason. Above reason, that applies only to the spiritual vessel, the sixth sense towards the upper light, towards the Creator, towards the desires which are outside of the pleasures of this world. The pleasures of this world, here it's the same substance, it remains the same substance, it enjoys the same way and suffers the same way. It can be a great Kabbalist, if you poke him, stamp him, he'll cry. You understand? The vessels remain the same vessels, the beastly ones - it doesn't change. It's only our sixth sense that we talk about, it changes. The five senses of the body, all these things - it doesn't exist - they remain in the same nature, it doesn't change. Your body and the body of Rabbi Shimon, it's the same body. You can do organ transplants, whatever, there's nothing holy about it. And so everything we talk about, the corrections and the attainments and this method of above reason, in order to bestow, with the screens and all - it's only with respect to the spiritual desire, meaning the sixth sense that a person acquires, that he develops from the point in the heart. I cannot see above reason and hear above reason, it doesn't apply. Above reason enters through the sight, hearing, smell, speech, touch into my desire, then it enters my beastly desire. It's received in the regular way, either below reason or within reason. But the point in the heart that I begin to work with, that I begin to develop, because that is the point of contact with the light, with the Creator, in it, if I want to develop it, there is a law of development which is only above reason, only outside of it. It itself does not grow, it grows only when I emerge from it, outside. There are no words here, really, I want to present it nicely, but it's impossible.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:44) If the difference between work above reason and below reason is only in my examination, actually, and the result of both is receiving the reason of the upper one, why is my test important, if I know in advance that it's false? Why is it important to check?
M. Laitman: Why do we always want to examine where we are: within reason, above reason? We don't want to, but gradually we learn that this is what we do. By this, I'm checking what kind of regard I have for divinity, meaning, by this, I check if I'm perceiving correctly this, if I'm perceiving reality correctly. The reality that's around us; we perceive through the five senses. If we want to perceive it in the real sense, in the sixth sense, meaning, not as it enters our five openings, but rather how it exists truly, outside of me, then I can perceive that only according to the law of equivalence of form. And equivalence of form, means that I equalize this sixth sense, this point in the heart, with what's outside. But how do I know what exists without? For me to know what exists without, outside, I need to correct my sixth sense, so that it is the same as what exists outside. So, how? This method of going above reason that I accept, I accept these corrections on me, which exist outside of me, that gives me equivalence of form between the sixth sense and the external world. If the cashier tells me this, it's a thousand dollars, and according to my beastliness, I check, but it's not true. So, I need to accept this as fact in the sixth sense, and then the sixth sense will be equal in equivalence with what's outside of me. Then I exit my black box and I feel what exists outside of me. Above reason - it's the reason of the upper one. It's simply the higher degree. In Him, that law applies, and He now tells me, this is called white. But it's black, it's brown. No, I call it white. So, if you want to feel me correctly, update your reception device, so that this is called white. You know, you have such devices that require some calibration before work, you know, even a level or how many kilograms, weights. You need to, first of all, calibrate, receive some points of data. So, when I update my sixth sense, it means that I'm updating it according to what's outside. And so, according to the law of equivalence of form, I begin to receive. Like a radio receiver, I receive some wave that's outside of me. If I correctly rotate the dial, right? If within I created, I generate the same wave as what exists outside, then I'm reading the wave that exists outside, I receive it. That's the method of above reason; it helps us do this. It's good that the upper one gives me this discernment. Otherwise, I could not ever feel anything outside of me. I would only feel what exists within my body through the five senses, how the five senses are impressed by something.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:34) So, the test is, I check myself?
M. Laitman: It's not an examination. It's zeroing out. It's a calibration, yes. Calibrating my device.
Student: So, I have to calibrate?
M. Laitman: I want the upper one to give me these discernments, which for me are called above my reason, because it's His reason, His reason of a higher degree. He gives me them, and He says, for me, this is defined as this, and that, and this and that. I see that I defined it completely differently. Am I crazy, or is He crazy? What to do? If I accept this, it's not a simple method. You cannot just accept it just like that. You need a connection to the upper one, that He's truly the upper one, that He's doing it. It's not that through some trick you can just lie to yourself. You accept it, and it becomes your nature. You understand? It's not some secondary action where I say, “Yes, I'll accept it, let's see what I profit from it.” But without it, it's impossible.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:55) So, we have to change our qualities with respect to the Creator, to bestow it to Him?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes. Initially, we don't think about bestowing upon anyone, even though it might seem to us that we're doing something that's bestowal. There's no bestowal there. That is clear. It's all about the intention to somehow satisfy himself. That's how a person acts. He cannot do any different. To truly think about the other, to benefit the other, he writes in this article that this is just a means by which to achieve adhesion with the Creator, meaning to reach perfection. And also, this perfection might appear to us as an egoistic goal as well. Perfection, eternality, I know everything, I'm omnipotent and omniscient like Him. These are words which are impossible to properly explain. But let's say, instead of these words, the best thing is equivalence of form. That provides a more accurate definition. He is merciful, so you be merciful, and so forth. And then gradually, a person who takes upon himself faith above reason, meaning above reason he accepts the reason of the other one, then each time, you know, it's as if he's pulling himself up more and more, progressively. So he rises.
Student: But he changes himself every time.
M. Laitman: Yes, he changes himself in such a way where all the facts change in him, all the vessels. Meaning, when he looks at himself, at his self of yesterday, he completely disagrees with everything that existed yesterday.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:03) So, a Kabbalist always lives above reason. That's what it turns out.
M. Laitman: A Kabbalist lives above reason all the time. Yes, meaning that all his actions are actually in connection. Now we're starting to study the second restriction, and soon we will come to the study of how we grow from below upwards. Adhesion to the upper, the minimal adhesion to the upper one, is called the first spiritual degree. When we emerge from this world through the barrier to spirituality, the minimal degree is called Ubar, or embryo. The Ubar is considered that you, as you are a man with all your knowledge, and life philosophy, and your wisdom, and everything you've acquired with your knowledge, experience, and everything that you have, you are willing to cancel everything you have, to give everything up that you have in order to be adhered to the upper one, without the intellect, without reason, where you remain with your intellect and reason and everything that's within you. You adhere to Him like a seed, a sperm seed inside the womb. That's called an embryo. That's where you start growing from. Just like an embryo in his mother's womb in our world is simply a result of existence from absence, as a consequence of our spirituality. And this is how, in spirituality, our soul grows. That's what it starts growing from. Our soul has only a record, which adheres itself to the upper spiritual degree. That's considered that we're crossing the barrier. And then, your state is that you are like that point, like a seed adhered to the upper one, and the upper one operates upon you 100%. To you, as you are big and already wise and everything in this life, you cancel it all, meaning you continue to live in everything, but towards His reason, you annul yourself completely, completely, like a seed within the womb. I don't know how to describe this. From awareness, from everything there is, anything towards spirituality - you have no opinion, and nothing remains. You just want one thing: for Him to rule over you. And you cancel yourself and ask for it to be that way with all you might, for Him to control you. This means that you enter to be an embryo in the upper one. And the rest of the degrees are beyond that. Beyond that, meaning that now flesh is being added to you, meaning desire to receive. And you, even in this desire to receive that is beginning to be added to you, and they don't add your desire to receive towards things of this world, towards the upper ones, doubts, all kinds of things against the upper one, which say, “no way, he's not giving you $1,000.” $999, $998, and so on and so forth, until he doesn't give - zero. And it seems to you that you need to nullify as if it's $1,000, let's say. So, you're given desires. These are already the shells, the Klipot against the upper one. And you need, by them, to nevertheless be adhered to Him, cancel them, and that's how you grow. That's how flesh grows around this record, and an embryo is made.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:01) And then what stage do you completely…
M. Laitman: So, this is how you grow. And when you receive the desire to receive with the screen, the upper one gives you blood, blood becomes flesh, it's considered that it becomes flesh, and in short, until ten Sefirot begin to be accumulated, which is called 40 days from the creation of the embryo, and so on, when 40 degrees is Bina. When you reach the degree of Bina, in order to bestow, where you acquire there the minimal force, it's considered that there's a certain depiction, an image of an offspring, when you're similar to the upper force, the force of Bina, Mem. The letter Mem is 40, 40 days. So, you already received some form of entity, not independent yet, but something in which you're similar to the Creator in some initial form. Still an embryo, but there's already those ten small Sefirot there. But onwards, you grow into the nine months of pregnancy, and when you're born, it's considered that you received a similarity to the Creator on the degree of the smallest desire to receive that you can emerge outwards. And then when you emerge outwards, you're also dependent, just like in this world, you're dependent on the upper world, you're dependent on it, it supplies you milk, which means the force of Bina constantly. We receive this through suckling from the upper one, from his Chazeh, his chest basically. And certainly, just like in this world. So what am I trying to say? That all the degrees and actions are above reason. All the degrees are that, as much as forces against the upper are added to you, against that you want to emerge from that force and to kind of be outside of it, in the upper one. We don't have words, let's learn.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:16) I see that we're recording the lesson, and we also hear that during the study we have to be with surrounding lights. Should we listen to the recordings when the main goal is the surrounding lights?
M. Laitman: When I came to Rabash, I studied before that. Three, four years, I searched where I can study Kabbalah, and I went to all kinds of places. When I came for the first time, so I came without a tape, but the second time already, I had a tape recorder. That's it, I went, and I bought a more sophisticated Sony recorder; it was a very expensive one, I remember, it was 1979, and I started to record from the second lesson, when I understood that this - that's it, I found a place. And then I always returned, I repeated it. Without going over the material again, it's nothing. It seems to us like, how could it be that a book, or some cassette, or video recording, video is actually… we, after all, don't need these things; by these things we awaken the records that are in us. So those who repeat the lesson that were already in it, it's one thing, and those that never saw it and never heard ever, that's another thing. But nevertheless, this and that are things that I don't think it's possible, that it's possible without that, I don't think. It's all together, what I'm building here in these lessons, I'm building a bridge between a modern human being and the books of Baal HaSulam, such that if you were to take these books, you won't understand anything. And these audio and video recordings are simply a necessity; I don't understand how it is possible without it. That's why, I don't know what to say: for a person that has a few moments and can go over the material again, it's a must, I would say. I went over it always, several times when I was traveling from Rehovot to Bnei Brak, and from Bnei Brak to Rehovot, when I lived in Rehovot, so I would truly listen to those recordings all the time. And also at work, I'd put an earbud and listen, and that's how it enters. Now, even if you are in some work and it doesn't enter, it doesn't matter, you know, there are some experiments with doctors, with experts, let's say, with sleep, etc. They put a tape and a person hears all kinds of voices and sounds, or they teach English, let's say, while you're sleeping, etc., these things are absorbed within, and it's constantly working. That's why even someone who can't hear, it's in some place there, you know, there's kind of, there are such techniques even, that it enters that way even better, without limitations, without some screen in between, without the person's resistance, so it's worthwhile for it to always be there somewhat. And to see it at home, well, between football and a movie, the CSR movie - there is no transgression.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:23) When we speak about equivalence of form, if I understand, it's only on behalf of the desire to bestow. So, all other aspects of His essence, we have no idea what it is.
M. Laitman: We… Kabbalah is a method for the revelation of the Creator to the created beings in this world. We're not talking about souls outside of the bodies, where the bodies are dead, and the soul is in some other form, an existence outside of the body, and then it has a different form of existence, different filling. We're not talking about that. Kabbalah does not talk about that at all. There's… It exists, but not in these books, and not books we can even say. That's one thing. The other thing is that we're not talking about what people attain beyond corrections. We only learn how to correct ourselves within our lifetime in order to feel godliness, to a certain degree called the final correction, not including the last degree of the final correction, because the degree of the final correction already enters into action on its own already, and what is beyond it is already called the secrets of Torah. Meaning, we have a method of what we need to do in this world in this lifetime. Now you're asking, do we attain His essence, and more and more, and something? We don't talk about that. We are talking about what can be attained during the what we call the 6,000 years, the 6,000 degrees, the world of BYA, where a person, the soul of Adam is in the worlds of BYA. We'll soon learn this. We're also learning this in portion 16, in part 16, in the middle of the week, if you can come. It's not too hard to understand, and that's all we learn here. It's not because we don't want to show you something beyond that, but simply before you acquire the vessels of the 6,000 degrees, or 125 degrees, or 620 degrees, no matter how you divide this path of correction of the soul. Altogether, until you correct the entire soul, you can't understand what happens, you can't understand what happens beyond the degree called Gmar Tikkun, or the final correction, and how altogether we exist, and feel, and receive, and live then in such feelings, in that reality. Therefore, in Kabbalah, impossible, or prohibited is the same, it's considered the same thing. It's simply impossible. A person doesn't have; it's like, go tell fish about what you're studying, but we're in the same world, and we're living, and they're living. The difference between us is less than that which is between us and our first spiritual degree. Do you understand? And you can see how much you can't communicate with them. What? What kind of relationship is there? How can you understand one another? And the distance between us and spirituality is even greater, and between spirituality and what's beyond the final correction also can't be compared at all, because the whole vessel is inverted in order to bestow even the stony heart, meaning you're correcting the existence from absence, you're skipping over it, on the beginning of creation, which is something we can only kind of, can say with words, but what is that? That's why we don't touch that. All right, let's go to the study.