The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) October 1, 2024.
Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, #56.
Reader: Hello, we are studying from the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, continuing from item 56. You can find the text on kabbalahgroup.info and also in the Arvut system. Introduction to “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”, item 56.
Reading: (00:30) Now you can understand the words of our sages, “What is repentance like? When He who knows the mysteries will testify that he will not return to folly.” These are seemingly perplexing words, for who would rise to heaven to hear the testimony of the Creator? Also, before whom should the Creator testify? Is it not enough that the Creator Himself knows that the person repented with all his heart and will not sin again?
From the explanation, the matter becomes very simple: In truth, one is not absolutely certain that he will not sin again before he is rewarded with the above attainment of reward and punishment, meaning the revelation of the face. This revelation of the face, from the perspective of the Creator’s salvation, is called “testimony,” since His salvation in itself, to this attainment of reward and punishment, is what guarantees that he will not sin again.
It is therefore considered that the Creator testifies to him. It is written, “What is repentance like?” In other words, when will one be certain that he has been granted complete repentance? For this, one is given a clear sign: “When He Who knows the mysteries testifies that he will not return to folly.” This means that he will attain the revelation of the face, at which time one’s own salvation will testify that he will not return to folly.
M. Laitman: I have nothing to add. Any questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:11) What does it mean that the Creator testifies about the path of my state?
M. Laitman: If a person merits such repentance where the Creator can testify about him that he shall no longer return to folly, that's called that the Creator is testifying. In this, there is no more what to think about, what doubts to have. That's it.
Student: How each time.
M. Laitman: You haven't gotten to this yet, so that's why you don't even know in what this is clarified.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:18) Reward and punishment partially is consummate and completely is revelation?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is the difference between the partial form and the complete absolute form?
M. Laitman: That this is a part and that's everything.
Student: But it's still in the form of reward and punishment, in this format of reward and punishment. So why is one called concealment and the other is called revelation?
M. Laitman: If he's still on the path and he doesn't see the whole path, he doesn't see all the details, then he's in doubts, and his repentance, his answer is not complete. Whereas if he comes to a state in which the Creator can testify about him, that he shall not return to folly, meaning that he will no longer have doubts or any nudging of sorts. No movement, and that's it.
Student: Is there another degree beyond that, beyond revealing reward and punishment?
M. Laitman: We'll read and see,
Student: Because it sounds still partial. Reward and punishment, when reaching revelation, still sounds like something partial.
M. Laitman: What is still partial? What else is missing?
Student: He writes, I think in the previous item, that it's a certain form of attainment, this revelation. It's not everything. It's a form he can reach.
M. Laitman: I don't understand you. I see what's written here.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:47) How does one not lose the freedom of choice when he's promised by the Creator that he is not going to sin again?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So how not to lose the freedom of choice? And in what does he have choice?
M. Laitman: The Creator testifies that he shall not fall from that degree that he reached. That's it. And that is called repentance from fear.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (07:44) Before the Creator testifies for a person, he continues to fall?
M. Laitman: Probably, yes.
Student: But what will keep him on the path then?
M. Laitman: The Creator illuminates upon him all the time in accordance with him reaching repentance. But each time he goes, overcomes, attains, and this is how he ascends.
Student: Now, the Creator will testify by him in complete repentance. What is the first repentance?
M. Laitman: Partially, meaning he already entered into the calculation that he can perform the Mitzvah of repentance appropriately, and it's already there. But for him not to fall, for him not to return, that's no.
Student: Why from the moment he has the first contact with the upper one, he doesn't have security, a promise for what's coming? Why only in complete repentance he can testify on him? It's clear.
M. Laitman: I don't understand. But if he didn't finish, then he certainly has not yet completed, and it could be that he might even fall on the degree that he has just attained.
Student: Where is the fall? Falling where? To what?
M. Laitman: To the place where he might sin.
Student: Sounds like he's leaving the path.
M. Laitman: No, no, no, it's not talking about that. It's talking about, yeah, well, yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:46) If he won't fall, how will he advance? Where will he obtain additional sparks of sanctity? After all, the entire path up until the state is, you will have a concealment, double concealment. It's not exactly, not truly a fall, it's a means for acquiring vessels.
M. Laitman: Right.
Student: How will he continue to advance from there?
M. Laitman: The Creator testifies upon him that this person no longer will fall because he doesn't enter altogether into such states.
Student: That's what's written.
M. Laitman: Yes
Student: But how will he advance from here to his next degree?
M. Laitman: Let's see. Let’s see.
Student: That is seemingly the changing of the method, or something changes from this state onwards.
M. Laitman: Well, let's see. Look, a person in this state for the time being finished all that he had to do.
Student: But he's not in the end of correction yet.
M. Laitman: I don't know. I don't know. I like to, I love to read until what's reading, what's been written so far.
Student: Now, how does he know it's not going to get additional coarseness and the degree will disappear?
M. Laitman: He doesn't know anything.
Student: So what is this testimony that he won't sin? Any longer. It's not just his current state, it's the future.
M. Laitman: Well, that the Creator does. The Creator gives him a feeling about the degree, about the attainment that he shall not sin or transgress anymore because he has reached a stage where he's attained the degree. But it's his. He has acquired it. More than that there won't be. And then how will he advance onwards? That's a question.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:18) I have a similar question to the friend about the transition from concealment to revelation. One concealment to revelation. Both speak of reward and punishment. And he writes here that reward and punishment were the providence of the revelation of the face. The providence of reward and punishment, that's the first revelation. And before that he says they believe in the providence of reward and punishment and all the troubles about the first concealment, they come to them because they don't adhere to the Creator. And he also said in the preparation that the Creator stands behind every friend. So I want to ask about our work in the first concealment, let's say. We're supposed to believe the reward is coming, the punishment is coming. I'm sorry, the reward we cannot believe because you may not see it. But to relate the punishment that comes from the Creator or our attitude to the fact that everything comes from the Creator, that is our work inside the concealment.
M. Laitman: Let's read a little more. It'll be clearer to us what's happening.
Student: If I'm now working with a friend, and later there's a revelation where reward and punishment is work before the Creator, relative to the Creator, that There’s None Else Besides Him. And there's also a form of reward here, that He’s Good That Does Good. Is that the revelation? And before that, the work was on faith, that you have to build it on faith or it's not revealed.
M. Laitman: Let's say that, yes.
Reader: Item 57.
Reading: (14:38) This above-mentioned repentance is called “repentance from fear.” This is because although one returns to the Creator with his heart and soul, until He who knows the mysteries testifies that he will not return to folly, that certainty that he will not sin again is due to one’s attainment and the sensation of terrible punishment and wicked torment extending from the transgressions. Because of this, one is certain that he will not sin, just as he is sure that he will not afflict himself with horrible suffering.
However, in the end, these repentance and certainty are only because of the fear of punishment that extends from the transgressions. It turns out that one’s repentance is only due to fear of punishment. Because of this, it is called “repentance from fear.”
M. Laitman: okay?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:18) He says the certainty that he will not sin comes to him because of his sensation of the terrible punishment and wicked torment extending from the transgressions. So what are the transgressions?
M. Laitman: The transgressions are that he somewhat is not certain that it comes from the Creator.
Student: And what punishment and wicked torment extends from such a thing?
M. Laitman: Whatever he is drawn to, I don't know what to tell you if you don't yet recognize them.
Student: It's a dramatic state probably.
M. Laitman: Well, probably.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:30) What's the difference between a state where a person is in a transgression and a state where he didn't acquire enough deficiency for revelation?
M. Laitman: Well, different states. They're very different. But nevertheless, we're talking about his deficiency, about his Kli, what he's worthy of, what revelation.
Student: As long as a person doesn't perform acts toward revelation, he's necessarily transgressing?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: He's transgressing.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Sometimes you say the Kabbalists talk about between me and myself, these in between states.
M. Laitman: Between me and between that, I don't think this is the state. It's also transgression here.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:31) So in both concealments, he's working in faith. He's strengthening faith. Suddenly he gets a revelation, breaks everything he built.
M. Laitman: Explain.
Student: In the first concealment and concealment within concealment, he constantly strengthens the faith, the faith in reward and punishment. It's faith. He's not working on knowing, on clear knowledge. He's working on strengthening the work on top of the lack of knowledge.
M. Laitman: Well.
Student: And then the Creator comes and works on this. He doesn't have to work on his faith now. He received a revelation. It sounds like a very exalted state. A friend is doing this good action toward the friend he immediately feels a reward. If he stops loving the friends, he feels the punishment. It's the attainment of the open providence in reward and punishment.
M. Laitman: Well?
Student: So how can he connect to the Creator in the equivalence of form and faith against the ego? Everything with knowledge, with knowing. How can you have a connection with the Creator knowingly?
M. Laitman: I hear what you're asking, but I don't understand why there's room for a question here.
Student: There's no place for a question. If he has a complete feeling of reward and punishment, where each action he performs causes good or bad, then where is his place in exerting? Maybe there's no question, I can't scrutinize it.
M. Laitman: We will wait.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:02) This state, this repentance from fear because of the punishment, is he afraid of punishment or of bringing sorrow to the Creator? The Creator is forced to punish him?
M. Laitman: Read 57 again.
Rav reading: (21:22) This above-mentioned repentance is called repentance from fear. This is because although one returns to the Creator with his heart and soul, until he who knows the mysteries testifies that he will not return to folly, that certainty that he will not sin again is due to one's attainment and the sensation of the terrible punishment and wicked torments that extend from the transgressions. Because of this, one is certain that he will not sin, so it protects him, just as he is sure that he will not afflict himself with horrible sufferings.
However, in the end, these repentance and certainty are only because of the fear of punishment that extends from the transgressions. It turns out that one's repentance is only due to the fear of punishment, because of this, it is called repentance from fear, meaning it's not enough that he's from the fear.
Student: Fear of himself?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (MAK 25): (22:41) What is a sin?
M. Laitman: I don't know. We need to go and search according to the definition what sin is.
Question (Women Heb 2): (22:58) What is the difference between a sin and a transgression?
M. Laitman: That too needs to be scrutinized.
Question (Latin 12): (23:06) What do I have to regret? What is repentance out of fear?
M. Laitman: From what we're learning now, then repentance is from fear. Which is where a person prevents himself from transgressions, because he is under the feeling of the love of the Creator. Repentance from that, that is what prevents him, what stops him.
Question (Turkiye 7): (24:09) What is the fear of punishment that brings a person to repent?
M. Laitman: That he's afraid to do it in order to receive. That for him, that's truly worse than death.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:50) Once a person receives an answer, it becomes very clear to him because he has reached a testimony that he will not fall again. Does he stop being fearful? He works on a different level, he stops being afraid of these things?
M. Laitman: It's a question, yes. That itself is a question.
Student: Right. It's a question, maybe because it's in the next degree, a new degree, maybe because he's not showing, he's not fearful or he's fearful exclusively in what he's doing in this point.
M. Laitman: When can fear be felt, yes, in a person, as a phenomenon?
Student: Excuse me, if I understand correctly, the fear is felt on the path because he receives blows in the concealment, he understands what is the punishment, then he gets to something, a place where the testimony is clear, he reaches a certain feeling perhaps, but he says, that's it, I'm clear. The question is, how do I go from here so he won't be out of fear, because the Creator doesn't want us to be concerned, He wants us to be in His world, out of love, to be similar to Him.
M. Laitman: Yes,
Student: It's the point in which a person feels this thing?
M. Laitman: Here we have a big question. What is fear from reward, from punishment? Fear from me not being able to exist before the Creator? How will I hold on towards the friends, towards the whole society? That's a question. These are essential questions.
Student: So we should stay in this question throughout the reading?
M. Laitman: Okay, let's see.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:34) In each and every state, a person can subjugate himself towards the state surrender, like lower his head like Rabbi Akiva? There’s also an opportunity to run away to the Ten, like ignore the state and enter onto the hands of the Ten and hide there. Trying to understand if we need to somehow come to the Ten to try to change the attitude, the state, the attitude of concealment, feeling of pain, torments. How do you combine these two things and don't run away only to one form?
M. Laitman: To what form?
Student: Either lowering the head and trying to wait out the situation? Or to be under the Ten without trying to correct this state? Is there a way to connect these two things?
M. Laitman: I don't think it's possible to be in that.
Student: What?
M. Laitman: Where a person runs away.
Student: There are attempts to run away, I'm not saying it's possible to, but…
M. Laitman: What does he receive?
Student: How to connect with the friends in the Ten, so it will bring a correction to the state that is revealed.
M. Laitman: What is he lacking? What is he missing?
Student: He doesn't understand the connection, the results that he should have from the connection in the Ten, so it will bring us to correction. That the attitude of the Creator will be the Good That Does Good, and None Else Besides Him. Not that he's certain that some of it comes from the Creator, and the good and the bad. To truly correct the situation.
M. Laitman: Yes, it's a question.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:49) Another direction is if a person is feeling we're going through states of descent and lowliness, how in such actions We can also justify the actions of the Creator. There's None Else Besides Him. Is it correct to say there's None Else Besides Him when you feel bad? You're feeling the certain situations you lack a feeling of inspiration, an impression. You are seemingly in a negative feeling. How to justify the Creator's action in this state? Because we know it's also from Him.
M. Laitman: But that's clear to a person that if he sins, he feels bad. It's actually good that he feels not good with it. This is an indication that he's in the not correct state.
Student: Is this considered justifying?
M. Laitman: No, to justify is where even if he feels not good, he justifies the Creator for feeling that way.
Student: And there's a place for correction, there's room for correction?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:28) When a person receives this testimony, he receives a tremendous anti-egoistic power from the Creator. The revelation that bestowal rules over everything. The Creator looks after everything. A person is subjugated to this power. Is it like that?
M. Laitman: Let’s say so.
Student: So, it turns out that if he's subjugated to this force, it's a force of bestowal. He'll be in fear of receiving. Today if we were afraid of receiving, this will be also correct for him. And to continue, in this state, his will to receive does not disappear. A person remains with his will to receive. Unless you receive control over the will to receive, you can take another desire, analyze it, understand if you can work with it or not.
M. Laitman: Could be. It's possible.
Student: So, all of this is thanks to receiving the revelation of the Creator, and he's subjugated towards him. That's the certainty that he can take for the desire, analyze it.
M. Laitman: He's not quite in that state yet. He's not in such a state yet.
Student: That's only the first revelation?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:21) It says here, his repentance is only for fear of the punishment. And because of this, it's called repentance from fear. In order to have repentance of punishment, he has to feel the punishment, clearly. So, how to feel it? Clearly, you need to acquire this feeling?
M. Laitman: Yes, it's clear.
Student: To ask to feel the truth?
M. Laitman: Probably. Okay.
Reader: Item 58.
Reading: (34:10) Twice. By this we understand the words of our sages, that one who repents from fear is rewarded with his sins becoming as mistakes. We must understand how this happens. According to the above (Item 52), you can thoroughly understand that the sins one makes extend to him from the reception of a guidance of double concealment, namely concealment within concealment. This means that he does not believe in a guidance of reward and punishment.
One concealment means that he believes in a guidance of reward and punishment, but because of the accumulation of the suffering, he sometimes comes to thoughts of transgression. This is because although he believes that the suffering came to him as a punishment, he is still as one who sees his friend from behind, and might doubt and mistake him for another, as written there, that these sins are only mistakes, since in general, he believes in a guidance of reward and punishment.
One concealment means that he believes in a guidance of reward and punishment, but because of the accumulation of the suffering, he sometimes comes to thoughts of transgression. This is because although he believes that the suffering came to him as a punishment, he still is one who sees his friend from behind, one might doubt and mistake him for another. It is written here that these sins are only mistakes, since in general he believes in the guidance of reward and punishment.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:05) What does it mean that he doesn't believe in the providence of reward and punishment?
M. Laitman: But if he believes, what is that called?
Student: That he feels it.
M. Laitman: That something is revealed before him.
Student: So if he doesn't believe in the guidance of reward and punishment, it means it's not appearing before him.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So who is he transgressing before here?
M. Laitman: All these things are only relative to himself.
Student: This is usually when it's against someone when I sin, it's against someone.
M. Laitman: That's how he divides himself, yes.
Student: What does he divide himself to? Who's operating against who here?
M. Laitman: A person toward the Creator.
Student: But that's the thing, he doesn't feel that there's the guidance of reward and punishment here, he doesn't feel the Creator.
M. Laitman: So what is it maliciously?
Student: That's what I'm asking, if he doesn't feel it that way, as such guidance then maybe he doesn't feel it that way.
M. Laitman: We learn that the transgression, the intentional thoughts, comes from double concealment.
Student: Yes, that precisely my question. If there's double concealment here and I don't see who I'm working before, I have no connection with him, how can I operate sinfully towards him?
M. Laitman: That's a question. I'd rather not answer, but rather that we work with the text more and more. We're reading item 58?
M. Laitman: We finished 58, okay.
Rav Reading: (40:45) The sins extend from the double concealment, where he does not believe in a guidance of reward and punishment. One concealment means that he believes in guidance of reward and punishment, but because of the accumulation of the suffering, he sometimes comes to thoughts of transgression.
This is because although he believes that the suffering came to him as a punishment, as he still is one who sees his friends from behind and might doubt and mistaken for another. These sins are only mistakes, since in general he believes in the guidance of reward and punishment.
We came to that point.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:40) I understand that in this state there's no longer double concealment. He only has one concealment.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And then, so he says, that sometimes in times of suffering, he has doubt. He might have doubt whether it's the Creator or not, since he sees the posterior of him.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Meaning that's the greatest descent he can have in such a state. Now what's the measure of his equivalence with the Creator?
M. Laitman: Let's depict it, portray it, imagine it. How can it be?
Student: One thing is clear, he never has a complete disconnection from the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That is that the Creator is always in his reality, but there are states where he sometimes has this doubt. What is this doubt? How can he also have equivalence and also doubt? What is that intermediate state?
M. Laitman: I don’t know. Do you have an answer?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:01) He's so immersed in his suffering that it makes him forget the Creator.
M. Laitman: Immersed in suffering until he disconnects from the Creator.
Student: Yes, the one who's spinning things for him.
M. Laitman: We talked about this a lot already.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:28) So can I ask if he's already in one concealment, how can there be suffering? If he understands that performing a Mitzvah is a good thing? He has already some revealed providence. Why is he going through sufferings? Why is he even coming to such a state?
M. Laitman: Where do we see it?
Student: It's written here, no? He performs repentance from fear. He's already in the guidance of reward and punishment. He understands there's the Creator that that brings, there's reward and punishment. And then they say that he's also, he actually tastes it, the reward and punishment. So how can he be coming to a... Why is he transgressing and actually getting punishment?
M. Laitman: Yes, that could also be a question.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:41) It appears like a person in these states understands that he's dependent on the state he's in, that if it shines to him this way, so if he had it revealed, if the reward was revealed, he would understand it differently, meaning he understands his state, and he understands that he's dependent on the illumination he receives, is that correct? It's like there are three or four different states, so a person differentiates between them and understands what state he's in, and so the question is whether a person in these states agrees with the state he's in and operates with it, without demanding a change in that state, or that he understands, because he understands to begin with that if he wouldn't have the illumination, he would be like a sinner, and to begin with would be an advance understanding that he has nothing to work in this degree, but rather he has to come to, meaning he doesn't agree with his state, he has to come to a state where he has complete illumination, the revelation of faith. Does he have to work in that state, or does he need to take upon himself that he doesn't have work but to reach the true revelation?
M. Laitman: Let's say that's how he understands.
Student: But how does he relate to his state, does he have to remain in that state and work from within it, and whatever comes out of it comes out, or that he demands revelation, because he understands that otherwise he will remain in a state of sin.
M. Laitman: What will it look like when he demands revelation?
Student: We after all said that he probably understands his situation, and understands that he's completely dependent on his state, on the illumination he's receiving at that given time. So if he understands this, and if he's not in a state of revelation of faith, then he knows that he will be a sinner, and he has no choice, and he doesn't want to remain in that state. That's kind of one approach. On the other hand, he demands revelation, so it's kind of like work that, it's like you don't agree with what you have, you don't agree to work in the state that you're in. So here it's kind of like, there's a feeling like there's some kind of combination of the two things, because they seem to both be correct somehow.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:20) The sins becoming transgressions, so can we say that it's like the sins are where he thinks that he did the transgression, and it becomes transgressions when he realizes that everything is done by the Creator, and there's no sins upon him, and the rewards, what he sends to him, is actually what comes to him from love, not just that it comes from him. That's already the merits, so the revelation is actually only after he reaches the rewards, he relates to the Creator, and there's relations between them, meaning from that they begin?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:05) Why is repentance from fear only moving sins into mistakes, and not the whole process? Because he did repentance, so it seems like the Creator, the whole state should lead him to a certain correction, why does it leave mistakes?
M. Laitman: Because he didn't cover all the vessels.
Student: So what is the complete process that needs to be done?
M. Laitman: He does more of it, he continues.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:44) The doubt, as I understand it, and that's actually the question, a person is in a certain state, which is good, and then other parts of him, other parts or other desires want to join the light, the Kli, and they bring forth the doubt, seemingly. And by this, there's a process in which they're incorporated.
M. Laitman: You have to say it differently, but you're correct, there is such a thing.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:47) I heard this several times, it was repeated, and really, teacher, how does this get along? This, he shall not return to folly, and a thousand perns, a thousand times a righteous will fall and rise. The fact that you're not a fool anymore, it doesn't prevent you from making mistakes. Even a scientist makes trials and failures over and over, and so these attempts, everything changes. Is it like, immediately, that minus 30 that you fall to, or is it, but the method doesn't leave you. You still know how to work with this coarseness that's being revealed?
M. Laitman: That's how we learn, and we learn on top of our mistakes.
Student: So what is the one who's a fool, let's say now you're not a fool anymore, so what are your mistakes around from here onwards?
M. Laitman: There are no mistakes, he corrects it more and more, what you have in your hands. You receive things according to, there's no righteous man in the land who did good without sinning, only by falling they reveal their true state and correct it, and that's how you do it each time.
Student: The fact that you're not a fool, that you're happy, that's what you're happy about? It's not like you're falling on your face every time, and you're giving and taking away the illuminations, this whole departure.
M. Laitman: Right.
Student: So where are you? Are you above that? Are you already in the intention and not just acting within it?
M. Laitman: You are in the state where you are walking forward, toward connection, toward prayer, and that's how you're advancing.
Student: What he's describing here, does this work with the intentions?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course. What are intentions? If I want to attain something, I have an intention.
Student: Coursesness there's not only in the vessel, there's also in the intentions, in the screens themselves?
M. Laitman: Yes. And they…
Student: Okay, I don't know, I'll think about this more.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:50) To not return to folly, is that like an insurance policy, where a person knows that he's been through a point where he can no longer fall from that?
M. Laitman: He has a certain measure of revelation relative to his will to receive, that is, keeping him from falling into using the will to receive as was before.
Student: How does this work with a person should not believe in himself to the day of his death? We know that even great Kabbalists, at some point.
M. Laitman: It just means that even in those states the Creator is holding us, is giving each one a level of confidence.
Student: Why? How does this work?
M. Laitman: Very simply, because we worked. We put in some more, quantitatively, qualitatively, and then from that moment on, we can measure. We can use our correct states.
Student: Not too long ago, we read Pirkei Avot, and we read one should not believe in himself to the day of his death. We read that was said about a great Kabbalist that towards the end of his life, it suddenly kind of spins and turned. Meaning, there's also, it sounds like from that story, like there is no security. There's no policy of insurance policy. It's always, you're in a state where everything can be taken from you.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, what I'm trying to ask is that here, it sounds like you shall not return to folly, as if there is some minimal information that you get after revelation that there is a certain confidence. That doesn't work out. That's what I'm asking about.
M. Laitman: More?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:14) Transgressions and sins or mistakes and sins, are these in relation to the inability to bestow? Are they related to that?
M. Laitman: This is in relation to the will to receive.
Student: How is there a discernment between these two things, whether if it's the same matter? Meaning, what creates the change towards the will to receive that grades it or differentiates it?
M. Laitman: The depth of the will to receive?
Student: The depth, meaning its intensity, its thickness, that it's no longer under the screen?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So how is there some kind of correction about something that was in the past? Let's say the process from concealment, he comes to revelation and starts to work and to do corrections. All that was in the past, at a certain degree, is corrected?
M. Laitman: Yes. Otherwise, how can he even be in the right direction?
Student: What's not understood is how the will to receive, that seemingly it's clear that it exists in the Kli, but how did it come to implementation now where I can say that it is being corrected?
M. Laitman: I don't understand the question.
Student: Let's say I was a great thief, and now I'm slowly, slowly being given some ability to not steal. So how, what I stole in the past gets corrected now because now I don't have it?
M. Laitman: Gradually you attain what you had before through correction. In order to bestow.
Student: How exactly is this coarseness, this crudeness of the desire to receive, where you come close and you come to a stage where you have the possibility to bestow? All that coarseness is still in you?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So what's the correction?
M. Laitman: You are restricting it, and you open it up only to the extent you can bestow.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:57) What is wanted from a person in a state of double concealment?
M. Laitman: What can you even demand of him in the first place? There's nothing to demand.
Student: So nothing is being demanded from a person in such a state? He has no work in such a state?
M. Laitman: He has work that is to close himself.
Student: Which means?
M. Laitman: To restrict himself.
Student: Is he capable of doing anything in such a state?
M. Laitman: If they give him this power, he can do it.
Student: And then inevitably, in a state of double concealment, he sins with transgression, with malice.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:56) About double concealment and single concealment, we say that there are sins that are transgressions and sins, and soon it's going to be the Day of Atonement. There are such sins that we say that they're against others, that the Day of Repentance of Yom Kippur does not help us atone for, and others said yes. So, because we're working in love of friends and the connection between us, I wanted to ask, what's the connection between things? What is our work in the correction of the mistakes or our deviation from the truth towards the friends which is upon us to arrange?
M. Laitman: It's all a matter of connection in the Ten. There's nothing new here.
Student: But the Ten, I see it with my eyes, I have friends, I'm angry at them, I love them, I'm rejected. There's all kinds of actions that we do in the Ten. What is the work in the Ten against the double concealment and against the singular concealment where we want to reveal the Creator?
M. Laitman: You have to reach mutual support to such an extent that you will think only of the success of the friends, and that's what each and every one in the Ten will be doing. Not thinking of himself, but only thinking about Ten friends and the success of the friends. And then it turns out that we're all incorporated in everyone else, and we come to one vessel.
Student: Is it correct to look in such a way that if I suddenly have bad feelings about a friend, or is it some kind of a horrible thing, something that destroys, that I have to ask for corrections, or it's like a punishment? All these corrections, to work in double concealment, single concealment, these are actually the work in the Ten that we need to exert and to do all the corrections there?
M. Laitman: Yes, all the work is mostly work in the Ten.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:46) Do you suggest that we do some kind of introspection and scrutiny that way, or in the Ten?
M. Laitman: I don't know what it is.
Student: So let's say, to continue the friend question, it's like some kind of a reward and punishment for the Creator to do some kind of scrutiny, and check whether maybe we're not paying attention that we need to correct?
M. Laitman: I don't know. Talk amongst yourselves. It's good.
Student: What reward do you recommend that we ask, we demand?
M. Laitman: You will demand it, not me.
Student: Another question, we learned that the Creator is filled with grace and merciful graceful. How can you differentiate between the reward that you receive and all the good qualities of the Creator that we maybe exploit it not in the right way, and it's that reward, but rather it's the Creator having mercy upon us?
M. Laitman: We have to know what are the demands from the Creator, what we deserve. We demand because we want to receive from Him such forces that will correct us, and that's how we will advance.
Student: So the demand, or the reward, comes from the corrections.
M. Laitman: Yes
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:06) A friend from the Ten is asking, as we advance, do we feel close and far from the friends almost like at once? Will it be like reward and concealment and revelation in almost like two different states? Different states in the same moment?
M. Laitman: I don't know about the same moment. I can't say about times.
Student: I'll add something. There's a matter here of where a person kind of checks his connection with the Creator, how much his perception in None Else Besides Him is whole, and also adds to this what his intention is? Due to what he wants to connect with the Creator. And here it's kind of like due to fear, and it feels like it's something that's not whole. As if I'm going to acquire love, but I have a reason, which is fear. Sometimes we say that love and fear need to go together. It's like they sustain one another and support one another. And sometimes fear kind of like clashes or contradicts love. As if there's some other degree, like you're in different levels or kinds of fear and also there, there's like one more layer. It's like you're going and everything's okay due to fear. What you're afraid of exactly. Your fear for yourself. You're afraid that the love won't disappear. You don't rely on the Creator, or you don't trust yourself. There are many discernments in that. Sometimes in relation to the study, we have to see how we have to look for what we're reading in our reality between the friends in the Ten. Because here too I can ask myself, why am I connecting with them? How much I see the Creator between us. How important it is for me. In short, I can go deeper even in that state and scrutinize our connection in the Ten and my intentions towards the friends almost to the same degree. The question is, how correct is it to do this or to make a disconnection between these two things?
M. Laitman: Try to do the exercises we're talking about and not whatever you feel like doing that comes to your head. What we generate here, these exercises, those are the ones you need to realize inside a person.
Student: It's like it's written that when a person gets qualified in love of others, he can reach the love of the Creator after that. So those same states and scrutinies that he's talking about here we need to check between us in the Ten?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Reader: Item 59.
Reading: (01:08:50) Hence, when one is granted repentance from fear, meaning a clear attainment of reward and punishment until he is certain that he will not sin, the concealment within concealment is entirely corrected in him. This is because now he evidently sees that there is a guidance of reward and punishment. It is clear to him that all the suffering he ever felt was a punishment from His Providence for the sins he had committed. In retrospect, he made a grave mistake; hence, he uproots these sins.
However, this is not entirely so. Rather, they become mistakes, similar to the transgressions he committed in one concealment, when he failed due to the confusion that came to him through the multitude of torments that drive one out of one’s mind. These are only regarded as mistakes.
M. Laitman: Questions? No.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:39) So in concealment within concealment, he doesn't believe in reward and punishment. In one concealment, he does believe in reward and punishment. And then he also understands that all the sufferings he experienced was because he wasn't in the feeling of reward and punishment. So what is that which takes a person out of concealment within concealment?
M. Laitman: What does he need to find?
Student: He needs to find that the Creator stands behind everything. In concealment within concealment, he doesn't do that. He is not searching for that. He simply lives and doesn't connect between what's happening to him and the Creator. There's no cause and consequence. There are no actions that have an impact.
M. Laitman: And he lacks cause and consequence.
Student: None, and that's how he lives. And he gets sufferings, but there's no connection between what he experiences, meaning the actions, let's say my actions in the Ten, and the blows that land upon me. There's no connection between this and that. That's concealment within concealment.
M. Laitman: Yes, and?
Student: What takes him out of that concealment within concealment?
M. Laitman: According to what we read here.
Student: According to what we're reading here in the end, it's probably the blows and sufferings reach a certain degree that he can't tolerate anymore. So he starts to ask himself, where does this all come to him from? That's what it seems to me, but that's still missing. But from here to reach the fact that this is all a result of my actions in the Ten, it's so far.
M. Laitman: What is the difference in how he accepts the suffering, the torments, nicely or not?
Student: Only if he manages to connect this to the Creator. That's the difference. Because the sufferings are suffering, the bad feeling is a bad feeling. But if there's no purpose to these sufferings, or there is, that's what makes the difference. If I receive the mind like the upper one, where I can precisely and lovingly, he moves me towards what I'm doing, and I have somehow a chance to start grasping and holding on to the tip of the rope and to move forward. But still, even from this calculation, how to come to the fact that it's a result of my actions in the Ten, that's the great difficulty.
M. Laitman: It's actually good. For the time being, I'm content with the scrutiny.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:28) Also here, Rav, there's a question. You asked how he could receive that suffering. If he has suffering, he's willing to be in it because the Creator gave them. On the other hand, he knows it's not a good thing. It's not what the Creator wants him to feel. So is that the reason that he wants to come out of it? What motivates a person to work in a clean way to come out of his current state?
M. Laitman: How can they come to a state where he has a clean relation?
Student: Because he's not calculating for himself. He's willing to advance because there's a purpose of creation, and it will give contentment to the Creator. And if he doesn't calculate towards himself?
M. Laitman: How can he?
Student: That's the whole point.
M. Laitman: Why can't he?
Student: A person's in a state. He feels suffering. He understands it comes from the Creator. He feels it. If he wants to come out of it in order to not feel suffering, so it's not clean, it's not pure.
M. Laitman: So
Student: So just to remain in that state, that's also incorrect, because the Creator doesn't want you to stay in that state.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So in order to go from state to state, you always need to have the intention to bestow contentment to the Creator. What the Creator wants, his purpose of creation. And according to that, that's why I'm willing and I need to make efforts to come out of my state, to ask to come out of it.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: The question was if that's really the mechanism that we're moving from one state to the next. Is it only by eventually doing it because the Creator wants us to receive that complete good and pleasure? That's what I'm going towards.
M. Laitman: Why can't this be the goal?
Student: Because otherwise, every action we do, it's for ourselves.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And then you're not allowed to come out of the state because it's because of the suffering or the punishment one feels.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So it's not an action that whoever is in those states, he can't do it because he wants to come out of it. He has to find a different reason why he has to come out of a state, why he has to advance to another state. And that reason can only be because the Creator wants me to come out of it. So I'm asking if that is the mechanism that moves a person from one state to the next, that he can advance from it only because there's an intention to bestow to the Creator that he'll be able to give me what he wants to give.
M. Laitman: Yes. Why not? Why do you have doubt?
Student: Because for that, a person needs to make efforts to feel that the Creator really wants to give him. He has to be a revelation of the face in order to feel that the Creator... Because otherwise he's saying, no, I'm coming out of my state because I know the Creator wants it, and as long as he doesn't really have it, he's still doing it for himself.
M. Laitman: Correct.
Student: So he must demand the revelation in order for his action to really be in order to bestow and not for himself.
M. Laitman: Yes. Thank you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:03) When reward and punishment, is that revelation number one? Or does a person reveal only life with suffering, there's only punishment? Or should the revelation be whole, in wholeness, that there's a balance between reward and punishment?
M. Laitman: When we discover the ability to correct reward and punishment, and we come together through some meeting, and we become incorporated together with one another, and we turn to the Creator to connect us as one man with one heart. And then, not at once, but then he begins to bring us closer to each other, until we are incorporated.
Student: With the double concealment, everything is okay, maybe. He feels that things are good, but in that state, there's no reward. There's no source from everything. But if things go wrong, he feels a deficiency, and he feels punished.
M. Laitman: He has to feel something.
Student: From what?
M. Laitman: From not being connected with the friends correctly, in a corrected way.
Student: For me, punishment is that there's no prayer.
M. Laitman: Let's say, that too is a punishment.
Student: So, that's double concealment? If I discover that there's a source for the punishment, so I can go back and ask with the right prayer towards the friends, and then, there's a reward, the right prayer?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:00) The state of concealment in concealment. So, it's me being happy with the wicked being revealed. So, I understand this state is going to help me advance to the next degree. So, only the moment I feel unhappy, that state of concealment in a concealment, then revelation starts. The Creator isn't revealed if you're not happy, right?
M. Laitman: So, from where are you happy? Is your happiness?
Student: I'm happy with the wicked being revealed. I understand it's for my benefit. All this suffering, it's not really suffering. It's preparing me. It's a gift from above.
M. Laitman: Okay.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:01) When a person sins, he prays and reaches a state where he gets repentance from fear. And then, those transgressions become mistakes. So, what is his prayer now? What prayer should he raise so it won't go back to being sins, but that he advances?
M. Laitman: So, it's not really a correction?
Student: Right.
M. Laitman: What is a complete correction?
Student: I guess that's what I'm asking about. What is the complete correction?
M. Laitman: The complete correction is to reach love. Yes.
Student: So, when I discover the mistakes, when the mistake is revealed, I have to pray that it becomes love?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That it will give more force of love for everybody?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:18) You said a few minutes ago that it's a good scrutiny. What is a good scrutiny? What do you call a good scrutiny, like what we did now?
M. Laitman: Are you asking me?
Student: Yes. How do you define a good scrutiny?
M. Laitman: A good scrutiny is when all those desires that I couldn't, until today, correct, today are about to be corrected.
Student: And what the friends are saying, we can all use this scrutiny.
M. Laitman: Yes. Yes. What do we do next?
Reader: We have excerpts about Kinging the King, crown the King.