The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Evening 2) February 21, 2025.
World Kabbalah Convention. Connecting to Lishma.
Lesson 4: Raising the Prayer for Lishma
Reader: Hello friends, we are in lesson number four in our Congress, “Connecting to Lishma” on the topic of “Raising the Prayer for Lishma”. You can find the study materials in convention.kli.one, also in the Arvut system.
About questions during the lesson, we remind you that anyone who wants to ask a question and is sitting in the front part of the hall up to the passageway in the middle, put up your hand and don't lower it until Rav gives you permission to speak and then one of the ushers will give you the microphone. Anyone who is sitting in the back part of the hall, please come forward to the questions stations. You can see the friends with the red hats.
In the Arvut system, those who want to ask a question are invited to put up a question mark. Please make sure you ask short questions only according to the topic of the lesson, out of responsibility for the thousands of participants in the Congress, right now.
One more thing, when Rav is speaking or answering a question, please avoid putting up your hand. Now we are all in the answer or in the question. Once Rav finishes answering and he asks for more questions, then you can put up your hand.
Anyone who is receiving simultaneous translation, please put both earbuds into your ear so that you don't disturb those around you. Also, lower the volume to minimum.
About connection to the internet, friends from the world Kli who are here now in Petach Tikva, and also connecting to the Arvut system, are asked to work with audio mode. Friends from Israel, please do not connect to the Wi-Fi, only use the cellular internet.
Please make sure your phones are turned off. Let's do it all together. Let's make sure our phones are off. We have no alerts, no rings, everything is silent. In general, we're asking everyone to behave with as much alertness and silence and not to disturb those around you and completely avoid getting up unless it is necessary. That's it. We're entering the lesson. Rav Lesson number Four on the topic of “Raising A Prayer For Lishma”.
M. Laitman: If there are any questions to me before that, that don't have to do with the lesson, so please ask now.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:00) [Arkady, Mak24] A question from our Ten: Every Congress is like a summation of the previous six months. After the previous Congress is an indication of the quality of the work we have done since then. How do we find in the depth of the work that was done and measure the advancement we made before the Congress and during the Congress?
M. Laitman: I can't answer that, yet.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:44) [Poland, Mach 25] First of all, allow me to convey a warm welcome from the Polish Kli and also from the women's Kli. The women said if I don't do it, they won't allow me to come back so I have to pass on their love. A question that is not related to the topic but I wanted to ask it for a long time. Please tell me how is it possible that with all the huge knowledge that you have, with the degree of attainment that you have, you can so calmly answer questions with an answer like, I don't know or I cannot answer that? How can you answer in such a way?
M. Laitman: Yes, like Shakespeare said, “there is a lot unknown to even the sages. Of course, I don't know everything, and there is a lot more I don't know. But we are learning, we are advancing forward, supporting one another. Okay, we'll move forward.
Reader: So we will read lesson Number Four.
Raising a Prayer for Lishma.
RABASH, Article No. 508, "The Ascent of Malchut to Bina"article 1.
Reading: (05:56) Rabash writes, before a person is rewarded with faith, he must work in lo Lishma, which comes to a person by the mixing of Malchut with Bina. A person cannot work Lishma until he has faith. For this reason, if a person wants to work Lishma, he must focus all his energy only on this point, to pray to the Creator, to send him the light of faith. For only then will he be rewarded with engaging in Torah and Mitzvot, Lishma.
M. Laitman: Meaning our goal is to reach Lishma and we really want to attain the degree of Lishma. We hope that, as a reward for our study, the investment we do in our studies, we will have Lishma. It's a very great degree in which we will feel and see all of reality. And the Creator, who manages it, and ourselves also in that same reality, and thus, receive all of reality together.
Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 5, "Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?" Excerpt 2.
Reading: (08:24) The need for man’s work in order to receive the Lishma from the Creator is only in the form of a lack and a Kli [vessel]. Yet, one can never obtain the filling by himself; it is rather a gift from the Creator.
However, the prayer must be a complete prayer, from the bottom of the heart. This means that one knows one hundred percent that there is no one in the world who can help him but the Creator Himself.
Yet, how does one know this, that no one will help him but the Creator Himself? One can acquire that awareness precisely if he has exerted all the powers at his disposal and it did not help him. Thus, one must do every possible thing in the world to attain “for the sake of the Creator.” Then one can pray from the bottom of the heart, and then the Creator hears his prayer.
M. Laitman: Each and every person has the opportunity to invest all his forces, to ask all the questions, to address them to the Creator. And to reach a state called, Lishma. Whereas, it is with certainty that the Creator has forces and possibilities to bring a person to corrections. To such a correction that a person will feel the Creator, just as the Creator feels the person. That is why we need to understand that all our work is in order
to reveal the Creator, how He fills the world, how He governs all of His creations. And we need to want to attain this, to see this, to feel this out of the connections between us. Such that, if I wouldn't feel my friends, I wouldn't know to ask anything about the Creator, about where He is. Hence, the main thing, the main consequence and result of our study, would be an answer to my question of where the Creator is. Okay, well?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:47) Why does prayer become a true prayer only when a person feels himself completely lost?
M. Laitman: Because he has full confidence that one is needing the Creator now and there are no other forces, no other expressions of sincerity that will help him.
Student: How do we reach such a state? Do we need to yearn for such a state?
M. Laitman: Yes, that's the state we should long for, to attain.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:04) [Sasha from Moscow] How can I peel off my heart for a complete prayer if the ego doesn't allow me to be honest with myself?
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: How can I peel off my heart for a complete prayer if the ego doesn't allow me to be sincere, honest, with myself?
M. Laitman: It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what the egoism enables or doesn't. When we are in such a place, like a Convention, the most important thing is that we need to awaken the upper light upon us. Then it will be clear to us to what distance there is between us and the Creator; what distance we are from the Creator, to the general attainment, everything will be clarified before us. By no means should we look backwards and think, oh, how could I have achieved this? This is bothering me and that is bothering me. By no means—God forbid—nothing is bothering us. Also, the greatest challenges we have, appear just in order for us to rise above them and make another step towards Him.
Student: What is that step, now?
M. Laitman: By connecting between us even more and together making one more step forward.
Reader: Yes, Number Three.
Baal HaSulam. Shamati, Article No. 20, "Lishma [for Her sake]" #3
Reading: (16:36) Concerning Lishma [for Her sake]. In order for a person to obtain Lishma, one needs an awakening from above, as it is an illumination from above and it is not for the human mind to understand. Rather, he who tastes, knows. It is said about this, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Because of this, upon assuming the burden of the kingdom of heaven, one needs it to be in utter completeness, meaning only to bestow and not at all to receive. If a person sees that the organs do not agree with this view, he has no other choice but prayer—to pour out his heart to the Creator to help him make his body consent to enslaving itself to the Creator.
M. Laitman: We see that it is not that we are not getting answers but, rather, that we yearn to reach the revelation of the Creator, we receive even less than us. Even if we discover something, we also feel to what extent those revelations are true. There are revelations that are incidental, and then not much remains but to subjugate oneself, subdue oneself. And in such a manner, they will then be able to receive the answer.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:22) Yosef from Haifa 3. We see that we work, we labor all the time, with great exertion and longing. Actually, everything we do stems from the power of faith. The more the power of faith is greater, its influence over us is greater.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: I'd like to ask how can we intensify, increase this force, if we even have the option to increase the force of bestowal because it only comes from above?
M. Laitman: Yes, from above, but it depends on our preparation from below. If I don't know what I need to attain, I'm living like all other human beings. If I know what I need to attain, that I need the force of faith, the force of faith is the sensation of the Creator, the feeling of the Creator I demand, I demand it every moment. Eventually, after many such actions, the Creator is revealed.
Student: Because sometimes we go through a certain state and we feel as though we're talking with the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: It's an amazing feeling, the force of bestowal, faith, everything changes completely.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 79, "Atzilut and BYA" #4
Reading: (21:17) One should come to learn Lishma, for the sake of the Torah, meaning that the Torah will teach him the ways of the Creator. And then he should first make the sweetening of Malchut in Bina, which means that he elevates Malchut, called “will to receive,” to Bina, which is considered bestowal. That is, that all his work will be only in order to bestow.
And then it becomes dark for him. He feels that the world has grown dark on him since the body gives strength to work only in the form of reception, and not in the form of bestowal. In that state, he has but one choice: to pray to the Creator to open his eyes so he can work in the manner of bestowal.
This is the meaning of “Who stands for the question?” It refers to Bina, called Mi [water] and the question comes from the verse, “asking about the rains,” meaning prayer. Since they arrive to the state of “water of Bina,” there is room to pray for it.
M. Laitman: Meaning, nothing will really help us but to come to states in which each and every one of us will feel that besides turning to the Creator, for Him to send to that person a feeling, the feeling that he is in contact with the Creator, nothing else will help him. That's the only thing we need, meaning, we need to reach the revelation of the Creator by us discovering how, to what extent. Without him we're not capable of reaching anything, nothing. Okay?
Reader: Number Five.
M. Laitman: Five.
RABASH, Article No. 24 (1991), "What Does It Mean that One Should Bear a Son and a Daughter, in the Work?" #5
Reader: (24:21) When a person prevails and asks for help from the Creator, after he has decided that he has a harm-doer in his heart, called “will to receive,” and that he cannot emerge from it, meaning after going through several ascents and descents, he finally sees that he has remained bare and destitute. At that time, his prayer is from the bottom of the heart. That is, he sees that if the Creator does not help him, he cannot overcome it.
Rabash writes, when a person prevails and asks for help from the Creator after he has decided that he has a harm-doer in his heart called the will to receive, and that he cannot emerge from it, meaning, after going through several ascents and descents, he finally sees that he has remained bare and destitute, at that time his prayer is from the bottom of the heart, that is, he sees that if the Creator does not help him, he cannot overcome it.
M. Laitman: That means that we need to reach a state in which it's simply, my death is better than my life. Where I must be certain that, alone, I'm not capable and if the Creator doesn't help me, I'm also not capable. And if the Creator helps me, then to the extent in which he helps me, I do start to see the world and myself in the world and that everything is arranged for me by the Creator. Okay?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:05) The sages write about Malchut Shemaim or about a desire where there's no light or a place without rain, without the ability to raise a prayer. And they write about the faith that should be higher than that weight that I have in the world of bestowal. So I don't manage to understand it. What should join this darkness, the place without rain, the dry land. Something has to fall on that ground, on the ground needs to somehow get seeds.
M. Laitman: The feeling of faith needs to be the general feeling in a person; in such a case, a person begins to feel the Creator.
Student: This is an addition or is it a correction?
M. Laitman: It's a correction.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:29) As much as I understand it, the state that is close to Lishma is when a person doesn't demand anything except for contact with the Creator, connection with the Creator. Then, it turns out that if a person reaches some connection with the Creator, as a result of his actions. Let's say, he built a group, a Ten, he has a certain schedule that he keeps to, a certain daily routine. So what can he add, why should he add anything? Because if he adds something, he's already putting himself at risk. If he will add in the wrong direction, he'll be wrong, and he might lose his connection with the Creator. Doesn't it make more sense not to touch what is precious for you because you might ruin it?
M. Laitman: It's not exactly like that. A person asked, prayed, begged for the support of the Creator. He moved forward, attained a certain degree, and here he saw that this isn't at all the direction he should have turned to. What to do in such a case? To change the direction, ask the Creator to take him out of this entanglement and take him forward.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:15) My name is Rudi, the Young Group of Romania, and I would like to ask the following: If a person's intellect cannot understand what Lishma is, how can he actually enter this work, if he doesn't know what it is?
M. Laitman: I can't answer because I don't understand the question?
Reader: What he's asking is, if one's mind cannot understand what Lishma is, how can he enter, actually, that work?
M. Laitman: When we try to rise up the ladder, a person attains all kinds of states that lead him to Lishma; that's all I can say. Thousands of hands. Well? Well, go ahead.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:11) Lyubomir from Bulgaria. The first excerpt we read says that we should pray in order to receive the power of faith, in order to reach Lishma. Later on, we scrutinized that faith is the attainment of the Creator. How not to become confused that faith is not some imagination of mine? How does this mechanism work of faith, then the attainment of the Creator, then Lishma? How does it work?
M. Laitman: We need to long for the revelation of the Creator and, gradually, certain longings are created in a person that will bring him to contact with the Creator. So, we need to continue.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:50) Hello, dear Rav, I'm Zhanna from Bulgaria, MAK 56. To this congress in Lishma I wanted to bring silence with me. I'm not out of questions, but it's just that the desire came to learn how to listen, not only to those who are close to me but also those who are further away. In the Congress, I received through the questions of the friends and Rav's answers, nothing is really hindering me from hearing the Creator. Is it correct that when I move myself from out of the work with the questions, the Creator can reveal and elevate what is most important? Exactly that which is necessary for me to hear, and I can reach a true state of a complete prayer?
M. Laitman: That’s precisely what needs to happen.
Question (MAK Germany): (35:23) Today, you can feel the power and force of the whole Kli. And with all our hearts, we are asking for the Creator to open the door to Lishma for us. And there’s no doubt that He will bring our Kli to Lishma for us, if not today, then tomorrow. But there’s the fear that we will disconnect from the external world, we all have husbands, childrens, parents and we would really like for the Creator to give them a point in the heart, as well, and bring them to Bnei Baruch. And it seems like the world Kli with all its power were to direct its energy to the external world and ask them to give this gift to the people around the world – to all the people, our friends – the point in the heart, then the Creator will give it to the many. Why don’t we do that? Why do we disconnect from the external world and not ask for their correction? Isn’t that important or can we not help the world before we have reached Lishma ourselves?
M. Laitman: First, we need to attain Lishma in a clear manner. We need to attain it and then from that degree of Lishma, we will draw all the created beings to there that are outside of him. That is how it is.
Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 19, "What Is 'The Creator Hates the Bodies,' in the Work?" #6
Reader: (37:20) There is room for work precisely when the will to receive awakens. Then one has close contact with the Creator to help him turn the will to receive to work in order to bestow. One must believe that from this extends contentment to the Creator, from his praying to Him to draw him near in the manner of Dvekut [adhesion], called “equivalence of form,” discerned as the annulment of the will to receive, so it is in order to bestow. The Creator says about this, “My sons defeated Me.” That is, I gave you the will to receive, and you ask Me to give you a desire to bestow instead.
M. Laitman: Can you understand what Baal HaSulam is writing, here? Okay. There are no questions?
Reader: Should I read it again?
M. Laitman: Are you asking about this, about what's written?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:58) Please tell me how to cry out to the Creator and ask for the desire to bestow, when we have no deficiency for it? We all know that we need to ask for a bestowal, that we need to bestow. But how can we feel this true lack in order to cry out to the Creator that I want to bestow?
M. Laitman: We need to connect with people like you, and from the common awakenings you have, you will connect these negative feelings, qualities, according to the need of the help of the Creator for you. And to the extent that you need His help, you will reach every one of you longing for the Creator, demanding Him, demanding His presence.
Student: If there is no deficiency, the Creator will not fill it? But I should simply ask?
M. Laitman: The Creator will drag you from side to side, and create for you different kinds of events until you reach the state in which you have to ask Him for the quality of bestowal. Where are we, seven?
RABASH, Article No. 40 (1990), "What Is, ‘For You Are the Least of All the Peoples,’ in the Work?” #7
Reader: (41:13) A person sees that there is no way that he will be able to work with the desire to bestow and not for his own sake. Such a thing can happen only through a miracle from above. And indeed, this is called “the exodus from Egypt,” meaning to emerge from the mind he has by nature, where it is impossible to move unless he enjoys it. Conversely, here he is asking the Creator to give him the strength to work where he has no feeling or flavor, but to believe that the Creator enjoys this work, since it is all in order to bestow.
For this reason, this prayer is an honest prayer, since a person sees that he cannot hope to ever be able to do anything in order to bestow. It follows that a person feels that he is lost. At that time he has close contact with the Creator, and this is something that a person should appreciate—that he is asking the Creator to help him and there is no one in the world who can save him.
M. Laitman: Questions? Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:31) How to come to a state in which the prayer will dwell in my heart forever? Not to pray three times a day, ten times a day, but for it to always be in the heart of each of us?
M. Laitman: For this, you need to be under the influence of a strong group in which everyone is searching for the Creator. They are calling Him, turning to Him and from this, they move forward.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:25) I came to the Convention for the first time.
Reader: Can you present yourself, say where are you from?
Student: What?
Reader: Say where are you from.
Student: I came from India. My Ten is Kab U 13. When I reached Israel, I thought what am I going to do, why am I here? When I spoke to the veteran friends and our instructors I understood how much shame I have. So my question is after all that I have seen, can I see my friends from the part of their point in the heart or from my heart, and not from my heart?
M. Laitman: I think that you have good friends and you have a group that is supporting you. And if you try to belong to them, they will do everything for you so that you will be able to reach spirituality.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:31) I'm from Latin 12. Every time I appeal to the Creator and ask for the friends at the end of the prayer I always feel bad, because I don't feel like I did it good, that I'm not asking well or correctly, that it's not enough what I'm asking. If so, how during the prayer can you provide Him my entire heart to the Creator?
M. Laitman: That is a question. This means that you would have liked to give Him your whole heart but you see that it's not working. Okay, so what do we do? Does anyone have an answer? I don't see that anyone has an answer.
Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (49:25) We discussed a very similar question in a workshop before this lesson. And we came to a common conclusion that in such states, and the most complex of states, you need to run to the Ten and to try and resolve this problem together. It's not just words, it's really the only place where it's specifically for this that a person receives his obstacles in order to receive the Creator, to resolve the problem.
Reader: Maybe we'll discover this question through a song of how to provide our entire hearts to the Creator.
Song: (50:25)
M. Laitman: That's it? We've gone through all the sections?
Reader: I'll read. Number 8. Rabash writes;
8. RABASH, Letter No. 9
Reading: (55:11) One who sees one’s lowliness sees that he is treading the path leading to the work Lishma. This gives one room for real prayer from the bottom of the heart, when he sees that no one will help him but the Creator himself, as Baal HaSulam interpreted concerning the redemption from Egypt, “I, and not a messenger,” for everyone saw that only the Creator Himself redeemed them from the governance of evil.
And when rewarded with the work Lishma there is certainly nothing to be proud of because then one sees that it is only God’s gift, and not “my power and the might of my hand.”
M. Laitman: Questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:18) We read this in the Ten a few times, that it's not the power and might of my hand. But it's that we can talk at the end of the day how much we invested and prepared ourselves. And now the Convention is over, we have one more meal. And there's no strength, no force to pray. That's one thing. The second thing is that you are compelled to ask for all the friends. Everyone got here, everyone wants to reveal the Creator, and the Creator wants to be revealed. It's in this crisis that you're obligated to pray but you're not capable. What must we do now? What is it that we have to ask for? What do we need to do? All that remains is tears. Help, Creator, help us. Save all of Bnei Baruch. What can we do? What Should I do? How to ask?
M. Laitman: What to ask for? That I can't tell you, you must scrutinize it. What is the greatest desire, the ultimate, the final one with which you want to turn to the Creator? And this is what He must fulfill. So you can turn to Him with a true request to such an extent that He won't be able to evade it in any direction, He is expecting such an appeal from you.
Student: What is this real request?
M. Laitman: The true request: With what would you really like to get from the Creator?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:09) We have now in Kiev a huge Mirror Convention, 146 people in the hall there. And they wanted to ask a question. I'll read it in our Ukrainian language. How to ask for the desire to bestow: for me or for the friends? How to annul the ego from my request for bestowal? How to nullify my ego out of my demand for bestowal or my request for bestowal? How to cancel my ego to annul? How to cancel my ego out of my request, when we ask for bestowal? How to do it so it won't be from the ego?
M. Laitman: Well, who has an answer?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:44) If I ask for my friends?
M. Laitman: Who has an answer? There, behind you.
Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:01) It's a place for prayer, to ask the Creator to rise above the ego, because that's our work. We need to work on it.
M. Laitman: Okay.
Answer (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:18) To love the Creator more than myself. Because He is first, the only, the One, the Unique; and there is None Else Besides Him. And we are parts of Him.
M. Laitman: Wonderful. Okay. This is all about the lesson that we've been through.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:50) Is our point in the heart controlled by the ego?
M. Laitman: If we will want it, then it would be.
Student: But should we want it to be controlled by the ego, or should we want it to be controlled by the friends, or given to the friends to give to the Creator? Because it seems the ego wants what's opposite of the Creator. What do we want? That what is controlled by the point in the heart is our ego? Or that we want that what is controlled by the point in the heart is the friends, the Creator, and it seems that the ego wants the opposite of the Creator?
M. Laitman: That is true. We want to ask of the Creator that He will build, sorry, that He will entirely destroy our ego. Why should I let her ask? Okay, go ahead and ask.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:56) I’m from Germany. My question is, I feel a very strong force during the meals. This force leads me to a state of prayer. And there's no specific content. It's not in the words, anything that I recognize. How can I extend this prayer when I leave this wonderful community tomorrow?
M. Laitman: How should I answer her?
Reader: How should I answer her? I have an answer, but it's always with the songs; they answer the best. It's a good question. Maybe we can move to a workshop with that question. And kind of scrutinize it between us.
M. Laitman: A workshop, can we? Can we have another workshop? We can make a workshop from her questions?
Reader: Okay, a summary, but I see there are friends that are still burning with questions. A song?
Song: (01:05:38)