The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: November 13, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. Article 14, 1985. I Am the First and I Am the Last
Reader: Hello, friends! In the first part of the lesson, we will study the lesson of Rav Laitman on the 8th of December, 2002. It's based on the article by Rabash, I Am the First and I Am the Last. It's Rabash's article Number 14 from 1985. We will read the article in the Ten and for doing so, we have 16 minutes.
Reading: (00:33) I Am the First and I Am the Last
Article No. 14, 1985
The verse says, “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me.” It is known that the order of the work on the way to achieve the goal of Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator is to work in order to bestow. However, according to what man has received, the order of the work with regard to education is actually Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], as Maimonides said (Hilchot Teshuva, Chapter 10), “The sages said, ‘One should always engage in Torah, even in Lo Lishma, since from Lo Lishma he comes to Lishma [for Her sake].’ Therefore, when teaching little ones, women, and uneducated people, they are taught to work only out of fear and to be rewarded. Until they gain knowledge and acquire much wisdom, they are taught this secret bit by bit, and they are accustomed to this matter peacefully until they attain Him, know Him, and serve Him with love.”
Therefore, when a person wants to walk on the way to the goal of Dvekut with the Creator, which means to aim that everything will be in order to bestow, he must first have a deficiency, meaning dissatisfaction with the work in Lo Lishma.
At that time he begins to search for another order in the work, since the engagement in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] he was used to was on the basis of the will to receive, called Lo Lishma. But now that he needs to replace his entire basis on which he built his entire life’s order, it depends on the extent to which he sees that the state of Lo Lishma is the wrong way, does not let him rest, and he will not be at peace until he comes out of that state into a state of Lishma.
However, who is making him feel, while he is in the state of Lo Lishma, that this is still not the right way and he is still far from Dvekut with the Creator? When he looks at the rest of the people, they go by this path, so why does he need to be different? Another difficulty is that when he looks at the rest of the people he sees people who are more talented and more capable in the work than him. But they settle for the order of the work they had received when they were little, when the instructors taught them to work only in Lo Lishma, as in the above words of Maimonides. And then he sees about himself that although “a sorrow shared is a sorrow halved,” he cannot accept the state of Lo Lishma. At that time comes the question: “If I am really less talented and less capable in the work, where did I get this restlessness in the state of Lo Lishma?”
To this comes the answer: “I am the first.” That is, the Creator has given him this deficiency so he will not be able to continue on this path. One should not think that he has obtained this by his own wisdom. Rather, the Creator says, “I am the first,” meaning “I have given you the first push, so you will begin to walk on the path of truth. By giving you a deficiency of feeling that with the respect to the truth, you are deficient.”
Then begins the work that he begins to wait for a state where he repels self-love, and all his works are only in order to bestow. At that time he must dedicate to it all the thoughts and resources at his disposal, as in “Everything that you find within your power to do, that do.”
Afterwards, when he is rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator, he thinks that it is through his labor in Torah and Mitzvot, and by overcoming his self-love. He thinks that he has been rewarded with it only through his work, that he was very persistent, and only he had the strength to make the most of his opportunities, which gave him this riches and he was rewarded what he was rewarded.
The verse says about that: “And I am the last. That is, as I was the first, giving you the deficiency, I am also the last, meaning I have given you the filling of the deficiency.” The deficiency is called the Kli [vessel], and the filling is called “the light.” Since there is no light without a Kli, the Kli is made first, and then the abundance is poured into the Kli. This is why the Creator first gives the Kli, which is called “I am the first,” and then He gave the abundance, called “I am the last.”
By this will understand the difference between work that a person does in corporeal work, in some factory, and a worker doing spiritual work. Ordinarily, a worker who is not working does not receive reward. However, he is also not punished if he is not working.
Conversely, in spiritual work, one who is not working, who is not keeping Torah and Mitzvot, is punished, as our sages said (Avot, Chapter 5), “The world was created with ten utterances. What does that teach us? It could have been created with one utterance. However, to avenge the wicked, who are destroying the world, it was created with ten utterances, and to give a good reward to the righteous, who are sustaining the world, it was created in ten utterances.”
This has already been explained in previous articles, but the gist of the matter is that “to avenge the wicked” means that there will be the suffering that the wicked suffer in their lives. This means that when he looks at his own wicked, meaning at his own will to receive, if he sees that everything he does for the will to receive does not satisfy him in this life, and to the extent that he sees and feels the unpleasantness of this life, by these he receives a Kli and deficiency for spirituality. This is so because the unpleasantness that one feels in one’s life pushes him to search for a place where he can derive life.
It therefore follows that the punishment that he suffers for taking the wrong path is not regarded as vengeance for not walking on the path of the Creator, regarded as having to work for the Creator. On the contrary, it is assistance—he is being pushed toward happiness and bounty.
It therefore follows that the punishment he sees that the wicked are suffering, he needs to feel the suffering that the wicked suffer. This is the meaning of what is written (Psalms, 94), “Happy is the man whom You chasten, Lord.” This means that the suffering he feels when he is marching the wrong path is regarded as the Creator giving him a Kli, which is “I am the first.”
However, He does not let anyone feel suffering when walking on the path of Lo Lishma. Rather, only “He whom the Lord loves He admonishes.” This is regarded as feeling the taste of the wicked, who are immersed in self-love, and this pushes him from the path of falsehood to the path of truth.
It follows that when a worker is not working in corporeality, he is not paid, but he is not punished for not wanting to work. But this is not so in spirituality: If he is idle in the work, he is punished, as our sages said, “to avenge the wicked,” where it is not regarded as being punished, but as being elevated to walk on the right path. It is not considered a punishment, but as a correction.
This means that there are two manners of correction: 1) the path of Torah, 2) the path of suffering. However, this is not regarded as a punishment, but as a correction, and the correction comes to him by suffering.
Afterwards, when he has a Kli, called “vessel of bestowal,” where he previously had only a desire for self-reception, now he receives a desire, meaning he expects the Creator to give him the Kli called “desire to bestow.” When he has the Kli of the desire to bestow, he is rewarded with the bounty and happiness that were in the thought of creation, which is called “to do good to His creations.” This is the meaning of “I am the last,” referring to the filling, that what he lacked before, now He fills all his deficiencies.
However, this is so only with respect to private Providence. That is, for himself, a person should say that everything depends on him, for only according to his overcoming in the work he will be able to be rewarded with the goal for which he was created. This is regarded as a person having to believe in reward in punishment. At that same time, once he has done his work, he must say that everything is under private Providence, as was said in the interpretation to “I am the first and I am the last.”
Regarding this matter, that one should reach the goal, he should know that the most important thing is to come to aim all his thoughts and actions to be Lishma, as it is written, “Everything that is called by My name, I have created, made, and fashioned for My glory.” We should understand what is written about “Everything that is called by My name, I have created.” Did the Creator Himself not create for His glory what is not called “by My name”? We should also understand the meaning of “called by My name.”
We should interpret “called by My name,” that he relates to Him, as it is written, “Israel, Your people,” or “His people, Israel,” meaning that he relates to the Creator. At that time he must be in equivalence of form with the Creator, as it is written, “As He is merciful, so you are merciful,” meaning that his intention is only to bestow upon the Creator, that all his actions are only for His glory, and he has no concern for his own benefit.
By that we should interpret, “Everything that is called by My name.” That is, who relates to Me? These are people who say that the whole of creation is only for His glory, and not for one’s own benefit. Then one can relate oneself to Me, and is regarded in the collective called “His people, Israel,” or “Israel.” At that time one can feel what is written, “Who chooses His people, Israel, with love.”
It follows that one should acquire a deficiency—to feel that he needs the Creator’s help to come to “all his actions are for the Creator.” Then begins the order of the work Lishma, and then he is rewarded with things, as in the words of Rabbi Meir.
Reader: We will go to the lesson from the date December 8, 2002.
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M. Laitman: (16:45) Well, Hanukkah is over, we continue with The Rungs of the Ladder according to our usual order. Volume 4, we start, page 1, from Yishayahu, I am the first and I am the last. The matter of the uniqueness of the Creator, that is the central issue because except for that, we don't need to discover anything, and there is nothing to discover except for that. It's only through His uniqueness that all of the influences, bestowals, come to us from Him. It's only His uniqueness that we have to adapt ourselves to. One force working, operating, activating everything, one force that created and one force that brings to correction – There Is None Else Besides Him. We cannot imagine this, describe it, because for us the whole of creation includes lights and vessels, meaning two things that are opposite to one another. Then sometimes we see from the vessels, sometimes we see from the lights. Sometimes it seems to us that we're in control according to the control of the situation, according to the level of concealment. Then we discover that it's the Creator doing everything according to the measure of revelation. And through to the end of correction we need, well, we're in a maze, we have no orientation. We never exactly know who is right, as it's written in Shushan the capital, that there is a king, and Mordechai, and Haman, and they don't know which one is right. The city of Shushan was bewildered.
The whole world, it's all of a person's desires, all his thoughts, everything in him – it's all in a state of confusion, misunderstanding and lack of comprehension. And the more a person is worthy of corrections, then in him this confusion grows and hinders him greatly, bothers him very much.
M. Laitman: (19:12) With a regular person, if he's... well, he's just alive. He's completely disconnected, even from concealment. He doesn't know about revelation at all. Nobody talks about revelation there, the disconnection is from the concealment; then he has no problem, he doesn't ask himself. One who wants to bring about unity, to enter the one place, the domain of the one. That man, that person, you push him forward with problems against, start prodding him with problems which go against unity – to feel them. For these problems to truly force him to start looking for a solution, a true solution.
So it is written, I am the first and I am the last. In the beginning of creation, the end of creation, the beginning of the action, the end of the action, we must first of all come to unity between these two points. The operations that are in the middle, the corrections we make, these are actions which, of course, have descends and ascends related to them. Sometimes we're in the domain of the many, sometimes the domain of the one – the entire Masechet discusses this, the Shabbat Masechet. Karmelit, the domain of the many, the domain of the singular. How to move ourselves from place to place. On Shabbat, on Saturday, it's forbidden, Saturday, Shabbat, is opposite, the corresponds to the end of correction. So if a person hasn't come to the end of correction, yet, but is in a state as if the end of correction, kind of the next world it's called, it's called the spiritual Shabbat. So, by the influence of the upper forces, he didn't make the Shabbat, he prepared himself for it to be done to him from above, an awakening from above. Then he's also brought under these conditions from the authority of the many to the authority of the domain of the singular. He's forbidden to exit the boundaries of the Shabbat, meaning only in his desires, in specific desires, he can feel the unity and discover it in those desires, meaning in the places of the authority of the many, where it seems to him that there are more forces at work other than the Creator, meaning that he himself first of all exists. Then those places he needs to isolate and not relate into the state of Shabbat. This means that he's not leaving the area of the Shabbat, the boundaries, he does not leave these desires towards other desires. That's the matter of the Shabbat, especially that how to protect ourselves. Even though we haven't come to the state of the end of correction, it's in a state of a seeming end of correction, meaning in those desires that we haven't corrected yet to their complete perfected form. Those desires we simply freeze and do not use. Then, when we reach the end of correction, then all the desires display this unification, there's only the domain of the one, the authority of the one, and we're above all the prohibitions, above all the inner pursuit after the one force that works, and everything enters the middle line, one without two lines. Meaning this middle one, this middle line unites the two lines. So, the thoughts for and against – there are two – they assist the middle line. They connect to it and build a state which is called the corrected state. That's it, and then, I'm the first and I'm the last, connect into one together. It's not difficult, a person then has no question regarding who it is who's working and how he's working.
M. Laitman: (23:50) He asks about this a lot in the Introduction to the Book of Zohar, that how did the Creator create the shells and He sustains them; and why did He create everything that is evil and opposite to Him? How can He build evil and create evil, and sustain it? Does He, is it Him at work or not, and if so, where is He concealed while He's working? Is there something against His uniqueness, and so on and so forth? These questions are questions that everyone asks: where is the one who acts? And do we also have actions to perform, at least in something, until we discover that it's The One, Unique And Unified. Who acted, is acting, and will act, and that depends on our corrections. It's impossible for a person who is not yet corrected to say that, Yes, I've read, I heard that the Creator does everything, so there's nothing to do – no.
To the extent that you still haven't discovered this, didn't correct your vessels in which you feel His uniqueness. Whereupon His uniqueness truly works on you, then you need to work by yourself to complete this. To complete what you still haven't corrected in the vessels, that's why the doctor is given permission to cure, to heal. And, If I'm not for myself, then who is? All these states, they're simply states in which a person needs to live and act. Until he completes all these states, connects them together, collects them, and really admits them into the authority, the domain of the singular.
All of his desires, thoughts, decisions, he must connect everything into this unity, then everything connects back together again in the drop of unity – in the Zivug de Lo Pasik, The unending coupling, as we call it – all the qualities of the Creator and all the qualities of the created being as two Partzufim, ZON of Atzilut. There are many articles about this uniqueness, unity. In the Hasidic movements, Hasidut. There are many, there are very beautiful articles about this. Avri Admov actually wrote about this and it's worthwhile to sometimes read very beautiful things written about this unity. From Baal Shem Tov, it started especially, he especially started scrutinizing this matter in a more emotional way. Baal HaSulam writes about this in his letters, right? There's None Else Besides Him, a letter from page 25, so on, there are many. We have on the internet, at least in Russian, I recall, there is also a part called, The Uniqueness of the Creator, something like that, yes?
Meaning, that is the special thing, the only one that we ultimately need to discover. All other things, they connect into that one goal, which is to discover the One. So, as we study, while engaging in all the problems of life or everything else, anything else, we need to scrutinize to see how much we are or aren't uniting ourselves with the path, with the action, whatever we're in, and the goal. The goal is His uniqueness, we cannot aim towards a goal which is the Creator. Assume I see the Creator, yes, so I make some calculations, I take some kind of compass and walk at a certain angle.
M. Laitman: (28:09) No, seeing the Creator means that I describe to myself a state where I unite everything that happens to me – my thoughts and desires, and all the circumstances all around me, states, all the states – I imagine what it would be like if I saw it as one, single, unique and unified thing and that, for me, that essence is called the Creator, then I orient myself towards that. And I see how I'm still not in that decision, that sensation, that kind of thinking. Then it would mean that I'm in one place and the Creator is in a different place; then I can see in what other desires and thoughts I'm not unifying Him with everything. Everything, unifying everything to Him, then it means that I'm seeing the path, the path between these two essences, you could say – can you say essences, yes well, essence. Meaning there's still no One, Unique And Unified, in my current state and there's an essence where He is the One, Unique And Unified. Revealed, meaning the complete thing allowing me to connect with His uniqueness and that's everything that a person needs to depict. Also, as we study, when we talk about the reforming lights, the Torah which heals one's flesh. Then we need to intend, that's what we need to aim for – what do we want in us to be healed? That what will be healed is this disease, which is our personality, which is too prominent, it hides the Creator, as if it exists.
In the letters, page 64, he describes this constantly. There's nothing else besides. All of Shamati is actually from that first article, There Is None Else Besides Him, this is the main article, as though the Keter, the crown. The rest of the book is just an outcome from that, all the works, all of the actions, all the method, yes, it all has to do only with the revelation of this unity. What does it mean that the method of Kabbalah is the revelation of His Godliness in this world? What is His Godliness? The one operating force, One, meaning it includes us.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:08) He says that the world was created with ten utterances in order to punish the wicked and reward the righteous. If the world has been created with one utterance, that wouldn't have been possible. What are the ten utterances?
M. Laitman: Ten utterances to get rid of the wicked and to make a place for work and reward for the righteous, yes? So, after these ten utterances, one who sees himself as confused, disconnected from the Creator, powerless. Has no inclination to come to connect these ten utterances to the Creator, to the Keter, yes? But everything that happens is to reveal His unity, unification, then that person is called wicked. Afterwards, through blows, by trying himself, making an effort, he repents, there's no choice. It's like that with each one, everything returns, comes back, and becomes righteous. Meaning, all those blows and failures, and malicious acts and mistakes, he begins to correct them and to become righteous, yes?
Of course, without being wicked, he can never become righteous, these are the two states of each and every one. The question here is about the speed of it and the attitude towards whatever is happening. But of course, each one needs to descend to the depth of every shattering in every vessel that there is in him. To feel it completely as it appears and with all its oppositeness from the Creator. To reach some decision of his own: what would he have wanted, the right decision? Then to ask to receive powers and to correct. There's no alternative, each one, with all his depths and deposits has to do that, then he becomes righteous and receives in those vessels the revelation of divinity, which is called the reward.
Student: What are the ten utterances?
M. Laitman: The ten utterances are the ten Sefirot which, to begin with disconnect Malchut from Keter as coverings, allow Malchut to exist in the very worst state, on the one hand. On the other hand, they provide Malchut with various influences by which it can awaken towards corrections. Gradually, well, because Malchut herself cannot plan the path, right? So, all these influences that descend from Keter to Malchut through these ten utterances. They ultimately bring to Malchut time after time, by way of cause and effect, through this chain, various situations, right, how to say, situations? There is a word in Hebrew, maybe, states, situations, yes? Where Malchut can respond this way or that way according to whatever state it's in, in all these states.
So a person continues and improves, and ultimately, he gathers all his impressions, his inspirations. He learns from that until he comes to the records in each discernment and every state he went through. With all that, he reaches the end of correction, and then he can feel the end of correction as the end of correction in all of the discernments he was in, and none of them is missing. Then in his entire vessel, he truly feels how the Creator was opposite and disconnected. Really, for all the states he was in, he had yet two states always in contrast and he is in conflict. He always wanted to hide the Creator, to contradict Him, to erase Him, and the opposite; through that struggle, he has scrutinized all of the individual qualities of the vessel until it connected into one whole vessel. Then the ten utterances become the ten Sefirot, which reveal His uniqueness, for each and every, every Sefira must be revelation, that's it.
M. Laitman: (35:30) After that, you reach the Good Who Does Good, the general name, which all these Sefirot, all these holy names. Meaning the feeling in each and every quality, each and every concealment but becomes revelation. How all these names come together and build the uniqueness, which is Him. You understand, the Good Who Does Good without any, there's a lot of differentiation in this, many details, infinite details, infinite discernments, flavors. But ultimately everything is perceived as the Good Who Does Good, it's absorbed into that; meaning, that's the revelation.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:14) In relation to the uniqueness, expression, I'm the first, I'm the last, and what to speak is in the middle.
M. Laitman: Now one can say now that He's the Good Who Does Good, it's the Good Who Does Good that he feels in his small uncorrected vessel. Meaning, we reach the Good Who Does Good after all the names, after the correction of all the vessels, then we truly know what the Good Who Does Good is. That's the difference between one who serves the Lord and one who does not serve Him, as we say. Each one can say, certainly, certainly, the Good Who Does Good, There's No One Besides Him, all that. But did you break yourself with every thought and every action that was brought to you? Did you fail in all that, later to correct that state? Because there's no person who stands on a matter of commandment, fulfills a commandment unless he failed in it. The commandment means the correct usage of each and every desire, uniting them to the Creator, that's it.
Student: In relation to the uniqueness of if, I'm the first, then, and I'm the last. But what's in the middle?
M. Laitman: In the middle, it's your work, the end, and the beginning and the end are sealed. There's a beginning, the path which you don't determine, you don't determine the end either. In the middle, it's either the path of Torah, the path of suffering, you choose.
Student: But in each and every state, there's a beginning and an end, so what then?
M. Laitman: In each beginning and specific end of every specific state, there's a beginning and end, you don't determine those, of the record. So now I have this record which I start with. I need to reach the next record, which is also predetermined, and there's no decision to make there. I have no decision to make, my decision is in what way to cross from one record to the next, from degree to degree, that's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:13) Yes, if a person has already searched every point for the connection?
M. Laitman: So, you don't need to worry about the beginning and you don't need to worry about the end, you need to concern yourself with your attitude. Never look at it as, I need to become, that's not something to concern you. Do not worry about where you need to be at the end and never look back at your origins either: where you came from and with what qualities. That's pointless, it's simply, The fool folds his hands together and eats his own flesh. There's no reason to look into the past, that's Lot's wife, you turn into something that never changes, into salt.
So, what then? Only my attitude toward the states that change in me. It's toward them that I need to determine my attitude; not to change the states themselves but to change my attitude toward them. To attribute them to the Creator: I am given blows, attribute them to the Creator. I am given good things, attribute them to the Creator. Do not change these things, not even the blows themselves. If you attribute them to the Creator, they immediately become sweetened, you understand? Our problem is that otherwise we think, No, we are the ones who act, I change the situation. You don't need to change the situation, itself, but your attitude toward it. This is our work and this is called scrutinizing everything through intention, through your attitude toward things. The fact that in our world we think that we're doing something, constantly trying to do things in this world, that's precisely what leads us to corruptions, what does it mean, corruptions? Ultimately, to revelations.
We have not yet reached that point, to revelations that everything we are doing is actually completely unnecessary. A person doesn't need to do anything except attribute everything to the Creator. Except determine his own relationship to what's happening, not to the action itself, the action itself is being carried out. Leave the person alone, and leave the action he is performing alone. Change your attitude towards what's being done, and then everything will fall into place. Therefore, all of our progress – progress in quotation marks, this process of humanity's development – is the revelation of the wrong path we have taken. Would we not have been happier sitting in caves or living among the trees? What does any of this have to do with inner happiness? Today, people are fleeing back to such conditions.
Student: The person is always in the present?
M. Laitman: Yes. In other words, if we concerned ourselves with only our attitude toward what happens, we would truly have produced only those things necessary for our lives and devoted everything else to attributing ourselves to the Creator's uniqueness. It's because we think that we are the ones who act, so all this development in the world has come about, along with the revelation of this corruption. That none of this development brings any benefit to a person, but rather the opposite because it comes from an incorrect attitude toward reality. In other words, the more we leave reality alone without entering into it, without interfering with its development. Not its development, but without participating in it, in short, and concern ourselves with only how we accept it, how we receive it. Then the more corrected and proper our state becomes, that's until we reach a state in which there is no change whatsoever, the light of Ein Sof is in absolute rest, nothing changes, but then when will this come? It's when I've completely, entirely corrected my attitude toward all the states that can possibly come from the Creator so that I might determine my attitude toward them.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:01) Sometimes we're in such a state of disconnection that the uniqueness of the Creator also, it's done from a technical place, there's no sweetening. Is there any value to it?
M. Laitman: I would also say that people try to walk on this path, instinctively understanding in some way that this is how it should be. Look at all these supposedly spiritual methods, like those practiced by Indians and so on; they also have a certain tendency to focus more on the attitude towards what's happening than on entering into what's happening and actively participating in it. But this is the difference between East and West, in general broadly speaking. The difference is that there is no screen, no Masach, they don't build the method, the vessel through which I can unify everything, you understand? The approach is seemingly correct but there is no vessel, so they remain passive and that's it.
Here, it's the contrary, that you need to actively change your attitude so that each time, with the screen, you enter into unity with the greatest possible desire to receive. You don't diminish your desire and then enter into unity because you're like something inanimate, motionless. Instead, you enter into unity because you rise above all of creation, and then you, together with all of creation following you, enter into unity as well.
Student: He talks a lot about cancelling himself.
M. Laitman: (44:48) Canceling the self, the annulment of the self, means that while you're at the height of pride, 100%, at the height of envy, 100%, at the height of hatred, 100%. With the greatest desires for money, honor, knowledge, bodily pleasures, everything, you unify all of them with the Creator from the full height of those desires. It's not that you diminish all these things and then, seemingly, become included in unity. In that case, you have willingly turned yourself into that drop, a seed, yes, you can do that, but then it's dead. Indeed, this tendency to become as detached as possible, as though you do not exist so to speak, this tendency is completely opposite to ours – that's the whole point. It's as though there is some resemblance between Eastern methods and our method. The coarseness and the screening are the things that a person cannot discover on his own. Or even if he does discover them, he doesn't know how to work with them, this truly requires a method from above. Because even we, who already receive this explanation: who are told about it and are interested in absorbing this method. Look at how we constantly enter this inner division, this inner split between the vessel and the light, between these two parts, the desire to receive and the screen, to the extent that it reaches the desire to bestow, and this split gives us no rest, all these states arise from it. Whereas if you ask an Indian, he's sitting there, This is no good, that's it, he needs nothing, and he's genuinely happy. A technique through which he has suppressed himself down to zero, and that's it.
Student: When a person has such great envy and so on, lust, these enormous things, then he actually feels his true self, his own desire to receive. So, how does he unify it to the Creator?
M. Laitman: A person is not given a revelation from above, each of us has a soul, a very large part of Malchut de Ein Sof. But only a small part of it is revealed to you, the part that you're capable of dealing with and attributing to unity. What's the breaking of the vessels? It's the breaking of the vessels, the breaking of the Masach, the breaking of the screen, the breaking of unity, the breaking of the connection between that vessel and the Creator. So, only that part of the broken vessel that you're capable of unifying is revealed to you. Then, light enters that vessel, and in that vessel, in that desire to receive, you have direct light and reflected light, which become inner light. Wherever this inner light's present, from here down to the Tabur of the Partzuf, that's where unity exists. That's where the Creator and the created being are together in unity, with this inner NRNHY in all five of your parts.
Where you cannot do so, that's the Sof, the end of the Partzuf, and that part you still keep frozen. To the extent that the Sof of the Partzuf is revealed to you, beyond the Sof of the Partzuf you have many more desires, many more vessels that you don't feel at all. But the Sof of the Partzuf consists of vessels that you're capable of performing a restriction upon. If the whole vessel were revealed to you, you wouldn't be able to perform a restriction upon it. So, for example, 10 kilograms are revealed to you, you perform a restriction on those 10 kilograms, and on 2 kilograms out of those 10, you're even capable of achieving unity. The method is to use the desire to receive as much as possible in order to unify it with the One, with the Creator, this is Kabbalah, itself.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:58) What does it mean to determine one's attitude? What is that process of determining one's attitude?
M. Laitman: Determining one's attitude means that, he writes about this. For instance, on page 64 in The Letters, explaining what it means to determine one's attitude, it means that I, the Creator, and the action that I'm engaged in, the state I'm in, must all be as one. Then it's considered being in the correct state, in the correct direction, I have positioned myself in the correct state. Now, afterward, on page 70 in The Letters, he writes about this attitude: that there is world, year, soul. Also three parameters and I need to unify them together so that year, world, and soul all become as one. Then when they come together within me, if I determine that they are one, connected to the Creator, it's a sign that I, too, am included in Him, and that's it.
In other words, the question is as follows: I have a desire to receive, when can I say that this desire to receive is in adhesion with the Creator, right? So he says, when the desire itself, your attitude toward it and what you envision as the Creator are all together. This is on page 64 in The Letters. On page 70, when you speak about your state, which is divided into these three parameters of world, year, soul, and in all three of them, in all three together, you reveal the Creator. You unify Him within all three, that's called you and Him becoming unified.
Student: What is to unify?
M. Laitman: To unify? It means that everything that happens to you within these three parameters: world, year, soul, is all Him, Him. But when it is all three together, that is truly called entering into Him, or Him being within me or us being together. It does not matter how you say it, why, because these three parameters are not simply existing somewhere, they exist in me, it's how I attain adhesion. You know how to connect two airplanes? You have to enter precisely into, so you need three parameters in order for one to fit into the other, so it's the same here. You're told that in your soul you perceive the spiritual state as world, year, soul. That's how you perceive it, it's not that these things exist outside of you. So, if you unify these three parameters with the Creator, you truly come into contact with Him, into connection. This is how it is in every state, at every degree until you – in other words, in each and every desire, world, year, soul, are specific to that desire.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:34) What is to unify with the Creator?
M. Laitman: To unify with the Creator means that He is the cause of all three.
Student: What is this, it's an action? I want to understand the process of it?
M. Laitman: Take world, take year, and take soul, and reach a state where for each one, separately, you can say that, yes, you have unified this state, this aspect, this parameter with the Creator. Then bring all three of them together and this will be called truly attaining unity. What is soul? It's that I need to reach, he gives an example there: I need to reach the degree of the high priest. What is called, year? I need to reach a state in which that state is called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, such a degree. And what is called, world? That all the surrounding conditions need to also be at that degree. My attitude toward all the other souls – if you want to know what that means. And then it's considered being at the degree called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, I reveal the vessel at the end of correction. The rest already depends on the Creator, whether He will give it to me or not, in other words, it's correction. I reveal the entire vessel, I unify the whole vessel with the Creator. This is called the high priest, the Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement and then there is the Holy of Holies. It’s not for no reason that he gives this example there, this is actually what the state itself is called.
Student: What is that in every state when I reach what you described? How can I? I don't have a button to press?
M. Laitman: No, it happens gradually, of course, we don't have a button, and we don't know what it means, but gradually it becomes revealed to us what it means to be the high priest, what is called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. What surrounding conditions we have and what the state, itself, means. The Temple, the Holy of Holies, what is this entire combination or collection of my inner conditions and the external conditions surrounding me? At the end of it all, it's my attitude toward myself and my attitude to those in my surroundings. And how I relate myself and everything I perceive around me. I have nothing else in my feelings, in my perception, I have nothing beyond myself and my world. If I can unify both of these together with the Creator, that is called attaining unity with Him.
Student: What is to unify?
M. Laitman: (56:01) To unify means that He created it, He operates within it and He brought it to the state it is in now. And who am I, I merely revealed this, that is all I had to do, nothing other than that. The vessels do not actually break and the vessels do not actually become corrected, so to speak. My attitude to each and every desire needs to be unified, connected with the Creator. The desire, itself, is not bad nor good, it is bad if I do not connect it to Him, and good if I connect it to Him, that's all.
So, we don't need to direct the desires themselves. We need to direct our attitude from inside the desire to Him. So, I find myself in a particular desire, let's say I am now going to drink coffee, so I need to say a blessing over the coffee. What does it mean to say a blessing over the coffee? To unify what is present here in the coffee in my vessel, and the pleasure that will be revealed in it with Him, that's the matter of action. The screen and reflected light unify the vessel and the fulfillment in it – the pleasure in it – and unify all of that with the Giver.
Student: This is called revelation?
M. Laitman: This is called revelation, it's called the revelation of unity.
Student: What about my feeling?
M. Laitman: In general, our feeling is the outcome of the gap between unity and the absence of unity – between unity and disunity. That's where our feeling comes from: I feel bad or good only as an outcome of the degree of my closeness with the Creator. That is all I feel and it manifests in me in all kinds of ways. Sometimes I'm cold, sometimes I'm hungry, sometimes something hurts somewhere. Sometimes someone shouts at me, sometimes I enter in a state of how good I feel. All these things, ultimately, are different forms, different garments of closeness or distance from the Creator. The vessel otherwise does not feel, there is either more light or less light. So, this article, I Am the First and I Am the Last, is just like, There Is None Else Besides Him. There Is None Else Besides Him, is the whole foundation of our work, and the entire principle upon which this world is built. Just we discover this principle through all kinds of, even through various laws of physics, chemistry, it doesn't matter what. There, all that becomes clarified to us are different forms of unity and the absence of unity. The extent to which things connect or attract one another, or move apart and repel one another. What are all the laws of nature, only that, and on all kinds of levels, even in thoughts, in fields of various kinds. All the frequencies and material phenomena, that's all we have: either connection, or separation, or distance, and that all stems from this one principle.
Student: The work of freezing the desires or scrutinizing the desires?
M. Laitman: Scrutinizing the desires? We do not need to scrutinize the desire, itself, only our attitude to the Creator in that desire. The desire itself, that's what it means that the desire, itself, does not need correction. What needs correction is the thought accompanying the desire, how I use this desire, whether it's in order to bestow.
Student: My question is, if we can do that before the barrier.
M. Laitman: (01:00:37) We cannot do that before the barrier but before the barrier, we scrutinize our state – the extent to which we are distant, disoriented, and confused – these thoughts bring us these states of concealment. These states bring us to intentional and unintentional transgressions, meaning sins altogether, and what are sins or transgressions? They are impressions of the absence of unity, of our inability to unify ourselves with the Creator in any way whatsoever. To the extent that afterward, beyond the barrier, we can unify ourselves with the Creator, our state is accordingly determined as that of Tzadik, a righteous person, either an incomplete righteous or a completely righteous person. These are already called degrees, what are degrees? They are measures of equivalence of form, the measure or the extent to which we are unified with Him; this is called the degree, the height of the degree. Everything is according to a single principle, there is nothing else. He also writes about this in the Inner Observation, in Part 1 of The Study of the Ten Sefirot, these matters are quite clearly explained. So, uniqueness is everything.
Reader: Let's summarize the main points of the lesson in the article.
Song: (01:08:24)