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

Daily Morning Lesson: May 22, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. Letter No. 59

Original lesson date: 07/09/2003

Reader: Hello, dear friends, Happy Holiday! We will enter a lesson from 2003 based on letter 59 from The Writings of Rabash. We will read the letter together in the Tens. We have 14 minutes for that, go ahead.

Reading: (00:39) Letter No. 59

June 8, 1962, Shavuot, Antwerp

To my friend…

Concerning your question about our sages’ words, “A stubborn and rebellious son was not, nor is destined to be. Rather, demand and receive reward” (Sanehdrin, p 1). The Torah is longer than the earth, so why was it given things only on “demand and receive reward,” and not on real things?

You also asked about the reward. Actually, one should serve the rav not in order to receive reward, meaning Lishma (for Her sake).

We should also understand that it is known that the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations, namely that the creatures will receive delight and pleasure. And the reason why the creatures must engage in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] without reward is that it is only a correction on the part of the creatures, since the creatures cannot taste reception of pleasure without shame. The holy Zohar calls it, “One who eats that which is not his, is afraid to look at his face.”

That is, we feel deficiency upon reception of pleasure, so we were given the remedy of Torah and Mitzvot, by which one becomes fit to receive all the pleasures that the Creator has contemplated in our favor, and there will not be the flaw of shame because it is only for the Creator. It therefore follows that the interpretation is a correction by which we can receive the reward and it will not be for ourselves, but for the Creator. Otherwise it is impossible to receive reward, namely pleasures, for pleasure is called “reward.”

And concerning “was not, nor is destined to be,” it is explained that there are things one can attain during the six thousand years. Since it is possible to attain the secret, those things were given to us in corporeality as things to do. This applies to the world of actions.

However, there are things that can be attain only in the seventh millennium. Therefore, although they are implied in the corporeal act of Mitzva [commandment], such as a stubborn and rebellious son, they are not practiced during the six thousand years. Therefore, this is not to become an actual work, but rather “demand and receive reward,” for only the demanding applies to the six thousand years, but the reward, meaning the upper attainment, will be in the seventh millennium. This is called “was not,” in the beginning of the six thousand years, “nor is destined to be,” at the end of the six thousand years. Rather, it will appear at the beginning of the seventh millennium.

By way of ethics, we should interpret that sometimes one comes to a state of such lowliness that he does not taste any taste in Torah and prayer. Although he is learning, he knows and feels the truth about himself—that the real cause he is continuing to learn Torah is not because of fear of heaven, but because of habit, and especially because of what people might say. Meaning when the environment he is in sees that he is slacking in the study of Torah they will consider him an empty vessel without fear of heaven, and will not respect him as much as they respected him before. Therefore, when he leaves the study of Torah he will suffer from his environment and his family will despise him.

It is likewise in prayer; he prays only out of habit, but without any obligation due to fear of heaven. He is continuing with it also due to the same cause as with the study of Torah. But most importantly, he sees no purpose in his life and he cannot carry on in such a state much longer.

To this there is a correction called “Minister of Forgetfulness.” He forgets the goal, meaning the reason that necessitates his continuing engagement in Torah and prayer. When he forgets the reason that compels him he continues with Torah and Mitzvot only out of habit. If he has an opportunity to come out of that environment he does it right away.

In such a state we need great mercy in order to be able to hang on until the wrath—meaning the lowliness—is over. And since torments cleanse man’s iniquities, through suffering he is pitied from above and is given an illumination of fear of heaven, and he returns to life. Thus the situation returns to being as it was prior to his fall into the state of lowliness.

That abovementioned time of lowliness is called “was not, nor is destined to be,” meaning it was not in the purpose of creation nor is it destined to be. Such a thing is called a “pit stop,” since there is a state of Kedusha (holiness) and a state of Tuma’a (impurity).

He can hope to repent from a state of Tuma’a, but the abovementioned state is called a state of “death.” That is, everything he does is lifeless and regarded as dead. It was not in the goal nor is it destined to be. In that case, why is this needed? However, demand and receive reward, meaning that in that state one must demand the Creator, as our sages said, “Zion; no one requires it, meaning that a demand is required.” That is, such a state is given to a person in order to have room for demand, that he will intently demand of the Creator to bring him closer to Kedusha.

But when a person makes Mitzvot, he feels about himself that the Creator will bring him closer. But precisely at that time, called “pit stop,” is the place for demand with prayer and request.

May the Creator open our eyes in His Torah [law]

Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag

Son of Baal HaSulam

P.S.

Concerning the Omer count [a count of seven weeks beginning the second night of Passover and ending in the holiday of Shavuot], it is known that man’s primary work is to connect himself to the Creator.

Omer comes from the word [in Hebrew] “gathering sheaves.” RASHI interpreted, “as it is translated, gathering sheaves, collecting.” It means that by becoming mute and not opening the mouth with complaints against the Creator, but rather, for that person ‘Everything that the Merciful One does, He does for the best’ (Berachot 9), and says that he, meaning his thought and desire, will be only for the Creator, then he is gathering.

That is, by connecting all of one’s thoughts and desires with a tight connection of having only one goal—to bring contentment to the maker—a person is regarded as “gathering.”

The interpreters say that the Omer count comes from the words, “and under His feet there appeared to be sapphire brick, as pure as the bodies of the sky.” This means that by a person connecting himself to the Creator, he is rewarded with the revelation of the light of the Creator appearing on him. It follows that by a person gathering, tying all the desires in one knot, meaning to one purpose—for the Creator—then that Omer shines. This is the meaning of the Omer [gathering] count, where a person shines with the light of the Creator.

And since a Jew consists of seven qualities, which must be corrected into being for the Creator, and there is a rule that each quality comprises the others, then we have seven times seven, thus forty-nine days. This is why we count forty-nine days to the days of the reception of the Torah.

Omer comes from the word Seorim [barley/measures]. This means that it comes from measures, by measuring in the heart the greatness of the Creator, as the holy Zohar interprets the verse, “Her husband is known at the gates.” The holy Zohar says, “Each according to what he assumes in his heart,” to that extent the light of the Creator is on that person.

This is called “faith.” When a person is rewarded with faith in the Creator, it is regarded as a “beast.” This is the meaning of the Omer being of barley, which is animal food, meaning that he has not yet been rewarded with the view of Torah. But on Shavuot, when rewarded with the reception of the Torah, one receives the view of Torah. For this reason, we offer the offering of wheat, which is food for man, who is the speaking. But before one is rewarded with Torah, which is the speaking, it is regarded as an offering of barley, which is animal food. At that time it is called “gathering sheaves,” regarded as being mute, which is only animate, and not speaking, for only by the Torah are they rewarded with being “speaking.”

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Reader: (14:40) We'll move on to a lesson from August, September 7, 2003.

M. Laitman: Rabash wrote a letter about the holiday of Shavuot, where he describes the correction to the holiday of Shavuot, called the Counting of the Omer. The Omer is when a person corrects himself in a state when he comes out of Egypt, and he corrects himself in the degrees of Katnut, smallness; that's why during the Count of the Omer, we're not prohibited from having joyful festivities because that's considered the extending of the letter of Hochma. That's why you're not allowed to shave the hair, because the hair is also related to drawing the lights.

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Lesson from August, September 7, 2003 re-start

M. Laitman: (16:06) A letter by Rabash, written before the holiday of Shavuot, and he describes the correction of the holiday of Shavuot, the Counting of the Omer. The Omer is a state where a person corrects himself after coming out of Egypt in first degrees of Katnut, smallness. That's why during the time of the Counting of the Omer, it's forbidden to engage in joyous festivities, because joy is considered the drawing of the letter of Hochma; that's why it's not allowed to shave one's hair because the hair is also regarded as the drawing of the lights, extending of the lights – it's an external parts of the body of men to extend additional lights. And that's why during the times of smallness, Katnut, we carry ourselves in smallness, and this is the Counting of the Omer. By making himself small, doing the work in humility, then he comes to a state we call the Counting of the Omer. The Sefira, the sphere, means that he illuminates, and he subjugates himself in all his qualities. And after the final stage, he reaches the state of Shavuot, the corrected vessel that is worthy of receiving the Torah, and then he comes from the degree of the beast – the food of the beast, the Omer, the grain – to be a man, the degree of MA.

All this, this work in the greatness of the Creator, in the exertion to grow the greatness of the Creator in his eyes throughout the 49 virtues. And that's how he grows, because by increasing the greatness of the Creator in his eyes, each time he draws, each time lights from above. And then he corrects his virtues to the complete unification, when he comes to the holiday of Shavuot. And in these corrections, the Rabash says that we have to work against the problem of forgetfulness – that there's a special minister, meaning a special force in creation, called the Minister of Forgetfulness, whose job is to make us lose each time the state that we've attained, the degree, the force we previously attained. For it to disappear, and not let us feel a state of wholeness because every degree in spirituality is a certain degree of wholeness. And when we are in a certain degree and the light shines as small as it might be compared to all the rest of the degrees. But the small one does not, they don't reveal the deficiency; and when a person does not feel the deficiency, he cannot move, and all the movement is by the revelation of a deficiency. Therefore, there is a special force that removes the light from the degree, from the parts of each time, from the soul, and it obligates a person to feel that his inner state has changed, and it obligates him in this way to move forward, to keep going. Otherwise a person would remain in the same state – what we refer to as keeping Torah commandments out of habit for the environment – meaning for a variety of reasons except for to renew contact and connection with the Creator.

M. Laitman: (21:21) How to make this Minister of Forgetfulness work on us more effectively? This is our work, because when we forget about the goal, we forget, and we don't forget about the whole state and feel in its place an imperfect state. Meaning we, only a part of the state departs. Let's say we attained a good state, we felt some closeness to spirituality, and then seemingly from above, we are made to lose the degree. But we don't feel a deficiency in it, meaning although what is lost, the light, seemingly, the illumination in the state. But the deficiencies are not built yet, the new records, because in this action of the Minister of Forgetfulness, there's an association between the Creator and the created being. And a person has to work throughout all the states he's in, even during the state of adulthood, greatness that he's in. And he has to work on the greatness of the Creator, and not, instead of constantly yearning for the greatness of the Creator, to be satisfied with the greatness of the state that he attained, and turn it to his own pleasure. So, in order to teach a person that he should not stop working on the greatness of the Creator, the Creator seemingly revokes, He activates the Minister of Forgetfulness, and the state of Gadlut, of greatness, adulthood, departs, but the state of greatness departs, and the greatness of the Creator is not renewed, the demand for the greatness of the Creator is not renewed. This means that a person does not receive any sufferings for losing the degree; then he enters this extension of time, stretching out of the time, and in short, a path of suffering in place of the path of Torah. And it's all because he did not work on the greatness of the Creator during the time of ascent; meaning, he observed Torah and Commandments – either for himself or because of his environment, because of habit – and not for the sake of the goal.

He forgot that all his actions are in order to reach the goal and correction, which are called Torah and commandments, are all in all the remedy of Torah and commandments. It's not that the actions themselves change him, and not that the actions themselves contain some profit, and there's a certain act that needs to be done, as those who received incorrect education may think. Rather, through the actions called Torah and Commandments they think that they do something, they act, and they profit somehow, they gain something. Rather, these actions are called the remedy of Torah and Commandments for a reason, since everything we need to get through these actions is to extend the reforming light, where the remedy of this light has the power to correct us.

(26:28) This light comes to the study, and the correct books with the right intentions. With the correct group each time, that is aimed at the goal. And ultimately, the action of the person in this, it's called, Demand and receive a reward. Because it doesn't have an active part in correction, a part that he corrects by himself. Rather, it simply causes the record that he was born with – born with meaning the state that he feels right now – and the light that meets corrects records, it did the work on him so he will be the one who invites, summons the work and the correction. This is the meaning of Demand, try to reach correction, so the light will control the record and correct them with the intention to bestow. And to receive a reward means that this is the only state he aims for, and that the action here of the person himself helps in any way, but only his intention that the correction will take place. Meaning, all that we do, we work to reach the receiving of the Torah in the state of Katnut, smallness as we call it in the account of the Omer; instead of beastliness, who eat the rye and the grain until we come to the state of man. Man is already called bread, faith, a degree of Shavuot, and, They walked, the two of them walked together, Bina and Malchut together. So, our work before that is demand to receive a reward, and work above reason in the work on bringing the light, the acts, and brings us the remedy of correction. And the work against the Minister of Forgetfulness, that would help us as the beneficial force in forgetting about the previous state, bringing about a deficiency for the next state. These are the preparations for the receiving of the Torah for the holiday of Shavuot.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:46) What does it mean that it didn't work on greatness of the Creator during the ascent?

M. Laitman: Rabash writes in many places that a man's transgression – the action that causes disconnection with the Creator, from the Creator – each time, this is called a transgression. Even if he's in the smallest state, the smallest measure of disconnection from the Creator. If that state disappears, this conduct with the disappears, we say that it disappears because of the transgression; on the other hand, we say that it must be so. Otherwise, without a descent, there will not be another ascent, and he's in a greater problem. You cannot have a sense without the sense; but, it's like what we say about Adam HaRishon, right? That he sinned, he caused the sin, this is the same here. The reason, the cause, here, the cause for the descent is always that during the ascent, at some moment during the ascent, a person stops enjoying adhesion with the Creator. And instead, begins to enjoy what he receives as a result of the adhesion, the feeling of wholeness, of eternity, of belonging. Meaning, he enjoys a feeling inside the vessels, and not the feeling of being in the Creator caused by the adhesion. This moment, where he stops thinking, stops being moved by the state toward the Creator and instead twists it so he is excited for himself. This is the moment of transgression, meaning, although he enjoys spirituality, a state where he belongs to the eternal, and he bestows to the Creator. But these pleasures should also be for the sake of the Creator, and not for himself, specifically, as he writes. And that causes the losing the degree, light departs, as if he went again back to the will to receive. And the light that he feels, when he feels the light in front of the will to receive, it departs from the will to receive because that's a prohibition of the first restriction, meaning the light departs. But a person doesn't feel a deficiency to bestow to the Creator in this state because he caused the light to depart, because he stopped thinking about bestowal to the Creator and started to think about what he gets out of such bestowal.

That's why the forgetfulness doesn't happen to him in a way that he loses the degree, rather he loses only the light of the degree, and the degree itself stays, remains. And the person feels in it, simply the Mochin disappear, and he becomes like an idiot, like a fool, and he continues to flow without any mind. As if the head descended to the level of the body, like a beast. And he continues in this way, meaning he keeps, he observes things, he participates in studies, but without a goal, like a beast. That's why such people who live without a goal, where their head is no higher than their body, meaning the head serves the body – we call this life, beastly life. This is the meaning that the Minister of Forgetfulness works on a person not according to his role on the person, because the Creator is interested that the person will finish the degree in such a state that his fall will be immediately connected to the feeling of a new deficiency and a new ascent, that's it.

(35:32) Now, can we do it otherwise? In truth, you can't; it's like in Adam HaRishon, we said he transgressed, he sinned, and everything, right? But just like in Adam HaRishon, it wasn't up to him, it also isn't up to us. Rather, this state, when we squeeze out the last drop of the record, the highest, the maximum height, when we begin to expose to ourselves this – even for a moment, this is an obligated state, and then we fall – and this state is also obligated. But the question is different, not about a person, how he stopped thinking about the Creator and started thinking about himself, and he lost the matter of the greatness of the Creator. Rather, the matter is that a person is missing another preparation which is the preparation of the environment. And if he has prepared an environment, then he immediately feels toward the environment that he can't continue to exist in the usual way, like with the family, with the rest of the world, or like with a religious person in his environment. Rather, if he prepared the correct environment, he immediately feels relative to his environment, the environment of the servants of the Creator, that his fall is a fall from the direction toward the Creator, to the direction toward himself. And this is called sin, meaning, the sin is not the falling, that's not a sin. The sin is that he did not prepare himself, so that immediately during the fall, he wasn't able to immediately rise. In other words, the sin – as Baal HaSulam says – is that the Creator places a man's hand on the good fortune, meaning He brings him to the group, into the correct state, and He says, take it. And, Take it, meaning now choose a stronger group, so you have such an environment around you that will obligate you all the time to generate the intention of bestowal to yearn for adhesion, and so on and so forth.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:04) How does the environment provide the person with this sensation?

M. Laitman: How the environment provides it to a person? Without any words, it provides such deficiencies because it engages in it, and the person is connected to the environment, so he simply must. If it's a correct environment, he must receive this sense of disquiet restlessness, the feeling that disappears from him, that this is truly the main thing. Because what disappears, the light when it disappears, doesn't bring a deficiency to a person, it has to feel that it disappears from him, that equivalence of form has disappeared from him, equivalence of form with the environment. Meaning if the Creator disappears, the light disappears, then he needs to feel a deficiency toward the environment. And the environment replaces the Creator here, allows us to complete the concealment.

Student: Does a person truly, if he realizes choosing a better environment, this feeling comes to him after he loses?

M. Laitman: To choose a better environment each time means that a person has to ensure that his environment has a direction as strong as possible, correct. And consistently aimed at the goal and to have a connection as much as possible to this environment. And then he is certain that even when the light disappears from him – and it must depart from him to reveal a new deficiency, a new record, the posterior of a new degree – so, here in the concealment, his support, the group will help him immediately to recognize his state and the deficiency.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:14) And that's hastening the times?

M. Laitman: That's hastening the time. Hastening the time is through the group during the descent and in the ascent. It's really what he prepared for himself during the ascent, then when he reaches the top, he can continue forward, and nevertheless he then sins. The fact that he will sin each time during the ascent, that is certain, that's the realization of the record, what does that mean? It must be there because if the record is limited, the person must reach a state where he, seemingly, has nowhere to advance. He exhausted all of the yearning from this record and he stops feeling that he has anything else to contribute. Because what does it mean bestowal, bestowal means I can constantly add in giving. And if my record is fully realized, then I cannot continue; and then bestowal disappears and it causes a person to descend.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:56) What does it mean to choose a better environment when a person is already in spirituality?

M. Laitman: Also in spirituality, the environment is your environment, what is the environment? Even now, when you're in the environment, it's not the people who are around you. Even now, the environment is a certain abstract form of the attitude of your friends to the Creator. It's not something that's sitting by the table, like you or in some place; rather it's the sum total of the intentions and yearnings and inclinations, all your exertions toward the goal, all of your expectations, right? Everything that is together aimed at the Creator is called an environment. In these thoughts and directions, you wish to live, that is your environment. So, you're interested in ensuring they are as wide as possible, as strong as possible, and to have a great connection with them, with these intentions. It's a spiritual force, also now, and also in spirituality, when you are beyond the barrier – it's the same thing. Except now, for you, it's relatively in concealment, and you imagine it a certain way, and each time you have doubts and innovations – you know or you don't know what is a society and how am I connected to it? And after the barrier, it becomes more scrutinized, more controlled, clearer. But the work is the work, also with the same elements, to make them, to grow them, yes.

So also now, we need to imagine to ourselves, to portray to ourselves correctly, what is the environment; what is the correct character of the environment? It's not this 1, 2, 3, 20, 50, 100 friends that I study with, that are called, that are named such and such, that look in such and such a way. No, the environment is what stands behind all those people. A certain spiritual force, a yearning, a desire for the Creator. The perseverance, specifically, when they are here they are holding on by their teeth, not to lose any moment from aiming themselves toward reaching the goal, and so on and so forth. With such forces, they wish to connect them together to this collection of forces – that they will work together – this is a society, and that's what we have to care about, this is the spirit. Also, in a special forces unit, you care mainly about the spirit, right, so each one will hold on to the other, prop up the other so everyone will drink from the same general spirit. Otherwise, it could be a billion people, like the Chinese, but the main thing is the spirit in the group. So, we have to worry about that, and we have to accordingly appreciate each and every one according to his contribution to that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:10) How is it possible to appreciate it if it is hidden?

M. Laitman: How can you appreciate it when it's hidden? If you're in it, if you develop it, then you begin to feel it. You begin to feel how much each and every one contributes to it; how much each and every one, without his contribution, he does not belong to it. To what extent I connect to this group, to this general force – only to the extent that I can also add my own exertion in the same direction, right? To that extent I connect, to that extent I can take from them their awakening and use this general force, the spiritual force, called the group. But to the extent that I use this general force, I add to the group; in spirituality, the more you take, you strengthen this matter. It doesn't grow weaker, it's not like in corporeality. In spirituality, it's as we call it: He who lights one candle from another candle, then that candle remains lit and the other one does not lack. It's not like the first one goes out, the second one that lights his candle adds his fire to the first candle until you get a complete burning fire.

So there's a state where each time you use it, you grow the general force; and using the general force, he strengthens this power. And accordingly you feel the group of the environment, and when we use it, when we work in it, then we begin to feel how each and every one, how much he can contribute in his own unique way. In externality, he could be a quiet person and humble, may even appear lazy. But then you begin to feel how much he contributes, meaning you see the work of the soul of each one.

Student: By taking, I'm contributing?

M. Laitman: Certainly! One who takes forces from the society to advance, otherwise you can't take, you can't take anything from this force except the benefit of advancing in the same direction, it won't help you anywhere else. Because the force of yearning for the Creator, aimed at Him, you can't take it and use it some other way – it's not going to work out. Therefore, one who doesn't use this stream, you can see it because he's sort of, he remains inactive in the work. Meaning he doesn't take, he also doesn’t add; and relative to this force, we also have the conception, suckling, and the Mochin. We have the work like in the Partzuf, like toward the Creator, and the work towards the means, and the work towards the means becomes like work toward the Creator. We'll learn about it later.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:02) What should I be concerned about my contribution to the group, that I'll have the force or that the friends will have it?

M. Laitman: Do I need to ensure that the spirit, the intention, the yearning will be in me or in the friends or in the group? I need to ensure that all three will be as one without distinction; and then, no matter my state, that preparation will help me feel that I'm, seemingly, leaving this unity. I don't need to divide my work in the group, the group and its direction, the work of the friends in it, to me and them and our general goal. Rather, just like there's man and his actions and the Creator, I need to unite everything to one point, here, too, we need to be, As one man in one heart and one goal, one mission toward one goal connected with that one goal, this has to be as one. There need not be a difference between how I yearn for the Creator through a certain action, and there should be no difference between that and how the group and the friends is doing the same. Rather, we're doing it together, we're connected as one vessel and one Creator and one fulfillment, why should you divide it? And everything connects in the point of unity, so why should I divide it now, when I'm going to realize correctly my state? How can I divide these things, I don't understand? By working in it, the minute I come out of it, according to any one parameter, I create this action, which is the group, the general vessel, right? If I leave it, then immediately I feel that I left, otherwise the Creator disappears, I don't feel it. The group departed, I don't feel this whole thing, I'm not part of this process I don't feel it, I'm not sensitive to it.

Student: Can we liken it to an organ of the body caring for the whole body?

M. Laitman: An organ from the body cares about the connection with the general body, to live in it, to have life in it. That's the concern of the individual relative to the group and the Creator, meaning to look at the group where the general vessel in it is the connection with the Creator, period. What is here? You can receive the Torah, can you receive light if you're not united in such a desire? You can't, it will simply be revealed in a simple way that until we get through a certain critical state, critical mass, what does it mean, critical mass? That I will come out of myself to some extent, I will not begin to feel the revelation of the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:49) How do I collect the longing to the Creator?

M. Laitman: To collect all the longings, the yearnings to the Creator is something you can't do by yourself. If we have a certain reservoir of exertion and we keep adding there, and we ensure this will always remain and will grow, then we can take a regular prayer book, Siddur – The Order of The Prayer, that book – you'll see how much it's connected. One turns to the Creator from within the crowd – we, we, we, it's constantly all about us all the time. And the Kabbalists composed it for us, the people of the Great Assembly before the exile. And in this prayer book, it has the correct attitude, the correct form, the correct stages of turning to the Creator. Meaning there's a degrees of closeness, just as we learn in Part 12, 13, and 14 in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, when they explain the matter of prayer; also in the ARI, there are the explanations of the prayer, you understand? Everything is the action of a person from the collective to the Creator, it can't be any other way, the prayers are very, these pleas are very special. You have moments when a person addresses the Creator alone, but it barely exists. And even when he does do it, it's because he turns to the Creator as the representative of the public, the messenger of the public, Shatz, as we call it, understand? But there's no such thing that someone is separate.

That's why in Jews, there is no other people that are connected according to his nature, his beastly nature, like Jews, there isn't. Every group of people can live together, people are living separately, apart here and apart there. But these people, according to nature, even if it's dispersed around the world, there's a connection between them. And the matter of the state, let's say the matter of connection, there are people whose country barely exists. They don't feel connection to all those systems of the state; and in us, it exists within nature. We simply can't do without it, without the organization, without uniting and being connected in a certain mechanism, like a nation. It's all because the root of this people is this nature; meaning, also in the beastly nature, you have the preparation for the group, after all, that's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:27) When a person enters that state of the Minister of Forgetfulness, how does he make sure that he doesn't lose the vessels that he had during the ascent, but that he'll be sorry about losing the connection with the Creator? How does he scrutinize it?

M. Laitman: When the light disappears, the light disappears from the vessels, and how do I feel sorry? How do I regret – not the fact that I'm now feeling the deficiency of the light – rather, I feel a deficiency relative to the giver of the light, connection with the giver of the light. Again, I'm saying this is a deficiency of a higher degree, it's a deficiency that comes to me if beforehand I was in vessels of bestowal. If, previously, I was in vessels of bestowal, I had a deficiency, seemingly, in vessels of bestowal, but at least to some extent, when we speak of them. So, I had a feeling that I'm in a state where I was connected to someone: there's me and him in the state between us. What is me and him? I have a certain attitude toward him, and not only to the state of how I feel. So, if a person has an appreciation of the greatness of the Creator and has connection to the Creator, and has a tendency toward connection with the Creator during the state of ascent, then when that state disappears, he feels that he lost the connection with the Creator, not merely the state itself. The state that was good and beautiful and was great, to feel some wholeness. So two bits of information disappear: the state itself and whom this state was connected to – that I felt good, and it was also good in relation to the Creator. If during this state of ascent, I stopped growing the connection with the Creator, which can be made possible by the group, by their appreciation of the greatness of the Creator. And I started to enjoy by myself, that moment I fall, and when I fall, this is called the Minister of Forgetfulness—when the light departs. The light departs from the state where I stop being in contact with the Creator. And the state that I fall is not felt in me as losing contact with the Creator, because I lost the connection already during the ascent. And during the descent I simply feel that things got worse, somehow it got worse and I continue in life, somehow. I feel only ascent and descent, because it was better before and now it's a little worse, not that I had a connection with the Creator and now I don't.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:35) So during the time of?

M. Laitman: When you lost contact with the Creator, now you don't feel it, only if you're studying and you're in the society, then through the corporeal process where you come to them and become incorporated with them, you restore your connection with the group, through the group with the Creator.

Student: Is there a way to speed it up?

M. Laitman: There's a way back from it: first of all, by not falling into the feeling of beastly pleasures – meaning you enjoy the ascent but not with connection with the Creator. During the ascent, not to make a sin, how not to sin during the ascent? It's by constantly yearning to increase the greatness of the Creator through the group; so it's as if each time you are deficient, you obtain a deficiency for the Creator from the group, and then you can go forward. And if a descent happens, and it will happen but it will not be your fault, because you are constantly working on obtaining additional desire from the environment. You are interested all the time in ascending; and ascending not in the feeling but in the quality with the Creator. Then your descent is already not a descent in feeling that the good state has disappeared from you. But now you define a descent as the disappearance of the connection, of your connection with the Creator, your contact with the Creator. This is why you feel it is bad and why it's called now a descent. So now you measure descents not by the feeling but by the level of connection with the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:53) In the same state of the descent? So, can you get forces in that state, or can you still contribute in society?

M. Laitman: If you descend without losing connection with the Creator; meaning, during the descent you also know that you lost connection with Him, and this is what you are missing. Then in that state you add to the society a deficiency for connection with the Creator, and the society benefits from your descent, now it's got deficiencies. But if you fell like a beast and you only feel bad now, you're only under the influence of the bad feeling – that I'm not feeling good – then that too is an addition. The recognition of evil that you'll have soon, that too is an addition; but still, that addition is not spiritual. But through the society, through the labor, you will process this addition, this deficiency, gradually into a spiritual deficiency, a deficiency for the Creator. But that's already a long way.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:31) You said that if you take forces from the environment, so how to take that force?

M. Laitman: I didn't understand.

Student: You said earlier that the environment is a collection of yearnings for the same place, to give forces for everyone.

M. Laitman: You know, take a group of athletes: soccer, volleyball, all kinds of team sports, yes, special sports. Where many psychologists work, not on the personal preparation of a person to the goal that increases spirit and confidence in the ego to achieve the goal. There, group psychologists work, these are completely different methods, yes? So each one is not me against the whole world, and now I'll fool everyone, I'll trick everyone, but it's a person's annulment before the society; to contribute to the society is elation, and receive from the society, it's elation. So in short, it's a completely different method. And learn from this how even in corporeality it is used, these are known things, and how it's used in the army. In any group of people that wants to achieve a certain goal, and is in special states – dangerous states, situations – it's always work against a person's ego. And it is always only in order to appreciate, exalt the common goal. Without it, it's impossible, each one must annul himself before the achievement of the goal with clear knowledge that without a strong society, a strong group, it is impossible to achieve it, that's it. These three things are in every situation; go to psychologists or these coaches and ask them, and you'll see what they tell you. I'm not telling you any secrets from heaven.

Student: That's clear, but you said that you feel a force, you gave an example, like a hundred feel from a hundred, and?

M. Laitman: I'm saying that people's connection is always a spiritual force, even if you're talking about such a group. And even if that group is a sports team or kibbutzniks or whoever, they too are using a spiritual force. If people come together for a certain goal, it's already a spiritual force, and then there's a problem: if they use that force for the sake of the Creator, then they benefit, and they go forward, and they thrive, and everything is beautiful, and it doesn't end. But if they take the force of uniting people, which is a spiritual force, and use it for their own benefit, like they wanted to do in Russia or in the kibbutzim, this is what they end up with, why? Baal HaSulam explains there in the article, The Arvut, Mutual Guarantee, that it's only because they are using this concept of unity of souls, which this unity should be a vessel for the Creator, for the light. They're using it as an instrument for corporeal attainments, instead of for attaining spirituality. If you connect several people, you want something good to come out of it, it has to be in their connection, the intention to bestow upon the Creator, not to bestow upon themselves.

In order to bestow upon themselves will cause darkness and suffering and disasters. People unite – let's say they want to create some company in this world, to grow rich in some way, to achieve some achievement in this world. We see that all those things that are done specifically by connection, it also has to do with the Industrial Revolution that started during the ARI and onwards – it started for the same reasons. Afterwards, the Enlightenment, the period of enlightenment that started these developments, which were not done out of nearing the Creator, but were done by creating groups of people where one would help the other. So all those groups, or societies, or factories – you name it – in the end, they only caused affliction. And from this, we come more quickly to the recognition of evil. Why do we say that – what do we say about industry, that the whole world became a small village? It's only by chasing money, respect, through corporeal pleasures but what are we discovering? We are discovering the negativity in the incorrect connection between us. We are enticed by all kinds of nonsense, like money, honor, respect, a better life, so to speak. But unconsciously, from above they want to bring us the awareness that humanity connects among itself – not for the sake of the Creator – when it doesn’t, it loses in the worst possible way, it causes us to very quickly understand it. It is as Rabash says, that there is a person who is given a desire for money. So he opens a restaurant in order to make money but actually in this way, he's forced to bestow upon people money that's for him. It's like a lie but actually, by this, the Creator causes bestowal in the world and makes each one bestow upon the other quickly. And in this way, the records will grow, and besides growing, it will also connect between them in all kinds of ways; and by this, cause quicker development toward correction.

So it's the same with humanity – humanity is given a desire for money, for all kinds of achievements, and they connect among themselves, groups of people in order to discover the negativity about it. So, everything we see on the outside is temptations, enticements, in order to eventually, we're given them in order to do, out of our will to receive, incorrect things. And then we will recognize the evil in them; and after the right conclusions, we will move into the right track. And this especially pertains to the unification of people – the unification of people. All the wars are a result of creating the unity incorrectly, to reveal to us the opposite: how to read the map of what is happening in this world, from cause to consequence. So it turns out that incorrect peace causes war because we make peace between us in our society, not for the sake of the Creator, but for our own sake. And in the end that causes separation, a fall, the war, everything.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:35) We are speaking about our group, to connect correctly for the sake of the Creator. So, for everyone to be able to advance, he also needs to add his yearning to this idea, and also take from the collections of the yearnings, to take that force. By taking the force, that's what I heard, that's also adding, so how to take the force? By trying to be in this connection, that gives me the force. Is there another exercise to take forces from society? Let's say if I get weak, so I want to take forces, how to do it?

M. Laitman: You can take force, power to advance to the Creator, from the environment, to the extent that you contribute to the environment because it's the same thing – contributing to the environment or receiving from it is the same thing. In spirituality, there cannot be reception without bestowal; there can be reception only according to the measure of bestowal. And for the reception to be only for the sake of bestowal. You need to relate to the society as to the spirituality that is revealed to you, now. The only difference is that when you move to the spiritual world, you will discover forces, when you will already have eyes, the look, the desire to bestow – in order to bestow. And now, with your approach to the society, you are connected to the society in connection with spiritual forces, but even though you are still now in order to receive, you understand? But the approach, the relation to the society, meaning the correct relationship, can be only if you truly intend to somehow – according to your ability, according to your understanding, according to your concepts, according to how you are – if you intend to be in order to bestow. You could say that with respect to spirituality, it's not in order to bestow and I don't know what it is, it doesn't matter, according to your own situation. This is why you are shown the society, and if you, through the society, want to achieve adhesion with the Creator, and you imagine adhesion with the Creator, however you imagine, it doesn't matter. And you imagine the society is a force that bestows, it doesn't matter if it is like that or not. And you yourself seemingly yearn for this and for that, but all those seemingly is the correct and beneficial. And in your situation, that's the only means to advance into not seemingly, but to the right real spirituality.

In other words, we have to see the society as the only means, in our situation, below the barrier, to depict to us an order of spiritual forces and relations, whereby using them correctly, we cross above the barrier. And then the concept of society becomes even greater. There, it's already unity with the souls in a clear way that you can criticize, monitor, where a person actually operates in this, through screens, unites the vessels, I don't know how to describe it better. But we need to try a little more to depict the picture: how in our situation we were given some special means, it's like a bubble from the spirituality that is here, yes, and if I exercise on it, I practice on it – however I know, it doesn't matter how, in whatever state I'm in – but to bestow, to receive from it, in order to achieve bestowal, in order to connect with them, in order to reach the Creator, you understand? All those things, this is actually that same implementation that Baal HaSulam writes in the letters, that Yisrael, the Torah, and the Creator are aimed toward one line until they actually unite. But from the very beginning, you have to imagine that they are already united.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:07) A person needs the society completely, there is nothing else. What should he do to feel that the society needs his bestowal also?

M. Laitman: That's already a more difficult question: How a society can feel that it needs the investment of each and every person, and perhaps also, additional people? It's a lot easier to work as me toward the society and more difficult to work from the perspective of the society toward each person. I would put it this way, as Baal HaSulam writes: A person should be concerned about the spiritual prosperity and gratitude to the Creator, twenty-three and a half hours; and then only then, after that, half an hour a day to be in criticism. It's the same here, in criticism toward the investment of the friends to the group, we should be in it only after we really try to enter this concept called society. And once it's felt in us as some sort of a spiritual concept and we have some common feeling in it – what it should be – then by that we can discuss already during the Gathering of Friends how we from the group should cause, bring about additional strength from each and every one. How we can, what we call, elevate the group, the society. So, it turns out that in the end, we will not come with demands to each one – why aren't you contributing to the society? But what will turn out is that we will blame ourselves, the general group that is unable to cause people to come to the right discernment where either they contribute to the group and are incorporated in it, heart and soul, or they see that they are outside of it. And then, if they are still present, but it's clear that they are outside of it and are opposite from it, then either they move away or they are removed.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:55) And what about the spiritual term of the group, not people? That you feel – that a person feels – if he doesn't contribute, he causes harm, on behalf of the group, I mean?

M. Laitman: Who is the group? When you say that to feel from the perspective of the group, someone is damaging it, causing it harm. If a person is in the group he cannot harm it; if he's not in the group, if he harms it, he's not in the group, you understand? So, your sentence is incorrect: how am I, who am in the group, am saying that someone who is also in the group is causing harm? So, at that moment, he's not in the group if he's causing harm, then he's a million miles away from it. So if we are speaking on the spiritual plane – now, if we're speaking on the corporeal plane, that's a different story; then we need to discuss it. In corporeality, we see that this person is not acting, is not working, is not adding, not contributing. We need to somehow influence him as much as possible, and if not, then do other things that are more instrumental, that's it. But again, in spirituality, the treatment is not as it is in corporeality. In spirituality, the treatment is: if you relate from the group to the person, then the group is a person's upper one, and the upper one toward the lower one should awaken it. If it cannot awaken it, it leaves it. And if it leaves it, then it's not considered that he belongs to the upper one, and then there's nothing to discuss.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:31) So, what about drilling a hole in spirituality?

M. Laitman: Yes, drilling a hole is, if we're speaking about people who are not connected to the spiritual term of the group. Rather, drilling a hole means—in spirituality, you cannot drill a hole, it's possible to drill a hole in corporeality. Yes, let's say a person—

Student: Let's say he over-performed.

M. Laitman: Yes, let's say that a person suddenly wants to be a leader in the group, he wants to be greater. Everyone is supposed to be friends, right, and he wants to control, this is a conspicuous example. That's it, but in our group, no, in the meantime, I don't see it. It will not be tolerated, it will happen in spirituality; in our situation, the contribution to the group is not only in spirituality. It's also in corporeality because we are connected together. We work together, we have all kinds of activities together; by doing corporeal activities, we are rewarded with strength from above, strengthening from above. There's a reason why we publish books. By doing this, we get a lot of strength, reward, spiritual reward. We disseminate, in other words as long as we are in this world, you cannot disconnect spirituality from corporeality and say, that's it. No, we have no body, we are engaged only in spiritual concepts – this cannot be. You will always have engagement in bodies and in physical activities in this world, in creation and dissemination and all kinds of things. And you need to take that into consideration, too. That, from these activities, you also come to spiritual values. And Baal HaSulam says about it, the more a person invests, it becomes more important to him. He can no longer let go of it, and that connects him to the matter until he begins to feel that it's worth investing in it and contributing and even devoting himself to it, etc. Don't belittle the value of corporeal actions, no. If we didn't perform such spiritual actions like we do on Pesach, Passover, we wouldn't have achieved what we've achieved in all of our investments before that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:25) I understood that the bodily actions in society together with the willingness what can affect in the group, bestow on the group; we do together?

M. Laitman: We need to try to make the physical, corporeal actions and spiritual actions will be as one—truly as one. That there will be no action, voluntary action, in man's body that is not connected with the intention and will really be as intention.

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Reader: Let's go to the next part of the lesson, studying between friends, and we'll sing a song first.

Song: (01:30:16)