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

Daily Morning Lesson: October 10, 2026

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below? Shamati 5.

Reader: Hello, friends. We are gathering in our regional Congress in 20 days, our Congress “Awakening from Below.” But the Congress actually began, the preparation for the Congress is inseparable to our Congress. The question is, what are we doing this time? And how do we not just wait for an awakening, but awaken ourselves, awakening ourselves from below? Awakening the deficiency, the desire, the common desire for the revelation of the Creator between us, in our personal Ten, in our global Ten. And this is exactly the lesson we're going to get now from our Rav.

In the first part, we will study a lesson from June 2017. It's based on the article, "Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below." In the writings of Baal HaSulam, you can find it in Shamati 5. And after the lesson, we will have a short workshop to conclude, then we'll have some social time with the management. We'll also hear about Congress preparations in different areas and continue the inspiration. So let's enter Rav's lesson together.

Reader: Hello. We're learning from Shamati, page 28, article number 5, "Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?" You can find this article in our website, and ask questions there, kab.tv. Selected questions will be asked during the lesson. Again, we're studying from Shamati, page 28, "Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?" Article number 5.

M. Laitman: (02:10) This is really a question, why do we need an awakening from below if the Creator's desire is to benefit the created beings, and it doesn't change, unlike people. Rather, this desire is always in the same direction, and so how come some awakening on our part is required? And He doesn't need an awakening from us. Rather, by His will to benefit the created beings, He awakens a desire in us to reach Him, to receive from Him. Where do we get the awakening from below? How come we are drawn to Him, to sense Him, to feel Him, to the purpose of creation, or to anything that we're drawn to? It's all coming from that same will to benefit the created beings. That desire to benefit the created beings awakens us, and stimulates us, and awakens all our desires.

Therefore, what is the meaning of awakening from below, if I respond instinctively, by necessity, coming from His order from above? So why is it called an awakening from below? In truth, we can't say that man's desire is an awakening from below, because it's a necessitated action by the Creator, who wants to awaken, who wants to give, and therefore awakens the person to respond. And even if the person doesn't realize how He awakens, that's how it happens to us. How do we come to the group, to the wisdom of Kabbalah? That, especially is very specific, it's a very selective awakening from above. Very few people awaken to that. It's not like how the masses awaken towards the different forms of life like fish in the sea or flocks of birds. Here, we're talking about a person who receives a specific, unique kind of awakening from the Creator, and therefore he's called a unique individual.

And so, what awakens in him and when can we call that an awakening from below? Probably when it's registered in his account as his own, as coming from him. And so, here we realize that something can come from the person only from the point where he's in the group and he realizes that he has to achieve connection and to establish a special desire for connection. And from that special desire for connection that is among everyone, to also establish a desire for the Creator. And so this kind of collective group awakening, that will be an awakening from below, because that doesn't come from above. That needs to be implemented, that needs to be established, it needs to be built, and it's not simple, it takes a lot of effort. And then, when we already achieve that prayer, that cry as written regarding Egypt, the children of Israel sighed from the work, and they shall cry, and then the Creator shall hear.

That is basically the form of the true awakening from below. That it doesn't come for our account, that we cry for ourselves, rather we don't want to be controlled by Pharaoh, by the evil inclination. That we won't think about that, that we only want to think about how to bring contentment among us to the Creator. And when that kind of outcry is established in our hearts, in our collective heart, then this is an awakening from below called MAN, that we truly want to rise from Malchut to Bina. And it says about it, that nothing in spirituality is attained if not by prayer. Which means a special request coming from that desire that we establish from below, and no individual can do it on his own. Because every individual's desires come from after the shattering, they're egoistic, and they're not even his own, they're designed by the Creator. But when we design the special desire for the Creator between us, that is the true desire that we call from below. So let's see what Rabash, sorry, Baal HaSulam, tells us here about the matter of awakening from below, as opposed to awakening from above.

Reading: (08:41) Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?

I heard in 1945

In order to attain Lishma [for Her sake], it is not within one’s hands to understand, as it is not for the human mind to grasp how such a thing can be in the world. This is so because one is only permitted to grasp that if he engages in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] he will attain something. There must be self-benefit there for otherwise, one is unable to do anything. Rather, it is an illumination that comes from above, and only one who tastes it can know and understand. It is written about it, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Thus, we must understand why one should seek advice and counsels regarding how to achieve Lishma. After all, no counsels will help him, and if the Creator does not give him the second nature, called “the desire to bestow,” no labor will help him to attain the matter of Lishma.

The answer is, as our sages said (Avot, Chapter 2, 21), “It is not for you to complete the work, and you are not free to idle away from it.” This means that one must give the awakening from below, since this is regarded as a prayer.

A prayer is considered a deficiency, and without a deficiency there is no filling. Hence, when one has a need for Lishma, the filling comes from above, and the answer to the prayer comes from above, meaning he receives fulfillment for his lack. It follows, that the need for man’s work in order to receive the Lishma from the Creator is only in the form of a lack and a Kli [vessel]. Yet, one can never obtain the filling by himself; it is rather a gift from the Creator.

However, the prayer must be a complete prayer, from the bottom of the heart. This means that one knows one hundred percent that there is no one in the world who can help him but the Creator Himself.

Yet, how does one know this, that no one will help him but the Creator Himself? One can acquire that awareness precisely if he has invested all the powers at his disposal and it did not help him. Thus, one must do every possible thing in the world to attain “for the sake of the Creator.” Then one can pray from the bottom of the heart, and then the Creator hears his prayer.

However, one must know, when exerting to attain the Lishma, to take upon himself to want to work entirely to bestow, completely, meaning only to bestow and not to receive anything. Only then does one begin to see that the organs do not agree to this view.

From this one can come to clear awareness that he has no other choice but to pour out his heart to the Creator to help him so the body will agree to enslave itself to the Creator unconditionally, as he sees that he cannot persuade his body to annul itself completely. It turns out that precisely when one sees that there is no hope that his body will agree to work for the Creator by itself, one’s prayer can be from the bottom of the heart, and then his prayer is accepted.

We must know that by attaining Lishma, one puts the evil inclination to death. The evil inclination is the will to receive, and acquiring the desire to bestow cancels the will to receive from being able to do anything. This is considered putting it to death. Since it has been removed from its office, and it has nothing more to do since it is no longer in use, when it is revoked from its function, this is considered putting it to death.

When one contemplates “What he has in his work which he works under the sun,” one sees that it is not so difficult to enslave oneself to His Name for two reasons:

1. Anyhow, meaning, whether willingly or unwillingly, one must exert in this world, and what has one left from all the efforts he has made?

2. However, if a person works Lishma, he receives pleasure during the work, too.

M. Laitman: (14:12) So, it turns out like this. We have nothing to do in life at all besides always turning to the Creator so He designs our desire for Him to help us connect, to help us intend to Him, to give us a strong and good desire, more accurate, more sharp. Basically, always to turn to the Creator. There's no action on our part besides the requests, and we need to get used to that. We need to hold on to each other in that. And so the common prayer, the public prayer is that, and that's why we have our Arvut. 

We want no one to let go of that request, to always address the Creator, ask from the Creator, give thanks to the Creator. And then from our address to the Creator, we eventually awaken the desire from above, because the desire from above is already standing by to bestow to us. It's already there, but it's just waiting for the right desire from below. And by constantly addressing and asking and so forth, we come to a point where the surrounding lights influence us, and then we establish our address in such a way, as it's called, "make your desire as His desire." That me and you and everyone in the Ten, all together, address the upper one so that our desire is directed to His desire. And then as it says in Matan Torah, when we come to that, we receive the light that reforms, we begin to receive the Torah. All right, is that understood?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:43) You said the true desire that comes from below. Does the desire from below, can it ever be real?

M. Laitman: Yes. As much as we need to make it real, as much as the Creator enables us to do it, then it's real. It's like what we demand from children. It's something that fits our degree, because the degree we're in, this situation we're in, is also designed from above. And therefore there's a correction over our request, which is not real, our cry, which is not real, and so forth. The upper one who gives us these conditions to begin with, also gives us the correction that matches our response.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:38) We see as every lesson goes by, we see that the address to the Creator is the only thing that's important, the only thing. And I hear you more than once that you're telling us that we have to help each other, awaken each other. How can we best do it, except for the internal prayer, externally speaking?

M. Laitman: We're coming to that. After all when I look at you, at you all, first of all, I'm very envious that I'm not among you, and I see that people do get close to each other, they better understand each other. I wouldn't say it's an indication, but they become more open to each other. The wisdom of Kabbalah is not actually so supportive of too much openness, because until we're protected by screens, everyone over his ego, then we may harm each other. So everything has to be kind of, kind of balanced. And also, we see this convention as opposed to the previous convention. For instance, we had four conventions in a row, excellent conventions. There was inspiration and great work before those conventions, and they happened very well, but that was in terms of intensity, and not so much in terms of emotion. There was emotion there, of course, but unlike right now. Now, I am identifying very great sensitivity, very great anticipation towards the inner feeling. And it's only a month that passed, and so we're advancing. I can't give more advice than what we're already going through. So what else is lacking? Only the efforts that we're doing daily; a bit more attention, more sensitivity, more mutual concern. That's what it is.

And we should do exercises. For instance, make exercises during the day of, for instance, how great are my friends, how unique are my friends. Do this as an exercise that everyone tries to praise everyone else. For instance, there are different things. You will have to search for what's needed. Rabash really wrote everything for us.

So no, I think we're seeing good progress. I cannot say if it can be more or less, but that's what we have eventually. But it's there, and it's very good. You don't realize how many light years away you are from all of those who are seemingly studying Kabbalah or know about Kabbalah or engage in Kabbalah. And I'm not even talking about the whole of humanity. So that's needed too. One's heart should be proud in the Creator's path. All right? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:55) It's unclear what a whole prayer is.

M. Laitman: A whole prayer, a complete prayer. First of all, it's probably one that's already answered by the Creator. That we as a group awaken and adhere to the whole Creator, the Creator that's whole. Meaning we are adapting ourselves to Him, as it says, "make your desire as His desire," exactly what He wants to give to us, which is the first spiritual degree, to make it relevant to us. So that is what we're exactly working to focus our group desire on.

Student: He describes here a very seemingly simple state where a person feels despaired, and he turns to the Creator to correct him.

M. Laitman: Right, but if you start interpreting all these words, you'll see how it depends on the group and the series of lights that you need to receive in order to be correctly despaired and so forth. What's the despair? From one's own strength? What does one want to attain with his own strength? None Else Besides Him. Good that does good. How do we come to that through the group? To be as one man throughout the group. So these are the efforts, and that's only towards the first degree. In truth, all the degrees are seemingly the same, but yet there's a great difference. It's like the sense of smell, touch, sight, hearing, and so forth, but it depends on what level you're perceiving. 

So, to adapt our raw desire we're not demanded to match our five senses to what we're going to receive from the Creator. We're not demanded to do that on the first degrees, for sure. But later on, you'll have to better detect everything, because if you won't direct yourself in advance towards the form that you're going to discover, to some extent, then if you won't aim the vessels, you won't discover the lights. So that means you're going to have a different kind of work, which means more meticulous scrutiny, more preparation, but also it'll be more to the point. And now it's more like an embryo, like a newborn. You see that it's just a piece of flesh, and it's got nothing, not a lot more.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:36) You said that the only action from our behalf is a prayer, a prayer and raising a plea to the Creator. So, is the Arvut based on that?

M. Laitman: Yes. The Arvut is called the correct connection between us, that this deficiency that we establish is fit for the Creator. Arvut is the Kli that is in the right preparation for the answering of the prayer.

Student: What's the connection?

M. Laitman: You don't think that Arvut is a lack, right?

Student: Yes, it's just like you said, it's the right connection between us.

M. Laitman: How do we connect then?

Student: In a million and one ways we connect. 

M. Laitman: By wanting to help each other. It's a lack, it's not a million things, it's deficiencies. So who do we address with these deficiencies? The one who can refine them and fulfill them, the counsels and deposits, the Creator.

Student: All of my actions towards the friends should be a prayer over their deficiencies?

M. Laitman: Our deficiencies. All together, each and every one of us wants to unify his personal lacks with the lack of the group, so that all in all, with one deficiency we’ll come to the Creator. So you want to give Him candy and your friend wants to give Him cake, and the third and the fourth want to bring Him a cup of coffee and something else and so forth. Everyone from what they feel in their soul, but the intention is one and the action is basically one. He receives a complete package, only like that. You have to give Him like a basket with all the gifts, so that it exactly fits what He is. Deficiencies. We want you to enjoy this. Enjoy what? Fulfilling this and this and that and this and this. Why? Because by fulfilling that, we will be able to fulfill You.

Student: How do we develop additional sensitivity to the friends' desires, their deficiencies? Can we feel them?

M. Laitman: I don't think that we need to develop more sensitivity. It needs to be to the extent that we can aim all these deficiencies for the Creator. Otherwise, you'll be immersed in fixing the world. I'm not going to fix the friend or correct or fulfill the friend. This is idol worshipping. I'm never able to do that and I never will be able to do that. And if we start trying to correct and fulfill the friends, then the Creator will corrupt these friends and give them such suffering, till I see that only evil comes out of that. Sometimes it happens when we try to get in and see that as a goal rather than a means. How do we take the friend out of the blow that he suffers and we don't turn to the Creator. Let's say the friend is sick with something, God forbid. It happens. So we understand that we have to go to doctors and do everything possible. Sure, but we have to see how, after all these errands that we have to make, because the doctor has the permission to heal, as he explains to us there in Letter 16. But after all of this, I have to turn to the Creator, to know that the Creator did this, and rely on Him. So we mustn't deviate from the path. There are many things here. This is something we learn throughout the whole ladder. There's no other work. It's just in a different qualitative level each time, a different depth. And accordingly, more and more desires open up, and fulfillments.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:52) So the prayer should be that He will fulfill the friend's desire?

M. Laitman: The prayer needs to be that we do want to fulfill the friend's necessities. And we also, along with the help we give him in an earthly way that will be balanced for the necessities, along with that we turn to the Creator.

Student: And we're considered world reformers if we're not turning to the Creator, only to the friend?

M. Laitman: That is the shell. Yes, that's Klipa. If we only address the friend, and use our own strength, and even our own scrutiny, not just the correction and fulfillment.

Question (Nikolaev): (32:07) Could you please explain a bit more specifically what is the preparation of the vessels to receive the right answer for the prayer?

M. Laitman: The preparation of the vessels needs to be according to what I'm going to attain. What do we want to attain? We wish to attain None Else Besides Him, good that does good. What is None Else Besides Him and good that does good about? Giving us the opportunity to bestow to Him. Then it becomes one receives one. We come to adhesion, Dvekut. So our preparation is that just like the Creator wants to bestow all the goodness to us, and the goodness means to be in mutual bestowal and bestow to Him, that's on our part. That's what we need to come to, that's the preparation. So the preparation for the prayer is that we want to have such desire.

The prayer is that we're asking for such a desire, and then the answering of the prayer, that the light that reforms shapes our desire to bestow to the Creator above all our other deficiencies, all our other lacks, and that's called the light of the 613 counsels and deposits. And then when we come to a certain level of adhesion, we are then fulfilled with the 613 deposits. The light fulfills the connection between us, our mutual vessels, ours with His. So I feel the relation of the Creator, and I raise to the Creator our relation, we do that, and then with these common desires, as it says, "me for my Beloved and my Beloved for me," we feel a special fulfillment that we call unity or adhesion. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:02) So when we give the Creator a bag with the friend's deficiency, how do we become equal to Him and we bestow unto Him like He bestows unto us? 

M. Laitman: Again. Just ask. Just ask the question without the story.

Student: How, when we give the Creator a bag with the friend's deficiencies, do we bestow unto Him?

M. Laitman: Because the cow wants to feed more than the calf wants to suckle. So we need to be in a state where the calf wants to suckle more to the extent that the cow wants to feed. There's a degree from above, which is the AHP of the upper one. It's filled with light that he wants to pour into our lack. We have to then adapt our lack to match it to the upper one. In the meantime, when we don't discover, show such a lack on our part so that mismatch with the upper one's desire, as long as the desires from below and from above are unfit, then the difference, the gap, is felt as darkness in us.

To the extent that we match our desire with His desire, as it's written, then we come to the point of contact where the upper light can shine on us more and more until our desires are in perfect match from the receiving part and the bestowing part, our part and His part, and then we truly receive what He wants to bestow, because by that we bestow to Him. 

Student: This adaption between our desire to bestow unto Him and between Him bestowing unto us, how does it happen by the deficiencies we raise from the friends?

M. Laitman: What deficiencies we raise? Corporeal. 

Student: Yes. 

M. Laitman: All right, what are these deficiencies? What is the deficiency? I need to raise to the Creator our desires to bestow to Him. The corporeal which I mentioned is perhaps misleading, because our desires are still in order to receive. Well, that's called corporeal. All right, I have to make it more accurate here. We raise our common desire for the Creator of wanting to receive strength from Him. That's what we can ask, right? To the extent that we engage in that, that we ask precisely for that, what will happen to us in a corporeal level will happen. We understand that it happens as a condition from the Creator. And when we raise our deficiencies to Him as one deficiency for spirituality, and the corporeal lack of the friend could be present here because it's my spiritual lack, and that's what we eventually get a response for.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:54) How does the friend's deficiency is related to us wanting to bestow to Him? 

M. Laitman: How do I raise to the Creator a desire to bestow? That I want to receive from Him in order to bestow. All of us, how do we do this? It's only on the condition that we all wish to connect, to help each other. What for? To connect our desires to bestow to Him. I feel it's not absorbed. Where do we get all those deficiencies? The Creator awakens it within us, right? Anyone who lacks anything in life, where does it come from? "Go to the craftsman who made me." Meaning that now the fact that we collect all these deficiencies and we want to fulfill them, but we realize that the Creator is the fulfillment and the correction so we are aware that what we are now going to show an interest in what every friend lacks. Where does it come from? It comes from the Creator. For what? So that we will unite. There's no other goal. That's the goal of everything. And so that's what we raise to Him. In other words , it comes out the same.

Student: So basically the specific deficiencies of every friend is only a clothing for a deficiency to bestow to the Creator?

M. Laitman: I don't know. Why does He awaken that deficiency in everyone?

Student: And if a friend has a certain specific problem in his life…

M. Laitman: It's not a problem in life. It's just an external clothing. The problem is seemingly to awaken him to bestow to the Creator.

Student: And I, as a friend who now wants to ask for this friend's deficiency to bestow to the Creator, not over the clothing, the external ones?

M. Laitman: When you address the friend, so on the one hand, in a necessary way, we need to take care of the necessity of the friend. "If there's no flour, there's no Torah." On the one hand. And on the other hand, we have to see that all of those deficiencies will become corrected and fulfilled only when they become as bestowing to the Creator.

Student: So seemingly in my prayer to the Creator, what am I supposed to say? That it's the friend's deficiency to bestow to Him? It's not the external clothing, rather it's a friend's desire to bestow to the Creator? That's what I'm asking for fulfillment?

M. Laitman: We ask that all the lacks, all the deficiencies that the friends have will be fulfilled in corporeality to the level of necessities and will be corrected on a spiritual level. There are a few things here, a few aspects that we haven't discussed yet. It's the connection between corporeality and spirituality. It's how we need to work with our beast and with our human. There are a few more things here that we still lack this inner sensitivity for. I also feel I don't have the words because you don't have it clear in you.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:28) In the past few days, we've been trying to work with these external clothings and to ask for them. But what to ask for? That's the question. To ask for them to be corrected. What does this be corrected mean?

M. Laitman: The external clothings are called corrected when you rise above them, when you rise above them. I can't explain. Meaning it's not, it's better not to explain right now. There are things that… We’ll grow and we'll see. Don't think that all the external clothings become corrected. The great Kabbalists used to suffer from different illnesses or hunger or other things. What a person goes through in this world in different ways, meaning in a corporeal way, it's actually a very high spiritual degree that is solved throughout the ladder, the entire ladder. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:18) In simple words, can we say that our bestowal to the Creator is when we prepare the fit vessel so that He can bestow His goodness on us?

M. Laitman: For sure, yes, certainly. But here we're not just talking about that. We're talking about do we get rid of the troubles or not? No. Why not? If I finished the spiritual degree, the corporeal degree, and now I'm in spirituality, even the first degree, so all the troubles disappear. No? Well, no. Why? The world is corrected? No. So it turns out here, and we haven't yet shaped that picture, that system. But if we can say this, our problems, our corporeal problems are then seen as more and more deep and spiritual. But this is something that can't be communicated in words. It'll come. It'll come. We're in a transition phase.

Student: So what am I supposed to pray about exactly? If a friend writes, for instance, that he has a problem with his wife, if I'll pray for him, he may divorce her altogether. So what should I pray for correctly?

M. Laitman: You don't pray for what you think is good or bad for him. You pray for the Creator to help him, only. How do you know if it's better for him to stay married or get divorced?

Student: I don't know, but he wrote what he's missing for. So what should I pray for?

M. Laitman: He's missing the help of the Creator. That's it. Nothing else.

Student: So I should ask for specific help from the Creator for him?

M. Laitman: Not something specific. Don't direct the Creator to something specific.

Student: So what difference does it make what he writes, actually? What difference does it make if he writes about a specific problem or not?

M. Laitman: It's important because over all these problems, I need to provide one solution. The Creator's help, the revelation of the Creator to the created being, that's the only solution to all the problems.

Student: But I can pray for that all the time. I don't need a specific problem for that.

M. Laitman: Yes and no. You also don't need to go into all the details. With what vessels are you going into that? What do you get from using your broken vessels to discuss what's happening to the friend? It's sufficient for you to know in general that he has a certain trouble, a certain problem, lack, and he certainly has a lack for spirituality. You  don't even need to delve into the corporeality. And then you pray for that, which is, and that is certainly something he lacks. That's why he's your friend. He has a lack for spirituality.

Student: Okay, so when we write about our problems that disturb us in our life, and we share that with our friends, what kind of problems should we write?

M. Laitman: Test it out. Try it out. You can't get a detailed prescription from me for everything. Try it this way and that way and then see, but don't go too deep into everyone's guts, into each other's guts or each other's hearts, however you say it. It has to be in a way that's only to somewhat be impressed by each other, be integrated, because we're still in egoistic vessels and it's not that we can already be the adapter between the friend and the Creator. Move, move slowly.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:55) I, meaning we, pray seemingly for a solution for us, for certain problems for our friends, and when we do that, we should simply think that all these problems that come to the friends, the Creator already knows about them, He sent them. So, that's why all we need to ask for is help, and not to be specific.

M. Laitman: Right, right. You are admitting that you know what the Creator knows.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:34) Going over the troubles of the friends, when you pray for friends, some friends feel their trouble as more painful, more deep, some a little bit less. Should we make an account over that? Is there no equality here?

M. Laitman: It's just one judges through his own flaws. It seems to you that way, then it seems to you another way. You talk about it as if what you're seeing is truth. We're unaware of how we share all these impressions through our egoistic system, and you know, one person I like more, the other less, the other one is, you know, I see him in this condition or that condition, and I judge accordingly. And we have to be very, very far from making any determinations like that here. It's just, it's written that I have to do that, so I do it.

Student: So, how to bring myself out of it, how to neutralize myself?

M. Laitman: We have to see it also from the actions in Egypt. There's Pharaoh that makes actions, and there's Moses that makes actions, and it's according to specific instructions, and that's what's done. There's not so much emotional kind of actions. There are, but some we cannot take into account. Right now we're in a kind of a scrutiny phase. In a few days it will be clearer.

Student: But it turns out that if I bring myself out of it, and I neutralize myself from the emotion, where is my sorrow? Where is my pain? 

M. Laitman: What does it mean to share the sorrow of the friend, that I cry with him? I don't know. I don't understand. So I can invite people from outside and pay them money, so they cry. And then what? It's like me, an egoist who cries. That's the truth. That's truth.

Student: I should feel the friend's pain, his trouble, his corporeal problem, and to transform it to spirituality, to raise it to the Creator, to ask Him to cling to there's None Else Besides Him, and I have to feel the pain.

M. Laitman: Yes. Okay, you guys discuss it during the day. I don't want to discuss it further. There are scrutinies here, that in the meantime we're talking, but we're not hearing each other.

Question (Karmiel): (53:42) When a friend has a serious health problem, what's the most precise prayer we should have?

M. Laitman: I am no longer answering all these questions. You guys will brew and cook a little, and with where you are. You'll have a bit more experience and questions this way or that way, and then we'll talk. And some things you're not going to get from me, but only from your experience. If I say something in advance, it will become this kind of mantra, or this kind of rule, and that's not good. You have to understand what they write. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:34) With your permission, it's highly recommended to hear last night's lesson. There were a lot of scrutinies about it.

M. Laitman: All right, thank you.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:52) Let's suppose for a moment that a friend has his corporeal necessities. What does spiritual necessity mean?

M. Laitman: Read, please. Let's keep reading.

Reader: Okay, so we're on page 30, in the middle of the page.

Reading: (55:14) Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?

According to the proverb of the Sayer of Dubna, who spoke about the verse, “You did not call Me, Jacob, for you labored about Me, Israel,” he said that it is like a rich man who departed the train and had a small bag. He placed it where all the merchants place their baggage, and the porters take the baggage and bring them to the hotel where the merchants stay. The porter thought that clearly the merchant would take a small bag by himself, and there is no need for a porter for this, so he took a big package.

The merchant wanted to pay him a small fee, as he usually pays, but the porter did not want to take it. He said, “I put a big bag into the hotel depository, which exhausted me, and I barely carried your bag, and you want to pay me so little for it?”

The lesson is that when one comes and says that he exerted extensively in observing Torah and Mitzvot, the Creator tells him, “You did not call Me, Jacob.” In other words, it is not My baggage that you took. Rather, this baggage belongs to someone else. Since you say that you had much effort in Torah and Mitzvot, you must have had a different landlord for whom you worked; so go to him to pay you.

This is the meaning of “for you labored about Me, Israel.” This means that he who works for the Creator has no labor, but on the contrary, pleasure and elation. But one who works for other goals cannot come to the Creator with complaints that the Creator does not give him vitality in the work, since he did not work for the Creator, for the Creator to pay for his work. Instead, one can complain to those people for whom he worked to give him pleasure and vitality.

And since there are many purposes in Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], one should demand of the goal for which he worked to give him the reward, namely pleasure and vitality. It is said about them, “They who make them shall be like them, everyone who trusts them.”

However, according to this, it is perplexing. After all, we see that even when one takes upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven without any other intention, he still does not feel any vitality, to say that this vitality compels him to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven. And the reason he does take upon himself the burden is only because of faith above reason.

In other words, he does it by way of coercive overcoming, unwillingly. Thus, we might ask, Why does one feel exertion in this work, with the body constantly seeking a time when it can be rid of this work, as one does not feel any vitality in the work? According to the above, when one works in humbleness, when his only goal is to work in order to bestow, why does the Creator not impart him taste and vitality in the work?

The answer is that we must know that this matter is a great correction. Were it not for this, meaning if light and vitality had illuminated immediately when one began to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven, he would have vitality in the work. In other words, the will to receive, too, would have consented to this work.

In that state he would certainly agree because he wants to satisfy his desire, meaning he would work for his own benefit. Had that been the case, it would never have been possible to achieve Lishma since he would be compelled to work for his own benefit, as he would feel greater pleasure in the work of the Creator than in corporeal desires. Thus, he would have to remain in Lo Lishma, since he would have had satisfaction in the work, and where there is satisfaction, one cannot do anything, as without profit, one cannot work. It follows that if one received satisfaction in this work of Lo Lishma, he would have to remain in that state.

This would be similar to what people say, that when there are people chasing a thief to catch him, the thief, too, runs and yells, “Catch the thief!” Then, it is impossible to recognize who is the real thief so as to catch him and take the theft out of his hand.

However, when the thief, meaning the will to receive, does not feel any flavor or vitality in the work of accepting the burden of the kingdom of heaven, in that state, if one works with faith above reason, coercively, and the body becomes accustomed to this work against the desire of his will to receive, then he has the means by which to come to work that will be with the purpose of bringing contentment to his Maker, since the primary requirement from a person is to come to Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator through his work, which is discerned as equivalence of form, where all his actions are in order to bestow.

This is as it is written, “Then shall you delight in the Lord.” The meaning of “Then” is that first, in the beginning of his work, he did not have pleasure. Instead, his work was coercive.

But afterward, when he has already accustomed himself to work in order to bestow and not examine himself—if he is feeling a good taste in the work—but believes that he is working to bring contentment to his Maker through his work, he should believe that the Creator accepts the work of the lower ones regardless of how and how much is the form of their work. In everything, the Creator examines the intention, and this brings contentment to the Creator. Then one is rewarded with “delight in the Lord.”

Even during the work of the Creator he will feel delight and pleasure since now he really does work for the Creator because the effort he made during the coercive work qualifies him to be able to truly work for the Creator. You find that then, too, the pleasure he receives relates to the Creator, meaning specifically for the Creator. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:41) It seems to me that in the first state, when a person is asking the Creator for some reward, he is turning to Him. And in the second state, he believes that he is disconnected. We talked about the main thing is asking the Creator all the time, because the first state is the correct one. It doesn't matter if I'm asking for a reward, I'm always turning to the Creator. I worked, I labored, and I've reached. 

M. Laitman: The fact that I come to the group and to the connection, that's after I determine that my goal is to come to adhesion. And then the group is a means. When I go to research the means and delve deeper into it, then I begin to see the means is just like the goal, because there, inside the means, I find contact with the Creator. And therefore the means is the vessel, the Creator is the light, but the vessel and the light become one in adhesion, and that's why there's no difference between the means, the friends in the Ten, and the Creator. It's all revealed to me as one. All right? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:22) It says, "Taste and see that the Creator is good."

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: Now, most of the people here, they're here because perhaps they felt something that tastes this way. So how can we think about this without falling into the Klipa? 

M. Laitman: I don’t understand. "Taste and see that the Lord is good." The Creator is a force of bestowal and love, and that's good for me, then it is "taste and see that the Lord is good." Now what do you ask about that?

Student: If I think about it, he writes that there is no taste in the work. And if you're trying to look for taste, for flavor, isn't it a Klipa?

M. Laitman: No, why is it a Klipa? We need to enjoy it. But enjoy what? Enjoy being in the Creator's world, in the force of bestowal and love, that we all relate to reality that way. What I hear through this question is that one who's asking that, is God forbid, imagining the Creator as some idol, as some character. That He exists and He also has the force of bestowal and love. There's no such thing. That the force of love and bestowal is itself the Creator.

Student: So there is no problem in asking for this flavor in bestowal?

M. Laitman: No problem to ask for what?

Student: For the flavor, for the taste of bestowal.

M. Laitman: Yes, bestowal and love. Yes, sure. Bestowal is permitted to, you're permitted to enjoy. Reception is not permitted to enjoy. I see there's this vagueness before the convention today. 

Question (Karmiel): (01:07:35) He writes here that the work is in coercion, rather his work was in coercion. What does it mean?

M. Laitman: Coercion, it means against the will to enjoy reception, rather to transform oneself, to shape oneself to enjoy bestowal, and that's the work of coercion. That I have to replace my inner program, thought, desire, direction, orientation. All of that has to flip, has to change. I do that, of course by the light that reforms, but with my requests I always think about that inversion of my foundations. 

Question (Nikolaev): (01:08:41) How can one ask and pray from the depth of his heart if in that depth there is the concentrated will to receive? And if you ask out of despair, so what? Does it neutralize the ego?

M. Laitman: Wanting to. The fact that we need to ask from all our heart, meaning that our entire desire is ready for correction, that I'll feel that I want to completely correct it without any compromise, that means from the depth of the heart, from the final fourth degree. Fourth phase I want to become corrected. All right?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:53) I tried to write down my problems, but I couldn't.

M. Laitman: You couldn't at all?

Student: No.

M. Laitman: Meaning you're unable to express your problems, write them on paper?

Student: I have many problems.

M. Laitman: That's clear. Every day you talk about them.

Student: I have many problems. On the one hand, I couldn't write down my problems and I also couldn't read the problems of the friends, because I was afraid that if I would read their problems, I would start looking at them differently because of my ego. But I understand that the only thing that the friends need is the light. And I need to ask for the light for them. But if I will see their corporeal problems, I will start judging them instead.

M. Laitman: I'll tell you, on the one hand, it's true. On the other hand, we need to rise above these problems. First of all, why do I need to judge them? One seems like a liar to me. The other like a fool. The other is stingy. Another is stubborn. He's prideful. Control freak. Whatever. So I need to judge them accordingly? I'm asking you, how do I need to see them? Do I judge them in relation to that? No. These are qualities that the Creator put into that body and gave me this body as a friend that I need to connect to, above these qualities. I don't look at the qualities. I look at them, do you know when? When it disturbs my work. That's it. The fact that this friend doesn't want to do something, this friend is being lazy, and the other friend, well, that's clear. That it disturbs work. But if it's not for work-related matters, then God forbid, everything is by the Creator, and I accept it.

I need to love them with everything that the Creator gave them. Only to the matter of our work in dissemination, if not for that, we would treat each other completely differently. Everything would be, you know, what? Why would I see if you're like this or like that? That's what the Creator put in my Ten. He put in ten puppets, that each one is made that way. And we need above that, to do what was given to us, to add something on our behalf, that's it. Why do I need to change my attitude to them? Because he's like this, like that. We need to show this to people, that we're treating them in a very to-the-point kind of way, either in order to advance the spirituality, or to arrange the orders of the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:22) Let's say a friend of mine has a problem at work. So what am I asking the Creator? Let's say a friend has a problem, doesn't have a job so I take his curriculum and I start sending him to different places, or asking for the light, and if he will receive the light, his problems will be resolved?

M. Laitman: I need to do both. If the friend told us about the corporeal problem he has, we need to help him also corporeally. But God forbid to think that by that we are actually solving the problem. No, "if there is no bread, there is no Torah." There’s another problem here, that we are not able to tie correctly, mutually, to make a, how should I say, the correct form of connection. We’re not able to connect corporeality and spirituality.

Student: I am very much afraid from this exercise, but I always hear that the only problem that we have is the connection between us.

M. Laitman: Yes, but we also live in this world. We were given this discernment called this world, that it's fake, but we still need to use it. I can't say, no, there’s no corporeality, only spirituality. I can't. I have to make corrections also on the corporeal level. 

Student: And what are corrections on the corporeal level? 

M. Laitman: That I need to do certain actions in order to bestow also on corporeality, yes.

Student: So how do I rise above my ego in order to write down my problems for the friends?

M. Laitman: That's your problem. That's your work. It's because you are prideful. You’re unable to have a lie open my heart to them with what I have. Don't write everything. Just write a little bit. Just something. A drop, so it won't hurt your honor.

Student: Okay, thanks.

M. Laitman: Okay, he understood. What can you do? That's how we are. Slowly, slowly. Do you know how much a person needs to strip down of himself in the spiritual path? How the Creator just removes everything from him, and He shames him in front of everyone, but by that He forces the person to rise above that. We'll still work on that. 

Reader: There's a question from Effie from New York.

M. Laitman: Who’s Effie from New York?

Reader: Ten number 5, New York. He's an Israeli friend.

M. Laitman: Yes, it's clear he's an Israeli from the New York group. Okay, yes.

Question (New York 5): (01:18:25) How do I know that my pleasure when I bestow is an egoistic one?

M. Laitman: How do I know that my pleasure when I bestow is egoistic? What do I bestow? What can I bestow? Only the Creator can bestow. I can't bestow anything. I can only receive in order to bestow, or bestow in order to bestow. But to actually bestow, I can't. If I work as a pipeline, then I'm as the Creator. My bestowal is making myself a conduit. That's bestowal. But I myself, I'm not a generator of pleasures, I'm not a generator of light. How can I bestow? Our bestowal is only with the correct form of reception. What do you want today, Saba, Grandpa? Because he's on duty.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:35) I want to relate to that last question. If my pleasure to bestow is an egoistic pleasure, so these actions that we do… 

M. Laitman: This is an egoistic pleasure if you, like a Polish mother who's, you know whatever she makes, she tries to…

Student: Yeah, or we're helping other nations who don't really need our help.

M. Laitman: In other words this pleasure are you bestowing it to yourself or to someone's deficiency exactly? In that case, it requires they have a prior deficiency for it. And if they do have a prior deficiency and it's suited exactly to what you're giving them, and they're drawn to that pleasure and they come to you and want to receive it, then you can bestow upon them. That truly is a pleasure which is blessed.

Student: You gave us an example that all these actions that the nations of the world do for Africa, let's say, and they want to help them, this is in fact in order to satisfy their own ego.

M. Laitman: It's a great corruption because to start with, the Africans didn't need it.They brought them this culture and many diseases from Europe. Before that, they had a good life in their own culture. What do they need? Why do I need to wear a tie? Or they need to put on wigs and sit on woollen bags and discuss things like they do in England, they don't need that.

The deficiency of the lower one needs to come prior and be suited to what the upper one wants to give, because the upper one wants to bestow for the benefit of the lower one. So the upper one needs to have first, the feeling of the deficiency for the lower one, and then he only waits and expects the lower one to want to receive from him, and then the lower one will understand that what he truly needs to want is what the upper one has. There is mutual work, mutual inclusion here, a gradual one, before there is this suitability that's made. But when there is this match, then there's no difference between receiving and giving. They're both receiving and giving. 

Question (Karmiel): (01:22:23) It happens that friends in the groups pass away. What kind of work can the group do if the group identifies that it can happen to some of the friends? And what happens to a friend who passes away? How is he included with the group, if at all? What is that state?

M. Laitman: We also had these situations with Rabash. The friends passed away. Work continues without any... I don't know how to put it. We just continue working. What does it matter if a person is with us in this way or in a different way? If there are ten and now there's nine corporeally, then we can take in another ten, a tenth, and don't calculate that he's passed away. What's happening? We're sitting, we're weeping, no. We accept this as judgment from above, and we move on. And move on. That's how it needs to be.

Also towards the teacher that passes away. It needs to be very, very practical and short, and not turn it into... I don't know some... no. We continue the path, whatever was yesterday is yesterday, and today we continue, that's it. There's no difference. If he's with us or not, what does it matter, he's a friend for eternity, that's it. Okay? All right, Karmiel again, what's happening there?

Student: If the group identifies such a state, if the group identifies that that state is coming closer, are there special actions that we should do in order to accompany a friend in his last days?

M. Laitman: Explain to me what are they asking?

Student: A friend who is very ill and only has a few days left.

M. Laitman: Uh-huh, yes, so you need to pray? You need to pray, it doesn't matter what state he's in, the most critical state, it's not for us to decide that, that's it, that it's done. No, we need to until the last moment. We mustn't say that it doesn't depend on our prayer, it depends on our prayer. We need to all pray, to all ask, to all want for him to stay with us. It's custom, it's written that way. When he passes away then he passes away. From that moment on, well there's the shiva, the days of mourning, seven days, 30 days, one year.

In our world there are such symbols with respect to the soul that it gets rid of the will to receive, they're symbols of a replication of the corporeal world with respect to truth, but the friends, the next day they go back to the study and engage in the corrections as needed. That's it. And I take in the tenth, instead of he who passed away, and they continue, because there is nothing besides Him, good and benevolent. How can we make any, well like the whole world does. No, we're prohibited. Okay? What do they do?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:50) During the Congress tomorrow, are we supposed to still put in front of us the problems of the friends or do something else?

M. Laitman: No, no, congress is completely different. We come to a congress. Please God, tomorrow at 12 p.m., right, 10 a.m. your time.10? Meaning there it's at 1, so at 10 it's only the Yeshivat Haverim or lesson?

Student: 10:30 Yeshivat Haverim, Israel time.

M. Laitman: And 11?

Student: 11. 

M. Laitman: So it's at 1 p.m. there. 

Student: It's 2 p.m. for them.

M. Laitman: So it's 2 p.m. there, right? It's a bit late for you guys. You'll be here together in a lesson and then what, you'll have a meal?

Student: We go according to the schedule of Almaty. 

M. Laitman: There I finish at 9 p.m. 

Student: So for us it's 6 p.m. At the end of the day it's at 6 p.m. for us. No problem here.

M. Laitman: Okay, so it works out well for you. Okay, good.

So about the Congress, there are no laws that were before during the Congress. We spoke about mourning and he wanted to pass away. But no, we're moving into a different mode. We're all included together, more concerned having care for the world's Kli, caring for all the translations and making sure everything's in place and correct, men, women, children, making sure whoever wants to participate can participate because the Congress isn't a morning lesson. The Congress everyone needs to be pulled to. So you need to set up a place for everyone and to invite and to prepare things and women that are connected to children, they also need to have the ability to come with their children, have place for the kids with candy and stuff and everything. In short take care of it. That's it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:35) After we took care of everything logistically, I'm asking about that note with the list that disturbs the friends. Do we use it during the Congress or do we leave it for now?

M. Laitman: What, these personal disturbances?

Student: Of every friend in a Ten.

M. Laitman: There are no personal disturbances during the Congress. There are no personal disturbances. I'm going to live the Congress. I'm going to a Congress. I don't feel anything. I don't care about anything. I'm now being included with everyone together in a single action of connection. That's it. In truth, you can say that you need to be this way daily, but really the emphasis on the connection and what we've been through, I ask you to pay attention and see how the topics of the Congress can be different than what we've already seen. No, no, Congress is, there's no problems, there's no, nothing is happening in the world. Everything is dead. We don't listen to news or old news, nothing. Nothing. Only the Congress and its topic. That's it, songs, YH…..,  lessons, Q&As, that's it. Just like that. I really ask of you to be focused. And also check and awaken all the groups in the world. You're also a logistical center. I don't think that from there they have the ability to really take care of everyone. How is it going to work there? Can we know? Can someone tell us?

Student: What do you mean, how does it work? What's going on with the rest of the groups in the world? This is what you're asking?

M. Laitman: Yeah, in what way are they connected? Where do they turn to? Are there any issues? Translators are sitting here getting the stream from Almaty.

Student: Everything is as usual. We get it from there and disseminate it to the rest of the world.

M. Laitman: So the source isn't here, but it's from there, but all the rest?

Student: Everything is usual. The broadcast will be on Sviva Tova and it will be translated to all languages as usual.

M. Laitman: Okay, fine. Are there any translators that are going there that you won't have? No, are you sure? Okay. Fine. What else, Dudi? No questions? Good. Just one thing, prepare yourself to detach yourself from everything. Prepare yourself during the day and tomorrow until afternoon so that you won't be needed by your family members. And then delve into the connection as much as you can. And also make sure everything is set up for the women and for the children. That's it, I have nothing else to say. There are no questions, no? Okay. Everything is calm, good. Moving to the State of Ten Sefirot.

Reader: Okay, friends. Let's summarize the lesson. Let's have a workshop on what did we get from the lesson and what we will take from the lesson to realize in the Congress preparation. Go ahead.