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

Daily Lesson (Morning), December 26, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Article, The Love of the Creator and the Love of Man - continuing with the heading, “And to Adhere to Him”.

Reader: Hello, we're reading in the writing of Baal HaSulam, the article, The Love of the Creator and the Love of Man, continuing with the heading, And to Adhere to Him. You can find the study materials in our website, Sviva Tova, and the Galaxy System. You can also send us questions live through these websites. The writings of Baal HaSulam, the article, “The Love of God and the Love of Man”, heading,

And to Adhere to Him.

Reading: There still remains room to ask, “If the whole purpose of the Torah and all of creation is but to raise the base humanity to become worthy of that wonderful sublimity, and to adhere to Him, He should have created us with that sublimity to begin with instead of troubling us with the labor of creation, and the Torah and Mitzvot.

We could explain this with the words of our sages: “One who eats that which is not his is afraid to look at his face.” This means that anyone who feeds on the labor of others is afraid (ashamed) to look at his own form, for his form is inhuman.

Because no deficiency comes from His wholeness, He has prepared for us this work, so we may enjoy the labor of our own hands. This is why He created creation in this base form. The work in Torah and Mitzvot lifts us from the baseness of creation, and through it we achieve our sublimity by ourselves. Then we do not feel the delight and pleasure that comes to us from his generous hand as a gift, but as the owners of that pleasure.

However, we must still understand the source of the baseness that we feel upon receiving a gift. Nature scientists know that the nature of every branch is close to its root. The branch loves all the conducts in the root, wants them, covets them, and derives benefit from them. Conversely, the branch stays away from everything that is not in the root; it cannot tolerate them and is harmed by them.

Because our root is the Creator, Who does not receive but bestows, we feel sorrow and degradation upon every reception from another.

Now we understand the purpose of adhering to Him. The sublimity of Dvekut [adhesion] is only the equivalence of the branch with its root. On the other hand, the whole matter of baseness is only the remoteness from the root. In other words, each being whose ways are corrected to bestow upon others rises and becomes capable of adhering to Him, and every being whose way is reception and self-love is degraded and removed far from the Creator.

As a remedy, the Torah and Mitzvot have been prepared for us. In the beginning, we are to observe it Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], meaning to receive reward. This is the case during the period of Katnut [smallness], as education. When one grows, one is taught to observe Torah and Mitzvot Lishma [for Her sake], meaning to bring contentment to one’s Maker, and not for self-love.

Now we can understand the words of our sages who asked, “Why should the Creator mind whether one slaughters at the throat, or slaughters at the back of the neck? After all, the Mitzvot [commandments] were given only so as to cleanse people through them.”

But we still do not know what that cleansing means. With the aforesaid, we understand that “Man is born a wild ass’s colt,” completely immersed in the filth and baseness of self-reception and self-love, without any spark of love for one’s fellow person and bestowal. In that state, one is at the farthest point from the Root.

When one grows and is educated in Torah and Mitzvot defined only by the aim to bring contentment to one’s Maker and not at all for self-love, one comes to the degree of bestowal upon one’s fellow person through the natural remedy in the study of Torah and Mitzvot Lishma, that the Giver of the Torah knows, as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice.”

By this the creature develops in the degrees of the above-said sublimity until one loses any form of self-love and self-reception, and one’s every attribute is to bestow or to receive in order to bestow. Our sages said about this, “The Mitzvot were given only in order to cleanse people by them,” and then one adheres to one’s Root to the extent of the words, “and to adhere to Him.”

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:16) He says that through the Torah and Mitzvot, we attain our own sublimity. What does it mean to attain our sublimity?

M. Laitman: That we can be exactly like the Creator, on the same level as He.

Student: He also says that we attain our sublimity by our own effort. What does this mean, our own effort, something that belongs to us?

M. Laitman: We ourselves need to develop ourselves and reach equivalence with the Creator.

Student: He also says that during reception, we feel sorrow and degradation.

M. Laitman: Yes, the Creator created in us from the beginning such an attitude, where we feel sorrow and loneliness in reception and the opposite in giving, bestowing.

Student: Now, we're in a Ten, and a friend receives from another friend. He should feel in that sorrow and degradation?

M. Laitman: Yes, it's recommended that all the activities, all the actions we do in the Ten; whoever is in it, giving or receiving, will feel internally, what is the essence of the action.

Student: And if I still don't feel this sorrow? I receive from a friend now, and I don't feel sorrow in that. In the fact that I received something.

M. Laitman: You have to pay attention to what you're doing. That in giving to the other, you resemble the Creator; who is the source of all the abundance. And in receiving from the other, you feel yourself lowly and despicable.

Student: Maybe I can give an example. The Unity Day now is approaching, and all the friends in the Ten talk about it. And I feel that they're ready for it. They're going towards it. And suddenly an unpleasant feeling awakens. If I'm not together with them, does that also come from the same root?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:02) I need to feel despicable, when a friend bestows to me, gives me?

M. Laitman: If a person places before himself the goal of which is bestowal, of giving, sorry. Then any time he must receive, it's a descent from the degree for him.

Student: But along with that, we have a goal to reach connection. So when a friend bestows, when he does something for me, seemingly. And it's an opportunity for us to connect, so…

M. Laitman: Yes, but connection is a mutual act. I to my beloved, my beloved to me; as we call it. So I'm not thinking of reception. I'm thinking of giving. And each one who is thinking of giving, they give to one another and to one another. And in this way they connect. The connection is based on the giving.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:29) This feeling of degradation is upon the act of reception or the intention to receive?

M. Laitman: In truth, the intention. Because it speaks of the quality of the action. It's possible that you're receiving something from someone. But it's not reception, but the other way around. It's actually giving. Nevertheless, that's how he says it, to keep it simple.

Student: So, when you said that a person should check the essence of his action, you meant the intention, right?

M. Laitman: Yes. Typically, we're talking about an action coupled with the intention. So let's continue.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:36) We didn't understand. What does it mean to cleanse or refine people with?

M. Laitman: To cleanse means to purify him.

Student: I'm responsible to refine people?

M. Laitman: You have to help them with your attitude toward them… to refine them, themselves, through all possible actions.

Student: Are we talking about my friends or all people?

M. Laitman: All people.

Student: What does it mean that it's through the Mitzvot, through the commandments? This is how they're being refined?

M. Laitman: It's the same thing. It's the same intention.

Student: That's the intention? If I carry out the Mitzvot, the commandments, by that I help to…

M. Laitman: To cleanse them. To refine them.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:33) He writes here that the Creator doesn't mind if one slaughters from the throat or from the back of the neck. The most important is to cleanse or refine people. So why was such a guidance given that you have to slaughter from the neck? Not from the throat. Not from the back of the neck. If the Creator doesn't mind…

M. Laitman: I don't know, but if it says that you have to slaughter from the neck, from the throat, I’m sorry. Then that's how you need to do it. Why? It's possible that we don't know all the rules or the anatomy or what's going on there with all the creatures. But if you have to slaughter, then you slaughter according to the laws of slaughtering.

Student: So what does it mean that the Creator doesn't mind, doesn't care?

M. Laitman: Relative to a person, as far as it concerns him, there's no difference.

Student: So here he's actually telling us that we should only engage in love of others and refining people. And other things, simply do them without understanding too much. We shouldn't care.

M. Laitman: Yes. No more? Okay.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:58) It's not clear why, if in reception, we feel loneliness? He writes that the remedy for it is to run Mitzvot.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: We feel already loneliness, degradation in reception. We want to get out of this state, already. So what is the remedy to run Mitzvot?

M. Laitman: In receiving something from the other, a person feels himself lower than the other. And he has to compensate for it in order to uplift himself. And that's how we need to see it in life.

Student: But on the other hand, we live in a form of reception. If we don't feel the degradation, Baal HaSulam tells us that we are in a state of baseness. If we don’t feel this baseness, we can’t approach the remedy. If we don’t feel this baseness?

M. Laitman: We can't. We must feel our baseness, our loneliness in this life. Because we need to receive from the other, a certain fulfillment.

Student: So where is the gap between the natural form; where the branch resembles its root, and we feel baseness in reception? Versus the way we live? Where is this gap?

M. Laitman: We simply don't pay attention to how we live. We constantly perceive and give. And we don't pay attention to the quality of our actions.

Student: So what can help us to reach this awareness of this evil?

M. Laitman: Well, that's what Baal HaSulam says. That we need before the action to equip ourselves with the intention. And only with the intention, you should do the action.

Student: We say, there is a remedy to your illness, but you don't feel the illness. But a person to begin with, doesn't check if he has some illness.

M. Laitman: So now he should know.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:45) Can you explain, what is this act of cleansing or refinement? What does it do to the will to receive, to the person?

M. Laitman: The act of refinement means that I refine myself by diminishing or getting rid of the form of the will to receive.

Student: Refinement means to cancel… to annul the will to receive?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But we learned that we never cancel the will to receive. We only rise above it. What does it mean to cancel the will to receive?

M. Laitman: When we don't use it, that means to cancel it.

Student: Okay, so the act of refinement is not that the will to receive that I have will disappear, but I simply don't use it? What will this do? What will happen to this desire if we don't implement it? If we don't use it, what will happen to it?

M. Laitman: What will happen is that unless I annul it, it remains. It even grows. If I pay attention to how not to use it, then gradually through such actions, I diminish it until I feel that it disappears from me.

Student: This act of refinement… this act of diminishing the will to receive, as he described it now, seemingly… I'll start elsewhere. In the world of reception, we know that when I receive into the will to receive, there is some pleasure there. But it goes away in our world

M. Laitman: The pleasure disappears.

Student: The pleasure disappears and the desire disappears and a new desire is born in which we want to receive.

M. Laitman: Let’s say.

Student: So this act of refinement, this is a different method to eliminate this desire and move on to another desire? Is it in the same story, the same issue?

M. Laitman: The action of refinement means that I don't want to use this desire anymore, because I discovered in it an act that breaks equality between myself and the giver.

Student: And the giver here is always the Creator or can it be another?

M. Laitman: It doesn't matter,

Student: it doesn't matter.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:29) He speaks here about how a person develops. At first he just wants to receive. And bit by bit through the study the Torah refines him and begins to see that bestowal is more correct. How can we see in that the development of the group also? What does it mean that the group grows… develops? Not in its quantity, but in its quality?

M. Laitman: When you have a great number of people think together about the same matter, they adhere to that matter, to that action—the importance. And then this action or the matter at hand, it grows in our eyes. Speak of it, relate to it.

Student: It is manifested in more seriousness or a different attitude towards it? Or ah…

M. Laitman: Yes, anything is accustomed to.

Student: Does it also have an external expression or is it only in the feeling inside the Ten?

M. Laitman: There is both external and internal, as usual.

Student: That's a little child when he plays with a toy. Later on you can see the toy no longer interests him. And he moves to something more sophisticated, maybe. What does the group look like, when it becomes more serious?

M. Laitman: When it raises itself towards more serious, more exalted goals. Both in the study and the leadership, in each and every state.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:44) They say that the Torah is a remedy. The Torah and Mitzvot are a remedy. You come to correct the feeling of baseness, of degradation that is felt as a result of the fact that you received a gift. We are nourished by the efforts of others… the work of others. And this will also bring you to adhesion with the Creator; to decide to reach equivalence of form through the work in Torah and Mitzvot. I don't see the connection. How a person who is nourished by the work of others, by now fluttering from the throat, from the back of the neck… he now becomes, he no longer feels degradation, because he receives, and it also brings him to adhesion. There is no connection. It seems like these actions should just calm one's consciousness. How does it actually bring a person to adhesion? I mean, where is the quality of the Creator versus this lowly person, who has the will to receive taking advantage of others?

M. Laitman: The author here explains that we are born in a form of only to receive. Meaning, we are opposite to the Creator. And we can come out of this natural form, the way we relate to reception, and move to the opposite attitude, one of giving specifically. How does it take place? It takes place when each one, each one who has people in his groups, he is trying to do to the other a certain act. Or this action produces in them the opposite form of attitude. That one who was receiving among them can be bestowing, and one who was bestowing can now receive. And so, when they change the relationships between them, each one exchanges his degree. And he moves… transitions to the opposite form. Instead of receiving, he can be bestowing. And that has to do with the entire human race without differences of age or gender.

Student: It's like a question that when a person keeps the Mitzvot, observes the Mitzvot. Whose benefit is he doing it? Is he doing it for his own correction? His own benefit? To pacify this feeling of baseness? Or he is doing, performing an action for the benefit of the Creator? As the Creator bestows, he is also in a certain form of bestowal. So there is this question about the intention in observing the Torah and Mitzvot?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But there is even a question about our connections in this life. If I perform an action for the benefit of the Ten, I organize something, a meal or a meeting. Should I feel that in this I correct myself, my baseness? The fact that I'm actually a receiver. I receive. Or I'm doing something for their benefit? And I seemingly close the account for the efforts they make towards me? What is the correct intention in order to derive the benefit from our efforts? Because we make many efforts. But it's not quite clear, what is the precision of how to derive the correct benefit from it?

M. Laitman: So we have to say here that the action, each and every action, is evaluated according to the intention. To what extent its intention is to either give or receive. That's first. And as much as this intention covers this action; more than the action, less than the action. That's how we evaluate it. So it's not enough for a person to transition from receiving to giving. Rather, it's extremely important, much more important, about thinking about the quality of the action. Whether it's to give or to receive. And it has nothing to do with what he's actually receiving or giving. But only connected to his desire. What does he wish to express with his intention toward a friend? Here we have a place for work. My work is mostly to correct the intention. Because according to the intention, we are recorded in our actions; and consequently, we move closer to the Creator, or we move farther away from Him, from the Creator. Relative to the act of intention, I move closer or farther away relative to a person, and in my intention, I come closer or move farther away with my intention, even if it's not related to the Creator. But if I carry out the action, the giving according to what the Creator wants from me, then I move closer or farther out relative to the Creator.

Student: Yesterday, there was a discussion here, a scrutiny of how to make our society better? Whether we should create like a spearhead of strong friends who are here together? They keep everything… they make all the efforts with truth and devotion. And it's clear to everyone, it will come at the expense of other people, who won't feel so good on the sidelines. Or take care of everyone? That everyone will feel good? Maybe at the expense of the equality? This is how I felt. This scrutiny that we need to have. And seemingly, where do we invest the efforts? Worry about the masses? Or worry about a small group that will reach up high? And I was trying to think for whom are we performing this action? Are we doing it in order to improve ourselves and reach the Creator? Or maybe our work is to be like the Creator, who takes care of everyone, up to the very last person in the world? He creates a warm place for everyone to adhere to Him. Seemingly, it's a conflict. When you come to check your intention, you can't even be sure about yourself. With which correct intention to move forward? And it seems like we have this conflict with every one of our actions.

M. Laitman: Yes. So first of all we need to check ourselves relative to the Ten. We have to check it and measure it. And then do it relative to that. And all the rest is in a greater and greater circle until we expand it to include the entire world in it. Yes?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:06), I'd like to continue this scrutiny. He writes here that all the matters that are customary in the root, the branch also likes them and derives benefit from them. What does it mean to derive benefit from these matters that are in the root?

M. Laitman: He wants to be similar to the root. That's his benefit.

Student: So how do we derive benefit from the fact that on the one hand, we want to enlarge our society in terms of the depth and width? Or on the other hand… yesterday there was this scrutiny, like the friend said, how do we derive the maximum benefit in our work, here in the society, in the general, in the collective?

M. Laitman: We have to see first of all what's before us. We have to see what we need to do and relative to whom? Are we doing it relative to the general atmosphere? Or toward a certain group, small or large? Or the Creator? And so forth. It has to do with what we have in the intention.

Student: There is a friend in the Ten, who is not with us most of the time. But I think about him. I think about him all the time. And I would like him to be with us. I ask for him. Does this mean to derive benefit from the path? Or should I tell myself, forget him on the side. And just engage with the people who are here with you on the table every day? What would be the better way to derive benefit?

M. Laitman: Of course, every day you're with them.

Student: What do I do about the friends who are not with me every day?

M. Laitman: What can you do? Those you are close to, and you're there with them every day. And you meet them daily. And you're doing physical work together, or you study together. That's what's important. Because the work is before your eyes. And that helps you stay on guard. Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:54) In the end, in order to do the work with the intention, you need first of all to detect that evil is revealed in you. There is an evil quality, but a quality that is revealed. And then you need to act. As you said, not using this desire. Diminishing it. That's what I understood.

M. Laitman: No. From the beginning, from the outset, I don't think about the bad, but only the good. And I relate to my friend in good, in goodness. And I wish on him only good. That's why my action is considered giving, both according to the action and the intention.

Student: Exactly. So let's continue this line that you now gave us. To reach the right intention and act in it. Not just intend. But also implement the act with the right intention requires effort from a person. And the feeling of degradation? That's what I understood before. So the question is, from where does a person receive these forces to act in such a way?

M. Laitman: From the fact that the entire society understands the importance of giving, and works on it as much as it can. And a person who appreciates the society, who values the society, sees these actions. The society develops within it, and he is impressed by it.

Student: Now, according to what I understand in the time that we are here. I see that there is a reality. That we are seemingly in it. But it's hidden. There is an inner system that is operating here. So the question is, whether this force that you are now describing, I want to understand, how does it work? If let's say, I want to perform a certain action, and I create the right intention. I even implement it. It's not simple. There's business and all the things you described. Does this give an inner force to all of the system? I mean, the friends will receive the greater force to perform the same action? Is this what this bestowal means?

M. Laitman: First of all, when I think of an action as an act of bestowal, it raises me in my own eyes. And it raises the society in which I can bestow and reach a degree of bestowal like the Creator. Who knows? So it's important to me.

Student: Now, the fact that I receive this ability, I need to ascribe it to the society, to the system? Thanks to which, I receive the force to act in such a way to begin with?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Okay, and in the action that I perform, I should also give back to the system? I should constantly search for how I can give force to the system? These actions give it the force?

M. Laitman: The fact that I work in the society with such actions and intentions, I certainly change the society with that.

Student: Okay, so there's a lot of power in the inner part here, the inner side of it. If I take to the topic we discussed before, in our Ten we've been working together for many years for a long time, and I saw that any time we would try to do all kinds of divisions, external things, it only created separation, and it harmed us. It never worked. Each time we tried to say, those who come to the lesson, those who do this or that, it never worked. But actually, when we let go of that, and we worked on some kind of… We realized, at least I realized, that I need to give an example, and work, perform actions. Because I saw friends who are studying, and I do some work to get closer, to bring them closer. I saw that over time, it started generating a change, this inner thing, this personal example. It affects the change, it makes people want it. And where a little bit was mixed, even one gram of force, of control, I saw that it didn't help. It creates a kind of antagonism, and it doesn't bring us closer to the right process. So my question is, where should we focus our efforts, and how?

M. Laitman: We need to focus our efforts on acts of bestowal. And the extent to which we advertise these actions as desirable, as good within our society. And to hold on to the friends who are trying to do so.

Student: Now, in the end, if I look at the work in the Ten, let's say, suppose that I see a certain action, like sometimes a friend comes, or it doesn't come, things like that. I need to start from the assumption that the corruption is in me, right? In my work. Not outside. If I ascribe it to something outside, I miss something in my work. But if I see myself responsible for the situation, I mean, is this how I should look at it? I should see, we should see the responsibility in us?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:23) I wanted to ask about the action of Torah. To understand this concept. Let's say that man's ability to acquire desire, to be incorporated with the desire that's outside of him. One that he resists naturally. But his ability to come closer to it as a result of the influence of the environment. That's the action of the Torah?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:10) A man is born a wild asses colt. Meaning, he's in the quality of reception. He doesn't feel any baseness about it. He develops, and he gradually begins to feel baseness. So it turns out that baseness becomes a force, a trigger towards spirituality. So if I understand correctly, I need to feel my baseness as much as possible, so it would awaken me to come out of myself and approach the correction… the method of correction.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So what about this process here will awaken me to feel this way, this baseness?

M. Laitman: The fact that you will monitor your actions, and monitor or criticize the actions of the friends. And you will try to see to what extent you're in it. To what extent they are in it under the governance of the will to receive.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:34) He writes that the remedy for that was the Torah and Mitzvot, which we do Lo Lishma. Meaning, to receive our reward during our smallness as a form of education. And then when he grows up, they teach him to engage in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma. How do you teach him?

M. Laitman: How he's educated towards it? I don't know. We are not yet educating or teaching. We're actually still learning.

Question (Spain 1): (45:09) How can I be certain about my intention? Because sometimes, I think I'm doing an action with the intention for my friends; and ultimately, I understand that I've done them for myself. So, how can I be certain about my intention?

M. Laitman: Time… a person begins to understand it. He begins to see it.

Question (Merkaz 1): (45:42) What is the thing that detains, holds a person back from refining himself?

M. Laitman: The fact that he stops or diminishes the importance of acts of bestowal.

Question (MAK 43): (46:20) Is shame not a deficiency? But rather a means for attaining true wholeness? Where creation equals Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes. So, can you claim that this shame holds in itself the potential for correction, for cleansing?

Question (Rehovot 1): (46:46) I heard that the Creator has created in us such an attitude of reception that makes us feel sorrow and baseness in giving, and vice versa. If we bestow, it's the other way around. So, how do we establish in us, arrange in us and the Ten, the feeling of baseness and sorrow in reception?

M. Laitman: We should relate not to how much do we receive, but in what state do we receive. And according to that, to ascribe ourselves to receivers or givers. It's not a matter of quantity that matters here.

Student: By attitude of shame in the Ten, how should a person establish it? How do we establish this attitude in the work between us, called spiritual shame?

M. Laitman: It is according to what I do towards the society. There is nothing else here. Either I receive or I give. According to that, I measure. I check. Okay. Well, last one.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:57) As we discussed, I want to scrutinize desire and intention. In our world, naturally speaking, a person's fuel is desire. Without desire, he can't do anything. He can't live. So, we change desires. We want to attain something, and we grow one desire. We repress another, and that's how we advance. The intention is hard to scrutinize in that state. It's naturally the intention of reception to annul the desire? Why not use it? A person stops using his desire has no fuel to move. How do we advance toward the correct desire in the will to receive? We begin to scrutinize the intention? How is that process getting us to Lishma?

M. Laitman: If we are in the will to bestow?

Student: I don't know. I wake up to the morning lesson. I want to attain spirituality. I run to the morning lesson. Is this a will to receive or a will to bestow?

M. Laitman: For the time being, it's a will to receive.

Student: So how can I constantly strengthen in me that desire? And not work on other things of this world, where there are other desires? How do I annul the desire? I don't do something forcefully. Or maybe I do.

M. Laitman: To cancel the desire, we can do it only by being immersed in a greater desire. That's it.

Student: If I change my personal desire with the society's desire, does that advance me?

M. Laitman: Possibly.

Student: Does that bring me to bestow to some extent? Or is it still reception?

M. Laitman: I don't know which desire you now adhere to.

Student: I think it advances me. I want to attain spirituality. That's the will to receive, but it advances me. How can this desire acquire an intention to bestow? I can do many acts of bestow. But out of the will to receive, without scrutinizing the intention. You once told me that acts are corporeality, intentions are spirituality.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So how do I cross this layer from actions to intentions to spirituality? Or is it simply the light? You have to keep going and the light will work on it.

M. Laitman: That's not enough. That is not enough. When you see in your actions that you are operating with a desire and with an intention to receive, you should do something in order to change the essence of these actions, so that they will be in order to bestow.

Student: Is it in the desire? Or could it come from the intention?

M. Laitman: It could be in the intention. You asked already? Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:42) How do I check my intention?

M. Laitman: Try. Try. You did something? I mean, tell me. Give me an example. Where you kind of caught yourself?

Student: I catch myself, that I'm only in the intention to receive. But there's nothing in me besides that.

M. Laitman: Okay, so what's the problem?

Student: It contradicts what's written.

M. Laitman: You scrutinized that this is the opposite to the purpose of creation in order to bestow.

Student: A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

M. Laitman: Okay, so continue with your work. And it's just that instead of the previous actions, now you should have intentions. So that you judge yourself according to intentions. And you turn to the Creator according to the intentions. That you will change your intentions.

Student: So, the intention in order to bestow. The intention like the Creator's. That comes from the Creator.

M. Laitman: So?

Student: Through my request...

M. Laitman: Yes…

Student: So, all I have to do is to scrutinize the intention? What should a person do with respect to the intention? Can he truly aim himself in order to bestow? Or can he only discover that he's opposite to that intention?

M. Laitman: To intend in order to bestow. To hold on to that intention. And to continue in such a way.

Student: But does he have such an ability? Because he discovers that he's opposite to that?

M. Laitman: It's clear to him that he's performing acts of bestowal. That actually these are acts of reception?

Student: The actions? I don't talk about the actions. The attitude, the intention, the essence of the action is for himself. What else is there besides himself?

M. Laitman: Okay, that's fine. Meaning, following each and every action, he discovers his broken intention, right?

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: Okay, so he corrects it.

Student: He should correct it and continue.

M. Laitman: So when will he be able to aim towards bestowal? When his intention will be to bestow, he'll be in bestowal.

Student: And how to correct his intention, when he discovers that his intention is broken?

M. Laitman: Prayer. There is no more. Well.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:48) Now he writes that after my conscious work, I become, I own the action. Now my action, consciously, but by owning the action it doesn't mean rest, it's a greater disparity of form. Why does it take me out of disparity of form?

M. Laitman: Again?

Student: In discovering that by receiving, I did a simple act, I received; I didn't know that I'm not in equivalence to form until a certain point. Before, I discovered that I'm entirely the receiver, He's entirely the Giver and then shame appeared, and I stopped, I stopped receiving, I disconnected, disengaged. How? The action where I announced in the kingship thathere is another, who doesn't receive a good attitude from the king, my friend, he's not in his right place. And the king doesn't care for him the way I think he should care for him. How such an action where I raise him up to the degree of the king? Is that an act of rebellion against the king? How does it bring me to greater equivalence of form?

M. Laitman: No. Of course it doesn't bring you to equivalence with the king. But rather, you're opposing the king.

Student: Precisely so, I'm doing the action, as it says, after the work that you do, you acquire the action; you're not the owner of the act. What kind of action is there?

M. Laitman: He writes here.

Student: Okay, so he writes. How do you know what he wrote about beforehand?

M. Laitman: No, no, no, keep going!

Student: He says, that if I exert, after discovering that I'm entirely a receiver. And I do a certain work, he calls it the path of Torah. The state brings me to equivalence of form with Him, so this connection between us is over and I adhere to Him.

M. Laitman: The Creator?

Student: With the Creator.

M. Laitman: Upon which action?

Student: The actions that I raise the Creator in practice from the degree of zero to the degree of the Creator.

M. Laitman: Okay?

Student: How, such action, do I do? I'm the one who raises the other in front of me from the zero state to the state of the Creator.

M. Laitman: In your eyes.

Student: In my eyes. So how, this kind of act is not in a greater disparity of form? Complete rebellion against the king, that I'm doing everything, instead of There’s None Else Besides Him.

M. Laitman: Right?

Student: I'm asking, according to the article, I need to come to a state where I acquire the action and then the shame disappears and becomes honor. So, how in action, when I own the action, I take him from the zero degree of baseness to the degree of the Creator, and I see in him the Creator? How such an action is not complete rebellion against the king. I do it, not He?

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: It's opposite. I don't come to equivalence of form with the king; I rebel against Him?

M. Laitman: Because the Creator does it.

Student: That's what I'm asking: The action doesn't bring me to equivalence of form with the king, it brings me to rebel against the king. I brought my friend to his position, so what is this action that I do, against the king in his own kingship? How can this action invert itself and make him into There’s No Else Besides Him?

M. Laitman: I don't see from that, that you'll reach those results.

Student: That's what I'm saying.

M. Laitman: So, let go of that!

Student: So, how do I reach equivalence of form with the king?

M. Laitman: You don't get there.

Student: What do you mean?

M. Laitman: It means that you don't get it, there.

Student: The entire process is that a state comes that helps me see that I'm opposite the king, I'm opposite. And the king reveals it to me by Hhimself.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And they say there's a process called, studying Torah and Mitzvot that should get me to adhere to him.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, in this process – the way I understand it – I don't reach equivalence of form with the king.

M. Laitman: No, you don't reach it.

Student: So, what brings me to equivalence of form with the king?

M. Laitman: You need to search in which form you reach equivalence.

Student: Isn't the article talking about that?

M. Laitman: The article speaks about everything.

Student: Where does it say how to reach equivalence of form with the king? It’s not in the Torah, I don't understand?

M. Laitman: Equivalence of form with the king, you achieve it by keeping the laws of the Torah. But you didn't discover them, yet.

Reader: (01:01:57) We can read the next headline or we have selected excerpts on the topic of Hanukkah.

M. Laitman: Let's read one more excerpt.

Reader: We’ll continue to: Two Parts to the Torah: Between Man and the Creator and Between Man and Man

Reading: (01:02:25) Even if we see that there are two parts to the Torah—the first, Mitzvot between man and the Creator, and the second, Mitzvot between man and man—they are both one and the same thing. This means that the practice of them and the desired goal from them are one: Lishma.

It makes no difference if one works for one’s friend or for the Creator, since it is engraved in the created being at birth that anything that comes from another appears empty and unreal.

Because of this, we are compelled to begin in Lo Lishma, as Nachmanides says, “Our sages said: ‘One should always engage in Torah, even if Lo Lishma, since from Lo Lishma he comes to Lishma.’ Therefore, when teaching the young, the women, and the uneducated, they are taught to work out of fear and to receive reward. Until they accumulate knowledge and gain wisdom, they are told that secret bit by bit, and are accustomed to that matter with ease until they attain Him and know Him and serve Him out of love.”

…Thus, when one completes one’s work in love of others and bestowal upon others through the final point, one also completes one’s love for the Creator and bestowal upon the Creator. And there is no difference between the two, for anything that is outside one’s body, meaning outside one’s self-interest, is judged equally—either to bestow upon one’s friend or to bestow contentment upon one’s Maker.

This is what Hillel Hanasi assumed, that “Love your friend as yourself” is the ultimate goal in the practice, as it is the clearest nature and form to man.

We should not be mistaken about actions, since they are set before his eyes. He knows that if he puts the needs of his friend before his own needs, then he is in the quality of bestowal. For this reason, he does not define the goal as “And you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might,” for indeed they are one and the same, since he should also love his friend with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, as this is the meaning of the words “as yourself.” He certainly loves himself with all his heart and soul and might, and with the Creator, he may deceive oneself, but with his friend it is always spread out before his eyes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:45) I build connection with a friend in order to give contentment to the Creator. And he says, that I build connection with a friend for the sake of the friend. That there's nothing besides me and the friend because there's no difference whether you're working for the friend or for the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, I don't have the right picture: When I come to connect with a friend, I take into account that there's another factor here, the Creator; so, both of us for the third. And he depicts a slightly different picture, that I build connection with a friend – where the friend is the goal. We don't need to look for a third party, here, I need to look into the friend?

M. Laitman: So, what is your question?

Student: My question is how to aim myself, correctly, so that I will not miss the friend or what exists in the friend until the end of my life? I look at something outside of the friend. He says, look and aim inside the friend.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: Can you help me make the intention more precisely? When I build connection with a friend, who am I building it with?

M. Laitman: You want to reach connection with a friend and you want that it will be good for him.

Student: You'll feel good.

M. Laitman: So, it turns out that in all of your intentions, why are you mistaken in them?

Student: I feel I don't go deep into the friend because I'm looking for the third party.

M. Laitman: You're missing the third party, why?

Student: Because I feel like this is how I should aim. And he says, no, there's no difference between the friend and the Creator. You should be looking for the Creator, it's really the Creator in front of you. When you're building a connection with a friend, you want to come closer to him, it's the Creator standing before you. You don't have to look for something outside of both of you.

M. Laitman: And?

Student: It changes the importance of the article; it puts me into something completely different.

M. Laitman: That is: If you see before you a friend and not a Creator, then you are still mistaken; rather, you should see the Creator instead of the friend.

Student: That's what I understand from what he writes.

M. Laitman: Okay, so did you relate in this way?

Student: No.

M. Laitman: So, try.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:20) He writes that they reveal to them, the secret to them, little by little, and accustomed them to work on this gently until they attain it and work for it. What does it mean to accustom them gradually, gently?

M. Laitman: With the whole group, in general the whole group has such an attitude.

Student: What does it mean?

M. Laitman: What does it mean? That with respect to you, they are all directed, following a certain action after we discuss it, so that you are not okay.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:23) He writes that the Creator and the friend are one and the same. He says, we started a friend instead of the Creator so I won't make any mistakes because the friend is revealed to me and the Creator is concealed from me. That's the reason he says, we started a friend first?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And when the Creator is revealed, I don't need to aim for the friend, I can aim at the Creator and give Him contentment?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:01) There are two parts to the Torah: between man and the Creator and man and man. And what we see from here is that there is no difference between the work of the Creator and man to the friend. So, why do you need all the commandments between man and the Creator? It just confused everything and made everything complicated. If the Torah was only about commandments between man and his friend, let's say, it would have been much clearer, no? Why do you need the work between man and the Creator? What does it add, what does it give you?

M. Laitman: You would receive from the attitude between man and his friend, you would get different religions.

Student: I didn't understand, I'm sorry.

M. Laitman: Well, it doesn't matter but you wouldn't receive the commandments between man and his friend.

Student: Okay, I'll ask it from the other direction: What do these commandments between man and the Creator add?

M. Laitman: They add to the person, the ability to rise all the way up to the Creator.

Student: Even though, if he worked with the friend, he would still get to that place?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: So, there is a difference between them?

M. Laitman: There is a difference.

Student: The commandments between man and the Creator add a new quality that I still can't understand? Where the commandments between man and man lack somehow?

M. Laitman: Of course.

Student: Can you open up this quality a little bit? What's in it?

M. Laitman: It builds in a person the correct desire to receive through the feeling of the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:45) It's clear that we're here to correct the attitude, the relationship between us and the Creator, meaning correcting the screen. My question is what does it mean to adhere to Him?

M. Laitman: I don't know, I don't know.

Student: Is the refinement of the screen toward the Atzilut, it causes, meaning, striking?

M. Laitman: I don't know.

Student: Thank you. I learned from that too.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:36) It is written that he needs to love his friend like he loves himself.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: When love for his friend grows, does self-love diminish or does it also grow?

M. Laitman: Love of his friend grows, towards the friend it grows, and his self-love by that it's not felt as it was before. It doesn't feel as it was before.

Student: Because it is written, love your friend as yourself. So, I love the friend more and myself less, like the greater the friend, less me?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Okay. And I love myself and I know, precisely, what my desires are, what I want. I can think all day about this and, well, each, and the things that he loves. But his friend is very kind of foggy and very general. So, how can you do “like myself?” Because I know how to love myself but a friend, it's not clear.

M. Laitman: You can’t love the friend because you're not in his desires and you don't feel his body as you feel yourself. That's why there's nothing to talk about.

Student: But that's what we need to do, so I'm asking how to come close to that?

M. Laitman: How to love the friend like your own body?

Student: Yes?

M. Laitman: That's an issue.

Student: You can start to talk to them, ask them what you love, what you want, what you're dreaming about?

M. Laitman: No. Obviously, he won't give you anything, he won't give you anything. Just like if they'll be talking about their children – each one has his own relation of love, the way he understands or feels. But when he'll tell you about it, you're not going to get anything from that. You won't be able to connect to that, to be in that feeling of love.

Student: So, what's to love?

M. Laitman: To love? That is when the Creator actually gives you an ability to love the friend.

Student: It's like a new sense that I don't have right now?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How to attain a great desire for that because I don't even know what that is, how to want it.

M. Laitman: How to want it? You need to ask, you have to ask.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:10) He writes, there's no difference whether a person works for the Creator or for a friend. But, in practice a person for a friend, he wants to work for less because the reward and the fear that he's supposed to depict, like from the Maimonides, it says: You'll see the reward from the Creator, the fear will be afraid of what will happen to you if he doesn't do. That’s what he says, it’s actually that a person has more forces to carry out actions when he thinks about the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Why does this need to be changed? Why does it have to be towards the friend?

M. Laitman: By that he gives back his inner skills, he zeroes them – how can I say this? Nobody can say it instead of me? Well?

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:44) It could be that he discovers it, he doesn't have the forces.

M. Laitman: Yes, and?

Student: That's the weights that he loses in what Rav said right now.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And that he has nothing to do but only the Creator can operate this love towards a friend. Because, also, with a friend it's the most difficult work – it's simply before you.

M. Laitman: Maybe. Okay, maybe.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:21) Okay, so if he's afraid from the Creator, he has fear from the Creator, the Creator gave him the commandments between man and his friend. So he performs those because of the reward and the fear he has towards the Creator. Does that action bring him towards advancement if he works for fear and reward from the Creator, but observes the commandments towards the friend. Is that enough?

M. Laitman: But these commandments come to him from the Creator.

Student: Yes, this is why he observes them.

M. Laitman: So?

Student: The question is whether this approach advances a person from Lo Lishma to Lishma?

M. Laitman: What does he gain from this?

Student: What he gains, that's what I want to ask: What is the reward is he expecting? What is the reward he expects from the Creator? Fear, I can understand. The Creator says, he does, he's afraid that he might not do what the Creator says. He doesn't even know what but it's important, but what's the reward in the action that he's doing? Maybe the reward is some form of spirituality, closeness? Or maybe just to silence the fear and anxiety that he has; but he actually is observing what the Creator says. He's working before the friend because that's what the Creator told him. He has fear, he has a reward, that's not written exactly what the reward is that he's expecting. But he does describe some form of reward as he writes, it's supposed to lead him from Lo Lishma to Lishma.

M. Laitman: Well? None? Yes.

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:25) The thought of creation is to Do Good to His creation. So, you're doing good to your friends, you'll actually enjoy bestowal. And this process takes place stage after stage, where you feel it more, where the friend, you feel him and enjoy that. That's truly absolute love when you enjoy giving to the friend. We also talk here about giving, all the giving, this is the matter here and it's the whole essence of things. That's the reward, I think; that's what we should aim all the time. That the Creator will really let us feel pleasure from bestowing.

M. Laitman: So, it turns out that by you connecting to a friend, by this now, you can receive fulfillment from the Creator. And what did the friend or the Creator get from you?

Student: They received for me the example and the greatness of the Creator. They received for me the examples that were driving one another in the system. And giving these examples to each other and giving this common force. That's the common force between us that we receive above myself. Where we discover each time the revelation that it's actually the Creator. And when we're all in the efforts towards one another, feeling more strain, and what's the Creator and what's the greatness between us? In that connection between us, in that relation between us, that's where you reveal Him, more and more.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:20) If I continue that and, also, to continue what we said earlier. If I see a friend and through the friend, I see the flaws – a friend shows me the flaws that are in me – so that's actually his greatness. I'm seeing a great thing because thanks to him I can see where I can correct. And I perform the correction and then the gratitude is immense for that friend. And I also come closer to him internally, to that same friend's internality. I don't know? Should we see it like that, or that's how I'm thinking?

M. Laitman: That's close to that, yes.

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:00) I think it's all scrutiny, one little preceding stage is missing, a small one: That a person, already, scrutinizes and sees that all his thoughts are just about himself. And as much as he tries for the Creator and the friend, it's always his benefit, his reward. So he understands that that's his problem – what's the Creator or what the friend is, he doesn't really know. But he knows that it's probably something outside of him, but he still wants to enjoy it from them for himself. And it seems like what he's writing here, the main thing is to come out of this prison, to free yourself from this imprisonment. Now, that the Creator or the friend is outside, that's less the important thing because the main thing is to free yourself from that and start thinking of something that's outside of you, to start feeling something outside of you. And that's why he also says, here, that it doesn't matter whether you go towards the friend or to the Creator, actually. The main thing is to get freed from this imprisonment, this state of constantly just thinking about yourself. And then there are all the other discernments; but first, this exodus must happen, first.

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:27:19) From the beginning, he writes that what's common between the work between a person and his friend and between a person and the Creator is this matter of Lishma. Lishma is the filling that comes from the Creator? The Torah?

M. Laitman: Again? I did not hear.

Student: He writes that what's common to the work between man and man and between man and the Creator is altogether the Lishma, is for the sake of the Torah, probably. Meaning that for the sake of the Torah is this filling that comes to us. If it's between a person and his friend or between the person and the Creator, it’s the same filling that comes from, correct?

M. Laitman: I don't know correct or not, let's keep hearing what you have to say.

Student: Is this filling, this filling is something that comes between a person when he's working with his friend. Is this a filling that can bring us to the work between a person and the Creator, if it's the same filling, the same Lishma, the same common concept of Lishma in both works?

M. Laitman: How can it be, if the Creator is more exalted?

Student: But always through the Torah you can get to Him so it's the work, the filling, that comes through the friends from Him is what can lead us to the greater work with Him. It seems to me that what he's trying to say, here, is that always the Torah stands between me and the friend and between me and the Creator. It's always the Torah is our means, that there's no other thing.

M. Laitman: If you cancel the Torah.

Student: For that we have to keep the Torah, we have to protect it. If I cancel the Torah, then there's no existence with the friends, either.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:56) I got a little bit of an answer, meanwhile; but another question rises.

M. Laitman: What answer did you get?

Student: That a person acts first in order to receive a reward, meaning he sees that the reward will be in him and this action of observing Torah and Mitzvot somehow brings him to understanding that the filling will be in the other. And that is something he doesn't understand, at first. He only imagines that the reward will be inside of him and he's not thinking about the success of the other. So, from the actions he does – what's interesting is that from the actions that he does – he makes himself opposite of what he is, he imagines this reward, but he does an act of bestowal towards a friend and begins to discover in him this true love towards the friend. How does that happen that his intention is not okay but he starts to be corrected from actions with a corrupted intention, it starts to be corrected in him. And true love is created in him, and as a result, he goes to bestow to him. How does that happen, why from actions that he does without the right intention, in the end, this inner correction and the correction of the intention comes?

M. Laitman: The matter is that what you depict as a friend in relation to the friend, it's not exactly the same as a relation to the Creator.

Student: Baal HaSulam writes, here in the end, and this is what Hillel Anassi assumed, that love your friend as yourself is the ultimate goal. Meaning that a person needs to reach love towards his friend and that's his correction.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And that's what the Torah gives. The question is why from actions that I do with the wrong intention, why does real love come to me? What is this thing that the Creator inverts my intention? What does it do? From what I understand, the essence is that I will have love towards the friend – love your friend as yourself. That's what comes out of our work.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Does this happen from itself?

M. Laitman: Yes, those are the actions of the light.

Student: That clothed in an intention, in an action without the right intention? I'm doing an action in bestowal in order to receive, that's my natural? I'm trying to bestow to a friend because there's commandments that the Creator obliged me because of reward and punishment and reward? From that, it corrects my internal intention and really makes me be able to love the friend, is that the reward I should expect by working towards a friend this way? For me to have love towards him in a real way, that I would really want to bestow to him?

M. Laitman: Yes. Because you received it from the Creator.

Student: What, the Mitzvot between a person and his friends? So, from receiving from the Creator he bestows into that action? Now it's clear, the connection of why you need the Creator in this action!

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:34:34) So, the result in the end is, in the end, I will be able to feel the friend as my body or not? If I enter spirituality?

M. Laitman: Think about it.

Student: We said that we cannot feel actually what's something that's outside of me. And then I ask from the Creator and when a person reaches attainment and breaks into spirituality, is he bestowing suddenly to something outside of him? Or does it become this one man in one heart where we truly are one? What should I imagine to myself that I want to draw myself to that state?

M. Laitman: You, now, already need to depict every one as one.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:36:06) Exactly in this matter of depicting all of us as one, that's actually the correction? The corrupted initial state is that a person is separated, each to himself. And he checks all the world and the Creator, this is how he grades them and defines the relation. And the action of the light is to see the unification of everything. Where everything gradually unites, and there's this upper force, and everything else is like the branches of the upper. Every friend, everything that he is is also how he's connected to the Creator. If you harm him or contribute to him, you're simply operating against the whole system, not ever towards something that's individual. It's something that's always unclear.

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:37:13) The example he gave confused me, completely. If we perform actions, since the Creator is great, and I'm afraid of Him because He said to perform all these different actions including certain actions before my friends. How is that different from, I don't know, just reception in order to receive completely regular?

M. Laitman: Because now you are performing the Creator's commandment.

Student: I'll ask it from another direction: If so, in what ways are all the… let's say the religions that we know, different than what we're doing, here? So what's the difference, they perform actions because probably they believe that the Creator likes this and likes that. And they will receive, I don't know, the Garden of Eden in the end there, or whatever they're thinking in the end. And we're performing actions in order to reach adhesion with Him. We are seemingly, if people look at it from the outside, they'll see that we more or less do the same actions, gather at night, we study these sources. What's the difference?

M. Laitman: There is a difference.

Student: There is a difference, I simply, this example managed to spin me around.

M. Laitman: What's the difference between us and the rest of the people who study the books of the Kabbalah?

Student: Yes, let's say?

M. Laitman: I'd say the difference is in the fact that we are studying in order to change our intentions from in order to receive to in order to bestow. That's why all of our actions are, first of all, to correct our vessel and then to reveal the connection, to reveal the Creator. In the first action, we're correcting the vessel, we're fixing it; and in the second action, we are filling the vessel. That's why, here, you can get confused between correction and fulfillment. And what else did you want to know?

Student: So, the thing is that, actually, like you said, the question is what is my intention: Do I seek filling, or do I seek correction? That's kind of like the difference, it's a difference that is, well, let me ask you, differently: If I'm seeking filling, the reforming light doesn't work on me? I do the same actions, I perform the precise same actions like we learn here. But I want filling, I do it so that it will be good for me in life.

M. Laitman: What's the difference between correcting the vessel, that it will be corrected towards the light, that it will fill it? Or directly, to reach the light that will fill the vessel? Obviously, the vessel won't be corrected in order to be filled, it will be lacking. That's one thing; second, let's say that, well, I don't know – you ask.

Student: Rav, I'll tell you what I'm hearing from you: It turns out that it's as if a person will reach wherever he wants. It's as if it's in the hands of a person, this matter. What does this mean? That if all that I'm seeking is filling, and I go towards the direction of the filling and I don't care about the adhesion to the Creator, the intention of it. I'll probably get there because I'll be filled by that, maybe. If I'm seeking correction and I work, then the light will operate upon me and will probably also lead me there. Meaning that there is here, I didn't mean to get there. But that's what comes out of your answer, that that's actually a person's choice, what he wants. Does he want filling or does he want correction, that's the whole thing. Is it correct to look at it this way?

M. Laitman: Now, what's the difference between them?

Student: The difference between them is that it's filling, I will always remain inside my desire to receive, I'll never leave there. Maybe I'll become even more and more cruel desire to receive because I want even more filling, and more filling. So, and in the correction, I'll become closer and closer to adhere to the Creator, to discover the lowliness of myself, etc. All the things we actually read in this article.

M. Laitman: And how will you connect between the two – between fulfilling and correcting?

Student: Through the work with my environment, that's how I understand it. Because the environment is what gives me this platform that I can work with. That I can exercise doing actions that will be acts of exiting myself. At first, it's all corrupted, of course, the whole system but at least I want to reach correction – at least that's how I understand it. And when I work directly before the Creator, I have no feedback. I can say stories from here to the end of time but it won't help.

M. Laitman: You're right.

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:44:29) The difference is written down, actually: A person will still be searching for fulfillment but if it's sufficient for him to be fulfilled, even if I don't get it now, I'll get it in the next world. So, he only remains in actions and he'll get the reward, he's not asking for a correction. If he won't settle for fulfillment in the next world after death but he's really demanding a revelation now, a fulfillment, so he must go through the correction in order to get it here in this world now. And that's the difference, that in the end, he also wants a fulfillment but if he's not searching for it in the next world and then he's stuck with it. But he's actually searching for a way to feel it now, the Creator, he needs a connection with him, so he must go through a correction.

M. Laitman: Well? Do you have something to add?

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:45:34) Yes, in both cases, a person will get light, only in that case, we're demanding light, that we call the light that reforms. That in order to receive it, we need the Torah. And a person on the outside asks for light, for pleasure but he doesn't need the Torah. He doesn't actually correct himself, he doesn't get a vessel in the end.

M. Laitman: Well?

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:46:17) I think in both actions, you're connecting to the friends. On one hand, you're connecting to them in order to help myself advance the spirituality, that I'll be so more. And also to connect to them in order to lift them, that there'll be a result by them loving more, bestowing more. Just with the vessel we're building between us, we can bring that force, the Creator, into the connection between us. That our relationships will be more corrected, more equal between us. As much as the friends are higher in your eyes, you can let yourself come closer to the quality of the Creator, to feel Him.

Question (Kyiv 1): (01:47:12) You said it doesn't matter what I'm doing with a friend – whether giving or receiving – the main thing is to scrutinize the intention with the connection with the Creator. So, my work is to build the intention correctly on every action in relation to the Creator. How should I scrutinize if I'm bestowing or not in my action to the Creator?

M. Laitman: How can a person check whether he's giving or receiving to the Creator? He doesn't attain the Creator, whether He's empty or full from the actions of a person, yes? Meaning, there is, here, some concealment due to which I am not capable of seeing my action, the result of it.

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:48:58) Maybe the answer is that in reason, a person wants his prayer and the answer to the prayer should be in the same place, at the same time. And actually, as we learned it's opposite, that we need to work in faith above reason. So, the prayer is in one place and the answer is in a different place; the Creator chooses when and in what vessel, and the form of the answer. By this, all the questions we're asking, that ‘why’, as if we have the mind to understand how it works, or why He did it that way because we are on that degree and can understand it any reason. Instead of doing what we got from the Kabbalists and to try and work above reason.

M. Laitman: Well?

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:50:05) I have to train myself to get the right feedback from the friend, from the others. That's how I can check towards the Creator, it's to train myself and to research the feedback I get from the others.

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:50:32) I must always be in a deficiency because I only understand the language of reception.

Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:50:50) We were talking about actions and intentions. And it seems that there are actions that are better and actions that are less, even without the intention. We heard an audio by Rabash, once, that he said when you come to the lesson, you need to have a good intention. But even if you come without an intention, that's okay for now. And we were scrutinizing in society that, I think society can't scrutinize a friend's intention. They can help him do actions that will bring him closer to a place where you scrutinize the intention. So, that's actually an action without intention. Does it also have an effect that it can affect the person? Let's say to come to a lesson, we don't have a lot of examples but for now, to come to the lesson that something the will to received resists a lot, you have to go above it. So, there are also actions that, also, without the intention, they help a person advance? Because we're talking about the intention a lot of times and that is the highest thing, and that's clear. But a person has to also calculate his actions that might distance him from coming closer to the intention?

M. Laitman: Right.

Student: The whole discussion we had in the last week, I feel it's closer to let's scrutinize for a friend but at least he'll do the right action. At least he'll organize himself, correctly, that from the right actions, he can scrutinize his intention.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petak Tikva Center): (01:53:15) We thought maybe to go to the next part of Studying Between the Friends.

M. Laitman: Yes, alright. You're freeing me? If so, then I agree!

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