The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.

Daily Lesson (Afternoon) October 15, 2024

                                                         

Part 1 Rabash. Record 158. According to the Sorrow Is the Reward

Hello, we are reading from the Rabash articles, volume 3, article 158, According to the Sorrow is the Reward. You can find this article on the website, on Sviva Tova and on our Arvut system. 

Reading Article: (00:44)

Through the Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] that a person does, they bring upon him thoughts and desires to want to purify himself. This is called “He who comes to purify.” This is the time when he exerts in order to purify himself from self-love.

At that time, he comes to a state of sorrow and pain at not being able to achieve purity, but to the contrary. This is so because each time, he sees more of the truth: He is immersed in self-love and does not see any possibility in the horizon that can bring him out of this.

Then when he regrets this, he acquires a need for the Creator’s help. At that time, the help from above comes, as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided” (Shabbat 104a). This is regarded as “all the light.” 

At that time, we say, “According to the sorrow is the reward,” meaning that which he regrets not having, he can obtain this for his sorrow. It is like a person who regrets not having respect. Therefore, his sorrow makes him do things that will earn him respect.

Therefore, when one regrets not being able to purify himself from vessels of reception, what will be the reward, so he will have the strength to purify himself from vessels of reception? It follows that “According to the sorrow is the reward,” meaning on whatever substance he regrets, on that substance he receives the filling.

Thus, the question was, How is it permitted to receive reward? The answer is that the whole prohibition on receiving reward is that he will be a receiver. Yet, here it is to the contrary; he wants the reward of being able to bestow, and this is certainly permitted. It follows that there is no light without a Kli [vessel], so it is impossible to draw mercy if there is no sorrow.

“According to the sorrow is the reward” means that he is rewarded for that which he regrets. He is not regretful over money and is given respect. The reward of being able to bestow is permitted because this is the purpose of the work.

Question (KabU 14): (04:55) He writes, on whatever substance he regrets, on that substance he receives the feeling. My main sorrow is not to be able to hug the friend with my question. So, the friends around me are the vessels of bestowal, right? How do we use those vessels of bestowal in the right way? 

M. Laitman: Receive from them the vessels and learn from them how to bestow with those vessels, and then receive the light for the sake of bestowal. 

Question (MAK 39): (06:25) How do we come to a permanent internal feeling? 

M. Laitman: Come to consistency. You can only do this with consistent work.

Student: Through the group, yes? 

M. Laitman: Of course, of course, otherwise you will never have the vessel in which you will be able to receive the light. 

Question (W Moscow 6): (07:16) For what do we need to be regretful?

M. Laitman: We have to regret the fact that we cannot all together with our forces address the Creator and ask Him to become closer to Him, for adhesion to Him.

Question (W MAK): (07:55) What does it mean to bestow to the Creator, to fulfill Him, to come near to Him in the Ten, and with that, a person needs to be regretful? 

M. Laitman: To strive to become closer to the Creator, for Him being more revealed to us, so we could use His qualities, we could utilize His force, and so that from that we would obtain the qualities of bestowal, and that way we would become similar to Him. 

Student: What is the correct vessel of the Ten in order to bestow to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: The correct vessel of the Ten is when all ten friends wish to unite all their desires, goals, and intentions together for the sake of the Creator. 

Student: How does the Ten pay the Creator for the real reward, the adhesion with Him?

M. Laitman: He has to pay with the desire to resemble Him.

Question (W MAK 5): (09:29) In the beginning of the article if says, by the Torah and Mitzvot that a person does, they bring upon him thoughts and desires to want to purify himself. The desire to purify yourself doesn't come when a person feels that the Creator is sending him this state, and with this state he can yearn for it and to be regretful?

M. Laitman: No, we cannot act like that. We go from our impurity, from our filth, towards purity, towards correction. So, we cannot speak about having a corrected state manifested in us prior to being incorrected.

Student: So, it turns out that everything that we are experiencing in this state of purified is a lie, or not necessarily? 

M. Laitman: Currently, of course. We don't have truly corrected vessels today, therefore all our so-called purity is only uncorrected vessels that are in some relative correction in comparison to our ego. 

Question (W Moscow): (11:16) So, before the Machsom, the action of bestowal is impossible?

M. Laitman: Yes, of course. 

Student: And if it looks to us that it's like that, then we haven't scrutinized enough? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Can we do anything about it if we have impressions, like I do everything for the friends? What can we do to reveal that this is not the way it is? 

M. Laitman: You will receive this from the Creator. He will shine upon you with His light, with the quality of bestowal, and you will feel this quality of bestowal on the backdrop of your quality to receive. This way you will feel the gap between you and the Creator.

Student: What can we do in these types of states? What can sweeten it that I feel that I work for myself, but to continue without disparity, not to eat myself and just advance forward? 

M. Laitman: You agreed to do that in order to reveal your difference from the Creator. 

Student: Do we need to prepare ourselves in the Ten that we know that it's going to happen and to help each other? 

M. Laitman: Let's say, yes. 

Question (W UK): (13:03) How can we wholeheartedly feel the regret and sorrow that we are not able to bestow? 

M. Laitman: It depends how close you are to each other and how much you are aiming yourself to mutual bestowal, and how much you really want to bestow to the Creator. You need to collect all those desires, thoughts, and intentions together and to raise them to the Creator. As a result, you will receive such states that will show you the real state that you are in. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:33) Maybe you can explain the first paragraph. 

M. Laitman Reads: (14:41) “Through the Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] that a person does, they bring upon him thoughts and desires to want to purify himself. This is called “He who comes to purify.” This is the time when he exerts in order to purify himself from self-love.” 

Student: What is it that is called Torah and Mitzvot that a person can do, and something that will bring his thoughts to become different, to obtain the desire to purify himself. So, what's this first state from which the whole process starts? What is it that I'm able to perform? 

M. Laitman: That he wants to come near to the Creator, come closer to Him. This is what I understand. It is written that by Torah and Mitzvot that a person does. What does he do? He does all kinds of actions, study and bestowal, and this is all in order to come closer to the Creator through the friends. So, the action that he does brings him thoughts and desires. What kind of thoughts and desires? That he wants to purify himself, and this is called, he who comes to purify. In short, everything is written in front of him. This is the time that he invests his strength to purify himself from self-love, and after he has done it enough, he invests his strength so from that, that he is yet to be purified. 

On the contrary, each and every time he does more, and he sees the truth, how he is deep in self-love. He does not see any possibility on the horizon that can bring him out of this which means that he feels more, and more, that he is like in a swamp, more and more in the vessels of reception, and by the feeling of the sorrow and pain, and by all kinds of actions, he cannot get out of being sunk in self-love. Then when he regrets that, he doesn't come immediately to his sorrow, and then he acquires a need for the Creator's help. At that time, the help from above comes. 

As our sages said, he who comes to purify is aided. This is regarded as all the light, that what he received and helped from above, he comes to purify and is aided. The upper light is affecting him and gets him out. And then they say, according to the sorrow is the reward. For what? He is rewarded, meaning that which he regrets not having. At that time they say, according to the sorrow is the reward, meaning that which he regrets not having, he can obtain this for his sorrow. It is like a person who regrets not having respect, therefore his sorrow makes him do things that will earn him respect. 

Therefore, when one regrets not being able to purify himself from vessels of reception, what will be the reward? So, he will have the strength to purify himself from vessels of reception. It follows that according to the sorrow is the reward, meaning on whatever substance he regrets, on that substance he receives the feeling. Thus, the question was, how is it permitted to receive reward? The answer is that the whole prohibition on receiving reward is that he will be a receiver. 

Yet, here it is to the contrary. He wants the reward of being able to bestow, and this is certainly permitted. It follows that there is no light without a Kli. So, it is impossible to draw mercy if there is no sorrow. According to the sorrow is the reward means that he is rewarded for that which he regrets. He is not regretful over money, and he is given respect. It is not that they replace this reception to this reception. The reward of being able to bestow is permitted, because this is the purpose of the work. He wants this reward in short. 

Student: How can he bring himself to the state where his heart will fill with suffering due to the lack of bestowal, that he is stuck in ego? How do we do ‘for suffering to fill all your heart and mind?’

M. Laitman: Because now he wants to receive strength from the Creator, foundations that he will be able to bestow.

Question (W MAK 113): (24:35) I heard that the Creator is giving us on purpose the states in the Ten where I, my ego, can unfurl, can reveal itself. What else do I need to correct in myself in order to come even closer to the Creator? It turns out that our Ten is a small system of correction and coming closer to the Creator, and therefore, if we put the world with us into the Ten, then the Creator can correct us all and bring us to peace, if every one of us will want to correct the state inside of her. 

M. Laitman: Yes, that's right.

Student: So, it's very, it's basically some kind of a miracle, then, if we can perform these actions. 

M. Laitman: Yes, and then we cannot do that, the Creator can. 

Student: But we in our Ten have to digest it and accept it, right? 

M. Laitman: Correct.

Question (W PT 33): (25:59) How can I differentiate if I'm in self-love. What is self-love, basically? 

M. Laitman: To be in self-love means that you are receiving.

Student: In this world I drink, I drive, I eat. It's not something that is in self-love, right? It's just taking care of the body. I want to understand, where is the self-love, this Kli, this vessel with which I work in the spiritual work, and from it I want to cleanse?

M. Laitman: In the place that you are enjoying. 

Student: Well, I enjoy everything. 

M. Laitman: Very well.

Student: Well, from coffee. I ask for correction, for it not to be self-love, but for the sake of the Creator?

M. Laitman: We still need to study that. 

Student: I really want to start this work, Rav.

M. Laitman: I understand you. You are at the beginning of the work and try to continue. 

Question (W Turkiye 7): (27:59) When a person is deep in his vessels of reception, he's moving away from the Creator and he's wasting the time he has been given. What should he do to avoid staying for too long in the vessels of reception? 

M. Laitman: To try to turn, to switch to the vessels of bestowal. 

Student: What does this vessel of reception teach us? What should we take from these reception vessels? What should we learn from them? 

M. Laitman: We start to study, we learn from that how much we want to receive, and this is the only thing that interests us. That's it.

Question (W French): (29:48) We hear the correct lack is for all the friends to have desire to unite. Does it say that I still don't have the correct lack? 

M. Laitman: The desire is not enough. The lack is not enough. 

Question (W MAK 104): (30:13) We study using authentic books and we know that we advance correctly. I do want a reward for my work in order to receive the result, not for myself, but for the group. Is this targeted towards bestowal or towards self-reward? 

M. Laitman: Yes, somehow it is aimed. Yes.

Question (W MAK 70): (30:49) If I commiserate internally and I regret for the ego of the other and I pray internally, but externally I don't manifest any actions, will I be rewarded for that? Or in general, will I get rewarded? 

M. Laitman: Whatever suits you. That's where you have your thoughts. 

Question (W Italy): (31:21) If the reward is changing the root of desire, does this mean that our current corrupt desires are preventing us from fully connecting with the Creator and with the others? 

M. Laitman: Yes. That's how it's written. 

Question (MAK 39): (32:02) We know that the Creator is both cause and effect, prayer and help. We also know that He's behind every friend, one and only. How do we pray for the Creator so that our hearts, our lack would increase specifically in unity, in bestowal? Can we establish a prayer like this, because we're asking all of the time, but who will be asking for Him?

M. Laitman: We need to connect and to ask the Creator to help us to connect in such a way that in our connection, we will feel all of us together. 

Question (MAK 24): (33:04) Every day by coming to the lesson and working in the group and reading the sages, do we come to cleanse ourselves? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: If we do not feel any lack in these moments, does it work? 

M. Laitman: It doesn't matter. Even if we don't think about it, still the light that is in the Torah and the books that we study still works on us, influencing us. 

Question (W Moscow 6): (33:47) Inside of the action of rising us to the Creator, what kind of fulfillment do we ask for? 

M. Laitman: We ask for the Creator to fulfill us with the light and to correct us, to bring us closer to the Creator in such a way that we will start to feel ourselves included with Him. Then it turns out from the connection with the Creator, we will adhere to Him and feel what He feels. 

Question (Kyiv): (34:40) What does it mean to feel what the Creator is feeling? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. Whatever the Creator feels.

Student: How can I include myself in His feeling? 

M. Laitman: Ask. How is He going to do that? We don't know how He is going to do it. Maybe, we will reveal it later, but meanwhile, ask. 

Student: Does a Kabbalist truly include himself, interconnect with the Creator, and feel His mood and His feelings? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What does it mean that I come to the lesson with the intention to cleanse myself, to purify myself? We have a lesson every day. How do I check myself if I came with the intention to purify myself or not? 

M. Laitman: What were your thoughts about? 

Student: A person wakes up every day simply because he got used to it, for example. 

M. Laitman: This is why you don't have a serious result from your study. 

Student: So, how does it work correctly? I came to the lesson, I tuned myself. How do I tune myself? Did I purify myself?

M. Laitman: Sit, think about yourself, about your state, about what will be with you, and slowly, gradually, you see what type of thoughts and feelings you can turn to the Creator with. 

Student: Well, there can be a myriad of different thoughts and requests, but specifically for the request to be towards purification.

M. Laitman: Therefore, you need to ask in your words. 

Question (W Spain): (37:17) I understand that pain and suffering theoretically indicate this has to lead to pain in the body. How can we achieve such a level of repentance so that our body would not get hit, and we protect our body and do this work without egoistical fear? 

M. Laitman: I am not afraid for my body. It is strong and the Creator will take care of it for sure. I worry for my soul, for the will to bestow. Will I be able to bestow to the Creator just like the Creator wants to bestow to me? It is written, “I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me”. This is what I want to feel.

Question (Hadera 1): (38:36) In the article, we understand that revelation depends on the lack. There is a lack that a person is increasing by saying it is good if I have received this, but there is a lack that a person simply cannot survive without it. So, there is a difference in the quality between those two. How do we turn this minimal lack into the true lack? 

M. Laitman: We need to slowly, slowly, or more and more, to enter the work of the Creator.

Question: What does it mean? 

M. Laitman: And then we will feel what the Creator wants from us.

Question (W MAK 62): (39:51) We have such a fortunate moment to ask. We in the Ten actually work. What kind of actions do we have to do in our group in order to purify ourselves from the vessels of reception? We came to the conclusion that, basically, by reading this article, I have caught myself thinking as if I'm reading it for the first time. It's just such an interesting feeling. Even though we have read it so many times, only today it seemed to me what it has to be. The friends also are afraid now to receive this pleasure and reward. Here it says that reward is allowed because this is the goal of the creation, and not for our own sake. So, what kind of actions do we have to perform in the group still to achieve this all together, to purify ourselves from the vessels of reception? 

M. Creator: Ask the Creator. I am not allowed to answer such questions. 

Student: How can we ask for strength from the Creator? 

M. Laitman: In your words. 

Question (W Russian 3): (41:39) It turns out that we need the desire to bestow. In actuality, it's a gift from above, and all the actions are performed by the light, only the light. And we receive the light specifically where it aches. And you've answered my question already that we have to start the work. We have such big friends, and they're working for the whole day in dissemination, in the lesson, all of the time. And at the same time, maybe still, we have certain hopes that we can do something ourselves, or what stands in our way?

M. Laitman: Nothing is in your way, all you need is to continue more and more, and the main thing is to connect. 

Question (W Moscow 5): (42:54) On one hand, you have just mentioned that our work before the Machsom is recognition of evil, and revelation of illness, and then we will correct it above the Machsom. On the other hand, we see that through all these years we work, we strive towards the love of friends, and we reveal the opposite states, and the repulsion, and we address the Creator, and we see that He changes our perception, and from being far, our friends become close to us, and you can say even beloved. So, something does get corrected or not, because by this logic, it seems that we cannot truly come to the love of friends before the Machsom, that it's an illusion. 

M. Laitman: It's not an illusion. We're correcting, we get used to it. There is some sort of coming, nearing, but it's still not enough. 

Student: So, what point do we have to reach in order to be able to be in adhesion with the Creator for Him to truly correct us? What's this point? 

M. Laitman: First of all, you should ask in a correct way, and then you see that in a correct way, He will correct you. 

Question (W Kakaz 1): (44:28) All the scrutinies, is the desire getting corrected before the Machsom, or is it becoming coarser? We can only predict that we become better, but in the light next to it, we see ourselves in a worse state. 

M. Laitman: It's all correct. The point is that we need to continue to do what is written. 

Student: Another question. We say that to the extent to which a person values the connection with the Creator, a plea in him gets born to ask only for the sake of the soul, for the connection to be constant.

M. Laitman: Yes, you can say that. 

Question (W MAK 36): (45:41) When a person tries to perform a calculation about the reward, he comes to the conclusion that he's not able yet. And in this process, in regard to the pleasure, he feels shame and uncomfortable and desire to hide in a cocoon. How do I work in this calculation? 

M. Laitman: It's not a correct feeling. When a person wants to come closer to the Creator, he can want and say anything he wants, and it will always be expected by the Creator.

Student: So, the person is just confused and is in reception? 

M. Laitman: Yes, probably. 

Question (W MAK 97): (46:41) How does a person feel the reward from the Creator in his feelings? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. How can I pass my feelings? You need to ask, feel, and then you'll know. 

Student: It is written, the one who comes to be cleansed is getting helped. Is there a difference between a sacred soul and a purified soul? 

M. Laitman: No, no difference.

Question (W Ukraine 2): (47:23) If a person has reached a plea, the Creator brought him to this, and he was in such a state that he was asking in tears, he was asking for a bestowal. This egoism, reception was horrible for him, and he wanted to jump out of it. So, here the Creator just calms a person with this request. What's the work after the request? 

M. Laitman: Let's first of all acquire a state where a person hates to receive from the Creator. 

Student: So, it's an illusion for the time being? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (W MAK): (48:15) What questions and answers have to reveal themselves in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Anything that has got to do with the Kedusha, with the holiness.

Student: In what is clean work and reception for the sake of bestowal? 

M. Laitman: In receiving only in order to bestow.

Student: How do we recognize the amount of bestowal of the Creator, so we bestow the same amount? 

M. Laitman: Bestow as much as you can. It will always be less than how much the Creator will.

Question (W Heb 2): (49:17) In the article it says that the suffering is what stops the advancement of a person. How can a person use it in a way so that he does not forget about it, that he is successful in advancement? How do we save ourselves from this? What's our attitude towards it? 

M. Laitman: Soon, soon. Think about it all the time and you will receive an answer. 

Question (W Hebrew 2): (49:56) When we do actions and intentions for the sake of the friends to increase the lack of that group, the unity, it's not yet considered an action of bestowal? 

M. Laitman: Maybe, yes.

Question (W German): (50:56) What commandments or good deeds get us into lowliness in regard to the friends? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. It depends on the environment or the spirits that you are in, the atmosphere that you are in. 

Question (W Heb 1): (51:33) The Creator is good that does good. Why did we receive this force of overcoming? 

M. Laitman: So you will have work to do.

Question (English 1): (51:55) When we say ask the Creator, does that mean that we can hold Him in our hearts? We can actually say the words out loud? We can sing about Him? We can reflect upon Him and hold Him in deep contemplation? Are all valid ways of asking the Creator? 

M. Laitman: You can turn to the Creator as much as you want and in whichever way you want to do it, welcome. Everything is permitted. 

Question (Tbilisi): (53:10) I have received today the happy news that you have managed to go out for a walk on your own, and we became so happy that here is our prayer. Creator, we ask you, connect us, the whole world Kli, together in one, into one with our beloved Rav, in such a way that we would all together be able to bring contentment upon You. Give us strength. 

M. Laitman: That we will connect together to the Creator. 

Question (W Turkiye 10): (54:05) If a person didn't have a childhood where he could learn to love himself, how can he do this work to exit his nature, the one that he didn't even learn to be in? 

M. Laitman: Only by what we are studying with prayer and connection to the Creator.

Student: If he didn't grow in the environment where he learned how to love himself, how can he exit it if he doesn't know what it is? 

M. Laitman: There is no such thing. As it is written, there is no righteous in the world that he did not sin. 

Question (W MAK 26): (54:50) In the article I understood that if a person is suffering, he is rewarded with the reward that lets him bestow. If a person is suffering, can he bestow? 

M. Laitman: It must have been. It depends on what the degree of suffering is.

Student: Can he bestow exactly for the reason why he is suffering? This article is around it. To me it's not clear. If you have a very strong lack and at the same time you think that everyone else has it, how can a person bestow here? 

M. Laitman: He can still. It depends on the person. 

Question (W Heb 2): (56:09) Is there a connection between general and personal correction?

M. Laitman: Of course.

Question (W Eng 1): (56:58) Is all our suffering as a result of not being able to bestow and be persistent in the prayer and the connection asking for this vessel to bestow? 

M. Laitman: This is correct. We are lacking only the vessels of bestow. 

Question (Novosibirsk): (57:46) What is the regret towards the friends leads to the most correct regret to the Creator, regret that I don't feel how to support the friend, regret that I don't see them as great? 

M. Laitman: In any shape or form. At the end of the day, you are going to regret that you cannot be together, and you have one desire to bestow to the Creator. 

Question (W Moscow 6): (58:32) Is the Kli created from suffering and pain? And when you have regret, is it like a reward coming from the Creator and the ability to connect to Him and then the Kli is created? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (PT 6): (58:52) There are a lot of prayers in the heart for the sick friends, for Rav, for the soldiers, for the war. How do I organize the prayer correctly? 

M. Laitman: By how you feel it in your heart.

Question (W PT 39): (59:23) How can we, through the group, hasten and reach this pain? 

M. Laitman: Connect with one desire, raise it to the Creator, and only ask from Him, and you will see how you will succeed.