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

Daily Lesson (Morning) November 26, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar

Reader: Hello, we're learning the article, “A Speech for the Completion of the Zohar”. You can find it in the Arvut system and Siviva Tova, as well as in the writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of the Zohar”. We're continuing to read this article today, again, in the writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of the Zohar”.

Reader: (00:33) It is known that the desired purpose from the work in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] is to adhere to the Creator, as it is written, “and to adhere to Him.” We should understand what Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator means, since the thought has no perception of Him whatsoever.

Indeed, our sages have discussed this question before me, asking about the verse, “and to adhere to Him”: “How can one adhere to Him? After all, He is a consuming fire.” And they replied, “Adhere unto His qualities: As He is merciful, so you are merciful; as he is compassionate, so you are compassionate.”

This is perplexing; how did our sages drift from the literal text? After all, it is explicitly written, “and to adhere to Him.” Had the meaning been to adhere to His qualities, it would have to be written, “adhere to His ways,” so why does it say, “and to adhere to Him”?

The thing is that in corporeality, which takes up space, we understand Dvekut as proximity of place, and we understand separation as remoteness of place. But in spirituality, which does not occupy any space, Dvekut and separation do not mean proximity or remoteness of place, since they do not occupy any space. Rather, we understand Dvekut as equivalence of form between two spirituals, and we understand separation as disparity of form between two spirituals.

As the axe cuts and separates a corporeal object into two, by removing the parts from one another, disparity of form distinguishes the spiritual and divides it in two. If the disparity of form between them is small, we say that they are a little far from one another. If the disparity of form is great, we say that they are very far from one another. If they are of opposite forms, we say that they are as far from each other as two extremes.

For example, when two people hate each other, it is said about them that they are as separated from one another as the east from the west. And if they love each other, it is

This does not concern nearness or remoteness of location. Rather, it is about equivalence of form or disparity of form. This is so because when people love each other, it is because there is equivalence of form between them. Because one loves everything that one’s friend loves, and hates all that one’s friend hates, they are attached to one another and love one another.

However, if there is any disparity of form between them, and one loves something even though one’s friend hates that thing, they are hateful of each other and remote from one another to the extent of their disparity of form. And if they are opposite so that everything that one loves, one’s friend hates, it is said about them that they are as remote and as separate as the east from the west.

You find that disparity of form in spirituality acts like the axe that separates in corporeality. Similarly, the measure of remoteness of location and the measure of the separation in them depends on the measure of disparity of form between them. Also, the measure of Dvekut between them depends on the measure of equivalence of form between them.

Now we understand how right our sages were when they interpreted the verse, “and to adhere to Him,” as Dvekut with His qualities—“As He is merciful, so you are merciful; as He is compassionate, so you are compassionate.” They did not deflect the text from the literal meaning. Quite the contrary, they interpreted the text precisely according to its literal meaning, since spiritual Dvekut can only be depicted as equivalence of form. Hence, by equalizing our form with the form of His qualities, we become attached to Him.

This is why they said, “as He is merciful.” In other words, all His actions are to bestow and benefit others, and not at all for His own benefit, since He has no deficiencies that require complementing. And also, He has no one from whom to receive. Similarly, all your actions will be to bestow and to benefit others. Thus, you will equalize your form with the form of the qualities of the Creator, and this is spiritual Dvekut.

M. Laitman: Questions please.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:05) He says that a thought cannot grasp Him whatsoever, and we see that everything is clarified in thought. So, how do we connect those two? How do we really bring the thought so we will be able to do all that's needed and equalize Him?

M. Laitman: You're right, that is a question. But from studying about the actions of the Creator and wanting somehow to arrange them in us, to establish them in us, then gradually we begin to feel how distant or how close we are. And according to that, between us, each one in his group, in his Ten, can try and realize this closeness to the Creator and inasmuch as he feels the distance from the Creator.

Student: You said we need to constantly see how different we are and accordingly see how much we need to come closer.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How does the thought that we discover each time when we're reading articles and the work between us, we do meetings during the day, every day, we raise importance, how does the thought during the day give us more power to come closer to one another?

M. Laitman: Our thought works. When we want to be closer to the Creator, it brings us closer. And from that, we feel how similar we are to the Creator around certain qualities, and which qualities keep us away from Him. And this way, we're able to constantly be checking ourselves and our disparity of form.

Student: We do a common prayer every evening in our Ten together, and I'm thinking, how does the thought that we have during the day, how can it aim us more powerfully to one prayer that's more aimed to the goal?

M. Laitman: If the Ten in its entirety is aiming to be as one man in one heart in the center between them, then that's how it works, and people feel, friends ask and feel the changes that exist between them either when they're near each other or distant, but this becomes for them the main kind of movement, the extent to which their proximity or distance is important to them.

Student: To constantly be in this movement is important.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:49) Can you even achieve spiritual adhesion only in the Ten, or is true adhesion only towards the Creator, between us and the Creator?

M. Laitman: But the Ten is that instrument through which we reach adhesion, spiritual adhesion between us.

Student: Is there an ability to reach adhesion to the Creator without the Ten?

M. Laitman: No, certainly not, because He is the power of adhesion. The extent to which you wish to be close to Him, and we want Him to dwell among us, to that extent we approach adhesion.

Student: Adhesion is only in the Creator? What's adhesion in the Ten actually, if adhesion is only to the Creator? What adheres us, the friends?

M. Laitman: What adheres us is the desire to be together.

Student: And what's the Ten here, a measuring tool for what?

M. Laitman: The Ten here is the one who realizes, executes it.

Student: When he writes, all your actions will be to bestow and to do good to others. What do I have to bestow and to benefit others?

M. Laitman: Help your friends in the group, be also in the same tendency toward connection as you.

Student: That's just a desire, an inclination that I have. It's not a real spiritual action.

M. Laitman: No, it's a desire, but the Creator, He executes the action.

Student: On our behalf, there are no spiritual actions really, but only a desire and a Tendency or an inclination towards it?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:11) What is to adhere to His qualities? As He is merciful, so are you. He is compassionate, etc.

M. Laitman: We don't know exactly what are these qualities of the Creator, but to the extent that we close the distance between us and wish to resemble Him, we cross these degrees, these states.

Student: Why doesn't he say, adhesion to the intention to be adhered like Him, instead of to yourself, be lovers or bestowers but specifically by His qualities?

M. Laitman: Because we have qualities where we can somehow depict what those qualities are, whereas when we talk about these general qualities, it's more abstract, more distant.

Student: And we know His qualities are in order to say, yes, compassionate or merciful, and here He probably means something different, to be like Him in His qualities.

M. Laitman: We need to reach a resemblance to the Creator, to the force of bestowal on top of the force of reception that exists in us since birth. And how much will we understand it, overcome it, rise above it, so will we rise toward the Creator.

Student: What is the form of the Creator? Is it the intention, or His intention that's clothed in some action?

M. Laitman: The form of the Creator is bestowal. And if we try to acquire such a quality to bestow, that brings us closer to the Creator.

Student: In this bestowal, His qualities are revealed?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:48) If, let's say, the friend has a certain desire that is either different than mine or it's opposite mine even as he writes, I don't understand why that bothers on my behalf, to want for him to have filling in that desire. Where here is there the gap in which we're not adhered but we're opposite, like he writes?

M. Laitman: We are not in adhesion from the get-go because each one has his own desire, his desire to receive. All the closeness between us can only be in the desire to bestow that will exist in each and every one. So, we need to develop this quality in us, the quality of bestowal.

Student: Yes, I understand. I'm trying to understand why there's even a distance between us if so. Because if each of us is here in order to reach the same goal to bestow to others, like Rabash writes, then why is there a distance whatsoever? I can also bestow to a desire that's opposite desires that I have, no?

M. Laitman: Theoretically, yes. But where do you get the power to do so? Or how do you even know what is the opposite of what you want?

Student: That's actually the question. What's the thing that's missing here? Are we missing the desire to bestow to begin with?

M. Laitman: We're missing the will to bestow from the get-go that does not exist in the created being. That's one thing. And the other thing, in addition to the will to bestow that should be in each and every one, each one should know how to rise in this desire to bestow more and more.

Student: Are there like measures? Because the moment there's a desire to bestow, then every Kli that is revealed, I'm supposed to be more and more bestowing towards it, no? If there is a desire to bestow.

M. Laitman: There are measures in the will to bestow, and we need to discover them, acquire them, and fit them onto ourselves.

Student: What can bother us to implement the moment there is a desire to bestow and there's a connection with the Creator in the Ten? There's a certain extent of connection. What can now be revealed that will bother me to bestow to greater desires, to a bigger connection between us?

M. Laitman: I do not have a desire to bestow.

Student: Let's assume we attain this. I'm trying to understand why the moment we have, when we enter the state that we have, what prevents us from bestowing to the greatest connection in the Ten? What can be revealed there that...

M. Laitman: That's against our nature from the get-go, and that's why none of us can, want, or even capable of performing any actions of bestowal.

Student: So, what do we need to do to get to that?

M. Laitman: Therefore, this is why we study, our study is to acquire qualities of bestowal and learn how to use them correctly in order to resemble the Creator.

Student: What does it depend upon for us to have this desire to bestow?

M. Laitman: What does it depend on? It depends on our desire.

Student: And how should it be arranged? Because we do connect, connect, to actions, to study.

M. Laitman: That's not enough. That is not enough to acquire a desire to bestow. We need to acquire it, to receive it from the Creator, and to clothe in it. Because it doesn't exist in us, and we have no tendencies for it.

Student: It's like we have some deficiency, but we're missing some additional, like you say, attack, or this yearning, or...

M. Laitman: Even a deficiency for bestowal, we don't have. We don't. We're born in such a way that our deficiencies are, but how to receive, how to feel pleasure, to complete ourselves as much as possible.

Student: So how to get there?

M. Laitman: How to get there? That's exactly what the entire wisdom of Kabbalah is all about. It speaks about how to receive the desire that we are missing.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:12) Why for being in equivalence of form, a person needs to hate what the friend hates, and to love what the friend loves?

M. Laitman: He explains to us what is called equivalence of form. That we resemble one another. In what? In what do we resemble, and what are we different? It's all in our desire.

Student: If I lower it to corporeality, where let's say a friend loves ice cream, and I don't love, I hate ice cream. So I need to now change my approach to that ice cream?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Only that way I can be in equivalence of form with the friend?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:03) You just said to the friend that we need to acquire the desire to bestow. When I buy something, I come, I'm willing to pay for something that to begin with is more valuable than the money I have. Here we're in a natural state in which my heart doesn't really want to bestow. And the Creator, you can't lie to Him. He knows what you really want. So the question is, how do you tear this closed circle that you're asking all the time as if asking for the desire to bestow? But you have no desire to bestow, and you're not really willing to pay for the desire to bestow.

M. Laitman: You need to take part in the studies where the light is reformed, is reforming you to the good. The light that reforms, reforms you, and you gradually begin to acquire an appreciation for bestowal, flavors in bestowal. How does it come? It comes from the Torah. I don't know exactly how it comes to you, but you feel in yourself certain values in bestowal that you now have compared to what you had before. In this way, we approach the corrections. The more we learn and try to bestow to one another in a good way, and we are willing to give, to sacrifice, accordingly the upper light works on us and changes the desire in us. How to, to that extent, we know how to acquire it, how to work with it. That's how it works. There are many questions in it, but along the way, they all get resolved.

Question (Latin 11): (26:55) What is the measure of the quality of mercy, of Rachamim?

M. Laitman: The quality of mercy is anything in his friend's heart relative to the heart of the other, where he can help him, fill him, bring him closer.

Student: How does the quality of mercy get expressed in the Ten?

M. Laitman: Precisely like that, where everyone in the Ten is trying to be good to one another, to be close, to be soft. Then, gradually, we discover the closeness.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:54) Why is it so difficult to be merciful towards another?

M. Laitman: It's not in our nature. I don't feel any necessity in it, no desire for it. Therefore, I seemingly don't think about it. But only on the condition, only on the condition that I need it, I require it, only then do I ask for it, I pray for it, I perform all kinds of actions to attain it.

Question (Asia, North America): (28:53) What is the difference between adhered to His qualities, adhered to Him, or adhered to His ways?

M. Laitman: That's a difference, where in His ways is different than in His qualities. His qualities, it is more internal. Let's put it this way: you can do the same actions in externality. But which inner qualities, desires, deficiencies, invite us to perform such actions? We have to investigate that.

Question (Woman Unity): (29:58) How do we learn the actions of the Creator from a state of distance from Him? Again, how do we learn the actions of the Creator from a state of distance from Him?

M. Laitman: Our study, and in general every feeling we have in this world is built when two things are not equivalent to one another, and then they feel a change. They feel the change in equivalence, and from the change, they learn. Those who are out of equivalence and now are in greater equivalence, they learn what is the relationship between them, what does it give them, and so on and so forth. There is no more than the disparity of form, or distancing, or moving closer between people, and we can change them. We can bring them to be as one man in one heart.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:30) You said that we need to participate and listen so that the light will change us and give us flavors in bestowing. So I'm asking, what is to participate in the studies? Each sees his participation in the study differently. What is to participate in the studies so that the light will impact us, will bestow upon us?

M. Laitman: Baal HaSulam writes about this a little. We learn this according to articles, the Rabash articles usually, how we need to approach the lesson, how to come closer between friends, how to connect with friends during the lesson.

Student: It starts with the morning lesson actually, right? It starts with the morning lesson?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Our presence in the morning lesson is very important?

M. Laitman: Yes, without being present in the morning lesson, there's nothing to talk about a person. You know, the fact that he gets up later and he knows how to fill his deficiencies, correct his desires, it's not helpful.

Student: Does the light influence students that are virtual or physically the same way, or is it the internal work that each does with himself?

M. Laitman: This is inner work. Those who come physically to the morning lesson and those who hear it, see it maybe even later, but nevertheless, those who are in the lesson, in person, he's the one that lets the upper light work on him.

Student: What is to acquire tastes, flavors?

M. Laitman: To acquire tastes comes to a person over time. Sometimes it takes a long time, sometimes less, then a person begins to truly feel these tastes.

Student: Are these changes that we feel between us, these tastes? Is it changes in how we relate, or in the connection between us?

M. Laitman: It's the same.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:15) Is it correct that if a friend loves something in the Ten, I need to love like him? Let's say he likes to eat onions, and do something specific, I have to start loving it?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: It's what I heard you saying earlier, that you have to love what the friend knows.

M. Laitman: Yes, but not about things that you may have gotten from childhood or not.

Student: What yes, can I get an example of what do I need to love in the friend that he loves? I want to adhere to the friend. I understood that's what we have to do, to adhere to the Ten, to each and every one.

M. Laitman: It's not something that belongs exactly to his body.

Student: So to what, yes?

M. Laitman: To his tendencies in life. How he relates to things, how he thinks about things, the way he comes closer or not, and this is what I need to see.

Student: And if there are contradictions between friends, one's like this and the other's like that, and the third one's something different, what do I have to do with it?

M. Laitman: You need to figure out where it's coming from, and if it stands in the way of the goal, then certainly you need to correct it.

Student: So, to correct me?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: A different question, please. I heard that we can't adhere to the Creator, we can adhere to His greatness, to how he's expressed towards me, but not Himself. But here it said adhere to Him. So what does that mean?

M. Laitman: His qualities, he explains it.

Student: So, adhere to Him is to adhere to His qualities?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That's His attributes, His qualities?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:06) If I don't need to love exactly what the friend loves but his tendencies, those things, then it's correct to say that eventually I need to love the attitude of the Creator towards the friend? To take it to there? That this is how the Creator operates to him? That's how the Creator wants him to operate? And if, let's say, in advance I have a certain attitude towards a friend, a loving attitude towards a friend, we know that not, but if I were to have a loving attitude towards a friend, can I actually adhere to everything that's in him?

M. Laitman: No, I don't think so. You will nevertheless have to see that it goes against, this goes against, and this is in favor, and this is not so much. You'll have to change yourself.

Student: To change myself, my qualities, or my attitude towards? You can't change qualities, you can change your attitude. To what? What do I need to change my attitude towards? You have to change it to what your friend relates to reality. What does this build in me, this change of attitude?

M. Laitman: It's equivalence of form to the friend.

Student: I myself don't change, only my attitude towards how the friend appears before me? What do you mean that you don't change? My qualities, quality doesn't change. Let's say, as far as my quality, I hate what he's doing, but my attitude towards him, can it even be that my attitude towards him changes?

M. Laitman: It cannot be.

Student: My attitude towards how he operates changes also how I relate to the reality on my behalf. So, I can't understand how, what's the connection between the form and the desire to receive? Does this operate on that? Does the form operate upon the desire to receive?

M. Laitman: If you want to be close to the friend, you perform all sorts of actions that bring you closer to him. And these actions already change you.

Student: Here, it bothers when the friend says that if one friend operates one way and another, in an opposite way, how can it be that my correction can be in equivalence with both of them?

M. Laitman: I didn’t get it.

Student: If one friend operates a certain way, does it change my attitude towards him will it change also me to being in equivalence with him?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But if there's another friend in the Ten who's in an opposite form or even different form, then I will still have to be in change with him as well. How can it be in me, both these equivalences with those friends?

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

Student: But is that where we have to get to, or is the depiction not correct?

M. Laitman: It's possible that this is the state we need to come to and then decide.

Student: I don't know if it's right or not, but this change takes place in reason, above reason, is there any touch to these things?

M. Laitman: We'll see it then.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:57) I always remember us talking about not being able to solve frontally before a friend the oppositeness of form. It's something that's resolved in the general connection in the Ten. But now I'm hearing differently, that I can do some kind of work before a friend in equalized form and advance towards a connection before one friend.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Is it like this or another way?

M. Laitman: It's like this, yeah.

Student: So it kind of seems like there are states where you can't solve them one before the other, one friend before another friend. So how do we solve such cases?

M. Laitman: I don't know. Each state has a solution.

Student: There's the feeling that the general connection is what solves all our problems.

M. Laitman: Also true.

Student: So both are correct?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How to know how to operate this way or that way?

M. Laitman: You can't. You're not in charge. I'm going to make a general correction. How can you say it and do it?

Student: That's exactly the question. How can I say that I'm working now before a friend, that I want to equalize before him?

M. Laitman: So who wants to be equal means that you pray to be able to be equal to him. It all goes through your prayer, through the Creator. Can you change anything about yourself? By yourself?

Student: No, I can't. Through the Creator. But when we say through the Creator, we mean through the Ten.

M. Laitman: Through the Ten.

Student: Again, the question is whether I can solve something before one friend, which is not through the Ten, meaning it's not through the general connection of ours? I have no approach towards one friend if I have no approach towards the whole Ten. Because it's all resolved in the general connection between us.

M. Laitman: Yes, so you see that there's a certain quality in you that you have to change in order to get into equivalence with the Ten in general. And you pray to the Creator for that. That's your correction. And the Creator changes you.

Student: But is that the right approach? Do I need to each time discover something, let's say with this friend, or that friend?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But the approach is always that I need to pray?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:06) From the discussion it arises that us all becoming similar to the Creator does not resolve disputes, actually. But maybe it's to the contrary. Even His pure quality is revealed more in each. And it could be not adapted to the other even though this one's similar to the Creator and that one's similar to the Creator.

M. Laitman: That's their work, yes.

Student: We can see also with our sages. Rabbi Elazar says this, Rabbi Akiva says that. And we're sure they're both already similar to the Creator.

M. Laitman: Let's do it for now within our own framework.

Student: Again, I'm remaining with the same question. What is this resemblance to His qualities, which is already clear that it's emergence from the will to receive, but still, there are all kinds of qualities that do not necessarily suit one another.

M. Laitman: We're not talking about the qualities, measures. Oh, measures. We talk about virtues. We talk about the desire. That's to be in the same form as in the Creator. Not according to its size but according to its form. Let's say like a small one and a grown up.

Student: But is there something that's unique to each and everyone who's adhering to the Creator?

M. Laitman: I don't think so, but let's say that yes. So what?

Student: And then different qualities of the Creator are revealed, let's say, through one merciful, through another compassion, I don't know, I'm just throwing names.

M. Laitman: Yes, let's say.

Student: In the end, they're all suited, they get along with one another? So what's the dispute for the sake of the evidence or something like that he talks about?

M. Laitman: I don't know. Right now, I don't know. I don't grasp it like you. To swallow everything.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:27) I heard you say earlier when I asked what it means to adhere to his virtues, you're compassionate, you should be compassionate. You said that everyone should be close to one another, good to one another, softer to one another.

M. Laitman: That doesn't mean that they are similar to one another. That each is in his own.

Student: It's like a mother's attitude towards her children, it doesn't matter what they do, she wants to love them and move towards them. So, it feels like the opportunity for the work is specifically when I feel the gap between myself and the friend. When I want A, he wants B, and then at that point, my opportunity is to go towards him. To want what he wants and not what I want.

M. Laitman: Let's say.

Student: What other kind of work do you have?

M. Laitman: No, I don't think that you have to change yourself according to your friend. No, it could be that each works in his own only for the purpose of connection that there is between both of you.

Student: So, what does it mean to want what he wants?

M. Laitman: Connection. But the means towards this is each for his own.

Student: If you say connection, I don't feel work, I don't feel I have to change. Like I said, I also want connection, it's like a slogan.

M. Laitman: I don't understand you.

Student: What is the work in resembling the friend's desire? What is it?

M. Laitman: To also want and be under the same goal that he wants.

Student: In discernments here, I don't know, beyond how I feel what the friends want, that they want connection, and I have some acquaintance with them, their internality, I can't feel.

M. Laitman: You're in a group where everyone, each of them wants according to his qualities and his preparations, each wants to come closer to others. So, you look at them and receive an impression from them, forces from them, and you also carry out the same actions.

Student: As they asked before, maybe one friend in the Ten always tries to be happy, to bring joy to the friends, to talk, to raise the spirit, and the other friend is quiet, is more introverted and concentrated. What does it mean to resemble these two friends who are different in their externality?

M. Laitman: Somewhat in the middle, I don't know. Or it's such states like this, there's those states like that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:54) When I see in the friends in the Ten that they do things incorrectly, it's a problem that helps me see where I need to ask. When I see that something doesn't work in the Ten, I feel like the friend is doing something that disturbs me, it lets me know where I have to change, what I have to ask for. Now I want to reverse the image. I receive a request from a friend who says you're doing something wrong, something that disturbs me. I'm doing something wrong for the friend, in his perception of reality, I do something that is bothering him and he perceives it as a disturbance on his spiritual path. What should be my attitude toward that?

M. Laitman: You need to try and to change in order to not bother him.

Student: Meaning, to make changes in my corporeal actions that will make him feel more confidence on the path, or I don't know if confidence, but he's got a disturbance, to solve his disturbance. It doesn't matter if the action, I feel like it's not related to spiritual attainment or something.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:24) A friend likes onion, you said I don't also have to like onion. I have to love the tendency and the friend even if I hate onion?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: How do I need to love it? Let's say I feel qualities in my friend. I feel like the friend is stingy or very opinionated, and I am repulsed by it. I'm sure these qualities are in me as well, that's why I see it. But let's put it aside. I'm repulsed by these external qualities of the friend. Do I need to learn how to love those qualities?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: Do I have to be like these qualities to resemble the friend?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: So, how do we connect here?

M. Laitman: You don't have to connect to all of the qualities of the friend but between you, there is nevertheless something that is common. And in this common space between you, you feel yourselves as friends.

Student: How can there be a common area if I recognize a quality of stinginess and I feel repulsed by it? What do I do with this repulsion toward this quality? How can we build a common space on top of that?

M. Laitman: By you towards this friend not developing rejection because you feel his stinginess, but rather you relate to him like to everyone.

Student: This is an external action to relate to everyone because I'm inside. Because of this quality, I hate him. I can't love him. I have to reach love to him. No? Isn't that so?

M. Laitman: You have to reach love towards him, but you can reach love in two ways. Either you are under the same quality and understand him, and feel him, and you are truly like friends, or you see this quality but love will cover all crimes, where you don't pay attention to such differences even though they are stabbing out your eyes because the closeness to the friend is more important than all the rest of the things.

Student: In other words, the same qualities remain as repulsive qualities. It doesn't matter how I'm repulsed by these qualities. There's something greater above it that brings us closer?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What is that thing?

M. Laitman: Something, I don't know, but something that you're willing to be by the friend together with having states of rejection towards him, towards all kinds of forms of his behavior.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:06) I don't understand what is equivalence of form with a friend.

M. Laitman: Equivalence of form with a friend is where you, mind and heart, are towards a third one, towards something in the same way,

Student: Not toward one another?

M. Laitman: From that, you can measure what each is towards the other.

Student: When he writes equivalence of form because one loves everything his friend loves and he hates what his friend hates, then there is an adhesion. So, what do I need to love in the friend, and what do I need to hate in the friend? Disagree with what he likes. Because they give many examples here and then I get lost. You said that if the friend loves ice cream, I don't like ice cream, I need to try and be in his desire.

M. Laitman: No. You don't have to change your desire.

Student: In what do I need to bend myself based on the friend, adapt myself to the friend, become equal to him even if it's not in my character, my nature, my qualities? In what?

M. Laitman: You need to try to love him. Just like a mother loves her child. And not necessarily because they want the same thing and they have the same characteristics, but rather because you to begin with are the closest to one another which comes from one Kli.

Student: Why do I need to love him like a mother to a child?

M. Laitman: Because everyone is the children of the Lord. And we all need to be adhered, close, connected, thinking, feeling together.

Student: I don't truly love him. I love the Creator. I want to carry out the will of the Creator. That's why I develop love toward him?

M. Laitman: Of course.

Student: Because I need to love him. If I love him like my child, I want to do his will.

M. Laitman: You don't need to do any corrections in your child, in children of yours, because he's your child, that's enough for you in order to change yourself.

Student: And the friend?

M. Laitman: The friend also needs to be the same thing.

Student: I'm asking because I'm looking to intensify the connection by adapting to him.

M. Laitman: You and a friend?

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: You need to come to a state where you feel that there's between you the Creator. And the Creator binds you together. And it doesn't let you separate.

Student: When there's a feeling of the Creator between us, what happens to us, the friends, between us?

M. Laitman: You adhere to Him.

Student: I adhere to Him. But what about us? There's nothing, no adhesion between the friends, only in Him?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And then this opposition between the friends, the polarity, is that kept or is it cancelled?

M. Laitman: It's cancelled. It disappears under the force of the Creator.

Student: So, what exactly do I need to love about the friend?

M. Laitman: You need to love in the friend that by you annulling before him and him before you, when you connect in such a way as one, then the Creator is between you.

Student: And we say that from love of the created beings to love of the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes, so it works out that way.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:11) Baal HaSulam speaks about working for the benefit of the friend, to help someone besides myself. How to measure what’s actually more beneficial to the other. One friend thinks this is more beneficial, and another friend thinks this is more beneficial. He thinks differently.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What do I have to do relative to the friend? I feel many times that my friends, they see me working in a way that's not good for me, not good for the Ten, and they're working to correct me. What to do between two friends who feel, we need to do like this, or like that, this will do better, or this will do, this will be more beneficial, or this?

M. Laitman: You need to connect with these, and with those, and just try and see what the compromise is. What needs to be in the end. And then in such a way, you will reach the solution.

Student: It's possible that sometimes it doesn't matter which. If two friends are working to justify a third, it doesn't matter what they decide, if they both work to justify the other, that's what's important?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:38) Many friends asked about what to love and what not to love about the friend. I was part of the discussion. Is it correct to depict it in such a way that the main thing I need to love about the friend is his yearning for the goal?

M. Laitman: Correct.

Student: And all the other things, if he likes onion, garlic, he's got such qualities or other qualities the Creator gave him or didn't, he developed it or not, it doesn't matter. To me, it's less relevant to our path.

M. Laitman: Correct.

Student: And with this rises above my love for his yearning for the goal, the meaning is that I have lack of importance. Because if he were important to me, his qualities would lose importance.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Is it correct to look at it this way?

M. Laitman: 100%.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:34) If there's a state, and there are such states where two friends can't stand with another, and whenever they are in the same space, it creates an eruption and it disturbs the rest of the group. Is there a way to separate them, to forbid them from coming to the same place, or try at any cost?

M. Laitman: There's a way to separate between them, and that's it. We should separate between them.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:13) How do we make the separation in the Ten between the friend's corporeal qualities and their spiritual tendencies?

M. Laitman: I don't know. It could be that it's difficult and confusing. But what they themselves can advise, I don't know.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:50) What are the actions in the Ten for the Ten to be in adhesion with the Creator?

M. Laitman: It's where it feels all the Ten, the Ten, and feels the extent in which each is incorporated in it, nullified in it. And in such a way, they advance, they continue.

Student: Do we need to pray to come closer to each friend in the Ten one by one or to try to approach everyone together? What's more beneficial?

M. Laitman: It's more beneficial to everyone together, of course.

Question (Baden): (01:04:50) How to make the criticism in the Ten disappear?

M. Laitman: I don't think there's a need to hide the critique. We need to work on the connection, on our qualities, upon our mutual understanding of him and the place, or such states. There's this outbreak of opposite qualities.

Question (PT 31): (01:05:35) Why in the Ten there are friends that's easier to approach and others that's more difficult? What's the reason or benefit from this difficulty to approach other friends, some other friends?

M. Laitman: Well, that can't be answered. There's this and there's that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:55) If I approach a friend to whom I have great resistance, what's the meaning regarding the closeness to the Creator?

M. Laitman: It depends on the friends. If each discloses before the other the extent in which he has resistance from connection, then it could be that this will help you connect.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:46) Yesterday, something happened in the Ten, and apparently it's an ongoing event.Then there were two ideas. One is to take steps toward one another, lower what hurts the other, what disturbs the other. And the other opinion was maybe for them to work on a mutual project. What do you say about that?

M. Laitman: I'm not saying anything, very simply.

Reader: We continue “The Speech for the Completion of the Zohar”.

Reading: (01:08:16) There is a discernment of “mind” and a discernment of “heart” in the above-mentioned equivalence of form. The engagement in Torah and Mitzvot in order to bestow contentment upon one’s Maker is equivalence of form in the mind. This is because the Creator does not think of Himself—whether He exists or whether He watches over His creations, and other such doubts. Similarly, one who wishes to achieve equivalence of form must not think of these things, as well, when it is clear to him that the Creator does not think of them, since there is no greater disparity of form than that. Hence, anyone who thinks of such matters is certainly separated from Him and will never achieve equivalence of form.

This is what our sages said, “Let all your actions be for the sake of the Creator,” that is, Dvekut with the Creator. Do not do anything that does not yield this goal of Dvekut. This means that all your actions will be to bestow and to benefit your fellow person. At that time, you will achieve equivalence of form with the Creator—as all His actions are to bestow and to benefit others, so you, all your actions will be only to bestow and to benefit others. This is the complete Dvekut.

We could ask about it, “How can one’s every action be to benefit others? After all, one must work to sustain oneself and one’s family.” The answer is that those deeds that one does out of necessity, to receive one’s bare necessities for sustenance, that necessity is neither praised nor condemned. This is not considered doing something for oneself whatsoever.

Anyone who delves into the heart of things will certainly be surprised at how one can achieve complete equivalence of form, so all one’s actions will be to give to others, while man’s very essence is only to receive for oneself. By nature, we are unable to do even the smallest thing to benefit others. Instead, when we give to others, we are compelled to expect that in the end, we will receive a worthwhile reward. If one as much as doubts the reward, one will refrain from acting. Thus, how can one’s every action be only to bestow upon others and not at all for oneself?

Indeed, I admit that this is a very difficult thing. One cannot change the nature of one’s own creation, which is only to receive for oneself, much less invert one’s nature from one extreme to the other, meaning not to receive anything for oneself, but rather act only to bestow.

Yet, this is why the Creator gave us Torah and Mitzvot, which we were commanded to do only in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator. Had it not been for the engagement in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma [for Her sake], to bring contentment to the Creator with them, and not to benefit ourselves, there would have been no tactic in the world that could help us invert our nature.

Now you can understand the rigorousness of engaging in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma. If one’s intention in the Torah and Mitzvot is not to benefit the Creator, but to benefit oneself, not only will the nature of the will to receive in him not be inverted, but rather, the will to receive in him will be much more than what he was given by the nature of his creation, as I explained in the introduction to the Sulam commentary in the first volume, see there Items 30-31.

M. Laitman: Questions? No questions?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:52) It's not so clear what the Creator wants. On one hand, He gives us a quality that we want to fill ourselves. And He says, if not for Lishma, so you make your state worse. On the other hand, you can't perform Lishma because it's against your nature completely. So, how to work in such a state? Because He says, it's not good, you're increasing the desire even more, and we want to correct it. So how do you work with this? It just keeps revolving around itself.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So what should we do?

M. Laitman: What should we do? I agree with you.

Student: But it doesn't solve the state. We talked for an hour about a friend loves, hates, hates, loves, and then you said something right? It's all about the yearning, but we can't reach that. At least I can't.

M. Laitman: Is there anything to add to him?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:22) Through this effort, and the lack of success, and identifying this impossible state that is opposite, that's what develops a deficiency in us.

M. Laitman: Correct. More solutions?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:47) I don't know if it's a solution, but he writes that engaging in the Torah and Mitzvot in order to bestow contentment to his Maker is equivalent to a form on behalf of Mocha, the mind. So maybe to scrutinize this matter, because the Liba, the heart, comes after the work of the mind, after the understanding of the materials, after understanding the states a person goes through, what he wants to reach, and from those attempts to realize those things, he feels in the heart that he can't. And then prayer comes out, maybe in that way.

M. Laitman: Yes. More? More?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:47) He says, the Creator gave us Torah and Mitzvot, that we were commanded to do only in order to give Him contentment, and without working in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma, meaning giving Him contentment and not for self-benefit, there is no way that it will benefit us to change our nature. From here you understand the severity of engaging in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma. That also what we learned yesterday about our relation to our studies, that only from the study itself we can draw the light that will correct us, and constantly ask the Creator to change our nature gradually towards Lishma, to bestow.

M. Laitman: More?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:49) What the friend said, that there is a demand, that nobody can bestow, but for the light to bestow, for the system to work, a person needs to have a tendency in that direction. In the beginning, it seems that there is such a tendency, and then you see that there is nothing, there is like a flat line, a zero. So, the question is, what next? It becomes clear that we need this importance from the outside, and if not, it will just remain a flat line, and it's only from the friends. The question is, how can we get the importance from it?

M. Laitman: Through the friends. You have no other source.

Student: That’s clear.

M. Laitman: So? What are you asking?

Student: How can we get an impression from that, from every friend? What the friend said, that his tendency will be towards the goal, but it's under a lot of clothings that could seem unclear and opposite, and this inner point, that seed, how to receive that fuel from him?

M. Laitman: Is what he's asking clear? How to receive fuel? What is written about it?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:40) I just wanted to maybe get the question more precise. How to get an impression from the tendency, the friend's yearning for the Creator beyond all the clothings that conceal it. We see all the forms that disturb us.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How to grab that from every friend? His tendency towards the Creator, and to only adhere to that? How to do it?

M. Laitman: It's a question. Who has an answer?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:22) We say man will help his friend, that whoever is in that state can affect the whole society and take that spirit from him.

M. Laitman: Okay, anything more to add?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:47) We have the Rav, the group, and the books, and their combination. We see how each one of them is necessary, and there are times for the Torah, that we constantly need to get accustomed to be in this business. And not to get excited by the ups and downs, but to be inspired by as much as I can hold on to this engagement, and that will just overcome all the troubles we get on the path that all disappear. But this getting used to this, that's the difficult part, because we're a lot of times searching for benefits, and sometimes there aren't, and the habit has to be stronger than the benefits.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:42) I think that the most beneficial thing a person can do is to pray for his friends, and maybe here he has the freedom of choice.

M. Laitman: Yes, continue.

Student: There's not much to complain to the Creator with. Why is it important what I attain? The question is what my friends attained, what can I give them?

M. Laitman: In other words, each one should see his real situation in the society, and push the society as much as he can to the proper state.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:41) To add to the friend, one thing. Except for prayer, there's nothing to give. That's the truth we learned. You want to read something you told us, it doesn't say when you said it, because there are all kinds of dates, but... where you said that the body and the organs are one and everything, so you said we should get an impression from this depiction. That's how we have to see the Ten, the nation, and the world. We're all one body.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:24) Giving contentment to the Creator can only be given through a friend. The friend gives the contentment. And all the tendencies of the Creator and the friend, they are all sacred. We have to get forces to connect and then it will be inverted. What we see as flawed will become holy.

M. Laitman: Correct.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:59) Just to add to the friends another aspect, which is called annulment. That before every thought, every tendency, every start, to just zero yourself. Like we say, they have eyes and they shall not see. That's how my perception should be. We should just start from zero. And from this, above reason begins even though he writes that to see the Friend in reason is better, but at least I discovered that we start from above reason, not what you see.

M. Laitman: That's enough for us.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:50) He gives the example, or maybe before, this lesson is amazing. I think, that we should come out with a lot of questions, and it's a good thing. He says that the organ gives contentment to the rest of the body, and the question is, how can every organ feel the whole body? The organ will give contentment to the body because every organ is different. Every organ has a different duty, different qualities, but it still has to give contentment to the whole body. How can it live the entire body and not itself?

M. Laitman: Because the system obligates him, and then he lives the entirety of the system.

Student: So that's what we're learning, to live the whole body, the feeling of the whole body?

M. Laitman: Yes.

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Series of lessons on the topic: Baal HaSulam - undefined17 března - 08 srpna 2019Lesson 5821. čvc 2019

17 března - 08 srpna 2019

Lesson 5821. čvc 2019

Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, item 112

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Series of lessons on the topic: Baal HaSulam - undefined
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Lesson 5821. čvc 2019

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Copyright © 2003-2026 Bnei Baruch – Kabbalah L’Am Association, Tutti i diritti riservati