The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: May 26, 2026
Reader: Beloved friends, in the first part of the lesson, we will study a lesson by Rav Laitman from January 30, 2002. It's based on the article, "And the Children Struggled Within Her." We will read the article together. We have 18 minutes for that. Let's start.
Reading:
(00:34)
And
the
Children
Struggled
within
Her,
Article
No.
9,
“And the children struggled within her.” According to RASHI’s interpretation, “Our sages explained it as running, when she would pass by the doors of Torah of Shem and Ever, Jacob was running and wiggling to come out. When she passed by doors of idol-worship, Esau was wriggling to come out.”
Baal HaSulam said that this is the order of the work. The beginning of the work is called Ibur [impregnation], when a person begins to work on the path of truth. When he passes by the doors of Torah, the Jacob in a person awakens and wishes to walk on the path of Torah. When he walks by the doors of idol-worship, the Esau in a person awakens to come out.
We should interpret his words. Man consists of vessels of reception by nature, called “self-love,” which is the evil inclination, and also consists of a point in the heart, which is his good inclination. When he begins to work in bestowal, it is regarded as Ibur, form the word, Avra [passed]. This is why he experiences ascents and descents and is unstable. He is influenced by the environment and is unable to overcome.
For this reason, when one moves to an environment where people engage in work that is alien to us, meaning self-love, the self-love in a person awakens and comes out from concealment to disclosure, and takes control over the body. At that time one is unable to do anything except that which concerns his receiver.
When he passes through an environment where people engage in work of bestowal, the Jacob in him awakens and comes out from concealment to disclosure. At that time works of bestowal govern the body. That is, at that time, when he looks back and sees how before he has reached the state he is in he was so immersed in self-love, he cannot understand how can one be so low and derive satisfaction from such base things that are inappropriate for an adult to build his house among lowly and despicable desires and thoughts. He is insulted by these desires and thoughts where his house once was.
But later, when he passes by the doors of idol-worship, meaning when he comes to an environment that engages in self-love, the Esau in him reawakens and wriggles to come out. This continues in the worker repeatedly, day after day. One who works harder may go through these changing states each and every hour.
“And she said, ‘If it is so, then why me?’ And she went to inquire of the Lord.” RASHI interprets “And she went to inquire” to mean Shem’s seminary, to inquire the Lord so as to tell her what shall become of her. And what was the reply? The verse says, “The Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will be separated from your abdomen, and one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.’” RASHI interprets “one people shall be stronger than the other” to mean that they will not be of equal greatness; when one rise, the other falls. He also says, “She is laid waste; Tzor is filled only by the ruin of Jerusalem.”
To understand the Creator’s answer to her, as it is written, “The Lord said to her,” we need to explain that it was said that these two forces must exist, as it is known that the creature is the vessel of reception, called Esau. But afterwards comes the second force, called Jacob, which is the desire to bestow. Each wants to rule alone, and this is the struggle between Esau and Jacob.
This is why RASHI interpreted, “When one rises the other falls; Tzor was filled only by the ruin of Jerusalem.” That is, she was told that we must clearly know—either the will to receive governs, or the will to bestow governs. They cannot both exist together. Therefore, we must decide once and for all that it is not worthwhile to dwell in abominable and lowly thoughts and desires.
Then, when one sees that one cannot overcome one’s will to receive, it is regarded as seeing that he is nothing, worthless, except that then he sees that even though he has already realized that the will to receive is the harm-doer, he still cannot overcome it. This is why specifically then he sees that he needs heaven’s mercy, that without His help it is impossible to come out of the governance of the will to receive.
This is the meaning of what our sages said (Kidushin 30), “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day. Were it not for the Creator’s help, he would not overcome it.” This pertains specifically to one who has begun the work and has done everything he could. At that time he does not need to believe that only the Creator can help him because now he sees that there is no tactic or ploy that he has not tried, and nothing helped him. Only the Creator helped him.
Only then can he understand that only the Creator helps. Thus, what is the difference between him and another? As He helped him, he can also help others. For this reason, there is no reason to be proud over others, since it is not his strength. But those who have not begun the holy work, which is only to bestow and not to receive, they do not see that only the Creator helped them. Instead, they say, “My strength and the power of my hand has done this riches.” Naturally, they have something with which to boast over others who are not working as they do.
At that time it follows that the difference between good and bad is not so great, since his good is also built on a basis of self-love. And although he engages in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], the struggle between Jacob and Esau is still not apparent then, and naturally, he does not need help from above to save him from the will to receive, have mercy on him, and give him the Kli [vessel] of the desire to bestow, since he sees that by nature he cannot work in order to bestow.
This is so because he does not think that one needs to work in Torah and Mitzvot in order to be awarded Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, and the matter of bestowal does not interest him at all. Therefore, it cannot be said that when one rises, the other falls.
However, when one wishes to walk on the path of bestowal, this is when the matter of “struggling” begins.
Afterwards, one should do what one can, and then he comes to a state where he sees the truth—that he cannot help himself. Afterwards he sees that he has no choice, and he needs heaven’s mercy. Then the words of our sages, “He who comes to purify is aided,” come true.
We should understand what, “And the older shall serve the younger,” comes to tell us. We should interpret that it is not enough that he has been rewarded with the good inclination being the ruler, and the evil inclination being powerless to resist it, which is regarded as being able to serve the Creator only with the good inclination. Rather, one needs to achieve the degree of wholeness, as our sages said, “‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,’ with both your inclinations,” where the evil inclination is also used to serve the Creator. This can be interpreted only in a manner that first we need to know what is the evil inclination.
We must know that the essence of the evil in us is the will to receive, from which all the bad things come to us, namely bad thoughts and desires. The will to bestow brings us all the good things, which are our good thoughts and desires. Therefore, when the good inclination governs a person, namely the desire to bestow, upper abundance pours upon us from above, meaning that by this, abundance of Hassadim [mercies] comes from above.
However, we must know that this is only the correction of creation. That is, to have equivalence of form, we must aim everything for the Creator, so we will have equivalence of form, called Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. However, the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations, meaning for the lower ones to receive delight and pleasure from the Creator, and not to bestow upon Him contentment, as though the Creator needs the lower ones to give Him something.
Therefore, when the creatures wish to receive something from the Creator, they must use their vessels of reception, which is the evil inclination. Otherwise, who will receive the pleasure? The receiver of the pleasure is only the craving for that thing. The craving for pleasures is called “will to receive.”
It follows that at that time one must use the evil inclination, but with a correction placed on it, called “in order to bestow.” It follows that then he serves the Creator with the evil inclination, too.
The evil inclination is called “older” because it was born first. Likewise, when a person is born the evil inclination comes first, and the good inclination comes after thirteen years. Therefore, when a person works with the will to receive in order to bestow, it is considered that he loves the Creator with all his heart, meaning with both his inclinations. This is the meaning of the verse, “and the older shall serve the younger,” meaning that the will to receive, called “older,” will serve the younger, meaning serve the desire to bestow upon the Creator.
It follows that the desire to bestow will be the ruler. Sometimes the desire to bestow uses vessels of bestowal, called “vessels of Jacob,” and then it is regarded as serving the Creator with the good inclination. Sometimes it uses the vessels of reception, and then it is regarded as serving the Creator also with the evil inclination. All this was said to her in Shem’s seminary, as it is written, “The Lord said to her.”
By this we will understand what Ben Zoma said (Avot deRabbi Natan, Chapter 23), “Who is the hero of heroes? He who turns his enemy into his friend.” In Masechet Avot (Chapte 4), “Ben Zoma says, ‘Who is a hero? He who conquers his inclination.’”
We should understand the difference between referring to a “hero” when he says, “Who is a hero? He who conquers his inclination,” and the interpretation he gives to “hero of heroes,” when he says “He who turns his enemy into his friend.”
According to the above we should interpret the words of Ben Zoma, that a hero means “and one people shall be stronger than the other,” as RASHI interpreted, “When one rises, the other falls.” This is called a “hero,” who has surrendered the evil in him, and only the good inclination governs, meaning that he is serving the Creator only with the good inclination.
A “hero of heroes” is regarded as “and the older shall serve the younger.” This means that the “older,” meaning the evil in him, “will serve the younger,” namely serve the desire to bestow. At that time he will be serving the Creator also with the evil inclination, and then he keeps the verse, “With all your heart,” meaning with both your inclinations.
Reader: Let's move on to a lesson from January 30, 2002.
M. Laitman: (18:41) We now read an article from volume one of the “Rungs of the Ladder,” page 171, "And the Children Struggled Within Her." It speaks about two sons, who come out from Ima Ila'ya, the upper Ima. Two forces that emerge from the Creator, from upper Bina, from Elokim [God]: the good inclination and the evil inclination. These two forces are the two forces of the soul within the person.
And he must work with both of them. And you can't have one without the other. Precisely in the struggle between these two forces, one reaches the goal. And which goal? So he says, the goal is that the person will exert. And at the end of his exertion, he will find out for himself that he is incapable of performing this action of correcting himself to be in equivalence of form with the Creator. The Creator performs this action.
But rather, what should the person do, therefore? If I know in advance that the Creator does everything I need to reach a state where I know that the Creator does everything. And for that, I have to work against the evil inclination who tells me that, no, you should do it. And I need to work with the good inclination who says, do it, you can do it, until I reach despair.
And then I turn to the Creator, and the Creator does it. To despair and reach a state where we turn to the Creator, this comes precisely through the struggle with the Esau.
Therefore, in this running around of the lights, when the person takes the side of Jacob and he struggles against the Esau, in this struggle he reaches bit by bit a state where he needs the help of the Creator, and he asks that the Creator will govern him. The way to that is a long path.
It's an individual path within the person until he reaches spirituality. He must go through this inner struggle completely until the Esau will win entirely.
Meaning, until all the forces that will be in it, in this evil inclination he will check them and say that he is incapable of, and he will give up. And also, humanity in general is going through the same process.
We exist in one of the special times in that, that is a struggle between Jacob and Esau in order to exhaust Jacob so that he will turn to the Creator. This struggle is taking place in general, in the whole world, truly before our eyes. Also, as every person within himself must identify with the good force against the evil force.
So we, in the nation as a whole, will need to identify with what we call the people of Israel in spirituality, what the people of Israel need to do opposite the nations of the world.
M. Laitman: (23:53) And this whole struggle, all of this running around is in order to scrutinize the state between inside of the person and also among the nations in the world in general.
But once the state has been clarified, when it's clear what is the quality of Jacob in the person and what is the quality of Esau in the person, then actually the scrutiny is done and the Creator can perform His action.
And the Creator's action is not in order to destroy, eliminate one of the forces, but rather to use both of them and make them as five Hassadim and five Gevurot. Two great forces that emerge from above and build and fill the soul.
They correct it and elevate it to the degree of the Creator so Malchut will rise to Bina with all of her corrections. Let's see, this is what he actually says here in the article.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:16) These two forces that are revealed, one against the other, either one will grow more and the other will respond towards it. Is that what you're saying?
M. Laitman: No, the two forces are revealed equally. And even more than the fact that they're equal. The difference between them is that each one of them has some priority, some advantage.
Esau has the advantage that he is greater than Jacob. He's the first. He was born first. And Jacob has the advantage in that, according to nature, he belongs to the force of the Creator in the person.
So these two forces, in what can they stand one against the other? Jacob, the force of the Creator in the person if you can use it, please go ahead.
Esau is the force of the created being in the person. He's the foundation, the substance. Use it and enjoy. So the struggle between them is not according to their nature because the Creator created Esau, right? The existence from absence.
The struggle begins to be from the point that Jacob wants to occupy the place of Esau. He wants to govern Esau and take his place. Then the struggle begins. Esau actually doesn't look to quarrel with Jacob. Jacob actually tries to be born first. He wants to be great instead of Esau. He even wants to deceive Esau.
Esau, if you don't touch the will to receive, if we don't need to develop it to make it so that it will be in order to bestow, so it will be similar to the Creator, if we use it in a normal way then there's no problem.
That is, if the purpose of creation did not exist to do good to His creations, in that we have to bring them from the degree of Esau to the degree of Jacob, which will already be Israel.
Esau, with the corrections of Jacob, becomes Israel. We see this from the Torah, right? And the Creator says, you will defeat Esau, and therefore your name from here on will no longer be Jacob, but rather Israel.
So, this is how it is in the person, until he begins this fight, and the children struggled, everything is nice and good, one can live peacefully, routinely, nothing bothers him.
Bless the Creator, he can be religious or secular, nothing bothers him. But the moment that the struggle between the two of them starts, and the struggle starts from Jacob, the point in the heart is the one that begins the fight. It wants to govern the entire body. And so certainly, the whole body starts to claim she's all mine, because he's the first, existence from absence.
It’s his nature, he's independent, he doesn't want to be serving under some Creator, someone who will govern it against its nature. That is, we need to understand that only in those who serve the Creator, the true struggle occurs in them. And the more a person advances in his work towards the corrections, the struggle is greater and greater within him.
And so it is impossible to compare his life, then, with the life that people on the outside have. Outside, meaning outside of this process. There you don't have this struggle of the two forms of nature, of Jacob and Esau in the person. And a person lives relatively in peace with himself and in peace with the world. If he feels bad, he feels bad. If he feels good, he feels good. But that's the world, that's life.
M. Laitman: (30:37) Therefore, in "the children or the sons struggled within her," we need to understand that this speaks about us, about people like us. And from these struggles, we emerge, as he says at the end, with a great, terrible despair.
Only at the very end, the person begins to understand that he needs this despair in order to direct it, direct him to the Creator, and give the Creator the possibility to win in his struggle.
This is also what we see between Israel and the nations of the world. In the general struggle, what happens throughout history whichever way you look at it, what happens in corporeality is a projection from spirituality.
Therefore, us, with respect to the nations of the world, that's the part of Jacob. And whether we want to or not, you can see how we operate throughout the whole of history and how we operate throughout the whole of humanity.
We don't give peace and quiet to the whole world, and we want to be the first, we want to govern, and we want that our view, our reason, our character. Everywhere there is something happening in the world, you can find a Jew there, that he's doing it. This comes out of nature, that we were given in order to carry out this struggle.
But all of these fights should eventually accumulate together to the greatest occasion, which is truly an occasion between the two forces face-to-face, that then Jacob puts up his hands and he asks the Creator for help. And then the help comes.
On this, we should also understand that each and every day when we are in such a struggle a day that ends in despair, in feeling a lack of forces, helplessness, is a day that provides the true correct Reshimo [record].
And we have to accept this discernment, we have to keep it. We have to rise upon it and continue to the next discernment of despair, helplessness, and inability to work against the Esau, we don't have the forces for that. Jacob is weak.
However, after many, many such despairs when the experience accumulates to one great final knowledge then we turn to godliness, we turn to the Creator.
We don't do it beforehand. And all of the promise in the Torah speaks towards Jacob, “if you do, if you try, if you do this and that, then I will help you and I will be by your side” and so on, on behalf of the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:07) What does it mean, it's written here, when a person is born, the evil inclination came first?
M. Laitman: It is written that when he's born, the evil inclination comes first, as it is written that sin crouches at the door. What does it mean sin crouches at the door? At the door, the opening of the womb, when a person is just born and he still has nothing.
What governs him is the will to receive. But more correctly, this is about spirituality not about our beastliness. What does it mean that sin crouches at the door? After the coarseness of the root, when a person is an Ubar, is an embryo and then is born.
Then he starts to have coarseness of one, two, three, four, meaning an addition of a will to receive that he needs to correct and by that to grow. But to begin with, we have to understand that our foundation is the will to receive. And the will to receive in and of itself is neither good nor bad.
However, if the Creator's will to bestow was not directed towards the correction of the will to receive, if the will to receive did not have an intention to receive or an intention to bestow, then without the intention to receive or the intention to bestow, we can't say about the will to receive that it is evil or good.
It's simply nature, right? When can we say it's good or bad? When we start to attribute it against the Creator. Then in order to receive is bad, and in order to bestow is good. This means that we never speak about the will to receive itself, but about how it is used. And about something or someone that exists within nature, we can't say it's good or bad.
So I can't say that now the wolf that is now devouring the sheep, oh, it's so cruel, so bad, so evil or something. No, it is not evil. It's simply a force of nature operating according to the laws of nature. And there is no good here or evil. It is simply a natural action.
So about whom can I say that there is even evil or good? Also not about a person who's on the street. He's also operating according to the forces of nature that exist within him. He doesn't even know what choice means, but rather that same sheep or that same wolf exists within him also from this side and from that side, and he uses these forces.
So when can I relate to a person as being evil or good? When he has intentions of in order to receive or in order to bestow. When do they appear? Beyond the barrier. Before the barrier, everyone exists in one nature, using only the desire to enjoy, right? A little bit more, a little bit less. It's neither good nor bad, it is still inside of nature.
There is no intention yet of in order to receive or in order to bestow, because you can't even be in order to receive if you don't have opposite that, the possibility to be in order to bestow, right?
So it turns out that in order to receive and in order to bestow are two systems, of the worlds of BYA, of impurity, and ABYA of Kedusha, in which the soul grows. In what? In exactly that law of "when the children struggled." So only about a person who rises on the degrees above the barrier can we say that he has become wicked or becomes righteous, and again wicked, and again righteous.
It's according to his intentions that control him in that moment. And those who exist below the barrier, it is written about them, they all seem as beasts, they have neither good nor bad in them, but rather it is simply nature.
So, we need to speak about the birth of the true will to receive only beyond the barrier. This is why we say Ibur [impregnation] is the first stage in the birth of Adam, right? In the existence of Adam. What does it mean- Before Ibur?
There is no such discernment called Adam within us, right? The point in the heart, which starts to show her operations bit by bit, as she grows, she enters Ibur [impregnation], then it begins to be. It's still like a seed, a semen that enters Ibur, then something that will become Adam begins to be. And before that, even though we have this beastly clothing, we have some knowledge about ourselves, we have desires, we have certain forces of the soul. It is all still not considered as something that exists in spirituality. It's still beneath the threshold of existence in spirituality.
It's not considered spiritual life, but rather this is still beasts. We haven't yet left the degree of beast from which Adam will be made. When is Adam- a human made out of this beast? When we begin our first spiritual Ibur, from the barrier onwards. This is why it is written that "they all seemed as beasts.” This is about us. We are still now at a state of beasts.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:30) What is, the good inclination comes at age 13?”
M. Laitman: So what it says here about the good inclination and the evil inclinations. In general, it speaks about the two systems, ABYA of impurity and ABYA of Kedusha, of sanctity, that operate on the soul. That the soul runs around between them. They seemingly form a struggle within her, a quarrel inside of the soul.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:02) How can I implement correctly to come to the right conclusions from every state, and how can I hasten the transition to the next state?
M. Laitman: You asked two questions, right?
Student: How can I accelerate my states?
M. Laitman: To accelerate them and see that they're correct. If I know in advance that I can't do anything on myself, by myself, it's written in the books. What is “I know?” I don't know, I read and I hear. How can I come to a state where I will be despaired from everything? None is wiser than one with experience. I must reach this in practice.
And if I'm still in a state where behind every despair I discover that I have another opportunity and another opportunity to do something then it's a sign that I have yet to reach the end of my attempts. Is there altogether an end to my attempts? It may be that for a million years, I will try and try and maybe do something myself, and although nothing will happen from it. But I will never reach the final decision that there's nothing else to do, there's no point in trying anymore.
In truth, Ein Sof or infinity according to if we were to count it by number, how many attempts a person needs to go through in order to despair. Because each time the will to receive can bring him another discernment that you have yet to trial with. You didn't try, so what can you say? Maybe now you'll be able to perform an action in order to bestow or something else.
Therefore, when we speak of a person trying everything and there's nothing more to do, we're not talking quantitatively, but rather a qualitative discernment. Whereas a person needs to pay attention to what's happening to him, and how he comes to a state of despair, to the state in which the Creator helps him.
In short we are told from three to five years. What is between three and five years? By what do they know that within three years, in such a pace, if I work, that I'll go through all the discernments?
Rather, here, there's a certain discernment in which a person comes to it from the labor, the effort, the inner effort. Not quantitatively, but qualitatively. That is, during the study, he thinks only about the reforming light.
So, actually, he's already, in the study, from these despairs, from the struggle, from the running around with this, also from this, and also from that, and from both, he already makes a plea to the Creator to bring him the force for him to triumph with, for the Creator to defeat in him.
Hence, there's no direct struggle here with Esau. There's a struggle. Well, who is Esau? Esau is all my difficulties to turn to the Creator and to ask Him for forces of correction. That becomes Esau.
Meaning, that Esau is the intention in order to receive, and not to correct myself against the intention in order to bestow. That's it. So only through the effort during the study, that's the answer. How do I hasten times? How do I make these discernments faster? Faster is not a quantitative thing. A million times, or two million times that I did.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:39) We brainwash each other that the Creator means pleasure. That's why it's so difficult to accept this. I mean, we're talking about pleasure here. What do we have in this world? We see there isn't so much. So why is it so difficult to accept that, nevertheless?
M. Laitman: We speak of the Creator as the source of pleasure, when we are in suffering, and we hear and believe the Creator is Good and Does Good. And to be next to Him, in His presence, is infinite pleasure. What's the problem? Let's get into Him or enter His palaces, how can we stay, and enjoy, right? That's what you're asking?
So the matter is, to come closer to Him is possible only through equivalence of form. That is, I can enjoy, but under the condition that I will receive these other vessels that I have now, and in the new vessels I'll enjoy. I want to enjoy now. I'm told buddy, don't be a child. You cannot enjoy like you think now, the way you want now, the way you're dreaming of.
This will never happen. But I want to enjoy now in what I think is good for me. Correct. But with this you'll never be able to enjoy. Well, if not, then not. So what do you want from me? For me to change my desires to other desires I'll enjoy?
You know, it's like a little girl is playing with her doll, and that's the example from Rabash, and she wants to enjoy the doll. She's given a baby, mommy lets her, gives her little girl the baby and says, hey, watch over it. Here's a pacifier and all that you do with your doll.
And she says, what do you want? With the doll I enjoy, and with this little small child, baby, I don't enjoy. But mommy can engage with that. I have pleasures of my own. Mama, mom has her own, it's a, you can't say it's more real, it's not real, more correct. Its for me pleasure. We’re done? No, you'll replace your desire with another desire, and then in the other desire you enjoy.
But if I don't have another desire for the time being, how can I, how can I be similar to Him? How can I, how can I depict Him? I'm told like this, I want to play in the yard, soccer, hide-and-seek with the kids, and mommy gives me blows, she's yelling at me, why am I not sitting and studying, and I need to study, and to be a big man, and then I will be able to enjoy some life.
I'm enjoying life right now in the yard with my friends playing soccer. What do I need? I don't understand what she's demanding.To replace the desires, and then the desires that I'll have for science, for music, for all kinds of things, then I will enjoy. What if we were told that with the same desires for hide-and-seek and for soccer, I will enjoy later. Just invest now. Let’s say, five years in this I understand, then I invest, because the desires are before me, the pleasure I can see, understand.
But I'm told also the desire I need to replace, that's the problem. They think there's some kind of problem with education. What problem could there be with education?
But you're saying to a person, you'll change your desire. It's something completely different. To change the Kli, and in the new Kli enjoy, it's completely changing my entire reality.
Now the teachers understand this, and also the students understand this. That's why our life is like that. That's why humanity is constantly failing with education. Look how much waste is going on.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:23) We said that in the barrier, even if it is in order to receive, it doesn't matter what it's in order to bestow, we need to develop the desire, our desire to receive and acquire the Creator.
M. Laitman: We also before the barrier, you're saying we're before the barrier and we're in a desire to receive. So if so, me, as I'm learning and doing all kinds of actions in order to receive spirituality. I begin to want him to receive in order to bestow. Or I have some matter of in order to bestow. How will I advance? How was I a few years ago and how now? Today, relative to several years ago, can I say my desire to receive is bigger, my desire to bestow is bigger? Well, you tell me. In what was there a change made? Well, you're already here for a few years. I'm asking, did you become in a bigger desire to see if you want to swallow more of the whole world?
Do you want pleasures that you didn't think about before? Now you want ships, airplanes, I don't know, build some buildings to buy? I don't know. Yes, castles, islands, I don't know what's there. No, there is no such thing. So in what has your desire to receive grown?
On the contrary, you're sitting, you're willing to be satisfied with less. You don't want corporeality. Do you want spirituality? Well, you want a little spirituality, but is that considered that you grew?
I'm
asking
you,
where
and
in
what
discernment
do
we
need
to
feel
until
“it
doesn't
let
me
sleep?”
In
the
big
cruel
desire
to
receive,
or
towards
the
desire
to
bestow?
Question
(Petah
Tikva
Center):
(55:00)
You
know,
I
think
the
will
to
receive
is
becoming
greater,
but
what
we
see
in
the
will
to
receive
is
that
there
is
what's
there.
It's
no
longer
considered
something
worthwhile
achieving.
And
what
is
spirituality?
What
is
in
order
to
bestow?
We
don't
yet
know
it,
but
we
want
to
receive
something
that
we
don't
know
yet
what
it
is.
M. Laitman: Meaning, maybe you're answering correctly. I'll give an answer. Our desire to receive becomes greater. However, it is protected in us with the fact that we don't want to use it. My will to receive, and I don't feel it today, is to grab and swallow much more of the whole world than it was before. And with that I don't need it. They can make me today the manager of all the banks in the country. I don't know, let's say. I have no desire for this.
And even if I will have to work on this, I will work on it like a regular job, just like I'm digging there and working on the construction on the roads. That is, we don't feel that the bodily, beastly desire in us is growing.
With that in parallel to it, the desire to bestow grows. Called a grace from above, where I'm willing more, and more, and more, I appreciate more and more. What is bestowal? I don't know what that is, but I appreciate it more. I value it more.
And this against that grows in me, both together. The desire to receive, which I don't feel any attraction in, it's already covered in me with the recognition of this grace from Kedusha.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:27) Yesterday, I was asked, why do you want to bestow? I didn't know. I didn't know where it comes from or why.
M. Laitman: So why do I want to bestow? I don't know, but the reforming light comes and begins to give me importance to this. It's not that I really want to bestow already, but it already gives me a certain importance that it's still not my nature.
My nature in order to bestow will be only after the barrier. But I start to appreciate this thing, and that I don't have it. It's like a mother, finally, she drips it to you like that and says, oh, you're going to be a great doctor. You know what a Jewish mother is? My son needs to be a surgeon.
Let's say, that's one of the imaginations, the coveted imagination for a mother. So eventually, a child begins to understand that it's good to be a surgeon. It would be good to be a doctor. He doesn't yet know how he will get there, but he starts agreeing and appreciating that state, that status. And he starts to understand that in this state, it might be good for him. He still plays hide and seek and soccer in the yard.
But when mommy says to him that it's worthwhile to replace the desire for soccer to a desire to be a great doctor, it already somewhat illuminates for him a little against that status of being a great doctor. And he feels that this is something good.
Student: Where does it come from?
M. Laitman: This comes from the study. When we're in the study, want or not, like it or not, even if we don't want. We are inviting upon ourselves the surrounding lights. From that, the desire for spirituality is somewhat depicted for us and begins to gradually have some value. And against that - the desire for corporeality.
There, where everyone is running around, even if I had the possibility, as if there's no desire for this, but it exists, it's just covered. It's covered with a spiritual correction.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:10) Why is it specifically despair that brings a person to appeal to the Creator? Why is it despair that brings a person to turn to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Why despair brings a person to a Creator? Because a person who is an egoist and is in his desire to receive that governs him, he feels that he is capable. I shall govern, I shall reign. And only after he understands that he's not capable, and that the desire to receive is actually to his detriment, he starts again the desire to receive and reveals the Creator. And this is where we say that he asks the Creator to correct him, to change him. By a person discovering that the will to receive is his nature, it gets clarified to him that he's not capable of doing anything with it. There's nothing to do with nature.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:08) You said, right now, you said that the person is despaired, then he turns to the Creator. If so, I want to continue what he asked. We need to get to equivalence of form. What's the connection between this moment of despair, when a person turns to the Creator, and the creation of that, of equivalence of form?
M. Laitman: There's no connection between the plea to the Creator and the appeal of the Creator to a person, where a person then changes after his address. Because the action of the Creator is made in his disconnect from a person's request. You turn to Me and ask. I give you the strength that corrects and changes you. The connection is just that this causes that. No more than that. It's just this brings forth that, or causes that. It's not that a person with his might operates something. Only with his request he activates the force of the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:19) You said that the person, whether he wants to or not, he invites, draws surrounding light. How can I draw surrounding light without wanting it?
M. Laitman: Even a person who studies books and does not concentrate on the intention to evoke the surrounding light upon himself, but because he's suffering.
Nevertheless subconsciously expects something from the book. It’s considered that he is drawing upon himself surrounding light. That's what I was asked yesterday. And what do you want to bestow so much by spreading out all the… Yes, I'm giving such an advertisement to the wisdom of Kabbalah.
Why does everyone need to study? Well, I won't read for them from Baal HaSulam that accordingly we need to open seminaries and what will it help them to read this? For them, Baal HaSulam is not some upper mind that we need to accept, work, serve, and then only understand.
So I explain to them that each of us, when he, just like that, reads real books, to the extent as he invests in it, he draws upon himself surrounding light from that degree in which the book was written. And then, although each of us draws these forces a little, but because there will be, let's say, millions that will read this, then from above, from the upper world, a lot of surrounding light will come to this world.
And if not in quality, then at least in quantity, it will give a certain force in which this world will change for the better, faster. That is actually, and it's correct, you understand? Therefore, what's important for us is also what to think about an important thing.
Look, there's an important person, a person who comes at 2:30 in the morning to come to study at three or not.
Today, I'm not capable of thinking about anything, to give forth labor, to put out the intention. I'll probably sit and fall asleep in front of the book. Nothing will happen. It's prohibited to say such a thing. Even if you sit in front of the book without any intention and read it like a donkey, maybe you won't be given from above to even enter one word into the mind. That exertion invites the reforming light, and it corrects you. Hence, don't make any calculations here. On the other hand, it's impossible more than three, four hours a day to study. The rest of the hours one must be with the spirit that you received from the book in all the events of your life. Otherwise, you're not realizing what you received. We also need to use…
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:51) During the lesson, should we somehow bring in some thoughts about the group, or is it just me and the Creator?
M. Laitman: I don't understand you. Whether during the lesson, where I seemingly appeal to the Creator, I need to think about the group. We exist in this world. There's a wall between us and the upper world, and the Creator.
From there, all kinds of forces that operate us come from there. We want to improve these forces for them to be to our benefit.
Therefore, the Kabbalists say, you can improve this, how? We write a book for you. In this book, it is written about the spiritual actions that are happening there in that world. And it's written there, we need to go in the desert to make a tent, all kinds of things also, to cut, to do a sacrifice, or maybe it's written a different way, the way the prophets write, or the wisdom of Kabbalah.
This arises to that, descends to that, performs this coupling. It's not important, but it's written, let's say, in Shulchan Aruch, that you need to put on the Tefillin this way or that way. Everyone speaks about spiritual actions. There is no connection to what they're writing to us.
It's some machine somewhere that's working beyond this iron wall that's beyond me, and I have no approach to it.
Especially since we are reading the prayer book of the Kabbalists. Take a little light from here, enter it into there, raise this Sefira to here, mix it with this one, these couplings you should perform. The way it's written in the Siddur, it's even beyond that. These are actions that don't belong to me. Why should I read this? Why should I study books? Those books also, what does it mean that I'm studying or I'm learning? I call spiritual actions and spiritual phenomena what a Kabbalist felt, what he felt. What does it help me if they say, you're re-reading this, a light from above comes to you?
To that same degree, the same stage, he's somewhat, from that place he also sat and wrote. Also now he's writing there. In spirituality, no degree is lost. When I read some sentence here and there from the “Study of Ten Sefirot,” or the words of The ARI.
Here one must understand the inclination towards anterior and posterior. I read what Baal HaSulam says about this, the square means the letters of the Lord. So, either The ARI or Baal HaSulam. I, from that state, like they are sitting and see and feel inside them, in their spiritual vessels, these spiritual phenomena.
I'm turning to that state of the soul called the ARI, that soul called Baal HaSulam, truly in the same status that he's sitting, and what is he sitting? That he is there in the feeling of what he writes as he expresses it through words.
Now, meaning, it's to that soul and to that state that I appeal. What does this give me? I want to receive the force of correction there. And I'm told the soul is there of the Kabbalist, and you are here. Between you there's an iron wall. Nothing moves from here to there or from there to here.
Rather, only a small illumination that becomes the surrounding light. And it's only this light- In Kiddushin, it's written about it, I've created the evil inclination, I've created the Torah as a spice. The reforming light that comes and reforms. It's only about this light.
M. Laitman: (01:10:52) So, I have but one action: to sit by the book and to awaken this light. All the rest of the actions that I'm doing in life here must be aimed, because the moment I'm sitting here by the book, and I'm evoking, awakening the surrounding light upon myself.
So, you're saying, do I need to think here about the group or not? Think about your grandmother, I don't know about who, if it will help you awaken the surrounding light. Make a scrutiny, what is under your authority that can grow the surrounding light for you.
After we learn all the things that they write, those Kabbalists, what they recommend for us to do in order to awaken the reforming light, we see there are two parts in the wisdom of Kabbalah.
One part, which is letters, articles, songs, it could be whatnot. It has to do with awakening a person, and aiming him, preparing him for a state of sitting correctly before the book.
And the second part that's in Kabbalah are these books, these dry ones that are talking about the lights, vessels, Partzufim.
So, through the books, and articles, and letters, and all kinds of music. We're preparing ourselves, and then we open the study material. That is our entire life.
So, we have to bring every state in life, all of reality to a point where it serves me as a motive as the key to increase the surrounding light.
So then, how do I relate to all of reality? Only that way. My home, family, kids, work. Certainly the letters and articles that I read. The friends it doesn't matter what, all of life.
Only to this one point during the study to focus on the quality of the labor, what depends on me here, and what doesn't depend on me.
So, what do I do? So, I turn to those Kabbalists, and I reveal that I only have one free choice. The freedom of will is one: to be impressed by the society. If by the society I will limit my desire during this study. I'll activate it with greater might, then I'll draw more surrounding light on myself. So, it follows that all of the articles and letters even that, and certainly the events of life.
Whatever you say, everything, everything, I have to focus it, assemble it not around something, but only around the society. That only through the society, he says, I can be impressed to increase my desire and my demand for surrounding light.
So, I need a society that only talks about one thing, how can we draw the light that reforms that will correct us. So, I'm looking at group number two talking about how can we do that.
Group number one, not so much already. Some things going on with them today, maybe. Group number four, yes, more, even more. So accordingly, I want to choose the groups and move from one group to another, to the second, to the third, and fourth, it doesn't matter what.
Or the group that I'm in I have to improve it. And if I improve my group, then through improving it, I'm building my desire in the most correct way. You understand? And if the group despairs or falls, then I have an even greater opportunity- because I am now doing the only thing that is at my disposal to do in this world.
In general, to awaken the group for the demanding the correction by the surrounding light. There's nothing more, understand? You have to focus exactly on one point, not escape it.
Then you'll certainly succeed. And from here, I also have to understand, how can we work if we have several groups? You know, you know how an engine works. You have the pistons, the cylinders, one rises, the other one descends. But everyone is spinning the same cylinder that spins the wheels.
Student: The shaft.
M. Laitman: The shaft. Okay. All right. So, that's essentially how the groups should be working. One rises, one goes down. But even when one goes down, when it goes down, it's in order to create the spin. And when it rises, actually, when it rises, it doesn't do anything. The action happens, when it goes down. So, there's a thing in its opposite here. We have to understand this principle and how it works in spirituality. But all in all, everyone is spinning the same wheels. So, we should only relate to a single question: the demand for correction through the book. That's all. If the group awakens me to that, the group is good. If it doesn't, quickly look for a different place. You're wasting your time.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:51) But, during the study…
M. Laitman: During the study, buddy, you have to sit down with your desire to receive reforming light. Now, when you want to receive your surrounding light that will correct you, as if you're working with your will to receive, you want to be corrected. You want it to influence you, right? But that's just one point I've explained to you.
The second point for the surrounding light is that it has to be in order to bestow. If I also think about doing this together with the group, and that all of us together will benefit from it, and that we're working together on that, then you increase both the point of Malchut and the point of Keter. If you're thinking about what does it mean that you're expecting this light to bring you… To bring you what? To bring you fulfillment for your will to receive.
Student: To make the qualities better?
M. Laitman: Improving the qualities. What do you mean by that?
Student: It means that I want the qualities of the Creator?
M. Laitman: You want the qualities of the Creator. Good. So now, how can you want the qualities of the Creator? What does it mean to ask for the reforming light to come? It means asking the quality of bestowal to arise in me, right? That it'll come to me, and dwell in me, and it'll be mine. Yes? So how can I ask for that? If, with that, I depict to myself my bestowal to my group then I can imagine the action of the light upon me.
Then I have a way to demand the true action and not just make calculations of being better off. Come to me. So, I then understand what's the outcome that the light should make, should do in me. Then I'm truly thinking about the light that reforms and not about some bank that will send me a check in order to receive.
You see, so at least something, somewhat in order to bestow which is expressed for us in society.
So, if I don't put the society, my bestowal to society, all my friends together in my request for the light that reforms, then I'm not turning to the light that reforms. I'm turning to someone else. Give me something. Fill me up. Fill my vessels of reception. I'm not expecting to have vessels of bestowal. Understand?
That is, thinking during the study in turning to the Creator for the society is arranging your address correctly. It's like a filter. It's like a kind of mechanism that takes your egoistic plea and gives it somewhat of an altruistic character if you're thinking about from you through the society to the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:28) But to begin with, I built society that they will supply things for me. So, how then during the studies can I think…?
M. Laitman: I don't know what you mean by building society to provide you with things. You have to tell yourself that you are building a society to provide you with forces. And again, what kind of forces? What forces? Of receiving?
Student: Ask for correction?
M. Laitman: Asking for correction. So, how can it be then, that the society will not be included in that? How can it be? How can you have some request from the Creator and you'll be addressing Him on your own?
If you truly want that request to be correct, then you first have to ask for the entire world, then for the whole nation, then for everyone, everyone, everyone, the society, and so on, and then to yourself.
Student: How can I do it if I...
M. Laitman: No, you don't need to do that. But you're told that bit by bit, as you become included with society, incorporated with society, they become so close and dear to you that you can also include them in the request.
Student: So, if society doesn't awaken me, demand to study, so, you said it's not good. You said from such a group to run.
M. Laitman: From a bad group that doesn't awaken you to demand the reforming light, and that demand has to be for the sake of correction. The light, just immediately describe instead of that a force of bestowal, a force of transformation. Not just fulfillment, but transformation.
We have to realize that our improvement means acquiring the screen, the Masach. So, if society cannot provide you with this kind of desires, then you have no choice. Either you improve the society, or you leave it.
Student: So, that's my question. First, I need to invest in it to improve it, and...
M. Laitman: So, invest in the society and improve it. What's the problem?
Student: No, you said to run from them.
M. Laitman: No, it's either this or that. First, you check if you can do something about it. We have some guys here. Where was our friend? He was here in the morning, no? Ah, he's on duty.
Student: He was earlier.
M. Laitman: Okay, there are some guys here, sitting here, and they don't feel like there's a society here that they should delve into. And I'm saying that there's no such thing that the society can never be compatible to the person. The person makes the society for himself, and that's in how much he invests in society. That's how he receives a response from above. It doesn't matter what society. Give me a group of criminals that I can somewhat improve them to want spirituality just a bit. You don't understand how much you can receive through that kind of society. More than all other higher societies of righteous people, I don't know what. Rather, the investment of the person is his vessel and not the stature of the society, and how much they understand. There's nothing to talk about here. Take the beginners who come here. Sometimes, they're on alert, and you'll see how with them, they won't let you rest. They will really want it. So, it doesn't depend on… being a veteran is not considered in spirituality at all. It's not by chance that it's written, "every day shall be as new in your eyes," because every day needs to be as new, because in spirituality, every moment is considered zero, and the calculation begins again, every moment. A degree is a degree that begins from zero, always. I also think we need to move to TES.
Reader: Let's share impressions from the lesson. What are we taking to implement and attempt?
Song: (01:32:43)