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

Daily Lesson (Afternoon) September 3, 2024

Part 1 Rabash. Record 579. I Will Remove the Stony Heart

Hello, we are reading in the book, Writings of Rabash, Part 3, Article 579, I Will Remove the Stony Heart. You can find the materials for the lesson are on our websites, in Arvut and on Sviva Tova. 

M. Laitman: Let's read this article. It's a very beautiful article. And later on, we'll talk about it. 

Reading Article: (00:36) I Will Remove the Stony Heart 

The stony heart means that a person wants to understand if it is worthwhile for him to engage, not in order to receive reward. A person cannot understand this because it is against our nature, for we were born with a will to receive for ourselves. Hence, a person must work in faith above reason, meaning even though he does not understand how it is possible to achieve this degree, but it is rather a gift of the Creator.

This is called “Unless the Creator helps him, he cannot overcome it.” This is called “I will remove the stony heart.” That is, only the Creator can give him that power so the body will agree to work not in order to receive reward. But from man’s perspective, he must only begin. That is, if a person yearns to achieve this degree and performs acts of Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], and prayer so as to achieve this, the Creator helps him.

But before this, if there is no awakening from below, one does not receive help from above for this. This is called “man’s work,” meaning what man should do, since answering a prayer pertains to whether there is a prayer from below, which is called “raising MAN,” meaning that a person raises the lack that he has and asks the Creator to satisfy his lack.

Hence, if he has a lack that he cannot work not in order to receive reward, the Creator gives him the Mayin Duchrin [MAD], which is the filling of the lack, namely the Creator gives him that strength. However, if a person does not ask for this, meaning about not being able to work not in order to receive reward, then we cannot speak of filling a lack.

In order for one to feel that this is called “a lack,” there must be special education about this. Otherwise, we do not feel that this is called “a lack.” A person feels only the lack of diminution of light, meaning that he has no pleasure in Torah and prayer the way he understands it should be. But the lack of a Kli [vessel], and that this is the real lack, not everyone is given this feeling. 

This is why the world is educated only on a lack of light, and not on a lack of a Kli, since for the light to shine in him, he has a Kli because the will to receive feels only the absence of pleasure, as this pertains to the vessels of reception. But the absence of a Kli is the opposite of the vessels of reception. Hence, a person does not feel this naturally. This is why it is impossible to educate the general public on this lack, but they are rather educated on the lack of light.

For this reason, this lack requires special education, and not everyone can be educated in this manner. Rather, only people who have the quality of truth can be educated.

M. Laitman: (05:43) Beautiful article. Let's read it again! 

Re-Reading Article: (06:02) I Will Remove the Stony Heart

Question (German): (11:34) It is written that only people who have the quality of truth can be educated. How can we attain the quality of truth? 

M. Laitman: I don't think you can acquire it – a person is born with it. He is sensitive to the fact that he has vessels of bestowal or he does not have vessels of bestowal. And according to that, he develops. 

Student: What is the truth? 

M. Laitman: The truth is that a person feels what it is called the desire to bestow. And that's what he wants. He wants to have this opportunity, to want to bestow. So, first of all, we need to have the knowledge of evil.

Student: What is the beginning of the path, with which we can start on this path of revelation of the truth; do we have to attain recognition of evil first? 

M. Laitman: Also, but it's not a must, the main thing is that a person wants to reach a state that he desires strongly to receive from the Creator, from above, the quality of bestowal, and that's what he asks. 

Student: How can I help a friend to achieve this sensitivity in order to develop towards this? 

M. Laitman: We need to be concerned, or to make sure, that everyone who wants to reach the path of truth will have a feeling of to what extent he belongs to it, and to help them in that. That we draw them to it until these people feel what they need to receive from above, from the Creator, what kind of a desire, to what exactly. And in such a way, they will come to the right education. 

Student: How can the Congress help us in this Convention? 

M. Laitman: We're going to talk about it in this Convention, we'll have these exercises and we will try to awaken the Creator. That He will answer on His part to us, that we will feel the true prayer, the true request. That we are coming closer to the Creator in order to convince Him to help us.

Question (German): (15:56) Is it possible to pay attention and see that a friend is in this quality? Or is not in this quality of truth? 

M. Laitman: No, we cannot see it, no; we might even go wrong by doing it. It's the other way around. However, we need to come closer to all our friends and to help them in coming closer to the Creator. And then, they will feel to what extent the Creator wants to do good to everyone, to advance everyone. 

Question (Turkiye 2): (17:23) What should we do if we cannot make room for the Creator in our desires? 

M. Laitman: We need, nevertheless, to ask from Him – that He will come closer, that He will bring us closer to Him – that He will do everything that is possible so that we will feel His proximity, His closeness, that He is close to us. 

Question (Tbilisi): (18:14) I'll be sincere: The one and only taste that is left for me is to bring contentment upon the Creator through my friends. In nothing else, do I see tasting in this world anymore. The fact that I come towards the faith above reason, do I conceal myself from the Creator here? Or it is a concealment, these are the questions that I have left. 

M. Laitman: Why do you feel or think that you are hiding from the Creator? 

Student: Because I come from my reason, from this world, and thus, I'm concealed from the Creator. 

M. Laitman: We do not conceal ourselves from the Creator, it's impossible to be hidden from Him. Ask that He will be revealed to us, that He will bring us closer to Him, that's what we need. So, ask for it.

Student: And this passing towards faith above reason, you said we have to pass 100%. In all honesty, I'm asking these questions so that the whole world Kli would hear it, that's my intention. What does it give us, let's say we have come towards faith above reason, and we feel good there. 

M. Laitman: It gives us the opportunity to feel the Creator. 

Student: Faith above reason is the upper world? 

M. Laitman: This is the beginning of the upper attainment.

Question (Women Italy): (20:25) We commit ourselves to work without the desire to receive, and every day we raise a prayer to the Creator so, it's good for the heart. How does the heart change? 

M. Laitman: How does it change our heart, the Creator changes the heart. We want to come closer through the friends to Him. We are asking Him to draw our friends to Him and as a result of that, we together begin to feel how He becomes closer and closer to us. 

Student: Everything is important for uniting the friends.

M. Laitman: Yes, that we will all be connected between us and the point of our connection will also be linked, or connected, with the Creator.

Question (Women MAK): (22:14) Upon reading the article, I have a feeling that we are so far from the correct Hissaron. And the Creator is waiting for us to have a correct plea. How do we start to feel and pray for the correct spirituality because the lack is yet to be born in us. We don't have a desire to fill the plea with the desire to bestow.

M. Laitman: Nevertheless, even if it's not correct, we will ask. 

Question (Women MAK): (22:52) What is the true complete Hissaron of the Ten in the prayer, as a reply, to the awakening by the Creator from above? 

M. Laitman: The true deficiency of the Ten in order to awaken the Creator towards us from above – we need all of us together to gather in one ring, like one vessel – and to turn to the Creator with one request alone. That He will help us to feel Him, and by that, we will all together connect into one common vessel. 

Student: What does it mean to realize this true Hissaron of the Ten? What does it express itself in? 

M. Laitman: When we feel that all of us, between us, are connected together as parts of the Malchut. And we will all, on our own, elevate ourselves above a deficiency that the Creator will reveal Himself in this common deficiency. And that we feel Him revealed within us, filling us, this is what we call a connection with the Creator.

Student: Is the measure of the correct Hissaron in the Ten lack of all the friends? Or it could be just a part of friends, some certain friends? 

M. Laitman: It could be just some. 

Student: How can the Ten be perpetually ready – how can I be always ready in the Ten to be in the same awakening as the Creator? 

M. Laitman: The Ten does not know this; simply, if we try to ascend to the Creator, to connect with Him, with all our might, our common forces. Then in such a case, gradually, this is how it happens, and the Creator is revealed between us, and comes closer to us, and allows us to reveal Him. 

Question (MAK 24): (25:52) It says here in the article: “In order for a person to feel that this is called a lack, there has to be a special education. Otherwise, we do not feel it as lack”. I have a feeling that above reason, you do not feel any lack. So, what kind of education needs to be added, here? 

M. Laitman: Only in the connection between us, that we will be connected between us in a mutual way. That we will want to reveal the Creator in the connection between us, and that is it.

Question (Women Spain): (26:54) We start to reveal the Creator from our little daily actions? 

M. Laitman: We need to try every day to determine times that we are connecting between us and turning to the Creator, that's it. And in such a way we go through a day, another day, and even many times a day, or multiple times a day, if it's possible. That we all together turn to the Creator and ask Him to draw all of us together to Him, that's it. 

Question (Women MAK 48): (28:07) Does it say in the article about the lack of the bestowing clean vessels in us? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Is it correct to say that the correct lack is that I feel that there is a lack of a Kli, a vessel, and not a light.

M. Laitman: Also, correct. 

Student: And can I say that when this place is given to us by the Creator, light comes there? 

M. Laitman: Relatively, yes. 

Question (Women Spain): (29:00) What is called, a lack in spirituality? And why does a woman have a bigger feeling of the lack and is this truly so. 

M. Laitman: A lack is called a desire of the created being to feel the Creator, that the Creator will be revealed in the vessels of the creature. So, here we try out of our connection, to raise a lack, a deficiency, to the Creator and hope that the Creator will feel our prayer and will descend into our desire. And then He will be revealed within us.

Student: When a woman is married, can her man cover her spiritual lack? 

M. Laitman: It has nothing to do with her being married or not being married, no. Her connection with the Creator is the same as the connection as the man with the Creator, there is no difference. That's it. 

Question (Women MAK 53): (30:58) How do we increase the desire to resemble the Creator in the group? How does the group help us to increase that desire or to begin it? 

M. Laitman: We need to raise our desires, our common lack, to the Creator and to ask Him to correct and fill this lack of ours. This is what we expect from the Creator. 

Student: What is the deficiency towards the heart? 

M. Laitman: The heart is feeling its lack. 

Student: And the heart is the created being? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (32:08) Does the special education need to include within it some measure of the recognition of the evil? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, in what stage does it need to be initial or does it need to be gradual? 

M. Laitman: It has to be gradual. 

Student: But it has to be within that special education in order for the person to recognize his bad nature?  

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (English 1): (33:00) To be able to work with no reward, it feels necessary but also impossible and directionless. Is the direction, precisely, in that it is impossible for us to achieve alone and that only the Creator can help us with this? 

M. Laitman: No, it's preferable for us to also clarify, and the Creator will correct it if the need be. But first and foremost, we have to try to reveal. 

Question (KabU 14): (33:52) If someone cannot feel the lack, cannot raise MAN, then the Creator fulfills one with MAD. Does that mean I have to turn away from the light that fulfills to the light that reforms? 

M. Laitman: Repeat, please?

Student: If I feel that I cannot raise MAN because I'm filled with something else. Does it mean that I must first turn away from that fulfillment and turn to the revelation of evil, that I am evil and then raise a prayer, a true MAN?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, that's correct!

Question (Women English 1): (36:42) Can you please help me to understand: In this article at the end, Rabash writes, “Rather, only people who have the quality of truth can be educated.” Does this assume that those who are coming to study Kabbalah are already holders of the truth or are having the desire to learn the truth through Kabbalah? 

M. Laitman: No, not everyone who comes to the science of Kabbalah, the wisdom of Kabbalah, has the same Hissaron. And more than the correct Hissaron, a person has to try and to correct his lack and ask the Creator to help him to try and want the correct things. And then the Creator will organize it all for a person, a person on his own is not able to. If he does not have the correct lack, to come to the right lack. It is only possible if he is asking the Creator. 

Question (Women MAK 26): (38:55) Is the lack of a vessel a desire to be this vessel, that we want the Ten to be the vessel towards the Creator or is it a different lack? 

M. Laitman: It's our desire to become a Kli for the Creator, yes. 

Student: Am I able to believe that my lack will at times be similar to the Ten’s lack? 

M. Laitman: Yes, then this Hissaron is correct. 

Question (Women Italy): (39:41) How can we offer a sincere prayer when we are not aware of our shortcomings? 

M. Laitman: We feel what we're lacking, and therefore, we can ask the Creator about this, what we need: Screen, lack, coming closer to the one who's giving, etc. 

Student: Is it possible to receive a heart of flesh without a sincere repentance? How do we ask for it? 

M. Laitman: Yes, it's possible. 

Student: How do we ask for a heart of flesh? 

M. Laitman: Ask, how do people ask? Just plead and ask in any way possible, with any words.

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (41:50) If a person has a correct deficiency, a lack, does a person have a correct lack to start off with? There's hope when the group comes to the lessons, they're reading and they're asking for the bestowal of the Creator. That's as a surrounding light. Does a person have the moments where he demands very precise efforts during the day? What can it be? 

M. Laitman: Nothing is the same – same thing. 

Student: We also have an opinion in the Ten that spiritual work is work with the bestowal of the Creator. That you feel the resistance so our work is to turn to the Creator and within this resistance to feel, specifically the ascent. Is that the true focusing of our efforts or, nevertheless, the connection with the friends is higher than that? 

M. Laitman: Connection with the friends is higher.

Question (Women MAK 62): (43:08) We're going to have this great opportunity in the Congress, as you said. That we, as the parts of Malchut, will connect in our Ten and there will be a feeling from the Creator in this connection. Would it help to feel this connection in order to correct my deficiencies?

M. Laitman: Of course. 

Student: Will the connection between us, the friends, be the same connection with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: No, it's different – you should try, and you will see. 

Question (Women Hasharon 5): (44:04) I truly am afraid to feel the Creator in His conversation with me, because I'm afraid that the ego will grab it all. So, basically, all these scrutinies stay in my mind, and I filter them all through the mind. What should I do? 

M. Laitman: I think that you have nothing to be afraid of. You need specifically to invite the Creator as many times as possible to intervene in your correction.

Question (Women MAK 97): (44:50) In the unity of the friends, where do we direct all the fulfilment the Creator has given? And should we at the end of the meeting talk about it? 

M. Laitman: We aim everything that we receive from the Creator as the force of correction. And we want only one thing to be corrected and together.

Student: Should we talk about it out loud? 

M. Laitman: You can, what's the difference to say or not to say? 

Student: But we'll focus together. 

M. Laitman: With the Creator, it doesn't matter whether you say so or you don’t.

Question (Women MAK 104): (45:44) If you dedicate all your efforts to the Creator and you constantly ask questions to the Creator and you don't receive answers. Does it mean that, the desires are not authentic and not towards the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Or that you cannot understand His answer. 

Student: Every day in our group we write down a prayer, we write down our lacks all together and the correct lacks all for the sake of the bestowal. How can we feel the answer in the group, or it will come to each, separately? 

M. Laitman: You need to feel it in the one common vessel that you have, only if you work with it; you should never annul but, on the contrary, connect together more and more. 

Question (Women MAK 51): (46:53) We have to ask for the Creator to come closer to us so that we would feel Him. Is the feeling of the Creator only possible in the bestowing Kelim or in the receiving vessels, too?

M. Laitman: In the vessels of bestowal and reception.

Student: What's the difference between those vessels? 

M. Laitman: Since there are two types of vessels, I can receive for the sake of the Creator and I can bestow for the sake of the Creator.

Student: Can we distance ourselves from it? To divide them, to differentiate them?

M. Laitman: Yes, of course you can, of course and of course.

Student: And now, while we're still not corrected, where can we feel Him, in what vessels? 

M. Laitman: In whatever vessels you want – both in vessels of reception and vessels of bestowal. 

Student: Can we call it, a true lack, when you have a desire to bestow but you don't have any strength for that? 

M. Laitman: That means that there is no desire; if there is a desire, there is strength. If there is no desire, there is no power. 

Student: It means that it's not authentic if there is no strength? 

M. Laitman: Could be.

Question (Women MAK 43): (48:32) When we enter unity in the Ten, we start feeling more subtle lacks of the friends and the desire of the Creator. And I always have this question, doesn't the Creator have this desire for us to bestow upon Him? Meaning, does this desire?

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So, this is called that my sons have defeated me, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Spain): (49:20) Does the bestowal come gradually or at once? 

M. Laitman: Usually, at once, it comes at once. 

Student: To an individual or to the group? 

M. Laitman: Both, to the individual and to the group.

Question (Kyiv): (49:59): We're asking from the Creator, you said today, for Him to fill us, for Him to bring us closer. We're basically still asking for fulfillment and, here, Rabash is writing that the correct plea is not for the fulfillment but for the vessels. How do we ask, correctly, at the end?

M. Laitman: Yes, that's correct, at the end. You ask that that you have a desire, an intention towards. And when the Creator reveals Your vessels to you, then you will see what's happening there – don't be afraid. 

Student: There's only desire for fulfillment, for something good, for the light, for something sweet. There’s only desire for this but how do you ask, according to what Rabash is advising here, you have to ask for lacks and vessels?

M. Laitman: Ask, it doesn't matter what, the main thing is to ask constantly. And then gradually your desire will become more and more directed in a sharp, direct manner.

Question (Turkiye 2): (51:21) You have to purify this vessel and attain the condition of connection with the Creator. 

M. Laitman: A person needs to try to be as close as possible to the Creator to examine himself: Does he want to receive or to bestow? According to that, he will ask the Creator, and don't be afraid, even if you're asking in a wrong manner, there's no problem with it. The main thing is that you constantly want to work with the Creator. If you can do it together with a few more friends, that's even better; therefore, the main thing is to ask. 

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (53:18) I'm asking the question from the friend who had issues asking in English: We were scrutinizing, the way I understood the answer is that you have to first ask to get rid of the egoistical fulfillment so that it would become a bridge to pass onto the feeling of an empty place in the Kli to feel your true lack?

M. Laitman: Let's say it's like that, it doesn't matter. The main thing is to ask.

Question (Novosibirsk): (53:50) Do I get it right that a person really starts to yearn towards not for the sake of reception of the reward, when for the possibility that he's not using the abilities to help the friends, and he's bringing harm. Only then does he get this yearning?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Can I somehow force it and ask friends, directly? 

M. Laitman: You, between you, can do whatever you want, the main thing is to learn. That it will quickly go through you – question, answer, question, answer. And out of that, you will leave behind what you don't need, and what you do need will remain. 

Question (German): (54:48) How do I locate the answers of the Creator? What are the conditions for me to understand that this is exactly the answer? 

M. Laitman: You need to feel it, that the answer comes from the Creator. 

Student: From the next lack that I receive from the Creator, is this the answer? 

M. Laitman: Yes, that could be. 

Student: To bestow or to receive is also a reply? 

M. Laitman: Also, to receive.

Question (Women Moscow 1): (55:34) As a result, as an outcome, I feel that I'm either in the state of a lack of light. Or I'm in the state of a lack of a vessel, what's the perceived difference in my work, in my participation, in those two states? 

M. Laitman: When you feel where the lack comes from, what do you want to fulfill in the answer that comes from the Creator? 

Student: So, in the goal itself, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Petah Tikva 5): (56:33) Special Announcement

M. Laitman: Good luck!

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (57:22) I wanted to ask about the fact that it's impossible to educate everyone to come to the lack of bestowal. 

M. Laitman: We need to explain to them things that we know, and especially today; and especially on the level of.

Student: Can every person start the connection with the Creator or just special people?

M. Laitman: Every person, every person, we don't know yet who is aimed to it and who isn't; therefore, we’ll try. 

Question (MAK 24): (58:25) The question is about building a screen, we have to think, first and foremost, to guard ourselves and get ready towards the correct reception. Or do we have to take care about the light, itself, not to get a Klipa close to it? 

M. Laitman: No, no, you need to be concerned about yourselves. 

Student: Are the lacks and the desires the same thing? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Can I view it as, lack is the lack of a Hissaron is lack of a spiritual state?

 

M. Laitman: You can. 

Student: And the lack of help from the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes, it's also there, of course.

Student: Can we try the desire on with the intention? 

M. Laitman: Equalize it, compare it. 

Student: What is primary, the desire or the intention? 

M. Laitman: The desire.

Question (Women Kyiv): (59:45) Where are our desires located? How can we unite them in one heart? 

M. Laitman: They're all in the hearts, you need to connect the hearts and we will receive a common desire from everyone. We'll get a common desire from everyone. 

Question (Women MAK): (1:00:13) How do I get through the hard feelings when I come to the realization of the stony heart and internal evil? 

M. Laitman: Ask, to cry and to ask. Be well, everyone. Until the next lesson. 

Announcements: (1:00:35)

Song: (1:00:45)