The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) January 29, 2025.
Part 1: Baal HaSulam. The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee). #26.
Reader: Hello, we're reading in the writings of Baal HaSulam. In Hebrew, it's page 395, “The Arvut” article, we are in Item 26. You can find the study materials in our websites, Sviva Tova and the Galaxy system. You can also send us questions live through our websites. “The Arvut” article, Item 26.
The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]. Item 26
Reading: (00:32) Bear in mind that these matters are evident to every educated person in the invitation that the Creator had sent to Israel through Moses prior to the reception of the Torah. It is as it is written (Exodus 19:5), “‘Now, if you surely listen to My voice and keep My covenant, then you will be a Segula [virtue/power/cure] unto Me from among all peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you will be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you will say to the children of Israel.’ And Moses came and called for the elders of the people and set before them all these words which the Lord had commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord has said, we will do.’ And Moses reported the words of the people unto the Lord.”
These words do not seem to fit their role, since common sense dictates that if one offers one’s friend to do some work and wants him to agree, he should give him an example of the nature of that work and its reward. Only then can the receiver examine it, whether to decline or to accept.
But here, in these two verses, we seem to find neither an example of the work nor its reward, because he says, “If you surely listen to My voice and keep My covenant,” and he does not interpret the voice or the covenant and to what they apply. And then he says, “Then you will be a Segula unto Me from among all peoples, for all the earth is Mine.” It is not clear whether He commands us to labor to be a Segula from among all peoples, or whether this is a promise of benefit for us.
We must also understand the connection to the words, “for all the earth is Mine.” All three interpreters—Unkelos, Yonatan Ben Uziel, and the Jerusalem Talmud—find it difficult to interpret these words, as is the case with all the interpreters—RASHI, Nachmanides, etc.
Even Ezra says, in the name of Rabbi Marinos, that the word “for” means “although.” He interprets, “Then you will be a Segula unto Me from among all peoples although all the earth is Mine.” Even Ezra himself tends to agree with it, but that interpretation does not coincide with our sages, who said that “for” serves for four meanings: “either,” “lest,” “but,” and “that.”
And he even adds a fifth interpretation: “although.” And then the writing ends, “and you will be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Here, too, it is not self-evident if this is a Mitzva, and one must exert in this, or a promise of benefit. Also, the words “a kingdom of priests” are not repeated or explained anywhere in the Bible.
The important thing here is to determine the difference between “a kingdom of priests” and “a holy nation,” for by the ordinary meaning of priesthood, it is one with sanctity, and it is therefore obvious that a kingdom where all are priests is a holy nation, so the words “holy nation” seem redundant.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (07:12) What is a people of Segula? Usually we speak about Segula [a special power] as something where, seemingly, there's no connection between the action and the result. For example, he writes that the study is a Segula, there's no connection between the understanding and the learning. What is a people or a nation of Segula?
M. Laitman: Virtuous people means that they will take upon themselves what the Creator demands them to. And then, through them all the nations will see and follow. That's on the people of Segula, the virtuous people. Here, we need to clarify: What's a kingdom of priests and a holy nation? These are heavy things.
Student: Again, the people of a Segula, it's like a special power. What does it mean, what do they take upon themselves?
M. Laitman: Virtuous people, or people of Segula, means a special people.
Student: What's their uniqueness?
M. Laitman: That they carry out what the Creator demands. That their whole life is only according to where the Creator dwells and how He becomes revealed. And so they do this, firstly, for the Creator and for the whole world.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:25) It says, and all the people together answered and said: “All that the Lord has said, we will do”.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What does it mean, “all that the Lord has said, we will do”?
M. Laitman: What the Creator demands of the people of Israel, they are willing to do.
Student: It says that they say it, together.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What does it mean, “together”?
M. Laitman: Probably, unanimously.
Student: How can the whole people, the entire nation, say something together?
M. Laitman: I don't know. Probably, they know how to do it.
Student: We need to feel each other on a certain level. On what level, in order for it to be together?
M. Laitman: Through a single root that the Creator awakens them to that.
Student: And they?
M. Laitman: They do it, they execute it.
Student: How do they feel it? I mean, there's the one root that awakens them towards that. I'm asking, how do they feel each other, so that the feeling will be “together”? This agreement that all that the Lord has said, we will do, will be together?
M. Laitman: Probably, through the root, that's the common space between them.
Student: If everyone feels this root, then they have this feeling of “together?”
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What gives them the strength to accept the demand of the root from them to agree that, all that the Lord has said, we will do?
M. Laitman: It turns out that the relation to the root brings them together.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:30) He says, “If you will hear My voice and keep My covenant”. What covenant is he talking about that Israel must keep?
M. Laitman: What they received in the giving of the Torah, the reception of the Torah.
Student: What did Israel receive? What covenant is there between them and the Creator, now?
M. Laitman: He says, you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation – one nation, a united nation – and be ready for that.
Student: Do they know what to do? Is the work clear for them because, on the other hand, he also says that we do not, seemingly, find any example of the work or the reward for the work? He doesn't give them an example either of the content of the work nor its reward. The question is, do Israel know what is their role? Is it clear to them? What is this covenant that they have to keep?
M. Laitman: Probably so, otherwise, how could it be that the Creator demands it?
Student: To hear His voice, how to listen to the voice of the Creator, how to hear His voice?
M. Laitman: To hear His voice, that they understand what they need to do, what they need to expect from the Creator in return.
Student: Why does the Creator need mediators? Why did the upper force, the Creator, need mediators? Why does He need Moses to pass it on? And Moses needs the elders and talk to the people. Why all this mediation, why doesn't the Creator simply act, directly?
M. Laitman: That's how the nation is organized, that's how the nation is organized.
Student: What is this order for? Why can't the upper force turn directly to every person's heart and give him this covenant, or let him hear this voice? Why does he need all these brokers, these systems of mediation in the middle?
M. Laitman: These are degrees through which the Creator connects to the whole of the people.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:35) You said, we have to relate to the root. From where does this relation come? From where do the people of Israel even understand, what does it mean to relate to the root, even before they receive the Torah? What is this relation?
M. Laitman: From the Creator turning to them.
Student: What is special about the Creator turning to the people of Israel and, by that, they already understand this special relation? You discover a relation from one state to another.
M. Laitman: The Creator, who is addressing them, is essentially setting up the connection that exists between the people and the Creator.
Student: What exactly does He arrange, there, so that they actually understand that they have a special role that they have to do?
M. Laitman: What the Creator is now saying, that if you will hear and follow what I'm saying, then you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, and so forth.
Student: What's perplexing, here we also talked about it before the lesson and also yesterday. How did the people of Israel take upon themselves a certain role, a very exalted role, when they don't even know what they're going towards? They have no clue what they're going to do and still they say, “We shall do and we shall hear”. What's the special thing, here, that the Creator gave, that He let the people understand, that everything that the Creator will ask for them, if they do it, it will become, it will come true? It will be realized.
M. Laitman: Probably, what they have from nature, the will to receive and the feeling of connection in society. That is sufficient to receive what the Creator is now telling them.
Student: Meaning, they reached a certain inner state where they were able to perform their role?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Can we translate it to our state today because if you look at it, the concepts may be different. But, maybe we can draw something from that to our role today? To do the things that we're worthy of today so that with an inner choice, we can already reach this state of “we shall do and we shall hear”?
M. Laitman: If you ask me, I'm not certain, I don't know. Probably we're able to – if we want – if suddenly the Creator's will will become apparent in our attitude and our ability.
Student: You're saying that it all depends on our desire?
M. Laitman: Probably so.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:59) The kingdom of priests and a holy nation. What is a priest, who is a priest?
M. Laitman: A priest is one of the people, and possibly, there could be many of them who are among the people. And they feel this law of the priests that applies to them.
Student: What are the qualities that a priest is working towards?
M. Laitman: That in a group called the people of Israel, there is a number of people who are considered priests.
Student: They work according to what?
M. Laitman: According to what they feel, through their desires, through their awareness.
Student: What they feel in their desire, in their awareness, I suppose is an inclination towards connection?
M. Laitman: Yes, as written: “And you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”.
Student: What is the tradition of a kingdom of priests? What is the kingdom?
M. Laitman: I don't know. We'll study together, what's written.
Student: To crown upon oneself the priesthood, can anyone do it?
M. Laitman: No. According to what we see, no. Rather, one who was born as a priest; meaning, a man who was born from a father who was a priest.
Student: And internally?
M. Laitman: Yes, interpret it internally.
Student: I'm trying, you're saying that it's impossible. Only a man who overcomes, who is born to a father who is a Kohen?
M. Laitman: A father.
Student: A father, who is a Kohen [a priest]. And a holy nation, seemingly, it sounds the same thing. But it also sounds like a development of forces, even further in. We learned from you that a nation, or a gentile, is one who feels that he's outside of the land. He feels that he's far away. Something like that, maybe?
M. Laitman: I don't think that's the interpretation here.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:53) We are standing opposite conditions that we have to keep. Why does Baal HaSulam, here, ask this question that if we will know what is the reward and what is the work, then we will be able to keep it? Why does he even scrutinize all of this? Why does he condition it on this explanation of what is the work and what is the reward so that only under this condition, we will keep everything that he wants from us; if we will know what is the work and what is the reward?
M. Laitman: Because we are built from a will to receive and it has to receive an exchange if it gives anything. Here before us there is a great work – a field of work – that we have to carry out. And, now the question is whether we accept it.
Student: The question is if we accept it, it will already depend on how much it will do good to us, how much it will match? I mean, we give conditions here, seemingly. How can that be that it depends only on our will to receive?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: The question is, it's surprising to me that Baal HaSulam is asking like that. That we have to know what is the work and what is the reward and, then, we will be able to keep it.
M. Laitman: That probably needs to be clarified, so it's a point for scrutiny.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:42) On Mount Sinai, was a nation receiving the Torah? Is there a way for us today to connect to that nation?
M. Laitman: I don't know. I'm just learning that the people of Israel of today are seemingly, a product of the nation that existed back then. And went into Egypt, came out of Egypt, accepted the Torah, which is essentially the same nation as the Jews of today.
Student: What is the connection from us to the nation that stood at Mount Sinai?
M. Laitman: I don't know but I know that today's people of Israel is related to that people that existed in Mount Sinai.
Student: I'm asking because the Creator called us here, to come together to be a nation, Bnei Baruch. So I wonder what the connection is?
M. Laitman: The Creator probably wanted us to ultimately, fulfill what He wants from us. And by that – by doing that – we will connect between us, and that's how we will build out of ourselves the nation that the Torah refers to.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:43) He says here, about the verse: “If you will keep My covenant and be a Segula unto Me from all the nations, for all the earth is Mine”. Then, he takes that word, “for” or “because” and says it has another meaning which means “although”. So, what is this question, “although all the desire comes from the Creator”, meaning “All the earth is Mine”, nevertheless, you will be a special people? What is the emphasis he's giving us here with this question?
M. Laitman: We'll see. Maybe we'll hear something new.
Student: The fact that all the desire comes from the Creator, it's not enough? Nevertheless, there has to be something special called a Segula, a special nation?
M. Laitman: Yes. This, only now starts to be explained.
Reader: (29:07) He turns to the people of Israel and communicates the knowledge of the Creator that says, listen and keep. On the one hand, I guess, it's not clear enough that they have to hear the voice of the Creator and obey it. Still, he turns to them, so what is that state? Are they one nation, already, when they answer like that?
M. Laitman: As if they are a single nation, yes. They came from a single group that was in the exile in Egypt and everyone was pressuring them; that's what I understand.
Student: And the connection for “all the earth is Mine”. What does the Creator say in that?
M. Laitman: That you have to accept all the laws that I'm telling you now because I own the land.
Student: So that He can do it anyway because He controls the desire, or?
M. Laitman: I don't know, that's what's written.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:40) Many times we heard, “we should do and we should hear”. But, in this excerpt, the order is, seemingly, the opposite. They hear and then we hear and then we do. First of all, what does it mean, “we shall do”, what does it mean, “we shall hear”?
M. Laitman: I don't know. There are things here that I still don't know.
Student: Does the order matter or not?
M. Laitman: The order matters; it's a different order.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:39) This whole article, Baal HaSulam is trying to prove that the people of Israel received the Torah, they understood, they agreed, they were asked. They agreed to all the conditions and they accepted it, received it. All the scrutinies in this article only prove that there was such a thing. How do we know that only Israel received it and not all the other nations, the other desires? I want to ask, if we are a desire, Israel, we're all united, why can't we receive the Torah at any time? Isn't it such an emanation that always exists so that if there is a worthy, ready vessel, that the Torah is received? Isn't it such a law?
M. Laitman: There are many questions about this and I don't have answers.
Student: One time in the past you were always pushing us and you said it can happen every moment, just like the Messiah can come every day. It can happen every minute, in every congress, in every lesson, the light can come. Maybe, you won't feel it but it comes, this is how you used to say in the past. Now, you are saying you know?
M. Laitman: Both, from then and now you have the possibility to discuss all the conditions that the people of Israel are in their vocation. I don't have an answer for everything we might ask here. I'm in favor of reading more, reading forward and going as deep as we can into the matters in order to somewhat, better know the state, the situation of Israel. That's all.
Reader: So, we're reading item 27.
The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]. Item 27
Reading: (34:17) However, by all that we have explained from the beginning of the essay until now, we learn the true meanings of the words as their roles should be—to resemble a negotiation of offer and consent. This means that with these words, He really does offer them the whole form and content of the work in Torah and Mitzvot, and its worthwhile reward.
The work in Torah and Mitzvot is expressed in the words, “And you will be unto Me a kingdom of priests.” A kingdom of priests means that all of you, from the youngest to the oldest, will be as priests. Just as the priests have no land or any corporeal possessions since the Creator is their lot, so will the entire nation be organized so that the whole earth and everything in it will be dedicated to the Creator. And no person should have any other engagement in it but to observe the Mitzvot of the Creator and satisfy the needs of his fellow person so his friend will lack none of his wishes, so that no person will need to have any worry about himself.
In this way, even secular works such as harvesting, sowing, etc., are considered to be precisely like the work with the sacrifices that the priests performed in the Temple. How is it different if I observe the Mitzva of making sacrifices to the Creator, which is a Mitzva “to do,” or if I observe the Mitzva “to do,” “Love your friend as yourself”? It follows that he who harvests his field in order to feed his fellow person is the same as one who sacrifices to the Creator. Moreover, it makes sense that the Mitzva, “Love your friend as yourself,” is more important than one who makes the sacrifice, as we have shown above in Items 14, 15.
Indeed, this is not the end of the matter, for the whole of the Torah and the Mitzvot were given for the sole purpose of cleansing Israel, which is the cleansing of the body, as written in Item 12, after which he will be granted the true reward of Dvekut with Him, which is the purpose of creation, as written in Item 15. That reward is expressed in the words “a holy nation,” as through the Dvekut with Him we have become holy, as it is written, “You will be holy to the Lord your God, for I the Lord your God, who sanctifies you, am holy.”
And you see that the words “a kingdom of priests” express the complete form of the work on the axis of “Love your friend as yourself,” meaning a kingdom that is all priests, that the Creator is their possession, and they have no self-possession of all the mundane possessions. We must admit that this is the only definition through which we can understand the words, “a kingdom of priests,” for you cannot interpret it with regard to the sacrifices on the altar since this cannot be said about the whole nation, for who would be making the sacrifices?
Also, with regard to taking the gifts of the priesthood, who would be the givers? And also, to interpret the holiness of the priests, it has already been said “a holy nation.” Therefore, this must certainly mean that it is only that the Creator is their domain, that they lack any material possession for themselves, meaning the full measure of the words “Love your friend as yourself,” which encompasses the whole of the Torah. And the words “a holy nation” express the full form of the reward, which is the Dvekut.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:51) He writes that from the least of them to the greatest of them, they will all be as priests, the nation. And they have no corporeal business with the land, their possession is the Creator. What is the matter of the priest who has no matter in the corporeal?
M. Laitman: What he does is he elevates his work, he raises it to the Creator. That's it.
Student: What is that possession, or territory, he has in the Creator?
M. Laitman: Well apparently, he discovers his share, his lot in the Creator. And out of that, this is what gives him the strength and the energy.
Student: Later on, he also says that the work of “love thy friend as thyself” is more important than making a sacrifice. What are the two works and why, specifically, “love thy friend as thyself” is more important?
M. Laitman: I think that “love your friend as yourself”, in that we cover the entire nation with one connection, and we elevate them to the degree of the Creator.
Student: What does it mean to cover all the nation in a single connection?
M. Laitman: That everyone by that becomes the receivers of the reward, of the result of how we relate to the entire nation.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:54) He connects, here, “love thy neighbor” with how a person has no corporeal possession, is that a feature of “love thy friend”? If I want to be in love “thy friend as myself”, I have to give up all my material possessions? Is that what it means?
M. Laitman: We will see. For the time being, I didn't hear about it in such a way.
Student: That's what he writes here?
M. Laitman: Well, for the time being, he writes, so that we understand it in such a way.
Student: What's the connection between the material possessions that the priests don't have and “love thy neighbor”? He makes a sort of a summary in this article that you have to give the pillow to the Hebrew slave, and so forth, and here he connects everything and kind of closes it. And his explanation is because you're going to be a kingdom of priests, and a kingdom of priests is to give up all material possessions. Therefore, “love thy friend” is the Mitzva that locks everything up because that's the only way to get there. So, I'm asking, basically, how does it work because until this moment, I never thought that “love thy friend” means that a person has to give up all of his material possessions. Many other things went across my mind but not this one.
M. Laitman: We will see. We will see. For the time being it doesn't sound quite like that. We will see, we will continue along with him and maybe, we will find out.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:06) He writes here nicely, that one who reaps his field to feed the others is like me giving a sacrifice to the Creator. Meaning, that if a person is in the right intention it doesn't matter what action he does, whether he takes the crop of the field or makes a sacrifice, it's?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Then what happens is, basically, the action itself is unimportant?
M. Laitman: It's the opposite, all the correct actions have great importance.
Student: If a person works according to the commandment of “love thy friend as thyself”. So the action that he's doing, would it close matters for us?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So, it doesn't matter whether he makes a sacrifice or he reaps the field or... It doesn't matter. But still, if two people work in “love thy friend and thyself”, is there more importance in making a sacrifice than not? Say, taking the crops from harvesting the field? Is there a hierarchy of the deeds?
M. Laitman: Apparently, so.
Student: If we work in the right intention, what's the importance of the actions? Why do you need to make a sacrifice?
M. Laitman: Among all the works that the people of Israel have, there are holy works where they operate from the side of the person towards the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:54) About the priests, it is said that they have no material possession for themselves and no possession in the land because the Creator is their land. What does that mean?
M. Laitman: The Creator is their lot but as a result of their holy work, they all connect in the Creator. And there, they reach a state of connection that the Torah demands.
Student: There are material possessions, there are material lots, and then there's “the Creator is your lot”. What does it mean that the Creator is someone's lot?
M. Laitman: I think that it comes as a result of the connection of a person with the Creator so that then, he adheres to the Creator. And this actually, is the end of his action.
Student: When a person has a material lot, then he lives in it, he can grow crops in it, it nourishes him, it's his place, it's everything, he has a share. So, when the Creator is your share or your lot, what does it mean?
M. Laitman: That you exist in a feeling, and also in your works, as a result of everything that is happening to you in spirituality, as a result of your spiritual actions.
Student: You live in that lot, for example?
M. Laitman: Apparently, so.
Student: So, you live in the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: He is your lot?
M. Laitman: I think so, this is the end of the keeping of Torah and Mitzvot. That the Lord is their lot.
Question (Women Petah Tikva 6): (52:34) I heard you say that the right actions are very important. What is the correct action that a person can do at every moment?
M. Laitman: Only “love your friend as yourself”, in this direction.
Question (Women Mak): (52:55) What does it mean to accept the commandment of “love thy friend as thyself”?
M. Laitman: Accepting the commandment of “love your friend as yourself” means that the person in all the moments of his existence thinks about how to be more connected, more arranged with all the people in the world. And this is actually all of his work, all of his effort, his entire goal.
Question (Women Turkiye 5): (54:06) Is the kingdom of priests, a kingdom of all of those who are in bestowal towards each other?
M. Laitman: All those who are in bestowal towards each other, what about them?
Student: Is this what's called the kingdom of priests?
M. Laitman: Yes, this is a kingdom priest.
Question (Brazil): (54:42) Is love thy friend an inner action or I have to show it on the outside, as well?
Student: This depends on the magnitude of “love your friend as yourself”. We have to reach a state where we are all in it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:33) In order to give someone an example, I have to have an attitude towards the one I give an example to. I want to ask what is the right attitude that the people of Israel need to have towards the nations of the world, so they have a desire to give them an example? They should appreciate the nations of the world?
M. Laitman: They should appreciate the nations of the world from the perspective that the Creator demands that.
Student: Meaning, because the Creator; okay, I understood. So then, what is the relation that the people of Israel need to have towards the Creator so they feel they need to do this role?
M. Laitman: The people of Israel receive from the Creator the work – the place of work – and they have to approach it and keep it, do it.
Student: Because what?
M. Laitman: Because it's the Creator's will.
Student: So, what's the attitude that needs to be towards the Creator in order to make him obligated to fulfill the will of the Creator?
M. Laitman: As the Upper one of the Upper one; this is how we should relate to the Creator.
Student: In terms of the nations of the world I'm trying to understand: How can someone take an example from someone they have criticism towards? If you have criticism towards someone, you can't take an example from them. So, my question is what kind of attitude needs to be towards the nations of the world, or from the nations of the world towards Israel? Or there's no expectation?
M. Laitman: This is a result that comes from the nations of the world and how Israel relate to their role. And therefore, they keep the Torah and Mitzvot, according to the Creator's will.
Student: Today, there's a very special relationship, a very unique attitude where you feel that the whole world is focused in a single nation. It's a very special thing already, again, they relate to them, they criticize them. So again, I'm asking, what is the right attitude in terms of the nations of the world towards Israel? What do they need in order to get an example from this nation? How should they look at this nation?
M. Laitman: They need to see this nation as the people of the Lord. That the nature of the Creator exists inside this nation and the nature of these people constantly brings them closer to the Creator.
Student: Can it be that with this relation you just mentioned, if that becomes clear in the nations of the world, then the role of Israel within Israel will also become clearer?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:51) He writes, that one does not need to engage in it more, besides to fulfill the commandment of the Creator and fulfill the needs of his fellow men, so that his friends won't lack anything they need, so that no one will need to be concerned about his own needs. Also, in the article Matan Torah, he writes that the Arvut is a precondition to the reception of the Torah because as long as someone needs to care about his own needs, then he can't fulfill “love thy friend as thyself”, and so forth.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: We exist in a reality, where not all of our needs can be, we can't be in complete concern for the needs of the friends. Just, you know, work, health, many things that are in the hands of – I don't know, say – other factors that are not part of our study, part of what is happening with us. So, it seems like in our state, we can't really fulfill this condition of the kingdom of priests. So, the question is how can we bridge this gap? Can we even bridge this gap?
M. Laitman: Yes, otherwise it wouldn't be written in such a way; it is written directly about us.
Student: Okay. How can we bridge this, let's say, even me towards a friend. If I see that he has some concern that is not really in my hands I can't really turn to someone and say, look, this friend, he needs a job, you know, let him work for you. And also, me on my part, I also have needs, I always am concerned for and it's always a struggle of sorts. So, how can you bridge this part which is not even in our hands at all?
M. Laitman: I don't know but nevertheless, we have to realize that the thought of creation is working on us, and whether we want to or not, we have to get closer to it and keep it. There is no choice and for the time being, it seems as though we are moving away but with respect to understanding it, we are actually coming closer.
Student: It's just that the friends have concerns for themselves, I, too, have concerns for myself. How can we help each other, relieve each other, from these concerns? It seems like this is something that really prevents us from getting closer to, as he writes here, that the Creator is their lot.
M. Laitman: Yes, for the time being it's still very far away. It seems to us even to be the opposite. But we have no choice, we must keep it, as much as possible.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:27) So, the change is mostly in the attitude?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, there's no reason to expect something to change, externally?
M. Laitman: We shouldn't expect that the conditions will change?
Student: Externally.
M. Laitman: No, what needs to be changed, the only change that can occur is in Israel.
Student: Israel, meaning, so that the change could be in my relation to reality?
M. Laitman: Their role.
Student: And this thing needs to expand, the more we carry out this rule, it will expand in Israel.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:24) Bnei Baruch, our group, I feel it as the central force of reality. The inner force that exists in our reality but the criticism, the blaming finger of the world, let's say, is aimed at the people of Israel and not us. And we, basically, should be giving the example. Why is it specifically aimed at them?
M. Laitman: This is how it is felt in the entire general vessel towards or with respect to their inner state.
Student: Should we see that when there's some claims or complaints towards the people of Israel, we should take it upon ourselves, that we need to do some extra step or change within us?
M. Laitman: We're not capable of it, it's clear to us that we're not capable of it. That we run away from this whole role that pertains to the correction of creation. And this is why, for the time being we cannot participate in the correction of creation as we should.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:24) From everything we attain, everything is decided in advance, everything is predetermined. And also, he said it here, that it's all a matter of hastening time, how to attain our adhesion faster. So, what are we missing in order to get to that state where we demand it to happen now because it has to happen, it needs to happen. The only thing is that something seems to be delaying things, He does everything on his part but we aren't. So, how do we make it so that it happens now, and with everything that we have to go through, and the people of Israel, what they have to go through?
M. Laitman: What can we do? We can change our sensitivity towards what is happening in the world, with respect to the general law of the whole of reality. With respect to our role, this is what we need to change.
Student: Meaning, that we need to change our sensitivity, and it's something the Creator does in some way. Because man's sensitivity is built from the environment, from his Ten, and so forth. How do you really put the emphasis on what you just called it by its name, as sensitivity, the sensitivity to the world, the environment, and society?
M. Laitman: This is only through a collective effort of the Israeli nation that we can do it.
Student: So, I need to look for the Israeli nation within me, or between us, here, where is that nation? With all the scrutiny we did it still somehow disappears, it's something that needs to come from the Creator, the recognition of this nation. Where exactly does it appear?
M. Laitman: It is revealed in the center of creation in connection, or lack of connection of all the nations, together.
Student: I'm trying to clarify “the nations”, this is something intangible for me. If I don't find it within me, it's something that is, on the other hand, that the others, what's outside is most important. And with all your answers, it's still not clear to me how do I bridge this connection of all the nations?
M. Laitman: I have no clue; probably, if we will want to reach this in action it will become clear to us.
Student: So, it's something that we need to increase the deficiency between us to this desire?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:15) The Creator governs, or rules, only the individual or also his connection with the Ten?
M. Laitman: The Creator governs both the individual person and also the connection between people.
Student: Because if so, then what is expected of man to do in his transition from looking at himself to looking at the world. Or how he works in his connection with the friends?
M. Laitman: I didn't understand?
Student: If the Creator governs everything, then what's the difference when a person thinks about himself, or only thinks about himself, and when he goes out to work with the others? What changes there?
M. Laitman: What changes is how a person relates.
Student: Right, but here basically, the whole matter here is around the Torah. This force that the Creator gives to the person when he's willing to work in Arvut.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So, this whole matter focuses on the agreement to being in this Arvut and then the work happens by itself? I don't understand, it sounds like all the work was done in Egypt, they work in connection and they come to Mount Sinai. And then he says, if you agree from here, everything will work smoothly?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, is it only about this point, agreeing to work in this way?
M. Laitman: But this is what it's all about, this is the entire goal.
Student: That what?
M. Laitman: That the people of Israel need to get closer to.
Student: The work towards the Arvut, towards the connection, to some extent, that's how I look at it, existed also before they came out of Egypt.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Meaning, the whole process is with respect to that. So, they're already there. What's the difference in terms of the situation of Matan Torah, the giving of the Torah?
M. Laitman: That they receive the Torah.
Student: What does the reception of the Torah depend on?
M. Laitman: On “We shall do and we shall hear.”
Student: How does it manifest in the connection with the Ten, “We shall do and we shall hear?”
M. Laitman: That everyone is incorporated in everyone and each one comes out of himself and becomes incorporated in everyone.
Student: So, about this, from the beginning of the lesson, I have this question. I'm sitting in the lesson, we read the excerpt, I hear the friends speak, and I try to kind of think of the friends in an active way and incorporate in their deficiencies, and - nothing - it's like you told me to think about some other galaxy, altogether. So, why here there's nothing to kind of hold on to?
M. Laitman: Here, we still need the social agreement that we will see on that and be concerned about keeping this condition. And then we will feel it.
Student: What is missing in our agreement because we are all thinking about it, we all are in this effort?
M. Laitman: We do not ascribe enough importance to it. We don't ascribe importance to it. Let's say that we will connect. Let's say that we will reach the understanding, the awareness and the necessity of working in order to bestow to each other. Well, how can I obligate myself to be in this work as is demanded of us. Non-stop and with everything, as I care for myself, so I should care for everyone.
Student: What's missing, a social mechanism where we will always be this way?
M. Laitman: What's missing here is a mechanism, like you said nicely – it's a good, correct word – that will tie our hearts together.
Student: I can't, it's beyond a need for there to be a longing for it. Or what's missing?
M. Laitman: It’s beyond the need, there's no inner need for this.
Student: That's just what the Creator commanded. Meaning, that needs to be the main essence of every moment, every action. And accordingly, we can measure it.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Why right now do we not come to the right measurement? Is the title not clear enough around every moment in our life?
M. Laitman: It doesn't touch our hearts.
Student: If we exert more to bestow to the friends, to be in that contact and that connection. Will it help or is it just the importance of the Creator here, that's important?
M. Laitman: That's it, that's what needs to be, the Creator's participation.
Student: Meaning, all our effort is for Him to enter actively and not from the outside?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:00) What is “to join Israel”, if we join or purify Israel, we will reach this state of adhesion to the Creator? What Israel do we need to join together?
M. Laitman: What did I say that about, to join them? I don't remember what you're asking about.
Student: This is, although this is not the end of the matter because all the Torah and the Mitzvot are given only to refine Israel, which is the refinement of the body. And then, by that, he will receive the true reward, which is the adhesion to Him, which is the essence of creation.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I'm asking, what is to join Israel? What is to refine Israel this way?
M. Laitman: Israel are those that are like us. Like us that their whole life will be directed towards the Arvut.
Student: Is there no connection to desires outside, in the corporeal Israel, which we do each time and bring more new friends? Is that not connected?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: Meaning, that Israel that he's talking about cleansing, is to the extent in which we are adhered between us, more and more to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:58) I heard you just said that we're missing a mechanism. It's interesting that in Item 26, he writes that Moses came to the elderly, first. Moses came to the elderly and put before them all these matters that the Creator commanded. And all the people answered together, all that the Creator is the words of the Creator, we will do. It sounds perplexing: Moses comes, talks to the elders of the people and then the whole nation says, “We will do and we shall hear.” Who are these elders, and what is this mechanism, and what hierarchy? How is this built?
M. Laitman: I don't know, we don't have a clear answer about that.
Student: The connection to the Creator, truly kind of disclosed, revealed, and clear, and certain, is only with Moses. The elders of the people are the representatives of the people, as much as I understand, and the people are devoted to them and they're devoted to Moses. Do we understand it that way?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Then there's a matter of faith, no matter what because you can't know, the nation, the people can't know. They have no revelation or attainment. But because of the faith and the connection between them, maybe, that's what's working. Or maybe, they don't understand this correctly.
M. Laitman: Nobody's sure that they understand this correctly.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:06) If it's the same thing to sacrifice and do the work in the field. So why do we need the Temple? Why is there this commandment and what does it help us to observe “Love your friend as yourself” that we can't we do it actions?
M. Laitman: I guess it's not the same thing. That we can't, through these types of work in a group and in a big audience of people. In working the field, we still can't, we can't reach connection, yet. You see what happened with the Kibbutzim, all those organizations, what happened to them?
Student: And that action of sacrificing and offering, it brings you closer to “Love your friend as yourself”?
M. Laitman: I don't know, I don't know a real, true result from sacrificing.
Student: Not too long ago, you said that in the Ten, the whole Ten needs to build the holy Temple in its form. Is that the mechanism that we're talking about that connects us?
M. Laitman: No.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:09) You said to a friend earlier that we're missing a mechanism that will connect our hearts together. Is that the mechanism that develops our sensitivity in the Ten towards one another?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And also towards the world?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And then that way it connects to the Creator because He does everything, He binds it all together?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Kyiv 1): (01:25:52) Those works like sacrificing offers and reaping, and all those works that we can look at as similar to offerings we do these in our lives. The question is how does the intention for it to be in the direction of bestowal, how to add the intention to the field works or the work of the field?
M. Laitman: We need to sit and discuss this and go deep in it and think. Maybe, we'll understand something.
Question (Women Heb 1): (01:27:01) What's the meaning in the verse, “where the kingdom of priests and the holy nation have no, they don't have corporeal possessions. Does it mean that the kingdom of priests is the purpose of creation and they observe corporeality only for spirituality? Is it maybe like that?
M. Laitman: Let's say so, yes.
Question (Women Heb 1): (01:27:36) The nation before the reception of the Torah and being in Mount Sinai experienced miracles. Did that have to do anything with their faith? Because they discovered certain miracles in the force of the Creator?
M. Laitman: That's not enough, that wasn't enough.
Question (W Latin 26): (01:28:20) If the purpose of the commandments is the refinement and adhesion to the Creator, how can you interpret the daily work in the Ten? Like sowing and reaping and plowing?
M. Laitman: I didn't hear good.
Student: What is sowing and reaping in our daily work in the Ten?
M. Laitman: Just like we learned all the time, it's connection above all the egoistic desires.
Song: (01:29:45)