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

Daily Morning Lesson: September 20, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. What Is the Meaning of Suffering in the Work? Article No. 27, 1989.

Reader: Hello friends, in the first part of the lesson, we will watch a recorded lesson from September 30th, 2003, based on the article, "What is the Meaning of Suffering in the Work?" from “The Writings of Rabash.” 

Reading: (00:40) What Is the Meaning of Suffering in the Work?

Article No. 27, 1989

On Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement], in the “Eighteen Prayer” (“My God, Until I Was Created”), we say, “That which I sinned before You, erase with Your many mercies, but not through suffering.” We should understand how is it that when we pray that we want Him to erase our sins, we stipulate conditions before Him, or else we do not want Him to erase our sins. Thus, what is the condition, “but not through suffering”?

The Zohar (BeHukotai, Item 42) writes, “Rabbi Yosi started, ‘My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His admonition.’ How beloved are Israel, that the Creator wishes to admonish them and lead them on the straight path. And out of His love for him His cane is always in His hand, to lead him on the straight path and so he will not stray right or left. One whom the Creator does not love but loathes, He removes His admonition from him. ‘But Esau I hated,’ which is why I removed from him the cane, removed from him the admonition so I would not give him a part in Me, for My soul loathes him. But you I love indeed, and do not loathe His admonition.’ What is, ‘Do not loathe’? It is, do not loathe it, as one who runs from thorns, for those kings who enslave Israel are as thorns in one’s body.”

We should understand this. Common sense mandates that the Creator should hold the cane for the gentiles, who act against the Creator. But to the people of Israel, whom He loves, it should be as it is written, “Love will cover all crimes.” So why does He afflict specifically Israel—whom He loves—with a cane?

We should also understand what it interprets, “Do not loathe His admonition,” that the kings’ enslavement of Israel is like thorns in a person’s body. Yet, it says, “Do not loathe,” meaning do not run away from the thorns, meaning from the enslavement of the kings. Can be it be that He tells them not to run from the kings’ thorns only because He loves them?

We should also understand the words “But Esau I hated,” which is why He removed from him the admonition, “so I would not give him a part in Me.” It seems as though if He did admonish him, he would have a part in the Creator. How are they connected? It is as though the suffering causes them to have a part in the Creator.

We should know that when speaking in matters of work, both Israel and Esau speak of people who observe Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds], and not of the nations of the world or secular people. Rather, it is only about people who have faith and observe Torah and Mitzvot. Thus, what is the difference between the quality of “Israel” in a person and the quality of “Esau” in a person?

According to the rule in observing Torah and Mitzvot, we should also discern the intention—if the observance of Torah and Mitzvot is in order to receive reward in this world or in the next world, or is his intention to bestow and not receive anything. In the quality of “Israel,” the aim is Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], when he does not want to receive anything in return but that everything will go straight to the Creator. This is regarded as the “quality of Israel” in a person in the work.

But if he does want reward in return for observing Torah and Mitzvot, it is regarded as “Esau.” Esau means Asu [did], meaning that he made a domain for himself and wants the Creator to fill his domain. He does not want to revoke his own domain, which is called Yashar-El, meaning cancel his domain and annul before Him, which is called “straight to the Creator,” and this is his only aim. This, he does not want. For this reason, we discern two qualities in man’s work: “in order to receive reward” or “not in order to receive reward.”

We should remember that man’s work in order to bestow, when he wants Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, is where one begins a procession of ascents and descents. That is, when a person focuses everything he does in the work on receiving reward in return for this, then, when he believes in reward and punishment, his inherent will to receive does not object to receiving greater pleasures.

However, when a person wants to walk on the path of not receiving reward, since it is against nature, the real war with the evil inclination begins, since a person wants to remove the evil inclination from the world, for only here is its existence. And concerning the name of the will to receive, “evil inclination,” it is because it depicts to us the path that the people of Israel want to march as bad. That is, it argues that a person’s desire to annul his own authority and annul before the Creator is suicide. Instead, what would be called “good”? That would be if a person demanded of the Creator to expand man’s domain and satisfy all his lacks, and not that man would work for the Creator.

In other words, the evil inclination asks a person, “Where is your brain, that you are working so hard in Torah and Mitzvot, and for what reward?” It is as our sages said, “The light in it reforms him.” This means that since the evil does not want to annul before the Creator, but rather the evil in a person wants man to exist, man is advised that if he engages in Torah and Mitzvot he will thereby be rewarded. That is, without Torah and Mitzvot, it is impossible to receive such as great reward, and only by the power of Torah and Mitzvot can we achieve such a great reward that a person will annul before the Creator and man’s authority will not be apparent, and the Creator will take everything.

About such a reward, the evil inclination cries out, “But you are losing your very being! You are performing actions that will cause you to cease to exist! Should one work and toil for this?!” It follows that the evil inclination depicts to him bad pictures concerning the order of his work.

This is called “suffering.” That is, when a person wants to walk on the path of truth and achieve Dvekut with the Creator, called “equivalence of form,” these questions come to him and he suffers a descent, meaning he cannot overcome its arguments. This manifests immediately, in mind and in heart. When that person recovers from the descent and begins to contemplate the situation he is in, he suffers from being far from the Creator.

Once he has been rewarded with an ascent in spirituality, he begins to think that from now on he will be strong and immune to the words of the kings of the nations of the world who slander the Creator. That is, they do not necessarily say that it is not worthwhile to engage in Torah and Mitzvot. Rather, they say that it is not worthwhile to engage for this reward of losing himself, and also that he wants all the labor to be for the sake of the Creator and not at all for himself.

This inflicts upon a person great sufferings, which are as thorns in one’s body, and he wants to escape the situation he is in. He says, “I am probably unworthy of this work, or I would not suffer descents.” It follows that these sufferings are that he hears from them that it is not worthwhile to work for Him with this intention.

Thus, there are two things here: 1) The kings’ arguments, who enslave Israel with their words. That is, a person falls under the control of the kings, who enslave a person so he can work only for his own sake because of the suffering of the bad depictions that the evil inclination depicts to him.

Generally, all the kings of the nations of the world are called “evil inclination.” Each king has his own view, and he says to a person, “Walk in my way; I will give you pleasure in the work.” In other words, all the kings say the same thing: It is better for you to work for yourself rather than for the Creator.”

It follows that the suffering that one sees—that he cannot work for the sake of the Creator—causes him to want to escape the campaign. These sufferings make him see that this work is not for him, for this path requires chosen people, a select few, and mere ordinary people cannot approach this work, called “working with the aim to bestow.”

Worse yet, the evil inclination comes to him dressed as a holy angel and says to him, “But you see that I am right. Look back at how vigorously you engaged in Torah and Mitzvot and how enthusiastically you used to pray. If you ask, Why was it like this before? It is as I am saying, since you worked for your own benefit, to receive reward. This is why you had the strength to work. Thus, what is the point in overcoming each time if you see that you keep descending, which is called ‘The shattered is greater than the whole,’ meaning that there are many more descents than ascents.”

The evil inclination also tells him, when it dresses in the clothes of a holy angel, “Previously, you advanced in the work and each day you acquired a possession of Kedusha [holiness] in Torah and Mitzvot. But you denigrate this and say that you want to work only for the sake of the Creator. But you see that you are going backward in this work, that you have descents, meaning that your bad is becoming increasingly evil. While you were observing Torah and Mitzvot in practice in the work, you were more successful. You saw for yourself how you progressed. But now, where are your energy and excitement in the work? Thus,” it says to him, “turn away from this path.”

It follows that through the words of the evil inclination, which is all the kings of the nations of the world, they enslave Israel and sting the bodies of those workers who want to work in order to bestow. This brings up the question, Why do these people, who want to walk on the path of truth, achieve Dvekut with the Creator and annul before Him, deserve such suffering, such descents that they cannot tolerate the suffering and want to escape the campaign?

And conversely, those who work in order to receive reward do not have the suffering of feeling that they are far from the work of the Creator. Instead, they feel that they are advancing every day. Certainly, when they see the progress, there is energy to work. They do not feel that they have any descents, but only that sometimes they advance more and sometimes they advance less, but they do not regress.

The answer is that when a person does not feel a lack and corruption in the work, he has nothing to correct. Therefore, these are people who can work only in practice, and on practical Mitzvot, there is nothing to add or subtract, as it is written, “Do not add, and do not take away.”

And since they still have no need for the intention, and intention means achieving equivalence of form, called “in order to bestow,” naturally, they do not want to adhere to Him. That is, they have no understanding about working not in order to receive reward. For this reason, the Creator does not give them suffering, namely the sensation of remoteness from the Creator, so they will ask the Creator to bring them closer.

This is as Maimonides writes, that “women, little ones, and uneducated people are taught to work in order to receive reward,” for they will not understand otherwise. When “they gain knowledge and acquire much wisdom, they are taught that secret,” that we should work Lishma [for Her sake], which is in order to bestow.

Now we can understand what we asked, Why does the Creator afflict Israel, who are the Creator’s beloved ones? Moreover, He tells them, “Since I love you, I want you not to loathe the thorns,” since those kings who enslave Israel are as thorns in their bodies.

It is written, “Do not loathe His admonition,” meaning do not escape the campaign and say that this work on the aim to bestow is not for you. This means that those whom the Creator loves, referring to the quality of Israel, who want to annul Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], and the will to receive that exists in a person, this they want the Creator to give them the power to subdue it so he will annul before the Creator.

However, a person cannot overcome the will to receive, since the will to receive makes him see that the main reason why a person should labor and toil is to be able to satisfy his self-love. But that person wants the opposite—to revoke his self-love and be able to work only on what pertains to love of the Creator. That is, he does not want to work for his own sake, but for the sake of the Creator, meaning for what pleases the Creator.

That person says that he derives no satisfaction from having the strength not to work for himself, as there are many smart-alecks who say that man achieves wholeness if he does not work for himself. He, however, says that this is not why the Creator created the creatures, so they will not enjoy. Rather, the purpose of creation was to do good to His creations. Therefore, the creatures, too, should work in equivalence of form, meaning so all their yearning will be to do good to the Creator.

It follows that one who says that man’s purpose to achieve wholeness is only so as not to work for himself, that only this is man’s purpose and why he was created, this is not the truth. Instead, one should always examine oneself to see if he is working for the sake of the Creator, meaning that the Creator will enjoy. That is, he wants to replace self-love and achieve love of the Creator, for only in this way will the creatures achieve the goal for which they were created, called “to do good to His creations.”

Therefore, those who want to achieve love of the Creator, although this degree is still far from them, yet they nonetheless want to achieve it, these are called “those who love the Creator.” It is as Baal HaSulam said about the verse, “will give wisdom to the wise.” He asked, “It should have said, ‘will give wisdom to the fools?!’” Since they are already wise, what does wisdom give them? Also, from where would they have wisdom before the Creator gives them? Only afterward, when they already have wisdom.

He said that the meaning of “wise” is those who want to be wise. Although he still does not have wisdom, but he desires wisdom, he is already called “wise,” after his purpose. Hence, one who wants to be wise should believe that the Creator will give him wisdom.

In this way, we should interpret that one who wants to love the Creator is already regarded as one who loves the Creator. For this reason, the Creator wants to give them love, meaning annulment of self-love and to be rewarded with love of the Creator. The Zohar says to them that the Creator holds in His hand a cane to lead them on the straight path. That is, they should believe that the sufferings they suffer from the descents they undergo come from the Creator. That is, these foreign thoughts they are receiving, which are as thorns in their bodies, the Creator is the one who sends them.

Although a person understands it would be better if the Creator sent more ascents, and why do I need these descents, meaning what is their purpose, the answer to this is that this is called “the cane in the Creator’s hand to lead him on the straight path.” Otherwise, if a person remains in a state of ascent, he will think that he has achieved completeness and will remain in his state of lowliness because he will not feel any lack that he must correct.

For this reason, the Creator shows him his lowliness and shows him that as much as he already thought that he was superior, that he did not have such lowly thoughts that other people have, suddenly he sees that he has worse thoughts than people who work like the general public, who are regarded as working in order to receive reward.

He says that he wants to work only for the sake of the Creator and not for his own sake, and he is certainly at a higher degree than they are. But suddenly, he sees that he is lower than they are. It follows that the suffering he feels causes him to need to ask the Creator to truly bring him closer. This is why this pertains specifically to people who are regarded as Israel, who want to be “Israel.” In order not to fail in the work, He sends them these descents. This is considered that He is “holding the cane in His hand, to lead them on the straight path.” The “straight path” is the path that leads straight to the King’s palace.

This is not so with those who are regarded only as Esau. This is only action, without the intention that the actions will lead to annulment of self-benefit, and they do not want to do things for the sake of the Creator, but settle for the action, without the aim that they will lead to Dvekut with the Creator and do not think of the matter of Dvekut with the Creator, as it is written, “And to cling unto Him.” For them, the Creator does not hold the cane in His hand to admonish them.

He says, “But Esau I hated, which is why I removed the cane from him, removed the admonition from him so I would not give him a part in Me.” That is, “I do not want him to have Dvekut with Me.” This is why He says, “My soul loathes him,” meaning that because their whole work is only for their own sake, “My soul loathes him,” and I will not give him a part in Me. That is, I will not give him suffering by which to cling to Me. Since they have no desire for Me, I have no desire for those who are in the quality of Esau, who feel themselves as whole. “Esau” means that he has already Asah [did] his bit and regards himself as whole.

Yet, what can one do in order not to undergo a descent, called “suffering” from feeling remote from the Creator? since all the suffering is in order for a person not to remain on a low degree because he is content with little, since he already thinks that he has already been rewarded with a spiritual degree. Therefore, it is necessary to lower the person in importance, meaning that he will see for himself how deficient he is. Then he will come to ask the Creator to deliver him from his lowliness.

Thus, how can he not fall into a state of lowliness? The advice for this is that if a person calculates and sees, through thought and desire, that he is still far from Dvekut with the Creator, meaning that even during an ascent he still considers himself, and begins to feel his faults, then he does not need to fall from his state, meaning to be given lowly thoughts until he feels that he is in a state of deficiencies.

Rather, even during an ascent he begins to seek advice how to ascend in degree. In that case, he does not need to be given descents from above, since he himself begins to seek advice even before he has fallen into lowliness. Now it seems that in the situation he is in, he is full of faults. By this he can rid himself of the need to be given descents from above.

However, normally, the order is that during an ascent, a person does not want to search for faults in himself. Therefore, he must be given descents from above.

By this we can interpret what our sages said (Shabbat 152), “What I did not lose, I seek.” That is, an old man walking bent, always looking at the ground as though searching for something. He says, “I have lost nothing, yet I search.” We should interpret “Old is he who has acquired wisdom.” That is, he is “Wise, who sees the future.” Since he can come to a descent in order acquire empty Kelim, so the Creator may fill them or he will remain in a state of lowliness because he will not feel deficient. Then, when he loses the state of ascent, he begins to seek advice how to ascent in spirituality once again.

Therefore, one who is old, meaning wise and sees the future, begins to search how to ascend in spirituality even before he loses the state of ascent. He begins to follow all the counsels about the ways to ascend on the spiritual degrees, and this is done by seeking deficiencies in the state he is in. In that case, there is no need to throw him down in importance so he will find and see deficiencies in himself, since he himself will be looking for deficiencies so as to have empty Kelim that the Creator may fill.

The best advice in a state of ascent is that when a person feels that now there is a state of spirituality, and he wants to find deficiencies, in that state he should delve in the Torah and find the connection between the Torah and man. From this he will be able to take knowledge about how to serve the Creator, as it is written, “a soul without knowledge is also not good,” and as it is written, “grant us wisdom, understanding, and knowledge from You.” In that state, he will see the lack in him and will have empty Kelim. By this, he will be saved from coming into a real descent.

Now we will explain the question, Why, when we pray to the Creator to erase our sins, do we stipulate before Him conditions and say, “but not through suffering,” meaning “not through descents”? During a descent, we are separated from Him, since during a descent, everything is in lowliness. This is called “Shechina [Divinity] in the dust.” Because we must feel our lowliness, we cause the Shechina to be in exile, too, just as we have drifted from the holy land. That is, we do not have the desire of Kedusha [holiness]. Instead, during a descent, we receive the desire of “the land of the nations,” and by this we degrade the Kedusha.

For this reason, we ask Him to help us erase our sins so we may enter Kedusha. However, that it will not come by suffering, called “descents,” for these descents cause the degrading of Kedusha, which is called “Shechina in the dust” or “Shechina in exile.” We pray that this suffering will not come, since we are causing the degradation of Kedusha.

Our sages say (Berachot p 5), “Rabbi Yohanan was weak. He went to Rabbi Haninah. He said to him, ‘Are you fond of suffering?’ He replied, ‘Neither they nor their reward.’” Everyone asks about this. After all, many righteous took upon themselves suffering, so why did Rabbi Yohanan say “Neither they nor their reward”?

Baal HaSulam interpreted this and said that they were arguing over the exile of the Shechina, which is delayed because not all the sparks of Kedusha that have descended into the Klipot [shells/peels] have been corrected. For this reason, although there is reward, namely that everything that descended to be among the Klipot will return to the Kedusha, which is a very big reward—that everything will be corrected—but in the meantime, until everything is corrected, the Shechina is in exile, everyone degrades her and exalt the maidservant, namely the Klipa [singular of Klipot]. This is the sorrow of the Shechina that he cannot tolerate. It is about this that he said “Neither they nor their reward.”

We see what is suffering in the work. It is that they suffer that the Shechina must be in lowliness because of them. To understand this, we should examine the essay “Divinity in Exile” (Shamati, Essay No. 1), where it says that when a person regrets being far from the Creator, that he is inside the will to receive only for his own benefit, like animals, which is unbecoming of the “human” quality, he should direct the suffering so it is not because he wants to be a man, and this is why he suffers, but rather that it is because of the sorrow of the Shechina.

He says an allegory about this, that a person who has a pain in a certain organ, feels the pain primarily in the heart and in the mind, which is the whole of man. Likewise, man is a specific part of the Shechina, called “the assembly of Israel.” She feels the majority of the pain, and this is what he should regret. This is called “suffering” in the work.

Reader: And now friends, we'll go to a lesson of Rav on the date 30th of September, 2003.

M. Laitman: (40:46) We've heard an article from the “Rungs of the Ladder,” Volume 4, related to the part about Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, “What is the Meaning of Suffering in the Work?” Is it possible to do without suffering? What is the source of suffering? What causes the suffering, and what heals it? If we are of the desire to enjoy, the desire to receive delight and pleasure, then when we don't receive delight and pleasure, the kind that we want according to the nature of our creation, then we feel the opposite, which is called suffering. Meaning, a lack of fulfillment is suffering. The feeling of fulfillment, of the filling, that is pleasure.

We are made of the will to receive. That is our substance. That substance is created by the light. Meaning, the presence of the light, the feeling of the light within the will to enjoy, is felt as pleasure. Or, to put it differently, the feeling of the Creator within the created being is felt as pleasure. And the concealment of the Creator within the created being is felt as suffering. And this must exist on all levels, all worlds. This, in essence, is the connection between the light and the will. And this thing exists since before we recognize and know ourselves. This is nature. All of our corrections, all of our corruptions, which come, they come to this nature. And this nature cannot be changed.

Now this, Baal HaSulam says in the article, "Matan Torah," "The Giving of the Torah," that from whence come the suffering and pleasures, he says that it is all according to the law of root and branch. Because we were created by the direct light, from the root, the four discernments, the four phases of direct light, then everything that exists in the root is pleasant. It's felt by us as pleasure in us. And anything that doesn't exist in the root is felt by us as suffering. But, so as not to leave the created being on that level, where it only receives suffering or pleasure, or only to receive pleasure, instead, through the feeling of suffering or pleasure, he needs to reach something higher. And so the Creator created the created being as a being that feels pleasure or feels suffering. And by that discernment, through it, the person, the created being, can climb up to the degree of the Creator Himself. Those who receive this urge to rise to the Creator's degree, they feel pleasure and suffering not from being full, according to their substance, or empty, but it's from something else. What does it mean, from something else? If our substance, our matter, feels only if it's full of the sensation of the Creator or devoid of it, empty of the sensation of the Creator, that it's good or bad, what needs to be more? What needs to be more, it's not a feeling, but a degree, a level.

M. Laitman: (46:11) In order to bring the created being to the level of the Creator, to the status of the Creator, he needs to replace his perspective, his discernment of pleasure and suffering, so that pleasure and suffering won't come from the sensation of the Creator, but rather that equivalence of form will bring him pleasure or suffering, which is to say adhesion with the Creator. And in his previous feeling, his natural feeling, feeling the Creator or not feeling Him, that discernment should serve him as a power supply, supply of forces with which to reach higher towards equivalence of form. And if a person begins to demand the revelation of the Creator in him as fuel, as the recognition of greatness, it shouldn't be important to him what he feels. Rather, he needs to feel it so as to continue with his development, so as to, from the feeling of the Creator's greatness, to reach a state where, from the pleasure he receives from the Creator, he comes to, he wants to reciprocate, to give to the Creator, and in that way to reach equivalence of form. Then he truly advances towards equivalence of form and adhesion. And then the Creator truly opens up to him and helps him by imparting importance upon that person, helping the person advance.

And this is not for everyone. It's as Rabash says here, it's for those who are called to some level, to some degree, “Israel.” Meaning that they have this yearning, this direction to reach equivalence of form with the Creator. It's not that they look for the Creator because that will make them feel good or to prevent suffering, to flee uncertainty, to find confidence and security. Rather, they search for the Creator not in order to derive some selfish benefit from it, but only for equivalence of form, only from wanting to achieve adhesion. And the adhesion and equivalence of form, too, for the time being, we also describe to ourselves as pleasures for ourselves, things which will be pleasant for us. Otherwise, well, for the time being we can't exactly imagine this, but later it takes on a different form, gradually. And one who advances and is already called “Israel,” then according to his state in that advancement, his roots are revealed to him for this advancement. Being Israel, the roots which exist above the state of Israel, those roots are called Yaakov, Jacob, who is truly the small Jacob, the small, and then he becomes great, he becomes Israel. And Jacob, he's an outcome of Abraham and Yitzhak, he becomes Israel. How? Through Esau, meaning the positive force has to be revealed in a person, meaning attraction towards spirituality, which is called Yaakov, Jacob, and there also must be the negative force in him, so to speak, seemingly negative: pulling him, confusing him, wanting to distract him, cause him to deviate from the path towards the Creator, the path of adhesion and resemblance to the Creator, and this is called Esau.

M. Laitman: (51:04) And these forces, both of them beneficial, they can have the correct implementation in the person, for the person, only according to the method called “Torah and commandments.” And what are the Torah and commandments? All the means that a person learns from books and the authors which can help him reach spirituality, to receive this first spiritual force by which to resemble the Creator, that in our state is called “Torah and commandments.” And later, when we reach spirituality, when we begin to receive spiritual forces, we have a screen already, beyond the barrier,  then we begin to truly use spiritual forces, spiritual discernments, upper lights. All the means that we will utilize then will be called “commandments,” and through the light, the Torah, the upper light, that will help us keep it. So, all the vessels we now receive from Esau, we can correct through the intention in order to bestow of Yaakov, and so from Esau and Yaakov together, we will have the discernment of Israel.

And this is after a great struggle, Yaakov fights against the minister of Esau. Specifically in those people who advance, who want to advance, want to be Yisrael, Yashar El, towards unity with the Creator, it's specifically in those people that these opposing forces awaken, Yaakov and Esau, Israel and the nations of the world, and so on. And they are both beneficial. There cannot be Torah or commandments if not through the work on the discernment of Esau, the discernment of the nations of the world. Without those, Yaakov has no vessels, meaning for the intention to bestow, to truly reach bestowal and equivalence of form.

And so, a person who starts on the path, of course, he receives many, many disturbances, disruptions, disruptions on various levels. For the time being, as he approaches the barrier, these disruptions are on the plane that he's in. These are disruptions from the same desires: food, sex, the yearning for money and respect, knowledge, control, everything in this world. And he sees how he's thrown from here to there, and he actually, he begins to go mad from all these confusions, which come to him, go through him. And we really have to remember that it's only for those people who truly have the power, the ability, who have the correct desire, and their time has come to achieve adhesion to the Creator, to achieve equivalence of form, adhesion. These people have the forces of Esau sent to them from above, and by overcoming them, that person advances.

M. Laitman: (55:25) And by working with these forces of the left, of the vessels of reception, in that work, there are a few types of work. There's one where a person waits until these forces will awaken in him, and then maybe he will find some kind of answer for them. And another form is where he, ahead of time, looks for means by which to advance. Where are these forces that can disturb him? Meaning, he's still not in wholeness with the Creator. And it's like the old man, which Rabash describes, who is searching ahead of time as if he lost something. He doesn't walk upright. He walks bent over. Then, without waiting for the vessels of Esau to awaken within him, he already searches in advance for where he can further complete his connection with the Creator. And when he searches for this, he actually awakens all the steps forward, all the states that are waiting for him. In this way, he saves time. As it is said, "Israel hastened the times."

This is essentially all our work, because if we wait until these states roll over us, then we are seemingly not acting, we are only reacting. Whereas if we search for where we can further complete ourselves, meaning reveal desires that are still uncorrected in relation to the Creator within us, then by this, we hasten the times. This is really the main part of our work. And certainly, a person can awaken to this and feel a need for it only if the environment supports him, only if it awakens this desire within him. Only under this condition can a person really shorten the time and in the incarnation in which he begins the path, complete the path. Meaning, reach true and complete adhesion with the Creator. It follows then, that all that substance that was created by the light through the sensation of the Creator, all that substance becomes filled with the sensation of the Creator. But it is filled for the sake of adhering to the Creator Himself and not merely in order to feel Him as pleasant. In other words, through this, a person acquires both the entire fulfillment of the Creator within him, as the Creator clothes within the created being, and also attains the degree of the Creator, as it's written, "Return, O Children of Israel, unto the Lord your God." That's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:24) Every time I read or hear from you something about how there are two forces in a person where one force arranges disruptions, as we said today, from that I take justification for my own laziness. How to make it so it doesn't give me this kind of consolation, wasting my time prolonging the process?

M. Laitman: Each time you say that you hear that this negative force comes from above, from the Creator, and that gives you a certain laziness, because if both of these forces come from the Creator, then it's not so bad. It's also a good force, a beneficial force, so it'll be revealed just as the good force is revealed, and the bad force will seemingly be revealed as well. In truth, from the Creator's side, there's no bad force or good force from His side. These are two equal forces. Rather, these forces are translated this way within us, according to my vessels. If desires are revealed to me through which, with their help, I can adhere to the Creator through them, with their help they are called good desires, and then I'm happy and connect to godliness, to the Creator. If these desires are the opposite and are revealed within me as disturbances for the time being, meanwhile they are disturbances, and disturbances that actually disconnect me from the Creator, then I simply, why shouldn't I hate them? Because their source is the Creator, and therefore, in their source, they are seemingly good, but I have not yet reached what I need to reach. At the end of correction, in the world of Ein Sof, everything certainly unites, and there is no bad and no good, no Gentile, no Jew, no Israel, and no nations of the world, everything unites as one, and precisely the opposite, in the worst vessels. That takes place at the end of correction.

If you would feel that this comes from two foreign, different, opposing forces that fight each other, and you're actually either adhering to the force of the Creator being thrown there, or to the bad force opposing Him, say Pharaoh, then you would have some anger within you, and some intensity with which to fight. But because it's the Creator playing with you, and He sends both of these forces, and you must not forget this, so you become weaker in such a struggle, because it seems to you like a game, not something real.

Why did the Creator make it this way? First of all, we understand this, we not only understand it, we must not forget to acknowledge that this is so. After all, it really spoils our attitude toward the enemy. He's no longer an enemy, he's only an external garment of that same Creator who is revealed in such a form that interferes with us. All those forces are merely angels in which the Creator clothes Himself. What's the Creator? His desire to do good to His created beings. The force of bestowal clothes within us, clothes within all these various different opposing forms, and through this moves us. So if I know that some left hand, let us say, strikes me, and the right hand embraces me, but the left hand is from the same Creator, then why shouldn't I kiss it, even though it strikes me? That is essentially the question, yes?

M. Laitman: (01:03:34) The Creator gives us this understanding that He is present both in the wicked and in the righteous, even in the one who brings the flood, as it's written, that within the force of the flood He was sitting, the Creator is present. We need to know this and specifically maintain His unity at all times. As he writes in the article, "There Is None Else Besides Him." That I need to know that everything that comes to me comes from Him. And I need to see where within me these things are not in wholeness. I do not need to battle with Esau or with some other wicked in whatever form, no matter what it is. Esau is, so to speak, the root of the uncorrected vessels. Rather, I need to battle against the fact that I do not see the positive force within him and that through him, too, I adhere to the Creator. That is, I don't need to hate him. I need to hate my own uncorrected qualities, because of which I still do not see the Creator Himself within this Esau. This might be a subtle point, but it's the most characteristic point on our path. This is what the whole world might perhaps understand as an idea, but does not implement correctly. And this is what he explains to us in the article, "There Is None Else Besides Him," which is the foundation of all our work. We should not hate the forces themselves. It is not for nothing that we say that our work is internal, with all these internal forces within us. There are no forces outside. Someone does harm to me. What does it mean that someone does harm to me? Someone outside of me is the Creator. I need to correct my attitude to see and accept this thing as good through my inner correction. It follows that Esau, the angel of death, turns into the angel of life, the holy angel, through you relating to him differently, not because he himself is different.

The vessels of reception that now pull me toward all kinds of pleasures and want to disconnect me from the Creator, they don't want to disconnect me from the Creator. They become revealed as vessels of reception. Did I say of bestowal? They become revealed as vessels of reception, but since I have no screen, no ability to use them correctly, then within me, in relation to me, they are felt such that they disconnect me from bestowal. But the moment I have a screen, those same vessels that become revealed are revealed for the good, for adhesion, for the light. In other words, the fact that I lack a screen, that I lack forces, understandings, various abilities and means to use the left side correctly, does not mean that the left side is bad. The left side is not bad. From my side it appears bad because of my lack of vessels, because of my lack of abilities.

Therefore, that in which we need to see that both the left and the right come from the Creator, it should not weaken us. And it's forbidden for us to forget that they come from a single source. Instead, the fact that they come from one source, but in me, it appears as though they still do not integrate together, that is what is bad within me, and not within them, within the right and the left.

M. Laitman: (01:08:32) It's right, as you say, that if I had natural hatred toward the enemy, toward the left, like the natural hatred I have to someone who harms me in this world, then I would find great strength in that. But you would be drawing strength from the network of reception, not from the network of bestowal. You would find strength because it is against my ego, against my “I,” myself. He wants to contradict me. He comes because he wants to kill me. But here, this Esau comes against the Creator's unity in your eyes. So here you are battling for the Creator's unity in your eyes. You battle to remain connected to the one Creator. You battle to have a connection with Him, with the One who sends all the forces that appear opposite to you. That's why your war is called the Creator's work in Amalek, and not, let's say, the war of Michael against Amalek. No. Where I am battling the fact that the unification is not going to break up in me, and that these two forces emerge specifically from the Creator. The fact that I don't have a natural desire, a kind of hatred to anyone who does bad to me, and real ambitions. And it's true that there is none, that I don't have it, because it doesn't harm my “I.” It harms my connection with the Creator.

And so, certainly, naturally, I don't have the forces for this. But here, I specifically need the Creator. I need the hands of the Creator, like the hands of Moses, who must now have the forces from above in his war with Amalek. Then I really need to connect to the Creator, and not that I have natural vessels. “This is the hater, and all my haters, with the force of my pride, I'm going to splatter them.” No. Now I see that I don't even care that it's revealed in this way or not. Meaning, if I had the importance of the Creator, if I had that point of His unification and the point of adhesion with Him, then most importantly, I would find in Him the forces. I would demand the forces from Him, the forces of faith. And if I were to battle with them, with the Esau — Jacob is not capable, he's small, he's weak — this is the whole point, that then I come to my demand to the Creator. Where upon this point of this war, this point of unifying everything to Him, and attributing everything to Him, and where even the left comes from Him, that I have no strength, I have no forces for that on my own. It's seemingly not my enemy. It's like His enemy, the Creator's enemy. It becomes my enemy under the condition that the point of unity is above everything, more important than anything. And then I demand forces for that. And through the demand for those forces, I first connect to the Creator, as I demand forces from Him, that there's None Else Besides Him. He sends these obstructions, and in Him, all these forces are there to fight and triumph. By connecting to Him, connecting to this source, which is the only force, because the forces of unification I'm demanding from Him, I build this quality, this correction of one unique and unified. I also understand in what He is not unique in me, and against this non-uniqueness I battle. Meaning, I truly start to understand Him, and how in Him, these forces are not spread out as contradicted ones, but rather it truly reaches His degree. And this, again, is only under the condition that I, to begin with, don't look at Him as the only good force, the force that's only good. Also, the force of evil that in Him especially is unified together. Yes, in Him, it unites together, and in me, not. To me it's not that way.

M. Laitman: (01:14:07) This is something that is a very essential matter. This is the point of our work. Besides this point, there's nothing. All the rest is just implementing it. Besides the unifying of the Creator, we don't need to do a thing. To unify all of the reality that is seemingly around us and ourselves, to incorporate in that unification. This is a point that constantly disappears. Hence to advance towards it specifically, not to all kinds of other discernments, we must be like an old person who's bent over like that, searching for it, searching for that point. Where do I find it? Meaning, what does it mean, where do I find it? Where are those contradicting desires? Suddenly, when you start relating to it, suddenly those contradicting desires disappear for you. All of a sudden, everything unifies. That's it. Where is our Esau that will come and help me? He's already disappeared. That no longer is a problem. It's not for no reason that the wise goes bowed over and searches and seeks. 

What to do if the sufferings are so big that you can't think about the Creator? It's impossible for the Creator to send you such big sufferings that you can't think about Him. It can't be. Because everything He sends is with a purpose. And even if you can't  in some case, during a certain limited time, think about anything, but rather you're under those sufferings, the question is this way. During the time that you're in suffering, you're completely disconnected from the feeling of the Creator, disconnected completely from understanding, don't remember altogether that He exists, then that's called an actual double concealment, the final degree there. Or with that, we feel that probably He's sending me this suffering, that a moment it's disappeared from me, and when it's not concealed from me, this knowledge, this matter. So it's not considered that they're big sufferings. Then it's considered that with the suffering, the giver of the suffering is being revealed. Meaning this is already a revelation of the concealment, which is called concealment one, not double concealment. He's revealing to you that He's concealed. That's already something. That is concealment one, not double concealment, meaning He's concealed from you that He's concealed. And here, there are also many manners and many ways of it, but it's nevertheless work. If a person feels that time's not going by, states are not moving, it's a sign that he's not investing in himself, that he's not laboring. He's not exerting himself in the group, in the study, in dissemination. He's not incorporating himself with more forces around him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:11) If, let's say, I feel that it's coming from Him, the situation, and I don't feel the sweetening, and it's, so something is missing here in the work. Should I be asking for strength from the group in such a state, or directly from the Creator? Which is from the group in order to receive strength to overcome and to unite everything with Him, to unify, to attribute everything to Him.

M. Laitman: Can you give the answer in a short sentence, please?

Student: Well, the question is, if I don't feel the sweetening, after I, I feel that the situation is from Him. I don't feel it, but I feel like it's from Him, but I have no sweetening afterwards. Still, it's a bad feeling, something is missing.

M. Laitman: What you're saying is that sometimes, in such a state, in which the Creator is revealed and concealed, and with that He causes me bad, and I feel that He is causing this bad to me, but for the time being, I can complete this state and bring it to the good. And each time I feel this way. I feel bad, I feel that it's from Him. It's concealed, disappears, so again I feel bad, feel that it's from Him and so on. What can you do? Hasten? We cannot erase, it's prohibited to erase any action. We need each and every action, just hasten its development to the correct state. You can only hasten in one way, in attributing or unifying every state you have to that one unique and unified force, and that's it. That's considered that you're transferring everything to adhesion.

Student: Even if there's no sweetening afterwards?

M. Laitman: That will give you that sweetening immediately. If you're looking for a good feeling, you'll have a good feeling immediately. Don't tell me no. Otherwise, what are you working for? For the sake of unification? Then unification will give you this mitigation, this sweetening. The article, "There Is None Else Besides Him," must be an article from which a person does not move from. And at least once every few days, repeats it, goes back to it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:59) There are four actors here: Esau, Jacob, the Creator, and I. And when I try to discern with respect to myself, these three actors are internal or external? Is Esau mine or I get it from above?

M. Laitman: There's no four actors here, like you're saying: I, Jacob, Esau. Rather, Jacob, Esau, the Creator, it's all the same actor, the same actor. I seemingly am the second actor, seemingly, for the time being, until I truly discover myself as also unified, unique within the Creator. There are no other actors here, maybe two for the time being, until I'm corrected. 

Student: In the meantime, they are external to me and the correction is that it will be internal for me? 

M. Laitman: What does it mean that Jacob and Esau and the Creator are external to me? They're all acting towards me. They're all confusing me. Well, so? And I need to unify them. To unify them. By unifying them, I build my vessel. It's not that I'm over there, I'm doing it inside the Creator. I, by this, if I look at them as to one, by that, I'm building my vessel. I'm crossing together those qualities, opposing them in that way. 

Student: I discover them inside of me? 

M. Laitman: If I didn't have those qualities against the Creator, Jacob, Esau, I wouldn't feel that they're seemingly outside of me. That's clear, that anything we feel as existing is because it exists in us.

Student: And in the end, at the end of correction, the Creator will exist within us?

M. Laitman: In the final correction, the Creator fills the created being. And they are in adhesion, in an endless connection, on one level, on an equal level, meaning fully.

Student: And then what happens to Jacob and Esau?

M. Laitman: And then Jacob and Esau unify into one Partzuf. Jacob are vessels of bestowal, Esau, vessels of reception. 

Student: And then there are no Jacob, no Esau, not me, not the Creator, there's only Israel? 

M. Laitman: And then there's this whole Kli from Jacob and Esau together, ten Sefirot. And I am the point of Malchut. And the light, the Creator fills this whole structure. That's called a state of Malchut of Ein Sof.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:12) Along the way, a person on the path kind of comes to a state where he wants to run away from his sufferings. And then he starts to search and finds. Along the way, he can come to some examination, some indication that if he doesn't, that he's not continuing to run from his suffering, but he really wants to come to a state for the Creator.

M. Laitman: So the question is, how can I be certain that every step I make is toward the same goal? Take a letter from the letters of Baal HaSulam, page 63 in the book in Hebrew, and you'll see, it's written about it. That if you unite, unify Israel, the Torah and the Creator together, meaning your point in the direction toward the Creator, meaning the act you're going to do, and Him together, the step is in the right direction and forward. So again, we're talking about unifying. What does it mean to take a step in this unification? The conditions you have, if you unify them, it's considered that you took another step. The next moment, the conditions will change, you'll unify them as well, and that's also considered taking one step. So, the steps are unifications that are written, that Kabbalists make. These are these unifications. You thought maybe it was something…

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:30) Sometimes I think I have some measure of greatness of the Creator and then it stops.

M. Laitman: If a person feels that he stops and there's no need for the greatness of the Creator, he's kind of dreaming, sleeping, it's a sign he's not incorporated with the society. This is usually the main problem, because all the vessels we have to receive are vessels that are in other souls, only through the society.

Look, how would a person advance in this world if he weren't in a society? How much should he eat? How much should he drink? How many women? How many children? How much would his body demand according to the needs of the body? What? Because there's a society, you have a desire to control, to learn from someone how he enjoys, how he enjoys, to speak with them, to play with them, with money, with respect. You already have knowledge. There's a matter of advertising, renown, yes, my ego grows, etc. All of life beyond beastliness is evolution through society. If I'm in some village, then what do I need in my village? What my neighbor has, me too. If I go into the city, whoa, look at how people live. What do they have? Look at him, look at him.

This is what we're like in a society of Kabbalists. If they, if a society of Kabbalists can bring me all kinds of examples, how it advances to spirituality, that will give me strength and desires. They have to advertise this matter to me, spirituality, in all kinds of ways, that it's worthwhile, it's worth it. Look at how I enjoy, what I do. It has to be a society like the human society around a person. But if a person doesn't have this environment around him, meaning he doesn't see it, he doesn't feel it, he doesn't appreciate, he disrespects it, he doesn't connect to it, he doesn't want to learn from them, he remains with his body, like someone in the jungle who settles for what he has, and that's it. So of course, there's no progress.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:08) The question relates to searching for the seemingly bad things in order to correct. There's a matter that it's not allowed for a person to enter himself into danger. And if a person… A person can drown in this.

M. Laitman: I don't know what you're talking about. You are a wise disciple, you're taking some sentence. A person is forbidden to place himself in danger. It's written, that's true. What is it about? I don't know. What danger? What does it mean that he shouldn't put himself there? Of course, if I know that I might be killed there, then the Torah forbids me from entering there. It's not like I'm afraid or not afraid, a hero or a weak or what. It is mandatory. What does it mean it's mandatory? In Providence, it's part of the law that exists in this way. Meaning that if I go in there, I will be killed. So I can't come and say afterwards, if the Creator wants me to be killed, then I'll be killed. If they don't want me to be killed, they won't kill me. No. In this place, the Creator lets me work, lets them work against me, and He gives me an order not to get in there. And if I break His natural law not to get in there — it's nature, but it exists through my choice, in my choice, so to speak. So if I don't use my choice to stay and do what the Creator says and I go in there, then I'm forbidden to say afterwards that He wanted me to be killed. He didn't want or did want. He told me not to go in. So what are you asking?

Student: The question is, where is the correct balance to not harm altogether and these problems that I'm searching for in order to correct?

M. Laitman: I don't know what you're talking about. 

Student: A person searches for qualities in order to correct them. 

M. Laitman: I'm not searching for qualities to correct. If a person works in studying and in the group, he must receive each moment discernments on which he can work. And if he doesn't do it, it's a sign he doesn't pay enough attention to what he's going through. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:31:52) So it turns out that my whole life is made of frames of which I should bestow and wants to show me how I'm not bestowing and I suffer?

M. Laitman: My whole life is frames, pictures, states that the Creator gives me and each picture I have to unify with Him. This is how I advance from degree to degree; restrict, restrict, restrict, restrict, restrict everything to Him until I'm completely adhered to Him. The whole degree is called part of the adhesion. 

Student: So the whole problem is? 

M. Laitman: In what is the adhesion? In unifying in Him all of my desires and everything within the desires and all the powers He sends my way and all those situations I'm in. If I unite everything with Him, including myself, how I think, how I understand everything inside, what am I left with? Where’s my choice? My choice is only to use it through the society. So here I find some vessel that is not in what the Creator sends me and not in what I attribute to Him. I have something on the side. Maybe you're getting what I'm trying to say. Maybe I won't be able to convey it. So I build, I create, I engender some vessel that is completely, completely a relation that is completely of my own, in which there is no connection between us to begin with, but now I build it. And this is really called “my self,” because everything else comes from Him. Thoughts are from Him, all the situations are from Him, positive forces, negative forces, never mind, everything is from Him. 

Student: So what is this “I?” 

M. Laitman: The “I,” the self, is born out of how I unite everything to Him, unify everything to Him. But there's a point that's inexpressible here.

Student: What is this, side vessel becomes independent? 

M. Laitman: I build this side vessel. 

Student: So when I have a connection between me and Him, what is this “I” again? 

M. Laitman: Let’s wait. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:34:36) He writes here on page 34, “...and the best advice during the ascent, when a person feels that now he has a state of spirituality, and he wants to find deficiencies, and then a person needs to look at the Torah and find the connection between the Torah and a person, from which he will be able to take reason of how to serve the Creator. As it is written, also Nefesh, soul without reason is not good."

M. Laitman: So? 

Student: What is that? 

M. Laitman: You read an excerpt. What is it? It's part of what Rabash wrote. So? 

Student: What is the advice of finding deficiencies when he feels an ascent?

M. Laitman: Oh, what does it mean to find deficiencies when he feels an ascent? It's like an old man. Like an old man walking like this all the time, bent, like he's looking for something. Even though I'm at a time of an ascent, and I feel connected with the Creator, and I have truly unified with Him all the desires, and passions, and understandings, and everything that happened from all the sides, all the forces that have arranged it this way, that He and I are in this as one. Then what? Now I have to be old. Now in that same state, I have to search in myself, inside, in that state, where is there something else that I did not unify with Him? How does that help me? It helps me very quickly discover the next degree, meaning additional deficiencies that of course are in me, but not to wait until they are revealed from above. I will reveal them.

Now you can say, so an old man is walking on the street. Maybe he'll find some money or something, right? Now I'm walking this way, meaning I bend into me. Look inside of me. That's where my world is, right? What am I going to find? What am I going to find? What should I be searching? Qualities, desires, forces are still not unified with the Creator. Where do I find them? Even in a good feeling, let me enjoy a little bit. Why do I need to search for the bad? It's very simple. The thing is that right now you're still in a state where you're feeling good, because you're feeling good. So you don't want to search for something bad, but you should feel good because you are united with the Creator. So as a result, you will want to be even more unified with Him. And then you will yearn to find what more can I unify with Him? How else can I unite with Him? Another piece of rope, another connection to make. Not some weak knot, but something, you know, strong. Then it'll be in the same direction.

Right now it seems to you like you're disconnecting from the good feeling, going towards the bad. Who needs it? Who can do it? You can pretend to be doing some work, but it's incorrect. But if you unified yourself with Him in truth, then you continue onward in the same direction. This is why the old man is wise. We don't go against nature. It's not really against. What does it mean it's not against nature? Meaning it's not against the previous act that you unified with Him. So the search is in the same direction.

Student: That's the choice that you talked about earlier, that addition?

M. Laitman: Yes, this is actually the choice because here the society can only provide me with a step forward. In it, I can see where else I'm still not… The choice, yes, but not on this point. This point is more internal.

Student: But isn't that just a state of overcoming, a state that you talked about now, where despite everything he's searching for deficiencies?

M. Laitman: Of course it's overcoming. Well, what?

Student: It sounds pretty artificial to do this.

M. Laitman: Now it already sounds artificial, what we’re beginning to philosophize about. Take your book, and let's go.

Reader: So, let's go ahead. Let's share what we're impressed by in the lesson, what we're taking to implement in the Ten, six minutes, summation workshop.

Song: (01:46:01)