The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: September 29, 2025
Part 1: Recorded lesson - Dec 21, 2021
Baal HaSulam. Shamati 104. And the Saboteur Was Sitting
Reader: Hello, friends. During the first part we will connect to a lesson from December 21st, 2021 about the article Shamati 104, “And the Saboteur Was Sitting.” You can find the article in Baal HaSulam’s Writings and in the Shamati book, as well as in the Arvut system. Shamati 104, “And the Saboteur Was Sitting.”
Reader: Hello, we are in a lesson from the Shamati articles. We will start with an article number 104 in Shamati. You can find the study material on our site and the Arvut system under the study material button. You can send your questions as well. Pertinent questions to the lesson will be aired during the lesson.
M. Laitman: Yes, we have two very short articles today from Shamati, and that's probably more or less how Baal HaSulam said it, and Rabash wrote it based on his words. And these few points are along the path of achieving Lishma, which is above our ego, above our self-calculations, so that all our calculations will be according to the will to bestow, meaning the calculation of the Creator, and not that of our ego. The more we transcend all of the conditions that we see, feel, experience each and every time, the more we rise in faith above reason, meaning we rise towards Bina further and further, coming closer to the degree of Bina and moving away from that of Malchut, accordingly. The reason is the degree of Malchut, faith is the degree of Bina, and that's faith above reason, that I make a calculation not according to my will to receive, but according to the will to bestow. And the will to bestow, we don't know what that is, that is in the Creator, but when I want to approach it, come closer to it, somewhat feel it, then Kabbalists tell me, you should engage in loving others instead of loving yourself. You need to engage in giving instead of receiving, and in such a way, you approach Lishma. The less you think about yourself, and the more you think about the benefit of the Ten, and through this sort of exercises, you'll approach Lishma. Baal HaSulam said a few words about this here, as they were studying the Zohar.
M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (03:24) So this is article 104, “And the Saboteur Was Sitting,” meaning that the saboteur is present. What is it about? What is he saying? In the Zohar portion, Noah, he says this, “There was a flood, and the saboteur was sitting in the midst of it.” He asked, Baal HaSulam, a flood means a flood of water, this in itself is deadly, and a saboteur, it's a flood. So what does it mean that the saboteur was sitting in the midst of it, in the midst of the flood? Also, it's a trouble inside a trouble. Also, what is the difference between the flood, and the saboteur? They both bring pressure and suffering. So, Baal HaSulam replied that the flood is corporeal torments, meaning torments of the body. Within it, meaning within the torments of the body, there is yet another saboteur who sabotages spirituality. This is the main thing. This means that the afflictions of the body bring him foreign thoughts until these foreign thoughts sabotage and kill his spirituality. Meaning, this is what we already know from all life that different states, unpleasant states come to us: fatigue, confusion, weakness, but also the extreme states that are pressuring us, where something is terribly wrong, whatever it can be. If we put all those things together from the environment, and the family, and whatever it is that a person has - all of that can be called a flood, let's say, and within that flood sits the saboteur. And “the saboteur” means that all these troubles that appear corporeally, they detach us from spirituality. It's hard for us to advance from within them, to move closer to spirituality, to think in order to bestow, to do what's good in the eyes of the Creator, because the corporeal troubles pressure us. So, there's two saboteurs here, so to speak, a trouble within a trouble, a corporeal trouble that carries a spiritual trouble inside of it. This means that the saboteur is sitting in the midst of the flood, and here we have to make a good judgment of how do we cope with this, how do we overcome the disturbances that are corporeal, understanding that they come only to direct us better to a higher level of Lishma. And then we'll understand that from the flood itself, meaning from within life and all of the circumstances in life, and all of our relationships in the Ten that also come and try to sort of engulf us with these waves of the flood, inside that, still, we need to rise and try to fight the corporeal and spiritual flood. And there's an order to this work against that, against the external and internal disturbances. The external disturbances could be many things, but they too, we have to relate them to the same source, just as the inner disturbance, that it's one within the other. So we have to align these things. Sometimes, we forget that it all comes in order to direct us to go above reason, to go above our mind; and other times, even if we don't forget that it comes to deflect us from above reason, but we're just incapable and we're willing to succumb to it. So, we have to really be accountable to ourselves here. What is the saboteur within the saboteur, meaning the spiritual disturbance that lies within the corporeal one, and thus we'll advance.
Reader: Shamati 104, “And the Saboteur Was Sitting.”
Reading: (10:24) 104. And the Saboteur Was Sitting
I heard on the eve of Shabbat, Beresheet, October 1942
In The Zohar, Noah, “There was a flood, and the saboteur was sitting in the midst of it.” He asked, “A flood means a flood of water. This, in itself, is deadly and a saboteur. So what does it mean that the saboteur was sitting in the midst of it, in the midst of the flood? Also, what is the difference between the flood and the saboteur?”
He replied that the flood is corporeal torments, meaning torments of the body. Within it, meaning within the torments of the body, there is yet another saboteur, who sabotages spirituality. This means that the afflictions of the body bring him foreign thoughts, until these foreign thoughts sabotage and kill his spirituality.
Question (Almaty 1): (11:45) Do we understand correctly that in every flood in the right work we need to seek the saboteur, meaning not to struggle with the corporeal flood, but with the inner saboteur?
M. Laitman: In each and every state where we discover ourselves to be disconnected from the Creator, from in order to bestow, from the group itself, from everything that belongs to spirituality, to being in the spiritual state, whatever state it is, we have to try to determine two states: the bodily state and the spiritual state. “Bodily" means all those states and circumstances that we have here in our corporeal world, which is, well, first our health, our mood, our corporeal environment, family - that's one. And two, the extent to which it affects and hinders our connection with the Ten and the Creator. And this is how we align all these circumstances, everything that affects us, to a single source, that it all comes from the Creator. Of course, the whole flood comes from Him, including both its external and internal appearance. So, first try to see everything that exists as belonging to the Creator, to the point that we only have left to think whether I too belong to the Creator. And so then, what is the only thing left outside the Creator? It's just that point of observation and decision, which is the point in the heart. That when the Creator created the will to receive, He detached it from Himself, so to speak, and so we feel ourselves as if detached from Him. So, I have to relate my mind, my heart to the Creator as well. What do I conclude here? That I don't have my own mind or heart, no thoughts, no emotions. It's all designed by the Creator, in me, so that above my feeling and my understanding, I'll rise to Him as the source. And even though in my feelings and in my thoughts, I go through various states that are opposite, and confusing, and throw me from one end to the other, I accept all of that as a flood sent by the Creator, and He has to send it in order to clean, to purify my desire. As we read that after the flood, the Earth, let's say, planet Earth is cleansed from all kinds of phenomena, and thus new life can emerge. So, even though this water that comes and cleans everything is a flood, it's not just the water of Bina, it's Bina and Malchut together that clean each other, and thus such a connection is made that then leads to corrections. Meaning, there's a connection that happens between Bina and Malchut, and that's how we can use that to advance. That's how creation began. And creation means that within the human, there is an opportunity, a possibility to transcend his will to receive and relate everything that's happening to him to the upper force, to Bina, to bestow. So if a person realizes that both the external saboteur and the inner saboteur, one inside the other, the saboteur in his corporeal states, and even more than that, in his spiritual states that prevents him from rising to the degrees of Bina, degrees of faith, if he understands it all comes from the Creator, and he has to relate both of those saboteurs to the Creator, these great disturbances, there's none else besides Him; so by that, he gets rid of foreign thoughts, both on the level of Malchut and above that on the level of Bina, and he comes to a state of faith above reason. What's faith above reason? Meaning, I don't take into account both of these saboteurs, the corporeal and the spiritual, and I am only adhered to bestowal, to the Creator. That is the first point that exists in the quality of faith, Bina above the Malchut. So, in arranging our attitude to spirituality, we have to differentiate between these two levels: the corporeal disturbance - typically, we feel ourselves tired, powerless, maybe even some sickness, other corporeal disturbances: family, work, etc., etc.; and what's happening is that within these disturbances, we have to discover the spiritual disturbance - that I don't want, I have no strength, no mood, I have such laziness I can't overcome - that's the second, more internal saboteur, and against it we should especially fight. So by these two saboteurs we try to reach the cause of them, which is the Creator. As it says, that “I bring the flood to the ground,” meaning, He does all that. And by that we come to the degree of faith above reason. That I accept both as coming from the Creator, and I hold on to the friends, and along with the friends and the Creator, that's how we're saved from the flood. And we discover that our connection between us and together with the Creator leads us to the shore, and we come out of the ark, and we begin to settle on the ground, meaning in the will to receive that can already achieve the degree of Bina, that's where we start a new settlement, faith above reason.
Question (ITA 4): (21:39) From what you just answered, if I understood it correctly, the flood, the spiritual saboteur that the Creator sends to purify our will to receive, this saboteur, this internal saboteur is what bothers us as we want to perform actions for spirituality. What need did the Creator have to put a saboteur inside there, inside of us?
M. Laitman: We have two forces: Bina and Malchut. We have to discover them, detect them, understand the connection between them, how do we work with both of them, and advance in such a way. That's why we have two saboteurs, one on behalf of Malchut, and another one on behalf of Bina. And this determines also that we are in between the worlds, the corporeal world and the spiritual world. We're in two bodies, one, let's say, our biological body that we discover as the one that exists here in this world, and the other body is our spiritual body, which means desires to bestow, and that exists on the spiritual level. And it all comes from, well, the fact that it's one inside the other, that the true saboteur sits within the external saboteur. It's because we're made of the matter of Malchut, and we wish to achieve qualities or behavior of Bina. And so, that gives us two levels: we are a created being on the level of Malchut, and the Creator is on the level of Bina. And that is what we need to attain, how we need to study His behavior and become similar to the Creator. That's why there are two levels and two such troubles that prevent us. One on behalf of Malchut, the other on behalf of Bina. We have to see it as help made against thee. There's nothing that actually prevents us. It just awakens us and prevents us from resting, and otherwise we would just agree doing nothing, falling asleep and so on. These two saboteurs constantly shake us and push us to rise higher to the goal.
Question (Florida): (25:02) I'm wondering, with someone who's yearning for spirituality, if these two always go hand in hand or can one exist without the other at times?
M. Laitman: No, no, they both exist simultaneously. They both come from the Creator, together. But the question is, to what extent am I in contact with the environment, the Ten? And then I find is there's just one saboteur or two? Meaning, if I'm connected to the environment, then I discover that the disturbances are actually spiritual. And if I'm not connected to the group, then I typically find just a corporeal disturbance. I feel bad. I have no time. I have no power. I'm incapable of doing anything, and maybe I'm even just letting go of things and all kinds of thoughts and desires like that. And when I'm connected to the group, then I am on a different level of thoughts and doubts even, because the group necessitates me. Envy, lust, and honor take the person out of this world. Meaning, I also can't allow myself to talk to the friends the way I think towards myself. With myself, I can say, I don't want anything. I'm just going to leave everything, and I'm sick of it. But when I'm with the friends, the honor and envy don't allow me to speak this way. And so, by envy, lust, and honor, I don't allow myself to speak that way, to be that lowly in the eyes of the friends. And that begins to help me rise to a higher level. Our ego is called “help made against the,” it helps us. It helps us rise from below upwards. We have to see how that happens and what makes it “help made against the.” It's as if working against itself.
Question (Moscow 6): (28:14) Why is it written that it's a saboteur? After all, it's the help from the Creator. It's on the contrary. So, how is that possible?
M. Laitman: This depends on how you accept Him. Of course, it comes from the Creator. When all kinds of disturbances come, they come only in order to show you that you're in a bad state and you have an opportunity to rise to a better state. We rise in sanctity and never descend in sanctity. But it all depends on how you've prepared yourself in the Ten. As we discussed, the Ten doesn't allow you to succumb to the disturbance, but rather overcome it and thus advance.
Question (Moscow 7): (29:33) In this article Baal HaSulam says that inside corporeality there is an additional force that can obligate a person, meaning foreign thoughts can kill the spirituality in him. You gave the example of Rabash, that he was rejoiced with the sufferings of the body, that he wasn't worried about the saboteur.
M. Laitman: No, he would say, he would kind of point at his body and say, “let it suffer,” meaning he would detach himself from the body, from the corporeal disturbances, and said, “let it suffer,” meaning he already detached from the body and moved to a different level. He was able to use the suffering of the body to ascend spiritually, meaning that these disturbances won't be as disturbances to him.
Student: The question is whether always in the sufferings of the body is the saboteur that's killing spirituality?
M. Laitman: Yes, always, even if a person doesn't identify it. Like we say, you know, we call it people off the street, ordinary people, people who don't study the wisdom of Kabbalah, people who are not intending to achieve Lishma. So, for them too, the suffering that all of humanity goes through is not for no reason. They all come together and accumulate and push humanity forward, but not in a path of light, a path of Torah, but in a path of suffering. It's not enough, and it's not desirable, but at least it's something.
Student: If it’s possible to protect ourselves from this corporeal sufferings and find a disconnect from the body, because we come to the lesson nevertheless to receive the influence of the light, so how to protect ourselves from the saboteur that sits inside?
M. Laitman: That's where we already need the Ten, by connecting and by intending towards the inner saboteur, that by it, thanks to it, we rise higher. This is like the example of Jacob, who came to Egypt, the Pharaoh - and the Torah writes that Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Or how could it be that Jacob, the senior of the fathers, the middle line, Abraham was the right line, Isaac left line, and Jacob is the middle one, meaning the most important, and he comes to a meeting with Pharaoh, Pharaoh symbolizes all of the ego created by the Creator - and he greets Pharaoh. First of all, it's a very high degree that he's capable of doing that. And what we see from this is that he knew how to use all the ego created by the Creator, called Pharaoh, in order to bestow. This is called blessing him or greeting him, connecting him with Pharaoh and to the Creator, to the source of both, that from the Creator comes both Jacob and Pharaoh. And Jacob blessing Pharaoh, meaning he raises Pharaoh to the degree of the fathers, meaning that there is no inferiority here. On the contrary, we're talking about corrections.
Question (Bulgaria 1): (34:29) Nevertheless, when I feel the physical pain, it bothers me. It bothers me to participate fully, let's say, in the Ten. I understand that it comes from the Creator, but nevertheless, physical pain bothers. How to overcome it?
M. Laitman: It's impossible.
Student: I understand that it's from the Creator.
M. Laitman: I'll tell you even more, look. Baal HaSulam said that all the troubles, all the problems, all the suffering that a person goes through in life, and also the suffering of dying in this life, we're talking about ordinary people, not Kabbalists. Just an ordinary person who goes through all kinds of suffering before dying, and dying in suffering, Baal HaSulam says it's not worthwhile to give up on that. That's what he said to his relatives and to his students, to those close to him, and I'm telling you also, as my students. It's not that we appreciate the suffering and want the suffering. Another person would say, not them and not their reward, but especially with regards to an ordinary person. We try to raise this suffering to a spiritual degree, but an ordinary person, even if he doesn't do anything, he suffers from his ego, from his will to receive, that before he gets rid of it, he suffers from it, and that also raises him to spiritual progress, and that's why he said it isn't worthwhile to give up on the suffering. And this brings up a lot of questions. Should we make it easier on people who are about to die so they don't suffer that much, or not help them and let them suffer? No, whatever we can do, based on our current success in medicine, we should do, but not that we do all kinds of other actions here, such as euthanasia and other things. Again, I'm not making any decisions here, I don't know, but this is what he said. He said, I don't think that we should give up the suffering that happens before death.
Question (New York 4): (38:05) Is the work or rather the correction simply just to relate to the disturbance as a spiritual disturbance, or is there more to do after that?
M. Laitman: We don't have disturbances, we sometimes call it that way, but all in all, what we get from the Creator, after we were created in the will to receive, it's all in order to recognize our will to receive as the evil inclination, which is something we don't know and don't see, we don't look at our whole nature as evil, and that it's all against us, and it stands between us and the Creator, and that's what we need to identify. We should be walking all day with this feeling that our nature is what separates us from the Creator, and how do I rise above my nature and cling to the Creator, and how can the group help me do that?
Student: So, the disturbance is simply to teach me to hold on to the Ten?
M. Laitman: “The disturbances” are not disturbances, they're actually the opposite, they're assistance. This is called “help made against thee.” They help me come closer to the Creator and cling to Him and come to the upper level of nature.
Question (KabU 7): (40:14) So I start by knowing that whatever situation it is, it's an opportunity for development, for advancement. So what if I just react with an intention to bestow for the benefit of the whole Ten, have faith that the Creator will finish it as He sees fit, instead of spending time scrutinizing all the thoughts in the mind about that situation?
M. Laitman: Try and see based on the state you're talking about. I don't want to go into the details of that state, but you speak in a way that shows you're ready for the scrutiny.
Question (ITA 1): (41:16) Yesterday we were studying this text and we mentioned the sufferings of Pharaoh and Amalek. Can you explain a little the difference between these two disturbances, Pharaoh and Amalek, and these two saboteurs that are in this article that we're reading?
M. Laitman: No, we're not going to do all kinds of comparisons between the articles here. You remember what you read yesterday, others don't remember. That's not a way to ask. You still need to be together with the whole group and everyone who is studying and what you're studying right now. It's good that you're doing this kind of study as well, but don't throw it on us here.
Question (ITA 3): (42:17) The will to receive is constantly seeking pleasure but finds suffering, and the desire for spirituality relative to that, to come to giving, fills us. But it seems like the ego is not letting us advance. Is that the constant struggle we have till the end of correction?
M. Laitman: Let's say so. What does it mean that the ego doesn't let us advance? It actually advances us because “help made against thee.” Without the ego, we wouldn't be able to advance. The will to receive is the fuel. Thanks to that, we advance. It's just always transitions us from one goal to another goal, putting us through different directions. It's like with kids. Without the ego that's pushing them in different directions, they wouldn't evolve. They would not evolve. Same thing with us. As we're still in the will to receive, it is what governs us and pushes us to develop. And here we are told how can we use the will to receive and use this suffering that happens to us, within which lies the saboteur. What does it mean that the saboteur is within the flood? The flood itself is the disturbance, and the saboteur as well, but especially by one being within the other, we can advance towards faith above reason.
Student: In the end of the article I read, this is the meaning that the afflictions of the body bring him foreign thoughts until these foreign thoughts sabotage and kill his spirituality. We need to prevent that, right? Not to get to that, right?
M. Laitman: These foreign thoughts are what brings us to spirituality if we use them correctly. We can't otherwise come closer to spirituality without the foreign thoughts. But it's not that we use them directly the way they are. Rather, by these thoughts, each time we are forced to connect between us in the Ten, more and more connect to the friends, and through the connection with the friends, we use these foreign thoughts as leverage that necessitates us to advance forward. We don't understand so well what is the role of our ego. That's why I mentioned how Jacob greeted Pharaoh, because our ego is called “help made against thee,” because without that help against you, you wouldn't be able to advance. All right, we'll clarify these things more and more.
Student: It seems huge, where you say that we need…. It comes to me like we need to work on it, to take it with us, and then aim it towards spirituality.
M. Laitman: Correct. Let's say, I'm in a certain state, and I have before me the possibility to learn, to talk with my friends in our connection throughout the day, do something else. And besides that, I have an immense desire to lay down, to sleep, to rest, to leave everything. So there are two desires that are truly conflicting one another. So here I need to see the extent in which if I were to connect to the group without the disturbance, and now where I really want to sleep, I feel tired, I'm not in the mood, I don't have anything, indifference towards the friends and everything. If now I overcome and connect to the Ten, then I'm already in connection with them in a much higher degree. That's what we call “the help against him.” On one hand, it does seemingly an action that's against, on the other hand, it raises me to a higher degree of connection and in coming closer to the Creator. These are clear matters. Let's see how it works, and we're not allowed to forget this. If we do it like this every day, towards every opportunity that we have for connection, towards the scrutiny of our texts, let's say, and the speaking that we do between us, then we will benefit from it.
Question (German 3): (48:31) I thought this article was very simple. Now I see how much is hidden in it.
M. Laitman: All the articles like that, all these articles of Shamati are like that. That's why I want us to go through them, one by one, until we at least in the first reading it'll be clear, in simplicity, of what it's talking about there. Yes, of course. And it's not important that it's only two lines - the saboteur is sitting inside the flood. But when you start to clarify it and scrutinize it, you see that it's in our entire spiritual life. All our advancements depend on these two words.
Student: If possible, exactly where you left off, it turns out that my will to receive aspires to some rest. And the first saboteur, let's say, he gives me all that, life is great, family is great, everything is okay. Then I can't even move to the second saboteur and deal with the connection with the friends. So, if I'm satisfied and happy, everything's good, also the friends are good, then I have no work. Then there's a fear that I, as if, should yearn for this work, because if I don't have these two saboteurs, I got nothing to do.
M. Laitman: Correct, if we don't feel resistance to spirituality, it's a sign that we're not in spirituality. This is like you're sitting in the car, and you have to turn on the engine and waste fuel, forces, wear and tear, and all of that, in order to progress. It's the same here, you can't just lay down, and you and your bed will be brought to the end of correction. It doesn't work that way. It only happens according to efforts, and the efforts are measured in accordance with the suffering, with accordance with the force of resistance to it. That's why we're talking here about our two saboteurs, which constantly bother us in our advancement. Also, corporeal disturbances, which is this world, our family, our job, our health, and all kinds of things, and within them spiritual disturbances. And a person needs to locate these and those, not to be immersed in them, but to locate them, and to see the extent in which these disturbances are actually guiding him towards the goal. And then when he aims more to the goal, more internally, he will see how these disturbances will change, because they emerge from the Creator. And if he had corporeal disturbances, they're corporeal, what can you change here? He'll see that through his attitude towards the goal, he can also change the corporeal disturbances as well. It's truly so. And he no longer has a disturbance from the side of the family, and the children, and work, etc. Rather, it all moves more and more towards spiritual disturbances. We still need to learn these relationships between these two saboteurs.
Question (Tel Aviv 4): (52:47) I hope my picture is correct. Can we say that Bina, by the flood, created some compression over the Malchut, and raises us higher by that?
M. Laitman: Correct, not even Bina, but Keter, because it all comes from there, where all the creatures need to reach Keter. And therefore from there come all the forces that operate Bina, and Bina operates Malchut, and from that, Malchut begins to respond correctly to Bina, if she's capable, through people, to perform her actions in order to bestow. This is how it happens.
Student: So what rises higher in the Malchut to Bina?
M. Laitman: MAN. MAN. Prayer. Nothing except for that.
Student: This is the purification that comes from Malchut and rises to Bina?
M. Laitman: Yes. You also need to agree with how I'm teaching. I want you to get there, towards the searches, and the seeking, and towards the decisions and scrutinies, and not for me to give them to you prepared, because it won't be absorbed, and it won't be yours. You, from the seeking, from the efforts, from all these scrutinies, you need to come to the solution, the way it truly happens.
Student: So, how to take advantage of that state in the Ten and not to disconnect?
M. Laitman: First, we have to define times for Torah, as they say, where you have to define certain times a day that you have to connect. Like it or not, you have to connect, and you don't let go of a person that says, “I am not capable today, or I can't today.” Whatever that you can, you have to be connected with us, even in somewhat. You can't talk, let's say, that you're there in some meeting or something, but nevertheless, we want to know that you're with us. We're not letting you go.
Student: It's good that there's no one who's letting me go.
M. Laitman: That's right, I won't leave you. So, that's it, we have to pressure each person this way. There's no such thing that you can't, that there's something next to you, you have to keep something next to you in a way that you are connected to us, so that we will also know in some red bulb that is lit in us that you're with us, and maybe you can't even listen, but that's next to you. So you are, let's say, even unconscious, but you're with us. This is very important, and this way we don't let go of any friend throughout all the meetings between us. And later, we'll talk also how to expand the meetings not as far as times, but as far as the internal connection.
Question (Africa 1): (56:56) How to relate correctly to a situation where there is a genetic disease, that suffering doesn't go away? Is there a role for this in spirituality? How to use it correctly?
M. Laitman: For all the sufferings that we have: corporeal, healthy, mental, spiritual, all the ones that we can overcome or not overcome, that we could have overcome in our century but maybe before that in the history of humanity we couldn't overcome, all of this needs great study, but altogether we need to accept it and to try and be aimed towards these sufferings in a simple way. To do the maximum that's possible so that they won't bother us to reach Lishma. That's it, that's what we need. All the sufferings, meaning if I was now controlling the world, I would stop everything except for one thing: in what way can I bring humanity to Lishma, to a connection with the Creator from the connection between people. That's called Lishma, that's it, and let's hope that we will reach that. Now, how to use all the torments, the sufferings? Also in that way - to the extent in which we can aim them to reach Lishma.
Question (Turkiye 3): (58:59) If the inner saboteur condition as an advancement for the person, who is in control of this situation?
M. Laitman: The Creator controls it. No one except for that.
Question (KabU 3): (59:31) To overcome I have to connect with my Ten, and therefore be connected with them. What helps me to be able to overcome this disturbance, this perturbation? I see that there is something missing.
M. Laitman: What's missing here is support from the friends, for them to pressure you so that you will connect to them, come closer to them. That's what's missing. No more than that. Don't wait for you to have the desire, that you don't know what states you'll have to overcome, where you'll have no strength to move your smallest finger, moreover yourself and your internality, and to aim your heart towards connection with the friends. And therefore, you need only, through “one will help is friend,” where a person cannot save himself from the house of imprisonment, only friends. You need to be ready for this, and perform such habits, and customs, and systems, rules in the group, that we are not waiting for a friend to scream for us to help him. No. We come to a state in which we come and help him, and we don't even wait until we hear his cry. But simply, every single day, we need to check throughout the day, several times, what state all our friends are in the Ten. Are they okay or not? Just like with soldiers. One, two, three, four, five - so that everyone is present, ready for connection. Otherwise, we will fall. That's called Arvut, without which certainly we cannot. This is the main rule, the main law for the building of the Kli for the revelation of the Creator.
Question (German 4): (01:01:57) What traits and tactics one should develop to battle against the inner sabotage of spirituality? What preparation can help?
M. Laitman: Constantly examine oneself to what form you're in in the perception of the saboteurs. You're always in a state where the saboteurs are holding on to you and not letting go of you. It's just that they're switched, these saboteurs, they're changing. And so therefore, it seems to you like you're free, maybe, somewhat from them, because you're not paying attention. But actually, every single moment you are in the hands of the saboteurs; external saboteurs, more internal saboteurs, and both are operating upon you. Meaning, you feel the laziness, a little sickness, something else; this is towards the physical saboteurs; and within them - spiritual saboteurs, just like we read. And it's a problem, a very big problem. How we can get rid of them? And this is through me each time evoking myself to a way to exit their grip, as they're gripping on to me and binding me, and I have no possibility of escaping. What do I need to do in order to escape them? And here there's but one solution - the Ten. A prisoner cannot save himself from the house of imprisonment but rather only his friends grab him, or throw him a rope, or something they do, and only in such a way he can run away from the house of imprisonment, from his ego. Only friends can save each of us from within the ego of each of us, where a person is. Therefore, the flood, the internal saboteur, the external saboteur, we need to think now what they are towards the Ten, towards my exit from the Ten, towards my coming closer to in order to bestow, towards Lishma, and how I nevertheless come closer to that, I near that. And always divide my presence in my egoistic desire into two parts - to the corporeal part and the spiritual part. Meaning, to those two saboteurs, where one saboteur comes and brings me all kinds of corporeal problems into me: fatigue, sickness, all kinds of problems at work, at home, and so on, that's the corporeal saboteur and the spiritual saboteur, where he starts already to work, this is not for you, and you can't, and how many years have you been investing in this, and so on, and so forth. And I need to arrange my attitude in the right way towards both of them. You see, friends, all together we read an article of four lines, four lines of an article, yes? And we're talking about it already for more than an hour. That's how it is. It's a sign that it has become closer to us.
Question (Tel Aviv 3): (01:06:46) How to work with a flood that the friend goes through?
M. Laitman: That we've learned many times. If we identify that a friend is under the flood, we must simply go to him, go down to him, and help him.
Question (Rehovot): (01:07:09) How can Bnei Baruch help people who feel the flood externally?
M. Laitman: The main thing for us is to connect the external flood with the inner saboteur so I won't think that I'm in an external flood only. Because all the reason for the external flood is from the internal flood. If I don't identify it, it's not good. So I didn't scrutinize the situation correctly.
Student: So it's enough to present it to them as this Russian doll of troubles?
M. Laitman: I don't know what you're talking about. We're talking about people that are connected in Tens, that are yearning for spirituality, and don't bring me “babushkas.”
Question (PT 13): (01:08:04) In the last month, I had the opportunity to talk to friends who discovered they're sick with a disease. They're all working in a Ten with the friends, but they keep saying that it's very difficult to overcome the personal fear of losing life and how can you constantly hold on to the Creator, hold on to the goal. Maybe, you could give an advice of how to overcome that fear.
M. Laitman: I can't give any advice here. All I can say is to all those who belong to those people, who are attributed to those people.. Are they amongst Bnei Baruch or not? If it's not Bnei Baruch, then there's nothing we can do.
Student: Yes, Bnei Baruch students.
M. Laitman: So, if they're in Bnei Baruch, we need to pray for them at least once a day, meaning to mention them. We need to try and think about them, and we need to also strengthen them, as much as possible. First of all, in that everything that comes, comes from the Creator. That it all comes in order to attain the final goal, towards the final goal. It's clear that all of us eventually passes away from this life, this corporeal life, the lowest world, the most difficult world, and the darkest of worlds. So, we need to help them be constantly connected to the goal, as much as possible.
Student: In terms of the person himself, in these moments when the fear takes over?
M. Laitman: So, we need as much as possible to strengthen them; that there is no fear here, but rather each and every one like this will feel in his life that he is moving and passing from this life, and he should just strengthen himself and connect himself to the next life.