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

Daily Lesson (Afternoon) April 3, 2024

Reader: Shalom, hello, we are studying the article of Rabash, “The Meaning of Exile,” volume number 3, note number 71. You can find the study materials on our website, Sviva Tova, and here in the Arvut system, “The Meaning of Exile.” 

M. Laitman: (00:32) We'll read it, we'll hear it, and we'll talk about it if we have something to say. 

Reading Record 71: (00:42) “The Meaning of Exile.”

“When Israel are in exile, the Shechina [Divinity] is with them.” This means that if one falls into a descent, spirituality is also in a descent for him. But according to the rule, “a Mitzva [commandment] induces a Mitzva,” why does he come into a descent? Answer: He is given a descent from above so as to feel that he is in exile and ask for mercy, to be delivered from exile. This is called “redemption,” and there cannot be redemption if there is no exile there, first. 

What is exile? It is that he is under the rule of self-love and cannot work for the sake of the Creator. When is self-love considered exile? It is only when he wants to emerge from this control because he suffers from not being able to do anything for the sake of the Creator.

It follows that when he began to work, there had to be some pleasure and reward for which the body agreed to this work. Afterward, when he was permitted to see that there is the matter of “for the sake of the Creator,” because a Mitzva induces a Mitzva, and he had to ask to be delivered from exile, then he runs from the exile. 

How does he run from the exile? It is by saying that he will not succeed in this work. Thus, what does he do? He puts himself to death, meaning leaves the work and returns to corporeal life, which is regarded as “The wicked in their lives are called ‘dead.’” 

It follows that where he should have asked for redemption from exile, he runs from the exile and puts himself to death. This is as it is written, “The ways of the Lord are straight; the righteous will walk in them, and transgressors will fail in them.” However, he should go above reason. 

A descent in spirituality does not mean that now he has no faith. Rather, now he must do more work, and the previous faith is considered a descent compared to this work.

M. Laitman: It is a short article, but it really hits our state. Let's hear it again. 

Re-Reading Record 71: (04:31) “The Meaning of Exile.” 

“When Israel are in exile, the Shechina [Divinity] is with them.” This means that if one falls into a descent, spirituality is also in a descent for him. But according to the rule, “a Mitzva [commandment] induces a Mitzva,” why does he come into a descent? Answer: He is given a descent from above so as to feel that he is in exile and ask for mercy, to be delivered from exile. This is called “redemption,” and there cannot be redemption if there is no exile there, first. 

What is exile? It is that he is under the rule of self-love and cannot work for the sake of the Creator. When is self-love considered exile? It is only when he wants to emerge from this control because he suffers from not being able to do anything for the sake of the Creator.

It follows that when he began to work, there had to be some pleasure and reward for which the body agreed to this work. Afterward, when he was permitted to see that there is the matter of “for the sake of the Creator,” because a Mitzva induces a Mitzva, and he had to ask to be delivered from exile, then he runs from the exile. 

How does he run from the exile? It is by saying that he will not succeed in this work. Thus, what does he do? He puts himself to death, meaning leaves the work and returns to corporeal life, which is regarded as “The wicked in their lives are called ‘dead.’” 

It follows that where he should have asked for redemption from exile, he runs from the exile and puts himself to death. This is as it is written, “The ways of the Lord are straight; the righteous will walk in them, and transgressors will fail in them.” However, he should go above reason. 

A descent in spirituality does not mean that now he has no faith. Rather, now he must do more work, and the previous faith is considered a descent compared to this work.

Question (Turkiye 2): (08:42) How does a man stop loving himself and begin to live for the Creator? 

M. Laitman: He cannot do this. But if he nonetheless, asks and goes forward and wants for it to happen, for him to have a connection with the Creator, then he starts to feel how far he is from the Creator. How much he thinks only about himself, and gradually he reaches the recognition of evil, that his forces, his desires, and his actions, and then he asks the Creator to correct him, to do something with him. And then, ultimately, the Creator corrects him, does the correction on him, and the person merits redemption.

Question (Women MAK): (10:02) How do we all as the world Kli come out of the exile? What does it mean that we run away from the Pharaoh, and he's felt as dead? 

M. Laitman: Imagine that the Pharaoh is dead. How do you need to think about it and act? 

Student: If we hold on to the Creator always, what is the addition in ascents without limits? 

M. Laitman: It's according to your desire, as much as you and your friends connect together, and to what extent that you want to remove the Pharaoh, the evil inclination, that evil force that is always drawing you backward towards your ego, to the desire to receive to Egypt. Then in that way, you succeed gradually, throughout a certain period of time, to reach a state that the force of Pharaoh gets removed. 

Student: And the level of ascent is measured against the level of descent from the connection with the Creator? What does that mean that I need to relate to what he sent to me the way he looks at it? 

M. Laitman: The Creator is always giving us a step forward. He helps us by doing something towards Him to advance, and therefore, we need to guard ourselves to try to use every state that we receive, that it comes to us from the Creator, in order to advance, to make another step forward, and that we won't pass through it without any response. 

Student: How do we start clothing ourselves in the Creator and see reality the way he does? 

M. Laitman: That's not soon, it's to gradually, gradually come closer to that, and then we'll see how we advance. For now, we simply need all the time to convince ourselves that we need to advance forward, that we need to ask from the Creator for him to bring us closer to Him, and in this way, we'll advance. We'll advance, you'll see.

Question (Women MAK 43): (14:44) In the article it says, the essence from exile, when Israel is in exile, Shechina is with them, and exile is when a person is under the influence of self-love, and not under the influence of the Creator, why is the Shechina with them? 

M. Laitman: This is why it's called divinity is in exile. 

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (15:40) My feeling of exile, does this depend on my efforts that the Creator sends me this feeling? 

M. Laitman: The fact that I'm in exile, this feeling comes to me also from the Creator, and this feeling is a correct feeling. It's not false, and I need to rise upwards from it, from this feeling, and to ask the Creator for Him to help me to be above the feeling of exile, that I want to reach redemption. Meaning that I want to connect to the Creator, to be connected with the Creator to such an extent that there's no empty space between us.

Question (Women MAK 25): (16:52) How can we help a friend get saved from killing himself as it says? 

M. Laitman: Be closer to him, talk to him, get advice from him, to draw Him further and further into our work. 

Question (Women MAK 25): (17:25) Is being sent to exile, can this be fast, and not long process, or momentary? 

M. Laitman: I can't tell you to what extent it could be fast or slow. This depends on your reaction, to what extent that you're together, and together are working on your response to the Creator, that everything that's happening to you is done by the Creator, and you need to react to this together. 

Student: Supporting each other, increasing the importance. 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, yes, absolutely everything.

Question (Women MAK 5): (18:30) The commandment causes a commandment. When he is in exile, he needs to ask to be taken out of exile, and then he runs, and how does he run, and that he will not succeed in this work, and what does he do? He puts himself to death, leaves the spiritual and comes out to the corporeal, so what is this help he can get when he has no hope? 

M. Laitman: When he has no hope and he agrees to whatever will be, will be. 

Student: A second question. What does it mean that Mitzvah induces a Mitzvah? 

M. Laitman: When a person aspires to realize something of the Creator's desire, this is called a commandment, if he does so, then he goes deeper into it, and then he performs the next commandment, and the next one, and so forth.

Question (Women Spain): (20:36) How can we help a friend if she has many fears, and she has been in these states for a while now? 

M. Laitman: What to do if she has fear? It depends on the fear. We take into account only the fear that's towards the path, towards the Creator, but besides that, we don't have anything to be afraid of. All of our fears that something will happen are not out of us coming closer to the Creator. We need to be confident that through the connection between us, we are passing, we're going upward above all of the fears. 

Question (Women Polish): (21:44) What do you do when it feels like no matter what you do, it's not enough, it's too little? Is this an expression of the ego? 

M. Laitman: Yes, it's an expression of the ego. On the other hand, it's good that you need to strengthen yourself more and more in order to come closer to the Creator. 

Question (Women Italy): (22:17) How do we accept dimensions of reality that are not immediately accessible through rational thought? Can they be perceived through faith or redemption? Can there be redemption without faith? 

M. Laitman: No, no. Exile, faith, these go together.

Question (Women Almaty): (23:15) There are eight people in our Ten. Do we need to have ten people to follow the Mitzvot? 

M. Laitman: No, no, it's not important. Not important. 

Question (Women Rus 10): (23:34) Can we say that when the smallest criticism towards the friends appears in us, does this mean that we're in a descent? 

M. Laitman: It could not be so. It could be that it's actually how it needs to be, that you see these things correctly. But you need to talk about all these things all together. 

Student: Rav, can we ask the Creator to remove all the flaws we see in the friends? 

M. Laitman: No. To remove them? No. To correct them. 

Student: How do we feel the articles, not in the mind, but in the heart? And how can an article reach its goal to process our desires for ourselves? 

M. Laitman: If you think more about how you need to relate to the friends and how through them you need to relate to the Creator, then you will have the right intentions. 

Student (German): (25:24) How can we come to a realization that we're in exile? 

M. Laitman: Think about it more that I don't feel the Creator, that I cannot feel what I'm receiving from Him, and that I cannot give to Him, and these connections between the Creator and me, they're not felt in me. And that's called exile.

Student: Eventually, is this good that we have sorrow that we're in exile? 

M. Laitman: Yes, but besides sorrow, we need to go forward. It's correct that sorrow is nonetheless a state that I'm not in a good state with the Creator. It pushes me forward, but am I doing something after that or no? Therefore, we need, on the one hand, seemingly, to speak about the sorrow that my state is not okay. I need to reach out of the sorrow to love, to joy, to connection, to an embrace with the Creator. 

Student: How can we work on this in the Ten so as to strengthen ourselves in the realization that we're in exile? 

M. Laitman: Speak about, it in the meantime, between you and ask more about it.  

Question (Women Moscow 6): (27:41) In the article, it says that faith on the previous degree is checked. According to the work, what does it mean that faith is checked? 

M. Laitman: This examination is when you're given this feeling, to what extent that you're not in connection with the Creator. 

Question (Women MAK 97): (27:47) Is there a point of no return when the Creator stops checking our faith and we're moving just in a way without a sense? 

M. Laitman: No, we always have more and more need for faith. Let's think like that in the meantime. 

Student: When a person starts to ask, the Creator reveals evil, reveals more ego. Is this ego revealed only in the work with the Ten or also with our close ones in our family? Can I also reveal my ego there? And the Creator can also show me how much of an egotist I am there? 

M. Laitman: Yes, of course. 

Question (Women MAK 97): (29:33) I have a question about a prayer. The Creator has many names, and when I write the prayer, I get a different name. The Creator, the Only One, the Merciful One, the Just One. Does this affect on the prayer? 

M. Laitman: No, just whatever your heart agrees to. 

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (30:08) The state of exile is a hard state. We have to come to it so that we perceive love towards oneself as exile. How do we do this in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: You need to feel that your relations to the spiritual world, and the spiritual world is bestowal, love, mutual help, dissolving into others. And that this world, in which you would have felt yourself that way, it's hidden from you, and this is called the Creator's concealment. 

Student: And then we have to talk more about the regret that we're not in that state. 

M. Laitman: Speak about it, speak about it. No one's prohibiting you from that. Yes, talk about love. 

Question (Women MAK 30): (31:27) If we understand that each day we need to add in the work, but we feel it's such that we completely give ourselves, does that mean that we don't see our shortcomings? What do we do with that? 

M. Laitman: You have to look for what else you can do in order to raise yourself to the Creator. 

Question (MAK 24): (32:13) This article exactly depicts my states that I'm going through now. The feeling from the articles of Rabash and Baal HaSulam is happening inside of me, and they're leading me on this path. When you talk about all this, and then suddenly there's this disagreement between my feelings and these impressions that I hear from the inside now, and also in the morning lesson, how do I deal with it? It's hitting me from the inside, and I want to pass it to someone.

M. Laitman: You don't need to pass it on to anyone. Just forget about everything. Think only about how to understand the article, how to agree with it.

Student: I agree with it, and I feel how Rabash is leading me through it. And these lights, I feel them, that he's passing to us in his level and yours. I also want to enter that, but there is a certain disagreement here between how I feel it and others feel it. What do I do with that? 

M. Laitman: Continue. Continue and ask the Creator.

Question (PT 6): (33:58) What does it mean to be free? 

M. Laitman: What does it mean to be free? To be free, different words in Hebrew. Being free, rising above the will to receive. 

Question (French): (34:40) If I understood correctly, the state that Rabash depicts is one in which there is no solution, there is no Kli, no Creator, and the solution is to work more. How do we understand this state of needing to work more?

M. Laitman: Working more means you check yourself with the friends. Are you really thinking about connecting between you, directing yourselves at the same goal? In reality, you are acting as one man with one heart. Talk about this, discuss this, and according to this, correct yourselves. 

Question (Women Brasil): (36:07) If I am already aware of my lowliness, and I know that I cannot do anything by myself, and I raise a prayer to the Creator, how from that state I can work in the Ten in order to raise the importance of the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Enter with all your Hissaron into the Creator, and awaken the whole Ten in this way. That's it. 

Question (Women MAK 104): (37:14) How do we come to such a deficiency that really, from the depth, everything, the whole place will be filled up, since in the group there is always this feeling of the Creator. How do we reach the deficiency like it's written in the article? 

M. Laitman: Read all together the articles and discuss them. 

Question (Almaty 1): (38:06) Are the given vessels given to each one according to his actions or to the whole group? 

M. Laitman: Each one, what each one should go through now.

Student: It turns out that a person is asking for him to have the possibility to give to the society or for the society to have the opportunity to give to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: A person should ask to be able to give, so that he can give. 

Question (Women Moscow 7): (38:45) It turns out that if I'm in a descent, then I also see the friends in a descent. How then can I receive an example from them? What can take me out of that state? 

M. Laitman: I don't know what can take you out of this state. You have to all together pray, ask, take part, and not that I'm talking to you now, and your neighbor on the screen is talking to someone else. 

Student: She's at work, she's working. 

M. Laitman: It doesn't matter.

Student: How do we reach a common prayer? It seems like everyone is in a different state, as if we can't come together. And when we write a prayer, I feel like I'm never ready. We do it in the morning, but we as if do it on command. It has become this routine. Is this a normal feeling that we're writing it? There's just time to do it?

M. Laitman: (Answer not translated.)

Question (Women Heb 2): (40:07) What do we need to give to the Creator, give Him a feeling that we love Him?

M. Laitman: You can give Him your attention. You want to open your heart, so that the Creator fills it up, so that the heart would be connected to all the friends, and this general heart would be connected to the Creator. 

Student: To give Him a vessel to fill up? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Eng 1): (41:01) I sense a great connection going on from your veteran students, who have been wonderful to the World Kli and the World Kli. And it seems to be growing and moving together. Is this the Shechina gathering us on a certain level? And how do I grab onto that and help build it? How do I do that? How do I make this even greater? 

M. Laitman: Yes, they've been with me for decades. That's why between us and the Creator there is a tight connection. And in reality, they are to be envied. There are new groups, new students. They should learn from them how to be united, how to get closer to the same contact with the Creator that they experienced friends have. But everything passes and new states come. That's why I don't get despaired.

Student: I hope to make it stronger. 

Question: (Women Latin): (43:28) How can we aspire to redemption if we don't feel a state of slavery or descent in the spiritual life? Or does it simply start with corporeality? 

M. Laitman: Yes, it starts from corporeality.

Question (Women MAK 113): (43:54) We have this situation. One is given a descent so he would feel the exile. Can we understand it so that I'm in a descent right now and the friends know about it and we need all together to pray so that the Creator will be merciful and will take a friend out of exile and by that to feel ourselves in that state and to become more and more merciful. Is it so or no? 

M. Laitman: It is so. 

Student: And each time it turns out that different friends are given different states of this descent and we process this whole state together and bringing it out towards mercy? 

M. Laitman: Yes, correct.

Question (Women PT 33): (45:01) He writes here at the end of the article that it is written that the ways of the Lord are straight and the righteous will walk in them. I entirely feel this state of hallelujah. Can you explain to me what are the ways of the Lord are straight? 

M. Laitman: When there is no flaw in them, there is nothing that is not corrected. The Creator holds us and moves us forward. 

Student: As a woman I feel I don't have this happiness. There are all sorts of directions, and I want to reach a state where all of these things will straighten up towards the Creator's gate.

M. Laitman: We'll come to the same state.

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (46:19) It turns out in the first state he needs to ask to be taken out of exile and nothing is working out for him. And in the second case he needs to ask for redemption and then everything works out. What's the difference between asking to be taken out of a state versus being saved? Why is the second one better? 

M. Laitman: Think about it and you'll understand.

Question (Turkiye 7): (46:80) A friend is asking if the ways of the Lord are straight. And I want to continue that question. We know from the side of the Creator there are no changes. All the changes are felt in the person's vessels. Feeling of closeness, distance, what causes this feeling of distancing if there are no changes in the light? 

M. Laitman: The light that acts through our relationships changes according to our mutual inclusion and relationships that are closer to the goal. 

Student: If I feel far from the Creator, can we understand that as the preparation of the next degree or what is it? 

M. Laitman: When you feel yourself closer to the Creator, he does this so that you hasten and look for ways to get closer to him. The Creator always acts for the good of advancement.

Question (Holland): (48:38) What does it mean to have faith in the descent? 

M. Laitman: Even during a descent, I accept this as something that comes from the Creator and it comes to me so that I rise above this state.

Question (Women Lithuania 5): (49:22) Please explain the last paragrah. A descent in spirituality does not mean that he has no faith, rather now he must do more work and the previous faith is considered a descent compared to this work. What do we need to strengthen? 

M. Laitman: We need to strengthen our faith.

Student: With the help of the intention? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women PT 5): (50:27) Can we obligate the Creator to connect the nation of Israel? 

M. Laitman: Please, of course. 

Question (Latin 12): (50:55) He is exiled and has the opportunity to exit the exile, but in this new work it is hard. Then he returns to the corporeal life, which is called the state of death. Is there a difference between the state of death versus exile? Is it harder? What is the meaning behind it? 

M. Laitman: The state of death or the state of exile is in essence the same. Exile, we get used to it. We get used to being relatively disconnected from the Creator. At the same time, the state of death, we only feel sometimes, rarely, worse than normal states.

Question (Hadera 1): (52:20) Is it correct to say that the descent is basically attainment and it is the ascent in the left line? 

M. Laitman: No. There is some knowledge in this, but we can't say that this is attainment in the left line, no. 

Question (Women MAK 67): (52:52) You said that we need to come closer to the Creator to such an extent that between us there won't remain any space. But we live in this world where there is time, and even in connecting with the friends, when we do succeed in connecting to some extent, afterwards we get distanced again. Connect and disconnect from the Creator. I don't know how to ask this question correctly because I see two paths. Either we continue this path in the path of pain and always aspiring in our prayer to the Creator, or we become this pure tool which simply does and does and enters the work, and we lose the feelings, the desire, and the egoism disappears somewhere. Am I seeing it correctly?  

M. Laitman: You're thinking correctly. I think the main thing for us is to try and be together, and ask the Creator to be together, and get used to this state all the time together. 

Student: Nonetheless, to get used to it, yes? Because I understand that friends can get distanced, and like it says in the article, a lot of pain. Egoistically, we just try to run away from the pains. We run away from the exile, and we kill ourselves. 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, you're saying in a very beautiful way.

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (54:46) When a person reaches a state that he's suffering from being unable to do anything for the sake of Heaven, what must he do, how to work correctly in that state? 

M. Laitman: Pray, pray to the Creator. That's all. 

Question: (Women Beer sheva 1): (55:19) There was this period that we were learning the Torah, about the ten tribes that disappeared, can such a thing happen again? 

M. Laitman: No, no, no. And everything else is irrelevant.

Question (Karmiel): (56:01) It's written, the ways of the Lord are straight, the righteous will walk in them, but the transgressors will fail in them. What's the difference between a wicked and a criminal in the path, in the work? 

M. Laitman: I don't know if we can draw a line between one and the other. I wouldn't give any definitions. A sinner, a criminal, that it's not the same. In our eyes, it's the same.

Question (Women Moscow 6): (57:01) I wanted to clarify, my friend was asking this question, and you said that spiritual descent doesn't mean that he doesn't have faith right now. He needs to strengthen the work, and you added in the work and the intention. And in the descent, the person has faith, this force of bestowal, and the Creator is testing me on how I can direct this force to the Creator. How do we do this in the descent? 

M. Laitman: By connecting between us, together. 

Student: In other words, we're examining this thing on connection? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women H 13): (58:00) In the morning lesson, you said that we need to remember all the states, everything we passed through in exile in Egypt, and to hold the pleasure, to hold ourselves above all these things. How do we do it? 

M. Laitman: If we want, the Creator will record this in our mind and our feelings.

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (59:00) He's asking here to be taken out, and he's told he must ask, although it didn't work. But after he's allowed to see this work for the sake of heavens, to which extent this is a Mitzvah, and he needs to see, why does he need to make this mistake? 

M. Laitman: If he did a small Mitzvah, then he can try to do bigger ones and ask for them to be fulfilled.

Student: And why ultimately he commits suicide and goes into corporeal life, if he's asking for?

M. Laitman: No, this is not the end yet.

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (1:00:11) I'm always confused. You say we need to turn to the Creator, but there's a voice inside of me that says that if so, where are the friends? Do the friends exist? Why do you need the friends? Why do you have them? What is the solution to this confusion? 

M. Laitman: Install all the friends as parts of my soul, organize them in such a way, and each one should think this way, that he has a Ten, let's say, and he needs to connect them as parts of his soul.

M. Laitman: I am kissing everyone and thank you. 

Announcements: (1:01:07)

Song: (1:01:56)