The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: October 11, 2026
Part 1:Baal HaSulam. Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator - 1
Reader: Hello, friends. In the first part of the lesson, we will learn from a recorded lesson from the 12th of May, 2004. The lesson is based on Baal HaSulam's article "The Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator," Part 1. We will read the article together in the Ten. We have ten minutes for that.
Reading: (00:38) Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator - 1
First concealment
(Depiction): His Face is not revealed; that is, the Creator does not behave toward a person according to His Name—The Good Who Does Good. Rather, it is to the contrary—one is afflicted by Him or suffers from poor income and many people wish to collect their debts from him and make his life bitter. His whole day is filled with troubles and worries. Or, one suffers from poor health and disrespect from people. Every plan he begins, he fails to complete, and he is constantly dissatisfied.
In this manner, of course one does not see the Creator’s Good Face, that is, if he believes that the Creator is the one who does these things to him, either as a punishment for transgressions he committed or to reward him in the end. This follows the verse, “Whom the Lord loves, He rebukes,” and also, “The righteous begin with suffering, since the Creator wishes to eventually impart them great tranquility.”
Yet, one does not fail in saying that all this came to him by blind fate and by nature without any reason or consideration. Rather, one strengthens in believing that the Creator, with His guidance, caused him all these. This is nonetheless considered seeing the Creator’s back.
Second concealment
The second concealment, which the books refer to as “concealment within concealment,” means that one cannot see even the Creator’s back. Instead, one says that the Creator has left him and does not watch over him. He ascribes all the sufferings he feels to blind fate and to nature, since the ways of Providence become so complicated in his eyes as to lead him to denial.
This means (depiction) that one prays and gives charity over one’s troubles but is not answered whatsoever. And precisely when he stops praying for his troubles, he is answered. Whenever he strengthens in believing in Providence and makes his deeds good, luck turns its back to him and he mercilessly falls back. And when he denies and begins to worsen his ways, he becomes very successful and is greatly relieved.
He does not find his sustenance in proper manners, but through deceit of people or desecration of Shabbat [Sabbath]. Or, all of his acquaintances who observe Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] suffer poverty, illness, and are despicable in the eyes of people. These observers of Mitzvot seem impolite to him, innately brainless, and so hypocritical that he cannot bear to be among them for even a minute.
Conversely, all his wicked acquaintances, who mock his faith, are very successful, well to do, and healthy. They know no sickness; they are clever, virtuous, and good-tempered. They are carefree, confident, and tranquil all day, every day.
When Providence arranges things in this manner for a person, it is called “concealment within concealment.” This is because then one collapses under one’s weight and cannot continue to strengthen the belief that his pains come to him from the Creator for some hidden reason. Finally, he fails, becomes heretic and says that the Creator does not watch over His creations whatsoever, and all that transpires, transpires by blind fate and nature. This is not seeing even the back.
Depiction of Disclosure of the Face
One’s request to become stronger in believing in His guidance over the world during the concealment brings one to contemplate the books, the Torah, and to draw from there the illumination and understanding how to strengthen his faith in His guidance. These illuminations and observations that one receives through the Torah are called “the Torah as a spice.” When they accumulate to a certain amount, the Creator has mercy on him and pours upon him the spirit from above, that is, the higher abundance.
But once he has completely discovered the spice—the light of Torah that one inhales into one’s body—through strengthening in faith in the Creator, one becomes worthy of guidance with His face revealed. This means that the Creator behaves with him as is fitting to His name, “The Good Who Does Good.”
His name shows us that He is good and does good to all His creations in all the forms of benefit, sufficient for every kind of receiver in the whole of Israel, for certainly, the delight and pleasure of one is not like the delight and pleasure of another. For example, one who engages in wisdom will not enjoy honor and wealth, and one who does not engage in wisdom will not enjoy great attainments and innovations in the wisdom. Thus, He gives wealth and honor to one, and wondrous attainments in the wisdom to another.
Thus (depiction), he receives abundant good and great tranquility from the Creator and is always satisfied, since he obtains his livelihood with ease and to the fullest, never knows trouble or pressure, knows no illness, is highly respected by people, easily completes any plan that comes to his mind, and succeeds wherever he turns.
And when he needs something, he prays and is immediately answered, as He always answers anything that he demands of Him, and not a single prayer is denied. When one strengthens in good deeds, his success substantially increases, and when he is negligent, his success proportionally decreases.
All of his acquaintances are decent, well to do, healthy, highly respected in the eyes of people, and have no worries at all. They are at peace all day and every day. They are smart, truthful, and so comely that he feels blessed and delighted to be among them.
Conversely, all of his acquaintances who do not follow the path of Torah are of poor livelihood, troubled by heavy debts, and do not have even a single moment’s rest. They are sick, in pain, and despised by people. They seem to him mindless, ill-mannered, wicked and cruel toward people, deceitful, and such sycophants that it is intolerable to be among them.
Reader: And now, friends, let's continue to Rav's lesson from the 12th of May, 2004.
Reader: Good morning to the world Kli. We're beginning to read the article "The Concealment and Revelation of the Creator."
Reading: (13:02) The Concealment and Revelation of the Creator
Double concealment (concealment within concealment).
A person does not even feel the Creator's posterior side. That is, he does not feel at all that anything comes from the Creator. He feels that the Creator has abandoned him, and that He pays no attention to him, and he attributes his suffering to fate and blind nature. In parentheses, and because he perceives the Creator's attitude toward him as very confusing, he loses faith.
M. Laitman: (13:40) Here, I would also add, because we see within this description by Baal HaSulam it's shortened, it's not exactly Baal HaSulam, it's been edited — meaning, the person does not feel even the back side of the Creator. Meaning, he's completely disconnected, yes? But does he feel that he doesn't even feel the posterior of the Creator? No, he doesn't feel that. If he did feel the Creator's back side, the posterior, then it would have been written differently here. Meaning the posterior of the Creator that's feeling the negation from Him, of Him, because the Creator is the Good Who Does Good, and if a person feels the Good Who Does Good and ties that to the Creator, it means that he knows the face, the anterior. And in the face also you have revealed face and unrevealed face, but undisclosed. But even the face which isn't disclosed, still this is a feeling that there is something good that comes to me from the Creator, from this upper force, that I have this connection to Him, that He turns towards me, that's how He relates to me. And in states prior to the barrier too, we sometimes are rewarded with that sensation.
However, when a person feels that he is in suffering, the sensation of suffering can also be such that he feels that the suffering comes to him from the Creator, but then it means that he feels the Creator through the posterior. Meaning not according to the proper way in which the Creator relates to him as the Good Who Does Good, but rather through the posterior. What does it mean, posterior? You have the Creator from whom, from His face, good things emerge, and from His back, bad things emerge? Is He two-faced like that? No. We can say that front and back that we create those in our perception, our sensation of the Creator when I'm in equivalence of form with Him when I understand Him, when I read Him correctly. That means that He and I are face to face. He is in bestowal and I am in bestowal. And then, when we have the same face of bestowal towards one another, then I begin to feel, accordingly, the actual good intention He had towards me. And then, we certainly say that He shines to me through His face.
However, if I feel suffering, and I feel that the suffering comes from Him, it means that I'm not exactly facing towards Him with my face towards Him. My attitude towards Him is not exactly according to equivalence of form. It means that I'm not in vessels of bestowal. If I were in vessels of bestowal, above my will to receive, I would never have felt anything negative coming from Him, ever. Therefore, we say that the Creator is always with His face towards me, facing me. It's only I who am now in a state of posterior towards Him, not in bestowal, but rather in reception.
However, because we're talking about the person from a person's perspective, we're not saying how a person is changing in terms of his face meaning bestowal, equivalence of form with the Creator, or his posterior, not equivalent, rather disparity of form with the Creator, and through that he feels either good or bad. Rather, the person always looks at the reality that comes to him, and then he determines that the Creator is good to him or bad to him. He doesn't attribute this to how he himself is in front or back towards the Creator, but he says that the Creator is acting towards him through the good side or the bad side. Let's continue.
M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (18:22) So, double concealment, meaning that he doesn't feel at all that anything comes from the Creator. He feels that the Creator has abandoned him, does not pay any attention to him, and his suffering he attributes to fate and blind nature. And because he feels that the way the Creator relates to him is very confused, he loses faith. Meaning, suffering comes to such big states, significant states, that they confuse the person. He loses connection with the Creator altogether, and then he attributes his state, he hinges it on nature and chance. Nature, meaning anything other than the Creator, because there is None Else Besides Him, the Creator is the root of everything, but if that root vanishes, then instead of that root, we begin to see the whole of reality different to how He created it. Everything except for Him is nature. And other than Him, there are a thousand and one factors that might appear to me as causes for my states.
Why does suffering conceal the Creator? Pleasure can also conceal the Creator, and might not conceal the Creator. From the side of the Creator or from the side of the created being does this concealment come? We have a law, which stems from the existence of the first phase, of the four phases of direct light. In the vessel, pleasure is revealed, and within the pleasure, the root of the pleasure is revealed, the aspect, the discernment of the root, it's revealed from phase four.
And we say that phase one, other than feeling pleasure, the light, filling it, it also began to feel the discernment of the Shoresh- as the root, the higher discernment. It began to feel who it is filling her, right, the landlord. Meaning the Creator is revealed within the pleasure as the source of said pleasure. And then from that, the vessel, the will to receive begins to run after the emanator, after the root. This is already imprinted in us, was imprinted in us that the will to receive, that feels the root as more exalted, more important, sees more pleasure in it, sees higher, greater things in that, and begins to yearn for the root. So much so that resembling the root, being connected to it, is a pleasure greater than the pleasure that fills the will to receive, the raw will to receive itself.
And if, let's say, we have the second discernment, the second phase, where the vessel wants to be like the Creator, and from that, it began, from that, it felt that the Creator fills her as the source of all pleasures. But let's say now that I'm receiving pleasure from the landlord, and I feel the landlord himself, or the host. If I now begin to feel that the pleasures are lessened, diminished, vanishing, do I begin, accordingly, to also pay less attention to the host? And accordingly, to the extent that the pleasures gradually vanish from my sensation, then the image of the host as the Good Who Does Good, as the ruler, as the great, high one, does it also vanish from me?
M. Laitman: (23:19) Or, perhaps by some effort I can stay even if the pleasures vanish, with the recognition of the good of the host, and to say, I'm not willing to part from the host I want the discernment of the root to remain in me forever. And the pleasures can be felt by me or not felt, or even when they're not felt we feel suffering instead. This, I'm willing to do that. I'm maybe even interested in it being like that, so that I can examine myself to check that I'm not dependent on pleasures. Let them vanish. Let it be the opposite towards my will to receive. Is that possible? Or you could ask differently. Is it possible for the created being to want it to be so? Is it possible for us to receive such powers which make us absolutely independent of the feeling in the will to receive? Rather the image of the host, the image of the Creator, will fill us, instead of the pleasures, with power and pleasure which is much greater than that of the previous delights and pleasures. And then, after I'm completely independent of the sensation of pleasure or suffering, which for me is the same thing it means that I put to death my will to receive, as though it isn't there. I've acquired the quality of Bina- faith, overcoming, upper overcoming above the will to receive.
After that, I can go back and say, I am ready to play with my will to receive towards minus pleasures, towards plus pleasures, it doesn't matter how, but only ever for the sake of the host. What does He want? He wants me to be delighted? I'll be delighted. He wants me to be independent of pleasures, for there not to be pleasures? Okay, fine, no pleasures. I begin to be free, like Him, and to see creation as it is written, "everything that the host created, He created for me," in order to take all of this creation that He created, all of the will to receive, all of reality, and make of it everything only for the purpose of resembling Him. Meaning to bestow upon Him, to bestow upon Him.
So far he told us about a person who is in a state of double concealment. If he is in double concealment, what does it mean, double concealment? All the people on earth can say that they're also in double concealment? No, this is a person who was in some state of revelation, and certain feelings of development, and after already having various records, all sorts of things were already recorded in him, from his different inspirations and impressions of the Creator, then he's thrown into various states, where one of these states is double concealment.
M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (28:02) True, in that state he's been emptied out completely of the sensation of the Creator. True, he does not feel the source, he only feels the suffering. But if he now takes the book, or listens to some source, or receives some kind of reminder. In his mind suddenly some thoughts will pop up regarding his state, then he will be able to correctly decipher his state, and to understand that he was in double concealment. As soon as he begins discerning that, it will no longer be concealment, rather, he will know what he was in. Because records have been revealed in him from several states that he was in before, not in double concealment. Then he enters double concealment, he's unconscious, and now he comes back to life, so to speak, so he understands what he's coming back to, and through that he determines that he was previously unconscious.
Well let’s see the description as it goes on here. What happens to a person who's begun feeling the state of double concealment? Again, a person who goes from revelation or normal concealment to double concealment.
Description.
When he prays over his troubles and performs good deeds, meaning he knows that he's about to do good deeds and he prays, and he wants in some way, either internal or external, to improve his situation. Meaning, he knows, in some way he heard, he remembers, or was reminded that you should perform some good deeds and they will bring you to some good reaction, response, yes? Because you feel troubled, so by that maybe you can be saved from the trouble. Then he does not receive any answer. Maybe even the opposite. He does good things and he sees negative outcomes. When he stops praying for his troubles, he receives an answer. Meaning, it goes opposite, he stops connecting through repentance. By repentance, I mean returning to connection with the Creator. He leaves the study, he leaves the friends, he parts from the society, all sorts of things which seemingly are necessary for his advancement. When he leaves them, he sees himself as becoming successful.
When he overcomes himself and believes in upper providence and corrects his deeds, meaning he wants in every situation with all his might to enter the society and whatever is within your power to do, you must do. Then success turns its back to him and he's repelled with no mercy. Meaning, we see here from the Creator a very directed attitude towards the person, according to a completely different formula; where a person tries to come close and the Creator seems to reject him in proportion to how much he's trying to get close.
When he stops believing and performs bad actions, only then does he see success and tranquility, his money he gains not by an honest path but only through deceit. It seems to him that those who follow the path of the Creator are poor, sick, despised, uncultured, stupid and hypocritical. This is what a person feels. We see that.
M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (32:58) A person who, let's say, leaves the society. I remember we had someone who lives in Beit Shemesh. That's how he began feeling towards the end of his path with us. Yes, him. You remember what I'm talking about, right? Meaning, what can I do next to these people? I was with them a little bit. They're not great. They're not high. They're not honored. They're not especially cultured. They're not men of philosophy, science and culture. Who are they even in terms of their profession, their achievements in life? They don't excel in anything that humanity usually respects. And so, that's how he begins to measure his environment.
It seems to him that those who follow the path of the Creator are poor, sick, despised, uncultured, stupid and hypocritical. We feel that on ourselves, and we feel that on people who pass through us here and claim that. It seems to him that those who do not follow the path of the Creator are successful, healthy, peaceful, wise, good of heart, congenial and secure in themselves. You could say that each and every person, before he crosses the barrier is always in part, in his state is also in double concealment. And he can awaken in himself that feeling, and to understand that that thing exists. And when the upper providence awakens in a person this feeling, he prefers to flee from the thoughts, from the thought that his suffering comes to him from the Creator, and that brings him to lose faith.
What does it mean to lose faith? That the Creator even watches over the created beings. This means that he stops believing. Faith is the sensation of the Creator, the feeling of the Creator as the leader, in terms of my personal state and the whole of reality, that is called faith. He tells us that in an article in Shamati, that faith is the sensation of the Creator. It's article 5 or 6, I don't recall. So, here, the person completely stops his faith, meaning he stops feeling that the Creator watches over the created beings. And he believes that everything that comes to him comes only by fate and nature. Meaning, other than the Creator, this is called fate or nature. Any questions about this? Go ahead. This is the description of the state of double concealment.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:56) It seems that the double concealment is a very high state, which gives a person an opportunity, despite all the resistance, to nevertheless cling to the Creator.
M. Laitman: No. First of all, I'd like to repeat the question. The state of double concealment is a very high state, which helps to return back to feeling the Creator at every opportunity. No, that is not true. It's double concealment. Single concealment, this is called the face, the anterior. Again, I started with this explanation, but perhaps I didn't exactly provide accurate discernments. Panim- anterior or face, that is called good. When I feel the host and I feel good coming from Him.
Single concealment, that means that I believe in the host. I don't see Him exactly. I only know that He exists, and I feel that from Him come all sorts of confusions. But these confusions I also attribute to Him. My vessel is not corrected. I cannot feel that I'm in good connection, that I'm in connection with Him and that I receive every abundance from Him. I don't have a screen over my desires. I don't have the intention to bestow over all of my desires for enjoyment. And then, on the one hand, I feel that the Creator governs the whole of reality, and on the other I don't feel it. I, so to speak, I sense… How do I say? This is called normal concealment. Still, I don't see providence in a clear way, but I do have the understanding that it comes from Him. And that is called normal concealment.
We could, throughout the day, let's say, be in all sorts of states, incidents which aren't so pleasant, and nonetheless think that in those states we are still being watched over by the Creator. Meaning that He has various plans for us, He wants me to be detached from my will to receive, so He sends me various disturbances by which I rise above my will to receive, I don't want to be dependent on them, and so on. Meaning, normal concealment means that I don't detach myself in terms of thought and feeling, from the thought that there is a host and that some suffering comes to me from Him.
I could say that the suffering is caused by me being or lacking corrections, and another time I can say that no, this suffering comes from the host in order to confuse me and correct me, He has some good intention in that. But if I, despite it all, am not detached from the Creator, at least in thought, it's a sign that I think positively of Him, it's a sign that I'm nonetheless justifying Him. Not for my feeling, my feeling is not good, I can't say that I'm receiving pleasure from Him, but I'm saying I receive bad things from Him because through that He wants to raise me. Or I could say that good things come from Him, but these things appear bad to me because I am in a disparity of form from Him. So, a good thing that comes from Him is felt by me as the opposite, as bad. And all of this is called regular, normal concealment.
M. Laitman: (41:41) When I stop thinking about the Creator altogether, when feeling bad… Let's say, I was in normal concealment and I would say, yes, the Creator is sending me various troubles, all sorts of problems to educate me, to make me wiser, smarter, stronger. But if the trouble grows and I completely, I enter a state where I forget about the Creator, these troubles conquer me, then it is called double concealment. Meaning there's zero, and from zero to minus one, that's in the feeling of the troubles, that's normal concealment, and minus two is double concealment.
Now, what determines that this is normal concealment or double concealment? The magnitude of the troubles. There is a certain level within a person at which he is willing to endure the suffering, and within it, say, this comes to me because I am not in equivalence of form with the Creator, because the Creator is Good and Does Good, but also wants to bring me to this state where I'll be good and do good, and so on. That is, in some way, he justifies not his state, but the Creator. So, this is still called normal concealment. If he is completely immersed in suffering so great that it does not let him remain connected with any cause for this suffering, he cannot justify the Creator in any way. And then his connection with the Creator disappears, and then everything depends on chance, fate, nature, the environment.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:19) This is, the person enters double concealment only when the troubles grow, or can it be also through pleasures?
M. Laitman: Can we reach double concealment by going from minus one to minus two? Or can we say enter double concealment by going from plus one to plus two? What does this mean? Double concealment means that I will not feel the Creator at all, but will attribute it to fate, or concealment, and then it does not matter whether it comes from great pleasures or from great suffering. In other words, we have this state in the vessel where the vessel, say in phase one of the four phases of direct light, senses itself enjoying either more or less, or even suffering. That is, it feels the fulfillment, and the vessel also feels the root phase within phase one. It feels the root- the Emanator, the one who fills it. And then we need to consider the relationship between them with respect to the vessel.
In other words, to what extent the filling or lack of filling affects whether I pay attention to the host or do not pay attention, or even to the point where He disappears from me and I'm entirely immersed in the vessel's sensation. So this relationship between the vessel, how full it is and how empty it is, and the host, how much He is felt in me and how much He is not felt in me indicates the person's level what level I am at. Certainly, both suffering and pleasures that exceed the particular sensation of the host that I currently have, disconnect me from the host.
I see a million dollars. I forget about the Creator and steal. Or I'm in the opposite situation. I lost a million dollars. I forgot about the Creator. And I cry that there's nothing in this world for me except this loss.
In other words, doctors and physiologists also say that within the body, there is no difference between a person crying and a person laughing. The functionality of the body is the same. So we're speaking about absolute value. You know what absolute value means in mathematics without taking into account whether it's positive or negative. We're speaking about the intensity of the impression, how great the impression in the desire to receive is whether positive or negative, it does not matter which disconnects me from the host. This impression dominates me, controls me.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:12) When a person is in double concealment, what transitions him to single concealment? And when he's in single concealment, what transitions him to double concealment? Where's the crossing point between those states?
M. Laitman: When a person is in double concealment, how can he move to single concealment? Through what? And when he's in single concealment, into double concealment as well. This already pertains to the upper governance and providence. We're speaking only about what we go through, and how we are impressed by what is in us. Within us, as a vessel that was created, there are two concepts and nothing else: the filling and the one who fills. There is nothing else. This is what we're talking about. We can also discuss the filling separately, for instance. And we can also discuss the Creator separately, as the root from whom it comes, who fills, and the relationship between them.
The measure of a person's correction is how independent he is of the filling, and not only independent of the filling. Initially, becoming independent of the filling is called acquiring Galgalta ve Eynaim, vessels of bestowal and intention to bestow. And afterward, he even uses his filling, whether negative or even positive, which is very difficult, he uses that in order to bestow.
Here, maybe we can say a little bit about the degree of difficulty involved in receiving immense, infinite pleasures while maintaining an intention to bestow. Why are we capable of enduring the greatest suffering, like the suffering of Job? It is said that such a thing was never created because it's impossible to emerge from suffering so great when the vessel is completely, completely empty, like the abyss of the world of Ein Sof after the restriction, but with the feeling that it lacks this filling. In the world of Ein Sof, this was not the case. After all, restriction came from wholeness, it came from wanting to come closer to resemble the Creator.
So the question is as follows. To work in order to bestow, when the vessel is completely empty and feels endless suffering, or to work in order to bestow when the vessel is completely filled with infinite pleasures and is willing to turn them, too, into bestowal. Where is the greater work? We'll go through this article, and maybe from it we will understand why the highest degrees of working in order to bestow, meaning devotion, true devotion, where do they come from the greatest possible pleasures? In a word, if we do not get to it, I will say where the key lies.
M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (52:24) Our problem is that we were not created with a desire to escape suffering. We were created as a desire to enjoy pleasures. That is, from the outset, the desire is to enjoy, and the absence of pleasure is already felt in us as suffering. Therefore, the true work in order to bestow is done from within pleasures. And again, why is there such a question at all? It's because on the path to correction, we detach ourselves completely from either pleasures or suffering. And then this question seemingly arises. Maybe I'll go into suffering, and despite it, I'll elevate myself to the degree of bestowal, where I think about the Creator and nevertheless adhere to Him. I can do that, but that's only halfway. It's only a sign of the correction of the vessels. But I have nothing to give and nothing to bestow. And indeed, my desire to receive is then not functioning as a desire to receive. All right.
Let us proceed. Let us continue with single concealment, normal concealment. The Creator is concealed. What does this mean? He is not revealed as the absolute good. The Creator means good. We have no other attainment of Him. He is good. He bestows goodness and governs the world with His goodness. But the measure of His goodness that is revealed, what we know about Him, we call Good and Does Good, good and doing good. Only of this can we say that it is the Creator. The name Creator means good and doing good, there is no other definition.
So He is not revealed as the absolute good, but as the cause of suffering. However, He is revealed as the cause of suffering. Can such a thing actually be or not? If this is the Creator, if He is revealed as the source of suffering, certainly it's not the Creator, because this cannot be, He is Good That Does Good. Instead, there is something in between that distorts my correct perception of Him, because if it comes from Him, it needs to be good. If it's felt in me as bad, I nevertheless feel that it comes from Him. Something's distorting it. Something's corrupting it. Who can corrupt it if there is only He and I? So I'm still corrupted in my qualities, such that what comes from Him is felt in me as bad.
Well, we know that, say a child is sick, and his mother comes and wants to give him medicine. Real medicine is always bitter. Nowadays, in our world of falsehood, we manage to make tasty medicines. But in truth, medicine is always unpleasant to the taste. And the child thinks that his mother is really bad, that she's giving him something bad. He cries, he hits her back, he doesn't want to take the medicine. It's hard for him to believe that his mother has a good intention toward him, because he lacks an understanding of his mother. This is called, the Creator is not revealed as the absolute good. Mother is not so good. Sometimes she can be bad, that as the cause of suffering. That is, I have no choice. I think about the Creator through my vessels, through what is revealed in them from Him.
M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (56:59) This means that a person sees the opposite side, the Creator's posterior side, because the person sees that he receives suffering from the Creator, from Him. He sees that he receives suffering from Him. But nevertheless, he believes that everything comes to him neither through blind fate nor from nature, but that it is the Creator who relates to him this way. Why does the Creator relate to him this way? Either it comes as punishment for his actions, we need to understand what punishment is. Certainly there's no such thing as in our relationship with our Creator. Punishments exist only in our world, and these punishments never correct anything. We see this because the past cannot be corrected. If in the past, when I was in a different spiritual state, I performed some action because I was corrupted, and now I'm willing to correct the previous state, it means that I'm becoming corrected. And that previous state, although evil being revealed to me, suffering being revealed to me now precisely because of this I understand and correct it, through this, the previous state now becomes corrected.
However, what could punishment be? If I correct myself, then I have corrected myself. Punishment can only be help from above. If I have done something bad, and I do not see that it is bad, then as help from above, I might be given an even worse feeling, within that same bad thing, and then I feel that I'm in something bad and correct it. So is this called punishment? This is called help. This is called correction. That is, nothing can come to us from above except corrections, which because of our uncorrected state, they are felt as punishments.
So, the person thinks that it comes to him as punishment for his actions, because if he was uncorrected to begin with, then he also interprets the things that now come from the Creator as punishment, as additional evil. And through this, he might move from normal concealment into double concealment, or it comes to lead him toward the good. And then he already interprets it correctly and says, this is not punishment, but a correction that comes from the Creator, which pricks me even more so that I'll feel the bitterness in it, and I will not remain in this state, but I'll move toward improvement and correction.
Now here, the turning point either as punishment for his actions, or to lead him toward the good. How does a person stand at this point with the scales and the balance, and how does he tip himself toward one side, guilt or merit? That is, how might he think, this is punishment. The Creator pays no attention to me, even more troubles, even more problems, and thus moves further and further away from justifying the feeling until he falls into double concealment? Or he can say, no, this comes to strengthen me, precisely to awaken me, so that I will get out of this. I need to enter the group, I need to be among the friends, so that they will help me, they'll influence me, they'll quickly work on me, and then I will get out of this. Or through studying. How does a person here, in that state, determine toward which side he will be drawn? He'll be dragged if the suffering intensifies. Either to say that it is punishment for his actions, or to say that it is help to bring him out of the bad state.
M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (01:01:48) This depends on preparation. In the same moment, a person cannot determine anything. It depends on the previous preparation. If he has prepared the society and the study around him, so that he comes every day, every morning, and an alarm clock wakes him up, and phone calls from the friend awaken him throughout the day. Then whatever happens, this whole environment, and mainly the group, which constantly thinks about progressing more and more and more, that radiates this thought to him, this force that helps the person to the extent that he contributes to the society, that he bestows to the society. To the extent that he too strengthens the society in his good states, the society influences him. So that here, instead of saying that this is all punishment for his actions, he can say, this comes to save me from the descent, from the fall. And then he strengthens his faith. What does this mean, what faith? That this is the way the Creator watches over him.
A description of the state. A person's livelihood is insufficient for him. He cannot make it through the month. The Creator keeps us short, as they say. He is full of worries and troubles, this person. Suffers from illnesses. People do not respect him. He succeeds at nothing, and he has no rest. In other words, in everything we can say, which pertains to filling the vessel, to where a person is, pleasures in the family, money, honor, knowledge, he feels himself in a truly, truly unsatisfied state, to put it mildly. However, along with this, he knows, it's not that he feels, but he knows that the Creator watches over him and simply relates to him in that way. That is the state of most of those who are before the barrier. And it's a state that we need to battle against.
What does this mean? You, again, I return to this, as punishment for his actions, or to lead him toward the good. Emphasize this here. A person needs to feel that he is always at a point, at a decisive point, deciding specifically to justify himself and the whole world as receiving good from the Creator, and constantly striving to be righteous, to justify, despite the unpleasant feeling in everything he has in life. By trying to do this, he reaches revelation.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:59) So, actually, the feeling of whether it's suffering or punishment, if the suffering comes as punishment or preparation, it's also, there's always an intention behind that. I mean, it depends on us also. We're actually guiding the purpose of the suffering through the group, as you said now.
M. Laitman: We cannot go into a deeper analysis of these states. When we're a little more immersed in this and have what we're called the letters of the work, then we'll be able to speak more about this and truly investigate it and make works about it and show all the richness that there is within a person in relation to the feeling of the Creator. Ordinary people feel either pleasure or suffering. That's called an animal or a beast. What's a beast? Being disconnected from the sensation of the Creator, from thinking about the Creator. I'm not talking about so-called believers, yes, religious people of various religions. I'm talking about, in our terminology, they too are considered to have no connection with the Creator, meaning a connection to His governance, to His providence, which can come only through coming closer to resembling Him.
Instead, people feel either bad or good. When, through the wisdom of Kabbalah, we start trying to find the source of bad and good, then we can begin to speak about revelation, concealment, double concealment, normal concealment. Then we are already speaking about a person's inner work, how to relate the feeling of good and bad to what we call truth and falsehood, the reality of the Creator. In other words, to connect what I have in the vessel with the one who brings it to me. This is everything that exists in our reality. We have nothing other than this. This alone is what we actually investigate, only this.
Okay, I see that we're connected again. Let us hope that we'll strengthen the connection between us and that there'll be no more interruptions in technology either.
So, God willing, tomorrow we'll continue with the description of the revelation of the face. I just want to say again, with what did we conclude our scrutiny of this subject? With, as punishment for his actions, or to lead him toward the good. We need to be aware of this part of the excerpt, this part of the sentence. And it depends on us, how much we yearn throughout the day, this is called entries and exits, to justify the Creator in everything that happens to us. No matter what state we are in, we should try to make an effort to remember Him as the One who brings about everything that I am and everything within me. In the root of the One, Unique and Unified, and there is None Else Besides Him, this is called standing on the decision that leads us to the revelation.
M. Laitman: (01:10:10) Only after a person constantly yearns to reveal the Creator as good and begins to yearn for Him as a source of pleasures, a source of providence, according to, as Baal HaSulam describes in the letter in page 70 in the "Sage's Fruit,” letters in Hebrew. That one who loves, who yearns for the origin, for the source of his love, until it doesn't let him sleep. Only after a person, as he describes in the letters, fills his quota by constantly, as much as possible, in every situation, in every case, he ties it, connects it to the Creator. Only He organizes, arranges his internality in mind and in heart, in feeling and in thought. By this, a person gradually comes to a state where, as he writes here in the beginning, in the revelation of the face, getting stronger in faith during the concealment that the Creator oversees the whole world. This brings him to the books, from there he receives illumination, the light of correction, and the understanding how to grow stronger in faith in the providence of the Creator, the guidance of the Creator. And then he comes to the resolution that the Creator gives in the faith.
What is faith? The sensation of His self, that the Creator opens Himself to a person, and then a person is already connected to the roots of the Good Who Does Good. Not that he receives something good from Him, he can receive what is purportedly bad, right? But by trying always to justify the Creator, He brings me good. By this, it's not that he wants to feel good. He begins to feel that he doesn't want to slander the Creator, that he wants to love Him. And the bad feeling doesn't let him, obstructs him from doing this.
There are many manners of depictions of this relation. The important thing is that it will come when a person works and yearns. Then the Creator opens Himself, and a person is already in the revelation. Meaning what? He gets the sensation of the Creator as the origin, the source of the good. And after that, he can never feel bad. We will talk about what is the work of the shells at that time. And he crosses the barrier. And then he begins to enter into the world that is all good, as it's written. There too, there are all kinds of states, ascents, descents, left line, right line, shells, many, all the real states that begin from then onward. But these are already different states, after a person acquires some measure of the quality of faith.
With this, we will conclude the first part of our lesson, and then tomorrow we will read “The Revelation of the Face.” And again, I'm reminding, 15 minutes before the lesson, it could be 5 minutes, not 15 minutes, but they have to be about what the lesson is intended for, and not that this is study itself.
Reader: And now friends, we will summarize what we received from the lesson, and we will take from it to implement in our preparation for the Congress. Six minutes, what did we receive from the lesson, and what will we take from it to implement in our preparation for the Congress? Six minutes, summary.
Song: (01:21:09)