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

Daily Lesson (Morning), August 16, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Letter 20.

Reader: Hello, we shall be studying the letters of Baal HaSulam, Letter 20. You can find all of our texts on kabbalahmedia.info, as well as through the Arvut platform, where you can ask us questions. Anyone asking a question here in the study hall is requested to stand up, with the microphone close to his mouth, and speak loudly and clearly.

Reading Letter: (00:28) Baal HaSulam, Letter 20.

1 Tishrey, Tav-Reish-Peh-Zayin, September 9, 1926, Rosh Hashanah, London

To my soul mate and student ... may his candle burn:

... Why have you not informed me of the Dvekut [adhesion] of the friends, if it is going from strength to strength? This is the very basis of our good future and of your success in teaching.

I am not ashamed to admit that my troubles are so numerous that I have no energy to entertain you according to each and every one’s wish, but you are engraved within my heart all day and all night. I burn with thirst for your well-being and wholeness, and the Creator knows how much I have labored and exerted on your behalf. We are certain that they will not be in vain, and the word of the Lord will stand forever.

But why have you forgotten the teaching that I said in the holiday of Shavuot [Feast of Weeks] about the verse, “My beloved is like a gazelle,” concerning “turning the face back,” that the face is built during the escape and hiding, but in the form of Achoraim [back/posterior], which is the measure of sorrow over the distance and concealment? But in truth, these Achoraim are actually Panim [face/anterior], as our sages said, “turning the face back,” so the face is in the back. This is the meaning of “I, the Lord, do not change; and you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed,” meaning as it is written, “They who seek Me shall find Me.”

I wrote you the intention of the blowing [of the Shofar], to know why they blow and trumpet standing up ... “For the day is holy to our Lord.” Although I know that my words will not reach you while you are hearing the sound of the Shofar, but it is written, “Before they hear, I will answer,” which is why I wrote in its time.

You, too, show my letter to all the friends and perhaps they will lend an ear to my words.

... From this day forward let us grow strong in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load,” to raise the Shechina [Divinity] from the dust, “arising contempt and wrath,” and the sins will become merits because His glory will fill the whole of the earth.

God willing, I am certain that our salvation is near and we will be rewarded with serving the Creator together abundantly, and the Lord’s wish will succeed by us.

Yehuda Leib

M. Laitman: This is basically what Baal HaSulam felt and wrote to his students. He was very close to them, and as much as they tried, they also felt that way. That's it. I don't have what to add. The letter is short. Questions?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:26) He writes in the last paragraph, ‘I am certain that our salvation is near at hand.’

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What salvation is he talking about? Is it something personal, private, for them?

M. Laitman: Something personal. I think it's something personal to them, yes. It's clear from this letter, he has no one else to turn to directly, but that group went with him.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:23) He says that the Panim, the face, are built during the time of running away and concealment, which is the measure of sorrow over the distance and concealment. So what? Do we feel that sorrow only when the Creator is distancing Himself from us? Only then we feel that sorrow and want to come close to Him?

M. Laitman: So we can imagine to ourselves, what is distance?

Student: And that's the only time where we can feel the true lack for the Creator. There's no other way?

M. Laitman: Yes. No. But you don't need to expect that time, rather to see that, meanwhile, we're always in posterior. It's not posterior that grows and makes us depart from the Creator. It's kind of static. That’s why we're in darkness.

Student: So following what you just said, during the preparation for the lesson, we held a workshop and we talked about how every day we need to come and light that fire anew, not to allow it to be quenched for a moment, and to have complete faith that that revelation can come at any moment, where all together we discover the Creator. Amen.

M. Laitman: We have to prepare the vessels.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:09) In the last paragraph, he says that ‘may we be rewarded with serving the Creator together with expansion.’ What does he mean?

M. Laitman: Meaning not from suffering and decline, but from expansion.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:40) I want to ask about the connection a teacher has with his students, and also vice versa. You experienced a direct connection with your teacher. The students of Baal HaSulam experienced a direct contact with their teacher, sitting together around one table, opening the book together. A very tight emotional connection. And it felt that their lives are intertwined completely, the teacher and student. But now we have this, we feel that the tribe has grown in numbers, but the quality of connection, the connection is less, right? So we have some clips of Rav, we hear together in our Zoom meeting, but it will not be the same kind of connection. So do we need to continue as we are, or are we missing something in the way we're connecting, let's say, with students who come to us to study on campus, or in our own perception of our connection with our teacher? Is this just the spirit of the times, or are we missing something by going for big productions, lots of pyrotechnics, but missing something?

M. Laitman: It's clear. Well, there's no doubt that time is changing, and we are changing, and all the conditions change. And yet, we have to look for the milestones or cornerstones by which we can see the direction and develop accordingly. The connection between the students and between the students and the teacher is very inexplicable to people, typically. Until the student begins to identify how much his teacher is a great gift from the Creator that dropped him from above into the group, into the connection with the person who thinks about it. Only then can we somehow begin to measure, feel, see the right relation to the teacher. Well, what can you do? Every generation and its teachers. And therefore, we have to follow our time. Thankfully, we have Rabash, who also interprets and brings closer to us what Baal HaSulam didn't finish doing, and thus, we advance. I'm certain that ultimately, it should produce a good, clear, strong chance, soon.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:53) ‘From this day forth, we will strengthen ourselves to observe the commandments as an ox to the load and so on. I don't feel that I'm tied to this lofty goal like an ox to the load,’ and so on. I'm not even sure what it is, but the students of the RAMCHAL made this covenant for that purpose, and I feel that I don't know what it means to elevate divinity from…

M. Laitman: So you have many questions?

Student: No, no, just this matter of raising divinity from the dust.

M. Laitman: Okay, so be focused on that, that you always ask the Creator to shine on you. The Creator will shine to you, that He's above all those means you wish to reach, and He'll arrange them in such a way that they aim towards you.

Student: Me personally?

M. Laitman: Also you personally.

Student: And what about my dear friends?

M. Laitman: Good, so then you'll also be able to somewhat help the friends, and thus with each and every one.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:27) It says here that this posterior, Achoraim, is actually the interior, the face. As our sages said, turning the face back. So why is the Achoraim the actual Panim?

M. Laitman: Posterior means that it doesn't shine. And we're usually referring to it as a gazelle that escapes the person. So its nature is to turn its head back. That's why they took this example. That it turns its face backwards. That according to how spirituality departs from us, we have to have faith that it's actually getting closer.

Student: Is the Achoraim always the Panim?

M. Laitman: No, no, only in that case that a person chases the connection with the Creator. And he sees that as much as he achieves this connection, the Creator seems to get further away.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:07) There's this mystery here, I want to ask you about. He says, ‘even though I know that my words will not reach you when you listen to the Shofar being blown.’ I understand he wrote this letter before some holidays. He wasn't with his students during these holidays, right? Rosh Hashanah, something like that. My question is, a teacher who isn't sitting next to his students, like when you travel abroad, for example, what does the teacher expect of the students when he's not next to them?

M. Laitman: The teacher is the connector between the students and the Creator. It doesn't replace the prayer of the students, which is much more powerful and effective and active. However, the teacher, in his concern for the students, he keeps the contact.

Student: He says the famous saying that the iniquities will turn to merits. My question is, we're all criminals. No one is a righteous person here. So these iniquities, these transgressions, we do them every day. Nobody behaves 100%, right? So you have these transgressions. This is a common question. So all the bad stuff you did all throughout your life, how does it become like a hole instead of a hole full of iniquities, a hole full of merits?

M. Laitman: That's how it is.

Student: Yes, but how do you reach that point? You fill those holes?

M. Laitman: No, you try to reach the upper light, bestowing to it, attracting its influence over you to become corrected, and that's how you continue.

Student: So you're saying there's a chance for those people who act badly. You say, a moment comes when all your iniquities just transform?

M. Laitman: Not everything transforms. Nothing transforms by itself. They rather begin to understand their path is incorrect, their attitude is incorrect, and their development. Then they try to change themselves.

Student: So how does it happen? How does it happen? What do you need to do to fill that hole with merits, not the transgressions from the past? Everyone's a sinner, especially me. So how does it all turn into merits?

M. Laitman: Because the Creator changes His attitude and Providence.

Student: How? What do I need to do?

M. Laitman: How? You don't know, and you don't need to know.

Student: Wait. We're studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. We're studying it together, right? And that's one of the possible causes for this, right? The connection between us.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: All right.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:36) In this parable about the gazelle, it runs from the person, because it's afraid of the person. What is the Creator afraid of?

M. Laitman: It's that He doesn't want us to reveal Him, because we're not prepared yet.

Student: We're not prepared.

M. Laitman: Because then it will cause us harm.

Student: Because it will enter the will to receive in order to receive, or hunting Him in the negative sense of the word.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:15) The Ten also behaves like that deer, gazelle, often. Sometimes I grow weaker and I feel them running ahead. Sometimes they're waiting for me, looking back at me, inviting me to return. And also, there are times when I feel that I'm running forward, and there are friends who are a bit weaker. And I want to ask, sometimes it feels like we regress, we go backwards to bring the friends back. But according to the parable, the gazelle never actually runs back. It's always advancing. So my question is, what should we do? Should we always advance?

M. Laitman: No, don't look at this letter like an instruction manual. We have to reach a state, where we have contact with the Creator. Constant contact, as much as possible. And then when we feel that we're drifting apart, we have to ask Him to get closer.

Student: Yes, so that's the Ten opposite the Creator, with respect to the Creator. But I'm asking about the friend and the Ten before the Creator even comes into the equation.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: This parable works with respect to the friend. It's not the Creator, but the Ten feels like that deer. So the question is, when we go back to pick up the friends who've become a bit weak, who fell on the path, it's right to work like that, right?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So that's the question. Does the Creator go backwards, or does He only advance, waiting for us?

M. Laitman: The Creator does what's needed. I'm not justifying or, God forbid, blaming Him, but I relate to Him as constantly Good That Does Good to everyone.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:33) I answer before they call, before they listen. Is a person capable of hearing the Creator?

M. Laitman: Let's say that, yes.

Student: What the Creator answers him. A person is always looking to find some profit for himself, personal gains. What will this give him? How will he enjoy it? I believe it's impossible to hear the Creator in that way. Not with this type of hearing.

M. Laitman: Well, it depends on the person, yes.

Student: So if a person does want to develop the ability to listen to the Creator, how can he develop, where can he develop that ability? What should he do? What kind of effort?

M. Laitman: To ask. Simply ask. To speak to the Creator.

Student: To ask the Creator?

M. Laitman: In any language you'd like. Turn to the Creator and ask. As long as you make it from the heart.

Student: In every moment of life?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And where does the Ten fit here? In this ability to listen to the Creator?

M. Laitman: The whole Ten?

Student: Yes, I have a Ten in my life.

M. Laitman: So all the Ten wants to reach connection with the Creator? That's a different thing. Here we are talking about the path of an individual.

Student: And he has that aid called the Ten.

M. Laitman: Yes, so through them, he gets closer to the Creator, bestows to the Creator.

Student: Last question. I want to listen to the answers the Creator gives me, and I also have a Ten. So what is my inner effort? How to use the Ten?

M. Laitman: You use the Ten to be more aimed at the Creator, which you certainly find in the Ten, more or less hidden. Then you can turn to Him and deliver what you want.

Student: When things don't seem right for me in the Ten, what does the Creator want to tell me by that?

M. Laitman: That you have to change.

Student: And if I want to know what I need to change in?

M. Laitman: You know, because something that's happening doesn't seem right to you.

Student: So what seems wrong to me, that's exactly the point, where I need to change myself. If I see things wrong in the Ten.

M. Laitman: Let's say so, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:12) But in truth, these Achoraim are actually Panim. So in the time of concealment..?

M. Laitman: That's how it's felt to the person, that the Creator drops darkness on him, but it's truly light, except that man doesn't have the vessels to receive it, yet.

Student: So the Creator is always with him, right? He never left him. So specifically during the times of concealment, darkness, is the work such that we need to find adhesion? Not to disconnect from that? Or do we need to ask for adhesion?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Okay, and in the actual time of darkness, how does he know he's doing that work of adhesion, not fooling himself?

M. Laitman: But he is in darkness, you say?

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: Okay, so he should do the work.

Student: But how does he know he's doing it right? Not just saying, I'm in adhesion, I'm continuing, darkness, no darkness.

M. Laitman: He should continue, even though he is in darkness, he seeks adhesion. He turns to the Creator, and asks Him to be in some kind of contact with Him.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:41) What is this connection he's looking for in the darkness? He's in darkness. What kind of connection can he have in this darkness?

M. Laitman: Specifically because of the darkness, he can differentiate, whether he's connected or not. And ask in his way to have the mind and power and emotional vessels to advance in the right track.

Student: So, this thought comes to me. Let’s say a person is very sick, dark for him, then he goes into operation. He’s put under, he's sleeping. He wants to forget, he's in a coma, let's say. He wants to forget everything. So how can he in this coma..?

M. Laitman: We're not talking about these kinds of critical states. We’re talking about states in daily life.

Student: So just the daily…

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Student: So maybe this is corporeal darkness, right? How do I differentiate between corporeal and spiritual darkness? Is it the same?

M. Laitman: Why do you have any inclination here to search for something unclear here? There is corporeal darkness. There is spiritual darkness. A person can have spiritual darkness, even though the corporeal darkness acts on him.

Student: What I mean to say, a person in corporeality doesn't have… How to be able to tell, because this is the will to receive doesn't receive? It feels darkness, right? It wants something. So, you have your mundane desires, where if you don't receive what you want, there's also darkness for the person. But also the Creator can disappear, if a person is running after Him. But both these things are experienced by the person as darkness. How can he make the distinction if it's a mundane desire? Or we don't really always identify our desires. Maybe if you're a Kabbalist, maybe you do. But for the regular person, it's not always clear.

M. Laitman: Well, so describe something else to me.

Student: It's difficult, there are no words for it. It’s a feeling. How can you describe a feeling with words? It's something inside, when you incorporate with the Ten. You try to go in one direction and you fail. You try to go in the other directions. You read something, maybe. Or something happens and suddenly you're relieved and then something else happens. It’s a cycle. And sometimes, when you feel you have attained something, you've gained something, you fall even harder. And then you say, and then this darkness maybe comes and remains for a period or something like that, and you don't have that place where you can even forget about everything. You don't feel like doing anything, not even to turn to the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And what then?

M. Laitman: What then? To start anew?

Student: Is this ever over?

M. Laitman: You have anything to do about it?

Student: No.

M. Laitman: So what do you ask?

Student: I can cry, what else can I do?

M. Laitman: To cry, that doesn't help.

Student: So to just sit and do nothing?

M. Laitman: No, to keep going, but without that inner feeling.

Student: Should a person disconnect entirely from how he feels, from himself?

M. Laitman: Not entirely, but not to be under a random feeling. To keep going.

Student: So a mechanism develops, which remembers all those things in such a way where even during darkness you can feel good, be happy?

M. Laitman: Not happy, but you also have to find the benefit in the darkness.

Student: And to bless over it even?

M. Laitman: And also bless for it, because that, too, comes from the Creator.

Student: I'm so lucky to have you here.

M. Laitman: At your service.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:50) You answered the friend before, and you said that it takes time to be able to measure, feel how to relate correctly to the teacher. So how do we not miss the chance that we have now when we're sitting together with the teacher?

M. Laitman: I'm certain that you won't miss, if you really keep this framework.

Student: When you look at us, what do you see? Do you see 400 or even thousands of students, or do you see Tens in front of your eyes?

M. Laitman: Both. It depends on how I observe. You understand?

Student: Why am I asking? Because in the Congress, the upcoming Congress in September, we planned to sit in random Tens, so as to integrate better. And you said that it's better for us to sit in our set, permanent Tens, because what we need to do now, our direction is to develop in the set, permanent Ten. Developing in the Ten. What is that state that we're in now?

M. Laitman: We ultimately need to achieve ten being as one. And this thing is so important that you can't; we can't let it go for a while—say three, four days. To stop relating to it and talking about it. On the contrary, to engage in something that goes against it, that's not good.

Student: Why? What principle is saying that I can't stop for one day a year; let's say, and sit with other friends, connect with them?

M. Laitman: It's like betrayal. It’s like betrayal.

Student: Why is it so harsh?

M. Laitman: Because you now want to shape some relationship of the heart with new people, and the relationship you had with your Ten—for that time you want to stop it, shut it down.

Student: What harm could this involve? Is there any harm?

M. Laitman: Sure.

Student: What? What is it?

M. Laitman: Like you're going away from your wife to some other woman.

Student: What is the inner connection within a Ten?

M. Laitman: The inner connection in the Ten is that which we build through our common study and all kinds of activities together.

Student: Okay, so when is it permissible in our society to sit with other friends and incorporate with them?

M. Laitman: I think you also meet in various circumstances and situations, but not where it's about performing the connection in the Ten and the address to the Creator.

Student: And what is there about the Congress that makes it important for us to sit together there?

M. Laitman: It nevertheless detaches man from the inner reality to the external influence.

Student: How can a Congress give its Ten a skip ahead in terms of development, a jump?

M. Laitman: Yes, let's say that each one to some percentage feels his relationship to the group, his place in the group, and in the Congress, it grows in some percentages.

Student: We have situations, where we sit in the lesson and there's no workshop or any connection activity. We just sit silently next to each other.

M. Laitman: So what?

Student: So just sitting together, our permanent Ten, just sitting here and looking at you. Does this build a connection between us?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And if I sat with other friends?

M. Laitman: Then you would see how much it breaks the other connection with your Ten and builds something else.

Student: Even if I sit with friends here? Burning points in the heart? Veteran students?

M. Laitman: It doesn't matter if it's veterans or burning points. It's just not my place.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:55) Tell me, please. Spiritual darkness is when I distance myself from the Ten?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Okay. And if I have a meeting with the Ten, I make an effort. Now when I made the effort to come to the Ten, and suddenly all the disruptions and interruptions all disappear. It’s like the deer is running, and then I received some impression, right?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So regarding how I relate to disruptions that come. Because by my nature, if someone hinders me from doing something, I blame him. He's at fault for hindering me. But here I need to make an effort to see that it's the Creator. I need to see that it's all being done by the Creator. That's difficult to do. How do you do that?

M. Laitman: That's something you can ask the friends. Once you're sitting together, ask them for a minute or two and tell them about this condition and get their recommendation on what to do.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:30) Following on the friend's question. Let's say now we go down to the meal. You used to say that the meal is even higher than a lesson, even more important.

M. Laitman: It depends what kind of meal and how everyone sits.

Student: We don't all sit together in Tens. Some need to go to work, some need to go to sleep, because they have work later. So there's no spiritual work here, because we didn't sit in the Tens?

M. Laitman: Yes, that you didn't sit in the Tens.

Student: We can't sit together in the Ten. Half the Ten has to go to work, and we're sitting here with friends who came from all over the country. Does this make the meal not spiritual, if we're not sitting together in Tens in the meal?

M. Laitman: No, no. The meal is, after all, comprised of the people, who are in the meal.

Student: So now in the Congress, we invited people from all over the world to come. It's not going to be whole Tens coming. There's going to be two from Italy, three from Holland, and so on. They’re sitting around a table. And also here, we have many friends on duty, they can’t sit together as a Ten. You said that it will be much weaker, because we're not with our Tens. So is it better for those friends to stay with their friends over Zoom?

M. Laitman: No, we determined in advance, that we have two days, where we as if, dismantle our vessels and connect with vessels that arrive. And out of that, we want to build a new connection, a new vessel that will help us, especially with our connection to the Creator. That's it.

Student: As a society, we recommended that the friends should assemble physically. So let's take some city in the world, New York, for example. You have friends from many Tens, maybe MAK, maybe Spanish-speaking students. They assemble together in some hotel, let's say, for the Congress. Should they sit with friends not of their Ten? Or should they remain connected virtually with their Ten and experience the Congress as a Ten like that?

M. Laitman: I think that coming physically has a greater impact. It influences the person more than virtually, even with his group.

Student: And when they're seated together in that hall in New York, should each one be connected to his organic Ten? Or should he let go of his phone, and just be around the table with the Ten that he's sitting?

M. Laitman: There's no Ten of his own. Where he is right now, that's his Ten, just like it happens with us. All right.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:11) I'll read a part of this letter. If you permit it, there are many questions. This is the second paragraph. ‘But why did you forget the Torah, the teaching I gave you on the holiday of Shavuot regarding the verse, the Creator resembles a gazelle. The face is built during the escape and hiding, but in the form of Achoraim back, posterior, which is the measure of sorrow over the distance and concealment. But in truth, these Achoraim are actually the face, the interior, as our sages said, turning the face back. So the face is in the back.

This is the meaning of, quote, I, the Lord, do not change and you sons of Jacob are not consumed,’ end quote, meaning as it is written, quote, ‘they who seek me shall find me,’ end quote. And the main question here: over time, we learned that our work is mainly the work for the sake of the heavens. Right? In the Ten and on the personal level. And here he says something very simple. He says that the face and the back, they're the same, meaning you need to be thankful for the good and the bad.

On the other hand, a person who is doing this work, and is used to not asking for any rewards, he needs to see the back, the posterior all the time. I see what's happening all around us, and I need to take that as being the Creator's posterior, anterior? What should I do on the personal level and with the Ten?

M. Laitman: On the level of the Ten, then you determine together, what is the posterior and what is the face in what state you are in. On your individual level, then also together you are a Ten based on your attitude. You can determine whether you are facing the Creator or the posterior of the Creator.

Student: When are we supposed to be happy, joyous?

M. Laitman: When you are discovering the face.

Student: But it is said, do not seek my face. You don't need to find the Creator. We need to work according to the Torah and not look for the Creator. That’s what he said, that's what Kabbalists wrote.

M. Laitman: That's what I'm telling you. That’s it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:02) I wanted to ask regarding the permanent Ten and random Tens. If I understand what you are saying, then with respect to a person's spiritual development, a person needs to always be with his permanent Ten, or can he also sometimes be with random Tens?

M. Laitman: It depends. The regular Ten is nevertheless the regular Ten, it’s his place, his Kli. But a random Ten is something that is like an opportunity that presents itself. So we can't really say, it's serious.

Student: So spirituality, there's no such thing as random, does it have to be permanent all the time, the same?

M. Laitman: Spirituality, of course, becomes fulfilled by a constant connection.

Student: So what do I do with everyone else here? Do I even relate to them as friends? How should I relate to them?

M. Laitman: As friends, but in the Ten, you have a greater obligation to the people. In the bigger group, there is still some obligation to attend, to inform, to do different things. But to really care in the sense that that's where you are and everything depends on you, that's not it.

Student: I'm just trying to understand the boundaries. The differences between how a person should relate to his permanent Ten and the other friends. You said, it's actual betrayal if a person sits with other friends. Where's the limit? Where's the boundary? If I sit with the Ten to read some texts and raise a glass, raise a toast, can I do that with other friends, too?

M. Laitman: Yes, but it will turn your head and your heart around, and it's not simple.

Student: Right, so if it turns my head and heart, so I understand that it's not good?

M. Laitman: Not good, meaning it's an adhesion on the side, it's like betrayal.

Student: I hear it's very harsh. So how do I get everything I need from my Ten and not look for things on the side?

M. Laitman: To simply find in the Ten everything you need.

Student: It's clear, but I'll ask a bit in a more pointed way. How can I find everything I need in my Ten?

M. Laitman: You better and better know the friends, their connection, what everyone has as a style of yearning for the Creator, and you find what's close to you.

Student: All right, so I want to talk about the Congress. We have a Congress in a month's time. There will be guests from abroad, a huge assembly of friends from all over Israel, and you get very confused then because many people come from everywhere. So during that time, what do I need to do? Should I be swallowed up in everything that happens, or should I do everything possible to always remain only with my Ten?

M. Laitman: You have to stick to your role, and towards everyone in the Congress, and do it from within the Ten.

Student: And in the Congress, you stay inside your Ten all the time? Or do you go and sit with other people? How do you comport yourself in the Congress?

M. Laitman: I would not change the place to sit with this group or that group. Rather, to keep one's regular place.

Student: So I go through the Congress with my Ten. That’s what I'm hearing.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:29) We have many breaks. We integrate together, everyone in the Congress.

M. Laitman: That incorporation that is blessed, please, because that’s how we find good points for connection, for work, and we take that and bring that into the group.

Student: Why is such integration legitimate, and good, and proper, while sitting with a random Ten in the lesson is betrayal, can be considered betrayal?

M. Laitman: No, I don't think that this is such a transgression as a betrayal.

Student: You said it turns a person's head. You said there's work between the friends of the members of the Ten, which is pure, it has to remain clean and pure.

M. Laitman: Yes, because this is a constant connection that keeps developing all the time.

Student: Right, but you said that during the meal or the break in the Congress, it's a more generalized kind of thing. Does the event itself determine the…?

M. Laitman: The event itself determines a lot. Of course, in the meal, we still don't have that, but the connection between the friends is greater than in reading materials or some other engagements.

Student: And is there such a state, some future state, maybe, where you see that during the lesson, or more intimate, deeper, more inner moments, workshops, for example, social time we have together where we can mix up the Tens, is such a thing possible, or?

M. Laitman: Almost, no, I don't know.

Student: Can a permanent set Ten somehow incorporate together with another Ten? Is there some way?

M. Laitman: Meanwhile, no. Later on, we'll see.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:55) What's not clear for me yet, so I think maybe other people don't understand either. I live in Brazil, and now I want to come here. Do I refund the ticket?

M. Laitman: Why?

Student: Because my permanent Ten is there. Only me and two friends can come.

M. Laitman: Okay.

Student: What do you mean, okay? Today I'm refunding the airline ticket.

M. Laitman: What I said. I said, and you'll decide.

Student: Confusion is good, but still, I don't know. Or should we just let everyone just contend with their own confusion, let them make their own decisions. I'm wondering, what do you need a congress for, even? I have a Ten, I meet with them a few times. Why do I need to meet with everyone over the weekend? I'm sitting with my Ten anyway, so what does that add?

M. Laitman: You're right about this question, but I don't have a clear answer.

Student: So, who can have a clear answer? These are people, friends, thousands of people, we have responsibility for them, we need to do something. At least that's what I feel, I don't know. I must have it clear, you know, there's thousands of people.

M. Laitman: It's a good and correct question, but I don't have an answer. Meaning, is it worthwhile to meet with all the friends all over the world? It is, to do what? To become incorporated with them, because in each one there is something, and I can be impressed by it, and thereby increase my vessel. But, as you say it, that's a different level.

Student: I can't have such a situation where the Ten is in my heart, but now I'm sitting in a meal with another friend, incorporating, but the Ten is in my heart.

M. Laitman: Yes, but maybe indeed the Congress is for that, to be incorporated with other foreign Tens, if you can put it that way. But, between this and that, we wish to advance, and the advancement is only in the Ten.

Student: I think that's clear for everyone, that you cannot work with a thousand people, and everyone understands that the work in the Ten is a great property we have, an asset. But, once a year, thousands of people get together, we have duties and technical roles, it's impossible to...

M. Laitman: So, in that time, I divorce my Ten, I say goodbye, see you in a week, and in the meantime, everyone looks for where he wants to enjoy in these days.

Student: Yes, sometimes I travel abroad, I say to my wife goodbye, and I go for a couple of days, and she's with me in my heart all the time. You have such situations. It's not that I have to physically be sitting with these physical bodies, I mean, some proportion, we get together once half a year, but if I'm now in Brazil, I don't know what to do, I'll just stay in Brazil and watch the lessons virtually.

M. Laitman: From our incorporation in the time of the Congress, even if it's partial incorporation and not deep, we still get an addition, because it's incorporation between the big vessels that are found in various places in the world, so that's good if we do that. More than that, I can't say.

Student: I just want things to be clear, I'm not trying to convince you of anything. If it's not beneficial, nobody here wants to do something that's not beneficial.

M. Laitman: No, God forbid, it's not that it's not useful.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:48) What I identify here is a need, it's not about betrayal, right? It's about seeing something new, being excited by something new, so you want to meet other friends, you want to listen, hear from new friends.

M. Laitman: Exactly.

Student: But I hear from you that, no, I can get all that excitement, all that renewal with my Ten, with the same opinions, the same…

M. Laitman: It's difficult. Where will you get it from?

Student: So that's the question. I keep hearing from the same friends, the same workshops, I feel the need to hear something new, some change. So how can I see this change, get it from my permanent Ten?

M. Laitman: Your regular Ten is your vessel. When you become incorporated with them, you have a complete vessel. And therefore, you must not leave it.

Student: And when I don't identify, I don't see anything new there. There's no excitement, it starts boring me even. I want something new. What should I do?

M. Laitman: Anything but leave.

Student: The Creator is revealed in the permanent Ten?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Hadera 1): (01:00:42) Same question regarding the interior and posterior. The true interior is the posterior, right? It says so. We, in our work, can discover the anterior in the posterior once things are corrected, right? Once there's a correction, then we discover. That's what I understand. Now, also, we learned that we have so-and-so degrees, and on every degree, we discover the anterior more and more, the face more and more. But on the other hand, we learn that spirituality cannot be divided into parts. Does it mean that only at the end of correction we discover the face, the anterior, and the entire process before that is just preparation?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And if I may, a second question regarding the Congress. I know that the Congress is something very complex in terms of emotions and so on, but there are states there where you feel very powerfully what connection is. These new feelings are really helpful later. It stays in memory. We know that on the next degree, I connect to an even bigger group. So from Tens we go to hundreds, right? So why not see, why not look at that state as imitating a higher degree of spirituality? I don't have it, but I try to imitate, to simulate it. Is that right?

M. Laitman: I cannot say, I cannot answer positively, because you cannot be devoted to two sources, two places, at the same time.

Question (CzechSlovak 4): (01:02:50) What does it mean to blow the Shofar while standing? And what is the symbolism behind it?

M. Laitman: That we will learn sometime, sometime else, reading something else. This isn't appropriate for now. I'm sorry.

Question (Tel Aviv 1): (01:03:21) So we've gone after the deer. The deer runs, looks back on occasion. So the face is as the back. Following that state, does a state come when the deer actually stops? Can we come and approach the deer, look it straight in the eyes?

M. Laitman: I don't know. This entire story, I only know how to interpret the things Baal HaSulam says. That's it.

Student: I'm interpreting it as he says. The deer runs, looks back, but then another state comes when it stops and allows us to approach and look it in the eyes.

M. Laitman: I don't find that in the text. I don't find that in the text. You can imagine a hundred things more, a thousand.

Question (Women Heb 1): (01:04:26) I wanted to ask, every morning I'm in a chat room where it's not it’s not my Ten, and I was taught about praying together, praying after the lesson, the morning prayer. Thanks to this Heb 1 room, this also percolated, entered my Ten, and we hold workshops here, and these things just seep into the Ten’s. Because I meet with friends who, without this Zoom, Galaxy, I wouldn't have met these people. So maybe we should use that in the Congress. Just interact with people, with other people, and you get ideas, and you bring that back like food to my Ten. Even this is, if a husband and wife are always together, and sometimes they have to go out to work, for example, and then they come back, and they have stories to tell each other, and it makes the house nicer. Also, because there's new things happening, you can talk about them, and it's fun. So maybe the Congress is a time to integrate with other people, bring your Ten new foods, so it can eat and grow.

M. Laitman: All right, try that.

Question (Kyiv 1): (01:06:08) When you hold your Ten in the heart, I mean like permanent Ten, you're in adhesion with the friends, is there such a manner of work, where I can connect with other people as well, for example, in the Congress, I don't let go of my Ten, it's in my heart, but from it, I connect with other friends.

M. Laitman: Yes, but it's not yet our state.

Question (Moscow 1): (01:06:44) What's preferable: to consciously enter kinds of relations that can be posterior, Achoraim or to do, to look at things as they come?

M. Laitman: According to your desire, you can't get into that.

Question (Holland): (01:07:07) There are many friends of the world that are coming to the Congress. We are all invited there, we have duties, etc.. How should we relate to the Congress, as let's say, as a Holland Ten, when coming, let's say, to Israel? Can you please elaborate on that?

M. Laitman: The attitude to the Congress is that we want to connect between us, through whoever we send to the Congress. We want to build it into a special, a common Kli, that connects us between everyone, and this mutual vessel will be able to hold all of our expectations, goals, and answer all our questions.

Student: How can we, let's say, keep the connection with our Ten, with our, let's say, our primary vessel, when going to Israel?

M. Laitman: When you come to Israel, you have to incorporate here, as much as possible, and to really become assimilated. And then when you get back, you'll have the opposite work. Meaning, what you came with from here, to reintegrate it in your ordinary, regular place.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:31) Most things have already been said, but I have an example to share. This morning, we were in the preparation for the lesson. One of the members of our Ten is sitting at another table because he has some duty during the lesson. The friend tried being with us virtually, but very quickly it became clear that he is just participating in the workshop with the Ten he's sitting with now, and it doesn't feel like a problem. It feels appropriate because he's physically seated elsewhere feels fine, and there's no problem that happens afterwards. There's no blame. There's nothing negative. It's a fine situation. So if a person is physically sitting at another table, because with good reason, then he's there, although we feel him as part of our Ten.

Now, another matter, in a person's body, you have cells, but there's also metabolism going on, which is very important and I feel that friends coming from abroad, this motion that happens, there needs to be some metabolism, right? There needs to be some transference of, I don't know how to put it, but we need to have that kind of integration. When a person comes here, his Ten, he's still wherever it is, but he's like a representative, right? He's sitting here, representing his Ten, and then later he returns to his Ten and brings everything back to it. But we feel it very strongly also, and today there was very good scrutiny on the subject. It becomes clear when it's right and when it's not.

M. Laitman: Good. Let's go from the edge there, from the end.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:32) Maybe to add on the same subject. I want to say that when we had the Congresses, every time in the Congress, when people come, maybe the thing is that we have many things we want to discuss all at once. Not everything is the same, right? You have different circumstances for different people. People make their own efforts, but there's something very spiritual about coming here, integrating with us, and the spiritual impressions they can receive from being in such a society can uplift a person throughout his entire life and on our path. So, these are just things I wanted to mention, that you have different cases, different circumstances.

For example, for me, I'm in this Ten, and I know that my work is here, even though I can't say or think, oh, it's so fun to be with my Latin friends, maybe it'll be easier for me even to just flow along with them. But I know that my work is here. So I think we have this understanding of where the work is, where I should be a bit more open to give a big, broad smile to a friend coming from abroad and hugging him, embracing him. I'm not looking for such a deep connection with friends who come from there, because it's, I don't know, I'm also thinking about the body, right? There are situations where we inhale, and situations where we exhale, and both are important for our body. So, sorry for that.

M. Laitman: Good.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:48) Maybe we can consider changing our physical placement of the Convention. That's how we cancel the matter of guests and hosts, and kind of every Ten that comes out of its place can unite better.

M. Laitman: I attended all kinds of Conventions. I don't think that's what is important.

Student: Can't there be a situation where there's a neutral place and everyone comes there and works on a certain state, kind of, it's more unifying?

M. Laitman: I don’t think so.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:52) I am also under the opinion that friends from the world who have a yearning to come here, you can't put conditioning on that, oh, their whole Ten has to come here. More than that, I registered the first day, 400 shekel, and I was done. Someone has to pay $2,000. What a yearning they have. And that longing, let them bring it here, and we will absorb it, and be uplifted by it.

And I didn't see any clash in what you say. On the contrary. In order to be in the faith in his teacher, sometimes it seems like there's a deviation here and there. On our path, there's a concept that's called both this and that. And not just this and that. It's not black and white. And Rav is a giant, and thanks to him, we must hear and accept the faith of his Rav. For me, you are the representative of the Creator in this world, L’Chaim.

M. Laitman: Thank you.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:01) It's clear that there are two ends of things that we have to learn how to work, and also the concept, the absorption of incorporation and the society, and also not disconnect from... I want to ask the main thing here. In the meal team, I just want to see if there's any way to refine our common work. On a routine level, we have three meals every week, three meals: Friday morning, Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning. We thought that maybe it would be right to do one of those meals, a meal where we sit specifically in permanent Tens, and to get that kind of manner of work in another event. What does Rav think about that?

M. Laitman: I think that's okay. We'll check. When you're sitting together as a group, or when you're sitting with random people.

Student: For example, as an experiment, we can take the Saturday morning meal and do it in the form of trying to sit in permanent Tens and experience the meal that way?

M. Laitman: Yes, whatever you think. Check various directions.

Student: Do you think we can benefit from this?

M. Laitman: Check and see, and then we'll see.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:41) Look, I'm hearing. I'm also connecting to the Convention, it's just in a month. We have two very critical days. It's today and yesterday. Really critical days. Critical as far as our future, and as far as the hijacked people and the parents. I'm connecting. You said open the news and hear it for every hour. I understood that Rabash was impacting the system, and he wanted to receive feedback.

How, in your opinion, we're an immense power. Look at us. How can we? Baal HaSulam said, I put a law. It has not been changed. We have to do certain actions, or at least to try. Hear us. Stop talking about the convention. We have two critical days. I'm expecting from my friends, and I'm in this upheaval, as you can tell, lately, a lot on this topic. How do we, as Bnei Baruch, in the moment where it's truly critical for our people, for our state, what can we do?

What can we add to start concentrating on this thing, at least today, which is a really detrimental day? What can we do, just like Rabash? You're at least on the level of Rabash. How can you guide us to what we should think about, what we should aim for, in order to help and change somewhat? Maybe not change, but contribute something else so it will happen.

M. Laitman: God will protect the people of Israel in mercy.

Student: Okay, so what can we contribute as the world Bnei Baruch?

M. Laitman: Pray for that, that as such you want to receive the Providence of the Creator upon you and of all the people.

Student: I personally, each of us personally, what should we think about? We're not all Kabbalists. What do we need to think about so it already happens, this thing will be done with already?

M. Laitman: A request everyone can raise in his heart.

Student: A prayer?

Student: Yes.

Student: And that's the concentration that each of us should be concentrating on?

M. Laitman: Yes, it's a concentration of all of us together.

Student: You recommend some kind of common prayer between us that we should do between us?

M. Laitman: Yes, Prayer of the Many.

Student: How, when, how should we do this?

M. Laitman: It doesn't matter when, all the time.

Student: Especially on this day?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:36) If I'm planning on traveling to a Mirror Convention and my Ten is not coming, is it best that I remain with my virtual Ten?

M. Laitman: I have no idea.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:48) If coming to the Convention alone will harm my family, why should I come to the convention?

M. Laitman: It's a question, yes.

Student: They're also doing a Mirror Convention in Turkey, they're asking is it better to come to the physical Mirror Convention or remain virtual?

M. Laitman: They need to check that by themselves.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:17) What's the difference between incorporating with the Kli, that is, how does incorporating with the world Kli advance a person on the path compared to his work in the Ten in these two states?

M. Laitman: It depends how much he receives seriously, he accepts seriously the connection with his local Ten and if he adds to it in that he is connected to a certain group abroad, so that's good. Only in that situation.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:54) I participate every day in the morning lesson and afternoon lesson. I have several groups that I participate in, a group that meets every day during the day, and a random group in the afternoon lesson. When does a person know that he has a Ten?

M. Laitman: When a person knows that he is influencing them, and they influence him.

Question (Woman PT 6): (01:22:32) Where is the Creator revealed in the Convention, in the Ten or in the general Kli?

M. Laitman: In the Ten.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:56) If I have friends that are more important to me than this Ten, then am I a traitor?

M. Laitman: Well, we need to check why.

Student: Because they need me more, they're using me more than this Ten here. Here I'm just sitting, I personally don't care about sitting, it doesn't interest me at all. Because in the end, the work with every friend is the same thing, it doesn't matter who you sit with. At the end of the day, the steps are the same steps. So to say, traitor, trading, it's very, there's more. I'm not impressed by these Tens in the WhatsApp, whatsoever. I'm not excited by it, I don't care who I'm sitting with. So what do I do in that state?

M. Laitman: What do you intend to do?

Student: At the flow of the framework for the time being, we're of course in this framework of donkeys. Next year, it's clear to me that we have to go through it. And it's all without the soul, without anything. So for now, it's clear that we have to go through this. And the connection in the future will be different.

M. Laitman: How can you benefit from this?

Student: To make benefits in what?

M. Laitman: That there will be a good spirit.

Student: Towards these Tens in WhatsApp?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: I'm here where I'm needed, where more friends need me, that's where I'll act. Here I'm not needed, here I feel like I'm excess weight.

M. Laitman: Nice.

Student: So wherever I can help more to influence, that's who I'm working with.

M. Laitman: Okay.

Student: Well, okay, a second ago you said that I'm a traitor if I'm sitting with these instead of those.

M. Laitman: Not with these. But if you speak about the Ten in such a way.

Student: It's all a bureaucracy. Just get along in these WhatsApp groups. In the end you're aiming for some communism, love, and not WhatsApp groups. It's like some numbers on a table. So you have to decide what's holy and what's not. So what, am I a traitor for helping others that need my help more than my current WhatsApp group?

M. Laitman: The Creator will do it as it needs to be done. You'll see. You'll see.

Reader: (01:25:33) We're going to move to the next part of the lesson. And before that, a song.

Song: (01:25:40)

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TV Program "A New Life. Excerpts" No 679

TV Program "A New Life. Excerpts" No 679

TV Program "A New Life. Excerpts" No 679

Kabbalah MediaCopyright © 2003-2026 Bnei Baruch – Kabbalah L’Am Association, Tutti i diritti riservati

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Copyright © 2003-2026 Bnei Baruch – Kabbalah L’Am Association, Tutti i diritti riservati