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

Daily Lesson (Morning) November 12, 2024

Part 2: On the Verge of Lishma – Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #2.

Reader: We are in a lesson in the topic of The Verge of Lishma. We are reading selected excerpts from our sources. 

Reading: (00:19) Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 5, "Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?"

The need for man’s work in order to receive the Lishma from the Creator is only in the form of a lack and a Kli [vessel]. Yet, one can never obtain the filling by himself; it is rather a gift from the Creator.

However, the prayer must be a complete prayer, from the bottom of the heart. This means that one knows one hundred percent that there is no one in the world who can help him but the Creator Himself.

Yet, how does one know this, that no one will help him but the Creator Himself? One can acquire that awareness precisely if he has exerted all the powers at his disposal and it did not help him. Thus, one must do every possible thing in the world to attain “for the sake of the Creator.” Then one can pray from the bottom of the heart, and then the Creator hears his prayer. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:29) It’s written that the fact that we need man’s work in order to receive Lishma from the Creator, and the man’s lack. So, how does the lack grow? Is it always proportional to a person's work, or are there jumps? 

M. Laitman: The Creator arranges for him. We don't determine the deficiency. The Creator determines it according to our exertion.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:20) It's written that all the deeds in the world, what are they? 

M. Laitman: What are they? 

Student: Yes, the deeds. 

M. Laitman: To give, to receive, we have no more deeds. In the will to receive, only these two are felt, either plus or minus.

Student: So, I can just do and do my whole life. 

M. Laitman: That's truly what people are doing. 

Student: But also here, we study and we study.

M. Laitman: The thing is to renew the goal, to clarify the goal. 

Reader: 

Reading: (04:27) RABASH, Article No. 12 (1988), "What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?"

Feeling the vitality in the Torah requires great preparation to prepare his body to be able to feel the life in the Torah. This is why our sages said we must begin in Lo Lishma, and through the light of Torah he obtains while still in Lo Lishma, it will bring him to Lishma, since the light in it reforms him. Then, he will be able to learn Lishma, meaning for the sake of the Torah, which is called “Torah [law] of life,” as he has already attained the life in the Torah, for the light in the Torah will have given such qualification to a person as to be able to feel the life that is in the Torah. 

Reader: Again reading number 3.

Reading: (07:15) RABASH, Article No. 587, "The Upper One Scrutinizes for the Purpose of the Lower One"

One must receive the power to work Lishma from the upper one, since the lower one is powerless to begin the work, but only in the form of Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], called “will to receive,” for only the Lo Lishma gives the first moving force of the lower one, for when a person does not find sufficient flavor in corporeal pleasures, he begins to search for spiritual pleasures.

It follows that the root of the work of the lower one is the will to receive, and the prayer, called MAN, rises up, and then the upper one corrects this MAN and places on it the power of the Masach, which is a desire to delay the abundance before the lower one knows about himself that his aim is to bestow.

That is, the upper one bestows upon the lower on good taste and pleasure in the desire to bestow excerpt.

Reader: Again, number four by the Rabash.

Reading: (10:24) RABASH, Article No. 223, "Entry into the Work"

Only after he achieves this degree called Lo Lishma, he is rewarded with other phenomena, when he comes to a higher state. That is, at that time he has no consideration of himself, and all his calculations and thoughts are the truth.

In other words, his aim is only to annul himself before the true reality, where he feels that he must only serve the King because he feels the exaltedness and greatness and importance of the King. At that time, he forgets, meaning he has no need to worry about himself, as his own self is annulled as a candle before a torch before the existence of the Creator that he feels. Then he is in a state of Lishma [for Her sake], meaning contentment to the Creator, and his concerns and yearnings are only about how he can delight the Creator, while his own existence, meaning the will to receive, does not merit a name whatsoever. Then he is regarded as “bestowing in order to bestow.”  

Reader: We'll read that again. Number five. 

Reading: (14:18) RABASH, Article No. 23 (1987), "Peace After a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes At All"

We should know that the degree of Lo Lishma is a very important degree, and we haven’t the intellect to appreciate the importance of Torah and Mitzvot Lo Lishma. Baal HaSulam said that “as much as one may appreciate the work Lishma, which is important work, he should know that Lo Lishma is more important than the importance that a person attributes to Lishma, since one cannot properly assess the importance of observing Torah and Mitzvot even Lo Lishma, although observing Torah and Mitzvot should be Lishma.  

Reader: Again number six. We will go back to number three. 

M. Laitman: Any questions? No questions. Yes, Gilad.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:14) We started reading these excerpts to prepare ourselves to the convention. And we want to build some kind of process of preparation correctly. How do we know that the process is right? We're reading excerpts about Lishma. It's nice. It's uplifting. But what does it mean that we're advancing towards the congress in our content? 

M. Laitman: Advancement has several signs. One is that advancement can be only through the Creator. That everything depends on Him. He determined, and if we follow Him, then we constantly raise new deficiencies, which are revealed from our spiritual roots. And the Creator envelops himself, cloaks himself with our desires as during a prayer, and raises us, gives us an answer. That's it.

Student: So advancement is to feel that we're more dependent on the Creator in our preparation? 

M. Laitman: Advancement is when we feel more, understand more, what we need to do in order to approach the Creator In order to be in support.

Student: And that's what we have to ask from Him to understand better? 

M. Laitman: Yes, of course.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:49) I also wanted to ask about the stages. Let's say now we read three excerpts, and I took all kinds of principles out of there. We know them, like let's say annulment, or self-concern, or importance of Lo Lishma. You have to invest in lo Lishma, bring you to Lishma, and you have to feel happiness in life and bestow. So, is it right to take every principle like this and let's say for a week work on it. Raise importance for it, do all kinds of exercises for it to really go even deeper inside or is there a different way? 

M. Laitman: I think that adhering to the source, Rabash or even Baal HaSulam, together, when we want to attain the internality of the source, of what they wrote. This will give us the most correct advancement.. The best. 

Student: I took this from the sources. We're adhered, we have a few hours a day lessons with the sources, we're adhered to them. And now Rabash writes about a few dozen principles, no more, that are stages to reach Lishma. Should we take every principle and like nourish it and I don't know, do something with it, or are we just flowing and that's it? 

M. Laitman: No, it's not. You don't just flow with it. When you take one principle, you drop the others. You take another principle, you drop the others. We need to use them, kind of everyone together. 

Student: So how? How to do them all together? Let's say we have a Yeshivat Chaverim. We need a topic for Yeshivat Chaverim. We have a weekly Yeshivat Chaverim. So once I want to work on the greatness of the Rav. It's not that I read about it once that Rav is great. I have to work on it, I have to hear it from the friends, I have to watch a few clips, I have to read a few excerpts. And then the next week, something else, the importance of annulment, or maybe it's not right to do it this way. And we should, because everywhere we're adhering to the sources, that's obvious.

M. Laitman: No, we need to be adhered among ourselves. And then from the adhesion between us, to try to adhere to the source. What we read from Rabash or Baal HaSulam.

Student: A few months from now, we have a congress on the topic of Lishma. Is there something extra we should do, or is this enough of what we're doing? We read a few excerpts, tomorrow we'll read some more, and that's it. That's what we need to do.

M. Laitman: What does it mean, Lishma, for her sake, in general, as broadly as possible? We?

Student: To answer?

M. Laitman: Yes, you.

Student: According to what I understand, it's an ability that man has to bestow to the Creator through his friends without getting anything in return. It's like a force, a divine force. 

M. Laitman: Tell us what you think about it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:52) I think it was a precise definition, what he said.

M. Laitman: Precise is for those who have a good memory. What does it mean, Lishma?

Student: It means that... I get a force from the Creator... That He becomes more important to me than myself, that I want to bestow to Him. That it's disconnected from my desire.

M. Laitman: You said it incorrectly. Lishma means, first of all, to the Creator, from a person who can be under this force.

Student: From Him.

M. Laitman: From Him, yes. What do I want through this force to bestow upon the Creator? What? What does He need? 

Student: He is lacking to fill. He needs a desire to fill. There's no desire that He can fill if no one wants to bestow. He can only fill a desire to bestow.

M. Laitman: In other words, the Creator wants us to give to Him.

Student: In order for Him to be able to bestow to that desire. 

M. Laitman: So He can bestow to them. Well, so, how do we kind of wrap it up in a nice sentence? We'll help Him. Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:53) We have to learn to receive from the Creator what He wants to give us, and not our egoistic nature. 

M. Laitman: Okay. That's not an answer. It may be right. Correct. But this is not what we asked about. Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:17) To change our nature, to change our intention that it will resemble the Creator. He wants creation to resemble Him.

M. Laitman: Okay. It's also correct, but it needs to be more accurate. Well, yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:40) Maybe make your desire as His desire, so He can make His desire as your desire. 

M. Laitman: That too is correct, but it's not quite so clear. Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:02) Maybe by feeling a pleasure from bestowal.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And in that, in the pleasure to bestow to the Creator, I also fill Him when I bestow, that I know I'm receiving pleasure. So… 

M. Laitman: If I receive pleasure from the Creator, I am given to Him?

Student: If I bestow from that, I'm getting pleasure. By that, I'm bestowing. I think. 

M. Laitman: Well, not so much. Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:51) Question. Connection, love. Connection and love. To give love back to Him.

M. Laitman: Yes. So, first we have to reveal the love, to organize that love, and then bestow. Okay. More? Yes? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:23) Can I ask?

M. Laitman: No.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:40) Did you mean that the Creator wants us to receive only so as to give Him contentment by that? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: In other words, every action, every thought has to be only in order to give Him contentment. That's what He wants. 

M. Laitman: Correct.

Student: He doesn't need anything else from us. Right. And what leads us to come to that state? 

M. Laitman: That we locate that deficiency and make it a deficiency for prayer. That the prayer includes everything in it. Also the request, reception, giving. Everything belongs, everything should be expressed through prayer. 

Student: So first, it's important for me to detect that everything I did thus far was to receive, only the will to receive. I haven't done anything in order to bestow. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And this is what I have to ask. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Okay.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:00) He tells us here that we need to receive the law of life, to receive a life from the Torah. He says the Torah will qualify a person to be able to feel the life that is in the Torah, the real meaning of our lives. And this is what we want to receive here, the real meaning. You were born, you're going from one point to another point, and you want to find the real meaning. So here, if we discover the meaning in the connection between us to the Creator, out of love and bestowal, this is the real filling of the pleasure of the Torah.

M. Laitman: On this side, I don't see any hands. What's up? Well, say it.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:06) Maybe I'll try to... Maybe that He wants us to love one another as He loves us. For us to detect how much He loves us, and that we will love each other this way.

M. Laitman: Oh, that's too exalted, but okay, that's right.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:37) To want to be happy so He is happy?

M. Laitman: That's a question. Yes, you? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:52) Two answers that a friend gave me. All our actions will be only for the sake of the Creator. Everything is in the word itself. Is this correct? 

M. Laitman: It's correct. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:13) Maybe that we want to delight the Creator by Him giving to us. We are willing to be filled with His light so as to please him. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: This is Lishma.

M. Laitman: So, how do you do it? 

Student: I guess we have to muster among ourselves a great force, a great deficiency together so we can be in this prayer, so we can kind of clear ourselves out and make room for Him in order to delight Him.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:09) To continue the friend, we maybe create such greatness and importance of the Creator that from His greatness we can search for the deficiencies, for the place that needs correction in the relations between us, and ask Him for this.

M. Laitman: Nice, correct. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:37) I think we need to detect the vessel of reception where we receive the abundance. And through the connection between us into that vessel and our feeling, our request that the light will reform us, the Creator can be revealed.

M. Laitman: Okay. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:00) To be in Him as in a womb, and in that womb be in adhesion with Him although there was concealment there, but it needs to be this way, with that concealment and that adhesion inside His womb. 

M. Laitman: Okay. Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:34) It's felt when the greatness of the Creator fills the whole vessel without leaving an empty place. Is this called Lishma? A person doesn't need anything other than to feel the greatness of the Creator, and that's enough. 

M. Laitman: Correct.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:01) I think this is what's happening now. This is what He wants, that we will talk to Him all the time, that we will talk about Him all the time. If I'm alone, I should speak to Him. When I'm with the friends, I should speak with Him. In the lesson, constantly, this is what He wants. That's the feeling. And I also have a question about that. Is the fact that we constantly talk about Him, will it lift me at least from this loop of perceiving all of reality only as bitter and sweet, good and bad for me? So, does speaking about the Creator with the friends, washing myself kind of over with this thing, will this lift me from this calculation of happy, unhappy, and get into the calculation of truth and false? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:12) I think Lishma is when I enjoy in Him and He in me. Well, I mean, all of my actions and desires, I convey into the pleasure in His desire, in His actions, and He enjoys it from my desires, from my actions. 

M. Laitman: Okay. Well, that's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:55) In the end, the purpose of the Creator is to do good to His creations. This is why He created creation, to reveal His names. For this to happen, we have to achieve Lishma, meaning that all our thoughts and all our intentions are to bring Him contentment. And this happens by the Creator awakening us to a prayer. And then in the Tens we build a prayer. He also corrects the prayer. And in the end, He gives us delight and pleasure in the desire to bestow.

M. Laitman: Nice. Okay. Yes. Well? Wait. What?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:44) Can I ask now? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Every time we talk about preparation for Lishma, you say that we have to be adhered to the source. What does it mean to adhere to the source?

M. Laitman: I don't know what I said before or what I meant, but it could be adhered to what's written. It could be adhered in your spiritual work. There there's also sources. That's it. 

Student: What is the act of preparation for Lishma? 

M. Laitman: The act towards Lishma is to recognize that a person is in a state of Lo Lishma.

Student: And what is lo Lishma? Not for her sake? 

M. Laitman: Lo Lishma is that in his will to receive, He wants all the fulfillments that could possibly be in the universe. That says lo Lishma.

Student: Lo Lishma is when I want for myself all the pleasures that exist in reality? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And Lishma? 

M. Laitman: That I want all the pleasures, all the fillings that are, to draw them to me and to clothe them in order to bestow.

Student:  And this will already be an act from Lo Lishma to Lishma, from not for her sake to for her sake. What preparation should we do in order to go from Lo Lishma to Lishma?

M. Laitman: In order to enter Lishma, I need to open in me the biggest possible will to receive for fulfillment and to want to turn it in order to bestow.

Student: The transition to Lishma, is it close to the biggest Lo Lishma? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Okay, so to prepare ourselves for that state, what is the best means, instrument? Sources, is that our means to bring ourselves to that feeling?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Are there sources that are closer and bring us closer to engaging Lishma, and some are less, or it doesn't matter what we study? 

M. Laitman: There are.

Student: What?

M. Laitman: Well, I can’t say, it's, it also depends according to the root of the soul. They say that the book of Psalms is what brings a person closer the most. And there are songs.

Student: Okay, that's the root of the soul of every person. There are sources that bring him closer, and this root of the group, of our vessel as a group when we study together, what's suitable for us? What can bring us closer to Lishma? What text? What source?

M. Laitman: I don't know. Psalms.

Student: So we should read Psalms together as a group? 

M. Laitman: Yes, we should read Psalms together.

Student: During the lesson?

M. Laitman: Well, we don't have time to do it in the lesson. 

Student: During the day, we should read Psalms together.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And that will bring us closer to Lishma. Why? What works in Tehillim that brings us to Lishma? 

M. Laitman: That's what King David wrote.

Student: Okay, but we also have Baal HaSulam, Rabash. What about them? 

M. Laitman: Psalms are songs that aren't that long, but he wrote them from the revelation of his soul. 

Student: When we read Psalms together today in the Ten, with what intention should we approach the reading?

M. Laitman: Whatever's there in the Psalms to adhere through King David to the Creator.

Student: So there are sources we read during the lesson of Baal HaSulam, Rabash, that bring us to Lishma. And during the day, we read Psalms and things we do among us in the Ten. Okay. We also have Yeshivat Chaverim, gathering our friends once a week when we get together. Until the Congress in two and a half months, what should we focus on? There are so many topics in the wisdom of Kabbalah, and they all relate to Lishma. What topics should we focus on in order to achieve Lishma, to come to the Congress ready for this degree? 

M. Laitman:

 You can't say that on each and every one. In general, it's clear. We need to open our heart, and the Creator will shine into our heart. And in this way, we can grow in His direction towards Him. But more than that… 

Student: My question is, is it appropriate to plan topics ahead, take a topic or a subtopic toward Lishma and scrutinize it? 

M. Laitman: No, I don't think we should make such content from here to the Congress.

Student: So, what's the right approach from now 

until the Congress? If we don't detail it into all kinds of subtopics, or like a table of contents, or an order of phases, how do we approach this very big topic which is called Lishma?

M. Laitman: You need together, the best thing is together to choose. 

Student: Can we say that from week to week we should try to detect what awakens between us in the lessons and this will be the topic that's coming to the fore, what is happening between us?

M. Laitman: Maybe like that.

Student: But determining an order of topics in advance, we don't have the intellect to do it right now. 

Student: No. Thank you.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:31) I wanted to ask about how, when a person enters Lishma, does this happen to him kind of against his will, inadvertently, or is it you kind of go systematically into Lishma? How does it happen to you? 

M. Laitman: On behalf of man, I don't know exactly how to get in there or what to do.

Student: So what does he do? What does a person do if he doesn't know? 

M. Laitman: He does all the actions that the Kabbalists advise him. 

Student: You mentioned several times to do it through the sources, to kind of immerse ourselves in the sources. Do the sources bring a person into Lishma? 

M. Laitman: Yes. They're close or not as close. 

Student: What I'm trying to understand is in the entry into Lishma, what is a person's role? What is within his power to do? 

M. Laitman: When entering Lishma, a person needs to simply aim himself towards Lishma. That's it. 

Student: It's not something he can, there's no method here that he can follow that will lead him into Lishma.

M. Laitman: No.

Student: Can you be ready for Lishma?

M. Laitman: A person doesn't know.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:43) We heard we have to adhere, be adhered among us and form adhesion between us to adhere to the source. When Rav says to adhere to the source, and now we heard it has to grow from within the source, is the operation we have to approach right now is first of all to together wash ourselves with the sources that we choose that are related to Lishma and from the sources to try to grow the next phase and not to try to dictate that the next phase consists of one, two, three, four. Is that the process from within outwards and not from the outside inwards?

M. Laitman: Yes.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:32) I heard that in the entry to Lishma, a person has to direct himself to Lishma. What does it mean to direct himself to Lishma?

M. Laitman: In order to bestow with no conditions. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:59) A few years ago, a friend said something about the discernment of the created being in the entry to Lishma, and then he said everything that the created being does, the person does, the restriction, everything from the perspective of the upper one, it's like an adornment, a decoration of him wanting to approach him. So maybe everything we do together, the workshops, the lesson, everything we should do it like it's beautiful to watch it. It's like a bride beautifying herself for the wedding, and we just want to be favored, to be liked by the Creator. 

M. Laitman: So?

Student: So, maybe we should approach the work this way, because it's very different from how we— 

M. Laitman: It's not different. It's actually very respected.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:06) You said at the entrance to Lishma, a person has to direct himself to Lishma. How can one direct himself to something he doesn't know what it is? 

M. Laitman: He needs to see the sources that are discussing it in all kinds of ways, what Lishma means. Afterwards, he should see if he can aim himself towards Lishma.

Student: And what can help a person direct himself correctly? 

M. Laitman: The best thing is if he tries to do it in the group. 

Student: So let's say I heard Rav talk about reading Psalms. So, for example, if in our Ten’s meeting we read Psalms, that can direct us toward Lishma? 

M. Laitman: Also, yeah.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:33) Rav. I understand the emphasis on the sources. We have selected excerpts that deal with preparation for Lishma, and there are whole articles by Rabash, which I feel all of them deal with this topic. Is there a different way we're reading a whole article together, as opposed to short excerpts? Do they work on us differently? 

M. Laitman: We need both.

Student: Regarding psalms, today we read the study material of Rabash or Baal HaSulam. Should we swap it for psalms, or do we combine them? 

M. Laitman: Combine it. Okay, guys, I don't want to take any more time, so you keep going.