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

Daily Morning Lesson August 12, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter. Article No. 36, 1989.

Reader: Hello friends, in the first part of the lecture we'll learn an article from August 2002, based on the article, One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple's Daughter. You can find it in The Writings of Rabash, Volume 1, we'll read the article together in the Ten, we have 16 minutes, please.

Reading: (00:44) One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter

Article No. 14, 1984

“One should always sell everything he has and marry a wise disciple’s daughter” (Psachim, 49). This means that he should sell all the possessions that he has acquired through his labor. That is, he should give everything and relinquish everything, and in turn take the daughter of a wise disciple.

This means that if he does not take a wise disciple’s daughter, all the labor that he has given in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] his whole life is incomplete. Only if he marries a wise disciple’s daughter will he be rewarded with his completeness. This is why our sages said that he should sell everything he has, meaning that it is worthwhile to sell everything for a wise disciple’s daughter. Therefore, we should understand the meaning of “a wise disciple’s daughter.”

Baal HaSulam said that a wise disciple is one who is a disciple of a wise, meaning he learns from the wise, and then he is considered a disciple. A wise is the Creator, whose quality is only to bestow. One who learns from Him the quality of bestowal is called a “wise disciple” because he is learning from Him the quality of bestowal.

By that we will understand what our sages said, “One should always sell everything he has and marry a wise disciple’s daughter.” That is, he should give all the labor he has given in Torah and work, and in return receive a possession of bestowal.

This means that he will establish in his heart a new nature, instead of the one that he naturally has—a desire of self-love. Now he will receive a second nature: the desire to bestow. That is, his every thought, word, and action will be only in order to bestow upon the Creator, for this is the whole man. This means that one should achieve only this degree, for all we need to attain are the Kelim [vessels]. But the abundance, which is the filling of the Kelim, comes from the Creator, since more than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to nurse. Therefore, all we are missing is the power of bestowal.

By that we can interpret what is written in The Zohar (Pinhas, p 78, item 218), “If Israel are rewarded, He would come down like a lion of fire to eat the offerings. If they were not rewarded, He would come down there like a dog of fire.” It is known that lion implies Hesed [mercy], which is the right of the Merkava [chariot], “If they are rewarded,” where being rewarded means pure, meaning bestowal. Then we are shown an eye for an eye—that from above, too, comes the discernment of lion, meaning that the quality of Hesed expanded to the lower ones, and then the abundance was plentiful for the lower ones.

“If they are not rewarded,” meaning that they did not engage in bestowal, but only in self-love, then from above the discernment of dog would be extended. A dog implies, as it is written in The Zohar about the verse, “The leech has two daughters that howl as dogs, give us the wealth of this world and give us the wealth of the next world.” In other words, two daughters that bark like dogs: “Give us the wealth of this world and give us the wealth of the next world,” which is only about reception and not about bestowal. Therefore, from above, too, we are shown that we cannot bestow abundance downward, and this is called an “eye for an eye.”

It turns out that our work is only to be rewarded with Kelim [vessels] that are suitable for reception of the abundance, which are vessels of bestowal. Therefore, a person should focus all of his efforts on one thing only, called “vessels of bestowal.” This should be the only reward that he wants to attain from Torah and Mitzvot [commandments]. By that he will achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, which is man’s purpose: to achieve Dvekut with the Creator.

We also see in the words of The Zohar that it was said about the verse, “The mercy of the nations is a sin,” “All the good that they do, they do for themselves.” This means their aim with all the mercy, meaning the acts of bestowal that they do, is not to bestow. Rather their intention is for themselves, meaning to receive reward for it. Otherwise, they cannot perform acts of bestowal.

But the people of Israel are capable of performing acts of bestowal. We should understand why the people of Israel can perform acts of bestowal, and we should also understand, according to what we hear from people who became religious, who say that before they became religious they were more capable of performing acts in order to bestow, but afterwards, meaning once they have become religious, it has become more difficult for them to perform acts of bestowal.

To understand the above we should remember the known that a person is called a “created being” only in that there is a will to receive in him, for this is called “created existence from absence.” It therefore turns out that by nature he is incapable of performing any act of bestowal unless he receives some reward in return.

The reward does not have to be that he receives something for the effort. Rather, it can be some pacifying that he receives. That is, if some compassion awakened in him toward another, and his conscience does not let him rest, to the point that he must help another, this, too, is regarded as reward. But simply doing something for another, for the other to enjoy, then he tells himself, “What will I get out of it?”

But the people of Israel, through the power of Torah and Mitzvot, are capable of obtaining a second nature. That is, instead of the nature they were born with—a desire only to receive—they will receive a second nature, where now they work only in order to bestow. He obtains this through the Torah and Mitzvot, which instilled in him sparks of bestowal that bring him a sensation of wanting to resemble his root. But without the Torah and Mitzvot, a person cannot come out of his own nature, which is the desire to receive only for himself, and he cannot perform any act of bestowal without reward.

By this we will understand what they asked about those who become religious and say that before they became religious they had more strength to perform acts of bestowal. But later, when they have become religious, they feel that it is more difficult for them to perform acts of bestowal.

We should reply to that, as is explained in “The Introduction to the Book of Zohar” (items 29- 30), where he writes that at the time of his birth his will to receive is only for corporeality. Therefore, although he has obtained the excessive will to receive prior to being thirteen, it is still not the end of the growth of the will to receive. The main growth of the will to receive is depicted only in spirituality, since, for example, prior to being thirteen his desire to receive wants to devour all the wealth and honor in this corporeal world, which is revealed to all, which is to him a transient world that is accessible to everyone, and is perceived by everyone only as a fleeting shadow.

But when he obtains the excessive, spiritual will to receive, he wants to devour for his own pleasure all the delight and wealth of the next, eternal world, which is to him an everlasting possession for all eternity. Thus, the will to receive is completed only with the desire to receive spirituality.

It turns out that before they have become religious they had a corporeal will to receive, which is not yet so great. This is why they had more strength to perform acts of bestowal. But once they have become religious and their will to receive has grown with the will to receive for spirituality, it has become more difficult because now the will to receive has more strength than when they had only a corporeal will to receive. Therefore, before they have become religious, they had some strength to perform acts of bestowal. But once they have become religious, obtaining the spiritual will to receive, it is now more difficult for them to engage in matters of bestowal.

For this reason, it cannot be said that now they have become worse, or to say that the religious are worse because it is more difficult for them to perform acts of bestowal. Rather, the will to receive has grown bigger, so it is more difficult to overcome it. For example, before he obtained the spiritual will to receive, his evil was thirty percent. Afterwards, once he has obtained the spiritual will to receive, his evil acquired another seventy percent. Therefore, now he needs greater powers to be able to overcome it.

However, we should not say that now his strength has diminished. On the contrary, now he must find the remedy to defeat the evil power he has obtained. And the remedy for this is keeping Torah and Mitzvot with the intention for the light in it to reform him.

It therefore follows that he has advanced and has obtained more evil in order to correct it. But every beginning is difficult, and therefore now he thinks that he has become worse. However, he should know that each time he is given more bad to correct until he is rewarded with correcting everything.

[For the continuation of the clarification of the article, see next article]

Reader: We'll move to a lesson from August 5th, 2002.

M. Laitman: (15:16) A man should always sell what he has, everything, and marry a wise disciple's daughter. The wise disciple is the Creator, and the daughter of the wise disciple is the vessel of the wise disciple in order to bestow. Indeed, to acquire the daughter of a wise disciple, it's acquiring because the woman is acquired, the vessel, so we need to truly sell everything he has. Meaning, in exchange for all one's desires, desires for all kinds of other fulfillments, if he wants only the desire that the Creator has, then he will receive it, otherwise, no. Our entire path is how to gradually exchange all of our desires with one desire, and be focused on this desire compared to all the desires around it unto the greatest desire there is. And then from the daughter of a wise disciple we come to the wise.

He says that through the remedy of Torah and commandments, he says that one who becomes religious, he becomes more evil. Of course, what he means is that it's not the ones who repent and become righteous, rather the one who becomes religious. Religious, meaning one who wants to reach the middle line: Daat, Tifferet, Yessod, the acronym is DATI, religious. Meaning that he's trying to go above reason, even though the body tells him this path is doomed to fail. It's not clear, you always become worse, much worse, nevertheless, he wants to be religious. To reach Daat, Tifferet, Yessod; that's the path, coarseness, phase zero, one, and two. And each time he acquires more vessels of Kabbalah and he subjugates them. And nevertheless, he works above them. Then he feels that he becomes worse each time, because his coarseness is revealed more. And all the desires that grow stronger in him, he has to exchange them with one desire, a desire for the daughter of a wise disciple.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:19) When he says that, They're crying like a dog that he wants, barking, wanting this world and the next world.

M. Laitman: These are all the states that are written here; even if, God forbid, a person comes and they're completely wicked there. These are all things we have to go through, there's no state that a person can skip on the path to the goal because the Creator created everything in one vessel, a vessel that's incorporated of all desires. And there's no state in a person, no matter his character, his original nature, no matter which part of Adam HaRishon his soul is from, he nevertheless has to go through all the obstacles. Certainly, each one according to his own style, but nevertheless, each one has to go through all these desires that are crying like a leech, Give us – who has to give us this world and give us the next world. The will to receive is for this world and then for the next world. It's good, and then it comes to wanting only the next world, and that's also a Klipa, a shell. Sometimes it says about the intention, it says about this world, the intention in order to receive, and the next world, the intention in order to bestow. And if he talks about the dogs, he says that the next world is the intention that you want in order to receive, which is already the shells. We have to see exactly what they're talking about because the language, the words, might be used in different places for different kinds of meaning, but using the same word.

But without a doubt, one who starts on the path, starts to work with serving the Creator — people don't understand that serving the Creator is reception. Anywhere they talk about the work of the Creator, they'll go into a seminary and talk to a religious person, a secular person, it doesn't matter. Everybody knows that the religious person engages in the work of the Creator, but what is it, nobody knows. The work of the Creator means to observe the law and commandments every day, and that's it. No one understands that the work of the Creator in truth is Kabbalah or reception. You think about reception that is some luxury, that it's something that certain people engage in, people who can't do it otherwise. They understand it maybe differently, something is a little off for those people, they're a little not normal, in short. And the true work of the Creator, meaning the pure work of the Creator, is reception – I'm sorry, Kabbalah.

M. Laitman: (21:29) The one who wants to work for the Creator, meaning to keep what the Creator wants, gradually he comes to keeping what the Creator wants, and he courts the Creator, right? I mean, maybe not courting, but mimicking – maybe it's better to say mimicking. Baal HaSulam says in the article that the work of the Creator is to mimic creation, right, mimicking creation. And when he's doing that, repeating the Creator's actions, then he comes to the matter of those who are wise about creation. The first concept is defined as mimicking or following the work of the Creator; it is in The Sage’s Fruit, The Secret of Conception as Birth, page 199. What does he say?:

The matter of those who are wise in creation,

Meaning those who wish to be wise in creation, to acquire wisdom, wisdom of Kabbalah, wisdom in general.

The first concept is defined as mimicking the Creator's work, or following it, repeating it. The work of the Creator is called Providence, or the nature of creation.

And us, who mimic Him, this means that we are serving the Creator, that's the meaning of, Know the Lord your God and serve Him. We learn how He's working in creation, how He oversees it, how He leads everything. And we take this system of governance and Providence and we become rulers on ourselves, in His place. Because other than us, other than our will to receive, what does He oversee, what does He do? What is creation? Creation is us, existence out of absence; so we learn how He's doing everything, out of the ascent and descent and everything that He's doing. Gradually we learn, and we used to become masters of our own domain, in His place.This is to the extent that we can do something and we acquire the screen and we’ll become this – this is the matter of serving the Creator, there's nothing more than that. Anyone who thinks there's something else is simply out of it, and the whole world thinking that the work of the Creator is what they're doing, you know, learning a little bit, doing some practical commandments — and I'm not writing this off, God forbid. But the work of the Creator is to mimic the Creator, do it like Him. This is called a son relative to his father, You are sons to the Lord your God.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:13) Why to want to be like Him, He's making an action upon us?

M. Laitman: Just as a son looks at you and he does it, right, like a monkey, he mimics you, then he grows up and he does it with his own mind and intellect. This is our path as well, in the beginning we do it without understanding, this is called the state of conception, Ibur. We only cancel ourselves, then Yenika, suckling, we bring more desire into it and understanding, and later greatness, adulthood, Mochin. The Creator wants that we will be, we will resemble Him completely, and resembling Him is by acquiring the screen on the will to receive, and we become as a Nukva to Him. We arrive at coupling, continuous coupling, face-to-face with Him. This means we reach the complete work of the Creator. That we'll correct ourselves and reach a state where we'll be just like Him, against Him. Then we begin to work differently, after the end of correction. This is the secret of Torah, we'll find out eventually but for that we do everything.

The goal is not to reach the end of correction, the goal is to reach the end of correction in order to prosper later with Him together. What I want to say is that this is the work of the Creator. One who thinks that working for the Creator is just doing certain corporeal actions, Baal HaSulam writes, The Creator doesn't care if you slaughter the beast from the neck or from the throat, and, All the commandments were given to purify Israel, or to bind them together, And the commandment without an intention is like a body without a soul – and so on and so forth, that all the work of the Creator is the intention. Intention is the means ultimately, it's just the means to return, to mimic, to mimic the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:52) With regards to a wise disciple because we see that when we look for it, it's not far from the end of correction?

M. Laitman: Wise is the Creator and one who learns His wisdom is called, A wise student, a student of the Wise One. The vessel for it, the desire for it, is called the daughter of a wise disciple. We have a desire to receive, in a corrected form this will to receive is called man or male, in an uncorrected form it's called woman or female – there are all kinds of names here. So by marrying the daughter of a wise disciple, we acquire the will to receive and we correct it in order to bestow because we wish to use it to become, to reach the state of a wise disciple. Then we come to the work of the Creator. Resembling the Creator. Every vessel of reception — you're right to say that ultimately all the desires in the corrected form become the correct vessels, the right vessels – but it's not so on the path of correction. On a path of correction there are many desires a person has to conceal, avoid working with them, only filter them out and work only with a few desires in accordance to what he can organize in order to bestow, to do the work of the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:17) At what stage does he begin, where he says that they become religious before that they had a desire for corporeality?

M. Laitman: Before they become religious, the corporeal will to receive is formed, the meaning is that before a person corrects himself and he walks on the middle line – Daat, Tifferet, Yesod, DATI, religious – then he had a will to receive only toward himself, meaning in order to receive. And when he began the work in order to bestow, he arranges it in such a way that it's in order to bestow with the screen, and this is called religious. Then there begins a different kind of work, he filters his desires, he takes from all of his desires those with which he can work. Because there are such desires with which you cannot work at all — it's a commandment not to work with them, a Thou shall not do, kind of commandment, as we call, The stony heart. He takes such desires that he is allowed to work with, he's able to work with, to what extent, what kind of combination of desires, he can use them and then arrange them in order to bestow, and from that he builds a middle line.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:46) But what actions of bestowal is he talking about, before he becomes religious and he had a corporeal desire to receive. And he had more strength to make actions of bestowal, what actions of bestowal?

M. Laitman: When the will to receive is revealed to a person, normally, like any person off the street. He can see that in his will to receive, part of it he can use in order to receive and a part of it he can use in order to bestow. What does it mean? There are things that I, from which, you know, certain things I enjoy, certain instances where I enjoy giving. Talk to people on the street, there are things that I enjoy from receiving, and each one, each one has a different combination of such desires. Accordingly, we can also say, this is a bad person, this is a good person; this one is doing beautiful things and this one is a bit ugly. But all his desires, both for bestowal and for reception, they're all for his own sake. Since when he begins to compare himself to true bestowal, meaning without any self-benefit, then there's a different kind of test. Then both actions of reception and actions of bestowal, first of all, they all appear to him the same, in order to receive, and they're all disqualified. So, he sees himself doubly bad, first he thought that receiving is normal, is natural; now he discovers it's bad, it's evil. Also when he was giving, he thought of himself as doing beautiful things, he was justified, you know, there was self-worth. We think that, you know, we enjoy it, we appreciate ourselves, we feel pride. Even the most despicable person, the worst kind, doesn't matter, he has those things, he thinks that he contributes, he serves, he gives. Now, it appears to him that what he used to think was his giving, or seemingly the human in him, now he sees that that too is in order to receive. So he's twice as bad now, from this feeling that all of my actions are bad and horrible, and I wish to give someone and it's even worse — from this feeling he enters a state of despair.

But other than that, compared to his past actions, both of giving and receiving, when he discovers that it was all in order to receive. And also he discovers greater, bigger desires, he suddenly sees that he doesn't care about anything, they can devour his kids, that the world can be destroyed, whatever, it doesn't matter. He sees that his ego is so wrapped up in itself, that other than his own bodily boundaries, he doesn't take anything into consideration, down to the very last detail. Later, his will to receive also shows him such a picture, that not only he cares about his body, but also he doesn't care about what will happen in the next moment. In the next moment, I may not exist, I will burn, it doesn't matter but if I can be alive another moment, that's it. The will to receive is concentrated in a single point, in the present. And inside itself, that it's, you know, his boundary becomes the size of a dot, both the temporal boundary along the axis of time, and also a boundary in space. Seemingly, they don't exist, and when a person discovers it, he sees that, not that his will to receive has to receive as great. Rather, as great meaning is focused, wrapped in itself, understand? To the very end, and he doesn't care about anything. This is called great, big, big in its terrible quality, this extreme introvert, if you will. So if a person enters such a state, he doesn't understand how he can get rid of it, he feels very bad about it, why? Because if you could, if you just, you know, stumble upon it, then they wouldn't be so bad. So this is who I am, and we see that a lot of people are doing terrible things in this world, and they justify themselves even more than people who seemingly do good things.

M. Laitman: (37:05) The problem is that one who goes to be religious, meaning to acquire a middle line, then for him, you know, to work in Daat, Tifferet, Yesod, DATI, religious, then he sees himself wicked, evil, corresponding to the surrounding light. So, he's got this split personality, a dual split personality, it's not that he sees himself as evil, he doesn't see the evil here. Rather here, when he sees himself corresponding to the surrounding light, this is a terrible feeling that is added to him. So, who am I in truth, what standard, you know, which is, can I measure myself against the qualities of the light? And he simply goes mad, you know, these moments are, you know, they're very juicy. This is the beginning of the recognition of evil, but certainly it's not the true recognition. It's not the true recognition of evil because the true recognition of evil is relative to the Creator. Here, it's simply relative to the surrounding light, he sees himself as evil, as wicked.

Relative to others, perhaps, relative to this image that he has of goodness. It's still not, oh, how much evil am I causing the Creator, it's not toward Him, it's still, he still thinks about himself. Meaning let him correct himself, let him calm himself down, then everything will be all right. But it's the beginning, he sees himself worse every time, and that's a sign that he's advancing toward the middle line. Of course he's despaired and he has no power to act, no energy, and he curses everything. And this path is, you know, it can't be a good path because he constantly sees himself as evil. But here we need to build a defense mechanism that will prevent him from running away, that's the first thing. right, something that will carry him forward. Just like we see in this world, a sick person, for every sick person in the hospital, there are three or four people who care for him. There's a kitchen, right, just like in a big hospital, there's a kitchen, there are storehouses with medications, there's a blood bank, medicine storage, operation rooms. Look how many tests and pieces of equipment, look, let's say a hospital for 100 people needs 500 people working for him, for them, right? And then when he becomes, when he's healthy, he doesn't need any support. And the same is with us, we need to build such a society where he can be an embryo. And now, when we're talking about the building of the society, it needs to have such systems that will certainly care for people who fall sick and that can happen to each one of us. So there will immediately be such auxiliary systems that will support him, care for him, do all kinds of things. I remember such moments where I couldn't move, I couldn't go shopping even, go to the grocery store, I couldn't move, it's very difficult. So we have friends, all kinds of things like that, the path is not a simple one, to be the Creator's servant. But to make those friends, it's at his expense, so to speak, because he built it, he paid for it, he created the hospital, he participates in it while he's healthy, and then when he's sick, he's taken care of.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:32) For a religious person, as far as I know, he has the biggest desire to receive?

M. Laitman: Which great desire to receive for a religious person? You're religious, you have such a big desire to receive?

Student: He wants to do all the Mitzvot?

M. Laitman: Well, the fact that the Zohar writes that he wants to devour this world a bit, to have good in this world, that he and his descendants will live. And also to have some fund in the next world, you know, that something will be left afterwards. Of course people want that, that's human, it's legitimate, it's natural, you can't say that's bad, that's how a person works. If he doesn't come to the true work of the Creator, that's his former work, and this is the work of the public, of the collective, that they follow the Mitzvot, and they carry out the customs, and it should be. In truth, it should be, it's still a framework; until a person becomes grown in the development of the soul, so that he demands godliness, and truly wants to be religious in the sense of the middle line. This means to be DATI, religious below the middle line, and so that's below the middle line, this is called the sacred still, meaning before the development of the middle line, there's a point below it called religious in our world, like you see people living in Bnei Brak. So this is called the sacred still. That's good, it's carrying out the Torah and Mitzvot in matter, meaning in corporeality, actions of this world, and hoping to have a reward in this world and in the next world. That's okay, they are forbidden to reveal what is the true correction, because they're still not capable of reaching it. It says, Don't put an obstacle in front of a blind man. So don't disturb them and just protect them; and so the Kabbalists from throughout all generations who wrote that, who wrote all the holy books, people with spiritual attainment, Kabbalists. They wrote it in a way that the public shouldn't be touched, they should be dealt with gloves, because what can you do? If the general development of humanity, this mass, still hasn't reached this development, so you have to wait.

Man lives on the face of the earth for dozens of thousands of years already, and you see how it becomes revealed from Abraham until today. In the meantime, it's unique individuals. In the meantime, it's just individuals who truly long to be religious in the sense of the middle line, and without a desire, you can't do anything. If one is asking, what is the point in life? Meaning with respect to life in this world, there's no more taste, he already longs for spirituality, to feel life, there, then you can speak to him. And before that, don't touch him, he's not going to understand you, his desires, his internality, he's not yet ready to perceive anything. So, the fact that an ordinary religious person, what we call a Jew, who wants to carry out Torah and Mitzvot the way he was taught, and to receive some reward for it, please, it's respected. By that, he maintains himself as a people, and he maintains himself towards the next correction that will come, when the Creator will shine somewhat on his point in the heart. And then he'll feel the point in the heart, and he'll start developing; therefore, from ignorance, religious people think that Kabbalists, or let's say that I'm going against them, that there is something wrong. No, we're not against them, we're not touching on them, we just want to call upon those who already feel the point in the heart. Who ask, What is the meaning of this life in this world? That they have no meaning to live otherwise, and for them, we have an answer, because they are already chosen to begin the correction, each and every one, with his personal correction. And the truth is, there's no mixing between these people and those people. Baal HaSulam writes in many places, there's the Torah for the public, and the Torah for the particular, for the individual. And the reason of Torah is opposite to the reason of the landlords. And those cannot touch those, they shouldn't be mixed, it's a totally different Torah, attitude, spirit. You see, the whole direction of life is different, how we live, how they live.

M. Laitman: (46:57) We are diving into ourselves, into our thoughts, our intention, always eating ourselves within. Scrutinizing where we are, where am I, what's going on with me, and so forth. Everything is condensed, compressed into the person, if we can put it that way, and for them, it's about externality: doing more of this, and more of that, and wearing this hat, or that, doing that action, and it's good, that's what it should be. When there's no internality, you engage in externality. This is an education that was led by Kabbalists. After the destruction of the Temple, where they fell, Baal HaSulam writes, well, the First Temple, that's still somehow, something, but the Second Temple disappeared, is where the whole matter of Lishma just disappeared. It's just the surrounding light departed, the Temple was ruined; The Temple ruined, meaning that the illumination was no longer in the people, did no longer dwell in the people. It's like with us, you see how sometimes you have this upliftment, this sense of godliness, that you feel that you're alive, that you're floating in the air. You have a feeling about what you're reading, and so on. And all of a sudden, you can feel that you're an ass, and you have nothing, and you don't understand a word from the text. But still you have some far illumination, where you are, opposite the good states, while you're in the bad states.

And so, cutting that off of you as well, is what happened in the destruction of the Temple. In the first destruction of the Temple, the illumination departed, which existed in the people; they felt that they were in spirituality, in this inspired connection. And that spirit has departed but they still had the posterior, the feeling that spirituality is somehow connected to them, that it exists. And then the Second Temple — in the First Temple, after the ruin of the First Temple, they at least knew what Lishma was, and that they were opposite to it somehow. Because still, corresponding to the Mochin of Haya that illuminated in the First Temple from afar, they had the illumination of Mochin of Neshama in the Second Temple, so it was from afar, but still shining. And after the Second Temple, they felt they have lost the feeling that it's bad. Meaning that their state is bad opposite the light, that discernment of what Lishma has disappeared.

Baal HaSulam writes in the article, The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah, something like that, and also in The Sage’s Fruit, a few articles. So they become like a donkey who doesn't know, you understand. Only a few were left, like Rabbi Shimon and the authors of the Gemara, and they started writing, and they told the people, deal with that, engage with that. They led the people who detached from their spiritual height and they guided them to at least do this and do that in corporeality, doing all kinds of things. And then they used to pray, each from within his heart, the prayer of the heart. So instead, they got a prayer book and they didn't have all kinds of things in corporeality, so they were told, Okay, do this, do that, you understand, to make some boundary for the beast, where that doesn't know any boundary from spirituality. And it looks for how to be in that boundary, so it needs to have some boundary, and that's what was done through the Shulchan Aruch book,The Code of Jewish laws, and so on.

So this is a state that existed for thousands of years. And that's the least of all evils, let's say so. Of course that the people who are in that, they have no connection, no touch with spirituality, they don't feel the surrounding light, so they think that's it. What else is there is, by doing what I'm doing? I'm doing everything I can, and he is doing everything he can. He doesn't have a feeling that there is some other correction here: what correction, if the point in the heart doesn't become revealed? That's why both those people and these people have their own Torah. Those have the external Torah and the others have the inner Torah. And that's why it's called the inner part of the Torah, it's not by chance, it is referring to the person. Why does he need the Torah, either for the inner correction, the point in the heart, or the external correction. To know what to do with his hands and legs and how to say things. Look, there's a book about slander – if you take one condition: Love thy friend as thyself, you need all those encyclopedias telling you to say this or say that? There's just one law, Love thy friend as thyself. Try hard to do that, and that's it, what other books do you have? But when you leave from internality to externality, you have to define each and everything externally, however it looks. And that's where all the multiplicity begins. But internally it's only one law, the law of adhesion, of similarity.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:46) At what point can a person accelerate his development, the moment he enters the path of bestowal, of mutual bestowal? How can a person accelerate his development?

M. Laitman: To accelerate development – well, accelerating development — read a lot. At first the person doesn't understand, what are the friends, what is the work, what are all those things I'm demanded of. Some people do enter that according to their nature, but some people, it's just not their nature to be connected with others and work in different ways. Like, some friends are posting flyers somewhere, or on the roof, friends are doing some work in the kitchen. Some people are not designed for that, they're more intellectual in their character. So the first stage is that a person needs to read a lot, let's put it like this — again, I don't know, in our time it's a different time, everything shortens and changes. But let's say, like the first year, it should be just like, you know, like a meat grinding machine, you know? Yes, like a meat grinder, to just process into himself all kinds of writings and articles of Baal HaSulam, of Rabash, and just to chew on them, and chewing them again and again, and put into himself as much material as possible. More and more and more, it doesn't matter if he forgets, doesn't matter if he doesn't understand and doesn't think, he'll start thinking later. At first, he can't think, just to read, read, that's it. Okay, that's written, that's written, just to inflate himself and fill himself with this knowledge. And afterward, it will start working in him because at first, he has the longing and there, so if he starts reading, he already has some connection with the surrounding light through the reading. And when he does that sufficiently, a few months, half a year, a year, it'll then start working well.

And there are others who don't, that all the reading and all those things, it's better for them to work with the society, but it's impossible to do this without that, it's diverse. The distribution of percentages here depends on man's character, both the work for the group and the study. Each one has to have some percentage of this and some percentage of that. But to accelerate, especially in the beginning, it's by a lot of reading. And afterwards, actually, by more working and thinking of why am I doing this and so on; meaning afterwards, it's more about working for the society because that's where you feel the difficulties and the problems and what for and so on. And the coping with that helps progress. Look, we know this from Passover, for instance, or some other holidays where no one studies and everyone's working on things and everyone comes out uplifted with a great benefit from that, why? By doing such things, you understand, and I, too, understand that that's how it is. You see how much I can fight about wasting money. But in Passover, another 100,000, 200,000, not taking that into account, because you're acquiring spirituality.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:11) Some people have longing for godliness but they don't have a society around them. So were they destined to fail or how does it work?

M. Laitman: People in this world who have a longing but they still don't have books of Baal HaSulam, they don't know about the method, yet, there are reasons why they're in such a state. I searched for many years before I came to Rabash – so what?

Student: No, the question is if they have the books, they have all the knowledge.

M. Laitman: If they have the books and they have everything but not a society, then in some way or other, they will end up having some society. It's impossible that if a person yearns for it and takes it according to the desire that is being shown from above. Then it's impossible that the Creator won't set up the rest of the conditions. I wasn't thinking about coming to Israel, I thought about becoming a scientist; suddenly it changed I don't need science, I need to get to Israel. I got to Israel then. Now how do I realize the fact that I have nothing to do in life, until I started searching? I started like this and like that – everyone can say that he himself didn't know, but that's how a person is brought to it – so I don't have a question about the people outside. Today we have many groups, this year I hope this whole thing will blossom in the world, the interest in Kabbalah in many countries. I hope we will open up groups and visit them, and they'll also come visit here, and that will be a greater expansion into the world, that's it, we'll have to make sure.

You see, even today or in previous years, where you see all the Israelis and Russians who left Israel. Through them you also start influencing the other nations and everyone, and you'll see how you'll start having branches. And that is probably the development that needs to come now, in the next few years, where we will be busier, not just with ourselves, but with outer development, meaning not just in Israel. There are many things that can develop in Israel only on the condition that there is a connection with the outside, and then they can be acceptable in Israel, that's how it works.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:19) Is the process of secularization necessary, when you come out from the inanimate to vegetative?

M. Laitman: No, the process where a person stops being religious, meaning the sacred still, right, ordinary religious, and then he becomes secular, and then he comes to Kabbalah — that doesn't have to be – that's totally not connected. We have examples of people who are Hassids, or they are from the resisting faction, and there's a big shattering in Judaism today. There's a lot of people who understand that Judaism is in crisis, in a deep crisis, as opposed to what existed a hundred years ago even. Today, all the values, all of the relation to it has fallen, this is something a lot of people understand. And a lot of individual people, not groups, but individual people, study and come together and discuss it even, and I hear that. And some who call and express interest, certainly this thing is happening there, too, and you can't do anything here, this is creation. It's the development that a person is incapable of, he suddenly doesn't see in his books and in his style of study because one can also study the Gemara and see spirituality there; but he suddenly becomes drawn, whether he likes it or not. Like we just discussed a moment ago, how did we come here, we were brought. So the same way he is brought to open a book that he didn't want to open before, and suddenly he opens and sees that it's an entire world. I hear their inspiration, and I hope that this is what it will finally be. Baal HaSulam and all the Kabbalists in the other generations, they emerged from that.

Student: There were unique individuals. Is it opening up for us, the time?

M. Laitman: It's not individuals, we are talking about dozens and hundreds in a generation, why? From 200, 300 years ago, Baal Shem Tov, Kotzk, all of those, there were big groups of people who had spiritual attainment. In the time, at the time of Baal Shem Tov, there were thousands, in every generation there were thousands. All of those rabbis, until before the 20th century, they had spiritual attainment – more or less, that was the case. You see, all the books they wrote are certainly their holy books, meaning they come from attainment. Take Rabbi Abuhatzeira or Rabbi Nachman or whoever you want, they all had spiritual attainment, all Kabbalists.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:51) The question is, can you expect it today to become a big mass in the heart of the inanimate so that it would start growing?

M. Laitman: Masses, it can't happen, not religious, not secular people, what mass? You mean a million people all of a sudden? I don't think so.

Student: A few thousands.

M. Laitman: A few thousands, yes.

Student: Dozens of thousands?

M. Laitman: A few thousands, yes, it doesn't depend on us but it will be – in every stage there will be a greater quantity, let's say – let's say, if one hundred awaken today, next year you'll have a thousand.

Student: Directly, we don't have anything to do with this. They're not going to invite another Sulam to a lecture in a Yeshiva.

M. Laitman: No, directly, not directly, and to the mass it can't be, but I'm telling you, it's still individuals, but from the individuals you'll have thousands. Like let's say, I don't know, from half a million religious people in Israel, suddenly 5% will feel they have to engage in the internality of the Torah.

Student: That is luxury but really make it their main work?

M. Laitman: Yes, to turn that into their main work, main engagement, yes, that, yes, that can be, that can happen. But those 50,000 people or 5,000 people, there will be separate, there will be individuals. It's not that some Hassidism comes to you and looks for a way, that can't happen. It's the work of the individual, so even though it seems to you that there could be like the group of the Hassids of Gur, right? But what group is that, in that group, you have people in different classes, different levels of spiritual development. It'll come, it'll come in the next few years, there will be a big crisis.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:53) Can you pull a lot of people from the general population?

M. Laitman: From the common people, there are also individuals, there are many, that's what we need, we actually don't need the rest. I wish everyone would be good Jews, but those who can't be good Jews, the wicked ones, as we call them, we need them, yes.

Student: Well, if not for politics, this crisis would never happen.

M. Laitman: That's irrelevant, a person can live in the king's palace and have everything great and be in crisis. The friend has a great such example, right, with your student.

Student: She's in exile, in exile, never, all those places.

M. Laitman: The fact that a hundred years ago, the level of the common people was also different from today. That has to do with the decline of the generations, the general decline of the generations. Yes, that also in this time of the destruction of the Temple or something, they were very pure. Or when we talk about the destruction or the hatred, these are very subtle things, they're very refined things. Now, through the generations, over a thousand, two thousand years, from generation to the next, the will to receive is added. People become more egoistic and all this evil unfolds, comes out, and especially, not in the beginning, but the more we advance, it's not in one progression, one more and one more and one more. It's rather one plus two plus four plus eight plus sixteen, it's like exponential growth. So, it turns out that at the border between the 19th century and the 20th century, there has been such a leap that was made that people. Or the Enlightenment, for example, what's the Enlightenment? How do people stop being religious, how can there be such a thing? The will to receive was added, the development of the soul – and as opposed to seeing the corporeal actions that he needs to do this and that and say this and that – he saw how those things were so limited and lacked content, because their internality rose and the externality fell accordingly. Then he can't hold on to it and he just removes this burden and doesn't stay as a sacred still. It's all because the will to receive grows in the souls.

Student: What is respected in the public?

M. Laitman: The more a person is well organized and comes to the synagogue and does all the Mitzvot in a way that he seems to the public as clean from anything, from any concern, naive faith, as you could say. He has nothing else in life and that's what he's doing, this is called a beautiful religious person that is good and holy, right? And for us, it means that he has no will to receive, that he's like a cat following what nature tells him to do. Add some ego to him, some will to receive and you'll see how he'll throw all that away. So, you want it or not, you can't keep them only the way they were 500 years ago, or even 2,000 years ago because the will to receive grows. There's nothing to do about it, that's why each and every generation is worse, Until the face of the generation is the face of the dog who's howling, give me, give me. And you can't do anything about that, they'll come nevertheless, it's just still a search, a struggle.

But as it was in the 20th century, you will see what happens in this one, in this century – what inner development people will have. From year to year, you'll see how the world is converging towards this direction, and everything else is falling. People will certainly start feeling that their internality determines the world. You see, people come to us who are professors, mathematicians, those futurologists, which are actually math professors. And they say, Oh, the world will change with spiritual development. You look at them and you don't understand; and they also say that today, all of the, in short, where was it 50 years ago? If you say that, you'll see the Americans will suffer a few more blows and they'll think the same.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:25) There's one thing that isn't clear. You're very gentle with the religious people, that it doesn't harm, that's what they need.

M. Laitman: I'm not gentle with the religious or the secular, why be gentle, I'm telling the truth, and you interpret it as though I want to compliment someone. I'm telling you seriously, a person who is secular, instead of going into drugs, or prostitution, various other things, it's better to have some kind of boundary, some fence, just to help him keep a human form. So, if you ask me what to do with a child, what can I tell you? You need to give him some religious education boundaries. By that, you protect him from all sorts of impossible-to-cure things that he might get in the secular society.

Student: But a lot of negativity is being revealed there, that it's not worse than what you see in the secular societies?

M. Laitman: In our societies, ultimately, when the will to receive breaks out, becomes big, it doesn't matter to him. A person could be religious or secular, he becomes wild. There's nothing to do, you have that happening here and there, but to somehow try to maintain, to protect. Look, I think with my daughters, I succeeded, more or less, the son, Rabash said, Send him away. So, I sent him away. It's not like I would have wanted, but I followed Rabash's command, but the daughters, you can see. I think this is more or less, in our times — maybe in 10 years there will be different conditions – but in our times, I think this is more or less the preferable way.

Student: The least harmful.

M. Laitman: The least harmful.

Student: Baal HaSulam writes in a few places that whoever engages in the Torah externally is the one that causes the most damage. He was warning about that also before the Holocaust, and in books?

M. Laitman: Listen, Mister, true, Baal HaSulam writes in the end of The Introduction to the Book of Zohar, that one who engages in the externality of the Torah and doesn't want to engage in the internality of the Torah — not that he doesn't know about it or something, but that he doesn't want it, he disregards it, he hates it. Those people are causing all the damage, and killings, and the very worst things in the world, correct. It doesn't mean that a person shouldn't engage in it, but rather he should engage in it and also engage in Kabbalah. Actually, he says, if you want to or not, just listen to what he says: he says that those who engage in the externality of the Torah, they need to begin engaging in the internality of the Torah. He's not talking about you, that Zion, who's walking around, the Shinkin, he's at fault, he's causing the bad things in the world. He says that they need to engage in the Torah, not you, why? In the internality of the Torah.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:03) Why, maybe because there's more potential to do the internality there, but it's a state that doesn't work?

M. Laitman: So you want to say, maybe it's better that they let go of the externality, they can't engage in internality, let them, let's go off the externality also, let them be secular, at least no one will cause harm. It won't help you, what they engage in today also, it's not the externality of the Torah as it should be, as it used to be, you understand? It's not, no harm comes from that, the harm comes from not engaging in internality. And a person who is completely secular, right, it's easier for you to come to him and say, come, be a student of Kabbalah. I don't think you can approach them, well, that way but the problem is with educating the youth, and the masses, the millions. I don't think that if you completely release them from studying the Torah, out of the boundaries which are good for the general population, I don't think you're doing good by that.

Student: So, if that's right, none of the people sitting here would be here because everyone who came here was secular, not religious?

M. Laitman: You're confusing two paths, here, I understand you, but you're confusing two paths: what's upon me to do, and what the Creator will do. I'm not master of what's happening from above. I only know what I must do from below. From below, I prefer to be Jewish, what does it mean, Jewish? I know a little bit about the Yiddishkeit, the way you call it, the popular Judaism, and how to be affiliated with that. I'm not saying that he needs to look like someone from Mea Shearim, a very, very Orthodox neighborhood, and also to behave with respect to the country and military service, and all the things, the obligations he has to the nation, not behave the way they do. I'm not saying that, but he needs to have, well, within the boundaries of the people, the nation, and you don't have a boundary for our people other than what we call inheritance or customs. It needs to be in some way, a person comes here, he doesn't know about Passover, Sukkot, holidays, nothing special, but a little bit, I'm not talking about being extreme. So, just to be a traditionalist, in a sense, you know, that's the problem: his mother and father, you know, they keep the traditional customs, and he doesn't know about it at all. He comes to some holiday just to do them a favor, you know, and the second generation is completely lost.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:09) From the people I know that aren't religious, if they're traditional families, also the children remain traditional.

M. Laitman: In short, I'll tell you, a person is a beast, if he wants to be human, he's welcome, we'll help him. But as a beast, it's better for him to have a good herd, with a fence, being guarded, protected, then it'll be good for him, it'll be good for him, too. You've seen what's happening with the generation, the whole generation, which has no boundaries, and see what's happening. You think that through their free development they'll also reach anything? Nothing. They think that then they're flourishing. What flourishing? There's nothing in that, you understand, they think that by this they can bring something new to humanity. Nothing will grow from it, what can a person just bring from under his heels? What is there in this development? Nothing happens to them, ultimately, they come to prostitution and drugs, ultimately, poor people. There isn't – if you show me some other solution, but there isn't. Also, from the perspective of Kabbalah, a person has nothing to look for foreign secularism, and also not in religion, you need some kind of fence, some kind of boundary.

Look, this is what all the other people's nations are doing. It's us who can't, because we have the bigger will to receive. You think the Americans are all wild? You don't know what kind of regime, order, they have there. Look at all the Israeli movies and American movies, how in each American movie you have pride, you have an ideal, you have America above everything, you understand? And how they hold on to that, see their movies, it's like in Russia, they do the same thing, you know, they clothe it in a way where you don't feel it, maybe, but that's all. Go to Europe, you think you can do whatever you want? What strict regime they have, in every respect. For us here, it's the worst, because each one has a will to receive which is a thousand times greater than some Gentile outside of here. So, it becomes so awful, so bad that you can't hold on at all.

So, in short, a person is a beast, and the beast needs guardianship, for its own good, for its own good. Generations have come and gone, and they've seen it, too, there's nothing new. I was, you know, when you had the Beatles and all the flowers, that generation, what remained of them, what did they accomplish, nothing. A person would grow up to 30, 35, freak, hippie, and then all those hippies, what did they do? The others all went into – became addicted to drugs. Or at 35, you come to a state where the most successful ones, business people, those who succeeded, and those who didn't. At 40, you discover that you're homeless, jobless, nothing. The world is flourishing, and who are you, what are you? Same thing with those who we are now bringing out of their drug habits. I'm not saying that the religious boundary is the best, I'm saying that we need something. We need some kind of boundary, the people need some kind of regime. These things have existed before. It's mandatory to have that. Anarchy, by the way, is also a strong form of regime.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:19) If we say that more or less the Orthodox, we have nothing to talk to. The secular, maybe they'll get something, but they rarely come. But there's a big layer of people, like in David's synagogue, or my environment, they are traditional, they even used to read in the Zohar. I remember, I used to come to synagogue, I saw all kinds of Kabbalah books and I see that that direction is disappearing. Instead of that, some Orthodox comes to give them some lesson in Gemara. So, why don't we open a new approach, why don't we come to that public?

M. Laitman: Mister! We are at a time of transition, and in this time there's a place for everything, and nothing yet is clear to the eyes of the public to the extent that we can come and say we have it. It's a time where it's impossible, still, to approach the traditionalist public, let’s say, or the national religious public. It's impossible to approach them yet, they're still in the stages of the breaking, the shattering. The next stage, maybe two stages further, I don't know when, but it'll come. For now, we can't yet; for now, we need to take care of what we can take care of, and that is the secular public, we can approach them. I don't think that we won't have any interface with the religious public, there will be. They will need us, they will need us from the crisis. You'll see. It'll come.

Student: But there's people in the public that aren't rejected from us.

M. Laitman: So, the public that doesn't reject us, we try to approach them.

Student: But the religious people also we are rejected.

M. Laitman: The religious, the simple religious people, they reject us, yes, they don't want it yet, you understand? It's impossible to come to a person with this if he doesn't want it. The point of what is the purpose of my life needs to be revealed in him; what is the purpose of life in this whole world? Even if it's all good, even if it's good, but they're still talking about, I have no confidence, security, no money, insurance, all those things suddenly fall. There's no surety economically, all these things, this is Divinity being revealed now, that's the revelation of it. You think that it's some minister doing all these things? The Creator does all these things, you'll see, a little bit, a bit more. A person, if it's bad for him in life, he'll reach a discernment. Even if it's bad, he'll reach a discernment where it can't be good at all, ever. Even if they're full of gold and money, and respect, and everything you want, that's not life either. Times will come where the point in the heart starts working, but for them, they don't feel it so.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:30) But do they have to wait till all the evil to be revealed, or can you skip over that stage and start bringing them into these things?

M. Laitman: No, they're not in a state yet where they can listen. They can hear about the path of life, a way, from a person who they don't consider as great according to their criteria. That's why they invite, as you said, people who are great according to their criteria, which, let's say, some great Rav from Jerusalem, who will come to them to talk to them about the Gemara. Look, you see, every other Orthodox person in your synagogue — in your synagogue, they just come with pants and a shirt, and he wears the hat, and the jacket, and they already call him a Rav. They still follow externality, fine. When I came to Rabash, I didn't look at his hat – I didn't see he had a 60, 63 centimeter hat – I bought one, so I know! I didn't look at the size of his hat. I didn't measure it. He has a bigger hat, wider, and the other one has a lesser hat. I didn't measure the internality of a person by that to see who I should study with. But they do measure it that way. So why go to them against the things they appreciate?

Student: They're so open for internal things?

M. Laitman: No, I go to people who look at me, and they see he's a little religious, not to the point of being repulsive in a sense. And he says words that I'm used to, and not the words of the, you know, the name of the Lord, and with God's help, and all those things. In their social strata, these things repulse them, so I go to people who are willing to accept me, and the people who are totally against — why should I go and try to break the person, I don't see any necessity in that. If it was really, I don't know, if there was some chance to succeed in that, really the call of the hour, something like that, that's different. I don't think there is a chance, I live amongst them, I know what it is. I know the measure of their hatred towards those who engage in Kabbalah. Well, what's happening today, it's that gradually they begin to agree somehow, to just be silent, not go to war. And there are those who also, they make Kabbalah accessible to the secular, they teach them. They open courses, lectures to the people, every year, it's becoming more customary, mundane, it works. And there are many who engage in it, they see that it's impossible without it to pull people into anything. So, it's the time to act, what can you do? You think I'm a patient man, but there's no choice, very simple. But I see that the attitude is changing. You too, maybe you don't feel it, but it is so.

Reader: Let's share impressions from the lesson. What from it are we taking to implement in the Ten? Then let's go to the next part, but sing a song first!

Song: (01:35:49)