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

Daily Morning Lesson: January 7, 2026

Reading of the Article in the Ten

Rabash. Article No. 23, (1986). Concerning Fear and Joy

Recorded Lesson – June 14, 2002

Reader: Hello dear friends, in the first part of the lesson you will watch a recorded lesson from June 14, 2002 on the article “Concerning Fear and Joy,” Rabash's article number 23. We will read it together in the Ten, each member of the Ten will read a part and you go by order. As per the friend’s request, we allotted more time for the reading. If you're done before that time is up, then you start a workshop on the article: Rabash article 23, “Concerning Fear and Joy.” 

 
Reading: (01:02) Rabash. Article No. 23, (1986). Concerning Fear and Joy

Article No. 23, 1986

The holy Zohar asks (Aharei, item 2 in the Sulam [Ladder commentary]), “Rabbi Yitzhak started, ‘It is written, ‘Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.’ It is also written, ‘Serve the Lord with joy, come before Him with singing.’ These verses contradict one another. But we learned, ‘Serve the Lord with fear,’ since any work by which one wishes to serve one’s Master requires fear first, to fear Him. And because of the fear of his Master he will later be rewarded with performing the Mitzvot [commandments] of the Torah with joy. This is why it is written, ‘What does the Lord your God ask of you but fear,’ and by this he will be rewarded with everything.’”

We should understand what fear is. We see that fear and joy are two opposites, and how can fear be a reason for joy, as he says, “Because of the fear of his Master he will later be rewarded with performing the Mitzvot of the Torah with joy,” since they contradict one another?

We should also understand why the Creator wants to be feared. What does it give Him? It is like a person walking into a henhouse telling them, “If you take upon yourselves to fear me, I will give you food and water. I will give you everything you want in return for fearing me.” Can it be said that man has any consideration whether the chickens respect him?

It is much more so with the creatures toward the Creator—what value and importance can we say that the Creator has for the creatures fearing Him? It is so much so that our sages said that a person must do nothing but engage in fear, as it is written, “What does the Lord your God ask of you but fear?” It is also written (Ecclesiastes, 3), “God has made it so that people fear Him,” which means that everything that the Creator did, He did so that He will be feared.

To understand the above, we should remember the purpose of creation, meaning the purpose for which the Creator created Creation. It is known that the reason is His desire to do good to His creations. However, in order to bring to light the perfection of His deeds, meaning so there will not be the “bread of shame,” He has made a correction called “Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment,” where before one has vessels of bestowal it is impossible to see or feel His existence, called “recognition of the Creator.”

This means that although we say each day in the prayer, “The whole earth is full of His glory,” we still have no feeling of it. Rather, we must believe above reason that this is so. The reason is that although there are no changes in the light, because “there is no absence in spirituality,” there are nonetheless changes on the part of the Kelim [vessels], and the Kelim limit the light. It is so because in the Kelim we discern the greatness of the abundance—their impression from the abundance. If one has no Kelim that can be a clothing for the light, then no light is apparent in reality, according to the rule: “There is no light without a Kli [vessel].” That is, we must know one thing: We can speak of what we attain in our sensations.

Baal HaSulam said an allegory about the Tzimtzum: It is like a person covering himself so no one will see him. Can it be said that a person who hides himself so that others will not see him does not see himself because of it? Likewise, the Creator has made the Tzimtzum and concealment so the lower ones will not see Him while they are immersed in self-love, which is receiving in order to receive, which causes disparity of form and separation between the Giver, who is the Creator, and the receivers, who are the creatures.

And since there is no reception in our root, which is the Creator, when a person does engage in reception he feels unpleasantness, called “bread of shame.” This is why there was a correction on the part of the lower ones—that we attribute the Tzimtzum to the lower ones. That is, the lower ones need the Tzimtzum and concealment since precisely through this correction they will be able to correct the reception into aiming to bestow. But from the perspective of the upper one there are no changes. All the changes are only the qualification of our Kelim, as much as they can receive in order to bestow.

Accordingly, since the delight and pleasure do not illuminate in a place of separation, a person is unable to acquire complete faith prior to correcting one’s will to receive. It is as he says (“Introduction of the Book of Zohar,” item 138), “It is a law that the creature cannot receive disclosed evil from Him, for it is a flaw in His glory for the creature to perceive Him as an evildoer, as it is unbecoming of the complete Operator. Hence, when one feels bad, denial of the Creator’s guidance lies upon him to that same extent, and the superior Operator is concealed from him.”

From this we see the necessity of the correction of bestowal: Not only is it impossible to receive the delight and pleasure that has been prepared for us, but there is something here that removes us from faith in Him, and this is the worst!

Now we can understand the meaning of fear. We asked, “Does the Creator need us to fear Him?” According to what we explained, fear is as it is written in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar], that man fears that perhaps he will not be able to overcome and receive in order to bestow, as it should be, but will receive in order to receive, which would cause him separation, not necessarily from the delight and pleasure that he will not be able to receive, but he fears that he will not come to deny His faith. It follows that he can actually come to the Sitra Achra [other side].

This is the meaning of “God has made it so that people fear Him.” Through this fear there will be a twofold great correction: 1) they will have faith in the Creator, 2) they will be able to receive the delight and pleasure that the Creator wants to give them.

It follows that the Creator wants to be feared so that we will have the Kelim to receive the delight and pleasure. By this we will have faith in Him, as it is written in the Sulam (p 138), “Fear is safekeeping that we will not be removed from His faith.”

From this we will understand what is written, “What does the Lord your God ask of you but fear?” It means that He wants to give us abundance, but what detains is the disparity of form, for the light cannot clothe in vessels of reception. Hence, when a person is afraid and vigilant to always keep his intention in order to bestow, the Creator can give him His bestowal in completeness, without any unpleasantness, called “bread of shame.”

By this we understand what we asked, “How can fear be reason for joy?” With the above said, it is simple: By having fear, meaning by being careful to always use the vessels of bestowal, the Creator can give him the delight and pleasure because he has vessels of bestowal. And certainly at that time he will have joy from the abundance he has received in order to bestow. It follows that the fear causes the joy, and if he has no fear he is removed from everything. 

Reader: We will now enter a lesson with Rav from the 14th of June, 2002. 

M. Laitman: (18:22) We heard an article from, The Rungs of the Ladder, Second Volume, page 105 on the portions of Acharei Mot, After The Death, Concerning Fear and Joy.  These are opposite things: fear and joy, how can they be together? It turns out that, as it says in the Zohar, in The Introduction to the Book of Zohar, he writes that the first commandment we have, the first correction we have is called, fear. There are the commandments of the Torah, the commandments of the light, of the corrections on the way, that we rise from this world to the end of correction. This way is divided into corrections, and the first correction a person has to attain is fear. The Zohar asks there, fear—how is it possible if the Creator is good and does good, and perfect and He is above all the calculations for oneself, what does it mean that a person should fear Him and so forth? Seemingly, it is something that is customary in this world by the power, by the force of the fist - in this world, this is how we achieve things. So it's unbecoming of the Creator who is completely whole and perfect that there will be something called: to fear Him, how can such a thing be? Maybe it is suitable to, from this world; later on, the Zohar explains that there is fear called, fear of this world. Then, a person is afraid of punishment in this world, punishment for himself, for his family. Then, he is afraid of fear of the next world that he will have, that is higher but, nevertheless, it is punishment. 

Later, when he corrects his vessels to vessels of bestowal, he acquires the screen, then he stops being afraid of the Creator at all because he sees that everything is good and does good, it all opens up; and a person sees that, back then when he was afraid, he was afraid, not because the Creator is there and can punish him. But because in his uncorrected vessels, he was afraid to receive punishment. In truth, there is no such concept as punishment from above; the disconnection from the Creator is the punishment, there is no more. If so, then a person reaches a different kind of fear, fear of bestowal, that he won't be able to bestow; and that fear that he will not be able to bestow is actually a correction that lets him build vessels of bestowal from his soul. Then in that revelation of fear, he receives a filling called, love – love is already the result of fear. As much as one is afraid that perhaps he won't be able to bestow, accordingly, the upper light fills him and brings him the feeling of love. The feeling of his being compatible, being in equivalence of form and adhesion with the Creator. Therefore, the matter of fear is simply a correction, because to begin with, we are built out of the will to receive and the will to receive must be in order to bestow. The will to receive has to be in order to bestow otherwise we will not feel the pleasure. This is why the correction is vessels of bestowal, or what we call, fear of the Lord. 

M. Laitman: (23:16) What does it mean that the correction should nevertheless be fear, or vessels of bestowal? Because if we will get pleasure in the will to receive, the pleasure immediately cancels the will to receive. Because as we know, if we, let's say, eat, we start to eat, we're still hungry, we feel a taste and pleasures from the food. And more and more, the more we eat, even if these things might be even more tasty but the pleasure, nevertheless, diminishes. From things that are better, nevertheless, we don't feel an addition of pleasure compared to what we felt in the first piece, in the first bite. This is because the pleasure that comes in fills the will to receive and to the same extent it cancels the deficiency. It is impossible to be full, meaning to enjoy one hundred percent, on the one hand; and on the other hand, to feel pleasures. The moment that the vessel reaches saturation, it stops feeling at all that it has any filling in it. We feel it when we, let's say, after something we want to buy, that we—so much, we yearn and we dream about it for a year or two. Finally, we reach it and within a week it's over, there's no taste in it anymore. It's all ordinary, what does it mean, ordinary? We think that it becomes ordinary, there is no matter of time here, but rather, the pleasure filled the vessel and the lack, the hunger, the appetite is lost. In order to have pleasure, not from some temporary vessel – a momentary one – but rather, an eternal one, we need that, as much as there will be a filling, the pleasure will grow along with the filling. And won't go away and won't diminish at all, but to the contrary, the more there is a filling, there will be even greater pleasure. And that they will actually help each other to increase so that each one increases the other. 

How to make it so, this is why there is a trick: The counsel is to make of our vessels, vessels of bestowal; that is, if the intention that we will add to the will to receive will be in order to bestow. Then the vessel will receive a stature which is above time, above place, what does that mean? That even though its place, its deficiency, the belly, let's say, the stomach will be filled. If the intention is in order to bestow, the more I'm filled, the more I'm giving. And so from there I get even more appetite to give. And above time, it means that the more I'll be filled – my deficiency, my appetite, my hunger won't diminish but, actually, it will grow because I will be able to give more. 

M. Laitman: (26:57) Therefore, other than the will to receive, we have to add the matter of intention. Because the intention makes of the will to receive something eternal so that it is not cancelled with respect to the light that fills it. But rather, it becomes eternal like the light. If we are equipped with an intention to bestow, that is the whole matter of the wisdom of Kabbalah, of reception, how to receive. If a person learns that in the right way, he begins to receive pleasures that are non-stop. He goes, as we say, from success to success, on the degrees where he acquires a greater deficiency. He corrects it even more with the intention to bestow; he feels that even more, greater deficiency, more intention to bestow, he feels that even more. This is how he advances up to unlimited saturation, which is called, the end of correction. The end of correction doesn't mean that he finished it and that there is some fixed final volume for the vessel. If there is a final volume to the vessel, he will stop enjoying, even in order to bestow. If it is some sort of constant bestowal, it is cancelled. There cannot be constant bestowal, bestowal has to grow all the time, otherwise it's not bestowal. 

This is why a person simply reaches a state called, Ein Sof, infinity. Ein Sof means that now he has the ability without any limitation to always increase his vessels with the intentions and with the fillings. Then, we reach the matter of the true fear, which is fear of whether I can bestow. That is, the more deficiencies, additional deficiencies I will take, will I be able to correct it? To install a screen on top of it in order to bestow and by it, to receive in order to bestow? This is the whole matter of fear, the true fear. Then, as a result, one receives a filling from above: The light of Torah. When the light of Torah feels the fear, together it creates a feeling called, The joy of Torah, joy. It is, as we say, it's a great Mitzva, it's a great commandment to be in joy; this is what it means, that when a person reaches a state when he corrected his vessels, he receives a filling, the upper light called the Torah and he reaches joy. Are there any questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:18) So, fear is actually a state of the greatness of the vessel, the darkness. Is that what we're saying? 

M. Laitman: Fear is a correction; fear is a correction over the vessel of the will to receive so that its intention will be in order to bestow. Fear is an attitude towards the Giver. There is an attitude towards the Giver that perhaps He won't give me and there is an attitude to the Giver that perhaps I won't give Him. This is what is called, egoistic fear, a beastly fear on the plane of this world. Perhaps, He won't give me in my life now, right now, all kinds of things that I need. You know, people run to Kabbalists to buy from them all kinds of nonsense – you know, blessings and other such things. Then, we reach the true fear, the true attitude towards the Creator. Not that He will give to me but that, perhaps, I'll be able to give Him.

Student: Can't I look at fear and joy as the revelation of the vessel and its fulfillment in stages?

M. Laitman: Fear is the correction of the vessel; joy is the filling of the vessel.

Student: Why is it so difficult for us in this case of fear and joy also and other things to accept the true interpretation of the words? Our interpretation is usually, way, far off. 

M. Laitman: Our interpretation of fear and joy stems from our natural qualities with which we were born. We are born with qualities of the will to receive, meaning all of our thoughts and intentions and desires and passions are about how to fill ourselves. This is the initial form – the smallest one – in the will to receive. The true will to receive that exists in each and every one of us is much greater than what we feel now. It was especially diminished down to the minimum degree called, this world; so that we will try with our own forces to install a screen on top of it, in an intention to bestow. The moment that we are capable, over this small desire, to install a screen in order to bestow, then we are given greater desires. 

Each time that we will rise from one degree to another, we, nevertheless, will be inside the will to receive, in order to receive. Later on, we will recognize it as evil, as bad; then, we will want to correct it to be, in order to bestow. We will ask for the power from above, we will install on top of it an intention to bestow and then we will receive a filling. There is no other way because—you might ask the following: Why weren't we born along with the will to receive? Let it be, okay, what can we do with the will to receive but, along with an intention to bestow, why do we have to search on our own for what is the intention to bestow? What do we do, search for how to acquire it, how to upgrade it, put it on top of the will to receive. Why do we have to do that by ourselves? It's a simple matter; this intention cannot come from above because this is about how you relate to the Giver. Otherwise, it won't be in order to bestow, meaning, otherwise, you won't be relating to Him. It won't be bestowal; it has to truly come from you. This is why, just desires to enjoy, you're given that; besides that, you're also given the opposite intention so that you use your desires in order to fill yourself. These are not just neutral desires to enjoy. They're actually the opposite, seemingly, in a minus towards you. 

You, first, have to neutralize them, not use them at all—not for me, not for him – and then to invert it to be, in order to bestow. The correction that I neutralize my desires and I reach a state where I don't want to use them at all is called, a correction of the restriction or the restriction of Chafetz Hesed, delighted in mercy. Afterwards, beyond that, I already begin to work with true bestowal to Him. These are the stages of the correction, and if I wouldn't do it by myself, then it wouldn't be considered bestowal. I wouldn't then feel that same pleasure that I can feel in order to bestow. It would simply remain the same smallest pleasure called, a tiny illumination that I have only in this world which we can receive in order to receive, so we have no choice. It turns out that when we are in our initial, natural state, the way we were born, we can only enjoy from the smallest sum total of pleasures in this world, we call it in the plane of this world where each time you reach a pleasure and it disappears, you reach a pleasure but it disappears, but you grasp only a little bit from it when you hold on to it. This is the sum total of the pleasures that can be in the will to receive before it disappears because each time that you take something, so I have no other choice. If I want to enjoy more than I'm capable to enjoy in this world and look at how much humanity is advancing, the more it develops and the greater the will to receive is from one generation to the next. And how much we bring into this will to receive all kinds of pleasures – look at what kinds of food there were one hundred years ago and today! How many kinds of food we have or what kinds of humanity is reaching all kinds of improvements we make just to serve ourselves, our will to receive. Nevertheless, it doesn't enjoy. 

If 100 years ago or 200 years ago, you would take people compared to today, today they are more despaired than before. Meaning it doesn't help that when the will to receive grows and the pleasures that we want to bring into it, we generate them as much as possible, the end result isn't negative. Because in the will to receive itself, the more you create desires towards all kinds of dishes, all kinds of pleasures, today people run around all over the world to search for pleasures in every country and on the internet and TV. Look at what's going on and a person does not enjoy meaning it's even the opposite. By that, we discover even more emptiness, and this is why people can go to drugs and all of those things. So, in the end, because we have to discover, the whole of humanity needs to discover that this form of reception, this form of enjoyment, that we simply, directly want to fill ourselves. It's a disqualified method, it won't give us pleasure; in the end, humanity has to reach a state of complete helplessness, total helplessness. Where a person will eat the best possible things and will feel it's like grass, truly. He will be wearing, I don't know, according to a fashion that will change on a daily basis, it doesn't matter – he won't feel any pleasure in that. He will replace, like today we replace families, exchange one wife for another, a second, a third. the fifth, the tenth one, you won't be able to stand any one of them. I don't know how to say it, but in short, you won't find any kind of clothing through which you can receive pleasure. 

And the desires, we make them, they come from within, and we even develop them more by acquiring all of these pleasures more and more, and there is nothing; and this is a process that doesn't just develop gradually, it's exponential! It develops very quickly, and within a few years, humanity will reach a state where it won't be able to find itself; even more than that, it won't find itself with the question of how to go on. If earlier we had experts, philosophers, great politicians who had some kind of a plan, they were at least thinking – of course they didn't know – but at least they were thinking of how to keep going. So today, no politician, no economist knows how to keep going, and what should we do? This means that we are reaching a state where, indeed, we are in a state where the direction for how to fill ourselves, how to guide ourselves – we don't know. And this is the true form of the will to receive, the vessel of reception that cannot fill itself directly, and from that will come the recognition of evil, and the correction of the world will come. There is no choice, and all in all, Kabbalists define the will to receive, that I can enjoy a little bit of it when I just put in the first bite until the pleasure goes away. This will to receive is called, a tiny illumination, or a very small candle. All in all, with respect to the upper world, with respect to the upper pleasure, it is just a very small spark that fell into this world and revives it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:11) Is it the same process of preparation? We're constantly talking about how to bestow, how to imagine that? 

M. Laitman: How can we imagine what bestowal is? You have a group, when you are in a group they tell you that the love of friends will bring you to the love of the Creator. Bestowal to the friends brings you to bestowal to the Creator, why is that? When you try to create between them the same behavior as though you're truly among the souls at the end of correction, then you draw from there, from the upper world, you draw surrounding light to you. Because in the upper world all of the souls are incorporated together, they're all together, connected together. If you, in this world try to create the same law, the same state with the bodies, with the same idea, the same relation, the same connection, the goal of going forward together, even in a small group. Then in that group. you create that same state seemingly, as the souls are up there at the end of correction, on the spiritual level. And then according to how much you try to do that, from there, surrounding light is drawn, which comes and corrects the vessels. This is why this connection between the friends in the group influences our spiritual progress; and from that, from this example of what you do in this world, you begin to feel bit by bit what does the spiritual connection mean. Certainly, a person will never know what is the upper form because if you are on some degree how can you see a certain state of inner correction? Even now, where you are, you never know what your state will be – for you, it will always be a revelation, something new, something sudden. 

So, if so, how can a person yearn for something that is above him? The upper one, meaning the higher degree, what we call the upper Partzuf, shows a person a little bit of the form of bestowal, the way it truly exists on the higher level. This is shown in two stages: One time, the upper one shows you a little bit of the light that is there, the pleasure that is there; and then you want it, you yearn for it, you feel good, this is what we call an ascent. It's incorrect to call it an ascent because what happened to you? You didn't really rise, but the upper one gave you a little bit of livelihood from the upper degree. Afterwards, after he gave you a little bit of an illumination that exists, in Him it's light, for you it's an illumination because, nevertheless, you're not capable of feeling more in your vessels, but He shines to you a little bit. Afterwards, He gives you a descent, He lets you feel a little bit from His vessels, what are His vessels? His vessels are in order to bestow. In them, you feel darkness. To give, to give like that, not to think about myself, right? 

So, in these two impressions from the upper one, you have the two edges: What is the light that is in Him? Let's say that it is in Him,  it's not really what is in Him, and what is the vessel that He has? And then you know how much you love the light and how much you don't like this vessel. From these two edges – through the study, through the effort, the exertion – there is a sequence of operations here that you carry out. And you reach a state where one reaches the upper one; and when you reach the upper one and realize that state, then again the upper of the upper one, again opens up to you the ability to see the illumination in Him, the vessel in Him. And these two edges once again give the person the feeling of the two edges, the two extremes in the upper one, and then bit by bit he starts to, he tries to attain them, and this is how he rises. This is why your whole way is constructed of ascents, feeling the upper one, and descents, feeling the vessels of the upper one, and the labor between one and the other. Is that we truly want to acquire it as much as we want to and as much as we don't want to. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:25) Is there a similar process in the period of preparation? 

M. Laitman: We always explain that through the example of Shabbat, a person receives a special state, like the next world, a degree which is a little bit higher than where he is, this is called, as seemingly, like the next world. He receives this illumination, a very small illumination from the end of correction. And then he tries, after it goes away, after the Shabbat ends and he enters the six days of work, he tries to maintain it not through the upper one, the upper one disappears, the illumination disappears. But by his own forces he tries to keep this illumination, seemingly to reach it in the six days of work. So that it would truly be in his efforts, through his vessels, through his efforts. If he does that, it is considered that he reached the next degree. Again, the Shabbat shines for him, and again, after the Shabbat, in the six days of work, he tries to reach, in his own vessels to keep that same illumination. This is why it is considered that the righteous is always in the state of Shabbat. He performs corrections thus he justifies the Creator, this is why he is called, righteous. He makes corrections in the middle of the week, as he had in the previous Shabbat. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:06) This means to be in the vessels of the upper one? 

M. Laitman: The upper one gives us vessels, the upper one gives us forces, the upper one gives us those things so that we can make a screen, so that into the corrected vessels the lights will enter. The light gives us everything, what depends on us is only to notice these things. To feel them, to ask for them, to want them, it's not that we're performing the action. We're like little children, we have to understand, and demand, and taste, and notice the work of scrutiny and prayer, as we say. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:48) As we live this phenomena, the bestowal that we can give is limited by time. Where is that place where you are compared to the rest of the society as looking at it as a hierarchy. 

M. Laitman: When we speak of bestowal, we aren't talking about how I'm going to bestow by going to some hospital or some remote place where you have people in need, and I'll begin to bestow upon them. In bestowal, we need to do that in this world, not because the Creator made the world bad and made so many poor people and such a mess all over the world – that's not how I should relate to the world. I need to relate to this world as the place in which I need to develop my relationship with Him, the Creator. And this world is the means, the interface, because if I relate to people, if I just want to fix their lives, that's social work, I'm not saying that it's good or bad. But it's a non-goal-oriented attitude towards the true reality. The Creator made these things deliberately, and we need to use them in order to reach Him. Because only by yearning for Him, these things can be fixed. We think that by our actions towards others, we can do something good to others, it'll never pan out and we see how useless it is, how detrimental. By that, you corrupt the others, you see, it doesn't work; punishments don't work either – when you put a person in prison, he comes out twice as criminal. And when you do good things for him, filling up his fridge and pocket, by that you corrupt him rather than fix him. His life doesn't become better, and even if he wins the lottery or something, the person never becomes happy through that, even though everyone wants it. 

So, our correction in relation to bestowal, it means to be not just to give to others, but rather if we fix our correction, our attitude towards the Creator, then everyone will be better off. Because everything that exists in the world, it's all bestowed by the Creator. It comes from Him; it descends from Him. And if you want to change the situation of this world, you need to change what comes to them from the Creator. And that is only possible if you bestow upon Him, if you bestow upon Him better, He won't need to make this world worse, how to achieve that? Through your small society, where you bestow upon your friends, and they bestow upon you. And you form a group, which simulates the end of correction, the spiritual degree. And you're connected in the souls, and you try to rise towards that, to fulfill that mission, to rise to that spiritual state. By that, you summon the surrounding light into this world; by that, you can force the Creator to give this world more illumination. Or you draw the surrounding light from, or from the Creator it comes in a different way, alternatively, as we say. But through that action, you yearn to reach the purpose of creation. And by that you neutralize His seemingly negative attitude towards the world because then He doesn't need to correct, to awaken the world towards correction through suffering, very simple. And this direct relationship, it'll never, in a way where I go around between people, and the humanity, and just bestow upon people without any connection to Godhood, to Divinity, that won't help. Because we have to do that, but with the intention that through this, you want to achieve bestowal upon the Creator. Love your friend as yourself, that has to be only in relation to correction. Baal HaSulam in The Last Generation, he writes that this is why Russia, Soviet Russia fell, collapsed completely. Because they took this ideal of bestowal upon others and detached it from the Creator. Kibbutzim also made the same mistake on all these societies – they detached from Divinity, from the goal; and then bestowal upon others became a goal unto itself, and that's brought about such destruction that you cannot get up from that. It's impossible, impossible to rise again from that, there's nothing you can do; and whatever efforts you make through military power, as it was in Russia, or money, as the state Israel - it gave billions to the Kibbutzim - nothing helps. 

So, bestowal upon others, if it's detached from bestowal upon the Creator, the purpose of creation, if it's not goal-oriented, it does the opposite, it causes destruction in the world. Ultimately, the communistic, communist regime, killed more people, more citizens, good citizens, than any other regime ever! 40 million, I believe, over 70 years, I think, I think it's much more actually. But that is according to their records that they had. You understand what this is? And the ideal was so beautiful, even outside of Russia there was those who believed, they're still living in that delusion. We have to understand that everything in this world, everything in the life of people. We're not being treated with... it's not that serious the way we're being treated. But you have to understand that ultimately, every thought and action, every breath, if it's not related to the purpose of creation, it has no existence, it's corrupt. It's a matter of, that's the matter of death; if a person reaches a state where everything he has is connected to the purpose of the purpose of life, the end of correction, there's nothing to cause detachment there. And then he lives eternal life. And to learn how to do that, that is what we call, the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:40) When a person comes to pray to the Creator, what should he say? What is his problem or what remedy is he asking the Creator to give him?

M. Laitman: You're asking me a natural question: Where does a person begin? And as we see, it's the question, what is the purpose of our life? You see, what is the purpose of our life? And the answer is there above, Taste and see that the Lord is good. Between this and that, you have the wisdom allowing you to reach the answer from the question. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:25) If I help, if I have a healthy, I can come to a pharmacist and tell him that I have such a such a problem, and he'll prepare medication for me. Maybe he doesn't know which medication to give me. I can come and tell him, give me this particular pill, this will help me. With which correct demand do I come to the Creator? Should I only try to understand, to clarify what the problem is? Or should I clarify for myself also what is the solution and come and tell Him, give me that? 

M. Laitman: (01:00:07) So, what you're asking is, to what extent should I be involved in my own correction? Should I just ask, give me the end of correction? Or maybe to approach Him and say, you did this wrong and that wrong, and here you're not exactly, look what you did. You know, like a very meticulous person, you show every single detail, and maybe that's insufficient. Maybe I need to say, here you should replace this, and here you do that, and here you manipulate this, and maybe even more. Maybe after I fix this machine, I check, I examine it how it should be, and I know how it's functioning. Or rather I know it’s ideal state, and then I tell Him, good, you did good work. Well, it's called the Lord's work, so certainly you should be doing it, you did it, great! What kind of attitude should I have towards reality, that's what it's called. Reality is what I feel, it's me and my world, and maybe the Creator. For the time being, He's concealed. Later, the upper force will be revealed. But these three things, me and Him, and the relationship between us, through the world. So, in some way, He delivers to me my entire reality, my inner reality, external reality, and through that, I connect to Him. And it turns out that ultimately, what does a person really need, to what extent should he know, understand, study, demand, ask – how will he know? We know this from what the Kabbalists tell us but afterwards, it certainly becomes revealed to us. 

The state a person should reach, Baal HaSulam says that it's called, adhesion. Adhesion means, in spirituality, it's a complete match between me and Him. What does it mean that I fully match Him? That I need to know all His qualities, His desires, His passions – the things that are good and bad, towards me and everything, down to the deepest depths. To know them, their causes, their outcomes, what He wants, how, and what, this, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, is called, the first nine. Knowing the first nine, the first nine Sefirot. That's the way the Creator relates to Malchut. That's how I learn myself, I understand myself because if He wants this from me, then He built in me qualities that can respond, and react. And give answer to what He expects of me, what He brings me, He brings me pleasure through tea. He wants me to enjoy the tea. So through that pleasure, He created in me a vessel that wants tea. By starting to know Him, I actually get to know myself. And to recognize the difference between me and Him, as He has bestowals, opposite those, corresponding to those, I have lacks. And so, how to match them together? If I knew all of His bestowals and all of my desires, then I would see that all of His bestowals are ready to fulfill every single desire that I have. Opposite every pleasure, there's His fulfillment, there's a vessel. But we said previously that the vessels need to be aimed in order to bestow, otherwise, I won't derive pleasure – that's one thing. And secondly, receiving these pleasures directly, by that, I won't be similar to him, I won't reach adhesion. 

For example, let's say I can receive these pleasures into the will to receive. So first of all, as we said, I don't feel pleasure in the will to receive them. The pleasure immediately quenches the desire and I have nothing; secondly, I also don't become similar to Him through that action. If I acquire a screen, if I install a screen over my will to receive, other than enjoying, being delighted in an unlimited fashion, unlimited by time or quantity, I acquire another very special thing here. I become similar to Him, I adapt myself to Him, I match myself with Him, this is called adhesion, we begin to become similar. Meaning it's not just pleasure that I get from Him, but I also acquire his status, being like Him. And everything that is derived from that – which I can't even explain – there are secrets of the Torah, and there's many things.

M. Laitman: (01:06:23) So it follows that the correction of the screen allows me to be not on the degree of the created being, but rather on the degree of the Creator. And in all this work, what should I do, what do I need to do? This work is called, the Lord's work, why not my work, your work, his? Because in truth, as we learn from everything that the Kabbalists tell us, who have reached the right way, the proper way to receive those pleasures. The actions over the vessels, scrutinies, corrections, fulfillment, all that can be done only by the light. So, in fact, the Creator, this upper light, He can perform corrections and fulfill the vessels, so where am I? Baal HaSulam explains to us in his article, The Freedom, that of all the actions that we can perform in this world, in the spiritual world, there is only one free action through which we determine our independence, that I can say, I did this, what is that? Very simply, that I want Him to perform some action; meaning I need to know myself in the current state. For example, to see how opposite I am to Him, how much I need correction. To ask Him to perform the action, to be present in that action and to understand it, know it in every detail, seemingly, so to speak. But He does the action, the light performs the action; so, here in our world, in a practical sense, it's expressed as me needing to want. And wanting, well, the way I'm built, I already want, but they say it's not enough, you want according to the current state. But you need to want a bit more, that He will correct you, that He will fulfill you. It's not according to this state, it's a higher state, a little bit: How to want to be in my state, and to want to be a bit above that if this desire doesn't exist in me. So, that desire I get from the society. Because we're included in Ein Sof of Infinity, the end of correction, together as one soul, it follows that if I make some kind of adaptation, here, with that state to that state between the friends, some simulation of it. Then it follows that I am creating conditions here which allow me to acquire from the others qualities or more of that additional desire that I'll have, there. Because the upper corrected world, what is it made of? It's all the souls annulling themselves and connecting together, and from that connection, you have this infinite fulfillment in each and every soul. Each soul receives the fulfillment that exists in the other 500,000, 599,999 souls. 

So, all together we have 600,000 souls; so if I perform such an action in this world, this is enough for me to acquire additional desire. That's why he writes in his article, The Freedom, that each time he looks for and finds a society that has a stronger, better desire, bigger desire for spirituality and he acquires that desire through connection, by wanting to connect to the friends, that he acquires that desire. That gives him this boost upwards, and by this, he compels the Creator to perform the action, the action of scrutiny, correction, and fulfillment. And so in truth, we cannot do anything in relation to the Creator for ourselves, not before we meet the conditions, we create the conditions called, society. That's why the Kabbalist – Rabbi Shimon, the Zohar, Baal HaSulam, all the Kabbalists in between, they also wrote so much about the issue of society. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:13) What is the difference in the vessels? 

M. Laitman draws: The difference in the vessels? I have a soul, this soul is in a place called the end of correction; and here, you have 60,000 souls, which divide more and more – we'll take 600,000 souls. If we take my own individual soul, which is in me right now, the heart, the heart is all my other desires, beastly or human in this world, and the point in the heart is the desire which, through or by the worlds, the Olamot, was covered by 125 coverings, and that is what I feel on the lowest degree, as a desire for spirituality. I don't know what spirituality is because the last degree called, the Machsom, the barrier, conceals from me, hides from me everything that exists above. But what is the question? In each and every state through which I ascend, what does it mean that I ascend? My desire needs to grow through these degrees because what is an ascent, what does it mean that I ascended to the first spiritual degree? It means that I removed from myself, I took off one covering and now I have only 124 coverings. So, my desire became bigger, and the light that it receives is also bigger. 

Here, on the degree below the Machsom, below the barrier, I receive only a very small candle, thin candle. And above the barrier, I receive the light of Nefesh, the spiritual degree. The difference between them is immense. After that, I rise to a higher degree still, now I have 123 coverings. Another covering I revoked, what does it mean I revoked? I revoked it, I cancelled it through the screen. I turned the covering into revelation; I inverted it into revelation. The force of resistance, I turned it into the opposite, the force of bestowal; and then accordingly, the light that I receive is now the light of Ruach, and so on and so forth. And so, on each and every degree, I have a greater vessel, and a greater screen, accordingly, and a greater light, greater and greater. The screen, here, the screen is the light of Nefesh – that's the coarseness level of Shoresh – and above it, well, that's how Ruach is coarseness one, that's how we measure in the wisdom of Kabbalah. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:30) From His perspective, His light is so great that he truly exists with all the other souls? 

M. Laitman: Yes and by what do I do this, ultimately? By connecting with all the other souls more and more; like this, more and more and more, until I reach, here – the point where I cancel out myself, my, me towards all the other souls, and then I'm with them as one with no difference. It means that I'm united with the Creator, why the Creator? The light, this inner light that fills this entire vessel in a state where everyone are connected, adhered. All the individual souls are connected into one soul, the light that fills them is called, the Creator. And when I'm connected with everyone, this becomes the me now, or Adam HaRishon, let's call it, Adam, the first. I can never feel anything outside of this, outside of this, it's Atzmuto, His essence, His self, as we say. And what fills the soul is called the Creator. 

Student: So it's a kind of a collective vessel? 

M. Laitman: A collective vessel, but it's not even that, we don't feel it as being collective, we feel that it's one.

Student: The moment we read it, the question was: If the Creator wants to give the created being pleasure, and there is distancing from this light. How can we explain from where he has forces, the forces that are described in the books of the Torah? 

M. Laitman: The books, the books of Torah, they're all called, Holy books, that's first of all, because they all discuss the spiritual world. Spirituality, which is separated by the screen, it's above the screen, we don't feel it, it's separated, special. That's the meaning of the word Kadosh, holy, holy, that's the meaning of the word itself, holy, which means separated. All the holy books describe only the spiritual world. The Torah doesn't tell us about this world, it doesn't tell us how to be better people, better towards people. It tells us how to be good with the Creator; by wanting to be similar to Him, we correct our nature. So certainly, we will also become better below. 

What did you ask exactly? 

Student: How, in the Torah, in various words and languages, these essences are described. 

M. Laitman: The Torah tells us two things, because our sense, well, it's not exactly the way I drew it:

If we do it here, like this, more clearly, you ascend by two lines, the right line, and the left line. Now, on the right line, those are the qualities of the Creator, the first nine which come to me; and from the left line, what comes to me is the will to receive. Here, it's the forces of bestowal, and I'm in the middle, correcting myself. So, in the Torah, it is said that if you don't do this, and you do, do this and that, you'll have this and that, and if you don't, it'll be like this and like that. Constantly, the prophets and everyone, all their books, you read them. In that way, they tell us what happens under each and every degree. If you do this, that'll happen if you do this, that'll happen. In that way, they explain to you the structure, the formation of the degrees. It's not, you know, like you shout constantly, like a mother shouts at her child. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:01) There are also stories that really describe that. 

M. Laitman: These stories tell you in the spoken tongue what exists in the higher degrees, that's all they explain. That's why all these books are meant only for those who truly are in the upper world. Because in our world, there's nothing you can do. In our world, whatever you do, it's an outcome – a consequence of what happens above. When we say that the Temple was ruined, then it is explained to us in the Torah that the shattering of the Temple, the ruin of the Temple happened because they fell from the spiritual degree. And then the enemies entered, and we also ourselves caused this by descending from that spiritual degree. A hundred or seventy years before the Temple was ruined, it was already being spoken of how it's going to be ruined, why? Because the spiritual degree was such, well we're seeing, even today, how we're deteriorating, and we can't do anything – we can't do anything about it. They're even talking about the end of the nation, right? So, it all depends on our inner state, and then it manifests on the physical level. The same thing is spoken about in the Torah, it never speaks of things you need to do with your hands and feet, with stones. Our world entirely, all of it, is the world of outcomes: If you perform such and such spiritual corrections, then everything will be sorted out in this world, consequently. Now, the world must rise to the last degree, and the person has to be there with his heart, not just the point in the heart. He has to be there in the state of the end of correction; meaning he has to elevate all of his most base desires to the highest degree. It is, as the Kabbalists say, that a person must reach; while living in this world, he has to reach the state of the end of correction. 

Student: What is the difference between the ladder and the Creator? 

M. Laitman: The difference between the ladder and the Creator? The ladder, those are the degrees by which a person matches the Creator. What does it mean if I'm on degree 123? It means that between His qualities and my qualities, we have 123 degrees. What does it mean if I'm on the highest degree? But there's no difference, zero difference. So, in spirituality, on the spiritual degree, on the spiritual ladder, we have 125 degrees, which are five worlds, five Partzufim in each world, and five Sefirot in each part. That's how we count them. Truth is, you can divide it into much more, but we divide according to need. Even, you have five worlds here, right? AK, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. In truth, only the worlds of BYA – just those – we divide into 6,000 years. 6,000 degrees. So, you're being more precise, but in general, this is how it is. Each degree, we have 125 degrees here, and each degree holds greater and greater light. It holds the light so it doesn't reach me. 

So, let's say I'm here as a soul on some degree, and all these degrees, they diminish the light, reduce it, the light of infinite, of Ein Sof, as far as I'm concerned. And when I want to rise to the next degree, I need to cancel this screen that hides the light and invert it, turn it into the screen that receives. Simply to transition from concealment to revelation, from the  Torah of the concealed to the Torah of the revealed, as we say. For Kabbalists, it's different, the general population, they think they study the revealed Torah, and that Kabbalah is the wisdom of the concealed, the Torah of the concealed. This is what the genius of Will brought, that we think that we're transitioning, that we're moving from the degree of the concealed, because the upper degree is concealed, into the Torah of the revealed, because we reveal it. So, each time we get closer to the Torah of the revealed. Not you. There are new people here, new students.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:17) If I crossed already the barrier, there are other limitations.

M. Laitman: I don't understand? 

Student: What we learned, I want you to help me to understand, I can't quite?

M. Laitman: The question, itself, is irrelevant. How can you reach There's No One Else Besides Him from this world? 

Student: No. Let's say I crossed the barrier already, so there is nothing between us anymore now? If I crossed the barrier, then there is nothing else between us. I'm in adhesion already, right? 

M. Laitman: If you crossed the barrier, it means that you've entered the lowest spiritual degree – the lowest – and between you and Him exists 125 degrees, which are 125 screens that conceal, that make a concealment between you and Him. So, you need to correct yourself 125 times to correct all your qualities on each and every degree where we are. When I am on some degree, yes? For example, some degree, the me – me, the self, that's called the vessel – and the vessel is made of commandments, parts in which I can make a correction. This corresponds to Galgalta Eynaim, and Shassa, we call it, 248, where I can't make a correction, Ten Sefirot. So, on each and every degree, above the Chaze, below the Chaze, here is the Chaze. Ramach is 248, and Shassa is 365. And I need to examine them, and in the corrected form, if I correct them in total, that is called, me performing a correction. Then I gain the screen, and I make a new correction, meaning I reach a new degree. And on the new degree, again, I have new degrees of Ramach, 248 organs, and 365 tendons, and they're different. And so with all the corrections, so with all the corrections. 

And each and every one must reach it – you have to start your life, one time on the lowest degree, and reach throughout your life the highest degree. And what about all the previous incarnations? Even if you were on some spiritual degree, you reached it but not all the way through, if you stopped here somewhere, let's say in the middle on your spiritual path. This will assist you in the next life, so to speak, to complete the path. But until you reach in one single incarnation, from the lowest degree to the highest degree, you'll have to reincarnate again and again. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:01) Let's say the ARI and Baal HaSulam, they reached the highest degree. But there is a difference between them and the Creator. 

M. Laitman: The person who reaches the last degree called the end of correction, what is the end of correction? All his desires that the Creator, the light, created through His bestowal. Meaning, opposite the bestowal of the light, there's a desire that's an exact fit for the light. If this entire desire is corrected in order to bestow, then it's acting exactly the same way as the light that wants to fulfill it. The vessel becomes exactly, exactly, according to outcome, according to the action, exactly the same as the light. And then, in that outcome, there's no difference between the created being and the Creator. Now, you want to say, but in truth, this is the Creator, this is the created being, correct. The substance of the will to receive, the substance of the created being remains the same, but it's equivalence of form, equivalence of form. The difference between them remains, but it's only in the initial point where the Creator is, it just exists something from something, while the created being is something from nothing. But other than that initial point, the Creator having created the created being, the Creator by Himself, by his own powers created in him the image of the Creator. 

And so, we don't take into account that foundational point, but rather everything that exists above it that the created being built. And that's why we say that he is in adhesion with the Creator, and there's no difference. He merits the status of the Creator, he gains that status, everything in the upper one. It's not that he receives it from him, but rather he then gains those thoughts, those desires, we can't even describe what it is. A degree above, not just above the human level here, when we're in spirituality, but a degree that's above the created being, altogether. These degrees through which a person comes to know the Creator, they're called, the secrets of the Torah, and this is not written about, not written of anywhere. And it's impossible to even put to writing, because books about how to reach that state, they exist in every shop, you can buy them and read. That is called, the flavors of the Torah, which are allowed, you're allowed to read them, and actually it's a commandment, you must read them and correct yourself. But those things that the created being achieves, discovers when he reaches equivalence of form with the Creator, those are called, the secrets of the Torah, the actual thoughts of the Creator, and those aren't mentioned anywhere. And those, you have to stay away from and cover, conceal, and that's why it's not written about anywhere. So, don't be afraid of reading books. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:32:33) So, we feel this eternity at the end of the path? We feel eternity at the end of the path? 

M. Laitman: Eternity, eternality, you feel from the first degree of adhesion. You feel, from there you feel a part of the end of correction, why? Because this degree, 125, below, right, down here, it's the same end of correction, but reduced, diminished 125 times, let's say. You feel what exists at the end of correction but behind many, many screens. Still, you already have this understanding, this knowledge of what it is. You see all the details, but vaguely, and you have that sensation, and you begin to identify with the soul instead of identifying with the body, and that's a different life. Even life and death, a person then relates to it in a completely different way through identifying with the soul, he feels eternal, to an extent. 

Reader: Well, we'll move on to the next part of the lesson, before that, let's sing together.

Song: (01:33:55)