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

Daily Lesson (Morning) June 19, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. “The Last Generation.”

Reader: Shalom, we are reading in the writings of Baal HaSulam, page 815 in the Hebrew version, the writings of “The Last Generation.” We're starting in the second column, where it writes: Before I touch upon this matter. You can watch and ask questions at Sviva Tova in the Arvut system on the topic of the lesson. Anyone who's in the study hall is requested to stand up, hold the mic close to the mouth, speak clearly and concisely. Again, we're reading Baal HaSulam, in the writings of “The Last Generation.” 

Reading Article: (00:44) Part One: Before I touch upon this matter.

Before I touch upon this matter, I will present a short introduction concerning human attributes, and say that people are divided into two kinds: egoists and altruists.

“Egoists” means that all that they do is for themselves. If they ever do something for another, they must have a well-paying reward in return for their work, in money, respect, etc.

“Altruists” means that they sacrifice all their days for the well-being of others without any reward. Instead, they always neglect their own needs to help others. Moreover, among them there are those who give their souls and their lives to the benefit of others, such as we find among volunteers who go out to war for their country folk.

We have also found more general altruists, who give their hearts and souls to help the stragglers of all the nations of the world, such as communists, who fight for the benefit of oppressed among all the nations of the world. They are willing to pay for this with their very lives.

Egoism is embedded in the nature of every person, as in any animal. Altruism, however, is against human nature. Yet, a chosen few are imparted this nature, and I call them “idealists.” Yet, the majority of any society or state is made of simple flesh and blood folk, meaning egoists. Only a few, ten percent at most, are the exceptional altruists.

Now I shall come to the point: For the above reason, that altruists are few in every society, the first communists, before Karl Marx’s time, were unsuccessful in spreading communism in the world, as in the saying, “One bird does not make a summer.” In addition, some of them even established communal settlements like the kibbutzim in our country, but they failed because they could not endure.

This happened because all the members of the communal society must be altruistic idealists like the founders themselves. Since ninety percent of any society, even the most developed, are egoists, they could not keep up with the conducts of a cooperative society, which is purely altruistic by nature.

This continued until the time of Karl Marx when a very successful plan for the expansion of communism was devised, namely, to incorporate the oppressed themselves in the war of communism, so they would fight alongside them against the capitalist bourgeois government. Since the oppressed are interested in this war only for their own good, meaning for egoistic reasons, they immediately accepted the plan, and thus communism spread through all the levels of the stragglers and the oppressed. Since the stragglers are the majority in society, it is no surprise that today communism has succeeded in encircling a third of the world.

However, this coupling of altruist communists with egoistic proletariat, though it was successful in overthrowing the bourgeois government, hated by both, that coupling still fails to keep a cooperative government with just division. The reason is very simple: A person does not make a move unless there is some purpose that necessitates that movement. That purpose serves as the motivating force to make that move like fuel that moves a machine.

For example, one does not move his hand from one place to another unless he thinks that in the other place he will be more comfortable resting his hand. That purpose of seeking a more comfortable place for his hand is the fuel pushing his hand from this place to the other.

Needless to say, a worker who labors all day must have fuel for the laborious movements he makes, and this is the reward he receives for his work. The reward he receives is the fuel that motivates him to his hard work. Thus, if no reward is given for his labor, or if he has no need for that reward, he will not be able to work. He will be like a machine that was not fueled; even the most gullible person in the world will not think that this machine will ever move.

Hence, in a purely communist regime, where the worker knows that he will not be given more if he works more, or receive less if he works less, and all the more so in light of the absolute motto, “Each will work according to his ability and will receive according to his needs,” the worker will neither be rewarded for his diligence, nor fear his own negligence.

Thus, he would have no fuel to motivate him to work. The labor productivity of the workers would then drop to zero until they ruin the entire regime. No schooling in the world will help in inverting human nature to be able to work without fuel, meaning without reward.

The exception to this rule is the natural born altruist idealist for whom the best reward is the good of the other. This altruistic fuel is entirely sufficient for him as a motivating force to work, like the egoistic reward for all other people. However, idealists are few; their number is insufficient for society to base itself on them. Thus, you see that communism and altruism are one and the same.

I know there are ways to compel workers to complete their share of the work that the supervisors will give them by the same conducts as in a bourgeois government, where each is rewarded according to his productivity. In addition, harsh punishments can be imposed on the negligent, as in the soviet countries. However, this is not communism whatsoever. Needless to say, it is not the paradise that the communist regime is hoped to bring about, one worthy of giving one’s life for.

On the contrary, a government such as this is far worse than the capitalist government for unambiguous reasons that I will present below. Had that compulsive government been a step toward the perfect communism, it would still be possible to accept and tolerate it. However, this is not the case: No training in the world will reverse human nature from egoism to altruism.

Therefore, the oppressive regime applied in the soviet countries is an eternal regime that can never be changed. And when they wish to change it into a truly cooperative regime, the workers will run out of fuel. They will not be able to work and will destroy the government. Thus, egoism and anti-communism are one and the same, identical.

Moreover, a compulsive communist government is completely unsustainable, since a bayonet-dependent government cannot persist, and the majority will ultimately rise against it and abolish it. The idealist ten percent will not be able to rule over the egoistic ninety percent and the anti-communists forever, as we find in soviet and eastern countries.

Moreover, even that handful of communist idealists that lead these countries today are not guaranteed to stay that way for generations, since ideals are not hereditary. Although the progenitors are idealists, there is no guarantee that their progeny will follow suit.

Thus, how can we be certain that the leadership of the second or third generation will be in the hands of communist idealists as it is today? You might say that the majority will always elect them from the public, but this is a grave mistake. The egoistic majority of the public will elect only those who are close to them in spirit, not their opponents.

Moreover, it is common knowledge that today’s leaders were not elected by the public at all. Thus, who would see that the elected representatives of the public will always be the idealists in the public? When the egoists are in power, they are sure to revoke that government immediately, or at least turn it into a kind of national communism, “a nation of lords.”

All that I have said—when I proved that communism and altruism are the same, and that egoism and anti-communism are the same—is my own view. However, if you ask the communists themselves, they will deny it vehemently. They will claim the opposite: “We are far from any bourgeois morals; we have no sentimentality. It is only justice that we seek, that no man shall exploit another.” In other words, it is according to the attribute, “Let mine be mine and let yours be yours,” which is, in fact, the attribute of egoists. Hence, I must view the matters from their perspective and review this justice that they seek and to which they devote their lives.

First, according to the development of the communist regimes, I find that the terms “bourgeois” and “proletariat” no longer suffice to explain that economic history, and we need more general terms. It is truer to divide society into a class of diligent and a class of stragglers. In the bourgeois regimes, the diligent are the capitalists and the middle class. The stragglers are the workers who labor for them. In the communist regimes, the diligent are the managers, supervisors, and intellectuals, and the stragglers are the workers who labor for them.

The majority in every society is always the stragglers. The diligent are no more than thirty percent of society. It is a natural law that the class of the diligent will exploit the class of the stragglers as best as they can, like fish at sea, where the strong swallows the weak. It is inconsequential whether the diligent are capitalists and merchants, as in the bourgeois regimes, or whether the diligent are the managers, supervisors, intellectuals, and allotters, as in communist regimes.

Ultimately, the diligent will exploit the laboring stragglers to the best of their ability and will take no pity on them. The diligent will always suck out the butter and the cream, leaving the workers only the meager whey. The only question is what remains for the workers after the ruthless exploitation by the diligent, the measure of enslavement the diligent impose on them, and the measure of freedom and human liberty the diligent allow them. It is only according to the measure of these leftovers, which the diligent leave for the stragglers, that we are to examine every regime, differentiate between the regimes, and choose which one is preferable.

Let us mention once more what we said, that one cannot work without some reward that serves as a fuel for a machine. In a non-altruistic communist regime, the workers must be rewarded for their work and be heavily punished for their negligence.

However, many supervisors are required to watch over them, for without sufficient supervision, the rewards and punishments are certain to be insufficient. However, there is no harder work than standing over people and agonizing them, for no one wants to be a hangman. Hence, even if you place inspectors, appointees over the inspectors, and higher still appointees to watch them, they will all be negligent in their supervision, and will not agonize the workers sufficiently.

There is no cure for this but to provide plenty of fuel to the functionaries, sufficient as reward for such hard labor, meaning the work of the hangman. In other words, they must be given several times more than a simple worker.

Thus, you should not be surprised if functionaries in Russia are paid ten to fifty times more than a simple worker; their work is ten to fifty times harder than that of a simple worker. If they are not sufficiently rewarded, they will be compelled to neglect their office, and the state will be ruined.

Now try to calculate in our country’s currency. Let us say that a simple worker earns a hundred Israeli pounds a month. This means that the lowest functionaries will receive a thousand pounds a month, ten times more. Thus, over one year, he will earn twelve thousand pounds, and over ten years, a hundred and twenty thousand pounds.

If we deduct ten percent from this for his sustenance, he will be left with a hundred and eight thousand pounds. It seems that we should consider him a respectable capitalist. It is even more so with higher functionaries.

Thus, within a few decades, the functionaries will become millionaires, at no risk, but strictly through the exploitation of the workers. As I have said, by today’s experience, society should no longer be divided into bourgeois and proletariat, but to diligent and stragglers.

You might say that this is but a phase toward pure communism, meaning that through education and public opinion, the public will be tutored until “each will work according to his ability and will receive according to his needs.” Then there will be no need for inspectors or supervisors.

This is a big mistake because the motto of each working according to his ability and receiving according to his needs is a strictly altruistic motto. And wherever one can work to the benefit of society without any fuel, it is unnatural unless altruism is the reason and the fuel for the work, as I have shown.

Thus, we must not hope for any change for the better. Quite the contrary, we must fear that that handful of idealist communists who are leading today will not bequeath their leadership to other idealists. The egoistic force of the people will gradually prevail, they will choose a leadership according to their egoistic spirit and will reinstate capitalism. At the very least, they will turn communism into some sort of national communism, a “nation of masters,” as did Hitler. They will have no inhibitions about exploiting other nations to benefit themselves, if they only have the power.

You might say that through education and public opinion, the nature of the masses can be inverted into altruism. This is also a grave mistake. Education cannot do more than public opinion, meaning that public opinion will respect the altruists and degrade the egoists.

As long as public opinion sustains altruism by means of respect and ignominy, education will be effective. However, if there comes a time when an experienced and competent speaker gives a daily speech that is the opposite of public opinion, he will undoubtedly be able to change public opinion as he wishes.

We already have such a bitter experience in history with that villain who turned a well-mannered people like the Germans into wild animals through his daily sermons. Several hundred years of education vanished like a bubble of soap, since public opinion had changed, and education had nothing more to rely on, as education cannot exist without the public’s support.

Thus, you evidently see that there is no hope to change this compulsive government. There is also no hope that the masses will ever achieve true communism, according to the motto, “Each will work according to his ability and will receive according to his needs.”

Rather, the workers must remain eternally under the dreadful rod of managers and supervisors, while the managers and supervisors will always suck the blood of the workers, as bourgeois capitalists do, if not much worse than they. After all, in the compulsory regime of the communists, the workers do not even have the right to strike. Famine and destruction will always hang over their heads, as the Soviet experiment teaches. Moreover, if the compulsory government is ever revoked, society will certainly be ruined instantaneously, for the workers would run out of fuel.

Indeed... It is said that in a communist regime it is worthwhile for the workers to suffer, since they suffer for themselves, as they are the owners of the productive means, the property, and the surplus, and no one can exploit them. Conversely, in a capitalist regime they only have their daily bread, and all the surplus is given to the capitalists. How lovely these words are on the surface.

Yet, if there is an ounce of truth in these words, then they apply to the diligent, who are the functionaries and the managers, who take all the pleasures of the compulsory regime in any case. But to the proletariat, namely the straggling workers, these are completely empty words.

Let us take our railroads, for example. They are state property, meaning that the ownership of the railroad is in the hands of all the citizens of the state. I ask, do any of us citizens feel our right to ownership of the railroad? Do we have any greater benefit when traveling on a nationalized railway than when traveling on a private, capitalist railway?

We can also take a cooperative owned entirely by the workers, like Solel Boneh (a large construction corporation in Israel), owned solely by the workers. Do the workers who work on their own property have any additional benefit than when working for a foreign, capitalist property?

I fear that one who works for the foreign entrepreneur will feel much more at home than one who works for Solel Boneh, although he is seemingly a co-owner. Only the handful of managers has the entire ownership, and they do with this national property as they see fit. A private citizen is forbidden even to inquire what they are doing, and for what.

Thus, the workers feel no delight in the property of the state and the productive means that is under the hands of the executives and the functionaries, who always oppress and humiliate them as the dust of the earth. What then is the surplus that they have in the compulsory communist regime, more than their daily bread?

I am not at all envious of the workers who are and will be in the compulsory communist regime, under the harsh encumbrance of the functionaries and inspectors, who can torture them with all sorts of atrocities, oblivious to the opinion of the public and the world, as all the advertising mediums is in the hands of the clerks. No one will be able to expose their evil deeds in public.

In addition, everyone will be bound by them, unable to leave the country and escape from them, just as our fathers were locked in Egypt, where no slave could leave there to be free, since every worker leaves all the surplus of his production for the state, so how will they let them go elsewhere when the state loses their surplus? In a word, a non-altruistic communist regime must always consist of two classes: the diligent, who are the managers, the functionaries, and the intellectuals, and the class of the stragglers, who are the productive workers, the majority of society.

For the functioning of the state, the class of the diligent must, willingly or unwillingly, enslave, tantalize, and humiliate the working class mercilessly and shamelessly. They will exploit them ten times more than the bourgeois exploit them, for they will be utterly defenseless, as they will not have the right to strike. They will be unable to disclose the evil deeds of the employers in public, and they will take no pleasure at all in the ownership of the productive means that the functionaries have acquired.

2) One more thing, and this is the most important. Communism must correct more than just the economic order. It must also ensure the minimal existence of the people in the world. In other words, it is to prevent wars so that nations will not destroy one another. I have already screamed like a crane about it back in 1933, in my book The Peace pamphlet, warning that wars today have come to such proportions that they endanger the life of the entire world.

The only counsel to prevent this is by all the nations adopting the regime of perfect communism, meaning altruistic. Needless to say, today, after the discovery and use of atom bombs, and the discovery of hydrogen bombs, there is no longer a doubt that after one, two, or three wars, the entire human civilization will be totally ruined, leaving no relics.

Contemporary, modern egoistic communism cannot secure peace in the world, for even if all the nations of the world adopt this communist regime, there will still not be a compelling reason for nations rich in production means, raw materials, and civilization, to share the raw materials and productive means equally with the poor nations.

For example, the nations of America will not want to equalize their standard of living with the Asian or African nations, or even with the European nations. A single nation might have the power to equalize the standard of living of the rich and middle class—the owners of the productive means—with the proletariat, by inciting the poor masses, the majority of society, to destroy the rich and middle class and take their property. However, this counsel will not be of any use in compelling a wealthy nation to share its property and means of production with a poor nation, as the rich nation has already prepared arms and bombs to keep itself from its poor neighbors.

Thus, what good did the communist regime do in the world? It leaves intact the state of envy among the nations just as it is in the capitalist regime, without any relief. A just division within each nation for itself will not assist to a just division among the nations whatsoever.

Hence, while basic sustenance is under such immediate danger, it is a waste of time to improve the economic government. They would be better off using that time to seek counsel to save the very life of all humankind.

You see that the whole problem with today’s communist regime is the lack of adequate reward, which is the fuel for the productive force of the workers. Hence, it is impossible to employ them successfully except with the fuel of reward and punishment.

For this reason, we need inspectors, supervisors, and managers to take upon themselves this hard work of supervising the workers and ruthlessly suck their blood and sweat, making their lives endlessly bitter with hardship and enslavement. Also, in return for this hard work, they must be given an adequate reward, which is no less than to make them millionaires, for they will not want to be hangmen of their own free will for any less than that, as we see in the Soviet country.

Also, there is no hope that this reign of terror will ever end, as the optimists promise. Neither bayonets nor education or public opinion can change human nature to work willingly without adequate fuel.

Hence, it is a curse for generations. When the compulsory government is revoked, the workers will no longer yield produce that will suffice for the sustenance of the state. There is no cure for this but to bring faith in spiritual reward and punishment from above into the hearts of the workers, from He who knows the mysteries.

Thus, through the right education and promotion, that spiritual reward and punishment will be sufficient fuel for the produce of their work. They will no longer need managers or supervisors over their shoulders, but each and every one will work willingly and wholeheartedly for society, to win his or her reward from Heaven.

M. Laitman: Questions?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:04) It's hard to argue with Baal HaSulam because his analysis is so kind of clear-cut. But the conclusion ultimately is that the solution is spiritual reward.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Which is also egoistic, right?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, where or let's start from the beginning: From what we read, he defines what's an egoist, what's an altruist, the world is divided into two kinds. Based on this definition, I think I'm an egoist. Also, we checked before the lesson, we saw that we all agreed that we are egoists. And even the thousands of students who come here and expect a certain reward. So, the question is then, why doesn't the whole world just come and want to study like us, if there is a reward? I mean, the revelation of the Creator is the greatest reward there is. 

M. Laitman: Seemingly, they're not saying the same things with us.

Student: But what could be a greater reward than the revelation of the Creator? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, ask them, but I'll tell you that they want rest, all kinds of games. Why speak about the next world? How does that attract them, no.

Student: So, what characterizes us is that we have a more evolved imagination?

M. Laitman: Apparently, yes; the difference is in the desire. 

Student: Still, the solution he gives at the end is that everyone will work to win their reward from Heaven. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, why doesn't it happen today, why don't people come to win a reward from Heaven? What will change? 

M. Laitman: They do not believe, they do not feel that it's their reward. 

Student: So, what will cause them to feel, we have to market it better? I think the friend, yesterday, complained that people don't come to study every day, that it's hard to bring them to that, so?

M. Laitman: I don't know, I think we progress not according to the good reward that illuminates to us in front of us. But according to the punishments, or you could say, those that we escape from. Really, we escape from blows, from troubles. 

Student: The whole world escapes troubles, no? 

M. Laitman: Yes, and each and every one has its own, has its different depiction, I cannot say. Usually, people come to the wisdom of Kabbalah because they do not see in any form, in any place, in any method, some reward. And here, somehow, they think that they will know how reality is constructed. And how they can reach a state where they will gain benefit. 

Student: So, in the corrected, ideal regime he describes, what's supposed to happen? 

M. Laitman: Firstly, those who wish to make contact with that degree, which is called the corrected regime, those are people who will want the corrected regime. At least in some kind of way. Those who come here are not seeking the corrected state so that's something else. 

Student: But, again, those who will come will be egoists, right, everyone.

M. Laitman: Everyone. 

Student: So, what motivates them? He explains there needs to be fuel. 

M. Laitman: Either less suffering or more pleasure.

Student: Why don't people, today, believe there is something called spirituality or Creator, which is the salvation from all the troubles, and now they'll start believing it?

M. Laitman: I don't see that state, I don't see that that is a state. And why should I believe in that?

Student: So, why will people suddenly begin to believe that?

M. Laitman: What's the difference between that and communists promising something to their workers. That soon it will be good, and everyone will have equality, and everyone will have everything? What's the difference? 

Student: No difference, so how will it happen?

M. Laitman: I don't know, we learn together. In the meantime, the real solution is still unknown. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:24) First of all, it's really a great analysis of Baal HaSulam. I think anyone who studied Karl Marx, or something similar, can see the logic here. But he says, he divides it to diligent and stragglers, this is the true division. He says, put aside egoists and altruists, that doesn't solve anything. The altruists are always a few, they will never succeed. So, he says, there's diligent and stragglers. And then at the end he says, there's no advice besides to bring into the heart of the worker the spiritual reward and punishment from He who knows all mysteries. Meaning, to replace the reward.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: But even then, you will still have diligent and stragglers. How does he solve that?

M. Laitman: He cancels competition by that, no measurement for the amount for the person themselves. Meaning, a person has something that you can attain, which is yours, and you don't rob anyone of that. And you also don't compete with anyone for that. So, please, that is before you.

Student: It's before you but there will still be people who will be diligent and do the task all the way?

M. Laitman: That's on your calculation. That you say that, you want to say that there is a matter here of who is the first. No, there is no first or last here, it doesn't matter, it doesn't exist. But everyone here is as one.

Student: And how do you rise above nature, the nature that does look at who's first and who's last? He says that according to nature, it's not just that there's a gap there but the diligent will always take advantage of the stragglers. So, how will this solve this problem of nature? 

M. Laitman: The problem of nature, here, is solved through that in which it is precisely the opposite. That each one who leaves his ego is the one who succeeds. 

Student: And if he leaves nature more than the other, does it matter? There's no comparison here? 

M. Laitman: No, completely not, the whole world is not lacking that you are before me, and that you want to cut from the world, and to swallow up something. No.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:49) In the end, he says that the council is that spiritual reward and punishment can give fuel. We see that a person for the reward of the next world can kill others and also kill himself, we see examples.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But I still don't see the example that one can work for others for the sake of spiritual reward and punishment?

M. Laitman: I believe you, that you haven't seen such people. 

Student: Yes, so how?

M. Laitman: First of all, it's because you cannot see what they are working for. You can only imagine to yourself according to your labor and work what the person who is next to you is doing. Accordingly, you can depict in your vessels their efforts and also according to that their goal.

Student: I can't seem to, I can't understand why this law doesn't work. If I can convince a person for the sake of the next world, whatever a person describes it. That he can kill others and himself. Why can't I convince a person to work for the others, for the sake of society, for the purpose of getting to the next world? Why doesn't it work according to the same formula? 

M. Laitman: It seems that this reward, the next world is concealed. 

Student: Yes, but it's sufficient in order to give my life, to kill others, it's a very radical thing. And I can convince millions of people to do that; and yet, convincing people to work for the others according to that formula, to work according to the ability to receive, according to the need.

M. Laitman: It's completely the opposite.

Student: But there's a reward of the next world, it's not sufficient? He says it's sufficient here, that this can give a person the fuel?

M. Laitman: For the next world, we need in our times, working for the next world doesn't work so much.

Student: But, he says here that promotion, together with the reward of the next world, will be sufficient for one to work for others. 

M. Laitman: I think that we're already beyond that, we're already beyond that. 

Student: Maybe he means actual revelation? Revelation of the upper system that is sufficient for a person as fuel to work for others?

M. Laitman: Maybe we should read further on, I don't know, but I don't have enough. I can't, I don't have enough in order to answer that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:04) What does it mean to bring into the heart of the worker the belief in faith in reward and punishment, spiritual reward and punishment from heaven? 

M. Laitman: That the person will feel that truly in spiritual attainment he will find reward against punishment.

Student: And then, what does he feel when he's on such a level of faith in reward and punishment from heaven? How does he work in society, what does he feel? 

M. Laitman: He acts in society because he believes that reward and punishment come to him in exchange for his work. 

Student: What is the reward and punishment that's felt there? What moves him, what motivates him?

M. Laitman: Bestowal is the reward and the contrary, reception is punishment.

Student: How to bring that to the heart of the worker? 

M. Laitman: Through study and dissemination.

Student: From the texts I got the impression that until a person wants the change, he won't change. At least some beginning. Can you bring a person just through promotion to awaken his point in the heart?

M. Laitman: It's possible.

Student: So, you can awaken the point in the hearts through promotion? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:47) Religion, also, promises reward to a person. if he does actions, of Lo Lishma, he'll get reward in this world and the next world. Is it the same here what he's talking about? 

M. Laitman: It's still not understood, seemingly not. He doesn't speak with them in such a way.

Student: A person needs to feel the fuel from the spiritual reward?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Who provides that? 

M. Laitman: The upper force.

Student: But, I would think it's maybe from some other people, some society that does have the upper force, not directly. 

M. Laitman: No, that's the condition, other people, society, that's the condition. But the connection with the upper world and the Creator, to receive a certain kind of reward; that's between the person and the Creator. 

Student: So, this force has to be inside society.

M. Laitman: No.

Student: No, society doesn't need? So, only education and promotion, and he himself develops that?

M. Laitman: Let's say.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:26) Most of the article, he talks about coercion. He says you can force a person but the moment you let loose a bit, the man goes back to what he does. And at the end of the article, he proposes a spiritual solution. Now, we also see on our path that part of the spiritual path, there is coercion, but you coerce yourself. So, the question is, what is the magic here? Why, when a person forces himself, it does hold water. But when there is external, corporeal coercion, it doesn't hold water? 

M. Laitman: Because it's against his ego, he resists that within himself.

Student: When he forces himself, he's not resistant inside? He's kind of split, no?

M. Laitman: Let's say, yes.

Student: But it somehow does work, eventually? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:32) We read that the foundation is the will to receive that is imprinted in each person and there's a mechanism that is called, equivalence of form. I'm trying to isolate that thing called equivalence of form from what we just read. What is that acquisition that we acquire called equivalence of form? That campaign, that attitude, towards the way we relate to the reward. What is that mechanism called equivalence of form? What is that factor called, equivalence of form? 

M. Laitman: Equivalence of form is when that system that exists in man, where he depicts for himself his state, and that system that exists outside of him in spirituality when they reach equivalence of form. 

Student: We read that the future governance regime would supply the worker reward, that the worker will be satisfied, and won't need external forces to push him to work. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: What does he acquire before that when he approaches the work? How does he have the value for this reward, where does it come from? 

M. Laitman: From the environment, from the influence of the environment. He sees as much as his friends respect that reward.

Student: But, in the point where he's a natural egoist, he has yet to acquire it. How does he enter this work where he, what, does he clothe a certain suit and all of a sudden there's a new set of values? How does this process happen, what does he have to go through in order to receive such a way to relate to things?

M. Laitman: He learns from the environment that all forms of bestowal, from the small to the big ones, are all respectable. The environment respects them, that's what he learns.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:39) First, about what he just gave the conclusion, that we need spiritual reward and punishment to kind of crack the code, here. So, I think the next paragraphs that we're going to read will be where he gives some of the answers. I wanted to ask, first of all, we can take many examples from how Baal HaSulam kind of lowers the wisdom of Kabbalah,, to the ground like an example towards our dissemination of how he's capable of doing this.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: Which happens to be very difficult for us. I wanted to ask even before that, where you said that the difference between each regime is how many remnants, those who work hard, leave to those who are kind of like the lazy ones. And in a communistic regime, it's very clear, I mean, there's a very clear revelation of evil, and maybe in us, the communism kind of dissipated from the world. But in us, it's kind of still concealed, it still works in the same way, but the revelation of evil becomes more concealed. So, I'm asking here with my corrupted eyes whether we're going in the way of development, we need to be more and more in recognition of evil? And actually, when you go backwards with the communism, there's a lot of revelation of evil. There's this ripeness to reach into spirituality, and today it's kind of like hidden. It's happening the same way, maybe even worse, but it's not concealed and hidden from the eye.

M. Laitman: You're right. 

Student: Can we understand why it's like that? 

M. Laitman: Habits. 

Student: What does that mean?

M. Laitman: Habit becomes second nature.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:41) Baal HaSulam is talking about the public opinion that is trying to advertise corporeal altruism. And he, seemingly, says that it works but it's not stable because at some point a certain speaker will come along. And it's also the final matter of the campaign, it's not a matter of opinion or of my Ten. But the method of using the environment is, kind of like, also there and also there. So, actually, what I understand is that I need to search for why this will work spiritually, but in a quality? Because in what way is the corporeal altruism different from the spiritual reward on a value measure? I have to kind of like seek this qualitative difference? In what is it different? 

M. Laitman: In what do you think?

Student: It sounds like in altruism, we don't rise above ourselves. We will want all of humanity to be happy, and we kind of, also if it will happen, everyone will be brothers and sisters of mine. And that will truly work for everyone, we truly rise above ourselves. We remain in egoism with the spiritual. But with a spiritual reward, there's an external body called the Creator. So, there's a certain degree, but we didn't read that yet.

M. Laitman: Tell me, if? No, it's too early to ask. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:00) Why does a godly Kabbalist with a soul in the spiritual world, corrected. What does he need the reality of the world of beasts? What does it interest him to arrange the beasts in a certain order?

M. Laitman: Those exalted souls determine that as much as they can go lower into the depth of this world, and to touch the lowest, smallest souls. The ones lowest, low souls, by this they can measure the magnitude of the soul.

Student: In this world of the beasts, in this reality of the beasts, amongst them hide lowly souls? 

M. Laitman: I don't know.

Student: I don't understand what's the need of such a great Kabbalist. 

M. Laitman: He probably knows, even if you can't find an answer, you can relax. Because the Kabbalist knows what he's doing. 

Student: I have no doubt that he knows what he's doing. I just want to understand and acquire for myself this need to care for this world.

M. Laitman: I guess there's a need. Even if there's questions we don't have answers about, we find it sufficient that we see how the great ones care about this and they're calm. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:49) He writes, here, that education alone won't succeed in changing anything, so it needs to be also the public opinion. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, what is this public opinion and how do we influence the public opinion, so that education will succeed? 

M. Laitman: By dissemination, by dissemination; and we don't know as much as Baal HaSulam, troubled in this, made a lot of efforts.

Student: Despite the fact that he, seemingly, according to the solution he gives in the end, until the Creator awakens the need for spiritual reward? 

M. Laitman: But as much as the Creator awakens and awakens, humans are the ones that need to extend it.

Student: If we do dissemination, by that, we are causing the upper force to awaken in the hearts of those people yearning for spiritual reward?

M. Laitman: Correct. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:11) All that Baal HaSulam wrote happened. It's truly, you can see it and it's written that during those times, communism circumvented two-thirds of the world. The question is what's today? Today is there disappointment from the ideology? Or are there less meager people that are suffering?

M. Laitman: Today, we're going back to the egoistic swamp, just simply, just like that. There aren't any people who, great ones that, you know, small ones who go up and down, it's like a kind of a swamp. 

Student: And today people have fear from the word itself, communism. Can that be a problem? 

M. Laitman: Because they're speculating on all those names. They take a word, and they make it into anything they want. Nothing else to add. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:48) All the people with a point in the heart, are those potential altruists?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, Baal HaSulam says that the perfect communists are altruists, and I understand that the society is egoistic. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, how can you erect a perfect altruistic society?

M. Laitman: Don't ask me about what's not written. We're learning from what we read.

Student: Because he's planning to erect a society that's altruistic?

M. Laitman: So, ask him. 

Question (Turkiye 2): (01:11:48) The world is in a period of artificial intelligence and robotics, and this is moving to workers and animals. The question is how can connection be to make the aspiration of the Creator to the hearts of the nations? 

M. Laitman: I don't understand, the end of the sentence, I didn't understand. 

Student: The question is how can we place the aspiration of the connection that should be between us? How can we connect in order to bring the people too long to reveal the Creator in their hearts? 

M. Laitman: We, first of all, have to connect correctly, then we'll be able to publish the correct connection between us. To advertise it to all nations and to show them an example. This connection, for now, we didn’t attain, yet; this connection includes our international group, that's it. Except for that, we don't need anything. If we connect between us as close as we can, as one man with one heart. In this way humanity will be able to understand what the secret of connection is and what they need to do. And through our system, they will also want to join it, that's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:08) Something doesn't work out for me: Why put the corporeal interaction under the laws of bestowal, and not leave them under the laws of reception? A person invests and receives according to. 

M. Laitman: That's how he writes, maybe in a different place we'll see otherwise. Let's keep going for now. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:39) Who are these altruists that he's talking, writing, about that are 10% of humanity. 

M. Laitman: That they have a tendency to organize a communistic connection between humans.

Student: How do they exist in nature, from what? 

M. Laitman: They don't exist, we could say. They exist in their imaginations. 

Student: In their imagination. Okay, so let's say there's a certain quantity and let's say just like they ask if there's education and public opinion that supports. Then everyone can join this, seemingly?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And if the education ministry and the communication ministry, we could bring the world to this? If we could enter those things?

M. Laitman: In the past, we really wanted that to happen, we wanted to do that. Ask the friend, he's right there. We really wanted to try and reach a village commune Kibbutz- style. And there implement all the forms that Hochma de Kabbalah, mentions. 

Student: But I'm talking about the whole country, Israel is a small country. If we had access to those ministries, would we be able to?

M. Laitman: No, no, that's not important. We see this as an example from above.

Student: Okay, now let's say that the only correction is the spiritual reward. What's the motivation for an altruist to a connection with the upper force? He's already an altruist, why does he even need to? He already enjoys.

M. Laitman: No, he's an altruist in potential but not practical. He doesn't really have a connection, yet, with all those that surround him. And he's not in connection with the whole world. He's still not attempting to do it or anything. 

Student: So, maybe it should also be clear to anyone who learns with us: Actually, what's the difference between that altruism that Baal HaSulam is describing, that the people have, and actually spirituality? 

M. Laitman: By trying to make efforts towards unity, corporeal unity between us, by this, we need to feel how we can reach spiritual unity.

Student: Which is seemingly more advanced than this natural altruism that he's talking about? 

M. Laitman: I don't understand, who are you talking about? 

Student: The altruists in humanity, those 10% that have that need to operate in love of others, to sacrifice themselves. Seemingly, all the ideals between us as well are in them. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So the question I'm saying, what's the difference between that and spiritual attainment? What's the addition? 

M. Laitman: The addition is very precious because then we start feeling between us by our efforts to connect under the conditions that the Kabbalah demands. We can, in our eyes, attain the conditions of the last generation in practice. 

Student: We, the egoists that are here, the spiritual egoists that are here. Can we, do we need to work with the altruists on the outside? Do we have some connection to that? 

M. Laitman: Here, you're starting to scrutinize, it's not the topic. It's still far.

Student: All right. So, in the end, I want again this point to refine. This natural altruist receives some feeling, some pleasure from this concern, but he doesn't actually have a connection with the upper force. He doesn't have a connection with the feeling of all reality, as we aspire to reach?

M. Laitman: It's completely not what we're talking about.

Student: Meaning, he operates on one plane, and we want to reach something much greater, much more, actually. A connection with the with the upper force, not just a mechanical action.

M. Laitman: The main thing is because it comes to us as a command from the Creator, that's why we're implementing it. We aren't disconnecting from the Creator; on the contrary, all of our connection is in order to support Him. 

Student: Now, a theoretical question, although we don't like to engage in theory but is there a way to expand this circle of altruism, even before you bring in the upper force into the picture? Or is that attitude of where the 90-10 is at the moment? 

M. Laitman: I don't think you can succeed by that. You for sure can't succeed if you don't bring the force of the Creator with you, if you work from within Him, through Him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:53) So, what actually is to learn how reality is built? How do we learn how reality is constructed or built? 

M. Laitman: How? By sitting and studying.

Student: But, if we're not yet connected, is there a possibility to study the upper reality? 

M. Laitman: As much as we can, in any state, on every degree, we're learning, and that's how we ascend. 

Student: Meaning, from the perception of reality of each and every one of us. After all, each of us has a different perception of reality, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: If we're not yet connected, like you say, how do we take in this common work of ours every day, the perception of reality of each and every one. And take it to one inclusive picture, and from that learn the upper force?

M. Laitman: We try, we try to process everything in our society. 

Student: Does the direction need to constantly be that we are above the ego?

M. Laitman: Above the ego and with help from the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:10) It sounds like the definition of altruism that Baal HaSulam writes about. Like in advance it's a clash because even when a person tries towards others to fill the others, in what is he trying to fill them? For it to be good for them corporeally? So, it's not really doing good for them besides, meaning altruism altogether, without the upper force, without something outside of creation, is not defined, altogether. 

M. Laitman: Correct, correct, because we need to see the connection through the Creator. That the source of the connection, usually it's the creation, the Creator, it's all through that force. That He's creating us, raising us, connecting us, and encompassing us, surrounding us in every moment. 

Student: So, that's actually the reason why the spiritual reward is different because it has something outside of all creation. And if we sanctify the public opinion with that value, then it can work because then I won't chase after.

M. Laitman: Correct, and that's what all the people in the world, all of humanity, still have to go through. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:00) According to Baal HaSulam, there's always some, no matter what the regime. There's a certain layer of those who are diligent, and those who are, kind of like, the failed ones. Will spirituality always create this stimulus in those strong ones? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, forever, I don't know. I don't know what that word is, it completely takes me out. 

Student: Okay, today, the spiritual revolution, does it need to begin from the diligent, or will it come from the failed ones? 

M. Laitman: I don't think it ever starts from the failed part. It's diligent who want to receive that force, the control into their hands. So, they need the failing part and to add them in so they have a mass, a force, that they can go and win. 

Student: The very fact that I am kind of diligent, does that mean that my goal is to exploit the weak ones? Why, as a diligent person, would I want to start a spiritual revolution? Because I have an advantage on most of the weaker ones, why should I find a method that will kind of hurt me as a diligent person? 

M. Laitman: You're searching for a way to succeed, and you understand that the diligent ones, let's say, it's 10% of humanity, so they have no way to succeed, you have to add to you that other 90%. That they don't have any special forces, but they only have a mass, that's their force. So, you go to them, and you start awakening them and connecting them, and by that you can succeed.

Student: Is that called a revolution? 

M. Laitman: That's what Lenin did, and all those Bolsheviks, and so on. 

Student: Will spirituality also come in the form of such a revolution?

M. Laitman: I don't know in what way but it's clear that the Kabbalists that are individuals in the world will need to gather around them, many people. That, specifically through them, they will be able to ascend to a degree that they'll be able to bestow on all of society. 

Student: Many who failed?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What Baal HaSulam writes is that eventually what will compel a person to work for others is the spiritual reward.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Now, he writes here in the writings of the last generation about orders that will settle upon the collective of the society. There's a very small group of people in this mass that says that they don't believe in an upper force.

M. Laitman: I, also, don't believe in an upper force. Now, we're saying how we can organize our life, in a better, in a more rational way, more natural, more correct way.

Student: If he doesn't believe in an upper force, and the only thing that can compel him to work for this is spiritual reward, then how can he connect to that reward? How can he even want it?

M. Laitman: What spiritual reward?

Student: That's also a question, what is a spiritual reward? 

M. Laitman: No, that's something we don't talk about. Yes, I don't know how you fall from above and right now from the skies. We want to connect to us, all those who feel themselves miserable, failed, that have no future. That they don't know what to do with their friends, with their children, and in this way we can advance, that’s it.

Student: Meaning from the troubles they will understand that There's None Else Besides Him? 

M. Laitman: Not for the others, for themselves.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:28:53) Baal HaSulam writes everyone is egoists but there also are a few chosen ones that are altruists. That have a certain touch upon second nature. Now, what is not clear from history we know that all those altruists that built in Russia, so called.

M. Laitman: I did not see any altruists in my life, yet.

Student: They have some high communistic things?

M. Laitman: I don't trust them and don't see them. So, we're always the kibbutzim.

Student: I don’t see it. Let's say, there are such real people don't they feel like there's really some?

M. Laitman: Ask them.

Student: According to the laws of nature, like he explains, I have to feel that it's from the Creator?

M. Laitman: Sir, I don't know, I'm not from them and I don't know them.

Student: I'm asking because if there are such people who have a natural tendency to be altruists, if we turn to them and explain?

M. Laitman: If, if, it doesn't work, you know how much that comes. I have yet to see altruists, I have yet to see people that live in disconnection from this world, no. 

Student: So, you don't believe in it?

M. Laitman: No, at least I don't rely on that, and I don't build upon that. So, that should be clear. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:30:41) The writings of the generation try and bring us closer to the correction of the world. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And that will happen by a spiritual correction. 

M. Laitman: Could be. 

Student: Well, that's Baal HaSulam's concept, as much as I understand.

M. Laitman: Well, well? 

Student: And a spiritual correction is from an order to receive to an order to bestow. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Are we close to an order to bestow, can we reach such a correction? 

M. Laitman: Can we, yes; are we close, No. 

Student: What do we need to do in order to come close to it? 

M. Laitman: To prepare ourselves for an inner revolution.

Student: How do we reach that inner revolution? 

M. Laitman: To respect bestowal above reception. 

Student: How can we, now, while reading it, be concentrated in that?

M. Laitman: We're learning about this, the concentration depends on each and every one.

Student: It doesn't seem that each one.

M. Laitman: What do you want from me?

Student: I want me and you together to try and bestow upon everybody. I don't know but I hear questions about the outside, and why don't we concentrate on us?

M. Laitman: I am trying to explain what needs to happen in order to see the world, inverted. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:32:32) Sorry for asking about myself. What will correct me? 

M. Laitman: What will correct you? Just like everyone else will take upon themselves the condition of changing, internally. And then, the reforming light will appear to him and change him.

Student: I see around me, like, this weird movie. The Creator organized everything and everyone is asking questions, as if it's themselves or the world. But the goal will correct me because I can't even make efforts by myself, I don't want it. But I can't move towards the Creator for His benefit. I'm stuck in the middle, almost dead, and I prefer to be dead. Because I want to make efforts to the Creator all day, but I can't do anything. And the Creator gave me something special to give the world, and I don't know how to understand what it is. I don't know how to work, how to give it to the world and  everybody is already focused on the connection. And I can't do one action towards it. 

M. Laitman: That is called, recognition of evil, that's considered the recognition of evil, what you now are telling us about yourself. Yes, we agree with this more or less, that's how each and every one feels. That is not capable of doing any act of giving, only reception.

Student: Why do I see actions of giving? 

M. Laitman: You see, yes, yes. 

Student: I see that outside of me but in me there's not even one action of giving. 

M. Laitman: We'll continue and discover that there is giving.

Student: What will correct me? 

M. Laitman: What will correct you? Where you will practically begin to bestow to friends. To help them, to work with them, to do something. 

Student: Again, the friends are so merciful, and they give me opportunities to do something and?

M. Laitman: We heard that, we already heard it.

Student: And I'm not doing, I have something I can do but I can't move. It's like I don't deserve to sit in this chair but there's nothing else I can do. I want to work every day to bring the Creator's system to wholeness.

M. Laitman: But you don't have room for it.

Student: There is room, but I can't make efforts, I don't have motivation. I don't have fuel.

M. Laitman: You need to take the Siddur, the prayer book, and begin to read it from the beginning to the end, a few times, slowly, slowly. And  then you will see there your words, your desires, all your requests. You'll find it all there. 

Student: In the Siddur, the prayer book.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

M. Laitman: Okay, what are we doing?

Reader: So, we have a letter by the Rabash that we didn't read.

Announcement: (01:37:57)

Song: (01:38:22)