The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning), April 5, 2024.
Part 1: Rabash. What Is the “Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man” in the Work?
Reader: Hello, we're going to be reading from the writings of Rabash, the article, What Is The Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man in the Work? You can find the study material on Sviva Tova and the Arvut system, and you can also send live questions to our sites. Anyone who asks a question, here, in the hall should stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth, and speak loud and clear. The Writings of Rabash. The article is, What Is the Bread of An Evil-Eyed Man in the Work?
Part 1: Rabash. Article No. 13, 1989. What Is the “Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man” in the Work?
Reading Article: (00:45) It is written in the Zohar, Shemot, Rav Hiya started, Do not eat the bread of an evil-eyed man, since it is not good to eat and enjoy the bread or the pleasure from that evil-eyed man. And had Israel not tasted the bread of the Egyptians when they went down to Egypt, they would not have been left in the exile in Egypt, and they would not be able to harm them.
It says, There is no evil bread in the world but the bread of an evil-eyed man. What does it say? Because the Egyptians could not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. This means that they could not look at the Hebrews eating, thus an evil-eyed bread.
We should understand the prohibition of the bread of an evil-eyed man to such an extent that had Israel not tasted the bread of the Egyptians, they would not have remained in exile. This is very perplexing. What is the connection between the bread of an evil-eyed man and the exile? Meaning, why does it cause them to be in exile, implying this is a grave prohibition? Is it included in the negative Mitzvot from the Torah or by our great sages that it warrants exile? To understand this in the work, we must always remember these two things before us.
One, the purpose of creation, which is to do good to His creations. This reminds us that we must achieve wholeness and merit receiving the delight and pleasure found in the purpose of creation. Prior to this, a person is regarded as deficient because he has not achieved the purpose of creation and is still in the middle of the work.
In Kabbalah, this is considered that a person should be rewarded with attaining the NRNHY in the root of his soul. Two, is the correction of creation. Since disparity of form creates separation, and since man was created in order to be able to receive the delight and pleasure, he must have a desire and yearning to receive pleasure.
And that will to receive separates him from the root. When the body is under the governance of Egypt, as soon as it hears the slightest hint that we must work in order to bestow, it immediately despises this work and claims that it is still with all its wits and will not surrender and eat the Hebrew's bread. As for them, this bread is abomination, because this bread is against reason.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:40) He says here that we need to aim while engaging in Torah and Mitzvot, for our reward to be that by this we will merit leaving the exile and the will to receive for oneself will be able to work in order for contentment to stem out of this to the Creator. And that's the demand that we have for all our work in Torah and Mitzvot. Meaning all that he wrote here is the topic of the intention. What is the intention, actually? That one who engages in Torah and Mitzvot, what does he have to aim it to?
M. Laitman: What is he doing it for? Just as you think when you're doing any kind of work, you think about why you are doing it.
Student: It's a matter of the exile in Egypt that I'm in, the desire to receive for myself. What do I need to think about in order to exit Egypt? What do I need to do, what does the thought need to be, about what?
M. Laitman: That you want to come out.
Student: To come out of the desire to receive?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But we know that that won't help, so what can we do other than intention?
M. Laitman: You do not have anything to do besides intention but the intention needs to be a complete intention.
Student: What is the complete intention that you talk about?
M. Laitman: Something by which you do to come out of the will to receive for itself.
Student: I want to understand, intention alone, I'm sitting with my Ten, can the intention alone take me out of exile or is there supposed to be some kind of physical actions that are happening in the Ten?
M. Laitman: It's possible that also physical actions, but that is very secondary.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:40) Why does he recommend not to eat the bread of the evil-eyed? After all, Israel do need to go through the state of the exile?
M. Laitman: Yes, but not to eat the evil-eyed bread is because you wish to come out of exile and receive forces, bit by bit, forces of bestowal, and thus exit.
Student: All the forces in order to receive are actually the evil-eyed bread, right? All this loot that we come out of Egypt with, is basically from going through this process, no?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, it's a must for a person to have those discernments. So the prohibition is only if you want to leave?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Why is it that they wouldn't get lost in exile? Meaning there was a possibility not to go out to exile.
M. Laitman: I did not understand.
Student: At the moment they ate the evil-eyed bread?
M. Laitman: They agreed with the Egyptians to remain in Egypt.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:20) What is the bread of the evil-eyed between us?
M. Laitman: Between us? It is that each and every one feels there is something in him that holds him and does not allow him to come out to faith above reason, or in order to bestow, That is it. It is a force, it is a power that holds the person.
Student: And it bothers me in the work, in the Ten in the work?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Student: What can help me here, what can I use to come out of that?
M. Laitman: Only prayer.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:26) What is the matter of replacing the sustenance for his own benefit to what he writes: To merit, to feel the work that you're doing, the work that you're working for an important and great king, and will have love of the Creator, and you feel his exaltedness. Is that not within reason?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: To feel that I'm serving an important king, that's in my feeling.
M. Laitman: If you feel.
Student: That's what he's writing, that we have to be rewarded with that, to merit that.
M. Laitman: But if you feel that you are working for an important king, then this is like you are right now, actually, working for an important king. Also, that he controls you, the will, your will to receive, that is. It is also, it is called an old and foolish king. That is just how it's called. You cannot come out of it, you do not want to, you are in it.
Student: This transition from the feeling that the will to receive controls me to the state in which what controls me, a different quality and that's not within reason? I'm having a difficulty of understanding how replacing a feeling of who controls me is not inside my reason?
M. Laitman: That has to be felt, that needs to be felt.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:22) When we start to feel that depth of exile in our work, and in mind and in heart, it begins to close in on everything. Is there a place in this work that we need or are supposed to talk from this harsh judgment or only from the work that we have against?
M. Laitman: It is a broad topic. You could talk about that, you could talk about the opposite kind of work, what Kabbalists wrote to us in all sorts of ways, how we can discuss our state.
Student: When he sees that he cannot move even in any way from that next point. He finds himself in that point, the prayer is needed, is there some kind of order in the work that leads to the prayer, and makes it permanent where we need to...?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Do we have to get this from you, or some order, another order?
M. Laitman: Get it from me, I do not know. You have to see it, you all have to feel it, that it is born within you and that is what you follow.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:09) I wanted to enter Egypt for a moment. I was in my desire to receive with the intention to receive my whole life.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Then there's a certain point that you come to the study and gradually start to feel that the actions that you're doing are in order to receive. Before that you didn't feel it, you didn't think about it, it didn't really interest you.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: When is it considered that a person enters Egypt?
M. Laitman: He has to feel it, this is all feeling.
Student: When a person gradually starts to learn that he has to be in bestowal and he sees that he can't, is that considered that he's entering Egypt?
M. Laitman: Well, let us say so, yes, yes, these are signs.
Student: Is there an emphasized sign that we can see along the way that a person can know, how do I know that I've already entered Egypt, that I'm there?
M. Laitman: Discuss it among you, discuss it amongst yourselves. You need to clarify it. Please do, each one should say what are those signs that you come out of Egypt, or enter Egypt or outside of Egypt or inside Egypt. Start scrutinizing it.
M. Laitman: Read the article again.
Reader: (26:25) We can also do a workshop and talk about what Rav said. We'll read it again. We're going to read again.
Re-reading the Original Source: (26:45) What Is the “Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man” in the Work?
It is written in Zohar portion Shemot. Rav Hiya started, do not eat the bread of an evil-eyed man since it is not good to eat and enjoy the bread or the pleasure from that evil-eyed man. And had Israel not tasted the bread of the Egyptians when they went down to Egypt, they would not have been left in the exile in Egypt and they would not be able to harm them.
In item 23 it says there is no evil bread in the world but the bread of an evil-eyed man. What does it say? Because the Egyptians could not eat bread with the Hebrews for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. This means that they could not look at the Hebrews eating thus an evil-eyed bread.
We should understand the prohibition of the bread of an evil-eyed man to such an extent that had Israel not tasted the bread of the Egyptians, they would not have remained in exile. This is very perplexing. What is the connection between the bread of an evil-eyed man and the exile? Why does it cause them to be in exile, implying that this is a grave prohibition? Is it included in the negative Mitzvot or from the Torah or from our great sages that it warrants exile? To understand this in the work, we must always remember these two things before us.
One, which is the purpose of creation, to do good to his creations. This reminds us that we must achieve wholeness and merit receiving the delight and pleasure found in the purpose of creation. Prior to this, a person is regarded as deficient because he has not achieved the purpose of
...and is still in the middle of the work. In Kabbalah, this is considered that a person should be rewarded with attaining the NRNHY in the root of his soul. Two, the correction of creation.
Since disparity of form creates separation, and since man was created in order to be able to receive the delight and pleasure, he must have a desire and yearning to receive pleasure. And that will to receive separates him from the root. Since the Creator wants to bestow, but the created beings have a desire to receive.
This causes separation that removes the creatures from the Creator. Therefore, a correction took place called restriction and concealment, whereby the creatures cannot feel their root, meaning who created them, before they correct the separation. It is written in the preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Thus, you find that this Nefesh, which is the light of life that is dressed in the body, extends from his essence existence from existence.
As it traverses the four worlds ABYA, it becomes increasingly distant from the light of his face, until it comes into its designated Kli, called Guf. And even if the light in it has so diminished that its origin becomes undetectable through engagement in Torah and Mitzvot, in order to bring contentment upon his Maker, he purifies his Kli, called Guf, until it becomes worthy of receiving the great abundance in the full measure included in the thought of creation when he created it. Accordingly, we can understand that our work is to emerge from self-love, meaning that our sustenance should be from sustaining the body so it has life, and can enjoy life, not because the will to receive for oneself is enjoying, for it is called evil-aid, meaning that it does not want to be a giver, but wants only to receive for oneself.
This is called evil-aid when it does not want to give anything to others and is immersed in self-love. This is called evil-aid, therefore the nourishments that a person eats, which is called bread, are forbidden for a person to enjoy, as it is the bread of an evil-eyed man, that is, a person is enjoying and satiating himself on the bread of an evil-eyed man, that is, that which the evil-eyed man enjoys gives pleasure to the person. In other words, the will to receive, which is called evil-aid, enjoys, and from this comes all the joy and high spirits that a person receives.
This he does not agree to receive, because this pleasure causes him to part from Kedusha due to disparity of form. Now we can understand what we asked, why is the grave prohibition of do not eat the bread of an evil-eyed man?
For which Israel remained in exile. It is asked, it says, had Israel not tasted the bread of the Egyptians when they went down to Egypt, they would not have been left in the exile in Egypt. Exile means that the people of Israel could not work in order to bestow upon the Creator, but only in order to receive for themselves.
This is called the exile in Egypt. But when they could not emerge from their control, and the will to receive for oneself dominated. This is why the Zohar says that if, when they descended to exile in Egypt, they had been cautious not to eat, meaning not to enjoy what the Egyptians enjoy, meaning the evil eye, which is the will to receive for oneself, they would not have come under their control in the exile.
It follows that the gravity of the prohibition of an evil-eyed man is because his bread is entirely in order to receive. And this causes all the separation from Kedusha. This is the prohibition of to not eat the bread of an evil-eyed man.
That is, all our work in Torah and Mitzvot is in order to emerge from the exile of the will to receive for ourselves. That is, that we have to aim, in other words, we must aim while engaging in Torah and Mitzvot that our reward will be that by this we will be rewarded with emerging from the exile and enslavement in the will to receive for ourselves. And we will be able to work only in order to bring contentment to the Creator.
And we will not demand any other reward for our work in Torah and Mitzvot. In other words, we want to be rewarded with feeling while engaging in Torah and Mitzvot that we are serving a great and important king, and that by this there will be love of the Creator within us. And feeling His exaltedness.
However, all of our pleasure will come from serving the Creator. This will be our reward. And not that He will somehow reward us for the work.
Instead, we will feel that the work itself is the reward. And there is no greater reward in the world than the privilege of serving the Creator. Conversely, the bread of the Egyptians in the work is the complete opposite.
As it is written, because the Egyptians could not eat bread through the Hebrews, for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. Abomination comes from the verse, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. Meaning that they despised the shepherds.
To this reason, meaning is that the Egyptians despised the food of the Hebrews, since all the bread of the Hebrews, meaning their nourishment, was in order to bestow. And to the Egyptians, all the bread is evil-eyed, namely to receive. And when they heard that the bread of the Hebrews is to bestow, when they heard that the bread of the Hebrews is to bestow, and bestow is loathsome and despicable, since when they must work in order to bestow and not receive for their own sake, they regard this work as despicable, and they do not feel any taste in it. Therefore, as soon as the Egyptians heard that we must work in order to bestow, they came to feel that they must lower themselves, meaning that all their reason, which mandates that a person should see to his own benefit, and they cannot do anything that does not yield self-benefit. Therefore, when the body is under the governance of Egypt, as soon as it hears the slightest hint that we must work in order to bestow, it immediately despises this work and claims that it is still with all its wits and will not surrender and eat the Hebrew's bread. Alas for them, this bread is an abomination because this bread is against reason.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:22) Abraham asked the Creator, how will I know that I will inherit the land? And He said, your seed will be servants to Pharaoh in Egypt. Here, He is saying that if they wouldn't be able to be left in exile, they wouldn't eat the bread. Meaning, they had to eat this bread in order to receive the Kli, the deficiency. He already promised him that they will be in Egypt and be tormented there. If they wouldn't eat this bread, how could it be?
M. Laitman: But there is a matter of before the prohibition and after. That they will eat which means they have received and enjoyed. And then, they started discovering that it is all against them, that it detaches them from the Creator.
Student: There's another thing, the Torah and Mitzvot, that they're saying, that if they engage in Torah and Mitzvot, they will come out of the desire to receive for themselves. But there wasn't any Torah and Mitzvot, yet, they only received it in Mount Sinai. What Mitzvot could they do?
M. Laitman: No, no, the forefathers they received Torah and Mitzvot even before that. When they were in Egypt and even before they were in Egypt, they felt what it was in order to bestow contentment to the Creator or not doing so.
Student: He's saying that they wouldn't be left in exile. Yesterday we read that the Creator sent them to the Creator but He was with them, and that they weren't left there. The Creator was with them and they weren't left there.
M. Laitman: Relatively, yes, they relatively felt. Look, the whole matter of Israel is to be connected to the Creator in such a way that you nevertheless feel whether it's correct or not where you are. That is what they, therefore, developed among them, and also more that way before the descent to Egypt.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:04) How is it possible to not enjoy reception?
M. Laitman: It depends on what the reception is accompanied by, not the reception itself. How do you feel what it gives you, where does it take you? That is what they have discovered in Egypt.
Student: How do we come to a state which from the reception, you receive certain suffering, you receive some state that it's like not good? How to not take it again to some place that I'm not enjoying, it's bad for me. Taking it to some place where I'm separated from the Creator, there's now a distance between me and Him. That's why I'm feeling these things. How do I feel that we connect these things?
M. Laitman: Well, that is already recognition of evil, it is a degree. You want to reach connection with the Creator and you see that by such actions of reception, you move away from Him. That, instead of bringing Him contentment, which is a higher degree, you do not feel importance of bringing contentment to the Creator. You forget, or even you use your own force to stay separated. So, that is how you get out of it, that is how you come out of it.
Student: At that point, you start to hear that there is a need to bring Him contentment?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That, if you want to receive, you have to do the intentions for that. Here the evil inclination comes and says, oh, you're doing manipulations, you're lying. How do you remain pure here in the intention to bring contentment?
M. Laitman: You cannot stay clean because you are already dirty. You have to discover the full magnitude of the evil inclination in you and how it manipulates you. And how you agree with it and want it, until you begin to see that it truly detaches you from life. Not from your life but rather from the life of bestowal. Meaning, here we have to attain the extent to which you can be in bestowal.
Student: At that point of identification, a person sees that he can't, he's not capable. He constantly gets to that point that the teacher just talked about, and he's not capable. What does he do, what do we do at that point?
M. Laitman: This, I am familiar with as well. Any connection with the friends because with one's own strength one cannot leave the will to receive and pray because he will not find any forces besides the Creator that can help him. And you have to see that as long as he stays more and more in Egypt then he receives more and more discernments in order to escape Egypt. That is how the Creator helps him, in such a way, because anything we enter, we do not immediately feel how good or bad is it. Therefore, in every state, we have to be making efforts.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:40) I wanted to ask, what exactly is the exile about, what is it for?
M. Laitman: The exile is being outside the will to bestow.
Student: In what way is it expressed because he kind of writes that eventually they want to come to a state in which the work itself is a reward.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: The exile, what's its expression?
M. Laitman: The expression of the exile is that he enjoys the action of reception by itself.
Student: Why, to begin with, did they go down to exile? Meaning they put themselves into that state?
M. Laitman: They could not feel, they could not feel that in order to receive is the abomination.
Student: In order to receive, in relation to what? It's just not the in order to receive that makes it exile.
M. Laitman: To receive for oneself.
Student: To receive for himself in relation to bestowal, is that exile? That you're doing acts of bestow?
M. Laitman: In relation to, well, bit by bit, you receive an attitude towards the Creator, who exists in the opposite form. This is the work of Egypt.
Student: We want to use the Creator in order to receive when you feel that so that means that they're entering exile?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So how does this inversion take place, where from a state of wanting to use the Creator in order to receive, suddenly all the work is the reward. As long as we're working for His benefit?
M. Laitman: Because this is where the dissonance, the contrast, the separation is made between what I do and what is required of me. If I work in order to receive so I feel that is close to me, and if it is in order to bestow, it is far from me, and completely opposite to me, and I do not want to continue in the same state I was in. What does it mean, the descent to Egypt? I feel that, bit by bit, I gradually leave in order to bestow towards the Ten and the Creator, and it becomes more and more important to me, how do I fulfill myself and receive?
Student: Why, to begin with, how does such a state happen if you're already touching in order to bestow in relation to the Ten and in the group and the Creator. Then why do you want to enter into Egypt? Why is this need to, in order to receive for yourself, arrive, all of a sudden? Because to a certain extent, you're already touching in order to bestow in the Ten and the Creator.
M. Laitman: Before the descent to Egypt, I do not feel that I was in order to bestow, that is clear. I just wanted to clarify the truth, the getting closer to the Creator. And it seemed to me that getting closer to the Creator is in order to receive.
Student: Clear, so what does Egypt develop in a person, precisely?
M. Laitman: Egypt develops in the person a feeling that actions in order to receive push the person away from the Creator, and put him deeper into Egypt.
Student: How do we make this greater because he writes there that you come to a state where you can't tolerate it any more, where you must have it changed. How do you develop the suffering, the torment from this pain to a state where you cannot to such an extent that you can't even tolerate it any more?
M. Laitman: That is how it happens in our will to receive. That it receives and enjoys, and, bit by bit, starts to feel that there is no joy, no real joy in it, and begins to suffer from its state. And to the extent that it begins to suffer, it no longer enjoys, and this is called the beginning of exile. And one must be under the exile for years and years until he sees he has no choice but he has to escape Pharaoh. And here you already have to see what Moses did, but the matter is that you have to make a big difference between working for the sake of the Creator or working for the sake of Pharaoh.
Question (Women Turkiye 9): (55:18) It's written in the last paragraph, when he even hears a short, a small hint that he has to do something in order to bestow, immediately the body despises this. Question: What is this small hint that we need to bestow? How do we feel it?
M. Laitman: He cannot agree with it, it is really the transition point, the inversion. That he would enjoy being in the exile in Egypt, and now he reveals that there is no joy in that. But to the contrary, it is really like being in prison.
Student: Meaning, this hint is when we discover a new feeling?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (PT 6): (56:18) It's written, from the desire to receive, called evil-eyed enjoys all this joy, and this mood that a person gets from it, he does not agree to receive it. Question is: Does a person need to check whether he's doing an act of bestowal out of resistance?
M. Laitman: An act of bestowal cannot be done out of resistance, he has to want it, agree with it, ask for it, pray for it, and then, bit by bit, he gradually receives forces of bestowal.
Student: The continuation of the question here, what happens if he doesn't feel resistance? Can an act of bestowal come without that resistance?
M. Laitman: How will he discover that bestowal is good? As opposed to the reception that he had before. He needs to feel a difference.
Question (Belarus): (57:43) For what purpose was the prohibition created in spiritual work?
M. Laitman: First of all, it is impossible to not have in spiritual work permitted and forbidden because that is how a person is being built. As it is said, Adam is to be knowing good and evil as the Creator. And therefore, we have to measure and sense all the differences that exist between in order to receive to in order to bestow.
Question (Africa 1): (58:27) Is the recognition of evil a feeling of shame?
M. Laitman: That, too.
Question (Women Spain 2): (58:40) How can we assure that our reward will be only to serve the King?
M. Laitman: The truth is that these are the Klipot, the evil inclination, that speaks to it and teaches us that, it is literally so.
Question (PT 6): (59:20) How can we bring the greatness of the Creator in the Ten; it's a delicate matter?
M. Laitman: Yes, the greatness of the Creator can’t be transmitted, a person has to see it. Typically, we study this from one thing and its opposite.
Student: A continuing question, what brings contentment to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Only when we cling to Him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:05) He writes here that when he hears even a slight hint that the work is in order to bestow, it immediately despises this work, the body it's truly like that. Only in the beginning, even from afar, he gets that that's where he's being taken, that's already despised in his eyes, and he'll do everything to run away. How do you feel at that moment, right from the beginning?
M. Laitman: You cannot, you are built from that nature of the will to receive, and therefore, if you, it is like that you're being touched with a pin. You already feel it.
Student: Okay, after this, I understand it's like a flow of a river. It takes me and there's nothing I can do, you're going with the stream.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So how can you stop it?
M. Laitman: You cannot stop, it is like he gives us the example of a feeling that you scratch yourself, and it is like it boils. It gives you joy for that moment, but you don't understand it is killing you.
Student: So besides stopping it, and even though I see it, I'm enjoying this. What can I do other than that?
M. Laitman: To listen to what the Kabbalists say.
Student: How with my strength can I stop such a force of nature that's pulling only for myself?
M. Laitman: So imagine what it means to descend to Egypt.
Student: You're being suckled into there, with that.
M. Laitman: So what?
Student: I'm asking if there's some kind of action we can do already during the descent or is it a lost case at that point?
M. Laitman: That depends on your decision.
Student: Do we need to do something against when he feels like he's deteriorating into reception or what?
M. Laitman: That is a question, is it required or not? Is it possible or not, and what is?
Student: On one hand, you're saying you cannot stop it. But, on the other hand, is there even a possibility to resist it? I don't understand, if there's nothing you can do about it, then why should I do it? If there is what to do then is it possible to do it, and should we do it?
M. Laitman: What is the difference between descending to Egypt and agreeing versus coming out of Egypt, running away from it and wanting that to happen?
Student: Why should I run away from Egypt if it supplies pleasure, if it's such a force of nature that's stronger than me.
M. Laitman: Because ultimately, ultimately, a new king rises in Egypt, right, who did not know.
Student: He didn't know Joseph.
M. Laitman: Yes, and he sees that it is a problem, it is a problem. There is no choice. And what he does is, what is the difference between the feeling of descent from Israel to Egypt, and the feeling of ascent from Egypt to Israel? It is the same route, same course, and same stages or rungs of the ladder, however you want to call it. And how come you feel good when you rise from Egypt, why, why do you feel good? And also, you cannot really say it is a good path with so many plagues and escaping the evil, and whatnot. But when they descended to the exile and were under the rule of Pharaoh, that enabled them to discern all the states.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:08) When the people of Israel went down to Egypt, they first felt what bestowal was and then they felt what reception is. We, at least according to what I know, we have yet to come to a state where we feel what bestowal is. Meaning we are in Egypt, and we even feel that we're in Egypt when we talk about bestowal, actually, so no one's bestowing. What is that: and the king of Egypt dies in order to cause us to feel that we're all in reception?
M. Laitman: The king of Egypt died means that the control that was upon them before has passed, and a new kind of control has arrived. They began to discern that it is possible to come out of that control, together.
Student: To understand, what is that feeling that actually what it is to be in the desire to receive is not good? Also to feel that you're in it, that's actually the turning point.
M. Laitman: We will get to Passover soon, and you will feel.
Question (Belarus): (01:07:09) I've heard from the article that the bread of the Hebrews is an abomination to the Egyptians, just like the shepherds. Who are the shepherds here?
M. Laitman: There is a difference in the bread, which means, what a person receives. Either he receives in order to receive or he receives in order to bestow, and that is what they began to differentiate.
Question (Kyiv): (01:08:18) It is written here that they wanted to just serve the Creator, that that was the correct motivation for them without receiving anything from themselves in this work. Where is the boundary here where I'm trying to receive or do I simply want to serve Him and that's it. What does it mean, the intention to simply serve Him?
M. Laitman: There are several types of works of the Creator, four, that is. And the greatest one is what the Torah requires of us, love thy Lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your might, etc.. Whereas, less than that means there is already some involvement of a will to receive. That a person agrees with the work of the Creator, but not in every state. And it depends, just like in our world, it depends on how much I will receive, and so forth, that is it.
Student: What does it mean that I come out of the intention in order to receive, to an intention that I don't serve Him, that I don't use Him, I'm incorporated in the Creator? What is that intention, what is that state?
M. Laitman: Yes, in order to bestow, so you begin to feel that to Whom you bestow, why do you bestow, what for? And this is what gives you forces to keep going.
Student: How do I go out of myself, incorporate in the Creator in order to bestow to those vessels, and also to feel Him while I'm doing that?
M. Laitman: Say the question again?
Student: How do I emerge out of myself, out of my intention to constantly receive for myself, and incorporate in the Creator in order to bestow to Him, and only serve Him?
M. Laitman: Just as the Creator gives you such thoughts, that is how you have to ask Him to save you from them.
Question (KabU 4): (01:11:41) What to do in a state when you refuse that bread but then you become hungry. You come back to that state, and you need even more. Then, you try to refuse, you go back in that state and then you're hungry again, then you go back, and it's like an evil circle. How to break it and escape it?
M. Laitman: The Creator takes him out, of course, the person cannot do it on his own, he can't.
Question (New York 2): (01:12:38) What does it mean that the Egyptians are watching the Hebrews eat bread? And by them watching, this spoils the bread, and turns the bread into the evil-eyed man. What does it mean to eat bread in the presence of the Egyptians?
M. Laitman: It means they do not let them come out of Egypt because through them they receive the upper light from the Creator. That is why Egypt keeps the Jews strongly inside Egypt because it is their spiritual sustenance, for the Egyptians that is.
Question (Turkiye 2): (01:13:50) How can a person who is managed by the will to receive, capable of keeping his intention pure?
M. Laitman: I could not hear well.
Student: How can a person that is managed by the intention in order to receive, and by the desire to receive, how can he emerge to the intention in order to bestow?
M. Laitman: That’s that we truly don’t know how can that happen, that a person suddenly wants to be under a different control. But he begins to see that in order to receive is literally death, and worse than whatever else can be, and he wants to escape it. And that is how he goes to in order to bestow. We have talked about this whole transition and we will talk about it more.
Question (Kyiv 3): (01:15:23) Here, everywhere in the text, when it says Israel, does it mean directly to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes or no, well, it means Yashar El, but maybe it is not in practice yet, maybe it is only in potential.
Student: Meaning, Israel is also desire within a person, and also a person who's in that desire. Also a group of people with that desire?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: As it turned out, that in the exile to Egypt, we eat the bread of evil-eye and nevertheless, Israel, they're doing actions in order to receive?
M. Laitman: That is why they are also called Israel in Egypt.
Student: What - this means that they want to bestow but they're not capable, they're compelled to do so?
M. Laitman: Yes, that is called that they are slaves in Egypt. That they wanted to come out of Egypt and not be under the control of the Egyptians, but they can’t.
Student: In each person there is a part of Israel, why is not everyone called Israel in the exile?
M. Laitman: Because they are not in exile? Whatever exists in each and every one it is somehow planted deep inside there and not really felt.
Question (Holland): (01:17:09) What makes us not want the evil-eyed bread when still enjoying this bread?
M. Laitman: Each one must feel the exile in Egypt, in something at least, in somewhat, according to the foundation, the magnitude of the will to receive in him. You cannot rise towards the Creator without a feeling of the exile in Egypt.
Student: There's so much, let's say, attractions, let's say, in this world. But we still enjoy, let's say, vacations or whatever, there are things. There's still this, let's say, this evil-eyed bread that we still enjoy somewhere. How can you come out of Egypt in this way, if there's so much attraction still in this world, which we still may already love or still love. How can we get rid of that, let's say, that we don't like it any more?
M. Laitman: There is no such thing that we will never want any more. No, it is a spiritual thing.
Student: What's your advice, teacher, in this case? Say, you want to go on a vacation and you love this. How can you get rid of this evil eyed bread?
M. Laitman: No, we are not talking about a vacation or something. It is that you feel in your life that you are in prison, that you have nowhere to run to from the feeling that everything is closing on you. Try and think.
Question (Baltia 3): (01:19:53) There is always a feeling that there is a struggle within a person, there is a struggle between the Egyptians and Israel. But in spiritual work, there is a state where that point of the Egyptians is more active. They want to receive the light for themselves and they are active, integrating energetically, in all this process. And Israel is this passive point which has no desire, which has no urge. Does Israel receive a certain part of that active part of the Egyptians which gives them that urge or is the urge to exit Egypt something that the Creator gives them?
M. Laitman: Why do Israel seem passive compared to the others? Because all the others work from within their egoistic desire, but it is their own desire. Israel do not work from their desire, that is why they are small, weak. And they are nothing compared to the other nations because every nation stands on its own, they have their root, they justify their way. And Israel do not have a feeling of justification of their path. Only their future destiny, for now, it gives them forces that they can come out of the state they are in. But in principle, they do not have forces of their own. And in this world, there is nothing to really count on and be confident with. Compared to other nations they are weak, and in any way, they cannot show themselves as if this is our world, this is our land, in nothing. It is as if connected to the sky with a thin thread.
Student: That thin line from above, how do we not lose it? How do we always hold onto it?
M. Laitman: That thin line, or thread, that through it Israel is connected to the sky, it is strong, it is the Creator is holding it, and it is only based on the desire to bestow, to love, and it leads to the Creator, but in principle, in the eyes of our world, they are nothing and zero. That is why the nations of the world are thinking how to destroy Israel because what do they have in this world, nothing. And in every generation, someone of the haters awakens just to call for the destruction of the nation of Israel from the world. That is how they work.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:52) There's this paradox here, I should start understanding it. He says that if at the time when they were in Egypt, and they could not and that the meaning not to enjoy what the Egyptians enjoy the evil eye, which is the will to receive for oneself, they would not have come under the control in exile. Is there any way to get out of that?
M. Laitman: I do not know. I see Jews in this world are more successful in running after all the desires of this world, acquiring them and enjoying them. So?
Student: How do I know whether or not I'm in Egypt? Me, personally, how do I know? I'll even tell you why: I always feel that I'm trying to do good, helping at home, cleaning. Here, you're saying that I won't finish in this incarnation, I'll have to come back for more incarnations. That, you're not a good person, you don't want anything but to serve yourself, you're an egoist. You're always telling me that, so how do I feel that I'm in Egypt? How do I know that I exit Egypt, how do I know that? Suddenly, my skin changes, suddenly I'll be a rag on the floor, or how will it show?
M. Laitman: I cannot answer you for that. But you go home and listen to your wife.
Student: My wife always tells me I'm a rag. How do I know, me, how do I feel that I have exited Egypt? Because what's written here is about day to day lives. It's not about history or the past. It says how you should behave and what you should feel, that's what it tells you. What do I need to feel when I have exited Egypt, or that I've entered Egypt? Where am I between what is written here, how should I feel?
M. Laitman: You are in the entrance to Egypt.
Student: Only at the entrance? I thought that I'd be exiting Egypt?
M. Laitman: That is not so bad.
Student: I'll tell you why: When we study here people are studying here twenty-thirty years, and you still see that we still haven't entered Egypt or that we're in Egypt or that we're coming out. Where are we, here, where are we positioned?
M. Laitman: It is all according to one's feeling.
Student: Which means?
M. Laitman: Which means if you feel that you're under the control of Pharaoh, so you are in Egypt. If you feel that you are not under the control of Pharaoh, so you are still outside of Egypt.
Student: When you say that we're not in Lishma so that if we're in Lishma, then we're in a better place. Then when you come to Lishma, then you have to feel that you have exited Egypt. A person who's in Lishma, only then is he exiting Egypt, or does he still have work, win one, in the two halves? Where is he in that state?
M. Laitman: He has to distance himself from Lishma.
Student: Egypt's always in the background, you never really get rid of Egypt until the end of correction. Is that what you're saying?
M. Laitman: Yes. That is not important, until Gmar Tikkun, obviously, no. Meaning you have more desires, some desires, that are under the control of Pharaoh.
Student: Meaning what you told us on the first day, you told us you have 125 steps that you need to climb until the end of correction. When you reach the 125th step, then you have reached it. On each degree you always have Egypt, you never get rid of that it's the evil inclination, you don't get rid of it.
M. Laitman: A person in every generation must feel that he came out of Egypt.
Student: Meaning, we don't feel this wholeness of coming out of Egypt that's something different we're always dealing with it there's always this Egypt there?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:29) I feel that together with all the scrutinies and questions, today there is also a very, very strong prayer of the friends.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How can we convince the Creator to help a friend?
M. Laitman: Which friend?
Student: Each other. The story of the Exodus is in the Arvut between us, in what we give to each other.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: There is great gratitude, we start from that, how do we convince Him? Sometimes I feel that you are like this lawyer and you are doing these negotiations with him, I look at this friend, how much he is exerting, what he is doing? What kind of discourse, dialogue, do we bring here that will be able to help the friend?
M. Laitman: The opposite, that is what we need to do, the opposite. The Creator is giving us an opportunity, a wonderful opportunity, that we could not without going through Egypt, we cannot reach redemption. And we are at the gates of redemption. That is why we just need to acknowledge that, only to acknowledge that. I have nothing to add.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:31:21) So I understood that the whole matter is closeness and distancing from my friends, from the Ten.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I wanted to ask about the prayer because here, there is this thing that is unclear to me. Because I feel that I cannot come closer to the friends, and I know that the problem is with me, and that I cannot pray, myself. All I do is strengthen this Klipa because I don't have any other vessels but the vessels of reception. So what do I pray?
M. Laitman: I do not know what you can pray on, because you have to scrutinize it, and afterwards pray. But it seems that you need to pray that the Creator will show you which path, short and direct, you can reach. By the forces He will give you to a state that you will not be thinking of yourself, but only of the friends. Just like today, you are only thinking of yourself and not the friends, that is it. Be opposite, as we say.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:33:08) All our pleasure will be from serving the Creator. That will be our reward. And not that He will somehow reward us for the work. Instead, we will feel that the work itself is the reward. And there is no greater reward in the world than the privilege of serving the Creator. It sounds a bit like how in essence, for example, in exercising our body the goal is to be healthy, and not to get a medal at the Olympics. But in life, if a person sees that if he's awarded a certain stage that the training, itself, is really the thing that influences the goal and not the medals and what he gets in the public recognition. Then the question is, what's this change in the person that lets a person get awarded with this stage, where he has to go walk in his heart. Meaning, that he shouldn't do anything but just annul himself towards the path, and the goal, and not do it personally. It's a very thin line, that's how it sounds to me.
M. Laitman: Okay.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:34:31) Israel is forbidden to eat the bread of the evil-eyed man, there are these two opposite extremes. I don't know how we connect these two things. We don't cancel them but where we connect them in order to make a step towards exiting Egypt.
M. Laitman: That also, in the bread of the Egyptians, I want to perform actions of bestowal.
Student: What does that mean?
M. Laitman: That, when coming out of Egypt, I take all their vessels as much as I can, Egypt stays empty after me. And I, with all these vessels, reach the land of Israel, well, gradually. And in them, I do work until I bring them to the Temple, and by that, I actually end my duties, my role.
Student: Meaning, we don't let go of the Egyptians, completely, they're always with us, accompanying us on the path.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Reader: (01:36:05) We'll go to the next part of the lesson, and before that, we'll sing a song.
Song: (01:36:10)