https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/gqcE2BS9
The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Afternoon) November 12, 2024
Part 1: Rabash. Overcoming. Record 622,
Reader: Hello, we're studying from the writings of Rabash, Article 622, “Overcoming”. You can find study materials online in Sviva Tova and the Arvut systems.
M. Laitman: We'll learn the article, and we have another one, if we have enough time. But first of all, this article, Article 622, “The Matter of Overcoming”.
Overcoming Record 622
Reading Article: (00:46) Concerning Abraham asking for advice about the circumcision, it is explained in Siftey Hachamim that it is to receive a greater reward for the Mitzva [commandment], and he thought that perhaps they would object to him.
We should interpret that Abraham saw that since he had a Mitzva that he could do only once in his life, meaning that he could make an effort on this Mitzva only once, he thought of an idea to ask his friends. Should they resist, he will have great labor to overcome them, and “According to the effort, so is the reward.” For this reason, he put himself into the test in order to receive reward.
We see from this that he so wanted to do the Creator’s will that it was worthwhile for him to put himself to a test only because he understood that doing the Creator’s will should be with a power of overcoming.
M. Laitman: (02:41) And then he was happy. We see that he received this command to do this commandment happily.
Reading Continues: (02:57)” Overcoming”.
For this reason, although we do not need to put ourselves to tests, it is rather a daily thing that the world and the environment object to the work of the Creator, and that we must overcome them, and not consider what they say, and understand that this is to our benefit, that it is in order for us to receive a reward for this.
M. Laitman: (03:34) This means that in all of the cases in our life, we can see ourselves and what we must do. And we need to do it in overcoming.
Reading Continues: (03:59) For this reason, although we do not need to put ourselves to tests, it is rather a daily thing that the world and the environment object to the work of the Creator, and that we must overcome them, and not consider what they say, and understand that this is to our benefit, that it is in order for us to receive a reward for this.
M. Laitman: (04:32) Meaning, on every matter of a Mitzvah, a commandment, we will always feel resistance, confusion, all sorts of things that we are incapable of, that we cannot carry out. But when we overcome, and we carry out the actions, then we receive a reward for this.
Reading Continues: (05:06) When some resistance to the work appears, we must be happy, since only now will it be possible to gain a great reward, just as when one is happy when he sees that he will make a great profit. He does not look at the effort, but only at the reward. As it is written, we must overcome in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments].
When we have disturbances, we will have joy from being given an opportunity to gain a great reward.
Likewise, with charity, we should overcome more than the environment obligates. Instead, each one should give more than he is able, and then it is regarded as overcoming.
Question (Women MAK): (06:38) What does it mean that the Ten forms this holy covenant with the Creator?
M. Laitman: It's that all of the friends that are in the Ten understand that they have the goal in front of them, the Holy One, and it's possible to reach it only through overcoming. Then they understand that there needs to be help here in the Ten, for each and every one, and also that each one has work for each individual and for everyone together.
Student: What needs to be the daily effort in order to come closer to the purpose of creation?
M. Laitman: Each time we need to see that we are putting in efforts in order to come closer to the Creator, to carry out actions that are called Mitzvot, commandments, and only to hope that we will be able to see these actions, and to see that we are capable of carrying them out.
Student: Another question. What does it mean that the Ten brings joy and pleases the Creator?
M. Laitman: The fact that we are looking at the actions that are in front of us to carry out, and although it could be difficult for us, we overcome this, and the attitude between us and the connection between us in attaining the importance of these actions, and in this way we attain our reward.
Question (Women MAK): (09:32) How can we put in more efforts? Maybe it's not our own strength, but maybe this is something just we can ask from the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes, you're right, this is only if we turn to the Creator, and we ask Him for strength.
Student: Do we just accumulate more of our strength, and do, and do, and do, and then at one point we receive an answer from Him that we did more, or how does it work?
M. Laitman: No, we need to right away, before we want to carry out a Mitzvah, meaning an action that the Creator wants to receive from us, we turn to Him, ask for strength, and only then we carry out this action, and in this way each time.
Question (Kyiv): (10:34) It's written here that according to the effort is the reward, and he gives an example here with Abraham. He tested himself with his friends, and he did so in order to receive a greater reward. What does it mean to overcome additional obstacles, and what is the reward that we receive for this?
M. Laitman: When we understand what it means to perform a Mitzvah, that is, a certain action that's desirable in the eyes of the Creator, then we see that we don't have enough strength to carry this out, and we turn to the Creator, and we ask Him to give us strength, importance, of carrying it out, and we carry it out.
Student: What is the reward that we receive as a result of this overcoming? We always bump into this state. What are we overcoming?
M. Laitman: Closeness to the Creator; that's a reward.
Student: How do we use that state of overcoming each time, specifically to come closer to the Creator? Because often it happens that you overcome simply because you need to, and simply because you have this habit of doing so. But how do you, as a result of that, get this closeness with the Creator?
M. Laitman: Basically, this is the real goal of every commandment, of all of them, from everything that the Creator demands of us.
Question (Women Kyiv 7): (12:43) How do we in our everyday life put this commandment, to name everything to the Creator, to His work?
M. Laitman: For that, we simply need to understand the meaning of what the Creator is showing us. We can aim everything we have in our life in that direction, and then we can feel, as a result of our actions, what we did, to what extent we came closer to the Creator, and so forth.
Student: So, we just take a certain situation and simply start working with the Creator, with a certain problem or situation, and we simply look and observe?
M. Laitman: Of course, yes.
Question (Moscow 4): (14:04) It seems like a completely new stage that the friends are asking, and also in the Ten, and in the Moscow group, that there, where you could have done something with your own strength, as it seems to you now, you cannot do it at all. There's this feeling that the Creator is demanding for us to ask Him, or to make space for Him, so that we would consciously take every step only with Him. Is this the commandment? To invite Rav for the strength. Is this a common step where we're taking each step together only with the Creator?
M. Laitman: For this, you don't need to invite me.
Student: I'm talking about the Creator.
M. Laitman: You need to connect between you and turn to the Creator, and out of your returning to the Creator, to receive strength from Him, and to come closer to Him.
Question (Women MAK 43): (15:32) Why, when I feel the Creator's love, it appears too heavy, and it evokes a desire to remain in darkness? How can this be connected with my feelings when I have these obstacles, even when internally I have this aspiration to the Creator?
M. Laitman: This is done on purpose so that we would have these difficulties, unpleasant situations, in order to develop in us a true desire to the Creator.
Question (Women Ukraine 2): (16:16) How can we reach that state above our efforts with the whole Ten? Because individually, to some extent, we can, but how do we reach that point of overcoming together with the whole Ten?
M. Laitman: Mutually, together, when we understand that not a single one of us can carry out the Creator's commandment, not a single one of them, even the smallest, the lightest one. We can do so only if we help one another.
Student: So, this is seen in the personal efforts, and then everyone reaches that point?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (MAK 11): (17:17) Can you help us with that last sentence: “Likewise, with charity, we should overcome more than the environment obligates. Instead, each one should give more than he is able, and then it is regarded as overcoming.” What does the charity requiring that overcoming mean?
M. Laitman: It's that charity from the side of the Creator when we receive the strength in order to overcome ourselves and to carry out a Mitzvah.
Question (Women Hebrew 2): (18:04) What does it mean to help each one in the Ten to overcome? And how do we help in overcoming each one?
M. Laitman: There are a lot of possibilities to overcome in the Ten and to help the friends that they will be able to carry out a Mitzvah, a Mitzvah meaning what the Creator wants for them to do. In this way, we need to see it each time. How we can help someone in our whole world community so that he would feel that we are supporting him.
Student: (19:05) Let's say I'm sharing something that helped me. Can I share some experience from the past about what helped me?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Hebrew 2): (19:24) What is the reward for the exertion and how can we be happy with the disturbances out of this reward?
M. Laitman: There is an exertion, and there is reward and we don't need to run away from the reward. It's just that our reward will be directed to attaining the goal as well.
Student: When disturbances come, how can we be happy with them and to think that this is what brings the reward?
M. Laitman: Because the disturbances direct us to the purpose of creation, and if we accept them properly, then all of them, all of the disturbances turn into means of attaining the purpose of creation. And then we carry out these disturbances properly in the prayer and overcoming, and in this way, we are moving forward from side to side.
Student: It has to take us to the correct place?
M. Laitman: Of course, because everything comes only from Him.
Question (Women French): (21:11) What does it mean to become closer to the Creator? What kind of changes have to occur in us?
M. Laitman: To come closer to the Creator means that I carry out all of the actions for them to be pleasing to Him, and my goal in this is to come closer to Him.
Student: When a friend has obstacles, are these the same obstacles as a result of which we have to come closer to the Creator? And in order to help each other we can pray and work together, something specific for this obstacle, or everyone works with their individual obstacles?
M. Laitman: There is this and there is that and in general we are passing through the same disturbances, the same ones that pass over everyone.
Question (Turkiye 2): (22:52) How can I test myself and correct myself in the correct way, in a pure way?
M. Laitman: Only by connecting with the friends, and that I feel each time that I want to carry out a certain Mitzvah and to what extent my decision to carry out that Mitzvah that it rejects me. Then I ask the Creator not to reject me but rather to help me to connect with this action which is called a Mitzvah, to understand it and to carry it out, and in this way we will advance.
Question (Women Moscow 5): (24:07) We read a lot in Pirkei Avot, Zohar, Shema Israel, Psalms, and it changes our relation to the Creator a lot. Apparently love emerges towards the state or this phenomenon, and it's actually hard to explain such a joy, inclusion in something extraordinary. How do we receive it correctly so that we not simply enjoy, but we give pleasure contentment to the Creator by this.
M. Laitman: To receive correctly we need to receive only in that case when we can invert this reception into the bestowal. Then I agree to receive from the Creator, for my reception to be in order for me to be able to give to Him to come closer to Him.
Student: So, when we come, and we start reading the sources, we usually try to build the intention. So, this intention is bestowal and then we can receive pleasure? I cannot catch this moment, as the pleasure comes in immense amounts, the beauty of the Creator.
Such an extraordinary light comes out of it, a wisdom of some sort. How do I not be impressed and give it to the Creator straight away?
M. Laitman: No, no, we must be impressed and specifically we need to aim those impressions back to Him, as the source of these impressions.
Student: And this is called love of the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Moscow 8): (26:19) Can we call commandments those new things that are inside of me?
M. Laitman: That too can be called a commandment, yes.
Student: If so, then what's the correct work with this commandment?
M. Laitman: The correct work with the commandments is to carry them out in order to bring the Creator contentment.
Student: If you don't understand currently what it’s about?
M. Laitman: Then simply aspire to be closer to Him.
Question (Hadera 1): (27:23) In the third paragraph from the end he says: When some resistance to the work appears, we must be happy, since only now will it be possible to gain a great reward…” So, first of all, it's not clear what the reward is. In what Kli do we receive it?
M. Laitman: A person needs to make actions within which he does them for the Creator's sake in order to give to the Creator, to bestow contentment to Him, and from this he receives the reward.
Student: What's the reward? In what Kli does he receive it? I don't have a definition. What Kli does he receive it in? In the Kli of reception?
M. Laitman: In the vessel of reception.
Student: Another question. Does work without resistance not get rewarded? There's no such thing as work without any resistance and disturbances.
M. Laitman: There’s no such thing as work without any resistance and disturbances.
Student: Can we say that a person who's working and does not receive resistance is not working correctly?
M. Laitman: He's not working; it just seems so.
Question (Hadera 1): (29:07) You replied to the question of a student from Moscow that we need to return everything to the Creator. There's an intention, but how do I perform it? There's no feeling that I will succeed. I think that I want but how do I perform it practically?
M. Laitman: You don't feel that there are forces that are acting upon you, that you carry out a certain action, but the action itself you're incapable of carrying out?
Student: If I receive forces to perform it, does it mean that I perform it correctly?
M. Laitman: Yes. Or you carry it out without any strength, you turn to the Creator, and you ask for the strength from Him.
Question (Women Moscow 6): (30:19) We in our Ten always pray to the Creator, and how do we receive it? All of the time, as it is said, in order to receive the pleasure we have to overcome. How do we receive this force of overcoming every time in order to bring contentment to the Creator?
M. Laitman: That depends on your desire, whether you want to receive the strength of overcoming that ego that's not letting you carry out the Creator's desire.
Student: We have to always ask about it or build the correct prayer?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes. It's the best to always ask.
Question (English 1): (31:17) When we are really asking the Creator, I feel sadness that I can't attain the Creator. How do I know this isn't self-pity, and how do I overcome the shame I feel that I'm so fake and so false to the friends and to the world. It's a bit heart-breaking because I really want to love, but I'm just not made of that material, if you understand.
M. Laitman: Don't worry. It's not just you but everyone. It's not important despite us not feeling otherwise, but we need to understand that the Creator, in all this, chose us, and from all of His thoughts about us, He gives you and to other people. He's always giving this desire to turn to Him in the right way, and this way we advance.
Question (Women Turkiye 10): (32:54) Are the obstacles mentioned here spiritual or everyday obstacles? Can we ask the Creator to strengthen us to turn corporeal obstacles into an opportunity to become closer to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes. Please go ahead. Try.
Question (Women Moscow): (33:21) If everyone, according to His input, can feel the Creator in the Ten, how can we achieve the same feeling in the center of the Ten, in the Creator, because everyone is putting effort according to their possibilities.
M. Laitman: It doesn't matter but the direction is only one.
Student: But, this one feeling has to come down on all of us, or not?
M. Laitman: No. You’ll see this.
Question (Women Moscow): (33:57) How do we come to the desire to give pleasure to the Creator in order for His contentment? How can we want to bring contentment to the Creator in order to bring Him contentment?
M. Laitman: For that we need to think about Him so the thought will come specifically in this form, that I will do something in order to bring Him contentment.
Question (Women MAK 25): (34:43) If an impression is revealed in the Kli that it's a reward, what's our effort that will build the correct screen in order to receive the pleasure?
M. Laitman: What do we need to think about that right now?
Student: If it was the correct way, then how do we react?
M. Laitman: Correct, as you said. How we see it that an opportunity comes to do something correctly and benevolently to the Creator, then do it. That's it.
Question (Women Brasil): (35:42) This effort that we put into the spiritual work. Does it determine the force that we have to overcome? Is this an opportunity to grow?
M. Laitman: Yes, correct, that exactly.
Question (Women MAK 26): (36:05) Do we always have the force of overcoming?
M. Laitman: Not always. If it's not there then we ask for it.
Student: Do we have to feel? How do we calculate this force correctly? Abraham, in the excerpt, could calculate it.
M. Laitman: We also can calculate it.
Student: I was also asking how do we give strength to the Ten? How do we save it and grow this desire to give these forces to the Ten?
M. Laitman: It's a work, gradually, together with us.
Question (Women MAK 19): (37:11) We can receive the force of overcoming only in accordance to the unity with us, only as mercy from the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Can we start the work of overcoming from the general egoism in the Ten?
M. Laitman: What will that give you?
Student: Interconnection maybe?
M. Laitman: If you feel the common ego and everyone's individual ego, and besides that nothing else, then you need to come out of that. You want to reach this. You want to reach being similar to the Creator.
Student: And if we have the feeling when we're together in the Ten, and we're working, there is a feeling of pleasure. In this moment can we ask Him to give us the feeling of the common egoism and rise above it?
M. Laitman: Yes, you can.
Question (Women Italy): (38:33) Every time we ask the Boreh for help to sustain the effort, it is already a reward. What does this work teach us?
M. Laitman: That we need to turn to the Creator more often, and in this way we'll come closer to Him.
Student: With effort, we are closer to the Boreh, or the Boreh is closer to us?
M. Laitman: Basically, that's not important, but it's worth it for us to think more that it's us that came closer to Him.
Question (Women Spain): (40:06) When a person takes an action like Abraham when he performs the union that is irreversible, the covenant. When he performs this, he makes this decision irreversibly. Do we have to research this beforehand with a friend?
M. Laitman: No. He needs to check or to strive towards where the heart is taking him. He needs to examine that Abraham also went to the friends and he asked them.
Question (Women Kyiv 7): (40:55) In order to be able to work with the overcoming, there needs to be a special connection with the Creator. How can we perform this? How can we establish this connection?
M. Laitman: We need to do and to ask, to do and to ask.
Question (Women Petah Tikva 33): (41:27) What are the signs in the Ten that a friend is overcoming her state correctly?
M. Laitman: That we want to be together between us, and we want to connect above the disturbances, and despite these separations and differences between us, and then by that we make the Creator.
Student: Another question: How, from the fact that we overcome states, do we develop in the spiritual world?
M. Laitman: We understand more deeply what is a Mitzvah and how, through the overcoming of carrying it out, I come closer to the Creator.
Question (Women Moscow 1): (43:15) What are the obstacles in general? It's not just the fact that something has occurred, but it's my reaction towards something, right? How I'm detaching or connecting to the Ten What are the obstacles?
M. Laitman: Basically, yes, everything that stops me from carrying out the Creator's command.
Student: What if I see it as an obstacle, and I perform an action to overcome, and I'm asking the Creator, or I'm running to the Ten. What is the meaning of this plea that I practice?
M. Laitman: Here is already a direct action in order to receive help from the Creator or from the Ten and to carry out this request.
Student: So, the plea itself is a part of my overcoming, is a plea towards Him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Baden-W): (44:33) The bestowal and pleasure directly to the Creator. Can we build the bestowal of this pleasure that you're receiving to the world Kli, to Bnei Baruch in order to somehow support?
M. Laitman: It's possible.
Question (Women MAK 32): (45:09) In the state of confusion, how do I keep the intention to the Creator, and I overcome all these obstacles. Where do I get strength from and understand that we’re going down the correct path?
M. Laitman: Only from the group, from the connection with the friends.
Question (Women Ukraine 2): (45:42) How do I pass this overcoming so that there is a benefit to the Ten?
M. Laitman: It depends on your intention. If you want from carrying out the commandment, from that the whole Ten will receive the force of bestowal and connection and love. So that's how it will be.
Student: So, before the overcoming, I have to build this intention and then the Ten will receive it?
M. Laitman: Of course. That is the intention.
Question (Moscow 7): (46:36) It is written that Abraham was asking from one friend, the other friends. So, how is it in the Ten, if I'm not sure if my action is for the sake of bestowal or not? If a certain number of friends are for it and some are against it, there is a place of free choice as if here, right?
M. Laitman: It's not free choice. This is the egoistic choice.
Student: How from this do I come to the true choice?
M. Laitman: That's work. You need to come out of that state to rise above it over the ego, and then to perform actions that can bring you to a free choice.
Student: How do I involve the Creator into this process?
M. Laitman: Pray. Pray, ask.
Question (Women MAK 90): (47:52) In the text it says that we do not have to labor ourselves into exercises. What is he talking about?
Question (Women MAK): (48:14) We in the Ten are reading Psalms and sometimes they are sad, and it feels as if the Creator is angry at us or at the reader. Is it a sign from the Creator that we have to accelerate? What does it mean?
M. Laitman: Yes, specifically that way.
Student: You were saying more than once that you have to run in front of the train. What does it depend on? We will do it like this in the future when we will… How do you make yourself run in front of the train?
M. Laitman: To force ourselves to run before the train? For that, we need to precede the Creator's desire. We will still go through these things.
Question (Women French): (49:32) We were talking in the Ten about what she's asking. I feel more inside of me a desire to see peace in the world. There's a desire to bring contentment to the Creator. It's something abstract. How do I come from one desire to the other?
M. Laitman: Through the prayer. We forget about the prayer, but basically there are a lot of actions that we can start and finish in the prayer.
Question (Women Brasil): (50:41) If the Creator doesn't have good or evil, it doesn't matter what we do. Will it always be perceived as good?
M. Laitman: That's completely incorrect. There is a filter on the thoughts and actions and intentions, and we pass through it, and it is only afterwards that we receive a response.
Question (Women Moscow 6): (51:31) Today I heard a couple of times from you that we have to perform actions that the Creator will like. So, basically, we don't have such a big amount of actions. We perform in the Ten and correct in our hearts. How do we upgrade these actions in order for them to become real? Or is it simply important to just hold them?
M. Laitman: Love everybody.
Question (Women Italy): (52:00) Overcoming is a force that detaches us. Is it a spiritual force?
M. Laitman: Yes, a spiritual force.
Question (Women MAK 23): (52:34) We work in the Ten. How can we elevate over ourselves and always feel the Creator as good that does good? In order to perceive Him as good that does good, what kind of work do we have to perform in the Ten in order to help each other?
M. Laitman: To help each other by connecting and loving the Creator and turning to Him to reach closeness with Him.
Question (Nikolaev-Sochi): (53:31) You once said that if we put meat into 200 degrees then it will become fried, and at 60 degrees it's going to become stale. So, do we have to fry ourselves to get to the new state? How do we fry ourselves into a new state in order not to become stale?
M. Laitman: That depends on the group. If the group seriously wants to burst out of the egoistic field, and its strength is only in the Creator constantly, only for that.
Question (Women MAK 30): (54:39) It is written in the text that resistance to the spiritual work attributes personally to everyone, and when we work in joy, this feeling is a common feeling in the whole Ten. We feel that we strive to work only in unity. So, it comes out that in order for us to strengthen the work, in every action we have to strive to perform only in unity?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (55:27) When I feel a beating, an obstacle, I have a feeling that I am afraid of this instead of feeling happy from these blows. So, I would not want to repeat the path I took in order to come to this state. I want to perform some different overcoming. So, how do I treat all these feelings of awe, like to the blows, and not just walk from Beito.
M. Laitman: We need to rid ourselves of the ego. That's the most important.
Student: Everything is going through the plea, in the process of the prayer. I have some calculation in the prayer, and I don't understand, and I cannot fully, as if, flow in the prayer.
M. Laitman: To pray from morning to night.
Question (MAK 7): (56:51) How do I combine these two things: prayer to the Creator and none else besides Him.
M. Laitman: It's very simple. It's the same thing. It's in the same direction. You pray to Him, and you aim yourself at there is none else besides Him.
Question (Women English 1): (57:22) Whenever we have obstacles, is that the point at which the desire is uncorrected, that the Creator wants to correct?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And the prayer is to help us to accept this as good and to ask for help to rise above with an intention to bring contentment to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course.
Student: Another question. You said we should pray all the time. Is this something we can practically do by connecting ourselves to prayer even when we are sleeping?
M. Laitman: When sleeping I don't know, but besides the time of sleep you can always be in a prayer.
Question (Women Hebrew 2): (59:04) What is the justification when you have to overcome more than what this society makes you do.
M. Laitman: In every appeal to the Creator, we need to overcome more than the impulse we get for that.
I wish you all the best, and until tomorrow.
Announcements: (59:35)
Song: (01:00:00)