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

Daily Lesson (Morning), November 22, 2024. 

Part 2: Weekly Portion: Chaye Sarah, the life of Sarah.

Reader: We are reading excerpts from the Weekly Portion. Our weekly portion is Chaye Sarah, the life of Sarah. And we are going to read from The Cave of the Field. Again, excerpts from the Weekly Portion, Chaye Sarah, the life of Sarah. And now we are reading Genesis 23:19.

Reading: (00:36) After this, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.

M. Laitman: That's what's written in the Torah. 

Reader: Item 2, From Rabash's Notes. Rabash writes: 

Reading: (01:08) Rabash. Notes. 353. “Abraham Arose”

As was asked in The Zohar, sometimes it is written, “the Cave of Machpelah,” and sometimes it is written “the Field of Machpelah.” He interprets in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar] that the duality is the association of the quality of mercy with judgment, that Malchut rose to Bina. There is Malchut of Bina and there is Bina of Bina, and there is Bina of Malchut and there is Malchut of Malchut. The meaning is that the body should receive a correction of the quality of mercy with judgment.

Hence, the scrutiny should be for the will to receive, which is the quality of judgment, to be included in the quality of mercy, and by this the body will become a Kli that is fit to receive the light of the soul. He needed to receive the consent of the sons of Het, meaning he had to give them something so they would not slander the body. This is similar to giving a portion to the Sitra Achra [other side] in order to remove it and be saved from it.

M. Laitman: I have nothing to add.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:46) So, if I understand that the cave of Machpelah – that there are two Machpelahs, it's the equality of mercy with judgment. 

M. Laitman: You can say that. 

Student: Meaning the name comes from that matter? He writes, here, that there is, he explains all kinds of places where there is Malchut and Bina and Bina in Malchut. I wanted to ask: How could there be such a state that there is Bina in Malchut, Malchut is the will to receive? So, how can there be a Sefira, where Bina, which is clean, bestowal, without any self-involvement, how can that be in the will to receive?

M. Laitman: We can see it in the Sefirot, the way they develop and come out one of the other. That's how we receive them. 

Student: But if it is in a state of Bina, so you could say that Malchut rises to Bina. But Bina, complete bestowal in Malchut, as it is written, as that is the case. It's seemingly a deviation. How could there possibly be such a state? Or is it in stages where one time it's one way and another time it's another way? 

M. Laitman: Ask again?

Student: The question is that he writes that there is the Sefira of Bina in Malchut. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Malchut is 100% will to receive. And Bina is 100% will to bestow without any will to receive. 

M. Laitman: Right. 

Student: How could there be in the will to receive a place which is called Bina in Malchut, which is only bestowal? 

M. Laitman: I don't know exactly what you're asking about but we can depict that. L

Student: Where is it in the system? We learn that we raise MAN to Malchut of Bina or Yesod of Zeir Anpin, it doesn't matter. And Malchut of Bina descends in order to incorporate with Malchut and Malchut rises in order to incorporate with Bina. Where is, if I understand the system, correctly, in general, so where is there such a thing as it is written here that there exists Bina in Malchut? 

M. Laitman: Bina in Malchut or Malchut in Bina, it exists in the incorporation between the Sefirot.

Student: Incorporation? 

M. Laitman: How can it be that some Sefira will reach its implementation, if it doesn't incorporate in all the others? It has to be incorporated in all the others.

Student: Are you asking me? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: I think that, yes because the determination of the Sefira comes from the wholeness. 

M. Laitman: Okay, we'll continue to scrutinize.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:42) He writes, here, at the end of what we read, that he needed to receive an agreement from the sons of Het. Meaning, he had to give them something so they would not slander the body. And that it's similar to giving a portion to the Sitra Achra in order to remove it and be saved from it. What does that mean? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, there are such actions that you must give to the Sitra Achra, so it will forget about you. 

Student: Because we learn in many places that the attitude to the will to receive or the evil inclination that not to give it anything, he blunted its teeth. And so what does it mean that we suddenly bribe it? 

M. Laitman: What does it matter? The main thing is that it doesn't disturb you. 

Student: In what state is this approach correct? 

M. Laitman: If this force exists in nature, you must take it into account; so you must give it something, whatever it wants, just so it won't disturb you to attain what you want. 

Student: So, why is it written in many places, you blunted its teeth, relate to it as if it won't receive anything. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: It's written that way in many places, that it won't receive anything from you. You need to tell it that it's not going to receive anything, and it's going to work for you without any reward. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And here, it's written like a dog, that you need to give it a bone. So, that it's seemingly a different approach. 

M. Laitman: I guess it's all for something else, here.

Student: When is it correct when you feel that the evil inclination disturbs you, meaning to relate properly to the friends, etc. What does it mean to give it a part so that it won't disturb you? 

M. Laitman: I guess there are certain states. 

Student: What is the action? What can I give to it? If it disturbs me, so what should I do? 

M. Laitman: Whatever it wants.

Student: It wants me to relate in a bad way, to take things for myself, to exploit them. What does it mean to relate, to give it something? 

M. Laitman: We'll learn about that. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:20) Also, continuing that, how does a person choose the part that he needs to give to the evil inclination? How does he choose that part? 

M. Laitman: The Sitra Achra choses that.

Student: Is it that same part that a person cannot correct and so he gives that bone to the dog just to silence him? 

M. Laitman: Could be.

Student: The question is whether that's a person's choice, to choose that part. 

M. Laitman: Yes. Well, let's keep going.

Reader: (10;11) Can I continue scrutinizing what the friend started? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: There's an article where you bribe the Sitra Achra with a cigarette. That giving of a bribe to the Sitra Achra, is that even relevant to our current state? 

M. Laitman: I guess so, we don't know all the actions but I guess there are such. Why not? 

Student: Because it sometimes turns out that you start bribing the Sitra Achra, and you take another cigarette, and another cigarette. 

M. Laitman: Right.

Student: I'm speaking, specifically, about the allegory of the cigarette.

M. Laitman: Here, we're speaking about a direct, pure approach. 

Student: So, how can we control this action of giving a bribe to the Sitra Achra? We feel sometimes that the body needs that so-called necessity.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And then it's effective but sometimes one feels that he left that, so how? 

M. Laitman: I don't know how to explain it. To begin with, you have to limit yourself to a level that you're participating in that, and say, up to here. Up to here, you can incorporate in those stuff. 

Reader: Excerpt 3, Rabash writes, Once, 

Reading: (11:58) Item 3 Rabash. Notes 109. “The Reason Why People Go to the Graves of the Patriarchs”

Once, Baal HaSulam went to Hebron before he moved to Tel-Aviv. When he returned from the Cave of Machpelah, he said why people go to the graves of the patriarchs: It is to say, “When will my deeds come to be as my fathers’ deeds?”

M. Laitman: Yes, we also do that sometimes, in order to incorporate with those places, with those deeds that those places remind us of. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:58) Why does he need to go to the grave of a righteous, if you can just open his book? You want to reach the deeds of my father's? Opening the book is better than going to some place. 

M. Laitman: I don't know, I guess in their days it was easier.  or maybe it was accepted to do that. 

Student: Okay, 

M. Laitman: I don't have anything to add.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:43) I'm asking about the Machpelah. It is written that all the work that we do is half a shekel and then we approach the fathers. We ask from them and they give us the blessing that is their half a shekel. And then, we have a full shekel with which we can make a step. Here it says that Baal HaSulam approached the cave of Machpelah and that also when they conquered the land, he said that he went to the cave of Machpelah. What does it mean to come to equivalence of form, to incorporate together with them and also to make an act from that? How in the Ten, as the friend said now, how can we do this process where we approach the fathers and then receive blessing from them in the cave of the Machpelah? What is that action in the Ten in the work? 

M. Laitman: I can't say. 

Student: We say that there is a Segula that we read in the book – the remedy that we read in the book. The question is how can we connect with the author of the book, the writer, the Kabbalist. Such that from my behalf it will be like asking a blessing from him. What turns into being my request for that in which the book blesses me. So that my action during the reading will turn into a blessing where we will be in this reciprocal relationship toward the goal. 

M. Laitman: I guess that you can direct yourself in such a way toward the goal that the book is connected to, that you attain it.

Student: We spoke earlier about the Sitra Achra, that we needed to bribe it, etc. Now the question is about the blessing from Rav, where without it we would not be able to move. Meaning the person does everything he can do, everything in your hands you can do, and he doesn't move a millimeter if Rav doesn't bless him. My question is what is that? What does it mean that Rav blesses the student so that the student can make a step? 

M. Laitman: It's the blessing of the path. A student that searches in which way he can reach adhesion with the Creator. He comes to a state that he has no choice but his deficiency opens a path for him. 

Student: What is in my attitude as a student toward the  Rav, which turns the Rav into being that who gives the blessing? Meaning I can look at the Rav in many ways. But what is that concept where the Rav gives the blessing? What does it mean, what is a blessing, in general? What is this term, a blessing?

M. Laitman: Blessing means that you connect your vessels to the upper One's vessels. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:11) What is a Kever?

M. Laitman: Kever? 

Student: What is Kever? What is a grave?

M. Laitman: What is a Kever, a Kever? What is a grave? It's a place. A resting place of the souls? 

Student: It's not for the body? 

M. Laitman: Say body. 

Student: Why is it a law that we need to place our body into the ground? And not into fire or something like that? 

M. Laitman: Why? That's what's written. That's what's written. If you ask me, I don't know. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:28) I identify that a person, like it's written, he goes to seek blessing from the book. He comes to the morning lesson. He does actions out of a feeling where he has no control over his life. He seeks control, he seeks understanding, a reason. He seeks the reason of why things happen to him. And then he searches for order in his life in a way that he can make his life better.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And it sounds to me and it feels to me like this reason is an external one, it's not a true reason. I wanted to ask what is the true, deep reason that needs to be in place for a person to seek blessing in something?

M. Laitman: A true desire for a blessing?

Student: Yes but why, the question is why? Why does he need that blessing in order for him to feel good, to feel comfortable? What does he truly need to search for? Even when we come to the morning lesson, what needs to move me in order to come to this morning lesson? 

M. Laitman: You have to find an answer in yourself. 

Student: How do I identify that I came to the morning lesson not from a reason which is simply comfort for my life or control for my life, my individual life? 

M. Laitman: Maybe you can recognize it and maybe not. 

Student: Okay, I'll continue that scrutiny.

M. Laitman: Yes, it's still a scrutiny. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:44) Yesterday we read the weekly portion of the Ten. And I saw that there's a lot of importance for Abraham to get buried, specifically, in a certain place and that the place of burial has a certain significance. Can you say something about that? Why that specific place?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: And another question, if possible.

Student: We, for many years, went on Baal HaSulam and Rabash's anniversary of their death. On Memorial day, where we used to go to their graves, and we've stopped doing that, the last Ten years. The question is, is there any importance in going physically to those graves because we haven't done that physically to their graves for the last few years? 

M. Laitman: Not important, that is not important. I didn't see that it affects people, too much

Reader: Abraham Was Old, Well Advanced in Years, Item 4. Genesis 24:1

Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Reader: 5. Rabash. Article 8 (1991) “What Is, “And Abraham Was Old, of Many Days,” in the Work?” Twice 

It says, “And Abraham was old, of many days”? What is the merit in Abraham being old? The answer is “many days.” That is, there is one who is old, which is one state that extends over a long period of time, and the prolonging turns this state into an old one. It is written about it in The Zohar, “Why is the evil inclination called ‘old’?” It says that it is because of the prolonged time, “since he is with man from the day one is born into the world.” In other words, there is no change in his situation and he has been the same since he was born. This is called “An old and foolish king.”

M. Laitman: Questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:35) Why is it the same state? The evil inclination always grows, and whoever is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him, so why does it say that from the day he was born? 

M. Laitman: Because whatever he wants is to steal the vessels of reception, accept something in them, and to be sufficient with that. 

Student: Why is it written about Abraham that he was old, of many days? What, because he was old? 

M. Laitman: Also. Number 6

Reader: (25:26) Item 6, Rabash, Article 8 (1991) “What Is, “And Abraham Was Old, of Many Days,” in the Work?” Twice

The quality of “old” in one who works in order to bestow is not in the sense that one state has taken a long time. Rather, he is “old” because he has had many days and many nights. This is why it says, “Abraham was old, of many days.” To interpret “many days,” “And the Lord blessed Abraham with all,” what is “with all”? Since he had many days, he must have had many nights in between, for if there are no nights in between, there cannot be many days. “The Lord blessed Abraham with all” means that the nights were also blessed with him. This is the meaning of “And the Lord blessed Abraham with all.”

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:41) It's unclear because in the previous excerpt he said that old is the prolonging of time of one state. And here he says that old is many changing states, many days and nights. So what is old, really? Is it one who doesn't change, or is it one who changes all the time? Or one is in the will to receive and the other one is in the will to bestow? How should we perceive that?

M. Laitman: Read it again. 

Student: Maybe first we should do five so we have the comparison.

Reader: (27:27)First, five. 

M. Laitman: Well?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:27) Well, it's confusing, because at the end of excerpt 5, he says that there is no change in his state and that's what old is. And at the end of excerpt 6, he says he goes through many days and nights and that's what makes him old, meaning he accumulated many changes. So it's unclear.

M. Laitman: You see next to you, you have a lot of people that want to say.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:03) That's why we have to remember that we're reading parts of an article. It says that he was old and had a lot of days. So he's interpreting one thing, and then he's emphasizing something else. It's part of a whole article. And number 6 explains specifically what it means. 

M. Laitman: Okay, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:25) I think that there is also an answer in the excerpts, because in number 6, he mentions that one who works with the intention to bestow, so the elder means changing of states. And in number 5, he speaks about elders, the evil inclination, that when you're in the evil inclination, you're an elder in that state. So, like the friend from Pt 5 said, it depends if it's the intention to receive or bestow.

M. Laitman: Okay, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:02) I remember that once we learned about the incorporation of Bina and Malchut and Malchut and Bina. So, someone asked you, where is Zeir Anpin in the middle? So, what I heard, if I remember correctly, that Zeir Anpin does all the work of the mixing between Malchut and Bina. And here, exactly, it's written, what does it mean that he was an elder, or what does it mean that he came in the nights? That Zeir Anpin is concealed between Malchut and Bina. So, that's why also to be concealed, the topic of the many days of Abraham. That's why the Lord blessed Abraham with awe. And awe is the same Gematria as sun, as Zeir Anpin, that there's something concealed. That's what I understood now from what. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:34) When the Tens go through many states in their relationships, how can you invite a blessing from this. The day, and the night, all the states will be blessed?

M. Laitman: If we study together and want to find a path to closeness with the Creator through that. Those are then our actions, our deficiency, which goes above.

Student: So, what is this blessing we have to ask for from the changes the states are going through in the relationships between us?

M. Laitman: I think that what we need is to incorporate in the upper force. And from there to come to know the creation.

Student: That, we have to ask for together.

M. Laitman: It's desirable. 

Student: He speaks about coming in the days, going through changes. I'm guessing it's the connections between us, the states that we go through. How does this give birth to this plea you are talking about now?

M. Laitman: The more we are connected to each other in order to incorporate with the upper one, with our request to him. Accordingly we progress.

Student: Meaning, that the elder is the one who really wants the blessing, right?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:46) Something new I just wanted to ask about: A blessing, is it something that calls you to him? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:10) I got an answer on what it means that the Lord has made Abraham blessed in the days and in the nights. I think it means that we'll be rewarded in working with two of our inclinations.

M. Laitman: Okay. 

Reader: We have studying between the friends. We have the Zohar. So transition and the next part of the lesson.