The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) December 16, 2024.
Part 1: Baal HaSulam. One Commandment
Reader: Hello, we are reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam, the article called “One Commandment”, we continue from the subhead: Bringing Contentment to One's Maker inadvertently. You'll find the study material in kabbalahgroup.info and the Arvut System, you can also send questions live through those sites.
Part: 1 Baal HaSulam. Bringing Contentment to One’s Maker Inadvertently
Reading: (0:30) It is hopeless to wait for a time when a solution is found that enables one to begin the work of the Creator in Lishma. As in the past, so is now, and so will it be: Every servant of the Creator must begin the work in Lo Lishma, and from that achieve Lishma.
The way to achieve this degree is not limited by time, but by his qualifiers, and by the measure of one’s control over one’s heart. Hence, many have fallen and will fall in the field of working Lo Lishma, and will die without wisdom. Yet, their reward is nevertheless great, since one’s mind cannot appreciate the true merit and value of bringing contentment to one’s Maker. Even if one works not under this condition, since one is not worthy of another way, one still brings contentment to one’s Maker. This is called “unintentionally.”
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:33) Who are the ones who qualify him? The work in Lo Lishma from which we come to Lishma, this path is not limited by time but the one who qualify him. Who are they?
M. Laitman: Those who wish to reach Lishma.
Student: His friends?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, everyone is together in the group.
Student: He also writes, not limited by time but by his qualifiers and by the measure of one's control over one's heart. How does one control his heart?
M. Laitman: He should make an effort, then he'll see that the Creator is the one in charge, while the person, himself, cannot.
Student: So, the measure of control over his heart is to reach the awareness that he's not capable of doing it?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: “Therefore, many have fallen and will fall in the field of working Lo Lishma and will die without wisdom”. How to not fall, if it is not in his hands to do it.
M. Laitman: Try to be careful; a person, in all states that come to him, he wants to realize them in Lishma.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:57) He writes, it is hopeless to wait for a time when a solution is found that enables one to begin the work of the Creator in Lishma. I wanted to ask, why is using such a total word – never, hopeless?
M. Laitman: Because it's truly the rule.
Student: But we have to have hope, we have to have desire, we have to have those things. We need to hope to merit, he says, it is hopeless to wait.
M. Laitman: No, you know, there are laws, rules. All your work, your spiritual work, you need to begin it in Lo Lishma [not for her sake]. And then from Lo Lishma, you reach Lishma.
Student: He writes, it is hopeless to wait for the time. We have inside of us, this concealed inside, this feeling that it's time. We're not feeling for it, we're feeling it's time. Why? Why do we have that thing and we don't have this necessity, this urgent need? It's something that puts us to sleep.
M. Laitman: I think it's because of our ego.
Student: How should we?
M. Laitman: We cannot reject all these exertions and means that may bring us to Lishma.
Student: We need to be in a state that's exactly opposite, right? There's no such thing as “time will come”. We have to be constantly on the ready.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And how can we reach a state where we are alert and ready every moment? Because we understand that if we don't do it at this moment, there is not going to be another moment. How can we reach such a mindset?
M. Laitman: It's only by the power of the Torah. We study, we learn and we expect, we yearn for our thoughts, our inclinations to be revealed and transformed. Such that we will understand it and agree with it.
Student: Can we reach such a mindset, now? It's something that can spread in society now?
M. Laitman: It doesn't depend on time.
Student: It depends on what?
M. Laitman: On the efforts of those people who wish to reach Lishma.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:02) He says that we cannot appreciate what it means to give contentment to one's Maker.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But we try to express that we are giving contentment to the Creator.
M. Laitman: I suppose so.
Student: We want the Creator to feel pleasure from the connection between us, from our labor.
M. Laitman: Just as you say.
Student: How is that revealed, let's say, in the Ten, in the group, that we're giving contentment to the Creator?
M. Laitman: I don't know, I think that before that we have to discover the Creator and ourselves in the current state; and afterwards, to try to correct it.
Student: Our current state?
M. Laitman: Yes, in relation to the Creator.
Student: And then what?
M. Laitman: And then, to reach a state where all of us – each one and all of us together – will be aimed towards the Creator, aiming to bestow contentment upon Him.
Student: Using which vessel and which desire is it revealed to us that we're giving or not giving contentment to the Creator?
M. Laitman: In our desire we want to feel it and we reach a feeling that we've bestowed contentment upon the Creator, which is called “Lishma”.
Student: What are we lacking in preparation for it, so that we would want to give contentment to the Creator?
M. Laitman: The desire, there are no other factors here.
Student: How do we acquire this desire?
M. Laitman: This desire is obtained through the Torah, meaning that a person studies it, and everything he wants. Everything he thinks is now to bestow contentment to the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:50) Before everything, I need to feel that I'm serving the Creator. I have to start with that. What does it mean to feel that you're a servant of the Creator?
M. Laitman: You have an opportunity in front of you to reach contact with the Creator.
Student: You said, those who qualify me are the friends.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How should I feel about the fact that the friends qualify me toward the Creator?
M. Laitman: They give you an example and support.
Student: Well, that's it, only externally, the examples the friends give me that provides me with the feeling of being a servant of the Creator.
M. Laitman: Perhaps, also inwardly.
Student: How do I start to feel this internality, that from the connection with the friends, I begin to feel that I'm working for the Creator, that I'm doing this work? How do I acquire this desire, this special desire before even thinking of contentment to the Creator, to feel that I'm His servant? That I serve Him, that I'm here for Him?
M. Laitman: That depends on the environment, it depends on the environment. When we reach adhesion with the Creator. For that, it has to go through my entire environment, meaning through all the people who relate to the Creator, my inclination, my desire to reach adhesion with Him.
Student: How important is the vessel of gratitude? That I'm here with the friends and thanks to them, I come each and every moment and I advance.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: This gratitude is a vessel that lets me feel the privilege of being a servant here. And thanks to the friend, I can aim myself there?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:30) There's a gap between the revelation of the Creator and the feeling of the contentment of the Creator?
M. Laitman: The revelation of the Creator and giving contentment, it's not the same thing.
Student: Okay, so I can talk about giving contentment to the Creator before we acquire the feeling of the Creator?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: That's a more advanced stage, in that case?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And when he speaks of those who have fallen in Lo Lishma, those who have the feeling of the Creator but couldn't give Him contentment.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Okay, when we are reading this and discussing this, it's like speaking several levels above our next level?
M. Laitman: Depends for whom?
Student: The assumption that we don't have the feeling of the Creator yet.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How do we work with contentment for the Creator before having the feeling of the Creator?
M. Laitman: We have a path, there; the path of performing commandments, observing commandments.
Student: What does it mean, through doing the commandments, can you elaborate?
M. Laitman: We perform various exercises, you could call it. By which we bestow contentment upon the Creator.
Student: We give contentment to the Creator before we acquire the feeling of the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: In order to make this exercise a bit more precise, where do we imagine the Creator when we give Him contentment? Where do we portray Him?
M. Laitman: In our feelings.
Student: In the feeling that exists between us?
M. Laitman: Yes, it could also be between us.
Student: Can it be not between us?
M. Laitman: It could be within a person, by himself.
Student: Can a person reveal the Creator not within the framework of the connections and relationships with the Ten?
M. Laitman: It could be but I don't know.
Student: I'm not talking about us. We are all trying to aim ourselves at the same thing.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, can we make that state of contentment to the Creator more precise even before we've acquired who He is? At least part of us, some of us haven't acquired it.
M. Laitman: No, we first need to reach a state where we feel that we are bestowing contentment upon Him.
Student: First, reach a state of giving contentment?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And only later try to feel Him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:27) By which exercises am I giving contentment to the Creator?
M. Laitman: At the most part, it’s when I turn to Him with requests. I request of Him to connect me with all my friends and for us, together, to feel Him in the connection between us. And what we need to feel in the connection between us is Him and the pleasure He gets from us.
Student: Do you feel the Creator's pleasure from you?
M. Laitman: Yes, that's what I want to feel.
Student: And what is that state? Is that Lishma, Lo Lishma?
M. Laitman: That is, you could say, it is already Lishma.
Student: Now, this request that I'm asking, does it have to come from me? Or is it a request from the Ten, or all giving contentment?
M. Laitman: We give contentment to the Creator when we want, through the connection between us, to reveal Him. So, the connection between us will be revealed to us as the Creator.
Student: If I ask Him or the Ten – together we ask – is there a difference in the contentment that we bring him?
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: Is there a difference between a request that I raise or a request that we, the friends, raise? Is there a difference in the contentment?
M. Laitman: If it's you or the entire Ten?
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: Of course, there is a difference. Each and everyone has a certain amount of force.
Student: He writes that a person's thought cannot appreciate Him and the idea of giving it to his Maker. How do you merit such a precious thought?
M. Laitman: It's there in us, we just need to remove it from its concealment and make it operational.
Student: How do you do that, how do you reveal that thought, that already exists in us?
M. Laitman: All of us, other than us connecting, we also disclose something, reveal something from the heart of each one, an inclination towards the Creator.
Student: How can the friends bring me to the degree of Lishma?
M. Laitman: The friends can't bring anyone to the degree of Lishma. One needs to make an effort to reach that by his own power.
Student: How can the friends support me in bringing me to Lishma?
M. Laitman: They support externally; most of all, they give you an example of connection. An example of connection, an example of concern, assistance, how each and everyone tries to help the other.
Student: How can this example of connection and mutual help bring a person to exert in Lishma? What's the connection between the two?
M. Laitman: Well, the person is impressed by his friends who are next to him. Seeing how connected they are and how they're making efforts.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:56) What is the revelation of the Creator?
M. Laitman: The revelation of the Creator is revelation to the person, a revelation of his root, the purpose of his development,. And the forces that are in operation, there.
Student: Because it seems very complex, this revelation, because you can reveal his attitude toward me, toward friends. You can reveal his actions but what does it mean to reveal Him, the Creator, Himself?
M. Laitman: We say it that way but really we don't discover Him. What we actually discover is how He treats us, His attitude towards us.
Student: And what's the difference between revelation of the Creator and adhesion with the Creator?
M. Laitman: The revelation of the Creator is what a person reveals within his vessels. And out of that, he feels how he draws closer, grows more distant. He feels what he lacks in order to reveal more adhesion to the Creator.
Student: Still, it's felt like there's a higher value, a deeper value in adhering to the Creator, compared to discovering how He works towards me, relates to me.
M. Laitman: It's a more inner kind of adhesion. Yes, that's correct.
Student: And friends, here, with this adhesion, it's an inseparable part, it's revealed also, with the connection with the Creator. Meaning, I reveal the Creator through the revelation of the friends.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:12) What is considered a success in making a correction?
M. Laitman: The revelation of the Creator on a degree that's higher than the previous one.
Student: We come to a deeper recognition of evil?
M. Laitman: That, too.
Student: Baal HaSulam writes, that one is happiest when he comes to be despaired of his own strength.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: We somehow need to reach the need for the help of the Creator. So, is this considered a success? When you come, and you keep failing and failing at those actions and corrections? How to reach this necessity? We keep talking about it but we do not turn to the Creator. The only weapon a person has is prayer, he has to reach prayer, that is what the Kabbalists write to us like that. That's what I'm asking, what is success? It's not failure or recognition of evil?
M. Laitman: I don't want to reveal more to a lot of you. You are all already in a state which, if we pass through this state, everything will be revealed to you.
Student: I tell you, in my feeling, we are not ready to take off the gloves –, the white gloves, the silk gloves. We seemingly talk and play. If someone enters someone else's boundary, you get stuck on it and that's it, you can't go through. We begin to fight, to argue, each one rebukes the other, each one has his own charge. Everyone is smart, everyone knows how to use words, but I don't feel that there is a connection. Friction, yes, but?
M. Laitman: So, we need to understand that the connection between us is what we need. It has to reach a point where we act, where each one clears room in his heart for the others. And here comes the question: What does it mean to make room for the others”? What does it mean for there to be room in my heart for my friends? And that's not simple; however, if a person agrees that this should happen, then without these actions, he will find no success. Then he advances.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:42) This state of controlling one's heart, when he falls down and dies. It's part of the process, right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Also giving contentment to his Maker unintentionally brings him to this state.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, what's the next state? Is it a leap to giving Him contentment intentionally?
M. Laitman: Apparently so.
Student: You told a friend but what is the point of qualifying the heart? What did we discover there?
M. Laitman: Qualifying the heart, training the heart, it means preparing it to bestow contentment to everyone.
Student: Is that what's lacking at this point?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It's more advanced.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What are we lacking in terms of the person, beyond this exalted thing of giving Him contentment? You said that we lack the awareness that it's beyond my power to do it. Is this the most significant point?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So, what is that, exactly, that I'm unable to qualify myself in what? I get it that I can't bestow giving contentment.
M. Laitman: It all depends on God's work, the extent to which the Creator shines a light on a person's heart. To that extent, the heart becomes sensitive, sensitive towards such phenomena.
Student: We're lacking more work between us.
M. Laitman: Yes. The question is a simple one: The Creator is concealed. Spirituality, as I understand from the books, is, well, it's not exactly clear, what it is. But next to me are the friends. How can I use the friends in order to prepare myself for the sensation of the Creator, for the reception of the upper light? Please, that is the question.
Reader: (Workshop) (35:12) Again, the friends are asking, we're in a workshop: How can I use the friends to prepare myself for the feeling of the Creator and for the reception of the upper light.
M. Laitman: Alright, what do we have next?
Reader: (49:20) We can go to the next part or we’ll continue with the article, “One Commandment, Prophetic Truth and Physical Measurement”.
Prophetic Truth in Physical Measurement
Reading: (49:49) Since it is an absolute certainty, the prophetic abundance must be received in those combinations of letters completely suitable for the spirit of beginners, that is, to benefit them and to be open to the self-interest of that generation. Only then is it guaranteed that the word of the Creator is accepted by the generation in the form of Lo Lishma, for the Creator did not prepare them in any other way.
Hence, this is the sign of a true prophet: His prophecy is best suited for the physical success of his contemporaries, as it is written, “And what great nation has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you today?” It is so because the nearness of the physical success will confirm their truthfulness, that in the end, this is indeed the entry point.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:25) What is this prophetic abundance?
M. Laitman: A person who reaches the degree of a prophet, I suppose, he is awarded with the upper lights, which is called such, called that.
Student: Relative to the generation, the spirit of beginners, what is that abundance relative to the beginners?
M. Laitman: We will merit it and we will know.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:27) We heard that a person needs to make room in his heart for the friends. What is his heart, what is a person's heart?
M. Laitman: A person's heart is usually called, it's all the desires, all his desires through which he feels the world.
Student: So, a person has to make room in his desires for the friends. What does it mean to make room in his desires for the friends?
M. Laitman: Not to think only about himself or about himself, at all. But rather, to make sure that his friends fill up his heart. The concern for them, thoughts about them, the connections between them, and so on, that should fill his heart.
Student: If I understand correctly, instead of caring for himself, the person has to look for ways to fill the desires of the friends along the way, of course?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Student: Is it done in thought, or should it be expressed in actions or both?
M. Laitman: It may be practical as well, but we begin with the thought.
Student: Meaning, a person has to walk around immersed in thinking how to provide his friends with desires for spirituality?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Does that mean making room for them?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Woman PT 8): (54:22) It's written, this is the sign of a true prophet whose prophecy is suitable for the physical success of his generation. What is that physical success and why is it important to us?
M. Laitman: I don't know, it seems to me that this speaks of the clothing of the light in the vessels. And the more the light is adapted to the vessels, filling them, the more a person succeeds accordingly.
Question (Center 1): (55:24) Is the vessel for filling the friend similar to the vessel for filling the Creator?
M. Laitman: The vessel for filling the friend and the vessel for filling the Creator, these are two different vessels, very different. But from the feeling of the friend, you reach a feeling of the Creator.
Question (Moscow 6): (56:01) How can we make room in our hearts for a friend?
M. Laitman: A person's heart is always thinking about how he can fulfill himself. That's his only concern and that's how he operates.
Question (Woman PT 6): (56:48) What does it mean to provide the friends their spiritual desires?
M. Laitman: It's caring for the fulfillment of the friends; I support them as much as possible, and I'm willing to reveal.
Question (Asia): (57:25) Does it mean giving them confidence on the path, security?
M. Laitman: Yes, that's for certain. As much as I can, I give them this feeling of security, confidence, in every situation.
Question (Woman Heb 2): (57:47) Earlier, a friend had told that everything depends on the work of the Creator. The extent to which the Creator shines on a person, the heart becomes sensitive. What does it mean that the Creator shines and the heart becomes sensitive?
M. Laitman: Our hearts – that's all of our desires – the heart reveals its feelings the way the Creator wants to fulfill it. And so, we are concerned with the fulfillment of the heart.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:50) I want to take this excerpt that we read and use it in the Ten. We have states, some are up, some are down, what is this principle? The prophet, seemingly the one who is now higher, maintains a certain principle, here. We begin from Lo Lishma, you must start from Lo Lishma, there is no straight Lishma.
M. Laitman: Correct.
Student: How do we maintain it in the Ten? It says, the physical success of his contemporaries, prophecy is best suited for the physical success? What does that mean, in the Ten? Let's say someone has the greatness of the goal right now, importance, he wants to bestow, to turn, take him higher with him. What does it mean, that he is looking after the physical success of his contemporaries?
M. Laitman: That's something we need to scrutinize.
Student: Can we scrutinize it?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, that's ahead of us.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:18) If we are in the Ten, we try to emphasize the profits, the gains. If a person is in Lo Lishma it helps him but if a person advances towards Lishma, it can also disturb him. So, how do you do it, correctly, because it says that a prophet of truth needs to know how to adapt the physical success to his contemporaries’ subtlety.
M. Laitman: We don't know about that yet.
Student: So, right now we work on profits and success and how much this abundance is waiting for us.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And, I have to share about the workshop, thank you for leading us into the workshop, it was very powerful. I heard a friend say, Rav is pulling us towards a time, of willing time. There is an action from us and we want to be in it as well!
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:37) To make room in the heart for the friend, practically speaking, each friend has a unique desire, unique deficiency. How should the Ten look? He has a true deficiency to advance the Ten and I have a different deficiency in a different form – each friend's deficiency is different. Now, to make room in the heart, I need to try and put my deficiency aside and try to clothe the friend's deficiencies. Try to help them connect to their deficiency to advance the Ten. Is that the meaning?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Student: And when I see my own deficiency, let it go?
M. Laitman: There is nothing you can do.
Student: Or, maybe, the Creator revealed something to me, so I can act on it. So, I need to just put it aside?
M. Laitman: I suppose so.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:50) It says, it has to be received in these letter combinations. The question is what are these combinations and what letters are we talking about?
M. Laitman: I don't know but I suppose that the combination of the letters, that's what we read in the book.
Student: You mean, in every letter that we see, there is a force that influences us for the common goal, right?
M. Laitman: Right.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:38) We saw that when prophets come to the people, Jeremiah and others, the people do not accept what they were saying. For the most part, they resist and say, we don't like what you're saying. So, what does it mean, that we have to bring things in a way that's suitable for the people?
M. Laitman: So, the people will be able to understand them and the people will feel. That this is what they're facing, and that it's worthwhile to do that.
Student: So, the people, best case scenario - ignore them, worst case scenario - throw the prophet into prison or hate him. What happens in such instances?
M. Laitman: I don't know.
Student: It's a missed opportunity, do you have such discernments?
M. Laitman: If a generation doesn't accept a prophet, advisor, these are natural things. You see, what doesn't happen in that generation perhaps can happen in the next generation.
Student: So again, a true prophet, his prophecy is best suited for the physical success of his contemporaries. There is also work for his contemporaries to accept what this prophet is saying?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, here, there can be incompatibility.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is this degree of the prophet? Is it a form of attainment? What is a prophet?
M. Laitman: A prophet is one of the generation, who has the ability to explain something to his generation. Such that the generation listens and follows and skips ahead on the path.
Student: Is it a certain assignment, that he has to do it?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:25) I can't want bestowal in faith, it's not in my nature, it's opposite my nature. Should I make room – is making room for a friend, does that mean asking for the force of faith to bestow for him?
M. Laitman: I don't know. You feel those lacks, so you tell us. Is it the same or no?
Student: I feel that for myself, I cannot ask for it. I don't know what it is, I don't feel it, it's not in my nature. So, I'm trying to ask for it for a friend. Is that okay
M. Laitman: I don't know, if it's right, we need to hear from the friends. The friends, I'm not sure, are concerned with that, especially.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:21) You mentioned a stage, that if we pass, everything will be revealed. You can feel it, when we are in a very special time and we are also before a very big congress. The question, is there something we need to highlight? So, as many friends will stay on the wagon and more will join and as few as possible will fall off. What should we pay attention to?
M. Laitman: Connection.
Student: Connection is our routine.
M. Laitman: No, it's where everyone, each and every one, understands that he depends on the connection of everyone.
Student: It's not an outcome that we attain and a feeling from our common work in the Ten, whatever happened in the connection?
M. Laitman: It could be that that also illuminates for you, somewhat. But are you all demanding it?
Student: From the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:50) You said, you don't want to reveal more to us because you are in a state that if you cross, if you pass. That everything will be revealed to you. What is this barrier, now? Something we have to do?
M. Laitman: Yes, that which God created to do. That's part of all of our actions, in each and every action, there is what the Creator created to do.
Song: (01:10:40)