The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Afternoon) July 13, 2024
Part 1 Lesson on the topic of Equal as One: There is No Strong Friend, There Is a Strong Society.
Reader: Hello, we're in a lesson on the topic Equal as One: There is No Strong Friend, There Is a Strong Society. We will be reading select excerpts from the sources. The study material appears in Sviva Tova and the Arvut system. And, of course, you can ask questions live through our sites. Whoever asks in the hall is asked to stand up, microphone close to his mouth and speak loud and clear.
I'll mention that we received many questions from women this week, so we're going to start from the beginning, and there will be another opportunity for women to ask during the lesson.
M. Laitman: The headline itself requires scrutiny. Equals as one, no friend is strong, the society is strong. Meaning, if I'm in a strong society, it doesn't quite matter how strong I am, because I'm already incorporated in the power of the society, and I can rise together with them, I can carry out all kinds of actions and connections in spirituality.
Reading Excerpt 1: (01:29) Rabash, Letter 42
It is written, “And the people encamped, as one man with one heart.” This means that they all had one goal, which is to benefit the Creator. It follows…
We should understand how they could be as one man with one heart, since we know what our sages said, “As their faces are not similar to one another, their views are not similar to one another,” so how could they be as one man with one heart?
Answer: If we are saying that each one cares for himself, it is impossible to be as one man, since they are not similar to one another. However, if they all annul their selves and worry only about the benefit of the Creator, they have no individual views, since the individuals have all been canceled and have entered the single authority.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:22) You talked about a strong society, that if a society is strong, he is strong also. So why do we need a society that is strong? Why not a friend that is strong?
M. Laitman: A strong society has strong friends. They are strong about their opinion about connection. They all want to annul before the society, and annul their ego, and show this example, this direction in development, one towards another, and everyone towards the others, and to hold on to it, and to pull each and every one, all the friends, toward connection. Because only in connection they discover the Creator, the next world, everything we learn about.
Student: How to feel confidence in the society, to feel that I have power, pride? I don't feel, I don't feel weakness, but because of my belonging to this, my affiliation with it, with something big and strong, to feel that I have gained something in life?
M. Laitman: This takes time, although in the end, a person who doesn't forget about the goal, and he studies, and he grows stronger in how to attain the goal, eventually, he surrenders, and he wants to extract the power of connection from his connection with others, and in this way, to connect to the entire group, the Ten or more, to such an extent that he has no other goal but to annul toward the society, to cancel himself.
Student: Let's say he manages to cancel himself, and suddenly he discovers that he has more power than anyone in the world?
M. Laitman: Yes, as it's written here. Then, when their opinions are equal, and they share one goal, then they become as one man in one heart, with one strong power.
Student: But on our path, we're always the weakest, we have ascents, descents, it's part of the path. So, when will we truly feel that we're powerful, that we have energy?
M. Laitman: Ascents and descents, it's okay, it doesn't mean that we are weak. It just means that we are under the influence of the Creator.
Student: In comparison with the wider public, will we ever feel powerful in comparison to them?
M. Laitman: Yes and no. Yes, in that we can connect and be like we were around Mount Sinai, for example, closer to one another, more connected, dependent on one another, wrapped up in one another. On the other hand, we'll feel how each one of us is nothing, has no power, but in the connection with others, he's a hero.
Student: So, to summarize: if all of the lack of power, the lack of energy we feel through these states, how do you take that and utilize it?
M. Laitman: Powers for advancement. Specifically, when a person feels that he lacks power, that needs to push him. It needs to push the people towards connection between them, because only in the connection, not each and every one on their own, only the connection can save each and every one from weakness and brings them closer to each other. And in the connection between them, they begin to uncover the general force, which is the Creator.
Student: So, for us to have this psychological change, that's the meaning of what you said at first, that I will never be strong, but my society will be?
M. Laitman: Yes, until a person convinces himself that only in this way he can be a hero.
It takes time, but after that, he sees that there's an open road before him.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (08:51) What does it mean to annul the ego? What does it mean to cancel the ego?
M. Laitman: To annul the ego means that although I'm thinking of myself all the time, and that's how we're built, we grew up like that, that I'm capable of not thinking of myself, but of thinking of the society. In other words, not to replace the ego completely and completely cancel it, eliminate it, but to change it for something else.
Student: I came here from Netanya. Does it mean that I annulled myself in order to be with my friends?
M. Laitman: You annulled yourself to some extent, of course. You had all kinds of opportunities to spend this hour-and-a-half elsewhere, but you prefer to come here and be with us.
Student: I'll tell you the truth. I feel as though someone's dragging me on always, maybe it’s annulment. I'm with the society and they pull me forward.
M. Laitman: You will understand it later, it will become revealed to you.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (10:31) Does annulment come from above?
M. Laitman: The power for annulment you receive from above, but the decision that a person makes to annul is something he has to make on his own.
Student: So, we need to reach a desire to be annulled?
M. Laitman: Certainly.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (11:01) I can't connect between the person's work and the feeling of the collective that we have to attain. The friend just asked about the person who has to annul himself and you answered, but before that you said we need to reach a feeling of one man in one heart, and when I hear those words, I imagine a social state that we attain, and I cannot connect between those two things.
M. Laitman: But in order to connect with others, I need to annul myself, not entirely, but to a considerable percentage, because I myself wish to reach all kinds of goals. But in order to annul my goal and take on our mutual goal, I need power for that. It also comes from above, and when I clothe in that power, I begin to attain it. At that moment, I become a new person, I have a new goal, I have actions that I need to carry out. Therefore, we need to incorporate into one another as much as possible in our center of connection.
Student: So, we have two tracks. On the one hand, a person needs to aspire to be a new person, and on the other hand, we need to reach a certain feeling of the society, or is that something... What I mean to ask is, on the one hand, you say that there is the new person, and you describe how to get to that point, and on the other hand, I want to ask, is there a general social state we have to attain, a feeling of togetherness, a communal feeling?
M. Laitman: In our society, we need to attain our common image, one that we can reach in the connection between us, and in that connection, to attain the Creator.
Student: So, it comprises many different friends, each of whom becomes a new person. Is that the condition for attaining that state?
M. Laitman: More accurately, we all become the image of the new man, new Adam, all of us together.
Student: Why is that not happening to us yet?
M. Laitman: Ask yourselves. It depends on the extent to which you are connected.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (14:20) We read that there is no strong friend, rather there is a strong society. Where is the Creator most precisely situated within that system?
M. Laitman: In the center of the society.
Student: So, there is a mutual dependency between all the friends and with the society, right? The society can't do without each and every one of its members, and the society itself is also dependent on the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes, it's dependent.
Student: Where is that transition? It seems we see that if each friend gives his maximum, then the society is strong. So where is that transition between society and Creator?
M. Laitman: In the center of the society, that's where the Creator is found.
Student: What is the center of the society?
M. Laitman: The center of the society is when we can imagine where we assemble into one desire, to one body, one mass. And from that, we wish to act and activate our society, and for the Creator to be with us. And that's how we connect.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (15:55) I want to understand the matter of annulment. Is the Kabbalist always annulled, and that's our goal, to remain under annulment? Because when I go out of here, I return to being egoistic, so I want to understand.
M. Laitman: Relative to the society, relative to the Creator and what's required of us, I'm always in annulment of self.
Student: So, despite the current state, we always need to remain in annulment, in spiritual work, even when I'm not with the Ten?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (16:51) Regarding annulment, when we pray together, all the girls at 8.30, our goal is to be a conduit to the whole of humanity, and in that state, I feel that there are two options. I feel on the one hand, that we can expand the heart from the Ten, and through our group, and through the whole of Bnei Baruch, and through the World Kli, and allow all of humanity to enter our heart, and to scrutinize and ask for them. And on the other hand, I feel that there is another option, where I don't expand my heart, I annul myself as though I don't exist, and I allow myself to be a conduit with everyone else towards humanity. So, which is better?
M. Laitman: That second one is better.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (17:53) This week, we had many scrutinies regarding this boundary as it relates to what the society can demand of each and every member, with respect to people who can't come to the lessons as often and so on. Now, with regards to women, where is that line between demanding that the female friend participate in all of the orders and conducts of the Ten and the lessons, and the fact that they can't?
M. Laitman: It depends, it's a shifting boundary.
Student: Let's say mothers of small babies and so on, there's nothing to speak of there, right? But I, for example, feel that I depend on my Ten. I've come to a state where I cannot advance without a Ten, it's impossible for me to advance without them. So, I can't demand anything of the Ten because it's a Ten of women.
M. Laitman: So, what, why?
Student: Because with women, everything, you have to be very careful. In the morning lesson, I sit with a group of women who aren't my Ten. I cannot do any inner work with them.
M. Laitman: That's your problem.
Student: I can do inner work with them?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So, what to do? It's my own problem?
M. Laitman: It's your problem.
Student: How to solve it?
M. Laitman: You solve it by connecting to a Ten which is entirely yours.
Student: Despite the fact that they're sleeping now, they're not present, and I'm still working with them?
M. Laitman: That is a problem. Why are they sleeping?
Student: Because they’re mothers to very small children, they're pregnant women, they cannot get up for the lesson. I don't have any complaints towards them, but the Creator arranged such a situation that I don't know how to respond to for many years, three years let's say. I ask for other women also because there are many other women in those states.
M. Laitman: I understand. But what can you do? I don't know.
Student: Can I advance getting up to the morning lesson without a Ten?
M. Laitman: Relatively speaking.
Student: I'm missing out on a lot though, right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So maybe the women who get up for the morning lesson need to be in Tens with other women who get up for the morning lesson?
M. Laitman: Maybe. It's possible that we should connect women like this.
Student: Now regarding other activities, such as the morning Zoom meeting or the afternoon lesson, coming to a meeting of the Ten, those are the places where it is possible to demand a bit more.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But with women, again if you make demands, it generates a bad atmosphere, pressure, they get insulted.
M. Laitman: No, why? If I need a society, they need to hold me. I'm incorporated in them, and I contribute from my own strength and that's how we exist.
Student: So, a woman who has chosen to be in a Ten in Bnei Baruch, what is her commitment? How does she check with herself that she's fulfilling her commitments to the utmost as much as she can? Where is the line where a woman can tell herself I'm not doing enough, I am doing enough, the Creator arranged such conditions for me but the Ten can help me. What examinations can a woman conduct?
M. Laitman: I don't want to get into it, but in truth, there's no difference between a man and a woman except a woman has several... What a woman has to do depends only on the fact that she's a woman and corresponding to that, she has other things a little easier in other areas.
Student: Can you give me some way by which to test if a woman is fully fulfilling herself, acting the best she can?
M. Laitman: No, no, but I don't understand why a woman can't be connected to a woman's department, a woman's Ten and see her advancement in them, together with them. I don't understand. A man also has to reach such states where he depends entirely on his friends in much deeper states than what was given to them and where they are already.
Both men and women have to enter such connection between them, meaning men with men and women with women in a complete form.
Student: What are the women lacking now that can have them skip ahead?
M. Laitman: Seriousness, seriousness.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (24:27) I get up every morning at 2:40 to the lesson. Now I understand that if I do this alone is that in vain?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: I include my ten within me but…
M. Laitman: No, not for nothing as much.
Student: So what? Is it meaningless?
M. Laitman: No, it has meaning.
Student: But what of my Ten?
M. Laitman: What can you do? If you are able to bestow to them, go ahead.
Student: Another question. Previously you said that if I'm here without my Ten, but I'm incorporated into another Ten, you said that that's wrong, but sometimes when we come here, we mix up, we mingle with other Tens. So how to…
M. Laitman: It's also not too bad, everyone prays, all the women pray.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (25:41) Discovering the Creator in the Ten. That happens when each friend magnifies the desire to discover the Creator in all the friends?
M. Laitman: Also, that.
Student: Seemingly each one in the Ten has a different image of what bestowal is. Is the Creator truly in the middle between all these partial images?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I also feel that the truth, the more I manage to annul myself before the friends, the truth of what bestowal is within me is constantly changing.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (26:38) About the student’s question from before regarding the new man, the image that's between us, I have a feeling that I as an individual am always coming into and exiting that image. I'm always trying to enter that common desire, that singular image. Is everyone constantly making an effort to enter that singular character, is that what we need to do?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And it's natural that we do that?
M. Laitman: It's natural and it's good. This is how you can renew yourself and by that you reach a higher truth.
Student: And that image always exists, independent of my entering it and exiting it?
M. Laitman: It exists and it depends on your work
Student: The work of everyone?
M. Laitman: Everyone's.
Student: And the more we persist in these entries and exits, will it become stronger and then the society will also become stronger?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Is that image, is it like a wheel that's constantly… it's like the example you gave where some are holding on and some are letting go and we hold and let go together?
M. Laitman: Yes, there is such a thing. All in all, we need to hold on together.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (28:27) Previously you answered another student, telling her that inner work is impossible to do outside of the Ten. So how should I relate to friends of mine who are friends from the path, opposite friends who aren't from the path? Do I not do inner work with them? We meet, we talk about the lesson.
M. Laitman: But you said they’re not on the path, no?
Student: I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. I'm asking What is my attitude towards friends from here who are not of my Ten. We meet and we talk. Opposite a situation where I meet a friend who’s not on the path, because you said if there is someone who is not on my Ten, I don't do inner work with her.
M. Laitman: But you said she’s not on the path.
Student: I'm talking about a friend who is on the path, but not in my Ten. You say that friends who aren't in my Ten, I don't do inner work with them. So, what do I do with a friend who is on the path, with whom I meet, do I not do any inner work with her?
M. Laitman: You can.
Student: It’s possible? Because there are many work groups, teams…
M. Laitman: Yes, everything connects.
Student: It's not an absolute.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (30:04) The ego conceals many things. So, the moment we are annulled, is there such a phenomenon where things are revealed which we haven't been seeing before but were always there? When you manage to annul yourself, suddenly you see things you haven't seen before.
M. Laitman: And what of it?
Student: I want to understand, when I'm here it's clear, working with the Ten and so on, people understand that. But when I'm outside of here, I see things and many times there's resistance, objections. People who aren't on the path at work and so on, I feel resistance towards them, and I feel I cannot work.
M. Laitman: When do you feel resistance, when you want to connect with them?
Student: No, when I'm in annulment, prior to performing some action, and the fact is I see things I haven't seen before and that makes me work a little differently, in a way which goes against the egos of other people. I don't know if I can give an example exactly, but it happens to me every day and I just want to understand. Ultimately of course, it all works out, it all straightens out, but I see that this is happening because of the fact that we're annulling, and then suddenly we see things we haven't seen before. So, is that something expected to happen?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (31:40) This slogan, strong people, strong society, strong leader and so on, that used to unite people around things which aren't very positive. So that strength I assume is not the goal, it's the means. What do we need to be strong at? Why do we need all this power and strength, against who?
M. Laitman: We need to imagine that we are as one man, in one heart, in one group, all of us connected, and we imagine through ourselves that the Creator is in the center of our connection. We portray it this way and we turn to Him with all of our longings and goals and everything.
Student: Yes, in that way we're strong, but this power is against what, or is the strength a goal unto itself? Why do we need to be strong?
M. Laitman: Because there are forces in us that wish to take us back to chaos.
Student: The forces of separation, the ego we can call them, or something greater?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, you can say it like that.
Student: How else can I call it?
M. Laitman: Forces of separation.
Student: So, our forces are our strength?
M. Laitman: It's against the forces of separation
Student: Another question. When I'm here without my friends, there are two ways of looking at it. Either I'm just alone, a sucker, doing all the work when they slack off, or if I didn't have them, I wouldn't even have been here, so I'm here thanks to them. Each of them has her strengths and weaknesses, or each one of that perception. So, the first perception obligates me to say, come after me, there's power here, and the other approach generates a feeling of commonality, so which one to stick to?
M. Laitman: To advance by yourself as much as you can, that’s the first stage, and the second stage is when you add to it all your friends, as much as you can.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (34:08) Regarding this discussion we're having about the vision, it seems that there are two different directions, two trends. On the one hand, we want our society to be very inclusive and include many, many more people than we have with us today, to expand such that every person can enter our society. But on the other hand, in the other direction, we have questions about how to be more like the head of the spear, the tip of the spear, and it seems to be two different approaches. Sometimes we say we have to be like this and like that, and then many people will fall off because they cannot manage to do that, they cannot come to the lesson every day. So, what’s the right approach, how do we combine these two?
M. Laitman: That's always a problem, always a problem. We need to support and strengthen friends as much as possible, and as much as possible push them forward.
Student: But this push, how is it executed? Through pressure, or maybe through joy and importance and from that a person feels he wants to join, or maybe through guilt, you're doing things all wrong and so on. It's a different approach.
M. Laitman: It's an approach in order to embrace everyone and pull them forward.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (35:52) Previously you said that the women lack seriousness. What helps a person, whether a woman or a man, to decide that what we're doing here is his first priority in life, over and above everything else?
M. Laitman: He hears what Kabbalists said, that those who engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah have a different attitude to life and death, to the next world and to this, and they are drawn to walk the path of truth.
Student: Can this be a permanent decision?
M. Laitman: No, the way you change, this also changes.
Student: So, you have to decide again and again that this is my first priority?
M. Laitman: Yes, this should be as new in your eyes.
Student: What can help me reach that decision, not to waste time between ascent and descent?
M. Laitman: When you decide by yourself that there's nothing more important than what you're doing.
Student: What will help me reach that decision, because it can take time until I notice that I have other things as my first priority,
M. Laitman: That's already the society.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (37:35) It was written that this state of connection is enabled when each one is concerned about the Creator instead of concerned for himself. What is that concern regarding the Creator and how to reach a state where each friend feels that if she's not concerned with the Creator, then something is lacking?
M. Laitman: You should work constantly on the connection and want the Creator to act from our decision, from our efforts, and to feel that we advance Him, and we hope that He is advancing us.
Student: So, each friend in the Ten should feel that the Creator needs her efforts, so to speak, her contributions?
M. Laitman: Not that He has a deficiency in it as we say, that He is needful, but nevertheless there is something, we want it to be this way.
Student: So that we have a feeling of responsibility towards the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (38:54) There’s a feeling that we're entering a state of mutual dependency between us. Can we perhaps liken it to a fountain that we feel we're all drinking from, and we're sustained by our connection to the Creator and the purity of our thoughts, the intention towards the friends, the purity of our wishes for one another. Will that set the quality of our connection to the friends and the society, and we won't be able to live without that fountain, that's our life, without that connection. Another question, there's a feeling that the Creator is always concealed, and He simply wants us to find Him. Come find me and fear me, feel reverence. And then we go to a higher degree and the bodies vanish, the friends vanish, there's only His desire to bring us closer. But happiness comes when the doubts are mitigated, meaning, oh, we finally caught you. How to reach that joy? It always starts with the feeling of rejection or something like that, and the question is, can we reach that joy only when the individual warms the hearts of the Ten, the hearts of the friends towards connection, and that's his process of making, creating?
M. Laitman: Let's say.
Student: There's a feeling that the outcome, if we actually do this in a simple and joyous way, you feel, oh, You're preparing such great things for me, I'm already inspired, and I want to create alongside you. So how to cook up such a state in the Ten?
M. Laitman: Try, try to work on them, to speak to them, to draw them out. In our work, there's a big part of our work that we have to do by ourselves. I with myself, I with the Creator, I with my Ten, with my friends. Indeed, it's a problem, we shouldn't let go of it.
Student: So, we'll feel in the common connection that the society has with the Creator, we'll already keep that rule of don't do to your friend what you wouldn't have done to you? Within that fountain of intentions that we always purify, we wouldn't want to add anything negative, because tomorrow I'll be drinking from that.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:47) You said not to let go, and immediately I felt when you said that, that you mean not to let go of the connection with the friends, with the Ten. I hear the scrutinies of the women and also some of the men, and I tell myself how can you let go of this because this is our connection to the Creator? How is it possible? And people who have a difficult time getting up in the morning don't see their friends. Where's the path there, I ask myself.
M. Laitman: For a woman, the Creator completes it.
Student: How does the Creator complete it?
M. Laitman: A woman is exempt from many commandments. She's exempt from lessons of the Torah that we learn each morning. Several hours a woman has a daily schedule and there are different demands from her.
Student: Yes, but I see that there are many women here who have difficulties in this regard. They truly want to connect, to do their work. They want to connect with their friends and they don't have the friends present, so how to solve that issue?
M. Laitman: I don't think there's such a thing that a woman who wants to be in a correct environment can't attain the society, can’t follow up the society. There are people who are in charge of them, and they themselves are part of our organization for many years. I look at them as friends, women friends who have everything in their hands.
Student: So, I also connected to what you said before, namely that it's the work of the individual. Much depends on my own individual desire, the extent to which I want to bring the friends to connect with me.
M. Laitman: Yes
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:58) I heard a few questions here, and I want to summarize. We have our lives within the Ten, which are becoming more and more serious as you said. We lack some seriousness still, but it's bringing us to a new place.
M. Laitman: It's clear, it's especially felt recently.
Student: We also have our life in the general group, which is also changing, and then there's life with the external society. To what extent should we allow what's happening here influence our connection with the external society?
M. Laitman: There needs to be no connection at all. What I have here with my friends, with our goal, with spiritual ascents, spiritual descents, everything we have, it’s all inner life and this personal life, this private life, I have no obligation to share those with anyone except for my group, my friends.
Student: Thank you for saying that because I heard some questions which evinced confusion in that regard. So now a woman is in the morning lesson, she's with her Ten a few times a day, and within she carries that connection. And now she needs to go outside of here. Women work in different professions, sometimes in positions of great responsibility, in difficulties with other people, and you truly need to completely separate things, right?
M. Laitman: Complete and absolute. Rabash spoke about it many times, not a lot, but a few times. We have to understand that it's an immutable law. What we have here, and what you have there are two worlds, two separate worlds.
Student: The more we work inwardly, the more the gap between the two things grows, and accordingly you need some strength to keep that gap. Where do you get that strength?
M. Laitman: From your small group you attend, whoever you are connected to in this internal spiritual process.
Student: So, it becomes like a kind of secret. We have our secret and you shouldn't be able to see anything outwardly, you're a normal person.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (46:49) Many years ago, you answered the question I had, as I heard it, and that was the first time I came here to you, and you told me that here everyone is at the end of correction. Everyone has already achieved the final correction and the Creator is just having them act in front of me so that I can see where I can advance, where I can reveal more deficiency and so on. And the truth is that created within me an image of a powerful society. You really painted for me this picture and I said, that’s it, here I want to stay. From that picture you painted for me of all the friends being at the end of correction, I now hear these scrutinies here and participate in them sometimes and I say, outside you measure a person according to his profession, how much money he gains, how much he invests, and accordingly you appreciate and value that person. So maybe we need to be more accurate with regards to the scrutiny of what a strong society is, to know what gauges we need to put an emphasis on. Of course, coming to the lesson and participating in the Ten, those are our simple means but the definition of a strong society should be somewhere above the individuals and the details.
M. Laitman: A strong society is an extremely flexible society, and its flexibility can be to such an extent that it may appear that it's about to break. On the other hand, specifically because of that it's so strong. In spite of all the pressure and all the incidents that the society experiences, they hold on and they connect even more between them. That's considered a strong society.
Student: This is with respect to my own work? Am I the one who decides if the society is strong, so that where it's tough with me, I always justify that because that's the structure of a strong society? If I assume it's a strong society, it will be a strong society?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (49:51) Previously you talked about the image of the new man, meaning we need to connect and within the Ten to become a new person, the image of a new man. So, what is that image?
M. Laitman: We're all connected together as one man in one heart, through this one tendency, inclination, to be in the center of creation, connected with the Creator and assure that we make room for Him and allow Him to enter between us, to dwell among us. And in this way, we will be accepted and grow stronger.
Student: So, that image is identical for all the Tens or is it different between each Ten?
M. Laitman: No, in each and every generation it has its own conditions, its own details, individuals.
Student: Is it made up of the combination of the qualities of the friends, the members of the Ten?
M. Laitman: Also.
Student: Does it change every day from moment to moment?
M. Laitman: As much as they talk about it, yes, as much as they say it.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (51:25) With respect to the scrutiny conducted by the friend, we see that the ego is running rampant, going wild every day. How do we of Bnei Baruch, who pray every day, who are in the lessons every day, every day we want the world to be better. How can we influence the world?
M. Laitman: By correcting ourselves internally, each one of us, and between us. By that we will influence the world, and the world will eventually, nevertheless move toward these corrected forms.
Student: For many years now, I see that the world is declining, falling into the abyss. How can we stop that, how can we prevent it? The men and the women are praying every day, but how? I tell my friends I don't know what to do, and none of us know what to do.
M. Laitman: I have no way of doing anything. It's what the Creator gave us, and we can only act accordingly.
Student: So, we continue as per usual, and then the lord will complete the work for us?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (52:57) You said that we advance individually, but also with our advancement we should pull everyone forward, advance everyone. In that you begin to feel the dependence you have on your group, on the environment you establish around yourself, the friends in your Ten, and that's the most repulsive thing for the ego. That advancement generates great resistance because you're used to working alone, pulling alone, marching alone. This environment is all nice and well, but it all goes against the ego. So how do we generate the power to overcome that, to overcome the rejection we have towards dependency, because if we understand that the environment is made up of many friends, it's not just one friend, how do we overcome the objection to the agreement to be dependent on each other?
M. Laitman: Soon you'll get to a point where you won't be able to do anything, any action, unless you're connected in the Tens between yourselves. If you're not connected in Tens, when you're not able to do something in order to bestow from within the Ten, then you have no possibility to do any spiritual action.
Student: But this understanding exists in only some of the members of the Ten. It's not that the whole Ten has this understanding.
M. Laitman: I don’t understand what you’re saying.
Student: If we understand that we depend on each other and that's the environment with which I need to advance forward, and I feel that powerfully within me, will the whole Ten feel it? Is it enough, right for myself to feel it, or do others need to feel it?
M. Laitman: Slowly, everyone will feel it. It has to be clarified in the Ten, has to.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (55:08) How to work with the feeling that some of us feel this obligation and some of us do not, as of yet?
M. Laitman: Keep going. What can you do? There are such things in each and every Ten, and as I recall it was the same with Rabash. He had these kinds and those kinds, all kinds. It will become clear that the Ten contains people of all kinds.
Student: And that feeling that sometimes the ego is arranging these delays in the Ten?
M. Laitman: Yes, it just appears this way to you. It's an appearance, and we have to continue.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (56:26) We're now initiating a process for the whole of the society together, but I see that there is a different attitude coming from you and from us, as a female Kli.
M. Laitman: A different attitude?
Student: Yes, a different attitude towards us as the female vessel, the questions are a bit more rounded. What I'm asking is, in addition to our incorporation as the female Kli, in what the whole society is going through, is it correct to generate… For example, we have a women's prayer before the lesson, very powerful. Is that sufficient, or should we also create a small space so that it's not a hindrance, a burden for our society, to have a way to organize. Maybe a space where Tens can share their experience about their work and create more of a female Kli on a technical level.
M. Laitman: I would say this depends only on you. What do you need, a place for it? You have a place for it.
Student: From you we don't need anything. Certainly, we can do this virtually.
M. Laitman: What do you mean?
Student: The question is, do you think there's a need for it, or should we focus only on the inner work and focus on what the whole society is doing through prayer, or should we take another step and create, at least in Petah Tikva maybe, a group that is a bit closer in terms of knowing each other and knowing what our Tens are doing?
M. Laitman: Do you need it?
Student: I don't know, I'm asking.
M. Laitman: Decide if you want something. We'll think how to accommodate that which you want.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (58:50) Regarding Sunday’s Building a Society, Establishing a Society, if someone can't be present in that meeting, is the whole group obligated to participate or…
M. Laitman: What Sunday?
Student: Every Sunday we have a series of ten special meetings. Is everyone obligated to hear that?
M. Laitman: I don't know.
Organizer: What she is talking about is the process we've initiated of realizing our vision. So, every week on Sunday we have an hourly meeting where we scrutinize how to strengthen ourselves as a society, and she is wanting to increase the importance of it, so if you can't participate, at least listen to the recording of it. How important is it for everyone to be incorporated in that procedure?
M. Laitman: I wasn't invited so I don’t know, but I think that if many women take part in it, then certainly it can be important.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:24) Throughout the whole lesson I've been thinking. This week in the lessons we heard how the men's Tens want to have better attendance in the lessons, and we talked about how the women do the same work as the men in their Tens, and we appreciate that very much. Alongside that, can we also offer support, a push, assistance for the men's attendance to grow, to be better, because you said it's very important.
M. Laitman: I don't know. You already know each and every one of us, and you can twist us around however you want. Truthfully, I'm not trying to use a coarse language, a crass language, but it's like a mother towards a child.
Student: Yes, that's clear. So, a woman for whom it's very important that her man comes to the morning lesson and goes to sleep on time, does she profit from that?
M. Laitman: Of course.
Student: What does she profit?
M. Laitman: Everything he gains, she gains.
Student: So, if I as a woman take many things upon myself in order to have my husband or my son, the members of my family who are engaged in the purpose of life, to clear out some obligations for them, will that help? It's very important for me to give them that push.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:27) Regarding women whose husbands are not on the path, the family is not on the path, do they also gain something from us being on the path and being strong?
M. Laitman: Nevertheless, anyone who's on the path or not so much on the path, men or women from our family, it adds to us, it adds. Rabash would get extremely concerned, and he cared that every woman would have the ability, possibility, opportunity to be a part of the society as much as possible.
Question (Women Azerbaijan): (01:03:54) Here in Azerbaijan we have a women's Ten, but other than that, there's also a very strong female Kli engaged in dissemination. Our question is, the inner work we do in the women's Ten, and outside of that we have the work we do in the general group, because we're very close together in the women's Kli and women's group, and there are many scrutinies going on, many questions in that group. Does working in the general group not offer us spiritual advancement?
M. Laitman: Why wouldn’t it? Each and every penny adds up to all the rest, and this way we reach a great sum. You should not belittle this.
Student: If for example we have ten girls in the Ten and two or three arrive maybe once a month, maybe twice, and the rest are active, so what do we do so everyone…
M. Laitman: We may not be able to do anything.
Student: Is it not in our power to do that?
M. Laitman: Maybe it's not in our power. You will gradually see it
Question (Women Turkiye 7): (01:06:03) When we disagree, at what point do we unite? Can you explain annulling and uniting with a friend?
M. Laitman: We need to have more gatherings, maybe once a month to have more women in their meal. Try to arrange a group around that. I don't know, this depends on how much you want to be connected, hard to say.
Student: You said no matter what happens in the group, we have to treat our friends with love and we have to be very patient with our friends. But when we do that, when we're so loving and patient, then sometimes I feel like we're stealing from those persons, because then they're okay with not coming to the classes, they're okay with not coming to the meetings and everything. So how can we balance the love towards our friends and patience, so that we won't steal from our friends?
M. Laitman: I don't know. These are questions that I don't know how to answer. They linger for many years, and I never have a clear and definitive answer for them.
Question (Women Moscow 6): (01:09:22) How can we advance the Creator?
M. Laitman: Publicize it. There's such a place where you learn how to reveal the Creator.
Student: What is that strong group that promotes the Creator?
M. Laitman: A strong group is a group that studies and works in dissemination.
Question (Turkiye 2): (01:10:19) Previously we talked about members of the Ten who are asleep during the lesson. They don't have the proper conditions to advance to spirituality, they can't come to the lessons. How can we establish a strong group when we have such members who can't come, who can't wake up?
M. Laitman: I prefer a person who comes to the lesson and sleeps through the entire lesson, and he does that daily and it's certain he will advance. Rabash would highly respect such people who are with us there. That's nature already, but he made an effort, he showed up, was incorporated with everyone, and fell asleep.
Question (Women Hadera 3): (01:11:48) What is the difference between polite relationships and spiritual relationships? Is saying something pleasant to a friend not the same as assisting her with respect to her ego?
M. Laitman: No, no, we have to speak the truth as much as possible. We shouldn't lie, we shouldn't deceive.
Student: It turns out that many times it feels unpleasant to say something, so we either remain silent or we encourage the friend not to do a certain thing because we want to be polite and not to harm her, offend her.
M. Laitman: I respect the fact that you have manners, but nevertheless, you have to think about the advancement of the group.
Question (Women Moscow 8): (01:12:45) You said that a strong group is a flexible group.
So, I wanted to understand what exactly you mean by a flexible group, and how is that flexibility expressed?
M. Laitman: A group is flexible because it's willing to work with any participant, this kind and that kind, and adapt itself to each and every member of the group.
Question (Women Moscow 5): (01:13:39) If we annul ourselves, is it specifically in that state that we become as one, we become the same and that's the condition for discovering the Creator? Is that because this clears out the space in which we can perceive the Creator, and if so, how can we magnify our desire to annul ourselves and how to track our different states? Let's say, with respect to the Ten, because my desires, I need those only to fulfill my friends.
M. Laitman: Only through the connection with the friends.
Question (Women MAK 45): (01:14:31) From where can we take the force of will to participate in the lessons and the meetings of the Ten?
M. Laitman: You don't have to take anything from anyone. You have to agree with the friends to take you by the hand and bring you to the place of the gathering.
Question (Women Europe 5): (01:15:09) We connected together over half a year ago, two Tens, Sochi and Germany 7. Up to the point where we connected, we had experiences from many meetings we had together. How to create a good connection between us when we don't have the opportunity to meet physically? Can we add concern about the friends' corporeality as we meet virtually?
M. Laitman: One can't replace the other, I think, cannot.
Question (Women English 1): (01:15:50) You said it's better to come to the lesson to sleep than not to come. I find myself coming to the Lesson and I just sleep during the lesson, and by the time I wake up I feel guilty, I have to listen to the lesson all over again. I don't know why the Creator is doing this to me, so what do you gain by sleeping?
M. Laitman: I mean to sleep. What do you gain? Later we feel sorry, we ask for forgiveness from the friends, from the Creator. Let's hope that the following day we will not be asleep.
Student: Is this a phase that will pass? Because it's been going on for a while now with me and I feel guilty when this happens to me and I have to listen to the lesson all over again. I do the Lesson like six hours a day as a result of this.
M. .Laitman: I don't know. I would try to write down what is said in the lesson and to ask questions. I saw that sometimes this works, sometimes that works, but you have to do something against the sleep, something.
Question (Women MAK 19): (01:18:05) Once you told us how when you were studying with the Rabash, the women helped you in dissemination, in typing out the lessons. Maybe they could help and share their experience with the female Kli, because we have many questions about female Tens, the women's Tens.
M. Laitman: I don't know, that was many, many years ago.
Student: How can each of us learn how to be an example?
M. Laitman: Talk about yourselves, about the examples you wish to give to others, and you'll see how they will listen to you.
Student: Do all of us have a certain pattern that we need to fit into? Maybe I'm doing something wrong, and then...
M. Laitman: The correct template for an example, the Creator has to show you how to do it, how to get through the lesson. We have teachers, instructors that are beautiful, amazing.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:48) Lately, I've been hearing a lot. I understand that the person has personal work to do opposite the Creator, which is to hope to come to know Him, to find Him. But also, Baal HaSulam wrote that the individual must not come out of the collective and ask for himself, never ask for himself, but only for the collective. So, sometimes in dialogue with the Creator, I feel that I speak for myself, and not for the friends. Sometimes I do remember and put them in there, but how to relate to that, that dialogue, that personal dialogue with the Creator, which isn't done as part of the collective?
M. Laitman: It's best not to ask like this. It's best not to disconnect from the environment.
Student: So, if I feel it's egoistic, and I tell myself stop, don't speak to Him, don’t turn to Him in that manner, then that's good?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women MAK 23): (01:21:05) How do we enter the authority of the one in the Ten?
M. Laitman: Specifically with your desire.
Student: With the desire to connect?
M. Laitman: With the desire to connect, to be in one desire in the Creator.
Student: Another question, in the inner work, how should I do it with respect to friends who aren't active in the Ten? Should I also see them as great, to connect with them inwardly, despite the fact that they’re not active in the Ten?
M. Laitman: Give them an example and talk to them.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:12) There's a question I was a bit afraid to ask because the ego resists greatly. There's a concept called the annulment of the desires. I heard it many times, and seemingly it's very hard for me to think about canceling out my desires, even though they're the lowliest, most beastly. Suddenly, I have to annul my desires towards the society. How? I truly don't want to do that. It's difficult, because I understand that otherwise I won't advance, I'll remain within my ego. So how do I cancel, annul my wants towards the society? I heard that a person has to cancel out all of his wants with respect to the society.
M. Laitman: What you heard, you heard, but in practice, you should continue and demand from the Creator. Ask the Creator to help you with connection, that's it.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:31) We used to have very strict orders in the society. For example, after 8:30 PM., nobody calls each other, everyone goes to sleep. Lately, it's become a lot looser. People write to each other at ten, eleven at night,
and then by great force, they manage maybe to come to the morning lesson. How should we make the orders of the society clear again? We go to sleep at a certain hour and not another, or should we just speak about it in a generalized way, to just raise the importance of it?
M. Laitman: I'll continue that same rule, not to call after 9.00 PM.
Student: How can we as the women's society support the men in going to sleep early as part of our preparation for the lesson, preparation of the whole Kli?
M. Laitman: Yes, women need to apply pressure on the men to go to bed earlier.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:57) Does love depend on us?
M. Laitman: Very much so.
Student: On the women and the men?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:25) A question about men whose wives are not on the path. Is there something that we, as the female Kli can do, so that they feel this push, the pressure you talked about, for them to get up for the lesson?
M. Laitman: You must apply pressure on all men, without exception, who are here as members of Bnei Baruch, and that's it.
Student: How can we, as the female Kli do that, when it's not a woman working with her husband?
M. Laitman: That's his problem, that's his thing, that he has a wife and she doesn't let go of him. But you have to give good support to all the men.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (1:27:00) Lately, there's this concept we've been talking about, vision. It's in the air, that concept vision. I don't understand what the vision is. I make great efforts, I understand that it's a process and we're all advancing in a certain direction, but can you define please? For example, if a person walks on the beach, you see his footprints, and I know where to step so as to follow him exactly. But perhaps, can you define for us where exactly do we need to walk?
M. Laitman: Toward connection. Only from the connection between you can you influence the Creator to open up the path, the trail, everything you need, especially women.
Student: Why the women especially?
M. Laitman: Because men have the lessons, the study, the social connections, all those things, but for women, try to awaken that.
Student: Truth be told, I don't understand what the recommendations are. Women should do what especially?
M. Laitman: I recommend for women, especially for women, to be connected to one another around these actions that you make, and that's it. We talked about actions a lot already.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:28:57) You said that you depend greatly on the group. What does it mean that the Kabbalist is dependent on the group?
M. Laitman: He's dependent, it's clear.
Student: In what?
M. Laitman: In everything. He ascends with the group, he descends with the group, not the same way that they do, but they influence one another.
Student: What do you expect of us these days?
M. Laitman: That you will come to all the lessons, all the women’s lessons, that you will come to morning lessons perhaps. The main thing is to twist the men in such a way that they will be connected even more between them, and to the Creator, and to the path.
Student: And what do you expect of the men, specifically?
M. Laitman: To listen to such women.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:30:41) Is there an option for women to come and participate physically in the morning lessons? Maybe once a week, once a month?
M. Laitman: Before the holidays, perhaps we can do that. Be well, especially women, family, and we will disperse.
Announcements: (01:13:12)
Song: (01:36:58)