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

Daily Lesson (Morning), December 25, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. “From the Love of God and the Love of Man”.

One Mitzva [Commandment]

Reader: Good morning, we're reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam, the article “The Love of the Creator and the Love of People”. We've reached the title, “One Commandment”. You can find the study materials in Sviva Tova and also in the Arvut system. You can also send us questions live through these websites. So, “The Love of the Creator and the Love of People”, title - “One Mitzva [Commandment]”.

Reading: (00:35) This raises several questions: According to the aforesaid, we all sin against the Torah. Moreover, we do not observe even the primary part of the Torah, since we observe the details but not the actual rule. It is written: “When you observe the will of the Creator, the poor are in others and not in you,” for how can there be poor when everyone does what the Creator wants and loves their friends as themselves?

The issue of the Hebrew slave that the Jerusalem [Talmud] presents needs further study: The meaning of the text is that even if the foreigner is not Hebrew, he must love him like himself. And how could one explain that the rule for the foreigner is the same as that of the Hebrew, since “One law and one ordinance should be both for you and for the stranger who dwells with you.” The word Ger [proselyte/foreigner] also means a “residing proselyte,” meaning one who does not accept the Torah, except for retiring from idolatry. It is written about such a person: “You may give it to the stranger who is within your gates.”

This is the meaning of one Mitzva that the Tanna speaks of when he says, “Performing one Mitzva sentences oneself and the entire world to the side of merit.” It is very difficult to understand what the entire world has to do with this. We should not force an explanation that it is when one is half unworthy and half worthy, and the whole world is half unworthy and half worthy, for if we say so, we are missing the whole point.

Moreover, the whole world is full of gentiles and tyrants, so how can he see that they are half unworthy and half worthy? He can see about himself that he is half unworthy and half worthy, but not that the entire world is such. Furthermore, the text should have at least stated “The whole of Israel.” Why did the Tanna add the entire world here? Are we guarantors for the nations of the world, to add them to our account of good deeds?

We must understand that our sages spoke only of the practical part of the Torah, which brings the world and the Torah to the desired goal. Therefore, when they say one Mitzva, they certainly mean a practical Mitzva. This is certainly as Hillel says, meaning “Love your friend as yourself.” It is by this Mitzva alone that one attains the real goal, which is Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. Thus, you find that with this one Mitzva, one observes the entire goal and purpose.

Now there is no question about the Mitzvot between man and the Creator because the practical ones among them have the same purpose of cleansing the body, the last point of which is to love your friend as yourself, after which immediately comes the Dvekut.

There is a general and a particular in this. We come from the particular to the general, for the general leads to the ultimate goal. Thus, it certainly makes no difference from which side to begin, from the particular or from the general, as long as we begin and not stay neutral until we reach our goal.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:24) At the end of this paragraph, he says it doesn't matter where you start, from the general or the particular, so long as you don't leave the path and continue. But in the beginning, he cautions us, and he says that we are not observing the main point in the Torah, because we follow or observe the particulars, but not the general rule. And at that point, the poor are in others, not in you. So, what is this caution, where he tells us in the beginning of what we read now? If you observe the will of the Creator, the poor are in others and not in you, if we just observe the details.

M. Laitman: That we always have to always go deep into our attitude to the Torah, the Torah is what saves us from disconnection and elevates us towards the Creator. And only thanks to that, we change and reach our goal. Therefore, we must never forget and measure ourselves with respect to the Torah.

Student: When you say that we have to take ourselves and relate to the Torah, does it mean to relate to the environment or to the whole collective?

M. Laitman: This is what he tells us here as well in the last two lines. There's no question regarding the Mitzvot between man and the Creator, because the practical ones also have the goal of purifying the body, cleansing the body. The last point of which is to love your friend as yourself, after which, immediately, comes the Dvekut. Meaning, that we have to see before us a goal, which is love your friend as yourself, and we have nothing more important than that. Love your friend as yourself has to be our main concern.

Student: In the preparation for the lesson we talked about the greatness of the Creator, how we actually receive the greatness of the Creator. And each time you feel more and more that it is actually thanks to the friends, you hear every friend, as much as he makes the effort to bring every friend into yourself, you feel the greatness of the Creator. So how, practically, in the internality of each one of us, do the friends truly let you feel the greatness of the Creator? How?

M. Laitman: To the extent that a person describes all of creation as a single system, and his connection with the Creator that exists through that system, then accordingly he walks on this track until he reaches his goal.

Student: Actually, this track is together with the friends.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That's the track that leads us to the goal.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:45) How do we measure ourselves with respect to the Torah?

M. Laitman: We can't measure ourselves with respect to the Torah.

Student: You said that we need to delve into how we are with respect to the Torah because it saves us from disconnection and raises us to the Creator. So, don't forget about it and measure yourselves towards the Torah.

M. Laitman: Okay, can someone help me?

Student: Simply, we are now studying the book of Torah in the weekend, and we feel that all the forces that are discussed there, that are mentioned there, with respect to the Ten, at least a little bit.

Student: A question about a different topic. What it says here, it says you should have one Torah and one commandment for you and for the converts that live among you. What does it mean that there is one Mitzva and one sentence?

M. Laitman: I don't know. Why are you dragging me in every direction you want?

Student: There was a question.

M. Laitman: There was a question, so either answer it or at least think about it. Don't respond with something that is completely not to the point. The Torah is altogether the system, the network, that captures us, that envelops us, and it provides us with permission to carry it out and adhere to the center of creation. Besides the Torah, we have nothing to hold on to, which belongs to the Creator. Therefore, we have to always yearn for the Torah.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:43) What does it mean that the Torah gives us the opportunity to adhere to the center of nature?

M. Laitman: The center of nature means the Creator. If we carry out the Torah we get closer to the center of nature, because that's where the Creator is, at the center, and that's how we reach our goal.

Student: Where is the center of nature?

M. Laitman: The center of nature exists in a place where all the forces, all the laws of nature, they unify, they interconnect, and come to a core, come to a central point.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:06) He writes there that the practical Mitzvot between man and the Creator also bring about the cleansing of the body, that's their purpose. First of all, what does it mean, the practical Mitzvot between man and the Creator?

M. Laitman: Practical, meaning that a person practices them, that's what I understand.

Student: What is the connection, let's say, between the commandment of, do not make any idols for yourself, any statues, and love your friend as yourself? How does one bring us together? How does this relation that we need to have towards the Creator bring us to love others?

M. Laitman: Even though it doesn't sound like it, both are connected to the center of the Ten and to the Creator, who's there at the center. And the fact we have to search from each and every Ten, where is the center of it, and depict the Creator there, except we just don't reveal it.

Student: I started by asking, what does it mean practical Mitzvot? Because, for example, remember the day of Sabbath is a commandment between man and the Creator. How does this happen in the Ten? What does it mean that it's practical? How does it take place in the Ten? What does it mean?

M. Laitman: Simply, to the extent that we realize the commandments of the Torah, these are the commandments of the Creator, so by that we begin to get closer to Him each time, and we better and better discover that His force and will exist in the Torah.

Student: And His desire, His force, there felt that they are directed to give us the ability to love others?

M. Laitman: Yes, because ultimately all the Mitzvot, the commandments, are forces that emerge from the Creator and reach us, all created beings.

Student: OK, so let's put aside Mitzvot, like washing the hands, things that are truly, that I truly perform with my Tens, or keep the Sabbath, which I don't know what it means in the Ten. Let's say that there are commandments that I can keep in the Ten.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Like, for example, thinking about the Creator, He's great. Thou shalt have no other God but me, things like that. Those we can keep in the feeling, how I feel it in the Ten. So, these efforts to keep the commandments between man and the Creator, they actually give us an example of the power to keep the love that He has. Also, we will feel how He loves us, and we will use that in the Ten towards each other. Or, how does it develop love in me, love towards one's friends?

M. Laitman: The fact that I carry out the commandments more, I get more connected to my friends because they are also doing the same thing. And then through equivalence of form between us, we get closer to each other. We understand each other, that's how we get to a tighter, tight connection.

Student: So, the question comes up, why are there specific commandments, or why not every action that we would do together, would bring us closer, but rather, there are things that pertain between man and the Creator. If all of us keep these specific things, they will bring us to this purpose of cleansing the body. Why are they specifically, because we can receive equivalence of form through many other actions?

M. Laitman: We actually accept it that way, that even if we don't have a connection between us and the Creator, by the commandments, we build such a net between us that resembles the attitude of the Creator to us.

Student: So, we do study the Creator's attitude by operating towards Him. We learn His attitude towards us.

M. Laitman: In every commandment.

Student: And this attitude, we can then use, we can use this example in order to also keep it between us, observe it between us as friends in the Ten.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Is there also a special force we receive from this action, or is it only an example?

M. Laitman: If we try to do actions, then by bringing together the actions and our blessings towards the Creator, then we also receive forces.

Student: Because this issue of the forces it's very much lacking. Many times we know what we need to do, but we can't perform the action. So, it's interesting that if we would emphasize the commandments between man and the Creator, would we receive these forces that we're now lacking?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:43) He writes here, in the beginning of this excerpt, about those who… the sinners, those who do not keep the primary part of the Torah. Apparently, he means that a person reaches the awareness that he cannot keep a Mitzva. Also, with respect to the proselytes or the Hebrew slave, as he writes, these are very high things, and one reaches the awareness that he cannot keep them. Is that what it means?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: So, what are all those who sin against the Torah, that cannot observe the primary part of the Torah?

M. Laitman: Speak clearly.

Student: Who are those who sin against the Torah, that are not able to observe the primary part of it?

M. Laitman: Because the main part of the Torah according to Baal HaSulam is love your friend as yourself. And they could do all kinds of actions around it, but not that.

Student: Later he writes that the details bring one to the rule.

M. Laitman: It's not the details. It's not details of love of others.

Student: So, there's a mistake here in choosing what to work on?

M. Laitman: That, yes, is a mistake.

Student: And when he writes in the end that there's no difference, it doesn't matter which part you start from, from the particular or the general. What does he mean?

M. Laitman: General or particular? Well, the general or the collective is the commandment itself, and love of the Creator, and what brings it together is the love of the created beings.

Student: But we say: “from the love of people to the love of the Creator”, so...

M. Laitman: Exactly. That the love of the created beings, that's the details, and the love of the Creator is the general.

Student: So, why does he write that there's no difference, it doesn't matter from which side you begin?

M. Laitman: I can't explain from what side to begin. From the love of the created beings certainly a person is here in a network that he can recognize and get closer to the Creator more and more. That's the love of the created beings. Whereas love of the Creator... Love of the Creator is already the conclusion of the details.

Student: How to avoid the mistakes along the path? What should we focus on?

M. Laitman: This is something you can ask in each and every article. How to not enter the mistakes and how to avoid them.

Student: So, here he refers to the work between us, is that where the focus should be?

M. Laitman: Could be. Yes, we'll read on and see.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:39) He says that this is a practical commandment. Not only a practical commandment, but it includes everything within it.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: I heard now, that by the very fact that a person does something, it doesn't matter which Mitzva, as we call it, if he adds to it the thought that his friends are also doing it, this already promotes him towards the love of others, right?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Is this true, what I heard?

M. Laitman: Say it again.

Student: That if a person now performs some act, it doesn't matter which one, you said, I think, a blessing or something. And at the same time, he thinks that his friends are also doing it, it brings them closer, because they're both doing the same thing. So, this actually brings one closer to the love of others. So, this is what it means, that is the practical aspect of this commandment?

M. Laitman: Yes. Because they can do it in practice right away.

Student: So, what is the difference between any other thought about the friends? Let's say, a person can drive in his car and think about the friends, or a person can look at the sunrise or sunset and think about the friends, a person can hear the news and think about the friends. And, conversely, when he performs a Mitzva, let's say, he blesses over the food, and thinks about the friends, it's different, if I understand correctly.

M. Laitman: We have to try to do that and see how through carrying out this commandment, do we come closer to each other.

Student: So, the answer about what is the difference, simply, try and see?

M. Laitman: Yes, because these are practical commandments.

Student: To get closer to each other, it means that the Torah is between us?

M. Laitman: Say it again.

Student: To get closer between us means that the Torah is also the means for us to get closer?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And this is what we need to observe between us, to make sure that only this is between me and the friend?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: This is what will bring me closer to the friend and also show me how to get closer to him?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:17) The Torah, it’s like we say about electricity, that you need a device and then the electricity operates through this device that I have. So, the Torah works according to the Kli that I have before me?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, the question is, what does it mean to observe the Torah and Mitzvot? Which Kli we place before the Torah, we establish?

M. Laitman: We have to establish between us laws of love, bonds of love between man and man. Then we'll feel that we are connected to each other.

Student: This is because the Torah will operate inside of the connections or efforts towards connection. Then the Torah operates between us, in these connections between us.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, the question is, what does it mean, the particulars or the general, in this work? If we are directed towards that, if we do what Baal HaSulam writes, should that be our main engagement?

M. Laitman: That we always want to reach the realization of a single principle, and through that, to reveal the Torah.

Student: What is this principle?

M. Laitman: That we connect through the paths of love between us.

Student: And inside this thing, you said that the Torah is revealed inside this connection. The question is, is it revealed as a force that enables us to work or our love is what reveals it? Do we only establish the vessel? Or should we also establish the...

M. Laitman: We reveal the Kli.

Student: We discover or reveal the Kli through our efforts. And then the Torah gives us the power to do what?

M. Laitman: To be connected.

Student: To hold on to the connection, to continue the connection, or..?

M. Laitman: To hold on, to continue.

Student: I'm asking if to begin with, we can be in a certain measure of connection, a certain measure of love, or do we only discover the need for it? The vessel that demands, that requires this connection.

M. Laitman: No, if we don't reveal the connection, then we also don't have the force to do it.

Student: What does that mean? We discover the need for connection or we actually discover the connection?

M. Laitman: The connection in practice.

Student: How does it happen? From where does it happen that we actually discover it?

M. Laitman: That, to begin with, we were all connected, and by the actions between us, we've been shattered, we've disconnected and moved apart, and now we once again wish to reconnect.

Student: I'm asking exactly about the transition from wanting, we have a yearning, we have a desire, a demand, and discovering it in practice, revealing it. Are these two different stages?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, we are working on revealing this yearning, that it exists. Then what happens in the system that suddenly we discover these connections?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Does it mean that we draw the light over this deficiency?

M. Laitman: Yes, exactly.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:32) It says, love your friend as yourself, that through this commandment alone, one attains the true goal, which is adhesion with the Creator. How does it work?

M. Laitman: That by the commandment of love, I can get closer to all the created beings and connect with them in such a way, that the Creator appears in that connection.

Student: What should I search for? What is it that I want to discover in this connection?

M. Laitman: You want to discover the Creator.

Student: How should I depict it to myself? What am I looking for?

M. Laitman: You're looking for the force that can connect you with everyone. That force or light, that can show you all of creation and where you are in it, and how you're connected to all of creation.

Student: And why would this force, this light be revealed to me in “you should love”, “thou shall love”?

M. Laitman: Because love is the deepest, most profound connection between you and every other part of creation.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:36) If we sit together in a lesson and we make an effort now to connect, to love each other, as he writes, in the deepest love we can aspire for, how do the practical Mitzvot that he describes contribute to this process?

M. Laitman: In the effort that you're making, like you're saying, that you wish to be connected in all your heart and soul, and there are no other desires, thoughts, actions besides what glues you to each other, so as to become incorporated with the Creator. So, this action includes everything in it.

Student: What is a commandment? Are we now performing some Mitzva?

M. Laitman: Right now, there is the commandment of studying Torah, all kinds of things like that, by which we also are in some direction towards the goal.

Student: And the inner effort between us to connect and love, in order to reach love your friend as yourself…

M. Laitman: That already requires effort from man's heart.

Student: Is this considered a Mitzva, a commandment?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And when we perform actions together, for example, a common prayer?

M. Laitman: That too is a commandment.

Student: How does it cleanse us, soften us, correct us, in what?

M. Laitman: In wanting to be connected with your friends, in such a way that you compliment them and they complete you.

Student: So, again, it goes back to my inner attitude, how I relate to things internally, unrelated to what action I perform now. How does the action itself help? If I wouldn't be thinking about the friends, but I would perform the action, would it have any force?

M. Laitman: The action itself, it does link you to the source.

Student: How?

M. Laitman: What are you thinking about? You're thinking about the essence of the action, and that connects you to the Creator, who holds all of creation with His force, and you are getting closer to Him through your intention, and you are like a partner.

Student: When he writes, if one performs one Mitzva, he sentences himself and the whole world to the side of merit. Who is the one who shifts here, who decides?

M. Laitman: Man's ego, man's desires. The Creator created so many desires within man, that only a few of them, we could say, have to do with the correction of the soul.

Student: And even more here, who shifts here? Is it the person or the Ten, that sentence or shift the world to the side of merit?

M. Laitman: Man or the Ten? Actually the Ten. Until there are Ten as one, working on the connection with a single intention to get closer between them, until then it doesn't happen.

Student: And what force does an individual have, or the efforts that an individual, one person makes?

M. Laitman: The individual is part of the collective.

Student: I'm trying to understand the difference between a particular individual versus the Ten.

M. Laitman: I don't understand.

Student: What forces do I have relative to what the force the Ten has? Do I have any force to shift or operate in any way?

M. Laitman: No, not in practice, only in potential. You can be.. to belong to a certain action, and when you wish to do this action along with your friends, meeting the conditions we just discussed, the condition of mutual aid, and that each one will bow before the other, to that extent there's a connection between you. And the connection works in a reciprocal way: “me for my beloved, and my beloved for me”. Both between you and with the Creator, and this is how you come to a connection and to carrying out a single Mitzva. One Mitzva means love.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:41) You said we need to establish between us the laws of love. What are the laws of love?

M. Laitman: The law of love is, love your friend as yourself.

Student: That's a single law. But you said there are laws. So, what are these laws?

M. Laitman: That I keep them. If I keep them with every particular, every individual that I recognize outside of me, this is called laws of love.

Student: So, inside the realization of it, that's where I accept all the laws, that I need to realize?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:19) When a person is awarded with living in the commandment of love, how does he look at life?

M. Laitman: That his whole life is, all in all, a way, a path, in which he keeps the laws of love. Their center is the Creator.

Student: In the last sentence here, he wrote that the main thing is to begin and not to leave in the middle until we come to our goal. What gives the force to the person?

M. Laitman: A person receives the force through the support of the society.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:58) I have a confusion here with all the matter of the commandments and the one commandment. There are big groups in our nation that are carrying out all kinds of customs for thousands of years. And when you look from outside, and I look at these groups from outside, because I was never a part of them, you see, that where it brought them is actually to the opposite of love your friend as yourself, at least that's how it seems.

M. Laitman: I didn't research it, I'm not researching it, I don't care what happens with them from now until the end of time.

Student: I'm actually not asking about them, I want a bit more to get to the question. So, then what you learn here for years is that what matters is the intention. What do you go into this with?

M. Laitman: Not only the intention, also the action.

Student: Clearly, but you start from the intention because without the intention you go to all kinds of corruption, endlessly. So…

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Why does Baal HaSulam here talk about the matter of a practical Mitzva and not that really what's important is work?

M. Laitman: Because we have to reach love. He wants to talk about it as something that we can actually observe, we can actually keep in the connections between us.

Student: I understand that. I'm just saying, it's like there's nothing new here. What's new here?

M. Laitman: What's new here, is that I must be connected with my friends in one body.

Student: That too is not so new. Again, this is what I don't think I understand. There's the matter of the intention without which everything just goes sideways. Now, how Baal HaSulam, basically, in this article, he always talks about this Mitzva, and that Mitzva, and love the friend as though he's yourself - and the matter of the intention, as if is not mentioned. It kind of disappears in this article, and it's really the main thing. We talk about one Mitzva being the main thing, but it's not it. The thing is your intention towards this. So, I'm asking why this is so, because he knows, what he did. It's not that I'm using my mind to say why he's wrong. I'm trying to understand why he's right, not why I'm right.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What answer do we have to this? What will help me better understand Baal HaSulam in this article and not start getting confused?

M. Laitman: It is better to understand Baal HaSulam through the examples that he gives us from our life: like two holding on to a Talit, or two being on a boat, and other such examples. And then we will see how much each one depends on everyone. And as for himself, he has no place where he can do good. The entire connection of a person with his environment is what guarantees that he can exist and keep the commandments of the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:24) It says here, at the end, there is a rule that from the details we get to the general. And so, there's no difference where you start, because the main thing is to start and not leave in the middle until we reach our goal. So, I understand that in Bnei Baruch, here, we start from the general thing, the love your friend as yourself. That's what we're trying to achieve. That's what we're getting to. But it sounds like there's also details. Do we need to get there too?

M. Laitman: We are always in the details, in the particulars, and we intend to reach the rule, the general.

Student: What are the particular things we engage in? Because I feel like we say a single word, “connection”. What details do we engage in? Why don't we break it down to particular details?

M. Laitman: I can't tell you. No, I cannot explain it to you.

Student: Can I ask a different question?

M. Laitman: Ask again.

Student: So again, the feeling is that we're working with respect to one rule, love your friend as yourself.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That's what we're trying to put into our heart. That's the one Mitzva that includes all the particular details, but we don't really identify the details. We have a goal of putting the heart, the friend in our heart. Where are the particular details? What are the particulars that need to be here?

M. Laitman: Because we don't manage to divide ourselves and our relations with the friend, so that we can connect together, relate together the details.

Student: We don't have enough discernment to break it down, yes?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, we will probably get there the more we advance?

M. Laitman: I hope so.

Student: So, in order to understand, to advance, to understand correctly that there are more practical actions, called Mitzvot, what Baal HaSulam says here, that if I would do it along with everyone, it would help us advance.

M. Laitman: I don't think so.

Student: Okay, so how to understand what he writes here? There is no question about the Mitzvot between man and the Creator because the practical ones among them have the same purpose of cleansing the body.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Why does Baal HaSulam speak to us about these particular things, the commandments between man and the Creator? Why does he mention that? Is it even important?

M. Laitman: Because, all in all, we, seemingly, need to connect all of these commandments into one commandment.

Student: So, I'm asking: these commandments, he says we don't need to engage in them in order to advance, or we do?

M. Laitman: Which commandments do you mean?

Student: What Baal HaSulam calls here Mitzvot between man and the Creator that bring the cleansing of the body, the last point of which is to love your friend as yourself, meaning there are other things, as far as I understand. There could be other things that bring the cleansing of the body and bring me to a point where I have love for my friends, something that can help me even more. So, that's what I'm asking about - can we clarify what these things are, and what prevents us from doing them?

M. Laitman: It's not within our hands. It's on the condition that we implement the details, that Baal HaSulam writes about, the conditions. Only by them we reach such an outcome, that we feel that we have love towards the friends.

Student: Meaning, the actions that Baal HaSulam and Rabash write about, the work between the friends.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Rabash writes, is it only commandments between man and man? Everything we read about in the writings of Rabash, is that a clarification, an explanation of the commandments between man and his friend?

M. Laitman: Actually, yes.

Student: All the parts that can contribute to the work that's called between man and the Creator which can help the cleansing of the body, what are they? Why is it not explained? What is explained?

M. Laitman: I think that we attain, we get these opportunities through the connection between man and his friend.

Student: So, they will become revealed to us on the path.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And until now, was there anything already revealed? Just to note, to pay attention to it, did we ever reveal a commandment between man and the Creator, or it's not in our hands yet?

M. Laitman: I don't think so. We have no feeling of this system.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:05) Why does love of others connect man to godliness?

M. Laitman: Because all of the commandments, all of the intentions, that a person has towards others connect with his God, with the Creator. God is the others, like the others. And if a person intends towards these others, if he performs actions that bring him closer to these “others”, it turns out that the person gets closer to the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:31) Following that, he says that according to the laws of the Torah, one is obligated to love any person, even one who doesn't accept the Torah, on the condition that he resigned from idol-worshipping. What is, he calls it proselyte, what is a proselyte that is an idol-worshipper? Who is one I cannot love, basically?

M. Laitman: If we enter all of these things, we won't be able to get out of them. Now, let's leave it aside, the matter of the proselyte, the convert, and where is the proselyte within you, and all of that?

Student: Just to understand, what is a person who is an idol-worshipper, and I cannot love him? It's beyond me.

M. Laitman: Because to love means that you connect with him in all of these 248 organs and 365 tendons together, and if so, then you are connected with him. This is considered, love.

Student: This, I understand, is a condition to connect with every person, but he says, there are people who are idol-worshippers that I can't connect with them. What are they engaged in?

M. Laitman: They are engaging in love that is intended for something that is foreign.

Student: Which is not connected to the Creator.

M. Laitman: Unrelated to the Creator.

Student: Okay, another question, he says is, we have to look at every person that is half in debt, and half in merit. So, what part is this and what part is that? How do I need to look at each person?

M. Laitman: In how each one, every person can divide himself to where he's unworthy, or guilty, and where he's innocent, or worthy. So, there are those who are mistaken in their direction.

Student: When I look at myself, what makes me half in debt and half in merit? I don't understand that sentence. It keeps repeating it. I don't understand it.

M. Laitman: When a person keeps his connection with the Creator, it is considered that he reaches a state where he's all innocent, worthy. And to the opposite, he then becomes all guilty, unworthy.

Student: Then he divides it to half debt, half merit?

M. Laitman: This is how he divides himself.

Question (Hadera 1): (01:00:58) Well, I don't know if I'll be able to ask, but I'm trying to ask about the principle in our work. I'll start from an example you give frequently. Imagine that you are parents, and the friend is your child. So, that is true love. So, there's always, seemingly, contradictions in this thing. Let's say, the child wants drugs, but the father is not going to give it to him because he knows it'll harm him. But the child suffers. So, there are two things I see from the particular, and I understand I need to reach the rule. The same thing in the Ten. There's always this excuse that there are two opposite things we can't connect, and when a person gets to that state, the group has to raise a prayer and then comes a solution. So, the correction is always built from that. There's a right line, left line, and we have to achieve the middle line connection with the Creator, which is only the connection with Him, the prayer, and that brings the solution. So, without the correction of the lines, we cannot advance. Is that a correct general picture?

M. Laitman: This is the general picture, yes.

Student: Because of that, we can realize these laws only in the Ten, because we can get feedback from them and truly reach a prayer.

Question (Woman MAK): (01:03:13) What is the step forward towards love of others?

M. Laitman: It's that we explore through what we can have greater ties of love. We find out what it is, and then we do it. This is our next step towards the friend.

Student: If a friend doesn't come towards me, so what is my step towards it with love?

M. Laitman: If she doesn't agree to get closer to you, then you should just stay with your willingness to be connected to her. And whatever you weren't able to do, time will take care of it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:31) Once we are rewarded with feeling the connection between us, keeping the Torah, keeping that state, does that mean we also begin to think of the benefit of the Creator?

M. Laitman: You must. Otherwise, what are you thinking of?

Student: First of all, we really enjoy when we feel the force of connection between us, and to think about it is also to get closer in this concept of love, toward the benefit of the Creator, and is it also to fixate this state because otherwise we lose it?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So that's the whole keeping of the Torah for us, yes?

M. Laitman: Yes, the whole purpose of the Torah is thou shalt love, yes. But how to interpret it, this is what we already make efforts to understand.

Student: It's not that simple as I said it?

M. Laitman: No. No. Because we don't know what love is. Well, hopefully we will understand it. The whole purpose of creation is to bring the created being to the love of the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:19) Can I ask another small question? It says, that the purpose of the commandments is to bring the cleansing of the body.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What is the cleansing of the body?

M. Laitman: Cleansing or the refinement of the body means, the will to receive of the person that becomes a desire to love others, to bestow.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:03) Today the society is in a scrutiny about everything we talked about, the conditions and the…

M. Laitman: Yes, I can feel it also according to the external signs.

Student: How do we clarify, scrutinize that all of this starts from the aim of reaching love and not, God forbid, other motives?

M. Laitman: You have to check every moment, in every place, in every stage of your development how much, and where, and which way you are developing.

Student: For instance, if we said, let's have a meal, it's easy to say that the meal comes from love, everyone's eating, everyone's enjoying, great. But, if we say we are taking care of the conditions that come from Abraham, not something that we invent, that they will be more strict in the society, that now brings up two opposites. It could be misinterpreted, not as love. So, how do we make sure that the feeling of the whole society is that this is for advancing love of friends and not to separate?

M. Laitman: That first comes the love of friends and as a result of that come all of the actions that we decide to keep.

Student: Even if it, seemingly, seems contradicting?

M. Laitman: It doesn't matter, the way it appears to us. We are simply scrutinizing what can bring us closer and with the Creator.

Question (Woman Petah Tikva 25): (01:09:20) I heard that a person receives strength from the support of the society. What is the correct support of society?

M. Laitman: To connect in love.

Student: What does that mean?

M. Laitman: That, I don't know. Go and check.

Question (Woman Rehovot): (01:09:44) I heard that the center of nature is in a place, where all the laws and forces of nature interconnect in a central point. What does it mean that they connect and reach a central point?

M. Laitman: That from that place, from this desire, this direction, come all of our desires towards the Creator.

Question (Woman USA West): (01:10:20) I heard, you say that we need to search within each and every Ten for its center, and pick the Creator there. So, how to find the center of the Ten?

M. Laitman: The center of the Ten... I cannot explain it. From what Baal HaSulam tells us, the center of the Ten is not measured according to the forces, the connections. No. It is measured according to the combination of the desires in the Ten, that’s it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:45) Like the friend said, there's kind of an awakening that's felt in the society, felt internally. Just the fact that we care about the society, our future, where we’re headed - it makes us alive. It doesn't matter that it's waves this way and that way, but we go through it as a society. Now, there's also some awakening that friends feel. That suddenly, we grasp that Lishma, that's our goal now. That's what's important, entering spirituality. And we're willing to invest the efforts into it. If we want to clarify, what are the conditions for Lishma? Could you try and say, what are the main things? Of course, there's a thousand details. But the main things that you can point at to say, these are the conditions that one needs to meet.

M. Laitman: Baal HaSulam gives us such solutions, such advice: love your friend as yourself. You don't need anything beyond that.

Student: That is Baal HaSulam, and it's the rule that contains all of Torah, that's clear.

M. Laitman: So, what, do you expect me to give you another rule?

Student: No. That you tell us, Bnei Baruch, sitting now in front of you, what are the conditions that we need to enter Lishma?

M. Laitman: What do you need?

Student: Again, what are the conditions for Lishma? Focus us in our state, this stage, what are the conditions that will lead us to Lishma?

M. Laitman: It's to develop the sense, the quality or the ability to love in a person.

Student: And what is it that develops and sharpens and shapes the sense of love? What is it?

M. Laitman: The sense of love opens in a person out of the fact that he sees it in his friends.

Student: What do I see? What's the example? What do I perceive?

M. Laitman: I see how close they are, how connected they are, how each one wants the benefit of his friend. When I perceive this, for that I am impressed, and then I start to keep it. But the problem is, that we don't learn enough from the society. Before you give your child to a kindergarten or school or some class, how much do you check first? Is it okay for him or not okay for him? What happens with the other children that went through that? But you don't check yourself in this way.

Student: Right, so what do we need to do then?

M. Laitman: Have a scrutiny, and a change, if necessary, in each one of us.

Student: The scrutiny, what's the scrutiny? What's the question that one needs to clarify with himself?

M. Laitman: I want to be in a society, that includes such and such conditions, such and such relations between each one and everyone. All those who are in it, and then only under this condition, I agree to enter there. Because then, when I enter there, I have free choice, which is actually to go in or not to go in. But once I'm there, that's it. I enter a field of forces that operate on me, and they don't give me the possibility to change my direction.

Student: You say, I want to be in a society. I need to scrutinize with myself. I want to be in a society that includes these conditions.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What conditions?

M. Laitman: That bring to love.

Student: Okay. From the moment that I'm already in their hands, in the Ten, in the society; I flow with them?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And if I don't have the strength for that?

M. Laitman: That cannot be; if you're in the right society, that you won't have the forces. The willpower… we say the force of the desire, not just the force. You have that force of your desire, that willpower? You'll get it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:41) I wanted to ask about the example you gave about the child, before you sent him to school? It's very tangible. When you look at the society, what do you want to learn from it? What do you study about it?

M. Laitman: How will it affect me that I go into it? just the way I am? And I'm under their influence?

Student: What does it mean that I've entered the society, that action?

M. Laitman: That doesn't matter. I can't say about myself, what will happen to me, because I am such and such and so and so. I can't. Because I'm in it. I'm in it… under their control.

Student: That's my question. How do you cause the society to do to you what it needs?

M. Laitman: I am willing to hear what they are saying. All the conditions that are important for them. And to try and change myself as much as I can towards that.

Student: And you gave this decision that they have to do everything, so it will advance you towards love. So what's this examination? How can you test that there are actions that are leading you to love? How do you make sure that they are advancing you to love?

M. Laitman: We learned a few articles, before the one we studied today that were speaking about that. So, we have to try to absorb it, to be absorbed in it.

Student: Last question. If a person at the end of the day wants to check himself, whether he's advancing towards love… what's the test? What's the signs that I advanced in love towards the society?

M. Laitman: I need to check myself as much as I'm able to do now at the end of the day, more actions.

Reader: Alright friends, we're going to move to the next part of the lesson. The next part of the lesson is selected excerpts on the topic of Hanukkah. The next part of the lesson will be about excerpts from Hanukkah.

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