https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/cBDdLc83

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

Daily Lesson (Afternoon) November 13, 2024                                                         

Part 1: Rabash. The Act Is What Decides, Record 581.

Reader: Hello, we are studying from the writings of Rabash, Article 581, “The Act is What Decides”. You can find the article in SvivaTova and the Arvut systems. “The Act is What Decides”. 

M. Laitman: What can I say? What can I tell you? Let's start reading, and then the friends will ask questions. 

581. The Act is What Decides.

Reading: (00:43) It is written in The Zohar, VaYera, Why at the oaks of Mamre and not elsewhere? It replies that it is because he advised him about his circumcision, since when the Creator told Abraham to circumcise himself, Abraham consulted his friends. Aner told him, “You are more than ninety; you will torment yourself.” Mamre told him, “Remember the day when the Chaldeans threw you in the furnace of fire, and that hunger that the world had undergone … and those kings whom your men chased and whom you struck, and how He saved you from them all … Arise, do as your Master commands.”

We should understand the question people ask, How can the Creator tell Abraham to circumcise himself and he goes to ask for advice whether he should obey the Creator; can this be?

We should also ask, Why is his advice more than the advice that Aner gave him? After all, both advised him. Also, according to what is explained (in Midrash Rabbah 42), Aner and Eshkol advised him not to circumcise himself, and Mamre advised him to circumcise himself, so why did he accept Mamre’s advice, since he was one against two?

We can interpret that the Creator telling him to circumcise himself pertains to his body, so it will observe the commandment of the Creator. Since man has a good inclination and an evil inclination, he must see that the body agrees to do the Mitzva [commandment].

This is considered that he went to ask his friends, meaning the good inclination and the evil inclination. Thus, when one says, “It is all mine,” and the other says, “It is all mine,” how can one decide, meaning that each one makes him think that he is right. Thus, he needed an advice as to how to defeat the evil inclination because both made him understand that from their perspective, that they were speaking to the point.

We can understand this according to what is explained, “One should always see oneself as half guilty and half innocent; if he performs one Mitzva, etc., if he performs one transgression,” etc. (Kidushin 40). Thus, if it is half and half, who can decide?

The answer is “Do!” That is, he cannot decide unless by acting, and not with the intellect. In other words, whatever he does, it later becomes revealed to the intellect whether or not it is a good deed. This is the meaning of Mamre giving him an advice about the circumcision, when he said, “Arise, do as your Master commands,” meaning act, and then you will understand that the good inclination is right, and not the evil inclination. It follows that the advice pertains to the doing.

M. Laitman: Yes, this is only a short article, but it is very full of content. 

Question (Women MAK): (06:17) On what do we base our actions so as not to rely on the intellect?  The intellect comes only after the act.  

M. Laitman: We address the Creator with the desire to find out what exactly He wants from us, what He wants, and then we try to follow His desire. 

Student: If a person needs to be half-innocent, half-guilty, so that it turns out only in that form when we are similar to the Creator, can we tip the scale to the good? 

M. Laitman: Of course. 

Question (Women MAK): (07:20) What is that free spiritual action of Israel to realize the commandment of the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Be similar to the Creator. 

Student: And what is the right work on the disturbances to bestow to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: The correct work is not to listen to the ego, but to follow what is welcome in the eyes of the Creator.

Question (Women MAK): (08:09) How do we need to act? We live in the world of action. How do we need to act so as not to pass evil through us, but only goodness? 

M. Laitman: It is only to observe the commandments. There is nothing else we need.

Following the Creator's desire is considered a Mitzvah, a commandment. By following the desire of the Creator, we distance ourselves from the Creator and transition to the good. 

Question (Kyiv): (09:00) You said that in turning to the Creator, it is for Him to show us how to act properly, and then you try to carry out what He is telling you to do or recommending. How do we receive this recommendation from Him correctly? 

M. Laitman: Very simple. Just like we are between us, it is the same with the Creator. It is even closer to the Creator. So, I want to follow the Creator's every desire, if it is completely clear to me. This is what we think about. This is what we want to know, and then how to observe. 

Student: As the Creator brings His desire to a person or to a kabbalist, it is clear that this is coming from the Creator to me.

M. Laitman: We ask the Creator a question, then in this channel we feel an answer from Him.

Student: If I build such a request properly so that in the channel I feel His answer, it wouldn't just be this question in this open space. 

M. Laitman: Ask, and you will feel that He is giving you an answer. 

Student: And this is done and built through the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Yes, through the Ten.

Student: What is the response that comes from the Creator? How does a Kabbalist feel it? 

M. Laitman: He feels this as a response to his question in a very clear way. It kind of speaks in him. 

Question (Turkiye 2): (11:29): At the end of the article, it is written to see what response he gets. If the Creator does everything, then what am I supposed to do? 

M. Laitman: You have to perform actions that will compel the Creator to help you. 

Question (MAK 11): (12:10) In order to reach that next degree, we need to depict it to ourselves. It is illuminated to us by the Creator. We don't know how to depict it to ourselves. 

M. Laitman: You don't have to suffer and imagine. You just have to know at the present moment what the Creator wants and do it. and then every time on every degree. 

Question (Women MAK 45): (12:54) If you performed an action and then you were mistaken, what does that mean? 

M. Laitman: So, he made a mistake. We can ask the Creator and explain to him. I was wrong. I made a bad action, maybe a horrible one, against the Creator, but I found out about it and now I'm in big sorrow. Then this action is removed, as if you never performed it in the first place. 

Question (Women MAK 25): (13:57) In the middle of the article, it's written that a person has the good inclination and the evil inclination, and he needs to examine whether the body agrees to perform that commandment. In the spiritual path, we learn that the body, our evil inclination, is never in agreement. So, what does that mean? What does that offer to receive some kind of agreement from Him? 

M. Laitman: We have to try to perform a certain action, as if you try to perform a commandment, and feel to what extent it's against the Creation. Then distance yourself from this and find the strength to ask the Creator to help you perform the same action. 

Student: In that effort, we should never identify with what the evil inclination tells us? We should always be a little bit to the side and not believe him? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Italy): (15:24) We want to be in the desire of the Creator, but we have two sides, right and wrong. We need to consider them in the best way, without the shame. What should we do to influence it in the best way? 

M. Laitman: Simply to depict to ourselves that we are in front of the Creator. Imagine that we are before the Creator, face to face, and in such a way, I want to do what He demands from me and do it. 

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (16:38) The article says a person needs to do whatever it takes and then he sees that the good inclination is right. Let's say I chose the wrong side, and only then I realized that the good side is right. Is it possible for us to minimize the harm that is done?

M. Laitman: Yes, of course. And not just in the mind, and not just now, but after a few days or years. It's all given for correction. 

Student: Both the good and bad inclinations are right in front of my eyes and I can clearly see them. Is it possible for me to choose the good inclination without doing the transgression, without doing the sin?

M. Laitman: Of course you can.

Student: Another question. Once I heard from you that when somebody sees something bad in front of his friend, the thing that people see is bad because he is bad, his vessel is bad. So, when I see the evil inclination and when I do evil, no matter what, it is good. Can it be good to do bad deeds because it is coming from the good that does good?

M. Laitman: It is not that they are good when they are revealed. They create an emptiness between me and the Creator. But this innocence comes in order to teach me to follow His desire, to fulfill His desire. And I don't come back to them anymore.

 

Question (Women Turkiye 8): (21:16) What does the action mean in spirituality?

M. Laitman: Doing means connecting desires, efforts, hopes together in what is inside a man. And relate them, ascribe them to the Creator, as if I send it to Him.

Question (Women MAK 26): (22:01) We work in the Ten. And there is this analogy, this comparison that takes place, that part of the friends are ready to do a certain action of connection, and another part is not in agreement and thinks that it is incorrect. And then it says here that the act is better to do in order to understand. But in the Ten, we usually try to make things unanimous. How do we find our way here, and that it is better to do an action than to see if it is correct or not? 

M. Laitman: We have to perform in the action everything we think is necessary. Even if something is not beneficial, even if it is against the desire of the Creator, we nevertheless learn a lot from this. So, in any case, we should not stop ourselves but perform everything we can. 

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (23:47) In the act which leads to a result from the recognition that the truth is always with a good inclination. Is that the central point and the balance in which we orient ourselves in all the stages? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (24:10) Are there states in which it is easier or harder to hear the Creator? What does it depend on? 

M. Laitman: This depends on many circumstances and also on the person's character, personality, and different states in the group. So, I can't say for sure. There isn't a clear answer. 

Student: Is there something that can be done to hear better? 

M. Laitman: Be closer to the friends.

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (25:02) Regarding the Ten and the friends, I need to see that it is my work and my corruption. Whereas with my partner, if I see God in him, what work needs to be there? To see evil, not to see it, is it necessarily mine or not? 

M. Laitman: With your spouse, you can do whatever you want. 

Question (Women Moscow 5): (25:46) We have this 50/50 of innocent versus sinners. As sinners, we make someone upset, either the Creator or the friends, and then I heard that it's possible to correct these things, and probably the Creator does correct these things. But this bad taste remains, maybe for me, for the one that either performed the sin or towards the one that performed it. What do we do in these states? 

M. Laitman: I think we just need to talk about it with the people to whom you really brought pain.

Student: Other people are no longer around, and I really want to correct myself. 

M. Laitman: You correct yourself with other people, and then it will work. 

Question (Kavkaz 1): (27:12) It turns out for us that when we start to come closer even more with the friends, we reveal more evil. Can we go through these states without this pain? 

M. Laitman: No. 

Student: That's always with pain?

M. Laitman: It's very good that it's with pain. Then you determine which desires were bad in you and which ones were good. 

Question (Women MAK 43): (27:54) What is the spiritual meaning of circumcision in the Ten? What work does each one need to do? Or is it a common work? 

M. Laitman: This is the personal work of each and every one. Each one has to cut off the desires. Certain parts of the desires are not used in your address to the Creator. 

Question (Women MAK 23): (28:37) How should we hear the Creator and what He wants from us? How do we understand Him correctly?

M. Laitman: Listen closely.

Student: Another question. What does it mean that the Creator gave Abraham a command and He wants to listen to someone? How does this take place in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: This takes…

Question (Woman MAK): (29:27) The work of faith above reason is also a reward? How do we not just do an action, but also the result for the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Intend to do this. That's the way. There's nothing else you need. 

Question (Women Turkiye 10): (29:59) I'm in the vessels of reception and in the good. In my perception, this is relative; it's in my perception. How can I be certain that I'm doing an action for the Creator and not what my ego considers? 

M. Laitman: We have to check the actions in you and the Creator when it seems that that's exactly what He wants, and in general, everything has to be in one place, one desire and one action. 

Question (MAK 24): (30:55) In the article it’s written to decide with the correct action. With that the right intention is formed?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Unity 1): (31:38) Can the friends in the Ten help to correct a wrong action with regards to the Creator, or is it a person's private work with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: They can, of course, correct it and help a friend. They need to give you an example of the correct action. They can explain what is correct and so forth. 

Student: Can we ask them about this? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women MAK): (32:22) The Creator wants me to empty a space for Him, but how do I do this? 

M. Laitman: We don't need to really think about that. He will do it Himself. The main thing is to ask Him correctly.

Question (Women French): (33:04) If I turn to the Creator with love, before asking about something, I open my heart and I establish an embrace, and then I share what's in my heart, and this is connected to what separates me from Him. To what extent does this address from love speed up the answer, and to what extent it's real to feel it? 

M. Laitman: That's realistic and that's correct. 

Student: If a person doesn't feel in his heart love towards the Creator, what should they do? 

M. Laitman: Try all the time to open up the heart and feel the Creator.

Question (Women Kyiv 7): (34:05): What should we do: Ask for the final result, and what we need to do is the request, or do we have to perform some physical or spiritual actions? Should we ask for the final result, and the request or prayer is what's demanded of us? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: No matter how much I pray, the Creator wants us to unite in the Ten. What's the complete spiritual image or unity? What does He want from us? 

M. Laitman: A Ten. 

Student: At what level should this be? What's unity? 

M. Laitman: When you fully depend on one another, and you're in contact with each other.

Student: Another question. Why does Abraham not listen to the Creator? Why does he go to consult with his friends, with the Ten? 

M. Laitman: You need to open up the Torah and read it there. This whole story will be clear to you. 

Question (Women Italy): (35:27) When we are face to face with the Creator, when the Creator is in front of us, is the distance eliminated if we keep ourselves properly with the courage that comes only from Him?

M. Laitman: This distance between us is expressed when we are completely devoted to the force that He gives to us. 

Question (Women MAK 104): (36:10) When we perform actions in the Ten, we make efforts, we ask the Creator, but there's no result. What else should we base our reason on to overcome the obstacles? 

M. Laitman: From the point of your unity, to turn to Him and in that way to understand what He wants. 

Student: Another question. What is the light of Hochma in the group? 

M. Laitman: That's the light of Hochma, of wisdom. 

Question (Women Turkiye 5): (37:12) The article speaks of two friends, two from one good side and one from the bad side. What is it spoke of, one from one side, one from the other side and circumcision. 

M. Laitman: We don't need to learn this, but only the results. 

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (37:56) With time, we become bolder, with time, the reason grows, becomes bigger, and one becomes smarter. How do we prevent it from getting in the way? 

M. Laitman: We need to try to come closer to the Creator with the heart, to open the heart to Him. And then you'll feel what else is lacking.

Question (Women Spain): (38:51) The Creator determines the steps we have to take, and we change them on the way. Who changes? Who directs the intention? 

M. Laitman: The Creator, only the Creator. 

Student: Our work just in implementation? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women MAK 70): (39:29)): What is Mamre in the group? What is this force? 

M. Laitman: It doesn’t matter. It’s simply telling us how we need to hear the correct advice of the friends. 

Question (Women MAK 36): (39:56) When a man can make a choice, at first he has no choice, and then he does everything for a reward, and then he can act without reward. So if he can't choose nature, where can he find the strength to choose the second option, to work for bestowal? 

M. Laitman: He gets that strength from above, from the Creator, only from Him. 

Student: Should he have a desire for the other option, or should he make himself submit by force to work without a reward? 

M. Laitman: He needs to raise his desires together with the friends, and to strengthen them between them, and then to turn through the Creator, and through the friends. 

Student: And then the result of this desire will appear in him? And then when he attains it, he'll understand that he has achieved this result? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women MAK 97): (42:02) To perform circumcision on your desire to receive, it's easy to say. How do we do it? Do we agree with them? Do we kick it in the teeth? Do we ask for some reward? Do we sacrifice, bring an offering? 

M. Laitman: You need to turn to the Creator and ask Him to remove all of your egoistic desires. Not more than that.

Question (Asia): (42:53) The goal of the study is to bring us to love of friends and love of the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Moscow 8): (43:27) All the desires come from the Creator. Is there another source that the desires come from? How to find the correct place for realization of the desires? 

M. Laitman: All desires come only from the Creator. There is no other source of desire.

Question (Women Turkiye 6): (44:12) What do we ask from the Creator? That He lets us understand what is right, or just gives us the opportunity to perform the correct action even if we don't understand? 

M. Laitman: The right action is the most important, even without understanding what He is demanding of us and what we want to answer Him. 

Student: How do we discern between the desires, the egotistical desires and the desires from the Creator? 

M. Laitman: It depends where the desire comes from and towards which desire does it direct us. That's how we need to differentiate between the desires. 

Question (Women Spain): (45:31) When we consult with the friends, and when we have an inclination for the good or for the bad, how do we come to an agreement altogether and be able to see ourselves between these two quality states? 

M. Laitman: We don't need to be in the middle. We just need to be on the good side. 

Question (Women Spain): (46:22) If everything is from the Creator, why are there destructive, egotistical desires? 

M. Laitman: Because that's how the Creator brings them, to make us smarter or to push us further from Him. It all depends on Him.

Question (Women MAK 104): (47:00) All the efforts, all the suffering the Creator gives us and by this we build the soul. Can we speed up our advancement? 

M. Laitman: We can. If we want it properly, then we can. 

Question (Hadera 1): (47:28) Does the degree of consciousness affect our dependency? The more conscious we are, the more our interdependence? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (47:57) How do we check if the body will agree to perform a certain commandment? 

M. Laitman: Ask. 

Student: Ask the friends if there is a good and bad inclination, and what can we say about the future actions? 

M. Laitman: Try to figure it out by yourself. 

Question (Women Brasil): (48:58) This experiment that we are dealing with fulfillment, we are made to be in touch with the Klipot. Can we truly shout out to the heart from the depth of our heart? 

M. Laitman: Yes, that's the correct implementation. 

Question (Women Brasil): (49:44) The article speaks of the active sides, so only through the actions we make our intentions to exist in a spiritual world. 

M. Laitman: Correct.

Question (Women MAK 19): (50:31) Do we build a screen with a whole Ten or is this individual work? 

M. Laitman: It depends on your connections between you.

Question (Women MAK 113): (51:02) Does the desire to live according to the commandments strengthen and advance us quicker to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Nikolaev-Sochi): (51:34) It's clear that circumcision is an inner action. Does circumcision in the corporeal world help a man cut off his egotistical desires? 

M. Laitman: I can't say. A person needs to feel this for himself. 

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (52:07) How does a person feel that the Creator is opening his heart? 

M. Laitman: The Creator relates well to this. 

Question (Women Moscow 6): (52:27) Why does the Creator let us make mistakes? 

M. Laitman: So, we would have what's correct. 

Question (Women Spain): (52:53) You said that the fear of the Creator covers the ego, everything has to be connected together? 

M. Laitman: Connection.

Question (Women Almaty): (53:22) If I ask for the Ten, fill up, reveal, correct, is it correct if I dictate to Him? 

M. Laitman: You can dictate to the Creator only if it comes only from you. 

Student: Is it correct to do what each friend feels? 

M. Laitman: From you. I said from you, and you’re just contradicting me and wanting to say it how you want to say it.

Question (Women Latin 13): (54:11) When we perform actions in the Ten, we feel that we please the Creator, or is it enough to feel that this is the result we want? 

M. Laitman: It's enough just to think, but together, and then the action will be strong. 

Question (Women MAK 56): (54:37) Do we have to change all the desires that the Creator sends to us for bestowal, or sometimes He sends us desires we don't need to confuse us and then choose the true desires? 

M. Laitman: If He does it that way, then that too is help.

Student: So, He can't confuse us, right?

M. Laitman: As a rule, no, but it can also be. 

Question (Women Moscow 5): (55:14) Are fear and respect the same thing? 

M. Laitman: No, these are different things. 

Student: Can it increase the fall from the ego? 

M. Laitman: It can.

Question (Women MAK): (55:37) Through the mind, we can perform His action. What is a true desire that's realized through our action, that's realized through His action? 

M. Laitman: That's the correct state. 

Question (Women French): (56:20) When I look at the answers I get from the Creator, how do we make the Creator? 

M. Laitman: No, we don't make the Creator, we just carry out His desire. 

Question (Women Petah Tikva 33): (56:50) About the summary of the lesson and sharing impressions. Each one shares what she understood in the lesson. Can you give us advice? How do we use this time of this lesson summary in the best possible way for our advancement? 

M. Laitman: I don't have any recommendations, but it's a good thing. 

Question (Turkiye 2): (57:40) How do I connect my desires and prepare for the congress of Lishma? 

M. Laitman: Be connected to us all the time from lesson to lesson, and then you'll see that you are preparing yourself correctly for the congress. 

Question (Turkiye 2): (58:03) We say that there are naive states, and we say that this is the highest level in the spiritual because a man doesn't need the force, because he can see only the force of the Creator and apart from this nothing else. He just sees the force of the Creator and he doesn't need any other force for self-protection. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: But a person is naive. He doesn't go. He's a kabbalist. 

M. Laitman: Yes. That's what it means. Naive. Good job. You're all right. 

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (59:13) If we have a feeling that the Creator is confusing us, how do we come out of this confusion to use this to get closer to him? 

M. Laitman: That will pass. You'll still have many such states of confusion and then afterwards it will all pass. 

Student: What do we do if we're confused? What do we hold onto? 

M. Laitman: Just write your confused thoughts; write them down and send them to us and the friends will sort them out. Men, women, they'll sort out your confusions and they'll answer you. Just write a precise question and what group and what country you're from, your name, last name, and you'll receive an answer for everything.

That's it, my dear ones. Be well until tomorrow. 

Announcements: (01:00:28)

Song: (01:01:59)