The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: May 9, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. What Does it Mean That One Who Was On a Far Off Way Is Postponed to a Second Passover, in the Work? Article 30.(1991)
Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson we will learn from Rav's lesson from July 16, 2002. It is based on an article, "What Does It Mean That One Who Was On a Far Off Way Is Postponed to a Second Passover, in the Work?" You can find it in Hebrew in the second volume, on page 1331, in the second volume. We'll read the article together. We have thirty minutes for it, Tens that finish ahead of time are welcome to start a workshop on the main points in the article.
Reading: (00:44) What Does It Mean That One Who Was On a Far Off Way Is Postponed to a Second Passover, in the Work?
The Zohar says (BeHaalotcha, Item 66), “Rabbi Yosi said, ‘man, man’ twice. Why? He replies, ‘A man who is a man, fit for reception of a high soul, but has blemished himself because he caused himself to be blemished.’ ‘Man, man’ means he is worthy of being a man, ‘or on a far off way,’ since a person who defiles himself is defiled from above. And since he is defiled above, he is on a far off way from that place and that road to which the descendants of Israel grip. Rabbi Yitzhak said, ‘It is written, ‘If [any one of you] becomes impure for a soul or on a far off way,’ which is the meaning of the word ‘or.’’ Rabbi Yosi said, ‘Here, when it says ‘impure for a soul,’ it means before he is defiled from above. But when it says here, ‘a far off way,’ it means after he was defiled from above and fell to a far off way, which is the Sitra Achra [other side]. This means that both will be devoid of Kedusha [holiness] above, and will not do the Passover when Israel do it.’”
Our sages said (Shabbat 104), “When one comes to defile, it is opened for him; when he comes to be purified, he is aided.” We should understand what is written here, that “when a person who defiles himself is defiled from above.” He does not say that it is opened for him, but that he is defiled from above. Also, we should understand why it is opened for him, since “the Creator does not complain against His creations.” RASHI interprets that the Creator does not slander His creations (Avoda Zara 3), so why is he given from above some assistance that is to man’s detriment? On the contrary, he should have been assisted, as it is written, “He who comes to be purified is aided.” If he is not given help for his benefit, at least they should not do above an act that is to his detriment.
There are certainly many explanations in the literal, but we should interpret this in the work. It is known that when one observes Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] in the manner of the general public, meaning to receive reward, and does not pay attention to the issue of the aim to bestow, he sees that each day he advances in the work, since this is the truth. In the practice, everything a person does is registered to his name, and in that state, called Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], one cannot see that it is Lo Lishma, meaning that he cannot see that there is a matter of deficiency here, that it should be Lishma [for Her sake], while he is working Lo Lishma. Instead, the things he does generally illuminate for him.
As a result, a person cannot see any deficiency in himself. That is, in terms of the general public, there is a correction that the things he does illuminate for him as Surrounding Light, which is a correction on the level of actions. Hence, one must be careful not to slight the practice of Torah and Mitzvot, even if it is only in action and without any intention. That is, even if a person does his deeds by coercion, it is still considered a great thing.
Hence, people who still cannot work with the aim to bestow have a correction that they do not find any fault in the things they do, so they will be happy with their work, as it is written, “Serve the Lord with gladness.” Conversely, when a thought and desire come to a person and he begins to feel that there must be the matter of intention in observing Torah and Mitzvot, and he awakens to act not in order to receive reward, but in order to bestow, then begins a new order.
The order is that at that time, a person shifts to working on the left, when he begins to criticize his actions, whether they are in order to bestow, and he enters the work called Tuma’a [impurity] and Tahara [purity]. This means that he begins to work on the purification of the Kelim [vessels].
It is impossible to work on purity before we know what is Tuma’a. That is, it is not enough that it is written that there is the matter of Tuma’a, but one must feel what losses the Tuma’a causes, what he loses by knowing that he is defiled, meaning what he would gain if he were not impure, and what he loses now that he has been defiled.
In other words, although before he began the work of bestowal he knew that there was the matter of impurity and purity, he did not know why impurity was bad and purity was good. Therefore, one must engage in recognition of evil, meaning to try to grasp that the will to receive for oneself is called Tuma’a. That is, this Tuma’a removes him from Kedusha [holiness], meaning from the Creator, as it is written, “You will be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” This means that you will be removed, meaning that as the Creator gives, so man should try to make all his actions be with the quality of bestowal, and this is called Kedusha. The opposite of this is called Tuma’a.
A person should ask the Creator to help him grasp the evil that is found in the will to receive for oneself, meaning that the Creator will help him feel the loss that the will to receive for oneself causes him, and how much he could gain if he had the power of the desire to bestow. In other words, great Tuma’a or small Tuma’a and great Kedusha or small Kedusha are not measured by the size of the Tuma’a or Kedusha, but by the measure of harm that the Tuma’a brings, and the measure of importance that the Kedusha brings, meaning how much he suffers when he knows that he is impure and how much pleasure he would feel when he knows that he is in Kedusha.
According to the above, we should interpret what we asked about what our sages said, “He who comes to defile, it is opened for him.” We asked, “The Creator does not complain against His creations,” so why is it “opened for him”? This implies that he is shown that he can go further into the Tuma’a, whereas before he came to defile, the place of Tuma’a was closed, and only when he came to defile it was opened for him. From above, there should have been mercy on that person, as it is written, “And His mercies are on all of His deeds.”
We should interpret the meaning of “He who comes to defile.” It means that one who wants to begin the work of bestowal cannot work in order to bestow unless he knows the loss of working in order to receive, which is why he now comes to know the measure of the bad that exists in the will to receive for oneself, meaning what is the measure of the bad that is found in the will to receive, which is called Tuma’a, which is the opposite of Kedusha. He asks the Creator to let him know the measure of the bad that is found in the will to receive that is called “impure,” meaning impure for the soul. When he asks the Creator to help him, the answer to that is “it is opened for him” to see the bad that exists in the Tuma’a of the will to receive.
There are two discernments: 1) coming to defile, 2) seeing that he is already impure and wanting to see more than he sees now. If he asks to see more, he is helped from above, as it is written here in The Zohar, “A person who defiles himself is defiled from above.” In other words, once it is opened for him and he sees that he has been defiled, and he asks for more, to be shown the truth—that he is so far from Kedusha—then he is defiled from above. That is, he receives help from above by being shown the loss that is found in the will to receive for oneself. This is regarded as arriving at a state of “recognition of evil.” At that time, a need is born in him, called a Kli [vessel] that the Creator will help him and give him the purity, as it is written, “And I will sprinkle on you pure water.”
By this we can interpret what we asked, Why does The Zohar say, “A person who defiles himself is defiled from above”? After all, the Creator does not complain against His creations! The answer is that being defiled from above is help, meaning he is assisted from above to see the truth of how the will to receive is bad and impure, since now he is asking for this help because he wants to see the truth about what is evil.
Accordingly, we should interpret what Rabbi Yitzhak asks about Rabbi Yosi, who says about the verse, “If a man, man, is impure for a soul or on a far off way,” that a far off way is also regarded as Tuma’a, but when he is defiled from above it is called “a far off way.” It is written, “or on a far off way,” meaning that they are two things, meaning that a far off way is not Tuma’a. Rabbi Yosi explains, “When it says, ‘impure for a soul,’ it means before he is defiled from above. And here, when it says, ‘on a far off way,’ it means after he has been defiled above and fell to a far off way, which is the Sitra Achra.”
We should interpret that there are two discernments in Tuma’a in the way of the work: 1) He who comes to defile, meaning comes to see if the will to receive is Tuma’a, meaning that it inflicts stupidity of the heart. At that time, it is opened to him to see the evil. But before a person comes to defile, meaning to see the bad in him, there is a correction from above that a person cannot see the evil, since there is a rule that one is not shown more than one can correct in oneself. It is as in corporeality, when one is not told one’s true illness if the illness is incurable.
For this reason, precisely he who comes to defile, who wants to see the truth, it is opened for him. If he wants to advance and prays to be shown the true measure of the bad that is found in the will to receive for oneself, he is assisted from above, meaning he is defiled from above. That is, he is shown from above the harm in Tuma’a. At that time, he begins to pray from the bottom of the heart that the Creator will give him the desire to bestow instead of the will to receive that he has by nature, and to be given a second nature, which is a gift from above.
By this we should interpret what is written, “This means that both will be devoid of Kedusha above, and will not do the Passover when Israel do it.” In other words, both when a person is in the first state, when he comes to defile, and when he is in the second state, when he is on a far off way, when he is shown from above how far he is from Kedusha, he cannot do the Passover when Israel do it.
We should interpret that “Israel” means that he is already in the quality of “Israel,” meaning that he is already in a state of Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], implying that all his actions are directed straight to the Creator. This is regarded as being in the right line, which is purity, meaning purity of the Kelim, when all his actions are for the sake of the Creator. This is called Lishma, as was said, “Rabbi Meir says, ‘He who learns Torah Lishma, the secrets of Torah are revealed to him.” We should interpret that when a person is rewarded with the quality of “Israel,” this is the time to make the Passover offering. Israel means purity, and when a person is purified, this is the time to sacrifice the offering to the Creator, where sacrificing the offering is regarded as wholeness.
This is as it is written in The Zohar (VaYikra, Item 109), “Rabbi Yehuda started and said, ‘Serve the Lord with gladness.’ If you say that such is the work of the offering, this is not possible. Since that man has breached his Master’s commandment, the commandment of the Torah, and repented before his Master, with what face will he rise before Him? Indeed, by what are they corrected? It is by those priests and Levites who complete the joy and singing for Him.”
He interprets there in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar] that this matter will be corrected by an order of three lines. This is why when speaking of the Passover offering, which is the matter of the exodus from Egypt, there must be the intimation in our work that first we must achieve purity, and then comes the nearing and we are rewarded with Kedusha. However, a person must believe that when he is awakened to enter the work, that it comes to him from above, meaning he is brought closer from above, so he will have connection with the Kedusha.
Certainly, he must be thankful to the Creator for pulling him out from the state of lowliness and elevating him to the domain of Kedusha, meaning that he began to feel that there is a higher place from which to receive provision, that his provision should not be as that of animals, but that he should receive provision from the “speaking” level. And the more he is grateful, the more he increases that feeling.
Yet, at the same time, he must know that he should ask the Creator to raise him to an even higher state than the one he is now, to be rewarded with the Torah. That is, although he depicts to himself that the state he is in is very important, meaning that he cannot imagine greater importance in the world, he should still say, “As much as I depict my current state as very important, I still cannot depict the real importance. As much as I depict a state of greatness, I should say that although I am as thankful to the Creator as can be, above reason, I still believe that there is a higher state than the one I am in now, and I am asking You to give me a greater gift.”
By this we should interpret what is written (Psalms 71), “I will always long,” meaning that there are higher degrees than what I can picture to myself. Although one should know that as much as he appreciates the current state, it is truly more important because a person cannot grasp the value of a tiny moment of spirituality. Still, above reason, he believes and asks for it.
This is the meaning of the words “I will always long,” meaning that I will be able to depict that there is more greatness than I can depict. This is the meaning of what is written, “And I will add to all Your glory.” This means that although now I praise you, I am asking to be able to praise You more than I can, and I want to add to Your glory.
However, when one should reflect on his spiritual state, and the person is brought before the judge within his heart, so he would give the verdict, whether one is guilty or innocent, meaning that sometimes, the judge acquits him because he cannot pay the debts that he must pay. At that time, a person needs mercy. That is, at times, the judge within his heart belongs to the wicked, those who condemn their Maker and not themselves. It follows that these judges cause a person to go to the prison of the criminals against the King, as it is written (Psalms 107), “Dwellers of darkness and the shadow of death, prisoners of poverty and iron, for they rebelled against the words of God And spurned the counsel of the Most High.”
Although there might be good judges, they are taking a bribe. That is, the judge in his heart is concerned with his own benefit; therefore, he always sides with man’s detriment. Then, a person has no other choice but to ask the Creator for mercy and to give him a real judge. The person sees that there is no real judge but the Creator.
In that regard, we should interpret what King David said (Psalms 82), “Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You will inherit all the nations,” meaning that the Creator will be the judge. At that time, a person receives the strength from the Creator, “for You will inherit all the nations,” for then one inherits all the nations in his heart.
The order of the work should be primarily about one thing: to work against man’s reason. That is, when a person is told that he must work for the sake of the Creator and not for himself, this is against man’s reason. After all, it is written, “And lives by them, and not that he will die.” It follows that this contradicts the purpose of creation, which is to do good to His creations.
We can interpret this through Abraham’s trial. On one hand, the Creator told him, “for through Isaac your descendants shall be named,” but then it is written, “Take now your son, your only son, and offer him there as a burnt offering.” We should interpret this in the work. “Your Ben [son]” comes from the word Bina, meaning Havanah [understanding]. “Your only one,” meaning the only understanding that there is in man, which man guards with his heart and soul so that no harm will come to it, namely the will to receive for his own sake. “And offer him as a burnt offering,” meaning slaughter the will to receive for one’s own sake, cancel it, and work only with the desire to bestow and not with the will to receive.
Afterward, He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad.” We should interpret that we should not say that he should revoke the will to receive. Rather, one should work so he can use the will to receive in order to bestow, and the parts that he cannot direct in order to bestow are forbidden to use. We can interpret this by what He said to him, “and Abraham went and took the ram instead of his son.” “Ram” is called Bina, as it is written in The Zohar, where he asks, “Why a ram and not a horn”? And he answers that a ram is regarded as Bina and a horn is Malchut. We should interpret that Malchut is “the will to receive.” Therefore, the vessels of reception that we cannot aim so they work in order to bestow are forbidden to use. Instead of them, we use the Kelim of Bina, which are called “vessels of bestowal.”
Accordingly, we can understand that when a person feels that he is not all right, that he is a sinner, it does not come to him because he did many bad deeds, since there is a rule, “transgressing and repeating, it becomes to him as permitted.” Hence, many sins do not make one feel his fault. Rather, the size of the sin is measured by man’s feeling of how far he is from the Creator. In other words, to the extent that one feels and believes in the Creator, to that extent he feels how far he is from the great King.
This means that when he feels that he is a sinner, he must know that the Creator let him feel a little bit, that there is a King in the world. This feeling, which he received from above, causes him to feel that he is a sinner. But when he has no connection to the Creator, how can he feel that he has sinned before the Creator and did bad things, which are against the Torah, when he does not know that there is the Giver of the Torah in the world? Rather, the sensation of sin is according to the measure of his faith in the greatness of the King, to that extent he can feel the measure of the sin. This means that the sin is measured in the one who flawed.
This is as our sages said (Baba Kama, Chapter 3), “The matter of shame is all according to the one who shames and the one who is ashamed.” We should interpret that if the one who shames is smart, he can know that if one shames one who is great, it is a grave sin. That is, the one who shames has the intellect to appreciate the size and importance of the one who is ashamed. It follows that he has committed a grave sin.
However, if the one who shames does not have the intellect to appreciate the importance of the one who is ashamed, it cannot be said about him that he has committed a grave sin and needs great atonement for the flaw that he has flawed in someone. Therefore, according to the sensation of the greatness of the King, so is the sin. Thus, if a person is righteous and has some understanding of the greatness of the King, his flaw is certainly greater than that of an ordinary person.
It follows that we always measure the importance of the King that a person has according to the person’s feeling. Therefore, if one feels that he has sinned, it must be that he was given from above some nearing to Kedusha, and this is why he feels that he has sinned. It is as Baal HaSulam said about what our sages said, that the Creator is meticulous with the righteous as a hairsbreadth, as it is written, “And round about him was very stormy.” He asked, Why do they deserve more punishment than others? He said that one who is righteous, says that the Creator is meticulous with him as a hairsbreadth. Therefore, when one feels that he has sinned, he should not be alarmed. On the contrary, it is a sign that he is being brought closer from above. Therefore, he must overcome and take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven, and he will succeed.
Reader: We'll move on to a lesson from July 16, 2002.
M. Laitman: (34:58) We read an article from the Rungs of the Ladder, volume three, page 105: "What Does It Mean That One Who Was On a Far Off Way Is Postponed to a Second Passover, in the Work?" The Creator created the created being. The Creator is Good and Does Good, unique and unified, whole, eternal. There is no greater or lower degree. It's simply Him. And He cannot create the created being on a lesser degree than He is. As it is written that from the complete operator, incomplete operations cannot emerge.
This is how the created being was created on a degree, on the most perfect state. What does it mean most perfect? Like the Creator. That he exists in the same state as the Creator. It is considered that he's in adhesion with Him, because in spirituality, the compatibility, equivalence of form means adhesion. What is adhesion? The final, last degree of matching. Why is it the final and last degree of matching? There are no other states. The Creator is perfect, and He created the created being in a perfect state. But the created being that was created in a perfect form is incapable of feeling this state. He must understand it, feel it, appreciate it, live it, be in it. In order to give the created being the possibility to get to know his state, to feel his state, the Creator gives the created being such an opportunity through the concealment. He hides this perfect state from the created being, and then He gives the created being the possibility to appreciate the incomplete state and the complete state bit by bit. From the smallest discernments where in each and every discernment the created being needs to see who he is, the opposite of the whole of the perfect, which is called an egoist. Compared to the whole, who is called an altruist, and so that the created being will check and appreciate these two states and prefer the complete state versus the incomplete state.
Until the created being checks and corrects his attitude from incomplete to complete, he cannot advance to that state of wholeness. This is the matter of the degrees, that in a gradual manner, there are these 125 such states in which the created being compares the incomplete to the complete, and he wants to be in wholeness, and then he acquires a degree, and so each time he advances towards the recognition of the state in which he truly exists. When he reaches this state, it is considered, it is truly in adhesion, in unity with the Creator. This is why the created being is called Yehudi, Jewish, from the word Yichud, unity, when he has achieved the Meyuchad, the unique. These states are called either a transgression and a Mitzvah, a commandment, when he compares these two states that he's going through.
M. Laitman: (39:38) And here, Baal HaSulam writes, in page 112, that a person can feel that he is in a state of sin only according to the feeling of the Creator, which is called faith. What does he write? “This means that when a person feels that he is a sinner, he should know that the Creator let him feel a little bit that there is a King in the world. This means that according to the feeling that there is a King in the world, he feels that he's a sinner. That feeling that he received from above causes him to feel that he's a sinner. Whereas at a time that he has no connection with the Creator, meaning he does not feel the Creator, how can he feel that he has sinned before the Lord and did bad things which are against the Torah, while he does not know that there is the Giver of the Torah in the world? But rather, the feeling of the sin is measured by his faith in the greatness of the King.”
What does it mean, his faith? According to his feeling, we who exist in this world, for us, all of these true spiritual definitions, they take on a different content. So for us, faith means just some sort of a psychological feeling that a person has confidence in something that he doesn't even know what it is. He does it because of some education, from some early habit. And he thinks that this is what is called faith. But here, when we cross the barrier, and Rabash speaks about states which are beyond the barrier, there the meaning of faith is the true meaning.
Meaning the feeling of the Creator that gives a person the ability to appreciate, value his state compared to the true state and accordingly determine what is truly preferable. What is a crime? What does it mean to be a wicked sinner compared to the perfect state? This is why our time is called a time of preparation. Our state is called a time of preparation. We have nobody or no one with whom to compare ourselves, but rather we have to do, “all that it is within your hand to do,” do it in order to reach the barrier. And then, beyond the barrier already, we begin to feel the difference between the true state in which the Creator created us and the opposite of it.
Then, in this difference between the right and the left, meaning a state in which the person is as a sinner compared to the magnitude of the faith, meaning the measure of the feeling of the Creator as a whole, when he then goes and approaches the state that he truly exists in. Baal HaSulam compares it with a state where a person is in a dark room, in a cellar, and bit by bit he turns on the light and then he also sees what is the true state he is in, according to his preparation, as much as he has prepared himself to use this state. Like the Creator, in the form of, in order to bestow, in the form of giving. So that he will see that the quality of the Creator, opposite, compared to its opposite, it's all in all giving versus reception.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:38) He says that a person needs to exert in order to reach recognition of evil.
M. Laitman: To exert, to reach the recognition of evil, simply means that opposite that we should see the good. No concept can be attained except through the opposite state. This is why we need to yearn to the state that is opposite us. If we will see what is that state which is the opposite of us, out of that we will want it. For us, in this world, the state which is the opposite of us is manifested in the same subject, in the will to receive, but as pleasure versus lack of pleasure. The maximum that I can want is to yearn for the Creator as a source of pleasure.
An imaginary pleasure for the time, seemingly to enjoy from Him in order to receive — "I am lovesick" — which we can actually say are two opposite states, a lack and pleasure that can exist in me. Whereas beyond the barrier, there we already enter the comparison of the two qualities, egoism and altruism, giving and reception, the quality of the Creator and the quality of the created being, in order to receive, in order to bestow — it doesn't matter how you call it. So there, these are truly two forms of nature, the nature of the Creator and the nature of the created being. Whereas before the barrier, it is imaginary, it's as if there is some sort of a gap here between giving and reception, or between pleasure and lack of pleasure.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:43) We always say that we want to reach the recognition of the good, not to yearn for the recognition of evil.
M. Laitman: We don't need to know the evil, our goal is to reach the good. But this means that on the condition that a person is ready to reach the good, then they let him see how much is the opposite of it, so that he will perform this equivalence of form.
Meaning first he needs to compare those states, what is bad, what is good, what is a sinner, what is the opposite of it, whole, and accordingly he should work. After he sees that, he will perform all the deeds that will build in him a relation to the desire for the whole from the opposite of it. He is being led to feel the opposite, to be in the opposite in order to prefer the good. This is actually our whole path. We exist to begin with at the end of correction. Bit by bit they let us feel according to the measure of the suffering that we're able to suffer, according to our willingness to suffer, they let us feel what is the wholeness which is the opposite of us. That we suffer and we want it, we suffer and we want it, we suffer and we want it, we invert our attitude. There is no more here than determining our attitude. This is what we have to work on, to change within us the way we relate to giving.
That this is something that is whole compared to reception, which is something that is flawed and it's the opposite. When we read the articles, we have to check precisely which concepts we're speaking with. Is it before the barrier or after the barrier? Before the barrier, all of these words, it's like ordinary people interpret it — what is faith, what is adhesion, what is bestowal, "you shall love" and all of these things.
Meaning they all exist in a single substance, the substance of the will to receive. And we don't really have here two truly opposite things. And there is no difference here between the nature of the Creator and the nature of the created being. And also faith, all in all, means some sort of an inner agreement, which comes from education mostly or because of some influence, the influence of the society. And we use that as if we know.
Whereas beyond the barrier, this whole concept receives a completely different meaning. And then it is two forms of nature, the Creator and the created being. Bestowal and reception are completely contradictory things. It's not that both of them are in the will to receive, but bestowal is truly in the desire to bestow and reception is truly in the desire to receive. And faith is no longer considered some kind of an ability of the person to go with his eyes shut without any knowledge. This is called faith below reason. But rather faith above reason is when a person receives some force from above.
Meaning the feeling of the Creator that helps him to rise above his nature and go against the will to receive in bestowal. To give up on his own nature. This is called the force of faith, meaning the feeling of the Creator. His greatness gives this power.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:54) What does it mean to change the attitude?
M. Laitman: To change the attitude means that now I'm in Ein Sof, at the end of correction, and the Creator, in order for me to appreciate this state and not to just be in it like an embryo. That He created me and that's it, but rather that I will value it. Instead of Nefesh of Nefesh, I will feel NRNHY of NRNHY. So I need to go through the recognition, the awareness of where I am, seemingly from unconsciousness to reach complete consciousness, complete awareness.
For that, He needs to show me bit by bit my state and its opposite, my state and its opposite, my state and its opposite. This is considered to show me the two lines. I choose to be in wholeness compared to a lack of wholeness. To be without awareness, it's a sweet state, it's a good state. To be in awareness means to give, to exert — this is what it is called for me, right — a state of great effort, a very uncomfortable state. And I need within me to reach the recognition that it's the opposite. How can that be? For that, I need to receive from the Creator His qualities, His power, so then in the end I don't just reach from the incomplete to the complete, but rather I reach adhesion with Him because I have to constantly ask of Him, demand from Him. So for me, it turns out that myself and the perfect, complete state and the means by which I reach that whole state, the force that I will receive from Him, it all becomes the same. And then each time that I ask for that, I'm going on a straight path, like in the letter on page 64, in the Pri Hacham, A Sage's Fruit, right? Where it's just to distinguish between one of the other, by that I won't reach the goal. I will say, yes, indeed, giving is a good thing, but giving and the Creator will not be the same thing for me, won't be as one. But rather it would be, I'll imagine it to be something which ultimately will be the Klipot, the shells. Giving, it's in the shells. It's the highest value in the shell. Giving is the uppermost value. The shell takes pride in the giving, right? But for her, giving is disconnected from the Creator. And then these are subtle things. This is why it's called the shell. It shines. Seemingly, it has the ability to draw. It doesn't draw that, come to me, you'll receive, that I receive. But no, it's like the serpent. If you will go for it, you will be giving, and the Creator will get great pleasures. This is something that's very difficult for us to understand. We don't even exist in this nature. So, it all comes only through the comparison and using the force of the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:24) You talked about two kinds of faith, the true faith, which is beyond the barrier, and faith...
M. Laitman: Anything that is in the spiritual world also exists in this world, but in this world, it's all in the nature of the will to receive, and therefore it is called an imaginary world. What's imaginary? That these aren't real terms, opposite terms, but in the will to receive, it's like a demo, it's like in kindergarten. Nothing's actually real, but you play these things that are seemingly real. Look, both the will to receive is in the will to receive, and the will to bestow is in the will to receive, meaning both faith and giving, and all the qualities are. And the truth is, it's not even a will to receive. It's a kind of — like for kids, it's not the true cruelty of the will to receive, all the more so it's not the will to bestow, of course, but it's like a game for now, to recognize discernments. From these discernments you come to a desire for something that truly is called spirituality, seemingly. And the Creator sees that you as if are ready for it, you've made some labor like a child, not knowing why and how, you grew, and then He puts you in school.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:53) What's the difference between faith, which is a psychological phenomenon that ordinary people talk about, versus the faith that we use in our work?
M. Laitman: The faith that's used by the common people simply comes from education, from listening to friends, to the environment, to their greatest of the generation. They have inner confidence to go and do actions in life that seem, from a foreign eye, as irrational actions. Getting up early in the morning to go to pray in the synagogue, or even to give some charity, or to make actions of Mitzvot. Meaning, these are things that are irrational, that are done from the belief that it will bring a reward. A reward in this world, a reward in the next world, that my children will be better off, and all kinds. You know, the Zohar interprets this in Pekudei Raika, Pekudei Kadma. There he interprets what is the measure of fear and why a person does that. Those who begin, not the common people, those who begin to work in the individual work towards the Creator, but they're still before the barrier, in the time of preparation, they too, are still in the same concepts. Their will to receive is still a will to receive, but they already begin to sense all of their qualities opposite surrounding light, opposite the point in the heart. And then, the point in the heart and the surrounding light, they're the same because they connect to each other. It's like within the person, there's a point in the heart that receives illumination from outside, and it has the heart, all the other desires.
And then, he seemingly is in a dual state, where he has a kind, a kind of a feeling of the true state that is above the barrier. This is still inside the heart, we call it a point in the heart. Meaning it is a point that is under his ego, but nevertheless, he feels some relation to spirituality. These are also imaginary states. It's not actually two forms of nature, bestowing and receiving, but you can already assess that there are, not that he has it, but that there are qualities that he is referring to that exist in a truthful way above the barrier, beyond the barrier, and that it's possible that he can reach them. He has some assessment that there is something.
However, those who don't have a point in the heart, and they have nothing with which to compare the heart against the point. The point is a part of God from above, as if spiritual. So they think that their faith is about going and doing all of the customs called commandments. I'm not saying this degree is canceled, the Creator didn't create anything redundant. But there's a very big difference between these two degrees. This is called the reason of Torah, when you already have some light, some feeling towards spirituality, and the reason of the landlords, which only exist in the will to receive, and that becomes two opposite things.
The reason of Torah is opposite to the reason of the landlords. Even before the barrier, these are already opposite things, to the point that one cannot understand the other. What the common people put into what they read, the interpretation, and what the worker of the Creator puts into what he reads, even at the time of preparation he's still not working truthfully, but these are completely opposite things.
The interpretations are different. In the common people, the interpretation only comes from the will to receive, and for the one who's in the time of preparation, his interpretation is already in relation to the point in the heart, to the surrounding light. He already has a different interpretation. He understands that this is truth and that is not truth. And so, in his actions, you can also begin to see how he begins to disregard bodily actions, and he begins to investigate and go through his thoughts, his intentions, and that's the beginning of the right relation, right attitude.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:24) How can a person discern if he has the point in the heart or not yet?
M. Laitman: If he has a point in the heart or not, how can a person discern — that he has an attraction to engage in spirituality.
Student: There's quite a number of people, I think, who simply follow along those that they hear from them, that it’s worthwhile to engage in…
M. Laitman: There is a significant amount of people who are carried after those who say we should engage in spirituality, and there are some among them who still, their time didn't come to enter the time of preparation, but they're still there out of appreciation. And they help those who are in the time of preparation, all the more so those who are beyond the barrier, and by that they hasten their development.
We had such examples with Rabash, where I brought some folks from Tel Aviv, so there were all kinds of people. There were some that Rabash said he shouldn't stay, even though they stayed, some stayed afterwards. Some five friends came, you know as guys connected together, young, and they even lived in the same apartment, they went to the same institute or another place, and I dragged them from there, I gave them PTICHA, lectures. What really broke them was the letter from page 63 of the Sages' Fruits. We didn't have that book printed yet, but I printed that article for them and showed them. It's like this cube that you either enter the goal or you miss it, and at first it's a little deviation, but you don't know it, but you're just flying away from the goal. And they were shocked to see that, and they understood that this is a letter of Baal HaSulam, and it's not me now, you know, putting it together, and I remember that was a critical point. And then they came, let's say five people, and Rabash would say, "him, I don't know, I don't think he should stay." He said it in a nice way, he said it to me. And the others, "we'll see, but those other two or three out of the five or six shouldn't," and what can I do? And everyone stayed, and then I asked him, "well, what do you think?" and he said, "advancing, still, they get experience and advance, instead of doing another 20 life cycles, or who knows how many, until they have a point in the heart, they'll do it in one life cycle, and maybe even in this life, in this cycle, he'll already enter the work.” “Whether he finishes it or not, that doesn't depend on us." You can't know in advance, the greatest Kabbalist cannot know, because it stems from a unique root of each and every soul. You can't make any calculations here, just open it to anyone. So you see, it's open, a thousand enter the room, and as many that are there, they're there. Some leave, so they don't feel the point in the heart, they don't see in that interpretation a response that comes to them from within, you understand? Nothing actually speaks. I remember until I started feeling, Rabash started with me the introduction to the Book of Zohar, and I already went into it for a few years, four years before that, I started reading, really hearing the books — Talelei Orot, Pelach HaRimon, Pardes Rimonim — all those things. I heard a little bit of the introductions even though I didn't understand anything. And I remember he started the introduction to the Book of Zohar with me, and then he stopped teaching. I didn't understand anything. I hear, I don't hear, I hear, I don't hear. The terms are different. I, myself didn't understand those terms. Some, some I grasped, but some not. So, it's a problem, bit by bit, just patience.
M. Laitman: (01:05:17) And opposite that, there were people who I brought from Tel Aviv, and they were really brilliant. They grasped everything, they started feeling it, and I remember Rabash gave me a private lesson. And then some guy came in, and he asked, so they, we gave him permission to stay. And Rabash started explaining to me some concept, and I barely, barely understood, kind of barely grasping what was very hard within to kind of analyze it and chew on it. And that guy started so easily discussing and responding to it, and before that, he wasn't in anything. And I felt opposite him, so coarse, so dumb, so not feeling anything. And Rabash laughed, and I got mad. You know, it was, I already studied with him for six months, perhaps, and before that, I made a lot of efforts, and now this guy just comes in and suddenly begins to feel and answer Rabash and ask him about things that I barely understood where that is for me. I remember they started discussing love of others, and I felt myself, you know, like in the gutter. And that guy afterwards went away. He left, meaning he didn't leave completely. He stayed, you know, religious. Thank God and so forth. He was very pure. He felt those things from his purity, felt many things. He as if felt spirituality. He was that pure or refined. So you understand, you can't know in advance what happens to each and every one.
It's truly personal development, and it says, just as their faces are not similar, so to their souls. And so never make these calculations, unless a person truly harms the society in some way, or you really just can't, you know, can't hold him off, and he corrupts the others.
Meaning if there's true corruption that comes from him, then you need to ban him. But if not, he can sit down, and bit by bit, you know, he nevertheless does big things internally. Oh, we have an example. You see, every day, every morning, he comes to study. Well, we call that every morning.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:25) What does it mean that a person is not shown more evil than what he's capable of correcting himself, so he doesn't have to…
M. Laitman: We are at the end of correction. Right now, from the end of correction, we feel the weakest, flimsiest state. Why? We can't bear more than that. That's exactly the portion the Creator measures for you from above, on which you can discern between good and bad, and by the actions, by the efforts that we can make to prefer the good over the bad. As to begin with, the bad seems good to you, and the good seems bad. So by our actions, you scrutinize and invert that assessment from bad to good and vice versa.
Meaning that giving is now called good for you, and receiving is called bad. If you've made that discernment, if you wanted to adhere to the giving, and you have, and it happens to each and every one, even if we don't feel it. This is called the measure of truth that gradually forms within the person. That it was born and now it grows gradually. And you can't agree with that, you can't bear that. You can be killed, but it doesn't matter, it already becomes yours. We don't feel, but this is the beginning of the measure of bestowal that you've already acquired. And each time you're capable of doing this discernment between good and bad, only to a very small extent, so that it doesn't appear to you as two mountains that you just fall between them and that's it, but rather this is good, this is bad. And you know, other than this is good and that is bad, that it's bitter and sweet, and those things are inverted.
And then a person makes the calculation, and then bit by bit you can prefer, even though the sweet is bad and the bitter is good, but you prefer bestowal upon reception. And that happens time and again, 125 such comparisons, until you come to the end of correction, until you say completely and utterly that the Creator is good and the opposite of Him is bad.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:11) But here it says he's in a faraway land, meaning far from the Creator, so how does he know, how is he shown? It's written that he's not shown the real thing, but he's told, you're wicked, you're not great, very big wicked, but you like that bit by bit. It's not clear, it's as if a person is far from the Creator, a faraway road, that's what's written here.
M. Laitman: The Creator is above. Let's describe it simply, all right? Man is below, yes? From man, where he is now towards the Creator, two lines rise. Within the person these two lines meet, like the edge of a triangle, and the Creator is where those two lines are separate, far away from each other. That means that you're rising up the degrees, getting closer to the Creator, as these two lines become further apart, right?
The nature of the Creator, the right line, and the nature of man, or the opposite of the Creator's nature, that's the left line, yes? And when a person is in the left line, he thinks that's his nature, but it's not his nature at all. We have no nature, we're actually not this or that.
The Creator gives us the opposite of Him, that's the concealment, which builds the opposite of Him, which is reception, and then there's Him, which is bestowal. And we exist between those two lines, between those two assessments, is where we are.
To begin with, you are on the left, you think it is sweet, and the opposite, you think of it as bitter, that it's impossible to do and bear, and how to give up everything, to give, to not think of oneself, and so on. And by this scrutiny of not bitter and sweet, but rather truth and false, and that's a scrutiny that can only happen if the Creator shines to you, then you transform these terms, so that truth becomes sweet, and false becomes bitter, and that's it. Well, you know, it's not really that important, that simple, but that's the principle.
Student: Truth is, I was asking, if it's like He's giving a little more and a little more each time, then it's as if…
M. Laitman: Each time you can be, as much as you can be between truth and false, in that pressure between them, they're in their oppositeness, then you're allowed to rise, but all in all, according to the structure of the soul, these degrees are predefined. Say 125 degrees, that's how we're built, that at these levels we can bear, not more than that, and that measure is exactly according to our measure of discernment, meaning what's the difference between degrees? Ten Sefirot. And what’s the difference for us? Ten Sefirot. So it’s to the same extent, you understand? Less than that we’re not going to be able to feel any difference. More than that, we won’t be able to bear the difference. So you can’t jump or skip over degrees.
Reader: Now let's share impressions from the lesson and what we take from it to implement in the Ten.
Song: (01:21:14)