M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Spiritual Arvut. So, what about us?
M. Laitman: What do you mean, what about us?
Student: We haven't even come out of Egypt yet, I mean inside the Ten. There are a few friends, I hear, who say practically that, you know, in our work now, leave me alone, that's difficult. I can come to the lesson, I can connect, we had a meal yesterday, Reading: (00:44)everything's great. We came and spoke but we're not there yet.
M. Laitman: And?
Student: Then I asked, what will be with us?
M. Laitman: Whatever you come to that's what will be. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:00) I heard that it's not a must to carry out.
M. Laitman: To carry what?
Student: We spoke about that, like if there's a certain framework and someone doesn't meet the conditions, so it's not mandatory. So, what's the Arvut, if it's not mandatory?
M. Laitman: I don't know.
Student: That's it. So, that's our problem. We need to decide what we have to do. Let's say, even if a person does 20%, 30%, he has to do that a 100% – that 20% or 30%. So, that's what we need to put the emphasis on. And there won't be a problem, at least we know, where everyone stands, what he is obligated to. And we are in Arvut about that. So, one person is committed to 20% or 30%, for now, but he puts 100% into it. So, I'm with him in my whole heart. But if he's not committed to this framework, which I heard he doesn't have to maintain, that he doesn't have any commitment. Then how can I have Arvut with him, that's what we need to think about.
M. Laitman: We need to think about it.
Student: To continue, then, is carrying out the law of Arvut, something that happens in a relative to each person? Like you said, I have to, I'm committed to 20%, and then I do my 20%. Is that the law of Arvut? Do I do it or not?
M. Laitman: No, there's no such thing.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:53) Another question, what they asked, about one judges through his own flaws. So, according to the story, when I look and I see, I see a friend, I have a complaint that he is drilling a hole. It doesn't matter what I see it as, that's one thing. Now, can we say that I am always wrong about that? I can't say because I judge through my own qualities. But if the group discussed and saw that the friend is drilling a hole, is it always correct? It means that the friend is probably drilling a hole but if I see it on my own, I can't come complaining because I'm not necessarily right. Is that a rule of thumb we could take into practice?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:53) In the preparation, we heard an excerpt from Rabash where he says not every person can work with himself, in himself. That is a meaningful thing, significant, because, okay, a person cannot develop out of his own strength. But he can be on the path, right, he can be with us. How does he advance then?
M. Laitman: By listening to the summaries, to our scrutinies. And although he himself cannot reach the same conclusions and scrutinies but he accepts them from us.
Student: He hears it and he tries to agree with it.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Okay. Now, as long as it works that way, great. But in every stage of a person, there comes resistance and he can't work with himself. Now, he has to get help; otherwise he gradually loses his ability to be in connection with the Ten internally. If he can't work with himself, how do you support such a person? Because if so, he'll just find himself out. There are many questions about that all the time when it comes to a point where there are friends who can't work with themselves. They don't know how, they can't rise above. And from the Arvut, we feel like we are committed to somehow help them. That's why all the questions and discussions begin around the friends, who lose strength, lose power. And we want to help them but we don't know how. How to support a friend who himself cannot overcome, so we have to always keep him on our backs and walk with him? Or how do we work towards such friends? It comes to any person at some stage.
M. Laitman: We need to show them what is the meaning of the law of Arvut, mutual guarantee. To see somehow that we are connected.
Student: Okay, so we hold that friend in the Ten, even though we consider him as weak.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: When is it considered that one is drilling a hole? And when is it not yet considered?
M. Laitman: When he starts doing certain actions that cause separation. Then it means that he is actually, in practice drilling a hole. But when he doesn't drill a hole but he is passively participating, then that means he is not actually drilling the hole.
Student: If we hold one, two, three friends like that in the Ten with us. Does that harm the advancement of the Ten?
M. Laitman: Yes, the Ten has to compensate or complete what they are not able to do.
Student: But if we measure the help or the harm of the friend – whether he is harming the connection. Maybe he is weak but he is not harming the connection. He is passive, like you are saying.
M. Laitman: So, leave him under your care.
Student: The Ten needs to think, or he needs to think, just ask it in our Ten. Does he need to think that he is drilling a hole in the boat?
M. Laitman: That's a problem. What does it mean to drill a hole in the boat? If he is working against the laws of connection, then certainly. But if he only participates passively – neither here nor there – but however things happen to take place. Then it's not considered that he's harming.
Student: So, let's say there's a friend or two, who will never say anything bad about connection, only good things. But they don't come every day. They aren't there physically all the time but I don't feel like they're a burden. I don't feel like they're heavy, weigh, on the connection. If I think about them, I feel that every little thing they give is already good. And there are friends that are strong but they also have strong coarseness. And they bring a lot of noise in this structure of the Ten. I can't say that this friend is harming the connection more than another friend. There's two forces working, here, and you need to somehow overcome them. But you can say there's actually more explosions with friends that are very strong, among the strong friends. So, does that harm the connection when there's collisions and clashes between them? Where is the insistence on, this is connection - this is good; and this is against connection - that's bad?
M. Laitman: Those are results, it is a result of. It's possible that they can clash and, really you know, friction with each other, but.
Student: I feel, actually, it was asked earlier, specifically because there are other friends. Even if they're passive, they actually contribute to the stability among the forces. It's kind of like, you need that quantity that passively keeps the Ten together. Even when there are big waves, they sort of stabilize the boat, somehow.
M. Laitman: Yes, we see it from actions, from the actions of the Creator.
Student: If there were only two, the two that collided, there would be nothing left. But because there are several others, they still hold the structure.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:17) A person who's a stage before entering spirituality, how does he see his friend in the Ten?
M. Laitman: A step before entering spirituality, how does he see them? He sees, he can see, that they are in spirituality in various forms of connection between them.
Student: He sees them in spirituality, when he's in a stage before? That's what Rav is saying?
M. Laitman: He sees them in spirituality before the connection, before they are connected.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:35) I wanted to ask about judging friends to the scale of merit. Is it a spiritual law, this issue of judging to the scale of merit?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How can I improve, or better, get closer to this rule?
M. Laitman: Try, pray for it; ask to be corrected.
Student: And once I move away from this law, I hurt the Ten, actually?
M. Laitman: Without a doubt.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:22) About the law of Arvut, I wanted to ask, and about the example of the hole in the boat. Can I say there are, I can say there are friends in the Ten, that I made a covenant with them to do all kinds of actions. If they don't do it, what we agreed on, then I can see that as a hole in the boat. Could you say that? I'll say why I started incorrectly: There are friends in the Ten who didn't, didn't obligate themselves in anything. To begin with, they just agreed to be among those who are doing. So, why see them as drilling a hole in the boat? They didn't promise anything, they didn't commit to anything.
M. Laitman: You also don't commit to anything with respect to them.
Student: I commit to them, I commit to giving them an example to do all that we learn. To do it and set an example, not to criticize them, not to demand from them, not to force them, just to set an example. It's a very active action, it's what you taught me to do for years. You said it many, many, many times, and it's a commitment. By that, I'm a guarantor to them but they're not the guarantors for me. So, why should I see them as drilling a hole in the boat?
M. Laitman: Start talking about this.
Student: Right. Hence, I go back to the question: I can see that someone's doing a hole in the boat. There are a few friends in the Ten that committed to something. Let's say, I committed to coming to the lessons daily. And if I don't come, or even if I'm late, or even if I sit without an intention. All of that is drilling a hole because I have a covenant with them, agreement. But with friends I don't have such an agreement with, I can't look at them as drilling a hole, right? Is it acceptable to see it this way?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Those friends, the friend has asked about who do not have obligations. Are they in the boat or not?
M. Laitman: You need to ask, how do you count every person? Is he in the boat or not?
Student: So, he said that some of the friends have Arvut between them. Others, you said, that they didn't commit. So, if they didn't commit, they're not in Arvut, so are they in the Ten or not?
M. Laitman: Seemingly, no, they're not.
Student: I have a question: You give many inner advice about how to build love between us. Like you said, that true love is that I wish and can accept the commitments of my friends and do them on my own, do them myself. Sounds very high, lofty, but if I want to get closer to that to be realized in the Ten. Can I, or maybe even in the future, I don't know, to meet such a condition towards a friend who doesn't come to lessons? Me, on my part?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So, this means, that's why I feel that carrying out all the inner conditions of the connection begins from carrying out the framework of the lessons and all the things, and then it begins.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:30:53) I have a few questions: One, in order to balance the discussion, here. A friend who invested many, many years, gave all his strength and Arvut to the society. We learned that there's no righteous in the land that didn't fall. When he falls and the Creator set up this fall, and then suddenly, he can't come to lessons or can't pay the Maaser or some other thing. So, we say, okay, now he's drilling a hole in the boat and he's not keeping the covenant? Or, now it's our time, our place, to give him back to the Arvut after he invested all those years in the group?
M. Laitman: Whatever you decide.
Student: Also, about the issue of making decisions. Decision-making, when we talk about, now, our correction process forward, going forward, our decision-making process There's one tendency, which is, there's a hard and fast rule, laws of nature, laws that Kabbalists define, and we just need to follow. And there's another tendency, where we need to examine ourselves based on our experience and how reality opens up to us. Let's try this, let's try that, let's see what works, let's see what helps us advance according to the conditions we have in reality, right now. So, what is the better direction in which to scrutinize what's right?
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: When we need to make decisions, there are two directions: One direction, hard and fast rule, there's a law that comes from above, the laws of nature, or the laws we see from the history that Kabbalists defined - that's one direction. A second direction is, you tell this to us sometimes, try, see, experiment. See what's right for you as a group right now based on reality, based on what opens up to you. Sometimes these directions collide. So, how can we, where should we put the weight more when we scrutinize? According to, there's a rule or let's try and see what works for us?
M. Laitman: According to the law. It sounds like we have to try and work according to the law.
Student: On a macro level looking forward at human development towards correction. According to what he writes here, the savages who make everyone else fall. And ultimately, the Arvut is not only in the group of Israel, it's in the entire world. So, about the progress towards correction, should it happen in a closed group? Meaning there are laws, laws of Arvut, those who carry them out, they go into that closed society, and God forbids, that some viruses will come in. That some outlaws will come in. Or, there's no borders, it's an open group, and you can go in and out, it's open to everyone, and it spreads. I'm talking forward, I'm talking about humanity's development. How does that process need to move forward?
M. Laitman: We'll get there and see.
Student: So, it comes back to this, if we'll get there and see, it means there's no law. It means that from our development, we see what's right.
M. Laitman: There's a law but we can't feel it, we don't understand it. We're not obligated to keep it, to observe it.
Student: So, we reveal the laws of nature and the laws of Kabbalists only from our progress. It's not from something that's pre-arranged for us. We can't just sit and say, this is the law, and that's what we should do. It's from the work and from the progress that we reveal the laws?
M. Laitman: True.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:35:49) We talk about Arvut, I hear from friends that everything about the framework and the physical actions, that we are committed to, in order to enter spirituality. I wanted to ask about the inner Arvut. How much work of opening the heart in the Ten? Of getting closer between us internally, how much does it influence the strong Ten? The strength of the friends, the Arvut between us? Rabash didn't give us clear laws about that in reaching Lishma.
M. Laitman: So, what do you want to hear from me?
Student: How can you measure such Arvut inside the Ten?
M. Laitman: In a relative way, for the time being, we're on the way to it. But not in the final, true final form.
Student: You said in one of the last lessons, that love of friends is the opening for the upper light.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: How to come to this opening together? How do we, how do I be a guarantor for my friends that I won't really blemish, but really just add?
M. Laitman: Let's see.
Student: I wanted to ask another question. What Arvut do you as a teacher want to see among us?
M. Laitman: Complete.
Student: Which is?
M. Laitman: Just complete, absolute love, absolute connection. Whole with everyone and with the Creator, together.
Student: What Arvut do Kabbalists have?
M. Laitman: Arvut. The way Baal-HaSulam wrote about it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:38:27) Who's drilling the hole in the boat, the friend or the Creator using the friend's hands?
M. Laitman: Of course the Creator is doing all of the incidents and situations, states that by which things happen.
Student: If I see the friend, it means that I'm drilling a hole?
M. Laitman: I don't understand that. If it's a friend, it's a friend. That's it, period.
Question (Turkey 2): (01:39:31) What is the deficiency a person must reach to reach connection? How will a person see or feel that he has this deficiency?
M. Laitman: That only that what's in front of him he must do and no more. That's it.
Question (Women Turkey 7): (01:40:23) I feel that focusing on this debate – friends who are making it to the study or not. This produces all kinds of challenges or dynamics in the Ten. My question is, is this the right action to focus on that? Or maybe we need to strengthen all the friends, instead?
M. Laitman: We should focus on that in order to bring about connection, strengthening of the connection among the friends.
Question (Almaty): (01:41:23) You said that I need to stand guard every moment to feel that I'm in the center of the Ten. Can you explain what is the center of the Ten for me? And what does it mean that I'm standing in the center of the Ten?
M. Laitman: It means that you have to connect within you all the forces of the Ten and feel yourself responsible for their state.
Question (Hadera 1): (01:42:11) We also started our scrutinies and I have a question. Very simple, very practical but without an answer we can't continue our scrutinies. In order to decide if a friend is part of the Ten or not, you need to have clear criteria. Such criteria should be visible through the naked eye ? Or as one friend says, I need to believe above reason that the friend does everything. I don't see that he meets the criteria but I believe above reason that he does.
M. Laitman: No answer.
Student: That visible criteria, there's no point in starting such scrutinies?
M. Laitman: So, don't!
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:43:26) If I'm standing in the center of the Ten and I see all the friends who are connected in wholeness. Is this the case? If I'm in the center of the Ten, is that the meaning of standing in the center of the Ten?
M. Laitman: Probably, yes.
Student: Can I be in this place or do I just need to aspire to be in it, me on my part?
M. Laitman: You can.
Student: I don't need the help of the Creator, here?
M. Laitman: Certainly, of course; the help of friends and the help of the Creator, you have to have that.
Student: When I'm not in this place, where I see everyone in wholeness, there's a deficiency. I'm not able to cover everything that's happening in the Ten with love. I'm not in the center of the Ten. What's the work, here, what's stopping me?
M. Laitman: What's stopping you? Justifying them.
Student: I don't have the strength to justify them. What do I need to overcome or what do I need to do, to be able to justify them? Seemingly, to justify, there's a part where the friends have to help me justify them and there's a part that I need to do in order to be able to justify them.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So, I'm looking for my part in this.
M. Laitman: You have to depict the state as if it already happened and then where would you be?
Student: What does it mean that it already happened?
M. Laitman: That it already is in reality.
Student: I see friends who don't keep their framework. And I depict the state where they are keeping their framework? It's very difficult.
M. Laitman: So, let it go.
Student: No, this is exactly what I'm looking for but it's not just hocus-pocus. I close my eyes and I imagine a picnic I'm going to have tomorrow, a trip. What does it actually demand of me?
M. Laitman: It demands from you to take upon yourself all of those conditions that you have to carry out so they will be in the center of the Ten and in the connections.
Student: I can bring everyone with the power of my thought, my intention, to this ideal state we're talking about throughout the lesson?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I need to derive forces from the Ten to do that?
M. Laitman: No, only yourself.
Student: Only myself.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And beyond the example we say to set for the friends, is what we said now. Is there something else I can do to advance the friends?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: If I set maximum example, what I have left is this work you described. And if I didn’t, there are those who see that I haven't done enough of it.
M. Laitman: So, you’ve done enough.
Student: No, if I'm not seeing them then I haven't done enough of that work, simply?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:47:49) The society is going through some serious scrutinies. And it feels like there are many calculations, some are pulling one way, some are pulling another. What is the only calculation that the society should have to make at this point? That one calculation that would lead us, correctly?
M. Laitman: The one that leads us correctly is that we will be connected among us and with the Creator as one body.
Student: I don’t know exactly what it is and each one is seeing this connection probably differently.
M. Laitman: So, let's try to be in that connection together, all of us, as much as possible. As much as we can, to understand and realize it. And then we'll see how much are we mistaken or not. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:49:03) We ask a lot about weak Tens, about what holds them. I want to ask about a perfect Ten. In all the lessons everyone are in all the activities, they pay everything, they have a meal every, they have prayers, they are perfect. Connected all day, embrace, kiss. Why would the Creator enjoy such a Ten?
M. Laitman: Because they're close to Him.
Student: They're inside themselves, they talk about themselves, they praise themselves, they eat, they hug. How are they close to Him?
M. Laitman: By being each concerned about their friends. And thus attracting all, everyone attracts his friends to the center of connection.
Student: They are already the center of connection. And there are weak people, people who suffer rockets, wars. And there, they have this everyone to themselves, they don't care about what's happening around them. They're happy, they dance and sing and around them suffering and wars and problems. Does the Creator enjoy them?
M. Laitman: No, the Creator doesn't enjoy.
Student: So, what is a Ten that brings them into the Creator?
M. Laitman: That it fulfills exactly the will of the Creator.
Student: So, they do everything we're talking about. They come to lessons, they pay, they are on the Zoom all day long.
M. Laitman: You're done?
Student: A Ten that does what the Creator wants.
M. Laitman: So, I'm telling you, that this isn't what the Creator wants.
Student: What does the Creator want?
M. Laitman: The Creator is looking for love that will exist among created beings.
Student: They feel love between them.
M. Laitman: There's no such thing. You can't just arbitrarily add to it, like you're cooking and you're saying, a little bit of this a little bit of that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:51:20) I wanted to say, my question, in our Ten there is great improvement in the Arvut between us, conditions, presence in the lessons. It gives a great impression, also, to continue what the friend said about checking the heart in the Ten. And this Sunday, we have a Unity Day. Can you give us a tip? How do we wish to advance? In what do we wish to advance in our Ten?
M. Laitman: Love. That's it!
Student: And how to reach this love? What actions do we need?
M. Laitman: To do all kinds of actions that are ultimately increasing the love.
Student: Love between us.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It also helps create love toward the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: In addition, will Unity Day help us advance and reach our Congress?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It's like degrees? How does that work?
M. Laitman: I can't get into that now because that's the question in itself. It's not now relevant to everyone.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:53:38) I want to ask you, a person before he enters spirituality, what does he see, what does he know? And you answer to him that he sees his friends in spirituality even before they see it. What did you mean by that?
M. Laitman: Before they?
Student: Before they see it, that's what I heard, maybe you meant something else.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But before spirituality, what are they lacking to enter spirituality? He sees their spirituality before they know it. What is that state?
M. Laitman: That state is the acceptance of the Kingdom, the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven. Meaning that whatever happens, the Creator is above.
Student: Meaning, that is the state, where they're seemingly in the same degree, and from that point they need to enter the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:55:10) I want to ask if you can reach spirituality without keeping practical Mitzvot.
M. Laitman: No.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:55:40) I wanted to ask what's the difference between a friend who comes three days a week on the same days? And a friend that comes three days on a lesson but randomly? Same day, consistent days or whatever? Is it critical to establish my days or if I have a partial framework, it is important, it will be clear. Is the framework something predefined or random?
M. Laitman: Probably so.
Student: There's a friend, who on paper, it says that he's here seven days a week. But in practice, he's here three, four days a week. The question is inside of him, he wants to come here seven days a week. He wants to have a full framework but in practice it ends up being three, four days a week. And again, the question, should he leave it as I aspire to come here seven days a week, or define that I come here, I want to come here four days and I come here four days?
M. Laitman: That's really dependent on other circumstances.
Reader: (01:57:10) We will conclude the lesson. We will summarize the lesson with this
Question: What is the correct next step for us as a world group?