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

Daily Lesson (Morning) February 16, 2025.

Part 1: Preparation to “Reaching Lishma Through Envy”.

Reader: Hello, we are reading selected excerpts from the sources on the topic of “Reaching Lishma Through Envy.” Selected excerpts from the sources for the World Kabbalah Convention that will take place in four days. We're continuing in excerpt number two. 

Reading: (00:24) Rabash, Excerpt 2

“Envy,” “lust,” and “honor,” bring man out of the world (Avot, Chapter 4:28). He says there that through the envy and respect, it is possible to change the inclinations to lust into the degree of vegetative, where he begins to work for the sake of others for the purpose of Lo Lishma [not for Her sake]. Likewise, through envy, he can shift to the level of knowledge, as our sages said, “Authors’ envy increases knowledge.” And likewise, through Lo Lishma they can also shift from the animate level to the speaking.

Yet, how does the Lo Lishma help if one does not have the real inclination to the degree to which he enters? Our sages said about this, with respect to the Torah, “The light in it reforms him.” It turns out that through Lo Lishma, we come to Lishma [for Her sake]. This is why they said, “One should always learn Lo Lishma, as from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma.”

M. Laitman: Just as he says elsewhere – also today like always – each and everyone begins with Lo Lishma, and that does not change. That doesn’t change, rather a person must begin with Lo Lishma to come closer to the friends and be with them together. Until they truly feel themselves as one man in one heart, in one body. And in this manner, they can reach Lishma through mutual help. Even though, they don't have the real, true intention or the characteristics of Lishma, it does not matter. The main thing is the work in mutual help, which they want to come near to the upper force and to be in equivalence of form with Him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:19) We just read that through envy, lust, and honor, it is possible to change the inclination of lust.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:30) What does that mean? That through envy, lust, and honor, we change the inclination of lust? 

M. Laitman: That a person has such inclinations and if he learns how to work with them correctly, they will lead him to changing his nature. 

Student: This is a change that the light does, that I can do something about it? 

M. Laitman: Yes, you can pay attention to the use of envy, lust, and honor, and the way you relate to the friends, to others, those around you. And that's how you change your nature.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:44) How exactly does the power of envy bring one to Lishma?

M. Laitman: It's written that counter's envy will increase wisdom. Hence, one who develops himself, it turns out that through envy he's incorporated with all the people around him. And receives their qualities, their characters and this is how he advances.

Student: But how does it lead to Lishma? I understand that I can be envious of many things but why does it lead me to spirituality, to reaching Lishma, specifically envy?

M. Laitman: Because in envy, envy’s like fire, the fire of jealousy, or of envy. We have the opportunity to incorporate from the qualities of the friends and to come closer this way to bestowal, even though it is opposite our nature. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (07:42) To continue this, I learned from you that a person has nothing but the prayer in his heart. When I feel envy toward the friends that they are great and how much I want to be like them, what should I pray for? Myself or for them, how do I polish my prayer correctly? 

M. Laitman: Through the envy you feel to others – the friends – by this envy you acquire and feel their qualities and by acquiring them you bring them closer to you. And, this is how you gradually are incorporated by them, and can start using the qualities of others. 

Student: Do I acquire it only by being with them in their surroundings? How do I acquire these qualities? 

M. Laitman: When you're with them, studying with them, working with them, in connection with them. Through all those connections you are incorporated from their qualities. And by all these changes in you wanting to resemble them, or to the upper light, it turns out that during the lesson, during the study, you're integrated from their bestowal.

Student: After a person is in an environment and is incorporated with them, there are no more tendencies in him, because as he wrote, these tendencies change in him in order to increase in him the state of Lishma [for Her sake]. What should a person pray for at that moment?

M. Laitman: To reach Lishma, it's great work. So, he prays to the Creator for the Creator to bestow forces and connection to him, the forces of giving and bestowal; and that's how he changes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:33) What is a real inclination in a person?

M. Laitman: A real, or true, inclination that a person has is only to fill his desire to receive.

Student: How does the environment influence a person who doesn't have a real inclination? 

M. Laitman: “Envy, lust, and honor bring man out of the world.” Meaning, in the connection with his friends, he uses through his inclinations to envy, lust, and honor, he's incorporated, included from them, and wants to be like them. And that's how he wants the upper light to influence him and bring him closer to them. And this is how he changes. 

Student: The real inclination is a deficiency in a person, a deficiency in the heart? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How does the light work on a person if he doesn't have a real deficiency? He doesn't have a vessel in which to receive the light. How does the friend's deficiency in the environment I work with, how does it influence me and lets the light work on me? 

M. Laitman: By a person being amongst many people who are drawn to one goal. Then from that a person has this drive, power, desire. He's drawn by this, to what we call, the qualities of Lishma. And gradually, the upper light impacts in this way and leads him to Lishma. 

Reader: We're going to read exit number two, again.

Re-Reading: (13:39) Rabash, Excerpt 2

M. Laitman: Should we read it again? 

Re-Reading: (15:24) Rabash, Excerpt 2

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:07) It turns out that envy is a means for advancement?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does envy complete, or complement, as a means for advancement?

M. Laitman: As I'm envious of what the other has. As there are many people around me and I can identify in them all sorts of inclinations which I am envious of.

Student: Inclinations I don't have?

M. Laitman: That you don’t have, yes.

Student: And the only way for me to complement them is through envy?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Can a person use this actively, in a pre-planned way? 

M. Laitman: Yes, you can aim yourself, prior to the meetings with the friends, that you come into their midst, near them. And somewhat absorb from them these inclinations for lust, for honor, all sorts of things that help you also reach the envy.

Student: Does it even matter what their qualities are? Or what matters is how a person builds them in his eyes, meaning he exalts them, and then he?

M. Laitman: It depends on a person. 

Student: So, the qualities of the people are less important, what's more important is how a person works with them?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: In the excerpt, he talks about shifting from degrees, from inanimate to vegetative, and vegetative to animate, etc. Is envy necessary for us to reach the next degree? 

M. Laitman: Actually, yes, we always rise from degree to degree through envy. Each time through envy, we want to be more envious.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:43) Just to understand a little more, a little better: Envy, what it does is collect sparks of bestowal?

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: After it collects them, how do we use it against the will to receive, the general will to receive? There's a general will to receive, here, and this whole gathering is in order to use it against the will to receive. How do we do it?

M. Laitman: I go to check how much envy I have, how great it is? How I can intensify it, and then it works against my will to receive. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:53) Is everything we do, now, developing the degree of the sacred still? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, through our connection we go through these degrees in Lo Lishma until we reach the speaking level. And only from there can we reach Lishma? 

M. Laitman: Yes.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:17) I heard that envy is like the engine where the fire of incorporation, through it, it can become incorporated. And we also learn and  exercise that annulment is the engine of incorporation, the condition for incorporation. It doesn't really, I can't really reconcile the two. Can you help me reconcile them?

M. Laitman: As people want to connect, the right name we say is to incorporate from one another – or with one another. This happens as everyone knows one another, feel themselves relatively close to one another. And this is how they reach a connection, by coming to this connection between them, each demands from himself to incorporate amongst the others, as he sees them as partners in attaining the higher degree. And that's how he works, one wants to be closer to his friend, each and everyone. And this is how they cause the connection between them.

Student: The annulment, as you said a few lessons ago, the first condition for it is to be zero toward the friends. Envy doesn't feel to me like it places me in a state of zero.

M. Laitman: That is not immediate, I need to come closer to every quality I want to acquire and see in it either that it's really good for me or that it's very bad for me. And then, in such a way, I either come closer to it and use it or I distance myself from it and stop myself from using it.

Student: I still can't understand how to work with envy, or how and why to stir it up. Because it directs a person inwards - I don't have, I want to be like him. It doesn't take me outside, whereas appreciation of the friends, gratitude for the friends, importance of the friends causes me to be drawn after them; and, envy kind of shrinks me.

M. Laitman: But I don't, yet, have that form of feeling of the friends like you're saying.

Student: What, there's no appreciation and gratitude for the friends? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And if there is?

M. Laitman: If there is, you use it. 

Student: And then, do I need envy? 

M. Laitman: You need envy, nevertheless. 

Student: For what exactly do I need envy?

M. Laitman: In order to be similar to the other, as through all the good inclinations that you're about to acquire, you acquire them through envy.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:38) In the corporeal world, a person is jealous of things, it just bursts out of him. Do we need it spontaneously, here? Or do we need to build envy? 

M. Laitman: We need to build it.

Student: How do we build it?

M. Laitman: I need to know the people and to choose out of them those who are an example to me for my development. To try and be closer to them and to resemble them, as much as possible. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:35) Annulment before a friend, does it summon the power of bestowal in him to me? If you feel truly zero toward a friend, does it draw the power of bestowal in him? Does it cause him to kind of emit it, and it makes me feel it in him? Is that, when I come to that state, is that real annulment?

M. Laitman: Through true annulment, we become, we take on the form of bestowal from those who surround us. 

Student: In that form of bestowal, does it exist in the friend already? 

M. Laitman: Yes, we just open it up. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:49) After hearing you, if I understand correctly. First of all, it's not in our nature to reach envy, but if I understand correctly, we come to a positive envy.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: For example, there's a great friend in the Ten and I see him, and I give him a lot of respect, and there are many like that in dissemination, in lessons. So first, we have to see the greatness, right? And then comes a stage where I want to be like them. Is this the envy we're talking about or is it something else? 

M. Laitman: Yes, I want to be similar to the friend and through that I develop.

Student: What we read now, in order to reach the highest level in Lo Lishma because it's still not in Lishma? So for that, I need envy and honor to reach the highest level in Lo Lishma? 

M. Laitman: Yes, that will join in as well.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:23) I noticed that when envy awaken – and the best envy awakens spontaneously – with an example that simply burns me from within, when a friend gives it. At that time without even paying attention, there is a calculation that awakens in me that diminishes the envy. His conditions are different, he can do things I can't. Automatically, it puts out the envy, the ego puts out the envy. So, I understand I'm missing out because of it but it's an unconscious calculation that constantly works in me and diminishes the envy. Because it burns me and I don't want to burn, so it puts out the envy. So, what do I do in order to not miss out on this precious instrument?

M. Laitman: We need to receive this envy and to try through it to feel the friend or the friends. And not erase it, or put it out, but rather to the contrary, to ask the Creator to give us such qualities, as well. 

Student: What can I do against the thoughts that constantly put out the envy? How do I cancel them? 

M. Laitman: We don't need to cancel them but rather we should try to rise, to ascend specifically by them. As all those tendencies and things I see in friends and I'm envious of, I want them to be in me as well. And even more than I feel in them, this is why, this is how I advance. Also, that's why I chose them and their environment, specifically, since the envy that I feel operates between me and them, and it can advance me. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:21) I have a contradiction within me: We want love of friends, we want to reach love. And it's written that a father is not envious of his son. He's happy that he wants him to advance even more. How can there be envy between people who love each other because love erases envy? 

M. Laitman: It depends on how we receive this envy. If the feeling of envy pushes me away from the connection with others, then it will certainly fall incorrectly. But it could be that the love of envy, specifically, brings me closer to those who I'm envious of. Certainly this work is unnatural but that's on one hand; but on the other hand, I feel what attracts me to my friends and what repulses me from them. And this is how it arranges each time – thoughts, desires, actions in me – in such a way that I'm drawn to them. And then they draw me and advance me towards correction.

Student: So, if I understand correctly, envy is a degree for love, it's supposed to develop love, to bring me to it.

M. Laitman: Envy is a degree, to what are you saying towards advancement?

Student: To come to love of friends.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:02) When I look at friends in the Ten, sometimes there are inclinations or characteristics I see in the friends that I want, as well. And there are also characteristics I don't want. How do we do the work because it's confusing?

M. Laitman: In my work with the environment, I need to, first and foremost, aim myself correctly in nearing and observing towards a connection. Towards my connection with my friends; here, I need to think what could help me and what not. Hence, I don't look at the friends whether they're good or bad, like this, like that. I examine to what extent I receive from them forces of bestowal. Forces that will advance me to the goal, that will bring us closer. And that's why I start to appreciate them, in that they specifically contain me with the correct force for adhesion. And in these forces, to the extent in which we receive them – and join them and incorporate with them – in that we will receive more and more. We will receive from them a greater force of connection and advance this way.

Student: Should we look at the Ten as a collective or as individuals?

M. Laitman: Both. 

Student: If I see in a friend 10% of the qualities that I want and 90% I don't want, how do I do this work of extolling those 10%? 

M. Laitman: This is something we'll still talk about.

Student: To reach Lishma because the Creator, there's a reason why He put me with Ten friends, and we say, it's a complete vessel. So, do I need to come to a level where I see each friend as great in order to receive from him the qualities? Without everyone's ingredients, so to speak, we won't be able to make the transition? 

M. Laitman: No, I must be incorporated with everyone and want to be among them as a connecting force. 

Student: I should envy each and everyone, to reach such an envy with each and everyone.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:50) There's the ability to acquire envy from a friend, meaning to envy one's devotion to the society. And if I don't, I can ask the Creator to have devotion and concern for the society?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: At times you look at a friend and you can't do what he's capable, you're not capable of doing such a thing. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: What do you do in such a case? 

M. Laitman: Pray. Ask to have such qualities that you will be able to do what the friends are doing.

Student: How do we distinguish between the quality of concern and devotion to the ability to do such things? 

M. Laitman: The Creator will work it out.

Student: To ask Him for such abilities?

M. Laitman: We don't need to dive into the depths of creation, and weigh each quality specifically, to what extent it's correct or incorrect for correction.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:09) Meaning, practically, my work is to go around and seek reasons to envy every friend?

M. Laitman: What do you mean in practice to walk around and? 

Student: No, I look at a friend and I need to seek a reason to envy him?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And if I didn't find a reason to envy him, it's a sign that I did something wrong? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: It has nothing to do with his qualities?

M. Laitman: No. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:46) What do I, specifically, envy a friend of his qualities? Or do I search for how the Creator operates in him?

M. Laitman: Both, both.

Student: What would help me more in searching because of the qualities he has, why do I find those qualities? Because I hope to merit something through those qualities? What is it that I'm envious of? 

M. Laitman: You envy a friend that he, with his qualities, became closer to the friends and to the Creator. 

Student: And in the rest of the things, there's no point in looking or envying. Just that,  that's the purpose of our envy?

M. Laitman: Yes, the rest of the things may be completely not as it is, as I have. The important thing is that what each one has, he wants to annul it and to be close to the Creator, to be similar to the Creator. 

Student: And is it only his positive qualities that I receive or also the negative? Do I receive the whole package from the friend? 

M. Laitman: What you want, what you want.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:33) In the excerpt it, talks about envy, lust, and honor. Are those like stages? Envy awakens?

M. Laitman: Not necessarily, these qualities work intermittently - like this, like that, alternately. We'll see later.

Student: Lust, I understand it's something that I feel that it's actually I really want. Envy is a little more distant. What is honor, what does that mean? 

M. Laitman: Honor is, this specifically is a very precious quality in a person. That he does want to reveal himself toward the friends – toward others, toward the world – and this is how he advances in life.

Student: Can we say that honor is already something that a person has been rewarded with that point he saw in the friend and starts to feel it being realized in him?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:13) If I know that the friends are greater than me in what I see them, what can I do to really see the greatness of the friends? It appears as if they're hiding their greatness. Could that be?

M. Laitman: I don't think that's true but it seems to you like this is how you see them. Why can such a thing be? 

Student: Why what? I'm sorry, I didn't understand?

M. Laitman: How can it be that you see them as more successful than you?

Student: No, actually, I see that I don't see all the true success of the friend. So, what can I do to see that? 

M. Laitman: Maybe, it's not worth it for you; the Creator will open for you exactly what you need. 

Student: So, simply a request to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:11) It's still not clear how we build the envy. On one hand, we say that the Creator will open up these qualities.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: On the other hand we say that we ourselves need to build it. How does this work together? What do we do with this? 

M. Laitman: I don't know how to build envy – how to fashion it so it is big, important as it should be in order to bring me to the end of Correction — this is something very big. I don't depict to myself a person being able to handle it. Therefore, we shouldn't get too close to envy but rather to the extent that it awakens in us, we will work with it. 

Student: Another matter: Most of the time a person is in the ego and we need to rise above and feel love, while the ego controls us, we don't manage to see good qualities in a friend. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: But when we do rise above, we start to somewhat receive that, notice those things. Meaning, there are other qualities that are hidden in a person's feelings that are there only when he is in love of friends. In our states, is there nevertheless a point in exerting and incorporating in love of friends? Or like Rav said, it will be revealed when it does. Is there something we need to do for it to be revealed on our behalf? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So what can we do, Rav, in such a case to rise above it? 

M. Laitman: Check ourselves, compare ourselves with the friends and see how much greater, more exalted they are. How much stronger they are, how they guard themselves; and in this way advance ourselves.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:20) Do I envy the qualities a friend has, the things he does? Or his deficiency, his longing?

M. Laitman: You envy the qualities that you identify, that you detect in the friend. 

Student: It could be that certain qualities, let's say, come to him from nature, and he has a deficiency for something that doesn't exist in him, yet. What do I need to envy in a friend, here? He may have a quality that's in his regular attributes, even naturally, that has nothing to do with bestowal. On the other hand, there are lacks in a friend that are connected to bestowal and adhesion to the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So, really, what do I envy in a friend? His natural tendencies, or something that's above that, and wanting to resemble the Creator?

M. Laitman: I don't think you can distinguish between what comes to him from nature and what comes to him from above nature. You, rather, notice them, identify them, and you try to sort them in such a way that it's natural for him. And the others are not natural.

Student: According to what should I sort this? What advances me correctly, here? 

M. Laitman: What's correct? Meaning, what comes from the Creator and what did I develop by myself? 

Student: No, what in the friend do I want to develop to attribute to myself and bring closer that is correct to advance to the goal? 

M. Laitman: What qualities there are in the friend that you want to be incorporated with and those that you don't want to be incorporated with. So how do you sort them and how do you attribute yourself – to these and to these not. This is our work.

Student: According to which measuring tool do I decide? I see a certain quality in a friend, and I can, let's say, decide that I do want to envy it and incorporate in it. But it could be that the decision is wrong. Maybe, I'm envying a quality in a friend that is not beneficial to spiritual advancement.

M. Laitman: This you need to check.

Student: According to what I check I can, but I don't know according to what I can decide, here.

M. Laitman: To the extent that you understand these qualities that you want, you are incorporated with them or in them. And you approach the friends, and there are those that you even can't stand them. 

Student: Toward those I can't tolerate and it's hard for me to come closer to the friends, is it more important for me to envy? Or to be closer to the friends upon those qualities?

M. Laitman: I didn't understand. 

Student: Should the envy, or attributing those qualities important to me, or to be adhered to the friends with the fact that I can't envy them, positively? Is the envy, itself, important or to be adhered to the friends? 

M. Laitman: No, adhesion with friends, of course. Envy, itself, is not a sign of anything.

Student: What does the envy come to do? Meaning, to the place where I can't incorporate, I can maybe attribute to myself. But from the point where I can't and it causes me to distance from them, it's like the envy that separates.

M. Laitman: Envy can bring closer or push apart, yes.

Student: The work is to, together with the envy, care? Is that the connection with the friends, the envy? 

M. Laitman: Envy, lust, and honor, that's what it says. So, envy is yes, “authors’ envy increases wisdom”. Meaning the more they are envious of people, people who count degrees, qualities, that they step on. According to that, they advance. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:10) What’s the goal, actually, we want to build two storages? One, the quality of the friends, I put them in this storage room; and one where I acquire rejection from the friends or a place where I can't work at the moment with the desires of friends. I put them in another store? 

M. Laitman: Altogether, you want to build only one storage in which you are in adhesion with them. 

Student: Those are the desires to bestow I'm trying to acquire from the friends?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Okay, that's more or less clear. The question is whether the other things we identify, the wrong attitudes from me towards the friends. Rejection, no matter, the things we said earlier, are those things I put on the side and don't touch until I have sufficient forces to work with them? Or do I simply try to neutralize them, forget them, and avoid them? What would be more correct? 

M. Laitman: Which is more correct, to move away from them or? 

Student: Move away from them or put them on the side. Gather the forces of bestowal to be able to work with them, correct with them, or do something with them later? 

M. Laitman: Both. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:05) I'd like to add to the friend, he talked about these deep inclinations in a person. I, actually, go to the friends to draw qualities from them according to my real inclination, or not according to my real inclination, what's more correct? Because here he's talking about envy, where you don't have a true inclination. So, how does someone with a true inclination for bestowal, and I want to acquire from the friends the qualities for bestowal to the goal. If he has a real inclination it naturally comes to me with the friends. How do I work with this envy in such a way  actually? With a real inclination or not?

M. Laitman: You need to work with all the qualities you have and see how you are in adhesion with friends, with these qualities. To advance as much as possible, and to try that the friends will always be in your heart. This is what guarantees your spiritual advancement. 

Student: That inclination for the friends to be in my heart is actually to take all the friends, ask the Creator to give me the qualities in order to be incorporated in one common Kli? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:25) On the part of friends entering your heart, isn't that a natural by-product when you take one friend on at a time? The part about the friends entering the heart, isn't that a natural by-product as you become closer to each friend one at a time?  

M. Laitman: There is certainly the work of the friend himself, here. 

Student: You had all cautioned us about trying to take too much because our job is to get to where we're connected, not only to our Ten but to the whole society – and from there to the world. So, this is a natural process as we do our work in our Ten, it slowly expands? Correct? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:26) It's written that the Creator is an envious Creator. What is He envious of? 

M. Laitman: He, the Creator, is what can He envy? He can be envious of those who haven't begun those who have only begun the work – and those who are midway – or at the end of the process. 

Student: So, what is the Creator's relation toward such a person? 

M. Laitman: Well, answer it. Or maybe you can think. 

Student: I want to understand where envy stems from. What's its upper root and what is its work in the Creator's system? 

M. Laitman: Envy emerges from us being in an environment that awakens envy in us. 

Student: We need to think more on this.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:08) Do I need to envy specific things in friends? Or what's an example? There's a friend that doesn't drive on the Sabbath, it makes me envy him. The question is like, if it's a specific thing, or it could be all kinds of directions for this envy.

M. Laitman: Check. I don't know what else you can be envious of. But it's good to be envious of things that advance a person to life's purpose.  

Reader: Our next excerpt, Number Three from Baal HaSulam. 

Baal HaSulam, Excerpt 3

Reading: (01:04:00) It is the nature of the fire of envy to be general, encompassing all times and the whole reality. This is because it is the conduct of envy: If one had not seen the object in one’s friend’s possession, the desire for it would not have awakened in one at all.

You find that the sensation of absence is not for what one does not have, but for what one’s friends have, who are the entire progeny of Adam and Eve throughout the generations. Thus, this force is unlimited and therefore fit for its sublime and elated role.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:23) We work a lot on being delighted in mercy. 

M. Laitman: So? 

Student: How does this fit in with envy and delighted in mercy? We need to incorporate with everything the Creator does and justify it? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Where does delighted in mercy, end, and where does envy, begin? 

M. Laitman: Where do they meet? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:25) He writes that the sensation of absence is not from what one does not have but from what one's friend has, who are the entire progeny of Adam and Eve throughout the generations. Thus, this force is unlimited, and therefore fit for its sublime and elated role. What am I, envious of Abraham? 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: Don't I just need to envy the members of my Ten? Meaning, first reach this initial force, and then?

M. Laitman: Whatever awakens in you, this is what you need to work on. 

Student: If envy for the Rav awakens in me that he has concern? 

M. Laitman: Yes, please.

Student: So, I can use that?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: I envy you. 

M. Laitman: Very well, very nice.  

Reader: Excerpt Number Four.

Rabash, Excerpt 4

Reading: (01:07:33) A person has qualities that his parents bequeathed to their children, and he has qualities that he acquired from the society, which is a new possession. And this comes to him only through bonding with the society and the envy that he feels toward the friends when he sees that they have better qualities than his own. It motivates him to acquire their good qualities, which he doesn’t have and of which he is jealous.

Thus, through the society, he gains new qualities that he adopts by seeing that they are at a higher degree than his, and he is envious of them. This is the reason why now he can be greater than when he didn’t have a society, since he acquires new powers through the society.

M. Laitman: Nice. He writes simple and to the point that, through the society, we can acquire new qualities.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:39) It's written that envy increases wisdom. Why wisdom, what does that mean? Again, I asked, it's written that envy increases wisdom. What is the meaning of wisdom, here? And why do I need this wisdom? 

M. Laitman: It talks about light of wisdom.

Student: Why is the light of Hochma, wisdom, we need Hassadim? 

M. Laitman: Specifically through light of Hochma, light of wisdom, the created being rises in degree. 

Student: But if he weren't to have the light of Hasadim, wouldn't the light of Hochma just destroy him? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: It's that that I'm asking about, because I feel like envy can give me new qualities but does not correct me. Those new qualities can give me more forces but it doesn't give the correct intention. It's like there is more force but the main thing that I need because the intention doesn't reach the wisdom. Why should I think or want this envy to expand or acquire those qualities from them? I see a quality, even if I'm envious of it, why should I exert in that? 

M. Laitman: You choose a certain quality to use it in order to come closer to the friends. And if it pushes you away from each other, then you are rejecting this quality. 

Student: The qualities we acquire from envy don't necessarily distance. They can give me more of an expanse or a broad aspect. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Is this to understand that this is just to grow the forces but the corrections that were necessitated, which is connection with friends, can envy somewhat help with that correction? 

M. Laitman: Envy can bring the friends closer.

Student: In what way? He has a quality, I envy it, I acquire it, and now I have it. How did that connect me to that friend? 

M. Laitman: You understand him better, you are closer to him by having the same desires, intentions, qualities, attributes that he has. 

Student: There are two stages, here: There's a stage where I understand a friend, envy what he has, that's not enough yet for the connection. If I truly acquire that quality, then I'll truly be closer to him? Or can I envy the fact that he has that quality, but that effort of burning the ego in order to receive that quality, do I need to do it to reach the connection? Or is it enough that I'm envious of him? 

M. Laitman: It's not enough for you to envy him, even if you don't envy him. Even if you don't envy him, you can be close to him.

Student: I feel that, that's why I'm asking myself, why do I need to use this envy? Because if the main thing for me is to reach a connection with the friends, I don't see how this envy and all the good results in it benefit, here? 

M. Laitman: As it is written, “counters’ wisdom increases envy”. For those who want to collect more and more envy, increase it, wants to come closer to the friends through it, he increases wisdom.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:44) Yesterday, we were at a friend's house, we were together at a meal with children. It's hard to depict what went on there, I was really amazed. Externally, it seems like teenagers but you really see that they are Kohanim – Priests, special souls. It's clear that these youth have the force to lead millions to the Creator. And the Creator gave us this gift to see us before our very eyes. I couldn't sleep, and even until now I'm impressed. I really just went under this inner revolution with this, what should we do with that? 

M. Laitman: So, you're being shown a good example of what can be done in our life. In the daily life, with the family, children, study, work. That's it, so draw your conclusions. 

Student: Another question: Yesterday you gave us a certain work that we need to annul ourselves in the first stage in order to dissolve into the friends. And in the second stage, after we dissolve, we need to try to elevate the friends, upward. And today, when we research this matter of envy, there's a certain new structure. Is it that we've passed through what we studied over to today? Or are we continuing what we studied yesterday in a more qualitative way? 

M. Laitman: From yesterday to today to tomorrow, we tried to expand the qualities that we use in order to construct a more beautiful form of the world. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:37) What is the difference between envy and the greatness of the friends? Not all greatness of the friends awakens envy in me. I can see greatness of the friends and annul to him. What is the relationship between these two things, and how do we combine them correctly? 

M. Laitman: So, go ahead and answer the question.

Student: It seems to me that the correct form is that if I really see him as great, then I have to envy him because then I do not truly appreciate his greatness. And according to that, I seemingly need to envy him. And if I see him as great and I don’t envy him, then it’s not seeing the true greatness of the friend. But I am uncertain with what I just said. 

M. Laitman: Okay. Probably for the time being, this is how it is.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:40) We speak about that in which I need to envy the friend. Should I care about that in which the friends should envy me, to give them inspiration? Or at least to acknowledge them or at least to make it easier for them to envy me? 

M. Laitman: As a result of what we read now from Rabash, we can do everything we can in order to reveal such qualities within us that we would have liked to see in our friends. Meaning, everything that I understand from what I read in Rabash's articles, I want to see that in each one of my friends. And then I'll be calm, that together with them, I'm advancing towards the goal. 

Student: If I don't see those qualities? 

M. Laitman: It means that you need to delve deeper and deeper, or simply ask the friends: What do they suddenly see that is so special in this friend or that friend? And besides, I can ask not only the friends, I can ask the entire Kli. From what did you make such a decision? Or what do we need this kind of work for? And I need to be attentive to them, and they should be interested in filling me with the correct answers. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:35) He writes that there is a new possession that comes only from the correct connection with the society. What does it mean that the person connects with the society? 

M. Laitman: That now he has new desires, new vessels that he wants to realize, so that specifically by them he will be connected with the Creator. 

Student: And then he writes that through the envy that he has for the friends, meaning out of the force of connection with the society and the force of envy toward the friends. What is the connection between connection with the society and envy toward the friends, because the qualities that the friend has, the characteristics, that's not what I should be envious of. So, what are the qualities in the society that I should be envious of? 

M. Laitman: These are the qualities of annulment and connection. Annulling what each and everyone has in his own qualities; and connection with what he identifies in the general society. 

Student: How does the person know that he identifies that? He's in this big society and it could be that he doesn't even identify with that because he doesn't connect with the society.

M. Laitman: So, he hasn't reached the right time yet. So what does he do? He performs connections with all his forces with the friends, and out of that he reaches an embrace and scrutiny. 

Student: The beginning of that connection with the society, does it start in a more general way? Or in a more particular way, with one friend to another? 

M. Laitman: No, it's truly general. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:27:12) We learn that we need to justify each friend, even each person, to the scale of merit. And let's hope that we can succeed in that, to be able to see the person before us in an even neutral or positive way because we see that criticism destroys everything. And now you give us, you explain to us about envy, and not to come too close. You said, meaning it turns out, here, that it's not that I just justified the friend. You also need to find all kinds of qualities that pull me upward, that I need to envy him, and the others at least to justify them. Yesterday, we had this Ten meeting in Petah Tikva and I saw that I could envy a lot here. But it's unrealistic, because it's their Ten, it's their qualities. Me and my Ten, as much as I recognize in my friends, they need a lot more qualities in order to justify them, to get out of that criticism. The question is what is that envy, is it for those who are far from me? And the more you see the friend with more deficiencies, so then you have more criticism? 

M. Laitman: Yes, we need to achieve such a state in which we will be face to face with the friends. And as a result, we will want only to live in an embrace together with them. This is what we need to feel and how to do it. That’s what I wanted to say. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:30:14) Now, you said twice, an embrace. 

M. Laitman: An embrace. 

Student: What is an embrace? 

M. Laitman: Embrace, it's when each one embraces his friend – we're not talking about others now, we're talking about the friend. Each one embraces his friend who is face to face with him and in such a way they get closer to the Creator until the Creator will be revealed between them. That's the part that connects and also the result.  

Reader: We, now, have the next part of the lesson where we'll read an article of Rabash, and before that, we'll sing a song together. 

M. Laitman: Please. 

Song: (01:31:25)