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

 

Daily Lesson (Morning) November 25, 2024.

 

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot. #156.

 

Reader: Hello, we're reading in the writings of Baal HaSulam, in Hebrew page 804, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”. We're continuing with item 156. You can find the study materials in Sviva Tova and in the Arvut, the Galaxy System. You can also send us live questions through these websites. 

Reading: (00:23) Item 156

Yet, there is a strict condition during the engagement in this wisdom not to materialize the matters with imaginary and corporeal issues. This is because thus they breach, “You shall not make unto you a statue or any image.”

In that event, one is rather harmed instead of receiving benefit. Therefore, our sages cautioned to study the wisdom only after forty years, or from a Rav, and other such warnings. All this is for the above reason.

 

For this reason, I prepared the commentaries Panim Meirot and Panim Masbirot on Tree of Life in order to rescue the readers from any materialization. However, after the first four parts of these commentaries were printed and circulated among the students, I saw that my explanation was not as clear as I had thought, and all the great effort I had made to explain and elaborate in order to make the matters understood with ease was almost completely futile.

 

This happened since the readers do not feel the grave necessity to delve into the meaning of each and every word before them and repeat it several times until they remember it well wherever that word appears throughout the book. And by forgetting a word, they become confused about the matters since the subtlety of the matter causes the lack of interpretation of one word to blur the whole matter for them.

 

In order to correct this, I began to write the “explanation of the words” according to the alphabet, relating to all the words appearing in the books of Kabbalah and that require explanation. On one hand, I collected the commentaries of the ARI and the rest of the first Kabbalists concerning all that they said about that word. On the other hand, I explained the essence from all those interpretations and compiled a solid definition to explain that word in a way that suffices for the reader to understand it in each and every place he meets that word in all the real books of Kabbalah, from the first to the last. This is what I did with all the words used in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

 

I have already printed the words beginning with the letter Aleph [A], and some from the letter Bet [B], but only on one side. This is already close to one thousand pages. Alas, for lack of money, I stopped the work in its beginning and for nearly a year now I have not continued this important work, and the Creator knows if I will ever come to it, for there are many expenses and at the moment, no support.

For this reason, I have taken on a different path, as in “Better a sparrow in the hand…” and this is the book Talmud Eser Sefirot [The Study of the Ten Sefirot] related to the ARI. There I collect from the books of the ARI—and especially from his book Tree of Life—all the principal essays concerning the explanation of the ten Sefirot. 

 

I positioned them at the top of each page and made a broad explanation about it called Ohr Pnimi [Inner Light], and another explanation called Histaklut Pnimit [Inward Observation]. These explain each word and issue presented in the words of the ARI at the top of the page as simply and as easily as I could.

 

I divided the book into sixteen parts so that each part will be a specific lesson about a specific topic in the ten Sefirot. The Ohr Pnimi mainly clarifies the words of the ARI presented in that lesson, and the Histaklut Pnimit mainly clarifies the matter in general. On top of them, I set up a Table of Questions and a Table of Answers for all the words and matters presented in that part.

 

Once the reader finishes that part, he should test himself to see if he can answer correctly every question presented in the Table of Questions. After he answers, he should look at the answer relating to that question in the Table of Answers, to see if he has answered correctly. Even if he can answer the questions well by memory, he should repeat the questions many times until it is as though they are placed in a box. At that time, he will remember every word when he needs it, or at least he will remember its place in order to look for it, “and the will of God will succeed through him.”

The Order of Learning

 

Begin with learning the Panim [anterior/face], meaning the words of the ARI which are printed at the top of the pages, through the end of the book. Even though you will not understand, repeat them several times, as in “First learn, then understand.” Afterward, learn the commentary Ohr Pnimi, and exert in it in a manner that you can learn and thoroughly understand the Panim even without the help of the commentary. Afterward, study the commentary Histaklut Pnimit until you understand and remember all of it.

 

After all this, test yourself with the Table of Questions. Once you answered a question, look in the answer that pertains to that question. Do so with each and every question; learn and memorize them and repeat them several times until you remember them well, as though they are placed in a box, since in each and every word in the third part, we must remember well the whole of the first two parts, without missing even a tiny meaning. The worst of all is that the reader will not feel what he has forgotten. Rather, either matters have become unclear to him or he adopts a wrong interpretation of the matter because he has forgotten. Naturally, one mistake leads to ten mistakes until he comes to complete misunderstanding and will have to stop learning altogether. 

 

M. Laitman: Well?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:13) It says here, therefore, our sages cautioned us not to study the wisdom but only after 40 years or from Rav, and other such warnings. What are these conditions? 

M. Laitman: Throughout all the times, there were different conditions – slightly in this direction, slightly going in that direction – but we follow Rabash. Who established the order that we have today and we follow the same path and we continue, that's it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:20) It says that there is a grave condition while engaging in this wisdom, not to materialize things with imaginary and corporeal things. What does this condition mean? 

M. Laitman: We can't imagine spirituality according to our imagination; we can't describe it according to our imagination. Rather, we need to try and advance by studying the words, the interpretation, and the meaning of the words, and continue until it becomes more and more clarified.

Student: This law to be careful not to materialize, how should I translate it to myself? Practically, what does it mean try not to materialize? 

M. Laitman: We shouldn't imagine certain worlds, forces, or other matters. Rather, only according to what is clear to us from the simple study from the book. 

Student: But the book, it does speak about worlds, forces, Partzufim all kinds of things?

M. Laitman: Yes, but I don't speak about learning, speaking about accepting those, grasping those words. Something that is possible only after a change in our vessels and our desires, the desires of the person.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:34) If I read TES or the Preface, I see in that a relation between the friends, or in general between the created beings. Does that mean to materialize a world where everyone is disconnected from each other and they don't feel each other, for example? 

M. Laitman: If we wish to understand correctly the book, we first need to establish certain boundaries, certain correct definitions for what we study. And we do it through the definitions, definition of the words, and other parts of TES that we need to study. 

Reader: (12:45) What can we learn from the dedication of Baal HaSulam? 

M. Laitman: How much he valued this wisdom, how much he valued revealing it and bringing it as close as possible to people. That's what we need to learn from that. 

Student: I didn't understand the answer you now gave to the friend. If I read TES with you and I now don't engage in what it says, I only search for the connection between the friends, does this mean?

M. Laitman: What does that have to do with it? 

Student: So, it doesn't have anything to do with it?

M. Laitman: I don't know, if I open a book, it doesn't seem to me from the book that I need to care about the relationships between the friends who study together.

Student: This is something that I complete, I take from all of the wisdom the approach to the study of the wisdom that we learn. That mostly we need to care about the connection between us. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: I'm saying, if I constantly search for the connection between the friends, the relations between us. Does that mean to materialize things? Because it's not written there, like you said now, this is not what I have before my eyes?

M. Laitman: We'll check it more.

Student: When he writes that we have to be careful with the definition of each and every word, we repeat it several times to remember it. Is this the work as Baal HaSulam guides us to study more with the memory and intellect. It sounds more, you know, in the end, I'm lacking that it will say, even if you don't manage to remember and study. The most important thing is the connection, try to strain your heart. Here, he seems to say that you need to strain your brain. 

M. Laitman: I don't think this is how it is. We can exert the brain and that's the main thing. Rather, the main thing is the heart, that the heart will hear from our study how close it needs to be to other students. 

Student: Okay, so that's the most important in the study. So, why does he emphasize: remember every word, rehearse it, remember it. There are many definitions, here?

M. Laitman: Because nevertheless, in order to learn it properly and not to not to get into other states or the different places. We need to be careful and engage only in what the Kabbalists have prepared for us. 

Student: Engaging in the structure of the world, this whole model, this system?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, you also find it in the book.

Student: Does it mean to run away from a connection, that I engage in that only in order to run away from what is most important, which is the connections between us? 

M. Laitman: You have both the heartfelt connection in the place where your heart can operate. And in other places, and the rest of the places you might not be in such a connection. 

Student: So, I want to connect these two things. How do I understand, how do I bridge what's written in The Study of the Ten Sefirot and connection in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: That is still not clear to us. 

Student: It turns out that there are two tracks here. One track of the work of the heart, which we study in one form of study with certain articles. And another form is the study of the Ten Sefirot, which right now it's easier to connect it with the intellect. Not even through understanding but just trying to arrange these things in our head, the correct definitions. How do we connect these two tracks – the brain and the heart? How do we make it so that what the book speaks about is actually about the connection between me and the friends? 

M. Laitman: That comes slowly throughout the study. We'll learn and understand more what he's talking about; what this material in general is drawing us to. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:18) Most of our study, we hear from you. We read articles, and we get many explanations from you. Now, when you explain, you also use many words of the wisdom of Kabbalah – not from TES but from the inner work of a person. And that language also has many concepts that we need to know how to translate them correctly into the work of the heart, their true meaning. And so, throughout the study, we ask you, what is this? What is that? And you explain, let's say, Israel, what is Israel? There's a corporeal concept that a person can get confused with, and there is a definition that you give. And there are many, many such words. So, during the study, if a friend doesn't remember this explanation and he doesn't follow that, he goes according to what he remembers from this world, he gets confused. So, my question is how important is it for us to do a similar work? Let's say, like what Baal HaSulam started but not in the same magnitude. But to collect to all the terms and explanations you gave, either your explanation or explanations from the sources. Not for TES but actually for the inner work of a person. 

M. Laitman: I think that over time, each and every one absorbs the correct definitions of the words that we use and it's not going to be a problem. Ultimately, I don't see that it stands out as such an incorrect issue. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:25) He puts an emphasis, here, on the special way we have to relate and we need to feel the great importance of relating correctly to each and every word. So, what is this special way we need to relate to every word, every letter? Why is it so important? 

M. Laitman: Well, it was very important for Bala Salam because he wanted to give us the wisdom of Kabbalah in as tightly sealed form as possible. So they'll use the words, the expressions, the examples, and so on and so forth. We have been in it for more than a few years already, and we'll continue the way things are. I think that we're moving ahead and advancing and correcting ourselves from time to time. 

Student: Why is it important to repeat the articles? He says it's important to repeat it again and again. Why is it so important? 

M. Laitman: Because it gives a person the correct connection between the various topics, and it's recommended for it to be this way. 

Student: When you say a correct connection between the topics, what does that mean? 

M. Laitman: If we hear a certain word, we can imagine it more or less correctly. We can – the way it ties into other words, – and the way all these words from the wisdom of Kabbalah come and arrange reality for us. 

Student: He says to interpret the words. To interpret means to clarify things, scrutinize them?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:03) So, for whom was the book of TES written for? Only for the students of Baal HaSulam? Or of Rabbah, or of Rav Laitman, or to every person in the world? And how can we bestow TES? How do we differentiate between a person who is studying Kabbalah and a simple person who opens the book because he is attracted to such things? And he wants to hear, and study and establish such things. What difference is there in the influence or bestowal that they get? 

M. Laitman: As we can see from people who belong to the wisdom, they tell us that this wisdom is open to everyone. And Baal HaSulam also speaks of it, first and foremost. Thus, we have to ensure that each and every person in this world, according to his desire, we have to ensure that he can approach this wisdom and know how to learn it and how to use it.

Student: The book of TES is different from, let's say, all the articles and books of the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is something special. So, every person in the world who can open up this book and read it, he feels the same in terms of his actions and the influence of this book? He feels the same like each one of us? 

M. Laitman: Of course not, it also can't be just according to simple logic, common sense. Each one hears it differently, absorbs it differently, and then acts differently.

Student: All in all, the Book of TES and in other places, it speaks about connection, right? So, these are all degrees of connection and different kinds of connection but it's all connection. It opens up within the person his heart so that he starts to understand that his way should be only through connection. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:59) I would like to ask about the direction of our study. In the past, those who were here, well, almost 30 years ago, let's say, We would be studying an article like the preface of Baal HaSulam and then at least three hours of TES, including on Shabbat. In the morning, it was five hours. In the afternoon, it was two, two and a half hours more and we did that over years. And we always talked about connection, but the connection was to a certain degree and drawing the reforming light in the study, including your sketches. We have it all in the archive. Very elaborate, I don't think there's another such elaborate archive of the study of TES anywhere in the world. Bit by bit, the direction became more and more working on the connection, the Tens, less TES, up to the point where we hardly study TES at all. Now, those who come today and today they study, let's say in the last ten years, do they lack this TES, this form of study? 

M. Laitman: It's possible that, yes, it's possible. But nevertheless, we're not letting go of the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah and TES. We want everything, we want to connect it to us to fill ourselves. 

Student: But here he says, you have to reach a state where you repeat the questions once and one time, a second time, it's also how we used to study. Many times, he would say, let's see what he says in Inner Light, let's look at the Table of Questions. You would even say less by yourself. And you said, no, I'm going to let Baal HaSulam speak. If somebody had a question, you would say, well, let's go and see. You would turn to the Table of Questions or to Inner Light or Inner Observation. Many times, we would study something, leave it there, and go to something else. I assume that those who studied back then, they have many words that sit inside of them. And many new understandings that they got each time from the study. Today, that does not exist. Those who joined, let's say, in the last ten years, they don't know these words. They never went through this process. Do they lack anything? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, don't know? I don't know how to self-diagnose, to critique myself, and so we simply study. Part by part from TES and the articles that surround it, we are inside the study. Is it the most correct form or not, I cannot say; nevertheless, we connect with the study and advance. 

Student: The most important is the goal and the direction, and the means are, maybe, less critical. 

M. Laitman: Perhaps, perhaps it's like that. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:03) What is the role of the mind, the intellect, in our study if in the end, the change needs to be emotional? 

M. Laitman: A book is like for a musician. 

Student: Not a book, the mind, the intellect. 

M. Laitman: Oh, the mind, the mind is a thread that connects all the definitions inside a person into a complete form, a whole. 

Student: In order for an inner emotional change to occur in a person, the mind has to take part in that? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How exactly? 

M. Laitman: Because it is the foundation: When a person connects all the words and all the matters, he later needs to feel what is the outcome. 

Student: Seemingly, what is the right form of the study because we hear, we learn a lot about inner emotional processes that we need to reach, to reach a prayer, connection with friends, etc. On the other hand, there is also an intellectual process we have to go through, so how do we connect these two worlds? 

M. Laitman: I think each one is trying to connect both to the mind and to the feeling, and find himself in between the two, that's how a person is. He is made of intellect and feelings, which is why we don't apply, here, clear boundaries between the mind and the heart. Rather, according to how each one feels the relationship to it, according to a person's inner structure, he finds himself closer more to this or closer more to that. 

Student: I'm asking because, seemingly, it turns out that Baal HaSulam invested a lot in opening up this method and simplifying it. As he explains there about the letter Aleph, he only finished writing the explanations for words beginning with the letter Aleph. That's what I'm trying to scrutinize, how much do you need, not to make the method scholarly. But how necessary is it nowadays for the study that we will get to know the definitions and delve into the questions and answers as he describes it here, the way he wrote TES.

M. Laitman: I can't speak for Baal HaSulam but I think that, in general, our study opens up and ties this wisdom to us in a way that's equally accessible to everyone. 

Student: When you look at us in relation to our ability to reach, to enter spiritual attainment. Is there any flaw, any corruption, let's say, in terms of the quantity, the amount, in which we engage in the study of things like TES or the Preface? Because today we're mostly focused on studies that are more emotional. Rabash's articles, Shamati, various Introductions by Baal HaSulam that are more social in nature. So, the question is in terms of the quantity that now we're studying the Preface and TES, is it enough for us? Or are we missing out on something here that is essential to our spiritual development? 

M. Laitman: I don't think we're missing out but there are parts that we'll need to come to. 

Student: Within this study of TES, when you study it, for you it's an emotional study. 

M. Laitman: Yes, extremely emotional.

Student: So why, let's say, I'll speak about myself, why is it not emotional for me? 

M. Laitman: Because, also, according to your mindset, you're more intellectual. 

Student: How does this change occur, that TES becomes for you also an emotional study? 

M. Laitman: It develops in each and every person when it comes from the intellectual study to the emotional study, yes. 

Student: In the end, TES becomes like a Shamati article for you? 

M. Laitman: TES is not far from Shamati, truly. It's an example, a very clear example between these two parts and their language, where you have TES, and letters, or articles, let's say. 

Student: What does TES work on? If you say that it is also an emotional study, how does it work on a person, on what? 

M. Laitman: TES gives us a space on which we arrange all the forms we learn from the wisdom of Kabbalah. And in addition to the articles, we can see just how much these forms are constantly moving, connecting, creating different results from their connections. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:51) From the beginning, you taught us how to approach Baal HaSulam, Rabash, and it stayed with us all those years, it stayed in the archive. Now the content used is extremely large, and you arranged it in such a way that it fits every person who has a desire. He can study, advance, he can understand how to approach a study, everything is arranged seemingly as Baal HaSulam describes it from the beginning, when we have an iron partition between us and the wisdom of Kabbalah, and every person who begins to study cannot grasp everything right away, has to go through all these changes in the heart, and everything is seemingly prepared. People would want it, the path is ready for them to follow. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:08) He writes in the previous item that we study, we try to understand in order to awaken the surrounding lights. And he cautions us from materializing these things, and he writes, that's why I prepared the interpretations of Panim Meirot and Panim Masbirot on Tree of Life, in order to rescue the readers from any materialization. How those commentaries save us from materialization? 

M. Laitman: Apparently, nevertheless, this is how they change us, they establish us, they build us, and they guard us so that we won't enter materialization. 

Student: On the one hand, we try to understand, we wish to understand, because it's part of what he's telling us. On the other hand, we need to be careful not to materialize things. So how do we remember that ultimately all of the studies to awaken the lights? 

M. Laitman: This works through the study itself. This is how the study in itself works on us so that we already establish ourselves correctly with respect to it. 

Student: Ultimately, we're not supposed to understand something, but to feel it.

M. Laitman: Yes, it's all about a feeling. 

Student: It's all kind of exercise so as not to fall, to make the scrutiny and reach a spiritual place inside of us? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:05) Kabbalists investigate nature, as you said many times. They sit in front of the books, they read, they write down all kinds of things they've attained. A person who doesn't have these qualities of being able to sit, and study, and write down, doesn't need to develop it for his advancement? 

M. Laitman: But to a certain extent, yes. Nevertheless, if he wants to attain something new in the world, he needs to learn, he needs to get to know this topic. This is how it is in every discipline, in every profession. 

Student: Even if there's a resistance to sitting down, it's very difficult, and he needs to... 

M. Laitman: But this all depends on the importance. If it is important for him, he'll sit and study. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:11) Rav, we speak of the mind and the heart, and there's another plane, which is the root of the soul. Where does that fit? You come to study, you invest your mind, you wish to feel it, but there's something, I don't know how to call it, fate, what we call the root of the soul.

M. Laitman: We don't believe in that, we don't feel that, so I'd rather not speak about it. 

Question (Woman Turkiye 8): (42:53) We spoke about the study of the heart, the effort of the heart in the study. What's the difference between the effort in the heart and the effort in the mind? 

M. Laitman: The fact that I want to be closer to my friends in a group, the fact that I want to justify them in everything that I see that they're correct and also incorrect, it all works on me, and it develops me.

Question (Moscow 1, KabU 9): (43:37) Why does Baal HaSulam complain about the fact that he doesn't have enough money or help? Why did the Creator even place such a barrier on the path of Baal HaSulam and in the writing of the book about the meaning of the words? 

M. Laitman: Well, he's complaining because if he had sufficient funds, he would be able to do it in a more broad manner and he would reach the end of the work. 

Student: Does he need to justify providence? 

M. Laitman: No, he's speaking about it in an earthly, corporeal, mundane manner. 

Student: Why does the Creator place this barrier then? 

M. Laitman: That is the role of the Creator.

Question (Africa): (44:32) Should every person attain all the parts of the world through our methods and our group, or each one attains a part that adds to the Ten, completes the Ten? 

M. Laitman: By each person completing his Ten, by that, he actually attains the root of his soul and his correction.

Student: Everyone attains everything in the end, or each one attains a separate part? 

M. Laitman: Each one attains whatever he attains. 

Question (Woman Heb 2): (45:11) How does our feelings change from studying TES or any other portion? 

M. Laitman: Well, accordingly, our emotions change because we feel new, different forces that we did not feel before.

Question (Woman Turkiye 8): (45:34) We're learning those texts under your guidance, but how can we understand what's written in them?

M. Laitman: The understanding is something that is very important and it comes at the end of the study. 

Question (Turkiye 1): (45:59) If a person is having a hard time connecting to the study of TES, what can he do? He says, I find the study extremely challenging. 

M. Laitman: He has to continue until he'll get used to it, until he'll find a taste in it. That's it for now. Great.

Reader: We have the next part.

M. Laitman: So, please. 

The Order of Learning (46:29)

Reader: Begin with learning the Panim [anterior/face], meaning the words of the ARI which are printed at the top of the pages, through the end of the book. Even though you will not understand, repeat them several times, as in “First learn, then understand.” Afterward, learn the commentary Ohr Pnimi, and exert in it in a manner that you can learn and thoroughly understand the Panim even without the help of the commentary. Afterward, study the commentary Histaklut Pnimit until you understand and remember all of it.

After all this, test yourself with the Table of Questions. Once you answered a question, look in the answer that pertains to that question. Do so with each and every question; learn and memorize them and repeat them several times until you remember them well, as though they are placed in a box, since in each and every word in the third part, we must remember well the whole of the first two parts, without missing even a tiny meaning. The worst of all is that the reader will not feel what he has forgotten. Rather, either matters have become unclear to him or he adopts a wrong interpretation of the matter because he has forgotten. Naturally, one mistake leads to ten mistakes until he comes to complete misunderstanding and will have to stop learning altogether.

The Author

M. Laitman: This means that this is what we have to be careful about, to engage in this wisdom meticulously, and more and more to delve in it according to its rules. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:23) What does TES open that Baal HaSulam's other books do not?

M. Laitman: I tell you, I read many books in the Wisdom of Kabbalah, specifically, before I reached TES, and I didn't think it's possible to write in such a way. I didn't think that it is possible to write in such a way and it will be quite clear, and in the right order, seemingly logical order, and that it will be suitable for each and every one. 

Student: But what exactly does this book open? 

M. Laitman: It explains to you the creation of the worlds, then the creation of the souls, and the connection between them. Meaning, the study in itself explains the entire spiritual structure that exists in our world even though we don't feel it in our five senses. But nevertheless, it gives you a little bit of, well, not a grip maybe, but some kind of a story about the spirituality of the world. And a person who studies it and very much wants to attain it, out of his desire, his yearning to attain the matters, he awakens the spiritual vessels, the forces, and they work on him. And so, it turns out that as much as he invests accordingly, the force, the light that influences him during the study grows more and more, and then the person begins to somehow feel his relation to the world, to the Creator's actions. 

Student: After a person starts to read TES, Baal HaSulam's style of writing, is there any point in going to other texts that speak of it in order to sort of elaborate on it, or does Baal HaSulam actually summarize all the preceding Kabbalists? 

M. Laitman: I think that's true, what you said at the end.

Student: Baal HaSulam summarizes.

M. Laitman: Yes, but there are many who do not study Baal HaSulam, they study all kinds of other Kabbalah books, and so they don't think that his style of study is suitable in general to people who want to study the books of Kabbalah. 

Student: We see this book, the style of Baal HaSulam, opening up in the world, people are going to learn them, study them, or it's going to be left on the side there forever. 

M. Laitman: I see it as the principal book in the wisdom of Kabbalah, and I hope very much that we too will add to it more and more.

Student: Last question. When you reread The Study of the Ten Sefirot, speaks of a person in attainment, that he attained it?

M. Laitman: Yes, of course.

Student: But what does he attain? His relationships in the Ten and between the Ten and the Creator, that's how we need to see it? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:00) I'm not sure how to ask. I think this question has to do with many friends, so I'm going to ask, nevertheless. Naturally speaking, I connect more to Rabash. As they say, if a  yearns and wants, then the writings of Baal HaSulam open something up for him. For me, it works really well with Rabash. After many years, I've noticed that oftentimes, into the study of TES or the preface, I prepare even with a new expectation. Throughout the study, something breaks me, and the yearning to understand something breaks down; it disappears. I begin to make peace with the fact that I'm not going to get it. So, it doesn't connect with what you're saying. How do I approach the Study of the Writings of Baal HaSulam, time and time again, I'm speaking mostly about TES: I see that there comes a moment where I break down, and I give up understanding. I see that I'll probably never understand this, and it extinguishes my desire.

M. Laitman: We need to check how much you prepared the wisdom in order to connect with it. It is possible that something here is not organized correctly. I don't think that the study of TES, which is both an emotional study as well as an intellectual study, should repel a person, In some way, a person should be able to hold on to it and continue.

Student: How can I figure out where I am going wrong? Where does it extinguish my desire? 

M. Laitman: It extinguishes your desire because the desire of a person is to enjoy. To enjoy such studies like TES, or mathematics, or other things—as it is written that not every mind can suffer it, enjoy it, or even connect to things that he's studying so it will be before him like some sort of a map of the heavens. No, one doesn’t have that. This is why I'm not sure how to answer you. But I think that nevertheless, every person should study as Baal HaSulam writes. See, he doesn't really say that. He just says that if somebody finds it very difficult, then he can put it aside—not entirely but so and so, it's written.

Student: Eventually, because he writes, from the desire to understand what they learn, they draw the surrounding lights surrounding their soul, and so on and so forth. Ultimately, the person sees that he's drawn to the writings of Baal HaSulam, and it awakens in him certain yearning. Unlike what's happening with the writings of Baal HaSulam. What should he do? Should he go after what's close to his heart, or should he exert?

M. Laitman: To exert, that's for sure. If he wants Baal HaSulam to be the source of his spirituality, then he needs to make efforts to reach all the writings of Baal HaSulam and, as much as possible, to engage in them.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:36) I want to ask in this introduction we just learned: you can say, what is this introduction pointing to primarily? 

M. Laitman: Well, eventually, it is written in such a way that he will reach contact with the writings of Baal HaSulam in a correct way. 

Student: He explains how to study in the end. But what to learn for? What should we demand from the study is what he explains throughout the entire introduction. Before that?

M. Laitman: Yes? 

Student: If the intention is incorrect, you get more damage than benefits. Now, let's say a person comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah, and he is drawn to studying the wisdom. They tell him, no first you have to pay attention, and a special effort in the relationship to others, to connection between friends, the goal, and also in order to learn what he's explaining. It's like a self-study book, you have to go over it many times and learn it, and in this mutual form of study, we don't get to such a level of study. It's impossible. There's a dilemma here, it's also hard to find the time to study, and the energy, and the desire. If a person doesn't fulfill his desire to study in the beginning, that he had it, that he really wanted, then it turns out that this desire also departs from him because it's not the main thing, and there's no time, and you can't also study together, and if you study by yourself, there's a danger. So, it turns out that you have this frustration where you wanted to learn it, but you were not able to learn it in this way. The question is, should there be a certain framework, or we need to find the time to sit down properly and learn it, as Baal HaSulam says, if there's a strong desire in a person to learn. 

M. Laitman: Well, try. Try, establish here are the same rules and the same forms of study as we had with Rabash.

Student: In the last part, we studied TES, the form is, the reader reads, and we all go through it, and we don't read it the way he says it to read it. We don't really go back, we don't really go deeper. We simply study it, and that's it. The question is, all this time dedicated to learning TES, we need to get deeper and repeat it several times, try to understand. 

M. Laitman: We need to exert more and repeat it a few times as much as possible. Okay? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:08) In the order of the study, he's very meticulous about every word, how you have to learn it, by heart, very clear order, you have to really delve into the study, try to understand it. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How do you reconcile it with what you say, about the desire to understand, and ultimately, the effort to mention these words, and the vessels will build in us, the correct vessel will develop us. How do you maintain both at the same time? 

M. Laitman: Well, we need both this, and that, and how do they operate on each other, you will feel it at the end, in the summary of it.

Student: How does that not deviate from the path when we try to understand. 

M. Laitman: This is how it is arranged. Kabbalists say so, and you have to accept it, and use it. Just try to be in both. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:25) Help us please scrutinize the approaches to the study of the Torah, if I understand correctly. This introduction, among many other pieces of text, they come to scrutinize two or maybe more approaches to the study of the Torah?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What I got from the Introduction is that, he says that the goal, as he writes in item 17, the goal is to grow stronger in faith. Responding to that, what can be the goal, the corporeal goal that's incorrect? 

M. Laitman: Each and everything that you want could be as a corporeal goal from the study if you imagine it in such a way.

Student: And in terms of the method of study, he says, approach the study. How will you grow stronger in faith? By yearning, you have a strong yearning, strong desire to understand what we're learning, and that should awaken the surrounding light over you until you come and see the state of taste and see the Lord is good. So, this yearning, it is seemingly a contradiction between yearning to awaken the light or yearning to understand in order to awaken the light, and the way he describes it here with these intellectual definitions. 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand, 

Student: Is there a contradiction between the aspiration to understand the definitions spiritually?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And the awakening of the light, or maybe it's the same?

M. Laitman: I think it is the same. 

Student: When he says out of the strong desire and yearning to understand what we're learning, here he describes what is this strong yearning and desire, where he sits, and reads, and repeats, but in their spirituality? And should that materialize things? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, what is this deviation called materializing things? 

M. Laitman: Materializing things is when a person wants in his world to see the spiritual world. 

Student: We're talking about studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What does it mean to materialize things? 

M. Laitman: To materialize things, that he sees the four foundations of the world: fire, water, wind, and dust, and he imagines to himself that these are actually the foundations of creation, and he doesn't think that these are just names, symbols. The fact that within creation, there are forces that are called by such words: fire, water, wind, and dust upon which creation was created, and he needs to use that in order to reach the root, the root of creation.

Student: That's a very clear example. Let's say there are many concepts that do not exist in this world, and it's tougher to materialize them. For example, the names of the Partzufim, the worlds, even spiritual concepts, 

M. Laitman: Because we don't understand them, we can't distinguish them, see them. 

Student: Right. That's why theoretically, it's tougher to materialize them. So, what does it mean to materialize those concepts? We don't feel them. 

M. Laitman: I don't know, for the time being. 

Student: So, what is the danger that he cautions us about reading concepts that are completely disconnected from this world? 

M. Laitman: That we will chase after things that we cannot attain. What does that mean? 

Student: What does it mean to chase things that cannot be attained? 

M. Laitman: That's what we have. That I cannot attain these things. I can't feel them. I can't give them definitions and see them the way that they operate in my world. And I seemingly come to a stop there.

Student: So, the wisdom of Kabbalah? How can I materialize it? 

M. Laitman: When you imagine to yourself the forces and operations of spiritual objects, that they seemingly operate and bring you some results of their operations. 

Student: That seemingly operates on me now.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: There's no result of their operation on me?

M. Laitman: Not one that we feel.

Student: And to materialize things means to read and say these worlds are working on me and that's why? Can you explain what it means to materialize things when we learn certain concepts in the wisdom of Kabbalah?

M. Laitman: Well, let's say, I say that in my right hand, there is more Chesed than what I have in my left hand. So, when I give you something, I give it to you with my right hand. And it's not that I use what's written only in order to complete my perception of the right versus left, the forces that I have at my disposal. Okay? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:49) What is the place of TES within the general correction of the nation of Israel and the whole world has to get into it?

M. Laitman: I think it will be a very important place. I think that eventually these books like TES and even the Zohar to a certain extent will be books that all people will study. All people will study them. 

Student: It's hard stuff to imagine how this can happen. The Study of the Ten Sefirot is a book for professionals. It's like we're supposed to teach medicine to the entire world and everyone needs to sit with the original books in Latin instead of reading summaries that explain to them how to stay healthy. You know what I mean? It's not clear. Even we are having a hard time with TES. So how do you see it happening? 

M. Laitman: I think it will be very easy. To the extent that people will get into it, it will be easier and easier for them to study TES and understand it and bring it closer to them. 

Student: It seems like this is what he's aiming for. He opens the introduction. I found the need to blow up this iron partition. So, he's pointing in that direction. But after TES, he wrote over a period of 14 years, I think he wrote the commentary on the Book of Zohar. That's his last composition. What's the place of that work in the general correction? 

M. Laitman: I don't think... I don't know. On the one hand, the Zohar appears as some sort of an appendix, an addendum to TES. So that TES is the most important, and it's the essence of all the wisdom of Kabbalah, the way that Baal HaSulam arranged it for us, even though it was possible to write 20 or 30 more books. But this is what he wrote. And the Zohar is a commentary for the five books of the Torah. Therefore, Baal HaSulam, when he wrote it, he arranged there all kinds of various additions, very important ones. However, we don't reach them. We don't touch them. I’m Indeed, it's important and it's a shame, but this is how it remained. In the times of Rabash, they were studying the Zohar in the lessons in the morning also, and they enjoyed it as much as I understood. Hopefully, we will also reach that. Yes? 

Student: Because the Zohar too interprets the structure of the spiritual worlds, meaning the Sulam Commentary touches it. He writes in the Kabbalistic language, terminology. So, I personally, the Zohar resonates with me a lot more than TES. Even on the level of understanding the system, even feeling, I kind of connect to it more and understand it more. Let's say he writes about the three lines in TES or in the Zohar, the Zohar will be more moving, more clearer to me? Something is softer, permeates me more. So, I was thinking, is there a difference between the Zohar and TES in the approach to the general public because the Zohar is kind of softer and TES is technical?

M. Laitman: TES is written to the point. I don't know. It could be that the generations have descended in a way that in this current time, we won’t discover such people that will be able to invest years and years, many years in understanding the principles of the wisdom of truth and how to approach it. I don't know. It's a real problem. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:00) Can I ask about that last sentence you said? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: You are saying there is a decline of the generations. That's known. But you're saying that as a result, we won't find people who can dedicate many years to understanding the principles of the wisdom of truth, etc. So, what does that point to? That there will be fewer students of Kabbalah who will join, awaken, approach? 

M. Laitman: There will be less Kabbalah students in quality.

Student: And how do you define high-quality students? 

M. Laitman: That want to understand and engage in this wisdom in order to fill themselves instead of helping others. 

Student: I'm just trying to understand with relation to disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah. What does that mean? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Because we want to stimulate people to come and study. Or maybe we shouldn't draw them to it because they don't have a natural inclination to it. 

M. Laitman: We can pressure people. We can advertise as much as possible that these books will be at hand for every person in the world. And we'll help with that. 

Student: On the one hand, we say that all of humanity will eventually come to study with us. And on the other hand, there's a decline of the generation and fewer high-quality students of Kabbalah. So, what exactly is the process? Are we approaching a decline where fewer people will join? When is it supposed to turn around? 

M. Laitman: No, no, no. I don't think that there'll be less people that need it. On the contrary, the world is advancing to such confusions and states that people don't understand what's happening and what will be. And it'll push them to enter more into the wisdom of Kabbalah. 

Student: So, the process, what I don't understand is the decline of the generation. Maybe there'll be more crises in the world that will force people to come and study?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And what will they want to study? The Study of the Ten Sefirot? 

M. Laitman: It will be easier for them. For a person, for the will to receive constantly, he wants to just learn what will ease his situation. That's it? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:01) I'd like to ask about the emotional approach to TES. Through Rabash, we work a lot with our feelings, we connect in the Ten, and I can take it as a concept. Let's say prayer and raising MAN in the Ten. This is something that in me is felt as something emotional. We can go to TES and talk about the same things, but it's hard to kind of clothe the feeling onto it. What's missing in order for TES to become felt in the heart? 

M. Laitman: It's in my heart. That's where the lock is. That still won't let my heart feel the world. So, what can I do? 

Student: So, what can I do? 

M. Laitman: We have to search for a Ten, and connect to them, and that they will connect to you. And in this way, each one and everyone in studying about the intentions, that with it we can formulate one desire from a Ten. And the more we study about that and yearn for it more, we're drawing the lights. The lights affect our vessels, and then our vessels will be more and more suitable or adapted to open the spiritual world. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:21) I heard you say that we have to search for a Ten. 

M. Laitman: That's not important. I don't want to go in all kinds of directions like that.

Student: I'll ask differently, maybe in relation to what we read. He talks about not materializing what we're learning. Now, we're learning in the Ten. I have Shai and Shimon, physical people. 

M. Laitman: Keep it short. 

Student: So, how do I relate to it? Because we're talking about spiritual forces. Ten Sefirot, spiritual forces, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. How do I relate to the physical people who are in front of me without materializing the wisdom of Kabbalah in them? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. If you're going to start connecting them into spirituality, that will be making it corporeal.

Student: But if we learn that we have to absorb desires from the friends and raise them up. The desires of the friends, are they not corporeal? 

M. Laitman: Of course, for now, it's corporeal. 

Student: Should we search for the spiritual desires of the friends? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:51) I heard you say before that in regards to the question that the friend asked if they will come to study, what will they study, you said it will be easier for them. The person is able to receive, and he always wants to learn how to make a situation easier. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: We are breaking our heads with efforts how to make the wisdom of Kabbalah accessible, and it seems to me like disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah is not exactly making it easier on the will to receive of a person who wants to make a situation easier. There's a contradiction. But again, we're putting so much effort into disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah. So, what can you give them? Something that serves their will to receive? 

M. Laitman: What they want. 

Student: What do they want? They want to feel better in their world. 

M. Laitman: So, give them a way to feel better in the world. That's it. Just like that. More questions? 

Student: If I may, just one more word. Feeling better in the world. A person is a clean will to receive. Most people will choose ways and things that we don't deal with. We don't have them. So, what should we give them? 

M. Laitman: You can't give a person more or something else than what he wants. 

Student: A few days ago, there was an event here. A screening of a film that our friends prepared. Something very high quality. It brought a lot to many people who came here. Both new students and guests. And after such inspiration, impressions, or in addition to such learning, I see that people are looking for excitement. Events and good food. So, with this kind of impression, they walk out and that's it. They may wait for the next event. They may come again. We don't see these people coming to the study hall in a morning lesson. So, should we engage in that? Give them kind of superficial things? Nicely wrapped things? 

M. Laitman: Check what you want to give them and what the Creator wants to awaken in them. In that gap between you and the Creator, what you awaken in the public, then you'll see what to do.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:27:09) Concerning the caution from materializing the text, usually I hear from you that corporeality means in order to receive, meaning relating to the intention. And here in the lesson, I heard from you an example of a person attributing Chesed to the right hand, meaning action. So, my question is, when Baal HaSulam warns us, does he warn us from the intention or from the action? 

M. Laitman: Actually both, but the main thing is the action.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:27:56) The purpose of creation or the purpose of the study has never changed since the days of Abraham until today. But I want to ask about the habits of the public, because even in our generation, we can see that we used to study things by heart. The multiplication board by heart. We remembered phone numbers. When we went out on the road, we would memorize the map. It was a lot of memorizing. It was part of life. More life advances. People don't need it. And now with AI, anything that has to do with intellect and memory will be redundant. And here we see that Baal HaSulam studied, repeated, memorized it until it sits in your mind as if in a box. If you ask personally, it's an amazing experience to study it every time, a new angle, etc. But it's against the direction where the public is going today. The general trend is not to use the memory. So how can we make this accessible? 

M. Laitman: People will see that what we're doing today isn't sufficient for them, doesn't satisfy them. There's no need for the daily things. And they will let go of it.

Student: So where else will they get a fulfillment from? 

M. Laitman:  So, they tell us, the sages, that the fulfillment will be from a new form of studying, from having a connection with the sources of the upper lights through engaging in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Then it turns out that we won't exist in this world in any way but only in order to attain the upper light. That is it. 

Student: So, concerning engaging in the wisdom of Kabbalah, they'll be able to sit in a circle and discuss a question that the teacher will give them. This is one way.

M. Laitman: Oh yes, externally, okay. 

Student: I'm speaking about what he recommends, yes, study, memorize, repeat, until you have it in you, like in a box. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That habit will not exist in the public. For us, it's obvious, that's how we've been studying our whole life. But here he says something that may sound foreign to people, unclear. What does it mean to memorize? I have my AI, it doesn't matter if I know or don't know a word, I'll just type the word and it'll give me all the codes. I don't need to memorize it. So, that's what I'm asking about, this way of studying. 

M. Laitman: I don't know, there'll be other types of people, there'll be millions that will respect this form of study, that the more sentences each one remembers, so according to that, his path will be determined. That's not my problem. 

Student: So, should we have people sit in circles, or let them study TES, or both? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. We need to walk forward in a way that the Creator is opening the path. The Creator is opening the path for us, for now, in whatever we're in. That's it. Then we'll see. I'm asking whoever gets a microphone, speak briefly.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:32:35) The last few years introduced to humanity such a thing that people have access to data, things that 40, 50 years ago people couldn't get it, and their corporeal satisfactions are reaching such a threshold that people without points in the heart already are tired of it. So maybe it is correct to bring the wisdom of Kabbalah from this place of the structure of the world, like they used to do campuses and art, and develop it in things that don't interest them anymore. In other words, those who don't have something in this world will be looking for this high place. 

M. Laitman: Okay. I heard.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:33:29) Baal HaSulam wanted all the books of Kabbalists, he'll give them interpretation to the words, and then he said, he said, if you grasp a little bit, you grasped. So, he turned, so he wrote the Study of the Ten Sefirot. I want to talk about what the friend  said. People come here and get a feeling. So, I want to ask about the interpretation of the words. Do we have an interest in taking a word and make them feel like they understood something a little higher than the worldly meaning of it? 

M. Laitman: No, we can't. 

Student: So, the meaning of the words, why is it so important to Baal HaSulam that people will not materialize it.

M. Laitman: He wrote about it, but you see what's happening with that writing. He wrote it many years ago, let's say before 1940. 

Student: A person who comes here, let's say he comes to a congress and he says there's something special here, does he remain with only a feeling? He doesn't need any addition to it? 

M. Laitman: No, he can’t understand. Above the feeling there is a mind, but the understanding of that mind, it's not for him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:35:25) In learning the wisdom, there's a situation where we start in connection and the work in the group, and then we come to read the source, and see the things are already placed within us in our hearts and minds. And there are states when we approach the source and the source opens it up for us, real new directions of thought. What's the right way to use it? Sometimes the thought is very fixed on something. We have a thought that accompanies us and through it we connect to the group and to the Creator, but it doesn't develop. And I feel like the source, the source opens a new space.

M. Laitman: So, for you it opens and for someone else it doesn't.

Student: My question is, to what extent is the fact that we're not learning TES with you, stop us from advancing? 

M. Laitman: We can go into TES, but the thing is that a few pages of TES will take up a half a year for us. And then how else can we study all the rest of the things? 

Student: We learned the writings of Rabash with you for a whole year. And if we didn't study with you, I would never open them up and read on my own.

M. Laitman: That's not good. 

Student: All of our learning is based on the morning lesson. I think most students don't. We don't have the time also. What we open with you is what will open up to us. Also, sometimes when you teach, you experience a situation and we connect to you and through you we feel the situation.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:37:44) There are many friends who don't have the natural inclination and they can't really tolerate TES. Can we help by working in the Tens to really emphasize or maybe build together the desire, as he writes in item 155, to build it in the Ten by conversing, by discussing, by trying to make the precision of the understanding? 

M. Laitman: Talk about it between you, between everyone, and agree on it, and demand it. Then we'll work accordingly. Just bring it here. Give me a page, and it'll be written and clear what you want us to do. I'm ready. Anything except for something I can't attain. 

Student: Thank you. Because there's no grip on that study with this external mind to sit and study TES. And if we take Baal HaSulam's recommendation, he talks about desire and yearning. So, to awaken the desire and yearning in us… 

M. Laitman: Where do you get that?

Student: In the Ten, to build it together, to come to some common desire. Is this a good direction?

M. Laitman: Please, that's why every day you're at least two, over two hours here next to each other, all of us as a group that we already know ourselves and where we are, we engage in. So please, use all the means in order to connect between you in a way that from the connection, it'll be revealed for you all the forces, all the exertions, all the actions that you need to do. I'll just be happy from that.

Student: Should we do it here, with our common joint study? 

M. Laitman: You have no other framework, and you don't start building that now, please. 

Reader: Just two words before we finish. One is every day from 5.30 to 6 p.m. Israel time, we read together from the study of the Tan Sefirot according to the order, and it's broadcast in all the languages. And we also watch very special clips from you. So I'm telling everyone, you're invited to come join. There are about a thousand friends from the world over who watch it live, and another thousand who download it afterwards. And in our social time, when we study among friends, what we're going to do now is to begin to study the Study of the Tan Sefirot, part one. Gilad Shadmon, Misha Shapira will lead this part based on Rav's words, so we'll be studying it now, every day. Very good. Okay. So, what do we have next? 

Reader: We'll move to the next part of the lesson. We will study the “Study of the Ten Sefirot” now, among us. 

M. Laitman: Okay, good luck. Thank you. 

Reader: So, we'll move to the next part of the lesson. Before that, we'll sing a song. together. 

Song: (01:41:55)