The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: June 13, 2026
Part 1: And the Lord Appeared to Him at the Oaks of Mamre. Rabash. Article No. 6, 1985.
Reader: Dear friends, in the first part, we're going to study the lesson of the Rav. The lesson is based on the article "And the Lord Appeared to Him at the Oaks of Mamre." It's found in the books of Rabash. We'll read it together in the Ten, and we have 12 minutes for that.
Reading: (00:34) And the Lord Appeared to Him at the Oaks of Mamre
Article No. 6, 1985
“And the Lord appeared to him at the oaks of Mamre.” RASHI interprets, “He gave him an advice about the circumcision. Therefore, He appeared to him partially.” It is written in The Zohar (VaYera, item 17), “‘And the Lord appeared to him at the oaks of Mamre.’ He asks, ‘Why in the oaks of Mamre and not elsewhere?’ And he replies, “It is because Mamre gave him an advice about his circumcision.’ When the Creator said to Abraham to circumcise himself, Abraham consulted with his friends. Aner told him, ‘You are already more than 90 years old; you will afflict yourself.’
“Mamre told him, ‘Remember the day when the Chaldeans threw you in the furnace and the hunger that the world experienced, as it is written, ‘There was famine in the land and Abraham went down to Egypt.’ And those kings that your men chased, and you struck them. The Creator saved you from all of them, and no one could harm you. Arise, and do as your Lord commands.’ The Creator said to Mamre, ‘Mamre, you advised him about the circumcision, therefore I will appear to him only in your palace.’”
There is a question, “How can it be said that if the Creator told him to circumcise himself, he consulted the friends whether or not to listen to the Creator? Can such a thing be said?”
We should interpret this in the work. When the Creator told him to circumcise himself, he consulted with his friends, meaning with his body, since the body is the one that has to perform the act. Therefore, he asked his body if it agreed, or did it think that he should not obey the Creator’s commandment. This is so because man’s friends are in the body, meaning they are the desires which are together, connected to the body, and he must ask them because they are the ones who have to keep the commandment that he received from the Creator. Then, when he knew their opinions, he could know what to do.
We have to know that there are three souls in the body, as it is written in The Zohar, VaYera (item 315), “Rabbi Yehuda said, ‘There are three forms of guidance in man: the guidance of intellect and wisdom is the power of the holy soul. The guidance of lust, which lusts for every wicked passion. This is the power of lust. And a guidance that guides people and strengthens the body is called the ‘soul of the body.’ These three forms of guidance are called Abraham’s friends. That is, he contains them. Abraham went to ask their opinion; he wanted to know the view of each and every one of his friends.’”
Aner told him: “You are more than 90 years old; you will afflict yourself.” In Gematria, Aner is 320, implying 320 sparks that are present there, including Malchut which is called the “stony heart,” which is the will to receive in order to receive, meaning self-love. This is why he told him: “You are already more than 90 years old; you will afflict yourself.” The stony heart, which is the lusting soul, told him, “You have to always try to receive the Light and pleasure, and not afflict yourself.” Therefore, he told him that he should not obey the Creator’s commandment.
Mamre told him, “Remember the day when the Chaldeans threw you into the furnace.” In other words, he told him, “You see that the Creator is behaving with you above reason, because it stands to reason that one who is cast into the furnace is burned, but your saving is above what seems reasonable. Therefore, you, too, cling on to His qualities, and you, too, go above reason. That is, even though it seems reasonable that Aner is right, you should go above reason.”
Eshkol is the soul of the body and sustains the body. It comes from the word, Eshkol [I will consider], meaning that he needs to consider with whom to unite—with a lusting soul, which is Aner, or with Mamre, who is the soul of intellect and wisdom. This is the power of the holy soul, as was written in the words of The Zohar.
Mamre comes from the words, “because he Himrah [disobeyed] Aner.” He told him to go above reason. This is the meaning of “And the Lord appeared to him at the oaks of Mamre,” for precisely where one goes above reason, where there is no intellect, precisely there the Creator appears, and one is rewarded with the Daat [knowledge] of holiness. This is why it is called Mamre [disobeying], which is regarded as above reason, named “the soul of the intellect and wisdom,” because precisely where one goes above reason the intellect and wisdom appear.
It therefore turns out that the meaning of what The Zohar says, that Abraham went to consult his friends, refers to Abraham’s own body. The body needs to keep the commandment, therefore he asked the body for its opinion in order to know what he must do. That is, if he should coerce it or agree to what the Creator had told him. When it says that he consulted with his friends, it refers to the three souls that exist in his body, which are his friends who are always with him.
It is written in Midrash Raba (end of the portion Lech Lecha, and in the beginning of the portion VaYera): “Abraham said, ‘Before I was circumcised, passersby would come to me. Now that I am circumcised, they do not come to me.’ The Creator told him, ‘Before you were circumcised, uncircumcised people came to you. Now, I and my entourage appear to you.’”
We should understand this, as he did not receive an answer to his question. He asked, “Why are passersby not coming now?” What was the answer? No answer is written as to why they are not coming. Instead, he received a different kind of answer—that previously they were uncircumcised and now the Creator comes to him. This does not correspond to the question.
We should interpret this in the work. He said that before he was circumcised the order of his work was that passersby would always come to him, meaning that he had thoughts of people who come and then, people who go. This means that before he was circumcised he had room for work, for he had thoughts of transgression. Afterwards, he had room for those who come, meaning for repentance, and then, he knew that he was truly working.
But now he does not have room for passersby, yet he longed for work. So the Creator told him, “You should not regret this, for in the end, your work is on the work of people who are circumcised. That is, your work was not yet in pure bestowal because you were still not rewarded with removing the foreskin, which is called the will to receive.”
Now, however, you do not need to regret the work you had then, as in the end, it was the work of people, which is good work, but still outside, for they were uncircumcised. But now that you are circumcised there is equivalence of form, so I and my entourage may come, which was not so before.
Reader: We will move on to a lesson from the 17th of January, 2002.
M. Laitman: (12:40) So we read an article from “The Rungs of the Ladder,” first volume, page 103: "And the Lord Appeared to Him at the Oaks of Mamre." That is, if a person reaches a state where he is in Alonei Mamre [the oaks of Mamre], this means that he takes off from corporeality, which means that he's going above reason. He has a goal in his head, and he devotes, he gives his whole life, his whole soul to it. It is considered that he's taking off. So in the oaks of Mamre, meaning when a person grows through such states, it is considered that then he is like the tree of the field, as a tree among the oaks of Mamre. Then the Lord appears to him: "And the Lord appeared to him at the oaks of Mamre." This is the state when a person truly discovers Godliness. Are there any questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:45) What is the work of those passers-by?
M. Laitman: Instead of the passers-by, instead of all of the disruptions and signs of distancing that the Creator sends in order to bring the person closer, the Creator Himself is revealed to him. The thing is that because man is created in the will to receive, he is actually a cell that feels. And all of the intellect and all of the knowledge and decisions and everything, they stem from that, from what he feels. So, it is possible to bring him closer to the goal only through ascents and descents. In truth, descents and ascents. This means actually from the descents, from the distancing, when a person is pushed away, when he's pushed back, when they show him to what extent he is the opposite, when they show him the evil within him, we call that the recognition of evil, when a person sees that he's not capable of it, that he's not worthy of Kedusha - from all of these feelings altogether a state is depicted in him, which is called that he has no choice and he has to go above reason. Otherwise, simply that there is no choice. How does one reach such a state, if after each and every descent, each and every rejection — like we have an example in the “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” where he says that one who yearns for the palace of the King, there are guards and officers there who push that person back, and he slips down back from the mountain, where the palace of the King stands. So, when all the time they throw him down, and again throw him down, and nevertheless he gets up, so they throw him even stronger. And yet, he rises again; patiently and persistently he comes back from all of these rejections. So, bit by bit he builds within himself a desire for the goal. Out of that, out of his yearning for the goal, he later on receives rejection. It always works in the opposite way. And from the fact that he gets rejection, from that, the importance of the goal is born within him. Each and every thing begets its opposite. Therefore, if one will not have such sharp, deep descents, such falls that disappoint one and are painful, he won't know how to appreciate the goal.
M. Laitman: (17:23) That's on the one hand. On the other hand, if he does not invest sufficient power to reach - that very, very soon he's going to reach the goal. And again he falls, then he won't know how far away from it he is. What does it mean, an ascent and descent? I made out of myself something, the maximum that I'm capable of. I try to put in all of my forces, all of my knowledge, all of my time, all of my energy, and I truly exhaust myself from all aspects. The moment that I truly do that, I have some kind of confidence, I have pride, I have some drive forward that I'm going to succeed. At the peak of my inspiration from this whole thing and my effort, suddenly, I get a descent. This descent should tell me that even at the peak of my inspiration and the peak of my effort, I was far away from the goal. And each time, the more I press, and go forward, and seemingly succeed, I discover that I'm farther away from the goal. Each time they show me the truth, which is more true. It turns out that I develop two things: self-recognition that I'm farther away each time, and the recognition of the goal, which becomes more, and more, and more important. And then I have no choice, out of the necessity in the matter, and out of the revelation that I will not be able to attain it. It's not because I'm truly despaired, despaired of my own forces - I'm not despaired of achieving it, I nevertheless want to achieve it with all of my energy - I just don't know where I will get some kind of means. I reached a state where I decided that here we have to go above reason. Meaning, against the intellect, against whatever. Here there has to be some sort of a supernatural solution. Then they revealed to me this supernatural solution.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:27) What problem is the solution supposed to solve?
M. Laitman: The solution has to come over two edges: the importance of the goal and the nothingness of my own forces. You need to have these two edges together. If I discover that I have zero forces, and I truly cannot see anything that would help me, and they don't yet reveal to me from above that "you haven't tried that yet." They don't reveal to me from the heavens that I can do something else, arrange something else, add something else. That's it. I finished my quota, as we call it. My package, my box — I'm done. There is no more. It's a sign that now I've truly reached a state where I examined, I checked all of my forces. I saw that they're all zero. But along with that, with each and every thing where I was disappointed of my own forces, for every such thing, I received an even greater desire for the goal. This is the matter of the ascents and descents, right? That everything here, every such impulse up and down, it begets two kinds of outcomes: disappointment of my own forces and importance of the goal - one opposite the other. And these two edges come with each and every ascent and descent, with every such impulse they need to grow farther apart. They have to be greater until — well, each one has his own allotted number, how much he has to go through such things. But the mighty one here, as he says, is only according to the patience, that again and again he presses, and he always says, "If I'm not for myself, who is for me?" Here, simply, there's no choice. But always to say, "If I'm not for myself, who is for me?" And about the Creator, to say only after you see the bad result, in the feeling that seemingly you did not succeed, then "There is none else besides Him." Then in that, He reveals to you the true situation.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:58) What does the rule above reason give me? How will it solve my problems?
M. Laitman: What does it mean that then above reason is revealed? I don't know. I simply go forward. That's it. They just tell me that following after everything, when a person is — how shall I say it — when he is despaired of all of the forces. What does it mean from all of the forces? The Creator doesn't reveal to him additional opportunities to work through "if I'm not for myself, then who is for me?" Then he begins, then he is rewarded with an outcry, meaning then there is nothing else to do. The Creator doesn't give any other hope that you can succeed by something else, so then you remain with the desire for the goal, but without any means. Then you cry out. You cry out because you can't see any breakthrough onwards. They don't give you any more.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:22) When a person starts to feel the spirit of his own strength, and in parallel these two points: that is, despairing on the one hand, on the other hand, the importance of the goal grows. The importance is growing because it remains unattained, is that correct?
M. Laitman: The importance of the goal and also that top point — meaning in the attainment of the importance of the goal — and also the bottom point and the despair of one's own forces, they are revealed from two things: from the descent and also from the ascent. You cannot say that the ascent causes the importance of the goal, and the descent causes one to despair of his own forces, but rather the gap between them begets both this and that. Meaning, the direction towards which you're going actually begets the importance of the goal and the despair of your forces. You need to have both of them. Of course, the importance of the goal is from the feeling during the ascent, but nothing is born without having something of its opposite; it's always black on top of white. Otherwise, you won't have any discernment. The discernment always includes two opposite things, like the letters over the white background.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:01) If every point is a new beginning, where does this measure accumulate? When is a person aware of this accumulated measure? Only then?
M. Laitman: Yes, only in the end, he knows. He knows that he finished his quota, that now he has the tearing of the Red Sea ahead of him, which means that he reached the end of the discernments that he needs to scrutinize during the time of preparation. For each one, it's like Rabash would always — when I would cry out and say "where, how" — he would always say: "The salvation of the Lord is as the blink of the eye." Meaning, you have to wait for it every moment; that's it, it can happen any moment. And each time that you despair, each time that you search for additional forces, but if you do search for forces, how to advance and nevertheless to acquire the goal, it could be that instead of you advancing towards it by yourself - again trying to acquire it with something, with some new opportunity, new forces - it could be that here you already discover that there is no more, but rather, there is the tearing of the Red Sea.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:30) Sometimes a person has a tendency, in every state, to say that here, this is the state of despair. Instead of making another effort to find more means, it seems preferable for me to run away to the side and say, this is the point of despair, and there are no more means left.
M. Laitman: No, you can't just run away to the side and say, "I exhausted everything, there's nothing more to do," because this point above reason, the tearing of the Red Sea, is revealed out of the fact that you search, you press onwards. That, as usual, after the despair you search, you don't know what to do, and seemingly you have no other opportunities ahead of you - they beget the true outcry to the Creator, which opens a gate. Not the despair itself, despair by itself does not beget anything.
Student: It's as if a new means is revealed.
M. Laitman: Yes, seemingly a new means is revealed, that you go for it with your own forces and suddenly discover that out of the fact that you are searching — how with my own forces I can keep going, and what can I do? So, it's not a state of despair. I don't know, a fall is a determination of one's state, when a person says so, that he is in a fall — and it's not that he's in a state where he can't move himself; it's not a state where he's unable to, I don't know, move his pinky finger, as they say. Despair, means that he is in full awareness and complete scrutiny with a clear mind, and he simply knows: I did everything, what else can I do? It's not a state where he's seemingly screwed up, he's dead, that's it, there's no one to talk to. It's just in a feeling — we're talking about it — that he's searching for forces. The more a person advances towards the barrier, he begins to be less impressed by the feeling; but rather, he's more impressed by the fact that he's truly incapable by himself. It's like a determination of a fact, a feeling that he can't; this unpleasant feeling doesn't determine the states so much within him — I don't know how to say it. In the beginning, people are impressed by how all the air came out of them; later on, it passes. Later on, the state is determined more by the facts - that it's not me, it's not in the goal, etc.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:14) Turning to the Creator — can it be called the greatest exertion, after all these states, turning to the Creator?
M. Laitman: The appeal to the Creator? Look, we need to search for it, but it doesn't exist just like that; no one can just turn to Him. The moment that the Creator is revealed in a form of either concealment or revelation, the way He appears to the person, when He invites from a person this appeal, it's not that "Go and search? Where will I search for Him so that I can cry to Him or ask of Him?" This appeal, when we are already rewarded by revelation, it is truly “the salvation of the Lord is in the blink of the eye,” it simply comes, that's it, inadvertently, seemingly as a result of all of the previous labor. But the labor has to be there; without it, the person won't feel this state. Even now, we're at the end of correction, but who feels Him? We need the letters.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:25) Maybe it's a continuation of friend’s question. It's hard for a person to stand aside and simply observe the states, either in a state of ascent or descent, meaning he's in an inner feeling. Where is this grouping point during a descent?
M. Laitman: Here I'm not talking about people who are still in states where, when good feelings or bad feelings come to them, they cannot be under complete self-control. That's only for beginners. A beginner could be here for quite a few years, but he's just a beginner. Later on, a person who is either in an ascent or a descent, he nevertheless receives forces to control his state, to monitor it. In the worst possible states, nevertheless, he can seemingly monitor them: why am I in such a state, who gives me this state, what do I need it for? In all the bad states, he's still connected with the goal; he knows what it came to him for. So, he's no longer, like a beginner, or whatever he feels, that's him; it fills him, and he's already addicted, sold to the feeling. We're not talking about such a person who is still in such states. And what can we say about it? You have to continue. And after a few months, or even a year or two — with each one it's according to his pace, his exertion, and everything — then he'll come out of it. What does it mean to come out? The letters of the work will start to accumulate within him, and they'll connect to a feeling, and they'll always be with that feeling. So, it won't be just a feeling or only work, but he'll always have both of them together. To such an extent they'll be together that later on, if he receives even the most terrible feelings, he will know clearly why and what is happening to him. We'll learn about it in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” where Rabash explains four stages that a person has to go through there: double concealment, ordinary concealment, reward and punishment, and eternal love. So, a person who goes through double concealment is truly only in a feeling. Ordinary concealment of the face: when he already sees that it comes to him from the Creator somehow, it's still not clear to him how it comes from the Creator, it's not clear to him who the Creator is, but in the background, there is someone who is orchestrating all of it for me. This is called an ordinary double concealment, and this is already the second stage altogether. We have these two stages before the barrier. Once he crosses the barrier, he enters into the providence of reward and punishment. So, about the stage where one is under truly double concealment — there's nothing I can explain here, because he's under double concealment; everything is hidden. He only feels whatever he feels, that's it. When he's already under a single concealment, then it is possible to speak to him. There is a little bit of the Creator and a little bit of the feeling together, so he's always in some kind of — or almost always — with some kind of understanding that the Creator is orchestrating for him all of these states.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:45) We just talked about how the ascents and descends have two results: on the one hand, the person is shown how far he is from the goal; on the other hand, that the goal becomes more important. Where does the second thing come from, that the goal becomes more important?
M. Laitman: The goal becomes more important because the person invests in it; from that, it becomes more important. If I invest, if I, you know how it is in our life, simply, if I invest in something, I put myself into it, and because I love myself, I can no longer become separated from this matter. I labored so much, I did so much, I took care of it, I can't just let go of that. So, because of that, the goal and the whole engagement become important to the person. That's one thing. And the second thing is that nevertheless, each time the surrounding light shines to him more and more, according to his investment. So, this light fills the new vessel, the point in the heart, and the person feels that indeed, in truth, life comes from there. And all of the rest of the beastly life, he certainly feels them as transient, and as less and less important. And already this assessment, that spirituality is more important than corporeality already occurs to him here, in that he enters the single concealment. He already feels, nevertheless, he feels — you could say that here there is the presence of the Creator, an upper force. And then, with all of the life events that happened to him, whatever happened on the face of the earth, they nevertheless diminish in their importance. The surrounding light projects eternity.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:27) If the surrounding light starts to enter the vessel, then why do the descents become more difficult?
M. Laitman: The surrounding light does not enter into the vessel — that would be the inner light later on; that would be impossible. The surrounding light shines to the person all the time, and it shines to the person either in his Panim or Achoraim [anterior or posterior]. In the ascents, it's seemingly the anterior of the surrounding light; in the descents, it's the posterior of the surrounding light. It's the same state, but it's only the revelation of the vessel or the revelation of its light. This is what we actually call ascents and descents. It's actually the same state. It's only from the perspective of the vessel or the perspective of the light. This is how you look at it; this is how it is in the feeling. Now, when the vessel becomes like the light, then there's no difference between the ascent and the descent. It's all light, it all shines. The vessel shines like the light. A vessel with a screen is actually felt like the light itself. We also see that in the “Study of the Ten Sefirot:” the vessels of the upper one are like light for the lower one. We don't understand how this is possible, but it is exactly so.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:47) How does a person develop fear of double concealment? It's truly an aversion to it. Can this be initiated, or does experience simply bring one to it?
M. Laitman: How does one develop fear? In truth, you can’t develop it. If we say that each time a new discernment appears in a person which is greater than the previous one: I was in the coarseness of root; now I'm, let's say, in the coarseness of one. How, in the coarseness of one will I now be afraid, and what will I do — all of my experience comes from the courses of root, right? From the smaller, previous degree. So, in the degree where I am now, I have no experience, I have nothing. It's like: whatever fear I had before, how come it doesn't work now, right? He speaks about it. He writes about it. In forgetfulness, there is such a thing in the articles in “Pri Hacham” [sage's fruit]. It is simply the revelation of the new records, right? There's no lack in spirituality; it's just that the new record is greater, and it quenches all of the previous experience. And I don't know — what does it mean? What is considered fear? What is the opposite? Did I attain something there? So, a person can't really ever learn from the previous state about the next state; but rather, always, until the end of correction, he must fail, he must fall, he must lose the previous attainment that he had, and receive a new record. And with this new record, again he needs to enter scrutiny and correction, and in each and every thing he needs the upper one to be revealed to him — it will be the AHP of the upper one, there will be the image of the upper one, the example of the upper one. What should he do? Every moment, it's a new person, a new man. He's born out of the baby, truly, from the state of zero. From the previous state, you can't draw anything; seemingly, you can, because in every state, you have the particular and the general; in every state, we have all the states that could exist in reality, and if you went through one degree, you already have an understanding of the whole general cycle. But along with that, every state is above reason.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:56) He writes there, and it's emphasized, specifically in the place where one goes above reason, where there is no intellect — and then later he says: specifically in the place where one goes above reason, intellect and wisdom are revealed. It's as if...
M. Laitman: One who goes above reason, meaning above his reason, he receives a higher reason, a higher intellect. What does it mean? A person can't really go above reason, because that's him, right? It's like cut of your head from the body, that's it. That's - above reason, and the reason is me. Reason, means what to do with my will to receive — meaning the entire software of how to fill it, what to do with it, how to behave with it. This is all reason. If now, at my age, I extract all of the knowledge out of myself — everything, everything, other than the instinctive, primitive things like a child has — can I exist? These are things that a person is not capable by himself to want: to get rid of his reason, because that's his nature. What do we reach? We reach the recognition of evil — that everything that I have within me today, from my attainments, from my experience, from the understanding of how to do, what to do in each and every state, how to behave, everything that is the "I" within me, right - it's all incorrect. So, I abstain from my reason, from my intellect, from my understandings, from my experience entirely. I recognize it as bad with respect to the attainment of something, where I see that it's not helpful there. What could help me to be in that other state that I want to be in — to receive intellect from that state, to receive reason from that state? And here, seemingly, comes this frustration, the prayer, the demand. And when a person is ready for it, meaning to leave his present state and move to — it doesn't matter what state, but some other state — then he's like a seed that rots in the ground, that wants to lose everything, its entire existing form, that doesn't want to take anything with it, except for what? Reaching the new state and growing. And then he enters a new state. This means that this is a demand that needs to accumulate within. It is done bit by bit, actually not with some rashness, but with a cold mind, through urgency. It's something that is impossible any other way: the person reaches a state where he's simply not willing to remain with himself the way he is now. This is why it is called that he leaves his reason, and he's rewarded with the reason of the upper one. He becomes wiser; but again, it's not with the wisdom of this world.
M. Laitman: (48:05) You can see Kabbalists — I'm saying Kabbalists — that in this world, they're not very efficient, let's say; they don't understand all of this nonsense. I'll tell you, they understand the nature of this world, but the artificial things done by people, when people create these things against nature — our society with all of its laws and inventions, all of these things that don't come according to nature seemingly directly — so it won't be in the reason of the Kabbalists. In that, he's not going to be wise. Meaning, he acquires the reason of the higher degree. But how to steal more from the bank — you won't know about that, not because it's stealing, but because of all of these things that they made, all of these laws and all of these things; these are artificial things; they're not natural. Therefore, a Kabbalist who advances from one degree to the next, he acquires a higher intellect. I would also say, even farther away from this world each time.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:35) They write in the article that there are three forces in a person — Aner, Mamre, and Eshkol. And he says that Mamre is the force that tells him: "Remember the day when the Chaldeans threw you in the furnace of fire" — meaning he told him, you see that the Creator behaves with you above reason, right? Meaning, therefore, you should also cleave unto His attributes, and you should also go above reason. What is this claim that awakens a person? Can it be awakened somehow?
M. Laitman: These three friends, they are three causes for an ascent to a new state. Well, we need to use them, and we'll talk about them. It's not simple. Here, it's a very, very fundamental story.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:52) Abraham goes through two states: there's one state before he's circumcised, and another state after he goes through the circumcision, when he removes the foreskin. What in our work is the removal of the foreskin?
M. Laitman: Removal of the foreskin, in our work, means he's circumcised. What does it mean to be circumcised? That he doesn't use his desire to receive, but only for the purpose of bestowing — removing the foreskin. This means that from a Gentile, he becomes a Jew. What is a Jew? One who passes into unification with the Creator, so that all of these things now, from this state onwards, will be only for the equivalence of form. Although this is done from above by AVI, mom and dad, and they do this to the little person. And now, from that little person, he's in a state where he grows into a Jew.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:03) It says here that Abraham removes his own foreskin. Is that how it is? A person needs to remove his...
M. Laitman: With Abraham, it's something else, because it has to do with the forefathers. And he's the first quality of the soul. But all the rest... There were other cases there in the Tanakh where they talk about how they circumcised themselves at a certain age. Well, let's say... And then they were killed afterwards, with those people… There are all sorts of such things. We need to study it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:08) What is this thing in the work that Abraham regrets — that he lost that after the circumcision?
M. Laitman: After the circumcision, a person doesn't have the same disturbances he had before.
Student: So why does he regret it, if it was intended to justify...?
M. Laitman: It's different work. In truth, a person uses those transgressions and unintentional mistakes that he previously had, and he uses them from the past. But now he doesn't have them.
Student: So what does he regret?
M. Laitman: He regrets the matter that it's impossible for bad and good things to seemingly connect together. There's a certain matter in it, but nonetheless, either you're in this or that. I don't know how to explain it to you. Seemingly - afterwards, it is - but seemingly, you cannot connect a feeling that's the most beastly to a high intention. Let's say that you really enjoy from food, to start to think about spirituality; or when you are in a beastly pleasure, to think about the Creator — one seemingly extinguishes the other. So, the sorrow that it's still impossible to connect, to tie these two ends, it happens. But afterwards, it does get connected.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:04) We talked about the fact that a person reaches a state where he's despaired of his own forces. Now, I simply didn't understand, how is it related here that he needs to say, "If I'm not for me, who is for me?" in that state?
M. Laitman: A person needs to say "If I'm not for me, and who is for me?" in every state, even if he's despaired of his own forces. So what else? What of it, that I'm despaired? If now I'm despaired, then by that I finished everything? By that I say, that's it — the Creator must help me? How do I know that this has to happen today? Maybe it's another 20 years. So I need, all the time, maybe to yearn to a state where I am despaired from my own strength. If from that state, we jump into spirituality - that's how it's written, it's written that there's no better moment in a person's life but when he despaired of his own strength, and then sees that there is no medicine, and he's done everything, and that there's no medicine, then he's in need, and he's worthy of a true prayer from the bottom of the heart - and the Creator hears this prayer. This is how Baal HaSulam writes in that letter of “Pri Hacham.” So, now I need to yearn to that state, where I'm despaired of my own forces? No, in such a state, I'll never reach that. I always need to push forward, that "if I am not for myself, then who is?" And that sometimes, if I discover that I'm incapable, then I'm incapable; but I nonetheless move forward with a new discernment, or with something new. Just like he writes: "If you didn't succeed with this business, then you do another one." So you live, and you continue to work. When will it be revealed that you're despaired with your own strength? When will it be finally revealed? We don't know. To such an extent that we know — you see, Nachshon jumped into the sea, and he wanted to cross, and only then the sea opens up. So, he doesn't wait, and sit, and say, "Now, the Creator, He arranges this for us," and fold his hands. No, he jumps in. There must be a leap. And only after that, what happens? If it happens - it happens. If not - no. But you must jump. I see here that you still don't agree.
Student: But there is None else besides Him.
M. Laitman: What? "None else besides Him"? That's not in that. There's None else besides Him, it's that after each and every state stands “There's None else besides Him.” That He stands beyond that as a result of what was there before, but only as a result.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:51) You spoke before about natural and artificial things. How can something be artificial?
M. Laitman: I understand you're asking this way, but I said that we have a lot of laws in society that a Kabbalist can maybe just not understand it. By him knowing nature, or the spiritual laws — how does he know all of those laws? He knows it also out of their own nature. The Kabbalist is studying the real nature — meaning both according to the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, but when they develop in a true way and not the way that in our world, what we're inventing, it's all distorted. What does it mean, distorted? Whatever we're incapable of — using the desire to receive in a way, in a true way, in a direct way, like with children, to grasp something and not to give to the other, there we come up with all sorts of such laws: "you also deserve it," and "don't grab it," so "either steal it together or do it together," or "don't kill one another." It's called being nice. It's against the laws of nature; these are people who seemingly want to correct nature. This is how we think in this world, that they want to correct nature, to do some kind of compromise. But these compromises, they're because we are in this terrible true nature, and in its trueness, we're incapable of using its trueness. If we were to use the desire to receive truly, then it would be like in Sodom, that's it. So, everything goes according to "give, or I'll kill you". That’s it. That is why these imaginary things that a person invents, it's all natural, there's nothing here unnatural, but how do I say it? They come in order to correct the distortion in the desire to receive, so that it'll be possible to receive through it. Depict to yourself that our laws were like our true nature — that I buy a certain gun, and I'll arrange the whole gun; what else is there to talk about? Everything's according to force: the force of desire, the physical force, that's it. Meaning, corrections on it are not natural; all the laws of our society, the laws of behavior, these are not natural laws.
Student: You said we should jump. Jump where?
M. Laitman: The fact that Nachshon jumps, he jumps because he sees that he's incapable of doing anything, like he did before. What did he do? He ran out of Egypt into the desert, and from there, on the third day, he reaches the sea, and he continues to go; just like he walked in the desert, now he's going into the sea.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:58) The transition between the double concealment and ordinary concealment also works according to these laws: that I reach a certain disappointment, and then I seek some solution, and then they move me from double concealment to ordinary concealment. It doesn't work in a different way there?
M. Laitman: The transition from single to double concealment happens here gradually: at times a person is in this, sometimes in that, and afterwards, he goes to this regular concealment. What is that regular concealment? That on the background of all of the things that happened with me, I feel that it's coming from above, that the Creator is standing behind it.
Student: This feeling comes after…
M. Laitman: This feeling becomes permanent, and a person lives with it, before the barrier.
Student: This follows the quality of the exertion, or it's unrelated, or...?
M. Laitman: No, no, no, it's before the quality of exertion, before everything; it's just, simply, little by little, it gets clarified in the senses.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:22) When one jumps to the sea, it's like he's taking his life, or what do you expect?
M. Laitman: Well, we jump into the sea, we don't expect a miracle, and we're not going to kill ourselves, because we want to live and to pass through it, but out of lack of choice we enter forcefully.
Student: And he believes that by his own forces he...
M. Laitman: He believes that with his own strength, he's able to pass. Not that he believes, but he has no choice, on the one hand. And on the other hand, this is a decision, but just a free one.
Student: And this lack of choice — doesn't it come out of despair?
M. Laitman: Lack of choice, it's not out of despair, it's a decision. But I don't know how it's possible to talk about it. I wouldn't understand it if someone were to tell me about it.