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

Daily Lesson (Morning) February 10, 2025.

Part 2: Preparation to “Connecting to Lishma” convention Selected Excerpts from the sources. #13

Reader: We are reading selected excerpts from the materials for preparation for the Congress, continue with Number 13.

13. RABASH, Article No. 716, "Concerning Pride"

Reading: (00:38) When a person engages in Torah and Mitzvot, and the Torah and Mitzvot bring him to wholeness, he covers the lack that the Torah and Mitzvot should bring him. Moreover, he regards himself as a complete person. It follows that he has no place that can be filled. It was said about this, “Anyone who is proud, says the Creator, ‘He and I cannot dwell in the same abode,’” since he is not making a place.

This is the meaning of “From Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] we come to Lishma [for Her sake].” But while one is in Lo Lishma and regards himself as a whole person, there is no place where Lishma can help him because he has no lack.

M. Laitman: This means that we need to have a lack in a person. In every created being, some deficiency should be felt. That he feels it, that this is him. And then from this deficiency, he can already turn to the Creator, and the Creator will respond.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:30) It's not clear why the state where he makes himself whole, even if it's Lo Lishma, is that he is feeling prideful over the Creator?

M. Laitman: Because it doesn't let him scrutinize precisely his state all the way to the end.

Student: But that's what he is able to do, he is in Lo Lishma. And even with that he is willing to adhere to what the Creator is giving him. He places himself in a complete person. 

M. Laitman: He doesn't feel the boundary, he doesn't feel the boundary. 

Student: So, it turns out that he is feeling prideful over the Creator? That he is in vessels of reception? 

M. Laitman: No, he's in the vessels of bestowal and he wants to equalize with the Creator. And he doesn't feel that what is revealed in him is a precise boundary between “in order to receive” and “in order to bestow”. 

Student: What should a person do at this point so it would be in the right direction? What is the revelation of deficiency that is required, that he writes that it's required? 

M. Laitman: He needs to annul himself completely towards the Creator; to subjugate himself down to zero. 

Student: If he annuls himself, the Creator works to reveal a new deficiency, each time? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:00) Our entire game is with a deficiency, as you said. A person needs to have a deficiency. Personal deficiency has nothing to do with it, I have to live in the deficiency of the friends. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Their deficiency will be like my deficiency, that's how I expand my vessel. Our vessel has to work in love of friends, the deficiency of the friend, that's the spiritual vessel. So, why do we say also that the vessel is the fear of the Creator? How do those things connect, what's the connection between them? 

M. Laitman: Because the fact that I want to reach in my work with my deficiency, it's not enough, yet. I need to reveal the vessel in its entirety. How do I elevate myself from my personal deficiency to the general deficiency? Precisely, by me not feeling my deficiency of my individual vessels. But that I feel the general deficiency, the general deficiency. This is the difference between one who is concerned about himself versus one who cares, let's say, for his country.

Student: So, our work to reach a general deficiency is the work we call “love of friends”?

M. Laitman: Let's say so. 

Student: The connection, that's the focus, so, where's the fear? Where does it come from? How does it connect to it? Because they say, spiritual fear is also a vessel. They say, there's only one vessel, spiritual fear. On the other hand, they say there's one vessel, love of friends, if you can make the connection.

M. Laitman: Love of friends is the connection into a complete vessel. And what else?

Student: Fear of the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Fear of the Creator, it's only with respect to the Creator, it's not the true vessel. It is only in order to run away from it, to hide, but the true fear is, as I said, it's in their relation with the friends. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:33) Specifically, when he writes a person engaged in Torah and Mitzvot, and Torah and Mitzvot makes him a complete person. It follows that it covers his deficiency, and specifically in the Congress, there are moments of wholeness among the friends. Everybody's giving all their hearts. How specifically from this state of wholeness to reveal additional deficiency, that we are disconnected from it? 

M. Laitman: Well, what do you think? Nobody is thinking about it? If in order to reveal the reforming light – the upper light – the light that pertains to all the vessels, for that we need to reveal the vessel. How do we reveal it such that the light influences us. It comes down to us, it opens us up, it reveals us, and it clothes us?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:16) I heard that you said that true fear is in the connection with the friends. What fear is there, over there? 

M. Laitman: Fear that comes from the connection with the friends is that the friends will reveal, or discover, all the deficiencies that exist in my vessel. All the deficiencies, that I towards the friends, will be completely naked. And this fear is a very internal, deep, and original fear. 

Student: It's not egoistic fear, the fear of shame? 

M. Laitman: It's a fear of shame. Let's say, of shame. There are many possibilities here that we can scrutinize. 

Student: So, why is this called true spiritual fear and not fear towards the Creator, fear of Heaven, if that's egoistic? 

M. Laitman: Because it's the original one.

Student: What does it mean, the original one? 

M. Laitman: The fear of the Creator, like you're trying to say, it's not a natural fear. The Creator opens up for us the vessels between us, and then each one is ashamed before his friend. Whereas, here, I am truly in fear that I have nothing for myself but only from the emptiness between me and a friend. We can say that I cannot transform my relationship with a friend to an attitude, or to coarseness. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:53) And how can friends see something in me? How can the friends see something in me that I can feel shame? 

M. Laitman: They clothe on the same clothing that you receive from the Creator. And then they feel themselves in your state.

Student: How, do I feel it? Now, in my state, I don't feel that the friends see anything in me, so as to make me feel ashamed. So, how can I reach that state? 

M. Laitman: How shall we say this? 

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (16:02) You need courage, a lot of courage, to give yourself over. To open up, to give up your pride, I don't know. A person always fears because of his pride, he has something that's his own. It's a delusion, of course, but it's the most precious thing to you, to give up your pride, yourself. I don't understand what you're saying.

M. Laitman: Alright.

Reader: (16:39) You said many great things that I couldn't exactly digest. What does it mean to turn my relationship with a friend to a relation of Aviut [coarseness]? 

M. Laitman: Because we measure things through coarseness.

Student: What does it mean that with a friend I turn the attitude to one of coarseness? 

M. Laitman: The attitude with a friend. 

Reader: What does it mean turning this attitude to coarseness? What does it mean? 

M. Laitman: Where else do I discover the light of Hochma, the light of Hassidim [of mercy]? Where can I measure closeness, distance? With the feeling of coarseness. 

Student: And with what lacks from the friends do I need to work? All their lacks or only specific lacks? What do I work with that exists in the friends? 

M. Laitman: Truthfully, I work with the friends by as much as I annul myself.

Student: And then, you said, that the friends wear the clothes you receive from the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And they feel my situation. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: We reach such states in the Ten where each one feels what the friend feels? 

M. Laitman: I can't say it in complete confidence, yet, but it seems so.

Student: And how not to fear being naked, exposed, revealed. Where everything that's in me is revealed to the friends? 

M. Laitman: That comes from you starting to feel that it's not yours. 

Student: Right now, I feel fear of it. Is it fear or is it spiritual fear, reverence. To be revealed, uncovered? 

M. Laitman: It's a fear. 

Student: So, what should I do with this fear? To ignore it, to suppress it? This is what the Creator gave me. How to use it correctly?

M. Laitman: We'll see that.

Student: One of the questions which the friend asked previously and I didn't get an answer, yet. He writes here that if a person engages in Torah and commandments, that brings him to wholeness and that covers his lack. So, in Congress, and in general, when the light comes and connects everyone together, it's nice, but how do you maintain the lack? 

M. Laitman: There needs to be some kind of vessel in man that isn't filled but remains in the deficiency and even grows. 

Student: What is this vessel? 

M. Laitman: The vessel to attain the goal. 

Student: How is it not filled? Nature is to be filled, so, how does this vessel, specifically, not get filled? 

M. Laitman: That's the vessel that comes from the Creator. 

Student: I heard, you speak a lot about the boundary, today. How can a person identify the boundary between in order to receive and receiving in order to bestow? Can a person identify that very thin line? 

M. Laitman: Yes, and also you can conceal it and hide beneath it. It's everything a person can do.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:29) Can we reach fear of the Creator before reaching this fear that I may not be able to bestow to the friends? Is there such a thing or is it only with respect to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Only with respect to the Creator.

Student: Is it necessary to previous to, rather before that,  reach a feeling where you're afraid that you might not be able to bestow upon the friends? Or is the discernment of fear of the Lord? Well, does it only relate to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: It comes afterwards. 

Student: Is there such a feeling where a person is really afraid that his life will pass by and he won't be able to ever bestow upon the friends? Is that a point on the path? 

M. Laitman: It's like a means on the path, on one hand; on the other hand, he needs to discover his relation to the friends.

Student: We learned that reaching love of the Creator is possible only by first reaching love for the friends. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: You can't jump straight to the second floor. So, is it the same with the discernment of fear? First, you reach the fear of the Ten, of the friend, and then the fear of the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And in general, is there such a thing where a person bestows upon the Creator without any connection to a society, to a friend? 

M. Laitman: No. 

Student: There is no such reality? 

M. Laitman: No. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:29) With respect to practical work with the friends, I didn't understand. Should there be some limit, some boundary in my work with the friends? Because you said that fear is a boundary, but you need to be exposed. So, how to work correctly and not hide things? What is the work? 

M. Laitman: To work, just simply. And through that, start knowing the small details in that deed. 

Student: Now, you said that the fear is this inner anxiety. It's a state where a person –  where the Creator puts a person – is in a state of anxiety that he wants to get rid of because it pressures him, being in it constantly is intolerable. So, fear of God, is it the same or is it something completely different? Does it give you the power to keep being in it? 

M. Laitman: Forces he can't get from that exact same thing, which he's trying to research or scrutinize.

Student: The Creator gives him the power but you just need to constantly be in the request to be sensitive towards that? 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: And you said that we need to do exercises in that, to reach that between the friends, these exercises?

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: To be sensitive towards the friends, where do you start from? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:19) We hear, we talk about two concepts: The concept of fear and the concept of spiritual fear, reverence. 

M. Laitman: Well?

Student: Can we conclude, deduce, that fear is in my vessel of reception and reverence is above reason? 

M. Laitman: You can.

Student: So, this state of fear of God – revering the Creator – that's a degree of attainment, a degree of development? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And to develop that place, I can do that only through this laboratory, engaging with the friends? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: There? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Student: So, it's impossible to avoid this stage of looking for connection to the Creator. You can't get it without digging into the connection with the friends? 

M. Laitman: Correct. 

Student: So, the difference between fear and reverence, it's opposite. So, through the pain, through the sorrow, you reach fear of the Creator, right? You can't…

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, it's also a place for joy, actually. Because where I discover these parts of my will to receive, there I discover this fear. Through that the reverence develops, it's a vessel by which, it's a means by which to develop, to work. 

M. Laitman: Yes, correct.

Student: Which is a cause for joy. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:49) Regarding the coarseness, the matter of coarseness, you talked about. That we need to work on it with the friends. Sometimes you used to tell us that we need to take the gloves off because we treat each other too cordially. And also in an electric circle, in a circuit rather, you need contact. So, I see that interrelation between me and a friend, or between two friends, I see how insults start happening and misunderstandings between me and another, any two people. We really can't feel each other, and here you say that we really need to dive into that place. 

M. Laitman: What can we discover between us? 

Student: I assume equivalence of form, or disparity of form, mostly. 

M. Laitman: Disparity of form, yes. So, that's what we have to approach.

Student: How do you approach it? 

M. Laitman: That, we'll learn; right now, I can't give you a clear answer. 

Student: So, it's an exercise that we shouldn't start doing because you say we didn't learn it yet? Or should we try? 

M. Laitman: Start, search for a way to get to it. The conditions are clear and the answer is clear. How to get there from one to the other? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:37) You said that there needs to be a vessel within the person which is never filled, remains lacking, and also grows. That's a vessel for the attainment of the goal. How do you enlarge that vessel? 

M. Laitman: With importance, we have nothing else. 

Student: How to deal with the pride? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. Try and sell it. Do you have a patent for that? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:31) I wanted to ask actually what the friend began asking, a similar question: We talked about how a person is afraid that people might see what's in him, and then there were questions about how to get rid of that fear. But I feel that it should be the opposite, we need to capture that fear, use it as a very powerful means. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: I feel that I don't want people to truly see all the filth, let's call it, within me. And that's very helpful in the work. It helps you identify that boundary that we talked about. My question is actually the opposite, how to focus that feeling, to hone it. I do everything so that people don't see what's within me. But is it right to look at it that way? 

M. Laitman: How do you do it between the friends? 

Student: I constantly adhere to a relation, an attitude of love and bestowal with them. And everything else I hide. 

M. Laitman: By this, you're just annulling the unpleasantness? 

Student: I stay away from the bad.

M. Laitman: Is that really the right way to do it? 

Student: Certainly not, but if I just come and pour all the bad things I have onto the friends, where will that lead? 

M. Laitman: It depends how you come up to them, how you come to them. But if you still can't come to them with an open heart, then your vessel isn't prepared, yet. 

Student: You said to be afraid that I might not be able to turn my relationship with the friends to a relationship of coarseness. 

M. Laitman: Well? 

Student: So, what I take from that, is that the attitude that I reveal towards the friends, an attitude of coarseness, that's a place of work which I must have. Is that true? 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So, the moment a person feels good with the friends, feels pleasant with the friends, something is missing, certainly?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Right? So, what to then generate in the Ten, so we always aspire to a good relationship between us, good attitude. But in the work, I want to ask, is there such a thing where a person looks for the matter that he needs to work with, the resistance, the hatred? 

M. Laitman: So, your question is what to search for? 

Student: Yes.  

M. Laitman: That's still not the path to the King. 

Student: What do you mean, we haven't gotten there yet? 

M. Laitman: It's not even a question yet. What am I lacking? That's it, we'll get there.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:14) You said that when we feel that sense of fulfillment, then exactly there we need to have some, leave some kind of lack and work with that. So that lack, but with the feeling, we feel that we've been awarded with a moment of grace from above. But on the other hand, we feel that the smallness of the self, that you can't be free of all your tiny little insignificant calculations.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But those are the means that you said to turn into coarseness? Or should we look for more place for work there, more connection with Him? 

M. Laitman: No.

Student: How do you continue working with Him? There are moments in the Ten where you feel that, you feel that we've been awarded with a big illumination, grace, everyone is sated. So, how not to disconnect from Him in that moment? Where's that lack that you said we need to work with? There's a kind of gratitude but we feel that there should be something more than gratitude, because gratitude?

M. Laitman: Yes, how you express it. 

Student: How I express it?

M. Laitman: By annulling and receiving in return to your annulment, you get a vessel, a correct vessel, a whole vessel. And you can work with it. 

Student: It's really, it's hard to accept: A person's pride shuts him off from that feeling so as to not feel shame. It's unpleasant. 

M. Laitman: Here, there should be a relation also to reception and also towards bestowal. That both of them should be working as one towards the greatness of the Creator. To the greatness of the Creator, and then the solution should be that the light of the greatness of the Creator appears.

Student: This inversion?

M. Laitman: On that crossroads, and that is what solves, it gets solved by the force of the Creator. The Creator shines on that lack of completion with His light. 

Student: And He allows me to annul myself further, so as to exit that intersection? 

M. Laitman: He helps you complete, complete the lack of His presence by, specifically, if you draw Him, so you don't need anything else but that. That is the solution. That is it. I have nothing to add.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:15) We’ve mentioned shame. If a person finds that the friends care for him, why does it evoke shame in him, but in a way that doesn't repel him? There is, I suppose, a certain limit beyond which that feeling can make a person reject a person, deflect him. Because we know that it's unpleasant for him, but he can also feel free. So, if a Ten wants to create a feeling of mutual concern, what is the lowest common denominator to allow people to all be in that and not run away from it? What kind of sensitivity do you need to have there, what?

M. Laitman: A hug. 

Student: This hug, if it's an inner kind of hug, an embrace, can it not cause the shame to awaken and make the person run away? 

M. Laitman: No. We look through our big eyes, each one on the others. And with an open heart, and we don't need anything except for that. 

Student: But you need to express love, right? Rabash says that you need to somehow do that.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: If we want to enter a deeper connection, let's say, there's a friend that feels that he's ready for a deeper connection, but he can't express it, if the rest of the Ten isn't ready for it.

Student: It could be that he's not able. 

Student: Able to do what? 

M. Laitman: To take from his attitude towards the others that same feeling, that same adhesion. 

Student: If he could, then it would harness everyone to that.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Alright, so, it can't be that a person has some bestowal towards the friends, but that drives them away, right? 

M. Laitman: No. 

Reader: (41:59) What does it mean in practice to have an open heart, be naked towards the friends? Does it mean I need to share with the friends all of my disruptions, my problems, my lowly states? 

M. Laitman: I don't know how to say it. But for sure, we need to open one's heart.