The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: January 8, 2026
Reading of the Article in the Ten
Rabash. Article No. 32, 1985. Concerning the Reward of the Receivers
Recorded lesson - Dec 29, 2002
Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson, we will learn a lesson by Rav from the 29th of December, 2002. It is based on the article “Concerning the Reward of the Receivers” by Rabash. In the writings of Rabash, in Hebrew, it's in the first volume, page 161. We will read it together in the Ten. Tens that will finish earlier, are invited to start the workshop on the main points of the article.
Reading: (00:48) Concerning the Reward of the Receivers
Article No. 32, 1985
It is known that man cannot work without reward. This means that if one were not given reward, he would not make a move. This stems from the root of the creatures, which is utterly motionless, as it is written in The Study of the Ten Sefirot (Part 1, item 19): “We love rest and vehemently hate movement, to the point that we do not make even a single move if not to find rest. This is because our Root is motionless and restful; there is no movement in Him whatsoever. For this reason, it is also against our nature and hated by us.”
Accordingly, we must know what is the reward for which it is worth our while to work. To explain this we must look into what we know—that there is the purpose of creation and the correction of creation.
That purpose of creation is from the perspective of the Creator. That is, we say that the Creator created creation because of His desire to do good to His creations. This brings up the famous questions, “Why are the creatures not receiving delight and pleasure, for who can go against Him and say that he does not want delight and pleasure if He has installed in the creatures a nature where each one wants to receive?”
We learn that only the will to receive is called “creation,” and “creation” means something new, which is called “existence from absence.” Therefore, He has created this nature in the creatures, which means that everyone wants to receive and He wants to give. So who is delaying?
The answer to this is presented in the words of the ARI (in the beginning of the book, Tree of Life): “To bring to light the perfection of His deeds, He has restricted Himself.” He explains there, in “Inner Reflection,” that it means that since there is a difference between giver and receiver, it causes disparity of form, meaning unpleasantness to the receivers. To correct this there was a correction that the abundance shines only to a place where there is an aim to bestow, for this is called “equivalence of form,” and “Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator.”
Then, when he receives the delight and pleasure, he does not feel unpleasantness, and the abundance can come to the receiver because the receiver will not feel any deficiency upon the reception of the abundance. That is, he will not feel deficient because he is a receiver, since his aim is to bestow contentment upon the Creator, and not because he wants to receive pleasure for himself.
It therefore follows that if we introspect into what we must do in order to receive the delight and pleasure, it is only to obtain the Kelim [vessels], which is a second nature, called “vessels of bestowal.” This is called the “correction of creation.” Therefore, we should know what reward we should demand of the Creator to give us in return for our labor in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments]: it is that He will give us vessels of bestowal.
It is written in the introduction to the book, Panim Masbirot [Welcoming Face], the root of the reward is the Masach [screen] and the Ohr Hozer [Reflected Light]. Therefore, we need not demand pleasure and abundance in return for work, but vessels of bestowal, for this is all we need in order to receive the delight and pleasure. Before one obtains the vessels of bestowal, he suffers in his life, for he hasn’t the suitable Kelim to receive delight and pleasure.
We see that we should make three discernments in our actions in the order of our work: 1) forbidden things, 2) permitted things, 3) Mitzvot. With forbidden things it is impossible to speak of intentions for the Creator, that I can do something forbidden even Lishma [for Her sake]. We cannot even speak of doing them. Our sages call this a “Mitzva [commandment] that comes by transgression.” Only with the permitted things can it be said that we should aim for the Creator, or that he cannot aim, and then he has no Mitzva. However, when he can aim to bestow, this act is regarded as a Mitzva.
With acts of Mitzva, such as eating a Matza [Passover bread], eating in a Sukkah [Sukkot hut], etc., even when one does not aim to bestow with them, it is still regarded as a Mitzva, since Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] is also a Mitzva. But when he does aim with it in order to bestow, that Mitzva causes him to be rewarded with the light in the Mitzva.
When he can no longer aim, but does the Mitzva Lo Lishma, our sages said, “One should always engage in Torah and Mitzvot Lo Lishma, and from Lo Lishma he will come to Lishma.” It follows that even when he does not aim, he is observing the Mitzvot of the Creator. But when he does permitted things, it is called “optional,” and this cannot be added to the count of Mitzvot.
However, when he commits forbidden things the transgression is written in his account. At that time he regresses from the path of Torah, becoming farther from the Creator. When he observes Mitzvot Lo Lishma he also becomes close to the Creator, but this is a slow path, meaning that by that he is nearing the Creator by a long route until he can cling to the Creator.
But when he performs the Mitzvot Lishma, by this he becomes more adhered to the Creator each and every time, until he is rewarded with the flavors of Torah and Mitzvot.
We can also discern from this if he enjoys the Mitzva or not. That is, when he eats a tiny piece of Matza, he cannot observe the Mitzva if he is not enjoying, for one who eats a tiny piece of Matza, below the threshold of pleasure, does not do his due. Rather, he must enjoy, or else he cannot bless.
Also, the delight of Shabbat [Sabbath] is a Mitzva. If he does not enjoy eating a Shabbat meal, he also did not do his due. Therefore, the rule is that on the Eve of Shabbat, close to the afternoon prayer, one should not eat until it is dark, so he will enjoy the meal. Our sages said about it (Pesachim, p 99): “‘One should not eat on the eve of Shabbat and good day from the afternoon prayer onward, so he will come into Shabbat hungry,’ the words of Rabbi Yehuda.”
Still, even if he cannot aim in order to bestow, he is still observing the Mitzva of eating a Matza etc. Also, in permitted things, even if he cannot aim in order to bestow, it is still regarded as not being more materialized by eating permitted things when they are necessary, meaning that without them a person cannot live. It is permitted to receive these things in any case, meaning even when he cannot aim to bestow with them.
But with permitted things that are not necessary, when one uses them he becomes more materialized even if he commits no transgression by eating them. On the one hand we can say that necessities stand one degree below Mitzvot when they are done Lo Lishma.
It therefore follows that we should discern from below upward: 1) forbidden things, 2) permitted things with which he cannot aim to bestow, 3) permitted, but necessary things, 4) Mitzvot with which he does not aim in order to bestow, 5) permitted things with which he aims in order to bestow. (However, a Mitzva without the aim and permitted things in order to bestow require scrutiny, which of them is more important because there is room for mistakes here. This is why I do not want to scrutinize it), 6) Mitzvot with which he aims in order to bestow.
It follows that the reward is only to obtain vessels of bestowal. When one attains these vessels he has everything.
Reader: Now we will enter a lesson with Rav from the 29th of April, 2022.
M. Laitman: (16:08) We heard an article from “The Rungs of the Ladder,” volume four, “Concerning the Reward of the Receivers.” So, the reward of the receivers means what a person demands for the fact that he exists in this world, he exerts in this world, for whom does he exert in this world, it all depends on the intention, right? What do I intend to receive? Which vessel am I preparing, so that in it I'll feel a filling as a result of my exertion? So, it doesn't depend perhaps on the giver; maybe what I intend, the giver does not intend; maybe what I intend, my exertion is completely incorrect, and it doesn't bring that result that I intend for. And we have to check what is the reward that the receiver demands, that is, that the one who performs some exertion demands. The intention to receive the reward is, it comes to a person in this world with three possibilities: either he does things that are forbidden to do in this world, or that are permitted to do in this world, or these are acts of Mitzvot [commandments]. And Rabash divides these things such that he doesn't quite touch them, because he has his own reasons. And he says that there are forbidden things, permitted things that one cannot receive in order to bestow, things that are permitted, but they are necessary, acts of Mitzva which he does not aim in order to bestow, and permitted things which he aims in order to bestow, and Mitzvot [commandments], which he also aims in order to bestow. It means according to the height, the level in which he performs these things, in such a way he is rewarded, he gets a reward. And what is the reward? The reward is actually to perform the deed in the highest possible form. By that, a person reaches equivalence of form. Why don't they say about equivalence of form that this is the goal, but rather the goal is to receive in order to bestow? Because the result does not depend on us. The result comes from that law that the Creator has established, but the deed depends on us.
M. Laitman: (19:59) It's as he explains to us regarding love. How is it possible to obligate? It is written, "Love the Lord your God," "Love your friend as yourself," all kinds of such things in which we certainly cannot interfere. How can I commit my heart to love someone? But rather through various actions, what we call Segulot [special powers], I can make it so that I will love. In this world, it is done through effort. I invest myself in someone, I do things for him, I care for him. You can see that clearly in a couple that receives a child to educate. They adopt him, they have no children, and they receive a child or a baby, and they start raising him. And he truly becomes their child for each and every way, because they invest in him. Because they invest; before they invested, they felt no love - not natural love or love that is above the natural. But after they invest, they reach love. It becomes important for them, because they invested in the child of their own. So that part that they invested in him, they love it, because it is theirs, and from that they feel love towards that child. That is how it is for us. When we are in the will to receive, and this is how we move our will to receive from us to someone else, and that's how we feel connected to that thing. How is it in spirituality, when we want to love someone who is truly outside of us, foreign to us, truly in order to bestow, not in order to receive, where we have beastly love or human love? So here it is a different law. When it says, "Love the Lord your God," so this speaks about the quality of the Creator, because the Creator has no image, so that I can love some form. His form is his law, to bestow. I need to love the form of bestowal. This is what it means to love the Creator. And the way this form clothes in me, this is what I have to love, this is what I need to identify with. How can I do that? So they say, in order to love the Creator, it is possible by performing all kinds of Segulot [special powers]. What does it mean, Segulot? When you make efforts that have no direct relation to the result, that you will truly receive love towards that quality of "in order to bestow." But rather these acts will make it so, that this is by the power of the upper one, that if you perform these deeds, then bit by bit, they accumulate to a great power, a great effort in quality and quantity. And then according to this law, something inverts within you, something is born within you, called the will to bestow. And then you love this phenomenon. It is called that you love the Creator. And this is what we should aim for while we perform actions. And if we then look at all of our possibilities, everything that we do, then they are divided into these five kinds - things that are forbidden, things that are permitted. With forbidden things certainly I cannot aim to reach in order to bestow because to begin with, this law tells me that these things which he defines as forbidden will never bring me to this quality, but to the contrary, they'll push me away from that quality. This is why they are called forbidden, not for any other reason. It is forbidden for me to perform these, and these, and these things because they move me away from attaining the intention to bestow. Then we have permitted things, that I'm allowed to do them. They're seemingly neutral. It's not this, not that. And in them, I'm given an opportunity, yes or no, to aim through these deeds to reach in order to bestow.
M. Laitman: (25:44) Next, he writes things that are permitted but necessary, things that are permitted but necessary, to intend, not to intend. I cannot attach any intention to them because nature demands that I will perform them. Meaning, it's not that I choose these things, these acts, and upon them I want to be rewarded with the quality of bestowal, but rather I have to keep them. Whether I want to or not, whether I intend or I do not intend, this force, this law of life obligates me to do it. So with these things also, it is impossible to ascribe an intention in order to bestow. Then we have acts of Mitzvot [commandments]. So, acts of Mitzvot mean that there are actions on which I am obligated to try to do them in order to bestow because precisely by my effort with these deeds, I reach an intention. We have Mitzvot in which I'm not yet capable, I can't do it or I don't know how; and then there are commandments where, there are people who understand them or a person tries to do some Mitzvot like this, some Mitzvot like that, in which he can already receive in order to bestow. And so his deed and his intention are like bestowal, all in all. And indeed he's already in execution of an act that brings him to compatibility with the Creator.
This is what our Rav, this is how he divides it between the various things that a person does in this world. In the next world, meaning in spirituality, when we perform actions through an inner effort, through an inner exertion, it's called inner work, the internality of the Torah, the internality of the work. So a deed and an intention are one and the same. The intention is the deed. That is, I cannot perform some action and aim through it or not aim through it, but rather if I have an intention, according to the measure of the intention, it is considered that I'm performing the deed. If I have no intention, there is no deed. I can't perform actions in spirituality with my hands and and legs, but only through my inner effort, through the intention. Therefore, things that are forbidden, or permitted, or Mitzvot - those three things, right, that we have, with all kinds of possible intentions over them in the spiritual world, they take on a different characteristic. Forbidden things, mean that I cannot, I'm not capable of or I don't want to have an intention in order to bestow. Permitted things is that in them I'm determined, I'm in a struggle between the Kedusha and Klipa [the shell]. Yes or not to have an intention to bestow, it's called the Klipa, the shell of Noga. And the Mitzva, means intentions that are certainly in order to bestow in which I ascribe myself to the Creator. So the spiritual space is divided within me also according to these three things: permitted, what's in the middle, the Mitzva that is on the top and the forbidden things are on the bottom, meaning Kedusha, the shell of Noga, and the three impure shells. But the deed itself without an intention in the spiritual world is unrelated. Because the intention is the deed. Any questions please?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:34) He writes in the article that even a commandment without an intention is also called the commandment of the Creator, and we learned that a commandment without an intention is like a body without a soul. How does that work out?
M. Laitman: Kabbalists, when they write about a commandment without an intention, they don't mean just those that, let's say, a child learned at the age of 13 how to put a Tefillin and he puts on the Tefillin. Now if you ask him what is he doing it for, this is what I was taught. A second one who is wiser will say, no this is the Creator's will to do so I will do it. A third one will say, I want that by that I will feel good. Something like that, all kinds of reasons. The Kabbalists who write for us our books, they never intend, they never talk about a deed with our hands and legs. If they say the person performs a deed without an intention it means that I'm performing all kinds of efforts but I don't yet have an intention to bestow. This means that I may make efforts to do things in order to bestow. Maybe I don't understand it but I'm already in some efforts in that. There are many people here who don't know exactly what it is, yes or no in order to bestow and what spirituality is, but they made an effort. They came here, now at 3 a.m. to study, they sit here and they study. These efforts with an intention without an intention, if you ask I don't think anyone can tell you that he truly has a clear intention why he's sitting here and truly this intention, it's that he actually scrutinized it, and precisely because of it. But with its help he came and now he's sitting and he's executing this intention. So, this initial state for the time being it is considered that they don't know or they don't make intentions, but they do make inner efforts, they perform all kinds of actions, as it is written, “whatever is in your hand and power to do, that do.” Yes, so they make all kinds of efforts to reach something, whatever they're being pushed towards from the heavens. This is considered doing without an intention. So Kabbalists do not relate to, do not talk about people who perform the commandments that they were taught to do. What does it mean? Things that they were taught to do, educated to do, this is why they do it. Rather they are talking about the people who are sitting here. Certainly their goal is to reach the right intention, but it's not yet clear to them. It doesn't become clear to them, and they don't know precisely how, but still they participate somehow in whatever is done with them from above, from the heavens, but it's not yet clear. This is some sort of a transitional time, when a person, bit by bit, starts to see truly his state, what is being done with him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:56) So in our state, during the preparation, what is it that he calls permitted things, forbidden things, acts of commandments, permitted, necessary? Can we know what it is?
M. Laitman: For us, forbidden deeds are those that can push us away from reaching the true goal: hating the friend, being lazy in the society, slighting our mission, our message, the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the society, meaning all of these things that can be the most important for us, that they are as fuel for us, they truly are pillars to which we should truly tie ourselves. So if one relates to them in a form of slighting, it is forbidden, because this truly throws him to the opposite direction from attaining the goal. Permitted things, acts of Mitzva, this is what the Kabbalists have commanded us. Let's say, it's not commandments, it's pieces of advice. If you want to reach the goal, then you have to do this and that. What does it mean, you have to? They don't give you commandments, they explain to you that this is how reality is built, this is how the general law of the whole of reality is built. Now if you want to enter the spiritual world, you have to be according to such and such a law. For example, there are people here who want to travel to America, let's say, to the U.S. So they go to the embassy and they check them, are you qualified to enter the U.S. according to certain criteria? So it's the same, these are laws, it's not some arbitrary desire of someone or of the Creator or the Kabbalists to say this or that, or there is some angel who opens the opening for you or not, and you're going to bribe him, that's irrelevant. So deeds, from all kinds of levels and degrees, intentions, or deeds with the hands and legs even, to help you to achieve the spiritual goal of in order to bestow, they are called Mitzvot. More correctly, the Zohar at the end of the introduction to the book of Zohar says that it is called 18 counsels. And after you perform these counsels, you certainly attain those qualities themselves, and they're called Pikudim, deposits. So we have counsels and we have deposits. The Mitzvot, the commandments, all in all, are divided into two parts. One part when you try to reach this quality, and then when you already reach it and you receive this quality, you acquire it, it is your quality already. You begin to be built from that, and more and more, and this is how you need to build yourself from 620 Mitzvot, 620 commandments, or deposits, filling yourself, a deposit is a filling. So these are the things that are called acts of a Mitzva, and certainly it's worthwhile to do them. It's like it's not worthwhile to do forbidden things that push you away from advancing towards keeping the spiritual law, meaning to take on such an education that will help you to keep the spiritual law and not to break it, not to be a criminal. And there are things that are not forbidden and not permitted, and there, especially, Baal HaSulam writes that the battlefield between the Kedusha and the Sitra Achra, the other side, where the person needs to decide, to shift. We don't quite distinguish between all of these things, but after a person scrutinizes for himself, what exactly is the Klipa, the shell, and what exactly is Kedusha, sanctity, when he acquires these two parts and they live in him, these two, when he scrutinizes these things, I'm not going to do these things, and I have a screen opposite them, and these things I do, and I can, and I already have clear intentions, and he discovers that he has within him things that it is impossible to classify into this or that. And it's very interesting, how can such a thing even exist? These are not the qualities of the Creator, and it's not the qualities that are the opposite of the Creator, which are the created being, it's the Klipa, the shell, so how can it be? What else is in reality besides that?
M. Laitman: (40:19) I mean, there are the qualities of the Creator, and there is the projection of these qualities, which is the qualities of the created being, so what is in the middle that does not belong to this or to that? So in the middle, it's the free choice of a person. It's not that there are other kinds of things or other desires that the Creator created, and seemingly these desires do not belong to Him and not to the opposite of Him, but rather in the scrutiny between the shell and the Kedusha, there are some certain things there, where there you're certainly free to do whatever you want without any bad consequence for yourself, and there it is truly a choice. I don't yet know how to clarify it, soon. This means, it's not that it comes to confuse a person, even though it is relevant, but it's more relevant to giving us more freedom in all of the four degrees of the attainment. We will talk about that sometime.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:05) Can a standard book of commandments give us, students of Kabbalah, some indication of what's correct and what's incorrect to do?
M. Laitman: About the forbidden things, permitted things, optional things, and things of a Mitzva, which we talk about, it's not what a person thinks with respect to this world. Again, I explain that when we speak about a Mitzva, these are things that promote me towards spirituality. A transgression, those are things that push me away from attaining spirituality, and permission means that I'm in some kind of a choice. What should I do with it? Now, you're asking whether the corporeal commandments can promote me towards spirituality or not. So, it depends if you do them, and what are you doing them for, for what purpose are you doing them? We are talking about things that can bring me closer to spirituality, and proximity to spirituality is through our inner actions. That is, if I give you a biscuit, what do I want by that? That's what it's about. It could be that by that I want to receive something from you, so it's just a beastly action, or human would be more correct. Beasts don't do that, they're not that sophisticated, but it's just an ordinary human action. If by that I want to make you have a good relation towards me, have love towards me, so it won't bring me a beastly benefit in this world, but rather a spiritual benefit for you and for me, then it is already a deed called a Mitzva. Now, by putting a Tefillin on, can I cause that same thing? If by that, you can cause something good, meaning, your intention can be in that, then check. Maybe yes, and if not, maybe no. You see. And it doesn't matter about which deeds you are talking about in this world. So, by our definition, commandments are all the actions of a person that bring him closer to the Creator. And this depends on his intention and the way that the Kabbalists advise us. What comes first? The commandments of the Torah, as the Zohar explains to us, are divided into councils and deposits. With the councils, you need to build the spiritual vessel. And then you receive in it whatever this vessel can contain, as much as it can contain the revelation of the Creator. It is also written in the Zohar, in the introduction of the book of Zohar, in the first volume of the Zohar, following the introduction of Rabbi Shimon. Also in the introduction itself, Rabbi Shimon himself writes that, all in all, there is a very small number of commandments to which the entire Torah is divided.
M. Laitman: (46:32) Let's say, groups. He starts from Yira'ah [spiritual fear] and onwards, and he reaches the other qualities that a person should acquire. This means that our relation to the Mitzvot, it's not as deeds in this world that a 13-year-old child can already begin to perform. But rather, our relation towards them is as actions through the inner exertion of a person, in order to reach adhesion with the Creator. On which degrees he's stacking? First it's fear, then it is love, in order to reach adhesion. And it is unrelated to any physical action in this world. The physical actions that a person has to perform in this world, what we call the commandments of “Shulchan Aruch,” it's because it holds him in the framework, and it can remind him that he must also certainly think about what is he doing it for. Can these things truly bring him to someone, to something? I have students who received the most orthodox education. They truly belong to the most pious Jews. The moment that they started to study Kabbalah, these acts of the Mitzvot started becoming for them very negligible. They can't perform them until they give it importance. The importance fell, it descended, it disappeared in keeping these things without an intention. Now they have to work on the intention. How will I keep what earlier was so easy for me? Why was it easy? Earlier I received it with my education: one, as a habit, and two, it gave me, each and every day, power, life, confidence, everything, in this world, in the next world. As Rabbi Shimon explains there also about the commandment of fear. He calls it the Pkuda de-Orayta [commandment of the Torah] and Pkuda Kadma’ah [the first commandment], the deposits or commandments of the light and the early, the initial commandments. And certainly these people are miserable. There are those who are in their environment and are already afraid that other people would look at them and see that this person has grown weaker. And they wonder what happened to him because indeed he's no longer doing his things automatically like before. But rather automatically he slights them and he doesn't do them. The body has lost importance and he cannot perform them like before because the body is not capable of accepting or performing what is not important for it, because there's no fuel. It's natural that for us we don't have an inclination to perform actions where it's not clear to us that from them we will get some benefit. And it's natural that we slight these things; and we should talk about it openly, that we look down at those people who carry the Mitzvot that are written in the “Shulchan Aruch.” There's a certain, we look down. Specifically those people who study Kabbalah, they slight it because they need to work on the intention before they do something. Just like we feel that same slighting attitude towards a friend or towards each and every thing.
M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (51:28) You see what Rabash says, permitted things which he aims in order to bestow, but a commandment that is not with an intention, and permitted things which are in order to bestow require scrutiny which of them is important. Because there is room for error in that, this is why I don't want to scrutinize it. He doesn't want to start getting into complications with his audience; and those of you who understand, understand it.
M. Laitman: (52:06) And we also should keep those good Jews who keep the Mitzvot as they were educated and those who are capable of reaching the goal, of reaching an intention, we should take care of them, help them, because that is the purpose of creation and on that depends the well-being of the world and the Creator's desire and adhesion with Him. And as much as we can give Him good and pleasure as He gives us, and reach the purpose of creation which is to feel the Good Who Does Good. But those who can't, we have to keep them. You see, he gives this example, Rabash gives us an example, this is why I don't want to scrutinize it. It's very simple, with very simple words. Do not put an obstacle before a blind man. There are many other things that we shouldn't speak about in order to keep the peace in the public.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:14) We know that after the barrier, the commandment is called work with reflected light. So how do the commandments divide after the barrier: permitted, forbidden, and permitted necessary?
M. Laitman: Are they divided beyond the barrier? What?
Student: The actions with the screen and reflected light, the commandment.
M. Laitman: The actions of the screen and reflected light, the actions of the screen and reflected light come upon the will to receive on the degrees of the coarseness: root, one, two, three, four. What do you mean that they are divided? This is how these actions are divided. When each time I add a will to receive from the left line, I acquire forces for intention in order to bestow from the right line, and I do it in the middle line.
Student: And what is something that's permissible?
M. Laitman: Something which is permitted is gradually built in a person after he reaches something. You can see, like in this world, what are permitted things that a baby has, or a person who cannot by himself truly be good and honest and determined in the right way, intelligently, his deeds? What kind of permission? Such people, it's best to put them in some framework. This is your home, this is your work, this is your football, soccer, and we're done. This is how it's done for them from above. Permission is already for high souls, who can already develop. Not for babies.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:21) In our world, we have an example of necessary things that we say a blessing for: after we go to the bathroom, before we eat. It seems like these are necessary things, that necessarily each one does. Nevertheless, there is a blessing over them and there is a commandment to add something to them.
M. Laitman: What is the question then?
Student: According to what it says there, if something is necessary, we don't need to aim.
M. Laitman: Don't ask me about actions in this world, those you have to bless over and those you don't. No, I'm not teaching here blessings and which things to do or not. You're a Jewish person, open the “Set Table”, “Shulchan Aruch”, read it and do it. It has nothing to do with inner work. It has to do with external work. External work, you study according to “Shulchan Aruch,” the “Set Table.” Each one can learn it. He doesn't need to be a great sage, and he can do it. There's no connection between this work and the internality that we're learning about. Because the internality, the inner work, I can do it only in the condition that I acquire forces from above, that I have connection to godliness. And to the extent that I receive an illumination from Him, that I understand what to do with myself, how to do it toward Him, how do I approach Him. All of this is my inner work. My inner work is one in which I approach the Creator according to equivalence of form more and more. As if there's a thread between me and Him and I'm like, there's a rope and I'm like in a circus, you know, I climb up this rope. This is my inner work. These, the things that are beneficial to that are called a commandment; those that obstruct this climb are called a transgression; and there are things that are permitted. We'll scrutinize them later. That's it. These are inner things, internal. How do I internally climb toward the Creator? Now you're asking how will I do it with my leg and with my hand and what should I say? Take the “Set Table” and ask there. It has nothing to do with your inner work. It's called external doing. Why do you need to do something externally? Because if you're running away from your inner effort to the outside and you belong to this world with your desires and your thoughts, then at least you will remain within this boundary that will remind you that if I'm doing certain, I'm doing these certain strange things, I have to talk about Creator. What is the Creator? Who is the Creator? It will remind you of the blessing, or those things will remind you about the inner work that you have to do. That's why Jews in this world; they have to first do the inner work. They're also given this boundary of the commandments externally, and not the nations of the world. Because they're obligated. The obligation is first to reach equivalence of form. That's it. So in order to have such a boundary, the sages determined, let's place this boundary. Why? Because we have an example. The 613 commandments, the 620 spiritual commandments, let's do it in corporeality. So all those things will remind the person that he has to do it in internality. That's it. And besides that, when a person will learn about each and every particular thing, then according to the language of branches, he will have a little bit of access to what these things hint at internally. That's it. Now, besides this, we want to create additional boundaries, not simply one or a few of the commandments, which is our factory, our group, our framework, the phone calls we make to each other, the friend reminding to a friend, and so on and so forth. All those things are helping us to return us internally to that thread on which you climb to the Creator. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:44) The question is, what is necessary in internality over which we don't need to and it's impossible to have an intention?
M. Laitman: What's necessary internally, one over which you cannot make an intention, you don't have to place an intention, is our framework. The study and the dissemination factory that, you know, like it or not, you can do it with or without intention. You have to do it because without it, you won't have any foundation for spiritual life. Like bread and water, without it, I cannot exist, I cannot live. Also similarly, without a group, without work in the dissemination factory, all those things between us that I can do, even the youngest, the newest student that comes here and doesn't understand anything and begins to enter, he does more than you, let's say, right? Those are necessary things that each one can do without any intentions, but if you want to do that, just like without bread and water, he will not be able to sustain himself and to grow. That's why you cry, what kind of intentions we have in the factory, it's not spirituality. In truth, is not spirituality. Spirituality has to be inside, between you and the Creator, that which you build from this, on top of this framework and onward. These are necessary things; it's like bread and water to exist.
Student: But it's forbidden that pushes us away.
M. Laitman: The forbidden that pushes us away, it's clear. First of all, to break this framework is clear, you simply die. And inside this framework, anything that prevents you from moving from the outer framework to the inner work, to climb this thread to the Creator, these are all the forbidden things. And we have to make sure that they would not exist among us: envy, hate, looking down at the greatness of the Creator and the goal, those means with which I can reach it. There are many things, it's not many in truth.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:10) I check all the time that I want to reach the Creator, and it's not just some theory that it's convenient for me to think that this is the Creator.
M. Laitman: A person getting confused and he doesn't know, it's not clear, these are things he has to go through, it's corrections without which, if you don't do it, one by one on your path, along your path, and not leap over several degrees, skip them. You cannot do it, but you have to do it gradually, not slowly, but gradually, you must do it. And it takes years because the path that we're going through now, until the barrier, it repeats, it truly repeats itself after the barrier, from the barrier to the complete adhesion, the entire path. You also learn about it, that those transgressions and mistakes as a result of the double concealment and the regular concealment later become reward and punishment and then eternal love. So allow yourself to absorb those things, because unless you incorporate of each and every detail that you have until the barrier, you will not cross it, you need them for later. It's not like let's skip and leap and jump. And jump, means to make an effort and go quickly through it. So speed, yes, that's up to us, the effort, please, effort, we say everything we do here is we try to do it as an effort to advance faster. The speed is that which is in our hands, and no more than that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:16) How can I check if my exertion is correct?
M. Laitman: How can you check if my exertion is correct? There are many ways to check it. First of all, do I want it or not? Typically that which you do not want could be the right thing. Second, is it held in high regard by the friends? I check it relative to what is written in the books. I check it relative to what my teacher says. We don't have it, before the barrier, we don't have a clear system relative to which we can check and measure ourselves. You ask, where is this scale, the truth, relative to which I check myself, I see more or less the opposite. Before the barrier, it's not found before me. That's why it's called concealment. But relative to my will to receive, the society, the teacher, the Rav, at least this way I can check it, I can measure it. It's not for nothing that it says, “Don't believe in yourself until the day of your death.” Until your will to receive dies, you might make mistakes, some harsh mistakes, and nonsense really, and even the simplest kind of nonsense. That's what's interesting. It's really a wonder that you make mistakes more, and more, and more, in things. And the same things, seemingly, in such situations, even more. How could it be? I went through bigger things and I didn't get lost there, and I managed to get through them somehow, and suddenly again, you enter into some other nonsense. That's how it is. We don't know the degrees. We think that each degree is like that. No, they can appear very simply, very naturally. You're like a baby. Suddenly, you find yourself standing there crying, as if you just lost your mommy. Until we reach the barrier, each state is like that. After the barrier, it depends on the screen. It depends on how much you adhere to the Creator. To that extent, you're also a hero.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:37) In our work, the relations between one friend and another are more important. So, are these relations between one friend and another, is it only external work, or is it inner work? The relations between the friends, is it external or internal?
M. Laitman: The relationship between a friend and a friend, between the friends, between the friends in the group, these are external relationships that we have to turn into internal relationships. As much as these relationships will acquire the character, the nature of in order to bestow, to that extent, they will become a spiritual vessel where the Creator dwells, where the Creator dwells. Can the work in the factory replace external commandments? As I said before, someone is asking me about it anonymously. As I said earlier, there's no connection between the two. We need to be interested in every framework, the one that's nearer to us, the more further away from us. Anything that can return us in different ways to the inner work. And those external commandments from the “Set Table,” “Shulchan Aruch,” they can remind us, they can certainly remind us, the observance of the inner commandments. And I said it myself many times, and I advise people not to let go of them. Our beast is built in such a way that we don't feel how we are running away. Every moment we are running away from the inner work. So, the more we set up those supporters that will remind us about our inner work, we'll return to the inner work with greater frequency. That's why it's not an accident that the sages established this framework of external commandments so that when we keep them, we remember, and we return to the inner work. The difference between us and everyday Jewish tradition, Judaism, is that there they don't teach how by keeping the external commandments you can reach the internal commandments. They don't teach it. The intention, right? The inner work is the intention, but they don't teach it. Never. But never, God forbid, one does not disqualify the other. It doesn't revoke the other. One clothes over the other. Is the keeping of external commandments bringing it to spirituality? No. Does it raise you to the next world toward the Creator? No. But it can remind you that there is inner work, and then when you go to the inner work, you begin to certainly begin your path on the ladder of degrees. That's it.
Question (French): (01:11:27) Every religious person knows that the main thing in the commandment is the intention. If you ask each of them, so an intention without an intention is like a body without a soul. Everyone can state that out loud without any problems. So, in what are we different from religious people?
M. Laitman: We are different from the religious people because for us, the intention is the main thing, and all the rest is not the important stuff and it's just as an aid. According to the intention, we receive all the rest, and that's it. And this is how we relate to the entire world and to life in general.
Question (Odessa): (01:12:18) It's written that in spirituality, there is intention and there's an action, an act. So, what do we learn in spirituality? That there are two steps in force and in actuality, in potential, and in purpose. There's intention, and there's action. So, what is the action?
M. Laitman: The action is already the performance of the intention. Let's put it this way. My calculations towards the Creator to bestow to Him, to bestow in order to bestow, to receive in order to bestow, that's my intention, my reflected light, my vessel, which I prepare. And the performance, the action is considered that in this vessel, I begin to receive the inner light. The Creator is clothed in this vessel. He reveals Himself towards me, and that is already the action.
Question (French): (01:13:39) What is it, where they write that the righteous, there's no rest for them, not in this world and not in the next?
M. Laitman: Poor thing, he wants to rest, and also the next world, kind of like no rest awaits him. So, don't be a righteous in the next world, you can rest. In truth, righteous have no rest there. Meaning, whoever reaches the world of Atzilut, who's just considered to be righteous, Tzadik, because he acquired the Galgalta ve Eynaim and knows upon all actions to justify the Creator. So, a righteous who has acquired the Galgalta ve Eynaim and entered the Garden of Eden, the next world, through the true spirit of spirituality, meaning to Atzilut; meaning, if with Galgalta ve Eynaim enters Atzilut, then he doesn't just have rest, but he's working with the AHP of ascent, and he's constantly raising the AHP, so he doesn't have rest in the next world. He's constantly working with vessels of reception. The vessels of bestowal are in rest, but the vessels of reception that we do in order to bestowal - we're constantly in movement. That's considered that the righteous have no rest, not in this world, and not in the next world. There are many other explanations to this, but according to our order, it's in the diagram of things, it's the simplest way. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, there are many examples based on observing the 613 commandments. Do Kabbalists from other nations also need to know about these commandments, and how should they observe them? Does someone who does not belong to the Jewish nation and learns Kabbalah, does he have to observe the commandments in corporeality? The obligation to observe commandments in spirituality and in corporeality is upon a Jew because he needs to reach the observance of Torah and commandments in a spiritual manner. So, he must observe them also in a corporeal manner, which is the framework from which to rise to spirituality. Someone who does not belong to that but rather works from his point in his heart, or her heart, performs all the actions that belong to the society, to the study, and does them as a means to ascend to the Creator.
M. Laitman: (01:16:53) I once explained that in spirituality, when women ask me about this, the women always, they always feel themselves, they're like, as if they're second-rated. And that a woman doesn't have to do this, and then the study, and she doesn't have to study TES, and read the articles, and the writings, and thank God, we're being given permission to read. So, I explained to them that we are all different in our nature until the point in the heart is impregnated in us. When we have a point in the heart and we begin to perform things on it - there's no difference. There is a difference on the way to the Machsom, to the barrier, as long as we're still in our animalistic form, but beyond the barrier, there is no difference. There, it's souls, and there's no difference there in the work. Therefore, also a woman, also a baby, a baby meaning it's not opened up yet. So, he writes to women, and to the young ones, and to the servants, he writes. There's no difference after the barrier in the spiritual work. In our world, when we're still making calculations with our bodies, there's a difference in that which a woman has to do and studies, what a man does and studies, and between women and men, and the difference between the Jew of the nations. This is only in the manner of this world. Beyond the barrier, there's no difference. There, we're working with screens, which is completely… meaning what has to do with the body, the inner work, is completely equal and is the same for everyone. Also, in this world, if we're not talking about the bodies but about the internal work, it's the same stages, the same laws that a gentile and a Jew goes through. One who was born in our world as an animal that is of the nations, or an animal that is of the Jewish nation. They're also going through the same stages in the internal work, and there's no difference between them. They must go through love of friends and all the frameworks. Only for a Jew, there must be an additional framework of the observance of Torah and commandments in a corporeal manner, which for someone from the nations is not. That's according to the corporeal structure. But according to the inner structure, even if you start to study Kabbalah now, in the inner work, he already has the same stages that can lead him to the Creator, and the same commitments towards the society, and the same work. There's no difference in that. Meaning, one should not feel less than the other. These are differences that do not come from someone is more or less. Each of us is different according to the structure of our soul, each and every one. So you have some things that you have to correct, and for me - others, and for him - others. These are differences that, how to say, the main difference between, I see this all the time, questions like this about Jews and people from the nations, the main difference is that the Jews are obligated to begin the work towards the Creator even before they have a point in the heart awakened in them. And a person from the nations, when the point of the heart awakens in him, he's obligated. That's the main thing. That's why Baal HaSulam writes that those that, how does he write it, in the “Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” it's really terrible. That's also at the end of the introduction to the book of “Zohar.” There's the “Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot.”
169. Okay, item 31.Why does the coming of the Messiah depend on the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah? What is, where are all the calamities that happen due to them? No, it's here. Where he says, they….they are the ones who cause…..No, no, it’s here, I studied this on Friday. Here it is.
M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (01:23:25) 171 before 36. It's “Kabbalah for the Beginner,” that's in Hebrew. It's the introduction to the book of, the “Study of Ten Sefirot,” last sentence there. Although by no means do they desire to study Kabbalah, and therefore they're the causing calamity, and destruction, and killing in the world, and loss in the world. This is because the spirit has departed, the holy Messiah spirit, and this is, it's called the holy spirit and the spirit of Hochma and Bina.
M. Laitman: (01:24:02) That's it. So what are you going to do? You're going to ask them, what do they want about this? Do they receive a point in the heart, and like us, yearn for the Creator? No, they're not longing for the Creator, they don't have a point in the heart. It's not important, it doesn't rid them of the punishment, it doesn't rid anyone of, look at what's happening. Everything that's happening in the world is caused by not studying Kabbalah, and studying the other parts of the Torah. But who knows, who's to blame? Because there's a commandment upon the Jews, there is to engage in this, and you can't say, no, I will wait for my point in the heart. Whereas to someone from the nations, well, like to someone who's secular, as if, like the seculars today, there's no commandment for him, he doesn't have to. Therefore, only the Jews who do not study the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to draw this reforming light are the ones who are causing poverty, and destruction, and killing, and loss in the world. And you can't say that, well, I'll wait till I have a point in the heart. The chosen people must do this. That's what it was chosen for. That's the role.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:29) Why do we see that in groups that are established today abroad, we see much more longing, and the groups grow much more than we see today in Israel among the Jews?
M. Laitman: And the groups that are rising overseas, and are growing, and they have more longing than the groups here in Israel? Maybe the conditions are more difficult, internal conditions, the spiritual conditions are more difficult. They may have more difficult animalistic or bodily conditions that are more difficult, and for us, more spiritual. Besides that, what you see with your eyes is relatively still far from the truth. And the quality of this group is not to be compared with any other group in quality. In quantity, there can be thousands there. Undoubtedly, the more groups that we'll have there in Russia, or in six months or a year, you'll see that there will be truly thousands, and we in Israel will remain with the same quantity. Well, a little more. Some of the Russians will drop, the Israelis will come, but the quantity more or less kind of, well, around a thousand people, let's say. Whereas overseas, they could be thousands. But with quality, there's no comparison. Okay, I will try to also raise them up. But it will never be like here. Quality is measured by internal advancement, the true internal purposeful advancement in this pace, the pace of advancement towards the goal itself. Not to some external building, or all kinds of things that are even the massive dissemination, or something like that. The internal advancement towards the goal that you truly can't see with your eye here in the group is certainly in a pace that there is none else, and I don't think it can be anywhere else. We will advance them as much as possible, certainly. But I don't think that it will, nevertheless, be like here. I will try to hasten the process for them, but it's impossible. Also, those of our people that are overseas, we have to care for them, because the moment they won't have a connection with us, where they won't be truly immersed in us, then they too will kind of start, you know, being late too. They'll start running behind our pace.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:01) We determine their quality and their dependence like that?
M. Laitman: With our quality, we determine their quality, certainly, but it's not that they didn't acquire it, but we're also preparing for them this path, and they have to go through it as well. We really need to be connected with our friends and to sustain them together with us at least with us as much as possible. I would even more than that say, you know, you send someone out to space, and you know, when he comes back, he has to go through treatments, and some kind of rehabilitation to come back to gravity, you know. His bones become weak; he has to go through a restoration.
Student: To adapt.
M. Laitman: Yes, to re-adapt into the environment. And so, it's the same when our friends return from overseas. We truly have to take care of him and use all kinds of ways that he can't even do himself - to help him reconnect and to truly be as one of us inside the group. Otherwise, they will go away to something animalistic, beastly, and we'll lose them. You'll see this very soon. We're starting to already be... Well, we'll talk later.