The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) April 21, 2024.
Part 1: Rabash. Article No. 25, (1987). What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?
Reader: Hello, we are reading in the writings of Rabash, article, “What is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?” The study material is on Sviva Tova in Arvut. You can send questions live through the sites. Anyone asking a question in the study hall should stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth and speak loudly and clearly. Rabash, What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?
Reading Article: (00:33) What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?
Our sages said (Berachot 30b), “One does not pray unless with heaviness of the head.”
RASHI interprets that heaviness of the head means subduing. Our sages also said there, “One does not pray out of sadness, and not out of lightheadedness.” RASHI interprets that lightheadedness means the opposite of heaviness of the head.
We should understand that when he says, “only out of heaviness of the head,” it means that if he does not have heaviness of the head he should not pray. But afterwards it is written, “One does not pray, and not out of lightheadedness.” This means that if there is no lightheadedness then one can pray, and there is no need [to wait] for heaviness of the head.
Rather, this implies that if he does not have lightheadedness then he has heaviness of the head. And also to the contrary, if he does not have heaviness of the head then he is already lightheaded. That is, there is nothing in the middle between heaviness of the head and lightheadedness. Because of it, there is no contradiction between the phrases. However, we should understand how it is possible that there is nothing between heaviness of the head and lightheadedness.
And mainly, we should understand what is the prayer, of which they said, “One does not pray unless,” according to the conditions that our sages said. In other words, what is a prayer? There must be these conditions there; otherwise, it is impossible to pray.
Our sages said (Taanit 2), “To love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart.” Which is work that is in the heart? It is prayer.
We should understand why a prayer is called “work in the heart,” more than the rest of the Mitzvot [commandments] in the Torah. Is the study of Torah not as great a work as prayer?
We should also ask why is it that specifically prayer is called “work in the heart.” We cannot say that only a prayer belongs to the heart and not the Torah, since the Torah belongs to the heart, as well. It is as Rabbi Eben Ezra says (presented in the introduction to the book Panim Masbirot), “Know that the Torah was given only to men of heart.”
Thus, we should understand 1) why a “prayer” is regarded as work more than the rest of the Mitzvot, 2) why specifically a prayer is called “the work in the heart,” and not “the work in the mind.” Concerning prayer, which is work in the heart, our sages told us, “One does not pray unless out of heaviness of the head.” This means that precisely through this his prayer will be in order. Thus, we should understand what is “heaviness of the head.”
To understand the above, we first need to reiterate what is known concerning the purpose of creation. Although it is clear, we should reiterate in order to remember the goal, which is a guarantee that they will not miss the goal. Concerning the purpose of creation, we should speak of only two topics: a) the Creator, who is the Giver, b) the creatures—the receivers of the abundance.
The purpose of creation, which is “His desire to do good to His creations,” has created creatures to receive what He wishes to give them, meaning to receive the delight He wishes to impart upon them. This is the meaning of doing good, since it cannot be said that one is receiving something good without enjoyment. In other words, if he does not enjoy it, why is it regarded as good?
Yet, we see that a person enjoys only what he craves. For this reason, He has created in the creatures a desire to crave to receive pleasures. This is called “will to receive for one’s own sake.” In the upper worlds, the will to receive for one’s own sake is called Malchut, and also Aviut [thickness], once the will to receive for oneself has been disqualified and it is forbidden to use this Kli [vessel] without corrections.
However, a correction was placed here on the will to receive, not to use it as it emerged upon its creation, meaning in the first root when it was born, due to the disparity of form between it and the Creator, since the Creator is the giver and the creatures will be receiving.
In order to have equivalence of form, meaning that the receiver, too, will be regarded as a giver, or else there will not be equivalence of form, causing the creatures to feel unpleasantness upon reception of the delight and pleasure, called “shame.” In order to spare the creatures this shame, a correction was made called “receiving in order to bestow.” This means that although he is receiving with his Kli, called “craving,” meaning that it is impossible to enjoy the benefit unless he craves to receive it, but the correction is that he should place an intention over the act. That is, he must see that although the desire to receive it is in full power, if he cannot aim to bestow contentment upon his Maker, he relinquishes the pleasure despite his yearning.
The reason he relinquishes it should be only because he wants Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, called “equivalence of form,” as our sages said, “As He is merciful, you are merciful.” From that correction extends to us a Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment. That is, before the lower ones have this aim and can relinquish even the greatest pleasures if they cannot aim to bestow upon the Creator, there is darkness in the world.
In other words, the Creator is hidden from the creatures; they do not feel Him. Yet, we must believe above reason that He has connection with the creatures and He has created them in order to impart upon them delight and pleasure. This is not so with what appears to our eyes. Before we can aim to bestow, we are placed under the governance of the darkness and nothing spiritual illuminates. At that time the purpose of creation, to do good to His creations, is not disclosed because at that time they see only suffering and pain in the world, and do not see the guidance of The Good Who Does Good. Yet, we must believe that the purpose of creation, to do good to His creations, is the absolute truth, and the reason we do not see this is because of a correction for us, which is called “Tzimtzum and concealment of the face.”
This is as he says (in “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 10), “Thus, you find that this soul, which is the light of life that is dressed in the body, extends existence from absence. As it traverses the four worlds ABYA, it becomes increasingly removed from the light of His face until it comes into its designated Kli, called Guf [body]. And even if the light in it has so diminished that its origin becomes undetectable…”
This causes us to have work on faith because it is no longer apparent in our soul that it comes from the Creator. Instead, we need special work to believe in the Creator, that He is the one leading all the creatures. It therefore follows that all the heaviness we feel in the work of bestowal is not because it is hard for us to work without reward because of our nature, called “will to receive.” Rather, there is a completely different matter here, since according to the rule that Baal HaSulam said, there is a trait in our nature that every lower one wants to annul before the upper one, who is the most important to him. A common person derives pleasure from serving an important person, as our sages said (Kidushin 7), “With an important person, she gives, and he says, ‘You are hereby sanctified,’” for his reception, which is in order to delight the one who gives him, is regarded as complete bestowal and giving to her.
The reason for this is that by nature, a person enjoys giving and bestowing upon an important person. This brings up the question, Why is it difficult for us to observe Torah and Mitzvot in order to bestow? The answer is that because of the correction of the bread of shame, a correction was made called “Tzimtzum, concealment, and darkness,” whereby as long as the creatures are under the control of the receiver for himself, they are so removed from their root that their origin becomes undetectable.
Instead, we were given the work above reason, where although we do not see or feel any spiritual matter, we must do everything above reason. This causes us the heaviness in the work of bestowal. It therefore follows that when we want to walk on the path of truth in the work, we must ask the Creator to give us the power of faith.
It is written (in the prayer of Rabbi Elimelech, “A Prayer before a Prayer”), “Set Your faith in our hearts forever, ceaselessly.” This means that the Creator will give us the power of faith so we will feel that we are serving the King of Kings, and our body will certainly annul “as a candle before a torch.”
However, since we are born with an inherent mind and reason, which is our leader, our guide, who tells us what is good and what is bad for us, for this reason, anything that we do not understand with our reason, it tells us it is not good for us.
Therefore, when we are given the work of faith above reason, our reason comes and makes us think that we should not walk on this path. Instead, it argues, “Did the Creator give us a mind for no reason? He certainly created everything for our sake,” meaning so we will enjoy it. And it brings as evidence the verse, “One should praise according to one’s intellect.”
All of a sudden, the person comes to the body and says, “It’s true that until now you have been my guide, and I never did anything against reason, meaning I followed your command. But henceforth, know that anything you tell me to do, I will not listen to you, but only according to what I heard from books and authors. I take upon me the burden of the kingdom of heaven above reason, and I want to serve the Creator as befits a great king. From now on, I do not want to be concerned with it at all, but that my thoughts will be only for Your sake, the Creator.”
It therefore follows that in order to be able to get to the truth, all that a person lacks is faith above reason. The body resists this with all its might, and from this extends our lack of progress in the work of the Creator. This is called “heaviness of the head,” for “head” means man’s reason. If a person follows what the reason tells him, it is called “lightheadedness,” meaning it is something that is easy for the reason to tolerate, for one to do things that the reason dictates to him.
But if a person wants to go above reason, this is called “heaviness of the head,” meaning it is difficult for the reason, called “head,” to tolerate when a person wants to go against reason, and regards it as a burden and a load. This is called “heaviness of the head.”
By this we should interpret what is written, “One does not pray unless with heaviness of the head.” In other words, our sages advise us how one should pray. They tell us, “only with heaviness of the head.” This means that one should see what he needs before he prays, and on this lack he prays that the Creator will satisfy his lack.
Therefore, one should first check oneself to see if he can take upon himself to walk in faith above reason, called “heaviness of the head,” and only then will pray that the Creator will establish the faith in his heart, for if there is faith above reason, then he has everything, as was said, that the small one annuls before the great one.
This is the meaning of what RASHI interpreted, that heaviness of the head means subduing. What is subduing? It is when a person subdues before the great one and heeds the view of the great one. This means that if a little child tells something to a grownup, and the grownup sees that what the child is saying makes sense, the grownup will certainly listen to him. Yet, this does not mean that the grown one subdued before the little one.
Rather, what is subduing? If a person seeks the advice of the great one about what he should do, and the great one tells him, “Do this and that,” and the person sees that it makes no sense at all, and if he asked someone if he should listen to what the great one said, he would certainly tell him that it makes no sense and he must not listen to him, yet if that person subdues himself, meaning subjugates his reason and the reason of the public, which are against the reason of the great one, and listens to him, this is called “subduing,” when he listens to the great one above reason.
This is very difficult to do, and it is called “The matter is heavy to do.” It is also called “I am of heavy mouth and heavy tongue,” said about Moses. Mosses is called “the faithful shepherd,” since Moses is called “faith,” and with faith there is no mouth or tongue, for mouth and tongue mean that he explains the matters with mind and reason, while Moses is faith above reason.
From this we can understand what RASHI interprets about lightheadedness being the opposite of heaviness of the head, and why he does not interpret directly but says that it is the opposite of heaviness of the head. It is so because he wants to interpret to us more clearly what is heaviness of the head, that it is about faith above reason. This is why he tells us that lightheadedness is the opposite of faith above reason.
In other words, he explains to us that there is nothing in between them, but either faith above reason, called “heaviness of the head,” or within reason, called “lightheadedness,” since something that is clothed in mind and reason is easy for the head to agree for a person to do these actions, which are built on a foundation that the outer intellect understands.
But if a person is told to do things that contradict the mind and reason, it is heaviness of the head. That is, it is a heavy burden for the intellect to tolerate. Therefore, when one is told to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load,” he objects.
According to the above, we can understand why the Mishnah says, “One does not pray unless with heaviness of the head.” It means that if he has no heaviness of the head, he must not pray. The Gemara says, “One does not pray out of lightheadedness.”
We were wondering, for here it means that if he has no lightheadedness, even though he has no heaviness of the head, he can already pray. This means that there is no in between here. And according to the above, there really is no in between. Rather, either he has faith above reason, called “heaviness of the head,” or faith within reason, called “lightheadedness,” since it is easy for the mind to understand and agree if the intellect mandates that he should do these actions.
But in between, there is nothing. Therefore, one who wants to pray to the Creator certainly has faith, or he would not come to pray. However, a) either he prays on a basis of faith within reason, called “lightheadedness,” as RASHI interpreted, that he has no subduing, b) or he prays with heaviness of the head, when he has subduing. That is, he subdues his reason and does not look at it, as though it is worthless, and his entire basis is built on faith above reason.
Now we can understand the question we asked, Why is prayer called “work”? Moreover, it is called “work in the heart”! It is known that “work” means that a person needs to do something that the body does not enjoy doing. This is called “work.” For this reason, a person cannot work without reward. But if a person enjoys the work, it is not regarded as exertion.
This means that the same act that a person does, to one who does not enjoy doing it, it is regarded as “labor,” and to another, who enjoys what he is doing, it is not regarded as labor or work. Hence, naturally, he does not need to receive any reward in return for it. Because a person cannot do anything without pleasure, when he does something, he does not enjoy, why does he do it?
The answer is that he is expecting to benefit from the work he is doing now at a later time, meaning that he will receive reward for the work and will enjoy. It follows that when one does something without pleasure, from where does he derive strength to work? We must say that he is looking at the reward, and this gives him fuel for the work.
For example, assume that the ADMOR of Lubavitch lands at the airport and he has a suitcase. He gives it to the porter, whose job is to take the suitcase to the taxi. Afterward, he will demand his payment for his work. This is so because he does not recognize the importance of the rabbi. Yet, if the rabbi were to give the suitcase to one of his followers, and the rabbi would want to pay him for his work, the follower will not want to receive, since he already received pleasure while working, for he considers it a fortune to serve the rabbi.
It is as we explained, a prayer should be with heaviness of the head, meaning when a person feels that he does not have faith above reason, meaning that the reason does not mandate him to work in order to bestow, yet the person understands the primary goal should be to be rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. Since the reason objects to this, he must go against reason, and this is very hard work.
Since he is asking the Creator to give him something to which all of his organ’s object, it follows that each and every prayer he makes to the Creator has its special work. This is why a prayer is called “work in the heart,” meaning that he wants to go against the intellect and the mind, which tell him the complete opposite.
This is why it is not called “the work of the brain,” since the work of the brain means that a person exerts to understand something with his mind and reason. But here he does not want to understand with his reason that we should serve the Creator in a state of knowing. Rather, he wants to serve the Creator specifically with faith above reason. This is why a prayer is called “work in the heart.”
Accordingly, we should interpret “One does not pray,” for a prayer is a lack. When a person lacks something and cannot obtain his wish by himself, he asks others to help him. Therefore, when one comes to pray to the Creator to help him, he first needs to see what he really needs, meaning that if he were given what he asks, he will be a complete person who lacks nothing.
This pertains specifically to faith, for when a person is rewarded with permanent faith above reason, he is rewarded with everything. This is why they said, “One does not pray unless with a lack of heaviness of the head,” meaning for the Creator to give him the light of faith.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:58) If a person has a desire, simply a desire, how does he raise it above reason because he says you have to work only above reason. How can an egoistic desire rise above reason?
M. Laitman: Impossible. Then what do you do? No answer? So, no one has an answer.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:41) It depends which desire, the will to receive is, of course is a person. If a person wants a desire to bestow, it's above him, it's not in a person. There's no such thing as a desire to bestow if he prays and thinks and wants only this desire to bestow.
M. Laitman: More, any more questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:10) Maybe we can elaborate on the friend’s question. How does a person come to have faith above reason and nothing else, prepares himself to have faith above reason and nothing else? Because everything depends on the preparation, so how does a person prepare himself to lack, to want only faith above reason?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:37) Moreover, until he comes to the degree of faith above reason he doesn't have a prayer, it says he cannot pray.
M. Laitman: That's also an assumption.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:00) Can it be said that acquiring faith above reason, the reason of the upper one, it's the reason of the group, the Ten? Because I feel that on the path, and we also learned it in recent lessons, that our enjoyment on the path is in reflected light when you send back the light.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It's a feeling that you're a partner with the Creator and what does that mean? It means that in the Ten, you constantly push for a higher state in our connection. Out of the scrutiny, you scrutinize, you clarify what's missing, and then you ask for the Creator for it because we say that a prayer is a prayer of many, out of a real deficiency, and a real deficiency, I feel that it comes only out of a real scrutiny in the Ten, out of our connection.
We aspire for a higher connection, stronger and what we really need in this connection, we have to ask for it. I think this is our daily work, where we constantly have to push forward and be in movement. I feel like the reason of the group, the Ten, is the faith above reason because if I go according to my reason, it'll always be in my will to receive. Which I feel it’s incorrect, because a real feeling, because in the end, the connection with the Creator is through the Ten, through the friends.
The Creator connects us through the Ten. We need Arvut, for the realization of the power of love and bestowal between us. That's how I feel it every day, from both directions. I wanted to ask if faith above reason, and I tell myself the reason that I want to rise above my personal reason, is my Ten?
M. Laitman: What do you think? So, what will you do?
Student: I continue to work with the friends, I continue to scrutinize with them, how I strengthen the connection, how we push forward, and how we satisfy each other's deficiencies. That's the contentment we want to bring to the Creator, so the connection between us will really be a connection of love. Spiritual love means to see the deficiencies of each other toward the goal, the importance of the goal.
The upper system, which is the force of bestowal and love, we have to constantly raise it higher, and you can only do that with the power of the friends. If I keep looking at my own reason, as he says in the article here, I have to ask the greater one. The greater one, from my perspective, is the Ten, there's nothing greater than that. This is how I see and feel in the work.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:26) I think in that, there's also the danger of making the friends great and then forgetting about the goal because we're going for the Creator. The friends have to be a means for the Creator, not to do things out of habit, there's a question, how to constantly keep it more precise.
M. Laitman: More?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:04) It seems to me like what the friend says is like changing a cow for a donkey, it's like a religious person. If I say I'm surrendering before the Ten and before the Creator, it's like the guy with the suitcase, because I respect the Rabbi I surrender to the general public's idea.
You know, the Rabbi's great, and I appreciate the public so, I think what they mean here by faith above reason is that when a person has a big, he's very opinionated, he sees in his desire, he's opposite from it, so he needs to pray to be able to work with it, otherwise it can't be a real prayer. I'm asking if this is the right direction, the assumption as you called it.
M. Laitman: We'll find out, we'll clarify. More? You're reading? You want to add? So, add.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:16) Maybe it's about being a donkey, maybe, but I can choose to be a servant of the Creator or the ego, so if being a servant of the Creator is a donkey, maybe. Being a servant of the Creator is only through connection with the friends, I don't see any other way. How can we create a connection with the Creator with a force that is above our nature, our ego?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:51) I turn to the Creator with my intellect or not with my intellect? When I feel what my intellect says, I surrender myself before my intellect, it means I'm working above reason. That's the only plea that can be, that can be correct.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:21) I think the point here is to come to such a deficiency where you feel that no one can help you but the Creator, and then the Ten can't help you either, and then you have a war in you how to nevertheless keep the friends, the vessel. I need to improve it in order to come to what you really need, which is that only the Creator can help you. There needs to be a combination of a very powerful deficiency for the Creator, that only He can help you and nothing else.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:02) It seems like what's important is what a person appreciates. If I appreciate my own intellect, what it tells me, it calls it light-headedness because it's very easy to work with what I feel is importance, is important according to my opinion, but if I appreciate the Great King, even though I don't see that He is controlling the world, as the Good Who Does Good, and the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations, even if I don't see it but I go against my reason and toward bestowal, he calls it heaviness of the head, because it's hard for a person to decide to go against his reason. It's all about who I appreciate, the king or my own opinion, and here's where the prayer is, where he writes, and he said your faith in our hearts always ceases, because if he feels that he's serving the King of Kings, the body cancels as a candle before a torch.
M. Laitman: Very nice. More?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:18) To add to what was said, he says naturally a person can annul before something greater than himself, I have this ability in me. The question is, how do I see the Creator as something greater than me even though He's hidden from me? I can use that thing to work above my reason, to search for the point where it is possible to annul.
We also read about how I get tired with the work and then I turn to the Creator and now I find something great that I can hang on to, even though it can be the faith of religious people, regular faith. How do I find that point where I make the Creator more important than anything, so I can adhere or cling to that inner part of me?
M. Laitman: This is the question.
Student: A question, maybe a discernment of this isn't quite clear in me because I'm getting it from the article. Maybe I still don't see it in me, that point where I can annul above what we read, that you need a very strong reason to be able to rise above it, this heaviness of the head. How do I find that point within me where I can annul because reason doesn't let me annul, and here's where this little Moses is.
M. Laitman: Very well.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:02) It seems like Rabash has given an important principle, how to know that the work is correct. Since a person has to be rewarded with adhesion with the Creator, and since the reason objects to it, he has to go against reason and this is very hard work since he's asking the Creator to give him something that all his organs object to it.
It turns out that every prayer he makes to the Creator has special work. This is why prayer is called the work of the heart because he wants to go against the mind and heart, they tell him the complete opposite.
The following paragraph he says, here he does not want to work with knowledge but he wants to serve the Creator specifically with faith above reason. This is why a prayer is called work in the heart. What I understand from this is that if a person gets justification in his mind that he should serve the Creator, it's not the right work, he wants to go specifically above.
M. Laitman: Yes, in resistance.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:11) Rabash writes that there's no in-between, either faith above reason which he calls heavy-headedness, or within reason which he calls light-headedness. What's the prayer in-between, it sounds like the prayer is in-between?
M. Laitman: When a person is not here or there, he doesn't know where he is.
Student: I'm still not in faith and so I can't raise a prayer, and within reason I can't pray because it's light-headedness, so what is this in-between where the prayer is?
M. Laitman: He probably needs to see himself in truth, where he is.
Student: Where is the prayer, in faith above reason or in a desire to be above reason, to rise above the reason?
M. Laitman: The desire.
Student: What's the difference between a prayer in faith above reason and a prayer to want to be above reason?
M. Laitman: It's exactly what you're saying, to be in a desire to be above reason or being above reason.
Student: In another place he writes, I wish he prayed all day, on the other hand it says, only with heaviness of the head, there's prayer.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I don't understand the matter of prayer.
M. Laitman: The prayer is a deficiency for what's important to you right now in life.
Student: Prayer that is within reason about what is important to me in life, is it accepted, heard, does it even have a place, or is it just me with myself?
M. Laitman: That's what you should answer. You're taking a microphone to ask all the time, and we're sitting here and expecting you to reply to what you're asking.
Student: If I had answers, I'd be answering, I wouldn't be asking.
M. Laitman: Okay, more. Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:47) I feel like the main matter here is that the article speaks about your force, meaning what I have in my heart. I can raise that, that's within reason but what's in the friend, in deep desire, if I can give my strength, whatever I have but for him, that would be above my reason. Maybe we can begin by finding a friend who's close to our desire and then to incorporate more and more desires, friends, and desires that are even farther and farther from my own. And especially what the sages are saying that we need to raise such a desire, that this is our goal, to find an emotion in our heart to rise to that, towards that point.
M. Laitman: Okay.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:15) He talks about how man is this kind of mechanism that always looks for its self-benefit. It's a natural mechanism that whatever we know, whatever we have is only for self-benefit. Against that, the benefit of the Creator should be standing, and so that a person can choose, as much as it's difficult, I don't want my own benefit, but the Creator's benefit.
M. Laitman: So, it'll be clear to him this way.
Student: It'll be clear to him that there is self-benefit here that I gain here, very difficult for me to give that up, but against that I see that there's the benefit of the Creator, and I prefer that.
M. Laitman: And you see all that within reason.
Student: You have to somehow see the benefit of the Creator, otherwise how do you annul yourself, opposite what? You have to have some force against it because a person cannot just give up his self-benefit just like that.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is that thing that he sees against his own reason, which he has to prefer to his own reason?
M. Laitman: The reason of the Creator, the opinion of the Creator.
Student: How does he know what is the reason of the Creator, it's hidden?
M. Laitman: So, how does he come to a state where he prefers the reason of the Creator?
Student: You need something to nullify towards, like the example with the Rabbi. He says the Rabbi is great, I'm small, and by working for him I already, you gain honor. Here you have to see something that you're not seeing, it's hidden and it's against your reason. You can say, okay, it's very difficult, it's very heavy, maybe even impossible, but I give it up. What is that thing you have to see against your own reason?
M. Laitman: What you see. What can you see?
Student: A person sees his own self-benefit.
M. Laitman: You cannot see the greatness and importance of the Creator, so what do we do?
Student: You ask for that.
M. Laitman: This is really the point of the Exodus from Egypt. Okay, we'll get to it. More questions like that?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:50) What you just spoke with the friend says that the prayer doesn't happen if not from a heavy head. A person has to find that, and in these points, he has to put in the prayer.
M. Laitman: Yes, that's correct.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:18) The truth is, this article completely confused me because it goes like this, a person has his own reason, he does things according to his own reason. That's, let's say, like in the ordinary corporeal world. There's no Creator, if there was a Creator showing Himself to me saying, do this, do that, I would do it, just because that's the Creator and He's telling me what to do.
Then we're talking about something here called the Creator's reason, or the will of the Creator. What friends talked about that I need to surrender to the reason of the Creator but there's no Creator. If I saw the Creator everything would be fine, so what do I do, have? I have the Rav, maybe the group who are telling me more or less where to go. Then again, I need to subdue myself and I subdue myself not towards the Creator but towards the Rav, but this is what also all people outside are doing. They're finding someone and they subdue themselves to his reason. In short, I get lost here. What's the difference?
M. Laitman: There is no difference. In this way, you won't be able to scrutinize anything.
Student: How do we get out of this? How does a person know that he ultimately goes towards something that leads him towards bestowal like he said here that a person has to subdue himself to the authors and books?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How does a person know that he's on the right track? According to what? It's how this whole issue of faith above reason just seems very…
M. Laitman: What?
Student: I don't know. A lot of people do this in the sense that they subdue themselves towards someone and follow him.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How is this faith above reason different, what we're talking about?
M. Laitman: We don't have above reason.
Student: Still not but that's what we wish to achieve.
M. Laitman: Yes, so we have to build it.
Student: What do you mean build it?
M. Laitman: There's no such thing in nature, above reason.
Student: So?
M. Laitman: So, I want to hear it from you.
Student: Can I ask another question?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: The article in terms of its logic is very smooth. It goes step by step, guiding us, except for one word. There's a word here that starts there, that suddenly a person comes and tells the body, true, so far you were my guide, and I've never did anything against reason, meaning I followed your command, but henceforth know that anything you tell me to do, I will not listen to you, but only, the word that's weird here is the suddenly. Suddenly a person wakes up in the morning and decides this is what he's doing, what is this?
M. Laitman: It's when a demand for a new discernment comes to him, and it doesn't have to be in the morning when he gets up, it can be in the middle of the day as well, it doesn't matter when.
Student: What does it mean that suddenly he has a need for a new discernment?
M. Laitman: He wants to come to a new solution to his life. That is what he had thus far, with this he cannot continue.
Student: Sounds like this decision is not on the regular continuum of life, it's like some leap or a change or a shift.
M. Laitman: Yes, it's a leap in the decision.
Student: Where does it come from to the person, why would he suddenly want that?
M. Laitman: It comes to a person because the Creator has made a change in him.
Student: We want to reach that suddenly, right? What do we need to do so that I suddenly get to that decision?
M. Laitman: You need to constantly depict to yourself that the quality of bestowal is what governs all of reality, and you want to discover the orders of its operation in the world, the conduct of its operation.
Student: This all of a sudden comes after a lot of reasoning, right? We learn that there's this thing called the quality of bestowal and then after all that I suddenly say, I want to go there, that's what I need to do in life.
M. Laitman: You see that in this you have the real reason, and everything else is within the earthly, worldly reason.
Student: This is called above reason?
M. Laitman: This will bring you to above reason.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:24) I don't understand why he writes that it's specifically the work of the heart and not the mind because all the articles we read are essentially there's logic there, there's the upper reason that says you have to reach to achieve a certain different reason that you don't have. It's opposite to yours and we have to get used to, to revoke my reason, acquire the reason of the upper one. And he says no, the work is the heart has to be a prayer, and the heart in the work is to change the heart, meaning change the desire, the intention. What are we talking about?
M. Laitman: I don't know. From what I hear from you, you want to change one desire for another. What's the point?
Student: Correction of the heart is the correction of intention.
M. Laitman: If you replace the desires, you'll be an angel but not a person, not a human being, man, Adam.
Student: I want to sharpen this. We say that the reason or the mind is a result of the desire. Naturally a person wants something, the desire evolves, the reason evolves, and then he knows what he wants. Naturally he can also ask, it's a prayer of this world, it's not the prayer we're talking about. Now we say no, we want to read articles, trust something else, have faith in something else, take the reason of the upper one instead of my own, and that's rising above reason, that's working in the mind, in the reason. How does that have to do with the heart?
M. Laitman: We cannot make a single movement without a desire. A desire is the foundation of all of life, and if I do something, then of course my desire agrees to it, wants it, pushes me to it.
Student: I can bestow, from the text, from the reason of the upper one, what I read about my desire, or there has to be another action called a prayer? How do these things relate to each other, or it has to happen together?
M. Laitman: You need to see. Okay.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:20) I also had the friend's question, can I continue on that? Why is all the heaviness called heaviness of the heart? I have burdened his heart, it says. Here, all the work is about the reason against the mind, so why the heaviness of the heart?
M. Laitman: Because in the end, the heart has to get into it, to agree to it, and do it.
Student: Okay, but here he always emphasizes the work against the reason.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Here he says, submission, that's submission. What is it? That one submits his reason towards the great one, before the great one. I can't subdue my heart, I can subdue my reason, so what's the heaviness of the heart? The prayer is supposed to come from the bottom of the heart, right?
M. Laitman: You can't do anything if the heart disagrees with it.
Student: I can't force myself to go to work, even though I don't want to.
M. Laitman: It means that the heart, at the end of the day agrees.
Student: When we say reason, that also includes man's heart in it?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It's not just the mind working against the intellect.
M. Laitman: Thank you.
Student: Thank you. Another question, he writes if a person enjoys the work, it is not considered labor. If we enjoy the work, and it is recommended to enjoy an act of bestowal, there's even a great obligation to work in bestowal and do it with joy and love.
M. Laitman: But it's not called work.
Student: It's not labor?
M. Laitman: There is no labor. You're doing what you want, that's how it turns out. This is not work, it's not labor.
Student: What does a person enjoy in the work, on the path, what does he enjoy?
M. Laitman: From approaching what he depicted to himself.
Student: So, he enjoys?
M. Laitman: This is something, no. The pleasure you can find in the work, it makes the work itself pleasurable for you if you've achieved adhesion.
Student: We'll think.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:22) Something that is perhaps on the same issue but a little different. He says that the Torah was also given to those of heart and he compares it to prayer it seems. He says that the prayer includes all the Mitzvot, but the Torah is for the man of heart. What does it mean? He makes this comparison to emphasize something that's unclear to me.
M. Laitman: I think that it speaks of people who can overcome their hearts.
Student: To overcome the heart you need the Torah, the light. The heart cannot overcome on its own.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How does it work? What comes first, the Torah or the prayer?
M. Laitman: Prayer, prayer precedes.
Student: The Torah comes first, before the heart, no?
M. Laitman: How could it be for you to feel or understand what the Torah is?
Student: I need the Torah to do its job. It will correct the heart, ultimately. This is what does the action over the person.
M. Laitman: There nevertheless needs to be a desire that precedes it all.
Student: I heard the Creator created beings, the desire. We’re speaking about the desire to bestow perhaps, that has to come first. It has to come from the person, from the created beings.
M. Laitman: Of course.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:20) It looks like there's a heart that's above reason, above the head. What heart is it talking about?
M. Laitman: The heart is all the desires. The main desire of a person is called the heart.
Student: Can we say that the pleasure, which is the reward from the work, is actually my desire to give up my reason and enter the heart?
M. Laitman: Based on what are you making this exchange?
Student: I guess some external force helps me, the friends perhaps.
M. Laitman: So meaning it's not you?
Student: No.
M. Laitman: The work is considered that I carry out an action which according to my reason, according to my desire, I cannot do or I don't want to perform. And then I nevertheless, for some reason, replace my desire and begin to appreciate another desire above my desire. Begin, meaning according to my choice, according to what I see before me, otherwise, it's not spirituality.
Question (Turkiye 7): (01:18:02) I heard that the fuel of the body to advance is the importance of the Creator, and I heard today when Rav answered a friend, that you can't see the greatness and the importance of the Creator. How do you put this body under this work, under this importance and greatness?
M. Laitman: We need to pray for this, that the importance of the Creator shall shine for us and guide us correctly on the path. The Creator doesn't need us to solve His problems, so-called difficulties or questions that He puts along the way for us. He wants us to decide correctly and to go correctly on our way, and this is what we ask about, this is what we need to ask.
Question (Turkiye 2): (01:19:38) What kind of awakening from below brings us to, brings our desires to adhesion in the Creator's desires?
M. Laitman: Actually, the fact that we're drawn to Him, to resemble Him, to resemble Him, to be like Him.
Question (Kyiv 1): (01:20:27) You said that the work is when you go against your desire if I understood correctly. Here it's written that prayer is work, more than all the other commandments, but a prayer is something in the desire, it's a request in the heart. How to turn it into work?
M. Laitman: Prayer is the work in the heart which I need to discern, what it is that I want to reach, by which lacks I come to this, and then I pray that the desires I need to be revealed in me will be revealed, and that's how I will be able to realize the goal that stands now before me.
Question (Holland): (01:21:47) We need a reason let's say, to pray, to pray against our nature, to truly come above it. What does it mean here to have to be rewarded with permanent faith? Does that mean to have permanent heaviness of the heart, let's say, permanent lack, let's say, of wanting to come above my natural heart?
M. Laitman: Probably his entire desire reaches the degree of Bina that connected with Hochma, and it is upon their combination that he performs the action which is called that he comes to the new deficiency. Where his entire deficiency is in the combination of Hochma and Bina, he reaches a new degree.
Student: What does it mean that you, let's say, I'll rephrase it. What do we need to do that it becomes permanent, that you're rewarded with permanent faith?
M. Laitman: The permanence is usually that we won't go any lower than that. That's called to achieve permanence, meaning more it can be, but not less.
Student: Is that total annulment and annulment of the annulments to get to the deepest annulment we can get?
M. Laitman: Well, that I can't say now, we're still missing a few discernments for that.
Student: What do we need, what do we need, let's say, to be able to scrutinize this, this permanent faith, to receive it? What is missing?
M. Laitman: We gradually reach the conditions by which we attain faith in permanence, but not now yet, we don't have that yet.
Question (Zafon 1): (01:25:31) In the spiritual work, we need the Creator to give us the power of faith, to feel that we are serving the King of all Kings, and then our body will annul as a candle before a torch. Now the question is, we know from you that before entering the spiritual world, a person experiences great tension and nervous nerves and is angry about the world, and people don't always understand what's going on with the person. How can we soften these tremors of the dying ego? Is it through the friends or only through the Creator and the cry from the heart?
M. Laitman: I didn't exactly understand the question. What is it that you want to scrutinize, can you tell this to me in a short way?
Student: Before going through the Machsom, the barrier, in the past you used to say, also Rabash wrote about it that He goes through a lot of great inner tensions before this exodus, before exiting the corporeal world into the spiritual world. Can you help a person through the group or through the Creator in such states?
M. Laitman: We haven't reached that yet; we have not gotten to that yet.
Question (Turkiye 5): (01:27:35) We are trying to scrutinize things in the Ten and we're using the workshop, we're doing workshops, and two discernments come up from that. One, the body objects to the work, both internally and physically, really, just like illnesses. The second thing is that we're not trying to convince the Creator to give us something, rather we're trying to accept or to receive what's needed through the work in the prayer. I want to ask if this work is correct?
M. Laitman: No matter what, we need to continue and discover whether it's correct or not and how to continue from the state that's been disclosed. Meaning a person needs to continue. There's no state in which we can walk around and go back to yesterday, only forward.
Question (Haifa 1): (01:29:16) When a person needs to place his intention on the action, it's because he can't aim it in order to bestow. Then he gives up the pleasure until such a state he attains unity with the Creator. Is it called restriction in this stage?
M. Laitman: No. What calculation is he doing? Because he can't overcome?
Student: He, before an action, he wants his intention to be in order to bestow to the Creator, but he discovers that he can't do it, so he comes to the conclusion that he is giving up the pleasure.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Until he attains adhesion, he doesn't perform the action. Until I reach adhesion, I don't, I'm not going to do the action.
M. Laitman: So, the question is?
Student: Is this considered a restriction?
M. Laitman: We could say.
Question (Petah Tikva): (01:31:03) I want to ask about faith above reason relative to the process of the Exodus. In this process, is there faith above reason in the entire process of Egypt?
M. Laitman: In Egypt itself there isn't.
Student: What's the role of Moses?
M. Laitman: The role of Moses is to draw them, pull them towards the exit.
Student: He draws them toward above reason?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: In what?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course. There's no other way, there's no other way out.
Student: The entire process of Egypt, what is it based on? What happens to people there before they come out? If Moses draws them toward faith above reason, then what kind of awareness do they reach in order to go out?
M. Laitman: It's written, and the sons of Israel sighed from the work and all the things that Rabash explains.
Student: That’s clear, that's the point of prayer we have to reach but what awareness do they have regarding themselves?
M. Laitman: They're in Egypt, and they have to exit, and the children of Israel sighed from the work.
Student: What does Moses want from us?
M. Laitman: Moses comes as one who wants to help them.
Student: His role is only to point them toward going above reason?
M. Laitman: Yes, only in stages.
Student: Where does he come from suddenly? It seems like there's a need of the people to bring him, a need for the people, for someone to come and point to where to go.
M. Laitman: This is something they reach after a few days to the Red Sea and see that there's no choice, but they need to switch to faith above reason.
Student: Clear, so this shattering that we reach in Egypt, what is it based on? What is the point from which we understand that we must go above reason, and we cannot remain this way?
M. Laitman: Egypt is within reason.
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: And they want to escape it, they want to go to above reason. Meaning the agreement in potential exists. In practice it takes place in the process of the Exodus.
Student: What is the point you reach in Egypt, that you cannot stay, you cannot remain within reason? That's the point from which you are ready?
M. Laitman: They start working in Egypt as people who have it good in such work, to work according to the ego and then gradually Pharaoh rises and then the new Pharaoh, whereas they feel that they cannot agree and that they're in servitude. Meaning it's not that it's a problem to work, but rather the problem is that they don't receive the same reward compared to what they want. They want an advanced salary, advanced reward above reason, and this is the new nation that's rising in Egypt that did not know Pharaoh, and this is how they advance towards the exit.
Student: So, what throws them out to come out is a new type of reward, or they're going out in order to attain faith above reason?
M. Laitman: Here there is a process in which they begin to learn what faith above reason is, how they rise above what they are. How do they rise from what they are to faith above reason, yes? That's the exodus from Egypt.
Student: What I can't grasp is this transition from being in Egypt to feeling you must come out of Egypt. In Egypt the work is very clear, the reward is very clear until they stop being satisfied and they want something beyond. But how does the transition happen to something beyond, how are they able to understand, to grasp the deficiency that we must have this above reason?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva): (01:37:43) A friend from the Ten is asking, is the process we're talking about in the exodus from Egypt, is it already projecting on us because it already happened and took place in our Reshimot and our records and we accept it as light, as something that helps us evolve, or these are stages we have to go from the beginning on our own flesh, the process itself of coming out of Egypt? Or we're advancing in the form of a penny, and a penny is added to a great sum, and eventually we come out maybe differently, but the question is, is the process of the Exodus from Egypt something that exists within us, we already came out, and we just have to rediscover it, or this is something we have to come to ourselves, this entire process?
M. Laitman: There's no difference, there's no difference. It's like in our life, if now we, let's go over the whole country or go over anything else, it's not important.
Student: The question is, does it need to happen for us also dramatically, as it's described in the story, meaning it has to happen all at once, suddenly, with great pressure, as they asked here, or it somehow opens up suddenly, as it was written, a person wakes up in the morning, as a friend said, and he suddenly feels a new thought, a new desire, suddenly, without great drama, as it's described here, this great war, and this eruption, and the cry and their sighing went up? Is this something dramatic or something that just suddenly happens out of this result of our constant exertion?
M. Laitman: It seems to me that it will be in this inner recognition, more in the inner awareness of it, so that gradually, soon, the change will take place physically as well, but actually it's mental to begin with.
Student: It will happen gradually from within, and it might happen dramatically for the world, it might have a dramatic meaning on the outside.
M. Laitman: Yes, that's clear.
Student: This influences us in the work, because sometimes we expect there has to be this accumulation, something dramatic, and the person feels very distant from it, versus when a person feels small, accumulated changes in the heart, and he thinks, he feels that this is the correct path, he advances correctly. Before that, we talked about the joy on the path. I think there cannot be any form of joy before a person feels he's dealing with a Creator.
As long as the person doesn't feel where things come from, there cannot be any joy, but even if the feeling is face to posterior, but he feels the Creator is radiating to him something, but he has something to work with, his ego is his mirror, he's working with Pharaoh, but he's working for the Creator. Even if it's not directly, he can feel joy, is that correct? The matter of permanence is about the ability of holding, to hold it in the Ten, is the Ten giving us the feeling of permanence?
M. Laitman: Yes, both the conditions and the strength. Okay, guys, you, what else do we have ahead of us?
Reader: We have the article of Freedom, and The Gate of Intentions for Passover.
Reader: We'll move to a song.
Song: (01:42:20)