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

Daily Morning Lesson: March 5, 2026

Part 1 Rabash. Concerning the Importance of Friends. 17-1 (1984)  

Original lesson date: 23.05.2003

Reader: Dear friends, in the first part, we will study a lesson from the Rav, from May 2023. It's based on an article “Concerning the Importance of Friends” in the Rabash articles. We'll read it together in a Ten. We have ten minutes for this. Friends, Tens that finish before time, are invited to do a workshop on the major things that they take out of the article.

Reading: (00:31) Rabash. Article No. 17, (1984). Concerning the Importance of Friends

Concerning the importance of the friends in the society and how to appreciate them, meaning with which kind of importance everyone should regard his friend. Common sense dictates that if one regards one’s friend as being at a lower degree than one’s own, he will want to teach him how to behave more virtuously than the qualities he has. Hence, he cannot be his friend; he can take the friend as a student, but not as a friend.

And if one sees one’s friend as being at a higher degree than his own, and sees that he can acquire good qualities from him, then he can be his Rav, but not his friend.

This means that precisely when one sees one’s friend as being at an equal degree to one’s own, one can accept the other as a friend and bond with him. This is so because “a friend” means that both parties are in the same state. This is what common-sense dictates. In other words, they have the same views and thus decide to bond. Then, both of them act towards the goal that they both wish to achieve.

It is like two like-minded friends who are doing business together to achieve a profit. In that situation, they feel that they have equal powers. But should one of them feel that he is more competent than the other, he will not want to accept him as an equal partner. Instead, they would create a proportional partnership according to the strength and qualities that one has above the other. In that state, the partnership is a thirty-three or twenty-five percent partnership, and it cannot be said that they are equal in the business.

But with love of friends, when friends bond to create unity among them, it explicitly means that they are equal. This is called “unity.” For example, if they do business together and say that the profits will not be distributed equally, is this called “unity”? Clearly, a business of love of friends should be when all the profits and possessions that the love of friends yields will be equally controlled by them. They should not hide or conceal from one another, but everything will be with love, friendship, truthfulness, and peace.

But in the essay, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar,” it is written, “The measure of the greatness comes under two conditions: 1) to always listen and receive the appreciation of society, to the extent of their greatness; 2) the environment should be great, as it is written, ‘In the multitude of people is the king’s glory.’”

To accept the first condition, each student must feel that he is the smallest among all the friends, and then he will be able to receive the appreciation of the greatness from everyone. This is so because the greater one cannot receive from the smaller one, much less be impressed by his words. Only the lower one is impressed by the appreciation of the greater one.

And for the second condition, each student must extol each friend’s merit as though he were the greatest in the generation. Then the environment will affect him as a great environment should, since quality is more important than quantity.

It follows that in the matter of love of friends, they help each other, meaning it is enough for everyone to regard his friend as being of the same degree as his own. But because everyone should learn from his friends, there is the issue of Rav and disciple. For this reason, he should consider the friend as greater than himself.

But how can one consider one’s friend greater than himself when he can see that his own merits are greater than his friend’s, that he is more talented and has better natural qualities? There are two ways to understand this:

He is going with faith above reason: once he has chosen him as a friend, he appreciates him above reason.

This is more natural—within reason. If he has decided to accept the other as a friend, and works on himself to love him, then it is natural with love to see only good things. And even though there are bad things in one’s friend, he cannot see them, as it is written, “love covers all transgressions.”

We can see that a person may see faults in his neighbor’s children, but not in his own. And when someone mentions some faults in his children, he immediately resists his friend and begins to declare his children’s merits.

And the question is, which is the truth? After all, there are merits to his children, and hence he is upset when others speak of his children. The thing is this, as I had heard it from my father: Indeed, each person has advantages and disadvantages. And both the neighbor and the father are saying the truth. But the neighbor does not treat the other’s children like a father to his children, since he does not have the same love for the children as the father does.

Hence, when he considers the other’s children, he sees only the children’s faults, since this gives him more pleasure. This is because he can show that he is more virtuous than the other because his own children are better. For this reason, he sees only the other’s faults. What he is seeing is true, but he sees only things he enjoys.

But the father, too, sees only the truth, except that he regards only the good things that his children have. He does not see his children’s faults, since it gives him no pleasure. Hence, he is saying the truth about what he sees in his children. And because he regards only the things that can please him, he sees only the virtues.

It turns out that if one has love of friends, the rule in love is that you want to see the friends’ merits and not their faults. Hence, if one sees some fault in one’s friend, it is not a sign that his friend is at fault, but that the seer is at fault, meaning that because his love of friends is flawed, he sees faults in his friend.

Therefore, now he should not see to his friend’s correction. Rather, he himself needs correction. It follows from all the above that he should not care for the correction of his friend’s faults, which he sees in his friend, but he himself needs to correct the flaw he has created in the love of friends. And when he corrects himself, he will see only his friend’s merits and not his faults.

Reader: Friends, we will now enter a lesson from May 23, 2003.

M. Laitman: (11:28) We heard an article on “Concerning the Importance of Friends,”  where Rabash teaches us how to arrange our relations with the society. A person is born with the desire to receive, which constantly develops in him naturally. And if he wants, under the control of the will to receive, to reach the upper life, the eternal whole life, he must muzzle this will to receive and know how to govern it. Because besides the desire to receive, we have nothing, that's our entire nature. And to receive control over the desire to receive, we can receive it only if we rule it from outside of it. How can I go outside of myself? I can go outside of myself from the will to receive if I receive forces from the outside. That's considered exiting outside the desire to receive. The forces that the desire to receive brings me, it also brings me my intellect and how I will use the desire to receive in a manner that is as beneficial as possible for me. And if I were to advance in such a way, then I'll be inside this world in a manner that's more and more connected to this world, and I understand that the desire to receive, according to its development, brings me more and more troubles. If the desire to receive according to its development, just like when I was a child and I had a small desire to receive, and I can fill my desire to receive with games and all kinds of pleasant things, interesting things, and the society was arranged this way, and my parents, and I had it good. Because what I wanted, you could say, I received. But the world is arranged such that the desire to receive, when it begins to grow in size and quality, it begins to demand things that the society and nature are not meant to supply to him, whatsoever. It turns out that the more the desire to receive grows, after a certain degree, I start to suffer from it and not enjoy it, to such an extent that there are many techniques in the world that tell a person: “Do you want to enjoy life? Diminish your desire to receive. Sit on your spot, don't move, breathe less, concentrate on one thought. Altogether, run away in your thoughts from this world. Want more. I'm sorry, want less. Start being kind of simple, large, and you'll have it good.” That is, don't use the desire to receive that's growing in you. On the contrary, suppress it, and you'll feel good. Well, whoever succeeds, succeeds. But in nature, we see advances such that the desire to receive that's in us - and not only in developed nations, but even in the so-called undeveloped nations, or that were developed only in a certain manner, not in a consumerism like, let's say, the Chinese, it used to be the Japanese, altogether, all the East - now, they're rising, and the desire to receive in them is also beginning to demand all these fillings that are possible. Even though the culture was ancient, the culture was also to suppress the desire to receive. And now it's the opposite. We can't at all get along with the desire to receive that has grown, and it starts to burst outwards, demanding its own, and this entire culture is disappearing, and the society begins building institutions, systems, how to fill the desire to receive. You can't go against nature. Only drugs, let's say. There are all kinds of other options, seemingly, to not use the desire to receive. But they too, actually, people won't be able to use them because there are specific laws within nature that humanity would not agree with, with those means of disconnecting from the desire to receive. 

M. Laitman: (17:18) Then we come to a state where we had it good in our childhood, and now we feel bad because the desire to receive grew, and we don't know how to get along with it. We can get along with it if I receive forces from outside, and then I rule over it. The forces from the outside that I can receive in order to control the desire to receive are called forces of bestowal. If I use the desire to receive in order to enjoy in it, that's what he feels, either suffering or pleasure. But in bestowing this way to others, the desire to receive can enjoy unlimitedly, and I will never feel any trouble from it. It will be full, because by this, I'm not bothering anyone. On the contrary, I delight everyone. No one can limit me. My desire to receive enjoys, and everything's nice and good. Let's do such a thing. We try to do these kinds of things in Kibbutzim and socialistic regimes there in Russia. It didn't go. Why? Because nature is even smarter, even wiser in its order. Nature demands of us to use the desire to receive, not in another way so that we'll be able to fill it in order to have it good, but in all kinds of ways that are not in the form of suppression of the development of the desire to receive. But giving, okay, giving, I accept the method of giving as long as it fills my desire, that I would fill my desire to receive. No, nature is arranged such that we discover later after trying to work with the desire to receive in the form of bestowal, after that, we begin to discover that there's another, even more external law - not to bestow in order to receive, which is how we call it. Rather, this law is much higher, and we shouldn't take into account when engaging in bestowal what will happen with the desire to receive. And I can't receive the forces for this from the society just like that. That's why the Kibbutzim could not continue. They seemingly made the law that it's good for us to bestow, for each to enjoy, and the society will be important, and we will be able to prosper and be happy and enjoy unlimitedly. They could not do that. The law was higher than nature and demanded of them to engage in bestowal without any connection to what will be for the desire to receive from this, meaning to exit to bestow in order to bestow, in which I give, and also with the intention to give without any thought about my nature, about the desire to receive. How can one disconnect from one's nature? How could I think that I wouldn't have good from this? Then it's no longer me, I already need to be something else. With all the intellect, the desire, the heart, if all my systems are arranged such that each time I calculate what's to my benefit, and here I need a different mechanism. Even the mechanism of what to do is not good, because it's good for me from that, or that it will be good for me, that doesn't work either. Nature demands more.

M. Laitman: (22:34) That's why the Kibbutzim were cancelled. How can we observe this higher-up law, the second in height from us? The first law is an egoistic one, I'm willing to receive in order to receive, then to bestow in order to receive, what was in the Kibbutzim, etc. And the third form is to bestow in order to bestow in an even higher format. I can't receive without me changing my nature. How to change my nature? A person needs to come to a state in which he suffers, just like he suffers now, and begins to understand that from the desire to receive in order to receive, he suffers and he must do something in order to emerge out of it. That too is so difficult, we can see, to convince ourselves. We need a society, and in the society, like Rabash says here, we need to love the friends, so that it will help me understand that it's good to bestow to the society, and by bestowing to the society, I'll have it good. Even to reach law number two - to bestow in order to receive, is difficult. Moreover, to reach the necessity of to bestow in order to bestow, these are torments of how far I need to go with all of this. And if there are such sufferings that will help me convince myself to rise to the necessity of keeping this law of bestowing in order to bestow, and such sufferings are revealed, and a person begins to feel that, in truth, it's necessary for him to be only the bestower. And by this, he exits the framework of this world and truly acquires second nature. And it's not that he'll have something good from this, otherwise, again, it's to bestow in order to receive. Rather, he receives the forces from above, he receives the intellect from above, he receives his abilities from above to think, and as well as to perform such an action, which is called “to bestow in order to bestow,” thus crossing the barrier, the Machsom, and entering a completely different nature. Meaning, his inner layout or form of thinking is changed for him or taken from him; just like he is in bestowal now, he has to look at how he was when he was in reception, that is - from Malchut to Bina. And when he starts engaging in this, as much as he engages in bestowal, starts to see more and more in bestowal, importance, he gradually comes to deficiencies, such deficiencies he didn't even think about, that even to describe this we're not capable, of how this could be performed.  We're even receiving in order to bestow, where his nature returns to him as the receiver, but he inverts it in order to bestow. That already comes to a degree like Hochma, we say, like the degree of Hochma - he receives in order to bestow.

M. Laitman: (27:00) And when he does this, he attains the Keter, where the light of the Keter clothes him and he reaches the stature of the Creator, the highest degree of the greatest law, the most exalted and surrounding of all of reality, level four of all the levels of the general law that governs all of nature, all of reality. So, in order to do this whole path, where we're obligated, these laws govern us, the closest sphere to us, the desire to receive in order to receive, nature operates upon us this way, afterwards, it grows a person gradually within his personal life, or humanity from one generation to the next. This law operates on everyone in order to receive the desire to receive, in all of this there's one whole system that works here. This law begins with a certain level of the desire to receive, to bring a person suffering. Why? Because he doesn't give supplies and fuel to the desire to receive that is beyond his needs for existence, and besides that, he puts him under the control of the external sphere where nature behaves so towards us in the form of bestowing in order to receive, where a person, this law demands of a person to begin to engage in bestowal. And only in such a way he can be saved from the suffering, and to fill himself. Just like in the Kibbutzim and all the other forms that humanity wanted to do and didn't succeed, but only the moment they wanted to observe it, the higher sphere of that whole law that he wants to govern, the whole reality of to bestow in order to bestow, will begin to operate upon those specific, more advancing groups. It's already arranged this way in the system, but it will be activated later and will operate upon us all, as this law will demand of us to bestow in order to bestow, meaning to emerge completely from the nature of our programming today, to accept life completely in a different thought, to bestow in order to bestow, and then we'll receive in order to bestow, a more global and a global sphere in this whole nature of working with what we call the ladder of degrees. From under this law, from its degree of one, two, three, and four, we are obligated, and if we move from one stage to the next by the forces of nature, we constantly go through this in a form in which nature compels us to do so. And if we do this ourselves in agreement, in a way that we have inner preparations to understand and feel and agree, then we're doing this whole path with fun. I mean, we simply understand what we need to do, what nature demands of us, and the entire path becomes revelations, and truly, she herself becomes a certain pleasure and desirable development. 

M. Laitman: (31:39) And humanity wanted us to deal with all these levels of things, told us that we have systems in our life around us in which we are capable on our own before nature pressures us and obligates us to change ourselves, so we can be assisted by our general society and to take from it and arrange in it all kinds of aiding systems called group, and by this we will advance ourselves, meaning to build such laws within the society, laws that are seemingly artificial, not natural. But those who need to nevertheless absorb in our next degree, in our next degree of life, meaning we need in advance to expect or depict this natural law in a higher degree and ourselves long to come close to it. And this way we can build ourselves through the society that's around us. If we build this artificially, and the way we do this in the form in which it should be in a higher degree, this is how we enter the stage, not through suffering, but by this given artificial desire, artificial longing even. But what we receive from the wisdom of Kabbalah is that we raise MAN, we ask, we somewhat invite upon ourselves the good forces of advancement and development, and we go through this whole path with joy and speed, not through suffering, which nature activates upon us in order to obligate us to move from degree to degree, but rather through personal participation. And one who reveals this general law of bringing humanity to existence that is exalted and perfect and eternal, he is called a Kabbalist, because he operates in the way that he's taking upon himself to observe the laws of nature fully and to truly live in a complete world. The four stages of this law of the governance of reality, where the first stage is to receive in order to receive, that's how it's planning towards us, then to bestow in order to bestow, to bestow in order to receive, and to bestow in order to bestow. Those four stages are called four worlds for us. To receive in order to receive is the degree of the world of Assiya, and to bestow in order to receive is the degree of the world of Assiya. Then we have Yetzira, and the world of Briah, and to receive in order to bestow is the world of Atzilut. When a person goes through all these stages, certainly in each stage he has the acceptance of this law, its absorption, so implementation of this law upon himself, upon all his desires until he does it, and enters with this law into his existence. Many stages go by in each sphere, in each world. But all these degrees, what's interesting is that from the smallest degree until the highest degree, he does only by the society. Where only through those who surround him, a small group, people, he each time organizes with them a situation, a game, a relationship in accordance to the degree of advancement that he wants to reach.

M. Laitman: (37:13) And then each time the society becomes a holy society, a Hevra Kadisha, in which there's sanctity within it, where it has more upper forces in it. Meaning, the law that's in this society is alive and existing in this society, not like in humanity, but in a higher manner, which has yet to have been revealed to humanity. Let's say all of humanity is in the degree of our world. The society is already at the degree of the world of Assiya, as it feels the darkness and doesn't feel that general law wants to reveal it, or already in the degree of the world of Yetzira, where they enter into the existence of to bestow in order to receive, from bestow in order to receive, to bestow in order to bestow, they start to build their society according to these laws, in a manner which humanity will maybe raise in hundreds of years, who knows when. Meaning, the society we need to build is like a spacecraft, where we have to maintain entirely different relationships, much more exalted than the ones in this world, according to what we wish to reach. And then the way we build this society, the forces that operate there, the law of nature that operates there, it influences us, it pulls us truly to that state, according to how we build the society. Meaning, in the beginning, we built the society artificially. We don't have any laws on an exalted higher degree, not yet, rather we artificially wish to introduce into our society our exalted behaviors. And when we wish to do it, we try to do it, it doesn't matter how it comes out, it doesn't work out exactly because we need to try to do it on top of all of our desires, 613 desires in us, in each and every one, and each one with his own mix of desires, but when we try to do it, by that we raise ourselves to that level, the one we fantasize about being on, the one we would like to be on, and we advance in this way. Again, the law that works is pulling all of humanity to its higher degree through these four spheres to a higher degree. If we participate with it a little bit, the same inclination to reach a degree slightly higher than us, we don't know anything about the highest, but a little higher than us, we understand from all the books that we study what is the existence on a level that's a little higher than us, if we participate in this yearning and this inclination, we receive help from it because it already is pulling all of humanity, and anyone who wants together with it, with this force, to rise to a higher degree, then he rises. 

M. Laitman: (41:31) Therefore it turns out that we need to build a society so it would be suitable for keeping the law from a higher level. And as much as we build it, try to build a society, we need to also respect, value this society, give it importance, give importance to those who participate in it, so this thing would be truly important, desirable, respected and valued by me. So naturally, I will become accustomed to wanting it, and in a sense, all the articles about the society speak about it. Why do I love these friends? Because they also want to live with me together on a higher degree, a future degree of humanity. This is why I respect the society, that's why I need to contribute to it, truly rise to that. Meaning, we're building a certain spacecraft with which we rise and rise, ascend, regardless of all of humanity. And this is possible for each and every one, if he participates, if he joins, and he finds this society, this nursery, let's say. And Baal HaSulam says that building such an environment is the only choice a man has, it's his only free action, because if he does not build this spacecraft in which he can ascend, nature obligates him to do it reluctantly, there's no other law in nature besides raising humanity to the level of existence of life at the top, the fourth sphere, and man's participation can be only on the condition that he's attracted to it. He's attracted to it, he feels good, he develops, of course, he feels difficulties, of course, he has to do certain work on himself, but he does this consciously, voluntarily, with his desire. If not, then that law does it, it works on us and obligates us to do it. All in all, outside of this, the operation of this law on us, we feel nothing, we do nothing but to obey it. In all instances in life, all the levels, all the degrees, all the systems that we are part of in our lives, we all in all, carry out the actions of this law, to rise, to ascend to a higher degree. But the ascent depends each time on this intertwined with the feeling of many torments until we understand that it's worthwhile for us to ascend, otherwise we will absorb more blows, and so on and so forth - meaning, not without desire, but out of necessity. But all things that are done with us, everything, even the degrees where we are, where we have no development on the still, vegetative, inanimate, there's also there, if there is a development, the development is only in that direction, let alone on the level of the speaking degree. For all the additions of men on the beast, especially the ascent, especially on it, sorry, this influence of this law to advance humanity to the upper form of existence. So it turns out from here that the main action, our only action is to build this spacecraft, build this society. And this is how Kabbalists truly behaved throughout the generations. Each one or however many were able to assemble, they built for themselves a society, a closed society. And according to how much they were able to raise the society upwards and adhered to what they built, they seemingly entered this spacecraft. That's how they managed to climb higher and higher from sphere to sphere. That's what they leave for us. The rules of building the society, how to build this spacecraft, where we can constantly ascend. 

M. Laitman: (47:16) And our study as well works in such a way that the fact that we want, we demand of ourselves and of society, how to make this environment with which we can climb and ascend, this environment is included of us, meaning our internality. And the society, or the internality of the society, includes us. So the study, after all, has to help us connect all those desires, intentions, thoughts about the society, about this spacecraft, and about us within it, so we would simply acquire this pull. Through the study, we invite a greater force to pull us upward from that law. If the general law of reality, this law is pulling all of reality at a certain pace, has its own certain special clock that works in a certain rhythm, we who prepare ourselves in this spacecraft, we want this force to pull us up from degree to degree, from sphere to sphere, with greater speed, with a greater force. For that, we need the study. By the study, we awaken the upper force, because in the study, we are explained how it works. It's a general formula. So then we are able to awaken it on us and summon it over us, and then it pulls us more, and it takes us from degree to degree quicker. It improves us accordingly, and it brings us in - we've improved a little bit, and it takes us from degree to degree and brings us according to the level of improvement to a new state, and more and more. So it turns out that even the individual work of a person, and also the work in the society, and the study, they're really all in one direction. And there is nothing more in reality - either this law activates us reluctantly through torments, or we use what is written in the books by authors, meaning with the help of the environment, the group, the teacher, and the study of this law. We use this law to our benefit. We preemptively use it on us before the torments come, and we rise with this spacecraft truly up until the highest degree. Maybe in this way you can imagine the importance of the society, which is that bubble, that spacecraft, in which I can truly make this path, like I can ascend. Are there any questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:50) What is the, to bestow in order to bestow? To bestow in order to bestow, what is it?

M. Laitman: What is to bestow in order to bestow? To bestow in order to bestow is one of the variants of this law. The general law is to receive in order to bestow, meaning use our entire capability, what we have in the highest form of bestow, right? The maximum realization of the will to receive. All the states that precede it are stages that come to this form of existence. To bestow in order to bestow is the application of that same law, except on a lower degree. Meaning, to bestow in order to bestow, means that I acquire all the forces of bestow, and I use them in full, but I still do not connect to them the will to receive in and of itself. This is, it's on the way. It's the half point, let's put it this way. Acquiring the forces of bestow, I am in my state, I'm entirely in my will to receive, now I have to rise to a degree where I will be entirely in the desire to bestow. How? My will to receive, I suppress it completely, and I acquire only a desire to bestow. This means that I came from Malchut to Bina, seemingly the second restriction. And later, from Bina, I rise higher. I begin to use my will to receive, also for the sake of bestow. This means that I go from Bina to Hochma. 

Student: This is something that's definitely above the Machsom. 

M. Laitman: All the degrees above the will to receive, above the use of the will to receive for itself, in order to receive, all the degrees are above the Machsom [barrier], yes. Meaning, the moment I can create restriction on myself, on me, on the will to receive, not to take it into consideration in my actions, this is already above the barrier. The Machsom, means that I live in the will to receive outside of me, in the desires that are outside of me, the goals that are outside of me. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:45) Is this something that's not doable right now? 

M. Laitman: It's not something we can do right now, because we need a special force to assemble inside of us, to invite on us the illumination of the general law of nature, so it will work on us in such a way that it will pull us, draw us to this level where we enter such a nature. The thing is that we are in the middle point, and around us there are circles, many, many circles, let's say 125 circles, and I'm in the center. The outermost circle is the circle of Ein Sof. There you find this general law. This general law works on me, after all the circles it uses to diminish itself, I'm sorry, in order to equalize form with me. And it works on me. I'm in the center of the lowest degree, the worst, and it works on me except in a very small way to extract me from this to the degree that's a little more than me. If it would have worked and the difference between how it is in Ein Sof and me, I would simply not understand it. I wouldn't see it. I wouldn't feel it. I wouldn't be able to act. You can only act on something with which you have some contact, that a certain connection exists, something is common. That's why this law diminishes itself 125 degrees, they're called worlds, Olamot. Every world is built from five parts called Partzufim. Every Partzuf is made of five parts called Sefirot. So these five worlds, five Partzufim, each one of five Sefirot in each Partzuf, it's 125 degrees. And this general law works on me through all the degrees to take me from the middle point to the smallest circle that's near me. That's what I need. And it's a demand from Him to create such conditions that He will extract me from the center point to this circle. What we are studying, what we're doing, everything we do inside the group, it's in order to create certain conditions, so this law that works on me from the circle around me, it will work on me. Not that it will obligate me forcefully. Rather I want you without applying pressure. I want to ascend. Come on. Do this. You understand? I seemingly preempt the necessity to rise to a higher degree before he teaches me that it's necessary using blows. This is our entire work, all of our participation, our free choice. There's nothing more than that, truly, nothing more in reality except for this picture. And so on and so forth. I ascended, meaning I received from Him, I created the conditions so He could work on me by raising our spacecraft to a higher degree. We exist in orbit like around Earth. That's on us, we're there. Now the work, the law is working on us but in a concealed way, in a more external form, right? Meaning, not a circle around the center point, rather a circle, a second circle around the center point. So, it surrounds us now in order to raise us to itself, right? A more external circle. So each time we have to yearn, when we are in a certain state, we have to yearn to a higher state, a higher circle. For that we need to know, more or less, what's going on there. In what is it higher? So how does He do it? Each time governance using a circle on a higher degree, this law, it shines on us from there, it gives us a certain posterior, Achoraim, it's called, posterior of a higher degree. It gives us a certain understanding of what's going on there. And then when we want it, although it's against our egoistic nature, we'll work against this nature and we'll want to exist just like there. And that's how we improve. Each time we work on a different, another portion of our nature in order to annul it and agree with a more external circle, with the higher providence that we are included in it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): On one hand you, you are saying that there are stages of receiving in order to receive; to bestow in order to bestow - this is the world of Assiya. I always thought that this is related to this world. 

M. Laitman: (59:30) We typically draw, which is more accurate, to draw that we are below the world of Assiya, below the barrier, what is called the point of this world. When does the world of Assiya begin? The world of Assiya starts from a state where a person enters into the feeling that he is in either a double concealment or a regular concealment. Which is still, is it speaking of us or not? We have to check. Is a person truly feeling that there is a Creator and the Creator is concealed behind a lot of reality that appears to him, everything that he feels, and all of this reality is like a game for the Creator, and we're playing with Him. Am I in this state? Do I have such a feeling? Not that I'm saying it in my, in my head, anyone can say it in his head. You tell him and he will say it, he will grasp this idea and he will say it, but does he feel it? And is his feeling not like people who tell you who live in the jungle and they do all kinds of, you know, all kinds of things and they also feel all kinds of things, rather their feeling will be a result of the concealment of the governance, truly, meaning a higher degree, meaning as a result of studying and wanting to advance correctly from degree to degree. In other words, to be in the world of Assiya - and I'm not in this world, although the world of Assiya is still not revelation. It's not for nothing that the Creator, I can't see Him, can't feel Him, so we're in the world of Assiya - no, we are below the Sium, in the point of this world. Meaning, the world of Assiya is concealed governance, that I feel it is concealed. It's life in the presence of the Creator, the presence of the upper force, the presence of governance, I feel it as living and working on me. And the only exception is that each time a certain mode is concealed, either from it, or what for, or exactly where it is, or whether it's good or bad, or the reason for it. Meaning, each time there's another quality of a concealment. And that's how they teach me, that's how I go through all kinds of discernments, in the concealment I go through many discernments, in one concealment I go through 613 desires that I have, one after the other. And I learn how I have a concealment relative to each and every desire differently, just like later we'll have a desire, a different desire relative to each of my desires, that we will call this keeping the commandments, observing them. Meaning, I really have to check, to test, to examine my relationship with the upper governance in such a way that I don't only scrutinize it, I keep scrutinizing it to see if it's good. I have doubts about it, but I try. I try, how should I put it, I try to determine that it is good and I can't. That is why I'm called wicked, I decide for myself that I would have liked to give it a good score, that it is good, but I'm not able to, then I tell myself that I'm in the will to receive and it's exactly our state, and I determine in this state that I'm wicked, well according to the current state. I also determine that the deciding on the state that it is a complete wicked, let's say, that this is a transgression or mistakes, meaning a person must by himself determine his degree, that's what they say, what we won’t attain, we never know by name. If I call it by this name, that I am wicked or complete wicked, then I attain it. So, imagine what is the degree of the world of Assiya, now go through it, no, we haven't even entered it. That's why, on the one hand, I said that we are below the Sium, and the world of Assiya is above us, there the revelation begins, the revelation of the upper governance, and we are in the preparation.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:35) It's as if a person was given a sixth sense, and by the one who is saved by the Creator, he can feel the Creator?

M. Laitman:  The question is, does a person get a sixth sense open using the five senses, that does he feel the Creator? We feel like, I don't know, what is Creator, what we feel is life, that force that enlivens us, revives us, we feel it. Call it light, call it the Creator, I don't know, call it the force of life, vitality. So, once we begin to feel in that sixth sense, in the soul, the expanded point in the heart, when we begin to feel the light, or something more, what we feel, there are people who don't even feel that, we feel more, that certainly it radiates this power on all the other systems of ours. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:53) As part of the Torah, I'm having a hard time understanding how, because there are roles, there are practical or spiritual laws in the societies, here there's a common denominator, people are working, it's a framework on the individual. How does it come into expression? I want a better society, not just here. 

M. Laitman: You're asking what to do with the society. Baal HaSulam writes about it in the article “Free Choice,” “The Freedom.” He decides, he determines, and if a person wants to do something in life that would be truly independent action, not that nature obligates him either directly or indirectly, that he doesn't know he's obligated to do it and that's why he's doing it, is running like a puppet, and it doesn't think that he is not a puppet, doesn't matter, but if a person wants to do something truly free, then he can say that he's doing something in his life. Now that this life is like the life of an animal and a beast, everything is pre-planned. If you wish to participate with your own life, your personal participation, it's only by building an environment that is better than you, that can pull you to a higher level of maintaining this general law. The society has to be greater than us, higher than us; it has to be made of people like him, but it's ideal, the relationship in it, the laws in it, they have to be more exalted than each one of us. Then it will be the pulling force. In that state, I built for myself a force that pulls me upwards. Why do I have to do it? Not that the general force of reality that pulls me, that it should do it, because the general force of reality works against my nature, against the will to receive. If it will obligate me, dear God, I will never come out of the trouble, the problems. That's what's happening to us, and I don't want to advance through problems. You understand? That's why I build a positive force that pulls me. This is the society. Where will the society have the power? Society is the sum-total of our desires, good perhaps, okay, but it's the sum total of our desires. They have no realization, correct, but these desires, they pull to him this general force, the force of upper governance that raises him. So, if you don't want this society, go look for another, please, and a person is obligated to do it each time. That's the only thing you can do in life. All the rest, everything else, you know, today you get up, then you fall, you go bankrupt, you get up again, you do something, it seems like you're doing it, but all those things are predetermined, prearranged. Aside from that, it's written that from Rosh Hashanah to Rosh Hashanah, from Rosh Hashanah everything that will happen in the year is arranged for you, right? Meaning, your advancement is also arranged through the blows, and if you can turn it into the good, turn also the negation into the good, then you'll advance. In one year, you can climb dozens of degrees, and you can also remain at the same degree and receive blows for those dozens of degrees. So, it depends on the person, yes, it depends on him, that's what he says. So, you have water that was prearranged for the entire year, except either they came down in the desert, or they came down in the fields, that's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:25) So, the importance is in the individual? 

M. Laitman: Yes, the individual person himself. Either we enter into a war, or we go through these things, when we flourish in life, and it's good, and it's fun, the number of blows or the quantity of the positive force and the negative force, it's determined, it's defined. The balance between it, what will be positive and what will be, how much will be negative, this you do through your choice, and that's how humanity advances. Advances in what? Through suffering, actually, the will to receive grows, suffering grows, and that's it, but the general engine is working. 

Student: So, this whole matter of trying to explain to a person, it seems like it's flawed, I think it isn't connected to us. If somebody gets something that isn't connected to him…

M. Laitman: Generally speaking, we turn to all of humanity, openly, equally, evenly to everyone, just so they have this knowledge, they have this knowledge that this exists. What exists? That special force exists in nature that advances us, a special life. Our development, if we check ourselves here, if we look backwards, we see that it's all organized and determined by the will to receive. The will to receive invites all kinds of actions from a person, a person then builds education, and culture, and technology, and all those things from within its will to receive, and that's how it thrives and develops, and that's how humanity develops in this society, right? We see that what is happening with us, and my guess, this force down the line is pulling us toward a form of existence defined as the goal. People who attained this goal, who went through this development, humanity has to go through, let's say, such and such many years, they've reached the end of the path. They say, guys, you're here, and we are there, you want to know how to go through this path pleasantly, then listen to us, we've gone through it. We can see from looking from the end, and you can see the blows that you might have to tolerate, you shouldn't. So, they give us advice; that's the wisdom of Kabbalah. If you will take the advice - great; no - as it's written, this will be your burial place. So, we have to explain to the rest of humanity, and whoever grasps it, grasps it, and if he doesn't, then what can you do? What can you demand of him? But after a person hears, and you have to definitely try to help him hear it in a way that he will understand this idea. Once he hears it, according to the level of his development, he's willing to participate in it. People who are not developed, then okay, what can you do? They leave, they don't even hear. More developed people begin to check. Is it truly so? Is this the way we develop? Does our history truly support this theory, let's say, let's call it this way, of the Kabbalists? In all the systems of life, do we see the will to receive, how it builds systems of thought, of a person's mind? Is it correct or incorrect what Kabbalists are saying about our nature, about the nature of the universe? People check accordingly, and they begin to arrange it somehow to their benefit. And we hope that there will be such, that it will help them. What we disseminate, that they'll be able to take the law of development into their own hands and certainly use it for the sake of all of humanity. After all, there's nothing in our explanation, no more than telling a person, this is for your own good. Because we are working on a person who's in the central point, the smallest. We can't say that this law is going to be working for the sake of the upper development, in order to bestow, that's how you'll come out of it. No, we're not able to. He's not going to grasp that this is the best thing. He can grasp only that instead of having one kilo of something, he'll have two. That's how it is. But this is also true, because even materially, in all the systems, health… in short, less suffering, of course. The more people participate in it, that's how it will be. Because you can say, well, but Kabbalists are also alive, and they suffer, they get sick, right? True, but because they're connected to all of reality, all of humanity, that is suffering, and is sick, and so on and so forth, and the Kabbalist is connected with all of reality, and even more than anyone else. So, because of that, he is not exempt from it. But it's not on his own account. On his own account, the more a person ascends, he must be actually more corrected in all of his systems.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:57) I don't understand why receiving in order to bestow is higher. Because it sounds like bestowing in order to bestow is the ultimate state. It's our equivalence of form with the Creator.

M. Laitman: To bestow in order to bestow, I'm disconnected from my nature, which is the desire to enjoy, receive pleasure. I totally don't take into consideration my will to receive. I don't work with it. I received from above forces of bestowal that didn't exist in me from the outset. We call it GE, the forces of Bina, I acquired them from the outside, and I work in this nature, this external nature; it's not mine. And I've placed a restriction on my nature, a prohibition to use it. Does this mean that I realize myself? No. If later I'll be able to in some way realize myself, add my unique selfhood to this bestowal, it will be even higher. Meaning, all of my bones, seemingly, I'll be able to bring it to bestow. This is called receiving in order to bestow, because I have nothing more than reception. But how I truly receive in order to bestow? Here we can't even imagine to ourselves the kind of revolution that we're undergoing. We're going through this inversion in nature that defies description - how the will to receive can receive inside of it a pleasure that is not destined to be a pleasure with him but only in the other. I lack the words to explain it, but this is something that you know we have to come out of our skin as it were, I don't know. We have no qualities or preparations inside of us to help us imagine such a thing, because for that, you need to be built of these two types, two parts of nature: the nature of the will to receive, the nature of the will to bestow. We don't have it. But even if you go to bestow in order to bestow, nevertheless, you don't understand what does it mean to receive in order to bestow. You simply acquire it after you reach pure Bina. You understand? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:12) I have to relate to every person in society towards the scale of merit, and myself to see everyone bigger than me. How can I know that I chose the right society, that I chose the scale of merit? How can I know that?

M. Laitman: They don't tell you to take just any society. You say, how do I choose the right society? They don't tell you to take any society and start adopting these laws that you read about in the books. Rather, you have to first see if the people that make up this society have a certain willingness for it. Are they willing to apply it? Try. Take a few friends, organize a group out of them. Meaning, what is a group? Talk to them. Are they able to do it? There are articles that discuss it with precision. “We've gathered here to establish a society”, and so forth. Start from that and see according to each line how much you're in agreement with it, and begin to read such an article, let's say 20-30 times a day, to check. Are you in it all the time, and also all your friends, and constantly discuss it, discuss this idea, and you will see, yes or no. Maybe some people - yes, some - no. Maybe you have to leave them and look for a different society, and maybe improve them. There's hope, there's a chance that they truly, or perhaps they wish to improve you. But that is the work. There's nothing more. That's it. This is a spacecraft. The more power it will have, more unity, then it will ascend. It's like a balloon. The more it has a pressure of gases inside of it relative to the external environment, then it's ascending, it's rising, you know, a balloon in the air. The same is true for this spacecraft. According to the equivalence of form between it and the law, which is from the central point, each time becomes higher, and higher, and higher, until its true form, until it reaches its true form. In this way, this spacecraft in the space of this law ascends or descends according to equivalence of form. The keeping of this law inside the spacecraft relative to what exists outside of us. That's it. It's called the spiritual realm, or the worlds, Olamot, degrees of keeping and maintaining this law of governance, providence.