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, 2025.
Part 2: Baal HaSulam. Shamati 15. What Is Other Gods in the Work?
Reader: We will now read from the writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 15, “What is Other Gods in the Work?” Again, Shamati 15, “What is Other Gods in the Work?”
Reading: (00:15) Shamati 15. What Is Other Gods in the Work?
I heard on Av 24, August 3, 1945
It is written, “You shall make no other gods over Me.” The Zohar interprets that there should be stones to weigh with. It asks about it, How is the work weighed with stones, by which one knows one’s state in the ways of the Creator? It replies that it is known that when one begins to work more than one is used to, the body begins to kick and object to this work with all its might, since regarding bestowal, it is a load and a burden for the body. It cannot tolerate this work, and the resistance of the body appears in a person in the form of foreign thoughts. It comes and asks the questions of “who” and “what.” Through these questions, a person says that all these questions are certainly sent to him by the Sitra Achra [other side] to obstruct him in the work.
It says that if, at that time, one says that they come from the Sitra Achra, one breaches what is written, “You shall make no other gods over Me.” The reason is that one should believe that it comes to him from the Shechina [Divinity], since “There is none else besides Him.” However, the Shechina shows one his true state, how he is walking in the ways of the Creator.
This means that by sending him these questions, called “foreign thoughts,” meaning that through these foreign thoughts she sees how he answers the questions regarded as “foreign thoughts.” And all this, one should know one’s true state in the work so as to know what to do.
It is like an allegory about a friend who wanted to know how much his friend loved him. Certainly, when face to face, his friend hides himself because of shame. Therefore, he sends a person to speak badly about his friend. Then he sees his friend’s reaction while he is away from his friend, and then one can know the true measure of his friend’s love.
The lesson is that when the Shechina shows her face to a person, meaning when the Creator gives one vitality and joy, in that state, one is ashamed to say what he thinks about the work of bestowal without receiving anything for himself. However, when not facing her, meaning when the vitality and gladness cool down, which is considered not facing her, then one can see his true state regarding the aim to bestow.
If one believes that it is written that there is none else besides Him, and that the Creator sends all the foreign thoughts, meaning that He is the operator, he certainly knows what to do and how to answer all the questions. This seems as though she sends him messengers to see how he slanders it, his kingdom of heaven, and this is how we can interpret the above matter.
One can understand this, that everything comes from the Creator, for it is known that the beatings that the body beats a person with its foreign thoughts, since they do not come to a person when he does not engage in the work, but these beatings that come to a person in a complete sensation, to the point that these thoughts smash his mind, they come specifically after preceding Torah and work more than the usual. This is called stones to weigh with.
It means that these stones fall in one’s mind when one wants to understand these questions. Afterward, one comes to weigh the purpose of one’s work, if it is truly worthwhile to work in order to bestow, to work with all his might and soul, and that all his aspirations will be only to hope that what there is to acquire in this world is only in the purpose of his work to bring contentment to his Maker, and not in any corporeal matter.
At that time begins a bitter argument, since one sees that there are arguments both ways. The writings warn about this, “You shall make no other gods over Me.” Do not say that another god gave you the stones with which to weigh your work, but “over Me.”
Instead, one should know that this is considered “over Me.” This is so that one will see the true form of the basis and the foundation upon which the structure of the work is built.
The heaviness in the work is primarily because they are two texts that deny one another. On one hand, one should try that all his work will be to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, that all his desire will be only to bestow contentment upon his Maker, and not at all for himself.
On the other hand, we see that this is not the primary goal, since the purpose of creation was not for the creatures to bestow upon the Creator, since He has no need for the creatures to give Him something. On the contrary, the purpose of creation was due to His desire to do good to His creations, meaning for the creatures to receive delight and pleasure from Him.
These two matters contradict one another from one end to the other, for on one hand, one should bestow, and on the other hand, one should receive. In other words, there is the matter of correction of creation, being to achieve Dvekut, discerned as equivalence of form, being that all his actions will be only to bestow. Afterward, it is possible to achieve the purpose of creation—to receive delight and pleasure from the Creator.
Hence, when one has accustomed oneself to walk in ways of bestowal, one has no vessels of reception anyhow. When one walks in ways of reception, he has no vessels of bestowal.
Thus, through the “stones to weigh with” one acquires both, since after the negotiation he had during the work, when he overcomes and takes upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven in the form of bestowal in mind and heart, it causes that when he comes to draw the upper abundance, since he already has a solid basis that everything should be in the form of bestowal, hence, even when one receives some illumination, he receives it in order to bestow. This is because the whole basis of his work is built solely on bestowal. This is considered that he “receives in order to bestow.”
M. Laitman: Very short article, and entirely on point toward one goal.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:21) He writes that a person makes an effort that is more than the usual, and then he reaches various states, meaning he is being tested. So, how should a person prepare himself before he increases in something – before he goes and does something he didn't do before? How should he prepare himself, if at all?
M. Laitman: He needs to imagine what is the desire of the Creator, and from that he aims himself toward a special attitude for what he receives from the Creator, and that's how he advances.
Student: So, he needs to prepare himself ahead of time to know that now I'm going to increase, to perform another action, something? But we need to take into account that after performing this action, questions will come up, states that will require efforts on our behalf?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course.
Student: Should we take that into account?
M. Laitman: If we want to approach the Creator, then certainly we will see along the way more questions, more problems that the Creator is sending us.
Student: Now, he described the state where after a person makes an increase, he gets tested because he has thoughts, and the Creator is not revealed. What is your advice by which to hold on to that state which he describes as thoughts troubling him greatly? How to hold on to the Creator or self-fulfillment, how to hold on in those states?
M. Laitman: To hold on, simply hold on.
Student: So, just to hold on?
M. Laitman: Hold on.
Student: In those states, what is required in order to reach the second state, where he says he receives pleasure and abundance?
M. Laitman: That is already after a person comes to a connection with the Creator. And then a correct attitude toward the Creator opens up before him because he sees how the Creator relates to him correctly.
Student: This condition is, as you said before, to hold on in these complex states. Just holding on as much as possible; and that comes about automatically, it just happens?
M. Laitman: It's not automatic, but as a result of what a person is holding on to, what he's putting in the effort.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:55) He's talking about stages that a person has to go through. He sees that there are obstructions, which are stones to weigh with, meaning he begins to weigh whether it's worthwhile to bestow.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And as a result, he understands that there's a contradiction between bestowal and reception. Can you describe what are those stones?
M. Laitman: These are the disturbances along the way. Disturbances, desires, and disturbances in anything that a person stumbles upon.
Student: The obstructions are to hang on to There is None Else Besides Him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How can we attribute the obstructions to the work in the Ten?
M. Laitman: The obstructions prevent a person to be adhered to the society.
Student: How is it related: The obstruction to There's None Else Besides Him, and the obstruction to being adhered with the friends?
M. Laitman: It's connected because both come to a person in order to strengthen him and to reinforce him on the path.
Student: So again, what I understand from the article is that the product of these obstructions is that he suddenly sees that bestowal and reception cannot go together, right?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So, if a person is between himself and the Creator, he can say: Okay, now I'm in There Is None Else Besides Him, or I'm not in There Is None Else Besides Him; or there are other obstructions, he can notice it.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: In relation to the friends, he can say, I love the friends or I hate the friends. How are these two reconciled, how do they go together?
M. Laitman: Try to connect it all in one package.
Student: And then from that, these stones are created?
M. Laitman: Yes, this is how he starts to see the Creator as the one who prepares all these preparations for him. And brings a person to states where there's no choice, a person is willing, and must labor, and thus reach Dvekut [adhesion].
Student: At that point, is it a person's own work or is there something more the friends can help here?
M. Laitman: There's always room and area for people, for friends, to help. Each has his field, his area.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:28) It is written that when foreign thoughts come to a person, it is forbidden to be mistaken to say that it came from the Sitra Achra, from the other side. He must say that it came from the Creator. Why is it important?
M. Laitman: Because then he comes from come out from under the control of the authority of the Creator. And even more and more that grips him.
Reader: (20:03) The obstruction, the stone that falls on him, it can pull him, bring him closer to the friends and throw them to the None Else Besides Him, but it can also push him out of the way.
M. Laitman: It can, yes?
Reader: So, how to use an obstruction correctly so it will lead you inwards towards the Ten and not outwards or towards something corporeal?
M. Laitman: That is under the condition that they don't separate from the Creator, who sends all these obstructions in order to strengthen us even more in the Creator's work.
Reader: He writes that if a person believes that There Is None Else besides Him, and He certainly knows what to do. How to explain all the questions? Why does faith in There Is None Else Besides Him organizes him, helps him answer all the questions?
M. Laitman: Because it connects him with the path, with the purpose, with the goal.
Reader: We are a month before a congress that's titled, that's connecting to There Is None Else Besides Him. How do we strengthen ourselves with faith that There is None Else Besides Him?
M. Laitman: We don't separate. First of all, we don't separate ourselves from the control of the Creator, Who governs and bestows and doesn't let us go.
Student: What does it mean that we don't separate, I don't stop holding on to it?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes. I want all my thoughts, desires, and actions to be towards Him; and for me to fully be in the direction of the Creator.
Student: Until the next moment, when thoughts come and disconnect me from the Creator?
M. Laitman: This is so that you understand that there is a certain flaw, a blemish, in your work. And you need to renew your connection with the Creator more powerfully than it was before.
Student: How does a person renew the connection with the Creator when he is disconnected from the Creator?
M. Laitman: The fact that a person understands that he is disconnected from the Creator, he needs to understand that it's the Creator who is sending him that feeling and that state. And then to try and connect himself to the Creator in a much stronger way than before.
Student: And why are the friends here? Because the jump is immediately to the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Why is there a direct jump to the Creator?
M. Laitman: I would say, certainly, there is work with the friends here, with the whole society. But the main thing is the extent to which a person is aimed towards his Creator.
Student: I don't understand, what is my Creator?
M. Laitman: What is mine?
Student: I'll ask again. When an obstruction comes to a person, does he run to the friends, to the Ten, or to the Creator? To whom does he run? To the friends or to the Creator?
M. Laitman: He runs to the friends because through the connection with the friends, he brings himself back to the Creator.
Student: When he writes, faith in There is None Else Besides Him, what is faith in There is None Else Besides Him? What does it mean?
M. Laitman: Faith is the connection a person has with the Creator.
Student: Can that connection be unilateral when I want to connect to Him?
M. Laitman: Yes. First of all, on behalf of a person where he is constantly inclined towards coming close and connecting to the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:09) A person's connection to the Creator, is it the innermost part of our work? If it doesn't exist, then something is flawed in the work? Because there may be a state where a person is busy – well not busy – but he is at work, right? He is connected to the friends, he's got activities, but the Creator, somehow, he's kind of, he misses it, he doesn't engage Him. So that's not a healthy state, right?
M. Laitman: We need to try and always be connected with the Creator and not let ourselves distance from Him.
Student: Now, there was a question about how to connect my relation to the society and to the Creator. So, my question is: a person who's been rewarded with revelation, does he see the connection between the two? Do they become one in him, the connection with the friends and the connection with the Creator?
M. Laitman: Let's hope so. We'll get there and we will see.
Student: Is there some advice how, prior to the revelation, a person doesn't lose these two, where he sees these two as always together in him?
M. Laitman: It's possible, it's possible.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:02) How does a person overcome when the Creator spoils his connection with the friends? You explained before that when I lose my connection with There's None Else Besides Him, I have to run to the friends. But what if the obstruction is in the connection with the friends? What saves a person then?
M. Laitman: What saves a person? Renewing one's connection with the friends and renewing the connection with the Creator, that's it.
Student: But at that point, this is the obstruction, he doesn't want to renew the connection with the friends. That's the obstruction he got now; he doesn't want to be with the friends now. So, what do you do? Have mercy from heaven? What saves him?
M. Laitman: What saves him from every situation is just his connection with the Creator. And he should never forget that.
Student: So, when a person loses the connection with his society, or he has an obstruction toward the connection with his society, he should somehow remember the Creator, specifically, then?
M. Laitman: The Creator is first and foremost.
Student: And if he has neither, what happens?
M. Laitman: Then he's free, he's disconnected.
Student: How not to lose connection with the Creator? What will help a person because there seems to be two things here that are connected. If I'm with the friends, I'll agree to be with the Creator. If I'm in their environment, I have some sort of a shield, so to speak.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: If I'm not with the friends, I may be able to somehow remain with the Creator by myself through habit, or the study, or something. But what protects a person when he forgets both? What saves a person then?
M. Laitman: He cries out to the Creator to save him, to reconnect him; and the Creator answers him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:02) When I think about the Creator and the goal, does it help my Ten?
M. Laitman: Of course.
Student: When I'm disconnected from the Creator and the goal, am I harming my Ten?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, why doesn't the Creator give me this feeling that I had to ask you this? Why doesn't He give me this feeling?
M. Laitman: He has calculations, and He does it from His plan towards you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:48) When a person falls and gets a blow, he often feels that it's too late, already. That he missed out on all kinds of warning signs that he had along the way. How do we not miss out on warning signs that we are off track? How do we notice them so we maintain and hang on to “There Is None Else besides Him”?
M. Laitman: We need to see our entire group and try to feel it. Yes, our work is to be in connection with it. And this is how we will advance.
Student: Now, regarding small things I miss out in my corporeal world. I work somewhere, and there are things that I miss, but I have greater value in other things, so I ignore it. But in spirituality, from the perspective of the Creator, does His relation to these little mistakes. What is His relation to these little mishaps and mistakes?
M. Laitman: That, we will have to reveal – whoever reveals it, will reveal it. And whoever doesn't, needs to understand that, for the time being, he's not discovering it.
Student: Yes, there is the allegory of Baal HaSulam, when a person walks in the garden with the Creator, and then he walks and walks until he finds himself outside.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How does the Kabbalist relate to the little things? What kind of relation, attitude, does he have toward that, so we can learn?
M. Laitman: I don't understand you.
Student: Let's say, I have to overcome something big that occupies me and takes my attention, but there are small overcoming. Then I kind of say, well, never mind, I didn't overcome it, it's something small. But afterwards, I see that this little thing led to something else, and something else, and it suddenly becomes a big thing – this is how I feel it. So, what's the right approach to those little things? When you have small opportunities, when you say, well, that's nothing.
M. Laitman: That all depends on the environment. To the extent in which the friends guide you towards looking seriously at all small obstructions.
Student: Should there be high sensitivity to the little things?
M. Laitman: Yes, the sensitivity should be high.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:15) Let's say that a friend's behavior upset me, and I understand that that too comes from the Creator. According to the article, I shouldn't erase what I feel, this being upset but I should come to a state where I love him.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: Because the Creator gave me both.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: And then I'm more stable towards the Creator because I have one opposite the other. Is this correct?
M. Laitman: We need to see in what it disconnects you and what it brings you closer. The main thing for us is Dvekut, adhesion, to the Creator. So, you need to check yourself, and to what extent it distances you, or rejects you, or brings you closer to the Creator.
Student: It's just that the questions of who and what are questions that Pharaoh asks. And here in the article, it says that it came from the Shechina, from the Creator?
M. Laitman: That doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:57) There's another point here: He says toward the end of the article that these stones are a great possession, something we have to be thankful for. Why, what's the great value in these stones?
M. Laitman: According to this, he weighs or measures the greatness, the result, and that's why it's important to him.
Student: It's impossible to advance without the doubts, the heavy stones.
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So, how do we come to appreciate them?
M. Laitman: By talking about this, relating to it.
Student: Should we talk about it in the Ten, about the great value of obstructions?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:04) How does a person check if he's slandering the Shechina?
M. Laitman: That's according to the results.
Student: Because there are things I need to do toward the society, and my first reaction is the body's resistance, the body objects. Is that slander?
M. Laitman: Could be, yes.
Student: How does a person check?
M. Laitman: Usually, there's some kind of illumination to it.
Student: I need to check my initial reaction?
M. Laitman: Too.
Student: The initial reaction of the body. Does it mean that there's a flaw in me?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Student: And it doesn't matter if I'm charged with strength or not. I have to check the initial reaction of the body.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And that flaw, how do I correct it?
M. Laitman: By connection with the friends.
Student: Connection with the friends gives you strength so you overcome?
M. Laitman: Were you overcoming the forces?
Student: The flaw in the blemish, you have resistance.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: You're connected with the friends you overcame for an hour, for that moment.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: And I want this flaw to disappear, not to exist in me anymore. I don't want the objection, the resistance of the body to exist anymore.
M. Laitman: The fact that you don't want that doesn't mean a thing.
Student: I'm asking how to correct this.
M. Laitman: We correct it by non-stop working on it.
Student: Until eventually it's corrected?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:18) A friend in the Ten currently has an obstruction. We are at a connection meeting; he shared it with the Ten. I suddenly feel that I am incorporated in it, the whole Ten is incorporated in it. So, how does the Ten help now? It's his scrutiny, in a way?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: He should come to that outcry with the Creator at the end of this.
M. Laitman: But you help him.
Student: How?
M. Laitman: By disclosing a little more of his relation to the society and our attitude towards him.
Student: So, we did. We had a workshop around it, we tried to sympathize with him. Each one sympathizes with the obstruction because it exists in him, as well, to an extent. And we try to talk about it, to give greatness, to connect ourselves to the article we read in that meeting. But from here, the Ten, kind of moves aside and then there is the friend, vis-à-vis the Creator. How does the Ten help him there?
M. Laitman: The Ten talks about it until he awakens and the moment he awakens, they awaken the circle he's in and that's how a person awakens, rises, and renews his connection with the Creator.
Student: Another thing I see that I'm not sure we're doing right: The sun rises and then sets; now there's something else, and it disappeared. But his scrutiny is deeper than that, it takes longer. And the Ten has already moved elsewhere.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So, how can we still be with him, support him, and work because in me, too, there is this part. I need to do something with that.
M. Laitman: Incorporate with him and hold him, help him until you see he emerges from this.
Student: Is there a connection between his scrutiny and my scrutiny or the Ten? Is there a connection between the corrections?
M. Laitman: Don't go into that, don't go into such things.
Question (W PT 6): (42:33) Why is attributing to the Creator regarded as bestowal?
M. Laitman: Attributing oneself?
Student: Attributing to There's None Else Besides Him, that everything is from the Creator. Why is attributing to the Creator regarded as bestowal?
M. Laitman: Because a person kind of erases himself and says that it all comes from above, from the Creator. And a person has no action that he is responsible for, but it all comes from above.
Student: So, the friend continues and asks, if the Creator turns us every moment, what is our action, what belongs to us?
M. Laitman: The Creator spins everything, prepares everything, and we need to try to identify His actions in all our life.
Question (W Turkiye 7): (43:59) I know I have the knowledge that the Creator is behind everything. But how do I make room within me to feel that the Creator is behind everything?
M. Laitman: I would say that she needs to care more for her friends. To be in a caring mode for the friends and then she will feel whether she is close to them or not.
Question (W PT 25): (44:48) How do we know when foreign thoughts are a scrutiny from the Shechina, and when it's a trick of the ego?
M. Laitman: It's a difficult question. A person who stands before such questions, it's not simple for that person. Yes. But he needs to continue, just continue more and more, and try and receive upon oneself those questions. And to try and divide them in a way that gradually he'll be able to decipher them as well. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:56) What is the purpose of the obstruction?
M. Laitman: To advance the person.
Student: How?
M. Laitman: To advance the person. To give obstacles, eventually, we overcome the obstacles, wanting to near the Creator, renew the connection between us and the Creator; and thus, we become stronger.
Student: What is the connection with the Creator?
M. Laitman: The connection with the Creator is where I understand more. Where I understand more the obstacles that come to me and the thoughts that awaken in me. And I want with all of these to return to the Creator and adhere to Him with all my forces.
M. Laitman: What does it mean to adhere to Him with all my strength? What is this action?
M. Laitman: That action in which all of one's desires and thoughts that awaken in me, that I want with them to adhere to the Creator.
Student: We heard before that a person has to renew the connection with the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Student: What does it mean to renew the connection with the Creator?
M. Laitman: We feel from time to time that we were more connected with the Creator, and now, suddenly, that connection disappeared, so, what to do? So, we see that Baal HaSulam recommends for us to not let go of the connection between us and the connection with the Creator. To just pray together as much as possible, as powerfully as possible, together in a true cry that will reach the heavens, and then we will receive an answer.
Student: Does the obstruction help a person renew the connection with the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And if he renews the connection with the Creator, obstructions won't come?
M. Laitman: Why not? One has nothing to do with the other.
Student: In other words, the purpose of the obstructions is to advance a person in the way that the Creator advances.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And a person should constantly renew the connection, regardless of the obstructions.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And these two somehow advance in a person in parallel.
M. Laitman: Excellent.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:39) He writes that these obstructions come to a person precisely when he begins to work. If it seems to a person that these obstructions come to him precisely when he begins to become negligent?
M. Laitman: Be negligent?
Student: Yes, it seems to him like the obstructions come because he doesn't overcome, and he's negligent, not because he's working. When he worked, when he connected and he was adhered to the Creator, now he gets heaviness. Rather, he feels that he moves away, becomes negligent, it decreases the connection with the friends, and that's why the obstructions increase.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So, what then?
M. Laitman: You should try to diminish it, this whole field from which he thinks these obstacles are born.
Student: Here, I understand that the advice he gives is not to say, “other gods,” but that There Is None Else Besides Him.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: In a state when a person feels that he is negligent, what should he say?
M. Laitman: If a person feels that he is negligent, he needs to perform all kinds of actions in order to return to the good connection with the Creator.
Student: But, in terms of a person's relation to the negligence, should he attribute it to himself? Like, in There's None Else Besides Him, he says, don't say that it's you who did this. So, in relation to a person's negligence where he feels that he himself is negligent, what should he say then?
M. Laitman: Really, yes.
Student: That he is negligent?
M. Laitman: That he is.
Student: And where is, There's None Else Besides Him?
M. Laitman: You're always between those two forces – you and the Creator.
Student: So, when, because if I say about myself I'm negligent, then it can weaken him, very much. In a state where he becomes more and more slacking until he quits. But if there's like a thread that maybe the Creator has given me this, and only He. And maybe it's to the contrary, he writes here that it's because I did good things, and that's why He gave it to me. So, these are two different approaches, so how to work in a state where a person feels that he himself is slacking, is negligent?
M. Laitman: We're not yet in a degree that we can answer with certainty to this question. What's the reason for the distancing, for the negligence?
Student: What can a person do in that state when he's still not in a place where he can determine that There's None Else Besides Him? Because if he could determine that There's None Else Besides Him, it would give him some kind of a line of hope. That maybe he is advancing correctly, and not that he's going backwards, and backwards, and backwards. But it's not necessarily like that, from what I understand, he may actually be regressing.
M. Laitman: So, we need to grip onto the Creator and strengthen that connection as much as possible. All the way to the end.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:20) The definition of the obstacle, itself, in a person's eyes also changes all the time.
M. Laitman: It could be.
Student: What is an obstacle? It's something that I want and I don't manage to get.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: Otherwise, it won't be an obstacle. Meaning, there's an obstacle for the will to receive, it wants to rest, and suddenly it needs to do something, so it bothers it. And the Kabbalist tells us that it's to hold on to and grip on to None Else Besides Him all the time. Do we remain with that definition at least, and not other things that are obstructing?
M. Laitman: That's on condition that you live in a society that all of it is thinking about the same goal. And then, it helps you to also hang on together with them.
Student: But we also need to help the friends think about it.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, it's not like some kind of passive things where you're in an environment. But it's if you yourself don't do the work, then you're not in the game at all.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: The question is how together do we create a situation where it's clear to us that if we leave it, we lose None Else Besides Him, there are no other obstructions. Right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:19) When a person is locked on There is None Else Besides Him, what's the place of the friends in this direction? Do they have a place there or is he locked on him?
M. Laitman: He cannot be adhered to There is None Else Besides Him if he doesn't connect himself to all his friends.
Student: Meaning, if he's locked on the Creator without the friends being with him? I'm asking it because from my experience, there's the feeling that sometimes the fact that you're locked on None Else Besides Him alone, it disconnects from the friends.
M. Laitman: Correct.
Student: And then he can become even prideful and crude.
M. Laitman: Right.
Student: So, what do you do with this, how can you be in this and in that at the same time?
M. Laitman: It can't be. He can't be in both these ends.
Student: No, but so that also the friends will be together with him in adhesion with the Creator. How can you do such a thing so that where he's locked in it and then the friends are together with him? It's not possible?
M. Laitman: He needs to understand that his connection with the society comes to him in order to hold it and rise from it to his connection with the Creator. That's it.
Student: How do we, here in the society create this spirit in which all of us, all the friends, are in such a drive in being adhered to the Creator? Really, kind of, all the time kind of pressured that way?
M. Laitman: Try. Try, try, we talked about it many times.
Student: And if we do it together, will it help each and every one?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:15) Is there some exercise we can do as a society?
M. Laitman: There are many, plenty of exercises – pick one. Speak among yourselves.
Student: It would be good if we come up with something together.
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Question (Woman PT 38): (59:40) In the end, we have to reach this outcry due to our inability to love the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How from this outcry do I come to love the Creator in practice?
M. Laitman: In other words, I can make an outcry with all my might but I still don't feel that there is a result to it, right?
Student: The friend is writing that she's crying out that she doesn't have the ability or the strength to bestow and love the Creator. She reaches this outcry, but how from that do you really come to loving the Creator? How do I, how from crying out that I'm lacking, that I don't have forces, how from that do I come to love the Creator?
M. Laitman: According to what I understand from what you're saying, we need to continue with that outcry until it rises up to heaven, very simply.
Question (Moscow 8): (01:01:03) How can you help a friend connect to the Creator more?
M. Laitman: To help a friend is through example; through example, only.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:38) You always tell us how Rabash, in every given moment that he had, that he had a free moment, he would open his Shamati notebook. You yourself also, on trips you always take Shamati, look out, you look at it. What is there in this looking into Shamati, and specifically in Shamati – I didn't see you actually taking out TES or other things. When a person is on the road in different ways, I heard that perusing through Shamati helps him choose None Else Besides Him. Can you explain something about that?
M. Laitman: In short, through reading Shamati, a person attains the Creator.
Student: How does it operate?
M. Laitman: We don't know how it works, just like all those other things in spirituality, we don't know what happens but if we want to be connected to it and not disconnect, it happens.
Student: Meaning, in advance, when a Kabbalist takes Shamati, it's in order to be connected to None Else Besides Him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:03) What is the correct response of a person, the most correct response, to a person who is under such an examination?
Student: He is being sent from above now all kinds of obstructions for him to be able to examine or strengthen in where he is.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: That should eventually be his test, what he's checking.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So, what's his correct response towards this exam?
M. Laitman: After this test, he knows where he is, where he should be. And the gap between them is basically his deficiency in the prayer.
Student: So, he needs to discover this gap and raise it in prayer?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And what does it mean that he raises it in prayer?
M. Laitman: That he asks for a reaction from the Creator for it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:43) What is the desirable result of the overcomings a person does?
M. Laitman: The desirable result of overcoming in a person's prayer is that what he asks for, he will get the strength and the understanding – the intellect.
Student: How to not attribute it to myself, like, I overcame?
M. Laitman: No, no, if he really prays and wants it to happen, he won't have such thoughts that in the end, I deserve it.
Student: Meaning, he will get a feeling of it?
M. Laitman: Yes.
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