The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) February 20, 2025.
Part 1: Lesson 1. Responsible For One Another on the Road to Lishma.
Reader: Welcome to the World Kabbalah Convention February 2025 on the topic of “Connecting to Lishma”. Finally, after all the preparations, we came to this special moment and here we have 2,500 friends and 550 friends who came to us from all over the world and they also deserve a big hand for the exertion. We also have many, many gatherings throughout the world. You can see it on the screens, many mirror congresses, many groups who are with us, individual friends who are connected in the Arvut system. We are in lesson number 1 from out of four lessons: “Responsible for One Another on the Road to Lishma”. A few things before we start the lesson: you can find the study material on the website conventions.kli.one. You can find it also in the study material tab in the Arvut system. Questions during the lesson, if you have questions and you're sitting in the front part of the hall, please raise your hand so the ushers with the red hats will see you. Don't put down your hand until I or Rav give you the right to speak. Anyone sitting in the back side of the hall is asked to come forward to the question stations. If you're in the Arvut system, please put up the yellow question mark. Please ask shortly. and on the lesson topic, out of great responsibility to all the thousands of participants in the Congress, if you are using simultaneous translation, please use both earbuds and lower the volume so as not to disturb the friends around you. Connection to the Internet: friends from the world Kli who are here physically in Petah Tikva and are connected also to the Arvut system, are asked to use audio mode. Friends from Israel are asked not to connect to the local Wi-Fi but use their cellular data. Please ensure right now that your phones are turned off or on silent so as not to disturb the process of the lesson.
We ask, from the bottom of the heart, from each one, to carry yourself quietly with minimum disturbances, avoid getting up unless it's an emergency. Another small announcement before we start: in every world Kabbalah convention, we tend to disconnect from daily life, from the media, from the news, to devote our entire being to the connection between us. However, we are aware of the painful day that's inflicted on the nation of Israel. We feel it deep in our hearts and specifically, now, in these fateful two days of the Congress, let's deepen our efforts, let's fill this Congress with unity, with warmth, with intention, because this, specifically, is what will bring light, abundance, and success to the people of Israel and to humanity as a whole. Let's start, lesson number one, “Responsible for One Another on the Road to Lishma”..
M. Laitman: (03:52) The lesson is the first, Responsible for One Another on the Road to Lishma. This is what we have to achieve, mutual responsibility, connection of each and every one where he thinks of his friend and this is how we meet the condition for the general Arvut, mutual responsibility and, by this, we achieve Lishma, for her sake. This means that our vessel, our world Kli, is truly as one, one heart, one man, and we are together. You will have, as always, you'll be able to ask. I'm really happy to see here, people who are familiar to me and thank you very much for coming. I hope this meeting will be the center of the world in these days and we will really attain what we want to attain which is Arvut and the Creator within the Arvut. Through it, we connect to Lishma. Lishma is connection, unity, incorporation. Let's try to be as close as we can in our hearts and continue this way. God is going to read for us, right? Then, we will think how to do it. Then, we think how to implement what is written but the main thing is to have connection in the hearts.
Reader: We'll begin with excerpt number one,
Baal HaSulam writes in the Arvut,
Reading: (08:03) Was a whole nation unanimously agreed and said, We will do and we will hear. Each member of Israel became responsible that no member of the nation will lack anything. Only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah, and not before. With this collective responsibility, each member of the nation was liberated from worrying about the needs of his own body, and could observe the mitzvah, love your friend as yourself in the fullest measure, and give all that he had to any needy person, since he no longer cared for the exisTence of his own body, as he knew for certain that he was surrounded by 600,000 loyal lovers, standing ready to provide for him.
M. Laitman: In other words, the entry into Lishma, the entry into the internality of the Torah into the wisdom of Kabbalah is done by the heart of each one of the participants. Their hearts open and they connect to one another from the bottom of the heart to the bottom of the heart until they begin to feel the common heart, the common will, the common purpose. Then, in that purpose, in that desire, they all begin to feel that they belong to one desire, the desire of the Creator and there is no distance between them whatsoever but, rather, this is how they connect among them and all of their desire, through the thoughts, through the feelings in the heart, all of their inclinations are only so we can feel each one, the common heart that is among everyone, among all the participants, men, women, among everyone. Then, in that common heart, we will begin to feel what is called the convention, the convening, the gathering which is the main thing, that all the hearts that connect become one heart. Then, we come to such a power of intensity, such intensity, such intensity in the heart. The intensity of connection that it's called, “we will do and we will hear”, meaning that each and every one sees that with his own effort to be as connected as possible with all the hearts of the friends. He begins to each one begins to care for everyone. He checks himself each time. Is he not getting too distracted, too spread out? Is he not losing contact with everyone? What is important is that he is no longer caring for himself. He cares for all the participants, all of us, all of the thousands who are here with us. We want them to be within our hearts, within our hearts, meaning that our common heart is one heart and in it we feel everyone.
Reader: Maybe we'll take some questions about what you said.
M. Laitman: There are no questions.
Reader: There's a question from the friend already. Please mention your name and the group you're coming from.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:05) What does it mean, love your friend as yourself in Lishma?
M. Laitman: We need to connect all the hearts, meaning all our desires, together. If we can do this, meaning each one doesn't think about what he has but, rather, what everyone has then such a gathering brings its participants into one desire, kind of into one man, and then we feel what we will have in the Congress, in the connection, in one heart, in one mind, in one person.
Student: How can a person delve deeper into his heart?
M. Laitman: How can a person?
Student: Delve deep into his heart?
M. Laitman: Into his heart. This is the whole problem. Usually, I know what my heart feels whereas, here, I put a condition to my heart, that I want to be connected to the hearts of others and then I have to feel what is in their heart. In this way, we can succeed in feeling the convention, the convening, the connection of our common Kli.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:57) How do we work every second of this Congress to hold 2,500 people in our hearts? Many of us struggle to do so with a Ten. How do we make the world Kli our Ten during this time?
M. Laitman: We need to think we have one thought which is connection. Convention comes from the word convening meaning connecting. In the connection that we want to establish, to build, to maintain, to sustain, we want, in this convention, to come to a state where each one reveals and holds within him all the hearts of all our participants, not just here, but everywhere in the world, who are listening or will listen and will hear us and, not necessarily, specifically, at this time, with us in different times. This is what we expect, meaning to have a connection among all the participants from heart to heart and, in this way, we will feel that we have one Kli, one vessel.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:22) Let's say, right now, we're all in this feeling of one man with one heart. We feel it. It's here. There's no other feeling between us. How do we stay in this feeling?
M. Laitman: We need to constantly strengthen it and understand that what is done within our hearts, between our hearts, is all in order to create between us a bigger and bigger Kli where everyone should find a place there. Each one will feel, besides, that he's connected to everyone meaning there is a lot of work here; emotional, intellectual. We are all committed to everyone and each one must help the others be in one heart.
Student: What's the best way that we can help the others?
M. Laitman: To think that we are all in one heart and we all want to remain this way and get stronger, among all our hearts, to the point where we don't feel that we exist, each of us for ourselves, but during the Congress, we need to try to be together.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (24:11) If the person can’t control his heart, how can we feel the connection between us?
M. Laitman: In the Congress or Convention, we want to connect to the common heart, the common heart. That common heart is powerful and great, many times more than the heart that each one has separately. This is what we need to attain. In that common, big heart, we want to attain the Creator. This is why we ask, there are such prayers, for the Creator to fill our hearts. We will feel our hearts, that we are all in one heart, together with the Creator.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (26:26) We read that we need to be responsible for the entire nation. This is a great burden. How can we carry it? How can we carry that burden?
Reader: To carry the entire nation is a great burden. How to carry that burden, if I have to carry the entire nation, that burden?
M. Laitman: We need to think about it. Think a lot. Think non-stop and then you will feel, besides the thoughts, also your feelings, how they connect and the Creator shows you the heart and the filling in that heart.
Reader: Let's go to men's questions, please.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:02) I heard that a person in the state of Lishma is related to one thought of the Creator, one desire of the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is that desire, that thought of the Creator, that one thought or desire? In what way do we...
M. Laitman: There is a certain atmosphere here. There is a certain atmosphere here into which anyone can enter, can cling to it and then our thoughts, our thoughts, desires will be much more powerful. I'll answer the question and then you'll continue. When our thoughts and actions, when our thoughts and actions govern our feelings, connect and reach a certain measure, we will feel that we have in us our inner vessel, a desire, an intention and, from that moment onward, it will be easier for us to return to that thought.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:44) How can we stay connected with the other, with a friend when the ego jumps and disconnects me from him? How to remain connected with a friend when the ego jumps? How to remain connected with a friend when the ego jumps suddenly and disconnects me from him?
M. Laitman: We need to constantly check am I disconnecting from the friend? And if I am, then how do I return to connection with him? Because to the extent of the disconnect between us, we can feel how far we are. And to the extent of our closeness, we can feel how we are moving closer to each other. And then both the sensation of the distance and the sensation of the closeness operate these feelings together to connect us. And then in the connection between us, we begin to feel what we attain through this action. We always have a movement toward minus, darkness, disconnect. And on top of it, we have the opposite movement toward connection, light, and connection.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:14) Nicola, Italia. Hello, Rav. We came here, two new students with us who wanted to ask you a question. We are Mirko and Fabrizio from the advanced class, and we wanted to ask you this question. Rav, we are grateful to you for being with us. You are a living testament to love. Because it's something that's not so simple, and you don't feel it that often, so thank you. And the question is, I remember when you did the first congress. When you went through your first congress, what is your advice to two youngsters, two novices like us on the path so we can participate, and connect, and contribute to everyone with the heart and with all the love, with everyone?
M. Laitman: What I can recommend to people who come to a convention for the first time is simply to incorporate, listen, participate as much as you can. This impression will let them in, will admit them into the spiritual world, and I'm sure it will happen to you within a few meetings we will have. Thank you. And good luck and thank you for coming.
M. Laitman: Let's see, look, women's questions in the back.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (36:56) Sending our blessings to everyone. Three of us here, and this is our family, and we're very happy. The question is, if one becomes a guarantor or responsible for the other, does it mean that one's personal needs disappear completely, or there is still room left for work, for personal effort, for personal responsibility?
M. Laitman: Although we connect together and each one wants to be a guarantor for the others, in the end, our common mutual responsibility becomes clarified. And we connect in this way. We fill our common desire. This is how we work.
Student: I can ask, how does general Arvut, mutual responsibility, collective one, how does it influence the individual freedom and individual responsibility of each person?
M. Laitman: In no way. It doesn't. We simply begin to think, feel, imagine, as a group of friends. We all connect in our hearts. So, the result is that our heart simply expands, broadens. When we advance in this way, we will feel it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:37) Greetings to everyone. My name is Kostya. I send blessings to everyone, it’s my first time at the congress, and I am both excited and nervous. I feel spiritual fear. Only the Creator and only my wife know what I had to overcome in order to be able to make it here. I can't describe it with words, those feelings, the love that I am feeling here. But my Ten has no way of making it here, so I carried it with my heart. There is another friend who lives here. I truly hope that he will come here as well. As soon as I got here, I started to incorporate with everyone, got to know everyone, looking for ways to bestow. Question: what else can I do so that my Ten that is now in the Arvut system will feel the love, the light that I felt here? Thank you.
M. Laitman: Incorporate as much as you can in what you will feel here so that this feeling will remain in you as deeply as possible. And your Ten will feel all this from your heart. You'll see. You'll see. They'll feel it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:58) Eduard from the Haifa group, the point in the heart. I am really excited to be here. I wanted to ask: which prayer do we want to elicit from the bottom of the heart so it will carry all of humanity in the direction of love your friend as yourself?
M. Laitman: To be as one man with one heart, this is what we need. Then we will feel only that person, that human being, that person who is at the congress, and we will, and we feel him. So when we feel him, it's as if we feel the whole convention.
Student: And may God keep you in the bottom of the heart.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:30) Question, Antonio from Spain. In the work of the inner discernments, we feel far or near to the Creator. I feel like I'm doing this work egoistically. I feel like I'm doing it with my own powers. How do I do this work with the powers of the friends in the Ten? To work together from the heart and not from myself? From our common heart and not from myself.
Reader: In general, he's describing a picture where he's working egoistically with his own powers. He's asking how can he work with the powers of the friends in the Ten? Not from his own heart but from the Ten's common heart.
M. Laitman: To try more and more. To feel the collective heart that exists here in the air and see to what extent it's working on you, to what extent this opens your heart to everyone.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (45:09) What action or request will make my ego agree to serve the friends and the Creator? What action or request will make my ego agree to serve the friends and the Creator?
M. Laitman: Connection. A desire to connect. Nothing besides that. You want to be close to one another out of the feeling of the heart. There are people who are not trying to come closer to one another through different actions on a daily basis. There are nations and people who are closer, and they're holding each other in this way at home, in their city, in their state, at work, and so on and so forth. We are now, together with you, starting to build a general heart, a collective heart, a common, mutual heart, and inside this heart, each one will feel, this is my home. Simply. We need to organize this collective heart in such a way that it will always be with us, constantly, and shine on us like the sun. So let's try to do it.
Student: May I continue? When I came to study I got strength from above. But after some time, He took away the strength from me. Now, I want to assume this responsibility. How to continue the strength or the power all the time?
M. Laitman: Simply care, care that this force will be with you all the time, and as much as you need this force, you will receive it.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (48:48) How should I broaden my heart so I can place all the hearts of the world Kli, or the other way around? Should I incorporate my heart in everyone else's hearts?
M. Laitman: No, you need to expand your heart.
Student: And then I will feel the common heart?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How do I broaden my heart?
M. Laitman: By wanting to be with the others in a mutual desire and mutual intention.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:40) Hello, Denis from Moscow. We build a common heart with our own strength. Without the power of the Creator, it's only our common heart. How do we invite, summon the Creator into our common heart and ask Him to sustain this heart?
M. Laitman: Excellent question. Because it depends only on the Creator. And the Creator depends only on our desire and our request. And our request depends only on being in it all the time. It turns out that only on us, and our desire, and our request, our prayer, depends to what extent we'll be able to create this common Kli. Each one will feel himself, that he himself is inside his heart. All of his desires, his actions, all of it depends only on us. I see, I already saw it today. I looked at a few friends, men, women, that have changed drastically during this time. When was our last congress?
Reader: Who remembers? When was our last congress? September. Now it's February. Six months.
M. Laitman: And the changes. The changes you will see how in these two days, that's what we have, right? Two days?
Reader: Yes, we have two days, we are in the first part of the first day, we have two intense days together.
M. Laitman: You will see how in these two days we will advance to the depth of our heart, the depth of our thoughts, and we will be able to come out to a degree that is called above reason, above our intellect. You will see.
Reader: Maybe that's an opportunity to celebrate our breakthrough. Let's sing a song together.
Song: (53:42)
Reader: We will continue reading the next excerpt. Please take your seats quickly and quietly. We are reading excerpt number two. This is from the book;
Noam Elimelech.
Reading: (57:33) One must always pray for his friend as one cannot do much for himself for one does not deliver oneself from imprisonment but when asking for his friend, he is answered quickly. Therefore, each one should pray for his friend and thus each work on the other's desire until all of them are answered. This is why it was said, Israel are Arevim, responsible and both sweet for one another where Arevim means sweetness as they sweeten for each other by the prayers they pray for one another and, by this, they are answered. The essence of the prayer is in the thought since in the thought, one's prayer can be accepted easily.
M. Laitman: Is that clear? Meaning, one must always pray for his friend because, for himself, the way we typically pray that we will feel good, that we'll have this and that, we're not able to do it. This prayer is not successful. We're not able to reach the good but for his friend, yes; what I pray for my friend, if I pray for my friend, it's certain that something good will come out of it for me. This line is extremely important. I hear from hundreds of people, maybe thousands of people already, how to sweeten life, mitigate, make it a little easier, protect themselves from worries and problems and illness. I have only one thing to recommend to them: pray for the friends. This immediately, practically immediately, influences them and fills them. That's all I have to say.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:16) When we pray for our friends, it says we can sweeten. What does it mean to sweeten for one's friend?
M. Laitman: To sweeten means to sweeten, to minimize the pain, to help, to overcome various difficulties.
Student: The very prayer when we pray for the friend, helps, not me, but the friend?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:21) MAK 113. I'm speechless. I only have gratitude for this home. When you come here, you feel people who are dear to you. Sometimes, you look at them and in your heart there is such pain that you cannot be as giving as they are. There is simply a desire to overcome the wall that is in your heart that obstructs us from connecting, obstructs us from feeling one another, our hearts. There is a desire to already be there, to break down the walls between us. I want to thank you for this home, for this feeling, for this great yearning to connect and to change, change the whole world. Thank you very much.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:00) Nikolai, from Moscow-3. You spoke about many aspects of the prayer. You answered the friend and told him that the Creator answers the prayer if the prayer is perpetual, if we implement it on ourselves. What will it look like practically, our constant prayer for the friends?
M. Laitman: If we constantly think about our mutual correction, then you will feel, pretty soon, that all your thoughts will revolve around the general correction, the general desire, the general intention. Then you will feel in it how all your thoughts and feelings materialize in it. This is the most important thing.
Student: I remember that, in the previous Congress, a friend from Moscow asked you, what do you ask for? Then, you gave us this prayer that, Creator unite all of Bnei Baruch into one heart, fill this heart with love, and pass this love to the whole world. We, in our Ten, to this day, we hold on to this prayer. The question is, are we really holding on to that same prayer or can you give us another, maybe, phrasing for a prayer for this Congress?
M. Laitman: I think that I'm incorporated in the hopes of your hearts. I'm very happy that in this Congress we have, we have present, more men. It, nevertheless, testifies to its actual power. Let's simply continue our Congress based on our topic and eventually we'll reach a state where you will truly begin to feel how each heart is being filled with all, from all the other hearts.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:38) Annie from Taiwan, from the Chinese group. I am really happy, excited to come to the Congress, connecting to Lishma, to see you and the whole world Kli, all the friends. I had a quarrel with a friend in my Ten, in my group and I feel a shattering in my heart. She says that I am in her heart. I too say that she is in my heart. I want to tell my friend, I love you. I love you. World Kli. I love you. Dear friends.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:45) This is a question from my Ten in Holland. The essence of the prayer is in the thought. How can we help each other to be in this thought, to be in this sensation of the prayer?
M. Laitman: I'll tell you, the thought has no limit. There's no distance. If I want my friend to feel my thought, I simply need to hold that thought in me and think of my friend and the more I will hold it, the more I will work on him and he will eventually feel that I'm working on him. Hence, it's very important for us to think of the friends, how much we wish to be together, and then everything that's in our hearts will be realized.
Student: This is one of the greatest gatherings that we've had in a very long time. Like you said, there's many men here. There's a big power. What can we do? How can we push more? I know we still have time.
Reader: How can we push a little more into this gathering? There are many men here, many friends, all the huge gatherings. How can we push a little more in this gathering?
M. Laitman: I think that in this Congress, which is only, what, two days? We can push many things, push forward many things. The most important are the feelings that will pass from one heart to another and we'll succeed in this way. You may not think how advanced you are, how successful you are, how the Creator is taking you from one state to the next on the ladder of degrees but just understand that I, for one, am very happy about your advancement. I understand that you are like children, young kids who want to attain everything and quickly but everything will come, it's time. Your future is already prepared so please be in joy. Try to be close to one another in your hearts and you'll understand how much you must care for one another because each one here is a friend in his heart to my heart. That's what we need to think about and we shouldn't forget it. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:15) I haven't seen you in a long time. I'll ask in Spanish. The friend asked, there was great work in the heart of all my friends. How do we combine the patience we need along the way with the necessity, with the urgency of reaching the goal? We feel the urgency to reach the Creator and we know that, with you, we need patience, just like you taught us. I feel the desire of all the friends to just explode and reach the goal right now. What are we doing? We have the patience and love. You tell us.
M. Laitman: I thank you. I hope that in the coming congresses, one of them we'll have closer to your home.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:58) A friend from Turkeiy 4. How do we maintain the right clean intention if I pray for the society knowing that it will be good for me?
Reader: How to maintain the right clean intention if I pray for a friend knowing that it will be good for me?
M. Laitman: Yes, it doesn't matter. Even if that intention still includes something toward myself, nevertheless it works. Continue this way for the time being, and soon you will feel that you can't let go of your prayer. You can't leave the prayer aimed at your heart, but it has to be mutual between you and the friend.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:27) Hi Rav, Stas from Toronto, Canada. We talked a lot about feelings today like never before. And we also experience those feelings right now. Going through all the friends, ending up in my heart. Two questions. One is, is it correct, is this the light of the Creator that we are feeling? And if it is, how can we turn it into returning Ohr Hozer toward the Creator?
M. Laitman: Simply think that typically we pray according to the order of our prayers in the prayer book, that we are grateful to Him, that we pray for Him, and that we want Him to be closer to us each time, more and more.
Student: I understand, thank you very much.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:19) Hello dear teacher, I'm Sveta from Ten MAK62, and we have a question. How through praying for each other can we feel more deeply the connection between us and strengthen it?
M. Laitman: And with this you are also thinking about the group that includes the people you wish to pray for.
Student: Yes. But what happens is that there is disconnection, and everything kind of disperses. How do we not get out? How do we constantly stay in this prayer?
M. Laitman: I advise you not to think of it. Rather, the moment you feel that there is this disconnection, you immediately return to your connection.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:00) I'm Mauricio from Brazil. To reach Lishma, we need to love the other. Love your friend as yourself. That's the only way to reach Lishma. Is it the only way to reach Lishma?
M. Laitman: Again. Repeat.
Student: In order to reach Lishma, for her sake, we have to love the other as we love ourselves. So, what is love your neighbor or love your friend as yourself in the spiritual world? What is love your neighbor as yourself?
Reader: To reach the soul, we have to love others. Is this the way to reach Lishma?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Reader: So, what is love your neighbor as yourself or your friend as yourself in the spiritual world?
M. Laitman: In the spiritual world, love your friend as yourself in the single feeling that he has in his heart and I have in my heart. This is called love between two people.
Reader: If I understand the question, he is asking, what is as yourself if we are already in the spiritual world and we are incorporated in the other, so what is as yourself?
M. Laitman: The way I like, I love myself in this world and with the same feeling I feel the other, then he is inside my heart. This is called love your friend as yourself.
Reader: Dear friends, there are many more questions, but we have to move to the next part. We have a social time now. So, before we move on to the social time, I want to ask you Rav, what is the most important thing to take from this lesson whose topic is responsible for one another on the way to Lishma?
M. Laitman: This first lesson was aimed at bringing our hearts closer to one another and everyone to everyone. And I think that this concern, care for connecting the hearts, for bringing them closer exists in general in those who are here. But we have great work ahead of us. What are we doing today?
Reader: Now we will continue into the social time, to a workshop where we talk about life in a Ten. Afterwards, we’ll have our break, meal, and another lesson. We’ll be here in the second lesson with you, that will be in the afternoon. In the meantime, we will sing a song.
The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) February 20, 2025.
Part 1: Lesson 1. Responsible For One Another on the Road to Lishma.
Reader: Welcome to the World Kabbalah Convention February 2025 on the topic of “Connecting to Lishma”. Finally, after all the preparations, we came to this special moment and here we have 2,500 friends and 550 friends who came to us from all over the world and they also deserve a big hand for the exertion. We also have many, many gatherings throughout the world. You can see it on the screens, many mirror congresses, many groups who are with us, individual friends who are connected in the Arvut system. We are in lesson number 1 from out of four lessons: “Responsible for One Another on the Road to Lishma”. A few things before we start the lesson: you can find the study material on the website conventions.kli.one. You can find it also in the study material tab in the Arvut system. Questions during the lesson, if you have questions and you're sitting in the front part of the hall, please raise your hand so the ushers with the red hats will see you. Don't put down your hand until I or Rav give you the right to speak. Anyone sitting in the back side of the hall is asked to come forward to the question stations. If you're in the Arvut system, please put up the yellow question mark. Please ask shortly. and on the lesson topic, out of great responsibility to all the thousands of participants in the Congress, if you are using simultaneous translation, please use both earbuds and lower the volume so as not to disturb the friends around you. Connection to the Internet: friends from the world Kli who are here physically in Petah Tikva and are connected also to the Arvut system, are asked to use audio mode. Friends from Israel are asked not to connect to the local Wi-Fi but use their cellular data. Please ensure right now that your phones are turned off or on silent so as not to disturb the process of the lesson.
We ask, from the bottom of the heart, from each one, to carry yourself quietly with minimum disturbances, avoid getting up unless it's an emergency. Another small announcement before we start: in every world Kabbalah convention, we tend to disconnect from daily life, from the media, from the news, to devote our entire being to the connection between us. However, we are aware of the painful day that's inflicted on the nation of Israel. We feel it deep in our hearts and specifically, now, in these fateful two days of the Congress, let's deepen our efforts, let's fill this Congress with unity, with warmth, with intention, because this, specifically, is what will bring light, abundance, and success to the people of Israel and to humanity as a whole. Let's start, lesson number one, “Responsible for One Another on the Road to Lishma”..
M. Laitman: (03:52) The lesson is the first, Responsible for One Another on the Road to Lishma. This is what we have to achieve, mutual responsibility, connection of each and every one where he thinks of his friend and this is how we meet the condition for the general Arvut, mutual responsibility and, by this, we achieve Lishma, for her sake. This means that our vessel, our world Kli, is truly as one, one heart, one man, and we are together. You will have, as always, you'll be able to ask. I'm really happy to see here, people who are familiar to me and thank you very much for coming. I hope this meeting will be the center of the world in these days and we will really attain what we want to attain which is Arvut and the Creator within the Arvut. Through it, we connect to Lishma. Lishma is connection, unity, incorporation. Let's try to be as close as we can in our hearts and continue this way. God is going to read for us, right? Then, we will think how to do it. Then, we think how to implement what is written but the main thing is to have connection in the hearts.
Reader: We'll begin with excerpt number one,
Baal HaSulam writes in the Arvut,
Reading: (08:03) Was a whole nation unanimously agreed and said, We will do and we will hear. Each member of Israel became responsible that no member of the nation will lack anything. Only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah, and not before. With this collective responsibility, each member of the nation was liberated from worrying about the needs of his own body, and could observe the mitzvah, love your friend as yourself in the fullest measure, and give all that he had to any needy person, since he no longer cared for the existence of his own body, as he knew for certain that he was surrounded by 600,000 loyal lovers, standing ready to provide for him.
M. Laitman: In other words, the entry into Lishma, the entry into the internality of the Torah into the wisdom of Kabbalah is done by the heart of each one of the participants. Their hearts open and they connect to one another from the bottom of the heart to the bottom of the heart until they begin to feel the common heart, the common will, the common purpose. Then, in that purpose, in that desire, they all begin to feel that they belong to one desire, the desire of the Creator and there is no distance between them whatsoever but, rather, this is how they connect among them and all of their desire, through the thoughts, through the feelings in the heart, all of their inclinations are only so we can feel each one, the common heart that is among everyone, among all the participants, men, women, among everyone. Then, in that common heart, we will begin to feel what is called the convention, the convening, the gathering which is the main thing, that all the hearts that connect become one heart. Then, we come to such a power of intensity, such intensity, such intensity in the heart. The intensity of connection that it's called, “we will do and we will hear”, meaning that each and every one sees that with his own effort to be as connected as possible with all the hearts of the friends. He begins to each one begins to care for everyone. He checks himself each time. Is he not getting too distracted, too spread out? Is he not losing contact with everyone? What is important is that he is no longer caring for himself. He cares for all the participants, all of us, all of the thousands who are here with us. We want them to be within our hearts, within our hearts, meaning that our common heart is one heart and in it we feel everyone.
Reader: Maybe we'll take some questions about what you said.
M. Laitman: There are no questions.
Reader: There's a question from the friend already. Please mention your name and the group you're coming from.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:05) What does it mean, love your friend as yourself in Lishma?
M. Laitman: We need to connect all the hearts, meaning all our desires, together. If we can do this, meaning each one doesn't think about what he has but, rather, what everyone has then such a gathering brings its participants into one desire, kind of into one man, and then we feel what we will have in the Congress, in the connection, in one heart, in one mind, in one person.
Student: How can a person delve deeper into his heart?
M. Laitman: How can a person?
Student: Delve deep into his heart?
M. Laitman: Into his heart. This is the whole problem. Usually, I know what my heart feels whereas, here, I put a condition to my heart, that I want to be connected to the hearts of others and then I have to feel what is in their heart. In this way, we can succeed in feeling the convention, the convening, the connection of our common Kli.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:57) How do we work every second of this Congress to hold 2,500 people in our hearts? Many of us struggle to do so with a Ten. How do we make the world Kli our Ten during this time?
M. Laitman: We need to think we have one thought which is connection. Convention comes from the word convening meaning connecting. In the connection that we want to establish, to build, to maintain, to sustain, we want, in this convention, to come to a state where each one reveals and holds within him all the hearts of all our participants, not just here, but everywhere in the world, who are listening or will listen and will hear us and, not necessarily, specifically, at this time, with us in different times. This is what we expect, meaning to have a connection among all the participants from heart to heart and, in this way, we will feel that we have one Kli, one vessel.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:22) Let's say, right now, we're all in this feeling of one man with one heart. We feel it. It's here. There's no other feeling between us. How do we stay in this feeling?
M. Laitman: We need to constantly strengthen it and understand that what is done within our hearts, between our hearts, is all in order to create between us a bigger and bigger Kli where everyone should find a place there. Each one will feel, besides, that he's connected to everyone meaning there is a lot of work here; emotional, intellectual. We are all committed to everyone and each one must help the others be in one heart.
Student: What's the best way that we can help the others?
M. Laitman: To think that we are all in one heart and we all want to remain this way and get stronger, among all our hearts, to the point where we don't feel that we exist, each of us for ourselves, but during the Congress, we need to try to be together.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (24:11) If the person can’t control his heart, how can we feel the connection between us?
M. Laitman: In the Congress or Convention, we want to connect to the common heart, the common heart. That common heart is powerful and great, many times more than the heart that each one has separately. This is what we need to attain. In that common, big heart, we want to attain the Creator. This is why we ask, there are such prayers, for the Creator to fill our hearts. We will feel our hearts, that we are all in one heart, together with the Creator.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (26:26) We read that we need to be responsible for the entire nation. This is a great burden. How can we carry it? How can we carry that burden?
Reader: To carry the entire nation is a great burden. How to carry that burden, if I have to carry the entire nation, that burden?
M. Laitman: We need to think about it. Think a lot. Think non-stop and then you will feel, besides the thoughts, also your feelings, how they connect and the Creator shows you the heart and the filling in that heart.
Reader: Let's go to men's questions, please.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:02) I heard that a person in the state of Lishma is related to one thought of the Creator, one desire of the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is that desire, that thought of the Creator, that one thought or desire? In what way do we...
M. Laitman: There is a certain atmosphere here. There is a certain atmosphere here into which anyone can enter, can cling to it and then our thoughts, our thoughts, desires will be much more powerful. I'll answer the question and then you'll continue. When our thoughts and actions, when our thoughts and actions govern our feelings, connect and reach a certain measure, we will feel that we have in us our inner vessel, a desire, an intention and, from that moment onward, it will be easier for us to return to that thought.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:44) How can we stay connected with the other, with a friend when the ego jumps and disconnects me from him? How to remain connected with a friend when the ego jumps? How to remain connected with a friend when the ego jumps suddenly and disconnects me from him?
M. Laitman: We need to constantly check am I disconnecting from the friend? And if I am, then how do I return to connection with him? Because to the extent of the disconnect between us, we can feel how far we are. And to the extent of our closeness, we can feel how we are moving closer to each other. And then both the sensation of the distance and the sensation of the closeness operate these feelings together to connect us. And then in the connection between us, we begin to feel what we attain through this action. We always have a movement toward minus, darkness, disconnect. And on top of it, we have the opposite movement toward connection, light, and connection.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:14) Nicola, Italia. Hello, Rav. We came here, two new students with us who wanted to ask you a question. We are Mirko and Fabrizio from the advanced class, and we wanted to ask you this question. Rav, we are grateful to you for being with us. You are a living testament to love. Because it's something that's not so simple, and you don't feel it that often, so thank you. And the question is, I remember when you did the first congress. When you went through your first congress, what is your advice to two youngsters, two novices like us on the path so we can participate, and connect, and contribute to everyone with the heart and with all the love, with everyone?
M. Laitman: What I can recommend to people who come to a convention for the first time is simply to incorporate, listen, participate as much as you can. This impression will let them in, will admit them into the spiritual world, and I'm sure it will happen to you within a few meetings we will have. Thank you. And good luck and thank you for coming.
M. Laitman: Let's see, look, women's questions in the back.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (36:56) Sending our blessings to everyone. Three of us here, and this is our family, and we're very happy. The question is, if one becomes a guarantor or responsible for the other, does it mean that one's personal needs disappear completely, or there is still room left for work, for personal effort, for personal responsibility?
M. Laitman: Although we connect together and each one wants to be a guarantor for the others, in the end, our common mutual responsibility becomes clarified. And we connect in this way. We fill our common desire. This is how we work.
Student: I can ask, how does general Arvut, mutual responsibility, collective one, how does it influence the individual freedom and individual responsibility of each person?
M. Laitman: In no way. It doesn't. We simply begin to think, feel, imagine, as a group of friends. We all connect in our hearts. So, the result is that our heart simply expands, broadens. When we advance in this way, we will feel it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:37) Greetings to everyone. My name is Kostya. I send blessings to everyone, it’s my first time at the congress, and I am both excited and nervous. I feel spiritual fear. Only the Creator and only my wife know what I had to overcome in order to be able to make it here. I can't describe it with words, those feelings, the love that I am feeling here. But my Ten has no way of making it here, so I carried it with my heart. There is another friend who lives here. I truly hope that he will come here as well. As soon as I got here, I started to incorporate with everyone, got to know everyone, looking for ways to bestow. Question: what else can I do so that my Ten that is now in the Arvut system will feel the love, the light that I felt here? Thank you.
M. Laitman: Incorporate as much as you can in what you will feel here so that this feeling will remain in you as deeply as possible. And your Ten will feel all this from your heart. You'll see. You'll see. They'll feel it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:58) Eduard from the Haifa group, the point in the heart. I am really excited to be here. I wanted to ask: which prayer do we want to elicit from the bottom of the heart so it will carry all of humanity in the direction of love your friend as yourself?
M. Laitman: To be as one man with one heart, this is what we need. Then we will feel only that person, that human being, that person who is at the congress, and we will, and we feel him. So when we feel him, it's as if we feel the whole convention.
Student: And may God keep you in the bottom of the heart.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:30) Question, Antonio from Spain. In the work of the inner discernments, we feel far or near to the Creator. I feel like I'm doing this work egoistically. I feel like I'm doing it with my own powers. How do I do this work with the powers of the friends in the Ten? To work together from the heart and not from myself? From our common heart and not from myself.
Reader: In general, he's describing a picture where he's working egoistically with his own powers. He's asking how can he work with the powers of the friends in the Ten? Not from his own heart but from the Ten's common heart.
M. Laitman: To try more and more. To feel the collective heart that exists here in the air and see to what extent it's working on you, to what extent this opens your heart to everyone.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (45:09) What action or request will make my ego agree to serve the friends and the Creator? What action or request will make my ego agree to serve the friends and the Creator?
M. Laitman: Connection. A desire to connect. Nothing besides that. You want to be close to one another out of the feeling of the heart. There are people who are not trying to come closer to one another through different actions on a daily basis. There are nations and people who are closer, and they're holding each other in this way at home, in their city, in their state, at work, and so on and so forth. We are now, together with you, starting to build a general heart, a collective heart, a common, mutual heart, and inside this heart, each one will feel, this is my home. Simply. We need to organize this collective heart in such a way that it will always be with us, constantly, and shine on us like the sun. So let's try to do it.
Student: May I continue? When I came to study I got strength from above. But after some time, He took away the strength from me. Now, I want to assume this responsibility. How to continue the strength or the power all the time?
M. Laitman: Simply care, care that this force will be with you all the time, and as much as you need this force, you will receive it.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (48:48) How should I broaden my heart so I can place all the hearts of the world Kli, or the other way around? Should I incorporate my heart in everyone else's hearts?
M. Laitman: No, you need to expand your heart.
Student: And then I will feel the common heart?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How do I broaden my heart?
M. Laitman: By wanting to be with the others in a mutual desire and mutual intention.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:40) Hello, Denis from Moscow. We build a common heart with our own strength. Without the power of the Creator, it's only our common heart. How do we invite, summon the Creator into our common heart and ask Him to sustain this heart?
M. Laitman: Excellent question. Because it depends only on the Creator. And the Creator depends only on our desire and our request. And our request depends only on being in it all the time. It turns out that only on us, and our desire, and our request, our prayer, depends to what extent we'll be able to create this common Kli. Each one will feel himself, that he himself is inside his heart. All of his desires, his actions, all of it depends only on us. I see, I already saw it today. I looked at a few friends, men, women, that have changed drastically during this time. When was our last congress?
Reader: Who remembers? When was our last congress? September. Now it's February. Six months.
M. Laitman: And the changes. The changes you will see how in these two days, that's what we have, right? Two days?
Reader: Yes, we have two days, we are in the first part of the first day, we have two intense days together.
M. Laitman: You will see how in these two days we will advance to the depth of our heart, the depth of our thoughts, and we will be able to come out to a degree that is called above reason, above our intellect. You will see.
Reader: Maybe that's an opportunity to celebrate our breakthrough. Let's sing a song together.
Song: (53:42)
Reader: We will continue reading the next excerpt. Please take your seats quickly and quietly. We are reading excerpt number two. This is from the book;
Noam Elimelech.
Reading: (57:33) One must always pray for his friend as one cannot do much for himself for one does not deliver oneself from imprisonment but when asking for his friend, he is answered quickly. Therefore, each one should pray for his friend and thus each work on the other's desire until all of them are answered. This is why it was said, Israel are Arevim, responsible and both sweet for one another where Arevim means sweetness as they sweeten for each other by the prayers they pray for one another and, by this, they are answered. The essence of the prayer is in the thought since in the thought, one's prayer can be accepted easily.
M. Laitman: Is that clear? Meaning, one must always pray for his friend because, for himself, the way we typically pray that we will feel good, that we'll have this and that, we're not able to do it. This prayer is not successful. We're not able to reach the good but for his friend, yes; what I pray for my friend, if I pray for my friend, it's certain that something good will come out of it for me. This line is extremely important. I hear from hundreds of people, maybe thousands of people already, how to sweeten life, mitigate, make it a little easier, protect themselves from worries and problems and illness. I have only one thing to recommend to them: pray for the friends. This immediately, practically immediately, influences them and fills them. That's all I have to say.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:16) When we pray for our friends, it says we can sweeten. What does it mean to sweeten for one's friend?
M. Laitman: To sweeten means to sweeten, to minimize the pain, to help, to overcome various difficulties.
Student: The very prayer when we pray for the friend, helps, not me, but the friend?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:21) MAK 113. I'm speechless. I only have gratitude for this home. When you come here, you feel people who are dear to you. Sometimes, you look at them and in your heart there is such pain that you cannot be as giving as they are. There is simply a desire to overcome the wall that is in your heart that obstructs us from connecting, obstructs us from feeling one another, our hearts. There is a desire to already be there, to break down the walls between us. I want to thank you for this home, for this feeling, for this great yearning to connect and to change, change the whole world. Thank you very much.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:00) Nikolai, from Moscow-3. You spoke about many aspects of the prayer. You answered the friend and told him that the Creator answers the prayer if the prayer is perpetual, if we implement it on ourselves. What will it look like practically, our constant prayer for the friends?
M. Laitman: If we constantly think about our mutual correction, then you will feel, pretty soon, that all your thoughts will revolve around the general correction, the general desire, the general intention. Then you will feel in it how all your thoughts and feelings materialize in it. This is the most important thing.
Student: I remember that, in the previous Congress, a friend from Moscow asked you, what do you ask for? Then, you gave us this prayer that, Creator unite all of Bnei Baruch into one heart, fill this heart with love, and pass this love to the whole world. We, in our Ten, to this day, we hold on to this prayer. The question is, are we really holding on to that same prayer or can you give us another, maybe, phrasing for a prayer for this Congress?
M. Laitman: I think that I'm incorporated in the hopes of your hearts. I'm very happy that in this Congress we have, we have present, more men. It, nevertheless, testifies to its actual power. Let's simply continue our Congress based on our topic and eventually we'll reach a state where you will truly begin to feel how each heart is being filled with all, from all the other hearts.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:38) Annie from Taiwan, from the Chinese group. I am really happy, excited to come to the Congress, connecting to Lishma, to see you and the whole world Kli, all the friends. I had a quarrel with a friend in my Ten, in my group and I feel a shattering in my heart. She says that I am in her heart. I too say that she is in my heart. I want to tell my friend, I love you. I love you. World Kli. I love you. Dear friends.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:45) This is a question from my Ten in Holland. The essence of the prayer is in the thought. How can we help each other to be in this thought, to be in this sensation of the prayer?
M. Laitman: I'll tell you, the thought has no limit. There's no distance. If I want my friend to feel my thought, I simply need to hold that thought in me and think of my friend and the more I will hold it, the more I will work on him and he will eventually feel that I'm working on him. Hence, it's very important for us to think of the friends, how much we wish to be together, and then everything that's in our hearts will be realized.
Student: This is one of the greatest gatherings that we've had in a very long time. Like you said, there's many men here. There's a big power. What can we do? How can we push more? I know we still have time.
Reader: How can we push a little more into this gathering? There are many men here, many friends, all the huge gatherings. How can we push a little more in this gathering?
M. Laitman: I think that in this Congress, which is only, what, two days? We can push many things, push forward many things. The most important are the feelings that will pass from one heart to another and we'll succeed in this way. You may not think how advanced you are, how successful you are, how the Creator is taking you from one state to the next on the ladder of degrees but just understand that I, for one, am very happy about your advancement. I understand that you are like children, young kids who want to attain everything and quickly but everything will come, it's time. Your future is already prepared so please be in joy. Try to be close to one another in your hearts and you'll understand how much you must care for one another because each one here is a friend in his heart to my heart. That's what we need to think about and we shouldn't forget it. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:15) I haven't seen you in a long time. I'll ask in Spanish. The friend asked, there was great work in the heart of all my friends. How do we combine the patience we need along the way with the necessity, with the urgency of reaching the goal? We feel the urgency to reach the Creator and we know that, with you, we need patience, just like you taught us. I feel the desire of all the friends to just explode and reach the goal right now. What are we doing? We have the patience and love. You tell us.
M. Laitman: I thank you. I hope that in the coming congresses, one of them we'll have closer to your home.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:58) A friend from Turkeiy 4. How do we maintain the right clean intention if I pray for the society knowing that it will be good for me?
Reader: How to maintain the right clean intention if I pray for a friend knowing that it will be good for me?
M. Laitman: Yes, it doesn't matter. Even if that intention still includes something toward myself, nevertheless it works. Continue this way for the time being, and soon you will feel that you can't let go of your prayer. You can't leave the prayer aimed at your heart, but it has to be mutual between you and the friend.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:27) Hi Rav, Stas from Toronto, Canada. We talked a lot about feelings today like never before. And we also experience those feelings right now. Going through all the friends, ending up in my heart. Two questions. One is, is it correct, is this the light of the Creator that we are feeling? And if it is, how can we turn it into returning Ohr Hozer toward the Creator?
M. Laitman: Simply think that typically we pray according to the order of our prayers in the prayer book, that we are grateful to Him, that we pray for Him, and that we want Him to be closer to us each time, more and more.
Student: I understand, thank you very much.
Question (Women Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:19) Hello dear teacher, I'm Sveta from Ten MAK62, and we have a question. How through praying for each other can we feel more deeply the connection between us and strengthen it?
M. Laitman: And with this you are also thinking about the group that includes the people you wish to pray for.
Student: Yes. But what happens is that there is disconnection, and everything kind of disperses. How do we not get out? How do we constantly stay in this prayer?
M. Laitman: I advise you not to think of it. Rather, the moment you feel that there is this disconnection, you immediately return to your connection.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:00) I'm Mauricio from Brazil. To reach Lishma, we need to love the other. Love your friend as yourself. That's the only way to reach Lishma. Is it the only way to reach Lishma?
M. Laitman: Again. Repeat.
Student: In order to reach Lishma, for her sake, we have to love the other as we love ourselves. So, what is love your neighbor or love your friend as yourself in the spiritual world? What is love your neighbor as yourself?
Reader: To reach the soul, we have to love others. Is this the way to reach Lishma?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Reader: So, what is love your neighbor as yourself or your friend as yourself in the spiritual world?
M. Laitman: In the spiritual world, love your friend as yourself in the single feeling that he has in his heart and I have in my heart. This is called love between two people.
Reader: If I understand the question, he is asking, what is as yourself if we are already in the spiritual world and we are incorporated in the other, so what is as yourself?
M. Laitman: The way I like, I love myself in this world and with the same feeling I feel the other, then he is inside my heart. This is called love your friend as yourself.
Reader: Dear friends, there are many more questions, but we have to move to the next part. We have a social time now. So, before we move on to the social time, I want to ask you Rav, what is the most important thing to take from this lesson whose topic is responsible for one another on the way to Lishma?
M. Laitman: This first lesson was aimed at bringing our hearts closer to one another and everyone to everyone. And I think that this concern, care for connecting the hearts, for bringing them closer exists in general in those who are here. But we have great work ahead of us. What are we doing today?
Reader: Now we will continue into the social time, to a workshop where we talk about life in a Ten. Afterwards, we’ll have our break, meal, and another lesson. We’ll be here in the second lesson with you, that will be in the afternoon. In the meantime, we will sing a song.