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

Daily Morning Lesson: September 13, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. Letter No. 23

Reader: Hello, dear friends. In the first part of the lesson, we'll learn a lesson from Rav from September 25, 2003, based on “Letter No. 23” in “The Writings of Rabash.” We'll read this letter together in the Ten, we have eight minutes, please.

Reading: Letter 23.

Reading: (00:41) Letter No. 23

August 1956, Manchester

To the friends, may they live forever,

I would like to be closer to the friends with the approaching of the new year. We need to strengthen ourselves with confidence that we will be rewarded with the general redemption, that the name of the glory of His kingdom will be revealed over all the earth, and those who are far will hear and come. That is, those who felt they were far from work in pure holiness will be rewarded with hearing, at which time there is unification of doing and hearing, as it is written, “Raises the poor from the dust, lifts the wretched from the refuse.”

It is known that there are two general discernments: 1) mind, 2) heart. When a person tastes the taste of dust in his work, as in, “A snake, all that it eats is dust,” meaning that the taste of Torah and Mitzvot is only that of dust, the reason is that he is poor, that he lacks faith. Also, he falls into a state of “heart,” when the will to receive is for worldly lusts, called “refuse” (garbage), and then he is wretched.

When he regrets it, meaning prays and cries out to the Creator to help him in his plight, what does he yell? “Raise the poor from the dust,” since I am poor and taste the taste of dust, and I am wretched and lying in the refuse, and all because of the concealment of the face that is in the world. At that time we ask of the Creator to deliver us from slavery to freedom.

This is the meaning of one who prays, prays next to the pole. In the Sulam (Ladder commentary), he interprets that the pole means AHP of the upper one that fell into the GE of the lower one. When the upper one raises his AHP, the GE of the lower one rise, as well. It is also written that precisely through the pole the souls rise from world to world, and this is the connection between upper and lower.

We can interpret this according to our way, meaning that through the fall of the Kelim (vessels) of the upper one to the place of lower one, meaning that if the lower one feels the Katnut (smallness) of the upper one, this is the meaning of “Israel that have exiled, the Shechina (Divinity) is with them.” That is, the Shechina is also in exile with them, and it is called “Shechina in the dust,” namely that the Torah and work taste like dust.

When a person regrets the exile of the Shechina, meaning when the Shechina is not in exile, but hides for Israel and agrees that the lower one will speak of the upper one everything he is meant to say, and the lower one speaks this way because he feels this way.

When he regrets it and prays from the bottom of the heart to raise the Shechina from the dust, by that the upper one reveals himself to the lower one in his full Gadlut (greatness). At that time the lower one, too, ascends.

It follows that this is the abovementioned pole, meaning specifically through that pole the prayers rise from world to world, meaning from revealing to more brightness. This is why we need to pray specifically next to this pole.

By that we will understand why Rosh Hashanah (beginning of the year) and Yom Kippur are regarded as good days (festivals) although they are judgment. Judgment relates primarily to the wholeness that appears on those times. There is fear of the outer ones, that one might come into self-reception in mind and heart. This is why we must increase the awakening for repentance.

Repentance means returning the desire to receive into being a desire to bestow.

By this we return to adhesion with the upper source and are awarded eternal Dvekut (adhesion). At that time we can receive the wholeness that appears on the terrible days (ten days of repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) because the nourishments are allotted on Rosh Hashanah (the beginning of the year), meaning that the light of Hochma and wholeness and clarity appears.

However, we must prepare Kelim (vessels) that will be ready to receive, meaning the light of Hassadim that we must draw. This is the repentance and awakening of the Rachamim, as in “As He is merciful, be you merciful,” since then we will be able to receive all the wholeness in purity.

This is the reason why it is considered a good day, due to the appearance of the wholeness. This is also the meaning of “Blow the Shofar (festive horn) at the new moon, at the full moon, on our festive day.” The word Shofar comes from the word, Shapru (improve) Maaseichem (your works), since now there is a cover for the moon, meaning concealment.

I could not elaborate due to the approaching of the festival, and I wish you good writing and signing.

From your friend who sends you regards and all the best,

Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag

Reader: We'll go to a lesson from September 25, 2003. 

M. Laitman: (08:41) What do we hear from this letter? That specifically when a person is in a state that doesn't seem like it to him, that the spiritual world is pulling him, drawing him in, that the Creator has revealed to him that it's good in a higher degree — specifically in a state where a person cannot see the good future, that's the state where the upper one is turning to the lower one. Specifically in that state a person should understand there's no other connection between the lower one and the upper one except for when the AHP of the upper one rests in the Galgalta ve Eynaim of the lower one. That's how they give a feeling to the lower one. Only to decipher this feeling correctly, to explain to himself what's going on, that is something a person now needs to rise to and do. 

To explain to himself that from this point on, all his steps will be towards activating this column, this pole between the Creator and Malchut of Ein Sof. It's true that if the AHP of the upper one is revealed to the lower one as dark, then the lower one, accordingly, naturally, can say from his heart, from his feeling bad things about the upper one’s governance, providence, its behavior, the fact that the upper one exists and is ruling all over reality. But the fact that a person can say one thing or another does not change the condition by which the upper one cannot be revealed to the lower one under any other circumstances. Regardless of the feeling of good or bad it's the will to receive. These two feelings can exist in him. And the good feeling, to fill him, to give him a good feeling, the upper one can't do it, because by that it will lower the lower one to a beastly degree, and the lower one will always remain subordinate to the feelings and its vessels, and will never be able to rise above the feeling. 

Rather in order to allow, to enable the lower one to rise above the feeling in the vessel of reception and determine a different attitude to the upper one, not according to bitter and sweet but according to true and false, then to that end the upper one must conceal himself. And by that, it's helping the lower one skip from the unpleasant feeling and be connected to the upper one, because the upper one is the upper one, because the upper one is in the quality of bestowal compared to the lower one. And to respect that value, to be adhered to that, to want that, to truly ask for, to pray for it — that is what the lower one has to come to.

M. Laitman: (13:22) And because it's not biased, it's not under some good feeling from the upper one, he now has the possibility of working on the attitude toward the quality of the upper one, or to work on the intention, as we call it, and not on the feeling. This is that sharp turn, that crucial, fateful turn the created being needs to take. Or by that instead of connecting to himself, to his own vessels, to see what he's got in his vessel he sees instead, he determines his state according to the quality of his connection with the upper one. How much he's compatible with the upper one with the intention to bestow. In the upper one bestowal is a quality; in the lower one bestowal is an intention. And according to the level of their equivalence, there's a connection between the Galgalta ve Eynaim of the lower one, which is the intention, on top of its AHP, its true vessels, and  AHP of the upper one, which are the qualities of the upper one, the qualities of bestowal of the upper one. To reach the feeling of that state is bad because of lack of filling in the vessels, and then to decide that I don't wish to be dependent on the fulfillment. Rather, I want to be dependent on the intention to bestow my attitude toward the upper one. 

To bring himself to a state where I'm asking for this attitude to be according to the compatibility between Galgalta ve Eynaim and AHP, to have the intention to bestow just as the upper one has the quality to bestow to me, the desire to bestow to me, this is the work of man that belongs to what he checks during the ten terrible days. And when he determines this attitude, it means that he determines the connection in the pole between him and the upper one, and this is called Rosh Hashanah. 

This is where he determines the correct point of connection and then all the rest of the actions will be about the development of this connection, the strengthening of this connection. As Rabash says elsewhere, that in Rosh Hashanah it's already determined how many good days will be, how much rain will come down, and how many other states and conditions will be. But a person determines in what way he will realize it, and by that he determines the effectiveness or the efficiency of the year. Meaning, how much you will grow, how much you will attain throughout the year.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:31) How can he grasp that point when he begins to work, when he needs to come out of the darkness? 

M. Laitman: How can the lower one, instead of being immersed seemingly, inside this bad feeling, understand that this feeling comes to him intentionally, deliberately, from above so he would relate not to the feeling but to the connection with the upper one above the feeling? Instead of feeling only bitter and sweet, I feel good or I feel bad in the vessels of reception, he should feel that he belongs to true and false, to be able to rise above, to disconnect, to sever his connection with bitter and sweet and move to a connection with true and false to take himself out of the heart and to cleave to the mind. How can the lower one do it? Not with his own strength. He is not capable of changing his attitude, because he dwells in a feeling and he can come out of the feeling only with the help of some external reason. 

With a teacher and the books, the society, but something that's not in him. Because he is in a feeling and the feeling is bad, that's it. I'm in despair, helplessness, I simply have nothing in this life, in this method or anything. I want to just finish with all those things, and I'm better off dead. I just want to come out of the feeling. So he can come out of the feeling either in the direction of down, meaning to make all kinds of actions that will make him feel good, tasty, pleasant, sweet. Or he can — and that's only with the help of the upper force that will give him the appreciation, the reminder for why is this happening, and then he won't be able — not to go down, to feel good and to look for all kinds of ways to do it, but rather to use the bad feeling to rise higher above, to look for the intention, to look for the connection with the upper one. 

In spite of my feeling I have to reach now a state of joy where I'm connected to the upper one. The upper one is giving me a bad feeling so that I would connect to Him in a different format altogether where both of us appreciate the state of bestowal, the state of spirituality. Here, to go from the feeling to the intention. This is not something a man has the power to do. Rather, he needs some external help. To the extent that he prepared in advance his connection with the society, with the books, with the teacher, to the extent that he invested in them accordingly he can later receive support. It says, “a prisoner cannot break himself out of prison.” He can't, he's unable to do it, he has that feeling, but he can't do it. 

Rather, time is passing until the upper one helps him from above, or books and authors. The most beneficial is the society. In society, there are all kinds of processes going on, connections that change, various goals and actions people engage with. Now through that, each one of us will pay attention about the other. We pull each other up through this physical participation, and by that we give each other the feeling of importance of bestowal. To some extent, we remind the person about the goal, so he won't stay immersed in a bad feeling. But it's great work.

M. Laitman: (23:00) Unless a person determines this in permanence, meaning above the barrier, this is called concealment. This is the concealment, when the Creator conceals Himself behind a bad feeling that He gives to a person, but this feeling comes from showing him bestowal, the measure of bestowal instead of pleasure. Meaning, He can show a person pleasures, and He can show a person qualities of bestowal. And in that, He helps us to prepare ourselves to be dependent on, connected to His degree of bestowal, and not the pleasures that come from Him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:00) In this regard, what does it mean to cross the Machsom, the barrier? 

M. Laitman: To cross the barrier, the Machsom, means to establish the first connection with the Creator, in spite of the feeling that He's giving me. I don't measure it, I can't measure the feeling. So in spite of the feeling, no matter the feeling I establish a connection with Him by grabbing the quality of bestowal. I decided this is the most important thing out of all my feelings, and I want to be in adhesion to that. Meaning through this mutual thing called bestowal, it will be a mutual space between me and Him, and this will be the connection between us. In other words, I determine the upper one as the bestower, when I find in me such a virtue of bestowal, or a certain measure of bestowal. 

Intention is this bestowal on top of whatever bad feeling I have, and I can restrict, as if I have it, or I don't have it, it doesn't matter. Rather, this point of bestowal I raise above all the AHP, as we call it. It's called my Galgalta ve Eynaim. The AHP seemingly does not exist with its feeling, and I feel that I'm connected with the Galgalta ve Eynaim, this point of bestowal, and I'm in it, I'm in the upper one, together with it, like an embryo in the upper one. That's the beginning of the connection with the upper one, and I've entered this pole of degrees where I can go and I can grow in it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:06) Where does the certainty come from that this feeling will no longer control it? 

M. Laitman: Where do you get the certainty that this feeling will never control it? The certainty is only in how I now wish to be in adhesion with the upper one in bestowal. And this point of bestowal, it means that I'm going through the three days of absorbing that drop of semen. I wish to truly adhere to Him in this point, in this discernment, where I and He are bestowing. And for me this is important above all the vessels of reception, whether they feel good or bad, it doesn't matter. And if I can grasp that point, and through it I feel that I'm connected to the upper one and I'm working constantly on grasping this connection as much as possible, and everything that's happening to me. On top of that I try to strengthen, reinforce my connection with the upper one in the quality of bestowal, mine and His. 

That means that I'm adhering that drop of semen to the womb. I am doing this glue, I'm creating it, and I'm starting to develop. And until I attain the degree of the Galgalta ve Eynaim, the degree of bestowal, that it will exist in me, this is called the forty days of creating the embryo. There's already some formation, some creation, or with each and every detail that's revealed, the certain discernment that bestowal is indeed more important than feeling good or bad in vessels of reception. This is called the forty days of creating the embryo. After that, of course there's still danger of abortion, but these are dangers, risks, but it doesn't happen with us. Meaning these risks, these dangers are as the states that I have to go through in order to further strengthen the connection. As I'm going through, let's say, from coarseness level one to coarseness level two, coarseness level three, four.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:47) If in the society we publicize the greatness of bestowal and the Creator, why isn't it felt then the society is advancing out of the greatness, and that it's worthwhile doing?

M. Laitman: I don't know the question. In order to receive? If we will publicize, advertise the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the goal to adhere to the Creator, the greatness of the action of resembling the Creator, meaning in general the quality of bestowal, the measure of bestowal, this category of bestowal. If we make that the greatest, the most important thing, and this is called spirituality.

And outside of that, it's corporeality. And other than these two, there's nothing, right? All the qualities, all the designs, all the states, whatever you say, they exist either in this or in that, either in reception or in bestowal. So if we grow the quality of bestowal grow meaning growing it relative to the quality of reception there's nothing more to say, nothing more to grow. So what are you saying?

Student: It's like they want to say that then we become like the Creator. So what's the difference?

M. Laitman: We'll be whole, we'll feel good, we'll be filled with the light of Ein Sof, we'll reach wholeness, eternity, adhesion with the Creator. You're asking, perhaps, why am I hearing in these words that I, as if I'm, I stand to profit in the vessels of reception. So it's true that you have profit in the vessels of reception, but the question is, are you working to fill them, or are you working to resemble the Creator?

Student: So what's the difference?

M. Laitman: The difference is simple, the intention. Either I'm willing to bestow in order to receive all kinds of fillings in my vessels of reception, or I'm willing to receive, it doesn't matter what, only in order to reach bestowal, so that even my bestowal will help me bestow.

Student: This is the difference?

Student: Now, when we do this, this state, how is it called?

M. Laitman: If we work on the importance of the quality of bestowal above the quality of reception, where reception is naturally important to us, and the importance of bestowal is artificial  I have no flavor in it, no taste, it repulses me, I resent it, I loathe it, I can't hear about it, I feel bad from every point of view, from every aspect. So if we can somehow invert these things, their importance, so that the quality of bestowal will be more important than the quality of reception, this means that I'm rising above my nature, because my nature is to respect reception. This is the meaning of rising above my ego, my nature, because I'm rising in spirituality.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:31) This is called dissemination?

M. Laitman: This is called my internal dissemination toward myself. Or it could be in the group, or in the society, or in the world, it's called dissemination, the dissemination of Kabbalah. Ultimately, we need to bring to the world a simple bit of knowledge: bestowal is more important than reception. Except, if you say it to the world right now, then not that nobody would want to hear it, rather each one will be happy to shut your mouth, because it's not pleasant to talk about it. We're even ashamed to talk about it, because it seems so frivolous, so unreal, like a joke. It got such a bad rep with humanity that it's simply, it goes against the evolution of humanity, the development from smaller egoism to greater and greater egoism. We see how these things are simply impractical and impossible to apply. So if you're going out and starting to convince people that it is good, then they cannot take you seriously. They don't see you as a realistic person. It's not acceptable, it's serious, it's practical to bestow with vessels of reception. They can't see any support for this thing from the world, they don't see that it exists anywhere in the world, or that it gives some form of fulfillment. If you’ll say to bestow in order to receive, very well.

Let’s say, I want to be the president of America. I go, I bestow to them, I hand out millions, I shake hands, I hug, I kiss, you know, I have this bright white smile. So I know that this is respectable, you know. You see what they say, “I love you, I want to do good to you, I want to deliver my life to you.” And hears it and loves him, and they respect it. Why? Why do they respect it? Why do they respect this form of bestowal? It doesn't obligate them. 

On the contrary, it fills their vessels, and also they know that this is his desire. The will to receive supports it. That's it. Now what? When we speak of true bestowal, without any profit to the will to receive, for the will to receive not to be filled? There's no support in such a will to receive. That's why we cannot come and bestow. Meaning, we cannot disseminate this idea on the street. That's why Maimonides writes that you should not reveal it, only slowly, gradually, until they grow and grow wiser, with greater wisdom, then you reveal to them this secret. Understand, it’s a secret. Why is it a secret? Because relative to my will to receive, it's a secret of what it means to bestow. If I will discover it, I will run away from it very quickly. I will do whatever I can do in this world to not think about it, and it's worse than any torture.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:36) Once you said that you can't go and start talking to the entire world just so…

M. Laitman: That's why we need to go and disseminate in a way that will be acceptable to the will to receive. I remember before my very first lecture in Tel Aviv, I asked the Rav, Rabash, how do I explain to them, what is this, why is this? He says, you will read the definition of what is the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is the revelation of the Creator to the created beings in this world, and you explain to them that it brings them good, all the good that they wish to hear. What is good, right? One will acquire a good job, the second one will get married, the third will have this beautiful bestowal, will take a walk in the spiritual world, will have great excursions there, see all kinds of things. Everyone will see that it's good. Of course it's a lie, it's true, but it's a beneficial lie. You are bringing a person a little closer to what is called Kabbalah. It's not Kabbalah. You're telling him lies about Kabbalah, but he's willing to continue to hear. So, what? Each time you're going to tell him a lie, and each time he's going to hear not about Kabbalah but how you're deceiving him about this concept of Kabbalah? True, but for the time being, the surrounding light influences him, and the surrounding light arranges him. Surrounding light, you open a book and you simply wish to know and connect and to get all the good from the book. That's what you think. Like it or not, want it or not, you're thinking this way, that's how your machine is working. 

But by drawing the surrounding light, the surrounding light arranges the will to receive for you in such a way where inside of it there's this new, there's this blemish, something from the will to bestow. And then you're willing to hear a little bit about the will to bestow. So you see, after a few years, you're ready to sit and discuss, not for myself, but for others, what will it give me. Then a person is starting to be able to tell himself, to give himself the answer, that it will probably fulfill me. He's thinking, nevertheless, using the concepts of reception, in terms of reception, but he agrees the filling from the action of bestowal is a perfect kind of filling. 

That's how they begin to think. That's what I see in the group, that if we'll be truly in bestowal and not think of ourselves no matter what, only to bestow, that will give me a feeling of wholeness. That's bestowing in order to receive, but he's willing to hear about this kind of state, that if I will be in it, it will be good. Now, let's continue a few more years. There is no other choice, but this is progress. Why does it happen in this way? 

Because inside our will to receive, there's something from the will to bestow, something that's willing to agree that it will be disconnected from reception, disconnected from everything, that it will give everything away. He feels that this will ensure his existence. He will exist, because the will to receive, typically, if he needs to imagine bestowal and giving, he feels that he's got nothing left. He feels himself being annulled, and I'm absent. That's what I'm not capable of hearing. It's against my being, the quintessential point of who he is, the "I" of the person. But here, because inside the will to receive there's a drop, this drop of semen of the will to bestow, he's willing to hear. It doesn't seem like he's about to get cancelled even after bestowing and giving. He's got a feeling that after this action, where he will truly disappear, he will feel some fulfillment. Where? How come? Where is this fulfillment from? It's already a little bit in the vessel of bestowal that is now being formed in us, right, you can say. He's willing to think this way, and it doesn't feel like he's disappearing in that completely. That's progress.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:55) So how can we tell a person that truly this action is, as you once said, is like performing the action of Seppuku or Harakiri, killing oneself, but he'll feel good from that later?

M. Laitman: A person sees the benefit, the reward that he gets compared with the punishment, the exertion, the suffering. Today, that's already buy and sell, it's something that you can exchange. We exchange suffering for health, Clearly. So these things, they are received within the desire to receive. 

We always need to judge with what vessels do we feel, think, talk, judge. If it's inside the will to receive — to suffer less, to suffer more, gain more, gain less — all that is acceptable. I can go out, talk to everyone. What does the prime minister say? We will now suffer in the upcoming year, and then there will be growth and flourishment in a year. How come he can say something like that, that now we'll suffer, we'll have a difficult year? He's showing them a reward, and of course, for a reward you need to pay. It's clear to us. That goes without saying. Someone who does not pay for the reward is called a thief. But he shows them that it will happen. So this way, you can give an explanation as to what is the wisdom of Kabbalah, and of course then you will be accepted correctly. No one will think that you're a liar. If you'll say, guys, in a second I gain a million dollars, I make a million dollars, and I promise whoever joins me you'll have that in a second, no one will think that it's true. To the contrary, this is something that we see from how the serpent comes and how he seduced Eve. From that we can learn how do we need to work with our will to receive. Really the entire wisdom there is how to turn to himself and the public, and to gradually convince the will to receive that it is worthwhile doing, and afterwards to work at it that he'll really want it, through the surrounding light. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:05) When they shine this reward slowly, what will be the revelation? 

M. Laitman: The secret is revealed to them gradually, bit by bit, that the will to bestow, the measure to which the will to bestow is disconnected from the will to receive, and the measure to which, and the extent in which in the will to receive he'll never have any kind of fulfillment.

Student: And they show a person in a feeling, right? They don't tell him.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:45) Is there a way about this AHP of the upper one, that I can't initiate a connection with a friend. There has to be something…

M. Laitman: There's no connection to the AHP of the upper but through my Galgalta ve Eynaim. Meaning that the AHP of the upper is influencing me now and is not connected with my Galgalta ve Eynaim, but connected with my AHP. Then I feel from the AHP of the upper that his qualities are to bestow, this is what he wants, and I feel bad as a result. Why? The AHP of the upper needs to provide me with plenty and abundance. The AHP of the upper does provide me with plenty and abundance: life, everything, enlivenment, once he is not in a process where he wants to raise me to his level. So he provides me with plenty, abundance, beastly life. So I live in this world, and I feel better, I feel worse, but I get fulfillment from the AHP of the upper, from my AHP. Once the AHP of the upper  wants to increase my Galgalta ve Eynaim, to develop them, there he no longer relates to my AHP, but to the contrary. He hides his fulfillment from my AHP, beginning to show it, me, instead of the pleasures from its AHP, the quality of its AHP, the quality of in order to bestow. And then I suffer from both. From that I'm not getting pleasures from him in my AHP, and in that, besides it, he's showing me the form of bestowal. This form of bestowal, it comes inside the feeling of his empty AHP. There are two types of influences working on me here, and bit by bit, by that, I learn, I have no choice. I begin to receive from these blows the understanding that I have to relate not to the fulfillment, but to the quality of in order to bestow. I can get further into it, but I mean, the way that the AHP of the upper one then works, and how exactly is it arranged then, talks about it, that the Malchut only has the surrounding lights that it has, but it's not… We'll get there. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:41) When a person is in a descent…  

M. Laitman: he writes about it in the preface to Panim Meirot, the “Introduction to the Panim Meirot,” about the four angels, how we work with the influence of the upper. 

Student: When a person is in a descent, now I know I have to go into joy, he says. So he makes a sharp turn. The question is, if during this transition he didn't lose any discernment, scrutiny, questions. What's happening with all these stages you have to go through toward that stage of joy? Doesn't he lose anything?

M. Laitman: What's the question?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:25) A person is down below. Now we say that he has to always be in joy, so he is immediately transitioning to a state of joy. During this state of transition, wouldn't he lose out on, miss out on discernments, questions, scrutiny, through which he would reach that same state of joy? 

M. Laitman: If a person's not in joy, does he lose anything as a result? Joy is a sign that I'm in consent with the upper, what I receive from Him. I always receive only from Him. If I am in joy in relation to what I receive from Him, that means that I'm in consent with Him. I feel good as a result of receiving from Him, I think well about Him, speak well about Him, I bless Him. That is a sign of joy. Rabash writes that you can always cause your friend joy. How? By, in his eyes, appreciating spirituality that we're tied to. We feel good, we feel bad as a result, doesn't matter. 

If you increase the importance of spirituality in the friend, for the friend, then truly you cause him joy by it. If he felt joy and you increased spirituality in his eyes, then he is even more joyful. If he had no joy because he felt nothing in spirituality, and you raised the importance of spirituality for him, then he is in a transition from sadness to joy still. 

Meaning, only by increasing the importance of spirituality do you bring joy to the friend, and also to yourself the same. In other words, in the measure to which the Creator, whose our only partner that's in front of us, is more important in my eyes, in the measure to which the importance of whom I'm engaged with is greater, then I feel joyful, because I'm with the great one, I depend on Him, He's eternal. As a result, I have a sense of security, fulfillment. We have nothing else to be in connection with, a scrutiny, but with the Creator and the measure of His importance in my eyes. What else is there? There isn't anything besides it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:41) You said that when the upper one bestows to us, it also gives us the feeling of emptiness, it doesn't fill us. And also, in addition, the quality of bestowal. The feeling of emptiness that we seemingly feel, how to feel a little bit of that state of bestowal, this quality inside?

M. Laitman: How to feel from the Upper these two forms of relation toward me, that He is empty from filling my vessels of reception, and that He and His quality toward me is bestowal? 

First of all, there's a question here: why doesn't the upper relate to me as the host does toward the guest? That He’ll show me that He's willing to give me everything, and that I really enjoy Him, and that my entire life and all the fulfillments that I can imagine to myself, it's all in Him, and He's willing to provide me with everything, and He loves me limitlessly. This degree, this is really the final degree that we attain, the good and the benevolent, or the good and the bad, eternal, unconditional love. That's already the end of the path. But why not relate to us this way right now? And then, inside this relation He'll awaken in us shame that we don't relate to Him this way, but only, you know, to grab from Him, and that's it, for ourselves. That from this mutual relationship we will immediately feel shame, restriction, we'll do what we want from the Kli to do, according to what the upper feeling, the upper as giver, lover, both in terms of actions and what you feel. It's terrible, right? But through that, we'll reach good things. Why doesn't He arrange our relationship in this way? 

The matter is simple: that if he will arrange the relationship between us in this way — and really this is the right, correct relationship, that that's how it really is inside, only He hides it. But if He discloses it, then all of my actions will come from the will to receive in a natural way, without any ability to insert anything from myself, from my free choice. Surely I will follow whatever He reveals to me in this way, necessarily. He shows me that He loves me, I'm drawn to it. He shows me that He gives me the fulfillments that I experienced, that He'll be the greatest, most important, whole and perfect in my eyes, because He has the fulfillments that I depend on. If he shows me that He gives from the bottom of His heart, and I'm the receiver, and I'll feel shame, and I'll want to get rid of it in the measure to which He reveals to me that I'm the receiver and He's the bestower. Meaning, all of my actions will be necessitated by the will to receive, and then it's not going to be me. It is the will to receive that He has created that works this way. Obviously, that is how it behaves. The fact is that this is how it behaves, from the Malchut of Ein Sof and on. So, this way, there's no created being. There's that will to receive created by the Creator that goes through all these metamorphoses, and that's that. It's the degree of the still, the vegetative, and the animate.

M. Laitman: (58:10) And even if I will want to be like the host, then I'll want to be like the host, right? The will to receive will force me to. It's like from Behina Aleph comes Behina Bet and the four phases of direct light. Does it say there that the created being does something? No. The light that works and discloses inside the pleasures that it bestows, then automatically, simply, there's no choice in the will to receive. It builds the will to bestow, and Behina Bet comes from Behina Aleph, one after the other. There's no miracle here. The miracle is how to make it that I will make these actions. How will it cause them to happen? Out of my own free will my relation, if it will not depend on my will to receive, then it is called Adam, that really I resemble myself to the Creator. But if it is what the will to receive will naturally want, there's no man here. It's simply a beast. 

Therefore, the Creator is not revealed to us the way He was revealed in the four phases of direct light, in a way that He feels and then He shows Himself as the landlord and you will be ashamed,  No. He cannot. He will create in you all the actions. You have to summon all the actions within you in a way that the will to receive doesn't participate in them, doesn't feel fulfillment, doesn't appreciate the host, doesn't feel Him, doesn't know that He is giving, that He loves. And you will build the image of the host, that He loves you and is full and complete and eternal and everything that He has, which you, when you build it in your imagination, the way He really exists, but you will depict the host in front of you by yourself. If you do it, it will be considered that you are creating the Creator. 

The Creator created man, and man creates the Creator. Meaning a person establishes before him the image of the Creator, each time higher than he himself is, more sublime, more giving, and he then compares himself and tries to make himself similar to that image. And he depicts to himself an even higher image, and kind of pulls himself higher up, lifts himself to that degree that he imagined, etc. And this is called a person's work. A person is doing it, and not that the Creator is playing with his will to receive and it's done by itself. 

So there's a very important matter here of choice, which is actually man's. Because when we talk about the drop of semen that develops and then it comes out into external activities and then independent activities, activities of its own, it all talks about the point of choice, the point of my relation to the quality of bestowal, to the Creator, which is not dependent on my will to receive, not dependent on pleasures. This is why all those examples that Baal HaSulam gives are examples we have to read correctly. It's not like they exist in this way.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:38) They accelerated something which is more coarse, terrible to the will to receive, than the present point. How can you want something which is much more dark? 

M. Laitman: How can a person want the next degree, which is more disconnected from the will to receive, darker than the will to receive? It's more death than the will to receive. How can a person want it? He cannot. By your own question, you're answering the question. He cannot.

Student: How can he imagine it?

M. Laitman: How can he imagine it the way it is itself? He cannot. Not the way it is in itself. What can he do? There's nothing he can do. He can only imagine each time better, nicer states in Lo Lishma, not for Her sake, that he will get some benefit out of it, that he will get something good, where the matter of Lishma, for Her sake, is included in it to some extent, so he will get the surrounding light. And the surrounding light does the action. The surrounding light creates in him, if you can put it this way, creates in him, generates in him the vessels of bestowal. 

In other words, light, as from the first phase one to phase two in the four phases of direct light, still operates in the will to receive and in the will to receive builds the desire to bestow. But it comes from a person's approach to this. That a person wants it to happen this way. And a person wants it to happen bit by bit, as it's called, from not for her sake, we come to for her sake, when his intentions become more and more toward appreciating the giver as opposed to the receiver.

Student: So, he knowingly uses his will to receive, his qualities. He deliberately says, okay, I'm now going to lie to it now, tell it that it's going to be better, and enter into it and from within it see it. 

M. Laitman: A person uses wisely within his will to receive in order to get to it, to the will to bestow. This is called the maidservant serving her mistress. Yes, of course. How else?

Student: How can you keep the point?

M. Laitman: The difference between the maidservant and the mistress is the intention. It's the same vessels.

Student: How does he keep that point, which is what is important, when he's already inside, inside the will to receive. He already enters into it, and yet he keeps that point of observation, the point where… what is that for? 

M. Laitman: How does a person make sure that in his will to receive he thinks that he still wants to reach bestowal, the Creator or something? It's only according to the appreciation of the society and the investment he's made before, so he has a preparation for it, and in his own preparation. When he gets into it, he gets into it with intention from before, and the Creator helps by not giving pleasures, by giving emptiness. How else? 

The process in the end is very simple. It's hidden from us precisely because of its simplicity. It is so kind of present in front of us that we see past it. We don't see it. It is that revealed and simple, but by this, it is concealed.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:25) You said before that it takes a few years until this opinion is established in the society.

M. Laitman: But it takes us several years until we agree to hear about the quality of bestowal, that this is actually spirituality, and that there is something in it that will answer all of our expectations. And that quality is really a real quality. And I'm not just giving just like that. You're telling me to give, okay, I'll give, but give me something in return. But rather we agree that in this quality, within it, there is some volume in which it is possible to live, in which I can exist, that myself doesn't disappear by that. So by this, I answered why does ”myself” not disappear? 

Because I've acquired this quality of bestowal, so I have this bubble inside of me. So I think that if I neutralize the will to receive completely, in this quality of bestowal I will still remain. So, I already have the beginning of the vessel of bestowal. What are you asking about that?

Student: And then you said that to advance from here onwards, we will understand that in a few years. 

M. Laitman: So until we are ready today to hear about this quality of bestowal, meaning until this bubble was formed in us, the beginning of this vessel of bestowal, it took several years. How do we know that it took several years and we still made progress? Because today I can talk about it, and agree to it somehow, and read about it. Previously, I couldn't read the article Matan Torah, the giving of the Torah. What is he talking about? Bestowal? Love your friend as yourself? You teach that at kindergarten,   and then everyone understands it's unrealistic and they move on. Thank God we're not socialists anymore. We understand that there are no Kibbutzim anymore. It's all past us already. So, it's as if today I'm willing to return to those articles, to those principles, and accept them as my vocation, as my goals, and study them, and discuss them, and connect them to myself. And even though I understand I cannot tell the whole world about these things, and I'm actually forbidden to tell them, and Maimonides also explains that we shouldn't explain that to people who are not ready: to women, children, and servants in the will to receive. Don't explain it to them, they won't understand it. But those who have a little more wisdom, who already have some inner understanding of the will to bestow, this vessel is forming in them. 

So, accordingly, you can reveal to them that secret. It's actually a secret. This is why now that we started studying the article The Giving of the Torah. There are people who come to it directly and break their stigmas, and enter bestowal as it's called, according to what is written in the article The Giving of the Torah. It’s the first article that Baal HaSulam gave for the dissemination of Kabbalah. So some people can accept it and will work on it, and some people need several years before they return to this article and are willing to listen and tolerate it. 

This is why I said that maybe a year, or two, or three are enough in order to enter spirituality. And sometimes it takes ten to fifteen years before a person returns to this article and is willing to listen, and through it, enter spirituality. It's called a short way and a long way.  

Student: What's past is past. I don't care about that. But now…

M. Laitman: All right. What we went through, we went through. Correct. I know pretty much where everyone is. So, a few more years. No choice. So patience, and a society that can accelerate time. But in the end, if we cannot enter it directly, meaning to take this law, which is the law of all of reality, and really work with it, then after a few years we return to it bit by bit, like Maimonides says. Bit by bit, according to their… when they acquire much wisdom, reveal to them this law gradually, to the extent that they can tolerate it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:32) So now I'm asking about from here onward. I don't want it to take a few more years. I want it now, directly. What does it mean, directly?

M. Laitman:  Directly means you're not running away from this condition, love your friend as yourself, and you begin to understand that love your friend as yourself is the law of the bestowal that the Creator has. And the Creator toward the created beings is in the sentence of, He loves the good and the bad, He's good and does good to the good and to the bad with absolute love, and He doesn't think of Himself. 

So for you, the same law, which is written from the Creator to you, from you toward the world, toward others, is registered as love your friend as yourself. It's the same law of bestowal, which, if you want to be compatible to the Creator, this is how it seems to you. Why? Because there was a breaking in order to allow you to relate to the souls, by which you acquire the quality of bestowal, and by this you make yourself similar and adhere yourself to the Creator. You reach His degree. That's it. 

So if you accept it this way, and you place in all those places the equal sign: bestowal- Creator, love of friends- Creator; - bestowal;- spirituality. 

If you now begin to accept these definitions as one there's nothing but that, reception or bestowal, there's nothing else besides that in all of the spiritual and corporeal reality — and you begin to check your thoughts and actions only according to this, and your calculations, then you are already on a direct line. But if you still cannot connect these things either to reception or to bestowal, then you're not in a direct line. What is a direct line? A direct line means that in the end you have pure bestowal, and in the beginning you have pure reception. Meaning only reception. And the direct line is the shortest way from reception to bestowal. More bestowal than reception, more bestowal than reception, it's built out of dots. If you build your process this way, you are going in the shortest way toward the goal, in a truly straight line. 

So from now on, when you hear these things, as soon as you hear them, you have to develop in the society, to get reinforcements, to build a protective system around it so it doesn't let me run away. Because it will awaken in me, each time it will switch on a red light that I have deviated from the right interpretation, that I am suddenly thinking about spirituality not exactly as bestowal, that spirituality is something pleasant in my vessels of reception. 

Now I need to build an inner system, an external system around me, that will guard me and help me direct myself toward the goal. That's it. That's all my work. I have nothing else but that. So initially, I couldn't hear about it, and I thought that spirituality was worlds. I'll know how to manipulate them once I know how they are built, so I come to it like a machine. And I'll know how to use it, how to control through it myself and the world. 

So now, I'm gradually growing accustomed to seeing the system as something else: as my own internal system, and that from it I influence myself and others if I am in the quality of bestowal. If I'm not in the quality of bestowal, I'm not touching the machine, I'm not influencing it at all. I'm developing only as a beast.

M. Laitman: (01:17:30) To agree to it is possible only if my environment supports it. Now, the environment doesn't have to be as smart as I am. Even if they understand just a little bit and somehow agree, according to their own lie, that's enough. It already supports it, and I can already use my degree, on my level, in order to receive strength and reinforcement from them. Because I never receive from the society bestowal or qualities of bestowal that are revealed. I always receive from them according to how I am built, according to how I am impressed, and according to how I appreciate. 

So, it's enough that the society around me has this ideal, even though it doesn't understand what it is. And in it, I can advance to the end of correction. And the society itself can be very, very much of a novice on the path. And it's written, I learned from all my students, and it's written that a person who achieves corrections sees that the whole world is corrected, and that the whole world is at the end of correction, and the whole world is following the Creator's will. Well, that's already… Why did I say this? In order to say that I have to build the environment towards me, I have to build it from within me.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:33) With this mechanism, we’re going towards this direction, and I always run away from it, I hate it, it's the opposite of me. Like we said before, I use the desires that exist within me. I seemingly put myself into these desires which are not precisely spirituality, but this is how I manage to advance myself, because I cannot go straight in that. 

So, I have a different question. It means that I have some desires that if I will give up on them, I won't have fuel for advancement. I have to leave them, like a donkey that pulls me in this direction, because I can't simply advance directly with this law on the path.

M. Laitman: I don't understand why you're talking about desires in the first place. Leave desires, not leave desires…

Student: What we said before, that this thing itself, this law called bestowal, I cannot go directly towards it. I seemingly have to come down into my will to receive, right? I descend into my will to receive, and I use it so that later on I'll feel better, right? I imagine to myself a state that I'm going towards with this law, and later on I'll feel better.

M. Laitman: So?

Student: So what is this will to receive that I come down to, that I imagine it will be better? It's some kind of a desire, seemingly I can't receive it good, you know, there are certain desires that see better.

M. Laitman: But you're not making a selection inside the will to receive and scrutinize what I use, what I don't use.

Student: So what does it mean to use the will to receive in a controlled manner? You said a person uses his will to receive in a controlled manner in order to advance with this law. What does that mean if it's not to have some selection, some choice?

M. Laitman: I don't remember in what state I said that. I'm not in the same state now. Now, with respect to what I said, I don't know. Maybe if we look at the recording, I'll be able to tell you. Now, no, you're taking some words and not the state itself, so I don't know. I really don't know what to say.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:31) Lo Lishma, how to enter Lo Lishma, and advance, and increase the aspiration towards spirituality?

M. Laitman: So? 

Student: So, seemingly that it would be worthwhile for the will to receive, that it's worthwhile to reach spirituality. 

M. Laitman: A person who is on the way to Lishma, for her sake, is in Lo Lishma, not for her sake. In "not for her sake," there's a little bit of "for her sake." But a person doesn't understand it, and then he understands a little more, and then he even admits it. And then he comes to a state where he prefers to die than to live, because "I'm lovesick." Yes, he gets tired and dies. But while he grows tired, there are two desires here. 

One desire is that I want the giver Himself. And the other desire is that I want the quality of the giver. That I'm no longer lying to myself, that the giver and the quality of the giver is the same thing. What's this about? The Creator is the giver. What does it mean that I love Him? I love Him because He is the giver, or what I get out of Him, that I'm using Him. It's called loving fish. I love the fish here in my throat. It gives me pleasure at the point that feels taste. So, I love the fish when it's here. It's flesh, in my flesh, and then I feel pleasure. This is called loving fish. Or I love… or you can't love fish any other way. It's not something that relates back to you. So, either I feel… or that I feel that I love His quality, the giver Himself, meaning His essence towards me. 

So, Lo Lishma and Lishma, not for her sake and for her sake, is the relation to the Creator through these two points. Lo Lishma means what I get out of Him. Lishma means that I love His quality in itself, the giver, the bestowal. So, we discern that we have a relation towards Him only as a provider of pleasures. This is called Lo Lishma. Then I gradually build — actually the surrounding light builds in me, not me — gradually, my relation to His quality of giving is built in me. 

So in me, Lo Lishma and Lishma are now mixed together. Altogether it's called Lo Lishma, because if we didn't have this Lo Lishma where I receive pleasures from Him, I would throw away that Lishma, for sure. And that's how I advance. Advance in what? In the relation between them, where the Lishma grows bigger and bigger, becomes clearer and clearer, and I want both. I don't want to leave the Lishma. If you tell me, receive one hundred percent from Him, I can't. Why can't I? Through the surrounding light, that bubble is already created in me, that desire to bestow. I still don't know, I'm not aware of it. It doesn't speak in me, but it's somehow already beginning to emerge from within me. And I can't relinquish it, just like any other desire. And then I want this Lishma too. It's against nature. These things are against nature. But the surrounding light does it. It builds in me this bubble. And then I advance, advance, advance, advance, and advance, until I reach the barrier. 

What does it mean that I've reached the barrier? You cannot say with what relation Lo Lishma and Lishma have to be in me. It depends on the structure of the soul. But I come to a state where I want Him. You know what? There's a difference, but ask a man or a woman who loves their partner, the other, yes? 

Baal HaSulam gives this example, so I am permitted to. He says, like someone who's very passionate, I love him. I love him. What do you love about him? Do you love him, or do you love the pleasure he gives you? Ah, both together. I can't tell them apart. There is such a thing. You can't tell them apart? Everything is good about him. What's good about him? He's a thief. He's a liar. "Love will cover all crimes." That's it. When a person comes to that, it's called lusting, passionate; that both for him are the filling, the satisfaction. But which level of satisfaction should be in the bubble of bestowal as opposed to the will to receive? He doesn't know that. He hasn't entered spirituality. But this is what should be in him before the barrier.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:27:07) Now, you said that process is done in a controlled manner by the person when he's going to…

M. Laitman: Ah, wait a minute. He goes into it in a critical way.

Student: He should use the will to receive in a controlled manner, in Lo Lishma, in order to advance towards Lishma, or at least to try. 

M. Laitman: Let's say so.

Student: So, I am asking.

M. Laitman: Did I say so?

Student: You said we seemingly use this donkey. And then the friend asked you, how do we not run away from the intention when we enter into the will to receive? And you said, if a person intends to do it in the beginning, the Creator helps him in that. He leaves him empty. 

So, my question is I see the Creator as a provider of pleasures. I don't see the pleasure. It comes to me in a fluid manner. I see the pleasure coming to me through several channels, through several desires in the will to receive. So, the matter of the desires also comes into play here. That if I have certain desires through which I receive this provider of pleasures called the Creator, or I see it in a general way, it just brings me pleasure. What does it mean in a controlled manner? What does it mean that the Creator is a provider of pleasures? What is a provider of pleasure? Ah, that I'll feel good? Or through certain channels that I see it? I now have a desire that gives me a greater pleasure, and a desires that are… How can I… I mean, is that what it means in a controlled manner?

M. Laitman: The controlled manner is not by how much of this pleasure, how much of that pleasure. A controlled manner means that I want that through it, the will to bestow, that I want the will to bestow to grow in me. I don't relate to this in a controlled way. Pleasures, what kind of pleasures? But when I work in the society, I work in the study, in the books, and in everything in a controlled manner so it will bring in me more relation to His quality of giving rather than expectation of pleasures that I will receive from Him. That's enough for today. You've already received…  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:18) You said before that building the environment is something that is internal, personal, that I do. That in the environment, in truth, it should just be in the right direction, in the direction of bestowal, and the amplitude it doesn't matter. It should be the right direction. And then my work is to build this environment as something internal within me, right? 

M. Laitman: So?

Student: Let's say my friend, he's sitting here and he's doing that same work. Where? Inside of him. But where, what is the mutual bestowal between us in that?

M. Laitman: We bestow upon each other, we influence each other on several levels of connection between us. There's a revealed relationship between us and a concealed one. Because we are not the way we know ourselves. We are also this creature in which there is a part we don't know. 

A soul, bestowal upon the world, the influence, our influence on the world, the world's influence on me. I am in Ein Sof altogether. So where am I, where is my Partzuf? Where is my volume, how much of it do I take? I don't know. It is like a baby who is born. What does it know, what does it understand? But from its position in the world, from its relation in the world, it influences thousands of people, and thousands of people in the world work in order to sustain it. Why? 

Because that's the structure that the Creator created. One just came out to the world was born just now. Look at how many people are running, and thinking, and working for it, and how many people it influences by every time it sneezes. 

So, I don't know myself and my real importance and influence on the world, just like that newborn baby. So, what are you asking about that? 

So I influence, but I do influence, like it or not, just because of the structure itself. So now, in my influence on the society, and on the friends, and our advancement, there are actions by which I influence when I work physically, and everyone sees it and raises L’Chaim for me in everything we do. There are things we do on each other without knowing that we're doing them. We don't know that we are influencing the friends. There are those who do think that they are influencing. 

Recently, we've been talking about how our thoughts operate, and that our main work is thoughts. That there's a reason why Kabbalists forbid talking about the spiritual work between each other. The most we should do is read articles, and the rest of the words we say to each other in private, not through the article or through a general study in the group.  The speaking must be only about kind of idle things. 

Well, not completely idle, but something that doesn't pertain to the inner point in me. And because of it, they say why? So you will know that you're not working with your words. You're operating mainly with your inner desire, with your intention, by how you relate. So, there are several layers, levels of influence of myself on the group, and on society, and on the world. What are you asking about that?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:34:06) I wanted to see how this inner thing that I need to do, how it will bring about the creation of a better environment so that we can realize our choice. If you said that the height of the environment doesn't matter, just the direction should be true, but the height doesn't matter. Or it's disconnected because it's unrelated to the environment. 

M. Laitman: You are touching such grand things. That let's leave it. What we said is enough for you. A general question, after the lesson.

Reader: Now let's share our impressions from the lesson, and what do we take from that to, to implement in the Ten.

Reader: Let's move to the next part of the lesson, and before that, we'll sing a song together.

Song: (01:41:16)