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

Daily Lesson July 29, 2025.

Part 2: Memorial Day of the ARI - Selected excerpts from the sources

Reader: Hello, we are in a special lesson, commemorating the departure of The ARI. We will read selected excerpts from the Kabbalists, excerpt No. 1

Reading: (00:18) 1. Baal HaSulam, "Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot", No. 8

Come and see how grateful we should be to our teachers, who impart us their sacred lights and dedicate their souls to do good to our souls. They stand in the middle between the path of harsh torments and the path of repentance. They save us from the netherworld, which is harder than death, and accustom us to reach the heavenly pleasures, the sublime gentleness and the pleasantness that is our share, ready and waiting for us from the very beginning, as we have said above. Each of them operates in his generation, according to the power of the light of his teaching and sanctity.

Our sages have already said, “You have not a generation without such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Indeed, that Godly man, Rav [teacher/great one] Isaac Luria [the ARI], troubled and provided us the fullest measure. He did wondrously more than his predecessors, and if I had a tongue that praises, I would praise that day when his wisdom appeared almost as the day when the Torah was given to Israel. 

M. Laitman: That is how Baal HaSulam writes about the ARI. That in truth, all that we have in the wisdom of Kabbalah, in recognition of godliness, in all that we can talk about in spirituality, it all comes to us through the ARI, and it is only from him that we receive our Torah, and when we receive our Torah, we can come closer to him, to the ARI, to reveal him from his writings, and this way, he exists, because without him, without what he wrote for us, let's say, as stepping stones, I could use other words, but all together, we understand, feel, and see that if we take the ARI as a light for the path, then we do walk in the right direction and are about to succeed. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:19) How do we connect to this great soul of the ARI? 

M. Laitman: We connect to him, since he is the upper representative of the upper, of all the created beings, and he came to such a state that no one has come to. 

Student: What kind of connection do we have with him? How can we connect to him? 

M. Laitman: I don't know what you mean, but it's clear to us that we can do all kinds of actions, and through them, we can feel those steps that the Creator is performing in us. 

Student: We have you, the teacher. We have Rabash. We have Baal HaSulam. What does it mean to connect to the ARI? What is the addition of connecting to the ARI and receiving from him, which is unlike receiving from the teachers we study with daily? 

M. Laitman: I would answer it this way: that out of all those forces which operate upon us, we can say that there is none like the ARI That has truly pushed us forward to the Creator, to spirituality, to the attainment of godliness, and we don't see that there's someone else that operated this way like him. We can also see it according to the writings themselves, whereas he made a place for his Torah and filled this place with his Torah towards us. That's why, if we could succeed, it's only through the writings of the ARI, and that's it. And along the way, let's hope that we will be rewarded with more forces. Other Kabbalists that will help us, push us forward, show us the place, the direction, and how we need to advance and move forward. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (07:54) What can we receive from the ARI that we cannot receive from other Kabbalists?

M. Laitman: We don't know yet how to answer questions of that type. Why? I would say it like this: because it's written about him that he's a very special soul that has come down to the world and was revealed in this world. And that's why, as we learn, we begin to feel how, through this special soul, the godly light comes to us and opens for us all that we can discover, can reveal, and that's why only under that control we exist, we advance. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:42) Bnei Baruch, us, do we need to feel a connection toward the ARI the way we feel it toward Rabbash and Baal HaSulam, or is it something that will be revealed along the way, later on? 

M. Laitman: We need to feel towards the rest of the created beings altogether that the ARI is in a place that is very high, very, very exalted, that we cannot attain. We cannot understand him, feel him as it should be. And a person, between people, after all, he's a created being and we are created beings, but this soul, which could incorporate within her so much of the upper light, it's truly for us like a tale, a fair tale. On the other hand, we see that the Creator put this soul at the beginning of our spiritual path. And we need to advance only in following the ARI.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:49) We hear from Baal HaSulam how he praises the day the wisdom of the ARI was revealed. What is special about the work of the ARI relative to the vessels? I understand he organized the lights, but the vessels are not prepared, not worthy of receiving. So, what contributed to that in the ARI’s appearance, the preparation of the vessels? 

M. Laitman: The ARI also arranged for us the correct order in the vessels, where we can feel, read, and know, and get to know in what way we can pray each time and raise ourselves up. We can besides that, if we reveal what the Creator prepared for us through the Kabbalists, we will see that amongst them all, the ARI is nevertheless the first and foremost that goes before us as a friend, as a lover, as one who cares, and sends us, opens for us page after page from the writings of the ARI, from all the writings of the wisdom of Kabbalah. And that's why we have nothing else to search for. It's also written about that a lot. It was a special soul.

Student: I understand that the lights and the wisdom were arranged in the ARI perfectly, but he prepares inside of himself that our vessels are not prepared to attain this action for almost 500 years since this light was revealed, to attain it in humanity. What is required so that humanity will be able to receive these lights 2,000 years later, or at least 500 years since the time of the ARI, so we can attain another kind of soul, what kind of soul or correction needs to take place so humanity can receive this wisdom, this ascent?

M. Laitman: We need to try and be together, by which we cause the unification of our vessels, and to check day after day what we receive in them from the Emanator. That's it. And continue that way.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:50) Baal HaSulam writes that the ARI opened a special path to help us reach the pleasure in the heavens. It is ready and prepared for us in advance. What is that pleasantness that we have to get used to and it is waiting for us? 

M. Laitman: It's that godly upper light that comes down to us and is revealed to us more and more in the feeling, in the understanding, and we who help, pray, ask to connect to Him, we see how through the power of the upper light to us, when it comes, it actually connects us in every way. It opens the way for us, it explains to us how we need to go, why this way, not another way, etc. When the light is revealed, it becomes revealed in all, in all its power, and this is what  corrected ARI in the upper light, and then the upper light really influences us, and builds in us such stages of attainment.

Student: To what I understand, the method of drawing the light is what the ARI opened for us, to draw the light that reforms. We say that everything depends on us, that we've reached a point that we have everything. What else can we draw here in the force between us to reach the highest point that is waiting? He's saying everything's waiting, the Creator's waiting. What else should we do? 

M. Laitman: The Creator waits for us to drop everything that's not so important, and connect among us, and out of our connection, we will understand in what way we need to be connected, and in this way, we will advance.  

Question (Woman Turkiye 8): (19:48) Are the gates of attainment that the ARI opened, are they still open today? Are they still active? 

M. Laitman: Of course. We haven't reached something on the way. We first have to obtain some connection with the Creator, and then we need to obtain several stops along the way of connection with the Creator. We also need to add to it all the created beings, and also for all the created beings to come along with us as one man with one heart, in such a connection. That's it.

Question (Kyiv 1): (21:07) What does it mean that we are implementing the method of the ARI between us? You said we have to do inner spiritual work according to Baal Shem Tov, and also what the Rabash left for us. So, what's special in the way we implement the method of the ARI specifically?

M. Laitman: What's special is that in the connection between us, we try to discover this force called the ARI that connects us, unites us, and makes us one whole. In that case, we receive from the Creator in that new corrected state, in that desire, we receive from Him what we deserve, what we can receive. And that light that we will receive will reveal our souls in our common advancement to the Creator, and in this way, we will feel the Creator as one whole, bright, above us. That's it. 

Question (Lithuania 1): (23:15) The ARI lived 500 years ago, and there was a certain time of awakening, and also today there's an awakening between the ones who study Kabbalah. Is there something parallel between these periods, eras, and the ARI? 

M. Laitman: We always see that the books of the ARI did their work and drew many people. And Baal HaSulam hurried toward it with the books that he wrote about the books of the ARI. And so it is today. We can go out to people and feel how much the books of the ARI have already become something routine for the household. There's nothing new here. The only thing we want is for the method of the ARI and his attitude to the science of Kabbalah, meaning his approach to the wisdom of Kabbalah, to the attainment of the Creator, to the ascent on the degrees of the spiritual ladder, that all of this we will be able to implement it. So, when we learn, we learn several conditions according to which we should approach the Creator.

We'll talk about it some more. I have many questions in front of me. So, I can't delay and explain so much in such a short time.

Reader: Let's read excerpt number two by Baal HaSulam

Reading: (26:16) 2. Baal HaSulam, "Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot", No. 8

There are not enough words to measure his holy work in our favor. The doors of attainment were locked and bolted, and he came and opened them for us. […] You find a thirty-eight-year-old who subdued with his wisdom all his predecessors through the Ge'onim [pl. for genius] and through all times. All the elders of the land, the gallant shepherds, friends and disciples of the Godly sage, the RAMAK, stood before him as disciples before the Rav.

All the sages of the generations following them to this day, none missing, have abandoned all the books and compositions that precede him: the Kabbalah of the RAMAK, the Kabbalah of the Rishonim [first], and the Kabbalah of the Ge'onim, blessed be the memory of them all. They have attached their spiritual life entirely and solely to his Holy Wisdom.

M. Laitman: Yes. This is how Baal HaSulam speaks about the ARI.

Reader: Number three, The RAMAK writes about the Ari.

Reading: (28:03) 3. The RAMAK about the ARI

Know that there is one man who is sitting here, who will rise after me and enlighten the eyes of the generation in the wisdom of Kabbalah. For in my days, the channels were concealed, and in his days, the channels will be revealed. Know that he is a great man, a spark of the RASHBY (Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai).

Reader: Number four, from the book HaBrit HaShalem. 

Reading: (28:44) 4. Sefer Habrit HaShalem, Part 2, Article No. 12, Chapter 5

Know for certain that not as in the early generations and the first days that were in the fifth millennium, since in those days, the gates of this wisdom were closed and locked. For this reason, there were only few Kabbalists. It is not so in this sixth millennium, when the gates of light have been opened, the gates of mercy. Now it is of great contentment to the Creator to make known the glory of His kingdom forever and ever, especially now that all the holy writings of the ARI have been printed. He had opened for us the gates of light that had been closed and sealed by a thousand locks since days of old, and all his words are the words of the living God from the mouth of Elijah the prophet, and by his permission he revealed what he had revealed. Now there is no obstacle or danger, just as in the revealed.

M. Laitman: Yes. Okay, let's see.

Question (Latin 1): (30:30) It was mentioned that the ARI saved us through the path of the mind, as opposed to Baal Shem Tov, who saved us from the heart. 

M. Laitman: Well, we haven't learned it, but we can already see that there is probably a difference in how the wisdom enters a person through the mind, the intellect, or through the heart. We'll continue. It will happen soon. Anything else? 

Question (New York 2): (31:19) It says here that in the days of RAMAK, the channels were concealed. In our current times right now, should we consider the channels as open or concealed? How do we deal with channels these days, in this generation?

M. Laitman: We, from all the writings we will learn, we will see what is actually happening on a spiritual degree, in the spiritual world, with respect to us. How we should sort them, the spiritual degrees, how we should relate to the Creator, to the created beings, and in general, to all our friends who are in all kinds of process of advancement on this ladder. This is what we will learn.

Question (KabU 12): (32:54) Can we especially try to feel the ARI when we read the study of the Ten Sefirot, since it's based on Etz Haim? 

M. Laitman: It would be good. It's desirable, yes. It's good to be connected to the ARI in this way.

Reader: Five. 

M. Laitman: Five?

Reading: (33:41) 5. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 38

I heard from the ADMOR of Kalshin. In earlier times, one had to first obtain all seven external teachings, called “the seven maidens that serve the king’s daughter,” as well as terrible mortification. And yet, not many gained favor in the eyes of the Creator. But since we have been rewarded with the teachings of the ARI and the work-ways of the Baal Shem Tov, it is truly possible for anyone, and the above preparations are no longer necessary.

M. Laitman: Yes. In other words, if we know how to open up the ARI, to study him, the way he wrote it and wanted it to be received from him in this way by the students, the Kabbalah students, then we are certain that in that case, we are connected to the source, a real source. With this, we should try to succeed in being more and more connected.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:22) There's a way the ARI wrote, and there's a way we read and understand him. How can we be in his intention in order to receive from him, to know that we're receiving what he wanted to give? 

M. Laitman: I would say this. Each and every generation has its own inner teaching, Torah, outer teaching. It has its teachers, its students, each and every generation. In our generation, we've been rewarded with having Baal HaSulam before us and his disciples. He composed all the writings of the ARI for us, compiled them in a special way, and this is why we study him in a way that he opens up before us. In other words, one who studies the ARI and wants to enter the wisdom of Kabbalah to understand Baal HaSulam, then he has the authentic source, which Baal HaSulam himself opened, and the ARI too wanted it done this way. And this is how things cascaded, hung down until they came to us this way. So, this is what we need: to study the ARI with the explanation of Baal HaSulam.

Question (Woman Turkiye 7): (38:24) What lets the stream open? 

M. Laitman: Our approach. These pipelines, or conduits, come to us, channels, come to us the way they do, slightly opened, more or less, but usually, it's according to our degree. They are ready to be opened from being completely open to being completely closed throughout all those degrees. And we already need to know that our approach toward the revelation of the wisdom depends only on our connection with the concealed lights to the open lights, revealed lights. So ask, check, see. You can also connect and ask by yourselves, also afterwards, even anonymously if you don't want to reveal who is asking. Ask in this way. We have to scrutinize these things in such a way that it will fill the heart, calms our mind, and that we truly welcome Baal HaSulam with open arms. Until then, we should repeat it over and over, as it was with Baal HaSulam when he was studying the ARI. He repeated and studied and re-studied, he suffered tremendously, and this is what we should try to do.

Reading: (41:36) 6. Rav Chaim Vital, Pri Etz Chaim, Gate “Conducts of Learning,” Chapter 1

My teacher would say that the heart of the intention of reading in the Torah depends on aiming to connect one’s heart to its root through the Torah in order to complete the upper tree and complete the upper Adam [man] and correct him, for this is the whole purpose of man’s creation and the purpose of his engagement in the Torah.

M. Laitman: Yes. In other words, to learn what the ARI wrote about our state, about our degree. To feel in this the state of each and every one, to connect with one another to the point where we can scrutinize all those lies that we discover in the connection between us. Okay, who wants to ask? 

Question (Turkiye 1): (43:16) How to incorporate correctly with such an exalted soul like the ARI. How to do it correctly? 

M. Laitman: We need only to awaken ourselves to be in the right incorporation with the soul of the ARI. What comes out of it, we will see, but it's certain that it will cause us, bring us great advancement. So, let's see. As we read now in the time we have left in the lesson, we need to be with an intention, a feeling that we want to come closer to that unique soul. To be together with it, connected to the Creator and to all the other created beings. And to try to expand what is happening to us, what is revealed to us, in a way that we become the connectors between us and those souls that now want to connect to the Creator and bring the revelation of the Creator to all the created beings to the maximum possible degree. Okay? All right. 

Question (PT 19): (46:21) So, at that time, there were many Kabbalists at the time of the ARI or only a few? I'll tell you why I'm asking. Because, for a time, for thousands of years, Kabbalah wasn't studied, and the ARI came and suddenly renewed the wisdom of Kabbalah? 

M. Laitman: It wasn't an attraction to a big audience that was interested in the Torah, or studied the Torah, or implemented, but, you can say that once the books of the ARI were opened and started studying them.

Student: Why then did he conceal it? Why were his writings buried in a grave? It's shocking. Why was his material buried? They buried it, they didn't want to learn, they didn't want to teach. What happened at that time? Why was this done to him? 

M. Laitman: We do not know exactly what happened then, what they felt. But what's written here is, it goes through the ARI, through Baal HaSulam, and comes to us. And we need to receive at least what's written. So, we'll try to see what was printed, and according to that, we will aim ourselves to the ARI, to Baal HaSulam. And in this way, we'll try to know these things more and more. I see that, according to the times, just as it was revealed for Baal HaSulam, it keeps being revealed in our days. Not in the same pace, not in the same force, but still, this is what's happening.

Student: Today, it's even worse. We've been slandered all the time, and we're not sure how to respond to what is happening around us. We're not blind, we hear what's happening. How should we relate to this filth, the slander against Bnei Batuch? How should we relate to it now? Not what happened then, what's happening now. 

M. Laitman: We need, all in all, to see all the desires and the Klipot, we can say, that fall upon us, and to try to raise ourselves from them. And in this way advance, I don't see any issues. If each one will do what he can, for sure we'll be able to reach a degree of a very high soul,

Student: So, you're suggesting we don't respond but to stay quiet? 

M. Laitman: What respond?

Student: Not to talk bad, but just to sit quietly.

M. Laitman: No. 

Student: So, should we respond and fight against them? 

M. Laitman: No, we don't fight against them. I'm not searching for wars.

Student: But they keep lying, look at what they're doing. 

M. Laitman: I don't want to hear the slandering that you want to publish between us. 

Student: No, they're slandering us.

M. Laitman: Okay. I don't want to hear about this. Write it down before you, tomorrow, the next day. Let me continue the lesson. We have ten minutes left. Let's see, maybe there are still questions.

Question (Woman PT 23): (51:57) You said we need to learn the ARI with the explanation of Baal HaSulam. How do they complement each other, especially today?

M. Laitman: Baal HaSulam is revealing the difference between all the degrees for us and correcting us. And the way we need to ascent as opposed to where we fell from the degree of the ARI, the degree of Baal HaSulam, and in this way, we advance. We correct ourselves, and advance. 

Student: How do we welcome Baal HaSulam with open arms, as you said, when there is such a gap between him and us? 

M. Laitman: That doesn't bother us. That doesn't bother us. If we want to read Baal HaSulam, let's say, and to sanctify by it, meaning to ask for an ascent from our degree to his, nobody can limit us.

Question (Tel Aviv 3): (54:13) I wanted to know in relation to the prayer to the friends, is the ARI, the upper one, or upper one to us? 

M. Laitman: The Creator is the highest degree.

Student: What is the ARI for us? 

M. Laitman: The connector between us and the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Woman Spa): (54:57) It is written that all the sages of the generations avoided all the books and compositions that preceded it and attached their lives and wisdom to his holy wisdom. So, what should we leave in order to attach ourselves to his holy wisdom? 

M. Laitman: To check ourselves as much as we can be connected between us, and that connection, to raise it to the degree of the Creator and ask the Creator to help us come closer to one another. And in this way to rise more and more until we attain Him, the Creator Himself. That's it.

Question (CzechSlovak 2): (56:10) Can we relate to the ARI as a force similar to the force of, for example, Abraham in the Torah?

M. Laitman: Yes, I'm sure that the ARI, also Baal HaSulam writes about it himself, that The ARI can correct the souls and take care of them on degrees that are shattered as heirs. 

Student: Can we say that we have a great opportunity to connect with this force because we have the forces of ARI and the connection to Baal HaSulam? 

M. Laitman: Yes, when we try to learn and from our studies there will be a connection between us, and Baal HaSulam, and the ARI, so for sure we will succeed. 

Question (Salt Lake City): (58:37) Is it impossible to say why we haven't been given a Kabbalist like the ARI until Baal HaSulam? Was the generation then simply just not ready for one? 

M. Laitman: Yes, from the ARI till Baal HaSulam, it's actually one generation, you could say. One generation. That's why we learn that after such a generation who reached a connection from Baal HaSulam to us, so we can approach that connection and awaken it also towards us even though we are on a much less degree. Much lesser degree. That's why we have to ask, to pray that we rise, and the light from that degree will bestow upon us and will help us ascend to a degree that would shine on the students of the Ari. It all depends on our desire.

Reader: We will end the lesson with an excerpt from Rav Chaim Vital, exactly what he warned the students. Excerpt number seven. 

Reading: (01:01:18) 7. Rav Chaim Vital, Shaar HaGilgulim, Introduction, 38

My teacher cautioned me and all the friends who were with him in that society to take upon ourselves the commandment to-do of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and to aim to love each one from Israel as his own soul, for by this his prayer would rise comprising all of Israel and will be able to ascend and make a correction above. Especially, our love of friends, each and every one of us should include himself as though he is an organ of those friends. My teacher sternly cautioned me about this matter.

Reader: With this, we end the lesson, and we will continue. So friends, now we'll do a summary of the lesson, and we'll continue afterwards.