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

Daily Morning Lesson: October 14, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. What Is the Difference between General and Individual in the Work of the Creator? Article 33, 1988

Reader: Hello, dear friends. In the first part of the lesson, we're going to study a lesson with Rav from 2003. It's based on the article from Rabash, "What Is the Difference Between General and Individual in the Work of the Creator?" We'll read the article together in the Ten. We have 31 minutes. Please.

Reading: (00:49) What Is the Difference between General and Individual in the Work of the Creator?

Article 33, 1988

Our sages wrote (Makot 24), “Habakkuk came and established them on one: As it was said, ‘And a righteous lives by his faith.’” This means that the fact that we must observe all of the Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] is in order to achieve this element, which is faith. That is, what is required of a person, that he must achieve wholeness, is to come to faith in the Creator. This means that once he has achieved faith, he is a complete person.

We must understand this matter. There is the matter that a person must engage in the correction of creation, since because man was created with a nature of wanting to receive for himself, which is opposite in form from the Creator, for the Creator is the giver and through disparity of form, man became separated from the Creator, so how does having faith help him if he is still separated from the Creator? Also, why did they say, “Habakkuk came and established them on one: ‘And a righteous lives by his faith’”? which implies that if he has faith then he has wholeness.

The answer is that we must know that there is an important matter here, which is a key issue that requires much attention so that we can accept this as the gate by which man can be rewarded with complete faith. Otherwise, he will have only partial faith. It is written in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” (Item 14): “Rather, it is partial faith. Thus, one allots oneself out of the measure of his faith in the Creator only one hour a day to practice Torah and work. …The third does not neglect even a single moment. …Thus, only the faith of the last one is whole.” In order for a person to be rewarded with complete faith, he must first emerge from self-love, or he will not be able to be granted with complete faith. Otherwise, he will not be given from above the possibility to have complete faith.

However, this is for man’s benefit. It is as it is written in the Sulam (“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” [with the Sulam (Ladder) Commentary], Item 138): “It is a law that the creature cannot receive disclosed evil from the Creator, for it is a flaw in the glory of the Creator for the creature to perceive Him as an evildoer, as it is unbecoming of the Complete Operator. Hence, when one feels bad, denial of the Creator’s guidance lies upon him to that extent, and the Operator is concealed from him.”

Therefore, before a person can receive the delight and pleasure from the Creator, he cannot achieve faith. The condition that must be met in order to be given the delight and pleasure is vessels of bestowal. On the vessels of reception, there was a correction not to use them, for by them one becomes distant from the Creator due to the disparity of form between them. It follows before faith, a person must be rewarded with the correction of the Kelim [vessels], called “correction of creation.”

It is as Baal HaSulam wrote there: “Know that this is the whole difference between this world, before the correction, and the end of correction. Before the end of correction, Malchut is called ‘the tree of good and evil,’ since the Malchut is the guidance of the Creator in this world. As long as the receivers have not been completed so they can receive His whole benevolence, which He had contemplated in our favor in the thought of creation (meaning that while our vessels of reception have not been corrected to work in order to bestow, He cannot give us the delight and pleasure because it will all go to the Klipot [shells/peels]), the guidance must be in the form of good and bad, and reward and punishment. It is so because our vessels of reception are still tainted with self-reception, which is very restrictive in its quality, and also separates us from the Creator. Thus, the complete benefit, in the great measure He had contemplated for us, is absent.”

Accordingly, we see that indeed, this element, which is faith, is the most important. We asked, How can it be said that faith is wholeness, since we also need the correction of creation, called “obtaining vessels of bestowal?” Otherwise, the abundance cannot come to the lower ones because of the disparity of form. The answer is that in general, we must observe Torah and Mitzvot in order to obtain vessels of bestowal. It is as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice, for the light in it reforms him.”

It follows that the first discernment in the order of the work is to reform the evil, called “will to receive for oneself,” meaning that he will have the strength to use everything in order to bestow. However, we should discern here that in order to come to know that the will to receive is called “evil,” we need Torah and Mitzvot. Before a person realizes that the receiver is called “evil,” how can he be reformed? It is as we said in previous essays, that our sages said, “Why is the Torah called Tushia [gumption/resourcefulness]? It is because it Mateshet [drains/exhausts] man’s strength.” We asked, but they said, “If his head aches, let him engage in Torah. If his belly aches, let him engage in Torah, as was said, ‘It is a healing to all his flesh’” (Iruvin 54).

According to what Baal HaSulam said, the Torah is called a “potion.” That is, sometimes it is a potion of life, and sometimes it is a potion of death. He said that a medical potion heals those who are sick. But if a healthy person took medical potions he would become sick. That is, when the Torah comes to one who has a need, it can heal him. Accordingly, we should interpret that first a person must learn Torah, in order to see that he is sick.

This is why they said that the Torah exhausts a person’s strength. That is, through the Torah, he can come to see that the “man” in him is weak and has no strength to overcome. At that time he sees that he is sick in spirituality. Through the Torah, he comes to the recognition of evil, as The Zohar says about the verse, “Or make his sin known to him,” which means that the Torah notifies him that he has sinned.

If the Torah does not notify him, a person cannot know or feel that receiving for oneself is called “bad” due to the disparity of form between him and the Creator. Knowing that disparity of form causes separation has to come from above, through the Torah. Hence, we should say that the order is that 1) he observes Torah and Mitzvot in order to achieve recognition of evil, and 2) he observes Torah and Mitzvot because “the light in it reforms him.” This is the time when he receives strength from above, called “desire to bestow,” which is regarded as equivalence of form. 3) Faith, which is the meaning of “Habakkuk came and established them on one: ‘A righteous lives by his faith.’” It follows that everything we do in Torah and Mitzvot in general is in order to achieve this element, which his faith. At that time he can receive complete faith. It follows that all of his work is only in order to achieve this.

However, before these three above discernments, there is a discernment that applies to the whole of Israel. This is the first discernment when a person’s education in Torah and Mitzvot begins: It is that the whole world must know for what purpose they should observe the Torah and Mitzvot—to receive reward. And if they do not observe, they will suffer punishment. This is the common order, as Maimonides says, “When teaching children, women, and uneducated people, they are taught to work only out of fear and in order to receive reward. Until they gain knowledge and acquire much wisdom, they are taught that secret little by little” (Maimonides, Hilchot Teshuva, Chapter 10).

It follows that the order of the work is that 1) the whole of Israel are taught to observe Torah and Mitzvot with all its details and intricacies with an intention of self-love. They must not be taught that they must work Lishma [for Her sake], which is in order to bestow. Rather, they must work and toil only in order to receive for their own benefit.

We should know that work for self-love means to be rewarded with the next world by observing Torah and Mitzvot. If that person has real energy to work for self-benefit, he will be ready to do anything. That is, if he is energetic and wants to be rewarded with the next world, he will be willing to do work that is above reason, which a person’s reason cannot understand. It is as it is written (Deuteronomy 12:30), “Beware, do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’ You shall not do so, for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.”

RASHI brings the interpretation of our sages: “Including their fathers and mothers. Rabbi Akiva said, ‘I saw a foreigner who tied his father before his dog and ate him.’ The author of the book Siftei Chachamim interprets, ‘He means to say idolatry. ‘He ate him’ means that he burned him in fire.’”

However, we must know that although a man is willing to work for his own benefit and do the hardest work if he believes that he will be guaranteed the next world, even if they are told to burn their sons and daughters and their parents, there are among them with energy and strength for this work, since they are still inside the Kli [vessel] of self-love. It follows that this is still not regarded as “above reason.” In other words, we can understand that it is inherent in nature that a person is willing to do anything for the will to receive for himself.

We also find that during the ruin of the Temple, it is written (Lamentations 4:10), “Compassionate women cooked their own children; they became food for them.” The Holy Alsheich interprets “food for them” to mean that “only they themselves ate their children’s flesh. This is the meaning of ‘for them,’ only the mothers alone ate, and did not share it with their remaining children, even though they, too, were hungry.”

This shows us what a person can do for self-love when there is no Kedusha [holiness/sanctity] but rather the ruin of Kedusha, and only the will to receive for themselves rules: “Compassionate women cooked their own children.”

We have two examples: 1) For the will to receive, in return for burning children and parents, the next world, or in order to receive this world, for which “Compassionate women cooked their own children.” It follows that a person can do anything in order to satisfy the will to receive—the nature in which man is born.

But when beginning to work on the path of the individual, meaning to be rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator, meaning when we must emerge from self-love, a person cannot do even the smallest work. That is, if a person is told, “Do the same thing you are doing, but place over it the aim to bestow upon the Creator without any reward. This is very hard to do because it is against nature, called “will to receive for oneself.”

That is, the same work, meaning the same practical labor that a person does, without needing to add any effort but simply aim to do this for the sake of the Creator, leaves him powerless. It seems to him as though a high mountain stands in front of him and he cannot move the mountain one bit. He feels as though his whole world has been ruined, and all because it is against our nature.

In that state, when a person wants to reach the truth and do the work of the individual, he is notified from above that he is in a state of lowliness, since he sees that he cannot do anything for the sake of the Creator. That state is called “recognition of evil.” This is called “the first state in the work of the individual,” which is recognition of evil.

Afterward begins phase two, when he must observe Torah and Mitzvot so that the light in it will reform him, since through the light he will receive vessels of bestowal, meaning that he will have passion to bestow upon the Creator and from this he will enjoy.

After that comes phase three, which is complete faith, as was said above, that “Habakkuk came and established them on one: ‘And a righteous lives by his faith.’” This is the element [also “individual”] that a person must achieve. When he has faith, he will be rewarded with the delight and pleasure in His providence, as The Good Who Does Good.

We could ask about what is written in the Sulam [Ladder Commentary on The Zohar]: “It is a law that the creature cannot receive disclosed evil from the Creator, for it is a flaw in the glory of the Creator for the creature to perceive Him as an evildoer. Hence, when one feels bad, the Operator is concealed from him.” Why should the Creator mind if a person perceives him as an evildoer? Does the Creator seek respect from the created beings, to respect Him for His sake? He does not need things that pertain to flesh and blood.

Rather, it is for man’s sake. The flaw that we speak of in spirituality, such as that he casts a flaw in Kedusha, the Sitra Achra [other side] is there at the root of the soul of a person who has caused the flaw above. That is, we must believe that the name of the Creator is The Good Who Does Good.

It follows that when a person feels that he is in a bad state, he cannot justify Providence and say that the Creator is behaving toward him as The Good Who Does Good. It follows that a person receives the flaw that he has flawed in the Holy Name, which is The Good Who Does Good. And when a person receives good from above, he is happy and can say wholeheartedly, “Blessed is He who said, ‘Let there be the world.’”

But when a person feels bad, he cannot say, “Blessed is He who said, ‘Let there be the world.’” Instead, a person says what Job said (Job 3), “And Job answered and said, ‘Let the day on which I was born perish, and the night which said, ‘A boy is conceived.’ That day shall be darkness.’” For this reason, this is a correction because at that time, when a person does not believe that the Creator has caused him all the hardships, he does not slander the Creator.

By extension, in corporeality, we sometimes see a person whose son works for a salary that is not enough to sustain him. When he began to work, he was still a bachelor and the salary then was good. But now, he cannot sustain himself on this salary. The father speaks to his son: “Since you see that the employer is not giving you a raise, go look for a job that pays better.” But the son replies, “I am already used to the employer and the coworkers; I cannot leave that place.”

What does the father do? He goes to the employer and tells him of the situation with his son. The employer replies that he cannot give him a raise, but he can send him to where he will be better paid. At that time, the father asks of him: “Tell my son that you have no work for him, so he will go elsewhere. I spoke to him several times about leaving the job where he is not paid well and go where they pay a better salary, but I will tell you the truth, he told me that he likes you and his coworkers and this is why he does not want to leave this place. Therefore, if you fire him, he will have no choice but to go elsewhere. But I am asking you, don’t tell him that I’ve been here and asked you not to let him work for you. Otherwise, he will say that he has a father who is cruel to his son. That is, he cannot understand that by trying to get him fired, it is for his best. That is, when he hears from his employer that I asked that he would be fired, what would he say, ‘May the Lord bless my father, who is trying so hard only for my sake’? There is no doubt, he will be very angry at his father.”

So it is in spirituality—that the Creator sends a person a state of descent. That is, from a situation where he received sustenance, although his father understood that it was not sufficient sustenance and he could earn more, the son did not understand it. For this reason, the Creator sends him a descent, which is akin to being fired from work. At that time, he is angry with the Creator for sending harm his way, since he knows that prior to this, he was in a state of ascent in spirituality, but the Creator threw him, so of course he is angry with the Creator. This is regarded as “He who doubts the Shechina [Divinity], his punishment is very grave.” Therefore, when there is a correction that he does not find the evildoer, he has no one at whom to be angry. It follows that not knowing who is the one doing all these things is to his best.

He said there, “One who exerts not to part from faith in Him, although he tastes a bad taste in Providence, is rewarded. If he does not exert, he will be punished because he has parted from faith in Him. Thus, although He alone did, does, and will do all the deeds, this still remains hidden from those who feel good and bad.”

We see that one who can exert and say that the Creator is sending him the bad, and it is for his best, he remains in faith, to the extent that he can say that the Creator has sent him the state he is in for his own benefit. This is not regarded as “doing harm.” Thus, he remains in faith.

Conversely, if he cannot say that the Creator has sent him this for his sake, but that it is to his detriment, that state is called that the Creator does harm. For this reason, He must hide from him the Operator. This is regarded as losing the faith, and it is regarded as a punishment.

It follows that were it not for the ascents and descents, a person would not be able to feel that he is deficient. That is, he would not feel that he needs heaven’s mercy, that it is not within man’s power to emerge from self-love and make his wish only to bring contentment to his Maker. Rather, all his work can be only for his own sake, and in self-benefit, he has the power to do things that a person cannot imagine. Or, as it was at the time of the ruin of the Temple, when compassionate women cooked their own children, as they served their gods, burning their sons and daughters.

But to work for the Creator, meaning not wanting any return for their work, even merely an intention over the acts of reception, a person cannot do this. That is, if one wants to eat for the sake of the Creator and not for his own sake, although the act is reception of pleasure, what he should intend is out of his hands. Only the Creator can help here. This is the difference between the general work, which belongs to the general public, and the work of the individual. 

Reader: We'll now continue to the recorded lesson from the 25th of March 2003.

M. Laitman: (31:46) What is the difference in the work of the individual and the general in the work of the Creator? The truth is that the particular and the collective are equal. We also learn that from the general structure of reality, that all of reality is ten Sefirot: KHB ZON, NRNHY. Nothing besides that. Everything is focused on this structure of reality of five phases or five Sefirot or ten Sefirot. And every element of them itself is also comprised of ten, and every element there is comprised of ten, and so forth. And the laws that determine the behavior of the general ten Sefirot are the same laws that determine the behavior of the individual ten Sefirot and the individual ten Sefirot in them and so forth. This is what's called "I, the Lord, do not change," meaning that Yod Hey Vav Hey is always uniform and complete and perfect. And there's no single little element of creation that will behave differently than the rest of creation.

This is what is with regards to the spiritual realm, where the intention in order to bestow governs. And there is the Yod Hey Vav Hey and all those matters, because the Yod Hey Vav Hey is the Kli that exists in the reflected light, in the desire to bestow, the screen and returning light, reflected light. Whereas the will to receive itself is considered a point, and on it, there is a different regularity. He feels the providence of the upper light as darkness and suffering.

And also in development, when we learn about man's individual development, how he moves from the initial excitement to the recognition of evil and from recognition of evil to doing good, then he crosses the barrier and enters the real work. The same stages are what the whole public, the whole collective has to go through. And from here we can learn the same for both the individual and the collective. As Baal HaSulam says, that there are individuals who go through all these stages over all of history. Their individual development and the whole public itself also goes through this development in its separate collective way. 

Any questions? Compared to difficult articles it actually does not bring any specific challenges.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:51) In page 278 in the beginning he says, As the majority of Israel, they're taught to keep the Torah and commandments and all their details and intricacies with the intention of self-love. And it's forbidden to disclose to them that one must work Lishma, which is in order to bestow. 

M. Laitman: In page 278, it says here, “the order of the work.” The order of the work is actually not from Baal HaSulam. It's the order of the work that Rambam tells us. The Rambam, in Hilchot Teshuva, chapter 10, he writes that there's an order of spiritual attainment that both the individual and the collective go through. And in the first stage is what he writes here, “The whole of Israel, they are taught to keep the Torah and commandments and all their details and intricacies with the intention of self-love. And they must not be taught that they should work Lishma, which is in order to bestow. Rather, they should work and labor everything in order to receive self-benefit.”

This is basically what you are now being taught. You are now, you are here, you came here as a complete secular to the study of Kabbalah because you cared about finding out what is the point in life. And you care about that. You want to discover your purpose in life. Your life seems devoid of any taste and purpose, there is no reason to live. All the pleasures that I get, there's no flavor in them. You were already given this preparation from above. You could have been given other conditions where you would enjoy some grass like a cow your whole life and you wouldn't need anything. You saw cows on the grass? They just chew and chew, and eat, and chew. And you would do the same. But you were given a greater deficiency, so you started searching. This grass is not great for me. I need something special. That something special is something you want to fulfill the will to receive with. Not like a cow, something bigger, but still the same will to receive.

Now, in order to develop you, you need to be given all kinds of illuminations from above, and some little tiny pleasures from above, and a little bit of darkness, a little bit of light, some differences like that in order to grow and nurture the will to receive. But again, it's the will to receive. Just as you came with the hope of fulfilling your will to receive, so you are continuing now. This means that the Torah is taught with the intention in order to receive for self-benefit. That's stage one: to have a Kli. The problem is that we come to the first lesson in Kabbalah with the small desire we were given from above and now we need to develop this desire, make it bigger. And this is the first stage. Meaning, we continue in the development of our ego. First, it was sufficient only for corporeal pleasures in this world, and money, and honor, and knowledge, and now we need to develop the desire to receive spirituality. I want to devour spirituality, I don't know what it is, but I want it to be mine, my possession. After the will to receive has evolved well, big desire for spirituality, then it can be transformed, corrected. First, there needs to be something to correct. It needs to develop.

M. Laitman: (40:14) And here, in the development of the will to receive, there's typically an obstacle that a person, because he doesn't see exactly the pleasures, then he doesn't really run forward, rather settles for little, so to speak, becomes a righteous all of a sudden. He's not really chasing spirituality. Spirituality is not revealed, so certainly it's difficult to demand it. And here, you could be waiting for some tens of years or hundreds of years until the correct will to receive will really develop so as to begin correcting it. Correct desire, meaning that it's in the complete degree for spirituality, that it will be truly egoistic to the full extent of the word, not just for this world, but to also want to devour the next world. This needs to be done first. Baal HaSulam also describes this beautifully in the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar.” The true will to receive doesn't end with the will to receive of this world, but the will to receive of the next world.

And then, only then, we begin correcting it. Otherwise, what do you need to correct? Correct your attitude to beastly pleasures: money, honor, knowledge? This is desire to receive for beastliness, corporeality. We don't need to correct it. Leave that to all kinds of people who engage in diets or nice education or green people, let the animals live, things like that. We don't engage in that so-called beauty. We need first a spiritual vessel that will be big, that will be excessive, and then we'll have something to correct, then we can begin correcting it. And a person who doesn't come to the completion of this vessel for spirituality is not given any beginning of correction, he has nothing to correct yet.

So, this is our first stage, and it can be crossed only on the condition that I receive an impression from the society that by envy, lust, and honor, I'll be impressed by the friends who yearn for spirituality, and I will want it too. Because spirituality is concealed, and if I won't be impressed by society that they are truly interested in that, and they're chasing it, and they're willing to really contribute and invest, you understand? So, I won't have any other way to be inspired, only by the society. If I don't see spirituality, I don't have any other choice. And if the society is kind of sleepy, in a coma, then this society can put me to sleep. I must escape it or change it. Otherwise, I'll never reach the complete vessel, the egoistic, yet truly complete for spirituality, that it only wants spirituality.

And then will come the second stage of corrections. Why do I want spirituality? What's it worthwhile for? What exactly is spirituality? And so on. This, it's a problem. That's why we are building some dissemination enterprise, so that we will engage in dissemination, see how other people also want it, so they will bring us also through "the multitude of people is the King's glory," that the more they are impressed, the more we will be impressed, and so on, that we'll have contact with so many people who also can appreciate our goal, that gives me strengthening. Otherwise, what can I rely on? And what do I have in spirituality that I can really hold on to it or be certain that it's true? In general, how does a person build his confidence? Therefore, the whole work, dissemination, participation, the group, they ultimately need to bring me a big desire for spirituality. And if not, if they don't bring me, then it's a sign that something's flawed. And then there is zero hope to reach anything, literally.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:50) When and how are children taught to perform commandments in order to bestow? How to teach children that? 

M. Laitman: When children are educated to carry out Torah and Mitzvot in order to bestow instead of in order to receive? First of all, you see how you build your sentence. First of all, I need to have a child that will carry out Torah and Mitzvot in order to receive. And then I come to him and I teach him to carry out Torah and Mitzvot in order to bestow. Yes? So, here we need to discuss and observe this sentence and see if there's even such a thing at all. You say, when? I'm asking, do you have such a reality?

Typically, we encounter a reality of what to do with children who grew old? Meaning that the public gets education, and because that education is of the sacred still, then it keeps them in the still form their whole life, that they do corporeal actions, and spiritual actions they are taught not to do. Rather, do in corporeality what you need to do. And more than that, don't even touch. It's good because a person then holds on to his education. Meaning, in terms of keeping the Torah and Mitzvot, as it's called, as people are taught, meaning they think this is the Torah and that's the Mitzvot. And like this, the public exists and maintains itself as still, and it can continue for millions of years. This is also how the Chinese population or India's population, how it works. They took upon themselves some philosophy of the nation and they constantly live within it and keep it to the extent that the society is closed and cohesive around this idea. That's how they live. And we see it also in other cultures. They are very ancient that still preserve themselves and they can say, “thank God,” and “we too are special.”

So, when do you really need to approach children and begin to educate them? The spiritual education follows the spiritual law, that there is no coercion in spirituality. That is, "Educate a boy according to his own path." "Educate a boy according to his own path," meaning that if people are already prepared for spiritual education, they've developed gradually through still, vegetative and animate, and they reached the speaking level in them, then they can be truly educated to be the speaking. There is some preparation. If not, then no.

How can that be done? Baal Shem Tov did it in a very obvious kind of way, as an example for us. He founded the Hasidic education, meaning in every place he inserted some study of the internality, a little bit for everyone. All of a sudden, everyone begins to learn that there are spiritual worlds, there are five worlds, there is NRNHY, there is the soul, there are ups and downs, a person needs to connect to that. Well, all of the Hasidism is full of all those things. Meaning, he actually didn't write a book by himself, his students did, they wrote. His students were great Kabbalists. They were the first Admorim, the first rabbis. They wrote many books in this style, and by this they wanted that by giving this education to the people, Hasidut from the word Hesed, [mercy], meaning according to the goal of attracting them to the qualities of Bina. So they thought that by that they could sort of hunt for or attract from the public those, that these words, this education, these books, will influence them and interest them. They did this with great wisdom. And back then they truly, for that time they made great corrections, very great corrections they made.

M. Laitman: (52:03) This is a method that now also needs to be an example for us. By this we're actually not doing anything new. They did it for their period, meaning the level of development of the will to receive on their generations, and they succeeded in that. Many Kabbalists there were who made many corrections. The generation was still on a certain level of development, which wasn't finished. And when Baal Shem Tov and the Admorim, the first Hasidim, made those corrections, they succeeded. They did succeed in elevating the spiritual level of the generation significantly.

But after that, because we develop - the general process of development continues - and the will to receive grew. And that level of Hasidic education for a generation that grows 100 or 150 years after that, it wasn't sufficient anymore. Baal Shem Tov lived in the 16th, 17th century. So that method was no longer sufficient for the will to receive that grew. And this will to receive that grew in people, meaning the generation which came 150 years after Baal Shem Tov, they already started corrupting the method of Baal Shem Tov, meaning it wasn't sufficient for them, for their correction. It's not that someone is to blame. That's just the lack of correction. The method was very good for its time, but after that, indeed the Hasidic movement began to turn into, instead of a spiritual method, it turned into a kind of popular method. That's how you behave, that's how you do, that's how you walk. Meaning, of the Hasidic movement, only the external symbolism remained. And there's a lot of wisdom in that also. It's worthwhile to study that, because these great Kabbalists, Baal Shem Tov and his students, they, in these signs, they, in this symbolism, they placed a lot of hints, you could say. They wanted, by all those symbols, and signs, and rumors, and words, and legends that they gave, that they developed, what they wrote, they were running after all these, chasing after all possible means by which to draw people which are ready for correction, to draw them to them and to make of them groups of Kabbalists. It was a very clever, very sophisticated, special kind of dissemination. But look, they were turning to a public, to a people which were all religious, and they succeeded in inserting into their inanimate behavior something living, something spiritual. It's not simple. It's a tremendous force which they used.

And it doesn't matter if they suffered a lot or a little. We're not suffering less than they did. It's all, well, the will to receive more, the will to receive less. That's the matter of suffering. It's all historians or philosophers. They think that because the people suffered, then Baal Shem Tov started working. Baal Shem Tov didn't take into account the suffering of the people at all. He only took into consideration the eternal correction that can be brought to the world, and not the bodies. Trust me, he was an enormous Kabbalist.

M. Laitman: (56:44) So, in our times, this can't work. Here, there needs to be a different method. He also didn't… He also hid, so to speak, he hid the fact that it's the wisdom of Kabbalah. He gave it all sorts of other names: Hasidut, the internality of the Torah. He was afraid of using the word “Kabbalah” because there was great resistance to that, rejection. Although from the Litvakim, they resisted. They had great Kabbalists also, but they resisted that method specifically. The HaGra (the Gaon of Vilna) was a giant compared to, I mean, it's the same level as Baal Shem Tov. It's just, we could say, right line and left line, maybe, somehow, in terms of behavior, conduct, or the method, but they're both holy.

But, for a time, for his time, he made an enormous correction, Baal Shem Tov, until the will to receive grew, meaning it grew to a different level, higher than what the Hasidut could handle. Let's say they made a correction for the level three of the will to receive, and when it grew to level four of the will, then the method stopped working as a beneficial one. It just became popular, common customs as a method. That's it.

And then Baal HaSulam, now he writes that we've come to the last generation, so to speak, where now we need to make a correction. And so, when you start asking, at what age can you start teaching the children, well, you have children who are 40 and 50. They're also children. It's according to the level of development, closeness to spirituality, which maybe they arrive, maybe they don't. And there are those who have this sense and preparation for it from the age of 5 or 10. The HaGra, the genius of Vilna, that's age 9, 10. He was very fluent in the Torah. He knew, he felt its internality, he was proficient in it. At those ages of 13, 14, 15, he was already a Kabbalist. He was already a Kabbalist. Meaning, it doesn't depend on age. What I wanted to say is,

if you're asking from what age, what year to start educating the child towards the wisdom of Kabbalah, I would say that the same way Baal Shem Tov inserted the study of Hasidut in the nation, gave it to the nation in general, and by that he brought to himself people who are worthy of correction, and he made of them great people, spiritual people of the Lord. So it is with us, by the general dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah, we need to try to attract to us people who are also worthy of corrections, and with them to do our work. That is actually the method, which is… 

This method is not from today, I think that Moses used the same method. Who did he have next to him when he ran to the burning bush and returned? Who was there? Aaron was with him, and who? Until gradually, in the desert, he gathered his students from the entirety of the nation, they were all there. And he also, by this general dissemination of the Torah, of this wisdom, he drew to him people which were more worthy, and of them he made students. There are no other methods. It's just that the previous method seems to us to be on the decline, but it's declining because the will to receive is growing, and now you need to continue with the same method, but on a different level, more inner, more sharp, appealing to the desire which is now active in humanity. But the method is the same method, to give a general light with which special souls will then work, and then you give them the personal, private method. That's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:59) How could there be two such great Kabbalists who have disputed opinions?

M. Laitman: There was no dispute between Baal Shem Tov and HaGra, it's not that they were of different mind. Look, these are two methods, which unite. They connect at the end of correction. It's like the house of Shammai and the house of Hillel. None of them is ruling out the other, in truth. And they are both right. "Both are the words of the living God," it is said. But the question is, how to say, maybe it's the types of souls. Maybe that's more appropriate to say. I still have problems expressing that. I see that it's not coming out. Look, you see, I started talking a little bit about Baal Shem Tov today, a little bit came out. And according to how you all advance, I don't know how to express it. Difficult. It's a problem bringing it down.

Student: Does it mean that different types of souls have different methods?

M. Laitman: There are different methods. HaGra, he studied and wrote and founded in the wisdom of Kabbalah, no less than Baal Shem Tov. But, how to say, his method is a method for individuals. For individuals. He also had many, many students, many great students, great Kabbalists, Litvakim. Not that the Litvakim object to the wisdom of Kabbalah. There's no such thing. Who objects to it? Who of the great ones who lived 400 years ago, like HaGra and the Baal Shem Tov? What rejection, what resistance do they have to? Let's say, let's say it's two methods. We will learn that it isn't. Not at all. We will scrutinize it at some point. For the time being, it doesn't apply to us. When you rise a little bit, you see that it's the same thing.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:48) The resistance to Kabbalah that always existed, where does it come from? 

M. Laitman: The resistance to Kabbalah came from Kabbalists being very, very careful of dispersing the, or rather removing the defense that the population have, removing the defense they have when they're inanimate. Imagine to yourself, if you take a herd of sheep, there's one dog and he can already arrange a thousand sheep in a line and they'll run after him, right? No problem. You've seen it, no problem. Yes? One who is an animal, and there are also a thousand small animals and they get along.

Now imagine yourself that you give these thousand sheep a shot, which increases the will to receive in them, and they begin to become more sophisticated. What can you do with them then? You don't have a dog that can organize them anymore, and the human being won't be able to either. You need special forces so they don't run around and do things, won't cause harm and damage or throw themselves off the cliffs or burn themselves and bring about revolutions and wars and destroy themselves. It's a great problem that you have then. So it's better for them to be this herd, and we can advance slowly. Why do we need these jumps? And that is proper education.

And Kabbalists organized this manner of education for the inanimate. The Torah and commandments, where the Torah is our book of Torah and the commandments is you, uttering blessings and doing all sorts of things. They arranged that. They said that this protects the people, and it does. You see that it does. And if you exit that boundary, that fence, it's a problem already. You need to provide corrections. Or if you exit that boundary, you become smarter. Let's say, you have faith, you have some security that you won't escape and won't damage yourself, won't harm others, where truly you emerging to a higher degree will be controlled and for the sake of correction.

And so the education of the people is very, very special, very clever. And there were many Kabbalists who objected for that reason, to give the people the wisdom of Kabbalah. It could bring about such problems that we would not know how to overcome. Rather, they slowly, gradually looked for students here and there. And in a hidden way, they studied with them. That's how they advanced. This is from the side of... And there were Kabbalists who went against them, who said, no, we need to advance a bit further, we need to advance more. Let's be a bit more revolutionary.

You had these and those through the generation, through to the 19th century, all the great ones who were for or against the spreading of the wisdom of Kabbalah. They were all of them in spiritual attainment until the time of the Shlah. When was the Shlah? I don't know. Until the time of the holy Shlah. The Rabbe said that there was no one who wrote a book, not from a spiritual source. And then the descent began. The descent of generations. They wrote partially from attainment and partially not from attainment, meaning they were all of them in attainment, but they were already in a bit of a descent. The will to receive grows, overcomes, and spirituality declines.

M. Laitman: (01:09:15) But nonetheless, you should understand that all these divisions, conflicts, resistances, it's not on our level. It's simply that they had this responsibility to protect the people. And if you ask me, I'm also against just pouring out the wisdom of Kabbalah to the religious public. If I had the option of giving everyone the wisdom of Kabbalah, I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that, because I don't have any confidence that they might start becoming wild, secular, and I don't know what form they'll take. And opposite that, they will go through the corrective path, where gradually they take on the force of development in a good, beneficial way, and it will really be for the sake of spiritual ascent, and it won't affect them in such a wild way, where who knows what will happen with the people in 20 years. I don't know. This should be someone who's a giant that can allow himself such things.

Although, according to what Baal HaSulam seemingly did, he was not afraid of it. But he is not me. I certainly think that we can go forward. I feel certain with moving forward with secular people, because here there's not much to corrupt, first of all, you understand? And then I somewhat can bring correction to one who wants a method, explain, and go with them. But for the still of Kedusha, it's a huge problem. It's very easy to say, come, let's do, let's turn things. It's not simple. They are protecting, no matter how you say it, it doesn't matter, but they are keeping a certain framework of the nation on a certain manner of it, the depiction of it, fashion of it. But to break that, who knows what you might cause. Meaning that, I don't feel myself as wise enough to do such things. But to do, to make it knowledgeable, meaning to cause the knowledge of the wisdom of Kabbalah and its greatness, and what it does to people, will be more dispersed and popular, that we will be able to disseminate it in a clearer way to the whole nation so that also from them, they will come to study, and there are those amongst them that are in a truly bitter state and in a state of not having peace and wanting to find things to advance with. So there are certainly things like that, that I know. But nevertheless, we have to be very cautious with this. Hence, if I hear or feel from the great ones of the Orthodox public, where they say something about me or, you know, pounce on me about something, I feel that they're right. I feel like they're right. They need to keep that rule, that law. And there's no other way to keep it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:32) We see that the more we try to disseminate, even in their place, it doesn't spread out. Meaning, there's some, the Creator is playing this game to prevent it from happening. The question is, if this is even a calculation of Kabbalists, or I should just try to disseminate no matter what? 

M. Laitman: No, I prefer to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah wherever it is possible, in a completely not directed, in one way, to the whole world, specifically if it's to Jews, because this part of the creation needs to come to correction first, and then be a light to the nations. But amongst the secular Jews, and the religious ones, especially the orthodox ones, I am truly cautious from touching. I don't feel myself in a role of making revolutions, really. To do dissemination for the wisdom of Kabbalah, yes, but to make it with the nation in such a way of what I think, I am not certain of what I think. Meaning, in relation to the religious ones, I truly think, for sure they still need to remain in that way. Meaning, it's not that they should remain in that way. If they will exit them, meaning if their desire to receive will grow more than their framework, and they will break out beyond their fence, the boundary that they're fenced in right now in keeping Torah and Mitzvot in a still manner, then that's fine, but it's not me that's causing that. That has to come from within. A desire to receive that will grow more than their education, and then they'll breach outwards and cry out, “Where are we, and what's this life for, and what is all these Torah and Mitzvot? They're not covering my will to receive, and we want to really know what to live for, and why we're living, and what we're observing, all this and everything.” If it breaks out in such a way, again, what's the meaning of our lives, in their form maybe, not maybe the way a secular person asks, they'll be asking about Torah and Mitzvot in their life and what the meaning of their life is, just like a secular person asks what's the meaning of one's life in their life. Then go for it, absolutely, please. But before they cry out in this way, before the desire to receive grows naturally and breaks their framework, I'm not allowed to come and do this artificially. That's what I feel. I'm simply telling you what I feel. Meaning that by no means do I go to even do some kind of extracurricular Kabbalah courses for them. There are those who do it, but those who do it are usually doing it in the form that it's Hasidism and not Kabbalah, and therefore it's allowed, and they have no resistance to it, because they're not talking about disconnecting from their inanimate or their still education. They're talking about how to strengthen their still education, and none of their community leaders, the great Ravs there or Admors there, have any resistance to this. There are many such clubs about Kabbalah, the internality of Kabbalah, with all kinds of types there, let's say in Bnei Brak with the orthodoxy. And there's no resistance to them, because they're studying in such a method that it only strengthens their education; it only adds a certain taste, a little more taste to that. So, everyone's for it. Whereas if I were to enter with the left line, yes? Where it's already a criticism upon everything that there is, then they would immediately break me, and justly. It is written, "Don't put an obstacle before a blind person." If he is still blind, if he doesn't have a breakout of the big desire to receive, that he will only go to fill it in the wildest, most egoistic way, it doesn't matter, but that's what's burning in him and determines his behavior, if he doesn't have that, then it's just so-so, so why should you fail him? You are adding to him from your desire to receive. Who are you? How can you do that? That's called coercion, when you're coercing your desire to receive upon his desire to receive. That's called coercion in spirituality. 

M. Laitman: (01:18:42) There's a little child that wants to play with his toys. You suddenly come, you break his toys, and you say, no, let's go do something real. What real? He doesn't understand what real is. For him, this is the truth, his little games. You want to raise him up, I want you to be great, there you have big machines, big things. He says, daddy, I want, where's my car, why did you break it for me? You understand? Why did you break it? You understand? That is called coercion. So, how can I go to them and do such a thing? It's simply prohibited. 

But really, Baal HaSulam writes that nevertheless, it's a problem that also the great ones amongst them, and also not the great ones amongst them, that they truly left the entire engagement in the wisdom of Kabbalah, and that this is really what's bringing forth all the problems in the world. Well, you can see that he didn't manage to do anything about this either, and as much as my Rav, Rabash, wanted to somewhat bring in the wisdom of Kabbalah amongst those Orthodox groups, it didn't work either. It didn't yet come to fruition. We need to wait nevertheless. This needs to come from all the directions: through the secular audience, and through the knowledge that's coming out in the world, through the surrounding light that we awaken upon everyone on one hand, and on the other hand, their desire to receive grows, and we will see how from year to year it grows, and breaks out, and we'll not be able to sustain them in this religious framework, but they need money, and honor, and all kinds of symbols and signs that will give a person a compensation to remain in this framework, and other jobs, and other things, because otherwise they'll all run away, and you have to give them so that they will all sit and study, and not go to the military, and social security, and all kinds of benefits. Do you understand? Now, take something from them, everything will fall apart. Meaning, the desire to receive is already growing from year to year anyway, and then the solution will come. But now, for you to go and add to them from your desire to receive, why aren't you studying? Why is it like this? That's called coercion. I tried that way. I tried to do a little, and I saw that it's really, it's not the way.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:38) What is the difference between the method of Baal Shem Tov and Baal HaSulam?

M. Laitman: What's the difference between the method of Baal Shem Tov and the method of Baal HaSulam? I don't think there's a difference. Baal HaSulam writes about this, that first of all, that he has nothing that he can dispute about Baal Shem Tov. It's a godly Kabbalist, a giant. We simply, we don't have something that he wrote, but rather only his students. But altogether what he did, and what corrections he made, they're huge. But for his time, for his time it operated, it worked. And Baal HaSulam writes about that. There's no difference in the method, meaning what is in the method. Baal HaSulam doesn't have a method of how to come to the audience, to the public, and how to now disseminate amongst the public the wisdom of Kabbalah. Baal Shem Tov had a method. Baal Shem Tov really made a method. He took the wisdom of Kabbalah, he clothed it upon this Hasidism with external symbols, and with all kinds of stories, and all kinds of rituals of sorts, and ceremonies. And he took care of this, and how should I say, I don't want to use the word psychological with the people, where there are Admors, and you can come to them and to cry, and they will help you, and will say, “It's not too bad, Chaim, because it will be good for you. Wait, you need patience,” and so on. Meaning, he created a system through which the nation's suffering, like it says here, that was really during a period of the pogroms, many people suffered. So, through using the assistance of this kind of folk, beastly level, he put into them this information about the upper world, about the method that you can get there with, and that you can do something about it. 

Baal HaSulam didn't have such a method. Meaning, where he found some clothing for the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to bring it into the people, to penetrate the people. He doesn't have that. We also don't. We are going with the method itself in a disclosed manner, and as disclosed as possible. And I think that there can't be already some clothing to it in our days. If you were to do the clothing, on the contrary, you'll appear not real. And we're already in it, coming to a desire to receive that has grown to such an extent that not stories, and not some belief, or something, nothing, we can't get anything from that. Rather, we need to find a special language for people within the language of Kabbalah, where they will simply understand our message. The clothing will be upon the language, the language of Kabbalah, but it's such a clothing that a person will just begin to hear. If I say to him, the desire to receive, he doesn't understand me. The screen and reflected light, he doesn't know what that is. A Neshama, soul, he doesn't know what it is. It's like something like, not like me. It's a Kli, and so on. Meaning, we will have to find an explanation. It's not a clothing, but rather an explanation that is such that is suitable to the perception of our audience. But such clothings, like Baal Shem Tov did already, I don't think will benefit today. And in truth, that's why they got canceled. I don't think there could be a method that's similar to the method of Baal Shem Tov, but he truly did something very special. Meaning, what did he do? You could say it this way. What is the whole method of the Hasidism? He concealed the Malchut and increased the Bina to the measure of Hesed, where that's how we should relate to one another, that that's how we need to all together aspire for that. And the form of Kabbalah, the method of Kabbalah is to reveal the Malchut, the desire to receive, and to go to it and care for it, take care of it. But for the general folk, it's not suitable. So he hid the Malchut a little bit in the Bina and did it outwards where it's Hesed, like mercy or grace. And in truth, the folks, the people needed it, and they received it, accepted it. But after that, when they saw that their desire to receive is demanding the correction, those already came to him, and from them he made Kabbalists. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:27:05) What is the qualitative difference between a great Kabbalist and a not-so-great Kabbalist? They're both in the world.

M. Laitman: What's the difference between a great and a small Kabbalist? You know, I don't know what to say. There's an electrician that knows how to wire electric points, but he knows there's electricity, he knows that it comes from the power station, it moves through the electric wires, and if I connect a light bulb to it, then there's some kind of resistance, and it will warm up the electrons, and then there'll be an expulsion of protons, and anyone can tell you this. And there are people that, for them, the concept of electricity is certain waves, and there's certain things that, you know, that, I don't know, as much as I know, can talk about this for a few hours. But there are those that, altogether. So we have this, and we have that, and there's a little child that he knows that if he presses this button, the light bulb, suddenly there's light. He also uses electricity. You're saying a great Kabbalist, a small Kabbalist. The knowledge of the causes for a thing that you already see, to the extent in which you know the more lofty, more exalted causes that are more concealed, then you're a greater Kabbalist. Each sees that the fire is lit, but what is it? That's how it is in our world. We see in this world what is called a scientist, that he knows the reason, the causes for the phenomena. 

Student: But reaching these higher levels, it's not an intellectual feat.

M. Laitman: So you're asking, if you're asking me, it's the same question you just said right now. I don't know how to behave with this audience, or I don't know that, I don't know that. There's a greater Kabbalist who knows the causes, and from those causes, he is certain that he will do it, but at least I have the intellect to say, I don't know. And there are such things that I don't have an intellect for that. It all depends on your degree. Entry into spirituality or the spiritual feeling doesn't give you immediately anything. It's not. You gradually, slowly, slowly attain more and more, only according to the degree. So that's the difference. And besides that, it depends on the type of soul. To do such a thing like Baal Shem Tov, to find this technology, this external technique of how to do this, the internal idea that clothes precisely on such an external clothing and everything that's not… Compared to him, the HaGra, is no less in degree, in spiritual degree, but that method was not accepted for him at all.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:30:21) Baal HaSulam writes that specifically all the destruction in the world, the damages come from those who study Torah but don't look for the, right, that internality. But now the question is what should happen so that not we'll go disseminate there, but maybe agree to accept those who come, and want, and knock on our door from the orthodox world.

M. Laitman: That's a correct question. When I say that we shouldn't, for the time being, disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah among orthodox religious people, and I explained why, now you're asking if there are those who wish to come here and study. I also don't think we should do it for the same reason, because the moment one of them comes here, and joins us, and studies, by that we begin to break down their fence. Because he becomes a blonde sheep there, right, or white, black, doesn't matter, in his herd, and it stands out. And this is a bad example especially for those who don't feel any need for it. And suddenly they look at him, and again, he's coercing them. That's one thing. The other thing is that here there's a political power involved. The matter is that Baal Shem Tov that established the Hasidic courts and Hasidism for the masses, it was because he was afraid of a real clash with the Lithuanians. Rabash told me about this history, he knew these things, he loved to engage in it, and he said that a great part of the work of Baal Shem Tov with the masses, that united really millions around him, is because he was afraid that there would be a great force to those who object to it, opposite power. Because for himself, he only needed his Cheder, his study room. Not the masses, because how can he help the masses? He could give them a few speeches to calm them down. It wasn't his intention, as those Hasids think, that Baal Shem Tov came to help them to go a little easier through this period of pogroms. Because what, the Creator is sending torments and what, Baal Shem Tov comes to nicely cover for them, make it nice for them? No. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:33:30) The thing is, Baal HaSulam talks about, there's one thing that doesn't leave much room for doubt. He says that those who are studying, and the desire awakens in them, and you don't give them an answer, that's the biggest harm possible.

M. Laitman:  I will tell you, just as Baal Shem Tov was afraid of the Lithuanians, or the ones who objected to the studies of Kabbalah, to the dissemination of Kabbalah, that was simply a political thing, right? That through the government, and there were many instances like that over there, that he was afraid that they would influence his method and not allow him to make such corrections and to raise a generation of Kabbalists, so I'm the same. I don't want to go to them, I don't want to receive, you know, receive or accept anyone from them, because I'm afraid that through the government and through other means they can harm us, harm me and our group. Thank God, we have a group. When we study, and we disseminate, and not simply among them, so I'm satisfied, because once I begin to accept even one of them who comes to study, it's done. We're getting into a direct fight with them. For what? Head on, that's not my goal at all. They have their own audience, I have mine. We have no choice. And I think that it's not like there is no choice. For the time being, this is the path of development.

We don't need to be world reformers. If I can give a certain solution to those who are ready for correction, that is my job. To accelerate the development, that's not on me. If you come to a person and you begin to awaken in him the will to receive, do you actually help him? No. You only corrupt him. Only those who have the question “what is the meaning of life,” we need to provide them with a method of the answer. "Taste and see, the Lord is good." That's it. You have to be very careful with that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:35:48) You gave the example about the electrician and the child, that one understands what's going through the electricity there. So just like a friend said here, if attainment is such a sensational thing, then how can you stop these discernments that you're attaining with your feeling? So, where is the mind that's besides that? I don't understand the point here. Where do you stop with these causes?

M. Laitman: I don't know what you're saying. You're asking me a question, and I have to give you an answer. I'm not going into my mind, ever. I need to enliven this question in me, to feel how it lives in me, to see the answer emotionally, how I get an answer for it, and then pass it using words, and my intellect already clothed in it to you. I can't… I'll tell you more. Not that I cannot answer to you from the intellect, I'll tell you even more than that. You'll feel that your intellect is something that disappears. What you know today will disappear. Tomorrow you'll be confused. The day after tomorrow you'll have a different understanding. The mind is only good for passing the emotional answer in such a way that the other one, the one who's on the outside, can hear it. There are such questions that I truly, I can't hear them, so I avoid them. I'm in such a different form relative to the question that I cannot feel the answer for it. But everything only passes emotionally. I hear, I feel, I acquire an emotional answer, and I pass it to you through the intellect, with the mind, with the help of the mind. The mind is only helping us connect, but inside of me it's only feeling. 

You're asking a question. For me, that same question goes through a transformation, a change. It gets transmuted into my emotional question. It's not the way you're asking it. And I get an emotional answer of my own, on my degree, and I pass it to you as much as you can, as much as you can accept it, and as much as I can express it. It's also a problem. Rabash didn't know how to express anything, to articulate. See how he, hear how he spoke. There are people who came 10, 20 lessons to come to hear him, and after 10 or 15 lessons they would ask me, tell me, which language is he speaking? You can ask all the guys that I brought to him. They're all alive. People like you, from Tel Aviv, who spoke good Hebrew, they didn't understand that he's speaking Hebrew. Not the first time, the fifth or the tenth time that they were there. All the more so, once you know and you begin to get accustomed, it was such a slang, you know, half a word, not connected with the other word, and the sentence could be two sentences down, or before, or after. It was in such a way that, well, I'm not even talking about Yiddish idioms, and Aramaic, and you know, you name it. I'm already used to it, to him, but it's something else. But what am I trying to say? This, this has nothing to do with the degree, it's nothing to do with the degree. To write, you know, he wrote, but to speak verbally, he didn't know how to do it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:40:39) So, what's the difference between a person who's below the barrier and a Kabbalist, which I don't know in my feelings how to arrange this wisdom, and I don't see the picture?

M. Laitman: We are feeling creatures. What is in me are five senses, and the mind to help me decipher what I'm feeling. The mind explains to me what I'm feeling, the reason for my feelings. I feel hot, or cold, or pressure, or noise, or some other impression. Someone is doing good to me; someone is doing bad to me. The mind merely gives me a reason for it. Why do I feel the way I feel? And it helps me correct my feeling to a better feeling. It serves the will to receive, it helps the will to receive reach a more comfortable state. That's it, that's the five senses, meaning the feeling. That's where we live, as much as it seems to us that we are wise people, we have ideas and knowledge, nothing. It's all a feeling. So what we, when we speak amongst us, we also, we pass these feelings to one another, except they're clothed inside these mental formulas. Because we cannot convey feelings to one another, only in a very unclear form, convoluted. But using the intellect, there were those who knew how to clothe the feelings in the intellect, and there were those who didn't. It has nothing to do with one's attainment. There were many Kabbalists who wrote all these intimations, and you can barely understand them. Maybe they did not want to write intimations, they wanted to write good things, clear things. That's what it looked like to them, but you know how many millions were there that did not write, because they did not know how to write clearly, they did not know how to express themselves, people of high attainment. It's not for nothing that he writes that Rabbi Shimon told Rabbi Abba, and Rabbi Abba knew how to reveal through concealment, and so on.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:43:46) Why is there like one type of soul and not many kinds of souls? You're saying that the feeling is one, but there are many ways, or why is there one type?

M. Laitman: The feeling is called a spiritual vessel. The will to receive is not in the body. Even in our body, show me the place where the will to receive is there. Let me cut out this place, take it out of the body, and the body will remain without the will to receive. No, the will to receive on all its levels: still, vegetative, animate, speaking, it fills the entire body, it's in every cell, every electron, every atom, every molecule, every organ, you name it. But where is it? It's not there. It's simply a different dimension, a spiritual dimension, not corporeal. Let's say, like our body, inside of our body, there's another body, this fog, I don't know how to say it, which is the will to receive. And it receives impressions, seemingly, through our senses. I don't want to go deeper than that, it's enough. So, we're talking about this vessel, the will to receive that receives a certain feeling from the fulfillment, the filling inside the will. The will to receive exists next to... I'm sorry, the intellect, the mind, exists next to the will to receive in order to help it feel better. And the will to receive develops the mind so the mind can help it feel what causes suffering to the will to receive, or to help it understand where you can derive more pleasure. The mind is designed to serve the will to receive, to acquire additional filling, always. This is an addition to the will to receive, how to fill the will to receive more. If the will to receive is completely full, it doesn't need the mind, it has everything it wants. If it has a little bit less than what it is, then it begins to develop, to encourage the mind, it's looking for ways to attain, to acquire what it's lacking. And that's how the system called the mental, or the intellectual system is developed. What the will to receive feels inside itself, only it feels. And even if there's someone else who feels something, I cannot feel for him, in his vessel, and he cannot feel in my vessel. How can we pass feelings to one another? Through the mind, that's it. You cannot pass feelings. Meaning, I need to explain to the other my impression, my deficiencies, or my pleasures, mentally, intellectually, because the feeling itself has no words, it's light. And words for a feeling, that's already the impression of the vessel, of the desire. And I need to give this desire all kinds of symbols, or measurements, or letters, and then these signs, these symbols, I can pass to the other. That's why there are many methods how to pass certain ideas between one another.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:48:02) How could it be that someone on his personal path, individually, if something is happening to him, how can it be that he'll move to an emotional state, and try to measure some emotional state that someone else is...

M. Laitman: Okay, guys? We're not going to study today. Today we're not going to study.