The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: February 18, 2026
Part 1: A lesson based on the articles of Rabash
Rabash. Article No. 7, 1984. According to What Is Explained Concerning “Love Thy Friend as Thyself”
Original lesson date: 05/21/2003
Reader: Hello, dear friends. We are continuing the series of the social articles of Rabash. We will learn from a lesson with Rav from May 21st, 2003 based on the article, According to What Is Explained Concerning Love Thy Friend as Thyself. You can find it in the writings of Rabash. You will read the article together in the Tens. Tens that will finish first are welcome to start a workshop on the main points from the article.
Reading: (00:59) Rabash. Article 7, (1984). According to What Is Explained Concerning “Love Thy Friend as Thyself”
Article 7, 1984
According to what is explained concerning “Love thy friend as thyself,” all the details of the 612 Mitzvot [commandments] are contained in this rule. It is as our sages say, “The rest is its commentary; go study.” This means that by keeping the 612 Mitzvot we will be rewarded with the rule, “Love thy friend,” and following that, the love of God.
Thus, what does love of friends give us? It is written that by gathering a few friends together, since they each have but a small force of love of others—meaning they can carry out the love of others only potentially—when they implement it, they remember that they have decided to relinquish self-love in favor of love of others. But in fact, one sees that he cannot relinquish any pleasure of the will to receive in favor of another, not even a bit.
However, by assembling a few people who agree that they have to achieve the love of others, when they annul themselves before one another, they are all intermingled. Thus, in each person there accumulates a great force, according to the size of the association. And then each can execute the love of others in actual fact.
So what do the details of the 612 Mitzvot give us, which we said are in order to keep the rule, since the rule is kept by love of friends? And we see that in reality, there is love of friends among the secular, too. They, too, gather in various circles in order to have love of friends. What, then, is the difference between religious and secular?
The verse says (Psalms 1), “…nor sat in the seat of the scornful.” We must understand the prohibition of the “seat of the scornful.” If he slanders or speaks idle words, then the prohibition is not because of a “seat of scornful.” So what does the “seat of the scornful” give us?
Actually, the meaning is that when a few people come together for the purpose of love of friends, with the intention that each and every one will help his friend improve his corporeal state, each anticipates that by having more meetings they will profit from society and improve their corporeal state.
However, after all the meetings, everyone calculates and sees how much they have received from the association for the self-love, what the will to receive has gained by that, since they invested time and effort to benefit society. So what have they gained by it? One could probably succeed more if engaged in self-benefit, at least the part of his own efforts. But, “I entered the association because I thought that through it, I would be able to gain more than I could gain alone. But now I see that I have gained nothing.”
Then one regrets it and says, “I would be better off using my own little strength instead of giving my time to society. However, now that I have given my time to society, in order to gain more properties through help from the society, I finally realize that not only did I not gain anything from society, I even lost what I could have gained alone.”
When someone wishes to say that love of friends should be engaged in for the purpose of bestowal, that everyone should work to benefit others, everyone laughs and mocks him. It seems to them like a kind of joke, and this is a seat of seculars. It is said about it, “but sin is a reproach to any people, and every grace that they do, they do for themselves.” Such a society detaches one from holiness and casts him into the world of mockery. This is the prohibition of the seat of the scornful.
Our sages said about such societies, “Disperse the wicked; better for them and better for the world.” In other words, it is better that they do not exist. However, it is the opposite with the righteous: “Assemble the righteous; better for them and better for the world.”
What is the meaning of “righteous”? It is those who want to keep the rule, “Love thy friend as thyself.” Their sole intention is to exit self-love and assume a different nature of love of others. And although it is a Mitzva [commandment] that should be kept, and that one can force oneself to keep, love is still something that is given to the heart, and the heart disagrees with it by nature. What, then, can one do to make love of others touch the heart?
This is why we were given the 612 Mitzvot: they have the power to induce a sensation in the heart. However, since it is against nature, that sensation is too small to have the ability to keep love of friends de facto, even though one has a need for it. Hence, now he must seek advice on how to actually implement it.
The advice for one to be able to increase his strength in the rule, “Love thy friend,” is by love of friends. If everyone is nullified before his friend and mingles with him, they become one mass where all the little parts that want the love of others unite in a collective force that consists of many parts. And when one has great strength, he can execute the love of others.
And then he can achieve the love of God. But the condition is that each will annul before the other. However, when he is separated from his friend, he cannot receive the share he should receive from his friend.
Thus, everyone should say that he is nothing compared to his friend. It is like writing numbers: If you first write “1” and then “0,” it is ten times more. And when you write “00” it is a hundred times more. In other words, if his friend is number one, and the zero follows it, it is considered that one receives from his friend ten (10) times more. And if he says that he is double zero compared to his friend, he receives from his friend a hundred (100) times more.
However, if it is to the contrary, and he says that his friend is zero and he is one, then he is ten times less than his friend 0.1. And if he can say that he is one and he has two friends who are both zeros compared to him, then he is considered a hundred times less than them, meaning he is 0.01. Thus, his degree lessens according to the number of zeros he has from his friends.
Yet, even once he acquires that strength and can keep the love of others in actual fact, and feels his own gratification as bad for him, still, do not believe in yourself. There must be fear of falling into self-love in the middle of the work. In other words, should one be given a greater pleasure than he is used to receiving, although he can already work in order to bestow with small pleasures and is willing to relinquish them, he lives in fear of great pleasures.
This is called “fear,” and this is the gate to receive the Light of faith, called “The inspiration of the Shechina [Divinity],” as it is written in The Sulam Commentary, “By the measure of fear is the measure of faith.”
Hence, we must remember that the matter of “Love thy friend as thyself” should be kept because it is a Mitzva, since the Creator commanded to engage in love of friends. And Rabbi Akiva only interprets this Mitzva that the Creator commanded. He intended to make this Mitzva into a rule by which to be able to keep all the Mitzvot because of the commandment of the Creator, and not because of self-benefit.
In other words, it is not that the Mitzvot should expand our will to receive, meaning that by keeping the Mitzvot we would be generously rewarded. Quite the contrary; by keeping the Mitzvot we will reach the reward of being able to annul our self-love and achieve the love of others, and subsequently the love of God.
Now we can understand what our sages said about the verse, VeSamtem [Place them]. It comes from the word, Sam [“potion,” as well as “placing”]. “If granted, it is a potion of life; if not granted, it is a potion of death.”
Not granted means that one engages in Torah and Mitzvot to multiply self-love, so the body would acquire possessions in return for its work. If granted, one’s self-love is nullified and he aims to receive a reward that is the strength for love of others. By this he will reach the love of the Creator—that his only wish will be to give contentment to the Creator.
Reader: We will get into a lesson with Rav from May 20th, 2003.
M. Laitman: (16:09) We heard the article, According to What Is Explained in Love Your Friend as Yourself. It says the following, it says that, love your friend" is the rule, why is it the rule? If I take this thing which is the most important thing, the general rule, the only thing, really, that I have to hold on to—it needs to bring me to the goal. Meaning, it's not that by keeping 613 commandments, I come to the final commandment. By keeping 612 commandments, I come to the last commandment, 613, and love, no. The great rule of the Torah means that you cannot keep even a single Mitzva, a single commandment if I don't keep, in full—in its full measure, the rule of, love your friend as yourself. Love your friend as yourself, is that I’m willing to receive the force of bestowal through my work in society. When I approach the society, not only do I need to receive from it an upliftment of the mood, the spirit, the greatness of the goal. Rather, from the beginning, the way I wish to receive from it an uplifting and greatness, I also wish to receive from it the intention. The greatness of the Creator, an uplifted spirit, it's the same – one and the same. Meaning, it's the force to yearn, to be drawn to the Creator, this is what I receive from the society; this force can be both in order to receive and in order to bestow. Why do I yearn for it? The yearning for it should be in order to bestow. That, too, I can receive from the society.
What are the 613 commandments? 613 commandments are 613 desires. If, from the beginning, I wish to reach adhesion with the Creator, meaning equivalence of form with Him, I need to correct all of my 613 desires. In each and every desire, I will have love of the Creator, in order to bestow. Meaning, I select the goal to reach the Creator, as it says on pages 63-64, Baal HaSulam: Israel, the Light, and the Creator are one. I begin to work in this way meaning I arrange myself in this way. Now, through the society, I wish to advance, to be helped, assisted by the forces of the society. All sorts of obstructions come to me from within my desires. If, on top of these obstructions, I advance, nevertheless, I hold on according to the rule, so that through love your friend as yourself, I reach the Creator, this means that I'm walking up 613 steps, degrees, 613 desires from the obstructions. From the obstructions that awaken in me in order to receive, I correct them in order to bestow; meaning, in spite of the desires, the 613 desires of mine that awaken in me, I keep this rule, love your friend as yourself. I don't let myself forget it, I constantly work on it, certainly, each and every desire divides into many more desires. It doesn't come to me clearly now. During the preparation, what are these 613 obstructions?
M. Laitman: (22:25) Each and every obstruction that awakens, each and every desire that awakens— But if I maintain the rule of love your friend as yourself, in every obstruction that awakens in me, when I accept it as an uncorrected desire that now awakens. Then I come to my own general force, corrected force that becomes the sum total of all of my specific forces. So that each specific, each particular force becomes in me because, in the beginning, it was the opposite from the goal and I built it and made it in the direction of the goal. Besides that, that same particular force of obstruction, meaning that individual desire in me that awakened in the form of in order to receive, in addition to aiming it in order to bestow, mostly according to my appreciation for the society. I can advance it without stopping; as he says, that if I place the greatness of the friends or the greatness of the friend or the greatness of the group before me, as one thing—one means whole. One is not one, there's one, there's two, there's three, there's four, no, one means, this is everything – t includes everything and myself as zero. According to the number of zeros that I feel, less than the other, accordingly I grow my own degree. It is possible that I'll be incorporated of 613 corrected desires aimed at the Creator and it will be the smallest degree, complete degree.
However, there is another possibility on my part, not merely to correct my desires, but to grow them an infinite number of times. For then, a vessel opens up to a person, a vessel that is unlimited. This is what he discovers in the society, this is what the rule, love your friend as yourself gives us. Meaning, by arranging such relationships in the society, we acquire spiritual vessels from the very first vessel until the very last. Everything is in the hands of a person, it has free choice, and what's interesting is that it turns out that the size of the vessel that a person develops does not depend on the size of the society and the size of the friends in the society. Rather, it depends only on the appreciation—how many zeros a person values himself relative to the one which is the society – meaning that complete concept, that concept of wholeness, which is the society in his eyes. Here, it's also very important, although there are many other details to scrutinize, it's very important in what a person annuls himself and in what is he holding the society up since the greatness of the society in the eyes and this matter of annulment where he seemingly bows down before the law of the society. This should be only on the matter of connecting with the Creator and not with anything else.
M. Laitman: (27:26) If he concentrates all these parameters together, it turns out that he aims himself at the goal because the goal is invisible. You can't see it It's concealed, you can't see it before and lock onto it and then take a step. Rather, from the beginning, he thinks of the Creator but what exactly, what does it mean exactly that he's thinking about the Creator? How can he aim himself precisely at a certain type, a certain quality, a certain mode that he has to aim himself towards which is called, the Creator? This works out by sharpening, refining his connection with these conditions, love your friend as yourself. Meaning the extent to which in each and every detail by which he connects with society, the connection with the Creator is the determining factor. Then, it turns out that all the details in keeping, love your friend as yourself bring him to the right direction to the Creator. Maybe we can give an example here, like how you search for something in the dark, I don't know? But it turns out that if he aims all his actions in the society precisely in such a way that they will be as the reason for suddenly bumping into the Creator in the darkness, suddenly he bumps into Him, then that's how it works out. Only if he adds up each and every detail in this work – in this work, meaning quantitatively and qualitatively, regardless of the disturbances that come to him; and how he relates to the greatness of the society and subjugating of himself. It turns out that, as a result, the Creator is revealed. By that, he goes through the stage of concealment and, later also, on the stages of revelation of the Providence of the Creator – reward and punishment – he also doesn't know what is reward, what is punishment. He doesn't know how to walk on it. Also, the scrutiny of the details in the 613 organs, his desires, when he relates to them according to the same rules, they bring him the scrutiny of the providence of reward and punishment and so on.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:50) If the goal is concealed, why is it concealed?
M. Laitman: If the goal is concealed, why is it concealed? The goal is concealed because I want to reach the Creator. Okay, fine, I said that, what did I say? I don't know. Let's say that I have this kind of desire, what is that desire? I don't know. What exactly am I supposed to do, I don't know? Meaning, who is the Creator, what does it mean to reach Him, what does it mean that I reach Him? What happens to me? If I don't know the state that I arrive at, what will I get out of it exactly? That it means that I'm just saying words. I know what it is. I imagine to myself now, well, that it's good, what's good? I don't know, like a child thinks that it's good to, say, be a cop, a cop seems, you know, great and he has a gun or – I don't know what the child thinks. In the same way, I'll think about what it means to be in adhesion with the Creator, I don't know what qualities these are. What is adhesion, what's equivalence of form? That I will be also like Him, who is He? So, nothing but if I, to begin with, if I start from this thought, by the society I begin to go and scrutinize some element of this thought, and then adhesion with the Creator becomes clearer to me and I also attain it to the same degree.
For example, let's say, one out of a hundred is the part that I've achieved. Now, another disturbance comes and another time I make actions in the society, again, to reach the Creator, to begin with: Israel, the Light, and the Creator are one. That's to begin with, again, I’ve scrutinized and I've made my actions in society and I connected. I received forces from them, that love of friends should bring me to love of the Creator. Once again, it becomes clearer to me what it means, love thy Lord, why? Because I engaged in love thy neighbor, and altogether, the – in general, love thy neighbor – leads me to love thy Lord, I build the Kli. And in this Kli—what's the difference? Love thy neighbor is building the Kli from 613 parts. Meaning that I, say, glue all the pieces from the whole of Adam HaRishon, the glue between all the pieces that I put together like a vase, a vase that was broken. The glue that I use to put them together and make a vessel, that's love thy neighbor. That's how I build the Kli and what appears inside the Kli is love thy Lord, meaning the Creator filling up the Kli invites the feeling that I call, love thy Lord. One is a cause of the other.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:42) How do you check that only the greatness of the Creator is what causes me to annul to the society?
M. Laitman: How do I check that only the greatness of the friend leads me all the way? That I remember it, that I try to remember it, not more. We need to be based on what we've got, I can only be certain that if I remember this, I remember it. What I remember, I just remember, it doesn't matter what but it's kind of like the skeleton in front of me. I don't have more, how can I check?
Student: The outcome is that he remembers?
M. Laitman: To be in darkness means that I can't see one step forward, meaning I can't measure, examine whether my action is correct or incorrect based on a certain outcome. I just have to imagine to myself, depict to myself what is the result in a way that I completely don't know what it actually is. It's like a slogan to me, that's called darkness, meaning you're doing something, you don't know exactly what. It's like you're reaching out with your hand outwards but you don't know what's outwards. In a sense, like in the darkness; you walk in the dark. There's darkness in the house, let's say, and you're walking in it and you're trying to reach out with your hands to understand. You don't know what you're going to run into, you're doing some movement with your hand, you don't know what's the inner action that you're actually doing, what can you know? You only know what you want to come out of this action. What do you know about that? You're not in that state, yet, but you're told for now it is sufficient that that's what you're thinking. Meaning it's the only thing that we can be certain of, about what I'm thinking right now. What I will imagine next, I don't know. I give you the example that it's similar to a child, that a child does something without knowing exactly what, and it happens, something happens for him. He doesn't have the intellect, he doesn't have the force. What he's dealing with is all things that are not true but from his engagement, something happens, he grows.
For us, what's the difference between corporeality and spirituality? The difference is intention, desire. Say, what's the difference between a corporeal embryo and a spiritual embryo? A corporeal embryo is corporeality—just comes out and that's it; a spiritual embryo is, I have to want to be that way. Arranged in spiritual forces similar to how an embryo is arranged in a corporeal way. Same thing here, I want this to come out. The actions, I don't know—what I'm told – the results, I also don't know what's going to happen. Only that slogan, that I want it to happen that way. That's the difference between corporeal actions and spiritual actions, that a person has to join himself to the action and then it happens. Meaning, all of the actions are also not made by us. By simply inserting your intention to the action you, as if, activate it, and then it happens. From the lower level, from how it works in our corporeal systems, we can learn how it's like in spiritual systems. For example, in corporeality there are forces of the womb and forces that exist within the sperm that enters the womb and begins to develop. Similarly, we are like a seed that has all of the records in it, and the womb around me—I also don't know what it is but it's this dark world – it has all kinds of forces designed to develop me. However, to this situation, I just need to add my desire all the time, my desire, my intention, I want this to happen. And then I activate, I awaken the situation to work that way. So nothing is demanded from us in our participation other than the desire to participate, which has to be there first, then, certainly, the Creator will go, will do all the scrutinies and all the actions.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:09) They say that to correct 613 desires—I don't know them, I don't know if they're mine or not mine. What—how to correct them?
M. Laitman: How can I correct my 613 desires if I don't know them? Of course I don't know them, this is called the concealment. Of course, I don't know them but I, once I would like to reach the goal, and I hold my head on this. That moment, disturbances begin to come to me, and any disturbance that comes, let's say, in a pure way, it doesn't really exist this way in reality. But let's say a disturbance now happens—this disturbance is my desire that now awakens in me, and it's not corrected. It's in order to receive and it demands me to fulfill it through all kinds of external actions. If I correct it, this means that, on top of this disturbance, I still remain in adhesion, meaning I enter the group, I demand more love of the Creator through an action in the group, through love of friends, yes? Then, it means that I correct that desire, how do I know what that desire is, what it's comprised of, what exactly it corresponds to? Why is it one of the 613, what's the difference between all those desires? I don't know that because I'm on a level where I don't have the option to know that. On higher levels, the same desires will come to me in a clearer scrutiny with greater clarity. Now, it's just a concealed desire, it's like a baby who doesn't know what he's doing with his hands and legs, and then he grows. Then, he gradually understands, then, he better and better knows how to activate his hands and legs like a big, like an adult. Same thing with us, we receive these desires but on the degree of coarseness level Root, so we don't know how to activate them. Then, on top of that, we have to do the same work. Then, on coarseness level 1 – 613 desires, level 2, level 3, level 4; this means we rise from world to world. It's the same desires, they're just more scrutinized with greater clarity. Same 613 organs but they grow more and more. And in the beginning, the 613 organs, they come as a disturbance. How one disturbance connects to the other like organs in a body, I don't know that. Why this situation, why that happens? I don't understand that, I just have to do the same work on top of each and every one.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:16) How to connect this work with love of friends?
M. Laitman: Love of others, well, it comes out like this, in simplicity: The goal is to reach adhesion with the Creator, equivalence of form with the Creator, love of the Creator. From that, I connect to the group, I need the group as the means. Where does it write that, why do I need these friends and so forth? What do we get from the rule of love thy friend as thyself – you have this article – you see, everything we read disappeared. From the love of the Creator, I come to the need for the love of others, through love of others, I receive the disturbances to carry out, to keep love of others. That's by going above the disturbances and clinging to the friends, relating to the environment, like the rule that helps me to increase my one – against its one, the society's one against my zeros – that means I come to the specific group, correction of that desire, of that disturbance. And so I continue to build my vessel that way, and each time I build my vessel, I receive a bit of light in it which is a portion of the revelation of the Creator. Now, this light also comes, it appears and then a new disturbance comes, so I think I'm going backwards and then, again, I need a correction. That's already on top of greater desires; the disturbances are greater and darkness increases.
It turns out that the more we advance until we cross the barrier, so like he says, The Torah burdens the person, that he feels darkness about that. But even though he feels more darkness, greater disturbances, he also feels more urgency and readiness, willingness to nullify himself. So, there's mutual progress from both sides here; like we say that as we advance, there is the point of Keter and the point of Malchut that become far further away from each other. This is called, the height of the degree, when these ends become farther away from each other. Similarly, a person who's advancing in the darkness, even though he falls and the darkness seems greater, but he has the strength to hold on through the darkness, to hold on even stronger. He's accumulating, gathering inner forces, and then he goes through that stage, those stages of the whole process. We can say that—and with that – meaning when greater disturbances come to him and on top of that, on top of those thoughts and disturbances that are greater, they give him along with correcting them, he receives a greater yearning for the goal. It turns out that each time his love, his attraction to the Creator, even though he's in the darkness, it's growing. It's always one sustains the other – from these two polar opposites, which are like Keter and Malchut, they become further and further away from each other – he, as if, grows further away from the Creator. But that's actually making his desire greater, then, it is called, I'm lovesick, meaning the darkness is greater but the love-sickness is greater. Then, he has such an intense desire that to the point that he comes to the greatest potential between these two points with which he crosses the barrier, the Machsom. Maybe we'll be able to find more words. I see that it could be something at some point easily explained and taken from feeling to words.
M. Laitman: (48:12) The main thing is the intention; that is – how to put it – that it builds my new state which I don't know and it's like in the darkness. I don't know where I'll be in a step from now. Maybe I'll fall to an abyss, I will run into a wall or whatever it is. Only my desire, what I'm now able to think about: to reach the Creator, the friends, adhesion, this through that as the means. Everything that I can prepare in my thought, intention, goal, it is sufficient for me to make one step forward. If I'm always adhered to what I can depict as adhesion with the Creator, not more is demanded from the person, just to not let that go. Why is it so? I'll tell you, because if I, in the darkness, in a state where I feel myself completely, you know, it's like walking in the dark with my hands reaching out. If I aim at the Creator, this is a sign that I'm already in the AHP of the upper one and the AHP of the upper one brings me darkness. And I am still thinking about adhering to it, so this is sufficient for me, to hold on to the AHP of the upper one. This is already called, above reason, I do, I do my part; the embryo doesn't need more, just above reason in that way.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:19) What does it mean that I managed to adhere everything to the Creator or that I didn't succeed? If I didn't succeed, what do you do next, meaning it comes back differently?
M. Laitman: I succeeded, meaning that I now feel that I'm doing, making a step forward and I better clarify my state. Meaning on top of these disturbances and, not that I begin to see, even the degrees that I begin to see, that's already, You shall see your world in your life, it's not yet the attainment, the actual attainment of the goal. But when I begin, when the causes and consequences – how to put it – begin to show themselves as, let's say, the Providence of the Creator, the leadership of the Creator, when I begin to understand that in this action I have connected my relation and His work on me and the state that I've arrived at as one. Meaning His Providence in some way became clearer to me, but it became clearer to me only for me to now fall to a greater disturbance. To once again scrutinize it in greater darkness, meaning, each time I am being added forces and knowledge or, we can say, forces of knowledge so that I will be ready for the next disturbance.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:10) What is demanded of us in society, to do any, to do a calculation with every action? Am I doing it for myself or for the others, that calculation is demanded each time?
M. Laitman: What do they demand in the society? In the society, I need to demand, each and every one not to let go of our inner thought to reach adhesion with the Creator, And from it, from this thought, to go seemingly backwards where, to get to it, I can reach only by developing the society. And developing the society means that in spite of all my personal states, all the personal states in each and every one, the general state, happening to us, we nevertheless aim all our thoughts, all our actions to reach the Creator. Again, in order to reach it, we need to build a Kli, a general desire that's common to us. That to reach the Creator means to reach equivalence of form with Him called, force of bestowal. I know the words, they erase all the meaning of the flavor, here. I need to see, well, it's called, love,—I don't know – if I will love the other, then my attention to Him, that's where I will reveal the Creator. It turns out that it becomes important to me, this, a one versus several zeros in the extent to which the love of the Creator is required in me more than self-love. Why do I need to respect the friend to think the society is greater, they are one, and I am a few zeros; the yearning for the Creator must obligate me in that. If I will just accept myself this way, I will grow the importance of the society, then it's just an egotistic society. Only if the importance of the Creator arranges for me, obligates me to relate to the society as important. Only then the society can help me, build in me, give me the right tools.
Student: It's like I have this society, and inside the society I put in spiritual laws as far as I understand. And to the extent that I am incompatible with these laws, I each time check, I each time grow?
M. Laitman: It turns out that we build a spiritual form of the society when each one depicts, imagines the society to himself as a society that works on gathering the friends, assembling them, the relationship between the friends as the means for reaching the Creator. Meaning, there's no society just like that, like a collection of bodies, rather, society is the general concept that we build in our thoughts. Who is us, who is we? It's a general depiction that we build over ourselves.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:29) What's the calculation, ultimately?
M. Laitman: The calculation is simple, there's a number of forces yearning for the Creator, awakened in these people to the Creator. Maybe they feel that it's toward the Creator. They're looking, looking for the meaning of life and everything, this is, it's concealed, this yearning for the root. The source of all the disturbances, and blows, and torments, and then they have the question of what's the meaning of my life. But the meaning of my life is aimed, seemingly, at the root. They don't know this, but from the very beginning it's aimed at the Creator as the root of all suffering, right? His posterior, He's the one who activates the concealment for the time being through His posterior. So, if they have a defined direction toward the Creator, He set this direction initially. Now they have to grab this direction and start developing it on top of all the disturbances that come to them. Especially from building the society, meaning there are disturbances and obstructions on corporeal degrees: still, vegetative, animate. There are disturbances on the speaking degree, which is between the friends, and here I would just state what they are, ideological obstructions. It's not like they're yelling at me at work, and they're stressing me in the family, and I have to do all kinds of things that appear unimportant to me, and so on and so forth. No, these are disturbances and obstructions on the degrees of still, vegetative, and animate. Here in the society, the obstructions are from the speaking degree.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:52) How do I correct it?
M. Laitman: You correct it by, when the disturbance and the obstruction becomes help; you don't remember how you used to do it? You had a court order and you were afraid of this, this court order, it was a disturbance against the uniqueness of the Creator. You remember it, right? Yes, something up to work there and a very big obstruction, you were afraid of this policeman, this cop, and all kinds of unpleasant things would happen to you, right? So, what was the obstruction: Either to place everything on the cop or on the Creator. Here, you have the, If I am not for myself, then who is? and also "There Is No One Besides Him, who went to arrange it this way and to arrange it that way. But ultimately, on top of this obstruction, you have to correct yourself with greater connection to the governance of the Creator, who is in this obstruction. And He brings it to you in order to grow stronger in the connection with Him. You had such a thing, right? You felt how much it helped, so that's how all those obstructions in the group. One person walks on the path, and they bring in many such obstructions. Especially such obstructions that are connected to – I don't know why – but this form, like a court, this pressure of the society, of the rules of the society over him. Because the rules of the society are clearly in the hand of the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:09) What is the correct annulment that he writes about, here?
M. Laitman: The correct annulment toward the friends – I said that if you wish to reach adhesion with the Creator, you come to the society and you use its forces in order to develop the intention in order to bestow. And then the society becomes very important before you; you annul before it in order to reach the greatness of the Creator. And then all the disturbances that you have on the way to annulment, they become, if you correct them, they continue over them the same path, these disturbances become as additional forces.
Student: But I'm asking directly about behavior between friends?
M. Laitman: The relationship between the friends has to be purposeful, practical; only for that, for the sake of that. We check the society and the more disturbances, the more obstructions we are rewarded with in order for us to turn them into beneficial. This will give us the greatness of the society, and to the extent that we can receive many such obstructions and turn them into our force, our power. That has to do with how much each and every one will stand against these obstructions and we’ll all help one another. And everything is in the thought, there's nothing here that I can do to help – I can certainly do all kinds of actions, right, corporeal, but ultimately, all those things are in the thought, in the internality. Because all those actions, ultimately, build in us a spiritual vessel. It's not something corporeal. It's all a thought, and from the thought, we grow the desires; these desires connect together, transfer from one to another. So, we receive additional desires and each one receives these desires from the other, also in the form of an obstruction, until he adds them to himself. In short, it's work in attention, there's nothing besides that, and this attention is called, an intention. That's what he says that, They set their minds at the beginning of the study, or didn't have the intention in the middle of the study, or were completely distracted, you understand? And, A commandment without an intention is like a body without a soul. This intention, meaning this scrutiny that forces a person to be alert, awakened, aware, everything is in my inner intention. Where is my heart and my mind, where is it concentrated, on what point? I'm like with a torch, a flashlight, I aim it to this, and to this and to that. And I check in the situation how do I need to relate to it, how do I have to, what are the things that I have to grow? Where do I have to check with my attention, what's going on there; how do I have to connect this thing to me? Or in what way I need to turn it, twist it, or turn it, or maybe in the opposite way, and to grow the connection on top of it? This is the inner work, it's truly internal; that's why it's called, you know, here you will imagine to yourself how much a person is focused and concentrated inside himself. And how much you should not disturb him in that. It's truly free choice, he chooses the society and himself, and the relationship between them – by that he grows. So if you introduce all kinds of obstructions or morals, you say no, no, no, you shouldn't do this or that, you truly, you destroy for him. You burn all those inner bridges that he's building between himself and the group, the Creator. Or you introduce your own influence into it, how much you wire for him, can I say that? Distorted, you distort it, you compress it, you know, in the system, right? You apply this squishing power in the system, you introduce your own forces if you begin to influence him. But you only need to awaken him, just a general awakening, nothing more than that. You can even yell at him but only in order to awaken him. Or to take all kinds of other means, only to awaken his attention, to have him wake up. And beyond that, after he woke up, you're not allowed to, understand? A person has to be internally free, he can be afraid of the society that they will throw him out, he can be afraid of the Rav that he'll do something with him. But that's a general form of attention, you understand, he should be more awake, more aware. Just like you shake him all the time so he will not fall asleep, take him out of bed, right? But to awaken internally, to interfere, bring additional forces, no.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:37) But still we see that there are friends that don't interfere in each other's spirituality?
M. Laitman: Friends need to awaken one another in general, period, no more questions.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:54) What is the difference between disturbances of the speaking level, and disturbances of all the rest: still, vegetative, animate, your relation to it?
M. Laitman: The difference between the disturbances on the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. Those disturbances are, let's say, the disturbance with the courthouse that I, the example that I give about the friend, right? These are disturbances, obstructions on the still, vegetative, and animate, doesn't matter, we're not going to get into it, those are not disturbances in the society, rather those are disturbances relative to the general Providence of the Creator, governance of the Creator. That He demands him to grow stronger, you understand? It's not like he's correcting something specific, his personal attitude for a certain quality, or certain disturbances, it's in general. When the Creator comes to you and He arranges this obstruction to you. He stands behind it, sometimes it's revealed to you that He's doing it, sometimes it's concealed, and, you know, with your own forces, He gives you the opportunity to reveal that it's Him, you know, who is the one standing behind our wall, right? What is behind our wall, behind the wall of the heart, who is surrounding the heart? The Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:35) Disturbances in the society, you mean between the friends?
M. Laitman: Disturbances in the society, they are disturbances with friends, and also disturbances in society, in general. It confuses the way, the entire society can be in confusion and there can be a general disturbance, not just between one and another.
Student: For instance, the court case, that too is a disturbance?
M. Laitman: No, no, the court case is a particular instance of a person with the Creator, where he's demanded to grow stronger. Of course, he can introduce it into the society in his thoughts, in his struggle to reveal that it comes from the Creator. He certainly brings all those forces into the society because he shares it with the society to some extent. But these are marginal things; of course, he goes through these things in practice, it's possible that the society doesn't need to go through it. The remaining friends will not need to do that particular thing. By adding to him, by acquiring from him and giving him all kinds of ways to share it, then this discernment becomes clarified by itself. How can I convince myself to annul myself toward the friends? I cannot convince myself, only if I feel that it's necessary to reach a state where I have nothing to do, only the society can help me on the way. This comes also not simply from any old exertion, I can work in the society, be next to the friends, and do a thousand and one things. But if I don't try, if I don't aim even a little bit to do it in order to reach the goal and the society needs to help me, and this is the only reason why I'm doing this work here. I will not get any thoughts, I will not get any scrutiny, but only when I certainly bring a little bit of my intention, my desire into it, then it begins to work.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:41) If the same disturbance comes back again and again, and more force?
M. Laitman: The same disturbance cannot repeat itself. Each time, it seems to us like it's the same disturbance, just like the courthouse. It can take two, three years, but a person is constantly, seemingly, in the same circle, cycle. But it's not the same disturbance, it seems like the same external disturbance, the different additional desires, and the manner in which it is revealed, we just don't get it. And in truth, it's a very good thing that it comes in such a way, it's very good, it's a good sign! It's – how should I say – it's a very clear sign from the Creator that He wants to strengthen His bond with the created being. That's why He sends him this fear against seemingly horrible things, and even distinguishes it between, oh, it's outside, and be careful, like a baby, be careful, you should be afraid. The whole world, oh boy, what's going to happen? And he's not even capable, even though with his mind he doesn't understand, with his feelings he can't do a thing. He's very afraid, and only the connection with the Creator can take this beastly feeling, the animalistic feeling of fear, and move it to different lines. But that's not yet, and the degree of the speaking, it's the scrutinization of the force and the connection between them.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:25) It's written, he says that it's not enough that I didn't gain anything from society but I even lost some, what I could gain on my own forces?
M. Laitman: I didn't find what you just said right now at all. From below? Can you open your mouth a little wider?
Student: The third paragraph from below, he says,
M. Laitman: Which line? I don't know how you're counting the paragraphs there. It will be clarified, yes.
Student: It's not enough that I didn't gain anything from society, but I even lost something I could have gained on my own forces.
M. Laitman: Well, why are you reading a quarter or half of a sentence, so I can understand, I don't understand the situation he's saying. It's not just that I didn't benefit from anything from society but I even lost what I could have gained if I were doing it with my own forces. How do I know what he's speaking of, and what state he's talking about? He's already pointing to the consequence where a person has such a feeling, why? Is he to blame, is the society to blame or what happened there between them, that he's sorry, that he's regretting? How do I know, what are you asking?
Student: If society is something that a person has inside, he built this society. So it can be any situation?
M. Laitman: How can it be, I don't know, you didn't even read the whole paragraph, so how can we – there's still a lot of it, it's two words. May I start fantasizing what this could be? Also the beginning of the paragraph, and he's regretting about this, about what? Read before that. How can you scrutinize something like this, from Rabash, from Baal HaSulam? Aren't you confused enough that you have to add a quarter of a sentence and get even more confused than that? And then to make from this a law for yourself, a rule? And according to that rule, that will even confuse you all along the way? I don't understand the way you work this way. Is this a serious research, a real study that you're checking, what do you have from this quarter of a sentence? Not only did I not gain anything from this society. Now a person is thinking, oh, that's in the end of the way, that's the conflict of the results, right? But I even lost, he thinks. But I could have gained more if I did it myself, from what state? How can we relate this way to what we read? A person is like 35, 40 years old, and relates to a text this way? I don't understand what he's saying. If you were to ask me, I'm saying seriously, I don't know which state he's talking about when he does this way. As a result of what case does such a consequence happen, that he has regrets? I don't know. He's to blame, is the society to blame, are both of them? Maybe the Creator confused him on purpose that he thinks this way. How he needs to put this upon? Read each thing from the beginning, how he enters into this case and why he comes out this way. Now he'll also learn the train of thought of the author. What are you, like, writing a novel and there's some kind of a special brilliant moment, there and what do you do, what happened to you? Between the friends, between us and the Creator? Do you want to build such a situation for yourself? We're not allowed to do such a thing, there could be great confusion from that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:00) We are going towards adhesion with the Creator?
M. Laitman: You know, you can do something very simple. One, the state of the society. Two, the state of a person. Three, what a person does; four, the consequence of that. After the result of that, you can make your summary: This is because the society did this, or a person did this way, or the Creator spun things for them that way, and so on. But these things need to be clear, it's like a study, an investigation.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:47) Disturbances in health, it's also disturbances, health problems?
M. Laitman: Health disturbances are usually, on a degree, they're right now not for us. But in general, yes, all disturbances, a person needs to deal with at the level of that disturbance, If not for me, then who? You have a health problem, you go to a doctor. You have a court thing, you go to a lawyer. You have to take care of them on the same level, that's, if not for myself, then who? Now you see, I yelled at him, I just created an awakening and an attention to something. Then, after that, he nevertheless has to do something with it, no more than that. Don't ever go into the inner scrutiny of that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:49) I won’t to understand the process: We want to reach adhesion with the Creator, that's why we're building a society that will influence us. And increase the greatness of the goal, and that will lead us to adhesion with the Creator.
M. Laitman: You need to see this according to these articles where Rabash says, We should understand in a manner where one can help his friend, or We have gathered here to make a foundation, and so on. All these cause and consequence, this chain he builds here in these articles. To reach adhesion with the Creator is the goal, the means for that is to build the Kli. Adhesion to the Creator is really a vessel that is filled with light to its final state, where the qualities of the vessel are like the qualities of the Creator. Therefore, he fills them, a person fills this Kli with his attitude, his relation to the Creator, the reflected light. And the light in relation to the Kli is a direct light, so in this way, you can look only through the society, why? Because to grow these parts in the Kli can be only done by the intention, love thy friend as thyself. The general intention he has to come with, that general intention he needs to attain in the society. That is, it's not that the society is giving him these forces in order to bestow. The society gives him a desire to reach the force in order to bestow. And the understanding that he's not capable of reaching that with his own forces; and yes, that the Creator wants and awaits, and is willing to correct and to give this force in order to bestow. All those things, the society receives it to the extent in which he relates to friends and demands from them, these forces.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:56) Now, when we build society, so also society gets disturbances, each and every one individually, and the whole society, as a whole. So, the purpose of these disturbances is to increase the yearning and the need to turn to the Creator?
M. Laitman: You need to depict to yourself that in the air there's some Kli, some Kli, and this Kli for us is the main thing, in it we will reveal the Creator. For the time being, it's still external from us, later maybe we will feel it more internally, where all our hearts are there, are building this Kli. And that's the only thing – why am I saying it externally? So you pay attention to something outside of me.
Student: But the disturbances we get when we build society, their purpose is to increase the longing to the Creator, the need for the Creator. To turn to Him every time, back to society to get forces, what exactly?
M. Laitman: Who is our general goal? The Creator, so God forbid, don't relate to one another only it's a closed society that doesn't need beside itself any other goal. That's what was the mistake in Russia when they related it this way.
Student: It's not clear, I'm asking about this means called, society, not the purpose. The means of building the society – a person gets disturbances – what are the purposes of disturbances in society?
M. Laitman: The purpose of the disturbances in building the society a person receives are specifically to build his correct attitude. How do I know what's the correct attitude towards the society? Meaning, how does the final vessel need to appear? It's through the disturbances I receive each time and correct them.
Student: Why, how do those disturbances build a right relation?
M. Laitman: It depends on how I know how to relate correctly to the society.
Student: Because also after the disturbances, I don't know.
M. Laitman: No, these disturbances, as I overcome them, they correct me.
Student: What does it mean to overcome them?
M. Laitman: To overcome them, means to acquire these disturbances in me already, to me, I join them as a beneficial force. I become wise, I become more scrutinized, next time, I receive a greater disturbance. Each disturbance becomes a beneficial, an operating force in me after I correct it.
Student: So, the scrutiny adds more disturbance?
M. Laitman: Meaning, the disturbance later becomes a force that is beneficial, I become one of experience.
Student: But I don't become more experienced, I have more experience in turning to the Creator.
M. Laitman: No, also in the society; our problem is that we don't quite feel that next time we will be stronger because next time we fall deeper. But it's, nevertheless, each time joins, and that's why it becomes deeper. Without these disturbances, how will I build myself? Also in our animalistic life it's like that, another thing, and another thing. More homework and all kinds of things and by that a person grows.
Student: So, the disturbance, and then overcoming the disturbance, it also adds something to a person. It's not just to renew my plea to the Creator?
M. Laitman: (01:27:03) Every disturbance is like a mechanism of all kinds of means that a person acquires. It's more understanding, it's even more faith because he overcomes this disturbance, in faith. It's more necessity in the connection to the society because he sees how only by this he can be saved. And this becomes precious to him, valuable to him, this whole Kli that's being depicted before his eyes. It's the true depiction of the soul, it begins to be connected to this vessel. He starts to discover that this Kli is called, Shechina, this is called that, The Shechina shall dwell between us.
Student: And everything you just mentioned, more of a necessity, more of a yearning, so there's no benefit in the disturbance itself that a person becomes wiser? He can become more wise from this disturbance?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course he becomes wiser from the disturbance, otherwise, where do these disturbances come from, where does the wisdom come from? After one loses the force of the disturbance and becomes a beneficial force, the gap between what was before a disturbance in my understanding and now is beneficial in my understanding. One understands then that also then it was not a disturbance but rather benefit that precisely turned to me the right way. And I couldn't receive this force before any other way but as a disturbance. The question is simple, what is that disturbance? A disturbance is a Godly force, and because it's in order to bestow, it appears to me as a disturbance. So, if I correct myself in order to bestow, this disturbance force does not seem as a disturbance, it seems like it's saving me, it appears positive. This means that I am inverting the disturbance from a disturbance to a positive. But I'm not spinning it, I'm changing my intention, and by that I see the disturbance in another way.
Student: So, in our state that I still can't change my intentions?
M. Laitman: That's considered that I justify the Providence of the Creator because it comes to me in not a good way because that's how I see it, in my egoistic angle. I correct my egoistic angle of how I look at this disturbance and then His influence, His bestowal upon me, begins to be good, positive to me. We can talk for another hour and a half, believe me, it'll be the same, simple. Everything later comes and clothes on it, and you'll see that you won't have the strength to explain it also.
Reader: Let's share our impressions from the lesson, and what we take from this to implement in the Ten.
Reader: Let’s go to the next part of the lesson, but sing a song first!
Song: (01:37:01)