The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) December 5, 2024.
Part 2: A Prayer Lishma - Selected Excerpts from the Sources.
Reader: We are going to read selected excerpts in the topic of praying for Lishma. We're going to continue from number four by Baal HaSulam from Shamati. You can find the study materials on the website and also ask questions from there.
Selected excerpts, “Praying for Lishma”, number four by Baal HaSulam.
4. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 79, "Atzilut and BYA".
Reading: 4) (00:32) Our sages said, “From Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], we come to Lishma [for Her sake].” This means that we begin the engagement in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] in order to “Give us the wealth of this world,” and afterward, “Give us the wealth of the next world.”
When learning in this way, 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.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:33) It's written that first he has to mitigate Malchut with Bina, which means that he elevates Malchut, called the will to receive to Bina, which is considered bestowal. That is, that all his work will only be in order to bestow. What is this action to sweeten the state and to raise Malchut to Bina?
M. Laitman: To raise Malchut to Bina is to perform every action as an act of bestowal.
Student: He still didn't receive the quality of bestowal, but as it's written, all his work will only be in order to bestow. That is, is he doing everything to bestow?
M. Laitman: No, he wants to reach that.
Student: So, exertion?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:37) It's explained here that first a person wants everything in this world, then he should reach a stage which is called the next world. The problem is that a person wants to work on this. First he works to receive the spiritual forces to fill himself, so it's the opposite. He uses Bina to fill Malchut. Here it explains that a person has to work in order to raise Malchut to Bina, to do the opposite, to reach the force of bestow, not to fill it himself. When does this inversion happen in a person?
M. Laitman: Whoever is in this knows. Whoever is in this knows.
Student: How do we help each other to do this inversion?
M. Laitman: Only through external examples.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:41) When the world went dark on him, what pushes a person to pray for bestow and not for reception?
M. Laitman: It depends on what state a person was in prior to that. It could be that he has qualities of bestow and qualities of reception, and he needs to decide how he lives and uses them from now on. I think that one who is in such a state already knows how to decide correctly. That everything needs to be in order to bestow.
Student: What is spiritual darkness? What is darkness that a person is in?
M. Laitman: Spiritual darkness is when no spiritual discernment illuminates for him in his life. And what takes a person out of the darkness then?
Student: Only the work in the group?
5. RABASH, Article No. 29 (1986), "Lishma and Lo Lishma"
Reading: 5) (06:42) Now that he sees that he is far from spirituality, he begins to think, “What is really required of me? What should I do? What is the purpose I should achieve?” He sees that he has no power to work, and finds himself in a state of “between heaven and earth.” Then, man’s only strengthening is that only the Creator can help, but by himself, he is doomed.
It was said about this (Isaiah, 4:31): “Yet those who hope for the Lord will gain new strength,” meaning those people who hope for the Creator. This means that they who see that there is no one else in the world who can help them regain strength each time.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:05) What is the help on behalf of the Creator when you're in darkness?
M. Laitman: It could be that some light shines for you. It could be that you, from that same state that you're in, you see where there is Kedusha [holiness] and where there is Klipa [darkness]. It all depends on the state.
Student: And if the state of darkness keeps going and even gets worse, that's not help?
M. Laitman: Could be. It could be.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:08) Can man hope that the Creator will give him new forces specifically when he feels the darkness? So it's a condition? The feeling of darkness is the beginning of something new.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:44) Sometimes a person can recognize that he'll reach darkness, that he won't have forces to do anything. So, you can ask before that already. There's a chance that the Creator might help too?
M. Laitman: Well, let's say.
Student: So, is there like another way to not reach darkness? Because you're already in it. Maybe here he's saying about a different kind of darkness. That a person let's say, recognizes that he's very tired. And he has to come to the lesson. And he knows that he's going to sleep in the lesson. So he asks for forces from the Creator. And he sees that there are forces. And he keeps staying awake in the lesson.
M. Laitman: Could be. Yes, it could be.
6. RABASH, Article No. 34 (1991), "What Is Eating Their Fruits in This World and Keeping the Principal for the Next World, in the Work?"
Reading: 6) (10:48) Only those who say that they want to escape from the work but have nowhere else to go, since nothing satisfies them, those people do not walk out from the work. Although they have ups and downs, they do not give up. This is as it is written, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work, and they cried, and their cry went up to God from the work.” In other words, they cried out from the work because they were not advancing in the work of the Creator, so they could work in order to bestow contentment upon the Maker. At that time, they were rewarded with the exodus from Egypt. In the work, this is called “emerging from the control of the will to receive and entry into the work of bestowal.”
M. Laitman: Questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:21) How do you reach such a state that you determine that there is nowhere else to go?
M. Laitman: Where will you go?
Student: What does that mean? The will to receive has things to do. He confuses a person in a lot of ways. And here, not.
M. Laitman: He comes to a state in which he doesn't see for himself any place in the world.
Student: That's the question, how to reach a state that he sees nothing else to do in the world.
M. Laitman: That's... That's so you... Hmm. To scrutinize precisely where you are, what degree, under what force. That's why that happens.
Student: For now, until he reaches a state that there's nowhere to go.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And he wants to escape the work. So he escapes?
M. Laitman: Yes. To where?
Student: All kinds of fulfillments, all kinds of methods, all kinds of ways.
M. Laitman: But he has nowhere to go to.
Student: If there's nowhere to go, it's good. But the will to receive depicts to a person that there is somewhere to go?
M. Laitman: So he hasn't yet reached such a state.
Student: I understand, the question is how to reach such an advanced state that he determines there is nowhere to go?
M. Laitman: Continue.
Student: But for now, he wants to run.
M. Laitman: Let him run away, what can you do? He gives us here practical points in our development.
Student: Does it depend on a person to reach such a state or can he, what's the method to reach a state that there is nowhere to go even though he wants to run?
M. Laitman: Try to come to, try to reach actions that are as whole and exalted as possible in every possible state. By that, he will advance himself greatly.
Student: How can a Ten that sees that friends do have where to go and they go, and it shakes them up because they see, look, here's an example, a negative example, there is a place to go to?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How should a Ten deal with that blow correctly?
M. Laitman: You need to talk together and to influence that friend, to bestow upon him, as he is in, he's on a crossroad.
Student: That's towards the friend, I'm asking towards the Ten.
M. Laitman: It's the same towards the Ten.
Student: What does that mean? The Ten between themselves, how should they speak, discuss it between them to deal with that phenomenon?
M. Laitman: For what it exists, why it exists, by what it exists, how it's advancing towards the purpose of creation, the purpose of life, what are they lacking in order to hasten the situation? That's it.
Student: Is there something more specific that they should discuss about that case? Let's say if they see such an example in society that friends do have where to go?
M. Laitman: I have nothing to say, they need to think and decide.
Student: Is it a problem that a Ten sees such an example, that the society gets such an example?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: It's not a problem?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: Because I thought it's a big problem.
M. Laitman: No, why? Let them check, let them scrutinize and advance.
Student: Well, maybe it's not right the way I'm seeing it. Well, I'm sure it isn't, according to what I hear. There's an example. Here, there is a place to go, so it weakens a Ten, it weakens society. Here, great friends, supposedly, that until a second ago they were here with their heart and soul according to what I perceive, and suddenly I see that they have where to go to. So I started thinking, wait, maybe I have where to go.
M. Laitman: Okay.
Student: But is this observation right?
M. Laitman: I can't say, you need to decide.
Student: Is there such a danger?
M. Laitman: Of course there is.
Student: So, it is a problem?
M. Laitman: It is a problem.
Student: But if a society sees such an example, it's a problem?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How should society deal with such examples?
M. Laitman: The Society needs to overcome such examples.
Student: How?
M. Laitman: How to overcome? We need to take many friends, maybe all those who are sitting here and even more, and to do a discussion, a workshop in which we scrutinize all the questions that fall into each of our minds. At first, take all those questions, write them down, sort them out, and start scrutinizing.
Student: What's the purpose that every friend in the Ten, for example, will raise his questions towards that case?
M. Laitman: Not each and every friend, but whoever has a truly essential question towards his reality here should raise it.
Student: It can't weaken us?
M. Laitman: Why?
Student: I see friends in my Ten that are saying, wait, maybe I'm not in the right place, maybe there's a different place for me. Can we open such things between us?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And then, after we open such something like that, it seems that there should be a huge preparation that we'll know how to deal with this, because there's a danger in this.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So then what? So they open, they ask, and now?
M. Laitman: And we want to answer. And from the desire to answer, we come to a solution.
Student: So the friends answer the friends?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What preparation should be before we open such questions?
M. Laitman: It's not yet for you, but let's hope that soon it will be suitable.
Student: Can I ask about what you said that it's not for us yet?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: First of all, that's what it feels like, that, I don't know, maybe there's Tens that are strong enough that they can open such strong questions. But from what I know, such strong questions aren't things you open up. But then a person cooks and cooks with this question on his own. He doesn't open it, he doesn't get an answer, and it just overcomes him, that question.
M. Laitman: Could be. And it could be that nevertheless, he adheres himself to here, and waits for it to pass. What the mind doesn't do, time will do.
Student: Where's the help from the group? Because supposedly they can't even help him, because he didn't open those questions. They don't really know what happens to a friend. He could be here next to me, and the next day, no. I didn't even know that this question is cooking in him for a few years, maybe.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What kind of help is this? What kind of closeness? What kind of connection?
M. Laitman: What do you want, the friend to always be ready to care for you?
Student: No, but I'm asking. First I'm asking, what's right?
M. Laitman: The time is not here for scrutinizing everything yet.
Student: For now, each one is kind of closed inside himself.
M. Laitman: Try to open, just not too much. Let each and everyone, nevertheless have the ability to remain within himself.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:57) When a person comes to the state when he wants to leave, he's scrutinizing it within himself. How does he not forget to ask? He says, you have to ask from the friends.
M. Laitman: That depends on the group, on the environment.
Student: How can the environment know what's going on on a person? They don't know, there was a whole scrutiny with the friend that we can't know what happens to the friend here on my left. Maybe this question is in him, and he forgets to ask, he just slanders, and slanders till he leaves. How do we help the society keep renewing this plea this prayer.
M. Laitman: It's a problem.
Student: This questions came because we went through the state this week. So we're cooking in it all week. So we want on one hand to help the friend that is still in between, and also to help all of society to be with the hand on the pulse with their friends.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So, how do we take advantage of this state as an opportunity to rise, to break through, and not that we got a blow, and we'll wait till the wave goes away?
M. Laitman: I don't know. That, you need to solve the problem.
Student: When you say you, who's you? We as a Ten?
M. Laitman: All of you, all of you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:06) You said the biggest damage this week is to leave society.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Who does it damage? A person or the society?
M. Laitman: Certainly for the person.
Student: Does the society not get harmed, or does it also harm the society?
M. Laitman: The Society is harmed, but in a much lighter way.
Student: When you say that from here there's nowhere to go. It's a determination, a person has to decide that he can do something on the path and not move. It's like he has to make a decision: I'm on this path, and I'm never leaving. I'm all the way.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is that decision? What validates this decision? That's a question.
M. Laitman: That he's constantly examining his connection with the Ten and is constantly adhering himself.
Student: This decision needs a renewal, or a person decides for once and it holds them.
M. Laitman: Renew.
Student: How do I keep renewing my decision that I'm not leaving society?
M. Laitman: You check yourself. You check yourself even daily.
Student: And if I see that I'm not suitable here, maybe I am, I go through states or..
M. Laitman: Each time you receive from the study forces.
Student: If I feel that I'm not benefiting society?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: What should I do? I feel that I'm not benefiting society. I get these thoughts. I'm not benefiting here. I check myself. I see that that's what I find.
M. Laitman: That's a problem. You'll have to come close to the society and scrutinize whether you're truly connected to them or not. How necessary you are, how necessary the Society is for you, and we need to scrutinize.
Student: The last question, he writes in number five that those who long for the Creator will regain strength each time.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Now I'm hearing PT 3 here. A need to all the Tens that are going through a shake-up because a friend left after many years, and now I'm asking how do we as a society, as Tens, as a world Kli, how can we support a Ten that expresses distress?
M. Laitman: Connect to them, hug them, and keep going.
Student: What does it mean to embrace them and support them? How? What? Our Ten can help them?
M. Laitman: Come close to them, come closer to them, and not to forget prayers. Think about it.
Student: And as a result of different states that the Tens happen, there are questions, suddenly questions that people are wondering about the beginnings, critiques, all kinds of things like that. How do you approach such a discussion, an open discussion where a person can really say what's bothering him, but it will also, it'll grow something, not lower something.
M. Laitman: More patience. We're lacking a few more details, and soon we'll reach it. For now, it's too early.
Student: So we shouldn't open things at the moment?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: What yes in our state until it opens up for us?
M. Laitman: Connect, strengthen yourself, and pray for everybody.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:39) I'll continue with what the friend asked about a person who doesn't find his place in the Society. And then there are basically two possibilities. One is that the society will change, and he's demanding the society to be different, to manage itself differently. All the criticism, the customer is always right. He's right. He's certain that the Society is not okay. Or another possibility is to ask himself, okay, what does the Society need, and what can I do where it needs me? And to bow one's head and say, okay, where is help needed, and I can somehow contribute. And there's always room in the Society. What makes the decision that a person will decide this way or that way?
M. Laitman: I don't know. I don't know. It's in the person's nature. Such things are written down.
Student: Beyond nature, let's say, is there something that can help that you will always manage to be able to decide where we want the society to change, because the criticism, the critique is filling me?
M. Laitman: I don't have an answer right now.
Student: Can we help one another somehow in this beyond the exaltedness of the goal?
M. Laitman: What else do you have but that?
Student: I don't know. Maybe when you see such a friend, pray for him. Because these things can be identified from afar. You don't need someone to help. You don't need someone to leave. You can see it before that. A person is bitter all the time.
M. Laitman: Try. Try.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:55) You said that we have to try and reach as whole and exalted states in every state, and that will really advance one. What are complete actions?
M. Laitman: Complete, that they can absorb all the negative states that are in society, and extend them to a more corrected state.
Student: And they're exalted because you're collecting this contrast, this… and raising them to a state where you can justify? Is that what makes them higher?
M. Laitman: Not specifically, but I scrutinize it on myself.
Student: So, what are exalted actions if so?
M. Laitman: That I want to ascend as highest as I can.
Student: What is to rise above or up?
M. Laitman: Rise above, to feel myself that I'm in... climbing the tree of life.
Student: Okay, what are those degrees of the Tree of Life that I'm climbing on? What are the branches that I hold on to?
M. Laitman: NRNHY?
Student: I didn't understand.
M. Laitman: Well, you're asking about degrees, so I'm telling you, NRNHY.
Student: There's a certain situation, let's say I feel like now friends described, let's say I don't agree with something in the society. How do I work with that state so that it will be whole and exalted? I don't know. I see something in the society and I don't agree with it. How... what is to make it a complete action towards the situation?
M. Laitman: I do not know. I do not know. You need to decide and to know how to take care of such things.
Student: But all together, every state in life, I see I can't agree with the Creator or justify Him. How to make it a complete action now? What...
M. Laitman: The fact that you don't agree with the Creator... I don't know. You argue with Him.
Student: And that will make it a complete action if I argue with Him?
M. Laitman: No, but you will see what it is, what the opposite is.
Student: And how do I complete it? How do I make it complete?
M. Laitman: By subduing your head and willing to accept from the upper court everything that they decide.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:38) He's talking about people who want to run away and don't know where. And besides, having ascends and descends, they don't want to despair. And then he writes about the children of Israel's sign from the work. So, how does a person who has nowhere to go not despair and reach the sigh from the work?
M. Laitman: Only by being in society and connected to the friends. So by that, he can hold on and even advance and rise.
Student: So, how from a person not despairing does he come to this outcry of the sigh from the work? He doesn't get despaired.
M. Laitman: If he's not despaired, so how did he cry out? That's the question. We have to invest in the work more.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:17) How do we give every friend the room in this holy society of ours?
M. Laitman: We have to relate to each and every friend in a special value, an upper one. And that we need to help to give conditions that he can grow as much as possible. And in this way to see him advancing.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:13) I wanted to ask, years of work, of efforts, what makes devotion into sole devotion, beyond everything we hear in the society, where a person is willing to give his soul, he's entering with faith, and he's going all the way to the end. Where is that point in a person?
M. Laitman: I guess in his heart.
Student: Does it depend on how adhered he is to the society, he adheres himself to the environment, or is it, like you said, it's inside his heart, and …?
M. Laitman: It depends. It depends as much as he devotes himself to society.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:39) Whether a person is here or leaves, there's a whole spectrum. I can be here, but participate, not participate, 10%, 90%, lessons, meals, Ten meetings, etc. It would appear like the decision how much a person participates depends on how much filling he receives from everything. Let's say if the food will not be tasty in our meals, I'm expecting less people to come to the meals. Is that correct?
M. Laitman: Well?
Student: I'm asking because the food needs to be tasty in the meals. Is that correct?
M. Laitman: Let's say.
Student: We used to do gatherings of friends every week. Now we're doing them once a month maybe. And all those things are things that a person gets filled by.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Does our society need to be one that's concerned with filling the friends, or is the path such that the people receive less and less filling to the desire to receive, and we need to overcome that and nevertheless remain on the path? Which of the two?
M. Laitman: I don't know. Each one has to answer.
Student: That's on a personal level, but as a society, should we be concerned with being an attractive society that gives fillings?
M. Laitman: How can you show someone external that you are an attracting society?
Student: I think that towards new friends, we're investing a lot in attracting them and selling them, I'll say, our wisdom in a way that's attractive.
M. Laitman: So what do you do?
Student: Towards veterans, towards us, ourselves, do we need to also be like that? Does the Society not need to be one that gives filling?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It's not just the responsibility of the friend to remain there, like when you're in the desert, you're thirsty, you leave in the end, because I'm trying to understand. So it is the responsibility of the society to be one that's concerned with filling and giving people forces and energies on the path. Is that right?
M. Laitman: We need to check if they're able to.
Student: I'm giving examples, gatherings of friends or other events where we receive strength.
M. Laitman: So, yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:54) Rav, there's everything in the group, right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Altogether, it's a person's work to look at the group that way.
M. Laitman: Yes. And if a person doesn't do that, if his forces are loosened in that, who should act here?
Student: The group or the person?
M. Laitman: Group.
Student: Okay, so let's say that person, that friend, a million, a hundred people come to him, 150 people come to him, they do a gathering of friends, so maybe it won't help the friend. I don't know. But it will help the group to do such a thing?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And what intention should we come for if we come, one that will help the friend or the group? And if he joins, he joins.
M. Laitman: We want to strengthen the force between us, and between him and his group, and all of us together and all of the society.
Student: So, we need to look at it as an opportunity to advance nevertheless.
M. Laitman: Yes, of course.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:27) Rav, we once had two concepts. We had the organization, the factory, dissemination, and there was also the society. And there was a complete separation: it was not allowed to involve between this and that, we were very concerned because in the Society everyone's equal, and in the organization there's a hierarchy, there's a pyramid. That wasn't simple, but it was the emphasis. Now lately, we heard that that's not relevant anymore today, that we have only an organization, we have the factory, and the society, maybe because of its size, it kind of entered into the factory, into the organization. Is that correct, or is there still a need for a society?
M. Laitman: Could be that there is a need.
Student: Because it's felt, and I also heard from several friends, I heard that there's no place to sit with friends, or maybe to open up your heart, to share.
M. Laitman: You don’t have a place?
Student: Not the place, but there's no format for it, there's no place in the society, it's like everything is the organization, it's the factory.
M. Laitman: It depends how you divide the air.
Student: There's room, the room here is empty in the evenings, it's not a problem to use the place.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: There's no place for the organization, as if there's no need for there to be a concept of what once was a society, the connection of the hearts, not the connection of the roles.
M. Laitman: You're already speaking like old guys.
Student: Could be, yes.
M. Laitman: When we came here…
Student: It might be.
M. Laitman: So what are you recommending?
Student: I wanted to ask if there's no need for the Society anymore.
M. Laitman: There is a need, and how! Society never disappears. It just has to grow and get broader, and then it becomes a new nation, the nation of the Creator.
Student: You see, you can't really feel the society, because there's Tens, and each one is closed in his Ten, and you don't feel the grandeur of the society, its power.
M. Laitman: Yes, that's correct. So what do we do?
Student: I don't know.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:20) One of the main reasons people leave, eventually, is that they're in some suffering, some lack of feeling, and they don't feel that there's a future that will ever change. That's what I want to ask about. There was also a question like this yesterday in the morning, and you answered. Someone asked, how can a person relate to his suffering, how to relate to the Creator when he himself feels suffering? And you said that that's a sign that he needs to change for him, that he needs to ask for change. Meaning, he's standing before the light, and feels that it’s like he's not adapted to the light, and he needs to change and to be adapted to the light. Now, on the other hand, we many times say to ask to change is like to not agree with the deeds of the Creator. And what you actually need is to ask for the forces to accept the way the Creator made you. Not to ask to change but to be able to accept and be able to live with what there is. How does a person make that balance? How does he recognize that this is the reality that shouldn't change, and you need to learn how to live with it? Or, where does he need to ask for change? That's the question.
M. Laitman: That's a general question for everyone. How to answer it? Nobody wants to answer?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:14) I also join the question, and I have this feeling where Rav is guiding us for years to find the solutions to all that we have in life in the Ten.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And I have the feeling like somewhere, when you don't feel like doing that work, where you don't find it there, there's this missing of where is the previous society, where is what we once had, where is that pot with meat and onions? Actually, everything is in the Ten. What can't you find in the Ten? Through the Ten connect not just to the whole society in Petah Tikva and the whole world but to all of humanity. What else is there besides what's in the Ten? I'm really asking this.
M. Laitman: There's nothing. There is nothing. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:26) What does a person do when he feels like the Ten is not influencing him, not bestowing him?
M. Laitman: He should search for a different place.
Student: He feels this is the path, this is my life, but still, he sees that he has to come to despair, and we have to come to prayer, and he sees that it's not working on him. What to do? I can be at home now, but I need, it's clear to me, also that I need a strong society, but what exists upon me right now doesn't work.
M. Laitman: I understand you.
Student: So, what does a friend who feels like that do?
M. Laitman: Ask the friends. Take a decision. And with God's help, we'll discuss it tomorrow.