The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: March 23, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. 25 (1986). The Measure of Practicing Mitzvot [Commandments]
Original lesson date: 04/28/2003
Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson we will study a lesson from Rav from April 28, 2003 based on the article “The Measure of Practicing Mitzvot [Commandments]”. You can find it in the first volume of Rabash articles. We are going to read it together in the Ten, we have 35 minutes for this. Tens that finish before time are invited to do a workshop on things pertaining to the article.
Reading: (00:41) Rabash. 25 (1986). The Measure of Practicing Mitzvot [Commandments]
Article No. 25, 1986
We were given 613 Mitzvot [commandments] to perform in practice. Even without the intention, if he merely aims that now he is performing one of the Mitzvot that the Creator has commanded us, if we settle for observing the Mitzva [singular for commandments] without thinking about any intention, but only straightforward, then he has done his duty.
However, we should keep all the Mitzvot according to the conditions in each Mitzva. For example, a person may keep the Mitzva of Tzitzit [tassels—adornment consisting of cords fastened at one end], as it is written, “They shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments.” However, there are distinctions concerning the material from which the Talit [a prayer shawl that is worn during the morning Jewish services (on each edge of which there is a Tzitzit] is made, as well as the length and width of the Talit. Also, there are distinctions in the Tzitzit itself—the material from which it is made—wool, flax, or other materials—as well as the number of fringes, its length, and so forth.
The conditions in the Mitzva of Tzitzit should certainly be applied. Otherwise it is regarded as an incomplete practice of the Mitzva, and is a deficiency in the act. Also, there is adornment in the practice of Mitzvot, as our sages said about the verse, “This is my God and I will praise Him,” and there are many other precisions to make.
This matter applies to every performance of Mitzvot, whether Mitzvot from the Torah, from our sages, or Mitzvot that we keep because of customs, as our ages said, “Israel’s customs are Torah” (Minchot, 20b), “and our father’s customs are Torah.”
The extent of precisions, meaning how meticulous we should be with the Mitzvot, was given to us in the Mitzva not to eat leaven on Passover. An example of how meticulous we should be: This was given to us on Passover, since leaven implies the evil inclination. For this reason we have many restrictions and precisions. This was given to us as an example of how we should be careful not to come, God forbid, into actually transgressing. Therefore, we were given precisions that will make us stay away from the transgression itself, as well as keep the Mitzva itself.
However, the Baal Shem Tov said, “Let him not be too meticulous.” That is, one should not dedicate all his senses and time to precisions. Rather, as much as one can, one should keep the Mitzvot with all their details and precisions, but without excess. Perhaps this is why we do not apply the same strictness and precisions to all the Mitzvot as we do on Passover, for we need our energy for the intentions in the actions, too. Otherwise we will not have much time for intention.
This means that we must also think about the intention, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” Thus, we must dedicate time and effort to the intention, too, meaning see to what extent the evil inclination is corrected through the Torah and Mitzvot. That is, we must criticize our desire, called “will to receive,” to see if we have become more distant from using the will to receive and moving away from it, and how much we have entered the work of bestowal. That is, we must constantly check ourselves so as to know for certain the measure of hatred we have acquired to hating our vessels of reception, and to craving vessels of bestowal.
Therefore, when one engages in some Mitzva, he must first know that he is keeping the Mitzva in a straightforward manner—that now he is not thinking of anything but the Mitzva he is performing, meaning to know that he is observing the commandment of the Creator and believe that the Creator has commanded us through Moses to keep His commandment. By keeping the 613 Mitzvot that He has given us, as well as through the Mitzvot of our sages, and by keeping the customs of Israel, which are also Torah, everything he does should be with the intention that he wants to delight the Creator. He was given a great privilege from above to be able to speak with the Creator. Therefore, when he blesses, both blesses on pleasures and blesses on Mitzvot, he should know and think a little bit to Whom he is giving the blessing, to Whom is he giving thanks.
One should depict that if he were allowed in to see the most important man in town, whom not everyone is permitted to approach, how would he feel when he entered and spoke to him? Or if he were permitted to come to the most important person in the country, what joy he would have. And also, if he imagines that he were allowed in to speak with the most important person in the world, who speaks only to a chosen few, how happy and elated he would be that he was given this great importance, which others are not so fortunate to have? We see that in our world, this gives us satisfaction and contentment in life.
Accordingly, the question is, “Why can’t we depict this calculation and depiction of importance we have for a person, if he is respected in corporeality, that we can speak to someone so important, while regarding spirituality, when we speak to the Creator we do not have this feeling of sensing with whom we speak, so as to tell ourselves, ‘Look how many people in the world do not have the privilege of speaking to the King of the world’? But to us, the Creator has given a thought and desire to come in and speak with Him.”
However, a person must believe in what our sages said, “If the Creator did not help him, he would not overcome it” (Kidushin, 30). Thus, we should say that now the Creator has approached us and helped us, so why are we not inspired by the Creator and our hearts are not rejoicing?
However, when one speaks words of Torah and prays to the Creator, or when one blesses, he should imagine that he is speaking to an honorable person, to the King of the world, and wish that it will help him. That is, after all the depictions, it is still not the same as speaking to an honorable person in corporeality and the feeling he has then, where he feels the importance without any work. But in spirituality, he must toil with various depictions until he feels some importance that he is speaking to the Creator.
However, the matter is very simple: In corporeality, he sees that people respect him. Hence, the individual is influenced by the importance that the public has, and takes upon himself to serve him because of the importance he has absorbed from the public in regard to that person.
But with respect to the Creator, a person cannot see the true measure of people’s appreciation of the Creator. Rather, everything is built on faith. Where one must believe is where labor begins, for then doubts are born and one must decide whether yes and no.
There is a lot of work in spirituality when a person must appreciate the Creator, and for this to relinquish several things that the body enjoys. He feels as painful when he relinquishes his pleasures, and all in order to win the Creator’s approval and be allowed to come in and speak with Him, so He will let him feel with Whom he speaks, meaning that the Creator will be revealed to him and will not be so concealed.
But if he could receive the importance of the Creator from other people, as it is in corporeality, he would have no work. However, there is a special thing about Kedusha [holiness/sanctity], called “Shechina [Divinity] in exile” or “Shechina in the dust.” It shows us the unimportance, which is the opposite of importance.
Naturally, we cannot receive importance from the public because we see that the public has no appreciation or regard for spirituality, from which he can receive support to rely on and go with what he was given importance, so he can relinquish the worldly life, called “corporeal life,” in order to take upon himself to serve the Creator in order to bestow and not for his own sake.
This is so because he does not see that others appreciate spirituality enough to make it worthwhile to relinquish self-love. This is so because when he begins to look at other learners of Torah and observers of Mitzvot, he does not see them with enough importance to cause them to work in order to bestow. Naturally, he does not receive the importance of spirituality as he receives the importance of corporeality from the public.
In corporeality he sees that there is a public that appreciates someone. It does not matter who or what they appreciate, but he is influenced by them. But in spirituality he does not see that anyone, not even individuals, appreciates spirituality. So what can he do to acquire importance that will make it worthwhile for him to work in order to bestow?
It follows that man has a lot of work to exert to do what he can in order to obtain some importance, so he will understand that it is a great privilege that he has been rewarded with serving the Creator and keeping His Mitzvot in utter simplicity, meaning without any great intentions. Rather, one should simply feel happiness and vitality in keeping what the Creator has commanded us.
That is, he should think that now he is doing the King’s will, and the King enjoys my doing His will. One should believe above reason that the Creator has sent him his thoughts and desires, which caused him to observe the Mitzvot, and that it came to him as an awakening from above. That is, now the Creator is calling him: “Come to Me; I want to give you a service in My palace.” When one thinks this, the heart is elated and fills with joy, and then he feels high spirited.
It therefore follows that it does not matter what he does. It is all the same, as it is written, “Be careful with a slight Mitzva as with a serious one, for you do not know the reward for the Mitzvot.” It can be said that it does not matter which Mitzva of the Creator a person keeps because his only thought is to bring contentment to the Creator.
Therefore, a person can derive great joy from small actions, since the main thing is not the greatness of the Mitzva, but the measure and importance of the Giver of the Mitzva. That is, it is according to his appreciation of the King.
When a person reflects, he sees that he must satisfy the desire, to have fulfillment. However, there are those who work to satisfy their own desires, meaning what the heart demands. This is called “lust.” Conversely, there are those who need to satisfy the will of others, what they require of him, meaning to dress, and live in an apartment, as they require, etc. This falls under the category of honor. And there is also fulfilling the Creator’s wish, what He demands, which is keeping of Torah and Mitzvot.
However, one should ask oneself: “Is serving the Creator really so important to me that I feel such great importance? So why after all the calculations, I forget everything, enter the corporeal world, stop everything related to Kedusha, and take upon myself to fulfill others’ desires and not the Creator’s, although I said that the Creator’s will is so important, more important than to satisfy my own desire?
“When I worry about satisfying my own desire, it falls under the category of lust. When I try to satisfy others’ desires it falls under the category of honor. I want to satisfy those two out of self-love. But when I want to do the King’s will, that state is very important because at that time I exit self-love, called ‘beast,’ and enter the category of ‘man,’ as our sages said, ‘You are called ‘man,’ and the nations of the world are not.’”
Thus, as soon as one comes out of the state of Torah and prayer he says that even the smallest thing he does in Kedusha is so important to him that it makes him very happy that he has been rewarded with entering the domain of Kedusha, and what fool would want to come out of the state of emotional satisfaction and elation? He feels that he is the happiest man in the world because he had the great privilege of exiting the beastliness that he was in all the time.
All of a sudden he is summoned to come before the King and speak with Him. At that time he looks at himself, how he is always immersed in worldly lusts like all other beasts. But now he sees that he has become a real man. He becomes very critical of his surroundings, how lowly they are, to the point that he can barely stand to be near them and speak to them because he cannot stoop so low as to speak to people devoid of the spirit of Kedusha, who are so immersed in self-love that he can barely stand them.
After all this, after some time, even a moment later, after all the criticism he passed on his surroundings, he completely forgets about the spirituality he was in and enters the corporeal world with all the beastly lusts. He does not even remember when he came out, the moment when he came out of the spiritual state into the corporeal state he is in now.
Thus, the question is, “When he was in the spiritual state and was delighted with his situation, was this a lie? Was it only a dream? Or is it to the contrary, that the previous state is his real state, and what he feels now, that he is immersed in beastly lusts, is a dream?”
The truth is that a person must believe that when the Creator appears to him a little bit, he begins to feel the importance of the King and is drawn to Him and annuls as a candle before a torch. If he continues to appreciate the herald he has heard from above, and to the extent that he can regard it, to that extent his aspiration for spirituality grows and he begins to feel that he has emerged from the corporeal world and entered a world that is nothing but good.
But if he forgets to appreciate that call—that he has been called to come speak to the King, and begins to enjoy and instill the joy he has into his vessels of reception, and he is not cautious to thank and praise the Creator for bringing him closer to Him, he is promptly repelled and ejected from the King’s palace.
This happens so fast that he has no time to feel that he has been ejected. Only after some time he comes to, and sees that he has been thrown out. But when he is ejected from the King’s palace he remains unconscious, and therefore cannot feel the moment of ejection.
It is known that in corporality, too, if a person falls from a high floor to the ground, if you ask him how he fell he does not remember anything. All he knows is that now he is in the hospital, but he does not remember anything: who picked him up, who brought him to the hospital, everything is forgotten.
It is the same in spirituality. When he is ejected from the King’s palace he does not remember who ejected him, meaning what caused him to fall off his state where he was in utter completeness, full of joy with his situation. He also does not remember when he fell from his high state into the ground, so as to say, “Up to that point I was fine, and at that moment I fell.” He cannot remember the moment when he fell from his state. But after some time he opens his eyes and begins to see that now he is in the corporeal world.
This recovery—the consciousness he has regained when he sees that now he is outside the palace—can happen after several hours or even after several days. Suddenly, he sees that he is immersed in worldly lusts, and that once he had a state of ascent.
Now let us return to the matter from which we began, namely the greatness of the quality of practicing Mitzvot and words of Torah and prayer in utter simplicity, without any intentions but to learn Torah, since the whole Torah is the names of the Creator, and whether he understands the connection he has—that he is learning—meaning the fact that he is learning with the person.
That is, one should not say, “What does this come to teach us?” Rather, every word he learns is a great thing for his soul. And although he does not understand it, he must believe in the sages, who have instructed us so.
It is likewise in the prayer. He should know and believe that each and every word that our sages have arranged for us was said with the spirit of holiness. For this reason, we must regard each and every word, meaning that he has the privilege that the Creator has given him the thought and desire to observe His commandments, and to thank the Creator for it. He should believe that everything he does in spirituality, while others did not merit this, is because the Creator has chosen him to serve Him.
A person should reflect on how the King is calling him and gives him some understanding to at least keep His commandments so that he will have some contact with the Creator. Likewise, one should depict the importance of the King as much as one can and derive from this joy and elation. This is the path of truth.
That is, we should believe in the importance of the Creator although the body is still not impressed to the extent that he is seemingly serving a flesh and blood King, since there the public revere the King and the individual is influenced by the public. But in spirituality a person cannot see that the public revere the King and the value of annulling before Him is hidden from him. Instead, we must believe that this is so. This is called “right line,” meaning without any intentions. Rather, even if he engages with the littlest understanding, he should regard it as though he is doing a great service.
It is as our sages said (Avot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 1), “Be careful with a slight Mitzva as with a serious one, for you do not know the reward for the Mitzvot.” That is, it does not matter to us what service we do for the King, with which service we bring contentment to the King. Rather, we have one thought: that the Creator will be pleased with what I am doing.
Thus, it does not matter if this work is important or not, since I have no consideration of myself. It can be an unimportant work that not many people want, therefore he wants to do it because it is more needed than important work that many people want.
However, the question is, “Why can’t a person feel the light that shines in Torah and Mitzvot as soon as he begins the work?” Instead, he must believe that there is a hidden light there, which he cannot see. It would certainly be better if the importance about it were revealed to all, for then everyone could observe the Torah and Mitzvot.
Thus, why is there a concealment on Torah and Mitzvot to the point that each and every one must labor and toil, and perform all kinds of works in order to be able to say that the whole of the corporeal world is not worthwhile compared to Torah and Mitzvot, as our sages said (Avot, Chapter 4, 22), “One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than the whole of the life in the next world, and one hour of contentment in the next world is better than all the life of this world.”
However, we were given this concealment so as to have room for choice, meaning to have the ability to work in Torah and Mitzvot for the Creator, meaning in order to bestow. Otherwise, if the light that is hidden in Torah and Mitzvot were revealed, he would work only because of self-love. But then he would not be able to criticize himself and see if his aim is to bestow or for his own sake.
But because we were given the Torah and Mitzvot to keep during the concealment, we can keep them in utter simplicity, and say, “If my aim is to bestow, why should I mind what taste I feel?” Therefore, if one wants to be rewarded with anything, he must take upon himself to keep Torah and Mitzvot in utter simplicity.
Reader: Now we'll get into a lesson with Rav from April 28, 2003.
M. Laitman: (34:36) We read an article from the fifth volume of “The Rungs of the Ladder,” a part that has to do with the study of Minchot, a lesson, “The Measure of the Commandments.” We don't know exactly the state of, or measure of the commandment, its size, its extent, what it belongs to precisely. We know that the soul of Adam HaRishon includes within it 613 organs, 248 organs above the Tabur and 365 below the Tabur. Organs are called desires, meaning the 248 organs we can correct from altogether all the 613 desires. So, 248 desires we can correct with intention in order to bestow and to use them, and that's why they're called commandments of “and you shall” or you should do, meaning a desire that I can do in intention in order to bestow, to perform my action in giving to the Creator and adapt myself to Him in action, really. And 365 desires that are below Tabur, I can correct them only by restriction, and not use them. And to use in order to bestow, truly, I'm not capable of using until the final correction. I don't have, I won’t have a screen, and rather just not use them. So from them I make a Sof of the Partzuf, the end of the Partzuf, and that is their correction for the time being until the final correction, when they all enter into reception in order to bestow as well. These 613 desires are in the general soul of Adam, and also when this general soul broke and is divided to 600,000 parts, what we call Shishim Ribo, parts, and then there are many other shatterings, breakings, until this world. Nevertheless, each part of billions of parts is included from those 613 desires. And those 613 desires, doesn't matter what degree they're on, or what part they're in, this number does not change in every individual soul, in each part of Adam HaRishon. Even in the point in the heart that awakens in us, which is the beginning of our soul, the vessel of the soul, also in it, in that part that appears to us for the time being as a point, nevertheless in this part we have 613 desires, called 613 organs. However, we feel this part as a point, as one desire, a general point, a longing for something, I don't even have any imagination of towards what. And because this entire soul of mine, this future soul, is still apparent to me as a point, I cannot depict within it any image of the Creator, there's no volume there for me to see a picture, for me to see a few qualities. But through the work upon this point, eventually a person reaches a state in which he receives from the point a certain volume that is greater and greater. By what does the point become no longer a point but rather a small space? It's through the disturbances a person receives from all kinds of cases that are sent to him, and he overcomes those disturbances to be adhered to that point and to adhere it to the Creator. It's by this that this point expands, and her expansion is specifically by all kinds of disturbances. Despite the fact that a person doesn't know, now or later, which desires he is correcting from the whole of the 613 desires, because altogether what he sees is his point, his general longing, but as they say, in that state, “do all that you can do with your hands.” And if he does it, then he does something inside - he corrects some desire, after desire, after another desire. Meaning, despite the fact that there's concealment, he wants to overcome the concealment, he wants to be adhered to the unique and individual force that operates upon him, and then the point expands to the extent in which he begins to feel in it all kinds of forces, different desires, that are actually, all in all, are his Partzuf in him, meaning the point becomes a Partzuf. And when he moves from working on a point to working on a Partzuf, he begins to gradually feel more and more of the forces of the Nefesh, as we call it, meaning desires that he has in the Partzuf, and now to work with each desire, to correct each desire, he starts to distinguish desires that belong to the 248 desires of “you shall do,” to the 365 commandments of “you shall not do,” and then these actions of his begin to be more directed, more actions that he performs in decisions, in clear knowledge of what he's about to do, and what he is going to get from it. But in our state, before the barrier, in double concealment or single concealment, a person does not see what exact action he's doing, and therefore we don't know which commandment, meaning which correction, we are performing at the moment: bigger, smaller, do, don't do. We simply need to try, despite all the disturbances, with all the disturbances specifically, to remain adhered as a point and the root. And from this, from learning how to observe commandments, it is giving us the possibility - through knowing their measure - gives us the possibility to move to observing commandments in order to bestow. This means corrections, whose intention is to, in order to bestow to the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:10) On the one hand, you said at this point, in order to recognize it, you need additional desire from the friend. On the other hand, you just said that this is overcoming the disturbances. What's the connection?
M. Laitman: Good question. We talked about expanding the points that I have in me; I can only do by connecting to a friend. I bestow to a friend the greatness of the goal. He bestows upon me the greatness of his goal, and that's how I get impressed by the whole group. And by my impression from the whole group, or from the one individual friend - doesn't matter, group is at least two, the smallest number of many is two - it turns out that I receive from the group just an impression, and my point is what expands through the impression I received from outside. That's on one hand. On the other hand, we say that my point is mine, and in order to know and come to the corrections, I need to add to this point another point, and another point, and another point, since the point itself cannot expand. It expands not by it itself expanding, but rather by adding to herself more points in the hearts from the friends. So what precisely happens here? It's the same thing. The point in truth expands from within. On the outside, I get impressed, but this impression that I receive from others is an impression from within their points, from the structure of their points, the disturbances from them, and the awakening from them. Meaning, according to their inner structure where they themselves don't know their impression, where it comes from, meaning what organs they have within their soul, of each and every one, and I too don't know, but by receiving, I awaken my part. How to explain this in a different way? I need to correct some desire in me each time. Each and every desire in me can awaken only through a special disturbance that comes against it. Those disturbances I need to receive from outside. So by being connected with the correct and suitable environment that awakens in me the impression, I precisely receive that impression against the impression and disturbances against my internal organs. I'll try to explain this; I'll think of how to explain this easier.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:02) He writes there, how can we understand what our Sages said that one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than the whole of the life in the next world, and one hour of contentment in the next world is better than all the life of this world?
M. Laitman: This sentence is always perplexing. How can you understand it? That one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than the whole of the life in the next world, and one hour of contentment in the next world is better than all the life in this world. One contradicts the other. What does it mean, one hour? Beauty is called “wisdom" and hour is called “connection". If I cause connection with the Creator from this world, then raising MAN, this is all I have. This is what I give to the Creator. Then the vessel that I'm building right now is the main thing, and the abundance will come and be built as it fits the vessel. Whereas in the next world, next world, means where I already received the abundance; so receiving the abundance is the attainment of the holy names, which is the goal. There's nothing more beautiful than that. One time I'm in place of the created being; another time I'm in the degree of the Creator. The second thing is we know that this world and the next world are two states of the same degree. This world is the state right now, and the next world is the state in a minute. Again, either you can interpret it as raising MAN and receiving the light in order to bestow, or two states on the lower degree and a more higher degree. And only the lower degree, which works and corrects itself, is rewarded with drawing the lights through all the upper degrees. There are two ways of speaking about it, two variations: why this is good, and why that is good, two states.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:47) What is that state that he says where a person comes out of his state in spirituality, so he's unconscious? Why is that so?
M. Laitman: Why a person that comes out of spirituality is unconscious?
Student: What is that spiritual state that he has when he falls like that?
M. Laitman: First of all, we are also unconscious right now, right? Unconscious relative to spirituality. Now, a person that is in a certain degree, let's say he's already in a spiritual degree, what does it mean that he exits the degree? It means that he has a departure of the lights of the Mochin, the higher mind. If he has a departure of the light, it says that he's unconscious. The light departs and consciousness, understanding, feeling, disappears.
Student: So why does he catch himself only after a few hours or days, and he can’t catch the moment that the light departs from him?
M. Laitman: In spirituality, we will not interpret the work of the Klipot, the shells, but in our state, it happens. Why? Because for the time being, you are, how should I put it, under the control of the shells. Why is there this departure? Departure of lights is because they add to you the will to receive. It's never your fault, seemingly, that you yourself are exiting the state. We never enter or exit any state. Rather, there's an addition of the will to receive. You've done something, you've reached a certain attainment, you received a reward because you labored, exerted, and now you have a certain conscious state in your connection with the Creator. If in this state you have the intention - according to your degree, your state, as much as you can - if you are with the intention in order to bestow, in other words, you're not enjoying the state, and you do not forget about the goal, rather you are in a state where you enjoy spirituality, also for your own sake, because you're still below the barrier - these are desires, you also don't want to disconnect from the Creator, since this state you received from the Creator, you are connected to Him, so you enjoy it as well. If you hold yourself, if you keep yourself in this state, what's in you and what's in you relative to the Creator, then you maintain yourself in the right state. But once you attain that state, what needs to happen? An addition in order to reach the next degree. In spirituality, once you attain something, it's done, you must continue. In corporeality, you're willing to stay in the good state all the time. So, they add immediately to you, immediately the records from the next degree awaken in you. The records from the next degree that awaken, these are the records with greater coarseness. This coarseness that they add to you; it accumulates in you. This coarseness seemingly spoils the connection with the Creator. It doesn't spoil the pleasure; it spoils the connection with the Creator. And the pleasure, you begin to receive it into itself, into this coarseness, right? So you begin to enjoy, right? It's good, it's all good. You forgot about the connection with the Creator, that with Him specifically, specifically by yearning for Him, you receive this pleasure, you receive this state, this degree. So it turns out, you fall. What is a fall? You lose connection with the Emanator. You are in your own will to receive, you enjoy in your will to receive, and that's it. This is called “a fall". When does it happen? When you have no attainment, no reason, no mind, when you're absent-minded. And so each and every time it's the same, meaning the desire that is added to you more than the corrected desire, disconnects your connection with the Creator, severs it, and you remain only in the pleasure, that's it. Now what can you do? Nothing to do. You need to correct this desire. You could have not fallen, you couldn't, you couldn't not fall. You can catch yourself that moment before you fall and remain in the upper state, right, in the connection with the Creator, with this new coarseness? No, you must take this new coarseness and realize it from the fall, meaning the entire height of that. You have to now go through it, and adhere it, and glue it also to the yearning to the connection with the Creator. There's no choice. Therefore, it says that a person cannot attain a commandment unless he already previously fails in it. So first failures, first darkness, mistakes, transgressions, malicious action, then correction.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:52) During the preparation, these additions of the desire to receive, why are they not felt as a greater desire to receive?
M. Laitman: No, the will to receive, that comes and lowers you from your degree, is a greater will to receive. It's not felt in you as greater will to receive; it's felt in you as greater pleasure. Because if now in this new desire you disconnect from the Creator and you begin to enjoy by yourself, or in other words, also the connection with the Creator you introduce into this pleasure, except it's into the new desire. In short, you sort of seal off all the pleasures in you without any connection to the Creator, right? So you feel this additional pleasure. The new desire that comes gives you this possibility, it obligates you for that.
Student: You're saying, we do feel the greater desire to receive that?
M. Laitman: No, not the will to receive. You don't feel the desire, the desire for the pleasure. You don't feel that your will to receive grew. You feel that your pleasure can be greater, if you think only of the pleasure and not of the Giver of the pleasure. Who corrupts your connection with the Creator? The new desire. He doesn't erase your pleasures; he erases the connection with the Creator. If he were to erase the pleasures, you would feel greater emptiness, and you'd wake up right away. But instead of that, no, you feel, I feel pleasure, but only the Creator disappears from the picture of my world. And I continue to feel the pleasure, and even more than that. And the fact that you feel pleasure, it acquires you. And slowly, a person is accustomed to holding this image of him enjoying for his own sake, not for Lishma, and there's nothing to talk about. He is in Lo Lishma, but he also does not want to lose the connection with the Creator. And he constantly is looking for it, he constantly wants to feel that he's in the Creator's world, in a certain Sefira, that the Creator fills it, and is in it, and all the time if he's holding on to it. If he tries to hold on to it, this is exertion. He tries to hold on to it. But you can't say how much time he'll be between the descents and ascents, that depends on the person, on his exertion.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:50) How are these additions to the desire to receive from spirituality depicted to a person?
M. Laitman: In spirituality, additional desire is a left line. That's where the Mochin depart, the losing the intention in order to bestow and entering the intention of in order to receive, and then searching for how to come out of it. This is working in three lines. There the information is clear; the data is clear. You can be as an embryo, as a little one, as an adult, but nevertheless, this is three lines. Even in the embryo, it's three inside of three, Gimel in Gimel, it's called. It's still one drop, as they say with us, it's the point in the heart. But there, it's not a point, but a drop of semen. Meaning, he's starting to have this connection with the Creator as a drop inside the Creator, inside the womb of the upper one.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:58) If a person does not praise the Creator, is he thrown out of the King's palace? What is to give praise?
M. Laitman: If a person does not praise the Creator, then it says that they reject and repel him from the King's palace. Right? Well, if it's a flesh and blood king, then it's clear. You don't praise me, and I certainly tell my servants to throw you out of my house, my palace. Right? That's clear. What does that mean here? Praising the Creator, meaning in order to bestow, without equivalence of form and bestow on your part, there's nothing to do in My palace. Meaning, if you don't bestow, you don't belong to equivalence of form. By that, you eject yourself from this degree, from this connection. Who's ejecting you? My servants. Who are my servants that I send to you? Disturbances, obstructions, foreign thoughts. I send to you some foreign thoughts, so you would grow stronger in the connection with Me, but you surrender before them. They caused this disconnection for me. This means that you are ejected from Me, right? You disconnected from Me. In spirituality, there's no room, and outside of the room or place, whether you disconnected, you distanced yourself, then it turns out that the thoughts that I sent to you, ejected you.
Student: Is the force of bestowal from the side of the Creator?
M. Laitman: And again, they raise in sanctity and never bring someone down in sanctity. Meaning, these foreign thoughts are now, after a time, when you go back and exert, you'll be able to digest these disturbances to overcome them, meaning you'll bring them into, take into consideration, and on top of them, you renew the connection with the Creator. Then these thoughts will be as additional connection, additional force, additional contact with the Creator. They're not disturbances, it's help against.
Student: Is that a state that's obligated to?
M. Laitman: Yes, this state is necessary, certainly, as he said in the introduction to TES, the people that run to the King's palace, and the cops push them out, these cops that push, each and every cop and guard that pushes, he introduces his rejection into the will to receive negatively, and then if you overcome, you have additional desire to bestow additional connection. Meaning, each and every guard knows who to push and how much to push. And this takes place according to the root of the soul, according to the record. Records, your records that obligate you to reach the end of correction, they activate these guards. How and when will they push you? You get it? From above, the upper light works in absolute rest. You understand? Generally. The records in you, all the information in you, everything you got, all the data you got from the descent of your soul, from Ein Sof down to this world, this information in you, these records, work in such a way that each time the light that works in you works in seemingly different manners. It's not that the light works; rather it's felt in you, that His action each time is different, it changes according to the records that appear. But the light itself is like the light of the sun, there's no change in it. Except you see, one time you see more of it, less of it, there're clouds in the middle, sometimes through a yellow glass or green glass or something, meaning the changes are in the vessels. That's true also for the disturbances. The disturbances are those forces that we have there as well, you know, in the end. Although it appears to us that these disturbances are external things. And also the awakening, that it seems like I'm getting it from society. What's the difference in me? Either I expand my point in the heart, or I add my point in the heart to the friend's point in the heart. It's the same. What do I add? I actually add my exertion.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:12) What is this process in which a new desire, a person holds on to the connection with the Creator, is the ability to add this desire to expand this connection?
M. Laitman: The connection with the Creator is happening through the desire. What is connection? Connection, means something that I feel, I feel Him. How can I feel Him? After the first restriction, I can feel Him only with the intention to bestow, to the extent that I have a level of compatibility with Him, then I feel Him, right? That's called connection. As he says, there's the godly part from above, the stone that is cut from the mountain by the axe that's prepared for it. What does it mean? That there's a corrected will to receive, partially, and inside this will to receive, the one that's partially corrected in order to bestow, there's a part of the light from the total-sum of the light in this part, this portion is called connection with the Creator. So, why do I feel that I have such connection? By having the intention in order to bestow, like the intention in order to bestow that the Creator has. It's a level of compatibility. If I have it, if there's no compatibility, no equivalence, I don't feel connection. That means that I'm unconscious.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:04) So, the addition of a new desire, what does it mean that I distinguish something in this connection?
M. Laitman: That if now I have new desires in order to receive, and I fall from the previous connection I had with the Creator, now I overcome those new desires, so I have reflected light, supposedly, let's say, beyond the barrier. The bigger the will to receive, the bigger the light that reforms, I have a bigger connection. What's the difference between a big Partzuf and a small Partzuf? There's an additional desire, as a result in addition of intention in order to bestow when you correct the desire, then there's an addition of light in the Partzuf, the inner light. When that inner light expands from the Peh till the Tabur, that's called the revelation of the name of the Creator. The general light is called HaVaYaH, when it's accepted in the Partzuf. HaVaYaH is a general name, you can't interpret it. What are you going to say? 26 in Gematria? HaVaYaH for us is interpreted in the holy names. What does that mean? In lights that expand in the NRNHY from the Peh till the Tabur of the Partzuf.
Student: What does it mean to overcome?
M. Laitman: What am I overcoming? Our desires are built. Our desires are built in such a way that each and every desire, to begin with, has an intention to receive. And this intention to receive disconnects... This intention in order to receive puts me into the feeling of the pleasure and not the feeling of the Giver of the pleasure. So, in order to reach a feeling of the Giver of the pleasure, I have to restrict my desire. What does that mean? Not to be affected from the pleasure, but from the feeling of the Giver of the pleasure. For example, I sit next to food, and the host is next to me. So, I have to reach a state that the connection with the host is more important for me than the food. If I can do that, that's called that I pass the restriction. How can I do that? That depends on my desire. If my desire for the food isn't so big, then the connection with the host is important for me. If I'm very hungry, so I can't even see the host, I only see what's on the plate in front of me. Meaning, my desire determines what will be my relation: towards the pleasure, or the host. What is more important? And then, in my exertion, through all kinds of means, I must depict to myself a picture where the host is more important than the food.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:56) What does it mean, all kinds of ploys and tactics?
M. Laitman: Ploys, he says, like there's a Rav that gives a direction, and books, and society. By the society, you attain the yearning, the desires. And by the books, you attain the lights that correct the vessels, the light that reforms.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:30) In the last paragraph in the article, he writes: “However, we were given to carry out Torah and Mitzvot during the concealment, and a person can do it in utter simplicity. And to say, if my intention is already to bestow, what do I care about what taste I feel? But if I'm in concealment, my intention is not in order to bestow. Then, of course, it matters to me what taste I feel.” So, what does he mean?
M. Laitman: We have to reach a state that I don't care what feeling I'm in, just as long as I'm aware. Well, again, that's also a feeling, but that I have some kind of contact with the Creator, that I'm going towards Him. After, I reach a state that, that is more important to me than all kinds of other feelings in my senses.
Student: What does it mean “in utter simplicity?”
M. Laitman: “Simple,” means just like this, without any wisdom, that it'll be clear to me in my senses. Simple, means not something intellectual. I'm just a will to receive. I'm not a brain. I'm not a computer. I'm the will to receive. So, it has to be felt in my desire.
Student: And what if I can't? What if I...
M. Laitman: Everyone is able to do this. You haven't attained yet. What can you do?
Student: No, if let's say I'm now working in a state where if I think about the intention of why I'm doing the action, I won't be able to do it at all. But I was told that the action will advance me, then what should I do? Is there a point in doing the action without a desire, without the inner direction why I am doing it? Let's say, I know that I can't want the Creator now, can't want in order to bestow. But I was told that if I'll work in the kitchen, let's say, I'll get there. I can't. If I think about why I'm doing it, I won't be able to stand there for a second. Should I still do it so this thing might awaken in me, or better not to do it at all?
M. Laitman: A person, first of all, has to do. That's what's written about our state, that even commandments without an intention refine your body. But on the degree of Nefesh of Nefesh. You heard about that. You heard. That he writes in the introduction to the book of Zohar. What does it mean, commandments without intention? A person like you, who wants to reach the goal. We're not speaking about people who are just doing and they don't know what, and they don't care what's going to come out of it. They're talking about a purposeful person. So they're saying this, that he wants to reach the goal, but doesn't know through which deeds exactly he can get there. So they say that even if you just do, just simply do commandments, what does that mean? All kinds of corrections on your desires without the intention to bestow, of course, but try. And also, this will help you come out of the state that you're in on the degree of the still, with lack of understanding, with a lack of feeling, as if you don't exist.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:13) Why do we say that the person needs to figure out the reason why he's doing something, like the goal for which it begins? So maybe it's worthwhile. I'm asking in such a state, what are you doing? Maybe don't, don't do it at all if you have no reason.
M. Laitman: You are doing things in a state where you don't know why, you're like a child, a baby, let's say two, three, four, that you look at the father, and you do the exact same things like he does. He just doesn't know why he's doing it. The father does it, and he does it. That's called an instinct, like a monkey. And it's the true way to learn, that a small one without knowing why, just according to the deeds wants to resemble the adult. “From Your deeds I will know You.” From doing these things I start understanding the mind. Why is the Upper One doing this? Then he starts getting the mind of the Upper One. That's how we work. Because why? Because also in this world, it's like that. You never know in advance what the next degree in the mind is and how it works. But you see its external form, that it just does it like that upon me. Why is it doing it this way? It has other records, other intentions, that I can't even touch them. I have no understanding about them. But from doing like them, how can I do it? I have no records, and I have no forces or screens for this, right? But if in my state, I'll try to do what they're doing there even though I don't have a desire for it, and I don't have a record for it; just to imagine myself doing it, that's called that I want to resemble the Upper One. I have no way to resemble. No, it doesn't matter. How can they give you all these things before you have a preparation? But that's called the preparation, that in whatever I can, I want to resemble the Upper One. And then I am rewarded with it. We'll learn that. Then you discover a NHY of Ima that teaches Zeir Anpin how to reach her degree. And that's how it works.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:48) Why are we told that I have to work on yearning for the next state, if it's clear that I can't yearn for it, and I'm opposite to it? So why are we told, leave the yearning, leave the thought, just do the action, and then the thought and the desire will come?
M. Laitman: By a person trying to find the longing for the next state, it helps him start developing his desires, supposedly before they come to him with the intention to receive. He, by supposedly yearning before the desire, it's like, at first he wants the yearning, first he wants the intention to bestow, and only if I have that intention, then I agree that this desire will come to me. It's like such an action that you don't want to awaken the desires, but only to the extent that you have an intention to bestow. You are demanded in somewhat to resemble a spiritual action.
Student: First comes the physical action, then the yearning, and then the desire?
M. Laitman: There are all kinds, well truthfully, there are all kinds of styles of states, new states, the way they show up. That's why you can't say, no, you always fall, and then you rise, and then you fall, and then you rise. It's not, it doesn't answer all the questions.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:38) You said that above the Tabur, there's the Mitzvot of “you shall do,” which reflect the desires that we need to correct now, meaning, and then there's below the Tabur, the desires that are missing, that there's no access to them. They reflect the Mitzvot of “you shall not do.” So in the future, these Mitzvot will become the Mitzvot of “you shall do”?
M. Laitman: I said that all the desires eventually have to be corrected. The correction of the desires is throughout all the degrees. There are desires that I can't correct, to actually make them, to use them practically, so those are the commandments “thou shall not do.” Until Gmar Tikkun, until the end of correction, I cannot put a screen on them to receive in order to bestow. So what I do with them? I restrict them. I do not use them. By this, I reach adhesion, but not to a state called the end of correction. The end of correction, also, those desires are called the Sof of the Partzuf, they get corrected, and also enter the coupling by striking with the upper light, and all of the Guf from the Peh till the Sium becomes as a Toch, with the infinite inner light inside it. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:23) How I understood Rabash, I think we do need to do the Mitzvot, even what the Sages said, and put together the words.
M. Laitman: The Guf, the body of the soul, includes 248 commandments of “thou shall do,” and 365 commandments “not to do,” and another seven commandments that are called “the great ones.” They're additions, that they're above the 613 regular commandments, and all in all, it's 620.
Student: What does a person need to do now, let's say, when he needs to reincarnate, or suddenly he describes himself?
M. Laitman: Until we pass the barrier, we don't know what any commandment is, because we're in the darkness. What does it mean? We're in concealment, and we don't know what we're doing, and in which desire we're doing it, and with which desire we have contact with the Creator, because there is no contact. The Creator is revealed in a desire. If He's concealed, meaning He's not revealing Himself to me clearly, so I'm doing. What am I doing? I don't know. I have a point. In that point, I have 620 desires, but those 620 desires are as a point, a dot. What can I do with them? I don't know. They seem like a point to me. That's why it's written that since you don't know what to do with them and exactly in which desire you're working, so what's in your powers to do, do it. Am I doing it in order to receive it and not in order to bestow? Doesn't matter. Do it. Make efforts. And that's how it is all the way till we reach the barrier. When you reach the barrier, you start feeling which desires, every time, I'm in, also in a very, very minimal way, because it's still called that a person grows like an embryo in the mother's womb, but a certain small recognition you’ll have. What can an embryo know in his mother's womb? We say he has nothing, right? But that's on our behalf. We say he has nothing, but he himself supposedly exists. It's still a foreign body within the Upper One. There's already a reality. So to that extent, a person feels his reality in the world of the Creator and the Creator Himself inside him. And we, in our state now, we're in a state where we can't really point at any commandment. Our commandments are all kinds of efforts that we do in order to reach equivalence of form to some kind of measure of equivalence of form, meaning to contact with the Creator, revelation of the Creator. Actually, every commandment is a correction of a desire in the soul that in it, I discover the Creator. That's it. And obviously, there's no connection in that to the commandments that a religious Jew does in this world. That's doing actions with his hands and legs, and we're speaking about actions that we're doing within the desire even if I didn't have a body. You see, it's only the desire without a body. If in that desire I perform actions, that's called spiritual work. If I do actions with my body, that's already a different kind of work. That's, as we say, the reason of the landlords, which is opposite of the reason of the Torah. It's not that there's this and that. They're actually contradicting.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:41) How should a Jew behave when he's doing when he suddenly tells himself that that's what we should do?
M. Laitman: We need to do one thing - reach contact with the Creator, to constantly be in maximum exertion to be in contact with Him. He and His name are one. None Else Besides Him. Only that. If even though we have all these disturbances, we try to be in contact with the environment, society, books, what we learn, that is called that we're performing the commandments. That's it. What else does a person have to do with his external actions? Our Torah doesn't discuss that, because we're speaking about an inner development of a person. The revelation of the Creator to His created beings in our world, meaning from our state, how to reach revelation of the Creator. And that we're not talking about a Jew born to a Jewish mother, but a Jew that has a point in the heart. That for this, he's called a Jew. It can be some Italian, and some German, and some Russian - it doesn't matter who. It's whoever the point in the heart awakens in. So, we're completely speaking about towards a completely different topic, towards the point in the heart and not the biological body.