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

Daily Morning Lesson: July 23, 2026

Part 1:  Rabash. What Is, “Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,” in the Work? Article No. 39, 1990

Reader: Dear friends, for the 9th of Av that is today, we’ll study a lesson by Rav from July 8, 2003. It's based on the article by Rabash, "What Is, “Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing It in Its Joy,' in the Work?" We will read the article together in the Ten now. We have 33 minutes for that. Let's start.

Reading: (00:43) What Is, “Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,” in the Work?

Article No. 39, 1990

Our sages said (Taanit, p 30b), “Anyone who mourns for Jerusalem is rewarded with seeing its joy.” Taken literally, this is hard to understand. Certainly, there were many righteous who mourned for Jerusalem, yet Jerusalem was still not built, so how were they rewarded with seeing its joy? In the literal explanation, there are probably many answers to this, but we should interpret it in the work.

It is known that Malchut is called “Jerusalem.” Hence, when we say, “the ruin of the Jerusalem,” it refers to the ruin of the Temple. This is called “Shechina [Divinity] in the dust” or “Shechina in exile.” In other words, a person should take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven and believe that the Creator leads the world with a guidance of The Good Who Does Good, since it is hidden from us.

Malchut is the one who gives to the souls and to BYA. Everything that comes from above to the creatures is considered Malchut. Thus, Malchut is not respected by the creatures because they do not see her importance, meaning what she gives to us. This is called “Jerusalem in its ruin.” In other words, where she should have been giving delight and pleasure to the creatures, and where everyone should have seen her merit, they see that everything is ruined in her and she has nothing to give, instead. It is said about it (in the Nachem [comfort] prayer on the 9th of Av), “The mourners for Jerusalem, and the lamenting, ruined, degraded, and desolate city.” In other words, everything is ruined and destroyed, and this is called “Shechina in the dust.” Hence, when a person should take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven, the body resists vigorously.

Thus, if a person overcomes and takes upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven although he sees no importance, and mourns for the importance of Jerusalem being so hidden from us, and prays about why Malchut has no importance, and asks of the Creator to raise Jerusalem from the dust it is in, to the extent that one regrets its ruin, he is rewarded with the Creator hearing his prayer.

And that man is rewarded with seeing its joy, meaning that it does bestow upon him delight and pleasure. It follows that the meaning will be that he who regrets and mourns for Jerusalem, for the Shechina being in the dust, that person is rewarded with seeing its joy, since there is no light without a Kli [vessel]. Since he has the Kli, meaning the lack—his regret that Shechina is in the dust—he is therefore rewarded with seeing the comfort of Jerusalem.

According to the above-said, we should interpret what is written (Isaiah 1), “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib; Israel does not know; My people does not understand.” We should understand the difference between an ox and a donkey in the work, as well as the difference between Israel and My people in the work. Baal HaSulam said that the difference between an ox and a donkey is that an ox is considered “mind,” which is faith above reason. This is the meaning of “The ox knows its owner.” A donkey is considered “heart,” meaning the will to receive, which is “And the donkey, its master's crib.”

Thus, there are two discernments to make here:

1) Those who work for a reward, who observe Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] in order to receive reward. Their question is primarily “How much reward will I receive, and what will be the reward, meaning is this reward worth the labor in Torah and Mitzvot?”

2) Those who want to work in order to bestow because, as it is written in The Zohar, “He is great and ruling.” In other words, they work only because of the greatness of the Creator. That is, they feel very privileged serving a great King. It follows that those who work in order to bestow need to know who they are serving, that He is truly a great and important King, worth serving.

However, when they begin to work in order to bestow, and the whole reason that they have the strength to work is the importance of the Creator, then begins the work in the form of “Shechina in the dust.” In other words, where spirituality, meaning working to benefit the Creator, should have been more important each time, a person gets such thoughts that demonstrate the opposite. And instead of a person going forward and working more gladly because he is serving a great and important King, he gets pictures of insignificance. In other words, he does not feel His greatness, and this causes him constant descents.

This means that even when he overcomes the descents he cannot always endure and fight against these thoughts. And what these thoughts show him is that the Shechina is in the dust. He wishes to work with joy for serving a great and important King, and this should bring him joy, but he feels the complete opposite—rejection. It is as though he is being repelled from the work.

This is called “Shechina in the dust”—this feeling that he is being pushed outside. In other words, he feels that while wishing to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven, Pharaoh’s questions come to him, asking “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” This is considered that Malchut, meaning the Shechina, is in exile with Pharaoh, King of Egypt, who shows the lowliness of the kingdom of heaven.

At that time, one can only ask for Malchut [kingdom] to be built, meaning that Malchut will not remain in a form of lowliness, since one cannot receive joy from this lowliness when he sees that it has no importance. This is considered that one should pray for the ruin of the Temple, for the world not being able to see the receiving of the kingdom of heaven as a good thing, meaning consider working for the Creator a respectable, dignified work.

Hence, when one prays for the exile of the Shechina, he should not pray that it is in the dust only for him. Rather, one should pray about its lowliness in the whole world, that the whole world gives no thought to spirituality. And he prays for the whole world, as we pray, “And build Jerusalem soon in our days,” so it will be glorified in the whole world, as it is said in the Rosh Hashanah [the beginning of the year] prayer, “Be King over all the whole world with Your glory.” But since the general public does not feel the lack, how can they pray?

However, such a person, who was rewarded with obtaining the need, who has attained the exile, he can ask for redemption. But those who do not feel that there is an exile, how can they ask that He will deliver them from exile? It follows that a person’s feeling of being in exile is already considered an ascent in degree, and he must ask for fulfillment for the general public.

As was mentioned above, “Anyone who mourns for Jerusalem is rewarded with seeing its joy.” In other words, the one who feels the exile of the Shechina and mourns is the one who is rewarded with seeing its joy, since in terms of Kelim [vessels], only he has Kelim that are ready for redemption because Kelim are a desire for fulfillment.

Hence, he mourns when he feels how the Shechina is in exile and her greatness is not seen. But one who wishes to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven because He is great and ruling gets thoughts and imaginations, and these thoughts repel him outside of Kedusha [holiness], and only by overcoming and coercion above reason can he endure.

And each time he wishes to believe that His Providence is in the manner of good and doing good, he gets thoughts that slander the Creator and it pains him that he must hear slander. He believes that it is only because the nations of the world rule over the Kedusha, meaning that there is concealment, and for those who wish to enter the holy work, the Sitra Achra [other side] hides the importance of Kedusha. It follows that it is precisely the one who mourns who needs heaven’s mercy, to be able to overcome the evil in him, and he mourns and cries for the Creator to help him.

But he should certainly pray for the whole public, or it is considered that he is praying only for his own sake, that is, that only he will be delivered from exile. And if one truly asks for the sake of the Creator, to have the glory of heaven revealed in the world, how can he ask only for himself? Thus, one should ask for the glory of heaven to be revealed to the whole world, as our sages said (Baba Kamah 92), “Anyone who pleads mercy for his friend, and needs the same, is granted first.”

In the work, we should understand why a person is answered first if he pleads mercy for his friend. It seems as though the mercy he is asking is not because he wishes to evoke mercy on his friend. It seems like deceit. Because our sages said that he will be answered first, he is pleading mercy for his friend.

And yet, we should understand why he is answered first. Can’t the prayer be granted for both of them together? Must it be one at a time and not both at once? We should understand what is it about him being answered first.

We should interpret that when a person asks for mercy for his friend in the work—when one begins to walk on the path of achieving Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator through observing Torah and Mitzvot, considered that all his actions will be for the Creator and not for himself—the body begins to resist this work. It brings him thoughts of how this work is not for him, since the nature of the body is for its own sake, while he wishes to work for the sake of the Creator. Thus, the body, called “will to receive,” always shows him that it is not worthwhile to work for the Creator. And since one cannot make a single move without pleasure—for this is the nature of creation, since He wishes to delight His creatures, which is the reason for creation—hence, one cannot work unless he receives pleasure from the work.

Thus, everything that a man does is only to enjoy, meaning receive reward for the exertion he is making. Therefore, in Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], when one believes in reward and punishment, one has fuel for work during the labor because he is looking at the reward he will receive. But when one works in order to bestow, meaning he does not wish to receive any reward for the labor, how can he work without pleasure?

The Zohar says about this that we must work because the Creator is great and ruling, meaning because of the greatness of the Creator. This is so because we see that in nature, the smaller one receives pleasure when serving the greater one, since naturally, one has strength to work in service of an important person. Especially, it is a great pleasure to serve a great king. One does not need to work on it; it is in the nature of creation. What one should work on is to know and to feel that he is an important person, and then he will be able to serve him.

Therefore, particularly when one wishes to work because of the greatness of the Creator, bad thoughts come to him and do not let him feel the greatness of the Creator, but actually show him the opposite. Indeed, this concealment governs the whole public. But for those who do not work because of the greatness of the Creator, the body does not need to hide the greatness of the Creator from them, since as long as they do not make the greatness of the Creator the reason for the work, the body is not working for free because it considers the reward, not the giver of the reward.

It follows that particularly for people who wish to work only because of the greatness of the Creator, there is resistance and the nations of the world cover and hide the Israel in man. Thus, naturally, the majority of slander against the greatness of the Creator is in those who wish to achieve Dvekut with the Creator. Those who feel that discernment called “Shechina in the dust” are the ones who feel the need to ask of the Creator to deliver her from exile, from being among the nations, meaning that the nations rule over her and hide the greatness and importance of the holy Shechina.

Therefore, those who feel that the Shechina is in the dust should pray for the glory of heaven to be revealed throughout the world. However, it is not the whole world that needs it—to raise the Shechina from the dust—and so he is answered first, since he needs the same thing. But afterward this brings disclosure to the whole generation. And yet, as long as they do not have the proper Kelim for it, it cannot be so disclosed in them. It is as our sages said, “If he performs one Mitzva [commandment/good deed], happy is he, for he has sentenced himself and the entire world to the side of merit.”

Thus, only that person—who feels the concealment over spirituality, over the desire to bestow because of the greatness of the Creator—must ask for mercy for the whole generation. And since he needs the same thing, he will be answered first. This is why it is said about him, “Anyone who mourns for Jerusalem is rewarded with seeing its joy.” And the reason is, as we said above, that he needs the same thing, and not the public. This is why he who pleads mercy for his friend, they cannot both receive the granting of the prayer at once because only he needs that thing, meaning that salvation—to feel the greatness of Kedusha [holiness] called “raising the Shechina from the dust.”

But those who work in the first above-mentioned manner, who work for a reward, they consider the reward. There is a rule: The one who gives is important. It follows that if they believe that they will receive reward, that the Creator will pay their reward, then He is already important to them. But those who are not working for a reward should now feel His greatness, and on that there is the concealment that is placed on the Kedusha—its greatness is unseen. For that, we were given the request from the Creator to remove the concealment, as it is written, “Hide not Your face from me.”

Now we can understand what we asked about what is “Israel does not know,” and what is “My people does not understand.” Israel are those who work with the aim to achieve Dvekut with the Creator, to be rewarded with achieving the degree Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], and not for their own benefit. They belong to the intention called “knowing,” since they need to come to clear knowledge that they must achieve the greatness of the Creator. This knowledge comes specifically through faith above reason, since the reason is dominated by the nations of the world, who hide the greatness of the Kedusha and degrade the kingdom of heaven to the dust.

And particularly by overcoming with faith above reason, when one carries out his actions by coercion, when bad thoughts of the Sitra Achra come to him, which slander and say that it is not worthwhile to work for the sake of the Creator, that the reason for this work is only the greatness of the Creator, then there is nothing one can do except believe in the sages, who tell us that it is specifically this work that a person does above reason that the Creator enjoys. It is as Baal HaSulam said, that the majority of the work is when a person gives something to the Creator precisely when he goes above reason.

This means that reason tells him that it is not worth it to do things in order to bestow. But one overcomes it and works above reason. This is considered that a person gave something to the Creator. But when the Creator gives him an awakening from above, there is nothing that one can do, about which he can say that he is giving something to the Creator, since then a man is annulled before the Creator as a candle before a torch, without any choice.

In that state, one is giving nothing because he has no choice. But when he must go above reason, since reason states otherwise, he can say that he is giving something to the Creator. And he said that we must believe that this work is more important to the Creator than the rest of the works.

The prophet said, “The ox knows its owner.” This belongs to the quality of Israel, who are considered the heads of the people. Israel means Li Rosh [The head is mine]. Knowledge belongs to them, and this is why he said, “Israel does not know,” since they were not engaging in labor in order to come to know the Creator, as it is written, “Know this day, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God.”

And the prophet said that they were not engaged in this. Also, the prophet spoke to the public, meaning to the populace, whose work is only to receive reward and this is why they engage in Torah and Mitzvot. They did not consider the matter of “And the donkey, its master's crib.” The donkey, as we said above, is the will to receive called “only self-love.” And then the prophet told them that the donkey, meaning he who looks at his master’s crib—the reward—did not consider that the Creator is giving them the reward, meaning that by considering, they will receive the love of the Creator, just as there is love for one who gives presents to people. But they did not notice the Giver; they only thought that they would have reward.

It follows that what they did, they did for reward were without love and fear, meaning they did not give any thought to “His master’s crib,” meaning to the landlord—that the Creator is the Giver. Instead, they cut the Mitzvot from the giver of Torah and Mitzvot and did not think of the Giver of the work during the work. Also, when they thought about the reward, they were not thinking of who was the Giver of the reward.

This means that the prophet stands and warns both Israel—who work on the intention but do not give sufficient heed to achieving Dvekut with the Creator—and those who work only in action and their aim is only to receive reward, and they do not consider who it is who gives the reward. This is why “My people does not understand.” And naturally, they lack the love of the Creator.

It follows that a man should reflect on what to pray for before he comes to pray. This is why Baal HaSulam said that one should pray for only one thing, and this includes many things: It is that he asks of the Creator to give him a desire to work in order to bestow and not for his own sake. This is so because to have a desire to bestow, he must have faith in the Creator and believe in the greatness of the Creator. But the prayer that he wishes for the Creator to give him the desire to bestow means that a person tells the Creator, “I want that while I engage in Torah and Mitzvot, the intention will be that I will believe that the Creator takes pleasure in my actions.”

In other words, even though one does not taste or feel anything during his labor, he will have the strength to say to his body—while the body argues, “You see that the study of Torah and the prayer are tasteless to you,” a person wishes to have the strength to tell the body, “since I am working only for the Creator’s pleasure, why should I care if it feels tasteless to me or not? If I were working for my own benefit, you would be right in what you are telling me, that you are tasting nothing in your work. Likewise, a person who does not enjoy his food does not eat. I, however, am working to benefit the Creator, so it makes no difference to me what flavor I am tasting.” This is what he asks of the Creator, and this is called unconditional surrender. 

Reader: Now we will go to a lesson from July 8, 2003. 

M. Laitman: (33:05) We heard together an article from the Rungs of the Ladder, Volume 5, from the articles that belong to the Babylonian Talmud, a fasting [Ta'anit], called, "What Is, 'Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing the Joy of Jerusalem,' in the Work?" The will to receive, the will to receive that was created as the only thing in creation, that nothing else is required besides it, it wasn't created, all of it, on a single degree, with a single coarseness, a single depth, but rather it has degrees. Root, one, two, three, four, and the degrees that are small in the will to receive,  where it doesn't feel the will to receive itself, but rather it feels it as its nature; are degrees that we call the still, vegetative, and animate. And because it doesn't feel the receiver within him, then it doesn't need a correction. It doesn't have to reach being similar, to have equivalence of form with the Creator. Whereas the will to receive in phase three and phase four is a will to receive that brings the created being a feeling that he is receiving, and therefore he requires correction. And that is man's work. This means that according to how much the will to receive awakens in him — and we are not the masters of the will to receive, we cannot awaken it within ourselves directly, but only later on through the society, through peripheral influence. But in any way you look at it, according to the magnitude of the desire, a person is forced, to the extent that he feels that his will to receive is a desire to receive, meaning that it hinders, it separates him from the Creator, that there is someone who created his will to receive and governs his will to receive. To that extent that a person comes to know the will to receive, to that manner he must perform corrections on it. And that work already begins in us according to how much we develop. We grow over thousands of years, and we feel the will to receive all the time as growing and burning, and demanding. The will to receive that comes to us, comes to us after the shattering. The shattering is a condition, that without there being a connection between the will to receive and the will to bestow, that can be only through the shattering, nothing can be done with the will to receive. In order to bring the created being to a state from which it is possible to demand his corrections, the shattering took place.

M. Laitman: (38:30) And what we have to do is, we have to reach the correction of the shattering in the same vessels that are revealed to us as broken vessels, in all of their depth, in all of the mixture between them. We need to distinguish what is the bad in them, what is the precise discernment of this bad, with respect to what scale do we measure the bad? That it's not that the will to receive is bad, but rather that we use it in a way which is not for the benefit of the Creator, meaning not in order to adapt ourselves to the Creator; then it is considered bad. And then, to the extent that we feel that, then a person has a drive to invert this bad to good. Our history explains to us how we truly prepare the will to receive for correction. That in the thousands of years that humanity has existed, the will to receive in man's body, both the beastly one as well as the spiritual one, grows. The will to receive, as it grows, it grows from coarseness of root, one, and two, and here, when it reaches the coarseness of three, and later on the coarseness of four, along the way it undergoes a shattering, when it is still in a states of Katnut, of smallness. So here we have the matter of the family of Jacob, the entrance to the exile of Egypt, feeling the exile of Egypt, and then the exodus from the exile of Egypt. All of these stages, these degrees, were still in the smallest possible coarseness, the coarseness of one, where there is a vessel that receives the light, and it can go along with it in some manner. It reaches phase two, it builds the Temples, until we start to enter the coarseness of three, and the coarseness of four, which is the breaking, the ruin of the First Temple and the Second Temple. That as it was also revealed in the history, in action, what happened. It happened through the eruption of unfounded hatred. What does it mean, the eruption of unfounded hatred? That people who actually had in their hands a vessel that was already corrected from the previous degree of the coarseness — let's say the students, the disciples of Rabbi Akiva, who held on to the condition of "love your friend as yourself," as the great rule of the Torah, and they observed it. By the fact that the will to receive grew, erupted, they went from one degree to the next in their time, and they were not able to make a correction over this new degree of the will to receive, and then unfounded hatred erupted in them. This thing does not exist, not in the still, not in the vegetative, not in the animate, in the reality around us, and it also does not exist on the degrees of the still, vegetative, and animate in man, where the will to receive there is not yet developed. But rather, certainly only on the true degree of the speaker begins this matter of unfounded hatred.

M. Laitman: (43:11) Why? Because man was created to begin with from his root of Adam HaRishon, that was also a result of the sin that he underwent, a sin he underwent, a shattering in his soul, there Malchut connected with Bina. And only in Adam, Malchut and Bina are mixed together, these two qualities are together. And because of that, Adam, a human, is already in a will to receive that changes all the time, because Bina influences the Malchut, and Malchut influences the Bina within him, in such a way that a person can constantly increase his will to receive through Bina, through the feeling of others that he has within him. And not only to enlarge it, but also change it according to all kinds of different forms and manners that exist in the environment and the society that surrounds him. Because the will to receive that you will see in the still, vegetative, and animate, in beasts and animals and plants, cannot be changed. It exists in a permanent form. It is known in advance how it will be and in what form this creature will exist. Whereas man, specifically by the fact that phase two exists in him, and through phase two he has the feeling of others, then he can both change the will to receive in its magnitude and also in its manner. And this is rooted in man so that he will govern the form of the will to receive in him through the quality of Bina in him. To begin with, the Malchut and Bina within him exist in forms that are opposite to Kedusha. This means that both Malchut and Bina, they both operate only for the benefit of man. And then that person is in the human development of the will to receive, where he uses it as much as he can for his own benefit and takes advantage as much as possible of this quality of Bina within him.  Meaning he takes advantage of the society and others for his own benefit. But rather, when this mixture of two and four grow in their coarseness in man, then he uses them and he shifts from the desire for money, and later on for honor, and later on for knowledge. And this is all according to the magnitude of the coarseness of these two and four that are connected within him. If the coarseness is small, then he takes advantage of others, takes advantage of the society, to a lower extent. And as much as the coarseness of this mixture of the qualities of the two and four within him is greater, he takes advantage of the society in a greater form. Meaning, the coarseness of root, one, and two in the two and four within him, gives a person development by which he takes advantage of the society, the environment. But there he only feels his environment and his society.

M. Laitman: (47:39) Whereas if the coarseness of the two and four that are connected within him, the phases of Malchut and Bina, starts to grow on the degrees of four and three of coarseness, then the person begins to feel not only the environment around him, which he wishes to take advantage of for his own benefit, but he begins to awaken to feel the higher force in order to exploit it for his own benefit. Then, as we call it, the point in the heart awakens in him. He starts to search for a higher source of pleasure that is hidden, actually. And he feels that he must discover it and enjoy from it directly. What does it mean, directly? As we say, to enjoy not only from the pleasures, but also from the Giver of the pleasures. And from here, a person already reaches an entirely different stage in his development, because he craves both the pleasures and also the source of the pleasures that does not exist in his attainment. This is how he reaches the study of Kabbalah. And for him, from here onwards, he cannot advance by acquiring a desire and a filling in the three and four in the vessels of reception, but only through the method of Kabbalah, because there is a condition here.  That he can enlarge his desire only according to the measure of the correction. On the previous degrees, in them also there was no shattering. On the previous degree, he didn't truly have a feeling of others. The true feeling of others is a feeling of what exists completely, entirely outside of me, which is actually the Creator. And the feeling of others, the feeling of those who resemble me, it's a different feeling. It's a feeling of those vessels, those desires, that I'm connected together with them in a single vessel. But I and them are from the same substance, and I and them were together and will be together. Even in humanity, there are these tendencies to be equals with each other, to love one another, to form some kind of mutual bond between us, to make concessions and so on. Whereas with respect to the Creator, the laws are different laws than those that awaken between men, between people. Because the connection between people is a connection which is — it's like between the parts of the vessel, while the connection between man and the Creator is the connection of the vessel and the light.

M. Laitman: (52:20) Therefore, when a person needs to grow his will to receive in relation to the Creator, and correct it in relation to the Creator, and to fulfill it through the Creator, here different laws are at work. The light needs to act upon the person, and only by drawing the light can a person work with his vessel in relation to the Creator, the degrees which are in relation to the Creator. And here we come to desires in which, mainly in them… [portion missing here]. The correction is in that, upon this big will to receive of three and four, a person acquires what is called a screen, meaning an intention in order to bestow. From this mixture of the qualities of two and four, Bina and Malchut in him, he scrutinizes the divide, the gap between them, the disparity of form, the oppositeness between them. And he begins to  prefer working with the quality of Bina, which will be in him in its corrected form as Hafetz Hesed, seeking grace for myself, and giving everything, everything to the Creator through the Malchut in me. That's how I need to begin arranging the desires within me. So, from here we come to the order of actions that a person goes through while correcting his will to receive. First, he goes through the restriction, not wanting to receive anything for himself, not using the two or the four in him, these degrees of coarseness. Later, he acquires the qualities of Bina, meaning he corrects the qualities of Bina in him, which were used to exploit others and everything outside of him to his benefit. He begins using these qualities to benefit the Creator, but still only the quality of Bina. Meaning that there's still no action to benefit the Creator, but only the intention to do so, because Bina — those are the qualities of bestowal — means that he uses the quality of Bina with his Malchut in coarseness levels of root, one, and two, and they are just called, they’re called just intentions for now. It's not actual bestowal. He has nothing to bestow, because these degrees of coarseness, root, one, and two, in the person aren't the actual will to receive in which one feels pleasure; and the pleasure that a person feels when he receives it from the Creator, that pleasure one can turn back towards the Creator. And so it's only in the pleasures which come after Galgalta ve Eynaim, which he corrected, the pleasures which he feels in the AHP, in the vessels of the actual Malchut,  those pleasures he needs to aim to feel in order to bestow. And this will be called giving contentment and delight to the Creator, and by this he likens himself to the Creator. And this is the entire correction. That a person needs to install, establish a screen, meaning an intention in order to bestow, over all the vessels of reception that he has. So that the quality of Bina will determine how to use the vessels of reception and to what magnitude, to what degree of coarseness. This is regarded as him taking his left line, his will to receive, and only to the extent that the will to receive is included in the right, his will to bestow, to that extent he uses it. And this is the outcome of this work, of this method. It is called the middle line.

M. Laitman: (58:29) Because we have vessels of reception on coarseness levels three and four, then we have two types of shatterings, a shattering in the light of Hassadim and a shattering in the light of Hochma. And accordingly, this is called the shattering, the ruin of the two Temples. And accordingly, there is also a difference in the correction of those vessels. And as we learn from the shattering of the vessels, the vessels that shattered weren't shattered only on coarseness levels three and four, but all the degrees, all the levels shattered. Because all the vessels are connected to each other, and there's no vessel, even the smallest which isn't connected through its work to a larger vessel. And therefore, the connection between them and all the mutual work between them was corrupted. It all became in order to receive. And the correction therefore, starts from very, very minuscule degrees in the person who comes with the question, "What is the purpose of life?" And begins to correct himself on degrees much before entering spirituality. They're called the degrees of preparation. Where he doesn't yet correct his attitude towards the Creator, because he doesn't have any relation to the Creator. These degrees are, they have such desires where you don't feel the Creator through them. There are small desires called the desires of this world. Meaning such desires from the shattering of the vessels in which, like in the desire of the still, vegetative, animate, you don't feel the existence of a foreign force, external force. Because it's only the person who can feel what's outside of him, what's foreign to him. He hates what's close to him or loves whoever's close to him. By that, he can magnify and change the will to receive in him. When he sees something in others, when he feels the suffering of another, and can incorporate it, enjoy it, or suffer from it. So, the degrees of the will to receive in which a person feels only himself are called the beastly will to receive — a desire for food and sex, that's how it manifests in us, through those feelings, bodily pleasures. Or the will to receive in which he also doesn't feel the Creator, but he already feels others to an extent. That is the desire to receive for money, respect, knowledge. These desires a person satisfies through his environment, through those who are like him. Those desires are called desires of this world still. Why? Because in the work, there's no difference between the desires, this being of "this world" and that being the spiritual world. The difference is that when they work within the person, a person doesn't feel the existence of the Creator in them, or he doesn't feel others at all, these physical desires. Or he feels others but not the Creator, and those would be human desires. These two kinds of desires, that's a person being in this world.

M. Laitman: (01:03:04) What is this world? Meaning that the feeling of the Creator is denied to him. He feels the environment, but only the environment close to him. And when the will to receive of three and four, degrees three and four, grows in him, then a person begins to awaken towards a connection to the Creator. Because these desires, three and four, were born in us as a result of the will to receive wanting to achieve some compatibility with the will to bestow, to match the will to bestow. This is as the third and fourth phases, from the four phases of Direct Light. And then when a person begins to feel that the will to receive is looking for something outside of what exists in his body, or his environment, then he begins to detach, so to speak, through the body, through the environment. He begins to seek something, and then he awakens towards what we call spirituality. And here, because his will to receive is now bringing him to a connection with the Creator, then laws apply which we call the the vessels being activated by the lights. Of course, this was before as well, but before we weren't on such degrees, such discernments, we didn't need such scrutinies. But because now the source of a person's attraction, the source of force and pleasure, is not within the environment that a person can receive, but beyond it. And then we say that a person is yearning for the spiritual world. And a person who yearns for bodily pleasures finds them in the open, and he yearns for; a person who yearns for human pleasures also finds them openly. But when he yearns to enjoy the Creator, he doesn't find it. It's not disclosed. Why? It's because only towards the Creator that we have truly the matter of the will to receive, and these previous desires to receive, for bodily pleasures or human pleasures, they're not called actual desires, actual degrees of the will to receive. And so a person should not pay any attention to them. He should satisfy them, or rather, he doesn't need to pay attention to them, to take care of them or correct them. His attention should be towards how to correct his attitude to the Creator. And therefore, this whole period where he's immersed in coarseness levels root, one, and two, and the development of the will to receive in him, until the will to receive awakens in him towards something which is beyond this world — this whole period is called the time of preparation. Where it's not actual corrections, and it's not the actual work, and not the actual fulfillment, but these are degrees of the shattering, which too were born by the shattering, through the shattering, and are in us. But it's not that we need to correct them by tying them to the Creator directly. Later, we correct them through malicious actions and mistakes, which become merits and virtues. But the true correction is, it starts only from the moment a person feels that he's yearning for someone who is truly outside of his world, that being the Creator. Of course, for the time being, he doesn't know anything, he doesn't feel who he's awakening towards. He doesn't feel who it is that's awakening him. He doesn't feel who he's drawn to. He doesn't feel who the source is by which he wants to fulfill himself, or to resemble even.

M. Laitman: (01:08:02) The connection between man and the Creator is concealed, and it is concealed because here there needs to come a correction. And this connection can be revealed to the person, to work, to apply to a person, only to the extent that the person makes this correction properly, meaning matching the way in which the Creator relates to him. Meaning here there cannot be a connection in its corrupted form. There is a restriction over that, and a demand that from the smallest degree, called Ibur, conception, where a person enters a connection with the Creator, and through to the degree of Gadlut in that connection, it must be built only in the right way. Because it's built from the remnants of the shattering, and so all the data regarding how to build it exists there. From the shattering, we have all the conditions, all the data. We can attain all the understandings and discernments from it. The only thing we lack is the upper light, something towards which we can measure all the remnants of the shattering within us and to give them the right form. Meaning to see in them the right form of usage, opposite to how they exist in us. Because a person cannot exit his nature. Rather he is in the nature, and it determines his thoughts, his behavior, his desires, and the direction he's drawn to, and in what way he's drawn. The light that appears from afar, as surrounding light, operating upon the shattered vessels and the form that they're in after the shattering, because the light comes from the source to bestow, it illuminates upon the shattered vessels and gives them the understanding of what the gap between them and the surrounding light is. This gap at first — all these discernments go through the same degrees of scrutiny called root, one, two, three, four. At first, a person longs for the light. He thinks that through the light he can fill himself. He thinks that he'll be able to use spirituality for his own benefit in a regular way, the way he would use coarseness root, one, and two, whereas in all the pleasures, both bodily ones and human ones even.  He tries to acquire them and use them and exploit everything around him in this environment. And now also the spiritual environment that he's trying to attain, he hopes will be for his own use, for his own benefit. But the light which shines, it shines upon him in two opposite ways. Once, it awakens in a person a passion for the spiritual world and grows the desire to receive in a person; and once, it shows him how this lust is not attainable for a person. And through these games that the light does with the vessels, a person begins to feel that, in relation to spirituality, our relationship with spirituality should be different than the way one used their previous desires in this world; in a disclosed manner, that are before him in the form of the vessels of others and the pleasures in others.

M. Laitman: (01:13:07) And the light teaches him that the true form of pleasure exists in a quality which is upon the light itself. This is considered that one receives a grace of holiness, a charm from above. This means that he sees how these vessels of his are growing, and the more they grow, they bring him more suffering, at which time he looks for ways to be saved from the suffering. And this means that the desire to receive for himself, he buries himself with his regular method of searching how to fill himself, and sees that the sufferings he's suffering — to the extent in which the desire to receive is bigger and cannot be filled — the sufferings he suffers are such that the desire to bestow can truly be as a salvation for Him: "My death would be better than my life”. One cannot be saved from the big desire to receive, which is growing each time, and can't reach any pleasures by this desire, and can't rid himself from it, and therefore, he starts to want the vessels of bestowal. In this way, it would be possible to reach vessels of bestowal in ancient times, as Baal HaSulam writes, when the desire to receive was not big: so through torment, through living a life of sorrow — eat bread, and salt, and water, and lie on the ground, and engage in Torah — you can reach the correction of the desire through habit. And in our state, where the desire to receive has already grown, then by the light, without any suffering, we can bring to ourselves, teach our reason, the understanding that this form of bestowal is preferable to the form of reception. But this is still as an awareness of running away from the suffering, and this is what a person learns naturally. But an additional thing that is here that wasn't there in previous times, where people suppressed themselves in ways, subdued themselves in ways to reach resemblance with the Creator, is that we have, by awakening to a connection with the Creator, truly from the greatness of vessels of reception, which in our times are specifically beginning to rise from the shattering and demand the correction and filling — what is in us in addition is what the sages of the Gemara corrected, which Baal HaSulam writes in the Introduction to TES: which is that we have the reforming light, that we can use the force of the light itself, which brought us not for us to long for vessels of bestowal because we want to be saved from the troubles we have with our vessels of reception, but rather for us to long for them specifically also because of the greatness, importance, uniqueness that we have in this concept of bestowal. Meaning that the light brings us the greatness of the source. Just like in the four phases of direct light, where the light that filled phase one brings phase one the understanding of who phase root is, and also phase one wanted to be similar to her and made herself into phase two.

M. Laitman: (01:18:03) So, it turns out that what we need to correct with you now is our relationship with the Creator, to come closer to Him, adhere to Him, which only through equivalence of form can happen, and this is what we can do by the reforming light. And this is something we can achieve, to attain, through the work and the study from the correct books and in the group, under all the conditions which include within them all the degrees of coarseness of root, one, two, three, and four. It then turns out that the same vessels in which the shattering took place, meaning the vessels of phase three and four of coarseness, the shattering upon the first four kings in the degree of four of coarseness of the light of Hochma, the shattering of the second four kings, that were about three of coarseness, called the light of Hassadim — which is also not Hassadim; it's only called that way, but we need to learn exactly what the light of Hassadim is, that it can have a shattering after all. So we mostly have to work on these two discernments. It follows that to reach the work in these great degrees of coarseness, we have to prepare our work on the plane of this work as well, as these degrees shattered as well and belong to the same level of the shattering. And these degrees of root, one, and two, and how to arrange them for the matter of correction, is considered where a person uses his life in a bodily manner, and in a human level, only to the extent of the necessity of existing, where he would be happy to not even use those for himself. All the rest of the actions he does for the sake of his nearing the Creator. In beastly pleasures, we understand what a person's body demands. In pleasures of money, honor, and knowledge, we have work already towards the society. This is work in which a person certainly also on these degrees must arrange his attitudes towards these pleasures of money, honor, and knowledge, which is considered that at first he works with, let's say, with money, with Maaser [tithe], and then leaves only what's necessary for himself. And as it's written by Baal HaSulam in "The Giving of the Torah," he spreads it to the whole world, meaning in order to bring the whole world to its corrected state, closer to the Creator. Yes, in dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah — of what we perform and don't use, but we do. In honor, then he already does this in his near society, in lowering himself and growing the character of the society in his eyes in order to receive the recognition of the importance of the Creator from the society. And in knowledge, by longing to know spirituality, the upper world, the Creator, His nature, he arranges it such that he wants to engage in this in order to reach bestowal to the Creator by the upper light that will awaken as a result of the study.

M. Laitman: (01:23:06) It turns out the entire spirituality of a person is clothed in this world and that which is around him, in his attitudes towards this world, either through his beast, which gives it what it needs and does not take into consideration anything beyond that, or the human in him and his relationship to the environment, in which he wants to use others, and the society, and everything in order to address all his forces and all his qualities to a mutual connection with the Creator. This means that all the consequences of the shattering that are in him, as results of the shattering in a form of in order to receive, he inverts them to in order to bestow. This means that anyone who is sorry for the ruin of Jerusalem — Jerusalem is called Yira Shlema, a complete fear. Complete fear means that Malchut reached the degree of Bina and was shattered, and is in the opposite state of connection, Bina and Malchut and the intention in order to receive. So whoever is sorry about that state comes from his sorrow, from his work, to the joy of Jerusalem, where he corrects the vessels and fills them with lights, such that this vessel, with the intention in order to bestow, is filled with lights, and this is giving towards the Creator. The joy of Jerusalem, meaning a complete city, a complete vessel, in complete fear, in faith, and this means the quality of Bina upon all of Malchut. And all these discernments, the shattered Jerusalem as well as the built Jerusalem, are actually the two sides, the ends of the path that a person has to go through during the time that he's in this world, in this life, clothed in this body, and from it reveal all the discernments on the way. Any questions?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:08) After Bina was mixed with Malchut, is it still regarded as a created being, being existence from absence?

M. Laitman: You're asking, we have a desire to receive, as we learn, which was created existence from absence, since the Creator has no desire to receive, only the desire to bestow. And we have in our foundation the desire to receive; that's us. The desire to bestow which we acquire is not the desire to bestow from the Creator. I can't cut His quality from the Creator and join it to me. There's no such thing; that's nature. But when the Creator bestows to me, with His bestowal upon me, just as a great one bestows upon a small one, He changes me to such an extent with His bestowal that my desire to receive becomes similar to Him. It's not that it becomes a desire to bestow, but rather he makes its external actions as if it's a desire to bestow, and you can't distinguish between them. Rather, only if we look at who he is from within — either the Creator, which is the desire to bestow, and within and without there's the same form, same quality; or the created being, who has the quality of the desire to receive naturally within him, and on the outside it was inverted, and took upon itself form externally as the desire to bestow. The desire to bestow that a person acquires upon his desire to receive is not existence from absence, it's existence from existence. Yes, he received it from the Creator. He learned from the Creator how to behave with his desire to receive, to see it like a desire to bestow. But when he acquires this external form, he is rewarded with all there is in the desire to bestow. He becomes truly similar, not by the actions — it's called, from Your actions we know You. We have also come to the inner understanding of who the Creator is, to the inner attainment of who the Creator is, meaning to the true stature, our standing like the Creator. But with that, the desire to receive remains existence from absence, and never, will never disappear. We can't talk with you without the framework of time, that the desire to receive at one point wasn't, and then the Creator created it, and then He corrupted it, and then corrected it, and then it reaches the final correction, meaning in relation to us, we examine it as if we're going on this axis of time, in history, and in the past, and the future, we're going to reach final correction, and then we'll be similar to the Creator, and so on. We look at it as something that is going by and changing the forms, and once it was, and once it wasn't. And in truth, spirituality is above time. And as we speak, without, for the lack of time — that it's happening or not happening — in spirituality, there is no such thing. In spirituality, everything is simply in one state, and you can't say that there is time. There is no time. We can't grasp this today, in truth, but although there's such a thing that we talk about, meaning existence from absence, meaning once it wasn't, and then it became existence, but before it was absence, meaning it wasn't — but how could it be, if not according to the axis of time, that it wasn't and there is? Rather, it exists eternally, both this and that, together.

M. Laitman: (01:30:33) We can't, with our minds — we're not capable, which is made of one quality, the quality of Malchut, and also corrupted — we can't grasp this. This thing comes in accordance with how we correct our vessels, and from our vessels, we will understand that this thing altogether, these spiritual concepts are, they exist above time. And we, when these corrected qualities are built in us, will also live according to these corrected qualities above time, and then we won't have to explain to one another what that is, but that would simply be the form of our life, such an attitude towards life. By a person correcting his vessel, he's rewarded with the feeling that there's no time, that there's no life and death, that there's a certain eternal flow until one reaches the state where there's no flow altogether, that everything is simply one and eternal. And this is something we should reach already here, in this world. According to the corrections within us, we will feel, and this is how we will live. In truth, our life altogether is a result of our inner feeling: life, death, ascents, descents, exists, doesn't exist. And according to how a person reaches being similar to the Creator, he stops thinking about himself or feeling that he is existing or not. He rises to eternality, and all these questions disappear. Is it existence from absence, existence from existence? These are things that only now exist in us, these questions.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:32:33) Rabash writes in the article that if a person takes qualities from a friend, so to speak, and he raises a prayer, and he writes, he asks, what does it mean to take qualities from the Creator, the qualities of the Creator, and work with them? What is it, what does it mean? 

M. Laitman: How does a person take the qualities of the Creator and begin to work with them? The qualities of the Creator come to us by the reforming light. We ourselves, who are in shattered qualities, both Malchut and Bina, cannot understand from this how to work with an opposite form that we have in us. Oppositeness is also not attained unless by presenting the oppositeness. What is the opposite? By me seeing the black, it won't come to be some attainment in white and a desire for it to be white. I need to see the difference between them, to recognize the difference, and then to compare them within my vessels. And from this comparison, this emotional comparison, this intellectual comparison, accordingly, I will advance to one of those forms: either black or white. Hence, even though we are in the shattering, and we have vessels of Malchut and vessels of Bina in the manner of in order to receive, but we can't understand from this what the form of bestowal is. It's simply not given to us. We maybe sometimes feel the extent in which we don't understand what in order to bestow is. And that's already a great revelation that's given to us. That means that the light is beginning to illuminate from above as light, as its quality. Not something that kind of draws us through pleasures, that shows us that there's a pleasure for us. But rather, it already shows us, outside of the pleasure, what He is for us, and also who He is, meaning the Creator is showing us His characteristics. This is already a great revelation, and then we see how despicable we are and how immersed we are in order to receive. This revelation that comes to a person comes in accordance with the extent in which a person prepares himself to demand from the upper light. What does he want to receive from it? If he chases the pleasures in the upper light and spirituality, then in order to correct it and perform a correction on the path, in the direction, then the upper light illuminates, in place of pleasures, sufferings. And He begins to aim a person more correctly this way so that a person won't long for the pleasures, but rather search what else I could long for. I feel sorrow, and then the light starts to show a person that besides suffering and pleasure, there is something more exalted. This is the quality of bestowal, the Creator Himself, His attribute, His quality.

M. Laitman: (01:36:33) And this is how He directs us to demand of Him not the spiritual pleasure that we imagine in our beastly vessels, which is a pleasure similar to what we have in this world. But in this way, the light teaches us to understand that the real pleasure is in acquiring the quality of bestowal, and one who acquires this quality, this in itself is already pleasure, because this is already the form of the Creator. In this world, we think that there is a desire, and in the desire, there's pleasure. Two things. And that's really the way it is in the will to receive. In the will to receive, this is how it really happens. But in the desire to bestow, it's not like that. The desire to bestow itself is pleasure. But because a person builds his desire to bestow on top of the will to receive, so here we're talking about degrees of correction: to what extent a part of the will to receive participates in being similar to the Giver. And as we learn, the main thing is the vessels. The upper light is in complete rest. Therefore, a person should yearn for the right vessels, the right sensation that should be in him each time toward the Creator. And the beginning of the correction is called "everyone who mourns for Jerusalem," meaning when a person understands what is his mourning, what exactly he is mourning, what discernment is it that's called Jerusalem and the ruin of Jerusalem, what is actually that spiritual concept we have to mourn, meaning that this is what I want to exist in me correctly. If a person builds such a vessel, then, of course, nothing more is required from the person. And then he is rewarded with this vessel being corrected according to the extent of the sorrow in him, because the extent of his sorrow is already directed against his ego, against the will to receive in him, against all the qualities that are called the actual ruined Jerusalem. And when he regrets it, that sorrow, we call it raising MAN. So he is rewarded with a light correcting his MAN from above, and he will have the correction of the screen on the vessels that regret that they are ruined, that they are in the desire in order to receive.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:40:39) So, from our state, it needs to be the right desire? What do we need to ask for?

M. Laitman: We need to regret two things. To regret being in broken vessels, meaning that we think and yearn to satisfy only ourselves — one. And two, that we need to increase in us the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the quality of bestowal. That the greatness of the quality of bestowal should bring us yearning for the built Jerusalem. So, it's not enough to regret the bad situation, we also have to yearn for the good situation, good state. It's work according to two records that should be in us. The record of coarseness, and the record of clothing, the record of the vessel and the record of the light. The record of the vessel is what state the vessel is in compared to where it should be, and the record of the light is the extent to which my relation to the Creator should be that the Creator is the ideal, the ideal and the most perfect, complete.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:42:05) If the quality of bestowal is pleasure in and of its own, so what is her filling?

M. Laitman: Again?

Student: If the quality of bestowal is pleasure herself, then what's her filling?

M. Laitman: The filling of the quality of bestowal is bestowal; nothing more. You don't need anything else. If I bestow, this is my pleasure, this is my pleasure. Except, of course, in order to be on the degree of the Giver, I have to know to whom I am bestowing, how He enjoys my bestowal. I have to incorporate within me His vessels, His deficiencies. I have to unite with the Creator and acquire from Him all His vessels, all the pleasures He derives from filling me. It's a baby that reaches the degree of the mother and feels all the things that are in the mother toward him both in vessels and in pleasures, the way she feels towards him when he receives everything from her and enjoys her 100%. In other words, by the created being wanting to give back to the Creator that pleasure, even as a little one, you must know the Creator as great, in all the greatness of the Creator. So, it seems to us like the quality of bestowal — he gives, he gives and that's it, he doesn't think of anything. On the contrary, the form of bestowal obligates a person to reach huge vessels, and the form of reception isn't, because in reception, the minute he receives, the vessels are blocked, and they don't need anymore. I'm happy, I'm content. He begins to be afraid that it will disappear. The vessel is blocked by the pleasure he wanted, and with greater pleasure, if it doesn't awaken, that’s it. So it's actually the quality of bestowal that obligates a person to grow indefinitely, without any boundary, constantly, and to constantly be in an ascent.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:44:48) So, how does he keep the greatness of the Creator all the time? 

M. Laitman: How does he maintain the greatness of the Creator in his eyes all the time when he grows? By growing with the vessels of the Creator. He wants to feel how the Creator, what He prepares, what He enjoys, and how He is organized towards me. He acquires from the Creator His vessels, and my vessels — he doesn't have any vessels. What vessels are there in the created being besides a point in the heart? All the greatness, the Gadlut, the adulthood of Malchut beyond the point in the heart is only through the calculation with the Giver.

Student: How does this correct the shattering?

M. Laitman: What are we talking about? We're talking about the evolution of that phase one, that phase one in the four phases of direct light, how it develops. What is its size, its greatness? Its greatness is the greatness of her recognition of the Giver. It's a qualitative growing in understanding, in enlightenment, in understanding, not in the size of the vessel in terms of tons. In spirituality, there's no such thing as wanting one gram, two grams, three grams of the same thing. I want something, which is a point from one pleasure, and if it's more than that, I want a deeper kind of pleasure, greater, more complex, more connected with the Giver. Because all the pleasures, besides the pleasures that are at the point which are bodily and human pleasures, besides these tiny pleasures, all the other pleasures come through the Giver, through my connection with the Creator. They come because I'm close to Him. Let's put it this way. You were taken to serve in a palace as a cleaner, and you were given some tiny salary so you would sustain yourself, the life. And the rest of the pleasures are the more you recognize where you are, how important the place is where you are. So, by exalting the place where you work and its importance, you get from it — and we see it in our world too, it's the way it is. There are people who, say, are next to the government, right? So, they don't get a salary; they get the importance, the feeling of the importance of pleasure, of what they belong to, that they are superior to the rest of the people. Yes, where are they, where they work, what they belong to. So you can compare that to what happens to us with pleasures above this world. All those pleasures come through the greatness of the Creator in our eyes. And the rest of the pleasures that we have through the body or through our society, to receive, meaning through the environment, this world, is pleasures that are like a dot, like a payment of, let's say, a hundred dollars that you get in your job, and that's it. Which you settle for, you suffice for that. And you should really suffice for that and not demand more. Any other demand is through the importance of where you work, what you belong to. And there, if you really increase the importance of that place, you have infinite pleasures. It's all a matter of importance. You can be next to the king, and these hundred dollars, you don't even count them. His importance fills you, because you feel how much you are— he who is adhered to the complete is complete. In corporeality, too, in the ego, we see that it's working. And we don't need a great salary, a high salary. In this world, too, in that case, a person is required to be loyal. That's the payment from a person for being permitted, for being given the sincerity of belonging to a great thing, such as the government, right? The laws are opposite, meaning in terms of how we use them, but it's the same laws. 

Student: So the shattering of the — the correcting of the shattering is only a means to reach the greatness of the Creator?

M. Laitman: All the shattering is because of the lack of recognition of the greatness, and its whole correction is in recognizing the greatness. Because the screen, which we call the intention to bestow, is built in us as a result of the glory of the Lord, to the extent that I respect Him more than myself, more than my will to receive, to the extent that I value Him more than myself in importance, in greatness, exaltedness, power. So it's all a matter of my relation, in my eyes, He and I. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:50:47) Let's say, we see the greatness of the Creator, you can really see how we don't perceive Him, how eternal He is and how great, let's say we see the greatness of His actions, but how can you see the greatness of the intentions? 

M. Laitman: How can we see the greatness of the intentions? The greatness of the intentions is a result of the greatness of the Creator. We cannot measure the intentions themselves. We can only measure them according to… basically, you're saying this: how do we measure the light as great or small? Because the intention is the light. I can measure it only according to the vessels; I have no other way. The more the vessels can join the intention to bestow, the more the left line can incorporate in the right line. And this is actually my ability to be in the intention. I measure everything according to the vessels. The light, I don't even know what it is. I have some phenomenon in the vessels which I call light. That's it. So, all our work is through the vessels.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:52:40) The light is an action, no? The light is His intention and His action.

M. Laitman: I don't understand what you're asking. You're saying words that I don't understand. The light is the act? I don't understand.

Student: When I see the greatness of the Creator, and I look at His actions, then His actions is the light that...

M. Laitman: I don't understand what you're saying. Listen to what you're saying. When I look at the greatness of the Creator and His actions, who is looking? How is he looking? I don't understand these words. What state are you talking about? Who is looking? Do you see? Are you impressed by it? I don't know what reality you're talking about. If you want to talk, to speak correctly, speak from within the vessels, first of all. That's it. Who is the Creator there?

Student: The feeling of the light in the vessel is the feeling of the action of the Creator, no?

M. Laitman: A vessel feels phenomena in it. These phenomena it calls light. What are you asking about this?

Student: If from the point of the vessel, it's actions or intentions, let's say a friend, where I see him in corporeality performing actions, and I see his actions, but his intentions I don’t know. 

M. Laitman: You see external actions of something. It may be people or, the society, or the world, or the Creator, never mind how we relate to it. You're saying you can see actions, and besides actions there are also intentions probably. But the intentions you do not see. So what are you asking? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:55:04) If it's possible, meaning if we know of the greatness of the state in general, we see the greatness of the actions, is it possible to come to a state where you see the greatness of the intentions, where you feel the greatness of the intentions, where the vessel feels the greatness of the intentions?

M. Laitman: It's possible for the vessel to feel the greatness of the intentions according to the condition "By Your actions we know You." How can I value the mother who gives, and gives, and gives if I only receive, and receive, and receive, and I have no quality of bestowal in return? But when I myself begin to realize what it means to give, either because I grow and in a beastly way I sense awakening in me like the mother, so I begin to remember what the mother did for me — now I recognize how much she loves me, how much what she did for me, and her intentions. I can know someone's intentions only because I will have the same intentions. In the will to receive, there cannot be adhesion. Each one is with his own will to receive, and each one is permanent within his own will to receive, unchanging. Now, the will to bestow, which is called the intention on top of the will to receive, this does change; and by changing my intention, which is called the desire to bestow, which I change, I can understand the other, understand his intentions. Now, in the Creator there are no intentions and actions, but toward us it can be: His action can seem bad, and afterwards we realize that His intentions are revealed to us as good because we attain them through our vessels, because our feeling is divided into a vessel and an intention. The act can be reception, but the intention is bestowal, and the manner of the act is as bestowal when we are seemingly in two opposite parts,  can be opposite from each other. In the Creator there is no such thing, but because we perceive from Him in our vessels what comes from Him, we also divide what comes from Him into two parts: the way it's felt in our vessels, and the way it's felt in our awareness, in our perception of His intention. And then we think, oh, He does bad, but He thinks, He aims well. But from His perspective, there is no such thing. From His perspective, there is only one direct action. When can I receive from Him directly what comes in this way from Him to me? When I have the same intention as His, and my vessel immediately perceives His intention, its correct, direct expression, then I don't interpret it according to my vessels of reception but only according to my intentions of bestowal. It's like a doctor. I had an operation. I remember, before the operation, he sat on me. He was like six feet five, 120 kilograms, strong. He said, now I'll give you a bad feeling. So, he sat on my chest and really killed me. My ribs and all were broken, but I didn't feel any hatred toward him. I remember, now I'm drilling a hole in your chest, I have this scar, really, a hole. Usually doctors have terrible hands. A craftsman would do it better; he was a guy who was building. They have no mercy; they don't have hands; when they become surgeons, it's people who really have no gentleness in their hands. I saw them working; I would do it much more technically, much better. So he took this, like a metal rod, like a sculptor, and drove it through me, and drilled the hole. It was without any anesthesia, because I was in a way that you couldn't wait. I remember, it was something… I lost consciousness, then I regained consciousness, but I remember that I had no hatred toward him, no hatred. I talked about it to him afterwards; he was surprised that I remembered everything that happened, because usually a person becomes completely unconscious. But I remember this. To me, this is a very good discernment: that he hurts you, he gives you pains that you want to die, not to feel it, just to get away from it all, but you don't feel hatred toward him. In other words, the intention completely controls the action, even on the level of this world.

Reader: Let's share impressions from the lesson and what we're taking to implement in the Ten.

Reader: We're going to move to the next part of the lesson, but let’s sing a song first.

Song: (02:07:51)