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

Daily Morning Lesson: July 17, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. Who Needs to Know that a Person Withstood the Test? Article No. 28 1989

Reader: Hello, dear friends! In the first part, we will watch the Rav’s lesson from 2002, it is based on the article, Who Needs to Know that a Person Withstood the Test? This is an article for Rabash. We will read the article in the Tens, together, we have 33 minutes.

Reading: (00:54) Who Needs to Know that a Person Withstood the Test?

Article No. 28, 1989

The Zohar says (BaMidbar, Item 7), “When the Torah and the tabernacle were erected, the Creator wished to count the armies of the Torah, how many armies are in the Torah, in ZA, and how many armies are in the tabernacle. …For this reason, Israel, who are the armies of ZA and Malchut, are counted, so they are known by them.”

We should understand this matter, to know that the Creator wanted to count Israel in order to know how many armies there are. Who needs to know? Is it the Creator? But everything is revealed and known to Him. Does He need to actually count them below in order to know the number? Thus, for whose need can we say that the Creator said to count Israel in order to know the number of the armies of ZA and Malchut, as it is written, “the Creator wished to count the armies of the Torah, how many armies are in the Torah”?

Baal HaSulam asked a similar question concerning what it says in regard to Abraham: “And He said, ‘Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him, for now I know that you fear God.’” He asked, Did the Creator not know that Abraham feared God before the test? Thus, what does “for now I know” mean? He said that “for now I know” means that you know that you fear God, since you withstood the test.

Still, we should understand for what purpose a person should know that he fears God. This can give him satisfaction in the work, since what else is there to do in the world, as our sages said (Berachot 33), “Rabbi Hanina said, ‘Everything is in the hands of God except for the fear of God.’” This means that the Creator does everything, and all that man needs to do is fear God, as was said, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but fear?” Thus, why does one need to undergo a test in order to know that he fears God? It would be better if he did not know whether he fears God, and this would make him need to increase the holy work so as to come to be God fearing.

We see that our sages said (Berachot 61b), “Raba said, ‘One should know in one’s soul if he is a complete righteous or not.’” Here, too, there is the same question: Why does one need to know one’s state, since knowing this will give him satisfaction, so what is the benefit in the work from knowing this?

To understand all this, we must remember the two tenets we have in the holy work: 1) The purpose of creation is to do good to His creations, namely for the created beings to receive delight and pleasure. Before we achieve this state, of receiving delight and pleasure, we have not achieved completion, meaning the purpose of creation. 2) The correction of creation. It is known that in order not to have the bread of shame, meaning for the creatures to feel unpleasantness upon reception of the delight and pleasure, the Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment were made, so they would not feel the delight and pleasure in the purpose of creation, and would be able to work for the sake of the Creator and not for their own sake. This would remove the shame from man because everything he enjoys in the world would not be for his own sake, but because the Creator wants the creatures to enjoy in the world, and this is the only reason they enjoy. For themselves, meaning to enjoy because they want to enjoy, they do not want this and relinquish all the pleasures in the world.

That is, he does not want to receive anything for his own sake, but in everything, he thinks that if receiving the pleasure and enjoying will bring contentment above, only then does he receive the delight and pleasure. Otherwise, he relinquishes it. This is called the “correction of creation,” meaning that the purpose of creation is received in a clothing, and this clothing does not let the shame come in when the pleasure is received. That clothing is called “desire to bestow.”

Now we can understand what is fear in the work. It was said about fear, “Everything is in the hands of God but fear of God.” But why is it not in the hands of God? As we learn, we attribute everything to the Creator, that the Creator gives everything to the created beings. Not giving does not belong to the Creator, since His will is to do good to His creations.

Since the meaning of fear is as it is written in the “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” (Item 203), “Fear means that he is afraid that he will decline in bringing contentment to his Maker.” For this reason, he avoids asking the Creator to impart upon him delight and pleasure, as it might not be for the Creator’s sake, but for his own, which is regarded as the abundance going to the Klipot [shells/peels]. It follows that fear not to receive pertains to man, meaning that man does not want to receive, for fear that it will not be for the sake of the Creator. This work pertains to man. That is, we attribute not receiving in order to receive to the lower ones, since from the perspective of the Creator, He only bestows.

This is called the name HaVaYaH, where there are no differences, as it is written, “I the Lord [HaVaYaH] do not change.” Rather, He always wants to give. For this reason, fear, where he is afraid to receive, belongs to the creatures, and this is all of their work. All the corrections in the world concern this point—correcting ourselves in order to come to a degree where we do not receive anything for our own sake, but as our sages said, “All your works will be for the sake of heaven.”

Now we can interpret this awareness—that he has fear of God. A person should know this in order to want to go and ask the Creator to give him the light of Torah, where there is the real pleasure, called “His will to do good to His creations.” He sees for himself that he has already been through several trials and have endured them because he already has fear of heaven, meaning that he is already certain of himself, that anything he receives will be in order to bestow. Otherwise, he would not have withstood his tests because the only reason a person cannot withstand a test is because he is immersed in his will to receive for himself. But a person who has already departed from receiving pleasures for his own sake, and in every pleasure, he first examines what contentment this will bring to the Creator, then he receives the pleasure.

This is called “for now I know that you fear God,” meaning a person already has this awareness. At that time, that state is called “bestowing in order to bestow.” Afterward, when he has acquired this degree of fearing God, which is called “man’s work,” a person should go forward and ask the Creator to give him the delight and pleasure that He wishes to give to the created beings, since he wants to impart pleasure upon the Creator, and his pleasure is in carrying out His thought—that the creatures receive from Him delight and pleasure. This is all of his delight. For this reason, a person needs the awareness.

Now we can interpret what we asked about what The Zohar says, “When the Torah and the tabernacle were erected, the Creator wished to count the armies of the Torah, how many armies are in the tabernacle.” We asked, Who needs to know this? Does the Creator not know even without actually counting? The answer is the same as with Abraham, “for now I know,” meaning that the Creator knows that now Abraham, too, knows that he fears God.

Likewise, we should interpret similarly, meaning that the people of Israel needed this awareness so as to know to which degree they now belong, whether to the quality of the Torah or to the quality of the tabernacle. He says there that Torah and tabernacle pertain to ZA and Malchut, meaning the “unification of the Creator with His Shechina [Divinity].” This is why The Zohar says, “how many armies are in the Torah,” meaning to know to which degree they belong, “how many armies are in the tabernacle,” meaning how many of them belong to the Shechina. It follows that the whole point of counting is only for man to know. But as for the Creator, He certainly knows everything without actually counting.

It follows that the most important is for man to know to which state he belongs. It is as Rabba said, “One should know in one’s soul if he is a complete righteous or not.” It is all in order for man to know whether he is on the right track, meaning knows what he must do in order to achieve the goal for which he was created, as was said, “so we will not toil in vain.”

In order to understand how an ordinary person can be taken after the general public, and in order for one to have the strength to emerge from what is accepted by the general public and become an individual worker, meaning to understand what he must do individually, and how to be extremely careful, how to be saved from having to work only for his own benefit, I will present here a story by The Seer of Lublin, presented in the book Talks of Life (p 34).

“The Rabbi of Mogalitza once said that when the Rabbi of Lublin was confined in his room on the eve of Shabbat [Sabbath] before the Kiddush [the beginning of the Sabbath], the rabbi suddenly opened the door and the house was full of great rabbis and sages from his greatest disciples. The rabbi turned to them and said, ‘It is written, ‘and repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them.’ The translation is, He pays His enemies with good deeds that they do in this world in order to lose them from the next world (explanation: The Creator pays His enemies for good deeds that they did in this world in order to lose them, so they will not have the next world). Therefore, I ask you, I can understand that if a wicked man is taken after money, fine, he is paid much money. And if the wicked man takes after respect, he is given great respect. But if the wicked man wants neither respect nor money, but rather loves degrees or wants to be a rabbi or a teacher, how is he paid? The good deeds he did in this world—to remove him from the next world (explanation: How are those people who did good in this world paid so they will not have the next world?). Indeed, one who wants to be a rabbi or a teacher is given this from above, and one who loves degrees is given degrees so he will lose the next world.’ Promptly, he shut the door.” Thus far the story.

This story shows that there are people who think that they are complete because they relinquish lusts and respect. They look at people who are immersed in lusts or pursuit of honor as unworthy of looking at, much less speaking with them. That is, they see people observing Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] in order to satisfy their will to receive, though certainly it is permitted lusts, or they would not be regarded as doing good deeds, and also those who observe Torah and Mitzvot in order to receive respect, while they, meaning those who want high degrees or to be a rabbi or a teacher, probably think that they want this for the sake of the general public.

The Seer of Lublin said about them that they are those who hate the Creator. However, since they do engage in Torah and Mitzvot, the Creator rewards them according to what they want, meaning according to what they pray to the Creator to give them. It follows that the Creator fulfills their wishes. However, they must know that what they are receiving is because the Creator is fulfilling their wish, but they must know that by wanting the Creator to grant their wishes, they lose the next world since by this they become haters of the Creator, as it is written, “and repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them.” Thus, they must know that by receiving what they want, meaning by His fulfilling their wish, they will thereby lose the next world.

There are two things to understand here: 1) Why if they are rewarded in this world, they must lose the next world? After all, our sages said (Berachot 8a), “Great is he who enjoys his labor more than he who fears God.” And concerning one who fears God, it is written, “Happy is the man who fears the Lord.” Concerning one who enjoys his labor, it is written, “If you eat through your own labor, happy are you in this world and happy are you in the next world.” We therefore see that one who is rewarded in this world does not have to lose the next world. Thus, why, concerning those who hate the Creator, if he receives reward in this world, we say that he is losing?

2) We should understand, if he observes Torah and Mitzvot, which is called “good deeds,” why is he regarded as hating the Creator?

We see that the evil inclination is called “enemy” [hating], as it is written, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread.” We should understand why the evil inclination is man’s enemy. On the contrary, he advises man to commit transgression not in order for man to torment himself, but in order for him to enjoy himself. It follows that one who brings joy to a person should certainly be called “loving,” so why is it called “hating”?

We must believe in our sages, who said that all of our work in this world is to be rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. That is, He wishes to give delight and pleasure to the creatures, which is called “the purpose of creation.” Yet, this is impossible to give us before we correct our will to receive to work in order to bestow, or we will feel shame.

Therefore, we need Dvekut, called “equivalence of form,” meaning that all the delight and pleasure we want to receive from the Creator is not for our own sake, since we want to annul our authority and to have (only) one authority: the authority of the Creator. Then we will have the real pleasure, in that “He said, and His will was done,” meaning that the will of the Creator was fulfilled completely, meaning that the creatures can receive what the Creator wants to give them, namely the delight and pleasure.

It follows that the evil inclination incites a person not to work for the sake of the Creator but for one’s own sake, and thereby harms a person. This is why it is called “evil inclination.”

Now we can understand the question, Why is it that when one observes Torah and Mitzvot and does good deeds—and the evidence that they are good deeds is that the Creator rewards him for the good deeds—yet he is called an “enemy of the Creator,” as it is written, “and repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them”? This is so because although he does good deeds, it is not because he loves the Creator, but because he believes that the Creator will reward him for this. He does not work and observe Torah and Mitzvot because he loves the Creator, but because of his own benefit.

However, we must understand, 1) Does one who works for another and aims for the reward and does not work for him or does and observes his commandments out of his love for him, should he therefore be regarded as his enemy? We can only say that he does not work for him for love, but because that person loves himself. But why is he regarded as an enemy of the Creator? What makes him the Creator’s enemy if he is working for his own sake?

2) What is the meaning of the commandment to love the Creator? Does He want us to love Him? Does He need our love? Is He deficient and this is why He has commanded us to love Him, as it is written, “And you shall love the Lord your God”? The answer is that He has commanded us to love Him for our sake. That is, loving Him will make us observe Torah and Mitzvot. In other words, we observe Torah and Mitzvot because we want to please Him, to give Him contentment, for it is the nature of those who love that the love obligates them to want to bring them contentment.

It is like parents’ love for their children. They want their children to enjoy and try to give to the children because they love them, so they will enjoy life. The lesson is that they observe Torah and Mitzvot because of their love for the Creator. Naturally, they want nothing in return. Thus, they will not receive all the delight and pleasure that the Creator wants to give them in the vessels of reception, but in the vessels of bestowal. That is, they receive the delight and pleasure because they know that the Creator enjoys it, that the purpose of creation, to do good to His creations, is carried out, as He wants it. In other words, there is wholeness in their receiving the delight and pleasure and there is no shame in them.

It follows that one who observes Torah and Mitzvot for a reward, meaning that he wants a reward, is considered the Creator’s enemy because he obstructs the Creator, delaying what the Creator wants—to give to the created beings, as this is the pleasure of the Creator, and that person delays carrying it out because the Kli [vessel] and clothing are missing there, which remove the shame upon reception of the abundance. This is why he is considered an enemy of the Creator.

A person should believe the words of our sages, who said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” This means that once a person has come to purify, meaning feels that he is in Tuma’a [impurity] and is still far from Kedusha [holiness], he should say that this awareness comes from above. That is, the fact that he came to purify is because he received help from above and was notified that he is far from Kedusha.

This means that he should appreciate this awareness and say that this is called “revelation from above,” when he was notified that he should feel about himself unpleasantness in that he is far from Kedusha. Normally, a person has no concern for lack of Dvekut with the Creator. A person might feel a lack about anything, and hurt because he does not have it. But to feel pain at being far from the Creator, although a person is remote, he does not notice it because he has more important worries whose absence he feels.

Only sometimes does he feel that he is beginning to feel shame that he is in such a lowly state. Before this, although he was previously in that state, too, he did not notice it. At that time, a person should believe that this came to him from above, as in “He who comes to purify is aided.” In other words, why has he now come to purify and cannot tolerate his state of lowliness? He should say that this came to him from above.

However, a person must not say, “I’ll wait until this awareness comes to me from above, and then I’ll think that I should purify myself.” Baal HaSulam said about this, that before the fact, a person should say, “If I am not for me, who is for me?” meaning that only I can help myself, if I brace myself and do things that lead to Dvekut. Afterward, meaning after the fact, a person should say that everything comes from above and he must not say, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.”

We therefore see that on one hand, a person should say that from all the tests that the person has withstood, he should know that on the one hand, he is a mighty man, as was said, “for now I know that you fear God,” meaning that the person is the mighty one. On the other hand, he must say, “The Creator helped me.” But from whichever side, he sees that he has withstood the test. Knowing this gives one confidence that now he can demand of the Creator to let him go and achieve the goal.

_________________________

Reader: We'll now go to a lesson from the 27th of June, 2002.

M. Laitman: (32:57) What does it mean that a person needs to be tested – who's testing him and why does he need to be tested? Also, what is the matter that, at first, a person should say that anything that he comes into, that he encounters, he should say, If I'm not for myself, then who? Meaning to go into an action that he can do without any involvement of any other force but he himself and not the Creator, not a messenger. Then, after he concludes the work and he succeeded, or he didn't succeed, but he did everything he thought to do, then he says, If I'm not for myself, then who? There is a matter of saying before and saying after – what does it matter if he says it or not? This is about man's degree, being before an action and after the action. We know that the light creates the vessel and makes all the actions in the vessel and the vessel is one hundred percent influenced by the light and shaped by the light. And it doesn't determine anything besides can the Kli know what the light is doing with it and agree with that action or not, according to the depth of its awareness of what the light does with it? So, clearly, the Creator does everything but a person should reach the feeling that everything that he does, the Creator does. This is the correction of our senses, and so a person who says a blessing or a request, it's not that he says a blessing or a request to the Creator and then something happens. Blessing or request is something a person feels according to the result of what he achieved from the Creator's action on him. The light influences the Kli, the Kli begins to feel what the light does to him from coarseness level one to level four. Receives inspiration, impression from the lights of NRNHY according to the order of NRNHY, until it reaches the depth of the Creator's intention upon him, what the Creator wanted to do. And that means the Kli has reached a state where now it's in the same action, same awareness as the Creator; then comes either a true prayer or a true gratitude.

What does it mean? That a person knows that he reached a state where he knows what the Creator does on him. As it says, From Your actions we know You. He knows exactly what actions happened to him, who made them, for what, and by that he completed his work exactly to the point of, to the depth of how he's built. And he checked and felt the action of the Creator, the influence of the Creator. From that, what else does he need to say? After that, the result, what he feels, how he feels and understands the action of the Creator, the result of that is necessary. The result of his full feeling and understanding, it necessarily turns out that the person becomes similar to the Creator in that action. He accepts it a hundred percent, this is called, Justifying the action, then, by justifying it, he makes himself similar to that action.

M. Laitman: (37:37) That is, he aligns himself with what the Creator does – through the recognition, through the awareness, comes the correction. By doing so, he completes that stage. Then, again, the Creator influences him and, again, he needs to say, If I am not for myself, who is for me? What does it mean? It means that I need to examine and carry out all these things, but in the end, what is he examining and what is he carrying out? Through this, he comes to recognize the Creator's acts upon him; ultimately, when he reaches a state when he's recognized everything and he says that, There Is None Else Besides Him, for he really sees and achieves that only the Creator acts. Now, having achieved the Creator's entire action to its end – that is, having reached the state of, The Good Who Does Good – on that act, having felt it and attained it, he himself becomes aligned with it, with the intention of The Good Who Does Good. This is what is meant by, From Your actions, we know You. From the actions within him, from examining what the Creator does, we come to know Him. And from knowing Him, we come to know Him within our senses, through that, we make our senses similar to the Creator, this is called adhesion, Dvekut, equivalence in equalities and intentions. That a person is grateful for that; that at the end of his work, it means that he has completed that degree. He checked it, corrected himself, became equal to the Creator, resembled the Creator, and became ready for the next action. Therefore, everything begins with, If I am not for myself, who is for me? The entire work of the spies, the examinations, the regrets, the agreement, and the struggle. Until he comes to understand the goodness of the action, justifies it, aligns himself with that action until he becomes like the action, itself. That's all.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:09) On the one hand, he says you have to start with, If I am not for myself, then who, but what we say, you have to start with, There Is None Else besides Him, search for that, first.

M. Laitman: No, that I say, There Is None Else Besides Him, even before, If I am not for myself, who is for me. It means that I accept upon myself the burden of the kingdom of Heaven, that is, I do this from the outset; and, If I am not for myself, who is for me, that comes from the Creator. But I do not know that, instead I simply accept it as given and with that, I now go and carry it out. That I say now, There Is None Else Besides Him, that refers to my general approach, to how I relate to what is happening to me, right? That whatever now comes to me, There Is None Else Besides Him, it certainly comes from above. That is – by this – I distinguish myself from an ordinary person on the street in the way I relate to what is happening to me right now. Afterward, I say, after There Is None Else Besides Him, I say, If I am not for myself, who is for me? Meaning, by relying on that fact, that it comes from the Creator, I now disconnect from His action. If I were to remain constantly immersed in His action, I would never rise above the coarseness of Shoresh, the root coarseness, so only self-annulment, and that's all. So, I emerge from that self-annulment and begin through my own strength and my own actions, to examine these things. That is, I do them to myself. What does it mean, I do them to myself? I perform my own corrections as though everything depends on me, that's it.

Student: Where is the confidence that I can detach from None Else Besides Him, now?

M. Laitman: You don't detach, you only detach in the sense that you go and act as though it is not He who is acting but you are acting. If, like a horse, you never make a single movement, then you'll never know how you differ from it. You need to say, I am doing it, I am acting. By beginning to act, you begin to feel the difference between your desire to act and His desire to act. According to that difference, you start becoming aware of yourself and Him, recognizing yourself and Him.

Student: Maybe I might forget?

M. Laitman: After all the work and after you've come to know yourself and come to know Him. And after you've gone through struggles - blamed Him, regretted it, and, after, nevertheless, discovered that it's good and that it corrects - in the end you reach a state where because of everything you've gone through, because of everything you've done, you say, There Is None Else Besides Him. Not before that, when you've not yet done anything, but you only approached it with that attitude in order to check it. But now, after all those checks you say, There Is None Else besides Him, that means that you've accepted His entire action upon yourself. That now you are unquestionably making the same movement as Him. Not because He is making the movement in you anyway, but because you receive that movement in your own desire and, as it were, carry it out together with Him. Whether you carry it out or not, you carry it out, only now it's in your desire, that's called, The dressing desire and The desire that is dressed.

Student: Question is, where is the confidence that if I'm going to go for, If I'm not for myself, then who, that I'll not detach from Him?

M. Laitman: I don't understand what you mean by enjoy? What are you going through, If I'm not for myself, who is for me? You're going to enjoy life or you're going to become equal to Him?

Student: To equalize with Him.

M. Laitman: Well, then you're always in, There Is None Else Besides Him, and If I'm not for myself, who is for me? One is dressed in the other, otherwise, you're simply like a Gentile.

Student: Again, the beginning could be good, I start this way but then, all of a sudden?

M. Laitman: You are going to carry out Jewish work, unique work, which is to unite with Him during the day. I mean, to unite with Him, specifically, through performing the work of examination, discernment, and then connection. You do that, we're not talking about the action, itself, the particular thing you're going to do there, whatever it might be, healings or whatever your work happens to be. We're not talking about the work, itself, instead, we talk about your inner attitude to what happens to you during the day. I'm now going to earn money. Baal HaSulam gives this example, it's on page twenty-five, I think, in The Letters. In the morning, a person needs to say, If I'm not for myself, who is for me and, in the evening, There Is None Else Besides Him.

M. Laitman: (45:06) What does that mean? It means that I now go to work and I work hard but what does it mean that I work hard? It means that I enter myself into the vessels of reception, and in those vessels of reception where I receive, I sweat – how should I put it – I sweat and I think that because of that, I receive my payment, my wages. Then, afterward, I examine it and see that it is not I who sweated and earned the payment, rather, it's the Creator who gave me both the work and the payment. Really, my work is not in performing the work, itself, my work is in forming my attitudes toward it. If I change my attitude to what I have to do in life by understanding that He brings it to me, and I equalize with Him through that awareness, that it is He who brings it to me. Then I will feel no difficulty neither in connecting to Him nor in carrying out any work, for the work, itself, disappears. The difficulty we have is only, in the end, the difficulty of making the connection between me and the purpose of creation. Between that purpose and the work that stands before me, it's not hard for a person to dig a hole to the middle of the earth. That's not hard if, while doing so, he is connected to the Creator, then he will get this eternal source of fuel. The problem is not physical difficulty, the problem, the difficulty in the task is something we don't feel. We don't understand it but that's how it is, the difficulty is that the act is not connected to the light, to the Creator. If, in every act, you connect with the Creator making it a goal-oriented action that brings you light from above. Adhesion, the light of adhesion will serve as your reward, your payment, and you will already be in the purpose itself, in the goal itself. And you won't just be sweating during the action, for the act itself becomes the goal.

Therefore, our work of, If I am not for myself, who is for me, is that of bringing the outcome closer through the work, itself; then the work itself is no longer work. Then also – there are no words for it – then, If I'm not for myself, who is for me, that's what you say in the evening, after you've finished unifying these things. It's not our morning and evening: morning, means the intention that, for the time being, you're going and delighting in mercy, Chafetz Chesed, to do it without Hochma, in Hassadim without Hochma. In the evening, when you already receive Hochma, and it illuminates for you in the evening, where it's, seeming, that there's no light, you say, If I'm not for myself, who is for me, because you've brought that light to yourself. It's there on your account, in the morning, it was on His account; in the evening, even though there is darkness, on your account there is the light. We feel in our lives that when I have something hard to do or I'm tired of it or I don't want to do it in some way. If I attach to that work, to that action, purposefulness then that thing becomes easy, it's as though I forget about the action itself, altogether. For me, it becomes only a means to that very thing with which I've now connected, to the attainment of the goal, that's it. We shouldn't relate to what's happening to us at all but instead, we should relate to our attitude toward what is happening.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:09) Let's say, someone has something and it's not like a risk, you know, you want to gain more. But, okay, that could be greater adhesion but how does he also not take the risk that he loses what he already had, that level of connection because now he starts wanting more adhesion?

M. Laitman: Meaning, you're saying this: a person who's in some extent of There Is None Else Besides Him, and he's afraid to go out into, If I'm not for myself, who is for me? So I tell you, going out into, If I'm not for myself, who is for me, doesn't mean that you need to separate yourself from There Is None Else Besides Him, it needs to remain inside. If you separate from it completely, you become a Gentile – then, your action is no longer goal-oriented. In that case, you do not want to use that action to connect even more with the Creator. Instead, you simply go wander through the marketplace, as everyone else does. But if you go to the marketplace in order to examine how, in all your movements, the Creator is actually leading you. Then when you've finished checking His actions in everything He gives you in that state, it is considered that you've reached evening and you say, There Is None Else Besides Him. But during the day, after every single detail in which you act according to, If I'm not for myself, who is for me, you attain another measure of, There Is None Else Besides Him. If I'm not for myself, who is for me, and There Is None Else Besides Him. If I'm not for myself, who is for me? And There Is None Else Besides Him in the evening, you make the summary; if you forget, then that's it, it's called an animalistic action.

Student: It's a question, where do you get the confidence that you won't forget? If everything depends on you and you certainly won't forget?

M. Laitman: I don't understand what you mean by not forget. If you're working with both of them together all the time, then what are you asking about not forgetting? You're supposed to go with both of them together, constantly; you need to not relate to, If I'm not for myself, who is for me, and if you've departed from There Is None Else Besides Him; and, it's written, Sit and do nothing. It is better in that case because the action you're performing is certainly not aiming you at the goal, it does not bring you closer to the goal.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:45) I want to understand something: if I now need to study, or someone needs to work, or anything else. Not necessarily sitting in front of the study, how do you hold on to None Else Besides Him? And the moment that you had None Else Besides Him, you stop doing what you have to do. If you do the things as you should and you forget about None Else Besides Him, then how do you hold both of these things together?

M. Laitman: How can you hold on to, There Is None Else Besides Him while you're studying, yes? Studying something unrelated – to the university, or you eat something delicious, or you do all kinds of other things that bring confusion, pleasures, or even various troubles, sorrows, everything causes confusion. First of all, I need to believe that all these things have been given to me so that through them I can gradually establish, There Is None Else Besides Him, as much as possible, that simply has to be the goal. A person needs to make for himself all kinds of signs, reminders, every 15 minutes, every half hour. To return to that state, first mechanically with things that remind him of it; later, he does it himself. That's the work, that’s how it's done, indeed, there's no taste in it whatsoever for the time being but, afterwards, it comes. Through these actions which, at first, seem to have no significance, you afterward awaken the surrounding light and it acts upon you in this general way so you can begin to remember. Gradually, you come to feel that you are constantly in that awareness. It's considered that, at least, you feel, it's called, A single concealment, not double concealment. In single concealment, the Creator is always present somewhere in the background, concealed. But you feel that He is concealed and everything becomes a little different. With Rabash, it was evident that he was constantly in that state, he never really disconnected from it. I remember that when I first came, I didn't come from the beginning but after some time, I didn't notice it right away, but after some time when I got to know him a little, I was very impressed by it!

Student: How do you make it so that in the feeling, There Is None Else Besides Him?” Meaning, that the mind chooses some certain action you need to do and, then, with the feeling, you have None Else Besides Him.”

M. Laitman: (56:10) You complain that when you say, There Is None Else Besides Him – it's not that you just say it with your mouth! But you're really, then you're really in that thought, and it seemingly disconnects you from the action. It's as though there's nothing left to do, so There Is None Else Besides Him, it simply weakens you completely, drains all your spirits to do anything, to carry out anything. I tell you, and I've spoken about this before and said that it's hard for me to convey because there are no real words for it. If I'm not for myself, who is for me and There Is None Else Besides Him, they don't relate to my actions in this life, in this world, nor do they relate to my spiritual actions, they're not about that. A great Kabbalist, and a student like you, and an ordinary person on the street, will all perform the same actions. You, looking from the outside, will not notice any difference in those actions. The difference is in the attitude with which they perform them. What is inside, in their inner attitude to what they are doing, what's that addition that within what he's doing, he wants to feel this attitude toward the action is exactly like the Creator's attitude towards it?

Suppose I'm a tailor sewing clothes, so There Is None Else Besides Him, that means I put down all my tools. I go sit on the sofa, occasionally look over my workbench and say, not yet, nothing, but in another second the Creator will do it. Then, I spend the whole day waiting, watching, and afterward, what? Suddenly, see a pair of trousers, beautifully sewn – wow, He really did a great job! I don't understand, what does There Is None Else Besides Him mean? It means that He acts through me in this, it doesn't mean that I do not have to act. Rather, when do I really feel There Is None Else Besides Him? I feel there is None Else Besides Him when I carry out the action and in every action I perform, not that He moves my hands with the needle, the thread, or while I'm cutting and sewing the clothing, the garment. No, instead, my attitude to what I'm doing, in that attitude I am connected with Him. In other words, a person reaches a state where he feels that the Creator clothes Himself within him, within the person. However, the physical actions remain exactly the same physical actions. It's quite complicated, it only comes after many things.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:42) If the cause of connection will help the person – is that it causes a connection – that the action that Kabbalist makes causes an action?

M. Laitman: You're saying this: if I connect myself to the Creator, then my actions become easier and more pleasant, so the next time I'll want to connect with the Creator so that my life will be easier, why not? Who said that you're supposed to suffer, the purpose of creation, from the Creator's behalf, is to do good to His creations, and from my side, it's to enjoy. So, in the beginning that I enjoy being connected to Him, that's called, Lo Lishma. From that, I come to a state where I'm connected to Him because I give Him pleasure, not because I receive pleasure from Him. But that's already the beginning of the connection. If, whenever I'm close to you, all I've experienced from you is suffering, so I'll never want to come connect with you; but I feel that you bring me pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, then I come closer and closer to you, until they say that I'm lovesick, and I constantly want to be connected with you, why? Because it's good for me. I love you, I love the pleasure that comes from you. And afterward, from that, we move on to Lishma, but without that, it's impossible. On the contrary, enjoy the Creator – start from that!

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:29) We always say that right before the barrier, we always feel getting far from it. So, how can we still be speaking of a state of preparation again, how is it possible to reach a state of I am lovesick?

M. Laitman: Our path up to the barrier, the Machsom, even though it's still completely in the will to receive. Yet we, over thousands of years through many incarnations, we've developed our desires for pleasure, animalistic desires: food, sex, and family; and our human desires for money, honor, and knowledge. Until we reached a state that we now have this additional desire, a desire for godliness, for spirituality. During our previous incarnations, when we had desires solely for animalistic pleasures and human pleasures, all within the framework of this world, it wasn't hard. We simply ran after them and fulfilled those desires as much as we could, that's how the whole world does. However, when an additional desire for spiritual pleasure began to awaken in us, that already belongs to a different source of pleasure. It does not come from the same light that exists in this world – the tiny spark, the Ner Dakik, thin candlelight – but from the surrounding light that exists outside this world. Because of this, this inner split arises within us. That is, although we're still below the barrier, we still have a part that is above the barrier, that's called the part of god from above, that point that yearns for the light. Then, whether or not we want it, we become split inwardly into two parts: the desire for this world and the desire for the next world, pleasure from this world and pleasure from the next world. Therefore, our path from the moment the point in the heart awakens, so we have two vessels – the heart and the point in the heart – likewise, there are two lights, the thin candlelight, the Ner Dakik from this world, and the surrounding light from the next world.

So it turns out that we exist in this very complicated inner state; the heart also continues to grow but now it grows according to what's needed for the development of the point in the heart. Sometimes we feel that this world has nothing to offer us, we want nothing from it. It's not because the heart has disappeared, it's because the point in the heart yearns for something of its own and suppresses all the desires of the heart. At other times, the opposite happens, the point in the heart almost disappears and suddenly the heart starts showing us that we are going crazy with all the pleasures of this world, and usually it's a mixture of both. Now that is our ordinary state, beyond that there are stages of development that are independent of us. Rather, they depend on the structure of each person's soul, and on the overall structure of how we advance to the barrier. A person needs to go through a state called, The recognition of evil. My desires in my heart, are they good, aren't they? If they are bad, so why are they bad? I feel pleasure in them, so why is that considered bad? Are they bad because they're opposite to the desire in the point in the heart and I long for the point in the heart or I feel that maybe there's a greater pleasure there and so on? That is, we're always passing through different states – this rises, that falls, this way, that way – therefore, it seems to us that, on one hand, we are told that we need to always advance toward recognition of the Creator, to the barrier. While on the other hand, we enter greater darkness, we're supposed to yearn more for spirituality, yet there are also long periods where we're drawn only to corporeality. These states pass over a person for years, for years until, little by little, the person nevertheless enters a state where spirituality for him becomes primary, and he sees all corporeality only through the lens of spirituality. What does it mean? It means that he acts in this world, lives, works, and does everything necessary, but only in order to achieve spirituality.

That yearning becomes so strong that it transforms his entire orientation, but without cancelling his normal life in this world. Rabash also writes about that in his article, that if a person uses everything that comes to him in order to connect with spirituality, with everything that comes to him through the actions of this world. Then eventually he reaches a state where he yearns for spirituality with all of his strength. This world then has truly served him by building in him a powerful desire for spirituality. Then it's considered that he no longer needs this world. And he is granted entry into the spiritual world. He still remains in this world, but by then it's no longer a determining factor.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:55) Sometimes it does the opposite, in the time of preparation, the more you advance.

M. Laitman: We have just read the article, and I explained that whatever I feel in my life is what the Creator has given me. If I now feel bad, it means that He's given me something good but I experience it as bad because my vessels are opposite to corrected vessels, they're the opposite of what they need to be. It's impossible to receive something bad from the light that created me for me to enjoy. That means that my vessels are uncorrected and I need to correct them, how do I correct them? That is where the work comes in, as he says, If I'm not for myself, who is for me? We need to say that this work depends on me. If I simply sit here with folded hands, consuming my own flesh, saying, Woe for me, what has He done to me, for what I feel, how do I suffer? So I just sit there suffering and consuming myself, I'm really just eating my own flesh, nothing will happen unless I scrutinize the discernments for myself. The problem is not that I need to change His actions, I need to change my impression of His actions. That impression needs to change from one extreme to the other, from an uncorrected vessel to a corrected vessel. Now tell me: but we're learning that if I'm in an uncorrected vessel, so I feel bad, and if I'm in a corrected vessel, then corresponding to what He bestows upon me, I feel good. But I can't correct the vessel myself, right, you cannot correct it but you need to want the vessel to become inverted, transformed, so that it will receive the intention to bestow. According to that intention, you will feel that He is bestowing goodness upon you; so you need to come to feel the necessity for this. Certainly, He performs the actions but each time you need to examine where you are and where you wanted to be. This means that each time you need to come to a prayer: what do you want to feel from what He is now, in your feeling, is He bestowing upon you according to your present perception? If I now feel that He's giving me something that is not so good, so I need to check it, and I need to want that He do something so that I'll feel good, what does it mean that I'll feel good? First, it means that I'll feel good from His action – first, it's in the ordinary animalistic sense, it's called Lo Lishma. But afterward, I'll come to a state where I feel bad due to His action, not because I myself feel bad, but because feeling bad, I end up cursing Him. So, change my feeling into a good feeling, right, not so that I'll feel good, that doesn't matter to me but because it matters to me that I want to bless You, that is already called Lo Lishma, that's all.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:16) So the person constantly rolls these things. So all in all, we need that the whole method is self-study?

M. Laitman: The person altogether studies himself, w say that outside of myself, there is only His self. But rather, I need to learn what am I, what do I receive, how am I impressed from His self around me, and what I would have liked to feel from His influence, how should I be impressed? How I would have liked to be impressed by Him, that's it. It is something that is very simple, ultimately, but we are confused because of our vessels – there is nothing simpler and more natural.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:17) We're inside of these two states, There Is None Else Besides Him, and If not myself, then who? Should there need to be a demand for the Creator to go towards the goal?

M. Laitman: From the fact that I, to begin with, say There Is None Else Besides Him, and later on, I go to equalize with it through, If I'm not for myself, who is for me. Then I check and I see to what extent I'm the opposite, out of that, ultimately, I come to a demand from Him, a prayer. But a prayer doesn't mean that I ask or that I'm grateful. The fact that I ask or that I'm grateful only indicates that I've reached the determination of the true state up to the end of the analysis of that place where I'm in – we don't need any more. So, that state where I came to know my state precisely, this is called either a request or a prayer or remorse, it doesn't matter what. But when I reach that final feeling, then it is replaced, I don't have to say anything. But rather, a prayer means the deepest feeling. Feeling in the heart, this is what it is called. After we think a lot and we have many discernments and many changes, I seemingly reach the final decision of what I am and where I am, and then they call it a prayer. This means where I seal, I conclude the discernment.

Guys, let's study. The more I talk, the more questions there are.

Reader: Let's share our impressions from the lesson and what from it we're taking to implement in the Ten; then let's sing a song together!

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