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

Daily Lesson (Afternoon) November 28, 2024

Part 1 Rabash. Record 358. And Isaac Was Forty Years Old

Hello, we're reading from the writings of Rabash, Article 358 “And Isaac Was Forty Years Old”. You can find the study materials in Sviva Tova and the Arvut systems. 

M. Laitman: Yes, these are known things. There are several articles, and several kabbalists wrote about this. Let's see what Rabash says. 

Reading Article: (00:41) And Isaac Was Forty Years Old. 

“And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebecca, the daughter of Betuel.”

The Zohar interprets that Betuel means Bat Bito Shel El [the daughter of God’s daughter]. We should interpret that it means that when a person is forty years old, it means that he has been rewarded with Bina, called “At forty, to Bina,” and took upon himself to observe the Torah and Mitzvot [commandments]. 

“And Isaac pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife for she was barren,” meaning he did not see any understanding in Torah and Mitzvot, namely with the same understanding he had had when he took upon himself the burden of Torah and Mitzvot, and he did not gain any understanding, yet he longed for Banim [sons], Havanah [understanding]. 

He thought that it could not be that he observed the Torah and Mitzvot with the same mind that he had had at the time of reception, when he had no knowledge or attainment in Torah and Mitzvot. Rather, he took in the simplest way that was suitable for a little one when he grows up and continues with Torah and Mitzvot, for the Torah and Mitzvot to remain on the same level, and not a higher level, that is suitable for Gadlut of the Torah and Mitzvot. 

Having no sons is regarded that “she was barren,” meaning that he received no understanding, to understand and feel the greatness and importance of Torah and Mitzvot. “And Rebecca his wife conceived,” meaning Ibur [impregnation], which is ideas and contemplations that he already began to put together thoughts regarding the greatness and importance of Torah and Mitzvot, and then she was glad that a son will be born out of these thoughts. 

However, “The children strove within her, and she said, ‘Why then do I …’ and the Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb.’” We should ask what satisfied her in the fact that He told her “two nations.” 

We should understand that when she saw that “the sons strove,” meaning that the understanding they received contradicted one another, and as RASHI interpreted, our sages explained it [the strife] as “running”: When she passed by the doors of Torah of Shem and Ever, Jacob ran and struggled to come out; when she passed by the doors of idol-worship, Esau would struggle to come out. 

They interpreted that when she was barren, the observation of Torah and Mitzvot was with wholeness and she did not feel any lack in their actions. When he did not have time to observe the orders of Torah and Mitzvot, he could always excuse himself and was righteous in his actions, and he could make every possible precision and did not have anything regarding observing Torah and Mitzvot. 

But when he prayed for sons, he saw otherwise—that his situation grew worse than when she was barren, since now that she was passing by the doors of Torah of Shem and Ever, she agreed to work in Torah and Mitzvot in order to bestow, and when she passed by the doors of idol-worship, it means that he saw that people are working for their own sake, called “in order to receive,” and the desire to follow them awakens. 

In other words, she always has the striving between those two sons. Therefore, now he sees that he cannot work for the sake of the Creator whatsoever, since the minute he sees the door of the Torah, which is the view of Torah, called “the Torah exists only in those who put themselves to death over it,” he agrees to walk in this way. 

However, he promptly shifts to the door of people who are doing idol-worship, meaning for themselves, and then he sees that he cannot work for the sake of the Creator. 

Thus, the current state is worse than when she was barren. So “Why then do I,” why did I ask for sons? I wanted sons in order to have understanding in the work of the Creator, so I would ascend in degrees. But now I see that I am worse than before. 

“And she went to inquire with the Lord” what to do now—return to the previous path and remain barren without any understanding or go forward on this path. “And the Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb,’” meaning now you received the good inclination, too.

 

Previously, you only had the evil inclination, called “self-benefit,” so there was no striving over self-benefit, since when he observed the Torah and Mitzvot, he did not have other thoughts at all and felt wholeness while observing them. 

But now that he already has the good inclination, meaning that he is walking on the line called “in order to bestow,” his body rejects, and from this comes the striving. 

Therefore, do not say that now you are worse. Rather, previously the Torah and Mitzvot were in order to receive and it did not occur to you to work in order to bestow. Therefore, while observing Torah and Mitzvot, you had no objections and you felt that you were righteous. 

But when you want to work in order to bestow, the body objects. Therefore, now you have ascended in degree, for you already know what is the good inclination. However, you must continue on the path, “and the elder will serve the young,” and in the end, the good inclination, called “young,” will succeed. 

Question (W MAK 98): (10:19) How is personal profit stopped? Any resistance? There is this conflict between the two of them. What if I do it for self-benefit? 

M. Laitman: Because that's the way the world works. A person chooses who he can be with. 

Student: Why is the resistance of the body necessary for spiritual growth? 

M. Laitman: It's considered necessary because otherwise a person doesn't understand who he can be with. 

Student: What experience or inner state allows a person to know what the good inclination is? How do we start to know that? 

M. Laitman: We can find out what the evil inclination is only if we get up to the level of bestowal. 

Question (Kyiv): (11:50) What is the good inclination that needs to win ultimately, that the elder will serve the young. What does that mean? 

M. Laitman: This means that a man needs to choose from who appears the last, so to speak, as it was with our forefathers. 

Student: Meaning the good inclination appears last for us? How does it happen that it gets served and we choose it? 

M. Laitman: This is what we have to do. This is why we make a covenant to be able to choose the good inclination.

Question (W MAK 19): (12:59) How do we become a person who is capable of doing the right choice? And what is that choice? 

M. Laitman: If we unite together, we ask the Creator to make the right decision for us. 

Student: And so cancel self-annulment?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Tbilisi): (13:35) The higher I raise the importance of the Creator, to that extent I recognize my own evil, that I’m not in gratitude to the Creator, meaning to the extent the Creator rises, to that extent I descend, and I descend my evil. Is that the path of the recognition of evil, meaning by raising the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes, unfortunately, that's the way it is.

Question (W MAK): (14:17) Is it to incorporate each one into the Ten or to rise to bestowal?

M. Laitman: What does it mean? When we connect all together and in the center of our unity, we feel the Creator. This shows that we are uniting correctly. 

Student: But the correct work in the Ten and complementing each other in order to correct that common egoistic desire and to reach wholeness is what? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Student: How do we correctly complement each other to correct that common egoistic desire?

M. Laitman: When we remove the general egotistical desires from us and want only to raise each other, and then we will succeed. 

Student: What is that accelerated correction of the desire in the Ten and how do we reach it? 

M. Laitman: The accelerated desire of the Ten is only when we think about it and act only for this.

Question (W MAK): (16:18) What is that inner strife? How can we feel it? How do we direct it? 

M. Laitman: You have to feel this yourselves, each one in yourself and each one in the group. 

Question (W Heb 1): (16:56) What does it mean that the Torah is not kept but rather only in someone who puts himself to death over it? 

M. Laitman: The Torah can only be realized in the one who puts himself to death, meaning when someone puts his evil inclination to death. A person is born only in the evil inclination. When he awakens all kinds of forces upon himself in the creation he sees to what extent he acts not for his good but brings about evil upon himself. Then he receives the strength from the Creator, the forces that can help him to put himself to death. 

Question (W MAK 113): (18:08) From this article comes a discussion that the Creator is leading us in the Ten, and the obstacles in overcoming them leads to the personal correction of each one, and in this way we receive in the Ten a certain education from the Creator himself. Is that correct? 

M. Laitman: Yes, you put it very nicely.

Question (W Turkiye 7): (18:51) On what depends the success of the good inclination? 

M. Laitman: The success of the good inclination depends only on you.

Student: To what extent do you want everyone to succeed, not just on you but also on all the students. 

M. Laitman: We actually depend only on you. That's it.

Student: When we're together, all of us as a Ten, we want to connect with you even more than when we are alone. What is the power behind this? Why do we feel like this? 

M. Laitman: That we have to unite between us and then we'll certainly succeed and get rid of the evil inclination and get closer to the good inclination.

Question (W MAK 104): (21:30) What is the difference between the revelation of the ego and attainment? 

M. Laitman: Revelation of the ego is the conditions for attainment. Everything we attain, we attain in the ego that's revealed.

Student: The longer the distance, the more the ego is revealed? 

M. Laitman: Not necessarily.

Question (W Armenia): (22:18) We need to develop a huge deficiency for spirituality, meaning to want it, and at the same time we need to be a nullification, when you nullify yourself and don't want anything. How do we combine these two opposing actions? 

M. Laitman: I don't want anything to make my desires a vessel to fill the Creator in them. 

Question (MAK 39): (23:06) Can we say that a person is part of a system, meaning Lo Lishma, and this transition from Lo Lishma to Lishma happens thanks to the friends, the ones that have the same goal and the same intention? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (W PT 33): (23:35) Another student asked how do we correctly complement one another? And you answered her when we remove the egoistic desires from ourselves, the common ones, and we'll only want to raise one another. How do we identify those egoistic desires? What are they exactly? 

M. Laitman: If we truly want to unite between us, we will annul on the way all of our egotistical desires. 

Student: If it's so difficult for me to identify what exactly those egoistic desires are. How do we identify them? What exactly are those egoistic desires that disturb us? 

M. Laitman: You don't know? 

Student: I think I know. I can give an example, that if we connect and we clarify a certain topic, then I feel the gap in the perception and the feeling of each one towards that topic, and this can awaken… It's like you're pulling these strings,  and in my feeling where each one tries to pull and everyone feels this topic. Here we're starting to feel these egoistic desires. What can we do there? 

M. Laitman: Just disconnect from them and connect to other ones. 

Student: Do I need to completely erase my perception towards the topic that we're scrutinizing? Or specifically by guarding it and disconnecting from my desire? 

M. Laitman: Try to do it this way and the other and you'll see, but you always have to try to change the desire and intention as much as possible. Go through all these states. 

Question (W Turkiye 10): (26:19) What scrutiny or what needs to be our correct outlook for us to always be directed towards the Creator? 

M. Laitman: When we want to unite between us to form a Kli for the good of the Creator. 

Question (W MAK 36): (26:58) When you need to do an action, but you feel you cannot and you feel this inner fear and it's clear that the power of prayer always helps, but there are such cases when you're going incorrectly and maybe your prayer is incorrect. Is it better not to do that action at all? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (W Heb 2): (27:51) Can we say that the quantitative force is in Isau and the qualitative is in Jacob in the efforts, and ultimately the Creator makes all the proportions, and we just need to be concerned for the quality of the connection between us in order to be suitable to the Creator qualitatively?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (W Spain): (28:44) Why is the process so slow? I don't understand the process the transition between Lo Lishma to Lishma, that it's slow.

M. Laitman: No, it's not slow. It all depends on us. We can amplify its rate more and more.

Student: How do we increase that rate? 

M. Laitman: By connecting and concentrating on the common actions of bestowal and want only to live in that, to remain in that. 

Question (W MAK): (29:48) What is that sorrow, that recognition of evil in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: When the Ten feels they fell into their ego, and they don't feel that they have the strength to rise out of it independently. Then they have no other choice besides just turning to the Creator, crying, turning with all their strength to take themselves out of that state. 

Student: To what extent is it important to await salvation every day, and what does it mean in the Ten? What does it add? 

M. Laitman: It adds that sharpness, that with every question and every appeal you want all the time for the Creator not to disappear from your feelings. 

Question (Asia): (31:03) Previously, I heard  you say that bestowal needs to be mutual. What happens if a friend demands of everyone to bestow to him all the time? 

M. Laitman: Try to work with him in a different way. If you have ten friends that could be a bit less, and you understand what's demanded of us, and you want to be connected such that the Creator will get revealed within that connection, then there's no problem. We really need to find the place on the spot. 

Question (W MAK 36): (32:12) When there is an embryo of this good inclination in a person, as it says in the article, and a person sees not just a choice, but he sees how many lies were in him. How do we hold on to the good; he constantly falls out into the bad. Where is this freedom of choice? Is it there at all? 

M. Laitman: Yes, there is. It is to go all the time against one's ego and direct oneself to the connection with the friends and higher up to the Creator. 

Student: Here it says that man gives a promise that he will walk on this path. What does it mean to give a promise? What is it? How does he do it? 

M. Laitman: A person gives a promise to always move towards the Creator?

Student: Yes, it says he gives a promise that he will walk on this path. How does this happen in action, inside a person? 

M. Laitman: In actions and inside a person? 

Student: It's through the Ten to the Creator? He confirms by his actions an inner promise to the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (W Kyiv 7): (34:21) How to make it so the elder one serves the younger one? 

M. Laitman: That's how it's written in the Torah, that the elder will serve the younger, not necessarily that he's older in years or according to some knowledge, but simply this is how it's written.

Student: How do we make this embryo bigger? 

M. Laitman: You develop it, you feed it. 

Student: What do we feed him with? 

M. Laitman: With good deeds. 

Student: In the Ten? 

M. Laitman: In the Ten. In your connections with your friends in the Ten.

Question (W Spain): (35:25) Why does he emphasize that Isaac didn't understand his attitude to the Torah? That he connected understanding? Does it mean there's a lack of advancement? How do we strengthen this advancement in the general and the individual? 

M. Laitman: We need to clarify these things, from where can we increase the quantity in our process, in our development, and through what we could even pass through or jump from degree to degree such that it will be clear to everyone that we are rising. 

Question (W Moscow 5): (36:36) A person advances from descents to ascents. How does it work in the Ten? Does the Ten need ascents and descents? What advances us stronger, or do we just need to fall to get up? 

M. Laitman: No, you don't need to fall. It's possible only to rise. We need to aspire to that. 

Student: When we concentrate on the Ten, how important is it for us to talk about how we want to advance? Does this state, this yearning also advance us?

M. Laitman: Yes, of course.

Question (W Turkiye 10): (37:41) The more I want to feel the Creator, the less I feel the question. How can I strengthen the feeling of the friends and the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Speak with the friends and do what you decide, and this will be correct.

Question (W MAK 56): (38:19) How do we feel whether the Ten is in an ascent or a descent, because we feel the states of individual friends. How do we feel the whole Ten? We're always in different states. How do we feel the Ten as a whole?

M. Laitman: The Ten, slowly. You cannot feel that. That's only in certain conditions, extreme ones. You can try to depict the Ten as being above everything else, or one that's in which everyone is all together truly in one point. You can depict yourself and your friends that are hugging you and you are hugging them, and this is an endless embrace. You need to feel this.

Question (Turkiye 7): (40:22) I turn to the Creator even if my body doesn't want me to, and then I feel a lack of its desire even more. I have a strong desire to succeed, to use my strength for bestowal. How do I use my desire without being an egotist? 

M. Laitman: It's like we're learning. I don't even have anything to add. It's what we're learning. You all connect and turn to the Creator and ask Him to elevate you, to raise you. Pray that you all want to remain in that high place where you are rising to the Creator. The Creator will do such an exercise with you. He will truly raise you like a baby is raised on the shoulders, and in this way, you will attain the entire ladder of degrees and the Creator as well, and you will remain in this way. 

Question (Turkiye 2): (42:32) How can we come to certainty in the Ten so that our attack for the goal would be for the Creator? 

M. Laitman: If you want, as a result of your effort, the Creator will rise higher and higher and higher between you, then this is how it will happen. This is how it will happen. 

Question (W MAK 97): (43:13) The sons are attainment. From the article there is such an impression that the sons can only be born from the breaking and the mingling of the good and the bad inclinations. 

M. Laitman: Not necessarily so, but often it is. 

Question (W MAK 97): (43:44) At the beginning of the lesson you said to a friend about the question how to make the right choice. You said ask the Creator to make the right choice for you. Could you explain a little bit what does it mean in practice to ask the Creator to do the right thing for us, how to hear this response? 

M. Laitman: Ask. The main thing is to ask. It doesn't matter how—to shout, to sing—but then He will surely do it and quickly. 

Question (W MAK 25): (44:32) You said that we can count the Ten as a whole in extreme states. We are all different in qualities in the Ten. How do we work and invest from each one into the center of the Ten?

M. Laitman: That each one wants with one's own desire to incorporate in the center of the Ten. And this way you connect.

Student: And from this work we come to the feeling of the whole in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Of course. 

Question (Dnepr): (45:46) The word bestowal sounds a little bit like passing on. Does it make sense? 

M. Laitman: You could say so, but why?

Student: For example, we don't have anything. We have everything. Everything we have is from the Creator. So, we have to pass it on to someone else. Does this have to do with Lishma and Lo Lishma? If we give completely, then it's Lishma. If we don't give completely, then it's not Lishma?

M. Laitman: In general? Yes. 

Question (W MAK 70): (46:37) When a person wants to correct his Kli to become bestowing, is this Kli called a woman? How to make this woman beget sons?

M. Laitman: That's not your matter. Hear, women, don't start inventing new work for yourselves. You have very simple work all the time to pray to the Creator. 

Question (Hadera 1): (47:32) We meet in the Ten to make a summary in the evening, and every friend shares the greatness of the goal and the gratitude. Should each one express his gratitude in his own words or is it better to take it from the prayer book? 

M. Laitman: No, no. From yourselves. 

Student: Each one in his own words? 

M. Laitman: In your own words.

Question (MAK 33): (48:47) Can we say that Isaac first loved Esau? He gave him the right of the firstborn. 

M. Laitman: You could say that to some extent because he used his desires to receive.

Question (W MAK 30): (49:34) What does it mean that the Torah is only realized in the one who puts himself to death for it? In the text there is such a paragraph where it says at the time when he sees the doors of Torah, the Torah exists only in those who put themselves to death over it. What actions do we need to perform? 

M. Laitman: That our Kli, our vessel, whatever we do with it, that it will always remain only in the fulfillment for the sake of the Creator. 

Question (W SPA): (51:18) What can we learn from the impatience of the forefathers that prayed and didn't receive a response?  We also pray and don't receive a response. How can we acquire such patience? 

M. Laitman: Continue. Continue on the same path and then we'll succeed.

Question (W Kyiv 7): (52:42) Can we interact with a fully corrected Ten, have dialogues with it? How can we build the image of this corrected Ten?

M. Laitman: Yes, for sure. You need to do this, between you to turn to the Creator and afterwards to turn to the Creator and to assemble all this. 

Student: How will these dialogues with the corrected Ten differ from dialogues with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: You'll know it then.

Question (W Unity): (53:39) This trepidation goes through me, and I just get the yearning from it. So, I try not to clothe this yearning and it's as if I walk around in circles; I can't advance. I have to do something to clothe it in something. I go to a different level of Aviut, and I acquire a new depth of this. 

M. Laitman: Let's say so.

Student: Do I have to always increase this extent that I give for clothing or does it seem to me?

M. Laitman: No, the main thing for you is to be as close as possible in the direction of the Creator. 

Student: So, I have to always stay in this yearning and not try to increase the level of reception. 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, absolutely correct.

Question (W Rehovot 1): (55:13) It says at a time when Rebecca was barren, then what's the connection between the Torah and Mitzvot and being barren? 

M. Laitman: She was barren meaning she wasn't able to correctly use her vessels, so then that's how it happened.

Student: What's the meaning of barrenness in the correction? 

M. Laitman: That she couldn't give birth. 

Question (W MAK 104): (55:57) What does the son of the forty mean in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: It's a more whole state because in the Ten there are a few levels, borders, one of which is the son of the forty-year-old in the Ten. 

Student: Do we have to tune ourselves in some way? 

M. Laitman: No, you don't need to do anything, just go together with us and all these things will clarify for you.

Question (MAK 11): (57:03) Is this the state that Isaac had to come to, to understanding?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (W MAK 26): (57:20) Rebecca turned to the Creator and He responded to her that the two tribes are in your womb, and you receive the good inclination also. At the beginning of the article it says that Isaac was in Bina, in completeness. How come he was in perfection and his wife was in the evil inclination? 

M. Laitman: We cannot understand all these things from here. After a certain time, you will begin to understand it more. 

Student: I understand what made her calm down, that she needed to walk forward, some clashes, some part that isn't calm, and the Creator responded to her, and it calmed her down. So, where did it come from? Why did she feel that now everything is right? We also see these clashes in the Ten, and we are afraid of them. We want to run away from them into a calm state. How do we find that it's a way forward, truly that we need to go forward, we need to go there?

M. Laitman: We need to go, and that's it. We have no other state.

Be well until tomorrow. 

Announcements: (59:16)

Song: (59:32)