The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) Sept. 10, 2024.
Part 2: The Ten as an Environment for Spiritual Development for Everyone.
Reader: We're going to read selected excerpts from the sources. The study material is on the Arvut site and in Sviva Tova. The Ten as an Environment for Spiritual Development for Everyone - Selected Excerpts from the Sources.
Reading Excerpt 1: (00:24) RABASH, Article No. 6 (1984), "Love of Friends – 2"
If several individuals come together with the force that it is worthwhile to abandon self-love, but without the sufficient power and importance of bestowal to become independent, without outside help, if these individuals annul before one another and all have at least potential love of the Creator, though they cannot keep it in practice, then by each joining the society and annulling oneself before it, they become one body.
For example, if there are ten people in that body, it has ten times more power than a single person does.
However, there is a condition: When they gather, each of them should think that he has now come for the purpose of annulling self-love. It means that he will not consider how to satisfy his will to receive now, but will think as much as possible only of the love of others. This is the only way to acquire the desire and the need to acquire a new quality, called “the will to bestow.”
And from love of friends one can reach love of the Creator, meaning wanting to give contentment to the Creator.
M. Laitman: Questions? Everything is clear, yes? What’s not clear to you?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:02) What does it mean that each of the friends has a force to love the Creator?
M. Laitman: As they hear that they have to come to the love of the Creator, and to reach the love of the Creator, they can do so through the love of friends. Hence they came in order to learn how they can reach this.
Student: In other words, it's already in them in some way.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:45) It's written here that on condition that each one will think that when they gather, each one will think that he is coming for the purpose of annulling self-love, meaning he will not think about how to satisfy his own will to receive, but about how much, as much as possible about the love of others. So he still has some self-contemplation, considerations.
M. Laitman: A person must think what he receives and what he gives. Otherwise, what, is he hanging in the air, or on the contrary it's demanded from him to perform the correct calculation.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:48) I'm a little confused about how we take the Creator as a partner. On the one hand, we want to reach love of friends in order to bring Him contentment. On the other hand, we demand of Him. We even sometimes use the words to obligate Him, to convince Him. But our desire is in His hands.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And we want to make our will as His will. So if He wants it to be this way…
M. Laitman: Are you looking for an excuse?
Student: No, I'm looking for how not to fight the Creator and be against Him, but actually be His partner.
M. Laitman: Well?
Student: Because I feel like I am constantly, have some complaint against the Creator, that my desire is with Him, and He doesn't open me, and change me, and gives me a new relation to the friends. But the new relation to the friends can happen only if it comes from above. So I don't want to be at war with Him. I want to be His partner.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So how do I arrange my relation to the Creator together with the demand so that He makes my desire like His desire?
M. Laitman: So now you have a desire to the Creator for you to somehow relate to the friends a certain way. Try to observe that desire. Already you'll be connected to the Creator by this common desire.
Student: Right. But the experience is of constant lack of success.
M. Laitman: Ask from Him.
Student: Well, that's exactly it. I constantly have grievances against Him.
M. Laitman: That's not a grievance.
Student: I ask all day to worry about the friends, more about myself. But at the end of the day, I experience failure. So I have complaints against the Creator.
M. Laitman: But during the day, would you like to reach this?
Student: I'm really trying. Well, again, you want to want the desire. You hear what you have to ask, what you have to want. We have to be in love with friends in order to bring Him contentment, right? So I can't ask something as a struggle against the Creator. Why aren't you giving us, right? It has to come. We have great gratitude for allowing us to come together, for having the congress, for all the friends from the World Kli coming over. We have great gratitude.
At the same time, there's a very strong demand. I feel that something is wrong with my demand because I constantly have complaints against Him. And it's not a partnership. And even when I try to care for the friends, I don't feel pleasure in it. I feel pressure. It's another worry, not only in my own concerns. I also have concerns for the corporeality of my friends and their spirituality. It adds more grievances. I'm constantly full of grievances against the Creator, so I feel like I am at war with Him instead of taking Him as a partner. Because if He is my partner then everything is… How do I organize that relationship?
M. Laitman: We will see if this will be clarified to you. Meanwhile, there is no answer.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:48) It's written that by each one entering the society and annulling himself before the society they become one body. What does it mean that the society becomes one body?
M. Laitman: One body is by the desire. By us coming closer in our desires, in the level of desires, in depicting to ourselves what it is that we want and what it is that we want to reach. By that we come closer to connection.
Student: When a body consists of many organs, does that mean that each friend is like an organ in that body?
M. Laitman: Yes. Each and every one of us is like a cell or an organ in the general body.
Student: So if I depict this, then one friend is like the heart, another friend is like the lungs, another friend is like the liver, is that the way it is?
M. Laitman: Let's say, later it will be corrected.
Student: Does it always stay this way, that the friend, whatever organ it is, it remains this way or do they also change?
M. Laitman: They change, but it doesn't matter because the main thing is that we are all in one body.
Student: But still, the body needs a head, so what is the head of the group?
M. Laitman: The head of the group is usually the part that is higher, more exalted than the rest of the parts in its stature, in its advancement, in its ability to connect everyone. One head from everyone.
Student: Can it be that a friend, a certain friend is the Rosh, is the head, a friend in the Ten, for example he is the head, is this possible?
M. Laitman: These are things that will be clarified later. It's not worthwhile for us to define these things yet. We will see that all the connections between us are divided to ten kinds and this is how we will see it.
Reading Excerpt 2: (12:36) Maor VaShemesh, VaYechi
The essence of the assembly is for everyone to be in one unity and for all to seek but one purpose: to find the Creator. In every ten there is the Shechina [Divinity]. Clearly, if there are more than ten then there is more revelation of the Shechina. Thus, each one should assemble with his friend and come to him to hear from him a word about the work of the Creator, and how to find the Creator. He should annul before his friend, and his friend should do the same toward him, and so should everyone do. Then, when the assembly is with this intention, then “More than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to nurse,” and the Creator approaches them and He is with them, and great mercies and good and revealed kindness will be extended over the assembly of Israel.
M. Laitman: (14:00) Yes, the Knesset of Israel, the assembly of Israel is considered a group of people who want to unite between them and come closer to the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:33) What is this state where the adhesion of love of friends and from that to the love of the Creator happens at once, and how to implement that state correctly?
M. Laitman: It's when we truly connect between us in order to attain the love of the Creator, to unite together with Him. It's impossible if we don't connect prior to that between us.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:19) How to hear from the friend something about how to find the Creator?
M. Laitman: You can talk about it between you.
Student: So now I'm sitting and I'm looking for the Creator in my inner work. How in my inner work do I hear something from the friend who will help me find the Creator now?
M. Laitman: Talk with them, with your friends, and see. See what they will answer.
Student: To speak with them internally?
M. Laitman: Talk to them internally. You can talk to them with your mouth.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:21) When the bad is revealed, and the lack of my love for the friends, and at that moment I didn't succeed in pouring my heart to the Creator and asking Him to develop a relation toward the friends, and then when I understand it, I see that it was a kind of a provocation on the part of the Creator. A test that He gave me that I couldn't succeed in, meaning I couldn't come to pour out my heart before the Creator.
And even when I understand it, I still have some rational understanding that it came from the Creator. I have some shame, I'm mad at myself, but I'm not coming to pour out my heart. So the question is, is it not enough, do I actually have to regret in prayer and correct it in prayer, or is my understanding enough? Based on the sources, based on what Rabash writes, it's enough to understand that I'm to blame.
M. Laitman: It's not enough. You have to attain your oppositeness to the Creator. Only then you'll be able to ask Him to correct you. And then after that, you'll be able to invest efforts, as gradually the opposite qualities will be revealed in you.
Student: The ego is afraid of getting in there. It places a boundary based on what it is willing to feel at that moment. How do I close this gap? Meaning, I understand I have to be regretful and with tears toward the Creator internally, turn myself into a rag and understand that now I did something wrong. Before that state of the ego, that I want to stay kind of handsome and correct in my own eyes.
M. Laitman: Continue.
Student: So I shouldn't be afraid of getting in and kind of degrading myself in my own eyes?
M. Laitman: As much as it is possible.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:29) When we have these special gatherings, when we are constantly in the greatness of the Creator, where do we direct this force? To the personal work of self-correction? Toward loving the friends more or the world more?
M. Laitman: Wherever the heart aims.
Student: Meaning, to be more sensitive toward the Creator?
M. Laitman: Probably.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:23) What is the thing that unites women? It's just that the feeling is that if we unite around the men, achieving stronger connection between them more quickly, that we give them confidence that they will succeed. I feel on myself that on the basis of this, I can unite with my Ten and hold on to it like a bulldog with my teeth. But in other things, we kind of get dispersed.
M. Laitman: That's how it is.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:11) It's written, certainly if there are more than ten, then there is more revelation of the Shechina. What is this about? We know that there cannot be more than ten or less than ten.
M. Laitman: The meaning is, another Ten and another Ten.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:39) It's written here, if he annuls before his friend, then everyone will do so. And if everyone has the same intention, can we make an effort at the congress? What is this annulment? What kind of annulment is it before everyone and for everyone to do the same? If I'm certain that we're all doing it simultaneously, there will be power. But if it seems to me like I'm doing this alone, it's as if only I disappear. So what is the miracle that can happen here to agree on this annulment together at the congress?
M. Laitman: Sum it up with everyone, agree with everyone, and that which you're offering, that you're suggesting that everyone connects.
Student: It seems like uniting is pleasant, but annulling is unpleasant.
M. Laitman: Continue checking.
Student: It says that I'm looking for an answer from you.
M. Laitman: The advice is continue, I can't say anything else.
Student: But what is annulment?
M. Laitman: Annulment meaning as if you are zero, that's how I understand it.
Reading Excerpt 3: (23:33) RABASH, Article No. 2, (1984) "Concerning Love of Friends." Twice.
One must disclose the love in his heart towards the friends, since by revealing it he evokes his friends’ hearts toward the friends so they, too, would feel that each of them is practicing love of friends. The benefit from that is that in this manner, one gains strength to practice love of friends more forcefully, since every person’s force of love is integrated in each other’s.
M. Laitman: Again.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:26) Based on this article, are there any limits in how much love you can disclose to your friend in order not to scare them away?
M. Laitman: Limits? No.
Student: So how can we do this correctly so that the friends don't run away?
M. Laitman: The revelation of the love first has to be in the heart. And gradually, the friend or the friends should understand what is in your heart.
Student: But from my own experience, I've realized that the more love you disclose to the friend, the more evil it reveals. And sometimes it can be scary, the evil that comes out from the connection. So the reason why I'm asking that is, how can we manage the revelation of the evil so that we can balance the connection and still advance with the evil that's being revealed?
M. Laitman: It will come. It will come. A little more patience, and it will become clearer and clearer.
M. Laitman: What else do we have besides this?
Student: We have Music, Melodies, and Song in the Wisdom of Kabbalah as a Preparation for the Convention.
Reader: (28:08) Workshop.
Reader: (51:16) An excerpt for the conclusion of the lesson from the article we read this morning.
There is a prayer, meaning, for the Creator to help him. That the Creator will help him by making him feel the love of his friend and make the friend close to his heart. Thus, through the deeds he is rewarded with the aim as well.
Reader: (52:12) Announcements.
Song: (52:45)