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

Daily Lesson (Morning) March 3, 2025.

Part 1: Baal HaSula, Shamati 4. What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work?

Reader: Hello, we are reading in Book of Shamati, Article Number 4, “What is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work”? You can find the study material on kabbalatgroup.info and in the Arvut system. You can also send your questions live through those websites. 

Baal HaSulam, Shamati 4. What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work?

Reading: (00:40) We must know the reason for the heaviness one feels when he wants to work in annulling his self before the Creator and not worry about his own benefit. A person comes to a state as though the entire world stands still, and he alone is now seemingly absent from this world, and leaves his family and friends for the sake of annulling before the Creator.

There is but a simple reason for this, called “lack of faith.” It means that one does not see before whom he nullifies, meaning he does not feel the existence of the Creator. This causes him heaviness.

But when he begins to feel the existence of the Creator, his soul immediately yearns to annul and connect with the root, to be contained in it like a candle in a torch, without any mind or reason. However, this comes naturally, as a candle is canceled before a torch.

It therefore follows that the essence of one’s work is only to come to feel the existence of the Creator, meaning to feel the existence of the Creator, that “the whole earth is full of His glory,” and this will be one’s entire work. That is, all the energy one puts into the work will be only to achieve this, and nothing else.

One should not be misled into having to acquire anything. Rather, there is only one thing a person needs: faith in the Creator. He should not think of anything, meaning that the only reward that he wants for his work should be to be rewarded with faith in the Creator.

We must know that there is no difference between a small illumination or a great illumination that a person obtains, since there are no changes in the light. Rather, all the changes are in the Kelim [vessels] that receive the abundance, as it is written, “I the Lord did not change.” Hence, if one can magnify one’s Kelim, to that extent he magnifies the illumination.

Yet, the question is, With what can one magnify one’s Kelim? The answer is that to the extent to which he praises and thanks the Creator for having brought him closer to Him, so he would feel Him a little and think of the importance of the matter, meaning that he was rewarded with having some connection with the Creator.

To the extent of the importance that one pictures for oneself, so the illumination grows in him. One must know that he will never come to know the true measure of the importance of the connection between man and the Creator because one cannot assess its true value. Instead, as much as one appreciates it, so he attains its merit and importance. There is a Segula [power/remedy/virtue] in this, since by this he can be rewarded with this illumination staying permanently within him. 

M. Laitman: This is what Baal HaSulam writes. Questions?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:53) What does it mean heaviness here? What is the reason for the heaviness?

M. Laitman: That it's difficult for a person to depict correctly that he is connected with the Creator. That’s it. And he feels this lack of connection as heaviness. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:34) What is that illumination that stays in permanence? 

M. Laitman: This is the illumination that we call “faith”.

Student: But permanence sounds like something that's not related to spirituality. 

M. Laitman: No. Here, it means that throughout all of one's times, he remains connected to spirituality. He remains in that because he has illumination; that in that, the light of the Creator and the person are connected. 

Student: And what is his exertion then? 

M. Laitman: That this illumination will not stop. 

Student: But before, he has illumination prominently, he has ups and downs. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Just as he describes at the beginning of the article, that has heaviness and yearning for the Creator. The light shakes him, rattles him. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: And then, it says that the exertion is to have faith. But when there is illumination and permanence, where is the exertion? 

M. Laitman: A permanent illumination gives him the feeling of his permanent connection with the Creator.

Student: So, how not to belittle this, or how he needs to maintain its importance, to raise it all the time. 

M. Laitman: That depends on him. 

Student: So, will permanent illumination not detract from his importance? 

M. Laitman: A person needs to be concerned about it but if he attains it, then this illumination exists in him, permanently. 

Student: So, you have to constantly work on protecting it, maintaining it? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Is that a different kind of work than before you have permanent illumination? 

M. Laitman: Yes, of course. Yes, different intentions. 

Student: How is it different? 

M. Laitman: It's different in that the person, even though now he attains a certain connection with the Creator, and he feels this connection truly as a permanent phenomenon. Along with that, he longs all the time to add to this illumination. Otherwise, he won't be able to keep it. 

Student: You can say this becomes a person's life? 

M. Laitman: Yes, of course.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:06) In which vessels does a person feel the illumination? 

M. Laitman: In the vessels of the will to receive. 

Student: Doesn't it cancel the exertion, the work? Because it's written that he annulls like a candle before a torch. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, he's attracted to it because of the will to receive?

M. Laitman: He continues his connection with the Creator on behalf of the will to receive. But through this illumination that he receives each time, more and more, his will to receive becomes refined and he shifts it to the will to bestow. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:05) He writes, one before the last paragraph, the question is, with what can one magnify one's vessels? The answer is to the extent to which he praises and thanks the Creator for having brought him closer to Him, so on and so forth. In the beginning of the article he says that the reason for the heaviness and annulling before the Creator is the lack of faith. So, what in the action of praise and gratitude increases faith, or helps to acquire faith? 

M. Laitman: It gives him his own vessels in which he feels the presence of the Creator. 

Student: Vessels are deficiencies, no? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And praise and gratitude is a feeling of wholeness. 

M. Laitman: But to feel these praise and gratitude, he must bring for it a deficiency, vessels. 

Student: He needs to find vessels to give praise and gratitude?

M. Laitman: To feel that this comes to him from the Creator.

Student: Here's a practical example: I woke up this morning, as usual; I said, I thank you, and so on; and I did not believe myself. The words were empty. Is this called praise and gratitude? 

M. Laitman: No.

Student: No, because I don't feel it. So, why am I saying it? How will praise bring me closer to faith, to feeling? 

M. Laitman: Praise gives you the feeling that you have something more precious than life, and it belongs to the Creator. And this is why you are drawn to it, to the connection with the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:22) How come the growing of the vessel depends on praise and gratitude for the Creator bringing him closer? I thought it was a technical matter: more annulment, more connection and incorporation with other vessels, and more exertion, that this grows the vessels.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, why does he say praise and gratitude? It's least expected - praise and gratitude magnifies the vessels.

M. Laitman: Yes. This is what he acquires through his work with the Creator. That he constantly enlarges his vessels through the praise of the Creator and giving Him thanks. 

Student: The work of incorporation, connection, serving the Creator, as we say in the group, all of that. The result of that should bring you to praise and gratitude? Is that the desired result? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: I understand that the importance of the connection makes a person hold on to the connection, but why does it grow the vessels?

M. Laitman: Because the importance enlarges the vessel. 

Student: What does it mean, growing the vessels, enlarging the vessels? 

M. Laitman: Enlarging the vessels is how is your relation to the Creator. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:00) He writes, accordingly he writes: “The main work of a person is to come to the feeling of the existence of the Creator. The whole earth is full of His glory, and this will be one's entire work. That is, all the energy one puts into the work will be only to achieve this and nothing else. One should not be misled into having to acquire anything. Rather, there is only one thing a person needs, faith in the Creator. He should not think of anything, meaning that the only reward he wants for his work should be to be rewarded with faith in the Creator”. Which faith is he talking about? It looks like something permanent he has to reach. 

M. Laitman: Faith is the feeling of the Creator. 

Student: And that should be what's permanent about a person? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And within the framework of the Ten, this is where we can grow the vessels through praise and gratitude and come closer to faith? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:16) He explains that man's problem is lack of faith. That's his central problem. And corresponding to that, he talks about praise and gratitude to grow the vessels. But the problem is the person is in heaviness during this time. So, how during heaviness a person praises and thanks the Creator? 

M. Laitman: In spite of the heaviness, he tries to have a connection with the Creator above the heaviness, and in that, he measures his ability to thank the Creator. 

Student: What is praise when a person feels heaviness in this connection? What kind of praise is that? 

M. Laitman: Even the fact that he feels a connection with the Creator through the heaviness, and he cannot give thanks to Him for bringing him closer. Nevertheless, this remains in the person.

Student: But why is it considered praise? It's a praise of request, not of gratitude. 

M. Laitman: No, the person is in a state where he feels that he has nothing to praise the Creator for, right? 

Student: Yes? 

M. Laitman: But this is an internal, personal, feeling of the person. Whereas, what is it that he wants to reach? That what he will receive from the Creator will be used by him as illumination. It comes, and in the vessels that it fills, there he feels a feeling of praise and gratitude. 

Student: And how come praise and gratitude grows the vessels and takes a person from heaviness to faith, rather than the prayer and request of “help me”? 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand?

Student: How come praise and gratitude specifically take a person out of heaviness into faith, fills the lack of faith?

M. Laitman: Because he discovers his vessels. By wanting to praise and give gratitude to the Creator; by that, he wants to get closer to Him.

Student: If not through praise and gratitude, he's not able to praise and give thanks to the Creator in his current state, he's able to cry out, “help me!”. Does that not grow his vessels and take him out of heaviness? 

M. Laitman: There are those to whom it does help to come out of it. But praise and gratitude, that is this addition to the vessels by which he increases the illumination. 

Student: All the articles of Shamati that we're starting to read now, it feels like a person and the Creator, a person in front of the Creator. Where are the friends, here? I'm going through a state, I turn to the Creator, I'm interacting with Him. Where are the friends here? 

M. Laitman: This is the foundation, meaning this is the foundation of a person's attitude towards the Creator; and also, the foundation for how a person relates to the group. 

Student: When a person feels heaviness and lack of faith, where do the friends fit in this, on the way to praise, and gratitude, and change, advancement? 

M. Laitman: In the lack of faith, he feels he doesn't have a sufficient connection with the friends, with the group, and then he works on it.

Student: Lack of faith is lack of connection with the friends? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And when he feels that he doesn't annul enough to the reality of the Creator, that he doesn't annul enough to the friends? It should be translated this way? 

M. Laitman: The fact that he does not feel the existence of the Creator, so he starts to work on his lack of connection with the friends. Because he does have some connection with them, when he enlarges these things, he reaches the lack of faith, that he doesn't have a connection with the Creator. So, he enlarges his lack for connection with the Creator, he starts to feel the presence of the Creator in his world, in the person's world, and this is how he advances.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:01) So, what you're really saying is that before we feel the Creator, the Creator will ensure that we feel one another? My measurement is that: if I suddenly love a friend, I love the Creator, the Creator won't let me love Him, He will let me love the friends first? Go love the friends, prove to Me you love the friends, then you'll see that the same feeling is the Creator. Can you look at it this way? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:06) We talked about it in the preparation for the lesson in the Ten. A person feels heaviness, he feels that there's heaviness on his will to receive, but there's the One who caused it. The fact that he remembers that someone caused him this heaviness, there's gratitude in that? 

M. Laitman: There can be gratitude for that as well, yes.

Student: Now you need the One who caused it to be great in his eyes. Because if someone caused me something bad, I don't see him as great. I blame him.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So, where are the friends here? How do they contribute to the process between the man and the Creator? 

M. Laitman: The person should make this calculation, that everything that he feels comes to him through the friends. This is why he gives thanks to the Creator for being together with his group and he receives from them such a lack to turn to the Creator. 

Student: So, does he receive from the friends the deficiency? Or the general greatness of the Creator that they communicate to him?

M. Laitman: A lack, and within this lack discovers the greatness of the Creator. 

Student: So, the Creator brings the efficiency to him through the friends. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:56) He says, “according to the importance that he depicts for himself”. So, there's a part of work by the person, so what does he mean “to depict for himself”? A friend is sitting here – before he depicts or after – what does he do, here? 

M. Laitman: I don't know what he does but there is this concept that a person discovers in the lack that he develops for himself. And there is also a lack that he receives from others, from the Ten. 

Student: So, the Ten can help a person picture this to himself? That's the role of the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Yes, well, that's not the only role but the Ten can help a person awaken and search for a feeling for himself. 

Student: So, the level of importance and praise, and gratitude that a person can give depends on the quality of his connection with the Ten, with the friends?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, if we are closer and more in bestowal, then each one can give more importance and gratitude? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And if a person feels lack of faith, then it's a result of lack of the correct connection between the friends? They don't give one another these opportunities to bestow importance, etc.? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:52) He focuses us on the existence of a Creator, that there is nothing else, it's only this, it's very precise. But it's a concept that we don't live in, as much. We always say, None Else Besides Him, the existence of the Creator. But this focus, where is love of friends, bestowal, above reason, all those things that we are learning? Here, he's saying don't get confused. Only to attain the feeling of the existence of the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Why? How can you not get confused, here? 

M. Laitman: Because this exists, for sure. The existence of the Creator exists, the illumination from the Creator exists; and to what extent the person receives from it, to what extent he perceives these things, that's already his personal matter. 

Student: So, if you focus on that, that will answer everything? Love of friends, everything, he has to rise above himself, he focuses on the existence of the Creator? It seems like you get confused with the will to receive. Why is it important for me to feel the existence of the Creator? 

M. Laitman: The existence of the Creator is important for us to feel it because ‘the whole earth is full of His glory’. The Creator fills all of his vessels, and through the person's relation to this phenomenon – that the Creator fills all of His vessels. By that, through this entire phenomenon, he can activate what he needs in order to advance. 

Student: So, that gives him the direction for advancement, right? What's the difference between faith in the Creator and feeling of the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Faith in the Creator is the force that a person wants to discover in order to advance through the vessels of bestowal, that's it.

Question (Merkaz 1): (29:34) The faith, on top of it, what does it grow? What grows faith, what increases it? 

M. Laitman: What increases the faith? The lack for faith. It's the lack for the feeling of the Creator. 

Question (PT 22): (30:01) What is the correct action in searching for the Creator, meaning to come to the feeling of His existence? What's the correct action, the more correct action? 

M. Laitman: In order to feel the existence of the Creator, we need to depict to ourselves that we exist in a complete vessel, meaning that our entire group is complete, whole. And all we lack is just a correct connection between us in order to attain the greatness and importance of the Creator. And this is what we exert to do. 

Question (MAK 43): (31:07) Is it possible that the light of faith is the feeling of the existence of light? 

M. Laitman: Again? 

Student: Can it be that the light of faith is not the feeling of the existence of light? It's not the feeling of reality? So, the light of faith and the feeling of the existence is not the same or it is the same? 

Reader: The question is can it be that the light of faith is not the feeling of the existence of light? If a person feels the light of faith, does it mean the feeling of the existence of light? 

M. Laitman: It's the kind of light that we should feel, we should understand it. And then give it a name, according to the person's feeling.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:38) He says here that man can never come to know the true importance of the connection between man and the Creator. Why is it? Why can't I come to know the true importance of the connection between me and Him? 

M. Laitman: Because these vessels exist in the Creator, in the Creator. And a person is incapable of assessing them to the true measure. 

Student: But he says that everything depends on the importance of the value of the connection. How do we reinforce the value of the connection between us and the Creator? 

M. Laitman: It's mostly through the study; the study and the interconnection between us. We need these two things. 

Student: What does it mean to be connected with the Creator, in contact with Him? 

M. Laitman: To be connected with the Creator means that I feel that I'm filled with what He sends me. 

Student: What He sends me has to do with the connection with the friends?

M. Laitman: It's faith. 

Student: Faith. And this faith is built in such a way that everything I ask for, my deficiency in the connection between me and Him and I ask for a fulfillment. Can you call that “faith”, the feeling of faith? How do I build my faith in the connection with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: When I turn to the Creator and I reveal my vessels for bestowing to Him. By that I reveal Him to a certain extent, and to this extent I can feel Him. This actually is the connection that exists between me and Him. And then, what I feel towards Him, on my side, on my part, is called “the light of faith”.

Student: My feeling before the Creator is a feeling that I have in reality with the friends, the connection where I feel that we're more together, there's more connection, more joy. How is it expressed in the connection between us in the Ten, where I can tell myself today, I am closer to the Creator – I am getting closer to Him, I am closer to Him today. 

M. Laitman: You can't.

Student: So, how can I feel each time closer to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: To the extent that you're close to the friends and connected with them. Out of your connection with them, you can elevate your attitude towards the Creator. And this, actually, is what you want to measure. 

Student: The fact that I'm asking of the Creator to fill this reality, the connection between us. I feel like we need something that will give us additional force to grow the connection between us. That's the meaning of fulfilling the Creator, that gives Him contentment?

M. Laitman: Yes. Yes, it gives Him contentment.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:26) I am a little confused, it says here in the first excerpt, “we must know that the reason for the heaviness one feels, when he wants to work in annulling himself before the Creator and not worry about his own benefit”. I don't know how to explain the word, I don't feel that this is how I would describe our work; that it's not to think of his own benefit? We work on connection, we talk about connection, we talk about reading and trying to feel the existence of the Creator. Why not worry about his own benefit, what is that work? 

M. Laitman: Because you want to measure your connections with the Creator, or with the friends, only in how much you are capable of working; and so, this is how it is called. 

Student: Only what I'm able to do for them?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But why? Look at it from the opposite side: For example, if we work on annulling myself, it's not because I worry about my own benefit, it's not how I describe the work. When I try to do all kinds of actions, the feeling that I'm not working for my own benefit doesn't come to me. In all these actions, I try to aim my heart, to listen to what's on the outside, listen to what's written, to annul before what the Kabbalists say, what I feel from the environment. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: But I don't feel that, you can call it, that I'm trying not to worry about my own benefit. And in a few other places, he defines it this way: a person has to worry, you know, has to not worry about his own benefit, that's a word. 

M. Laitman: This is the condition. 

Student: Where is that feeling, so I will start to battle with my feeling of worry about myself?

M. Laitman: A concern, to be concerned with the benefit of others instead of my own benefit. It's a concern that exists in the person's intention in order to bestow. 

Student: When a person wants and tries to care for his friend, he's trying to think of his benefit. It doesn't necessarily beget in me a feeling of a war against my own self-benefit. The self-benefit worry is not felt, here. 

M. Laitman: No.

Student: So, why not worry about his own benefit? When do we begin to feel the worry about my self-benefit and where do I need to avoid it? When does that appear?

M. Laitman: Where it touches the person's self; his desire to take care of his own existence.

Student: When he thinks of the other, it begins to appear in him opposite to that feeling, in contradiction with that feeling? 

M. Laitman: Possibly, yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:20) From what I understood, the person's work opposite the greatness of the Creator is what keeps the light of faith. But in the beginning, when a person begins the work, the light of faith and the work opposite the image of the Creator is outside of the circle of the family, the friends, and this world. But he has the light of faith because, nevertheless, he does see the image of the Creator. So, my question is what brings back or increases the light of faith into the circle of the family, and friends, and this world? What does the person do such that he doesn't feel that he has to exit and leave this circle of family, friends, and this world in order to stand opposite the image of the Creator? 

M. Laitman: I can't imagine to myself a place where there has to be an opposition - the attitude to the world, the attitude to the Creator. 

Student: I didn't hear, I didn't understand?

M. Laitman: I can't imagine, I don't imagine, a situation where my attitude to the Creator is in conflict with my attitude to the world, to reality. 

Student: Rabash wrote that when a person wants to work and annul before the image of the Creator and make it greater. He feels that he exits and actually leaves his family and his friends and this world. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: And he says it happens because of lack of faith, there is faith, but it's small. My question is what do I do, so that this work in annulling before the Creator, before the image of the Creator, will enter into this circle of friends, family, and the world? What, seemingly, makes it be so that I do work in the same place? 

M. Laitman: You must take care of your vessels that used to be full with what you fill them with. You have to make sure that when they empty, when they empty out, they won't suffer from this emptiness. 

Student: Seemingly, going out to work in the vessels of bestowal, that's coming out of the circle. And starting to work with the vessels of bestowal is coming back to the circle?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:36) We speak about acquiring a common deficiency. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: From the Ten, let's say, by becoming incorporated, annulling, acquiring the vessels of the friends so that we have this common space between us. Is the light of faith what enables it or what fills it? 

M. Laitman: The light of faith fills the vessels of the bestowal. 

Student: The very fact that we are searching for the common vessels, that we want to become incorporated, we want to build something between us. How do you call this quality or this direction? Isn't it the light of faith that makes it, is it a different light? What is it? 

M. Laitman: It's the light of faith.

Student: So, the light of faith enables us to even go out to some common space?

M. Laitman: I don't understand?

Student: By a person coming out of himself towards us, towards something common with the friends. What enables that is called the light of faith? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: It is to acquire a new lack; and what fills it, what is that called? Also the light of faith? 

M. Laitman: What fills it is called “the light of faith”.

Student: So, it both enables the process for us and also fills it?

M. Laitman: That’s not the same light? 

Student: That's my question – what is the difference between this and that?

M. Laitman: The light of faith is what you receive and what fills the vessels. What else? 

Student: What enables us to go out to the common vessels? This transition, the building, the acquisition of these new vessels? 

M. Laitman: Acquiring these common vessels, it's the connection between them. 

Student: Isn't that also called some kind of light? 

M. Laitman: It's always light.

Student: Isn't that called “the light of faith”? 

M. Laitman: But which vessels do you present opposite it? 

Student: There is the vessel of a person, just his will to receive. 

M. Laitman: That's not qualified for the light of faith. 

Student: That's clear. Now, a person comes out of that and he wants new vessels that exist in the Ten. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: The fact that he's actually coming out of himself in order to acquire the new vessels, what do you call that? 

M. Laitman: He needs the light of faith. 

Student: So, he builds a lack for the light of faith.

M. Laitman: Yes, otherwise he can't connect with others. 

Student: So, we need the light of faith in order to exit ourselves? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:09) Is annulling concern for self-benefit the condition for beginning to connect with the Creator or with others? Is canceling concern for myself the condition for the beginning of a connection with the Creator or with others? 

M. Laitman: It's a condition. 

Student: This means that if it's not clarified in me all the way that I agreed to cancel it?

M. Laitman: I didn't say that it has to be this way, all the way and completely – no.

Student: I'm asking because we work on connection between us and we make efforts to connect between us. And we don't always put the emphasis on how much do I actually annul my self-love, my self-concern. So, can we start to connect between us in that way to perform acts of connection, when I'm still concerned about myself? 

M. Laitman: Yes, there are degrees in that, and there are degrees like that. 

Student: And during the work on connection, the inner scrutiny happens in a person and it cleans him or the light cleans him. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So it's always in the direction of connection, not this calculation of how much I?

M. Laitman: Yes, those are the vessels you need to reveal.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:53) Annulling self-concern is it something that a person has the power to do or does he need assistance from above? 

M. Laitman: Annulling the worry about self-benefit, it has to do only with the person. It all depends on how much you can raise his prayer to the Creator. 

Student: I remember that you always told us, there's also an excerpt that we heard, that Rabash will tell you not to leave the thought about a friend for two hours a day. How can I reach a state where I exit self-concern? How do I even reach such a request because the ego doesn't want to request such a thing?

M. Laitman: I guess, there has to be such a state. 

Student: So, I just need to wait for it? 

Question (Turkiye 2): (51:34) How can one be in touch with the Creator? What do we lack in order to reach such a contact, a connection with the Creator?

M. Laitman: In contact with the Creator in connection with Him, we can reveal it on the condition that there is a connection between us. We appreciate it, we value it less than our connection with the Creator. Meaning, I want to be connected to the Creator more than my connection with the friends, and everyone's the same. Meaning, it goes from vessels of bestowal and vessels of reception. But it turns out, it's one at the expense of the other.

Question (Almaty): (53:02) You said that we should be concerned that the vessels of bestowal will not become empty. Can you elaborate on that?

M. Laitman: I don't get the question? Vessels of bestowal, there's no such thing in reality, really, the Creator created vessels of reception. And if we prefer to work with vessels of reception number one, instead of vessels of reception number two. It means that I prefer one at the expense of the other, one over the other, that's how it works. We'll scrutinize it further.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:23) I heard you say now that we can discover the connection with the Creator on the condition that there is connection between us and we appreciate it less than our connection with the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Our connection with the Creator doesn't depend on our connection with the friends? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, how can it be that one is less important than the other? 

M. Laitman: I can imagine it this way.

Student: But if I don't have the possibility to connect with the Creator without being connected with the friends. And we also learned from Rabash that first we have to connect with the friends, that's the first floor, before we reach the connection with the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So, how come the connection with the friends is less important than the connection with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: I wouldn't say it's less important, but – I don’t know how to put it – the connection with the friends doesn't belong to the general correction. It doesn't belong to the totality of the vessels in reality. But the connection with the Creator, that's already a connection that is general.

Student: And in terms of man's work in order to reach a connection with the Creator, what importance should he pay to the connection with the friends? 

M. Laitman: The connection with the friends advances him toward the connection with the Creator. 

Student: Is there anything else that can advance him? 

M. Laitman: That's a stage. 

Student: That's a stage, you can't jump over it?

M. Laitman: No. 

Student: So, it's a necessary stage in order to reach a connection with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, simply there's a difference in how you look at the general correction, and the individual work of the person, where the connection with the friends is necessary?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:28) I'm trying to find the connection. It says, here, that a person is rewarded with the light of faith and then he's rewarded – “when a person receives the light of faith, then he recognizes the greatness of the Creator, he can feel the greatness of the Creator”. What is the relation between this work, where the person receives the light of faith, and he receives the greatness of the Creator in his vessels, he receives this light of faith? And the fact that a person works with others in faith above reason. Is there a connection between the two, seemingly, receiving the light of faith versus working with his reason or above reason. 

M. Laitman: When a person receives the light of faith; yes, what did he say? 

Student: Yes, when a person receives the light of faith. 

M. Laitman: In which vessels? 

Student: What vessels does he have? Vessels of reception. So, how does he work with this light of faith against his reason, so it will be faith above reason. How does that become established in a person? 

M. Laitman: Well, he can't work above reason, yet, because he receives the light of faith for the time being in vessels of bestowal.

Student: In which vessels? 

M. Laitman: Bestowal. 

Student: So, when will he be able to work above reason? 

M. Laitman: In faith above reason, he could work only on the condition he's searching, he's going from vessels of reception to vessels of bestowal. And in them he performs the action, the act of bestowal. 

Student: Can I keep asking about that: This transition can be attributed to what we were learning throughout the years, the correction of the vessels of bestowal, and then we work with the vessels of reception. So this transition between receiving the light of faith in the vessels of reception and that now he can work with this light of faith with his vessels of reception in order to bestow. Meaning he already has some part where he can add the true desires to receive. Is that correct? How does it work between us? How do we reach it in the connection between us, if I can even ask? 

M. Laitman: When you reveal vessels of reception and you want them to join with vessels of bestowal.

Student: And it needs to be for the sake of something? 

M. Laitman: Yes, for the sake of joining the vessels of bestowal. 

Student: But some concept called “the Creator” comes in here; we do it for Him, we already recognize Him?

M. Laitman: Yes, that's the external condition for that. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:37) Is there a possibility to bestow to the Creator not through the Ten? 

M. Laitman: How will you prepare your offering, your giving? 

Student: No, in the first stage it's clear: we need to reach equivalence of form. But afterwards, is there such a possibility after one has already acquired it? 

M. Laitman: No, because where are you going to obtain the vessel in which whatever you prepare, you can later present to an offer to the Creator? 

Student: Let's say we feel that the Creator relates to a person not always through the Ten but also through the world. So, if a person agrees to accept every state from the Creator, and he considers that he's bestowing. Seemingly, he's bypassing the Ten, or there is no such state, the Creator is always influencing the person through the Ten?

M. Laitman: Typically, usually, but not always. 

Student: So, sometimes a person receives a state directly from the Creator, unrelated to the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Yes, you could say. 

Student: Okay, so that's one direction. In the other direction, me towards the Creator. Do I always bestow through the Ten or it is also a possibility to bestow to Him not through the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Not through the Ten? No.

Student: There isn’t? I always have to bestow to a friend in the Ten or to the entire Ten, and through that I feel the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: There is no such possibility, or it's only in the stage of preparation there isn't, or in general, it doesn't matter. Even in later stages, it's impossible?

M. Laitman: I can't imagine to myself because the Ten is your state in spirituality. And then, you need to arrange yourself in the Ten in order to be connected as a separate unit in spirituality. 

Student: So, how can it be that the Creator relates to me not through the Ten? There is such a possibility, only as an individual?

M. Laitman: Only as an individual? Practically, no.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:45) I understand why the praise and gratitude enlarge the vessels. First of all, the question is do we need to enlarge the vessels? Why is it important to enlarge them? It says in the beginning, it doesn't matter if it's a small illumination or a great illumination. So, why do we need to enlarge the vessels? 

M. Laitman: In order to be more in contact with the Giver. 

Student: When a person, let's say, comes out of his vessels of reception and he starts to feel the ability to bestow to a certain extent. In practice, he doesn't start to praise and give gratitude, he starts to bestow. He tries to start to help with whatever he receives, this is what he works with. So, I would expect that this will be the response to a person receiving a connection with the Creator, that he simply works with whatever he has. So, why now does he have to go and start to praise the Creator? Seemingly, he's increasing his connection with the Creator by making himself greater and not by actually bestowing. Why should you engage in praise and gratitude? Why is this act of bestowal not what enlarges the vessels? 

M. Laitman: The action of bestowal towards the vessels.

Student: So, why praise and gratitude, is praise and gratitude an act of bestowal? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, what is the whole matter of the friends and the world, and the Creator that we need to bestow to? 

M. Laitman: It's only an expression. 

Student: So, actually, in our work, in the group, in the Ten, when we try to bestow to the friends. Is that a kind of praise and gratitude? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: This is how it is manifested in our work. If I want to enlarge the vessels, I have to bestow to the friends and this is considered as praise and gratitude to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:05) Is the first time that we are rewarded with the light of faith considered a transition from Lo Lishma to Lishma? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And each time afterwards, when we give praise and gratitude, enlarge the vessels, this is already work in Lishma? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:31) In response to the friend, you said that praise and gratitude is a work where I see the Creator clothed in a friend. This is a testimony that I worked on developing in my vessels of reception. So, when I do this action and I see the image of the Creator clothed in a friend, how does it influence my friend? Do I actually help him in practice by that?

M. Laitman: I don't know. 

Student: It says, “do not do to your friend what is hated by you”, and also “love your friend as yourself”; I want to do for the friend an act of helping him on the path, I don't want to harm the friend. Now, with what the friend now talked about, I use the friend, I use the friend as my vessel in which I work on praise and gratitude. My question is when I do this thing, what do I cause to the friend on his path? Or in our relation, or in our togetherness, do I cause extra connection by that? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, if I see the Creator clothed in a friend, I cause extra connection in the Ten no matter what?

M. Laitman: Let's say, yes.

Student: This is considered opening the vessels of reception? 

M. Laitman: No.

Student: We said before that the friend, the family, the world, those are the vessels of reception from which I exited in order to work with vessels of bestowal. Now, I want to reopen them. So, the friend is seemingly my vessel of reception in which I work on praise and gratitude for the Creator. Now, the fact that I see the Creator clothed in a friend, is that a testimony that I was working correctly on opening my vessels of reception? 

M. Laitman: No.

Student: So, what does it mean that I start to work on my vessels of reception after the restriction? Meaning, I went out to the vessels of bestowal, the work of bestowing in order to bestow. And I want to start to work in praise and gratitude for the Creator in the vessels of my friends. What does it mean that I open them up as my vessels of reception? 

M. Laitman: You fill them. 

Student: I fill them, it means that if I see the image of the Creator clothed in them. What does it mean that I fill them as far as I'm concerned, if it's not that? 

M. Laitman: That is it. That is all. 

Song: (01:10:54)