The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Afternoon) May 11, 2024
Part 1: Rabash. Record 224. “The Reason for the Faith.”
Reader: Hello, we are reading in the Writings of Rabash, Volume 3, Article number 224, “The Reason for the Faith.” You can find the study material on Sviva Tova and the Arvut system, and you can send live questions through our sites. Whoever asks a question in the study hall is asked to stand up, hold the microphone close to one's mouth, and speak loud and clear.
Reading Record 224: (00:33) “The Reason for the Faith.”
The reason for the faith is that there is no greater pleasure than to be rewarded with the revelation of Godliness and the instilling of the Shechina [Divinity].
In order for one to receive all this for the purpose of bestowal, there is a correction of concealment, where he engages in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] even though he feels no pleasure. This is called “not in order to receive reward.” When he has this Kli [vessel], his eyes soon open to welcome the face of the Creator.
When a desire awakens within him, that it is worthwhile to serve the Creator for the pleasure he soon falls into concealment. This is regarded as death, meaning that previously, he was adhered to life, and he was rewarded with it only through the power of faith. Therefore, now that he is corrected and begins to work in faith once more, he receives back his breath of life. At that time, he says, “I thank You for returning my soul with compassion.”
This is precisely when he assumes once more the work in the manner of faith above reason. When he had the concealment, he says, “Great is Your faith.” The faith is so great that through it, he receives the soul once more.
Re-Reading Record 224: (03:27) “The Reason for the Faith.”
The reason for the faith is that there is no greater pleasure than to be rewarded with the revelation of Godliness and the instilling of the Shechina [Divinity].
In order for one to receive all this for the purpose of bestowal, there is a correction of concealment, where he engages in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] even though he feels no pleasure. This is called “not in order to receive reward.” When he has this Kli [vessel], his eyes soon open to welcome the face of the Creator.
When a desire awakens within him, that it is worthwhile to serve the Creator for the pleasure he soon falls into concealment. This is regarded as death, meaning that previously, he was adhered to life, and he was rewarded with it only through the power of faith. Therefore, now that he is corrected and begins to work in faith once more, he receives back his breath of life. At that time, he says, “I thank You for returning my soul with compassion.”
This is precisely when he assumes once more the work in the manner of faith above reason. When he had the concealment, he says, “Great is Your faith.” The faith is so great that through it, he receives the soul once more.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:53) It's written that he receives his soul back. That means he had a soul, he lost it, and he gets it back?
M. Laitman: When the Creator created man, they were whole, Adam, Eve, Havah. Nothing was lacking. This state is called Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden. Later, because of the sin of the tree of knowledge, the soul departed, and now we have to make efforts in order to draw it back in. That's what we need to do. We are called sons of Adam, humans, because we have to do it.
Student: What's the connection today of a person with his soul?
M. Laitman: What connection a man has with his soul? There is a connection, but it's a torn connection. You have to connect. You have to connect to the soul. Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah came to help us build senses, desires, inner qualities in us such that through them we're able to attain the soul.
You can attain the soul. That's why each one, Adam and Eve, have to think about how to attain the soul, and when we attain the personal soul of each and every one, we begin to feel that it's worthwhile to connect together into a general soul. And this way we return to the end of correction.
Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (10:17) The article begins with the reason for faith, that there's no greater pleasure than to be rewarded with the revelation of godliness and the instilling of the Shechina, and then there's a good chance that if we try to put it within reason, we lose it, and then once more we have to rise to the degree of faith. That is, to merit the revelation of godliness.
If I do it only, not for myself, the only way according to the article, which means the revelation of godliness and the instilling of Shechina is the quality of bestowal, it's almost like the exact same thing. That is, that the reward sits within the state itself, actually. Can we see that the revelation of the godliness and instilling of the Shechina is the revelation of bestowal in me?
M. Laitman: To reveal bestowal from the Creator, yes. And that brings the revelation of godliness, and we have to come to that, and we have to strive to get there.
Student: What's the difference between the disclosure of bestowal and godliness, is it like cause and consequence?
M. Laitman: No, it's the same thing. The upper bestowal is Godliness.
Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (12:16) You said that we need to think about how to attain the soul, and when we attain the individual soul of each of us, then we begin to feel that it's worthwhile to connect together to one general soul. So, what does it mean to attain the individual soul of each and every one?
M. Laitman: When I begin to feel by myself, on myself, that I am part of the Creator, and then out of that I begin to detect that everyone else in the world, they are also individual souls. We all need to connect, to reach the complete connection though, which is called the purpose of our existence.
Student: So, we need to seek within him the part that he belongs to the Creator, and from there begin and see that everyone?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (13:49) I heard you said that in the sin of Adam, the soul departed. Where did it depart to?
M. Laitman: It departed from his feeling.
Student: Is this the general soul of us all, this soul?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Now each of us also has his individual soul? His personal soul?
M. Laitman: Maybe.
Student: What is the soul?
M. Laitman: It's a divine part from above.
Student: So now in our state, do we have a soul or don't we?
M Laitman: We don't have, for the time being.
Student: So, what are we trying to connect?
M. Laitman: When we wish to connect ourselves and ask to pray, the Creator will fill our deficiency. He will fill it with the soul. The soul is the light, and we are preparing the vessel for it.
Student: So, at the moment we only have darkness, but we're trying to connect the darkness within? And what's the mechanism that connects between?
M. Laitman: When the Reshimot, the records awaken us, then in some instances in our lives, and we begin to find ourselves in all kinds of different states that come to build in us the true, correct deficiency. And that's how we are required. We become needful of a more powerful light and a more powerful vessel. Until we collect them all, lights and vessels.
Student: But what connects all these minuses in the Ten? I understand only minuses here, only darkness, only lack. What connects? What causes them to connect?
M. Laitman: If I combine all the desires of all the people around me, then in place of an individual or personal soul, from which I started, I acquire a greater soul. And in it I begin to feel life, movement, everything I need in order to do the spiritual work. Spiritual work means that in my connection with all kinds of desires outside of me, souls in other words, I create a system with them called the soul. And it grows more and more until we reach the general soul. And it's such intensity that we'll see that we're all connected.
Student: This soul grows. I'm a little confused with the concept of soul, but let's say what we have in the Ten. It grows and becomes a soul thanks to what? How can the friends hold on to this? How can we begin to develop this soul?
M. Laitman: There's a connection between you.
Student: But what do we connect?
M. Laitman: The desire for the Creator or by it anyone. The desire for the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:43) How in simple words of today would you describe or share the essence of the sin that happens there? What is this sin?
M. Laitman: Sin is the revelation or disclosure of the will to receive in order to receive in the general soul, and later in each and every one personally. In each and every person, there's only a will to receive in order to receive. We can't make any other action unless he is certain that it will give him more pleasure.
Student: But is there a possibility for it not to happen or would it happen no matter what?
M. Laitman: What do you mean?
Student: When the sin took place, is there a chance where it wouldn't have happened?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: It had to happen no matter what?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, who's to blame? Who brought forth this sin?
M. Laitman: The Creator is the will to bestow only, and he wants to build us in the will to receive. So that through the correct use of the will to receive, we'll come to the will to receive in order to bestow to the Creator. And to that extent, he can open himself up to bestow to us. Then this mutual bestowal between us will shine throughout all of reality.
Student: Meaning the Garden of Eden is this personal, temporary thing that we had to leave at some point?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: There was no chance for it to be eternal?
M. Laitman: No, it can't not fall from that level.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:10) There's the correction of the concealment for a person to engage in Torah and Mitzvot, even though he doesn't feel any pleasure, and that's called not in order to receive a reward. If I understand, he doesn't need to feel the pleasure in the vessels of reception. Is that correct?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How does he scrutinize that he's not receiving pleasure in his vessels? He goes to the Ten meeting, he's in a workshop. What does it mean to exercise not receiving a reward?
M. Laitman: If a person begins to see the egoistic desire, meaning in order to receive, that he activates, if it's getting filled, then he wants to open it up more and more, to realize it, to fulfill it, and to enjoy it. That's the way, that's a path that distances him from the Creator until he begins to understand that by that he's unable to succeed. Because the Creator arranged it in such a way that in those desires where he cannot connect. It's like in our world, no one wants to connect with another, no one wants to come with another to greater achievements. Each one is in himself, within himself. That's what happens to a person. By that we feel that our world is unworthy of vessel or bestowal, unworthy of good relations between us, and we will never be able to succeed in it.
Together with that comes the wisdom of Kabbalah and explains to us that if you will make the opposite calculations in order to bestow to one another, in order to connect all of you together, in one desire, in one mutual bestowal from personal desires from one to another, then you will merit a great vessel, a great desire, a single desire, and then you will feel how much the light that fills this vessel is a single light, and it comes from a single source, and you will enjoy it because you will have adhesion in that one source.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:42) Is there a reason that in this sin the Creator specifically aimed it for Eve to tempt Adam? Is there a reason for that?
M. Laitman: Is there a reason that specifically Eve tempted Adam? Yes, of course.
Student: What's the reason?
M. Laitman: Because in her, the will to receive is more burning. She feels him, all his desire is to enjoy, to receive pleasure, meaning she receives pleasure inside herself, inside her will to receive. And that's why when she connects to Adam, he begins to see her desire. I'm speaking simply, of course, so you understand. By that, she's passing him her desire, because her desire is more real.
And in this way, she causes a person to engage in reception instead of bestowal, until the time comes, and then through efforts, they all begin to feel that we must be corrected. Why everyone? Because for the time being, Adam and Eve are going through a shattering. And if in one vessel, with a great light, there's no way to correct it. So, there was this correction that was made here, that through the shattering, they break, both Adam and Eve, and they begin to be corrected in small pieces.
Student: In our world, this force of Eve, is it the force that tempts a person, or is the person disconnected from the fact that she tempts him? Meaning that in this world?
M. Laitman: No, no. It's a force that tempts a person.
Student: Also today?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (27:52) So actually, to begin with, the state of the Garden of Eden was temporary because the intention was for us to go through this alone, on ourselves, and come independently to the connection with the Creator. So this state was in order to leave an impression in us? The state of the Garden of Eden?
M. Laitman: Yes. To which we must return.
Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (28:23) About the article, The Reason for Faith, is faith the desire that we develop, or actually the key that we acquire with the soul, with the connection with the friends? Or maybe it's a correction that the Creator gives? Where to establish the faith in our work?
M. Laitman: That's not a simple concept. We can feel it inside of us. That’s why we can't grasp it, we can't stabilize it and work with it. That's how it is.
Student: But we do place it as a goal above our reason, somehow. So where can we, in the point that we're in, touch somewhat?
M. Laitman: It's a very subtle upper light that comes to a person and is capable of accompanying him on the correct path.
Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (29:48) When I say in the morning, I thank you, my living God, for bringing back my soul with great compassion. Your faith, is that the faith? He feels it in me, or I feel it in the Creator? I mean, is that the equivalence of form? What is your faith?
M. Laitman: You got from the Creator a certain special power that is helping you see reality correctly.
Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (30:40) He writes here, and this is when he received back the work in the matter of faith above reason. How does it look? What does a person see when he's working in this work when he takes upon himself this work?
M. Laitman: What does a person do? What are his options? To rise above his will to receive, and to start connecting with similar parts that are next to him that came from the first shattering that took place in the Garden of Eden.
Student: In the preparation for the lesson, we heard Rabash speaking about a person having to come to a state of poor, that he's poor, that he doesn't understand, and he can't. So what does it mean that he takes upon himself the work if he has no forces truly to be above his reason, to truly rise above his nature?
M. Laitman: A child that they start educating him, does he know, does he understand, does he have the power? Rather gradually, over time, because we receive everything from above, we need to have these conditions, whereby the forces, the insides, the causes, the effects, all those things will reveal as a result of our actions, where we don't quite understand what we're doing.
Student: So, you gradually bring him to this discernment that he needs the mercy from above to reach bestowal. The question is when it shows a person how much he's under the control of the will to receive, and his nature is in control, and he's between heaven and earth, he has no pleasure in something higher, and he's in the will to receive, what then, what's his salvation?
M. Laitman: His salvation is to hold on to attaining the form of correction. When he connects with everyone, he wants to reach a complete vessel.
Student: And if he doesn't have that force at that moment?
M. Laitman: He prays. He does all kinds of actions with his friends. He's got what to do in this world, relative to the correction.
Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (33:37) After the shattering, there was the first restriction, and then the second restriction. And that's where it was defined that light cannot reach here unless it's in order to bestow. And if I understand correctly, I may be completely wrong, a little thin light remains through which we have vitality or exist on this planet. And from what I understand, all the wars are upon that drop of light, everyone wants from themselves that thin light for themselves. And the catch is, the trick is that no one can have it for themselves.
And the role, again, if we go back to our role, is to open the tap and to stop being blockage. And then we can pass it on, and then the great pleasure to reveal godliness and the divinity to dwell is that we don't have to battle over it because there's a lot of it, there's an abundance. Is that the work? Actually, to give more from the receiving end to bestow to open that shutter?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:54) I still don't understand that force that tempted a person was seemingly, in the simplest way, a negative force, because it actually caused him to do something negative, to activate the desire in order to receive for himself. Why is that force today, in the life that we're living, called Eve, or female, or whatever we call it? Why is it considered much more humane, much more sensitive, much more understanding, than the male?
M. Laitman: The female force is typically more connected to our physical lives. So, if we're talking about the desire of a woman, her desire is not to rule over the entire world, rather, by nature, she has such desires and urges that make her want to have her own home, her own children, her own family. To have everything she needs, in a more restricted way. And then, you can say that by that, she reaches satisfaction.
Student: This beautiful force does things bad in the beginning, that's what I don't understand. The difference between pushing a person to seemingly take a bite of that fruit and saying that she's the greatest force in the world.
M. Laitman: It comes through men. If it would all remain in the woman, it would have been fine.
Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (37:16) You answered another student that faith is the very thin upper light that comes to a person and can accompany him in the right way. And when you said that I felt pleasure. In the article, it's written that when you work for pleasure, we fall to concealment. So, what do we do in those moments where there is pleasure? It's a little similar to what the other student asked also, but to pass it to others, to connect it.
M. Laitman: Try to reach the goal and realize it with the group.
Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (38:05) When we try to attempt all these attempts and to work in faith above reason towards the friends, meaning, we try to perform acts of bestowal without receiving pleasure. So, in those actions, we're trying to mimic the actions of the Creator upon us?
M. Laitman: To some extent, yes.
Student: What I'm actually trying to ask is, what's the connection between work above reason towards the friends and work above reason for the Creator?
M. Laitman: With friends, we need to show them the importance of faith above reason. Whereas, with the Creator, through our actions in faith above reason we come to equivalence, adhesion with the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:33) Is faith pleasure?
M. Laitman: Faith is the greatest pleasure. It fills a person's vessels and it gives him a sensation similar to the reality of the Creator, if you can say it.
Student: Rabash writes that he should engage in Torah and Mitzvot even if he feels no pleasure. What motivates a person to work without receiving pleasure?
M. Laitman: Because he's going forward. These are the conditions. There are conditions on the way. Such parts where we have to work without pleasure. All the different pleasures.
Student: So, what fills him and gives him that charge to continue?
M. Laitman: That he's going to resemble the Creator.
Student: He also writes that when a desire awakens in him that it's worthwhile to serve the Creator for the pleasure, he soon falls into concealment. How to prevent such a fall?
M. Laitman: How to avoid it? There are friends. There's a prayer to the Creator, the feeling of the Creator. You have to constantly check yourself.
Student: What's the concealment? What's concealed in a person during the concealment?
M. Laitman: First of all, that he's in contact with the Creator. That's the main concealment. And if he comes to a connection with the Creator, then it turns out that he lacks the power to return to the Creator what he's receiving from Him. Reflected light. And that's it. And that's how we advance.
Student: So, what does a person need to take upon himself in return, in faith above reason?
M. Laitman: He wants to be a bestower, like the Creator, who's turning to him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:54) When you talk, or when we read Rabash or Baal HaSulam, I feel like you're raising us to the world of truth, to the upper world, to godliness. But if I don't hear you, then a very earthly, material voice talks inside of me. How to make it so that I can join you?
M. Laitman: I don't know. You have some connection with other systems outside?
Student: No, no, from within.
M. Laitman: From within. I don't know. Each and every person must find his own direction, his north star, as it were. You have to try. I can't tell you. Maybe, I don't know. Look for it. Look for it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:40) I want to continue from the prior student. When we read an article, when we hear Rav, there's a certain pleasure. It's a pleasure. It truly raises a person, makes order, messes things up, doesn't matter what. But it brings a person to a certain place. What do we need to do with that pleasure?
M. Laitman: To extend it so you'll be able to clothe in it more precise discernments.
Student: More precise are pleasures of the intellect, of the mind. What about the quality of bestowal, the screen, the reflected light?
M. Laitman: You said, as if you have it, what I understood.
Student: No, no, there's pleasure. I'm talking about the pleasure there is in here. We read the article, each in his way, it doesn't matter where you are, you feel something from it, that it uplifts him and fills him, just like the friend described. Now, there's also a discernment that is a pleasure, that it's enjoyment. Not like any other earthly enjoyment. It's different. What do we do with it? What does it mean? You said to be more refined, more precise. What to do with it?
M. Laitman: This pleasure comes when you are connected to a few friends, and in the connection with them you get a few more specific, more precise discernments. And then you can begin to work with them, between you, with all those friends, maybe even with other strangers.
Student: You mean that we need to take this abundance and actually pass this to someone, to the friends, to the Ten?
M. Laitman: Between you, yes. First of all, between you.
Student: And that makes it a sign that it's the right work?
M. Laitman: I didn't say it was the correct work, but you should try.
Question (W Petah Tikva Center): (47:16) We learn a lot that if we serve a great, important person, that the person doesn't want reward. Just like the student who took the rabbi's suitcase and didn't want money for it, the very fact that he took the suitcase and served him was his reward. Is that pleasure of a person when he serves someone great and important, is the fact that he did not receive a reward and did not do it in order to receive a reward? But he is in the pleasure?
M. Laitman: He is feeling pleasure because he is bestowing to a greater person.
Student: Meaning we're replacing the pleasure from in order to receive to in order to bestow. But he is in pleasure.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Piter 3): (48:11) A question about faith, individual faith and general faith. The Ten receives faith, and then each receives from the Ten his individual faith, or do we connect our individual faiths to one general faith of the Ten? What's more correct?
M. Laitman: We receive general faith, and between us we divide it according to the efforts we put in.
Question (Turkiye 2): (49:00) What conditions are put before us in order to develop the correct faith so that we will be able to rise above all the deficiencies we reveal in ourselves? How to develop the correct faith? What are the conditions for doing so?
M. Laitman: Try to discover the Creator's influence on us each and every moment. This is what He truly wants to bestow to us at any moment. If we can grasp our states that He prepared it, He arranged it, He sent it to us, then it turns out He is working with us. And then I need to return to Him for each and every stage, my response.
Question (MAK 24): (50:26) There is a feeling when we hear the article all of us together, we feel like we’re breathing air. But later when we read the article alone, you have this feeling like you want to stop, you want to take breaks, maybe leave a little bit, somehow look at it from the side, and then you have these entries and exits. Why is there such a feeling?
M. Laitman: Because you're losing the support of the friends, you're leaving that state. You need, as much as possible, to be stubborn, to continue that state of connection that you currently have in the Ten.
Question (Kyiv): (51:41) You said that we need to try and respond to the Creator according to what I see and discover what's happening in the world. What does it mean that I'm giving back my response?
M. Laitman: You can say it differently. What you wish to do with what He awakens inside of you. He's doing something with you. And in your heart, in your mind, how do you respond to it?
Student: How am I supposed to respond to it?
M. Laitman: I don't know what you're feeling. It’s what the Creator is doing with you?
Student: But what's the correct answer to the Creator with all that He does to a person, whether it's good, whether it's bad? What's the correct answer?
M. Laitman: We are grateful to the Creator. You have to feel it. You have to feel it inside of you. You must be grateful to Him for that.
Question (Women Turkiye 8): (53:12) How does a person purify himself in order to be in faith and receive his soul back?
M. Laitman: One needs to try to adhere to the Creator through all the changes that pass over him, because that's what he's getting from the Creator, and he wants in each feeling, each bestowal from above to be adhered to Him.
Question (Nikolaev-Sochi): (54:15) Faith is like something that comes from another planet. What's the importance of the Creator? I know, I know how to develop that. Also, fear, it's clear somewhat, this matter. But faith, what are we building faith from? What's the closest quality to us, let's say, persistence, patience? What should we focus on to attain faith?
M. Laitman: I can't answer it. You are correct to ask this. But I can't answer it shortly and directly. Khazanesh writes in his book Faith and Confidence a measure of faith is a subtle tendency from the sensitivity of the soul. I'll try to translate it. A subtle tendency from the sensitivity of the soul. This is called faith.
Student: Can we say that faith, this quality itself, chooses a person when he's ready? And then it comes to a person, meaning I don't draw the faith, but the faith chooses me when I'm ready?
M. Laitman: True.
Question (Women MAK 98): (56:08) Why did the Creator give us to be in the corporeal body without a soul? After all, if there was no body, there would be no evil inclination.
M. Laitman: No. The evil inclination does not belong to this body, this flesh. The evil inclinations are our egoistic desires.
Question (Women Haifa 5): (56:46) The Creator gives the possibility, a gift, to be impressed from the work of my Ten of my friends. I constantly have this feeling that after the workshops and the impressions, I don't draw all the way that string I received from the Creator. I'm not doing it all the way, the gratitude to the Creator, or to somewhat awaken His bestowal upon my friends in order to bring the light.
M. Laitman: You should discuss with the friends all your impressions, and then you'll have a clearer feeling with what to go back to the Creator.
Question (Women Eng 1): (57:80) We want to say we are grateful for the lesson because all throughout we've been learning about faith. So, we are grateful that we are going in faith to the Congress to unite as one.
M. Laitman: Very well. We are happy that you will be with us.
Question (Women MAK 22): (58:43) What does it mean I thank you for returning my soul with compassion?
M. Laitman: It means to be grateful to the Creator for the fact that He is interested in advancing you through all circumstances.
Student: What is the state of death in spirituality?
M. Laitman: Separation from the Creator.
Question (Turkiye 7): (59:40) What is the complete connection with the Creator? Is it to believe above reason that everything comes from Him under all circumstances? Is that a feeling? What exactly is whole faith?
M. Laitman: Adhesion to the Creator is an open feeling from a person that in this way he receives everything that comes from the Creator. That's it. If a person opens up his vessels and everything he is receiving in his vessels, it's clear to him that this is coming from the Creator.
Question (Women Moscow 5): (1:00:32) Can gratitude automatically become an emotional feeling?
M. Laitman: How does it happen? I don’t know, but it can happen.
Question (Women MAK 104): (1:00:53) We wanted to enter the convention correctly in order to somewhat invest in our common vessel. What does each of us need to maintain in our heart?
M. Laitman: The desire to connect with everyone. Everything depends on that.
Question (Women Heb 2): (1:01:25) If we don't have a soul yet then why every morning when we wake up, we say, for returning my soul with compassion in your heart, and what is in your faith?
M. Laitman: Yes, you are correct. We still don't have a soul. but we have a record. Through these actions we wish to awaken it, just like planting a seed in the ground.
Student: I'm really yearning to come to this pleasure that is being talked about. If I perform a certain mitzvah or some good deed and I'm happy from that is that the pleasure we're talking about or is it still my will to receive?
M. Laitman: It's still your will to receive.
Question (Women MAK 86): (1:02:35) We need to learn how to use our vessels of reception in order to bestow. But in practice, we receive the correction for ourselves. What to do with the shame in such a state?
M. Laitman: Shame is good. It corrects us, and gradually it will invert us so we will not be able to receive to ourselves anymore.
Student: Does joy need to replace the shame?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women MAK): (1:03:39) What does it mean to be in the quality of bestowal, the quality of faith above reason, on the basis of reason?
M. Laitman: Faith above reason, meaning you don't take into consideration knowledge, reason, only faith above reason.
Student: What does it mean to work correctly with my ego and with that in connection with others?
M. Laitman: It's to understand clearly what your ego demands from you, to increase it, to restrict it, and to include only those qualities that are above the ego.
Question (Women MAK 25): (1:05:04) Why is the state of concealment of the Creator like a state of death, and when we're connected and are in adhesion with the Creator it's called the soul of life?
M. Laitman: Because that's how it is. Nothing redundant has been said here.
Question (Women Spain): (1:05:31) All the individual souls, do they achieve adhesion or only those who have the point in the heart awakened in them?
M. Laitman: Adhesion is only in the soul that has revealed itself in the connection with the friends and with the Creator, and through all that it feels adhesion. That's it.
Student: How will we know that we've attained a greater soul?
M. Laitman: When we feel it, we'll understand that this is how it is.
Question (Latin 4): (1:06:58) How to increase the perception of reality with the use of the will to receive, to serve the king? That which we don't want to attain within reason so we actually add reason to a person. So how to increase this desire to serve the king that's born from not wanting to receive or to be rewarded with something?
M. Laitman: I can't answer that. It would be confusing. Give it a bit more time.
Student: What does it mean to see the face of the king?
M. Laitman: What is it? In its smallest measure is the upper light that fills the vessel.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (1:08:24) We talked about faith and justifying the Creator. My question: For the longest time I've been trying to hear about certain events. Yesterday I heard my wife told me that there were four soldiers that were killed and I'm constantly asking what should my first response be to such a thing? And I have yet to find an answer. I do want to come to remain in adhesion with the Creator, to justify his actions, but what's the process in order to do that, when I hear something like this? What's the process?
M. Laitman: Don't ask me.
Student: I actually want to learn from you. I want to ask how do you respond? What is your work? How can we learn from you how to work with this?
M. Laitman: I can't respond to it. I cannot respond. If it were possible, I would have responded differently. I mean the final solution.
Student: No, at that moment when you hear about something happening, what nevertheless needs to be the inner response? It's all for the Creator. I need to justify somehow that it needs to be part of the system of the process of correction?
M. Laitman: Nevertheless, a feeling of sorrow.
Student: That the Creator is taking us through such judgments or sufferings? And after that?
M. Laitman: After that, it depends on us. For the time being, it's through suffering.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (1:10:28) From the shattering of Adam HaRishon, a process began. Adam received the desire to receive in order to receive and with time, as much as I understand, Kabbalists began to come up that started to bring the remedy or the medicine for it. And for the feeling of this evolution, there were periods where it was easier to get rid of this desire. And gradually, the doors are shutting because the world is becoming much more indifferent. Even when I came here, I feel like there was more excitement, enthusiasm, externally at the moment from what I'm feeling outside. There's indifference.
M. Laitman: How much time has passed?
Student: Since I arrived? Almost twenty years. There's this indifference. It's a process that's much more closed. No one wants to hear when you do something. Let's say I learned music, so I advanced and advanced. I reached a certain something above and maybe I stopped at some point.
So, when you study Kabbalah or something, and you feel like it's supposed to influence, impact the world in an opposite way, and I feel like it's about those who were in the Holocaust, that they were indifferent. So, what's happening outside is indifference and people are much faster closing up into each being within himself.
M. Laitman: It's true, but there's nothing we can do. It's a reaction inside of our bodies that we cannot change. That's how the body reacts. There's nothing we can do. I hope that a time will come when we will nevertheless be able to correct it.
Question (Tbilisi): (1:12:49) When I came to the wisdom of Kabbalah, I came to reveal the Creator. I wanted the Creator to help me. The Creator has been so great in my eyes that for Him I'm willing to do anything to the friends, to the world, to everyone I'm willing to bestow. And I don't need the revelation of the Creator. On the contrary, I'll be ashamed if He is revealed. I would want to hide from Him because He is so great in my eyes. How is that faith called that I describe right now?
M. Laitman: That's what we call simple faith where you don't want anything except for those possibilities the Creator is giving you in which you can help others, raise them, encourage them.
Student: Do I delight the Creator by this?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women MAK 51): (1:14:28) A question about spiritual death. Is it unavoidable at every degree or can we avoid it? Or does this actually lead us and grow in us the faith above reason?
M. Laitman: In each degree of our spiritual ascent a person must feel for a moment that he is going through death, and then the next degree opens up and he enters into it. This is necessary for development.
Question (Women MAK 26): (1:15:27) What does it mean in the state of death to take upon myself faith above reason? How do we do that?
M. Laitman: In the state itself we don't feel it, but what we consider is this connection from the Creator. That state we call a state that is similar to death. We have to get accustomed to this state and understand that our spiritual state, our spiritual life, is higher than this, much, much higher.
Student: What does it mean to accept upon myself this? What is it to accept it?
M. Laitman: To continue even though sometimes we feel less good or more good.
Question (Women MAK 70): (01:17:16) How do we not corrupt or lose the work that the Creator gives us?
M. Laitman: To incorporate in her and to try to advance. That's the answer. The answer is like the question.
Question (Asia): (1:17:42) In the prayer we say in the morning, thank you for returning my soul with compassion. Does it need to end with “to adhere to Him”?
M. Laitman: No, no. It doesn't end with that.
Student: Isn't it for the sake of that that we're doing it?
M. Laitman: It doesn't matter. You can think, but according to the words you have to say everything that's written.
Question (Women MAK 97): (1:18:37) It's written in the writings of the Kabbalists that there is whole faith and partial faith.
M. Laitman: Whole means in our entire vessels. All the vessels that are revealed in each and every given moment. I don't know what will be revealed next. But what will be revealed for now, all those vessels will be filled with the light of Hassadim. And then in this state it turns out that I'm in complete faith.
Student: What is partial faith?
M. Laitman: Partial means not all my vessels are completely full with the light of Hassadim.
Question (Women MAK 97): (1:19:51) If the Creator gave an opportunity, a gift for us to work in order to bestow and then an emptiness comes what does the work need to be on my behalf?
M. Laitman: To ask the Creator to give you additional states like that.
Question (Women Rus 10): (1:20:17) Can we say that when we connect all the points in the heart, we are growing our soul and creating a cleave for the revelation of the Creator? That we are connecting, and connecting our desires to the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Does the point in the heart have to do with faith above reason?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Is this when we attract the light from the source?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Spa): (1:21:07) The text says, I thank you for returning my soul with compassion. It's part of the prayer. So if so, when we wake up the first thing is it so that we are grateful to the Creator for living and that I have the possibility to think about Him and to return to feel that pleasure?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Do we need to learn or recognize these prayers like the prayers that we wake up with, or like Psalms?
M. Laitman: Yes. We can use it and see the result that we are getting.
Question (Women Spa): (1:22:08) It's written that the Torah shares with us the desire of the Creator, from what I understood. The Torah depicts to us the Creator's will. So, what is the faith that we need to receive from the Torah?
M. Laitman: According to what we need to attain. Faith is merely a conditional force that raises us and works like a reflected light by which we can attain whatever we want. That's it.
Question: (Women Japan): (1:23:09) We wanted to announce that in the convention on the 18th and 19th of May friends from all over the world will be gathering and students from the global course will also be gathering.
Our friends in Tokyo rented a place in order to participate with the whole world in the lessons with our Rav, and it's a great joy for us because it's been a long time since we've managed to gather and finally the Creator gave us such a possibility. We will be able to gather physically together and not just the friends that are studying for a long time but also the new students. With great gratitude to the friends who are preparing the convention and the friends who every day in the lesson study the materials of preparation for the convention so that we will band together to the Creator.
M. Laitman: Thank you all. I truly hope that you will be with us in the congress. We are waiting for you. We try to create such a connection between Petah Tikva and Japan. I will happily dedicate the time for you and we'll hear the friends there.
Student: Thank you very much, Rav. We're also preparing technically and I'm hoping everything will be okay. We'll be together and the Creator is with us.
M. Laitman: Amazing.
Question (Women Ukraine 2): (1:25:02) If we were to act in faith and bestowal as if we're already in it, will that hasten the reception of faith?
M. Laitman: Yes, it will accelerate it.
Question (Women Turkiye 5): (1:25:22) We don't exactly know what's happening lately, but we feel that something has changed. The question is how to advance. What questions to ask ourselves in order to keep our path direct and clear to the Creator?
M. Laitman: The questions are simple. How can we be connected more and more together so that the Creator will be revealed in us in the connection between us.
Question (Women French): (1:26:18) For four years now, we've been working with all our friends in the Ten to build our Kli. Some of our friends are no longer present in our meetings, but they haven't left. How can we keep up the strength, maintain the prayer, and be above our reason so that we can feel the connection with them as much as with the friends who come and develop the connection even more? And how can we avoid losing the bond we forged over the past four years?
M. Laitman: Let's be in touch in the middle of the week as well, write to me, and we'll try to create a consistent line of communication through which we'll be connected.
Special Request (Petah Tikva Center): (1:26:58) Continuing the report from Japan, there's also Shimon's going to report about Africa. For many years we didn't have physical conventions in Africa because of the conditions there, and now for the first time there will be three conventions, in Africa, in Togo, in Ivory Coast, and we really want everyone to pray because the conditions there are, they have electric power outages and the internet falls, so let's pray together for them to remain connected to us the whole time and be connected with us in this special convention, l'chaim. (Shows clip regarding convention)
Announcements: (1:32:42)
Song: (1:35:31)