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

World Kabbalah Convention 

Connecting to There is None Else Besides Him May 22-24, 2025.

Lesson 5 May 24, 2025: Descents as a Springboard for Ascents 

Reader: Hello friends, now we will start our lesson. Lesson Number 5 from the Congress of Connecting To There Is None Else Besides Him. The topic of our lesson is Descents As Springboard For Ascents. We will start the lesson with Excerpt Number One from Rabash's article, Lishma and Lo Lishma.

Reading: (01:32) Excerpt 1. RABASH, Article No. 29 (1986), "Lishma and Lo Lishma"

Before a person completes the work and comes out of the domain of the Klipot [shells/peels], he does not see the measure of his entrance into Kedusha. All he sees is that each time he is farther away because the opposite of Kedusha reveals the evil in him. Before there is light of Kedusha, a person cannot see the real form of evil in him. As said above, precisely where there is light we can see the dirt that is in the house.

It follows that one cannot know what he can regard as a good state. That is, it might be that a person feels that he is in a descent, meaning that he sees that he has no desire for Torah and Mitzvot. He sees that now he has more passion for self-love than, for example, yesterday. Thus, a person should probably say that yesterday he was in a state where he regarded people who were concerned with corporeal means, with satisfying their will to receive, he stayed away from them and could not see intelligent grownups degrading themselves into being in such a lowly state.

But now he sees that he is one of them and he has no shame in feeling his lowliness. Rather, it is an ordinary thing for him, as though he never thought about spirituality. To understand it better, let us take for example, when a person must get up before dawn. When he is awakened by the alarm clock or by a person, he feels that he must rise to serve the Creator. He begins to feel the importance of the matter, and therefore rises quickly because the sensation of the importance of serving the Creator gives him strength to get up quickly.

Undoubtedly, at that time he is in a state of ascent. That is, it is not corporeality that gives him strength to work, but to him the spirituality, his feeling that now he will have contact with the Creator, in whatever manner, is enough to give him strength to work, and he does not think of anything but the Creator. He feels that now he is regarded as alive, but without spirituality he is regarded as dead. Naturally, he feels that he is in a state of ascent.

In truth, a person cannot determine his state, that he feels he is remote. That is, if he is a person who wishes to walk on the path of bestowal, he must understand that from above he is given a special treatment, that he was lowered from the previous state so he would begin to really contemplate the goal, meaning what is required of man and what man wants the Creator to give him. But when he is in a state of ascent, when he has desire for Torah and Mitzvot, he has no need to worry about spirituality. Instead, he sees that he will stay this way his whole life because he is happy this way.

It therefore follows that the descent he has received is for his own good, meaning that he is receiving special treatment, that he was lowered from his state where he thought that he had some wholeness. This is apparent in his agreeing to remain in the current state his whole life.

But 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. It follows that this descent is actually an ascent, meaning that this descent that they feel allows them to rise in degree, since “there is no light without a Kli.”

It follows that when he thought that he was in a state of ascent, he had no desire in which the Creator to place anything, since his Kli was full and there was no room to put anything inside. But now that he feels he is in a state of descent, he begins to see his deficiencies and the main reasons that interrupt his achieving Dvekut with the Creator. At that time he knows what help to ask of the Creator because he sees the truth, the real obstructer.

According to the above, one cannot say that the Creator has driven him away from the work of the Creator. The proof of this is that he is in a state of descent, meaning that the Creator has thrown him out from the work and does not want him to work for Him. This is not so. On the contrary, because the Creator wants to bring him closer, when he felt that he was in ascent, He could not bring him closer because he had no Kelim.

In order to give him Kelim, the Creator had to bring him out of his state, and admit him into a state where he feels deficient. Then the Creator can give him help from above, as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided. The holy Zohar asks, ‘With what?’ And he replies, ‘With a holy soul.’” That is, he is being made to feel that the soul is a part of God above, and then he enters the Kedusha. At that time he can go from degree to degree until he completes his soul with respect to what it needs to correct.

M. Laitman: This is a Rabash article. Questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:29) From the article, we can understand that we cannot enlarge the vessels during the ascent, but only in the descent you can enlarge the vessels? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:48) He writes in the beginning of this excerpt that before a person completes the work and comes out of the domain of the Klipot, shells, he does not see the measure of his entrance into Kedusha. So, what is this state of coming out of the domain of the shells? This is only at the end of the work, at the end of the correction? 

M. Laitman: We can always measure only in between two states; and therefore, this is how He explains this to us. 

Student: Two different states of Hissaron, a Kli? 

M. Laitman: Two different states of the person, of the Kli, and the state that he's in, and the state that he should be in. And then in between these two, he measures himself, his true state. 

Student: And between the state of one Hissaron, one deficiency, and the other, in between them. Is there a state of fulfillment, or not to look at that at all? 

M. Laitman: Yes, but you cannot measure between one deficiency and another deficiency. 

Student: What can't I measure? 

M. Laitman: A vessel cannot be in one deficiency, and go and measure, and feel another deficiency, and measure the gap between the current deficiency, and what was before or what will be later. And so, what we need to do is measure the vessel in the present state compared to the state of descent. 

Student: What's the right way to independently enter a descent and not wait for the Creator to do it for you? 

M. Laitman: This depends on the person, to what extent he feels himself and holds himself; to what extent he reaches his own correction. 

Student: Do you need to look for how to be in a descent, correctly? 

M. Laitman: Not how to be in a descent, he should measure his present state. 

Student: In relation to what? 

M. Laitman: In relation to what he has now and what he had before. 

Student: Not to look forward at what he wishes to achieve?

M. Laitman: What does he know about what's ahead, none of us knows what's ahead. 

Student: So, what does it give me? What do I get out of looking at what I have now compared to what I had? 

M. Laitman: Because you measure your present state compared to what you had before. 

Student: And about what's ahead, this is what the Creator will decide?

M. Laitman: How can you do it? I mean, how can you ask about a state that was not revealed, yet? 

Student: What does it mean then, what is a yearning? What's the goal, if not what's waiting for us up ahead, a desire that wasn't yet revealed? 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: I mean, if I look at what I had ten years ago from my current state, I can say that it was much better in some way. But it feels like, it's like, it feels like staying in the shells. How do you get out of that state? How not to be satisfied by some kind of false observation? 

M. Laitman: We see from Rabash that he recommends to us to always make a calculation between states: What is it now compared to how it was before; what I want compared to how it was. So it's always the difference, this gap that I need to feel as my progress, and if not, then here it's a place where I need to do work. I need to turn to the Creator and ask for correction over what happened to me. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:59) A person in an ascent, he has the strength to help others, strengthen his environment. Why bring him down into a descent from that? What for, I mean, why put him in a descent if in the state of ascent he has the power to help everyone?

M. Laitman: If a person feels himself in the state of ascent, and he wants to come down from that? 

Student: No, I mean, a person who's in ascent, he has the strength to help others, bestow. Why bring him down from that state, altogether? 

M. Laitman: What does he say that a person should be lowered from that state of ascent? 

Student: A person gets a descent, he doesn't even see it coming, it just comes – he was in ascent, and all of a sudden, he's in descent. And in ascent, he doesn't feel that he's doing anything wrong, he has the strength to bestow, he helps, and everything. There's no problem with the state that he's in. And then, he doesn't understand, why was he brought down from that state of ascent that he was in? What's the problem? 

M. Laitman: If a person doesn't feel that he is declining, then he will never have the strength to ascend. This is why our advancement is only in that we will feel every state as a greater descent than what we had before. And the gap, in the gap between the descents, we will ask for forces. We will work on it in order to advance towards a greater ascent, a true ascent. This is why we have to see only the present state, compared to the state we had before. Where the difference between the states, this is what I take into account. And from that descent, I already calculate my ascent. 

Student: Sometimes, when there's a state of descent, there's also a kind of feeling like the Creator punished you for doing something wrong during the ascent. But you're saying that it's incorrect.

M. Laitman: It's wrong. I don't feel in the spiritual work that the Creator is punishing me, or He's throwing me off the path. But rather, I try more and more to accept my states – that they come in order to promote me. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:05) He writes that a person sees that he has no power to work, he finds himself between heaven and earth. And a person can strengthen himself only in that the Creator is the only one who can help him, otherwise he's lost. How does a person strengthen himself when he feels lost? 

M. Laitman: When he has, that he has a connection with the Creator. The Creator threw him off from above, and the person is in a state where he can ask for an ascent. 

Student: This is if he feels that it's the Creator that threw him from above down. But if he doesn't feel it, what then? 

M. Laitman: Then he needs to keep on working.

Student: He writes, and those that turn to the Creator, who hope for the Creator's help, but see that they don't have the strength, they will get new strength by turning to the Creator. How do you do it, how do you get this new strength? 

M. Laitman: I felt that I'm in a form, in a state, where I'm disconnected, disconnected from the Creator. I can't thank Him, I can't get close to my friends, so what to do? There's only one thing left for me, to try to get close to the Creator in a way that He will help me. That He will help me. 

Student: I turn to the Creator to help me, that's it? What do I need all the friends then for? 

M. Laitman: You cannot connect to the Creator, unless you are connected with the friends.

Student: When a person feels lost, who does he need, the friends or the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Depending on the state but, in truth, when he's lost, doomed, he doesn't need anything, he just wants to disconnect from that state. 

Student: What will set him back on course? 

M. Laitman: The Creator, He replaces his states. 

Student: What promises him that the Creator will set him back on course? 

M. Laitman: It's what he had before, when he was connected to the ascent, to advancing, and the connection that he had with his friends.

Student: But what do I need to do now in order to make sure that once the descent comes, I won't disconnect, but I'll get back on course as quickly as possible? 

M. Laitman: I would recommend not to think about the descent because ascents and descents, a person can change them quickly, with great speed. And then, he doesn't need more descents. 

Student: A person doesn't have to somehow ensure his future, the future state, simply not to think about the descent? 

M. Laitman: No, he was in the descent now, he started to rise, let's say. So he needs to expect only the future states that the Creator will arrange for him. 

Student: I have this kind of fear, at least at this Congress, with so many thousands of people, how not to miss out on this opportunity. This moment, to use it, really squeeze it, squeeze everything out of it, everything that we can in order to benefit spiritually? 

M. Laitman: I think that a person should operate such that every moment is as new in his eyes. And in that, with this approach, he can advance. Whatever happened so far, it's dead, and what I have ahead of me is what I will demand from here on.

Student: And when a person sees his next moment as the new moment, what should be his attitude, approach, towards each and every new moment? 

M. Laitman: To connect with that state that the Creator is proposing to him. And then he enters that state and from that he can advance onward.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:07) Rabash gives this example, he says: In the morning, when a person needs to get up, when an alarm clock awakens him, or another person who feels that he needs to come, he needs to get up, and serve the Creator, and feel the importance of the matter, and immediately he swiftly gets up because the feeling of the work of the Creator allows him to get up swiftly, and then he is in a state of ascent. 

If there is such a situation where a person really runs to the lesson and prepares himself to meet the Creator. Does he need to only be in that, or does he also have to examine himself in relation to the friends and evoke the next state, so to speak? Or he just needs to be in adhesion with that current state? 

M. Laitman: I cannot say, I cannot say, this is about an individual state of a certain person. But nevertheless, when he wakes up and he begins to return to reality from the sleep. He should see, therefore, how he is going to manage himself and how he is going to use the upper forces that will awaken him in a new way.

Student: You said that it's an individual state, a particular state for a person that he needs to work in. Does there also need to be some kind of common, shared work here? 

M. Laitman: For the time being, no. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:23) In ascent, if a person has the strength to study, love the friends, what kind of exertion does he need to make during the ascent? 

M. Laitman: His exertion in the ascent is to try to connect to all the forces that build the ascent. 

Student: To connect with what? A prayer, plea, what? 

M. Laitman: That you want to capture, to hold on to these forces that influence you and push you up. 

Student: It's like I have an elevator, and I want to go higher and higher and try to catch it, like? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:29) What does it mean that you're being pushed upwards? Upwards means what? 

M. Laitman: Up to a higher degree. 

Student: That, what do you have, there? 

M. Laitman: In it, there is a greater familiarity with the states that you feel from your connection with the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:09) The article explains that the descents, their purpose is for a person to have the vessels to renew his contact with the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes? 

Student: And now, all of a sudden, there are questions about the ascent. During the ascent, a person doesn't have the opportunity to be in contact with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: In an ascent, to be connected with the Creator, it's possible in a state where a person feels that he is in the force of ascent. We understand with everything that we feel it out of the opposite thing.

Student: So, the ascent disappears once the creature loses his connection to the Creator? In the ascent, he needs to have an ever greater yearning for the Creator, or how? 

M. Laitman: Not necessarily.

Student: The entire purpose of everything, this study, the work, everything is to be in a greater and greater connection with the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And through that sight, et cetera, the goal is to reach a state where at the peak of the ascent, fulfillment, even here at the Congress. When we reach a state of elation, great joy, we can keep our connection to the Creator? The same Hissaron like you have in a descent, it's possible? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Reader: There's also questions from the Congresses around the world. In Kiev, and Guadalahara, many questions. Maybe we'll go to Kiev. 

M. Laitman: Okay, let's do it.

Question (Kyiv): (33:31) I heard that we need to measure the vessel in its current state compared to its previous state. What does that mean? How do you actually measure the Kli, the vessel, how do you do it? 

M. Laitman: Did you hear it? 

Reader: It's all emotional. How do we feel the current state compared to the previous one? 

M. Laitman: With respect to the previous state I was in, and I moved from that to a new state, I checked that new state compared to the previous state.

Reader: Is it possible to measure it? 

M. Laitman: Yes, there is an ability to measure. 

Reader: So, how does a person measure it? 

M. Laitman: It's my desire, the will to receive of the person, it becomes a vessel, or a tool, in which you can measure each and every state. 

Question (W Kyiv): We understand that the Creator is the one that gives us all the states, the ups and downs, but what depends on us? How can we help each other so that the descents will be short and we'll quickly invert into ascents? 

M. Laitman: When we connect, then everything that is in a person comes out of him and is then with towards the friends. Seemingly he is serving them with his connection to the descents or ascents, and then this connection in the ascents with the ascents of the friends. And in the descents with the descents of the friends, it actually gives us a new vessel that we can use. 

Reader: Thank you, Kiev, we really need to be truly grateful to this amazing group. They were in the shelter, bomb shelter, for three and a half hours at night. Instead of sleeping, they came now to the prep, and the lesson, and everything. Let's move to Santiago. 

Question (Santiago): (37:09) We have two questions from Santiago: Each of us has his particular descents in the Ten. What can we do when our Ten is in descent? 

M. Laitman: When? 

Student: When the entire Ten is in descent, what can we do? 

M. Laitman: The whole Ten is in a descent, that's excellent. It's excellent, now you need to hold on strongly to each other, each one holding on to the other, so that all of the friends in the Ten, they will all bond. Turn to the Creator and try to break through when you're certain that He has to help you. And you'll see how much He helps.

Question (Santiago): (38:43) What are the conditions that we need to take into consideration in order to receive the higher force and advance? What do we have to do? Again, what are the circumstances that we need to take into consideration in order to be inspired by the higher force and advance? That's what I heard. 

M. Laitman: What are the conditions we need to take into account? 

Reader: The conditions that we need to take into account in order to receive the higher force and to advance. What do I need, what criteria or conditions do I need to meet in order for the higher force to advance us? 

M. Laitman: I think that what we need is, in every state that comes, to connect to the upper force, to turn to Him, and always to be tied with Him, not letting go of Him. And then, you will see that after a few such appeals, you will begin to feel how much He wants your advancement. And you will continue together with Him, with the upper force. 

Question (Hungary): (40:36) It is said in the article, he who comes to purify is aided. And the Holy Zohar asks, with what? The reply is with a holy soul. Can we ask about what is a holy soul? 

M. Laitman: A holy soul means a person who has a holy soul. It means, in Aramaic, Nishmata kadisha, a holy soul, a small one, that is felt in a person for the very first time, as the first portion. And this is how a person begins to enter his familiarity with the upper world, with the Creator. And in that, he gets to know the upper force that is revealed to him.

Student: What's it comprised of? 

M. Laitman: The soul is made of a desire, and we need to direct this desire to bring it closer to the Creator. 

Question (W Hungary): (42:30) Previously, you said that we need to see the difference between the previous and current states. It seems to me that I see the difference, but how can I be sure that it's not some kind of illusion, some kind of imagination, but that it's true? 

M. Laitman: You keep demanding, stubbornly, the connection with the higher Partzuf that clothes within you and moves you. 

Student: When we're distanced from the path, what are we doing in order not to interfere with each other's work or stand in the way of each other's work with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: How do we not hinder each other in our process of development? We can only help each other if we think that we want to help and ask the Creator to be together with us. And that's all we have ahead of us, we cannot really hinder, we can't.

Question (Guadalajara): (45:00) What does it mean when a person is in dissent and gets a special treating? 

M. Laitman: We don't need to interpret it, we need to wait for it – each and every moment. And to the extent that we will focus on that and want the same thing by that, we bring this force closer to us that needs to open us and pull us forward. 

Student: Can reading the sources help us all the time hold on to the state of descent and come out of descents? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Question (Qazaqstan): (46:32) How can you see or understand that a friend is in descent because you can't always see it by external, exterior signs?

M. Laitman: How to detect that a friend is in descent? I'm not even sure how to answer. The most important thing is to constantly think about it, that you want that the upper force will connect all of the friends, will bring them closer, will bind them and will pull them up. This is what we should be doing, we need to think about good deeds. 

Student: Yesterday was a day that was full of experiences and many good things. I felt that I'm in a state of ascent but there's nothing to add. And I looked deep in and I saw that I have many dark places inside myself. I tried to reach out and touch them, and I saw that there's room to fill them with lots of light. But when I did try to reach out, I felt that it turns into someone wicked. How do you work with the Malchut in order to rise above it and not sink into it? 

M. Laitman: You need to always think about the fact that you want to draw it to you, to hold on to it, and rise together with it. Work on that.

Question (Istanbul): (49:21) The desire for spirituality is not always parallel with the feeling of suffering. Sometimes you feel suffering as a result of lacking spirituality and sometimes a person doesn't feel suffering at all. What brings about the feeling of spiritual suffering, and how can you increase actually that? 

M. Laitman: Spiritual suffering, I feel them as a lack of adhesion with these states that are on the axis leading from me to the end of correction. That I need to go through these points, so let's try, let's depict it before us and in such a way, let's try to quickly reach it. 

Question (ITA): (50:56) Sanctity helps us see the state of our constant lack. How can we always see that it is holiness that is working on us. To be adhered to it so that we'll see that the Creator always wants to lift us up? 

M. Laitman: Only if we do what the Creator demands of us, we will get closer to Him and reach these points along the way that He wants to lead us through. This is what we need to do. And it's not so difficult, we just need to depict correctly the way that we have to go through and demand from the Creator that He will push us in this way, in this process.

Question (Turkiye): (52:22) When a person yearns for his root, what kind of desire, what kind of connection, causes the force of bestowal to work upon the friends and helps a person to regularly remain in None Else Besides Him and replace every descent by an ascent? 

M. Laitman: I don't see any more than the force of connection between the friends who are next to each other in a group. And this is how they reach the revelation of the forces that operate on them and how they themselves can manage them.  

Question (Mali): (53:56) Why is it impossible to disclose our evil before we achieve the light of holiness? 

M. Laitman: Did you understand it? 

Reader: Why is it impossible? 

M. Laitman: We discover the evil only to the extent according to the dosage that the Creator gives us. And then we can go through these points that He reveals and regret each time that we're in such a will to receive, and continue advancing. 

Reader: Okay, let's move on to Excerpt Number Three where Rabash writes the following:

Reading: (55:00) Excerpt 3. RABASH, Article No. 22 (1989), "Why Are Four Questions Asked Specifically on Passover Night?"

We do not know how to appreciate the ascent. That is, we do not understand the value of a single moment of having the power to believe in the Creator, and to have some sensation of the greatness of the Creator. In a state of ascent, we desire to annul before Him without any rhyme and reason, like a candle before a torch. Naturally, we cannot enjoy the fact that the Creator has brought us closer and has given us some nearness, from which we should derive the joy and elation that it should bring us. But since we haven’t the importance to appreciate it, we can only enjoy according to the importance […].

This is why we were given descents: to be able to learn the importance of the ascents, as it is written, “as the advantage of the light from the darkness.” Specifically through descents, one can come to know and appreciate ascents.

M. Laitman: Is this clear? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:04) We need to be able to feel the descent and we need to be able to feel the ascent, otherwise we cannot work with the states we are in. What is the role of feelings on the spiritual path? 

M. Laitman: That we need to sort them correctly, arrange them correctly, and upon them to turn to the Creator and demand from Him advancement, our advancement. 

Student: We cannot determine when we feel good that we are on the path; it can be the opposite. So, how do we sort out correctly? 

M. Laitman: How do we scrutinize, correctly? When we build our line of advancement that we receive from the Creator, and accordingly, we will advance according to what the Creator demands. This is what I would say. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:09) Previously, you gave us practical advice to calculate the ascent. What does it mean to calculate the ascent? Because here in the previous excerpt, he explains that we don't know how to evaluate the ascent. So how do I do it in our day-to-day work? Calculate it, know how to get there?

M. Laitman: It's true, but this is with respect to our feeling, so we simply need to advance according to our feeling. From one state to a higher state closer to the Creator, more giving, etc. And in this way, bit by bit, we will build around us some zone, I would say, some sphere that we are in it. And this is how we will advance more correctly. 

Student: We actually need to all the time think – and I heard you say this more than once – that we need to take the law of equivalence of form with the Creator. And would it be correct to say that this is how we can measure, this is something that we need to work with all the time in order to measure are we reaching closer to equivalence of form with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:17) Do we make these different calculations, observations, in a state of parking, shorter parking, longer parking? What does it mean to park, and how does it work, pauses, stops? 

M. Laitman: This means that we are not advancing during these pauses, it is given to us only in order to connect correctly with the forces that establish this pause.

Student: Can we initiate these pauses ourselves or does it come from above? Or sometimes like this, sometimes like that? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:23) Can we say that ascents and descents, this is a constant state of connection with the Creator, like a monitor, for example? Or do we eventually reach a type of connection, which is like something, like one that's above it all? 

M. Laitman: I can depict this form to myself. 

Student: I mean, is it like heartbeats, like breathing in and out, ups and downs are a person's connection to the Creator? Or are we advancing toward a state where we will reach something that is above this mechanism, this form of work? 

M. Laitman: I think that we are advancing a lot above that, a lot above that.

Student: Meaning that when we enter spirituality, do these states serve us? Or how can we depict the state that is above this? 

M. Laitman: We don't need to. We don't need to, and we can't. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:52) According to what he writes, the ascent is when a person has importance, when he can pray, even if it's activated by the Ten or the lesson, triggered by the lesson with Rav, anything that caused a person to come to that. But when I perform self-scrutiny, I see that ascents are very rare for me. And another thing that he writes is that the descents, we can use them in order to move on to the ascents, in order to make the change. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: 95% of the time, I'm seemingly in descent by definition, if not more. How do I use the darkness in order to reach an ascent? How do I stop the disconnection? 

M. Laitman: It all depends on you, you simply need to change yourself on the line of development that you depict, that you establish. It seems to me that this is the solution. 

Student: What is the line of development that a person needs to put in front of his eyes? 

M. Laitman: It's according to what we're reading now. According to that, we need to see where we are, and by which forces we will truly advance.

Reader: Let's sing and renew our strength and power. Please. Let's sing and renew our strength and power.

Song: (01:05:59) 

Reader: Let's continue with our study material, Excerpt Number 5, written by Rabash.

Reading: (01:09:32) Excerpt 5. RABASH, Article No. 6 (1989), "What Is Above Reason in the Work?"

During the work, a person should say, “If I am not for me, who is for me?” At that time in the work, they think that they themselves are doing the ascents and descents, that they are men of war, called Tzava, “mighty men.” Afterward, when they are redeemed, they attain that the Lord is of hosts [Tzevaot], meaning that the Creator made all the ups and downs they had.

In other words, even the descents come from the Creator. A person does not get so many ups and downs for no reason. Rather, the Creator caused all those exits. We can interpret “exit” as “exit from Kedusha [holiness],” and Ba [comes] as “coming to Kedusha. The Creator does everything. 

M. Laitman: That's it, this is what Rabash writes. Questions according to what I read now?

Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:17) It's really felt that the excerpts are really building everything here, they're really related. In the previous excerpt, and also in this one, they both talk about the importance, the ascent. And in ascent, I feel that there's no yearning. In the descent, there's some kind of a yearning that's being built, some kind of a yearning. But in the ascent, you don't feel it. And the same when you're close to the friends. When you're close to them, you less feel the desire to be close to them. Is what we're lacking, what we're missing here, actually, is it the Yira'ah, the fear? 

M. Laitman: That's for certain.

Student: Does correctly using an assent require using Yira'ah? Will this help us ascend? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So what builds the Yira'ah? There are these blows that the Creator gives that awaken the Yira'ah in us. But what in our work can build the Yira'ah so that we'll be also very close to each other and then we'll be able to come closer to the Creator. And we won't disregard or we won't dismiss it, but we'll still feel the yearning?

M. Laitman: You need to come together, the ladies, let's say your friends, and try to establish from these excerpts what is it that we need to read? What do Kabbalists recommend that we do so that we will be rewarded with the correct assent. 

Student: Certain excerpts that are related to the Yira'ah, to the building of the Yira'ah, is this what we need to read? 

M. Laitman: Yes, a spiritual fear. Yes.

Reader: Maybe Moscow. There's a question from Moscow.

M. Laitman: There are hardly any people in Moscow. 

Reader: There's a nice gathering there, let's see them. 

M. Laitman: I guess they scattered to other places. 

Question (Moscow): (01:13:57) In the work, the ascents and descents come on and off, switching one another, replacing each other. And this is a process that lasts all life long, so the question is what is the influence or bestowal? 

M. Laitman: You're saying that your whole life you're going through ascents and descents but actually in the end, it's endless, there's no end to it. And the form of advancement is also unclear, so what should we do in order to accelerate our development and nevertheless, be calm that we are getting closer on the one hand. And on the other hand, we should have a deficiency towards the end of our advancement and adhesion with the Creator more and more, this is the question. 

Rav reads: Excerpt Number 5 

During the work, a person should say, if I'm not for me, who is for me? At that time, in the work, they think that they themselves are doing the ascents and descents, meaning that they are men of war, called Tzava, army, or mighty men. Whereas afterwards, when they are redeemed, they attain that the Lord is the Lord of hosts or armies, Tzevaot, meaning that the Creator made all the ascents and descents they had. 

It is indeed a great shame that we think that something depends on us, but rather it's the opposite. Upon all of these, from all of these sources, we need to say that it was not me with the might of my hand that I reached this success, and that nothing depends on me. I just want to ask of the Creator that it will happen, and nothing besides that, that this will happen. In other words, even the descents came from the Creator, a person does not get so many ups and downs for no reason. Even the descents came from the Creator. The person does not get so many ups and downs for no reason, rather, the Creator caused all those exits from sanctity. We can interpret exit as exit from Kedusha, from holiness. And Ba comes, as coming to Kedusha, the Creator does everything. The Creator plays exercises with us. He goes away and then comes closer, he brings us closer, then He pushes us away. And this is how we're always in motion even if we don't detect these phenomena within us, but this is what happens. It all comes from the Creator. In truth, He does this work and we should constantly ascribe ourselves to Him. And then we will reach a state where the Creator does everything and we just need to close our eyes and advance following Him. 

Reader: Excerpt Number Six.

Reading: (01:18:36) Excerpt 6. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 172, "The Matter of Preventions and Delays”

All the preventions and delays that appear before our eyes are but a form of nearing—the Creator wants to bring us closer, and all these preventions bring us only nearing, since without them we would have no possibility of approaching Him. This is so because, by nature, there is no greater distance, as we are made of pure matter while the Creator is higher than high. Only when one begins to approach does he begin to feel the distance between us. And any prevention one overcomes brings the way closer for that person. 

M. Laitman: Is it clear? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:59) He he writes about the work. So do we need to do this work? That we're like the army, responsible for the ins and outs? 

M. Laitman: Without our participation, without our work, certainly nothing will happen.

Student: So, when does that moment come in the work where we need to say that the Creator did everything? Where does it all accumulate to? 

M. Laitman: Following the work, after the efforts that you make in order to achieve the goal, that you scrutinize and you advance towards it, and indeed, this is what you have ahead of you. Following all of that, you need to say that if I'm not for me, who is for me? But when you reach the end and you see that everything is already in your vessels, then you need to say that There Is None Else Besides Him. 

Student: But like, in the work in the Ten, things are constantly being renewed. 

M. Laitman: True.

Student: When can you say, cut, that's it. Thus far the Creator did everything, and it wasn't us at all. 

M. Laitman: There is no such thing. 

Student: So what, you're all the time in these two lines, we and the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes. 

Question (Columbia): (01:22:17) What causes the Creator to lead us toward the next state? 

M. Laitman: The Creator pushes us forward towards the purpose of creation, and we must advance towards it. And let's hope that we will reach it quickly. That’s it.

Question (Azerbaijan): (01:23:41) If I got a descent due to some corporeal problems, can I use it in order to spiritually ascend? The corporeal problem didn't disappear? 

M. Laitman: If it disappeared, then it disappeared. We don't need to worry about that, we need to worry about how to advance onwards on your spiritual path. 

Student: Adhesion with the Creator, it's where you feel His will as your own desire? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Nizhniy Novgorod): (01:24:39) Suppose there is a descent, you're in doubt that the Creator exists altogether. Then you turn to the group, He shows you that He exists, and you're all inspired by it. And then there's a time in which you turn into a little baby, you take the Creator by the hand, you hold on to it. But you completely hand yourself over into the hands of the situation itself, do whatever, I'm following you no matter what. So, it's not an ascent, it's not a descent, what is it? I'm afraid to ask, it's like greetings from Gmar Tikkun? 

M. Laitman: You don't get any greetings from the end of correction. So, take it easy, when we will reach, when we will get such greetings, I promise I'll read them to you, tell you about it, but for the time being, not yet. 

Question (Bulgaria): (01:26:22) When we see that a friend is in descent, and for him corporeality is more important than spirituality, how do you help him? 

Reader: How do you help a friend when he's in descent and corporeality is more important to him than spirituality? 

M. Laitman: We learn about such things all the time. You can not read anything even other than the materials of our Congress. In principle, all the lessons speak about how to connect between us and by this to pull each other out from the darkness to the light. That is all. 

Question (W Turkiye): (01:27:35) I heard that you said that the Creator has to be connected with the friends. But if he is in descent and feels disconnected from the friends, then it means that his connection is broken? If so, how can he come back to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Did you understand it? 

Reader: Again, I heard that in order for the Creature to be able to be connected to the Creator, he needs to be connected to the friends. But if he is in descent and disconnected from the friends, how can he be connected with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: He can’t. Around this point, he will have to turn until he receives an understanding. And then from that, he will determine his path.

Question (Baltia): (01:29:06) Why, if a person wants to know the truth, faith in the spiritual sense of it is the truth. It is the truth?

M. Laitman: There is no importance to who is asking or what he is asking for, so long as he is asking for what is truly necessary for him for his next advancement towards the goal. And then there will be no problems. 

Rav reading: (01:29:52) Excerpt 7. RABASH, Article No. 6 (1990), "When Should One Use Pride in the Work?"

A person should pay attention to this and believe that the Creator is tending to him and guides him on the track that leads to the King’s palace. It follows that he should be happy that the Creator is watching over him and gives him the descents, as well. That is, a person should believe, as much as he can understand, that the Creator is giving him the ascents, since certainly, a person cannot say that he himself receives the ascents, but that the Creator wants to bring him closer; this is why He gives him the ascents.

In short, believe mindlessly that all of the ascents and descents come only from the Creator, only from the Creator. The faster that we accept that, the faster we will succeed. That's it.

Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (01:32:06) What I don’t understand is, what do I want the Creator to give me in a state of descent? What to ask for? The question is how to change my thoughts toward the Creator, correctly?

M. Laitman: How to change correctly the thoughts, the appeal to the Creator – I don’t know how to answer you. I think that we shouldn’t think much for that, we simply need to understand how I can adhere to the Creator. If I can adhere to Him, then I don’t need anything else.  

Reader: Let’s read Excerpt Number Eight.

Reading: (01:33:19) Excerpt 8. Baal HaSulam, Shamati Article No. 19, “What Is 'The Creator Hates the Bodies,' in the Work?”
One’s hope should be that since he cannot break free from the power of the will to receive, he is therefore in perpetual ascents and descents. Hence, he awaits the Creator, to be rewarded with the Creator opening his eyes, and to have the strength to overcome and work only for the sake of the Creator. It is as it is written, “One have I asked of the Lord; her will I seek.” “Her” means the Shechina [Divinity]. And one asks “that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” 

M. Laitman: That’s it – this means that we need only one thing: To always have in our heart a passion to enter the Creator’s palace. And in that, we understand everything, and everything becomes organized. And we don’t need anything else.  

Reader: Thank-you very much. We’ll move the summary of the lesson now. Thank-you for this lesson.