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

Morning Lesson May 27, 2024

Part 1: Rabash. Letter 9.

Reader: Hello, we are reading in the writings of Rabash Volume 2, Letter number 9. You can find the study material on kabbalahgroup.info and in the Arvut system. You can send your questions live through those websites. Anyone asking a question here in the study hall is asked to stand up, hold the mic close to his mouth and speak loudly and clearly. 

Reading Letter 9: (00:33) August 5, 1955, London.

To the friends, may they live forever,

“‘And it shall come to pass that because,’ Mitzvot (commandments) that one tramples with one’s feet” (Yalkut [Collection]).

Baal HaSulam interpreted that it means faith, which a person slights and tramples with his feet.

To understand this more clearly, let us clarify what our sages said (Tanhuma), and these are their words: “And it shall come to pass that because,” meaning that the verse, ‘Why should I fear in days of adversity, the iniquity of my foes surrounds me” (Ps 49). Blessed be the name of the Creator, who has given Torah to Israel, in whom there are 613 Mitzvot (commandments), in which there are light trifle ones and serious ones. Because there are light Mitzvot among them, with which people are not meticulous, but rather cast under their feet, meaning that they are light, hence David feared the Day of Judgment and said, “Lord, I do not fear the serious Mitzvot in the Torah, for they are serious. What I fear are the light Mitzvot, lest I have broken one of them—whether I observed or did not observe—for it was light. And you said, ‘Be careful with a light Mitzva (commandment) as with a serious one.’” This is why he said, “Why should I fear in days of adversity,” and it is written, “Your servant is also cautious with them because of the majority,” thus far their words.

We should ask, “It is known that it is easier to keep light Mitzvot than serious Mitzvot, where easy means they are easy to do, and serious means that it is hard to do. Therefore, why is he afraid that he has broken Mitzvot that are easy to do more than Mitzvot that are hard to do?” Afterwards, the Midrash explains that it is because he feared the light matters. This is why he ends with “Your servant is also cautious with them because of the majority,” that he needed vigilance and care in order to keep the light matters more than the serious ones.

We should understand that concerning light and serious, the world determines what it regards as light and what it regards as serious. And since the world clings to externality, the world knows that what we should watch most are the actions, for they are apparent to all. That is, each one can weigh and measure how many deeds he has done during the day, and how many hours he engaged in the study of Torah. And when his friend sees that another is performing several Mitzvot and sits several hours studying Torah, he respects and appreciates him. And when, God forbid, he does not see that his friend is doing good deeds, he sees that his friend is in a lowly state, far from the Torah and work, since he can see only what is apparent. This is why actions are regarded as serious Mitzvot.

It seems true that they are serious because the whole matter of Kedusha (holiness) is in “We shall do and we shall hear,” for the most important is the act, as only the act brings one to hearing, which is called Lishma (for her sake), since from Lo Lishma (not for her sake) we come to Lishma, and without actions it is impossible to achieve any degree.

For this reason, people determined that the most important is the act, and this is the most serious. For this they have determined that the thought, meaning the intention, is regarded as light and lowly, meaning unworthy of time and effort, for the most important is the act.

And although it is true that the most important is the act, it is only for the purpose of Segula (remedy/virtue/power). That is, the prime advice for achieving Lishma is the act, but because of it people have left the desired goal, which is to work for the Creator, for engagement in Torah and Mitzvot has the power to purify the body so as to achieve Lishma. However, they have left the purpose and the goal, and turned the work into purpose, and this is what they regard as very serious.

They have made the thought, which is the intention for it to be Lishma, into a “light” matter. This means that only one who engages in Torah and Mitzvot—and does not take interest in having the intention Lishma—is regarded by them as a light transgression, unworthy of troubling oneself. Even if one exerts oneself, no one will see how much he has toiled in order to be respected, for the majority follows only the way of Lo Lishma.

In order for the world to follow the way of Lo Lishma in the beginning of the work, it was necessary that they would not see the truth, meaning that they would not notice it at all, for it is a trifling and is not worth the toil. Otherwise, if one would see the seriousness of the matter right at the beginning of the work, as our sages said, “He who learns Lo Lishma would be better off to have been miscarried,” who would want to begin the work?

And since there is no other way to enter Lishma other than specifically coming from Lo Lishma to Lishma, there was a need to hide the truth and say that the act is the most serious, and the thought mattered little.

The meaning of “light” should be interpreted to mean “slightness,” that it is not very important, whereas “serious” means something important. We should also understand that it is from the world fleeting, contemptible, and shameful. That is, when a person begins to work on this intention in the work, he finds it contemptible because the main goal should be to be rewarded with faith, and it is man’s nature to value the intellect and not what is above the intellect.

By this we should interpret the Midrash that David said, “What I fear are the light Mitzvot, lest I have broken one of them—whether I observed or did not observe—for it was light. And you said, ‘Be careful with a light Mitzva (commandment) as with a serious one.’” We should understand what “whether I observed or did not observe” means. Should he not know if he observed? Why does he not remember?

As said above, the lightness is on the intention of Lishma. In that respect, he cannot know for certain if the intention was for the Creator, since with serious Mitzvot, meaning with actions, I know that I was careful because there is the majority’s opinion that actions must be observed.

But there is no majority opinion over the intention because the world is not careful to make the aim for the Creator. This is why he feared that his intention might not be appropriate. And in that regard the Midrash concludes, “Your servant is also cautious with them because of the majority.” That is, through fear—he feared of being drawn after the collective, who believe that it is not such a great iniquity if the intention is not right, but rather “I have made me keeping and vigilance on “because,” on the intention, since the view of the majority is that it is regarded as “because”—he was therefore rewarded with Lishma permanently over all the works, so that even past deeds will be corrected in him.

This is the meaning of, “‘And it shall come to pass that because’ are commandments that one tramples with one’s feet,” meaning that the view of the majority is that it is not such a great prohibition and iniquity to be careful with keeping the intention Lishma. It is about this work that man becomes “transgressed and repeated,” and this is called “trampling with one’s feet,” and he does not notice it because the view of the majority assists him.

However, we should know that it is the correction of the world that he will not see the truth, for not every person is capable of walking on the path of truth, as our sages said, “one comes out to the light.” For this reason, one is not shown one’s true state in the ways of the Lord, meaning to be able to engage in Torah and Mitzvot, and think that one’s intention is only for the Creator, as our sages said, “one does not see one’s own fault.” This is why one always sentences oneself to the side of merit.

But one who is accustomed to the work and wishes to see the truth in order to walk in it, and his wish is only to correct his actions, then according to his desire for the truth, exactly to that extent is he shown his true level from above—how far he is from the work of Lishma. From this he is compelled to be in lowliness because he (sees) the bad in him more than all of his contemporaries, since the whole world does not see the truth, how they are placed under the governance of evil and have not begun the work for the Creator. But he does see that he cannot do anything for the Creator and therefore feels that he is separated from the Creator.

He feels as though he is dead because he is separated from The Life of Lives. And because he feels the taste of death, he is in utter lowliness, since there is none who is lower than the dead. At that time he cries out, “I am better off dead than alive,” for at least he would not blemish the Torah and Mitzvot, meaning use holy things for his own good, as then he would feel that he is using the holy names for secular needs.

For this reason, to the extent that he is walking on the path of truth he naturally becomes lowly. Hence, one who is proud, it is a sign that he has not yet been rewarded with seeing the truth, and there is certainly no greater lowliness than this because he is submerged from head to toe under the governance of falsehood.

Some smarties pride themselves on seeing the truth. That is, even though they see about themselves that they are entirely dedicated to the governance of evil and are powerless to do anything for the Creator, and see that they are worse than their contemporaries, they still take pride in it and say, “We have the virtue of seeing the truth, while others do not see the truth of how they are placed under the governance of evil. They rejoice and delight in the work of Torah and Mitzvot even though it is not really for the Creator, whereas I see the truth.” This is why they are proud of it and feel no lowliness.

However, this is similar to a group of sick people who were admitted into the hospital, and the doctors determined that they all had cancer, God forbid. The doctor disclosed this to one person and said, “Know, my son, what I can do for you, since you have cancer.” That man was anxious as it is because he knew his days were numbered and he was sentenced to death, and all he could do was pray to the Creator. But the other people, to whom the doctor did not disclose that they had cancer, rejoiced and enjoyed themselves, and the minute the illness stopped disturbing them they thought that they would soon leave the hospital and go home to have a feast with their friends because they felt that they were completely healthy.

In such a case, the man who knows he has cancer will not even consider being proud and say that he is more important than they are, meaning that he has more vitality and joy because he knows that he has cancer. We evidently see that one who knows he has this illness cares for nothing and takes interest in nothing because he has but one concern—how to make the cancer go away from him.

He cannot partake in the joy of the rest of the patients, who do not know they have this illness and the reason why the doctor has released them from the hospital is not that they are healthy, but because the doctor has no cure for them. But they think that the reason they were released from the hospital is that they are healthy.

It is the same in the work of the Creator. Anyone who sees that the evil within him is in full force, and has been disclosed the truth from above—that there is no cure for his illness and only the Creator can help him, as our sages said, “Man’s inclination overcomes him everyday, and were it not for the Creator, he would not have been able to overcome it—cannot be proud of having been disclosed the truth, contrary to others, as in the just mentioned allegory.

It follows that the lowliness that one feels testifies to the extent to which he is walking on the path of truth. Only then, when seeing the truth, is there room for real prayer from the bottom of the heart, for only then can he say, “Lord, if You do not help me, I see no tactic that can help me exit self love and be rewarded with powers of bestowal and faith in the Creator.”

Therefore, the order is that one must begin the work in Lo Lishma and then try to be rewarded with walking on the path of truth and to achieve Lishma.

This is the matter that is said about Jacob, and as RASHI interpreted, that he prepared himself for a gift, for prayer, and for war. We should ask by intimation: “Why should Jacob give a present to the Esau within him, and why should one give a present to the evil within him?”

As said above, the beginning of the work is in Lo Lishma. That is, when beginning to work the holy work, we promise the body that this work will give it many good things, that the body will enjoy by engaging in Torah and Mitzvot. We tell it that it will achieve Lo Lishma in general, meaning that each body has different passions: one craves money, another craves respect, etc., and this is called a “present.” Afterwards comes a prayer, when beginning to pray to the Creator to reveal to him the truth and to see his real situation—how remote he is from the work of Lishma. At that time begins a war, meaning that we do not want to give the body any reward for its work in Torah and Mitzvot.

Finally, one is pitied from above and is given the present of having faith and being granted with being the King’s servant, feeling that this is all that is worth living for—to able to say as our sages said, “One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all of the life in the next world.”

What follows from all the above is the act, and this is called a “serious matter,” and it is called Lo Lishma. Afterwards one should be careful with light matters, meaning with the intention Lishma. The sign of it is lowliness because one who sees one’s lowliness sees that he is treading the path leading to the work Lishma. This gives one room for real prayer from the bottom of the heart, when he sees that no one will help him but the Creator himself, as Baal HaSulam interpreted concerning the redemption from Egypt, “I, and not a messenger,” for everyone saw that only the Creator Himself redeemed them from the governance of evil.

And when rewarded with the work Lishma there is certainly nothing to be proud of because then one sees that it is only God’s gift, and not “my power and the might of my hand,” and there is no foreign hand that can help him. Therefore, he feels his lowliness—how serving the king is an immeasurable pleasure, and without His help he would not agree to it. Indeed, there is no greater lowliness than this.

May the Creator help us be rewarded with serving the king on the path of truth.

Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag

Son of my father, Baal HaSulam

M. Laitman: Questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:29) There is a very strong excerpt here. It says, until one is pitted from above and is given this gift, that he will have faith and be granted of being the king's servant, feeling that this is all that is worth living for, to be able to say, as our sages said, one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all the life in the next world. What does it mean that a person is given this gift of serving the king? How does he feel it? What does it mean?

M. Laitman: It means that from the whole world he perceives an opportunity to choose the King, and to adhere to Him, and to place Him above all of the ministers and other kings.

Student: How is that expressed if I can say that this way, how is it expressed on us if we can also receive such a gift?

M. Laitman: We see that over the whole time when we have to choose the King and place him above everyone, that it's not so successful. There are times when we are maybe capable of doing it to a small extent, but most of the time we forget. We lower his importance in us and so all of our work should be only in how, in the society that is suitable for it, how do we care constantly that the Creator will be the one who determines and the one who executes and He receives the results from our work. 

Student: Meaning, this gift of faith is so huge, so great that it's worthwhile living only for that. If it exists, then?

M. Laitman: This is why we have incarnated into our reality so that here and now we can determine that there is no one who is as great as the Creator. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:41) What does it mean to be in a society that is suitable for that? Who decides that the society is suitable, do I?

M. Laitman: No, a person cannot determine this. But rather he's brought through all kinds of incidents to a certain place, and he discovers that there they recommend to him to pay attention to the fact that there is a Creator to this world and it is possible to connect with Him.

Student: Every day I need to understand and to feel that through my environment, through the connection with the friends, I can truly feel the quality of the Creator, that they give me the importance of the quality of the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Student: Because even in the preparation today we had a workshop and we said, how can we come to even feel the feeling of the Creator without love of friends, without correcting the relationship with the friends? Because in the end, we say to ourselves, the Creator is that which is between us?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So the question in my eyes which we ask every day anew, how in the connection between us I discover each day anew that the Creator who is between us is above everything?

M. Laitman: This is how it becomes revealed.

Student: So, do I reveal it through my attitude towards the friends?

M. Laitman: Yes. You have no other means that can help you.

Student: Each day I need to come and tell myself that the friends, it doesn't matter what, they're more important than me?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: This is the correct attitude between that which is present and desirable. If I see every day that the friend is lower than me, this is a place for correction?

M. Laitman: Yes, certainly.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:11) What is lowliness?

M. Laitman: Lowliness, when a person thinks that he deserves a little bit more than how he feels himself.

Student: What does that mean?

M. Laitman: It means that each and everyone measures himself, how much is he worth. And if he has a feeling that he is on a lower degree than how he measures himself, it is considered that he's in lowliness.

Student: He says that lowliness is a state that shows you are in the true place, which is the truth?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And that brings prayer to the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: We also say that joy is the reward of good deeds, the result of good deeds?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So how does that work together, lowliness and joy?

M. Laitman: Why not? One should not cancel out the other. If I wanted to reach lowliness, so, attaining this lowliness brings joy.

Student: But how? A person sees that he is totally helpless, the inclination controls him, and the Creator cannot help him?

M. Laitman: But this doesn't mean that he's in a bad state. Maybe this is what he wanted to achieve for a long time.

Student: So where does the lowliness come from and where does joy come from?

M. Laitman: The lowliness is what he attains from his state, and the joy is from attaining his state that he's in such loneliness.

Student: He gives an example of someone who is terminally ill, and the doctor reveals it to him only, not to the others. And he knows he needs help, absolutely. That's a corporeal example of lowliness. But where's the joy here?

M. Laitman: The joy is already about how does he value, measure his state. Where did his state come from? What does he achieve by this state? And who is doing it to him and how.

Student: Meaning they go hand in hand?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:19) To continue with what the friend started to ask but specifically the example of cancer, an incurable disease. They tell a person even though it's incurable, according to this article. So why even tell a person about it?

M. Laitman: This was the question that for many years, they didn't know how to answer it, to disclose or not to disclose to the patient. And I remember that many people were ill with that. And the doctors did not tell them about it. They used all kinds of words but without saying it's actually cancer. Because they thought that by this, nevertheless, they would make the people not connect with this disease.

Student: He gives it as an example to the spiritual matter. Reveal to a person that he's lowly and also hear the disease is incurable. But in the state of lowliness, it's also incurable. And that's the point it goes above reason?

M. Laitman: That depends on how the person holds himself with respect to the purpose of life. 

Student: Because in the example of the cancer, at that moment, you say, I just want to die. I have not decided to feel the suffering, to feel that I'm totally worthless. And here, spiritually speaking, you can turn to the Creator. With the cancer, maybe you can turn to the Creator corporeally, but it will end. And here, you don't want it to end. With the cancer, there will be nothing beyond it, seemingly?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So it's like this deep contradiction here?

M. Laitman: This is how it is.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:00) He writes that from above, they show a person his true measure. Through what is he shown his true state? By what can he measure his own true state, a person?

M. Laitman: It can be something different each time. The most important is that he should understand that his case is lost, or that this stage should bring him, push him, pull him to a different state.

Student: Always, everything that shows a person his state whether it's through friends, through situations, each time you can say that he's shown his state from above, or if they wanted it to be precise, it should only take place through the friends?

M. Laitman: From the heavens or not, through the friends or not, it all depends on the person himself, to what extent does he use these means in order to raise himself higher and higher.

Student: So it's true, we learned that through the friends a person can measure his true state the most precise way possible?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So here I have a question, how do we use this means called friends in order to know a person's state? How does he measure his state through the friends?

M. Laitman: Each and every friend shows me a certain degree of connection that he has with the Creator. Therefore, when I shift from one friend to another in my inclination to rise higher and higher, it turns out that in this way I show myself, I bring myself to higher and higher connection with the friends.

Student: So we're talking about my attitude towards each and every friend?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And that shows me my attitude towards the Creator?

M. Laitman: Because this is why you're doing it. In order to rise to the Creator means to enter the correct contact with all of the friends and through them to ascend.

Student: Thank you. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:22) There are those smarties who are proud to see the truth even though that he sees that he's entirely given to the control of the evil, and he has nothing he can do for the sake of heaven. And they see that they have more evil than their peers. Nevertheless, they are proud of it because they say they have the virtue of seeing the truth. I notice that many times in the work I discover that I'm an egoist, and I'm not able to keep this feeling, and I cover it with joy, oh, so nice, look, I discovered this state. We have many quotes that support, that cushion this feeling, I'm happy about the wicked that are revealed. But specifically covering it with joy removes me, distances me from prayer, just like in this excerpt. He discovers the evil, he's not able to hold on to this evil, so he pads it with this joy from feeling of revelation of evil and I don't come to prayer. The question is, I must feel the evil truly to come to prayer, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: At the same time, the ego runs away from this feeling and tries to cover it and obscure it. So how to receive the forces, where should the person receive the power to truly feel the evil that he is an egoist and not cover it with joy? Of course, there needs to be joy, but I need the feeling of evil, this bad feeling to awaken to prayer?

M. Laitman: Yes, but the feeling of evil, it doesn't necessarily mean that you feel bad. It depends on where you're aiming yourself. It could be that by detecting the bad you feel pleasure, that finally you found the origin of your illness. Let's say when you're happy and grateful to the Creator, you're grateful to the Creator for revealing it to you.

Student: So, he describes exactly what you're saying here, further down he says that this pleasure could cause a person to not feel how much he needs the remedy. He's thankful to the Creator, but he's not asking for salvation. It could be an obstacle?

M. Laitman: No, why would it be that way? If a person is truly sick and he feels the reason for his state then he will be happy to receive the remedy, the medication. His joy is only out of the fact that he discovered a true illness, but he hasn't yet reached good health.

Student: It seems like there's a fine line here because sometimes there is joy about revealing his illness, revealing his true state, but he doesn't continue from that point to the point of prayer, or asking for salvation from his state, and he remains only with the joy of revealing his true state?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Maybe I don't know how to ask. How not to simply rejoice about his state but also to feel that he needs the remedy to be cured from his state?

M. Laitman: He's not a little child who operates just according to his mood but rather he sees and understands that he's in a dangerous state and he must get a remedy and he didn't receive it yet, although he already knows and the remedy is seemingly already within his hand, but it doesn't mean that he received it already. So, he should be directed precisely towards his goal. He should go all the way. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:04) He distinguishes between serious commandments and light commandments. And to reach the light commandments, to realize them, do you have to go through the serious commandments? Because I understood that the serious commandments are the action we should do and then there's the we shall do and we shall hear, then you have to set your inner intention. Well, forget about that, that sounds more serious. That sounds like the harder work, the intention, not the action. In action we all do it, but the inner intention, how do we come to the inner intention in the end? Do we have to perform the serious commandments to reach the light ones?

M. Laitman: As much as we yearn to reach them and keep them, that's one thing. As much as the Creator adds His participation in that, that's something else.

Student: Ultimately, it's all the Creator. I can do such actions, corporeal commandments or not, it's not clear to me what are those actions, but after I'm doing them, we see that we don't reach anything, and that seemingly brings us to prayer or not, depending on the one who gets there?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: The prayer has to be with intention or without? What precedes, what comes first?

M. Laitman: Of course, the prayer should be with an intention, and you reach the prayer when you decide to work and you do work and you want to receive this state, but you see that you're not capable of it. And the heart breaks and you truly pray, you erupt in crying, and you bring yourself to a state where you have no choice, you don't know what to do, you're helpless. And then you ask the Creator for advice. So what does it mean in your state to receive a remedy?

Student: Meaning, the serious work does not include a prayer yet, only in the end of that?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:51) You told the friend that lowliness is when a person is not in the place where he thinks he should be. If I'm in a Ten, and the friends are guarantors, and I'm shown the state of lowliness. I mean I work on the greatness of my friends, so my friends are constantly in the place where they should not be in. Meaning, the more I'm shown my true state of lowliness and I do the work to raise the friends and make them be more in exile compared to the place where they should be. Meaning, I lowered them forcefully. How do I take my friends even though they show me my place of lowliness, how do I raise them? I raise them in practice, one step closer to their natural place.

M. Laitman: What does it mean, one degree less than their place?

Student: I'm in the lowest degree of lowliness, that's what they showed me. I have a friend, he's a guarantor, I work on his greatness. It means that my friend, in my eyes, is certainly not in the place he should be but he's in the place of lowliness because he’s, my guarantor. So, what action can I do? I need to uplift, to raise the friend. That's the action, but by raising the friend I'm increasing his lowliness because he's exiled, in exile from his natural place. I increase the gap because the lowliness in which he lives is greater.

M. Laitman: Are you managing the world?

Student: No, why? If they showed me that I'm in a lowly place, next to me I see my Ten. I have worked from the last year in such a way that every friend I look at, I see divine qualities. He needs to be close to the Creator in my eyes. He's above me, but he's with me in my Ten, in the same place where I am. He descended to the place of lowliness because of me. I pull him down to the place of lowliness because he is my guarantor. My question is, in practice what do I do so that my friend will be one degree less lowly because of me? To raise him so he does not remain in my place?

M. Laitman: In this way, we can play as if with each other.

Student: I constantly need to raise my friends to be in the King's palace. I constantly need to raise them higher?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That should be my practical work?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So that's how I need to work, in my opinion?

M. Laitman: But do you think that by your determination whatever you determine, where the friends are, by this you seemingly play with them.

Student: They are guarantors to me. If they reveal to me that I'm in lowliness, as it says in the article, I'm in the lowliness of the degree, I'm not in the King's palace, I'm in the lowliest place. Now, if my friends are with me, they are where I am because they showed me that I'm in the lowest place possible. How do I help them not be there? The fact that they're not in their place, I got it because I work on their greatness. I'm working with two things here that only increase the lowliness. But my friends are there?

M. Laitman: How do you cause their descent or their ascent.

Student: In my eyes?

M. Laitman: Yes, but rather, in whom.

Student: When they show me, I pray to see the greatness of the friends. Let me see the greatness of the friends and not their deficiencies, their merits and not their deficiencies, not their flaws?

M. Laitman: I don't understand how you reached that state.

Student: I also don't understand, but it says about Shechina, she is with them in their impurity, call him where he is there but he is not in his original place, but he’s is with their impurity, in their state of impurity. How in my prayer, in my work I raise divinity from the dust, or my friends from the dust?

M. Laitman: This is how it seems to you, that they are in the dust?

Student: No, I was shown that I am in the dust, in the dirt. But because they are guarantors to me, they are with me, they are my Ten, they are with me?

M. Laitman: No, we cannot play with the friends. No, bring me another example.

Student: Another example for what?

M. Laitman: Of what you now want to ask.

Student: They tell me I am not a good student in class, I don't have an example right now.

M. Laitman: Okay, we'll leave it aside now. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:45) Just to close the scrutiny, when we are guarantors to one another, do they raise me up or do I bring them down?

M. Laitman: Apparently, they elevate you, uplift you.

Student: They elevate me from my place of lowliness?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Now, a question about the article. Can you reach a prayer without action? Only with intention, I am doing intentions now?

M. Laitman: Do we, is it possible to reach a prayer?

Student: Without action?

M. Laitman: Without actions it will be missing.

Student: It won't be a complete prayer?

M. Laitman: Right.

Student: So, how does a person determine what is in action, what is a serious commandment and a light commandment, how do I make this action that I do the action without losing the intention?

M. Laitman: An intention without an action, it's a light one.

Student: Action without an intention, seemingly light. No, sorry, it's the other way around, that's the serious one. Eventually Rabash decides that determines that if I do the action, only this is the light. That's the serious one the friend said, I understood it the other way around.

M. Laitman: Okay, so what is your question?

Student: I'm asking how to keep the action and the intention together so we have a complete prayer.

M. Laitman: What do you need for that?                       

Student: That's the question, I'm doing actions, I'm trying to connect with the friends.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How do I not lose here the correct intention? I won't go like, oh how good I reconnected, we embraced, we reached a good feeling. That's not the purpose. How not to lose sight of the purpose, which is the Creator ultimately. So it would be for the sake of heaven and not for our personal enjoyment, our personal fun.

M. Laitman: Again.

Student: How do we do the action without losing the intention? How, in the Ten, we connect, and we don't go, oh how nice we connected, we had a meal, we had some drinks, and ultimately, where is the intention? Where is the true prayer at the end of this connection? How do we maintain the intention, I'm sorry, the connection between the intention and the action so a complete prayer will come out.

M. Laitman: What is the problem to hold on to the prayer together with the intention?

Student: Seemingly, when we sit here, when we study, it sounds very simple. But when we are in practice, in action, the action sometimes swallows it.

M. Laitman: You mean you disconnect the action from the intention?

Student: Yes, how not to disconnect these two? Yesterday, we had a Lag B’Omer meal. We sat, we read excerpts, we raised the importance of things. Maybe we came out losing because there's no prayer. Maybe we're sitting here in the lesson, we connect, there are friends who only pray. How do we not lose the connection between these two actions, so we'll come out with a complete prayer?

M. Laitman: Yes, to add the intention to the action. So?

Student: That's the question. How do we do it?

M. Laitman: That we, all together, hold each other so that no one would fall outside of the Ten. Then we reach a state where each one is holding on to his friend.

Student: It's a kind of action.

M. Laitman: No, this is not an action. It's not just an action. There is no action without an intention. What am I doing it for?

Student: That's it, Rav. That's the question that we keep missing here. It keeps slipping away especially in this society. It's the holiest society there is. You're sitting sometimes in the meal with the friends, and this question seemingly dissolves before your eyes because you're so connected with the excerpts, with the greatness, with everything. And you come out later on thinking, hang on, where was I? What was my intention? Why did I do all of this? Should this question always come after these deeds? And there's always a place where you later clothe it with that intention, and say, oh, I have an awakening of a question, and now I'm asking the Creator that everything we did for the sake of heaven will be for His sake. When is that connection between the intention and the action?

M. Laitman: We don't do that. The Creator does that.

Student: Because we demand it. But when does it come?

M. Laitman: When you reach the true desire, the correct desire.

Student: So one last question. This true desire, I notice that it awakens in me after the fact, after the act. Always after the act. We were in a meal, we did something, afterwards I go, oh, where was I? Where's my heart? Where's my head? Where are my intentions? Is that the place? Or should it always be before?

M. Laitman: You would have liked it to be before.

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: But it doesn't happen.

Student: So, do I need to ask for it to happen? Should it happen before? Or before, it will always be an action with a certain intention, and later on the clothing for the sake of heaven will come. Because we're doing our actions in order to reach the purpose that we learn about as you've been teaching us for years. We don't just meet to drink some Arak. We meet in order to connect, in order to carry out this commandment. There is an intention in us, but somewhere, somewhere in the action the intention disappears and then it comes back with a certain clothe, a certain way. It should be this stream where it's together or it will always be this coming and going, coming and going.

M. Laitman: What are you missing? What are you missing in this action so that you don't find in it the result, the correct result, the desirable result?

Student: I don't know, I actually don't know. You asked this question, I don't know. I think in action, here we are, we're sitting, we're connecting and the greatness.

M. Laitman: But the Creator is not there.

Student: Exactly, so how do I introduce the Creator into it? How do I care about bringing them into it?

M. Laitman: Just to think about him all the time, to demand him.

Student: We shall do.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:10) Something confusing here. Sometimes we talk about an action as an external act, like a meal, for example. But when we learn in spirituality, what advances us as an actor, the action is an act of bestowal. It's a certain inclination of the heart that I need to have for it to be called an act, a deed. So, we have the external act. We have the action that we want to be while doing this external action, this action of the heart. And above that, even deeper than that, there's this inner intention. So it seems like if we're only doing a completely external action and we think that this will build a certain inclination in the heart, then it doesn't happen. But when we try to go deeper and for the action to be an act of bestowal between the friends throughout the meal, from that, we have the intention. From Lo Lishma, it comes to Lishma. And the Creator is seemingly revealed in this action. 

So for example, here in this article, the action sounds like something completely external. Could it be that in this action, we came, we had a meal without trying to bestow in the heart? Can we awaken from that without this inner action? Can the desire to bestow awaken from that?

M. Laitman: The desire to bestow awakens by you awakening the Creator. And He, in His presence, awakens in you a desire to bestow.

Student: Thank you, Rav. So, how do I awaken the Creator? If I'm in a meal, I simply eat and I enjoy myself. I do it together with the friends. Also, friends around me are doing the same thing. Is it enough to awaken the Creator?

M. Laitman: If you can rise above the food, think about the connection between you, then it turns out that you, all of you, specifically by this action, this eating, normal eating seemingly, that you, through the deed, connect in the intention to be as one. And then in that intention to be as one, if you enter into it, into this intention, then you want to fill yourselves with a single intention with the Creator.

Student: There is a substantial difference between the feeling of eating together to be as one man in one heart, that's how we depict it, and the effort to bestow to the friend. I feel that when we speak in this way or that way, there's always a difference in perception or consciousness of what a person needs to do.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: This effort to sit down and imagine that we are as one man in one heart, it still doesn't work against the desire. We don't portray it in this way. But if you tell me, try to bestow to a friend, try to think about his benefits, see that everyone has what they need and want, this action does not bring me joy. I just think, when I think of how to awaken the others, it does evoke the connection, the Creator, as you said. I would think that you need to emphasize the matter that we need to perform acts of bestowal. When we say to connect, it still doesn't evoke in us this tendency for bestowal. I think it might be missing.

M. Laitman: I understand you; you are correct. You are right, but it is impossible to do it. If I think and intend for what we are actually carrying out, then I'm also inside of it.

Student: You mean the action of connection?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Right, but then it doesn't work against the desire.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And it doesn't awaken the Creator, because to awaken the Creator seemingly has to be against your desire, the feeling of bestowal.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And that's what awakens the Creator, because it's the quality of bestowal.

M. Laitman: Yes. There are things that, as much as we talk about it, they don't become more clear. But rather, whatever the mind doesn't do, time does. 

Question (PT 23): (01:12:47) The light commandments, meaning about the intention of Lishma, he can't say with certainty if his intention was for the sake of heaven, because with the serious commandments, meaning the actions, I know that I was careful about them. So the question is, why don't they let a person see and measure his intention? Why is it beneficial that you cannot tell about your intention?

M. Laitman: Again.

Student: it's written that the light commandments, meaning the intention of Lishma, he cannot tell with certainty if his intention was for the sake of heaven.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So why don't they let a person see his intention if it's for the sake of heaven or not? 

M. Laitman: So he will perform actions towards it, and then he will succeed.

Student: But I don't know if I was successful or not. Why is it prevented from me? Why is it written that I can't know if my intention was for the sake of heaven?

M. Laitman: So that you will be in a prayer to the Creator. Because the Creator himself must be present in such an action, that He holds your intention, and He connects the edges, He Himself. The Creator is the one who does it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:45) I feel that our problem is that we forget about the Creator. Meaning, I go to a meal, I want to connect with the friends. This is our mistake. We should ask for the Creator that now that we're going to this meal, He should let us hold this intention. And if I'm in the right intention or not, it depends only if I'm holding on to the Creator. Once I forgot about Him, I'm not in the right intention. 

M. Laitman: True.

Student: So that's the way it is.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Thank you.

M. Laitman: That's it. Okay. Here we only have.

Question (Holland): (01:15:36) What is it that brings a person to a state of lowliness during the morning lesson?

M. Laitman: We are still subconsciously or consciously; we still hold that helping a friend is action number two. It's my second action. To rise and connect and hold on to that connection is the first action, which is more important.

Student: How can we help the friends, Rav, to come to a state of lowliness?

M. Laitman: For you, helping them will be more important than that which you receive and do at the moment. Then by that, you perform the correct action. Disconnect from the I.

Student: How important is it to be in a state of lowliness? 

M. Laitman: I don't think that we need to call this lowliness. I'd rather, yes, during this study, it's one thing, but the fact that I, the fact that I draw myself towards connection, towards that, that's not lowliness. That's not a low state. I need to come to a state where I'm responsible for all the connections, for all the contact that there is between the creatures, the created beings, and between them and the Creator. That's called to rise to your Lord, your God. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:02) Someone asked you all kinds of questions. There was an hour of questions. And they're describing a reality that you can't come out of, and then they're stuck in those questions. I don't know if this is a state of lowliness, but they're depicting how they're enjoying the meal and all kinds of and the excerpts and sitting together and then it's hard for them to come out of it. If I feel like an alien being in this group, that I'm not a partner in all these states that they're talking about. I don't enjoy the meals. People keep babbling. I'm not impressed by them and these excerpts. We read it a thousand times. Your teacher wrote this because he felt these things, and I feel like a dog, and it doesn't change. So what should I do when I feel like an alien in this group that you're not connected to all the states you're talking about? 

M. Laitman: That's the question. The fact that I feel that I can't find my place in the group, it's not good. That's not good. In that I find a blemish in the Creator, about the Creator. Because through my correct work in that generation, in that group that I'm in, I must bring the correction that depends on me.

Student: We're in the years of hunger. It's a horrible period.

M. Laitman: No, it just seems to you that way. 

Student: No, it's the days of hunger.

M. Laitman: You're using slander on the Creator.

Student: But there's days that He beats you, and there's a heart of stone.  I don't feel, I don't get inspired. It's a tough thing.

M. Laitman: So I'm telling you that specifically from that, we come to the revelation.

Student: So this is what I'm revealing, that I'm an alien in this group. I'm not connected. He says he's enjoying the meals. Well, what do I have to enjoy that? Okay, people babble, so they like convincing each other that they're righteous. But from here to enjoy this? It's a long way.

M. Laitman: It'll take more time until we understand the truth.

Student: Doesn't it make you sad that you still have to tell us about spirituality? Doesn't bother you?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: You were happy if your teacher would sit on your shoulder and give you commands? It wasn't. You want your independence. You want to get inspired by what's written here, to feel an advancement?

M. Laitman: No. Not at all. You don't see that on me?

Student: You have independence. What do you mean? I see on yourself, but I'm talking about me. The fact that you have to sit here and tell me what's happening in spirituality and interpreting the text. So, that's saddening. It means that I'm still a dog. I don't see beyond anything.

M. Laitman: I don't think I deserve more than that.

Student: So, the whole idea is the equivalence of form and corrections, that everything is dead, so we don't deserve anything else?

M. Laitman: I'm willing to wait.

Student: To wait, yes, but there's corrections and there's a generation on the outside that needs you. What should we do? To bestow, no? So, what should we do? You don't sanctify for the others.

M. Laitman: I don't know, maybe it could be that you're correct, and nevertheless it seems to me that I did some, I performed some work.

Student: I'm talking about me, not you, about me. When I see that.

M. Laitman: A person doesn't see his true state. He doesn't see. That's why we will work as much as possible and correct whatever is opportune. And... 

Student: There's nothing to do about it? 

M. Laitman: There's what to do, what we're doing, and more, onwards.

Student: I mean that, feeling that I don't belong, even when I'm here.

M. Laitman: That's the process, all those feelings accompany the process. There's nothing to do about that. 

Question (Turkiye 2): (01:25:08) The force of prayer becomes really strong at the stage of despair. Let's say the person is before death, but when the despair disappears, so the effect on the heart disappears. So should I ask to be in that state of despair? How can I sustain that force of prayer on a high degree?

M. Laitman: Pray. Pray.

Question (Turkiye 2): (01:25:46) Is the intention reflected light?

M. Laitman: The intention is reflected light.

Student: Does the Creator have an intention?

M. Laitman: We're not talking about the Creator. 

Question (Women PT 6): (01:26:04) Who is the landlord on the intention of the friends? Is the prayer for the friend to hold an intention really help her to hold the intention?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Turkiye 8): (01:26:17) Should the intention be formulated in the Ten or does a person have to determine his own intention? How do we determine our intention?

M. Laitman: There are actions where each and every one of us raises up the intention, and there are states in which we raise the intention and connect with it and then, it rises and is connected to the upper bestower, to the Creator.

Question (MAK 34): (01:27:01) What should a person tell himself or do in order for the lowliness not to weaken him but to move him ahead?

M. Laitman: That he agrees to work even from that degree of lowliness that he just received. And as far as he's concerned, he's even willing to remain there in that state and to remain that way forever. But to praise the Creator and pass on to everyone the greatness and importance of the Creator, he is willing to nevertheless more and more begin with corrections and to continue this way.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:28:21) He writes, then they start praying to the Creator to reveal his true state, how distant he is from the work in Lishma. When does a person activate such a prayer?

M. Laitman: What prayer?

Student: When he starts praying to the Creator to reveal his true state, how he is distant from the work of Lishma?

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: Usually we work in the group, activate pressure of work, and whatever is revealed is revealed. We don't, from ourselves, ask for Him to reveal our state?

M. Laitman: Why not ourselves? I think like today, we're in a state that we are capable of raising a prayer from all of us together.

Student: I'm asking because I feel that in my spiritual life there's like gray areas that keep going?

M. Laitman: It's because you agree to this. But if you recommend them a little bit, then you'll see the forces that are there and the depth that's there.

Student: So through all that gray area just to pray to see my true state?

M. Laitman: Yes. Disturbances are actually the states where the revelation of the true state of a person is. What are disturbances? Disturbances disclose the depth that a person's in a more demanding way. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:30:38) He writes that the lowliness a person feels testifies that he's walking on the path of truth and only when he sees the true prayer there's a place to pray from the bottom of the heart. So the question is, is lowliness a condition for prayer from the bottom of the heart?

M. Laitman: Yes, of course. 

Student: So there's a lowliness?

M. Laitman: Prayer comes from the heart. So lowliness is, you could say, it's the initial condition, the initial preceding thing that will come in order to reach the prayer.

Student: And there's the lowliness that the Creator causes for a person, what he describes here?

M. Laitman: Well.

Student: And there's states that a person himself lowers himself towards society?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: In the states where a person lowers himself it's not like when the Creator creates his lowliness?

M. Laitman: Certainly.

Student: Why?

M. Laitman: Because the Creator does this from above, and a person does it from himself. It is difficult for him to get rid of his egoistic calculation, and the Creator if he does, he does it by the upper light.

Student: So a person can on his own reach that state of lowliness? Meaning he himself can reach prayer from the bottom of the heart?

M. Laitman: Correct, but by that he awakens the Creator to help.

Student: And then the Creator interferes. So when he does, how does a person work with it correctly because in those states it's hard to work?

M. Laitman: It's very difficult to talk about this to scrutinize it, but it's possible. It is possible. The main thing is that as many friends engage in this as possible. 

Student: What do you mean to share with the friend that if he's in lowliness to share with the other?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Student: Thank you. 

M. Laitman: In our sharing, it's not necessarily on our degree but where it connects already in the upper degrees.

Student: What do you mean? Share with them physically, or what do you mean on higher degrees?

M. Laitman: What is physically?

Student: You said to talk about it to share. So, does that mean to bring it to the friends?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: To tell them about it to share about it?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And what did you mean on higher degrees?

M. Laitman: Well, from upper higher states.

M. Laitman: All right we are moving to the next part. Yes, where's our reader?

Reader: We'll go to the next part The Preface to the Ladder Commentary.

Song: (01:34:03)