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

Daily Lesson (Morning) January 17, 2025.

Part 2: Obtaining Contact with the Creator

Reader: We are reading selected excerpts on the subject of “Obtaining Contact with the Creator”. We have selected excerpts on the topic. We'll start with number six. You can find all of the texts on Sviva Tova and Arvut, and you can send us questions as well. We remind you that anyone asking a question here in the study hall is requested to ask succinctly, and also hold the microphone close to your mouth and speak loudly and clearly if you're asking here in the study hall.

Baal HaSulam, Shamati 19. Excerpt 6

Reading: (00:43) We must know that there is a matter of importance in the labor when there is contact between the individual and the Creator It means that one feels that he needs the Creator since, in the state of labor, he sees that no one in the world can save him from the state he is in except for the Creator. Then he sees that “There is none else besides Him,” who can save him from the state he is in, and from which he cannot escape.

This is called having close contact with the Creator. If one knows how to appreciate that contact, meaning that one should believe that then he is adhered to the Creator, meaning that all his thought is of the Creator, meaning that He will help him, for otherwise he sees that he is lost.

Conversely, one who is rewarded with private Providence and sees that the Creator does everything, as it is written, “He alone does and will do all the deeds,” naturally has nothing to add, and in any case, he has no room for prayer for the Creator’s help.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:47) Well, as you know me, I'm a great, very big egoist. That's why I came to study Kabbalah. 

M. Laitman: It doesn't really touch us, it doesn't touch our heart.

Student: You always said, “he's a big egoist”, so I'm just reminding people of what you said. And he writes here that one who obtains private Providence, well, I want private Providence, I want to attain it. What does he mean by private Providence and how is it attained, how do I reach that? What is it? 

M. Laitman: I don't know what to tell you. I guess, you have someone that's older than you in your family. 

Student: Of course, I do.

M. Laitman: You do? 

Student: I'm not the oldest. 

M. Laitman: So, if you do, send him. 

Student: Send him where? 

M. Laitman: To Kabbalah Le’am, to us.

Student: And then?

M. Laitman: And then, he'll ask and demand that he'll give you a bit more attention, support. And you'll start feeling how much it helps you. 

Student: Why do I ask? Look what he says, and so, when a man reads a book, some book, he hopes, and hangs his hopes on the study. He needs more faith to believe in Providence, that the Creator will open his eyes. Then he becomes needful of the Creator, and that he has contact with the Creator, and then he can be awarded with adhesion with the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: It's a different part that completes this.

M. Laitman: Look, it's all written like a plan. 

Student: Like a plan, by request, yes. But it's not just, when he writes private Providence, I envy that, honestly, that a person has private Providence. And once you talked to us, you said something like, there's no such thing – and what did you say exactly – it was a special style. Obtaining private Providence means to adhere to Him, to the Creator. And then, there's this chance you will receive private Providence, and also, it's not guaranteed, you said something like that many years ago. So, what is private Providence? I'm here, I'm coming to study. How can I attain this fantasy? To come out this door and have the Creator watch over me - go home, the Creator watches over me, that I don't fight with my wife. Also the Creator watches me drive home. How do I get that, how do I attain that? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, you can say even more. I'm in my car, and I'm shutting my eyes, and I'll just...

Student: Yes, it's self-driving. 

M. Laitman: And pressing on the pedal. 

Student: Oh yeah, there's no problem, today you can do that. There's an AI that can do that, self-driving cars. But alright, seriously though, in many places in the Torah it says, in the Gemara, as well, and in the wisdom of Kabbalah also, that there is such a thing as private Providence. So, I'm not letting go of this, I want to know how to attain private Providence. How do I get there? I want to attain it. What is private Providence, really? 

M. Laitman: Oh, so how do you want it if you don't know what it is? 

Student: Look, I was taught that if someone's watching over me, then I need to feel confident, secure about it, that I can't make mistakes, because he tells me - go left, go right, making sure I succeed. 

M. Laitman: That's with a condition. 

Student: Of course, but how can I attain this here? I come to study here? With this society in Bnei Baruch. How do I attain?

M. Laitman: Talk to everyone here that you need to unite and pray to the Creator for private Providence. 

Student: Is there such a thing? 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: And what does it mean? What does it mean that a person has private Providence? What's the bottom line? Maybe it's just a fantasy.

M. Laitman: There's an angel from above that sees a person and brings down his private Providence upon him. 

Student: And he feels good? He feels more secure and confident? 

M. Laitman: Private Providence, yes. Meaning, what does he aim him towards? He's aiming him towards an encounter with the Creator and a path to it. That angel is doing it for him. 

Student: So, he helps you adhere to the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And that's what I feel, I'm lacking. Because, I have you, I have the friends, but I don't feel that there's someone pushing me. 

M. Laitman: Except for that, nobody is lacking anything.

Student: What do you mean? 

M. Laitman: Just private Providence, that's the only thing you need. 

Student: Yes, so that's what I'm saying. Do you see the friends here have private Providence? Do you feel that they have it?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Just so? Yes. What do you see as private? How does it manifest, this private Providence? 

M. Laitman: That a foreigner can’t feel it.

Student: A foreigner doesn't feel it. Who can feel it? 

M. Laitman: The one who receives it. 

Student: The one who studies, here, do we all feel it? 

M. Laitman: There are people here that feel it. 

Student: Yes, so there are some and there are some who don't.

M. Laitman: There are some who don't. 

Student: And they need to attain it here with us.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:07) A person in a Ten, he goes through more major, more minor states. And he feels that the friends are praying for him and he feels, this gives him confidence. Often he feels, well, uncomfortable or that there's no need to turn to the Creator. Is that fine or should the person turn to the Creator in every situation? 

M. Laitman: It's a state that obviously comes from the Creator and from that state, you need to raise his plea back to the Creator. And to connect with Him; and to find in it a private path how he can be always connected to the Creator. 

Student: So, if I go through some state and I feel that the friends are praying for me. That's all in order to reach this connection with the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Now, I don't need to reach a state where I'm completely lost, right? I need to ask for this in every given state. 

M. Laitman: In every state, that you feel that you're completely lost without the Creator's help. 

Student: Right, but in many situations I don't feel lost. I feel confident, relatively. 

M. Laitman: So, you have something to work on. 

Student: And then should I turn to Him, nonetheless? Or it feels, you know, awkward.

M. Laitman: Why? 

Student: Because, maybe, I'm asking for something that's too insignificant. 

M. Laitman: Okay, put that in your prayer, too.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:12) Obtaining contact with the Creator, what does it mean to obtain contact with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: That I feel inside me all those strings that the Creator is touching inside. I feel that I also want to touch them and along with the Creator, to be playing music together on those strings. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:56) Towards the end of this item perhaps we can read it, friend, the last sentence in item six. 

Reading: (12:10) Conversely, one who is rewarded with private Providence and sees that the Creator does everything, as it is written, “He alone does and will do all the deeds,” naturally has nothing to add, and in any case, he has no room for prayer for the Creator’s help.

Student: It sounds like a very problematic state. What is that state? 

M. Laitman: There is no worse state than that; that a person doesn't have any prayer to the Creator.

Student: So, he lost contact with the Creator but he has private Providence. I don't understand?

M. Laitman: Let's hope, we don't reach it. Or if we do reach it, we'll know what to do. 

Student: Because, private Providence sounds like something that you really want like our friend described it. Oh, it's so great, the Creator is watching over me, personally. But it sounds like the moment you're there, you've lost contact with the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes, that, too.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:41) You said that each one has his own personal path. But isn't it the Baal Shem Tov's path? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, I don't know the paths that are called by the name of some Kabbalists.

Student: Well, Rabash's stories, for example. 

M. Laitman: No, don't ask in that way.

Student: Alright, thank you.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:26) When I pray, should I always pray for the friend's sake or should I pray for myself, as well? 

M. Laitman: Also on yourself, also for the friends. Also for the whole of Israel and also for all the world. Each and every one in the world, no problem.

Student: When I pray for myself, I feel that I don't deserve the Creator answering me. Do I need to feel that I deserve it? 

M. Laitman: You have to understand that the Creator is thinking of each and every one. He has no problem to be in contact with everyone.

Student: Should I ask only for things relating to spirituality or also corporeal things, such as health? 

M. Laitman: Try. But obviously on things that you feel anxiety for.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:55) Relating the scrutiny with our friend, now regarding this last sentence of the Item. I heard, you say that it's a very terrible state. Meaning, it's not so good. Perhaps I misheard. But here he writes that one who is awarded with private Providence, then, well, why does he say “rewarded”, if it's such a terrible state? What is the reward, here? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. You entered my explanation with your explanation, and you're doing something in there. So, I don't know.

Student: We always come with a question that comes out of our scrutiny, which connects to the scrutiny of the group to reach some kind of answer. But here it sounds like a fantastic situation. Our person is awarded because ultimately our work, the goal of it is for the Creator to reward us with something, adhesion and so on. And we go through many states on the path, so is there something wrong with?

M. Laitman: No, we'll talk about it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:24) Beyond private Providence, how can we, how can we, what can we call the Providence over the Ten, that's organizing, leading force in the Ten, of the Ten. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: What can we call it? Is it also private Providence? Is it a higher kind of private Providence? 

M. Laitman: Yes, it's private Providence, it comes from above and there's a private Providence that comes to that same place where you reach below, and there's this kind, that kind. 

Student: So, what is that thing leading us in the Ten, connecting us together? Or perhaps causing separation, so we can overcome it? What is that? 

M. Laitman: That's the upper force. 

Student: Is that also private Providence? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Is it a higher kind of private Providence than the personal? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Should we even concern ourselves with anything that's private or should we?

M. Laitman: Better to engage in something general. 

Student: So, only the connection with the friends.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And not confuse ourselves with our egoism, basically. 

M. Laitman: No. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:57) He describes a situation where a person is in a lowly state. He's lost and he needs the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: That much is clear. Now, when he doesn't feel that, in situations where he doesn't feel at the lowest degree, how to need the Creator in, well, normal, mundane states? 

M. Laitman: When he's in regular states he doesn't have a demand for the Creator.

Student: Yes, it's not an extreme condition. He's not at a low, he's not anxious. 

M. Laitman: So, he doesn't know how to turn to Him.

Student: That's the question: How to need the Creator outside of those low states? 

M. Laitman: As much as he connects to his friends he'll feel, as much as they are emptier. And from that feeling in them, he can raise his deficiencies upward.

Student: He discovers that his friends are empty? 

M. Laitman: Could be. 

Student: At every given moment, a person has an opportunity to turn to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:28) To continue our friends question, does it mean that the person, every moment, all he needs to do is just to collect, let's say, lacks. If not his own, then from the environment and to use them to come into contact with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Could be. 

Student: Because the state our friend described is a state where the person is not in some state of distress. Or you could say, it's even a state of pride, even though the person doesn't term it so. The person, what he has left to do, and maybe that's why we engage in the connection between us all the time. He needs to always have a lack because if there's no lack, then that's the worst state, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:43) We heard a few times, now, you saying that the Creator doesn't exist and we need to build the Creator between us. The Creator is “Bo-Reh” [Come and See]. So, who do we pray to? 

M. Laitman: We are praying in order to reveal the Creator that is dwelling between us. 

Student: Yesterday, I cried and cried, help me. To whom? It's an empty space, almost. 

M. Laitman: Okay, so you pray to an empty space sometimes, too. 

Question (Haifa 3): (22:53) The attainment that There's None Else Besides Him, is that an expression of help from the Creator and the understanding that everything comes from Him? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (W Turkey): (23:24) Why is it, specifically, when a person is rewarded from above, he's left with no work to do? What kind of reward is that? 

M. Laitman: What kind of reward? It's a reward that as if everything's clear but there's no deficiency to ask. There's no deficiency to ask.

Question (W Heb 1): (24:04) Does a person always need to feel, or maybe believe, even if he doesn't feel, to always believe that there's private Providence over him? 

M. Laitman: A person needs to feel that there is private Providence upon him. 

Student: Now, in those moments where he receives this Providence in the way of the back – posterior [Achoraim]. Should he ask to feel this Providence in a different way, the same Providence? 

M. Laitman: You have to keep going and keep searching how to reach it.

Student: But it's still private Providence? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:01) You told our friend, if I wrote it down correctly, that the more he connects with the friends, the more he feels how empty they are. How can it be that through connection with the friends, you come to feel that they're empty? What does it mean? 

M. Laitman: A person and his friends search for some grasp in the upper force; and they don't reveal it, for now. 

Student: But a person's connection with the Creator, that only happens through the friends, no? 

M. Laitman: But he's on the way and that's why he still doesn't find it. The connection with the friends and the connection with the Creator. 

Student: If a person annuls himself before the society, before the Ten, and connects to them with his heart, does he feel emptiness from them? 

M. Laitman: No. 

Student: What does he feel, then? 

M. Laitman: He searches for fulfillment and that's what he believes is in there.

Student: Within the friends? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: There's fulfillment? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And what is that fulfillment? 

M. Laitman: The fulfillment in what he thinks they have, that it is the feeling of the Creator, mutual support. That's how it is. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:51) Private Providence, is that the state of the end of Correction?

M. Laitman: No, no, private Providence is what a person feels that the Creator is connected to him, conducting him. That's called Private Providence. 

Student: Meaning, that even when a person has Private Providence, he still has work to do?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:42) The people of Israel are now buzzing, some enraged about the hostage deal. Everyone thinks it's terrible, those who are, people think that being for it is terrible, being against it is terrible, and so on. Everyone thinks everything is terrible. So, the question is the people of Israel are in such a dilemma, but how does Rav see the role of the people of Israel in such a dilemma? 

M. Laitman: I'm not in this so it's difficult for me to say what I'd vote for, I don't know. But still, we need to understand that the Arabs, as much as they – how they can put us into dead-ends. That's why I don't think that we have a way, a better way, than to discover our stubbornness. That's it.

Student: So, beyond the message we usually relay, connection above all differences, here I hear from Rav that?

M. Laitman: Well, that's something we can say but what we need to understand is that what will be, depends on what we will decide. And what we receive between us, in a way, that closes us off together. 

Student: That's it. I don't think we have a better way than to discover our stubbornness. We need a kind of harshness, power, stubbornness, is that the direction? 

M. Laitman: Something like that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:41) Adhesion, feeling that the Creator conducts me, as you said. How does that work together with “don't believe in yourself until the day you die”? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, I never tried to connect it. 

Student: What do you suggest? 

M. Laitman: Maybe, you try and you'll find a solution.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:21) Regarding thought and intention with respect to what's happening now in our current world. I believe that in our society, there's great energy in terms of spiritual intention – I don't know what to call it. How can we act, in thought, with our hearts – I don't know. What's happening now with the hostage deal, the idea is to release many, many terrorists with blood on their hands. For a few hostages sitting now in hell in Gaza, how should we relate to that? What should we think about that? How should we, what's our intention? How can we help, given this state in Israel and the world? 

M. Laitman: I am not engaging in this. I don't know what, how to weigh every of the decisions, whether they're good or worse.

Student: How can we do good to the world, now?

M. Laitman: We can do good to the world if we will know how we need to be good in the eyes of the Creator. 

Student: How to be good in the eyes of the Creator ,right now? 

M. Laitman: We have to see. We have to see.

Student: We will ask to be good in the Creator's eyes. 

M. Laitman: We heard, I think, everyone is thinking that until the last friend, here. But the question is as much as we are equal in this. That's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:41) Equal in what? 

M. Laitman: Equal in our desire to reach wholeness. 

Student: With respect to all those questions, if there's private Providence and general Providence, collective Providence, what depends on us? 

M. Laitman: We have to scrutinize what solutions we find through general Providence and Private Providence; and to find a solution. 

Student: It's still unclear. Our approach is to agree with the Creator with everything He does or should we be enraged at His actions? Thinking He needs to change something, we need to change and what exactly to change? How do we relate to all the difficult things happening in the world, decisions which will split us, divide us? What is our role in this? 

M. Laitman: We have to try to discover all of the solutions – open quote, end quote. And to see how part of them gives us an ability to exist and part of them doesn't give us an ability to exist, that's it. We are in the same state just as we were before all these events and there's no difference. 

Student: What haven't we learned? 

M. Laitman: What haven't we learned? We haven't learned how to understand our enemies. Wat they want and what we need to want from the state we have reached.

Student: What's good for Israel? 

M. Laitman: What's good for Israel? Connection with the Creator. 

Student: A connection with the Creator, how will that help? What changes do we need to see in our reality, in the Israeli reality, in the reality of the Middle East, I don't know, the world? What should we expect? 

M. Laitman: Expect that we will be able to bestow upon the whole world the formula of peace.

Student: Which is? 

M. Laitman: That it will be accepted between everyone.

Student: What is the formula state? 

M. Laitman: That if we will perform it, there will be peace. 

Student: Before we go tell the world about peace, I see that here, between us, there is no peace. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How can we tell ourselves, how can we bring ourselves to a state of peace? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, I don't know. I'm sure, they won't want my solution. Their solution, the true one, I won't want it. So, what do you want it to be? 

Student: So, what will be? What do you foresee happening in this situation? 

M. Laitman: There is no solution in this situation. 

Student: How will it continue? 

M. Laitman: Next war.

Student: And then, we'll understand the need for peace and look for other ways. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What is our role, the people studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, with respect to, well, even the current situation? What should we pray for, the people here? 

M. Laitman: Our prayer should be that we will understand the upper force. What it wants to tell us. And we'll get it. 

Student: Why doesn't the Creator want us to understand Him? 

M. Laitman: The Creator doesn't want us to understand Him because it's against our character, it's against us. 

Student: That's the main problem, we don't understand the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How can we understand Him if we don't have the vessel in which to receive Him, to understand Him? 

M. Laitman: ‘Til here. Up to here.