The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) January 6, 2025.
Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah], Item #2.
Reader: Hello, we are reading in the Writings of Baal HaSulam, the article, The Giving of the Torah, Matan Torah, starting from item two. You can find the study material on Kabbalah.info and in the Arvut system, you can also send questions live through those websites. Matan Torah, Giving of the Torah, item two.
Item #2
Reading: (00:27) If we can still strain to find some way to reconcile their words, there comes before us a second saying, even more conspicuous, about a convert who came to Hillel (Shabbat 31a) and told him, “Teach me the whole of the Torah while I am standing on one leg.” And he replied, “Anything that you hate, do not do to your friend” (the translation of “love your friend as yourself”), “and the rest is its commentary; go study.”
Here before us is a clear law, that in all 612 Mitzvot and in all the writings in the Torah there is none that is preferred to the Mitzva, “love your friend as yourself.” This is because they only aim to interpret and allow us to observe the Mitzva of loving others properly, since he specifically says—“the rest is its commentary; go study.” This means that the rest of the Torah is interpretations of that one Mitzva, that the Mitzva to love your friend as yourself could not be completed were it not for them.
M. Laitman: Does anyone have any questions? No? Okay, let's continue.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:36) What is he trying to say, that it's enough? This one commandment, love your friend as yourself? To do everything, or until we continue all the commandments, we won't get to love your friend as yourself and all its interpretations?
M. Laitman: The whole of the Torah is in order to bring us to love of others, there is no other purpose. So, in this one statement, love your friend as yourself, if we know how to keep it, by that, we actually carry out the entire demand.
Student: And all 612 commandments, what about them?
M. Laitman: They're included in love your friend as yourself.
Student: This one commandment, love your friend as yourself is enough for us, this one commandment?
M. Laitman: No. If you think about the circumference of this commandment, how much it includes, then you have to take into account all the commandments of the Torah, that they are altogether included in love your friend as yourself.
Student: And all that you hate, where is that included? At what point?
M. Laitman: This is in explaining, what does it mean, love your friend as yourself? As you care for yourself. Do you understand the way you relate to yourself and towards others in the same way you can relate to others?
Student: Love your friend as yourself, but your self part constantly changes.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, how do you love the other? Is there one variant that doesn't change, or according to how I am today, that's how I have to work towards the other?
M. Laitman: This is something that a person must interpret by himself. Here, there is no precise explanation that is written,
Student: Like you, when a person is in order to receive, or as yourself in order to bestow, there's all sorts of yourselves. So how do you work, according to the state that's revealed now?
M. Laitman: Apparently so, apparently so, let's see as we continue.
Reading: Item #3
Reading: (06:07) Before we delve into the heart of the matter, we must observe that Mitzva, since we were commanded: “Love your friend as yourself.” The word “yourself” tells us, “love your friend to the same extent you love yourself, not one bit less.” In other words, you must constantly and vigilantly satisfy the needs of every person at least in the Israeli nation, no less than you are always vigilant to satisfy your own needs.
This is utterly impossible, for not many can satisfy their own needs during their daily work, so how can you tell them to work to satisfy the wishes of the entire nation? And we couldn’t possibly think that the Torah exaggerates, for it warns us to not add or subtract, indicating that these words and laws were given with utter precision.
M. Laitman: What is required of us is to have such relations between us as a person relates to himself. Not less, not more, not differently. Next.
Item #4
Reading: (08:24) And if this is still not enough for you, I will tell you that the simple explanation of that Mitzva of loving your fellow person is even harsher, for we must put the needs of our friends before our own. It is written in the Tosfot in the name of the Jerusalem [Talmud] (Kidushin 20a) regarding the verse “Because he is happy with you,” said about a Hebrew slave: “When sometimes he has but one pillow, if he lies on it himself and does not give it to his slave, he does not observe ‘Because he is happy with you,’ for he is lying on a pillow and the slave, on the ground. If he does not lie on it and does not give it to the slave, as well, it is Sodomite rule. It turns out that, against his will, he must give it to his slave while the master himself lies on the ground.”
We also find the same rule in the verse about the measure of loving others, for here, too, the text compares the satisfaction of the friend’s needs to the satisfaction of one’s own needs, as with the example of “Because he is happy with you” regarding the Hebrew slave. Thus, here too, if he has but one chair and his friend does not, the law is that if he sits on it and does not give it to his friend, he breaks the Mitzva, “Love your friend as yourself,” since he is not fulfilling the needs of his friend as he fulfills his own.
If he does not sit on it and also does not give it to his friend, it is as evil as Sodomite rule. Therefore, he must let his friend sit on it while he himself will sit on the ground or stand. Clearly, this is the law regarding all the needs that one has, and one’s friend lacks. Now go and see if this Mitzva is in any way feasible.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:30) Why does he connect fulfillment and love? He says if he satisfies his desire.
M. Laitman: This is actually the same thing.
Student: It's not always the same though.
M. Laitman: Why?
Student: Because sometimes, to love is to prevent a certain fulfillment.
M. Laitman: Nevertheless, it's a different way of loving.
Student: Who can be the final judge here? How to act?
M. Laitman: The person himself, who wants to show his love to his friend.
Student: Then the friend can feel that I'm doing it out of love, or maybe he can be mad at me?
M. Laitman: Now usually, we do understand the feelings of each other. And therefore, it is enough for us, with whatever we have, to keep this commandment.
Student: Does it require being in connection to feel the love from the friends?
M. Laitman: Apparently so.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:10) What is a commandment?
M. Laitman: A commandment. A commandment for what? A commandment on behalf of the Creator towards the created beings, that they need to behave in a certain way.
Student: Why are there many commandments? Why is there one commandment? One time he says there's one commandment that includes everything, and other times he speaks of many commandments. How to reconcile that?
M. Laitman: He will answer us, but it is clear. He wants to explain to us that the relations between people, between the created beings determines the essence of the connection between them, the essence of the relationships between them. So, each and every one must relate to his friend as though he is truly his relative, close to him.
Student: The commandment defines the correct attitude between the friends?
M. Laitman: Yes. All the commandments have to do with the relationship between the friends. In the end, although they speak about different states between people, but in the end it's in order to bring them to complete adhesion.
Student: In other words, the Kabbalists who discovered the Creator, they arrange, this is my question, a series of actions, intentions, a commandment is an action, is an intention?
M. Laitman: A commandment is first of all an intention, according to the intention the person carries out the action.
Student: A commandment is an intention clothed in an action that is connected to a relationship between the friends, who brings a person to adhesion with the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:37) What is his friend's needs?
M. Laitman: A need of his friend is what he says that he needs.
Student: Is it possible that his need is opposite to his desire?
M. Laitman: No, it's not like that in nature.
Student: Let's say I think the friend needs something, but it seems like he doesn't want it. So how to work with that?
M. Laitman: Clarify exactly what is his desire and do it according to his desire.
Student: If I go according to his desire, it's not according to the need.
M. Laitman: Why?
Student: Because let's say there's a certain need that needs to come to the lesson, let's say. So that's a need relative to the path, but it seems like he doesn't want to. So, if I follow his desire?
M. Laitman: We should think that the person wants what he lacks, and therefore, he behaves in such a way, and we need to help him receive what he lacks.
Student: So again, what he lacks is what he needs, but it's not what he wants. I'm not getting how to connect the need and the desire. If a person doesn't want something, but he needs it, how do I work in that direction? How do I work towards him?
M. Laitman: You try to reach his desire, truly his desire, without any external influence, and help him in keeping it.
Student: In other words, I need to reveal that the desire of the friend is a true desire, a spiritual desire?
M. Laitman: Not truly spiritual, maybe it's not spiritual at all. But if it seems to you that you have discovered his desire, then you try to help him in getting a filing for it.
Student: I still didn;t manage to see the difference.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:54) A person can do the acts of giving described by the Creator also out of self-love. What is the condition to do it out of the love of his friend, love of others?
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: Baal HaSulam describes acts of giving.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So a person can do the same actions, also as a result of self-love.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So what's the condition for doing it out of love for his friend?
M. Laitman: He should know, the person himself, that here, there is no, well, he should scrutinize what is it that he wants and from where does his desire stem? And then to elevate himself to a level where he can actualize it.
Student: The Creator created self-love intentionally. How do I use it correctly so it inverts to love of others?
M. Laitman: To invert self-love to love of others, it's a very long way. First of all, the person should realize that love of others comes to him from the Creator himself. This is the Creator's nature, the love of others. And why is it so? In order for the person to become incorporated also with the love of people, the love of others, so he'll be able to distinguish in each and every state of his where it stems from: from the love of people or love of others, and then it will be clear to him which side he is taking.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:14) This article starts from a state that is not that clear. What does it mean to have a convert, and he comes to him and says: teach me the entire Torah while standing on one leg. What kind of a deficiency is that, what does that mean?
M. Laitman: A convert, a proselyte, is a person who wishes to be in love of others, to be a Jew, this is the difference between a Goy, a gentile, and a proselyte. And so, he has to check himself what is truly inside of him, which desire towards others.
Student: So why does he want to teach him everything while standing on one leg?
M. Laitman: One leg means on one principle. You don't need a few principles.
Student: So he teaches, he tells him, anything that you hate, don't do to your friend. Meaning, look at yourself, see what you hate, and don't do that to your friend,
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How does that bring us to love the other? To love is an active action, not to do something you hate to your friend is simply a don't do action.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So how come they say it's the same thing?
M. Laitman: This is what he writes, and we need to learn it, to try to do it until we will understand it from the depth of the things.
Student: So lastly, he says, all the rest is commentary, go study,
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What does it mean to study love of others?
M. Laitman: That besides this, besides this commandment, all the rest you can study from others. But this commandment, to love others, you have to attain it, to achieve it by yourself, you have to scrutinize it from whatever you have inside of you.
Student: Why do you need the rest? Why do you need more things? What is there to learn? There's a principle, we have to protect it and go with it. What does it mean to learn something else, to learn it? What else is there to learn?
M. Laitman: Apparently, how to observe it. This is what I understand. Because a person, by his nature that he's born with. He doesn't have this desire, he doesn't know how to keep it by himself.
Student: To learn how to observe this principle?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:34) There is something about love of his friend, love of others that I didn’t understand all the way through. The corporeality of the friend which in my…the way I relate to it will bring me to spirituality. If I will fulfill the friend's desires that I define as spiritual, as corporeal, sorry, I'm not looking at how he's seeing the goal. I'm not trying to maneuver him or trick him to where I think he needs to go. Rather, I see the friend, and with a simple emotion, I'm trying to fulfill him, satisfy him, because I care about him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Is this the attitude, or going to take the friend and see the path, and I don't care about what he actually wants, but rather I'm taking him to the right place because that's how it's written, even if I don't see it?
M. Laitman: We will learn, we have more that we need to discover.
Student: Where's my authentic feeling that appears in me relative to the friend and love?
M. Laitman: Check it out. That's enough, let's continue.
Baal HaSulam. Item #5.
Reading: (26:56) We must first understand why the Torah was given specifically to the Israeli nation and not to all the people in the world equally. Is there, God forbid, nationalism involved here? Of course, only an insane person would think so. In fact, our sages have already examined this question, and this is what they meant by their words (Avoda Zarah 2b): “The Creator gave it to every nation and tongue, and they did not accept it.”
But what they find bewildering is why, then, were we called “the chosen people,” as it is written, “The Lord has chosen you,” since no other nation wanted it? Moreover, there is a fundamental question in the matter: Can it be that the Creator came with His law in His hands to negotiate with those savage peoples, or through his prophets? Such a thing has never been heard of and is completely unacceptable.
M. Laitman: Yes. Next, for the time being, it's the Ulam.
Reading: Item #6
Reading: (28:40) But when we fully understand the essence of the Torah and Mitzvot that were given to us, and their desired purpose, to the extent our sages instructed us, which is the purpose of the great creation that is set before our eyes, we will understand everything. The first concept is that there is no act without a purpose. There is no exception from this rule except for the lowest of the human species or infants. Therefore, it is certain that the Creator, whose exaltedness is inconceivable, would not act—be it a great or a small act—without some purpose.
Or sages tell us about that, that the world was created only for the purpose of observing Torah and Mitzvot, meaning, as our sages explained, that the aim of the Creator from the time He created His creation is to reveal His Godliness to others, since the revelation of His Godliness reaches the creature as pleasant bounty that is ever growing until it reaches the desired measure.
By this, the lowly rise with true recognition and become a Merkava [chariot/structure] to Him, and to cling unto Him until they reach their final completion: “The eye has not seen a God besides you.” And because of the greatness and glory of that perfection, the Torah and the prophecy, too, refrain from uttering even a single word of exaggeration here, as our sages implied about this (Berachot 34b), “All the prophets made their prophecies only for the days of the Messiah, but for the next world, ‘The eye has not seen a God besides you,’” as is known to the knowledgeable ones.
This perfection is expressed in the words of the Torah and the prophecy and in the words of our sages in the simple word, Dvekut [adhesion]. Because of the widespread use of this word by the masses, it has lost almost all its content, but if you reflect on that word for even an instant, you will be overwhelmed by its wondrous stature, for if you picture the exaltedness of the Creator and the lowliness of the creature, you will be able to perceive the value of Dvekut of one with the other. Then you will understand why we ascribe that word the purpose of the whole creation.
It turns out that the purpose of the whole of creation is for the lowly creatures to be able, by observing Torah and Mitzvot, to rise ever upward, ever developing until they are rewarded with Dvekut with their Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:24) It says here that the intention of the Creator in creation is to announce His godliness to the creatures.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Logically speaking, it should be something highly publicized, well known to everyone. But He is concealed, this intention is concealed.
M. Laitman: You see, Baal HaSulam sees it differently.
Student: How can we tell that this is how reality is arranged?
M. Laitman: He thinks that love your friend as yourself and around these commandments actually shows us the purpose.
Student: But how come it's not publicized? At least the person would know. Fine, this is the goal, I object to it, I don't like it. I'll do other things, but at least it's in his awareness.
M. Laitman: Love your friend as yourself is not famous, not well known?
Student: No, I mean, let's say, this is the reality, this is the purpose of reality, that's the plan. I don't feel like getting there, but most people don't even think. It's not in their awareness, they don't live accordingly. It's not on their radar.
M. Laitman: It's not that it's not suitable, or it is suitable. This is about the very nature of creation. The Creator is nature. This nature yields certain results from people. They exist in a certain form, and they need to reach another certain form. This is what it's about.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:14) This lowliness that I need to reach to cleave to the Creator, what is it? It says that through this, raise a special lowliness that I recognize, then I understand my need to cleave to Him. What does it mean?
M. Laitman: That in your nature, there are also the same qualities that help you discover that adhesion with the Creator is the purpose of creation.
Student: We learn here how to realize love your friend as yourself. And out of this realization, this application, when I try and I don't succeed, is this the lowliness that he's speaking of?
M. Laitman: Maybe. Maybe. But it doesn't mean that you need to stop. But rather, you have to keep going and only reach that.
Student: Don't stop. That's the structure of the Merkava. It is to reach the Creator, and not to stop. Reaching the lowness, and not stopping. Specifically there, I feel the greater and greater need to cleave onto him, the Creator?
M. Laitman: Apparently so.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:05) He writes here that the intention of the Creator, with respect to creation, is to announce his godliness to everyone. What is that announcement?
M. Laitman: That he himself cannot reach each and every created being for certain reasons. But there are such created beings through which He is revealed to all the other created beings. This is how I understand it.
Student: Why does he sum everything up with a simple word of adhesion?
M. Laitman: It is a simple word, but it includes all of the conditions that the Creator wants to be in it.
Student: What is included in adhesion?
M. Laitman: Adhesion means the complete revelation of the Creator to a person.
Student: The Creator's expectation relative to all created beings is what? What does he want to happen in the end? When he sums everything up with adhesion, and he writes that he wants to announce his godliness to the others, how does he see the reality in the end?
M. Laitman: He wants that to each and every person, a desire will be revealed that he is actually the opposite of the Creator, and into this desire, inside this desire, he'll actually discover the Creator.
Student: And why, on the way to adhesion, a person has to go through stages of, you know, don't do unto others what you hate, and love your friend as yourself, you give up your chair for the friend, it's as if you don't exist. So what is the adhesion here, if you give everything up?
M. Laitman: Specifically by this you express the adhesion,
Student: In your concession, you express adhesion, why?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: Why?
M. Laitman: Because in order to achieve the adhesion, you're willing to give up everything.
Student: If you attain adhesion, shouldn't you also relinquish that as well?
M. Laitman: No. You have no greater commandment than this one.
Student: What does a person give up on? Everything?
M. Laitman: Everything besides contact with the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:27) The goal is adhesion. Now, there are two degrees, the first, love your friend as yourself, and you say, the work here is in the first circle, the Ten, and you expand the circle to include the entire world, you have to love all of humanity. And the second degree is love of the Creator, adhesion. Is it, is it okay for us to depict this, how will it seem, this final state?
M. Laitman: Whichever way each one can depict it to himself.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:24) What is missing for everyone is light, is the feeling of the Creator, to be in the right environment, to have the greatness of the Creator there. So, how do we discover this deficiency between us, to feel the love of the Creator?
M. Laitman: The fact that each and every one engages in accepting each and every friend as close to him, this builds within him qualities for the feeling of connection.
Student: Using those same attributes and qualities, that's how we can realize this rule, to have that any deficiency, to feel part of each other?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Woman Turkiye 7): (43:52) In relation to satisfying the friend's deficiency, if the friend harms the group, how should I respond?
M. Laitman: I need to respond accordingly. How much by harming the group he also harms me.
Student: The love of the other as yourself, is it satisfying the will of the friend?
M. Laitman: Of course.
Student: Should I always try to convince myself that the friend has the most exalted spiritual desire?
M. Laitman: No.
Question (Woman Turkiye 7): (44:59) What is the inner change that will transform the need of the friend to more important than my own need?
M. Laitman: I need to relate to the friend as to a person who is more important than myself.
Student: How can love of friend precede love of the Creator? How can I do that without first aiming myself at loving the Creator?
M. Laitman: You need to try. You need to try.
Question (Rivadim): (46:07) A friend is asking, it says that I should stand guard and fulfill the needs of every person from the Israeli nation, and less than how I'm standing guard to fulfill my own needs. So what is the Israeli nation?
M. Laitman: The Israeli nation are those who can point at themselves that they belong to the people of the Lord.
Student: Is the Israeli nation the other, your friend?
M. Laitman: No. It doesn't matter how you later identify them.
Question (Woman Rehovot 1): (47:03) Why should we love as you love yourself? Why is it not enough to love the other?
M. Laitman: We don't ask about the commandment. It comes to us this way from the Creator. Why did He add this as yourself? Apparently, there is something, some addition here.
Student: What is the addition?
M. Laitman: As yourself means as you love yourself. So then you need to research in what way you love yourself, and in the same way you need to love others.
Question (Baltia 2): (47:48) Is making the friend greater than me, is that a commandment?
M. Laitman: It's included.
Question (KabU 4): (48:01) Can we reach Lishma simply through that which you hate to not do to your friend?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:22) A question, Baal HaSulam, says if you focus on the word adhesion, you will be amazed, perplexed by this word. And he says that only the lowly can climb and reach. What is that state that he is describing? Who are those lowly ones and how do they reach adhesion?
M. Laitman: The lowly ones are apparently those who discover themselves in relation to others as lowly. And then they have the ability to actually rise from that level of lowliness to the level of awareness.
Student: Because they make connections with the Creator out of their state of lowliness, they have a true request?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How is it correct for us to understand the word adhesion?
M. Laitman: Adhesion, it is very difficult to describe it with certain words, but I would say that we can understand it in how a person is born out of his mother, that he exists inside of her, in adhesion, and then he comes out and begins to become apparent and develop himself, by himself.
Student: It's a process of separation from adhesion?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What does it mean to return to adhesion?
M. Laitman: To return means after a person goes for a certain number of states, he decides that he must return to adhesion, to adhere to his root.
Student: Why does a person want to adhere to his roots?
M. Laitman: It is according to the desire that awakens in him, it awakens in him. After he is born, and he sees himself as separated from his root, he starts searching for how to return to the root, and this is how he reaches adhesion.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:34) He writes that the purpose of creation is to observe Torah and commandment, and I heard you say that commandment is first of all intention?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It seems as if the Rabash arranged for us the entire form by which we need to aim toward the friends, related to the friends. So, there wasn't another Kabbalist before him that arranged everything so precisely? What did these Kabbalists do all the time?
M. Laitman: Each one engaged in some part of the Torah that reaches him and obligates him to engage in such a way. This is how he continued.
Student: Even with Baal HaSulam, it is very confusing compared to how Rabash distilled the work into the relationship between us. So, now I have another question. Rabash also writes sometimes that he writes, you know, Tzitzit, prayer Shaul, so, how are those external actions, how do they define, how do they relate to love of friends?
M. Laitman: This is what they discovered. The Kabbalists in those times, in those generations, who attained these actions, this is what they discovered where each such commandment stems from. Because it has a spiritual root, and if one is to keep it within our framework, out of that one will attain its essence.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:53) Following this question, there are actions in our world that have a spiritual root, and there are actions in our world that do not have a spiritual root.
M. Laitman: Apparently.
Student: And a person performs an action that has a spiritual root with the desire that it will take them to the right intention, it influences more than another action without a root. So, there's value to the action, not simply the intention?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: A commandment is an intention, but there are also actions that have a spiritual root? And also about the adhesion. Is adhesion a personal thing or a group thing?
M. Laitman: It appears to be an individual thing.
Student: But it's attained in the group.
M. Laitman: In order to attain the adhesion, a person must be in a group. But in order to keep the adhesion, one has to be connected with one's friends.
Student: Because the entire first part of the article Baal HaSulam speaks of love your friend as yourself.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And now he went to the purpose of creation, which is observing Torah commandments in order to reach adhesion.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Adhesion is a person's individual work toward the Creator?
M. Laitman: It seems to me that yes.
Student: But in parallel to that, he has work in the group, in the Ten.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Meaning those are two separate things and both have to exist.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But one does not replace the other.
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So there is work in the Ten, but it doesn't replace a person's individual work with the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:12) You said that there are actions that have a spiritual root. There are intentions and there are actions. There are actions that Kabbalists prescribe that have a spiritual root. If I'm repulsed by these actions…
M. Laitman: Then you cannot keep them.
Student: You have to follow them forcefully?
M. Laitman: If you know where there is a spiritual root and where there isn't.
Student: For example, Rabash writes prayer and all the customs around the prayer. Specific things he points to. If I have an intention for myself, will it still work on me?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Why?
M. Laitman: If you are carrying out a spiritual action, then for certain you will reach adhesion. Or the same line. You don't need to get out of it and search where else you need to get into in order to reach adhesion. And adhesion, he tells you, is actually the final goal, the purpose of man's development. So, that's it. This is what you need.
Student: How can there be spiritual actions that I do with an intention for myself? That I can actually do them with an intention for myself?
M. Laitman: How could it not be so? These are actions that it seems to you that they have a spiritual root, a spiritual purpose. And so you choose them and you are adhered to them. And in such a way you advance.
Student: So even if I don't see a benefit if my intention is for myself, if the action repulses me, I must keep it?
M. Laitman: You must, yes. You have to.
Student: And the greater the repulsion from the action, what to do? What to do when you feel that it's repelling you? It seems like an unnecessary ceremony. You barely understand the inner work. Why do you need to do all these actions with your hands and legs?
M. Laitman: Because this indicates the acceptance of this commandment. That you truly see in its internality and externality.
Student: Is the external action itself a correction for the person? Or is it just a symbol for the person? The correction of a person.
M. Laitman: No, it corrects the person.
Student: The action itself?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And is there importance for doing it alone or together?
M. Laitman: Of course there is importance, as he writes, that if we carry it out together, there is a greater power in it, and also a willingness and importance.
Student: Let's say a prayer, like we gather and pray after the lesson. Is a group work something that obligates us as a Ten?
M. Laitman: We want it to be a group action, otherwise it's not.
Student: Is it a choice of each person?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Each person will decide about his own desire?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And what internality can you see in this Mitzvah, in this action?
M. Laitman: That you turn to the Creator with the hope that He will fulfill your desire and bring you closer.
Student: So there's the addition of my desire and my intention?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And if I'm disconnected today, neither desire nor intention, and I do the action, is there a power in it?
M. Laitman: No, no, there isn't.
Student: There are great groups of people who do such actions.
M. Laitman: I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about a person who wishes by his prayer to bring himself closer to the Creator.
Student: Another question about individual work and work in the Ten. Is the individual work of the person with the Creator necessarily through the Ten? I mean, I need to see my realization of the individual. The contact of a person with the Creator is through the Ten, or the Ten is simply a support for the person?
M. Laitman: What is the difference between one and the other? I don't know.
Student: There's me and the Creator,
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: And the Creator and the Ten is supporting me as a group that cheers me on and helps me advance toward that. And there's the work where, out of the connection between us, there's a common attainment, common intention toward the Creator. I'm trying to understand the difference here.
M. Laitman: I think that what we can establish together, and this is what the Creator takes from us and He works with that.
Student: We have this together, but so what is this individual attainment if the Creator only takes the product of us together?
M. Laitman: The individual attainment is what you achieve out of the connection of everyone.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:00) You spoke about a commandment. It has to include the intention and the action. Can the action be to think about a friend? To give him an internal gift? To want him to be awakened to want to bestow?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: If you combine the correct intention that through the love of a friend you want to reach the love of the Creator, and he makes this internal action, it doesn't matter where he is, and he wants for the friend, is that a commandment that includes both intention and action?
M. Laitman: We need to check again, but it could be.
Student: Check it again, we need to do it a few times and see the result, or?
M. Laitman: That too.
Student: Sometimes the result is really clear. It's an open miracle. So you think of the friend, the next day he comes on fire, he's asking questions, and other times it's the other way around. It's the opposite, so how can you tell? It's a little slippery.
M. Laitman: You can know that sometimes it's like this, sometimes it's like that.
Song: (01:04:37)