The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: February 26, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. What Is, “The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,” in the Work?. 4 (1991)
Original lesson date: 29.10.2003
Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson, we will study a lesson by the Rav from the date of October 29, 2003. It is based on the article, "What Is “The Saboteur Was in the Flood and Was Putting to Death” in the Work?" In Hebrew, it's from the second volume of Rabash, page 1294. We will read it together. Tens that finish are invited to start the workshop on the main points in the article.
Reading: (00:43) Rabash. What Is, “The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,” in the Work?
Article No. 4, 1991
It is written in The Zohar, Noah: “There was a flood and the saboteur was sitting inside.” Baal HaSulam asked what is the difference between the saboteur putting to death or the flood putting to death. He said that the flood caused corporeal suffering, and the saboteur causes spiritual suffering. In other words, within the corporeal suffering there is a saboteur who kills a person’s spirituality, meaning that the torments of the body bring him foreign thoughts until these thoughts sabotage and kill the spirituality.
We should interpret his words. The flood and the rain are called “revealed,” meaning that which is visible to our eyes, that the saboteur was killing the people. That is, what a person thinks, that if the will to receive had what it demands, meaning knowledge and not faith, if it could understand everything about His guidance, as the will to receive requires, he would serve the Creator properly. However, this is not so, and as a result, because it is difficult for a person to suffer, he moves away from the Life of Lives and wants the Creator to impart upon him only pleasures. This is why he moves away.
However, within the corporeal suffering, meaning a person’s inability to understand His guidance, why the Creator does not give him what the will to receive understands that He should give, and he suffers, from this extends death in spirituality, meaning spiritual suffering that causes death in spirituality. In other words, he falls into heresy.
That is, the fact that he suffered the corporeal suffering because the Creator did not give him what he thought, and it pained him, these sufferings cause death in corporeality, as it is written, “The dead is as important as the dead, and one who has no sons is as important as the dead.” However, afterward, he comes to spiritual suffering, meaning that he cannot overcome the faith and believe in the Creator, that He leads the world with a guidance of good and doing good. At that time, he comes to heresy.
This is called “spiritual death,” when a person falls into the vacant space of the Sitra Achra [other side]. Later, when a person reenters the work, it is considered “the revival of the dead.” At that time a person must believe that the fact that now he has begun the work once more is not by his own strength, but he rather received from above the “dew of resurrection.” This is considered “the revival of the dead,” with which he has been rewarded because he received an awakening from above. For this reason, a person must say each day, “Blessed are You, Lord, who returns souls to dead corpses.” Also, one should say (in the Eighteen Prayer), “You are certain to revive the dead.”
Thus, there are two things here concerning suffering: 1) Corporeal suffering, when a person suffers in corporeal matters because of what he needs, and he suffers death because of it, as in “The dead is as important as the dead, and one who has no sons is as important as the dead,” etc. It follows that this death is not related to spirituality. However, afterward, it causes him spiritual death because he cannot believe that the Creator leads the world in a manner of good and doing good.
It follows that this is spiritual death and not corporeal death. This is the meaning of saying that within the flood of rain, which is corporal suffering, he later comes to spiritual suffering, when he cannot justify Providence, and therefore falls into spiritual death.
This is as it is written in the “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” (Item 138), “Prior to the end of correction, Malchut is called ‘the tree of knowledge of good and evil,’ since Malchut is the guidance of the Creator in this world. As long as the receivers have not been completed so they can receive His whole benevolence, the guidance must be in the form of good and bad, reward and punishment. It is so because our vessels of reception are still tainted with self-reception. Thus, we necessarily sense evil in the operations of Providence in relation to us. It is a law that the creature cannot receive disclosed evil from the Creator, for it is a flaw in the glory of the Creator for the creature to perceive Him as an evildoer, for this is unbecoming of the complete Operator. Hence, when one feels bad, denial of the Creator’s guidance lies upon him and the superior Operator is concealed from him to that same extent. This is the worst punishment in the world.”
It therefore follows that when a person receives bad from Him, it makes the operator become concealed from Him. This is called “death” in spirituality. And who caused him to receive bad from Him? Why did he receive bad? It is because those Kelim [vessels] were still dirty with self-reception. Hence, there must be guidance in a manner of concealment and hiding. For this reason, suffering causes death in spirituality.
Because of this, a person must go above reason and not be impressed by the reason he sees and on which he builds his work in holiness, so he may be rewarded with entering the Kedusha [holiness], since this reason came because he received ills, and according to reason, if the Creator is good and does good, why does He not give a person what the person thinks he needs, and instead, the Creator does what He wants? It follows that reason is built on the basis of a guidance of good and evil. Hence, a person’s only choice is to say that what reason tells him is incorrect, as was said about this, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.” Instead, he should not be alarmed by the reason and say that he is going above reason.
However, concerning the feeling of nearing the Creator, there are two manners to discern: 1) Sometimes he is worried that he should obtain something he needs. Normally, when a person needs something, he prays to the Creator to satisfy his need. If he needs this thing and does not see a natural way to obtain it, and a miracle happens and he receives what he asked for, the person fills with love of the Creator for helping him obtain the matter, and he attributes obtaining the matter to the Creator. It follows that nearing the Creator came to him by reception of delight and pleasure; this was the cause for nearing the Creator.
The same applies for a sick person who has been healed. He was already despaired, and suddenly a change for the better occurred and he was cured. He, too, sometimes draws near to the Creator, for the reason that receiving the good from the Creator brought him closer to the Creator.
At times it is to the contrary. A person suffers torments, and the torments push him to draw near the Creator. That is, it occurs to him that if he takes upon himself the burden of Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds], the Creator will save him from his troubles. It follows that the suffering caused the nearing to the Creator. It should be said about this that since at a time of trouble, a person is in a state of lowliness, since it is written, “The Lord is high and the low will see,” it follows that the fact that he is in lowliness because of the troubles and torments that have afflicted him, he is ready to receive help from above, as it is written, “The Lord is high and the low will see.” However, usually, we see that suffering pushes a person away from the Creator since he cannot attribute the suffering to the one who is good and does good. Hence, this causes him death in spirituality.
However, concerning lowliness, there are many interpretations. In other words, when a person lowers himself, the question is, What is lowliness? How is it expressed that a person is in lowliness? The literal meaning is that lowliness is when one subdues oneself and works above reason. This is called “lowliness,” when he lowers his reason and says that his reason is worthless.
In other words, man’s reason dictates that if the Creator gives him all his needs, which the will to receive understands that it deserves, then he can love the Creator. That is, he loves Him because he satisfies all his needs. If He did not, he would not be able to lower himself and say that his reason is worthless. Rather, at that time he would depart from the Creator and say that it is not worthwhile to serve the Creator if He does not grant him his wishes. It follows that this is called “proud,” since he wants to understand the ways of the Creator, in what is He regarded as good and doing good, if the body does not get what it demands. About such a proud person the Creator says, “He and I cannot dwell in the same abode.”
But if he lowers himself and says, “I cannot understand the ways of the Creator,” and he says that what his reason dictates is worthless, but he is going above reason, this is called “lowliness,” and it was about him that the verse, “The Lord is high and the low will see” was said. He is rewarded with the Creator bringing him near Him.
Accordingly, we can interpret what our sages said, “Anyone who chases greatness, greatness runs from him” (Iruvin 13). That is, a person says, “I can serve the Creator on condition that He sends me greatness. That is, if I feel His greatness, I will be able to work for the sake of the Creator. Otherwise, I cannot work for the sake of the Creator.” He is told, “greatness runs from him.”
But when a person says, “Now I want to be a servant of the Creator unconditionally, and I do not need greatness,” but he rather wants to serve the Creator in utter lowliness, meaning although he has no feeling of the greatness of the Creator, but above reason, which is called “lowliness,” then he is rewarded with greatness because he lowers himself since he wants to work only for the sake of the Creator and not for his own sake.
Hence, when he says that he cannot work unless he feels the greatness of the Creator, it follows that the will to receive says that if he does not understand the greatness of the Creator within reason, he will not be able to work for the sake of the Creator. It follows that only the will to receive is the operator, but on the will to receive there were Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment. Hence, it is utterly impossible to be rewarded with greatness. Instead, a person must always run from greatness. At that time, it can be said as it is said, “He who runs from honor, honor chases him.”
It therefore follows that there are several stages here in the order of the work: 1) A person must first chase greatness and honor, since otherwise, he has no Kelim [vessels] at all for honor and greatness, since the thought acts on what a person demands. If he has no Kelim for reason, how can he go above reason? For this reason, when a person begins the work, he must think how to receive greatness of the Creator, so that when he has a feeling of the greatness of the Creator, the body will not resist because it is natural for the small to annul before the great. There is no work on this, since there is a rule that the body does not resist anything that comes by nature.
But if he has no yearning for reason, meaning to want to serve a great King, then his work is only in the action, and he has no need for the Creator to help him, since then he works only to receive reward. To the extent that he believes in reward and punishment, to that extent he can work and he has no need for the greatness of the Creator. In other words, even though the King is not so great, he does not mind since he looks at the reward, and not at the giver of the reward.
But if he begins to work for the sake of the Creator then he needs the greatness of the King. It follows that if he does not yearn for the greatness of the King, it is a sign that he is not working for the sake of the Creator. Thus, specifically when he chases greatness, it is a sign that he wants to achieve a state where he can say that all his actions are for the sake of the Creator. Afterward, when he feels that he must know that he has a great and important King, and he sees that this is to him the main disruptor, what he needs in order to be able to overcome the will to receive, he comes to the second stage, when he has to run away from greatness and wants to work for the sake of the Creator unconditionally, which is called above reason.
In other words, although his reason tells him, “You see that you believe in only a small king,” a person should still say, “To me you are a great King, as though I felt it. I believe above reason that You are a great King as though I felt it.” Hence, at that stage, he runs from greatness and from honor and then the greatness and the honor chase him and catch up with him although he does not want to receive the greatness because only then is there equivalence with the Creator.
This is the same as we learn about Zivug de Hakaa [coupling by striking]: To the extent that the Masach [screen] rejects the light, although it has Aviut [thickness], meaning a desire and yearning for the light, it still does not receive it because it wants to be a giver and not a receiver. Hence, by the rejection in the Masach, the Ohr Hozer [Reflected Light] is born in him, and in this Ohr Hozer he receives a new Kli [vessel] for reception of the light.
It is likewise here. First, a person needs to acquire a desire and yearning to obtain the greatness of the Creator, and then a person must acquire strength to reject the greatness and not want to receive it because he wants equivalence of form. At that time he obtains the Ohr Hozer, and in this Ohr Hozer he receives the greatness and the might.
It follows that there are three stages here:
1) To want specifically the greatness of the Creator.
2) To reject the idea of yearning, meaning that although he understands that if he has a true feeling of the greatness of the Creator, the body will surrender to do the holy work. Still, he runs from the honor and the greatness and says that he wants to work for the sake of the Creator. Although he has no feeling, he asks the Creator to give him the strength to be able to defeat the will to receive, even though it disagrees with it.
3) When he does not need the feeling of the greatness of the Creator and works for the sake of the Creator unconditionally. At that time, he is rewarded with the greatness of the Creator and the glory of the Creator. Then, the words, “He who runs from honor and from greatness, honor chases him and wants to cling to him,” come true because he already has equivalence of form, meaning that he wants to work in order to bestow.
Accordingly, once a person understands that it is worthwhile to receive the feeling of the greatness of the Creator because then the body will agree to serve the King, and once he has a demand for this, since he wants to work for the sake of the Creator but the body resists it because as long as long he does not feel the greatness of the Creator, he does not want to believe above reason, then comes a state where a person must run away from this because this is only an argument of the will to receive.
But when he does not feel the greatness of the Creator, the body does not agree to this work, and then a person must say, “But our sages said, ‘Anyone who chases greatness, greatness runs from him,’” since a person must work for the sake of the Creator even when the body does not enjoy the work, since for the sake of the Creator means not considering one’s own benefit whatsoever.
This is as it is written in the “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” (Item 199), “Whole love is whole on both sides, whether in judgment or in mercy. And even if He takes your soul, your love in the Creator is in complete wholeness, as when He gives you abundance. There is one who loves Him so as to have wealth, long life, sons around him, rule over his enemies, and success on his way. Thus, he loves Him. If it were to the contrary, and the Creator would reverse the fortune upon him with harsh judgment, he would hate Him and not love Him whatsoever. For this reason, this love is not love that has a foundation. Complete love is love on both sides, in judgment or in mercy and successful ways. He will love the Creator as we learned, even if He takes His soul away from Him. This love is complete.”
We should interpret that a person having to love the Creator in ascent—when he feels that the Creator leads the world as The Good Who Does Good, since during the ascent, a person wants to annul before Him unconditionally—but this is like a candle before a torch, where he annuls without any mind or reason. This is regarded as a person serving the Creator when he has a soul.
An ascent means that the person is alive and has the breath of life. At that time a person has love for the Creator, and this is called “the side of goodness” in the work.
But a person must also love the Creator when He takes his soul away, meaning when the Creator takes from him the breath of life. This is called “the time of descent,” when he has no feeling of vitality, when his soul is taken from him and he has no vitality. If he has love for the Creator in such a state, as well, this is called “complete love.”
Such a thing can be only above reason, since within reason he has no vitality so as to have the strength to overcome. Hence, a person must work during the preparation on escaping from the greatness and honor before he obtains any nearness on the part of the Creator. That is, he should not say that only if the Creator gives him the breath of life he will be able to work in order to bestow, but without vitality, meaning without the spirit of life, he cannot work for the sake of the Creator. This is not the view of Torah.
Rather, a person must ask the Creator to give him the strength to love the Creator even when He takes his soul away, and he is left lifeless, to be able to overcome and love the Creator under any circumstances.
According to the above, we should interpret the meaning of “He made darkness His hiding place.” It means that when the Creator wants to hide Himself from a person, which is certainly for man’s best because he is still not ready for revelation, He gives a person darkness. That is, He takes from him the breath of life, and then he falls into a place of darkness, where the light of Kedusha does not shine.
A person should believe that this is concealment. Concealment means that he believes that there is a great Creator who leads the world in a manner of good and doing good, but this is concealed from him. He should believe that this is only a concealment, and if he succeeds in believing that this is only a concealment but it is not really as he sees it, then he is rewarded with the light shining on this Kisse [cover], meaning that light will shine within this darkness.
Accordingly, a person should learn from the state of descent and from the state of ascent. That is, the state of descent comes to a person when he wants to make great efforts to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. Yet, he sees otherwise, as though he did nothing, but he is in the same state as before he began the work on the aim to bestow. At that time, a person should have faith in the sages and what they say, and not in what a person thinks and says, since these descents give him room to ascend and draw near to the Creator.
Reader: We will now enter a recorded lesson.
M. Laitman: (30:43) We heard together an article from the writings of Rabash, first volume from the portion of Noah. This is page 51, "What Is “The Saboteur Was in the Flood and Was Putting to Death” in the Work?" On the one hand, the flood comes in order to put to death all of the discernments that have no right of existence. On the other hand, the flood comes in order to cleanse all of the discernments and leave behind only those that have the right of existence and the ability to grow and flourish and reach the purpose of creation. We hear from this article that in everything we have both a force that works through judgment and also a force that works through mercy, because everything happens with respect to the will to receive of the person. So according to the state that the person is in, meaning he's still operating with his own nature, or with the nature of the Creator that he acquired, accordingly he feels providence either as good and doing good, if he already has a equivalence of form with this providence, meaning if he already corrected his qualities, or if they're to the extent that they're not yet corrected, he feels opposite them, providence coming as the force of judgment. As we say, the Creator's relation to the created being does not change. He's always good and does good permanently, but to the extent that a person goes through, or records awaken in a person that he has to correct and attach them to Kedusha and acquire corrections over them, to that extent he feels that the Creator seemingly changes towards him. And if he corrects the discernments that awaken within him, then he sees that from the force of judgment come the forces of mercy. He discovers that inside the flood, inside all of the seemingly bad relations, he discovers providence as good and doing good, that this is the permanent and complete providence. And Rabash gives an example exactly about that. A person, in order to work against his will to receive, he requires foreign forces that do not exist in him. This force that helps a person cope with the will to receive is the recognition of the greatness of the Creator, because there is nothing else besides the person and the Creator. And the greatness of the Creator is actually the entire force of the correction, because only the feeling of the Emanator caused phase one to turn into phase two in the four phases of direct light. Only the feeling of the state of the Emanator helps phase two to continue to phase three and later on to want the Emanator on the measure of phase four. And then phase four that feels the greatness of the Creator, opposite that, it has the feeling of shame. This brings her to restriction, to the first restriction. And each time that besides the feeling of the pleasure, there is also the feeling of the greatness of the giver, the quality of the giver, what is the giver, what is that quality of giving in general, each time this causes the will to receive to be corrected, to change, not to remain as a receiver, but to change its mode of operation so it will be in order to bestow according to what now seems to it as great. From here we see that besides the pleasure that the will to receive feels as a receiver, if it receives from the giver besides the pleasure also the greatness, then the recognition of the receiver is for it the means to improve, to change.
M. Laitman: (36:28) To such an extent that it can cope with his will to receive, with the feeling of the pleasures in him and value the quality of the giver, the greatness of the giver, being the giver, more than being the one who enjoys, who receives. And if he already has such calculations, even though it is a calculation inside of the will to receive, what we call Lo Lishma [not for her sake], but these are already calculations towards the correction, towards the appreciation of the giver. This is why Rabash writes in his social articles that the society should engage all the time in the greatness of the Creator. And by advertising this to itself, it will grow in the recognition of the greatness of the Creator, because the society is great, it is strong according to the value of the greatness of the Creator in it, not according to its quantity, nor by any other quality that it develops within itself. Once we have this discernment, that we want the greatness of the Creator on top of our will to receive, after that comes already a correction, which is disconnected from the will to receive. I need the greatness of the Creator, not in order to feel that by that I will be saved, but by that I adhere to the Upper One, I acquire confidence, I acquire fillings, that the Creator fills me. And I prefer Him, instead of being filled with the pleasures that the will to receive demands according to its nature. But rather comes a stage, which we do not understand, it is called the reforming light, or the grace of Kedusha [sanctity], where, as he says, that the student pledges prior to the study to grow stronger in his faith. Then a force comes that truly disconnects a person from any profit, any gain in his will to receive, and he operates above the will to receive. This is called above reason. That too is, of course, going forward and performing actions also through the greatness of the Creator. But the greatness of the Creator that he feels has no connection to his desires to receive, but rather he's using it entirely, not in order to increase the will to receive. He already restricts the will to receive, but rather he uses the greatness of the Creator entirely in order to bestow. He turns it into an opposite force, a force which is opposite to the will to receive. That is, the greatness of the Creator already becomes for him a vessel in which he works, instead of his own vessels. We can say about it that it is similar to what they say that instead of working with his AHP, he works of the AHP of Ima or NHY of Ima, as we learn; until certainly there is also a correction where he works with his own will to receive. There is later this stage where the will to receive is already corrected to such an extent that it is possible to work with it in itself. Not inside the vessel that comes from the Creator as the greatness of the Creator, but rather the will to receive itself is inverted and can already join as a vessel to the intention to bestow. We see from that that there are many stages in how the receiver relates to the giver, and these stages come in their development one after the other, and we don't know how exactly to determine each and every stage, each and every degree, and how we can direct ourselves here, change ourselves this way or that way. We don't understand it, and we are not at all capable in any way to guide ourselves and change each time. But rather a person who yearns for the greatness of the Creator, and he performs all of the actions so that the greatness of the Creator will guide him onwards, and he constantly yearns to "There is None Else Besides Him" who “Is Good and Does Good.” And whatever seems to me that it is not "There is None Else Besides Him," but rather there are other forces who lead the world, this is a disruption and I must correct it.
M. Laitman: (42:35) And the fact that it seems to me that in His behavior towards me there is good and bad, that too is a disruption that comes to me because of the lack of corrections of my qualities, of my vessels, and that too I need to correct. That is, if a person always yearns to appreciate the Giver correctly, that He is the only one, and He is “Good and Doing Good,” and what is opposite that those two kinds of disruptions, that He is not unique and He is not “Good and Does Good,” but rather sometimes maybe He is good and does good, but usually it is this way or that way according to how I feel. If a person works against these two disruptions, then it doesn’t matter how much he knows how to interpret them to their depth, to elaborate them, but rather just working on this goal, on depicting the Giver in the most correct form; as much as it appears, as disconnected as possible from the will to receive for himself of the person, this work brings the person from one degree to the next. It pulls him, it pushes him to advance correctly, and then he goes through all of these stages while using correctly his qualities and the qualities of the Giver. That is, we have no more work except to always determine our attitude towards the Giver as "There is None Else Besides Him" and “Good and Doing Good.”
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:43) The sensation of evil, that's a spiritual concept. Now there's the sensation of evil towards a friend and towards the Creator? Or towards the society and towards the Creator?
M. Laitman: You're asking if there is a feeling of bad, of evil, which is different with respect to the Creator and with respect to the friend. A not feeling of bad over the qualities of the person, or qualities with respect to the behavior of someone else, the friend or the Creator?
Student: No, the qualities of the person, the spiritual sensation of evil.
M. Laitman: It doesn't matter. With respect to the will to receive of the person, it doesn't matter if he's relating to the Creator or relating to someone else, to others. There's no difference; because in that he nevertheless relates from within himself, from his own uncorrected vessels. If he's relating to something which is outside of the will to receive, it could be the Creator, it could be a friend, the will to receive or the correction, the magnitude and quality of the will to receive determine how he relates, and so there is no difference. This is why we can use the group and their response, the mutual relationship with the group to check, to monitor, to require, to demand corrections and correct the will to receive, because if it is into the will to receive or outside of the will to receive, everything with the group is just like with the Creator. If the relation, if my relation is to myself, then of course it matters to me if it is the group or the Creator, because what pleasures can a group give me compared to the pleasures from the Creator? It depends on what degree I'm on. It could be that I restrict the Creator and I say, what do I care about the Creator? I care about getting respect from the group, and it could be the opposite. I already restrict my relation to the group. What do I care about the group? I want godliness, but I want it. And if a person tries to work without taking himself into consideration, then he discovers that if it is not for himself, but rather outside of himself, then it doesn't really matter to him for whose sake it will be, really. It's for him, or him, or him, or him, or him - if it is outside of me, meaning if I do not get anything out of it, if I do not receive from the beginning, and in the middle, and later on - if anything coming back into myself, then what does it matter who of those thousands of factors that I am now going to give to and to bestow, to perform some action that will remain only in them and will not come back to me, then why does it even matter who they are? From the perspective of the will to receive, I can't even check them, I have no connection to them. So it seems like I'm simply throwing something out of me into space, and that's it. But how can I nevertheless appreciate my giving, if it's great or small in quality? So I only evaluate according to how much it is disconnected from me. And this is what he says here, that there is the greatness of the Creator before a person disconnects from himself, and there is the greatness of the Creator after a person disconnects from himself. So after I work in a state where I completely, entirely do not feel my actions of giving, I disconnect them from myself. It's as if I'm throwing it into space. And why do I do it? Because the society gives me the importance of doing so. This means that I begin to have some appreciation that exists outside of my will to receive. Some vessel, some deficiency outside of me, which I suddenly feel that I have to fill by giving from myself, from inside of me, from within me, outwardly. Some desire which is outside of me is filled. If a person works on that, then already, bit by bit, he shifts to a state where he can indeed touch what does it mean, not for himself, what does it mean, above reason? It comes gradually.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:36) So how is it possible to determine that the... How can a person determine that the society is corrected if he is the one that requires correction and not, God forbid, the opposite?
M. Laitman: How can a person determine that it's not the society who needs correction, but rather he needs correction? That feeling comes to a person, it’s revealed to the person as the call of the situation. He suddenly sees that it is so.
Student: What does he see?
M. Laitman: He sees that despite his actions that he takes, he sees that they all stem from his intention to be fulfilled, to receive. And although the others may be in that quality as well, that doesn't matter. He judges himself in comparison to the light that shines. And then he determines that he is in order to receive.
Student: And then what should he do now?
M. Laitman: And then what does he need to do? He might become despaired and go to sleep and say that the owner could not save his vessels. And he might say that, no, now something is revealed to me, a sign, a new thing, something true, and now I need to obtain powers. And who is it that reveals this state to me? He is also the one who reveals to me by what I can emerge from this state. And this all depends on the person's preparation, the preparation of the society and how the society influences him, and the extent to which he is ready to receive its support. But the work towards the greatness of the giver, that's our only work. Because it is like the guest and the host. The same example remains, always. Either I work against my pleasures, my will to receive and the pleasures, or it's already the human aspect of me, the point in the heart, the quality of Bina in me, which I received from the shattering of the vessels, which is a part of the divine from above, my soul, opposite which I feel the landlord. I have two discernments in me: my will to receive, natural, against the pleasures of the host, and the point in me which feels the host as the giver. Well, then I have calculations with Him as the giver of pleasures, and with Him being the giver, the concept of the giver, and then I'm split in a sense, and then the work begins. What's more important to me - Him, His importance to regulate my relationship with Him, or it doesn't matter to me who He is, the main thing for me is to receive from Him and to fulfill, to satisfy myself. So, if we want to develop correctly, we need to constantly develop in us the recognition of the host, the concept of the Giver. It turns out that in the beginning, a person stands opposite the host, and it's very important for him not to see the host. It brings him shame; it gives him the sense that he's the receiver. It brings him to the feeling that he must restrict his desires and develop his regard for the Giver, such that the Giver will be bigger and bigger and bigger compared to the pleasures that come from Him. If the Giver is greater than the pleasures, then I constantly restrict my will to receive. I don't want to work with it, I prefer to be connected to the Giver, because He's great, and that gives me greater pleasure, greater confidence. This fulfills me more. In order to receive fulfilling me - that is called Lo Lishma [not for her sake], but I prefer to be connected to the host, and not just the pleasures.
M. Laitman: (55:51) And then comes the stage where the connection with the host, which is a kind of consumer attitude where I use Him, I exploit Him for my benefit. This connection also begins to appear to me as a bad thing, not a nice thing. Why? Because I prefer to be connected to the host instead of being connected to the pleasures. And then the connection to the host awakens in me a recognition of the character of the host. Not just that He's great and so I gain something from it, more than just receiving pleasures. Rather, the recognition of the appreciation of the act of giving, the appreciation of the act of giving in itself. That is called Chen de Kedusha, the beauty or grace of holiness. It begins to become, that quality in itself begins to be important for me, to the point where I don't want to be connected to the host with my vessels of reception, but rather I want to connect, to be affiliated with that quality itself. And then we say that a person has begun to emerge from himself, from his self towards this quality of the bestower, which is beyond, outside our body, outside of our body. And then he looks for means, means by which he can actually do this. And here, too, he needs the greatness of the host, but the greatness of Him as the giver. Not as the giver of pleasures, but the aspect of the giver in itself. That is pure Bina, which he wants to acquire. And once acquiring it, to the extent that he does acquire it, he begins to be, certainly begins to be similar to the host, but only similar to the host in that he wants to be like Him. This is as if he acquires Galgalta Eynaim, the qualities of the bestowal. But in truth bestowing, the action itself, then He awakens my vessels of reception and begins to join them, to add them to the Galgalta Eynaim. But what I wanted to say is that he is constantly working with the greatness of the Giver. And it doesn't matter if it's opposite the vessels of reception, it gives me pleasure and confidence that I'm connected to the Upper One, that He's the bestower, He governs, manages everything, and God bless, I can incorporate with Him, and I feel good; or it happens as a development, a connection with the Upper One in other ways, different types, different forms, awakening different inclinations and thoughts and values in me. But it's all about the greatness, the greatness of the Giver. Because to begin with, we have the will to receive as only a relation to pleasures. And the fact that a spark fell into the will to receive, a spark, a part of Bina, from the shattering of the vessels, then opposite that part, compared to that part, he can begin to appreciate the Giver Himself. And so, to begin to work with the divine part in me, developing it opposite my will to receive, which is the work.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:03) How, during the stage of preparation, can we neutralize more the things that accompany every action we perform, even a purposeful one - the ego, the will to receive, the need for appreciation, the need for love? These are seemingly qualities that accompany almost every action we perform. How during the stage of preparation we can neutralize it more and create a preference for the Creator's force of bestowal? Even before that, the reaching of love?
M. Laitman: How do we correct pride, and what else?
Student: Appreciation, the need, the needs, our need for appreciation, mostly, in the society.
M. Laitman: In me, there are a thousand and one desires, various inclinations. I don't even know what goes on inside there. If I want to work like a good psychologist, then I begin to prod and pry and to try to learn what this is, what that is, how it works, how I can influence this, how to correct that. And from that, maybe I'll reach my thesis in psychology, my doctorate. But correction will not emerge from this. Why? Because it's not me. It's not me correcting myself, and it's not me, by my wisdom and intelligence, seeing and reading myself. Rather, it's only the light that brings any transformation, any change to my will to receive. It explains to me, each time, in a different way, who I am. And so, I don't need to enter into myself, not to turn inwards at all, rather to constantly look outside of me. Meaning, constantly to turn, to attach myself, to orient myself towards a direction, a direction that's towards outside of me, towards the Creator, towards the group, towards the Bestower, towards acquiring those qualities and understanding that that is great. In order to correct the will to receive, we mustn't be inside the will to receive. We mustn't. The light creates the vessel. The light corrects the vessel. And if we don't draw it, then we will only get lost within our beastly nature, get tangled up in it and never emerge from it, from this shell. Then we will be scientists, scientists in our beastliness, psychologists, let's say. No more. They also don't know anything about the internality of the person, and specifically about those qualities which are a bit closer to spirituality. The more human those qualities are, they have no understanding whatsoever. And they admit it, as well. And so, the entirety of our work isn't in, it's not self-scrutiny, internal scrutiny of who am I, what am I. Rather, all of our work should be in coming to know the Giver, who is the only one, there's none else besides Him, who is the Good who does good, despite Him not seeming to me to be one or good and benevolent. It seems to me otherwise; it seems to me that He's not the only one. It doesn't seem to me that He's the Good Who Does Good. But to work in that direction, outside of myself, always towards Him, That should be my direction. Me wanting to turn inwardly, to engage in myself, with myself, that's a shell. It's a hindrance. It comes as a result of the Creator amplifying my vessels, increasing them, enlarging them, and so they appear to me as more important than coming to know Him as the unique, only one, and as the Good. So, never turn inwards into myself and start to prod there - who am I, what am I, what am I made of, what do I include, and so on. No. The more we attach ourselves to the light, to the Giver, from Him we can see our nature, and we see our nature not because we study it, but because we want to adhere to Him above it, and to call Him, correctly call Him, the only good.
M. Laitman: (01:05:44) Meaning, we come to know our nature, learn ourselves, because it disturbs us. From these disturbances of the will to receive, we studied correctly. It means that we're seeing the will to receive under the light of the Lord, adhering to the light, and then we see the desire. And indeed, only that way can we study ourselves and correct ourselves. Correction is the attitude either towards the light, the anterior, or His posterior, which is the will to receive. It's the only way we can advance and come to know ourselves and build ourselves. Which is to say, it's forbidden for the person to be inside his own vessel. Our vessel is made the way it is only for us to jump, to emerge from it, to feel that we are outside of its shell, and we need to constantly float above it. And inside you have concerns, and lacks, and questions, and problems come up, and how it occupies us in mind and heart, feeling that constantly. That is a disruption for me to go into that, I must be above it. And these exercises gradually, slowly, teach a person from the negation of his vessels, they teach him about the vessels, actually. And if he's immersed inside the vessels, he cannot understand them. Yesterday, I watched a movie. I was sent a movie from Moscow. There’s a very famous scientist there, quantum physics, and so on. A very good scientist, nuclear scientist. It's worthwhile to translate it, I think. He speaks about how they have facts and theories about multiple worlds. There are many worlds, and it all depends on the person who can feel it, and how there is nothing that exists outside of us, no reality. Rather, it all depends on the vessels of the person. That's what he calls reality in the world. In short, it's really, it's precisely what Baal HaSulam says, but only to a very minute degree of what they can reach. But they're reaching it, it's a wonder. Studying matter brings them to these states, where that's what they say: there are many worlds, all in parallel, and they all depend on the person who discovers these worlds. And there's no world outside of the person, but rather the world is an inner reflection of the - it's a reflection of the inner state of the person. That's how a person depicts the world, sees the world. And the scientist, physicist, he doesn't believe in anything, but he speaks in such a way about an upper force, about thought, working in all of our revelations. It's interesting. I'll bring this movie. It's a wonder, and it's truly so, science reveals that if you can know reality, it can only be known outside of the person. Meaning that a person understands that what's inside of him, that it's all random disruptions. That's it, random, meaning, not random, incidental, meaning depending on his current qualities, which keep changing.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:27) Where is the work on the greatness of society, and where's the work on the greatness of the Creator? Can we say that the first you work on the greatness of society and then the Creator? Like “Love thy neighbor” and then “Love the Creator?”
M. Laitman: When do we work on the greatness of the society, and when don't we work on the greatness of the Creator? I actually need to work on the greatness of the Creator. With the Creator, I have work, I have business. He's my beginning, He's the power, He's my power supply. If I need to change, I receive the power from Him, and He's my goal, but because I work through this path, I traverse this path above my will to receive, from the opposite state, I need to come to know Him, to build Him in me in order to detach my self, my ego, my interest in Him, as the receiver, the user, the one who enjoys it. Of course, I set Him as the goal. But I can't use Him, I can't be in communication with Him if my will to receive discovers pleasure in Him, support, fulfillment. I need someone in His stead, something that I can work with to truly advance towards in order to bestow, to advance towards spirituality, in the spiritual direction. And that is actually the group instead of the Creator. Why? The group can give me criticism regarding my work. It in itself, to begin with, does not satisfy my will to receive. In the recognition of the group, the knowledge of the group, I don't feel any sudden pleasures, confidence, eternity, wholeness, no. Rather, if I work on it and I want to discover these qualities in the group, then correspondingly, I begin to feel it. Meaning, the group is my mirror; the more I build it, the more it builds me. And my attitude towards the group and the group's attitude towards me is disconnected from my will to receive, and that helps me build bonds of bestowal, an attitude of bestowal, and not only to magnify the vessels of reception and fulfill them. Whereas if I would work against, opposite the Creator, I would just use the vessels of reception for sure, like Baal HaSulam writes, that if the Creator would be revealed, I would run to Him, so it's like the thief passes crying: "Catch the thief!" You know, the will to receive itself would say” “Oh, it's so good to work with the Creator, I want to be next to Him, I want to do for Him. Why work for Him? If He pays well, if He fills me with confidence, with pleasures, with any kind of feeling that is good, then why not work? Why not know Him as good, as great? We always want to belong to the greater one. I work in a big company, I'm with a big bank that is secure, I have a strong army, I want everything to be greater. So, the will to receive would just run towards its benefit from the Creator. But if instead of the Creator I have a society where I don't see the confidence, the power, the great influence on me, the great benefit from it, then here, there are conditions so that I can work not with my will to receive but in an attitude of bestowal, that I want to grow within me vessels of bestowal, and then I turn to the society. That's it.
M. Laitman: (01:15:24) So, it turns out that the shattering of the vessels and this ability to work with the will to receive of others, like outside of me, like with the Creator, and that's what the Creator shaped in front of me, meaning someone foreign, other than Him, this is truly my salvation, because this allows me to do real exercises where I either bestow or receive. How can I bestow and not receive? I can make such exercises here from which I later relate to Him, and then my relation to Him will truly be of bestowal. So, the society helps me come out of my will to receive, because it is not a provider of pleasures, whereas if I worked with the Creator, I would work with Him only as a provider of pleasures, and I wouldn't be able to exit my will to receive.
Student: So, you can't work with the society, with the greatness of the society?
M. Laitman: No, but when you work with the greatness of the society, you work against your will to receive. With the Creator, I want Him to be great. The greater He is, the more confident I am, the more calm I am, I belong to the greater one. If I work with the greatness of the society, what makes this society great? That it longs to bestow more, that it wants to contribute. This is what I call the greatness of my society. It's not just some high-tech company, or some bank or something, you understand? Or the state. Here, I appreciate the society based on bestowal, and that doesn't give me any fulfillment to my will to receive. And when it doesn't give me fulfillment in my will to receive, I have no choice. I have to begin appreciating these qualities themselves. So, the Creator, who shaped a society instead of Himself in front of me, gave me an opportunity to certainly not relate to my will to receive but come out of it. And that's why He broke the vessel of Adam HaRishon and gave each and every one the society as the means, as the device to reach bestowal. Without it, we wouldn't be able to do anything. That's why He determines in the article about free choice, “The Freedom” article, that only if a person finds the right society, and stabilizes, shapes himself correctly towards society, how he relates to it, how should it relate to him, so through his work in the society, he can emerge from his own nature. From the four conditions, four factors around the person. Not conditions, he calls it factors, this is the only factor that can help me become corrected, come out of my nature. My connection to the Creator is not going to help me. Now you can say, but half an hour ago, when you started speaking, you said that we always need to chase the greatness of the Creator, that He is One and only, and Good that does good. And now you're already saying, no, this is the society, you work in the society. So should I leave the Creator altogether and turn to the society? Can I manage with the society without Him, and then certainly I'll correct myself, and then I'll turn to Him? No, the society is as a means to reach the greatness of the Creator and knowing Him as Good that does good. Meaning, if I detach the society from the Creator, then I never arrive at the correct action, not even the smallest one. I never come to exiting myself. That's why he said there that the Russians, who detached themselves from the Creator and wanted to simply create a beautiful society, or the Kibbutzim, who did the same, and other such examples in history - all of those have failed. And in our work, we have to tie both of these together. The society is the means. Rabash writes about this very clearly in all his articles about the society.
M. Laitman: (01:20:34) All right, we need to learn. What do we have here? There’re already 70 groups. 70 groups are with us: Vilna, Moscow, Jerusalem, Haifa, Kirovograd, Paris, Krasnodar, Moscow again, Boston, Hamburg, Toronto. There are 70 groups, I'm told, that are connected to us. What does it mean for now? Yesterday, in the Zohar lesson, there were 144. For some reason, they like the Zohar, actually.
Student: Well, the time is also convenient.
M. Laitman: Time also convenient, could be. Not for the Americans, for them, it's the middle of the workday, you understand?